Naturally Optimistic

Well, I guess I'm winning the Eating Lottery this week. Aside from the taquitos incident, this week has been EASY! Tonight - potluck/picnic at August's pre-school. His LAST EVENT at Pre-SCHOOL - FOR.EVER. AND EVER. *sigh* I digress. So the kids had: August: some plain crackers, a handful of cheetos, apple juice and a cookie (not homemade - one with all sorts of crap in it). Dahlia: some meat balls in marinara (about this I was COMPLETELY SHOCKED!), fruit salad (various melon & one grape), cheetos, crackers, the same "fake" cookie that August had and a brownie with apple juice. AY YI YI At least EVERY OTHER SINGLE KID THERE was eating the same thing. *sigh* Okay - tomorrow on the menu plan - MICKEY MOUSE WAFFLES and bacon. Yup. It was Dahlia's turn to pick a meal. So be it. We will load up on vitamins & cantaloupe, won't we......

Although our little family is only a smidge Irish (well, apparently Steve's Mom is 1/2 Irish so he'd be a quarter? Is that how it works? Dalhia & August would be an 1/8? + whatever is on my side...?) Anyway...we love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The menu was corned beef & cabbage (of course), potatoes, carrots & Irish soda bread...the bread was "authentic" alright & a bit tough but it tasted pretty good. Maybe I'll get better at making it next year. Dahlia & I made some decorations & hung up some of her artwork from school. She loved decorating the Shamrocks. We listened to the Celtic Traditional Pandora station & feasted with Steve's Mom Carolyn & Roger. The kids were *mostly* good & it was a fun evening. I even made some green spritz shamrock cookies. Oh and there was Bailey's (or 'Merry's' rather) for dessert. Yum!

On my first visit to the WIC office last month they let me know about a new program in Duluth called ' Ruby's Pantry . Its a food share program. You pay $15 and get over $100 in groceries. There are no income guidelines. Everyone is welcome. This was the 2nd time it was offered in Duluth. Last month they had 400 people. This month there were expecting between 700-800. I decided to check it out. The road in front of the church was backed waaaay up. I ended up parking quite a ways away & grabbed by empty 'Click-n-Go' stroller (they tell you to bring totes, laundry baskets, boxes, etc. There was a huge line when I got there & I waited outside (it was chilly!) for probably an hour. It was interesting though to chat with the others in line & find out how they'd heard about it, etc. Finally moved inside. Paid my $15 & waited. (This is why I have a book with me at all times...). It was probably another 45 minutes or so but I didn't mind. Once your numbe...

So August (aka Mr. Fussypants) has gone from being a totally mellow baby (first two weeks) to someone who's....not so mellow. Someone who's fussy & who toots (a lot); someone who isn't content to be held, rocked, swaddled, left alone, bounced, driven around in the car, etc. Yesterday he screamed, for several hours, until I nearly lost my head. Luckily I'm friends with my pediatrician & she'll answer my barrage of questions over Facebook. She suggested that perhaps he has a sensitivity to dairy. Argh! So, I'm trying to be dairy free (or WAAAAY less dairy) & we've switched him to some soy formula for when we supplement him. I *think* it might be helping - at least today he didn't scream the whole time I was driving to the grocery store, he was mellow IN the store & is currently napping. This is a HUGE HUGE HUGE improvement to yesterday's situation. So we'll see. Sadly, I love cheese. All I can think about is how I can't EAT chee...

Has anyone else noticed/had this in a newborn? Every other day (it seems) August is starving. Eating every 40-60 minutes. Not giving me much of a break & being fairly fussy & not sleeping well during the 20 minutes he's not eating. Every other day he is sleeeeeeeeeeeeepy. Eating every 2-3 hours, sleeping like a peaceful beautiful calm baby (which he is, really). Allowing me to do things like laundry! eat! shower! (there was NO shower yesterday - ay yi yi). I'm assuming this is a natural growing/eating cycle and since he did gain is 7.5 oz in 6 days this past week it's probably right on track, but I was just curious if anyone else has noticed this trend. Ahhhh, is there anything better than a sleeping baby??

Well, I figured it was coming...I start insulin today. Just before dinner. Not really a big deal, my after dinner numbers were creeping up no matter what I did. In a way it's a bit of a relief because then I can go out for pizza (for example) & actually consume a normal sized portion, adjust my insulin accordingly and not feel like I'm "missing out." Ah well - not much longer now!

