Soaps, Sinks, and "Something"...

Today is the day before we get to finally meet our little man!  So, how does one spend the last day of being a "non-parent"?  Well, Garrick is at the doctor's office for a follow-up to his Kidney Stone "issues" about six months ago (of course, he thinks he has another one as well, so it's a good thing to be doing).  My Mom and I are here at the house while a plumber installs my new sink and garbage disposal!  We talked about doing it ourselves, but with the height differences in the sinks, the drains not being directly across from each other, and a few other "oddities", it was just easier to hire someone who knows what they are doing!  We did manage to get the clothesline post in the ground all by ourselves yesterday though, so we aren't complete "newbs" at the home improvement type stuff!  I highly recommend the "Quick-crete" that you just dump in the hole filled with water, that it awesome stuff and you don't have to mix it!

Another thing we may get to today is laundry soap making...I still have 3 gallons of the Ivory Soap stuff I made a while back (in April or May), but I remembered it last night while I was at the store, so I bought another 3-pack of bar soap.  This time though, I got Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap...this is a soap made with no animal fats (coconut oil, "coconut soap" (made by a chemical reaction between lye and coconut oil and a few other things I'm sure), and a thing or two more)...more information on this soap can be found in the FAQ section of the company's webite, www.kirksnatural.com.  More importantly, I won't have to panic if a diaper ends up in the "regular" wash once my soap doesn't contain Ivory anymore! 

I'll take the added cost to not have to spend days and days (okay, hours and hours) stripping diapers again!  In my post, here, I broke down the cost of making my laundry soap based on what I paid for the ingredients used.  To the right is my price breakdown.  The difference with this soap lies in the soap costs, $3.49 for a 3-pack of Kirk's Castile as opposed to the $1.69 I paid for a 3-pack of Ivory.  That brings the total cost for materials to $11.92 for six batches of laundry soap (at 2 gallons per batch, making at least 64 loads)!  I also have used the Borax and Washing Soda to make many other things, including the powdered Cloth Diaper Detergent that I discussed here.  So, that averages out to $0.031 per load (assuming we get 64 loads out of each 2-gallon batch, we get more out of some batches and less out of others).  I have a coupon sitting on my desk from a few weeks ago for Tide...32 loads for $5.99 (or $0.187 per load)!  I am still saving money, that's what counts! 

If I price out a single batch of the "new" laundry soap using Kirk's...

• Borax (4 ounces) - $0.19
• Washing Soda (4 ounces) - $0.23
• Kirk's Castile (1 bar) - $1.16

That's $1.58 for a 2 gallon batch (assuming 64 loads), that's $0.025 per load!  A full penny more than with Ivory soap...but let's see you get 64 loads of laundry done with Tide for only $1.58...without being an extreme couponer (those ladies are totally nuts in my "oh so humble" opinion)!

A few days ago, I went out to spend some quality time with the chickens after they went to bed (the only time they let me near them anymore).  Poor Clyde is molting big time!  She decided it was "easiest" to drop all her feathers at once and then grow them in...or at least that's what it looks like.  She has no tail feathers at all!  Okay, she has pin feathers growing in, but she looks rumpless at the moment...  See how rough she looks compared to Henri in the photo(sorry for the blurry chicken head, they don't like to hold still much)?

And of course, it wouldn't be two days before the baby's here without a trip last night to Labor & Delivery's triage!  My Blood Pressure spiked last night while out doing some grocery shopping...  I stopped by the machine inside Fred Meyer to get an estimate because I suddenly had a headache and was unsure if it was pressure or sugar related.  When I saw these numbers (photo to the left), I went to test my blood sugar (120)!  Of course, a call into the on-call doctor meant I had to go in...  We spent almost 2 hours hooked up to the monitors (baby hates the monitors and spent the whole time trying to kick them off) before the on-call OB decided to just give me an extra 100mg of my blood pressure meds and send me home for the night.  Little man succeeded in kicking off the fetal monitor about 30 seconds before the nurse came in to remove them...which, of course, set off the alarms when his heart rate was lost.  My blood pressure never did fall much under what I took a photo of at Fred Meyer...and I think the nurse was actually surprised at how accurate it was (she admonished me for using it when we first got there).

