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Posts Tagged ‘ ftf ’

Blueberry Picking!

July 1, 2011

Today we spent a gorgeous summer morning picking blueberries. Jason has the day off so we got up early, tossed the kids in the car and headed over to Betty’s Berry Farm to pick tons of blueberries. It was such a fun family outing! Betty’s blueberry bushes were huge, most of them towered over Jason’s head making them well over 6 feet tall, and they were heavy laden with delicious ripe berries. Jeremy did a great job picking from his level down on the lower branches and Jesse snagged a few from his perch up on Jason’s shoulders. Altogether we filled 2 buckets in about an hour, plus the several handfuls we ate while we were working out in the field.

Snack Genius

September 3, 2010

Sometimes when you’re being weighed down by some heavy grown-up struggles, you really just need a giggle to lighten the load. Kids are the perfect medium to give you such spontaneous giggles. Jeremy came in to the laundry room to find me and said “Mom, I need your help.” I follow him into my kitchen and saw… I asked Jeremy, “Why is my flour out of the pantry?” He opened the door and showed me… “I need a place for my stool.” Before I could get the next question out of my mouth, he showed me why his stool needed to be in the pantry… He needed the extra height to reach the M&Ms. Then Jeremy said to me (I swear this is as close to word-for-word as I can remember) “I wanted M&Ms, but remembered to ask you first. Mom, is it okay for me to get the M&Ms?” How do you argue with a question like that when an almost-4 year old gets everything ready and could have easily sneaked some chocolate, but then confesses that he remembered to ask first. Sure, it was only 10 am, but I had to reward his good behavior with a small handful...

Breastfeeding Gurus

August 14, 2010

Yesterday I woke up with my left breast being swollen bigger than it’s ever been (bigger even than the week after birth and my milk came in *like whoa*). I latched on my boy and was surprised by some searing pain as he fed ravenously for the first time in 8 hours. When he let go I noticed a little white bump on my nipple and since he deflated the left side some I could feel a big hard painful lump in the underside. I mashed around softly and could feel that lump taking up at least a third of my breast and going all the way back to my chest wall. Commence 6 am freakout! I dealt with double mastitis early after Jeremy was born almost four years ago and I really particularly didn’t want to have to go through that again. Anyway, Jesse went back to sleep as he always does after gorging himself on his early morning pre-breakfast. I began scouring the Breastfeeding sub-forum on Coastie Chicks to find some answers. It was so bad that I couldn’t even rest my left arm against my body. I had to hold it out to the side a little...

Positive Breastfeeding Relationship

April 16, 2010

Breastfeeding is back! A resurgence in popularity has been mounting for the past few years and I’ve boarded the train. Jeremy was formula fed. I had intended to breastfeed him when he was born 3 1/2 years ago but due to a few circumstances he was given formula in the hospital and, though we tried, we weren’t able to overcome the nipple confusion in order to breastfeed. Lesson Learned #1: Make sure you are not so heavily medicated during or after childbirth that you are not aware of what’s going on with your baby. I had such a strong epidural (which slipped in my back and turned into a full spinal block like they do for c-sections) and I was completely numb from the chest down for the entire birth and for six hours following. They gave me some medicine to help me sleep off the exhaustion and medication. Lesson Learned #2: Inform the nurses that you want to breastfeed your baby immediately following birth and that they should give him no bottles at all. While I was sleeping off my overly-strong epidural the pediatric nurses gave Jeremy bottle after bottle of formula. They said that he needed to...

Too Many Dishes…

October 23, 2009

In my house, I am a real stickler for dishes being handled correctly. Many of my baking pans and accoutrements cannot be put into the dishwasher. Some other things can technically be washed in there but I prefer not to because handwashing will help them last longer by reducing damage and warping (i.e. my Teflon non-stick pans, wooden cutting board, air-bake cookie pans, etc.). I am blessed with a double sink, but when I have a heavy cooking day topped with last-minute baking, even those sinks get filled up pretty quick and overflow onto the counter and stovetop. Yikes! Last night I noticed that I’m coming down with a cold and was just completely wiped out. I made the executive decision to let the dishes wait til the morning. First thing this morning, I made some hot tea to give brief respite from my stuffy nose and sore throat and groaned at the mountains of dishes piled up all over my kitchen. Then I rolled up my sleeves, put on my big-girl panties, and got to work. Happy day! After shifting a few things to make a space in one of the sinks to wash I quickly realized that...

