Sunday, November 13, 2011

My cloth wipe solution


Cloth wipe solution
Ingredients:
-2 cups water
-2 squirts Dr Bronner's liquid castile soap (I use unscented)
-1 squirt natural baby lotion of your choice (for now, I use Burts Bees Milk & Honey, which I think has been "reformulated," and the reformulation is not worth buying--but the old version makes my wipes smell divine. You could also use a drop or two of essential oils if desired, or a plain unscented lotion.)
-Empty jar

Combine in  jar and shake well. Place 5-6 fleece wipes (=cut a cheap fleece blanket into squares; or can serge your own, or use baby washcloths) into a ziploc or other waterproof bag, and pour a small amount of solution over. Squish to equalize coverage. Use within a few days, and replenish as needed. Cute label optional!

I love this because:
  • the ingredients are customizable to what your baby does or does not tolerate well (Eve's diaper area looks stellar since we switched back to cloth wipes)
  • they're easier to keep "juicy" than disposable wipes, which kept going dry on me
  • no questionable or unpronounceable ingredients (even 7th Generation wipes seemed to me to have way too many ingredients)
  • there's no more sorting disposable wipes out of the cloth diaper pail
  • it's cheap and easy!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Latest challenge: No-spend month

Ever on a quest to save money, we had gotten a bit lax as of late and so with no births on the horizon for November, we've resolved to make it a No Spend Month to try to keep our budget balanced. Well, no extra or nonessential spending. Gas and food are non-optional; as, I've found, is parking if I'm to make any money by working at the hospital. (Getting dropped off would be the only other option, but would cost more in gas than it would save in parking.) But anything else strictly nonessential is out. I meant to keep a tally of how much we've saved, but ha! In my free time, right? So I'll just rattle off a few of the things it's occurred to me to buy, and how I've circumvented it:

-Baby wipes (I know, I know): switched back to cloth.
-Greeting cards: called or emailed instead.
-Groupon, LivingSocial, et al: did without.
-Ditto for eating out (a particular Achilles heel) or getting coffee.
-Buying lunch at work: brown-bagged it (the usual, but tempting to skip when I'm running late, which is always).

And the month isn't even half over yet. Stay tuned for updates, including a fantastic recipe for a natural solution to use on cloth wipes!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

We're still here

In more ways than one. It's hard to believe it's been two months since I've posted! In the meantime, we've been through a variety of challenges as a family and had to make some major decisions. Perhaps the most visible of those is that we've decided to stay put for the time being. Thinking it over carefully, alternating parenting round the clock just so we could pay our rent didn't feel like the right thing for our family or the best thing for our girls at this point in our lives. We feel really lucky to have a branch of the family that is happy to have us and our girls camp out with them as long as needed--as well as another branch within a few hours' drive that love us and are happy to lend whatever reinforcements we need as well. We've spent several days this summer with three and four grandparents on deck, and I have to say it's been a lot of fun and very gratifying to see how well everyone works and gets along together. We're grateful and humbled by all the love and support everyone shows us on a daily basis, and it's really reaffirmed for us that there's nothing more important than our family.

So for the foreseeable future, we're going to continue to function as one, big, happy, multigenerational, four-pet, two-business household. (Sounds a little crazy put like that, doesn't it?) One that note, midwifery is starting to take off, which is a little overwhelming but extremely exciting. I remember doing my training in Pennsylvania and spending beautiful fall days with my favorite midwife, driving around the countryside and visiting expectant families in their homes, and thinking "This is the life." Well, it's now at least partially my life as well. And while there are definitely things we miss about the various towns and landscapes we've occupied in the past, being near family is definitely right, and Iowa is starting to feel like home.

