Making on... Monday: Dinner tonight

So tonight I made this for dinner:
Italian Sausage and Pepper Pasta

I did leave out the wine - and I didn't use as "fancy" of ingredients (for example, no fresh basil - actually no basil at all).  And I did the "use garlic powder" trick, instead of mincing fresh garlic.  Saves time, keeps the flavor!

Ingredients 1/2 pound(s) raw turkey sausage, Italian-style, casings removed    2 tsp olive oil, extra-virgin    2 medium yellow pepper(s), cut into 2-inch long thin strips    1 medium onion(s), thinly sliced    1/2 cup(s) red wine    1 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic    28 oz canned crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted recommended    1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or less to taste    1/4 tsp table salt    8 oz uncooked whole-wheat pasta, fusilli    1/3 cup(s) basil, fresh, chopped    Instructions Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, to make sauce, in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook sausage, stirring and breaking up meat with back of a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes; remove to a plate. Heat oil in same skillet. Add yellow peppers and onion; cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are lightly colored and crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add wine and garlic; cook until most of liquid evaporates, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, crushed red pepper, salt and browned sausage; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until vegetables are tender and sauce is heated through, about 10 minutes. While sauce simmers, add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package instructions. Drain pasta; return to pot. Add sauce and basil; toss to mix and coat. Yields about 1 1/3 cups per serving.

Blessing & Gratitude: The Christmas Season

After Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas decorations.  It's so fun to see all the ornaments, old and new.  And to have that first night of twinkling lights from the tree and from outside.  The cold, the lights, the tree and the stockings all get me in the Christmas mood.  Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on me.  Christmas isn't going to do that!  I used to work at a place where you KNEW it was Christmas time - the season brought with it all the business.  But not seeing the piles of work to do, I guess I just didn't realize how close we actually were.  But now that the cold weather is finally here - and the decorations are up.  Now to focus on the the joys of the season.  And the new joys that this year's season will bring.  Our first Christmas with baby.  God has truly blessed us with the most amazing gift this year.

Tales for Tuesday: Thanksgiving

Today I spent most of the afternoon naptime packing the suitcase (and baby bag) for our trip to see the family this holiday.  Someone (no names here...) has said that I take WAY too much for even a day trip, and of course too much for a few nights.  That all the baby really NEEDS are diapers and formula.  Well, that is true, technically.  But travel with a baby and not have any of that other stuff.  How smooth is that trip?
So I started today packing and getting ready for the trip.  Not that packing ahead of time is really any different for me now that the baby is here - I've always been a planner and preparer.  (I even have this awesome packing app on my phone - it's great!)
So the bags are packed - mainly - so I can keep the running around in the morning to a minimum.  And hopefully avoid any pacing that has to be done by Daniel. He paces - I pack.
And now to focus on the actual holiday.  How is it already the end of November?  It feels like we just got the baby and that we are still in the summer.  The unseasonable warmth isn't helping with getting me in the November spirit.  And the Christmas stuff in the stores has been out since mid-October, so that is really no help in getting a mindset of the season.  But here we are.  Thanksgiving.  Oh, how much I have to be thankful for.  Where to start?
The joy that I have.  The baby that was a gift from God.  The miracle of her arrival.  My wonderful family and friends.  My home.  Getting to BE at home - that I don't have to work.  Our church home - and the new friends that we have made there.  Sweet baby smiles - and baby laughter filling our home. Everywhere I look, blessings abound.

Making on... Monday: Cake

Yesterday I made this chocolate mousse cake  Don't get too excited, it was from a mix in a box, but I actually did have to bust out the mixer and then layer 2 rounds together with mousse!   I haven't been baking in a while, and it felt good to be back baking in the kitchen.  I made it for our church group that usually comes over, but so many of them were sick or otherwise occupied, so I really didn't have a TON of people to share it with.  And with cakes, they can be so hit or miss with Daniel.  He'll either love it, or just think it's ok and forget about it.  Well, we did have someone come over to watch football and the three of us had the cake.  And I thought it was great.  And after our guest left, I asked Daniel how he really felt about it.  I asked, "Did you like it?"  And he said "Like isn't a strong enough word!"  So I guess it was good.

