30 Day Challenge: Day 25

30 Day Challenge: Day 25 - Your day, in great detail

Sunday, 7 am - I'll count this as the time my day "started" since that's when Claire woke up for the day. She always announces to me that she's going potty in the morning. I rolled over and nursed Alex and tried to doze some more. She noticed my phone and wanted to play the "Talking Tom" application. This bought me some more time dozing. SCORE! By the way, you should totally get the Talking Tom app if you have kids. It can become incredibly annoying, but it's so worth keeping them occupied. It is a Tomcat that repeats whatever the kids says in about 5 second increments.
7:30-I roll out of bed and shove Claire out the room so Alex can sleep some more. I get her and I dressed for church directly out of the laundry baskets sitting in her room. Awesome. Fewer items to think about folding. I have some leftover pizza for breakfast, but Claire just wants a granola bar. She eats about 1/4 of it. She's not a big eater in the mornings. I fold 2 baskets of laundry in Claire's room before Alex wakes up about 8:30.
I get Alex dressed and change his 42 lb. overnight diaper. He is wearing his "Little Brother" shirt and Claire has on her "Big Sister" shirt. I nurse him again and get the dishwasher fired up for the day. I load the paper recycle in the car and call in a refill for my anti-depressant script. If you missed my post about my PPD, you can read that one here. And sidenote***can I just say how awesome all of you gentle readers are! I got so many messages on facebook and email, I haven't even had the time to respond to them yet. I even got a couple of real life cards! AWESOME!
9:30 - We are leaving for church! Claire wants to wear her pink princess high heels since they are dress up for church. Sigh. I tell her that she has to wear regular sandals, or we can't leave. She immediately puts on sandals. This doesn't always work that well. I'm surprised she complied.
9:35 - I dump all the paper recycle at the bin in front of Wal-Mart. I drive thru Walgreens and pick up my script. Clearly, I love the drive-thru pharmacy with 2 kids. No need to lug two kids in. And Alex has fallen asleep again, you know, since he was up an hour!
10- We get to church and I check in the office about his baptism scheduling and talk to the pastor about a few things.
10:15 - We get to the nursery and get settled in there. We put our street shoes in the cubbies and put on special "church" socks to keep the nursery floor clean. It's my turn to "work" in the nursery this week, but the pastors wife is in there most of the time to help. The kids color a picture when the sermon starts so we can try to hear it over the speaker system. I nurse Alex again. He is happy to play on the floor or in the saucer until we leave.
Noon- Try to leave church and sneak past the cake/refreshments, but Claire sees the spread. I decide that it looks good enough to eat lunch there, so Claire and I eat there while Alex falls asleep in his carseat carrier, again.
1- Arrive home. Josh is up and happy to see us. Claire wants some pizza with Daddy for lunch, which is fine because the only thing she ate was some frosting off of the cake that they had. I see this opportunity as hmm...time for me to go take an afternoon nap with Alex! So I sleep with Alex until about 4. He is such a great sleeper. It was quite possibly the best nap ever.
4 - I get up and we decide to watch an episode of GLEE! since it is raining outside. Josh holds Alex and Claire wants to nurse since she didn't see me for GASP three hours! So I comply, plus she has a bit of a stuffy nose, and I know it will help clear her up faster if I let her nurse more. Well, she fell asleep. LOVE THAT ABOUT NURSING! :) Did you know that there are chemicals in the breastmilk to help kids fall asleep...just like a baby. So I enjoyed holding my big baby Claire for awhile before my legs started to fall asleep! I slid her on the couch next to me and she stayed asleep so then I could nurse Alex again. BTW. I'm sure you don't want to read about all the diaper changes or nursing sessions here, so I'm just putting in what I remember.
5- I get up from the couch and not sure how to think of GLEE! and fold some more laundry. I am always behind on laundry. I pick out Claire's outfits for the week for her color days and lay them aside. Alex rolls around on the floor and is starting to scoot. He spends more time on his tummy than anything. I put him on his back when I lay him down and he flips on his belly right away!
5:30. I start wondering if I should wake up Claire since I don't want her up at midnight since she had a long late nap.
5:45. Claire wakes up on the couch, next to Josh and does a "FTFO" (what I affectionately call FREAK THE F OUT! as only Claire can do). I was actually glad Josh could see what she does when she wakes up most of the time.
6 - We eat leftover pizza. Dang pizza. I am so sick of it at this point. I NEVER WANT PIZZA AGAIN! I paint Claire's fingers and toes yellow for her "YELLOW!" day at preschool tomorrow.
6:30 - There is a rainbow from the rain. Claire and I go outside barefoot to see it. I think our footprints look really cool on the concrete so I snap a photo. Alex is getting fussy so I nurse him again and pop him in his carseat for an evening walk. Josh comes with (YAY!) and we walk the big loop in our neighborhood. Claire takes turns 'chasing' me and then Josh then vice versa.
7:30 ish. I am reading my facebook status updates after we get home and read that my parents dog is not doing well. :( It is 14, had a seizure and was taken to the emergency vet. It will have to be put down. :( I tell Josh I'd like to take a bath (ALONE!) and so he watches both kids while I am able to bathe in peace without one or 2 kids in the tub with me. I relish my "me" time by being able to take care of my personal hygiene. LOL!
8:30ish I feel completely refreshed after shaving my legs. I get Claire ready for bed. I brush and floss her teeth while I tell her what we are going to do tomorrow. Then I read her and Alex some books. Alex likes to sit up with us now and smack the pages. We read some books about Clifford's puppy days, the Everybody poops books, the Disney Seek and Find Princess book (and I know where EVERY item is) and she's also fascinated with this Winnie the Pooh goes to school book. We also read the "Do your ears hang low?" book which irritates me because I want to sing when I read books that are really songs. I think we read a couple more but don't ask me what because they all tend to blend together after you've read them more than 10 times each. I try to "hide" books and rotate them, but this doesn't always work.
9:15. We tell Josh goodnight. I nurse Alex first, then Claire. Alex falls asleep pretty easily and quickly. Claire snuggles my back when it's not her turn. I think about this post I read recently on NATURAL WEANING. I don't always "love" nursing my kids, but I know it's the best for meeting their needs. I know that I can easily love my daughter to sleep in the most gentle way possible if she wants it. Sometimes she will pop off and roll away, but most nights she wants to fall asleep nursing still. I don't want to wean her because society says that I should or because some individual says I should or need to or it will help her sleep better. As a matter of fact, I think taking away her security would tear her small soul apart. I think many of these terrible tantrums I read about kids having on facebook could simply be solved by gentle parenting and natural weaning. Now I'm not saying that you should nurse your kids till they are 8 but that's another post. I just know that when I post stuff like this, I'm saying that this is what I do and it works for us, and that why I like it. I'm not saying that it would work for everybody or would even be right for everyone. But it sure as heck makes my life easier! I think about what I'm going to blog about and let my mind wander a bit as both kids fall asleep. I always sing Twinkle, Twinkle; Jesus Loves You; and Micheal Row Your Boat ashore. But I've change the line in "Michael" to bread and honey vs. milk and honey in case it's not Claire's turn to nurse so she won't think about nursing...ha.
9:45 - Sneak downstairs and eat a pumpkin muffin my neighbor gave me the other day while I check facebook and some blogs. I wonder how I can read blogs every day and forgot my own. :) I talk to my mom on the phone for a bit. I put some stuff in the car for tomorrow. I sit back down and read some more blogs. I am always behind on my blog reading as well. I follow too many of them! I start writing this post.
More than you wanted to know?

