Mandatory rest time

I do not do this every day, but since the girls did not fall asleep Naomi kept herself and Bernadette awake until at least 9:30, maybe closer to 10, last night and still sported her typical 7 a.m.-on-the-nose wake time, I decided that today would be a good day to do it. Bernadette still does a morning nap, mostly be cause she is kept up much later than she should be, thanks to Naomi's shenanigans, and so this morning during B's nap, I put some hymns on for Naomi (she is a very pious child), gave her some "quiet books" and left her in her room until the play list was done.

While I threatened her with punishments if she got out of her bed, I never actually checked to see if she was in bed, so I as far as I know she was peacefully and quietly alternating between teaching herself how to read and resting in her bed as she should have been. Although when I went in at the end she was in her panties instead of her "rest time diaper" with her pants on inside out and backwards and the light was on... But like I said for the duration of rest time until the songs were done, as far I know, she was in bed :) Ignorance is bliss.

I have been wanting to sew these old jeans of mine for some time now, so that is what I busied myself with during mandatory rest time. They are some clearanced Gap favorites from around 03' and feel like butta- so comfy. I am not a great or even a decent seamstress, but my skills have improved just the tiniest bit since college, when I tried to "hem" them, which basically meant that I gave them a big cuff and stitched the sides so that every time I put them on for years the cuff would get stuck on my foot and I would have to re-cuff it. Also the bottom of the hem got all worn out and frayed from not being properly hemmed.

So about 6 years later I finally decided to fix them and here is how they came out:

super awkward arm, super light denim

A little bit better

another great picture, but a vast improvement

I will be wearing them every day, all day until they fall apart, they are seriously that comfortable.

So thank you Naomi for not electrocuting yourself and giving me a whole hour to myself- you're the best.

Eeek, weight

To highlight some massive insecurities, I will write about weight.

I just got a new scale. I had to get a new scale because the new scale that I got just a few months ago broke. I didn't know it was broken though, I just thought that I had gained five pounds. The day after I made the most fattening brunch ever I stepped on the scale (I may or may not weigh myself daily, I don't know if that is weird) and it said that I was a full 5 pounds heavier than the day before. I know that the brunch was bad for us but 5 POUNDS?!?! So I moved the scale all around the bathroom, I messed with the little feet thingies on the bottom, I took the batteries out and put them back in and it only continued to tell me that 5 pounds had molded themselves most likely onto my midsection and were not going anywhere by moving the scale around. For the next week I freaked out mentally, worked out every single day, started counting points more closely (I love Weight Watchers) and no matter what I did the stupid scale would tell me the exact same, extra five pounds weight every single day- it was starting to make me a bit crazy if you can't tell.
I figured that this was a result of not nursing anymore, but I was getting pretty angry that no matter what I was doing not even the .3 at the end of the 3 digit number would go away.
Mike kept telling I am beautiful and all of my clothes were not fitting any differently, but I seriously thought that I could see the extra fat, I could see it. I realize that there are self image issue here still playing themselves out from years and years of awkward insecurity, and I am sure that they will always be there to some degree or another, hopefully a much smaller degree. Anyways...

A friend of mine here is SB who's had babies around the same time mentioned nonchalantly at a play date that she wondered if we would ever have to actually "Try" to lose our baby weight (hers had just fallen off from nursing and being all temperate and what not). I was thinking to myself "I DO TRY!!!" but just smiled and pretended that I never make the slightest effort. I am not one of those women, I have had to make a serious effort this time around to get back to pre-pregnancy weight.
The reason that those extra 5 pounds were/are such a big deal is that as far as I know, without those 5 pounds, that is the least I have ever weighed since I cared about weighing myself- I was a rather chubby middle schooler and I am sure I was smaller in high school, but I don't think that my parents even owned a working scale, very very smart. It was a glorious day when I randomly stepped on a friend's scale, about 6 or so months ago and saw that I was 5 pounds smaller than I was at my wedding. I wish I had never even done that though because then I went out and bought a scale to make sure that I stayed that weight. Now to my credit, my main reason for freaking out about the 5 pounds is that I am assuming that I will be pregnant before I know it and without the extra 5 I would be 20 pounds smaller than I was when I got pregnant with Bernadette (our 2nd). So far with both girls I have gained somewhere between 40 and 50 pounds, so to be 20 pounds ahead of the game this time around would be flipping awesome! I am sure I will still gain a lot but the end weight will be much more manageable. That is a justifiable reason for over-obsessing about weight, right? I think so.