Blessing & Gratitude

Today was a nice relaxing afternoon.  I watched football and played on the computer and wrote in my journal.  It was a nice afternoon to do pretty much nothing at all.  Just to relax.  I needed that this week!

Systematic Saturday: Regrouping

I haven't been blogging very regularly the past couple of weeks.  I'm not sure why - but I just seem to be running out of time.  Baby has been getting up several times in the middle of the night - not for very long or very many times - but it's different from her sleeping through the night.  So I am just a little more tired than I have been - I have to get adjusted to this waking/sleeping pattern...
So my days are just a little slower and a little more sluggish than they were.  I have all these great ideas of what I need to do, what I should do, what I want to do - and with my slow-moving self, everything just isn't getting done.  I was going along pretty good for the first few months with baby.  But maybe it's catching up with me?
So this weekend, I had two cups of coffee and set to doing one of my tasks that has been looming over me.  The PILE - on my desk in the study.  The pile of stuff that kept growing and growing of "stuff I'll get to later."  Well, today was later - finally!  And I got through it.  I have a few more "piles" in other places around the house that I just have to get to before the end of the year.  I HAVE to!
These areas really aren't that big - but they are just kind of gnawing at me - always in the back of my mind. As a kid, I was the one that had to clean up my room before I could do my homework.  A neat space made it easier for me to think.  Translate that into adult land and I feel the need to clean and straighten up before I can sit down and relax.  But I think that if I can get rid of some of these junky places that are junking up my head, that I can be a little faster, a little more streamlined - and that I can get to something fun faster!

Four for Four Friday

Let's see...
Over the past two weeks, I've got to have at least four for four...

• I rearranged the den so that it looks a little more "purposeful."  [with the help of a friend who has such a good eye for those kinds of things!]  There was a random bookcase that just didn't get moved when baby's swing was added in with the furniture this summer.  And finally I got to clean that bookcase off/out.

• I did some recycling, by way of digging out the recycling items from the trash can - the big one that goes to the street.  There was a little mix up with the cans.  And I wasn't going to let my carefully collected recycling items get thrown away with the trash.

• I've had TWO girls nights!  One with dinner and coffee - the other to see the new Harry Potter movie.  Daddy has done great with the baby!  I didn't even worry that much about the two of them.  I knew he'd be great.  And he didn't even call me to ask any questions!

• And baby started eating veggies this week.  She has done so well with the cereal, and now to start on the next step.  I decided that I was going to make the baby food.  I think it'll be fun - and good for her too!  Here's my first one: sweet potatoes!

Wednesday Word: Sleep

Sleep.  That is what's on my mind today.  Baby does great napping during the day - which she defintely still needs.  But at night - she seems to be wanting to see what each hour looks like.  Baby, I will tell you what it looks like... it's dark.  So please just stay asleep!
We think that it's teething pain that is waking her.  She has been such a great sleeper for the longest time - going for about 9 - 10 hours without waking.  But for the past couple of weeks, it seems to be getting worse.  Guess it's that time for the peaceful sleeping to go away for a while.

Tales for Tuesday: procrastination

So here we are again... Tuesday.  And the topic of procrastination.  I never really thought of myself as a procrastinator, until recently.  I'm not one to put everything off till later, just some things.  And I'm really a 2/3rds kind of gal.  I seem to get almost done with a book, knitting, various projects - and then they just don't get finished.  I guess I lose inspiration or I just find another project that I want to do more.  Another thing that I've noticed recently is that I run out of time.  Not working outside of the home, I have more time, or at least I should.  And it seems with the more time that I have, I run out of time faster.  When I have LESS time, I can really get moving and motivated.  I seem to find that do have enough time for the work that I want to get done in the day, and I should have time for doing some reading or something kind of fun.  But just when I think I'm going to get started on doing something kind of fun, the baby wakes up.  I want to find a way to get it all done.  That may just be a crazy thought.  Or maybe I need to schedule in some "me" time into my day. Or just plan to do less.  But that way, I am putting at least something off until tomorrow....