Eden is definitely moving into a more settled phase of being as well. She's definitely still intense and energetic, we're all finding our way together and learning to relax and enjoy one another more in the process. She's also learning to channel her energy and focus for longer periods of time. We spend lots of time playing and climbing outside, building with Duplos, and playing with Play-Doh. She's now potty trained and continues to be a spectacular big sister to Eve--who's morphed from a sleepy sack of a newborn into a curious, smiley and easygoing baby who loves watching Eden's adventures from the safety of the sling or Bumbo.




Matt and I are feeling like we're really beginning to hit our stride, in our marriage and as parents. Much of this is due to deliberate reflection and effort on each our parts, and I think it's also helpful to feel like we're finally in a settled spot for awhile. As opposed to our various moves in the past few years, we can make friends or find a restaurant we like without thinking that it's too bad we'll be leaving soon. Even if we don't live at Belmont Hill forever, we feel like we've found the region we'll be calling home, and that's a tremendous relief for everybody.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Easing up

Things with Eden were 1000% better today. While we still had our share of tantrums, potty accidents, and other standard 2-year-old fare, and she is still "declining" to take a nap, she was actually very sweet, cuddly, and affectionate most of the day, did like she was told more often than usual, and spent most of the day using the potty and wearing dry training pants. 

I felt like I'd been let out of jail.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Rough

Is how things have felt lately. With regard to the last post, Eden is still on a hardcore napping strike, and bedtime isn't going well either. (Except for tonight, when we skipped out to a movie and my mom was kind enough to put her down--of course, she went willingly and easily). As a result, she's sleep-deprived and irrational, generally a kicking, screaming, sobbing mess most of the day, making it impossible to get anything done and nearly impossible to keep oneself in check after awhile. We've tried it all to get her to sleep more--longer bedtime routines, shorter bedtime routines, staying with her until she falls asleep, NOT staying with her until she falls asleep...all to no avail. So our nerves are more than a bit frayed from that.

Also, I've taken a nursing job while I work on getting midwifery going, so that we can pay our bills in the meantime--especially with a move in the works. (The idea of flying solo with these two kids (well, mainly the one, to be honest) while Matt is at work, without my parents as backup, is daunting--but we'll see. It had to come sometime, right?) The nursing gig is something I'm thankful for, and only disappointed about because it means I'll be away from the girls more. Probably not a ton, hopefully just a night or two a week--but still, it isn't what I'd planned on. And for us both be pulled away from family life more than we'd like, and still be struggling a bit to make ends meet-- well, again, it's not exactly the picture we fantasized about.

But still. I took Eden to the library today, and I left the diaper bag (and her monkey harness--how I love that monkey harness) at home, and so she was running, yelling, jumping, and climbing like a how-NOT-to-behave-in-the-library video. Then, with my patience running a bit thin with the stresses of the day, in the checkout line was a mom with a little boy confined to a wheelchair. And I realized that that mom would probably give ANYTHING to have the kind of library visit I'd just sighed my way through, even just once. And I remembered that Eden won't always be two, and that money problems are just money problems, and that we're all healthy and together and that those are the two most important things. So I'm able to end the day feeling kind of like I've been pulled through a knothole, but on the whole, grateful, nonetheless.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Crazy

...pretty much sums up the kind of day we had today. It started last night, probably, when we went out to dinner and so didn't get Eden in bed until after 9:30--almost 3 hours later than usual. She's never been a kid who can make that up the next morning (she still rose at 6) or on a nap the next day (still clocked in at under an hour). And by about 10am, I was ready to lose it. Crayons thrown in the litterbox. Crayons bitten off in the mouth.Closed doors repeatedly opened so that cats could frolic down and join the bed and breakfast crowd below. Cat litter played with, cat water dumped. Coffee jostled onto the couch. And that was all just this morning. Then there was a full-on, kicking and screaming tantrum when it was time for naptime, a fork thrown into the toilet later...the list goes on and on.