 

Here is the new sink all installed! We had the disposal put in the smaller sink on the right (closer to the wall switch that runs it) and the bright green thing in it is designed to keep silverware and the like from getting down in the disposal, but still lets the water pass.  Most of the soaps on the left will fade away as we empty the partial bottles...the thing way over on the right side is a soap dispenser!  In fact...I may go put those two partial bottles under the sink for now (the purple one is what I make my "Gardner's Scrub" with (the glass jar next to it)...of course, I use it mor for scrubbing gunk out of pans when it's baked on then I do for cleaning my hands after gardening, but ya know...  I can't wait to give somebody a bath in it!

So, don't expect any news from me in the next few days...baby will be here in less than 24 hours!  Whoever guessed he'd be here the week of 10/10 was right!  Go you, who ever you are!  We're scheduled to begin the c-section at 7:30 tomorrow morning and I'm going to (hopefully) have someone update on Facebook soon after he's here (give or take an hour or so).  If not, I'll get around to it "eventually", ha!

Until then, I'm gonna go try out a low-carb (sugar free, gluten free) recipe for Halloween Cutout Cookies!  I love making cut out style cookies...and getting to use my ~100 cookie cutters is a definite bonus!

Chicken Coop and Other Things...

Gerty "inspecting" the clean coop.

So, I finally got the chicken coop cleaned today!  It really needed it bad I'm sorry to say...it has probably been about 5 months since I cleaned it out last, aside from changing out the hay in the nest box.  My girls don't really spend a lot of time in the coop, so it wasn't "totally" disgusting or anything...just "icky" from night time poops mostly. 

Today though, the girls got into yet another fight over the one and only nest box that any of them will use, knocking it over not once, but twice!  When I first got up this morning, I went down and turned it right side up...with Gertrude firmly attached to the interior of said nest box, I might add!  Within a few hours, they had they box overturned, completely this time, and all three were raising a ruckus outside!  I don't want to say my girls are quiet by any means, they are after all a vocal animal, but they are "quieter than most" and really don't get "loud" unless they've just laid an egg or there is a serious problem in the chicken run.  When I say "serious", I mean they ran out of food or water (these have both happened once, maybe twice if I wasn't feeling well) or if there is an issue inside the coop (usually pertaining to the single nest box).  This is when having the security camera on the TV in the dining room comes in handy...I can tell when it's a food/water issue or a "coop" issue (of course, it also helps if you don't accidentally lock them in the coop the night before...).  Since I could see they had overturned the nest box again, I decided it was just time to clean the coop and be done with that chore (until shortly before the baby gets here...but hopefully I'll have a little help with that cleaning).

Clyde was the first to claim the fresh nest box!

Months back when we cleaned out the garage, my Mom washed up an old garbage can for us and we put the open bag of pine shavings in it (I had bought 2 large bags because I got them on sale for more than half off).  However, it never got moved to the run!  So, to start, I had to drag that around the house, really it was less work than it sounds...it's a plastic garbage can and the pine shavings don't weigh much at all, it's just big and awkward (and hard to carry when you've got a baby bump).  Also, I took one of my handy Kitty Litter container to the garage to grab some fresh hay for the nest box.  In the 35-pound container, I can fit enough hay for two or more "fresh" changes!  The hay "bale" is an equally large plastic "sack" full of chopped hay, it was much cheaper than buying a bale of hay.

Gerty checking out my iPhone...

I have worked out a pretty simple Coop Cleaning System really...I just use a broom!  One of these days, I know I need to get out there with an actual cleaning solution and give the floor a good mopping, but we haven't had any issues with the girls being sick or any sort of bugs, so I think the system is working okay.  When we first moved the girls outside last summer, I was carting the used bedding away and dumping it in our make shift compost heap behind the shed...all we're really doing back there is making a huge pile of junk and by December, I wasn't willing to cart it across the snow.  So, "plan B" came into being and we've been using it happily ever since!  Now, I just sweep the old, icky stuff out of the coop into a pile below it.  After the coop is emptied onto the ground, I just shove it the best I can under the coop and the girls distribute it from there.  With all that old chicken poop now in the ground, it attracts bugs and the girls eat the bugs, win-win!  Then, I just put Pine shavings in the unused nest box (if I put hay in it, it just gets kicked out anyway) and that box goes in the corner I can't reach. 