Making on... Monday: gift bag

So I have wanted to make gift bags out of newspaper for a while now, since I got a gift in one last year.  I thought it was so cool - and a great way to recycle and reuse.  So I found a few sites online with instructions. I spent an afternoon (during naptime) making the first "trial" one.  And then I made two that turned out pretty good.  But then I needed one a little bigger for the gift that I was going to be giving (size: a pack of diapers).  So I extrapolated the "pattern" that I found online and made a bigger bag.  It turned out pretty good, I think.  After the glue dried, the diapers didn't rip through the bag or anything!  And they fit great too...

Everything was fine, I had tested the bag several times - picking it up, carrying it around a little.  But as I gave the bag to the recipient, the handles ripped out of the top.  Oh well.  I'm going to reinforce the top next time, as well as the bottom!  But it was cool while it lasted!   

And I count this as success for making gift bags!  

Blessing & Gratitude: Laughter

I am so grateful for laughter!  And today I got to do it a lot!  And really I needed it today too.  I'm exhausted from this week.  I'm not sure why.  I've gotten "enough" sleep and I really haven't done that much to tire me out. Just the basic everyday stuff and taking care of baby.  But for some reason, I've just been tired, and on the EDGE.  You know, THAT edge - the ever precarious edge of crabby.
So today was a great day for laughter!  I got to laugh with one of my friends at church.  She tried to grab this foam head - we were backstage.  They use the heads for lighting purposes, but still - it's a foam head.  And if you know me, you know how I love the "just heads."  She couldn't get to it and by then we were both laughing!
And then later today, after seeing some friends from work (at a baby shower) that I miss so much, I got to laugh - hard - again.  It involved one of my friends driving, and having to turn around.  But knowing what she was saying in her car and seeing the scene play out in front of me was just so funny.  It hurt I laughed so much!

Tales for...this week

So I was going to blog on Tuesday, and the topic was going to be procrastination.  Funny how it's Wednesday night and my blog for Tuesday didn't happen.
Well, Tuesday night, as I got in the bed to snuggle in with a DVD and a bowl of cereal - my favorite late night snack - my dog started looking a little sickly and acting just a little strange.  Well, I decided that the blogging could wait, I really wanted to start in on the cereal and the DVD.  And maybe if I settled down and turned off the light, then the pup would settle in too.  But then less than 5 minutes after I said to myself, I hope that she doesn't vomit, she did.  And A LOT of it.  She got the end of the bed, down in between the foot board and the comforter too.  And then, as she tried to "escape" that one, she went to the middle of the bed and did one even bigger than the last one.
Ok, so it's like 9:45 now, and that's late in our house.  I don't think that we have an extra set of sheets for this bed - and if so, then I'm not sure where they are.  And doing laundry is out of the question.  It's too late and too loud.  The sheets usually just go straight from the bed, to be washed, then right back on the bed, hence no extra set.  But oh, how I wanted an extra set that night.  Since this was the night I was alone - Daniel was still out of town and my company had left, no one was actually going to have to sleep on the puke side of the bed.  But the smell.  Oh the smell.
I did clean up the best I could - paper towels and probably every towel that we have in the house.  It took about 45 minutes to clean up the best I could.  I took the comforter and the top sheet and quarantined them on the washing machine.  I had to leave the fitted sheet on, so I layered the huge wet spots with towels.  I found a random sheet in the closet - I didn't even know it was it in there.  And I stole the comforter off the guest bed.  A full size comforter on our king size bed - again, glad I was the only one in the bed.  I even had to clean the dog off.  She was pathetically holding up her paw, because it was covered in it.  She was way more pitiful with the sickness than the baby was.
So now, everything is washed and dried.  The pup is feeling much better - she went all day acting and eating normally.  But there is still the smell of puke.  We have a mattress cover, so the mattress was protected.  And I thought I got it all.  Guess not,  But where is it?

