Flavors of Fall

With the chill in the air and the leaves turning colors, it can only mean one thing. Fall is finally here! Fall is probably my favorite time of year; there are so many good things! The sweatshirts get pulled back out, the smell of falling leaves, the apple cider…it all brings a smile to my face. Not to mention two of my favorite flavors are perfect for fall: apples and pumpkins! Knowing this is the best season to start my baking frenzy before the holidays; my pregnancy has also reminded me of the importance of incorporating fiber (and large amounts of it) into my diet. I thought I was doing a great job at it, we eat whole wheat or grain bread, I eat lots of leafy, green veggies, and lots of fiber rich fruit. All the pasta in the house is whole wheat, and what’s better on a chilly morning than a big bowl of oatmeal? Well, thank you pregnancy symptoms for reminding me that more is better. So now, I’m faced with the dilemma of getting even more fiber into my diet, which means tricking the entire family into eating more fiber rich foods. So, I did some searching and found some perfect ways to combine fiber rich foods with my favorite fall flavors. Thanks to quaker.com, and some interesting pinterest ideas, I’ve listed a couple great recipes for you to try too! Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins (from Quaker) 1 ½ cups flour 1 cup uncooked oats ¾ cup brown sugar ½ cup chopped nuts (I like to use pecans) 1 Tbsp. baking powder 1 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice ½ tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. salt 1 cup pumpkin puree ¾ cup milk 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 egg, lightly beaten Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with liners. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine egg, milk, pumpkin, and oil. Mix together with the dry ingredients. Bake 22-25 minutes or until golden brown. Apple Pie Oatmeal Oatmeal Water 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tbsp. Brown sugar ½ tsp. nutmeg apples, diced chopped nuts Mix oatmeal and water according to serving size directions. Add spices and apples. Cook for about 10 minutes over med-low heat or until oats and apples are soft. Top with nuts, serve!

Back to School Lunch Ideas

First day back to school…I was excited for a long time about having a few months before the baby comes to get things done around the house without the other two kids running around all day, but then, yesterday, I sent my step-son off to kindergarten and my feelings changed. It was a little bit of a hectic morning, and then the quietness of the day was crazy. I was happy and sad all at the same time.

The morning of the first day of school I couldn’t sleep. I was up at 3a.m. and couldn’t think of anything to do. Then I remembered that the kids would need to take a lunch and I put myself to work. Not having to go anywhere in the morning allowed me to put a little more time and love into the lunch box. In this post, I will give ideas for healthy, fun lunch ideas for kids, as I have found lunches get eating better if it’s kid friendly. One thing to remember is to make sure you pack in kid size portions and use kid approved foods. Even if you think it’s good and it’s healthy, if your kid doesn’t like it, they won’t eat it at school, so try to stick to things you know they like. There are lots of ideas for things like homemade sweet potato chips, banana chips, apple chips, etc. which seem fantastic, but unless you have a food dehydrator or a really good oven (neither of which I currently own) it usually never turns out right, but they are good, healthy alternatives to greasy potato chips. Following is a two week list of everything I’ve put in my kids’ lunch boxes. I've also included link

to the website where I found some of these ideas. Feel fry to use any of the ideas or change them to make them your own, and please, share some ideas you have used! The first Day: Apple ring sandwiches (cut an apple so you can make rings and remove the core, spread the inside with peanut butter, add some raisins, top with another apple ring), circle shaped cucumber slices and cheese pieces (use a small round cutter to make equal size shapes), graham crackers, and a juice box. Day 2: Dolphin shaped tuna sandwiches (put those rarely used cookie cutters to work), goldfish crackers, carrot and celery sticks with ranch, blue Jell-O with orange boats (once Jell-O is set, place a mandarin orange slice in the middle, add a toothpick and a triangle shaped piece of parchment paper to make the boat on top), and juice. Day 3: Cucumber sandwiches (round cucumber slice topped with a round piece of cheese, pepperoni, and another slice of cucumber), baked chips, Ants on a log, applesauce. I sent milk money on this day. Day 4: Bunny shaped PB & J (again with a cookie cutter, it ends up making a sandwich without crust, which kids love), carrots and ranch, apple slices, juice. Day 5: Dino shaped turkey and cheese sandwiches, grapes, yogurt, pretzel sticks, and milk money. Day 6: Homemade lunchables (crackers, cheese slices, pepperoni), applesauce, cucumber sticks, juice. Day 7: Puzzle shaped PB & J sandwiches (cut the bread to look like puzzle pieces), teddy bear cheese pieces, pasta salad, grapes and milk money. Day 8: Ham and cheese rollups (layer a tortilla with cheese and ham, roll it up and slice it), graham crackers, grapes, sweet pepper slices, juice. Day 9: small tossed salad with dressing, pretzel sticks, caramel apple pieces (cut apple into chunks, insert a toothpick, dip in caramel), milk money.