I'm fairly sure she doesn't get as much sleep as she needs, but we've tried everything we can think of to put her down sooner (she already goes to bed at 7), put her down later (in the hopes that it would get her to sleep in later, but see above) take a longer nap, and take a second nap. All have resulted in a huge outpouring of time and energy, for no gain. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I love Eden, and I can truly say I wouldn't choose for her to be any different of a person than she is, but BOY, she can be tiring. I am whipped. And that's with an especially heavy dose of support from both Matt and my mom today.

Luckily for me, my second child is the very soul of patience. And is gaining weight steadily despite the fact that she never gets to nurse for more than about five minutes at a time.

I'm trying not to think about how days like this will go when we move out of my parents' house. I'm doing my best to follow my resolution to focus on what I need for today. And today, I had what I needed. But there were moments where it felt like, just barely.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Having it to do over again

Awhile back, someone commented on a blog post to ask whether we'd be doing things more or less the same way with Eve that we did with Eden. For the most part, the answer is yes.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Happy Due Date to Eve


It's crazy to think that today is Eve's due date! While I didn't necessarily think I would still be pregnant today, I didn't anticipate having a baby who was nearly 3 weeks old, either. As I mentioned earlier, I kind of got the inkling she would stay put a little longer than Eden, who was born 2 weeks early. Obviously I was wrong about that! On the other hand, when I found out I was pregnant this time around, I had a hard time getting my head around having a baby in May (much the same way I couldn't quite imagine having a baby in July--and didn't). April seemed more appropriate, somehow. And that's when Eve's birthday turned out to be.

Things are going pretty well around here.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

Having another child, the passage of time, and the graduation of my first baby into the toddler stage have all facilitated the fact that every day, I understand my own mother (and other mothers) a little more. On the one hand, there are little daily trials where I have to remind myself to keep the edge of cynicism out of my voice. On the other hand, as I nurse and snuggle a wonderfully sleepy Eve, or laugh and tickle a shrieking Eden, I'm reminded that the best moments of my life are with these girls. It makes me look back at my own childhood a little differently, and helps me understand why our own parents were so anxious for us to move back nearby, especially once we'd produced a grandchild or two.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

What a day this has been; what a rare mood I'm in...

It's been quite a day around here. This morning, Matt and I got up early and left the girls with my mom so that we could drive about 50 minutes from here and look at a medical exam table for my gestating midwifery practice. We were trying to time it so that I could feed Eve and we would be back before she needed to nurse again (she's pretty reliable about eating every 2-1/2 to 3 hours).

Things were going great as we drove down the highway; I had just said to Matt, "This is really a lovely drive when nobody is screaming at you from the backseat." And he had said, "Oh, it is, and it's such a nice day, finally," or something like that. And then suddenly our car's engine cut out and the speedometer dropped to zero.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Settling in


Eve is 11 days old, and of course by now it feels like we've always had her. She's a very easygoing baby so far, and she's even up at night less than I had anticipated--two facts we're grateful for. I'm also incredibly thankful that Eden is turning out to be a doting and proud older sister. She's extremely sweet and loving toward Eve, constantly wanting to give her kisses, hold her, and share her things with her, and has really not acted jealous or anything like that at all. If anything, I'd have to say that Eden's behavior has gotten better since we had Eve. She's really risen to the occasion. Not to say that we don't still have our challenges, like today, when I found myself struggling to keep my patience after repeating, for the 1000th time (today) things like "Keep the sand in the sandbox," and "We only draw on paper." But I try to remind myself that these things are completely appropriate to her age and stage, and not something she's doing to personally drive me insane. I think.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

She's here!






Eve Lillian Sullenbrand
7 lbs, 5 oz
Born at or around 11am on April 26, 2011
Everyone feeling well and doing great!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

36 week comparison & update


It feels so good to NOT be swollen this time around! I can't speak to why that is--I'd planned to maintain a healthy, low-carb primal diet throughout my third trimester in an effort to keep it at bay, but honestly, that's fallen by the wayside and I'm eating more or less what I feel like eating, pretty much like I did with Eden. But no complaints here! There's also a bit of an angle differential between the pictures, but I think they still confirm my sense that this is a smaller baby than Eden was. Which is just fine--10 lbs, 2 oz leaves plenty of room for downsizing. If this baby follows in her footsteps as far as timing, though, it will be here in less than two weeks! I'm not holding my breath that it will be that soon, but we do have the birth room set up and ready, including inflating the tub--which Eden loves to fool around in.