Being of primarily German & Swedish descent in our household, one might find it strange for us to celebrate St. Patrick's Day - BUT - really, I'm just looking for any kind of excuse to make an ordinary day of the week into something special. I love 'special' days, always have - and I'm excited to do fun special things with & for my family. We had guests, thankfully, help us consume the rather large corned beef brisket I purchased (it was the smallest I could find) & I put my new crockpot to good use. Onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, cabbage and of course the meat. All making my house smell delicious while I was away at work! I love the crockpot! For dessert the pistachio "Watergate" recipe...Light, fluffy & most importantly, green. Miss Dahlia LOVED being the center of attention & put on quite a show during & after dinner. She was also remarkably well behaved...even though she had a bath & went to bed LATE. Needless to say I *...

The corned beef, cabbage & potatoes have been cooking all day in the crock pot. The beer bread is being mixed up. The pistachio cake is baking & the frosting is setting up. Photos tomorrow! :)

I changed up my 'regular' breakfast (2 pieces of low-carb bread SLATHERED in peanut butter, natural, of course & a banana) for the 2 pieces of toast + half an apple. It was a mistake. I am still starving and there's 2 hours to go until my snack. dangit. (and I have to go grocery shopping before then & now! ACK! I'm going to torture myself!!)

Started testing my blood sugar today after my 2 1/2 appt at the diabetes clinic. Let's just say I'm being very careful trying to get creative (already!) but both my after lunch & after dinner numbers are high & I'm already frustrated. Mostly because I'm very very hungry. I can't wait til 9:30 when I can have a snack. That'll probably jack me for the morning but what can I do? Otherwise I will wake up at 3 or 4am with a very rumbly tummy. (This is a photo of some "snack packs" I put together today on advice of my nutritionist...some good things to 'munch on' for snack time. I thought it was a great idea until I saw how SMALL they are! Except the peanuts. Those are doable. Each pack is APPROXIMATELY 15g of carb which is one carb serving. My 'snacks' are one carb serving each. I think I could eat 12 of these...in one sitting...) I need to exercise more but I am a slow, fat, beached whale these days & the thought of doing someth...

After a morning of kitchen deliciousness, gifts, and way too much rain for this time of year...oh and Steve shoveling the heaviest, wettest snow he's ever encountered - we finally made it to my in-laws. The main roads had been plowed (ours had not) and without the Highlander's 4WD we never would have made it up there. We enjoyed good company, lots of good food, the kids LOVED seeing the big bob-cat type thingy clearing the driveway, more food, delicious cake and presents! The kids loved playing with each other...and Miss Dahlia was asleep before we could back out of the driveway! When we got home, we discovered the plows had come through and with all the rain & ice, we had to get out and shovel in order to make it up the driveway. That part wasn't too fun, but we didn't have to shovel completely, just enough to make it through. Today's agenda - eating more Monkey Bread, seeing AVATAR in 3D and another holiday party at Steve's Aunt's tonight!

Okay - I just ate an entire can of chicken noodle soup, some kettle chips, a bunch of baby carrots and a corn muffin and I'm absolutely still hungry. As in I feel WEAK with hunger. Now I'm going to eat a banana & a pudding cup to see if that sates me...if not I will move on to dry-roasted peanuts with candy corn..hmmm...I may have that anyway!

This week we're trying menu planning. I am so sick to death of the dreaded question "So what do you feel like for dinner tonight?" I could scream. I can't take it any more! I also can't take going to the grocery store 3 or 4 times a week because we can't decide what we want for dinner until RIGHT before we eat. So....I made a menu: Sunday - Sammy's Pizza (I was craving it!) Monday - Pumpkin Lasagne Tuesday - leftovers Wednesday - Taco Torilla dish (from Raesha's website) Thursday - leftovers Friday - I'm gone so....dinner on our own I know this is pretty simple because we can have leftovers for 2 dinners and we're eating out one, but I feel good. It's a start. Tonight's dinner - pumpkin lasagne - was quite good. Steve really liked it and I think I did too. I pretty much love pumpkin ANYTHING so...there ya go. Hopefully we'll be able to have more variety in our meals and less running to the store last minute. God, I hope so.