Meal plan and more nesting

I had stopped posting my meal plan because I soon realized that I ended up changing it so much during the week that it soon became pointless to post. But I am back at it again.

Last week was a cook-all-the-things-I-had-previously-planned-on-cooking-in-the-past-but-haven't week, so I didn't even go to the grocery store! I already had all the ingredients for our meals on hand.

Two of the meals I am making this week will be made in two different batches. I will cook one that will serve us dinner for two days, and then a second one which will go in the freezer and will only come out once our little girl is here for a quick prep meal.

I am also going to try making homemade yogurt this week. There are so many yummy summer fruits in season that makes this little project so appealing.

Monday & Tuesday:
L: Cheese and beans quesadillas with fruit and chips
D: BLT sandwiches with fruit and chips

Wednesday and Thursday:
L: Breakfast burrito
D: Cream cheese chicken served over pasta with salad

Friday:
L: Egg salad sandwich
D: Peking pork chops with rice and veggies

Saturday:
L: free - Byron works on the crib all day and I am usually out and about.
D: Peking pork chops with rice and veggies

Sunday:
L: out
D: Egg salad sandwich

Food in freezer

In getting ready for the arrival of our little girl, one of the things I've began working on over the past few weeks is organizing our freezer. I've tried to clear out as many items that have been there for a number of months and open space for items such as these:


You may wonder, what is that? They are "pre-prepared" desserts. Being peach season, I took the ripest peaches I had and peeled them, sliced them and packaged them in ziplock bags. The furthest one to the left is ready for a peach cobbler, and the other two are ready for some homemade peach ice cream. Once our girl arrives and I find myself in need of throwing a quick dessert together, I can stick my head into the freezer and see what I can put together without much hassle.

But dessert is not everything inside our freezer. I am making a list of other things that are half-way done and that can go into the freezer for a number of weeks. The list is slowly growing and hangs on the side of our fridge. Hopefully this will become very handy when trying to throw something together last minute.

Children's books

One of the things I am most excited about in being a mom is getting to read to our little girl.

Last night, B and I went to Borders to browse around. I was very excited to find a number of children's books in Spanish. I resisted to buy every single one of them and limited myself to the ones I believe I would be reading to her sooner than later. A children's library is not something that is built over night.

Lisa

I know this sounds cliche, but my four years in college have been some of my greatest years in life. I've truly enjoyed every stage of my life, but I feel that college brought out my true self. I remember my last night at ISU, crying bitterly as B drove me around campus one last time for me to say goodbye to it. I knew I would probably never go back (and I haven't).

I came out of it with great memories, unforgettable stories, a great education and countless friends. One of those special friends who I have managed to stay in touch with despite time and distance is Lisa. She graciously put her precious time and agenda aside to come visit me for the week.

Sophomore year at ISU
Spring 2005

Six years later
Summer 2011

Sewing bees

For the past week, my dear friend Lisa has been visiting us. Not only has she been waking up at 7 am to go walking with me every morning (never mind that it's her vacation!), but I've also been putting her to work. She has been an ENORMOUS help in getting our little girl's room ready with a few sewing projects. Thank you "aunt" Lisa <3

One Wednesday we worked on hemming the baby cloths wipes.

Thursday I learned how to hem. I was so proud of my straight line!

Then today, we began AND finished the crib's dust ruffle and
began working on the valances.

Memma helped us by finishing the dust ruffle.

We'll show off all final products when placed in the nursery in what I hope will be less than a month.

34 weeks

It's hard to believe that I am already 34 weeks pregnant. We had our third and last ultrasound today, to which Memma, Poppa, daddy and "aunt" Lisa went to. Poppa even wore a pink shirt in honor of our little girl.

Our little girl is doing great! She weighs 5 1/2 lbs already and is in the 53%. Our doctor estimates that if she goes full term, she should be born weighing about 8 - 8 1/2 lbs. She also said that she is developing very proportionally.

We learned that if I begin going into labor next week, they would do nothing to stop the birthing process. She also said that in three weeks I would already be considered full term. Which means that even though I am still six weeks away from my due date, our little girl can come as soon as of next week and everything would be perfectly fine!

I am already beginning to have slight contractions, which my doctor was very happy to learn. She said that this is a good indication that I would probably not be induced or have a C-section. Chances that I would not be going past my due date were good ones also because of this.

This is the picture of our little girl's face. We wanted to be able to get a 3D image of her face, but she was a stinker the entire time were were there - her hand was in the way and for some reason this prevented the sonographer from being able to take it. I guess we'll just have to wait a few more weeks before we can see the details of our little one's face.