Henri also needing to use the box

Next, I put the fresh Hay in the cat box turned nest box that all three girls use and it goes next to the unused box.  This keep the box they're actually laying in within reach and I can get the eggs by simply sticking my hand in the pop door!  Once the boxes are in place, I start tossing in handfuls of Pine shavings until I'm happy with the thickness of the bedding (usually 2 to 3-inches deep).  Then, I just close up the coop and walk away feeling accomplished!

I also spent a little time on the goings on in the chicken's run as well.  We recently made the switch to pellets instead of crumbles.  This was a change I really wanted to make last year when the girls got weened off of chick starter, but until this last visit to the feed store, they've always been out of pellets!  Pellets take up a little less space, meaning in a week, we're already down to only having 2 litter containers full instead of three.  Some say pellets reduce the amount of feed chickens waste, but my girls never let any food go to waste, so I can't see any difference there!  I also refilled their water with fresh...last time I cleaned their water dish and put a little Apple Cider Vinegar in it as well (good for them, but I fail to remember why).  I need to remember to not do that!  The girls don't like it, they drink less water than they do normally, the water turns milky and mold grows (gross)!  So, I dumped it out and gave them a container of fresh, clean water today as well!

Then, I got to moving some of the stuff in the coop around...a few weeks ago, we (Garrick) finally got sand back in the sand box!  The girls have gotten pretty good at digging through the river rocks and finding the sandy dirt below it, but they really enjoy climbing into their turtle "tub" for a sand bath more!  I also moved the Sumac limbs around a little too, made them more horizontal...the gals have never really climbed on them as they were and I needed to make room for the "new" garbage can storage out there!  I may need to raise the feeder up a little now though, we'll see if they start making a mess out of it!  It may be a good thing to mention that the big white bucket is my water system (two nipples drilled into the bottom of that bucket) and in reality, it is several feet away from the turtle.

And in other chicken "stuff", I do believe as of today, all the girls are back to laying!  Gerty has been dropping a ton of feathers everywhere, but I don't think she "looked" like she was molting...however, she laid a 1.7 ounce "torpedo" egg today! I know it was Gerty because she was the only hen not fighting for the box after I cleaned the coop.  It has been several months since we've gotten 3 eggs a day!  Of course, the day before we go out of town for several days isn't the ideal time for us to get an influx of eggs...especially when I didn't line up a chicken-sitter for this trip!

I guess getting moving is what I rally needed to do recently too...over the past several days I have been dealing with increasingly more swollen ankles!  Today they were/are so bad, that even my fuzzy slippers are leaving a crease line in the middle of my foot!  But, I did manage to get a pair of socks and shoes on to go out and deal with the coop, and surprisingly, once I was done, I noticed that my right foot was a little less swollen.  Of course, the relief lasted until I sat down for 5 minutes...so it was short lived relief.  I'm gonna try soaking them later, maybe that will help?

While I was outside, I decided to snap a quick photo to show how tall my tomato plants are this year!  They're in large pots on the back deck and if you only count the part above dirt, they all start about mid-shin on me.  Boy do I look puffy today!

And here is a preview of a post I'm planning for the future (near I promise)...aren't the colors just awesome?  It's a quilt, and I am sort of following a pattern...but more on that once it's finished!

Hello 3rd Trimester!

According to the "handy dandy" app I have on my iPhone from What To Expect...  today marks the very first day of my third trimester with the little man!  I am so excited and a little scared all at the same time.  I can't wait to meet this little guy, he's been wanted for a very long time, but at the same time, I don't feel like we are "ready" yet.  We're ready to be parents, but the house...oh the house!  His future bedroom/nursery is still a working office, we have nothing (okay, I do have a few {dozen} diapers, but not nearly in the quantity we need) to put on his rump, clothes...well, we have lots of hand me downs, but not a ton in any one size (my sister has given me everything nephew #4 is outgrowing and another friend gave me a box of 6+ months stuff) and I just have this sneaking suspicion that this guy is gonna be tiny! 

