Overrun!

This week has been a crazy one! I daringly took the adventure of adding 4 children to my quiver for 6 days.... boy, when their parents said we were in trouble they weren't a kidding! The husband and I have been up to our eyeballs in "he hit me, bit me, took mine, don't touch me, I'm sick, I'm not tired and I've read all the books in my room, can't I just lay in your bed" along with lots of poop, wiz, and all around loveliness! We now know what it would be like to have twins, we have had our 14.5 month old boy and a 13 month old girl duking it out for who gets more attention and it has actually worked out really well, since the girl only likes Husband. I get the stink-eye from her if I get near her so I have left her to husband to be taken care of while I wrangle the rest of the rowdy crowd. 

These experiences while proving to be excellent birth control also help us to understand that if we ever have 5 children (that is now in debate), we will be able to handle it and survive past middle age. It is busy to be sure, but we know we could do it and experiences such as these help us to work as a team. We have seen the last few days what it is like to be woken up at 1 am with a sick child who needs us. I was proud of myself last night that I didn't scream out of fright when the 8 year old was found standing next to my bed when I stirred mid-REM cycle. I might have scared him when I shot up in bed like something had bitten me, but then Husband helped me by medicating him and getting him back in his bed. 

We are exhausted thats for sure, but we will be richer in funds and experience when this is all over. And it has been a good experience to find out that my nephews can rely on me when they need something and I can help them. 

We'll be back to regular programming on Monday night, and then we will take a deep breath and finally be able to walk around our own house in whatever state of undress we like. Nothing to scandalous of course! 

Meanwhile, a lot (read:ALL) of my projects are on hold. I can't wait to show you what I've been working on!

Walkin' around

Little is WALKING - it's bittersweet! I love watching his cute little body waddle around. But I miss the little Little. Soon enough he will be a walking fully TALKING Little, he already has about 15 words. A little more than one word for every month of his life (14). He's growing like crazy and becoming a big Little.

He has now started cuddling with a little teddy bear snuggly from his Grandma. It helps him sleep and he burrows his face in it to relax in his crib. Sooooooooo cute! And after we give him his snuggly, we hear not a peep as he drifts off to dream land!

Captured

Picture by Husband

The husband and I have been captured by the desire to photograph and portray all that we see in our own creative way. For a while now we have been taking unreasonable amounts of photos of Little. And at some point I do think you can have too many photos of your offspring, just ask my 100 gb hard drive that is now full!

We shot our first engagement session this past weekend and have had a few other sessions of couples that agreed to pose for us. The couple this past weekend was delightful to spend time with and didn't give us the stink eye if we got in their face with our lenses. It's an interesting experience to have two photographers working with the same subject, but Husband and I have been enjoying having a common creative goal. We were soooooooooo giddy at how the images turned out! They ended up exceeding our expectations and I enjoyed seeing the results of our hard work together. It's almost like a baby! We won't be having another one of those for quite a while so in the meantime we will just make other creative projects together. ;)

This common interest in photography has been great for our relationship, giving us even more to talk about and more things to spend our time together doing. I always feel cliche when I think about how much I love the Husband, in fact it is probably truly corny! I have started to really believe that after 4 years the man who married us was right, he told us..."In the coming years you will be amazed, if you think you love eachother now just wait 50 years, your love will continue to grow and you will be amazed at how much you love each other."(something like that).

Maybe later I'll post a link to our photo website.

Paper Addicts Anonymous

I've decided I need a group that helps paper addicts overcome their addiction. I have loved paper ever since I can remember. When I was in gradeschool I would buy journal after journal faster than I could fill them, just because they had pretty paper. Now let's be honest, who needs that much paper? Definately not me, but I crave it, live for getting another piece of beatiful textured or patterned paper. And to add to this addiciton I have been looking into hand bookbinding for a few years now and have finally decided to try and teach myself with books from the library on the subject. Am I kidding myself! All I need right now is to add more and more journals or books to my already mountainous collection of pretty paper I cannot give up! The Husband might threaten pyromania if I do that, but nonetheless he is supportive because I have a need to learn and teach myself new things, no I do not stick with one for very long- after I learn and finish a good practice run I move on to new things. I do revisit old things like how I make baby booties just because I know how, but I love learning and cannot seem to get enough of new skills. This desire to learn makes me a master of none but I attempt a lot!

So right now I am reading the books I amassed at the library on bookbinding (ahem, every book they had on the shelf...I'm sure someone hates me right now!), and figuring out the most economical way to go about the process of teaching myself how to make beautiful books, maybe I'll post a result and then I'll probably move on to something new!

