What Is With This Day?

Ever have one of those days that starts out awful and just gets weird?

So this morning all of our kids were up by 6am. Joy.

I got the older two to preschool and took Penny with me to get an oil change.

Turns out our car needed a lot of other stuff too. So that wound up costing $400.

I went to pick up Abby since she gets out of school a while before Nick does, but when I got there the teachers said Nick was really upset. They thought he had a hangnail because he wouldn't let them get a good look at his finger. It was actually a 2 inch long splinter that was jammed all the way underneath his fingernail, all the way down to the cuticle. Ouch!

Luckily one of the other preschool moms is a nurse and she got it out, but it took me and the preschool director holding him down to get it out. (Thanks again Renee and Michele!)

It was actually kind of cute afterwards because he was really excited to get to wear a bandaid on his finger just like daddy. (Eddie smashed his finger trying to fix our garage door opener last week.)

When it was time to take Nick home I told him he could have anything he wanted for lunch since he had a rough day. He picked Burger King so we went through the drive-thu and brought it home.

Then the dog ate his chicken nuggets and he cried some more. (He still had a few so it wasn't a complete tragedy.)

In the mean time the baby had a huge diaper blowout.

Then Nick informed me he'd had an accident. The poop kind.

Thankfully, then everyone took a nap for a little while.

After getting changed after nap time because they still wear pull-ups to sleep, neither Nick or Abby wanted to wear pants. I'm way too tired to fight about it. So Nick is running around in toy Story underwear and Abby is wearing a pull-up and a turtleneck. And one sock. It's a fashion statement.

Then my pantsless children started having a very loud conversation through the window with someone who was apparently standing at our front door.

The loud conversation woke up the baby, so I took a crying baby to the door where a young man, maybe 19 or so, politely said to me, "Hello, ma'am, I was wondering if you'd be interested in my meat today?"

"Um, I'm sorry, what?" (Mostly naked children still hopping up and down and yelling from the top of the steps)

He pointed down the block to a truck he was driving. Apparently he was a meat delivery man and was finished his deliveries and offering to sell me his left-over meat at half price.

I'm sorry, I don't buy meat from strangers selling it out of the backs of trucks. Especially when the big pitch is that it's the meat no one else wanted. Did we really wake the baby up for this?

"uh no thanks. I just went to the grocery store yesterday."

Then I went to the top of the steps and found the dog eating the Lincoln Logs, which were now in a million tiny pieces. Because, really, what I wanted to deal with today was more splinters.

I'm not complaining because I have way too much to be grateful for this week. Like our time with Eddie's parents who took us all out to lunch yesterday. Our settlement on Friday. The church's clothing exchange on Saturday where I always find a few nice things for my kids. Being in a position to not have to but meat out of the back of a truck. Those kinds of things.

But this one?
She goes to the highest bidder.

Building a Dream: Part 2

We are moving along on our house project. I feel so blessed to be married to an engineer during this process, because developing land from scratch is incredibly involved, especially here in Pennsylvania where every county is broken into smaller townships or even smaller buroughs, and every township or burough has different rules and regulations. It saves us a lot of time and money because Eddie is able to draw up our plans for things like the sewer, the water lines, the driveway etc. and stamp them himself.

Our sewer plan was finally approved at the board meeting this past week, so we will be able to settle on the lot this coming Friday. After that we can apply for the necessary permits and once they come through, we are hoping to break ground in May. (Well, we are really hoping for April but we're saying May to be realistic.)

The main floor will look like this and there will be an unfinished basement & an unfinished second floor that we can expand into eventually.


We have chosen the Sorrento model from Ritz Craft homes, but we did a complete redesign of the floor plan so that it would work better on our lot with the existing driveway and because I hated the galley kitchen layout in the original plan.

The exterior will look like this

Image

Our lot is 2.4 acres. I am itching to plant a huuuuuuuuge vegetable garden and several fruit trees, but that's going to have to wait until next year since this year the house will be under construction, obviously. Do you see that entire wall of pantry space in the kitchen nook? Imagine all of the canning I can do.

