WHY-Wednesday: Why I keep random things in the fridge and freezer?

Please take a look at the random items that now inhabit my fridge and freezer--

Ziplock bag of frozen banana pieces.

Why?  Banana bread.

Ziplock bag of frozen bread scrapes.

Why?  French toast casserole or breakfast casserole.

Leftover Easter ham bone that the in-laws were going to toss.

Why?  Ham stock.

Frozen grilled hotdogs that were going to be tossed after a BBQ last weekend.

Why? Weenies and beanies.

Now don't get me wrong (and my mother will be the first to attest to this), I am not afraid to throw food away.  If I know I will not be eating or using it in a recipe of some sort in the near future, I have no issue in getting rid of it. 

Other random food items you'll find in my fridge/freezer at any given point--

* Ziplock bag in the freezer that contains veggie scrapes such as onion peel, carrot ends, garlic layers (and old, dry garlic), bottom of celery head, etc.  Why?  I will later use these to make chicken stock.

* Leftover food.  Why?  If I've made enough food to feed the family for two nights and still have extra (but do not want to feed us with it again for a third time), I freeze it and use it sometime again in the future.

*  Cooked dried beans.  Why?  Canned beans are already cheap, but cooking your own dry beans is even cheaper.  This is a no brainer-- cook them all at once, freeze them in separate smaller containers, and thaw and use in the future when a recipe calls for them.

* Milled wheat flour.  Why?  I've started milling my own flour to make my own whole wheat bread (I know, crazy!  I may just have too much time on my hands).  If there is any leftover flour, I place it in the freezer to keep it from loosing its nutritional value, and just use later when making pancakes or cookies or something.

* Chopped veggies.  Why?  If I see that green peppers, for example, are on clearance... well, hellooooo veggie-I-never-buy-bc-you're-too-expensive-- chopped and stored away in a ziplock bag for later use.

And there are many more.  

Next time you come over to my house, don't hesitate to ask what random things I have in my fridge/freezer.  You may like what you see :) Just promise not to be too shocked.

WHY-Wednesday: Intro

In an attempt to make my blog a little more unique and special, I have come up with WHY-Wednesdays--

WHY-Wednesday will be weekly posts during which I will share the why of things I/we do personally and around the house as a family. 

If you know me at all, you know that I am a very curious and inquisitive person.  I thought it would be fun to make this blog a little more like me :)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's first WHY-Wednesday...

Like sister, like brother

Dyeing Easter eggs

Easter pictures 2014

Egg Hunt

Easter morning

We read the Lenten Tree during Lent Season in preparation for Easter.  We finished the last leaf this morning before walking out the door to see the Easter baskets.

"Mommy, what you have there?"

Baby Byron lost a lot of his hair soon after birth, except for the back part.  Eight months later, this is what it looks like--

Byron's trademark.

A wedding

Two weeks ago Byron and I drove 14 hours one way to Arkansas to see one of my best friends get married.

Lisa and me.

The wedding was incredibly beautiful!  We were so thankful we got to be there.

We left the kiddos at home with Memma and Poppa.  This had been the first time I had been away from Baby Byron, and he did not do too good.  He is not used to drinking from a bottle, and thus hardly drank any milk while we were gone.  But all is well now, and plus, I have all this extra milk stored now :)

Story time

How we joyfully spend our mornings at home.

Breakfast time

Breakfast time at our household. 

Eight months old and still toothless as the day he was born.

Package from Mexico

Oma and Gato sent the kids a package filled with little goodies from Mexico last week.  We had fun opening them (as in, Emma opened them all herself).  The two favorites (as in, Emma's favorites) were Byron's plastic boat and her green headband (which she refers to as her crown).

Opening the package.

Two pigtails using two Mexican rubber bands.

In a big-girl bed

We had Emma in a toddler bed for a couple of months to help her transition from crib to bed.  She did very well in it, and we loved it very much.

But now she is in a big girl bed!

don't I look lovely first thing in the morning?

Of course, one of my favorite things to do with her now is snuggle in bed and read.  I spent 20 minutes last night reading to her in bed.  I cannot wait until we can start reading chapter books together at night.  I also look forward to doing some pillow talk with her as she grows older.

7 month pic

This picture was taken about a week after he turned 7 months.  

As always, better late than never.

Emma's 7 month picture

Even now, a little over a week before turning 8 months-old, he still has not teeth.  They are coming in!  I can see them!  And poor Little Man, I can tell they itch like crazy.  He gnaws on just about anything he can get his hands on.

He has finally started to eat a little more (this whole exclusively breastfeeding an almost 8 month-old is no fun).  I got some rice cereal at church last week that somebody was giving away.  I don't know if he finally "got it" or what, but he has started eating it.  Halleluiah!  He'll eat a little banana or pear chunks as well.

He is sleeping better.  I only feed him once during the night, but still wakes up crying about one additional time.  We just let him cry.  Right now I think it is mostly because he is flipping to his stomach, but he hates being on his stomach, so a lot of times I'll just go in and flip him over.  Just like with Emma, at 9 months old is when we are going to "pull the plug" and be done with night feedings.  And just like with Emma, still plan on breastfeeding him until he turns one.

what we call him

Baby Byron has many names he goes by...

The sweet smile I get when I go pick him up in his crib.

