A Growth Spurt?

This time yesterday we were doing this...

Yea. Playing. And mommy was super tired. Normally, the three of us cozy up on the couch, I put on my handy dandy twin brest friend (Janelle gave it to me... hence the twin part... it's rather large but I can switch Brookie from one side to the other without adjusting lol) and nurse her to sleep while J and I watch a movie or something. She wasn't having that last night. So 9pm J goes to bed after I bounced Boogie to sleep and got comfortable in the armchair. I think things are great... I can relax, blog, maybe watch a movie before going to bed. But no... 9:15 she starts stirring, so I pop out the boob to comfort her back to sleep. She drifts off and then BAM WHAM KABOOM... she's awake again, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Doesn't want to lay down, doesn't want mommy to sit down, wants to play play play mommy! This goes on from about 9:30 to MIDNIGHT last night. So she starts rubbing her eyes, and I decide to take her to bed and turn on Buffy (my latest Netflix kick) until she falls asleep. She's out within minutes and I'm super excited! I fall asleep and it feels like minutes later she's up AGAIN. Then we repeat that process... over and over and over ALL night. It was miserable, I felt like I had a newborn again. I prayed all day that this was a fluke, that my good sleeper was still in there somewhere. She fought me a little tonight, but she went down around 9:30 in bed, so here's hoping she sleeps ALL night like her usual self!

Five Question Friday

 

1. If you knew your best friend's spouse was cheating on her or him, would you tell her (him)?
Yes... in a heartbeat. I would be more hurt if someone didn't tell me that my hubby was cheating on me.

2. Soda in a can or a bottle?
Neither... I prefer fountain drinks.

3. What do you wash first, hair or body?
Face, lol!

4. What advice would you give to any new mama?
Be confident in the choices and decisions you make, don't let other's opinions falter yours.

5. What is your best hangover remedy?
To not drink... it works really well!

Late Night Photo Bomb

Freezer Cooking - Aztec Quiche

Thought I'd share one of the recipes tonight, I didn't take pictures of the food as we were cooking because... well... I was cooking (and Justin of course) a LOT! BUT, here's the recipe for Aztec Quiche...

Aztec Quiche (for reference: Once a Month Cooking p120, 8 servings)


o Ingredients:

 1 ¼ cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese

 ¾ cup grated mild cheddar cheese

 One 9-inch deep-dish frozen pie shell

 One 4-oz can diced green chilies.

 1 cup half-and-half

 3 eggs, slightly beaten

 ½ tsp salt

 1/8 tsp ground cumin

o To prepare:

 Spread Monterey Jack cheese and half of cheddar cheese over bottom of pie shell.

 Sprinkle diced chilies over cheeses.

 Stir together in a bowl the half-and-half, eggs, and seasonings.

 Pour carefully into pie shell.

 Sprinkle with remaining cheddar.

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

 Baked, uncovered, for 40-50 minutes.

 Allow to cool.

 Slice into 8 servings, individually wrap in foil, freeze.

o To serve:

 Thaw, and heat until hot.

 
I can't wait to try it, it looks SO yummy! I will be having a slice of this quiche and a small cup of smoky corn chowder for lunch tomorrow!

And a picture of the freezer after finishing our meals:

Tuesday Blog Hop!

Day One of Cooking

Today didn't start how we planned... I woke up with an awful headache, sore throat, dripping nose (ew) and my entire body ached. It's always a challenge to find ways to get over illnesses when your breastfeeding (or pregnant for that matter)... so I made sure to take my prenatal (it's good to take while breastfeeding and during all your 'childbearing' years), a single ibuprofen, lots of water, and a TON of orange juice. After a couple hours I felt a little more like myself and we were able to start our day of cooking!

Things went pretty well, we got the majority of our meals prepared, bagged, and thrown into the freezer, but because we started later than planned we didn't get about 5 or 6 meals finished, mainly breakfast items. Boogie was a good girl though, she only fussed a little today surprisingly. Sadly her necklace was NOT in the mail today, and it was evident that she was still having some pain from her teething, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.

Not really much to post tonight, but I will be taking pictures of our freezer food stash when we finish and possibly post one of the recipes tomorrow evening! Until then... here's a picture of my Boogie and her newly discovered feet!

Boogie and the No Good, Horrible Day

Yea, you read that correctly... it was a no good, pretty horrible day. Boogie is a teething mess and I can definitely assure you that baltic amber teething necklaces WORK, because Boogie's broke last week... and we had to send it off to be restrung. Ugh. Thankfully the woman who made her necklace lives locally and was willing to restring it for free, I actually mailed it off to her though because she lives on the other side of town, but either way it's convenient! BUT, until we get it back Boogie is obviously miserable. She woke up at 9am and was happy as a clam for about 30 minutes. She was content long enough for me to get dressed, change her diaper and dress her, eat breakfast and that's about it. From them until about 4pm she was a crying, screaming, teething, pitiful little girl. Luckily J was able to bring me the car on his break so in an effort to get her to sleep, I drove around for about 20 minutes... didn't work. So then we went to my parent's house where I nursed her, swaddled her, rocked her, bounced with her, and sang to her for an hour and a half before she finally fell asleep... until my brother walked in slamming doors. Yea, real nice.