It'll be be just like Little House on the Prairie, except with indoor plumbing and no typhoid fever.

Our goal is to be moved in by the start of the school year because Nicholas will be going to kindergarten, which will be so adorable because the school is just across the street (actually a gravel road with only two other houses on it) so I can stand on the porch & watch him walk to school once he's old enough to go by himself.

I already asked for Cracker Barrel rocking chairs for the front porch as my birthday present. My birthday is in mid-September, so we will probably be moving in just before it.

Hopefully this fall this will be our view from the kitchen window. Imagine the corn field at full height and the trees full of red, orange, and yellow leaves. (The burough owns the corn field our lot backs into. The only plans they have for possible future development are to turn this area into a recreational field for the school. Translation: in theory this view is protected forever.)

I was actually hoping for a lot that was a bit larger and a little more secluded, but this is a perfect location for us. It will cut down Eddie's commute to just 15 minutes each way, allow us to still attend the same church and preschool, and put Nick in a school district with all day kindergarten, which is important for him because he needs the structure and he gets quite a few services through the school system and if they can be done in school it will mean far fewer appointments and headaches for me.

Besides, 2.4 acres is plenty. For perspective, That pink speck is Abby and the black one is Nick standing in the middle of the lot, and the building behind the trees in the middle of the photo is the elementary school. This picture was taken from about where our front porch will be.


I'm excited to share our journey with you and I can't wait until these pictures include some major construction equipment. Hopefully we are only 6-8 weeks from that point.

For Rene

This is not a post about craft projects and there are no pictures of my kids. There is an important issue going on here that I don't feel comfortable ignoring any more. I haven't seen my perspective represented anywhere & this is the only public forum I have, so I'm going to talk about it for a minute.

I’m a conservative Christian housewife living in Amish country. I’m a registered Republican. I voted for McCain. I’m strongly opposed to abortion, illegal immigration, and I do think homosexuality is a sin. And this is for my college friend Rene. Not my gay friend, just my friend who happens to be gay. And her wife.

I support gay marriage.

Why? Because to me whether or not our country should legalize the union of two people of the same sex is not an issue of morality, it is an issue of civil rights.

Is it sinful? Yeah, actually it is. It’s also sinful if I don’t go to church on a Sunday or if I cuss under my breath when the wrong contestant gets booted from American Idol. But I do that stuff and so do you.

Do I associate with gay people? Umm…do I associate with any people? Of course I do. If we refuse to hang out with people on the basis that we think they are sinners it’s going to be a pretty lonely existence. Newsflash: all people are sinners. Most of us aren’t being denied basic civil liberties because of it."Last time I checked my watch, it still said America." -Tim Allen

In our society right now people are outcast for being gay. You know who loved a good outcast? Jesus. You know who liked to persecute people who didn't share his beliefs? Hitler. I'm not sure about you, but I'd much prefer to embrace the example of the former.

Did God make gay people gay? Yes. He made every human being and every one of us is a sinner. God loves every one of us despite our sinful nature. Hence, God loves gay people. Get over it Westboro Baptist “Church.” And P.S. Nobody is going to make me stop shopping at JC Penny.

Here’s the thing: it’s not the government’s job to regulate personal morality when it comes to issues that aren’t affecting the safety and well-being of others. That’s pretty much a fundamental Republican philosophy so I don’t understand why it doesn’t seem to apply to the gay marriage argument in real life.

In my mind it works like this:

Murder? Sinful + Harmful= Illegal.

Drugs? Sinful + Harmfull = Illegal

Teenagers back talking their parents? Sinful + Not Harmful = Not Illegal

Gay marriage? Sinful + not harmful = _____________

It seems to me the logical answer to the question should be “not illegal.” Actually, it seems to be far more harmful to deny the gay community the advantages of a legal marriage.

