Baby News

Here is the much awaited for "belly shot." Baby is growing right on schedule. I am about 27 weeks right now. I just met with my midwife yesterday for our monthly appointment and all looks perfect. The migraines are not completely gone, but they are so much better. I feel really good. My biggest complaint is the pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome. I had this with both girls, so it was no surprise when it showed up again. It is really not that bad, so I really do not have much to complain about. I don't have much of an appetite, but I am really looking forward to our trip to Hawaii in two weeks so I can have an unlimited supply of pineapple.

Baby moves A LOT! This is such an active little one. It moves all the time. It makes me exhausted! Very different from both girls, who might I add, were very different from each other. I could tell personality traits with both girls. Shianne was playful and Nora Beth only moved when she felt like it - much like who they are today. This one, I have no idea. I have a strong feeling on gender, but I am not putting it out there for everyone.

Most importantly, all is going well. I feel good and I am just trying to enjoy every part of this pregnancy.

TWD: Chocolate Cream Tart

This weeks dessert of Chocolate Cream Tart is brought to us by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. Her blog title says it all. I want to lick the screen with her picture of this weeks challenge. Unfortunately, that is as close as I am going to get to tasting this chocolate decadence. I just could not stomach anything chocolate right now. I think this child growing within me is against all chocolate - it just does not appeal to me. I am going to seriously have to whip this kid into shape once it arrives - IT WILL LOVE CHOCOLATE! Please visit Kim's blog to get your chocolate fix this week. As for me, I am off to drink more water, since that is the only thing that appeals to me right now!

Grease Lightening

Why this car is automatic
It's systematic
It's hydromatic
Why it's a grease lightening (Grease Lightening)

You know the words, keep on singing. I am still hearing the song in my head. I probably will be for several days. You know what it is like when you get a song stuck in your head.

So why is it stuck in my head? I took Shianne to go see the Broadway performance of Grease today. She loved it. It was some much needed mother/daughter time - just the two of us. We had so much fun together. The baby even had a good time, it danced all the way through the show - my stomach was moving the whole time!

Speaking of performances, Shianne had a big piano performance on Friday. She has been practicing for months getting ready for this. She had her songs memorized. This years judge was really difficult. He really made the kids earn their scores. Shianne played her songs perfectly and earned the top score of Superior! She was so proud of herself.

TWD: Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

This weeks choice of Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding was chosen by Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle. I was really excited about this choice. We just love bread pudding. There is a local pub that has terrible service and even worse food, but their bread pudding is worth putting up with the bad things. We will often go there just for their bread pudding and cinnamon ice cream after eating our actual meal someplace else. This weeks choice is almost worth staying home for.

I really got to do two baking projects for this dessert. I had intended on purchasing a loaf of Challah at the local bakery since I still do not have a new mixer. By the time I remembered to get the bread, the bakery was closed. I pulled out the life saver book of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A day. There was a recipe for Challah, and even better, no kneading! I made a half batch, enough for two loaves. I was not sure how this bread would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was probably one of the best loaves of bread I have made recently!

After cooling, I cut up the bread so it could start to dry out. I made the bread pudding today. It was super easy to make. Just took minutes to pull together. The girls could hardly wait for it to come out of the oven. I served it with some vanilla bean ice cream. Delicious! Just the extra comfort I needed tonight.

Major Life Decisions

Sometimes being an adult sucks. Lamar and I had to make one of those major life decisions today. You know the ones you agonize over for months. I thought we had crossed this bridge years ago when we did our will and would not have to revisit it anytime soon. But, the reality of life is that it is constantly changing.

It is never fun to think of your own mortality. I hope that we are never in the situation that our decisions have to be carried out, but it is better to make these decisions ourselves than to have someone else do it for us who may not have our best interests at heart. We felt good about the decisions we made several years ago. The financial and physical property issues are easy to make. They are just stuff. It is the children that are difficult. How do you ask somebody to raise your children? It is not like they are inheriting a puppy dog. We are about to have three children. How do you suddenly take on three children that are not your own?