It's been a challenging couple of weeks around here. Eden is in the midst of some true terrible-2 insanity. Hard-core tantrums are the norm at least several times a day--full-on kicking, screaming, red-faced, sometimes even head-banging-on-the-floor intensity. Sometimes brought on by our unreasonable requests (such as to sit in her chair during dinner or come in from outside) and other times seemingly for no reason at all--like because she woke up in the morning. She does have her pleasant moments in between, but it seems like there's always some raw nerve just waiting to be touched off. I'd like to thing she's getting it out of her system and will be sweet as pie when the baby's born, but that seems like a lot to hope for. At least we have the benefit of four adults in the household (and a few others nearby and more reachable by Skype), because it takes all of everybody's reserves to get through a period like we've had.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Moving forward





It's hard to believe we've been back in the midwest for three months now! And while the first weeks/months involved a lot of uncertainty, trying to find a new routine, and a general feeling of waiting for things to happen, the sensation now definitely seems like one of forward motion. A few of the highlights...

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Library book roundup: Parenting books

Several months ago, I would have said I didn't have much interest in reading parenting books. Parenting Eden as a baby felt a lot like an extension of pregnancy: fairly organic and natural, and tended to unfold in the way that was best for all of us. It felt natural to keep her close, hold her lots, and feed her on demand, and she rewarded us by being a happy, easygoing baby.

Parenting a toddler is a totally different story.

Monday, March 21, 2011

32 weeks: Better this time around

This pregnancy progresses: 14 weeks, 24 weeks, 28 weeks, 32 weeks

32 weeks last time compared to this time

Almost on the home stretch, I can say definitively that this pregnancy has been so much easier than the last one.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

FYI

I'm back to posting Eden's pictures over at her blog: edenleah.blogspot.com. What can I say-- the girl takes up a lot of space!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Coming soon...

Somewhere in the past week or so, I've crossed over from thinking of the birth of this baby as "having a long way yet to go," into feeling like "holy crap, that's going to be here any day now." At 28 weeks, if this baby is born around the time Eden was (38 weeks 2 days), we've got less than 10 weeks to go...which doesn't sound like all that long! There are a lot of things I hope for by the time the baby comes--warm weather to be here, Eden to be fully potty-trained, a space cleared out and set up in which to actually give birth--and 10 weeks hardly sounds like enough time to get it all done. In the meantime, we're enjoying the quiet rhythms of family life we've managed to set up recently--which I'm sure are about to be knocked off their axis by the newest arrival.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

Barrette



For the first and only time, ever, that she's let us put something in her hair. Her Aunt Kathleen charmed her into it.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

Helping with breakfast

Still waking up a little bit...

CHEESE!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Under pressure


Finishing school and not starting my job yet have meant that I have more time than I have since before Eden was born to delve into matters domestic.

My favorite aspect of this realm is cooking, because above almost everything else, we Sullenbrands love to eat.

My mom has had a pressure cooker for the past 33 years, but I can't remember ever seeing it used. So when I got married and registered for kitchen stuff, we registered for a Cuisinart food processor, a KitchenAid mixer, a crockpot, and a slew of pots and pans, but it never occurred to me to register for a pressure cooker. Or to use one. Or what I might use one for.