House temperature

A fifth and final way in which B and I have "gone green" over the past few years is by setting our house temperature either slightly colder over the winter or slightly warmer over the summer.

This is not entirely unbearable over the summer, as you can see from the picture. Our house has a lot of trees around it which keep it cooler all day long. But the opposite happens over the winter.

Something we quickly realized our first winter in Augusta was that houses in the South don't heat as well as they do in the North. So even though we may set the heat higher, the house is still going to feel cold.

The Morris's home temperature settings:
* Winter: 55F during the day, 65F afternoon and evening.
* Summer: 82F during the day, 77F afternoon and evening.

"Turn the thermostat down (in the winter) and wear more warm clothing. For every degree that you lower the thermostat, you save 3 percent on energy costs." - Jonni McCoy in Miserly MOMS

Happy Harry Potter Finale!

This is what I do on a summer afternoon the day Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 premiers.

It's no secret to anyone that I love to cook and bake, but if I want to one day appear on TV for the Food Network channel (my dream), I need to work hard on not only my cooking and baking skills, but also my artistic ones.

Having said that, I am awfully proud of my results... for now :)

Chris' Welcome Dinner part 2

Patrick, Chris, Byron, Aaron and Nate

Mary, Shannon and Libby

Nancy, Sarah, Anna, Mary and myself

Julia, Nate, Shannon, Chris, Renee and lil' Allie <3

Aaron enjoying the first scoops of our
homemade ice cream - cookies and cream
& brownie chunks with almonds

Chris' Welcome Dinner

Chris and Aaron

Chris is back in town for a short break from his 15 month service to our country in South Korea. To welcome him home, B and I hosted a potluck dinner at our home last night and invited our "small group" (which we all know is really not that small).

This had been the largest crowd we'd accommodated at our home - 21 people plus little Allie! We had great food and a great time visiting with each other.

Shannon

Julia, Nate, David, Mary and myself

Aaron, Amy and Libby

Patrick, Aaron, Paul, Wendy and David

Pizza dough recipe

I've been experimenting for over a year now looking for the best pizza dough recipe. Once B gave my my KitchenAid mixer, I was able to find it.

Pair it with this pizza sauce recipe, and I can assure you you'll never want to buy pizza again.

Crusty pizza dough recipe
Taken from the Instructions and Recipes booklet from KitchenAid

Yield: 4 servings (1/4 pizza per serving)

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast)
1 cup warm water (105F to 115F)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.

Brush 14-inch pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan, forming a collar around edge to hold toppings. Add toppings as desired. Bake at 450F for 15 to 20 minutes.

Bringing up Girls

On Father's Day this year I gifted B with this book, Bringing up Girls by Dr. James Dobson. It is a great book! I am only a third of the way through it and I think I've already shed a few too many tears while reading it.

One thing I love of this book is how Dr. Dobson emphasizes over and over the importance of the father's role in the life of his little girls. On chapter 10 he lists a large number of selected short proverbs who were compiled or written by Harry Harrison and published in his book Father to Daughter: Life Lessons on Raising a Girl.

These are just a few of the selected proverbs that stood out the most to me. Remember, they are addressing the fathers.

* Accept the fact that your little girl will melt your heart anytime she chooses.
* Her mom will show her how to bake chocolate chip cookies. You show her how to dunk them in milk.
* Be prepared to watch Walt Disney movies with her some 200 times. Each.
* Relish the moments when she toddles up and for no reason at all throws her arms around your neck. Resist the urge to buy her the world.
* Let her see, by the way you treat your wife, the way a man is supposed to treat a woman.

McMain Brownies

I was looking for a way to encourage B yesterday after a long day of working outside in the yard and then later on the crib. Along with the meal, I also tried these brownies, made from scratch.

I don't know what people's experience with brownies has been, but oddly enough, it seems like "box brownies" taste better than homemade ones.

Well, this recipe is the exception to the rule. They are very "fudgy" and so easy to make. They call for relatively little flour, and includes ingredients you most likely already have around the house. Perfect for when trying to come up with a last minute dessert.

I like to make my brownies in a muffin pan - they bake faster and they are less dry.

The recipe is taken from The Kelly Family Cookbook.

Ingredients -

2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
1 cup of flour
3/4 cup of cocoa
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of pecans

Procedure -

Mix flour, cocoa, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and add sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla and dry ingredients. Stir in pecans. Pour into a 9x13 greased pan (I use a muffin pan). Bake at 275F for 1 hours (I baked them for 25 min. in the muffin pan)

Cloth baby wipes

As some of you may already know, I've decided to use cloth diapers with our little girl. I hesitated for a while whether this would be a good idea or not - I didn't want to be known as "the nut who uses cloth diapers." But the more I thought about it and the more I talked about it, I realized that there were a lot of people who use them, and they are not nuts!