We thought that this grand decision was done and did not give it much more thought until recently. When re-evaluating several aspects of our will we realized that we needed to change the custody decision. It was hard enough to make this decision the first time, to change it was agonizing. It is a reality that family members age, come and go out of our lives and personal situations change. This is a decision that we had to make for our children. How would we want them to be raised if we were not here? Could the person we appoint take on this responsibility?

Did I mention that being an adult sucks?!

So we made the change. It is official. The paperwork is in the attorneys hand. Done. It feels good to have this decision made, but I know that we will have to revisit this again in the future. I am being realistic. Life happens. Hopefully life happens with both of us here to see it.

Have you thought about this for your own family? It is one thing to think about it, but it is another to actually take the legal step to make it happen. I encourage you to do this. It is no fun, but definitely one of the most important things you can do for your family.

All Worn Out

This is what an afternoon of play does to Boba and Zara. The dogs had such a good time playing with the girls outside after we returned from the Tulip Festival.

Normally, when we let them in the house they run and play for at least a half hour. Today was different. They came in and immediately assumed their positions on the couch. The snoring soon followed. Ahh, the life of a dog.

Tulips and Sun

Today went better than I had intended when I originally planned it late last night. We were able to sleep in and then we headed to Woodburn to the Tulip Festival with friends. We drove back roads to get there so we could avoid the traffic on I-5. The drive was beautiful.

We arrived and enjoyed a picnic lunch with our friends and then walked around the tulip fields. The flowers were so beautiful. We each had different favorites. I know of several varieties that will make their appearance in our yard next spring. Tulips are my favorite flowers!

Baby Room Reveal

I have been working hard for the past two weeks to paint the baby's room. Since we do not know the gender, we needed to do something neutral, but I had no desire for a yellow room or anything with a solid color. I found some crib sheets that served as my inspiration and the room was born. I love how it turned out. I still need to make curtains and a chair cover, but that is not as pressing as getting the paint on the walls. Getting all those chocolate dots painted was definitely a labor of love.

It was hard for me to paint this room. This room was previously Lamar's office. I had spent many hours doing a faux leather technique on the walls for him to create the "man cave" he did not know he wanted. It was a surprise for him that I did while he was away for a long weekend with friends. It took two coats of primer to cover the dark paint. I then painted the cream stripe, taped off clean lines and then did the colors. It took three coats of each color to get the right coverage. I then painted the dots. I created a stencil and painted away. The dots also took three coats to get the right color. Very tedious, but worth it.

I am feeling good. The migraines are not gone, but getting better. My stomach is growing at a record pace. Baby is very active. Lamar was actually able to feel it move last night for the first time. The girls have been feeling it for weeks. I am about 24 weeks right now. Baby will be here before we know it. I have two more births to attend in the next two weeks and then I will be officially on "maternity leave." I plan on playing with the girls, going to Hawaii with Lamar and finishing some projects around the house. I do have some things that we need to get for baby, mainly diapers and a new crib mattress. I will concentrate on that when we get back from Hawaii. I will get a belly shot posted soon.

TWD: 15-Minute Magic - Chocolate Amaretti Torte

This weeks dessert really grabbed my attention. Ready in 15 minutes - this is something I could handle without a problem. Holly of Phe/MOM/enon chose this weeks dessert. There was no picture of this torte in the cookbook, so if left to my own devices, I probably would not have chosen it. I am so glad that I went ahead and made this.

I found the amaretti cookies at a local grocery store. They were not the ones that were suggested, but I was in no mood to drive to every store in town on a search. I used half of the 4 oz package and Nora Beth polished off the other half.

Just like the title says, this torte came together in 15-minutes. A no-fuss dessert. It came out looking more brownie like. The recipe stated glazing the torte. I chose to top it with ice cream, some fresh strawberries and then drizzled the glaze over the top.

I served this up to the family for dessert last night and I did not hear a word from any of them. They were to busy devouring the chocolaty almond goodness. Nora Beth even tried to lick her plate clean. I will take that as a home run dessert that should make it's appearance on our home plate again!