Well, the Cuisinart and the KitchenAid lived up to my expectations, but I can't say I ever got next to the crockpot. First of all, I found it unreliable. Sometimes things were less done than I expected, necessitating removal to the stovetop and a hasty attempt to finish them before dinnertime. More often than not, they cooked much faster than expected, even on the low or keep warm settings, resulting in a burned-on mess with a barely-edible center. Either way, I never found it to live up to the "set it and forget it" promise that seems to accompany crockpot cooking. Nor did it live up to its reputation for tenderizing things, namely grass-fed meats, the way people promised it would--tough and stringy was more often the disappointing result. It required close babysitting and regular adjustments--not an improvement over the oven or the stove, in my mind. Plus, it's bulky, requires even more advance planning than cooking a regular meal, and lastly, imparts a hot-plastic kind of smell to the kitchen that I find rather toxic and disturbing.

Enter the pressure cooker, which I came across in my mom's cupboard the other day and which vaguely dawned on me as the solution to being busy with a toddler all day, up until about 15 minutes before everyone was hungry for dinner. Simple, multipurpose (cook with it! can with it! marinate in it overnight! use it like a regular saucepan!), and best of all--quick and effective. The first thing I tried was Spicy Shredded Pork, which I'd made several times in the oven as the recipe originally calls for. When I made it in the oven, cooking it for 3-4 hours on low, the results were tasty, but the pork was kind of tough and not very juicy, regardless of how much cooking liquid (or what kind--water, broth) I started with.

For the pressure cooker, I started with a 90-minute cooking time because general pressure-cooker guidelines call for reducing the cooking time in "your favorite recipes" by 2/3. Spicy Shredded Pork originally calls for a cooking time of "several hours," so 1-1.5 hours in the pressure cooker seemed like it should be more than adequate--and I didn't want to risk rare pork my first time out of the blocks.

Here it is marinating:90 minutes later:

And OH. MY. GOODNESS. Absolutely succulent, melt-in-your mouth results from a process that couldn't have been easier.

Pressure-Cooker Pork (adapted from the Pioneer Woman's Spicy Shredded Pork)

-Pork roast (butt, shoulder, whatever--approximately 3-5 lbs, depending on the size of your crowd; but believe me, you'll want to make extra. We ate roughly twice as much of the pressure-cooked pork as we ever did of the slow-baked oven version!)
-2 cups water
-1 large onion, roughly chopped
-Several cloves of garlic
-Splash of white vinegar
-Splash of olive oil
-Squeeze of lime juice
-Few tablespoons each of cumin and chili powder
-Few teaspoons of salt and pepper

Place all but the pork roast and the water in a blender or food processor and blend until it's a chunky paste. Rub onto pork roast, leaving to marinate as long as overnight (you can marinate it right in the pressure cooker if you like) or as little as a few minutes. When you're ready to cook, add water to the pressure cooker, lock on the lid and turn the stove on medium-high. Once the regular starts rocking (don't come a-knocking), reduce the heat to keep it rocking slowly. Cooking time begins now. Cook for 90 minutes (again, I'm guessing you could get away with less, especially if your roast is on the small side), then either let the pressure fall or cool it rapidly by running cold water over it. Pressure is reduced when the pressure valve drops. Carefully remove the lid, remove the pork and shred it with two forks. Drizzle on cooking juices as necessary (not very, in our case, but it comes in handy for keeping any leftovers moist.) Serve with lime wedges, sour cream, tortillas, buns, or whatever strikes your fancy.
You're welcome.

Beef stew is another recipe that we've made often, because stew meat is cheap, and it's a hearty, filling, and healthy meal. It's especially one of Eden's favorites. However, once again, regardless of how I cooked the meat--searing it first, not searing it first, slow cooking it, stovetop-cooking it--it still had a tendency to become even drier and stringier the longer I cooked it. Not a fatal flaw, but not an entirely satisfactory result, either, especially for hours of cooking. BUT. Twelve minutes in the pressure cooker (somewhat akin to seven minutes in heaven!) yielded (you guessed it) succulent, meltingly tender stew meat and perfectly soft, delectable vegetables. Not to mention the fact that you can go from thinking about dinner to having it on the table in under 30 minutes--tell that to your crockpot.
Pressure-Cooker Beef Stew
(adapted from the Presto Pressure Cooker Owner's Manual)
2 pounds lean beef, cut into 1-inch cubes (or 2 lbs prepared stew meat)
2 cups water
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 chopped onion
3-4 small potatoes, diced
Several sliced carrots
1-2 stalks chopped celery
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
Sprinkle of black pepper