I was complaining (whining really) over the weekend that it felt like the little man was trying to "make more room in there" for a growth spurt and I think I was right!  Besides the fact that clothes that fit last week no longer fit, he is really rocking and rolling in there!  Last night before going to sleep he was really hunching/kicking really hard, harder than I have ever felt!  And he continued it all...night...long!  Even as I type, he's in there practicing to be an MMA fighter I think!  I'm thinking tomorrow will be a "quieter" day though since he seems to be doing a lot today!  Just as long as he cooperates on Friday, we have yet another ultrasound because the doctor hasn't been able to "see everything" he wants to see yet, this will make our third "anatomy scan"!

Other than baby stuff, I have had a pretty full week so far (keep in mind it's only Wednesday)!  Yesterday I made another batch of dog food, this time we used Hamburger, mostly because we had bought a pound for us to eat and plans changed...we are horrible about using stuff in our freezer, so I made dog food with it instead of trying to "save" it for another day.

Before the Rice got added!

Beef/Veggie/Rice "Dog Stew"

• 2 lbs Hamburger (I used 1 80/20 & 1 93/7, we buy leaner meat for us than we do for the dog)
• 12 cups cooked Rice
• 2/3 of a 1 lb bag Frozen Chopped Spinach
• 1-1 lb bag Frozen Green Beans (French style cause they're $0.98 a bag)
• 1-1 lb bag Fozen California Blend (Cauliflower, Broccoli, Carrots)
• 1 Qt Beef Broth (I use 4 cups of hot water and a heaping tablespoon of Better then Bouillon in Beef Flavor)
• 1 container Cottage Cheese (okay, it was more like 3/4 of the container, but it was going bad)

I started by making up a batch of rice in our (still new) rice cooker, it makes 6 cups of rice at a time.  After that batch, I took the rice out and put in a big glass bowl to cool and let the cooker cool so I could handle it to clean it and get another batch going!  After getting the second batch of rice set up, I grabbed the steamer basket that came with the rice cooker and tossed in about two-thirds of the bag of frozen Spinach, it filled the steamer basket!  By the time the rice was cooked, the Spinach was perfectly steamed and all the nutrients from it had dripped into the rice (I see a few dinners for us being made this way in the near future), turning some of the rice green!  After the last batch of rice was cooling (the first batch went into a ziploc and the rice and spinach went in the bowl), I got the hamburger cooking in our "dog food pot", which is a 12-Qt stock pot that I burned rice in (you remember the day my rice cooker died and I got to talk to the alarm company because I set off the smoke detector, right?)...most of the black is gone from it, but we weren't using it for anything else and this way, I can add doggie supplements (when we have them) without worrying if I have them all scrubbed out before I cook for the humans in the house.  I didn't bother adding any oils this time, the meat had plenty of fats in it! 

While the meat browned, I finally got my Laundry Soap bottled (in milk jugs that have been washed out and saved)!  I don't fill the jugs all the way, that way there is room to shake up the contents and distribute the soap in the water better.  This batch (the double batch I made a month or so ago) turned out really runny.  But, I got it in three 1-gallon jugs and four half-gallon jugs (but really it's only about 4 gallons of laundry soap)!  Some of it is going to go home with my Mom when she visits next month, but with what I have left still from the first batch I made (about half a gallon) and what I keep of this, I should have a year's supply of soap, lol.