Wednesday Wares: Rock Band Drums

So when I got home on Tuesday after lunch, there was a big box waiting for me on the front porch!  The cymbals expansion kit for the Rock Band drums.  MY Rock Band drums!  Daniel thinks that I need to have a little more challenge when we play....

So Tuesday afternoon during baby's nap, I put the drums set together!

And then I just had to try them out - quietly.  I played a few songs then, and then baby and I rocked out after dinner!  A little different - and adds more fun! 

Oh, and why the red drum is different and looks weird?  I have put felt on it to sort of push down this bubble that is on the surface.  Guess I've played them so much that the red one is warping a little! 

Making on... Monday

What I made today... Well I actually watched most of it being made.  A longtime friend came to town to hang out with me and baby while Daniel was out of town.  And she made a great lunch!  We were going to do breakfast for dinner, but then pizza sounded better for an evening meal - can't stop the craving for pizza.  So we had breakfast for lunch!  And it was yummy and very fall-ish!  We had whole wheat waffles (from scratch) with pear sauce.  Both were SO GOOD.  The waffles were very hearty and not too sweet. And the pear sauce, with its wonderful chunkiness, was just the right amount of sweet.  It was a great fall treat!  Thank you!!!
And even better, there were extra waffles and pear sauce, that are now in the freezer for a treat later too!

Blessing & Gratitude

I am so grateful for my friends (and family)!  It was great to have a friend to sit with at church this morning - then fun to talk to several people I haven't seen in a while afterwards.  And then a very good friend coming to hang out with me, while both of our husbands are out of town!  Very excited about the company - and, well, the help too!

Systematic Saturday: Time Change

My "systematic" project for the weekend is/was pushing the baby back an hour, so that when the time changes, she's on the right time.  "Fall back" is supposed to give us an extra hour of sleep, but with a baby, that just means the morning just starts an hour earlier.  And me, I'm not a morning person - understatement!  Not that I just don't like getting up, I just have a hard time functioning.  Carrying a baby, feeding her a bottle - those need some functioning motor skills.  So the time change is a bigger deal to me than my husband.  He is an early bird - he actually will get up earlier to do something (go to work so that he can come home earlier, or get up to workout). Totally not me.  I'm not a night person either.  I'm a middle of the day person - 10am to 2pm is usually my highest functioning time.  But I'm learning to be at least more awake in the early morning.
So I started on Thursday, trying to push baby's schedule back by 20 minutes.  It was a little rough - but fairly successful.  And the next day, I was able to push it back 40 minutes.  Friday was a little more on the fussy side, which just confirmed to me that, yes indeed, I needed to do this moving baby's time back in increments.  And today, she got up a little later than I thought she would - and had pushed herself back by the whole hour.  So we are ready for tomorrow morning!
It seemed weird to me that I would have to move the baby forward an hour, when the clocks are going backwards.  It took Daniel a while to explain it to me - and make sure that we were doing the right thing with the baby.  I don't know why I had a hard time figuring out this one.  But my light bulb came on when I thought about Back to the Future.  Einstein (the dog - when they are first demonstrating the car) jumped over that minute to arrive at the time we are now.  So baby has to jump over the hour that we are falling back to arrive at the correct time!

Four for Four Friday

Goals for this week - accomplished!

1) I cleaned out my closet and reorganized it.  And gave a few things to a friend who loves my hand-me-downs! She's so funny - I'd think with her three older sisters, she would be sick of them.  But she was excited!

2) Successfully - sort of - started moving the baby "forward" in time so that the time change this weekend isn't so abrupt.  I think it still might be a little rough.  No "extra hour" of sleep this year...