My friend Rene and her wife are mothers to one very sweet little girl. They are mothers just like I am. As they have been anxiously awaiting Maryland’s ruling over the legality of their marriage, I’ve been reflecting on the benefits I take for granted as a woman in a traditional marriage.

The life insurance policies I would automatically have access to if something happened to my husband.

The tax deductions we just filed.

The fact that Eddie never had to go through the process of adopting our biological children, despite the fact that we never offered proof that he was their biological father. (Which, I can assure you, there is no question about.) The point is that even if he wasn’t, the hospital just gave him the rights to the children that came out of my body because we are legally married and I said he was the co-parent. When Rene had a baby Lauren had to wait months and pay thousands of dollars to adopt their own child and then go through hell trying to claim the adoption on the taxes.

We also have one adopted child and no one gave us a hard time about filing our adoption claim.

The right to adopt our son from Florida, the state where we were living at the time. I’m not sure about the current policy, but when we adopted Nicholas out of foster care in 2008 it was legal for gay couples in our state to foster children, but not adopt them. Consequently, there are foster children who have been living in loving foster homes for years with gay couples who lose yet another family when they become eligible for adoption and the couple who has been caring for them no longer has the option to do so if the child is to ever find an adoptive family. If the child stayed with the foster family he/she would lose the benefits that came along with being adopted, which at the time in Florida included a free college education.

My grandmother didn’t work, but she lived for years on my grandfather’s pension after she was widowed. What do gay couples do?

I am on my husband’s health insurance plan during these years I am home with my young children. What do gay couples do?

More importantly, what does a person’s sexual orientation have to do with things like health insurance, taxes and pensions?

When did we, collectively, become a society of adults acting like third grade bullies? Effectively, what we are saying is, “You can’t be in our club because you like girls.”

Well, I call bullshit, America.

I am tired of seeing teen suicides all over the news because we are constantly sending our children the message that to be gay is to be less than.

This is our generation’s version of Jim Crow and it is just as ridiculous.

I'm ashamed to say that I almost didn’t post this because I was afraid I’d turn off readers or offend people from my church. Or, alternatively, offend my more liberal friends from college. If I offended you I’m not sorry.

"My generation's apathy. I'm disgusted with it. I'm disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years."
- Kurt Cobain

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
- Albert Einstein

Knock Off Panera Bread Broccoli Cheddar Soup

They liked it.

We were very fortunate that for almost the whole first month Penny was home friends and family provided us with hot meals and frozen foods which made our transition to being a family of five much easier. (Insert shameless baby photo op)


But now it's my turn to do the cooking and I'm finding that the hardest part of my day is when I need to get dinner ready because Eddie's not home yet and it's pretty hard to keep an eye on three kids under 5 and work around a hot stove at the same time.

We've been getting take out a lot more than we normally would, and I was ok with that, but it was starting to get too expensive.

Last night we had pizza. (free because of Pappa John's Super Bowl promotion) One night last week we had a rotisserie chicken and two boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I'm down with eating off of paper plates for the next few months while we're still in transition, but I'm drawing the line when we start serving Think Mints instead of vegetables. (Whatever, at least the box is green.) I am soooo growing and canning more stuff once we have land.

I'm not claiming it's healthy but it is really easy and it does have broccoli in it, so this soup was a step in the right direction. I tried my best to knock off Panera Bread's version because that's the only other broccoli cheese soup I've ever eaten, so it was all I had for comparisson. It doesn't taste exactly the same (I think it would come closer if you substitute heavy cream for the milk and maybe add a little nutmeg) but Nicholas ate 3 bowls at lunchtime, so I say it passes.

Knock-Off Broccoli Cheddar Soup

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cans condensed cheddar cheese soup
5 soup cans full of water (or chicken broth if you have it)
2 packages of frozen broccoli in cheese sauce
1 cup of milk or cream, reserved for the end of the cooking process
optional: pepper & nutmeg to taste (I'd leave out salt because there's already tons of cheese)

Throw all ingredients into the crock pot on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. (or just cook the broccoli according to the package directions & do everything else on the stovetop.) Add milk or cream. Use immersion blender or very carefully transfer to counter top blender to blend until desired consistency. (I made mine almost totally smooth, but you could leave the broccoli chunky if you want.)