Best night in 3 months…

October 15, 2009

I’m sitting in my living room. There’s a small fire crackling happily in the fireplace in front of me. My 3-year old son Jeremy is bathed and snuggled on Jason’s lap under his favorite blankie with his favorite stuffed fishy. We’re watching Ratatouille as all of us succumb to the Drowsey Monster and then we’ll slip off to bed. I won’t forget this night for the rest of my life. Having my son back in my home for the first time in close to 12 weeks in most definitely a Finer Thing. I took ten minutes to toss this post up and now I’m going back to enjoying the last of the evening with my family. Tomorrow, Mommy & Me class on the Coast Guard base. Saturday is flea market day at which we hope to pick out a puppy. Sunday is church. And Monday is library day!

Potato Cheese Casserole

August 14, 2009

I have to give credit where credit is due… I did not make up this recipe on my own. It started with a recipe that my ex-husband’s step mother made one Christmas. She gave me the recipe from an decades old church cookbook. Over the past three years or so I’ve made a few changes of my own and thought I had it just right. That is, until I read another recipe (I’ve since lost the link) which incorporated cottage cheese. Yum! I changed my recipe around again and dare I say it’s amazing. After I finished tweaking my recipe about a year ago, I started reading Amy’s Finer Things and one of the first recipes that I read on Amy’s blog was Cheesy Potato Casserole. How coincidental is it that we both came up with almost the exact same recipe starting from completely different sources, living in totally different states, without a single thing tying the two of us together? I’ve made Amy’s recipe, and it is really delicious, but I keep falling back on my own because I love the extra peppery kick and the slight tartness that comes from the cottage cheese. Kudos to Amy for a fantastic...

Neighborly Visits

August 7, 2009

This week has been a big one for us. One of the supporting factors in our decision to make the move from California to Alabama was for the neighborliness. When we visited Alabama in May, it was the remark we kept making to each other, “These people are SO NICE!” In our first few days after moving in we received two calls to our home from our neighbors and met two others by chance. The Thursday that we signed the lease we met one of our next door neighbors, Jerry, and one of his sons (about our age). They saw Jason and I struggling to unload his motorcycle from the truck bed and came over to help. The Friday we moved in Jason met the neighbor couple across the street from us. He can’t recall their names, but he said they were very nice as well and the man offered Jason use of his tools. On Saturday Janet from the other side of Jerry’s house came by to say hello and bring us a gift of some bottled water along with a flyer from her church. We had a very nice chat and she seems like a sweet lady....

Jen’s Lemon Pie

June 11, 2009

As my very first post on my brand new blog, I’d like to share my absolute favorite pie in the entire world. I love Baker’s Square’s Lemon Supreme Pie, I go wild for it. Unfortunately, the closest Baker’s Square is a few cities away from where I live now and I can’t just take a walk to get a slice of pie like I could when I was a kid. So, I decided to make a copycat recipe. I must say, my first attempt was fantastic! I hit it on the nose on the first try. Without further ado, here is my recipe for the very best lemon pie you’ll ever eat. This pie is created in three layers: crust, cream, lemon curd (with a little whipped cream for garnish). Layer 1: A Simple Pie Shell, 9″ or 10″. You can use a boxed mix, your grandma’s recipe, (LifeasMom’s Gramma John’s Pie Crust is really fantastic), prebaked, or the refrigerated kind that you unroll and put in the pan. Whichever crust option you choose, just make sure you let it get completely cool before adding the next layer. Layer 2: The Cream Filling. - 8 oz. of softened cream...

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