30 Day Challenge: Day 24

30 Day Challenge: Day 24 -- Where I live!

I had a hard time finding a picture of our house in the summer! I wanted to take this with the snow, so there you go. That's where I live! This picture is from last Jan. Obviously, we don't have snow in Sept. I hope not!!!

30 Day Challenge: Day 23

30 Day Challenge: Day 23 - A YouTube Video -- This is part one of five video clips in a series called Extraordinary Breastfeeding. You can go to YouTube and watch all 5. Watch them in order, very interesting. I'm sure if you follow any breastfeeding stuff, you've seen parts of this, with the "8 year old nursing" but really, it's talking about how she's losing the suckle reflex and can't nurse really well anymore. 8 is too old for me, but really, how can a breastfeeding mother judge another. After all, it really is more weird to feed our little babies cow's milk which is designed for baby cows!

30 Day Challenge: Day 22

30 Day Challenge: Day 22 -- A website -- My favorite breastfeeding info website is KellyMom for sure!

30 Day Challenge: Day 21

30 Day Challenge: Day 21 -- A recipe

Bacon Broccoli Quiche recipe


Here is the Bacon Broccoli Quiche recipe:

Ingredients:
1 9-inch frozen pie shell
1 10-oz package of frozen broccoli (I used fresh though)
1/4 an onion (chopped)
1/2 jalapeño (diced, seeded)
1/2 package of bacon (cooked and chopped)
1 cup milk
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Bake pie crust about 10 minutes to get started. Let cool. Cook broccoli onion, and jalapeño until tender, drain well. (I just put them all together in the microwave for about 4 minutes.) Meanwhile, combine milk, eggs, butter, flour, salt, pepper. Whisk until well blended. Then layer bacon on bottom of crust. Then broccoli, then cheese. Then pour liquid mixture over everything. Bake at 375 for about 35 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.