Between filling each jug, I stirred the meat.  Once there was no more pink in the meat, I added both bags of frozen vegetables, normally I thaw these while the other parts cook, but I forgot, so they went in straight from the freezer this time.  It works either way, but the frozen veggies solidified all the fat and looked really gross.  After giving the veggies some time to hang out with the meat a little, I added the Beef broth (to make this, I take my 2-Qt glass measuring cup, [get one if you don't have one they are a kitchen neccessity] and this time only used 4 cups of hot tap water because the rice was already cooked.  I used a Tablespoon and just made it heaping, 4 teaspoons of the base makes 4 cups of broth.  Once you get it off the spoon, microwave it for 2 to 3 minutes and get it nice and hot!  It'll help dissolve the base.).  Let that all come to a boil, it cooks the veggies and lets everything soak up a little broth.  Then, turn off the heat and dump in the rice!  I mixed between each addition of rice, it gets really hard to stir with 12 cups of rice in there!  After it's all mixed, I divide the mixture between the glass bowl I let the rice cool in, the measuring cup, and the stockpot so that it cools faster...don't add dairy to hot food!  Then, we left the house and went to lunch...this stuff takes forever to cool off! 

 

Rosie follows me when I'm cooking Dog Food!

Later in the afternoon, I divided what I had of the Cottage Cheese between the dishes and gave it one last mix.  Then, it was portion-bagging time!  Rosie weighs in at 61 pounds, and most sites suggest 2-3% of the dog weight be fed daily, that puts her food needs at 19.5 to 29.3 ounces.  We give her roughly 2-cups of food, twice a day (two bags of pre-portioned food weigh in at 25.0 ounces).  We bag it all up once cooled into sandwich size ziploc bags for easy feeding throughout the week (Garrick does most of the feeding, I do the cooking).

This batch gave us 13.5 servings (or 6.5 days of food and a little "taster" plate for Rosie when we were done bagging, because who can resist that look on her face after hours of seeing it?

The chickens got the rest of the bag of Spinach, but they didn't eat it!  It's the first thing other than potatoes that they refuse to eat!  I was shocked because they loved it in the winter, but this time it was served room temperature, not hot like before.  Speaking of the gals, they got a mini-coop clean up this morning!  I noticed that the hook we hang our water from was being bent under the weight of the water, so I took it down, scrubbed it clean, and moved it to a new hook (we have 3 to use for the water and food, luckily).  I also hosed out their sandbox, which has been empty for a while now and was beginning to look more like a public bathroom than a place to take a bath in!  Since I was out there anyway, I also took them one-quarter of a "personal size" watermelon that I bought (in June).  The flesh was still very firm, but it was beyond anything I would want to eat.  It took some convincing to get the girls to try it, but they eventually did and last time I checked, they were enjoying the cool treat!  The rest of the melon got cut into sections, bagged, and tossed in the freezer (we have some high 90's days headed our way) for the girls to have another day.  To get them to try the melon, a new food for them, I sprinkled the pieces with Red Chili Pepper pieces (a favored treat and natural wormer), BOSS (just a yummy treat), and finally, a few Meal-worms (Gerty is the only chicken I have that likes these, but once she got interested in the melon pieces, Clyde and Henri soon followed)!

And since I was outside anyway...I went ahead and watered my "deck plants".  They don't get any direct sun in the afternoon/evenings, so I figure I'm okay to do that.  It also is only 83 today, so not scorching!  My Raspberry bushes are really filling in this summer, as is all the weeds and "voluntary" Blackberry bushes!

The one and only tomato plant that I have actually producing any tomatoes is absolutely loaded with them!  I may pick one or two to have with dinner tonight, they look like they might be ready.  They're a little bigger than a Cherry Tomato!

One night this week I'm finally going to harvest some of my Pineapple Sage too, though I'm not sure what night that will be just yet.  It is such a full, bushy plant this year!  I'm hoping that it will make the transition to an indoor plant this Fall, the Stevia did well last year so I am hopeful.  I'd really like to have this herb around year-round!

I'm not quite done with my busy day today either, I need to go do some shopping!  (Twist my arm, huh?)  I'm looking to get enough fabric to make two reversible/lined slings...mostly because my pre-pregnant size is between sizes on the cutting chart, but also because Garrick is squarely in the lerger size and I want him to be able to pack little man around too.  Also, I found a tutorial for making a quilt out of a Jelly Roll that looks super simple and a new skill to be learned (quilting) at the same time!  Then there's the "cover the window on the door" project that I still need to get some magnets for, groceries to buy, and baby stuff to ogle!