Names are:

Little Man

Baby Byron

Baby Lion

Leoncito

Byroncito

BABY

Chimuelito (no teeth)

Principito (little prince)

on Emma...

Thought we would post a little update on Emma.

 She is a little over 2.5 years old.

Her language of choice is still English, but can pretty much translate just about anything if you ask her to.  She is also starting to say a few Spanish sentences.  Her English sentences can be about 4-5 words long, her Spanish ones are about 2 words long.

She likes to run around naked.

"poquito nuda, mami?"

 She loves her blankets!  She calls them sasas (for "sabana" in Spanish).  Every morning, she walks out the door with her sasa and Bunny.

She loves to wear her pajamas all day.  Her laundry is 80% PJs, 20% everything else.  At first it annoyed me and frustrated me.  Now I've decided it's not a battle worth fighting.  As it gets hotter and hotter, she will want to be in shorts and short-sleeve blouses more.

I am not sure how to go about writing this last one.  Part of me wants to completely ignore it and make it go unnoticed, but another part of me tells me I need to record this.  What am I talking about?  Glad you asked :)

A little boy at church and MOPS has developed a little crush on her.  He just turned three a few weeks ago, so he is just about 6 months older than her.  Of course they are good friends, but he truly has a crush on her (or really likes her... whatever the difference is at this age).

A few weeks ago when we picked the kids up at the nursery, the workers said they had been playing together the entire time and holding hands.  Today when we picked them up, the workers said they had spotted them kissing on the mouth!  ACK!

Erin and I giggled and smiled at each other, torn by both the cuteness, but also seriousness of the situation.  It may be cute right now, but no longer cute when they are, say, 10 years-old.  So this needs to be addressed now!

We got in the car and I turned to Emma--

"Emma, we don't kiss boys in the mouth.  You may kiss Mommy, Daddy and Baby Byron in the mouth [not quite sure on this last one, but that's what I said], but you cannot kiss anybody else there.  You may kiss them on the cheek if you want to [like the good Mexican that she is :)]"

Then proceeded to say--

"You may kiss a boy once he gives you a ring, but he first has to get Daddy's permission."

We figured it was never too early to begin teaching our kids about our expectations in regards to dating.  Again, it's a little humorous right now, and partly just want to disregard it, but then also I want to make sure that we always take these opportunities to teach and train our children at every chance not matter how young they are.

Friends

I feel like I've written my fair share of posts about "how hard mothering two is... blah blah blah."  In the middle of those hard days, I always thought:  "This has to get better, otherwise people would never have more children."  

Friends and family, I think I am slowly but surely reaching that place.  I am finally beginning to reap the benefits of having two children who are both young and close in age.

This picture (^) was taken last week while Emma stayed in the bathroom after nap time (I told her she could keep her nap diaper on as long as she stayed in there).  I placed Little Byron outside the bathroom, put a few toys between them, and the rest is history...

They sat there playing peacefully with each other for about 30 minutes.  Every once in a while I would peek in on them to see that they were in no mischief.

This is just one of many recent examples.

Yesterday, while Emma was sitting on the potty doing #2 (and taking her sweet time while at it, btw), she requested that LB sit outside the bathroom so she could see him.

This morning, while getting ready to go to MOPS, I sat Byron on the playroom rug, and Emma went over there with him.  While she didn't know I was watching, I saw her hug him and kiss him and say:  "I love you baby Byron."

So thankful that they have each other.

Makeup

While doing some Spring cleaning around the house the other day, I decided to finally discard some eye shadow makeup I hadn't used in well over a year.  I thought it would be fun to give it to Emma for a little bit for her to play with.  I honestly thought she would try to put some on her eye.  She instead decided to put it all over her face.  Like this:

Behind every great big sister, is an adoring baby brother.

 Even mommy got some nice makeup, courtesy of Emma Girl.

Sick children

We've had a rough couple of days.  Two sick children, combined with little sleep and Daylight Savings have made for two days I wish I could completely erase from my life.  The stress that comes with sick children is beyond words, and trying to force antibiotics down their throats twice a day is not for the faint at heart.

I've already talked about LB's ear infection in a previous post.  So on to Emma...

Emma began coughing during the night over the weekend.  This evolved into a cold, then mucus coming out of her eyes, and finally a double ear infection.  She was so pitifully sick yesterday, that even though she has been weaned from her pom for about 6 months now, she asked for it again.  I could not bare not giving it to her, if this meant she could be comforted a little.  I found an old one, and I was amazed of how quickly she took it in.

(thankfully, it does not look like she has regressed with it.  We put it away again this morning and we have not talked about it since)

Memma has been able to help me a little through these hard times, and when she is not around and Byron is still at work, between the TV and Little Byron being entertained in his crib, I have been able to hug and comfort my little girl.

more books!

We saw my sister two weekends ago, which meant we finally got our Christmas gifts from family in Mexico.  One of the gifts were these four books given to Baby Byron from my Aunt Susy-- my dad's youngest sister.  Of course, Emma loves to read them herself, and when she asks--

E:  who gives those?

Me:  Tia Susy.

E:  Tia Sucio? 

(ha ha!)

 

Reading books together in the kitchen after breakfast.

Rolling pin

Emma received her long-awaited Christmas gift from Oma-- a little rolling pin!  She was happy to get to use it soon after getting it, helping mommy crush some graham crackers for a cheese cake.