Boredom Baking

Being pregnant and in my second trimester, I’ve rekindled my appetite and am constantly hungry. While I haven’t had any “strange” cravings, I do find myself watching food commercials more closely, dreaming about food, and having a hard time sticking to a grocery list. Add that to not working and a huge case of cooped up boredom, and I tend to eat quite a bit. Today, I was feeling bored, and didn’t really feel like doing anything (that is an awful feeling, the one where you have no concentration but are tired of just sitting around), so I searched my pinterest account and went to the library and decided to whip up some home made goodies. Chad had class tonight, so it was just me and the kids, and I had nothing better to do while they were reading and playing board games, so I decided to spend some time in my kitchen. When I get into serious baking modes, the kids are in heaven because we have snacks around again (I don’t usually spend the money on snacks at the grocery store because they never last very long). So, I made a list of recipes I wanted to make with things I already had around the house (taking kids to the grocery store is not a favorite past time). This time around, my baking list consisted of chocolate éclairs, homemade soft pretzels, banana muffins, pumpkin bread, chocolate Madeline’s, and brownies. I made the pate de choux first, for those that don’t bake, that’s a fancy way of saying puff pastry dough, and baked the éclair shells. The plan is to fill and ice them in the morning so they are fresh for breakfast. Then for a before bed time snack the kids and I tried the pretzel recipe, and I must say they were fantastic! Of course, I did not get to everything today, so it will give me something to do over the holiday weekend. It turns out that it will work rather well to have all the extra snacks around because the kids go back to school on Tuesday and have to take a “healthy” snack everyday. If I can get my list completed, I can freeze a few for a later date and still have plenty for the upcoming week’s worth of school snacks. Being a baker by trade mixed with pregnancy cravings is probably going to mean that my family will be getting a whole lot of homemade goodies in the upcoming months. As long as I have the house decently clean (you can only sweep so many times a day), and am not going back to work, I have time to make delicious goodies all the time. It comes in handy when I volunteer for teacher dinners during conference time (I make the desserts every year), birthdays, and holiday class parties.

It’s funny that I found the baking bug again too, because I just told Chad the other day that I probably won’t be doing any holiday baking or big holiday dinners this year, but after today, I think I may have changed my mind. Baking is not only relaxing for me, it is a boredom buster, and I love it!! Hopefully I don’t loose my passion as I become more pregnant and closer to my due date, because between the DIY crafts for baby and baking I can occupy my time well, and will have plenty of snacks in the freezer for the rest of the school year.