My Week in a Ramble...

Staying "busy" this week!  Well, not as busy as  I "could" be, but I have got a few things accomplished so far.

Yesterday, I put together a cheap shelving unit to hold all of our "needs charging" stuff (cell phones, Nintendo DS, iPads, Nook, etc...).  Really, it's a shelving unit to hold CD's and DVD's, but it was just the right size to stick at the end of our hallway!  Once we get the offices moved downstairs, it'll be nice to be able to charge cell phones and such near where we sleep and spend most of our time...though that may change with moving the offices downstairs!

I also got a small batch of Banana Chips made using my new Food Dehydrator!  I only bought 3 smallish (medium) bananas, so only got one and a half trays out of the bananas.  It was enough to make maybe 3/4 of a cup once dried, I'll get lots more next time!  Eight to 10 bananas should fill my dehydrator. 

I also (finally) got around to trying that fresh cheese recipe yesterday!  I used half a gallon of Whole milk (the recipe called for raw milk, but store-bought pasteurized milk worked fine), 4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (also known as 1/4 cup, but I used my "measure from above" cup that is marked in tablespoons), and 1/2 Tablespoon of Salt (table variety, but to be different I could have used the Black Salt...).  I wasn't really sure how long to let the milk go at a "slow boil", so once it was immediately starting to produce tiny bubbles when I stopped whisking (I used my silicone coated  whisk so I didn't scratch my pot, the original recipe says to stir...her photos looked to have larger curds than I got, but I love the texture I got).  I turned off the heat and started to drizzle the vinegar in, stirring the whole time.  I had added about half the vinegar before the curds and whey started to separate, in fact I was just beginning to think I had messed something up when it "magically" became two distinct textures in the pot (the curds are solid and the whey looks like a pale yellow liquid)!  To strain it, I layered a tightly woven tea towel into a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl.  Then, I laid a double thickness of cheesecloth in the towel.  You really don't need both the cheesecloth and the towel, one or the other would work fine, I just don't think my cheesecloth could handle the cheese on its own (it's the cheap stuff you can get at the grocery store in a little package).  Next time, I'll use just the towel!  To make a harder cheese (think cheese ball here), I added the salt (as suggested in the recipe).  However, next time I think I won't out quite so much salt in, it made the end product very salty!  I dumped my curds into an empty bowl to mix in the salt, it was still too hot to really handle, and I wanted to make sure the salt got distributed.  The recipe says to hang the cheese for several hours (after a few other "get the moisture out" steps.  I'm plain out of places to hang things in my kitchen (ding room, living room, bedroom, office, etc...), so I had to do a bit of thinking about how and where I was going to hang my cheese.  My solution came in the form of my banana hook!  My particular hook happens to be attached to a basket (for fruit and veggies), but since we have never been really "good" about having a spot to keep said basket, it normally just hides in a closet.  It made the perfect place to hang my cheese though!  I set the large bowl I used to catch the Whey under the cheese (in the basket) and tied the towel around the hook for the bananas!  Not only was it out of the way, but I could transport it to other locations (since it was sitting on my stove-top, that came in really handy).  The cheese is now in the refrigerator, along with the (cleaned out, empty) half gallon container, which now is nearly full of Whey!  I was a little surprised with how much Whey came out of the process!  I really don't know why I was though...the cheese ball that was produced was actually quite small, roughly one cup of cheese was produced using one-half gallon of milk.  Without the salt to help harden the cheese, this same recipe makes fresh Ricotta cheese.  It's an extra step, but if I was going to try my hand at making a Lasagna...I think this would be perfect in it!

Today, I have already cleaned the dehydrator's trays (sticky bananas and no wire mesh inserts) and drug out the meat slicer (I guess I should just call it a slicer).  I started peeling my apples because I generally don't like the skins on Apple Chips, but after one apple, I decided to leave the rest with their skins on!  So, I got the slicer set up and began slicing away at the bag of small, red apples I bought over the weekend.  After the bananas yesterday, I was assuming I could do the whole bag of apples (8 apples in total), but was so glad I stopped slicing after 3 apples to load a few trays!  My 3 small apples filled my dehydrator!  I'm glad I got this batch going early in the day now, I'll have an idea of how long they take to dry and came hopefully do another batch overnight tonight.  We're going out of town this weekend for an overnight trip and I want to take some dried fruit with me for snacks!  I also still have a Cantaloupe and a small (personal sized) Watermelon to dry out this week (though one may have to wait until I get home based on the time I have left and other things going on toward the end of the week).