I served ours with the garlic cheddar biscuits made with the recipe on the Bisqick box. (and just slices of white bread the next day when I took the picture)

Like pretty much any other soup, it was better on the second day.

Building a Dream: Part 1

I was going to wait a few more weeks to share this news, but I'm too excited to wait much longer and things seem to be moving pretty quickly now.

We have been waiting for this since October when we found the lot, but we wanted to wait until the start of the new year for a few reasons like the new baby coming and tax purposes, etc.

We're finally under contract on an amazing piece of property! We were able to negotiate a pretty awesome deal because of the way the market is right now.

It's almost 2 and a half acres, just 15 minutes from Eddie's office, and right across the street from the elementary school the kids will attend.

Over the course of the next few months we'll be working with a modular home company to create our dream home, which we've already picked out and started designing. Our goal is to hopefully be in our new home by September when Nicholas starts kindergarten.

My mom is investing in the property with us and in a few years the plan is to subdivide a smaller lot on the property and build her a little house right next door so that she can retire near her grandkids.

I'll be sharing the entire process over the next few months & then I hope you'll stick around as we work on decorating it! :)

Introducing

Penelope (Penny) Christine

Born December 30th, 2011 at 11:01am
6 lbs 9.9 oz, 17 and three quarter inches long

Penny was born via c-section, which went very well. She is very small and we had a bit of a scare with a slight heart murmur, but it went away very quickly.

We are still working on nursing, which is going much better than it did when we had Abby, but we haven't quite mastered it yet.

She is a very sweet baby who seems to like her sleep. Tonight will be our first night home from the hospital, so we are hoping that trend continues!

2 Recipes

I'm super proud of myself because I actually got my Christmas cards in the mail and made applesauce ornaments. I'm trying to only do one or two things a day so I don't overexert myself and bring on labor because I'd really like to hold off on delivering until after Christmas.

The first recipe is one for old-fashioned applesauce ornaments I found last year, although I can't remember where I got it. We're making it into a tradition to make these each year as a gift for our Sunday school teachers.

It's the easiest recipe ever




1. Mix equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. (I always find it needs extra applesauce, though)
2. Roll out dough and cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
3. Use a straw to poke a hole so that ribbon can be added later for hanging.
4. Let air dry for several days until hardened or bake in a low oven (175-200 degrees) for a few hours, checking frequently after the first hour.

Some recipes for these ornaments include glue, but it doesn't seem to be necessary and Abby kept eating the dough so I'm glad we didn't use it. I used 3 containers of cinnamon and 7 single serving cups of unsweetened applesauce and got 3 dozen+ ornaments.



And while we're talking about recipes, I thought I'd share a dinner I made last week that was a big hit with the kids. Abby had seconds and Nicholas had thirds. We had no left-overs that night & it was pretty easy to make. I modified it from a much more complicated Pampered Chef recipe for pinwheel sandwiches.




Philly Steak & Cheese Bake

1 package of refrigerated crescent roll dough
1/2 lb thinly sliced deli roast beef
Several slices thinly sliced cheese, I used white American
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/4 medium onion, diced

In a skillet, saute diced onion and pepper until tender.
Shred roast beef and add to skillet to heat through.
In a round baking dish, lay our crescent dough in a pinwheel pattern
Lay a few cheese slices on top of dough
Pour beef, onion, and pepper mixture into dish
Top with additional cheese slices
Fold dough over mixture
Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

We served ours with spinach. It's very heavy, so it would pair nicely with a fresh salad.

I love collecting recipes. I'm in the middle of putting together a family traditions cookbook for our mom' s group and it's been fun to see what kinds of food each family is submitting.