seven day challenge: let's get real

I want to be challenged.  In my writing.  In my relationships.  In my life.  Due to this desire to be challenged I tend to challenge others.  Press them for honesty.  Try to break down the wall that so many put up.  Some people are very put off by this.  Others gravitate towards it.  I have had many people unexpectedly tell me their life stories, their deepest secrets, their greatest downfalls.


The very first night I met my husband he told me something extremely personal that he says he never talked about with anyone.   Years later I asked him why.  He still has no idea. In any case, I loved that we were able to connect on that level so quickly. 


Maybe it's because I've always been a button-pusher. A question-asker.  As a young kid I could easily get each of my siblings, in turn, to want to punch me in the face with my annoying button-pushing. {They never did...but there were a lot of close calls.}   I've never been much of a people-pleaser.   You know, keeping it surface-level and withholding my opinion so as not to cause any waves.  I can only stand so much small talk...then it's got to get real. When it comes to relationships,  I love happy people but you can't be happy and "roses and sunshine" all the time...you've got to show me a little darkness.  We all have it.  It is what gives us depth as humans.  If everyone was perfect and had no idiosyncrasies in their personality or heartache in their story what a very, very boring world it would be.  Differences are interesting, and happiness is only that because we have sadness to compare it to.


So the next seven days I will break from my typical "roses and sunshine" posts about cooking and babies and decorating {p.s. all things I genuinely do love} and go a little deeper.  Get more "real."  A little more revealing.
I came across a tumblr.com page {found here} dedicated to challenges. Hundreds of writing prompts, or, at the very least, questions to get you thinking.  I liked this one because it didn't seem too overwhelming or too silly,  and is relatively thought-provoking:

I figure this is a nice way to get back to creative writing and delve a little deeper than my usual posts.

So starting tomorrow things may get real. 
You ready?
:)

g

sweet somethings from...fall

1. our little family travels throughout the czech republic, austria and germany

2. baby cormac's very first plane ride

3. door in Prague...so many beautiful things in that city!

4. kisses from grampa

 5. rose garden 

6. beautiful upside-down baby

 7. farmers market blooms

 8. balloon release!

9. toasting to being completely debt-free!

10. leaves

11. sisters with baby boys

love.love.love

fall
.

g

today I baked! {blackberry cobbler}

If goat cheese is my favorite cheese,

then blackberries are my favorite fruit.

I eat them all summer.  I buy them at every farmers market I go to.  I never get sick of them.  Unless I eat too many at one time.  It is no wonder they named a phone after these juicy suckers.

 {Okay, I still wonder that.}

Anyway, now it is fall and I was informed last week when I was at a local fruit stand that blackberries are not exactly in season right now.  Wha?!?  They had none.  I didn't let that stop me.  I marched to the regular grocery store where they, praise Jesus, still had tons of blackberries.  Maybe not huge, amazing blackberries, but blackberries all the same.

So I bought two packs of blackberries and went home at made my very first cobbler.  I used the Blackberry Cobbler #1 recipe from the delicious Pioneer Woman blog.  I highly recommend as it is an extremely basic recipe that you can prepare in minutes and then throw it in the oven for one hour.  How sweet is that?

Mmmmmm...are you drooling yet?

Well, someone else was...

Someday Mac...someday.

:o)

Happy Friday, lovelies!

g

mama confessions: bottle love

Source: google.com via fromDanielle on Pinterest

It has been a rough week.  We decided to begin sleep-training Baby Mac, which means no more swaddling him up tight like a newborn and rocking him to sleep before placing him in the crib.  Now it is naptime/bedtime routine {feed, change, sing a song while rocking him a couple minutes} and place him down awake...to let him fuss {read: wail} until he self-soothes to sleep.

I thought this would be traumatic, but fortunately he has not cried more than 15 minutes before falling asleep.  Of course, those 15 feel like 30 to me.

The more difficult part: Baby Boy decided to wean himself off of the breast

 {which he now will grab, scream at, smile at, play with, but no, not eat from} in favor of the blessed bottle.  

The bottle that he loves to hold up himself.  

The bottle that makes his eyes light up when he sees it on the warmer.

Coming to grips with being done breastfeeding has been pretty hard on me.  I loved that bond we had for nearly four months.  The thought of consciously letting my milk "dry up" is really depressing to me.  Hubby tries to comfort but for a man this "loss" is probably very hard to understand.  The fact is:  baby is ready to let go of breastfeeding, and I'm not.  However,  I would rather see him happy and satisfied than agitated and hungry all the time.