The Nesting Bug

I found out I was pregnant in April of this year, and while I had the elated, YEY feeling, I quickly panicked. For many, nesting doesn’t really set in until closer to the time of the baby’s arrival. For me, it was almost immediately. I felt completely unprepared. My two step-children have lived with us for five years, and we did not keep a single baby item. I waited, quite some time, to buy anything, but then an array of baby showers struck and it seemed like every time I bought a gift for someone, I bought something for my little bundle of joy too. Then came the day of my 12 week appointment, and panic set in again. I had some small items (diapers, wipes, a bottle rack dryer, etc.), but nothing that screamed, “We’re having a baby!” So, that day I bought the bassinet. Immediately everyone told me that I was getting ahead of myself, I had plenty of time, and that I would get a lot from the baby shower. My fear was, yeah, I would get a lot from the baby shower, a lot of clothes. I was super concerned about the big stuff. Let’s just say, my panic has subsided a little. I’m not so worried about “stuff” for the baby. Other than a breast pump, I have enough here at home to survive with a baby (and I still have 4 ½ months to go). But my nesting hormones have far from subsided. I’ve moved on to stressing about the house. Where do we put the baby, how will things fit? We have to replace our carpet, it’s just not sanitary. How will we get all of Hannah’s (our 6 year old) Barbie stuff up off the floor and keep it out of baby’s mouth. Needless to say, I have spent the last two months concerning myself with making kid friendly places, and having a clean and sanitary home. Unfortunately, I have neither the motivation nor the energy to get a whole lot done in one day. What used to take me a few hours on the weekend to “deep clean” is now taking me weeks because I over analyze each room. I have the upstairs almost completed, but there is still a long ways to go, and there are a total of 6 rooms to clean downstairs, all of which have been touched on, but not finished. When I realized, I might be going to the extreme, and my hormones were getting the better of me by unleashing anger at Chad because he was sitting on the couch watching TV while I cleaned, I sat down and did some “research”. I Googled “pregnancy, nesting” and read some pretty funny stories about other women and their nesting stages. I can honestly say, I may not be as crazy as I thought I was getting. I have yet to tackle my house with a toothbrush, or washing out the washing machine, but I definitely do have the cleaning bug and a sudden sense to create “home-made” crafty projects for the house. I even learned how to use a sewing machine so that I could “save a few bucks” by making my own receiving blankets, burp cloths, and car seat covers. It’s funny the way baby hormones can change a “don’t care what it looks like” attitude into a get it spotless and organized one!

Quick Skin Fix for Dry Skin Momma's

Being 19 weeks pregnant, I’ve already started to feel the aches and pains of pregnancy. I had something similar to restless leg syndrome before I was pregnant and now it is horrible and ends in a lot of sleepless nights already. It makes my hips ache, my knees hurt, and my feet swell. There isn’t a whole lot that I can do for it but stretch and warm baths. Unfortunately bath water tends to dry my skin out, so I thought I was fighting a losing battle. Then I thought, what if I found some sort of bath syrup or salt that could not only make the water smell good, but also help to revitalize my skin? I did a quick internet search, and found some pretty elaborate recipes for homemade bath additives that would cost a lot of money and take forever to make, if I could find all the ingredients. I was getting frustrated, and almost gave up. Then I found the recipe for a simple and easy to make bath syrup on ehow.com. It only had three ingredients, and two of them I had in my pantry (honey and pure vanilla extract). The third ingredient (Jojoba oil), I was missing. So I thought real hard, searched my kitchen and medicine cabinet and found sweet oil. Sweet oil is an extract from olives that is used to relieve rough, dry skin, by rubbing it on the spot in question. I thought, well since dry skin is my concern, I would try it instead of the jojoba oil and see how it went. I only made enough of the syrup to last two baths, thinking I wanted to try it before I actually made a lot of it. I mixed in a bowl about ½ a cup of honey, a teaspoon of sweet oil and a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, mixed it well and poured ½ of the syrup under the running warm water filling up the bath tub. The smell was distinct, it smelled good, but you could smell all the separate ingredients as the sweet oil smells more of olives that the sweet smell of vanilla and honey, but once it was dissolved in the water, it smelled great. The results were amazing. My aches disappeared quickly and you could feel the honey and sweet oil cleansing and moisturizing the skin. When I got out of the bath tub, my skin felt baby smooth. I was completely ache and pain free and rejuvenated. I slept through the night too! This is definitely a DIY project that I would do again and again, so I wanted to share it too, because every mom to be deserves to feel great and rejuvenated!

Starting Fresh

Over the past few years, I have tried to blog, but can honestly say that I've never really had the time to maintain anything long term. Now that I'm pretty much a stay at home mom, with a lot more time on my hands, I figure, now's as good a time as ever to try again. With two step-kids about to enter school full time, and a baby on the way, I have a lot to share. My goal with this blog is to share craft ideas, DIY for the home, tips and tricks for kids, and baby ideas. I want to not only document the trials and tribulations of my life as a stay at home mom, but to share stories and ideas with other moms. Being a stay at home mom may seem like a dream come true for most women, but it takes a great support system to stay sane, and this is my way of creating that atmosphere for myself and for other mom's like me. Plus, I figure, who doesn't search the internet for tips and adivce, craft ideas, and things to keep the little one's occupied? I know I do! Hopefully, this will become another tried and true turning point for other mom's like me!