The evening was a little better however, Boogie enjoyed some time with her Papaw and Nene, I took her into the kiddy pool, she swang on her new swing... and then her bedtime started getting closer and she started melting down again. Took me a good while to calm her down and get her to sleep once we got home, but she did get to sleep! I even put her pj's and nighttime dipe on WHILE she was sleeping and she is still asleep between her daddy and me! So... let's all say a little prayer tonight that her teething necklace will be in the mailbox tomorrow and that my little one is once again the happy, smiling, giggling, pain-free Boogie I remember!

Once a Month Menu Plan

A few weeks ago I found a website called Once a Month Mom, I was intrigued so I looked a little further into their website. Basically, they create menu plans (traditional, gluten-free, diet, etc) that consist of homemade meals to be frozen until your ready to defrost, reheat, and eat. You do all the cooking in one day and supposably it's affordable... however after looking over some of their plans I knew it would be entirely over budget for us. It just so happens that my mom had a couple of cookbooks that consisted of freezer meals and tips on how to plan your day of cooking. So I created my own menu plan with a grocery list, instructions, etc. My goal was to keep our grocery bill under $150 and to pick out a variety of meals, including lunches and breakfasts.

Our menu plan meals include (one meal is for 2 people):

Chinese Chicken Morsels (2 meals)

Teryaki Chicken (2  meals)

Lemon Chicken (2 meals)

Taco Meat (for salad or tacos... depending on our moods) (1 meal)

Mix and Match Chicken Soup (5 meals)

Chicken Broccoli (4 meals)

Black Beans & Rice (4 meals)

Wild Rice Chicken (3 meals)

Stromboli (2 meals)

Breakfast Burritos (6 meals)

Farmer's Casserole (6 meals)

Aztec Quiche (4 meals)

Muffins (Strawberry and Apples & Cinnamon) (12 meals)

Smoky Corn Chowder (3 meals)

Pancakes (8 meals... or so)

It's a variety of recipes and the majority of them are new to us... which is good because we are very bad about trying new things! We are planning on starting our day of cooking on Monday as soon as Justin gets home, around 10am... it's going to be a LONG day, but I think it will be nice to just have to pick out a meal, thaw it out, and just reheat it... that means a lot more family time! I'm hoping to share all of these recipes at some point in the month, probably on the days that we eat them. We'll see!

My parents took us (Boogie and myself) to Aldi and Walmart today while J was at work to do all of our grocery shopping.... the end result? $100 for all the main groceries... and then this evening J and I ran to Ingles and got random stuff for sides (pasta, veggies, etc.). We also picked up some quick meals for me tomorrow and stuff to grill on Monday (it's hard to cook by myself with Boogie... she's a needy baby, but I love her anyways... and Monday we don't want to have to make meals to eat that day while creating a disaster in the kitchen with our freezer meals lol).... that came to about $20 (not counting tomorrow and Monday's meals)... So I stayed way under budget! Go me! I'd be happy to share my meal plan with anyone, just shoot me an email! I did not save the grocery list because I wrote it for the ingredients that we needed.... you  may need more or less depending on what is already in your pantry! But I can send the instructions which includes all the recipes you'll need!

Wish me luck!

Five Question Friday

1. Do you think cursive writing is overrated? (Schools in Indiana have now voted to take teaching cursive writing out of their curriculum)
No, I think it's important... what's so bad about learning cursive?

2. Do you still use a pocket calendar or notepad or do you keep your info in your smartphone?
I use a 3 ring binder for meal planning, appointments, bills, etc. I use my phone for everything else!

3. What 3 things would you save if your house was burning down? (Your family and friends are safe)
A wrap to carry my daughter, my bible, and Boogie's lovey.

4. Country mouse or city mouse, err person?
Country

5. If you could pick ANY reality show to go on, which would you pick?
A Baby Story or Bringing Home Baby

Photo BOMB! And other things...

We had a wonderful holiday this past weekend, Boogie enjoyed the fireworks, we spent time with both sides of the family, and Boogie accomplished yet another milestone! Over night she went from sitting assisted and a little unwobbly unassisted for a few seconds to sitting completely unassisted! She's growing so much, she's turned into a "big" girl right infront of my eyes... I can't believe it! I adore this little girl, she is such a wonderful baby!

In other news, J is very close to finishing his classes and he's doing pretty well. Still has a lot to do, but he'll get there! He'll be taking the exam in September and hopefully after that we'll be on the search for a new job and a new home! I'll be back in school in August (ugh) and haven't decided if I'll be finishing my Associates or taking a break after the Fall semester. We shall see!

Not sure if I posted this or not but at Boogie's 6 month well visit last week she weighed in at 16lbs 6.5oz and she was 25.5 inches tall! She's definately bigger than her 5lb 13oz, 18.5 inch tall newborn self!

We got to spend a little time with Hannah and her boyfriend on Sunday, she hadn't seen Boogie since she was itty bitty so that was nice! And hopefully tomorrow I'll get to spend some time with Janelle and her Flint Monsters!

Until next time.....