The Husband and I are having a great time exploring the world of photography, we have so much fun going on adventures together to find cool new places to photograph. Now we just need more people, I'm sure that when we finally have a portfolio put together no one will see it as professional to have picture after picture of our family and our Little one after another. But for now, Little is the best darn model ever! The Husband is taking a class in may on photography and I'm on the waitlist for a class on tabletop photography and crossing my fingers that I get in!

I'm off to spend time with some paper and feed my addiction!

These little piggies

are intermittently supporting a freestanding little man as I sit here and watch him test his balance and gently remove the the few chubby fingertips from the ledge that is supporting him. He tests and then decides for the safer route of minimal support and then tests again. Two nights ago he stood for about 5 seconds two different times while distracted by my other half. We tried to get him to do it again, but this little man has his own agenda and that does not normally involve standing or walking.

He is realizing he has a freedom in standing and he has learned the words "up!" to gain access to my arms and the world from a different point of view and only today "diap!" for diaper when his little bum was rash ridden and he wanted a new diaper. He's smart I tell you, but I'll also tell you I'm his mother. He got two more teeth on Saturday, now totalling eight. It has made his grin that much harder to resist. He is growing faster than I would like. The freedom from constant holding might seem like a luxury, but when I see him exploring his independence and refusing my hand or care in an effort to find his own way I yearn for a cuddly newborn that needs touching and holding and cooing. Alas, that is not in the life plan right now, hopefully sooner rather than later but I rely on greater things than my own wishes or desires to guide my life.

I frequently kvetch to my parents about my infertility woes, and indeed they do a good job of calming me and helping me to see through my jealousy and sadness. They help me to see that with 7 children of their own, my time will come. So I realize after brief sadness when I find out about a loved ones pregnancy that I am truly excited for them and cannot wait to see their joy and offer help when they may need it. When you experience infertility these announcements of the stork seem so frequent and so vivid in your memory, but in truth they are interspersed between happiness, sadness, grieving and the mundane happenings of years passing.

My life is great because of the little piggies pictured above, and I frequently kiss them and tickle them and bring laughter to my home making my life seem that much brighter!

A Basket of Biscuits

I got it into my head today that I wanted to make biscuits. When ascribing to a weight watchers lifestyle they do not seem to be the most intelligent choice in food. But I was looking up a recipe for low point Chicken Fricassee, my mom recommended it to utilize the diced tomatoes that I have. When I looked it up online I found that it went well with biscuits and I was improvising anyway because I could not find a recipe that utilized tomatoes, only onions and peppers. So I made the following recipes:



Low Point Chicken Fricassee: 7 servings for 4.5 to 5 pts per servings



Chicken Breasts (boneless skinless) 16 oz. (16 pts)

Fiber One All Bran Cereal (1 cup processed to fine texture) (7 pts)

1/2 C egg beaters (2 pts)

3 Cans Diced Tomatoes (4 pts)

Seasoned Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes

2 cloves garlic

Salt

1 tsp olive oil (1 pt)



Coat chicken in egg beaters and then bran cereal mixed with spices.

Place Ooil in skillet and saute garlic til golden brown. Add coated chicken pieces and let grill for 6 minutes on each side. Move Chicken to separate pan that is oven safe and bake at 350 for 15 minutes (or until cooked through). Add diced tomatoes to pan with garlic and add more of same spices to tomatoes. Let tomatoes cook down to a stew like consistency.

Low Point Biscuits: Makes 16 to 17 biscuits at almost 2 pts each

1 C Whole Wheat Flour

1 C White Flour

3 T Shortening

3/4 C FF Milk

1.5 t baking powder

.5 t baking soda



Bake at 500 for 9 minutes, cool on wire rack.


They were great! We ate it for 3 days, so obviously I need to learn to cook smaller portions!

This is the kind of day

that I wanted to have today. It didn't start out full of joy and relaxation, but after I had a teeny littlle pity party I kicked myself into gear and made it a better day. I chose not to go full throttle and clean like normal, instead I took it slow and threw in a couple loads of laundry and played with Little on the floor. He fell asleep in my arms again, but today I put him in his crib and had a quiet laundry folding and lunch time. When he woke up I fed him lunch, which included little hot dog type things from gerber, cheese and diced tomatoes from our food storage. This kid loves tomatoes! Then we (I) decided to go on a walk and it was beatiful outside. I can only imagine with how hot it was today what it will be like in July, maybe miserable.

Now it is time to have nap round two for Little while I whip up dinner for the Husband and try and use more diced tomatoes - I gotta prove that going to do family canning is worth the investment! :)

I hope you had a wonderful day today!