Holly, thanks for a great selection!

Hanging with the Peeps

Nora Beth thought this day would never come. Today was the first day of Spring Soccer! She just loves to kick the ball around. She is finally old enough to play. She is in the parent-tot level. Since Lamar was at work, it meant that I had to be out there kicking the ball with her.

The soccer teachers had them make funny faces whenever they were talking. She thought this was fun.
She was so excited to kick the ball up and down the field. She did not want to do any of the drills, she just wanted to run with the ball. Never mind learning the basics - she is ready for the game!

After soccer we came home and decorated some Easter eggs. Shianne had a method to doing this. Nora Beth only wanted pink eggs - go figure!

While the eggs were drying, we made some homemade Peeps. The process was quite easy (It would have been even easier if I had a new stand mixer...hint hint Easter Bunny!). I used this recipe that I found on Tastespotting. It was a bit of a learning curve to get the shape right, but not that hard.
Nora Beth could not wait for them to completely set up before she dug into them. Fresh marshmallows are just delicious!

My Doula Blog

I have another blog. This one is devoted just to birth topics. So, for all you birth junkies, please join me at A Doulas Calling This is where I will write in much more depth about my life as a doula and any other birth topic that strikes my fancy.

Picnic in the Park

The weather on Tuesday was beautiful. I picked Nora Beth up from preschool and we headed down to the Capital park and had a picnic. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom right now. The air smelled so sweet. The grass felt wonderful under our feet. We had an eclectic lunch of finger foods that made Nora Beth very happy.
When we were done eating we wandered around to explore all the flowers that were blooming. She really liked these purple ones. It was all I could do to keep her from picking them.
She really wanted to play in the fountains. So tempting for a little one. I let her get her hands wet. The sun may have been out, but it was definitely not weather for playing in the water.

TWD: Banana Cream Pie

This weeks recipe of Banana Cream Pie was chose by Amy of Sing For Your Supper. The pie sounded great, at least as far as banana cream pies go. I really had intentions of making this, but call it pregnancy stomach, and my complete aversion of food lately, I had no desire to bake this. I will be back next week with a wonderful treat for you.

Another Kitchen Death

I had intended on writing about a new bread recipe I tried out today. I am a huge fan of Dave's Killer Bread. It is locally made, but costs about $6 a loaf, a little spendy for the amount of bread that we go through. I found his recipe for Killer Whole Wheat Bread on-line and was excited to make it. I ground some fresh wheat and started mixing. It came time to knead the dough and I decided to do it in my Kitchen Aid mixer today, just to be lazy. I started the mixer and walked away to get some laundry.

I realized about 5 minutes later that the mixer was no longer making it's normal sound. I walked towards the kitchen and saw the smoke. I instantly had visions of the fire department coming - we now know that they can make it up our hill since they visited our neighbors house late last night (all is well, they just get to replace their heating system like we did in December). I quickly unplugged the mixer and put out the flame. No damage to the kitchen, except for the horrendous smell that is now encompassing my entire house. The mixer on the other hand is destined for burial. I should bury it next to R2D2. They both died trying to provide bread for my family. This time I was actually making "Killer" bread!

Fortunately the dough was salvageable and is now in the oven. I hope the fragrance of fresh bread will mask the burning odor. I called Kitchen Aid to check on warranty/repair/replacement and I am better off getting a new machine. I started shopping on line. I think I have found the one I want - I just need to discuss it with Lamar since I will upgrade a bit. This is an essential kitchen appliance for me - I use it every day. As for Lamar's opinion on this whole situation is that I should have just purchased the bread at the store!

Food Porn

Did the title grab your attention? I need some sort of 12 step program to end my addiction to this website that I can only describe as food porn. The photography is beautiful. The food looks delicious. I could spend hours following links to other blogs from this site. Someday I will have a photo and recipe chosen for this page. My favorites list is out of control. I add to it everyday.

If you are ready to join me and put your mind in the food gutter please visit this site Tastespotting Let me know what you think, but please do not hold me responsible for your slacking on household duties while you view the goods!