So yesterday I weighed myself in the a.m. when I would have been the smallest and it said that same, stupid 5 extra pound weight and so I decided to go ahead and weigh myself much later in the day, right after I had eaten, with all my clothes on and.... it said I was 3 pounds lighter than in the morning. I knew the thing was broken, so I went straight to Bed Bath and Beyond and returned the thing and got a new one, which read my typical, happy weight of 5 pounds lighter than I was at my wedding. The amount of relief that I felt was, I am sure, disordered, but no less sweet. Now I can be more at peace at conceiving another child and not be so paranoid about my ridiculous weight gain.






Don't judge me for being crazy,
Ana

fishy pants

Another fabulous post for my avid 3 1/2 readers (1 of which is my husband, the others I think are paid by him to read this).

We found out what the heinous smell attacking our house was. I feel a strange mixture of total embarrassment and pride at the fact that it was entirely my fault.

I had some ladies over for margaritas last week, an occurrence that may or may not be frequent, and since we needed ice (for the margaritas!) I had to move some things around in the freezer to make it, during which time a very old piece of fish in a zip lock bag was taken out and placed atop our refrigerator. A week or so later the fish had started to, as my husband says,  putrefy (I had never heard this word before, but it is fantastic), thus producing the smell of a rotting animal corpse throughout our entire house. Many details I am sure you did not care to know.

Moving on... I finally bought the replacement piece to my sewing machine and got to work on a pair of pants that I found during a little shopping spree at the local St. Vincent de Paul this afternoon. I have really been wanting some red pants, but since it seems a biiiit likely that red pants may not be as hot next fall as this one, I did not feel right about spending anything more than 1.19 on them. So I plodded out in the cold and rain today, crossed my fingers and what did I find whilst thrifting?!?!

these little guys!!!

I know they are more salmon than red, but I took what I could get for a little over a dollar.
I got to work and with one leg only slightly tighter than the other I came up with this:

With or without boots, with or without shoes

I know these are the very worst pictures on the face of the earth, but you're not a picky bunch. I will try to snap more when I fix the other leg and when our new camera cord comes in.

I really hit the thrift store jack pot today getting 2 pairs of pants (Gap and Landsend), 2 skirts, a pair of indutrial strength rain boots and some cute little wedge heel shoes. Plus 2 boots for one child and books for the other (so that I didn't feel so guilty for only buying things for myself) all for 16 bucks!!!
I win.

All this by way of saying, I love Sundays.

Happy Advent!
Ana

Bad decision

Another doozie of a Saturday here. Do you ever feel like your days are full of a string of really bad little decisions? I do. I feel like most of my days are full of me saying "I really shouldn't have done that".
"I really shouldn't have gotten the short hair cut that now makes me look like a little boy"

Little boy hair and shirt!!!

"I shouldn't have left the house without an extra pair of pants for Naomi"
"I shouldn't have gone to the library without an extra pair of pants for Naomi" (As I run out of the lobby with her yelling that she peed her pants"
"I shouldn't be blogging, but rather cleaning my disgusting house"
"I shouldn't have eaten 4 Reese's cups"
"I probably shouldn't let the girls eat an entire box of raisins"
(During diaper changes) "I definitely shouldn't have let the girls eat the entire box of raisins"
"I should not have tried to make up my own recipe for dinner, this is the worst tasting thing ever"
"I shouldn't be letting Naomi watch 3 movies today"
"I shouldn't eat 1/2 bag of skittles right before bed"