2-4 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup water

Sear the stew meat over medium-high heat in the pressure cooker. Add ingredients up to and including black pepper into cooker. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 12 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Add flour to water to form a paste (depending on how thick you want the stew) and whisk into stew, bringing to a boil until stew thickens, 1-3 minutes. I also add a cup of frozen peas at the end.
You can also branch out into casseroles, desserts, seafood, and all kinds of other things in the pressure cooker. I've got a sneaking suspicion that it just might turn chicken breasts from a dry, tasteless, unappetizing diet food into something--well, better than that. I'll let you know when I test my theory, but know in the meantime that you can cook a whole chicken in 15 minutes, and a chicken breast in just 3-4. You can also cook dry beans in just 3-10 minutes (carefully following the manufacturer's instructions, as beans are one of the foods that foam quite a bit during cooking and so care is required not to overfill the pressure cooker lest the vents should become clogged.) You can cook brown rice in just 10-12 minutes, and white rice in just 5-6. You can make stocks and soups in less than half an hour that taste like you simmered them all day, and you can even cook cheesecake in just 15 minutes!

And SOUP? You'll never have a need for canned soup again when you can make your own from scratch in under 20 minutes. Throw in a chicken breast, a few cups of water, some chopped carrots, celery, and onion, and a little salt and pepper, and you've got it made. If you're really feeling fancy, you can cook some noodles on the stove while the pressure cooker does its thing, then shred the chicken a little and add the noodles and voila, all in about the time it takes to open and heat up a (sodium, soybean oil, and MSG-laden) can:
Are you seeing where I'm coming from yet?! And best of all? These miraculous machines retail around $40-50 and can easily last for generations.

I know one question lots of people have is safety. According to Wikipedia:

"Pressure cookers have a reputation as a dangerous method of cooking with the risk of explosion. Early pressure cookers equipped with only a primary safety valve were at risk of explosion if poorly maintained, allowing food residues to contaminate the release valve. Modern pressure cookers typically have two or three independent safety valves, as well as some additional safety features, such as an interlock to prevent opening the lid while internal pressure exceeds atmospheric pressure. However there is still a risk of explosion, especially if cookers are not thoroughly and regularly maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions."

To further reduce your risk, here's a link to a list of tips for making sure your pressure cooker experience is as safe as it is satisfying.

Here are a few other recipes from the Presto owner's manual:

BEEF POT ROAST
3 pounds beef pot roast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups water
Salt and pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 bay leaf

Pour oil into cooker. Turn heat selector to medium and brown roast well on all sides; remove roast. Pour water into cooker. Place roast on rack in cooker. Season roast with salt, pepper, onions, and bay leaf. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 45 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Thicken gravy, if desired.

SPAGHETTI MEAT SAUCE
1 pound lean ground beef
1 can (14 to 15 ounces) diced tomatoes
1⁄2 cup water
1 cup chopped onion
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
1⁄2 cup diced green pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Turn heat selector to medium and brown beef. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomato paste. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 8 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once. Stir in tomato paste and simmer, uncovered, to desired thickness. Serve sauce over spaghetti. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

CHICKEN CACCIATORE
3 pound chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 cup diced tomatoes
1⁄3 cup white wine
11⁄2 cups sliced onions
1⁄2 cup chopped carrots
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

Place all ingredients except tomato paste in pressure cooker. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 8 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once. Place chicken on warm platter. Stir tomato paste into sauce in cooker. Simmer until thickened. Pour over chicken and serve.