Peach Jam

I love making freezer jam!  I discovered this technique last year after yet another failed boiling water canning incident with low/no sugar strawberry jam. 

Little man and hubby and I made Peach Freezer Jam last night and it was awesome.  I'll try to post pix once I take some...and the recipe...its super easy!

Post Dental Extraction...

Holy crap I have been so freaking spaced out this week.  It all started after my dental appointment on Tuesday where I had a rogue molar extracted that had been working its way out for the last almost 20 years.  It had finally developed a cavity in the tooth, and without a companion molar on the bottom to butt up against it would eventually just fall out.  The dentist and I decided it was just better to pull it since I had no intention of getting a tooth implant in the bottom gum. 

To say the extraction was difficult is quite an understatement...One of the roots of the molar extended about 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the other two roots.  At least now I know why it had taken almost 20 years and it was still firmly in my gums.  After several different tools and a new, bigger pair of 'yankers' she did everything but put her foot in my chest to extract the tooth and it finally came free.  I was left with a bit gaping hole in the back of my mouth that resembled the bat cave and have been taking it easy food wise since then.  I have mostly just taken Aleve when my mouth gets sore, and only took half a Percocet the night after surgery to take care of the pain. 

I have been doing kind of a juice detox/cleanse the last two days so maybe it is the toxins coming out of my body/blood stream that are causing the spaciness and tiredness.  Only I don't remember feeling this way during my last detox...and I am taking my vitamins and fish oil too, and keeping hydrated so I don't think it is that.  I would think it was maybe hypoglycemia if I was dizzy, but I'm not.

So I have no idea why I feel so spaced out and exhausted...the local anesthetic should have worn off way before now and the percocet is definitely out of my system, I think.  So what gives?

so where have I been the past few years...well working and having a toddler/little man took over I guess lol...but I'm back :D

Random musings as of late
So lately I have come to the realization that I am some kind of really crazy hippy lady :) Even more than channeling my great gma (whose 100th birtday was this month) I have decided to go my own way.  To travel into uncharted territory.  As much as it is liberating, it is slightly terrifying at the same time...a creature that craves some sort of stability and foundation is slightly uneasy without knowing what the final outcome may contain.  I guess that is just something I will have to get used to.

What sort of measuring stick am I using for this 'analysis?' I guess that would have to be the parent that I planned to be.  You know, long before I had any idea of what the hell I was doing.  Long before I had done any research about stuff I never questioned before.  Some of these topics I have becomre very passionate about and may change the way in which our family is structured and our work outside the home.  And I keep telling myself that change is good and abandoning outdated ideas when the no longer work for you is essential. 

Ideas that I will be exploring in upcoming posts include:  canning, juicing, homeschooling, vaccinations, positive/gentle discipline, and other fun stuff!

budget calcualtions

so this living on $8 a day is quite challenging...not really food wise, but calculating the budget and how much you spend a month...i think that we finally have a handle on tracking it, but my son's crack-like addition to milk is quite out of hand...we are offering more food, more times a day and it seems to be helping...hopefully august will be better for us cuz we have already busted the budget this month (if i'm counting our CSA) and we still have one more milk delivery this month and a small trip to the store today...i will work on calculating exactly how much we are spending on milk alone and adjust the budget for august accordingly...wish me luck:) xoxo

inspired...

so i have been inspired by a blog called 'The Tasty Cheapskate' to focus my family's eating and food consumption on spending a certain amount of $ a day...she originally had a goal of $6/day for a family of 6, but has settled on $10/day to be able to include her CSA and milk share...i think that my original goal is to aim for $8/day ($240/month) and try to get down to $6/day ($180/month) once little man starts to eat more solid foods instead of drinking milk like its going out of style (2-3 gallons per week!)...Here are the approximate costs that i know that we have (food-wise)...not sure if we should include the delivery costs for the milk share or not yet...

Groceries--$100
CSA Veges--$10/week--$40/month
Milk Share--$20-25/week--$80-100/month
Farmers Market--maybe $20-30/month

I think that once our overall milk intake goes from 2.5-3.5 gallons of milk a week down to 2 gallons or less that we will be able to cut about $10/week or more out of the grocery costs and get closer to the $6 to $7/day goal that we have...

So our plan initially is that we are going to pull out $100 in cash each month for the groceries other than the milk share and CSA...and since we have already paid for the CSA in full up until now, we will be 'living' off the veges we get without having to actually pay the money out each month...we also have a garden plot at work that we get veges from on a weekly basis so that will help out with additional costs too...when we plant our fall garden I will be able to better guess what the garden output costs are when we buy our fall garden seeds this month.