 Since most of my decisions are informed by my own knowledge and experience in life and as a wife and a mother, they are generally bad since I have next to no knowledge or experience as a wife and mother. It makes you wonder why they let just anybody get married and bear children.
I take comfort in knowing that even if Mike has no idea what he is doing, he is always much more confident than me and almost always makes much better decisions, and there the balance lies! I feel sure so far that 3 very good decisions (maybe the only good ones?) made thus far have been: Mike, Naomi and Bernadette, so at least I can do something right. Hopefully when I am in my 50s looking back I will notice that exponentially my terrible decisions decreased daily and that I am now perfect.

Very good

Husband: good decision. Hair: BAAADD decision

Happy decision making
Ana

Post Thanksgiving

At my brothers wedding a couple months ago I left our camera case with the cord that connects it to the computer and now our camera is tragically dead. And so until I figure out which replacement cord I need to order and actually do it there will be no new highly anticipated pictures of the current goings on here.

Such as: 

the making of terribly cute Thanksgiving cupcakes,

a day trip to see family in Richmond, IN for Turkey day,

playing outside on an unprecedented beautiful late November day, also prompting myself to go for what I am sure no self-respecting human being would call a run, but it felt freaking good, Mike searching or some critter that we are pretty cure died and is rotting right above our kitchen- a really wonderful place to have rotted corpse smell emanating,

  and last but not least the erecting and decorating of the 4th annual Griswold family Christmas tree... it is probably better that I do not have photos as it would clearly too much for your little eyes and hearts to handle.

But here are some fake pictures of other people's lives for you to enjoy in lieu of our own:

Were my kids this helpful? In a way, no.

 These are the only pictures that is actually real

Joy abounds

Sabbath Bread

If I were not married to the most incredible stud of man ever, I think I would be married to my bread machine (or Aldi's- if you could marry appliances or grocery chains) but since I am already married I just settle for using my bread machine ALL the time. I absolutely love it and if there's one thing that we registered for at our wedding that I would recommend to every bride-to-be to register for it is one of these:

It will change your life, or your money back.

I used to make these little sweeties on Sunday and my husband's first reaction was "did you make these from scratch?" We could have been on a super cheesy infomercial for real.


You seriously do not have to do anything but put a hair of forethought into the making process since  a loaf of bread take about 3 hours- so if dinner's a t 6 you need to be thinking about it at 3- I am often not thinking about dinner until 5:55. in the ingredients and people think that you are some sort of domestic goddess when they taste the finished product. Ok with dinner rolls you do have to form them into balls and put them on a pan to let them rise a bit more in their shape, but that is IT. it is the best way to fake being a good cook that I have come up with in my 3 years of marriage.

Anyways, This is not actually a post about bread machines or bread machine recipes, but rather a post for a recipe for some bread sans bread machine.

It is not yeast bread but it comes out tasting as good as home made yeast bread from scratch made by hand or by a bread machine. 

I use especially when I have not put enough forethought into my cooking and don't get the ingredient's into the bread maker in time, so in other words on lots of days. 

I keep on losing the recipe even thought I have written down twice on a recipe card and so it is currently written in dry erase marker on a board that Naomi likes to color on. So before I lose it again and am left with a breadless dinner (God forbid!) Here is a recipe for "Sabbath Bread" (I have no idea why this is its name, but it will make you feel holy just eating it):

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups wine (and several cups for the mom making it)
3 tbsp oil

Mix together and bake @ 350 for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. 

 
Holy baking,
Ana

Sweet Sunday

In contrast to my usually whinny, overly dramatic semi sarcastic tone on here, I figured I would share what a wonderful day today was.

