Oh the joy...

The reasons why I just love childbearing continue to surface. There were 4 years between my last 2 pregnancies and I hadn't forgotten these reasons, but I think blocked out a lot of them. Three months postpartum and the reasons are still coming to light. I could go into everything, but I'll just highlight a few of my favorites.

First, that 6 weeks of recovery is super fun. Especially after a C-section. Enough said.

Next, I'm constantly reminded that my genetic structure is not the same as those women who have baby number 4 and fit into their skinny jeans 2 weeks later. Nope, I'm desperately working to take off the last 30 of the 60+ lbs. I gained with my little bundle of joy. I do love eating salad for dinner, salad for a snack and treating myself to a lovely salad for dessert day after day. And then there's working out 40 minutes each day while watching my scale inch down 1 pound every 2 weeks. On top of that joy, it's SUPER fun to watch my stick of a husband eat a giant bowl of ice cream at 9:00 every night. "No, sweetheart, you go ahead," I say. "We just need to get it out of the house." Mysteriously, the ice cream container seems to magically refill itself because it never runs out. Clearly, I need to stop asking him to run to the store for that one thing.  I'm really hoping to be able to put my maternity clothes away at some point, but at the rate I'm going, my son will be 16 before I get there.

Then there's breastfeeding. I know it's great for many moms. (if God made it as the best way to feed our babies, why did He not make it possible for everyone to do it?) For others, it's a glorious gift...of mastitis, excruciating pain, lack of milk supply, latching problems, lactose intolerance, and being a slave to the pump. And finally, the lovely gift of the guilt of quitting when it just doesn't work. This comes from every source around you from your own feelings of inadequacy to other moms and dads (yes, even dads generously give you judgmental glares when you pull out a bottle of formula) to the internet, to the first lady herself talking up tax breaks for breastfeeding moms. (Where are the tax breaks for moms who choose not to beat their kids?) Here's a fun experiment. Go into a mom-and-me group and bring up the benefits of formula fed vs. breastfed babies, step back and watch the place go wild. It'll be like a pack of hungry lions fighting over the last zebra carcass. It's such a deeply personal and passionate subject and everyone has an opinion on it. Almost as fun is talking about organic vs. non-organic baby food.

Another thing I just find lovely about childbearing is losing all my hair. It's fun to go bald - or nearly bald - when you have as thin and fine of hair as me. And it's even more fun to find hair everywhere. I get to clean small rodent size balls of it out of the shower drain every 2 weeks when I notice that my feet are taking a bath during my shower. I start to find it between my toes when I walk barefoot on the carpet and I haven't vacuumed for 2 days. I get to clean out the vacuum bristles weekly. I even get to find it in my food, as do my children and husband. Lucky them! I'm wearing a hairnet and hat when I bake now instead of just a hat and ponytail. BUT IT GOES ON! A year from now, I get to watch all that hair grow back as little fuzz all over my head sticking straight up. Uncontrollable fuzz. A constant reminder that "you were pregnant."

These are just a few of my favorite things. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I blame Eve and her husband Adam. She just HAD to eat the fruit. Could have avoided the whole "pain in childbearing" thing, but NOOOOO, she had to know good from evil and ruin it for the rest of the human race. Thanks a lot! Who listens to a talking snake anyway?

It's a good thing that the baby is all worth it in the end. My children are the best part of waking up each morning. Ooo, my boy is waking up, I've gotta go catch some giggles and smiles.

the sacrifice of artistry

As an artist of sorts and definitely as a perfectionist, it's hard for me to allow my children to take part in my art. Yeah, yeah, children's artwork is beautiful and priceless and no one has any right to criticize it, blah - blah - blah. I do find my children's artwork wonderful for what it is. They're learning and I love that they're learning, but I don't like that I'm losing control of my traditions. Small sacrifice, I suppose...right?

I was married for 10 years before we had kids and I would spend several days during each Christmas season baking delicious sugar cookie cutouts and decorating them impeccably. They were stunning. Snowflakes of aqua and white, stars of blue and yellow, trees of green, mittens and hats of pink and red, each with perfectly placed sprinkles...not too many, but just enough. Each cookie was a canvas on which I painted my masterpiece.

My two daughters love baking almost as much as I do I'm pretty sure they would just as soon take over my kitchen if I would let them. It's fun to watch them learn and be artistic and I love that they are as excited about my craft as I am, but I've had to let go of my perfectionism a little bit. The last couple years, I've let the girls each decorate 5 or 6 cookies each.

This year I let the girls do all of the decorating of the cookies and most of the cutting out.  I think I gave myself 5 or 6. I whipped up a batch of royal frosting and let them do their magic. It almost killed me when I made the decision that I would not bring my annual beautiful cookies to family gatherings this year even though I didn't really have time to make them anyway. It turns out that the girls were just as meticulous as I would have been with frosting and placing sprinkles. I worked with them for a little while and eventually had to walk away so I'd stop telling them what to do.  These are my "favorites:"

Merry Christmas and Happy Baking!

my little monkey

After a bit of maternity/postpartum hiatus, I'm back and more exhausted than ever! We celebrated the addition of our son to our family early October and I can describe him in one word.

DELICIOUS.

My sense of fashion and style in my day-wear has been reduced to sweats and pj's. But every time I walk into my baby's room, I can celebrate the style of his nursery decor.  I thought I'd share the details with you.

I know they're overly popular right now and normally I wouldn't go for popular, but I'm a little obsessed with sock monkeys. Pottery barn gave me the idea, but I wasn't a fan of the colors to chose from there...so I went fabric shopping. Until I started sewing it all, I forgot how much I hate sewing bedding and curtains. But for the sake of my baby who doesn't appreciate it at all, I sucked it up and did it.