Wish me luck!

lost in mommyville...

so i have been MIA for almost a year now...but thought it was time to reflect on the last year as i stay at home with little man who has hand-foot-mouth disease...poor guy...

my new goals are to do more freezer cooking and canning and to be more consistent with my workouts/yoga...all realistic goals and nebulous enough to accutally get accomplished:)

New Blog

So here I sit at work…thinking about how much longer that I need to sit here and warm my seat before being able to go pick up my little man…and I was thinking that it has been a while since I have updated my regular blog and now my little one is almost 3 months old and I still haven’t written shit about anything and the changes that have gone on since his birth…so here I go…back to bloggerville I go, or more appropriately, into Medelaville I go…since my Medela PISA goes with me pretty much everywhere

A brief synopsis of the past few months of mommyhood…

• After 3 days of labor, 2 epidurals, and 1 day after my water had broken, I finally became a mommy via a c-section to an 8lb 8oz, 21.5 inch long little boy

• I was on maternity leave for 6 weeks, thankfully my hubby was able to stay home for the first 14 days to help me, esp when I was on narcotics for my incisional pain and tried to overdo things in my haste to become active again.

• I came back to work and had two back to back work trips after being back to work for two weeks…we drove to Manassas to get some donated breast milk for Layne to eat during those trips since I can’t seem to pump enough to stockpile any extra breast milk for little hungry man…however, he decided that he didn’t like the new milk right before the first trip and we ended up supplementing with formula during that week.

• Now he has once again decided that he likes the donated breast milk, even though it does give him a bit more gas than my milk, at least he is getting all the mommy nutrients that he needs.

• We are going to Seattle next week for my brother’s wedding, and I am looking forward to seeing my family, and I am only a little apprehensive about how the trip will go (cloth dipes/airport/etc)…I guess I will just try to nurse him when he gets fussy lol

Anyway, back to where I was before the synopsis…bored at work…it really is one of the few times that I don’t have a mountain of things to do to keep my more than occupied during my work day…so I am kind of reveling in the time that I get as a ‘break’ even though I know that things can quickly snap right back into hyperdrive at an instant.

I never knew what a challenge and delight it would be to be a mommy…there are frustrating times when he cries and won’t stop no matter what you do (dipe change/feeding/burping/etc) and times where he smiles and laughs when he looks at you and it melts your heart…I can honestly say it is the best job I never knew I wanted. I didn’t want to have any children of my own until I was about 25 and then it took me many more years to find the right man to have in my life to have a child with. A man that I trusted and knew would always be around…even through my crazy preggo mood swings and crying when I thought the doggies liked him more than me…really, I did say that…what a roller coaster that was lol

And it really is a good thing that I am not shy…even less shy since my c-section and multiple cervical checks while I was in labor…I have really become a milk wagon on the go…I have pumped in multiple airport bathrooms and a couple of times while riding in vehicles on major highways. Sometimes it makes the driver (if they are a friend or co-worker) uncomfortable, but my hubby doesn’t seem to mind…after all, I am doing this to feed my son and that is the best reason of all…

Now if only I could come up with a great line to say when I need to walk out of the office to go pump…I have thought of saying I’m going to the lab (since I work at NASA), or I’m going to the farm…but I really need to come up with something that doesn’t necessarily talk about my boobs, but lets my conservative bosses know where I’m going/what I’m doing without spelling it out every time…some normal sounding phrase that will convey that I need to go pump without saying those words…esp when we are on a business trip…pumping in random bathrooms during lunch breaks has been interesting lol

And now we are going on our first flight/trip with little man and I’m about to be whipping my boobs out all over the place…poor hubby, I think he is the one who is more embarrassed about it than I am…but not because I am feeding our son, but because he doesn’t want another guy/person to look at me weird I think…I’m not really sure but his concern is really sweet

So, I’ll end with a list of things I always knew I would do as a mommy and some things that I never thought I would do, but that work great for our new family.

• I always knew I would use cloth dipes…just didn’t know about cloth wipes or the new dipe covers…but have to say that I love them

• I always knew that I wanted to breast feed, and just hoped that I would be able to…so far so good

• I always knew that I would be organized, but now I don’t worry so much about the small stuff…as long as I have clean dipes and breast milk for little man, then I am ok

• I always thought I would put little man straight into his crib, but I started co-sleeping once he came home and I love it! It makes nighttime nursing so much easier, and I love being able to snuggle with him.

• I thought I would cry if I had to give him formula, but I would rather my son not starve than withhold food…so he has gotten formula before and is doing just fine.

• I always knew that I wanted to make his baby food and I can’t wait to start doing that…I have recently started canning food and it is a lot of fun…lots of prep work, but totally worth the effort.

• I always thought I would let him CIO if I needed to get a shower, go to the bathroom, etc…but I find much more comfort in comforting him and only when he is really colicy have I laid him down when he was crying and taken a few moments to collect myself.

• I always worried that I wouldn’t know what to do (mommy instincts) when little man arrived, but so far so good…and daddy is doing great too

• I always thought I would be sad to leave him and go back to work, but I am thankful for the opportunity to work and take care of my family and I enjoy the adult interaction that I have at work…it makes me a better mommy to be able to have that space and I connect with him so much more when we are together.

So I think that is quite enough for my first blog back…hope to connect with some AP/NL mommies tomorrow at the National Breastfeeding Celebration at the Portsmouth City Park…at least I will be getting out of the house, which means I get a shower in the morning and not the afternoon lol