3) During baby's afternoon nap today, while daddy babysat, I went out for a fun "freedom" afternoon.  I went to a baby store and got some things for baby - and two friends that are each having babies soon! And then I went to the shoe store and found EXACTLY what I wanted.  Brown clogs - with detailing and studs around the edge.  That makes them sound weird, but they really are cute!  And they were on sale - clearance even!

4)  And my random photo - While I was out this afternoon, I got a call from the phone number "1000" - totally weird.  I didn't answer.

 

Thursday Three

1) The baby has been "talking" more and more these days. She has been doing some eh eh ehs - and then last week started with some bah bah bahs.  This week, I started hearing "words" that actually mean something.  Like when Daniel was coming up the stairs after work (and I didn't know that he was home yet), baby said "Dah dah" and then he opened the door.  It was wild!  Also, when I asked her "are you ready for your bottle?  We are going to the kitchen!" She said "kit ten."  And when Daniel asked if she wanted to sit with mommy, she said "mamamamama."  Yeah, they probably don't mean much yet, but they are so fun!

2) This week, mommy & daddy got their flu shots - for baby.  Our arms (and whole bodies) were sore for a couple of days.  This is for you baby!

3) We got Rock Band 3 last week and have started back playing - Daniel on guitar and vocals (he knows the words to most songs and guitar is more suited to singing) and me on the drums.  I LOVE playing the drums.  Being someone that has never been good at video games, I'm loving the new types that have come on the market in the past few years.  Like the Wii - I can work that (most of the time).  And the drums for Rock Band.  It's so fun!  It's musical and gaming. And after playing for a few years, I've gotten pretty good at it! We play on the "Hard" level.  We have tried "expert" but can't do it on all the songs.  But we can ROCK on the Hard level!  And on the drums this week, I got the rating:  "fistful of awesomeness" on one of the songs!

Wednesday Wares: Spot

Daniel got baby some Spot books this week.  We had one - the first one "Where is Spot?" We enjoy it, and I think that baby does too.  It's got flaps, and she really likes that!
So daddy got her Spot loves Mommy and Spot loves Daddy - and Goodnight Spot.  And for an even special surprise, the next day in the mail, we got a Spot little stuffed dog!
Good boy, Spot!  Thanks daddy!

Tales for Tuesday: The Weather Channel

I love watching the Weather Channel.  It's really fascinating to me.  I should have been a meteorologist.  I like knowing WHY the weather does what it does.  And well, also, knowing what it's going to do - well what it's probably going to do.  Daniel is amazed that a weatherman can be right 50% of the time and be great at his job.  This really comes into play in the wintertime, when talking about snow.  But weather isn't an exact science.  That's why I like to know - why.  If I know that the jet stream is doing this or that - then the rain that's in Texas is going to hit us directly or just go off the coast. So I kind of know what's going on.  I do like to be prepared...

One thing I love is the Local on the 8s.  The music they play during it is usually elevator Muzak stuff.  But it's been kind of different lately.  Last week, I heard REM "Radio Free Europe" - like the actual song.  Then yesterday, it was a muzak version of Sublime "What I Got" - which was kind of weird.  Then today - it was "Someday" by Mariah Carey (the actual song).  That was a weird choice, I think and a weird blast from the past.  Huh.  Who is choosing this music?

Making on... Monday

I made baby a cute little treat bag, just in case we went around and got candy last night.  It's really cute, an orange stripe knit fabric - with an orange ribbon as the handle  I even busted out the sewing machine yesterday to whip it together.
And a picture of it...  I was going to do that.  But it's IN the baby's room, and she sleeping.  And actually sleeping well, so no picture.

Blessings

Baby's first Halloween.  She was a cute little (and fluffy) butterfly.  We had a great time at our church festival.  She even had fun too!  It was so fun to see all our friends and snuggle the baby!