You know how kids often seem motivated to crawl or walk when they are seeking contraband? In this case Joseph was walking to attack the laptop. Today for the first time he’s walked more than he crawled.
Joseph Walks
July 3rd, 2009Thrift Shop Slideshow Part II
July 3rd, 2009Mo and I went to get her some dresses and I snagged some clearance skirts – one was $4, I splurged. 
The others were $1 or so and a bunch of t-shirts for $.79 to $2. I love this place… too much.
This time Bennett was “helping” me take pictures. Meaning he would hit the button then run back and tackle hug my legs.
The second skirt is my favorite, it’s embroidered with brown and blue vines. The third I think is too tight, I can’t run in it and I need to be able to dash in my skirts, and that shirt turned out to be too tight – good for an undershirt to layer, not so good for regular shirt. But still, lots of cute, cheap clothes – I love it!
And I love to see how big and tall my Bennett looks now. When I see a photo of us together and notice how high up he comes on me now I realize that he’s really growing up. I wonder how long until my little boy is taller than me?
First Shoes!
July 1st, 2009
We got him the Target knock off of Robeez. We prefer soft soled shoes for as long as we can get away with it and these are leather bottomed, hopefully kind to his eczema and great for outdoor romping. Today Joseph walked from the piano on one side of the living room all the way to the foyer, waving good-bye to Kit.
Flaxseed
June 30th, 2009It’s 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons cold water, mix and let it sit a few minutes. It will get gelatinous, like raw egg. It equals one raw egg.
You can find ground flaxseed at Walmart, Target, Costco, Sprouts, Kroger… I think it’s on the baking aisle, but Kit said he found some in the health food/organics section. Bob’s Red Mill makes it:
This is the one we got from Costco (thank you, Katie!)
It’s organic cold press and it was 40 ounces for $10 or so, which is MUCH better than the $24 that Amazon has it listed for.
Kroger had a variety of types (ground, whole, golden or not, organic or not) and it wasn’t expensive – $2 to $6 per package. Sprouts has it in bulk, whole or ground. Lots of options and certainly with the big Costco package (160 T per container) it’s far less expensive than eggs. And vegan! (Not that we’re vegan but nice for those vegan potlucks, if I manage to get my act together enough to get out the door for playgroup.)
So that’s to answer the questions we’ve gotten re: flax. You can keep it in your pantry for eggless emergencies or you can try it for baking if you want to try a healthy egg alternative. It’s really easy to use, and it’s not been noticeable to us in our baking anything that has oats, chocolate, whole wheat… pretty much it blends into everything.
Farewell to Tiny Tots
June 30th, 2009(Cross posting because it’s so happy.)
I just got off the phone with Bennett’s doctor at Tiny Tots, the pediatric clinic for preemies down at Baylor in Dallas. This doctor discharged Bennett from the NICU and has been with us ever since. We just moved Bennett over to our regular pediatrician and we wanted to check in with the doctor, find out if he wanted us to see any specialists for follow up or come back to see him for screenings. He’s keeping tabs on his 23 through 25 week preemies for research so he’s had us come in before for developmental testing.
Well, the verdict was he wished us well and asked if he could call us to check in and if there is further research if he could bring Bennett back in for testing. We said of course, please do. We’re happy to help with studies and research. We’ll see our new eye doctor (who also did Christopher’s tear duct surgery and Mo’s probing) for Bennett’s follow up eye testing but no one else. No other doctors.
The doctor said his only area he wants to keep an eye on his learning issues down the line. Bennett’s reading, of course, but he said it’s not about learning to read but about reading to learn – the comprehension and then higher, abstract thinking down the line. Since we’re homeschooling it’s up to us to catch any concerns and we talked about that, he knows we’re “schooling at home” as he put it. And he said he’s not worried about Bennett, or us.
Oh, wow. How utterly amazing and wonderful. To have yet another doctor wish us well and send us on our way… it feels delightful, to be so “normal” and healthy.
Blogs
June 29th, 2009Funny, and kinda sad, is realizing I have a blog I completely forgot about. And at some point we transferred almost the entire blog there so we could try to print it – our site isn’t supported by Blurb for blog printing so we transferred THE ENTIRE BLOG to a Wordpress site to get a quote for printing costs. (No go, too big, choked the system.)
But we just left it there and I forgot about it! I was looking up something else and ran across it – didn’t even remember my password to log into the dashboard, had to have it sent to me again. That’s kinda sad that I managed to lose my own blog, huh? And it was public, everything I pulled from this site was still sitting there.
Since it’s still sitting there I decided instead of deleting it I may just delete the posts (all 1200 of them) and use the site for my personal ramblings. If it’s cheap enough I can print it as my journal that way… or not. I don’t know, I have enough blogs to keep track of as it is but the allure of a solely Heidi blog is kinda appealing.
