so anyone who knows me will know that i love The Pioneer Woman and her cookbooks/website...
she recently posted and also added to her newest cookbook how to make the best ice coffee so what did i do? what do i always do? i made it vegan...
i brewed really strong (decaf) coffee and she cold brews it but i didn't want to wait 12 hours so i just brewed it hot and placed it in the freezer to cool- then i keep it in the fridge in a mason jar.
the second step is the condensed milk... i take almond milk - about a cup and put it in a sauce pan with about 1/4 cup of sugar (i am doing my best to decrease my sugar and a lot of times i just use stevia for stuff like ice tea)... anyway... then i let it simmer for a few min then add a splash of vanilla extract and about 1/2 tsp of butter then i let it all cool and put it in another mason jar to get nice and cold in the fridge or freezer if i am in a hurry.
when everything is nice and cold, take a glass of ice, pour about 1/3 cup of coffee, 1/4 cup of fake condensed milk and however much more cold almond or rice milk to make it the right strength you like and it is wonderful!!
(photo of me and the baby girl during one of those cherished moments -out to lunch with a wonderful friend -photo by Jennifer Norman)
But my baby girl is a week away from 7 months and I am feeling all these crazy emotions about being done. I know it's what I need to do for health and sanity and financial reasons and I am a reasonably girl- but I'm just really sad about it. Probably because my kids are AWESOME! (most of the time ;)
So I just keep reminding myself to stay present in the moment and treasure all the good times, take lots of pictures and write the funny stuff down. I'll have to come up with a new happiness plan when she doesn't want to nurse anymore but I will probably throw a huge party when I she gets potty trained and I'm done with diapers!
one of my favorite people in the world died last weekend. i was lucky enough to have lived next door to her the past two years. she struggled with emphysema so i keep telling myself that she is at peace and not struggling to breath anymore. "myself" is selfish though and i just want her to be sitting on her front porch laughing at my kids playing in our front yards. i wanted to make her all this good food for thanksgiving and i looked forward to sitting and talking to her before she moved away to live with her daughter or sister. you know that old line, "how do you make God laugh? - make plans" well i am sure He is laughing now because Patsi was intelligent and hilarious and i know they are hanging out.
this post does not do her justice- especially because she was an amazing writer- and i am not a writer. i continually butcher the english language with my spelling and grammer. i just wanted to put this down into words for my kids someday. Patsi spoiled them with little presents all the time and even left me grocery money on my porch a couple of months back when she knew we were struggling. i wanted to spoil her right back so always made sure she got any sweet rolls or cobbler i made.
make sure that you let everybody that you adore knows it and feels it- because we never get enough time with them, in my opinion.
one of my favorite bloggers wrote a post on the after baby body. i have been thinking about this a lot because my body is foreign to me now and i am slowly getting use to it. after the first baby i was 36 and in pretty good shape so my body bounced back pretty quick and all was ok. then i had to have the dreaded c-section with the second baby. it was emergency and i was told that if they didn't get him out asap he would not make it. so from that perspective i couldn't care less that my body was messed up and i would have continual pain in order to save my child's life. seriously, couldn't care less!
for the third and final baby this year, i did a repeat c-section in order to have my husband in town for the delivery since he was leaving for tour a week after i was due. the midwife thought that they could fix some of my pain issues as an added bonus. it worked, to an extent, and i still seriously couldn't care that my lower belly looks freakish and scarred. i even have scars left from the tape that they used that i was allergic to, but i really don't care. the thing that bugs me (sometimes) is that other women make it look so easy about getting back into shape and it is not easy. these women have nannies or day care and husbands who are around. so i have decided that i am going to be healthy and happy and be proud of my body. all those perfect bodied moms who are lucky to have an amazing metabolism or a well healing body or time to work out a few times a week, i am happy for you and maybe sometime when the kids are older i will be thinner or more in shape. for right now, i am just going to eat healthy and learn to love my body and scars for it's life bringing and life saving ability.
plus... they are totally worth it because they are seriously the cutest kids ever...
i have been wanting to make a jeans skirt for a long time. i finally bought a pair of jeans from a friend of mine at a yard sale (or they might have been free- we did a lot of trading) to make into a skirt. after i got home, i realized after i tried them on they were really comfy and i could not cut them up so i found an old pair of my dad's jeans that i used for working on the house and painting... they are a pair of those high waist jeans that make any figure (except maybe thin figure) look not so good.
i cut them off at the knee where they already had knee holes. then i ripped the seams all the way to the zipper on the front and to the top on the backside, almost to the belt loop. then i just pinned and stitched new center seams and used the old cut legs to patch up the front and back slits, making it into an adorable A line skirt.
I think about Mom all the time. Maybe now that i am a mom i feel closer to her than ever. I feel like i am part of a secret club that all moms belong to- where a fleeting glance of understanding when your kid is throwing a temper tantrum is our secret handshake. (This also goes for dads, aunts, uncles, nannies or anybody who has been around kiddos)
Being a pediatric nurse is hard but it has seriously helped me be a better mom I know. I find joy easily in the little things and I don't sweat the small stuff... or more accurately keep reminding myself to think that way. I am good at picking my battles and letting go of controlling mostly uncontrollable situations and not stressing about it.
At work I see sick or injured kids and it really makes me cherish what i have. I think, so what if my kid wants to stay up being silly for a few extra minutes past bedtime.... or he asks for just one more snuggle from me before he falls asleep.
Like some bumper sticker I had once said,"Life is 10% how you make it and 90% how you take it."
i truly respect those people who can always send out thank you cards and birthday cards and thinking of you cards. i just stooped to the lowest low and sent a thank you text for one of the best dinners i have had in a while and a bag of adorable hand-me-down baby clothes and toys. i did this because it was the easiest for me and i knew my friend would get it pretty quick. i have also sent FB messages for thank you notes.... i suck.
i think my reasoning is that this summer, being on my own, is kicking my butt. i had one packet of thank you cards and one book of stamps. after that ran out, it was going to take a lot of work to try to remember to buy new cards, buy new stamps and then actually sit down and write them. so dragging three kids out in the heat to the store and the post office and trying to accomplish this with at least one or two kids being fussy would be tough. even when i just wrote the text, all three kids were fussy because it is bedtime and these kids are not fans of bedtime.
i have become a big fan of ecards. they are awesome and easy and eco-friendly in many ways. so let's just say i am trying to be more eco-friendly by sending my electronic thank you notes. yeah, that's it.
i think it is obvious i am over the moon for my kids to anyone who knows me. my kids make me laugh more than any person on the planet ever could and i love them so much my heart aches because it is so full.
i never expected to have a girl. i always thought i was going to have 3 boys. i am so excited to have a baby girl and i have been going crazy taking all the cutesy pictures and making girly things for her. she is healthy, amazing, sleeps great already at 7 weeks old and she is the perfect third kiddo.
having a girl has made me more feel more feminine too and i decided that you are never too old to wear flowers in your hair. so my newest fashion accessories are beautiful headbands. i found a bunch of gorgeous headbands for me and the baby girl and i am learning how to make them too, mostly because the budget is stretched really really thin. i love this one shop called banner boutique and here is the link... http://www.etsy.com/shop/BannerBoutiqueOnEtsy?ref=pr_shop everything this shop sells is adorable. so here are some flowers in my hair from that shop.... you do not see my face because i am sleep deprived and look as such... so i have saved you from that vision.
mother, nurse. photographer... someday cookbook author