Hence has begun my cloth diaper adventure, and along with it, cloth baby wipes as well. Last night I sat and cut out 70+ pieces of 8"x8" cloth wipes. I used a large blanket-like fabric that was given to us. I was so proud of them and had such a large grin on my face when I finished, that B couldn't help but to take a picture of me.

So now the question is - what am I going to do with 70+ wipes? Any takers???

The Morris team

There are many things that I love about being married to B. It's no secret that one of my favorite things about our marriage is how much fun we have together, even if it means hanging out at home on a Saturday night reading a book or watching a movie with popcorn in hand.

But more and more I find myself being particularly thankful of how well we work together. We are a team - we have always been.

This week he asked me to be part of his team in a different way. A man at his job just lost his 5 year-old daughter and he asked me if I could bake some muffins or a bread to give the man. I was moved and thankful that he would invite me to be part of this service.

Strawberry baked oatmeal

I've never been much of an oatmeal fan. I've never really liked the flavor (or lack there of) and it's texture. But as I've been trying to think of less expensive alternatives for breakfast (instead of always eating box cereal), I've slowly but surely been trying to give oatmeal a second chance.

Well, I came across a blueberry baked oatmeal recipe on a blog the other day and decided to give it a chance. I loved it! I did change several things in it. For instance, I used strawberries instead of blueberries. I used heavy whipping cream instead of yogurt (yeah, that's right!). And I didn't have enough brown sugar, so I added some honey as well.

In addition to the flavor, another thing I liked about this recipe is that it's a one-time deal. I prepare it, eat some of it, and place the rest in the fridge. The next morning all I have to do is serve my bowl and stick it in the microwave. No dirty pans.

4th of July celebration

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went to the Morrises to have a BBQ. A total of about 20 people were there including family and friends. Byron prepared his first batch of homemade ice cream with our new ice cream maker. It's peach season, so he made peach ice cream and it was a hit! Can't wait to make some more ice cream before the summer ends.

Please disregard the Christmas serving tray :p

Rebecca made this amazing cake! I cannot even begin
to imagine how long it took her to prepare it.

4th of July weekend

I cannot remember the last time I was in the States to celebrate the 4th of July and see the fireworks. Watching them was a fun Saturday evening doing, topped with a Wendy's frostie on our way back home.

4th of July fireworks on
July 2, 2011

Next year we should have a third person posing in this picture. Can't wait!

Reusable grocery bags

A few months ago I began posting ways in which B and I have "gone green" over the past few years. A trip to Mexico and back later, and here I am, with full intentions of finishing my "green series."

A review:
- Hanging clothes to dry
- Using a recycling bin
- Ford focus vs. Tahoe

The fourth way in which B and I have "gone green" is by using reusable grocery bags.

I will go ahead and say this: I hate plastic bags! I hate them with a passion. I hate them so much that if I am already half way on my way to the store and realize I don't have them, I will turn around and go back home to get them.

Why do I hate them so much? Glad you asked. They take too much room when storing them, I always seem to accumulate way too many, they are terrible for the environment, and they tear easily.

Just like with our previous "going green" ways, there is also a selfish factor involved in using reusable grocery bags, but this one is by far the most selfish one.

A few of the many advantages I've found in using these bags:
- They don't take a lot of room to store.
- It's better for the environment.
- Because they don't tear like plastic ones do, bag boys will put more things in them, and hence, less bags to carry.
- Because I don't have as many bags to carry, I don't have to make as many trips between the car to my kitchen when I get home. During my pre-pregnancy days I would strap them on both my shoulders and hands all at once and would make ONE trip between the car and kitchen.

Nesting - the beginnings

I thought it would be a good idea to record the progression of my nesting stage. I am currently in the beginning parts of it. Our little girl's room still has two beds in it (both of which will no longer be there by the time she arrives). The closet is filled with suitcases (the floor is also) in addition to other stuff that really belongs in the attic.


In addition to doing my best with organizing the things in her room, I am also shopping for a used glider, doing breastpump research, and trying to determine whether I am going to give cloth diapers a chance or not.

Today I began to wash her clothes that I have purchased at yard sales. I am now going to begin to sort all of her clothes by size - hang and fold some, and put in storage boxes the older age ones.


And finally, I am also doing some reading. I have already read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and am currently reading Shepherding the Child's Heart and The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.