Menus
June 29th, 2009I’m going to be posting some more food stuff, pulling things over from the old site as well. Posting here to share for y’all that need ideas and please email me your suggestions, too.
I blame that book. We’ve flirted a lot with meatless, varying how much we do and what types we do. We’ve not bought beef in awhile but we do fish, chicken & pork. We do dairy, no eggs of course. We’re now thinking we’ll do a meat dish once a week until our freezer stock is gone and then we’ll not buy anymore. And see how we fare… I found out the recommended protein consumption for a child is 0.55 per pound of their weight so for my kids, they need about 15 to 20 grams of protein a day. About 45 for me and 55 for Kit? I didn’t look closely at the adults. 2T of peanut butter or flaxseed has 3 to 4 grams, a cup of milk has 8 grams. Nuts have 3 grams (we use walnuts, almonds, pecans a lot.) So I’m not worried about their protein consumption, even if they refuse to eat beans. I’ve not even checked to see the protein in whole wheat and they eat that a lot.
So I’m going to post some of the recipes we use and as we modify them to be meatless I’ll share.
I don’t think we’ll ever be vegetarians because there will be situations we will still eat poultry or meat, I’m sure. We’ll still eat fish and dairy at home and someday I hope to eat eggs again. But we are exploring options for buying more local/humane animal products (to include poultry, like our free range turkeys? or the eggs from farmers around here, etc.)
I don’t know what we’ll do about dairy. We eat a lot of cheese, milk, buttermilk, sour cream, cream cheese, etc. I don’t know yet… for now we try to do hormone free, we do like Braum’s, but we’re researching.
So menu ideas –
Becky’s black bean soup w/cornbread, sour cream and cheese, avocado
black bean burgers w/regular toppings
soft tacos or taco salad with refried or black beans (but no ground meat)
tuna casserole & green beans
baked potato soup w/cheese, green onions, sour cream, side salad
tomato soup (basil la madeline’s version)
homemade pizza, basil pizza, alfredo pizza
calico bean soup w/chips, cheese, sour cream, cornbread
tortilla soup but minus chicken – with rice & beans
alfredo & steamed broccoli
pasta & marinara sauce, side salad
spaghetti pie & salad
tator tot casserole w/lentils instead of ground meat
chili w/cornbread (EF version), sour cream, cheese
salmon patties w/rice, green beans
tuna patties w/rice, green beans
stir fry w/nuts instead of meat
fried rice w/carrots, broccoli, peas, chopped nuts, scrambled eggs
pad thai w/carrots, green onions, bean sprouts
moo shu w/just veggies (we normally do moo shu pork)
spicy noodles (w/less sausage than normal)
potato cheese enchiladas and salad
cheese enchiladas (again, waiting on the dairy), spanish rice and salad
barnyard stew – C loves, so we just do less meat or none?
veggy soup w/dumplings (instead of chicken)
veggy noodle soup
baked potato bar w/broccoli, cheese, sour cream, meatless chili
bread pudding (try with flax instead of egg?) & fruit salad
broccoli cheese rice casserole
gyros w/chicken or pan fried potatoes or hummus?
arroz con pollo w/beans instead of pollo
potato mushroom crepes (instead of chicken mushroom) & broccoli or peas
kit’s chili rice w/less chicken, corn
tetrazzini, steamed broccoli
manicotti & salad
skillet lasagna (no meat) & salad
haystacks w/no chicken, peas, pineapple, etc
chicken stuffing casserole (cut amount of chicken) & peas
veggy pot pie
apple pork rice (w/less pork, sliced instead of entire filets) & beans or broccoli
black bean “meat” loaf & corn and potatoes (crash or garlic mashed)
stroganoff w/no meat (sauce & mushrooms w/pasta) & peas or broccoli
The Face on Your Place
June 29th, 2009
I just started it on the way home from the library and I suspect The Face on your Plate will lead to some dietary modifications for us. My sister was reading this and warned me that it would inspire changes and sigh… it has already.
Talking with a friend of another faith, he believes in a millenium when Christ will live on the earth and he believes that during that time we’ll not consume meat – we will all become vegetarians. When animals and people are resurrected, we won’t be killing off animals for consumption – which makes sense to me. Though our LDS faith does touch on meat consumption – to be used sparingly. D&C 89 reads:
Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly; And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
Belly Dancing
June 29th, 2009Free classes being offered Thursday evenings for month of July here in Denton. I’m debating if I’m going to go or not… so outside my comfort zone, I’ve not danced in years unless you count swing dancing in the living room with the kids. And I’ve never done belly dancing. I did learn some hula from a young women’s leader long ago. That’s kinda like belly dancing? I still remember some of that.
Not sure if I’m going, I’m tempted but waffling. If you’re local and want details email me.
Recipes Transferred
June 28th, 2009Some of the ones I get asked about most, let me know if there are more you want.