Lately

Thus far the month of June has been a weird combination of hot and grossly humid, with more than our fair share of rainy and cool thrown in. It has also gone by at a snail's pace yet at the same time I can't believe it's almost July. The plus side of the garbage weather? It has meant we've stayed in more than usual during a summer month which, given my current state of being 9 months pregnant and constantly uncomfortable, has actually been okay. This is the only time in my life I will say that about June.

We've celebrated a few things this month: Charlotte's birthday, Father's Day and our 10th anniversary! First up was her 4th birthday. I hope her wish comes true :)

For our anniversary we spent the day together and bought an ice cream cake. When we got married and for a few years after, we had these grand visions of taking some sort of fantastic vacation on our 10th anniversary. It was easy to imagine this ten years ago when our only responsibilities were to ourselves and we could not have even imagined what our lives would be like now. Alas, with a four year old and a second baby coming any week now taking an exotic vacation is definitely not in the plan but as it happens, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Though we were able to go out on a dinner date, which was a highlight. This little place is in walking distance from our house and we were able to sit outside and watch the sunset while we ate (since we didn't go out until 8:15, a dinner time that is shockingly late at this stage in our lives).

Other than celebrating, there's been park visits:

Picking "flowers" for our hair:

Cute dresses:

My hydrangeas in bloom:

And an almost missed camping trip this weekend due to a crazy amount of rain, but that thankfully still happened. They camped at Findley State Park and had their first tent camp of the season--and last camping trip until after the baby comes. I'm so glad they were able to go; they had such a great time.

While they camped, I cooked. I am in full blown nesting mode over here! My constant state, even non-pregnant, is sort of like nesting--I like to clean and do it often (I know, it's weird, but I live in a small old house and keeping it clean makes it feel bigger. And it gets dusty just by looking at it. Also I get really stressed really fast in messy surroundings). But my pregnant state takes nesting to an all new level and right now it's for real. In the past week I've completely reorganized the linen closet, bathroom cupboards, pantry, and refrigerator. I've gotten the baby's room finished, gone through just about every room and closet and pulled out piles of stuff to donate, and vacuumed my car. Why? Because I HAD to. Nesting is like that, at least for me. If I get a wave of energy and along with that wave comes the urge to clean all the grout in the kitchen with a toothbrush and Magic Eraser, I have to do it. It's like breathing. 

So this weekend I cooked. I wanted to get plenty of dinners made and put in the freezer before the baby comes so that when she's here, I don't have to think about much cooking (or shopping, or menu planning) for at least a little while. I did a smaller version of this when I had Charlotte, but I learned a few things from that. Like, if you're having a summer baby and will be eating the meals in June or July, you may want to avoid making super heavy cream based casseroles--like Pierogi Casserole or Tater Tot Casserole. I made both of those, probably due to really strong carb cravings at the time, but they were both foods better served to someone trying to survive in an Arctic winter than to someone in the middle of an Ohio summer who is trying to at least pretend to lose baby weight.

And in the past four years, I've gotten much better at cooking. And we eat much more of a variety of foods, and rarely buy anything prepackaged or canned. (If you ever want to be horrified, read the ingredient label on a can of cream of mushroom, or cream of chicken, or any cream-of soup). 

That made finding a good list of freezer meal recipes a little more challenging. There are TONS of sites and pins out there with recipes, many of them claiming you can make 30 meals in four hours and under $100--or something to that effect. The problem is that 28 of those meals probably have cream of something, or a bunch of packaged stuff in them. Which is precisely why you can make 28 meals in such a short amount of time--because there isn't really any cooking involved. It's just opening a bunch of packages and cans and dumping it all into a dish and covering it. I took a slightly longer route and picked out recipes that I knew we'd want to eat in the summer, that were healthy enough to be good post-baby choices but still tasty enough that I looked forward to eating them (because let's face it, it's hard to get jazzed about a kale smoothie or spinach salad). 

The biggest exception was the double batch of strawberry muffins. BUT I made them from scratch and they do have a lot of fresh strawberries inside so that counts for something.

I'll be back soon.

~Stacy

Sewing for Baby--Even Pretend Ones.

Over the past few weeks I've finished several sewing projects for the new baby. As I did with Charlotte's room, I wanted to make a few things for the baby's room to go with the colors I picked--gray, white, coral and mint.

I ended up making curtains, a changing pad cover, a pillow and a toy/book bin--which will probably complete the handmade items for her room (and also free up my sewing time to make cute baby clothes, which is way more fun than sewing curtains).

And a peek at part of the room:

Aside from items for her room, I also made bibs. Lots and lots of bibs. I made eight to start with and then quickly realized that bibs are always in the laundry pile, split up between diaper bags, or in use so it would be wise to have more in stock. So I doubled my inventory:

All flannel, all from Joann's, all purchased when flannel was $2.49/yd. AND with an extra 20% off coupon. I can easily get four bibs per yard, so total investment was $8. Pattern was free--I drew it myself off an old bib of Charlotte's, but you can easily find free printable patterns anywhere.

I also did some sewing for a different kind of baby--a Bitty Baby. Charlotte got one of these for her birthday and I made a few things for it using this pattern:

It's one of the few commercial patterns you can find for dolls smaller than 18" (this one has pattern sets for 11-13" and 14-16" dolls. Bitty Baby is 15").

I made three little dresses and one diaper--and that was about all I had the patience for. The instructions are not the best and the first dress I made took longer than many of the dresses I've made for Charlotte. Thankfully the other two went much better once I ignored the instructions and just did it on my own.

Happy Sewing!

~Stacy

Four.

My baby girl is 4 today! It's hard to believe she's already four years old, yet at the same time it feels like she's been a part of our family forever.

The year from three to four went by quickly. Every year goes by quickly, but this one seemed to go by extra fast. I feel partly guilty about that, because I spent a good portion of this year wishing it would hurry along--pretty much November thru March for an assortment of reasons (awful morning sickness, an even more awful winter, and nonstop viruses showing up at our door, to name a few). Then I blinked and here we are, June 2nd.

She finished her first year of preschool a week ago. She loved it, like I knew she would. She keeps saying that "after the baby comes I get to go back to school!". I'm glad she has that perspective and it's not something we have to fight over every day.

The weather today has been almost exactly the same as the day she was born. She came into this world on a beautiful day, almost 12 hours to the minute that the induction process was started to kick her out (stubborn girl...some things never change :)).

I asked her the other day what job she wanted to have when she grows up. She said "a doctor. A doctor for children." I have no doubt in my mind that she will achieve that goal if that's what she truly ends up wanting to do. I know this girl can achieve anything--she is a wicked combination of fierce independence, incredible brightness, and oodles of charm.

Those qualities will serve her well as she grows up and I hope she keeps them. But I'm not too worried about what job she will have when she's grown. I'm more focused on her maintaining the parts of her personality that, already at just four years old, make her such an awesome person. She's kind to people and to her, people are just that: people. She doesn't notice differences in people's skin colors, size, abilities or any of the other ways adults tend to notice and use to measure another person's worth. To her, everyone is fair game for being her friend. That part of her personality will get her farther and make me prouder than any job she could ever have. The world will do it's best to stamp that trait down, but my little firecracker--all 32 pounds of her--has already shown me that she's ready for the challenge.

Bring it on world: Charlotte's coming. And she's laughing at you :)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, bright, best girl!

~Stacy