We have been feeling like something was really wrong with our children, like perhaps we would need to look into some intervention that might involve a priest and Holy water (what? I'm not sarcastic). I decided yesterday to blame daylight savings, but we were so fed up with them last night that we had them in pj's and ready for bed by 6:30 and they were asleep by 7. Ridiculous, totally melting down, total basket cases. I was getting worried, but then today they seemed to turn a corner. They slept a little bit longer than their minimum 10 hr night stretch and took a little longer than their minimum 1/2 hour nap (for the 2 yr old) and minimum 1 hour nap for the 1 yr old (they have basically only been sleeping the very minimum amount, hence the basket case-ness). 

Beezie (Bernadette) is still feeling like c r a p, and acting at times like she just isn't going to make it. This meant that we were not going to take her to Mass with us lest those Mass-going worrywarts think that her little hack was going to infect them. Soooo, that meant that Mike took Naomi to 9 a.m. Mass while the sick chick slept and I got to go to 11 o'clock BY MYSELF and it felt like this:

 

Seriously amazing

So the rest of the day followed suit and was wonderful, thank you God and my dear husband. Our Fatty McFattster Brunch was incredible, the cinnamon roll pancakes were the best ever and I think Mike cried tears of joy while eating the sausage quiche. I will probably finish the pancakes this evening because that's how I roll. So just in case you were concerned that was incapable of positivity, worry not. Sunday rules.

Ana

Weekend madness:

I think when I was in college Saturdays were a real favorite, but since getting married and bearing children they always seem to be filled with more stress and disappointment than I can handle- it is the same amount of stress that is usually present but I still go into the weekend thinking that there will be some rest or break from the weekly routine and then I get there and it is the same exact stuff. Let's blame it on getting married so quickly out of college or something, although even the working world women generally gets some sort of rest from the weekly grind on her Saturday, either way there is some weird expectation for Saturdays that I am pretty sure will never be met (until one day far far away when Mike gets a normal job and does not have to slave away all Saturday... does that exist?). Am I being too negative? always.
Sundays are spectacular, it is the one day of the week that Mike takes off and I can count on working out AND napping, plus there is lots of sitting, o glorious glorious sitting, while Mike "plays with" or watches football with the girls. I don't care what he is doing as long as I can sit.

So our Saturday looked a little bit like this:

My first attempt at making them happy...

sleep deprived gingerbread house construction

resulting in this

And also resulting in nothing but anger since the whole idea of a house made of ginger bread and candy that you're not supposed to eat is completely backwards and torture for children. Also the only emotion conjured as a rusult of giving Bernadette candy is anger at the fact that at some point the candy is gone. Many tears shed.

So my next attempt at keeping them (and especially myself by this point) sane and happy was a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick up materials to make these little puppies: swatch portraits for our "school room" which is basically our basement play area but it feels so much more important if I call it a school room. If it actually ever lives up to that name without me being sent to an asylum we will call life a huge success.

I will post pictures of the finished hanging  product when we have the basement all decorated- I plan on posting before and after pictures to highlight the awesomeness that is my husband and my dad for finishing what was once a dank hole and making it into what is now the party basement- sit on the edge of your seats for those pictures.

Now I must attend to the screaming child who resfuses to sleep. Can I just say that sick babies are the worst? Nothing is more sad or pathetic or altogether difficult to deal with.

Once she is sleeping I will be making these to eat with our sausage & cheese quiche (cue Homer Simpson deep throat gargle) I am trying to fatten the family up for the winter- fewer layers to wear.

Happy Sunday eating!!!

Ana

Videos and mom guilt

My girl's noses are gushing like old faithful, just the other direction, meaning fairly bad sleep and equally bad moods for all parties.