Here's his room. And, oh yeah, I refinished, painted, or sewed everything you see here except the carpet. Love me or hate me!

 

 

Orange Dreamsicle Cupcakes

I've discovered a bit of bliss in a natural orange oil I ordered. I've had it in an amazing sweet vinaigrette dressing and other savory items and loved it. But I decided that I had to try it in my cupcakes. I simply added about 1/4 tsp. of the concentrated oil to my favorite white cake recipe and the results were a slice of heaven. Orange cakes with vanilla cream filling. They are topped with my favorite Italian Meringue Frosting. I'm pretty sure that if you like orange, there's nothing quite as delectable as orange dreamsicles in cake form. They're officially added to my menu list for both cake and cupcake orders. You're welcome.

They called him Sharky

Many, many years ago, WAY back in the 2000's, someone (I honestly don't remember who) gave me a book that I instantly loved, but I never did anything with it until this week. The book is called Teach Yourself to Make Soft Toys: Simple Techniques and Patterns for Stuffed Animals.  I have no idea if this book is even in print any more. It includes patterns for reptiles, dinosaurs, a unicorn, spiders, mamas and babies and more.

It has some really cute patterns and and fairly clear directions. (I would say that you'd have to be a semi-experienced sewer to make most of these toys, but some are pretty simple.) I was always amused by the shark pattern and wanted to make it, but had no real reason to do so. I even bought a red zipper that sat in my zipper drawer for over 10 years.

I came across the zipper while I was putting some sewing supplies away and decided it was time to make the shark. It'd be a great little Christmas gift for the baby and I had almost all the fabric. When I started putting the pattern pieces together, I realized that this was not a "little" toy. It is almost 2 1/2 feet long. My youngest daughter has spent the last 2 days playing with it and the little fish that zip into its mouth...and she has asked for a "girl shark" in pink.

It makes me laugh, so I thought I'd share it.

Hooded Baby Towel Tutorial

Yes, those towels with the little frog face are cute, but after the first 6 months, they're about half the size you want.  My oldest daughter is 6 and she's still able to use the same size hooded towels I made for her when she was born.  Sure they might seem a little big for the tiny newborn, but who doesn't like a little extra absorption for those after-bath surprises that newborns throw at us?

It's about as easy as a sewing project can get.

What you'll need:
one full size bath towel
one matching hand towel
matching thread
sewing machine with a needle for heavy fabrics

What you'll do:
1. Pre-wash your towels and dry on medium heat.  This gets the towels clean and the heat drying will help avoid any extra shrinking in the laundry later.

2. Cut the finished edges off of the hand towel on each of the SHORT ENDS, leaving the long edges in tact.

3. Fold the hand towel in half, shorter ends together. Mark the centers of both edges with a water soluable marker or pins. Place one side of the long edge slightly over the other and pin in place.  Starting at the edge (instead of the point), machine baste together toward the point leaving 1-2" free. Top stitch with a zig-zag stitch setting your machine's stitch length short and the width at its widest.  You've just made the back seam of the hood.

4. Turn to inside out with right sides together. Take a tuck across the point of the hood and pin in place, right sides together.  Cut off the point so there is a straight line approx. 5" seam across.  Sew a 1/4" seam allowance and press seam down.  Zig-zag top stitch, encasing the raw edges.

5. On the remaining long edge of the towel (the front edge of the hood), turn under 1 1/2" (wrong sides together).  Pin in place and straight stitch along the edge.

6. Make a double pleat at the raw edge of the bottom of the hood, bringing 1 1/2" toward the center seam from each side. Baste in place.

7. Fold bath towel in half and mark the center.  Lining up the center of the bath towel with the back seam of the hand towel (wrong side of bath towel to right side of hood), pin and baste together as you did for the top seam of the hood (overlapping edges and stitching together).  Lightly press seam toward the hood (so the bath towel lays flat).  Zig-zag top stitch along the seam as before, encasing edges.
NOTE: Unless you're using an industrial sewing machine, be careful when sewing over the pleated section as it could break your needle if you speed over it.

You're done.  If you're an experienced sewer, it'll take you about 30 minutes to an hour.  Feel free to add trims like chenille rickrack or cotton ball fringe to the hood or edges of the towel.

Island Banana Donuts

We never seem to eat the bananas we buy and I end up with a freezer full of them, unexcited to make more banana muffins or bread, but unwilling to just toss them until it's been several months and they start growing ice crystals.

Yesterday we went to our local apple orchard to get our fill of apple donuts and cider. We also brought home our favorite fall treats, Honeycrisp and Chestnut Crab apples. This morning I was wondering if I could recreate the apple donuts we had. I was googling recipes until I saw a half dozen bananas going bad on the counter. I decided to google banana donuts instead and found a recipe that looked easy, save the gourmet ingredients it called for that I'd have to order online and wait another week for delivery. I tweaked it a bit and came up with this recipe that was amazingly yummy:

Island Bliss Banana Donut Holes
2 cups Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix (you could probably use whatever is in the house)
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla (opt.)
grape seed oil (or vegetable oil)

Pour oil into a pot, at least 2 inches deep and heat the to medium-hot. Mix remaining ingredients together until batter is sticky. Using a small 1 inch ice cream scoop, drop balls of batter into the hot oil. Turning once, deep fry until a deep golden brown.

Check the first few to make sure the batter is cooked through and adjust cooking time. (mine looked very dark before they cooked through completely)

Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain.  Roll in sugar, if desired.

Note to the nesting: You may want to try this on a cool day while not pregnant or you may find yourself trying to keep your sweat from dripping into the oil.