So I'm trying not to view it as the end of the world, and look at the bright side.

Bright side?  

He is getting bigger!

Bright side?  

No more nursing bras and pads!  

Bright side?  

I can cut calories now and lose those last 4 pounds!

Bright side?  

It only makes me more excited to have another baby!

{in a couple years!}
g

easy apricot marinade: you'll want to lick your chops

This is not a recipe.

It is too easy to qualify.

It is a simple marinade to spruce up your pork chops 

{or chicken breasts}

before you grill them 

{or whatever you do!}  

You will need:
apricot preserves
dijon mustard -- a staple to have if you like to make your own salad dressings
ground ginger

I got some amazingly thick grill pork chops while perusing our local urban market with the babe the other day:

Combine your ingredients in a small bowl.

I usually taste it and add a little more ginger...

Then you just coat your chops with it, put it in a sealed container, let it marinate in the fridge for an hour or so, then grill 'em up!

I made some rosemary goat cheese mashed potatoes to go with mine...

which basically just means I add 5 oz of goat cheese and some chopped rosemary before I start mashing.

I would add goat cheese to anything if I could.

Enjoy your chops!  Eat them, don't really lick them.

L * O * V * E

g

{to market, to market}

In my sheer obliviousness, 

I assumed that it would be easy to tote my baby around town.  I had beautiful daydreams while pregnant of throwing the baby in the carseat, where he would sleep blissfully or gaze happily out the windows until we reached our destination: Target, a coffee shop, the mall, the library....

Because all babies love car rides, right?

It calms them and puts them to sleep, riiiiiiiight????

Wrong.

Not all babies.

Not this guy.

{he also hated slings and despises the jogging stroller...harumph}

As soon as I am out of eyesight the whimpering begins.  Which turns into crying.  Which turns into wailing.  Sure, if it is a long trip he will eventually tire out and fall asleep, but I don't drive long distances during the week.  Therefore a short jaunt across town can be a nightmare.   The other day I drove him to a park for a walk, and by the time we got there I was so frazzled I wanted to turn right back around.  Fresh air be damned.

But we are working on it.  I discovered the first thing to do is sure he has a very full belly right before we leave.  Then I change his diaper immediately upon reaching our destination so he doesn't use that old excuse.   Finally, I strap him in the Baby Bjorn, make sure he has his sun hat on {sun in the eyes is another cry factor} and off we go!

Yesterday we gallivanted to our local downtown urban marketplace and using this system had a fine time.  Pleasant, even!  There was still a little fussing in the car on the way home, but after only a couple minutes he fell asleep...because I timed it so we would get home right at nap time.  Bam.

So it was naptime for Baby, and time for Mama to enjoy the fruits {and wine and meat} of her labor...

...grill cut pork chops... 

{tomorrow I'll share a fantastic marinade!}

...huge and juicy red seedless grapes...

 ...and a bottle of pinot I will tell you about next week!

So here's to sleeping babies, thick cuts of meat, juicy fruit and wine...

and non-frazzled trips to the market!

g

mama confessions: the nursing strike {oh, and 3 month pics!}

My baby decided to go on a "nursing strike."

I'm serious.

I can't make stuff like this up.

Maybe he is teething.  Maybe he got too used to the bottle during the two weeks I went back to work.  Maybe I am 'letting down' too slowly.  

Whatever it is, starting Friday at 2pm each time I tried to feed him he screamed at my breast with every bit of energy he had!  

Not sure if you've ever had your boob screamed at, 

but it's not pleasant.

So like any normal person I went straight to Google to find the answers to all my problems.   I found out that there are many babies who will, out of the blue, refuse to nurse.  This can last several days.  One mother's advice included: "Whatever you do...do not give your baby a bottle during the nursing strike."  Eeek! I thought in panic.  I can't starve the poor kid!  

Thankfully my hubby's resolve is stronger than mine when it comes to crying babies. 

I was ready to throw in the breastfeeding towel... 

 or "hooter-hider," as the case may be. 

With Hubby's help, we tried every hour or so to get the boy to eat, endured a ton of screaming, and ended up putting him to sleep without his usual bedtime feeding.

Fortunately, at 4am, the strike ended.

Phew.

Here are his three month pics!

He now weighs 16 lbs.

Clearly he is getting fed.

Recent milestones:

* rolling from front to back

*grabbing his foot

*laughing big belly laughs

Dear Baby,

You are getting SO BIG!

I adore you.

But no more nursing strikes.

Love you to the moon

and back,

Mama

g