A partially bald baby Naomi watching White Christmas- starting her early

I decided earlier this week to try to cut back or even cut out videos, very idealistic. Immediately they got these colds AND our old-school cassette tape player died. Why would that matter you ask? Because one of my most frequently used alternatives to "screen time" are very old books-on-tape given to us by my mom and mother-in-law. Most of them are falling apart and in general they only keep the 2 year-old happy for about 5 minute increments, but those are 5 minutes of gold that I NEED, seriously. The best part  about them is I don't feel the crushing amounts of guilt for frying her brain like I do with videos. In fact she has memorized most of her tapes and recites them without the books which has to be good right? Or maybe it's just as bad, who knows. All I know is that for some reason putting videos on for her makes me feel like a straight up TERRIBLE mom. I am sure I am being overly anxious, as I usually am, and I am sure that by the time we're on kid #4 or something I will just have the TV playing all day. And for now I have thrown my new-found no video resolution out the window and am currently playing the new Winnie The Pooh movie, pretty cute actually.


On another note, here are some Naomi-isms that are consistently making me laugh and may make you do a half smile or something:

1) Naomi keeps on calling Bernadette "My child" or "My little dear", both of which I think she got from a video or book-on-tape

2)Naomi keeps on saying that the post to her bunk beds is her prince and she hugs it and says she is getting married and moving far away from us and that she will not see us for a long time- hilarious and terribly sad for me at the same time

3) She is not peeing all over everything anymore which is great, and she will occasionally go to use the potty but then will refuse to go in because "the huntsman is still using the potty"(The "huntsman" who tries to kill snow white in Snow White, great.) so we wait until he is done and then we go in.

Can't think of anymore currently, I am sure more will come up.

LASTLY but not LEASTLY:
A SMALL IMPROVEMENT ON THE SUPER SKINNY MOCHA:

Add some peppermint extract to make a Super Skinny Peppermint Mocha- you only need to add a small dash. I remembered that I used to do this while I was on weight watchers before our wedding and when I passed up a delicious tin of peppermint hot chocolate at the store yesterday it came to me. a welcome memory.

Guest post

I had a fairly "productive" day! Aka, lazy blogger.

So check out my guest post from a few days ago and we'll count it as my post for today, enjoy :)

Thank you Grace, your blog is the best and congratulations on the newest addition!!

For your enjoyment

 Until Friday,

Ana

I believe it's jogging or yogging. it might be a soft j.

Some days I will do anything to be able to say I "worked out", including but not limited to: doing bicep curls with a child pushing down on either arm, attemping crunches with a baby crawling over my abdominals, doing plank exercises whilst being mounted by a nearly 40 pound toddler (I highly doubt Jillian counts for the extra calorie burn there, since she has decided never to have chidlren. They should make a workout dvd with babies and toddlers in it climbing all over the women trying to workout and depending the size of the child or amount of resistance they tell you the extra calorie burn. But I digress...)

Yesterday was one such day and since pigs were flying and it is MID NOVEMBER and was 62 degrees and sunny out (I do not htink people around here are appreciating how amazing this is) I decided to head out for a jog, or yog, it might be a soft j. So I pack the chillins up in our double NON jogger, loaded the bottom up with plenty of treats and cups and toys and off we went.

The stash

 Again, why does nobody tell you how much harder you are working when you are pushing children? In my case over 60 pounds of children PLUS the double stroller, which is no light weight and it is not meant for brisk jaunts. And I decided to run on the 3 busiest streets around us, clipping along at barely more than a brisk walk but I am sure giving all bystanders quite a sight to entertain them since I could barely breath. I am always thinking of others and how I can make their days brighter.

Toward the end I decided to really pick it and switch to a  l i g h t  jog, more entertainment than people could handle I'm sure, but luckily by this time I was off of the busy streets. During the home stretch, to top it all off, I passed a very fit looking mother in some seriously cute running gear with a seriously posh jogger. Of course she gave me a huge smile and wave making me feel uber guilty or coveting her cute gear and sweet stroller, oh well. We made it home with only 1 bottle and 1 shoe missing, for which I had to searching in my van only to recover the bottle, oh well again.

Obviously I am not so overly concerned with physical fitness everyday as I sit typing next to an almost empty bag of frozen reeses cups, best ever. I think I met my weekly quota for extra effort in the fitness department yesterday, now I am done.

Stay classy San Diego,
Ana

Fun old DIY: Homemade felt food

This is a cute little DIY that I had a blast doing for Naomi's 2nd birthday last year and will be adding to with each birthday or Christmas.

Sweet treats

We reeaaalllyy like donuts and really anything sweet

Beef stew-with obligatory vegetables- and a sandwich

More obligatory vegis in reused bags from last week's groceries

I am thinking about doing a little giveaway someday so you better become a follower now to get in on it! I am sure you are jumping out of your pants with excitement, just stay calm, it might not even happen, or maybe it will.... don't stop thinking about it.

It was a lot of fun doing these and I got a little bit better at it as I went on since I didn't use any patterns. The only problem is that it was ALL I thought about for about a month, every time I saw any food, at all, I would think about how I could make it into felt food. What can I say? This is the life.

Places I am Not

 Today during another lame attempt at napping I couldn't stop thinking about uploading all of my old pictures from my travels abroad onto my computer so as not to lose them forever whenever the cds that they were saved on got too scratched or eaten by babies to be read anymore by a computer.

Once I uploaded them I could not stop staring at them and wanting so badly to be back at all of these places (with my husband and children of course). So here are a few tastes of what I have tasted. Not bad, not bad.

Favorite shot right outside of the Vatican

Assisi, it doesn't get much better than you

Little Saint Francis

More Vatican

Piazza Navona

Is your mouth watering? If not, you might want to get your senses checked. Pure beauty. Good times.

Peace out
Ana

Monday, Monday

When your morning goes a little something like this: greeted immediately with a diaper full of what could most likely definitely pass as toxic waste, followed by 2 accidents resulting in urine soaked cushons requiring an emergency load of laundry needing to be done post haste, compounded by a fussy early-awoken baby who will not let you put her down and an even fussier toddler who will not stop screaming NO! at you and then throwing tantrum, after tantrum, after tantrum, and then culminating in a deluge of rain pouring right as I have finally gotten the children loaded into the car to take them for your weekly grocery trip- yes I chose today- and mind you tears have been shed by ALL partied by this point. Well when your morning goes like this, your groceries look a little something like this:

5 donuts: 1 for each child, 1 for me, 1 for Mike and the security donut, I always buy a security donut

fitting that they are in the same bag

coping mechanisms

And your children look a little something like this

I am glad to say that all parties are now happy, thanks to the donuts that provided me with this opportunity to vent and the promise of liquor and ladies night this evening.

Tomorrow will be a happier post, full of flowers and blessings being counted, I promise

Until then, happy Monday,
Ana

Sunday, Sunday

Sunday Mass with a newly potty trained child was like going to Mass with an mildly intelligent monkey. I love my girls, really I do. I don't know why I keep comparing them to monkeys... I will get back to you on that.

I spent 1/2 the Mass in the bathroom stall with her, and the other half holding the nearly 40 pounder in the cry room since I did not want to reward her for telling me she had to go when she very clearly did not- and the cry room is the reward of all rewards. 

I have honestly never left Mass genuinely wanting a stiff drink until today. The 3 plus sides were as follows:

a) it was MASS 

b) I had actually already prepared our after-Mass brunch the day before so there was no worrying about what on earth I was going to fill my famished belly with and those of my loved ones, and

c) I really liked my outfit- vain and self-centered (maybe that's why I stink at dealing well with frustrating situations like today's, let's hope God was able to do something good with me just being there.) 

There is no way I would have gotten through it had my valiant knight of a husband not come to my aid in the morning hours to let me sleep (after staying up too late finishing season 2 of the best show ever also self centered, but at least he was in it with me). Enough, I am done.

Again, happy Sunday!

-Ana

First snow

After she peed her pants and we cleaned it up:

Everyone seemed really down on this first snow, but I was thrilled. It was so beautiful and seeing how darn excited this girl got made it that much more fun. I am sure she will not be as excited when it is still snowing in June (exaggeration, but this is South Bend, so you never know) but for now I will take all the diversions I can find. Happy Sunday! Ana