I also need to make another batch of Dog Food up today, mostly because we are down to one serving left of the Hamburger/Veggie/Pasta food I made last weekend.  We actually have a large bag in the freezer with three and a half days worth of the pasta meal in the freezer, but I am/was trying to get ahead of the game (again because of the trip out of town).  So, I need to start the "Pumpkin Barley with Turkey" recipe soon so it has time to cool and I can bag it up.  My plan is to keep out three day's worth of food (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) and freeze the rest in single day bags.  That way, when we get home of Sunday, I can pull out a few bags and they will be thawed and ready to serve by Monday morning.  For her stay at the vet, I'm not sure what we will do about food...Rosie has been getting a bag of homemade food in the morning and a can of food in the evening.  Plus, as treats (and pill pockets), she has been getting bits of hot dog and other softer foods that I know she likes.  This morning, I broke up one of the apple slices into "easy to swallow" bits for her, the whole slice was just too hard for her to eat!

In the realm of "those pets that live under my deck"...Clyde has decided to go broody!  Gah!  Of course, she waits until I am going to be gone and can't really do anything about it...  I know she just wants to hatch out some cute baby chickens and be a Mom, but I can't have any more chickens, so the answer is no right now!  I noticed it "for sure" yesterday and immediately went down and pulled the fake eggs out of the nest.  This was all I had to do when Henrietta did this in the Fall, so here's hoping!  I've also been making sure I go get the eggs as soon as I see one has been laid.  This morning, when I went to get the egg I saw I also turned the coop lights on to make it not as dark and "homey" for brooding in, I'll turn the light off tonight when I go down to put any stray nesters back up on the roost for the night.  When Clyde decides to sleep in a nest box, unfortunately, so does Henri!  But, last night all I had to do was put Clyde on the roost and Henri followed her up there too (they really are each others shadow), they even stayed on the roost the rest of the night, so I don't think she's as set on brooding as she thinks she is...

My plants are in a love/hate relationship with this weather lately!  The tomatoes are doing well up on the deck, growing inches a day it seems!  But, the lack of sunshine this week is really taking it's toll on them!  As is the colder weather...just past noon today and it is currently warmer in Anchorage, Alaska than it is at my house!  The Rhubarb is thriving in this weather though...especially the set of 6 plants that don't have a hose going out to them yet!  We did buy hoses this last weekend, but I'm not going out in the rain to set them up.  Even the Raspberries are enjoying the added moisture, or it could have been the buzzing bees from a few weeks ago, but I have little fruits forming!  I wasn't expecting any fruit from them this year because they are still such tiny plants!

My weeks just keep getting busier too!  While the weekdays look fairly "clear" if you were to peek at my calendar, they are really filled with my trying to be domestic and all that entails...I hate laundry (putting it away, I actually like washing it), so I have been avoiding that for a few days.  I love to cook, but hate to do the clean up.  But, with only a few really "good" pans, I have to wash dishes just to make the things I need to make (like the dog food)!  Cleaning...this is really something I don't mind, but I have to be "in the mood" for it and it never seems to coincide with when (or how) Garrick gets the same bug!  It's also not something I have been in the mood to do for quite some time, lol.  I'm not a complete slob, we don't live in a filthy, stinky mess...bu it is cluttered and "full".  This week has it's on "busy-ness" too.  On Friday we have our ultrasound!  This is the one where we will hopefully see girl or boy parts!  Yikes, that came up fast (and oh so slow at the same time)!  Because we'll be out of town this weekend, we won't be registering immediately, that will have to wait until next week at some point!  However, the baby shower is right around the corner (first weekend in July), so I can't put it off too long!  We also have plnas to go out to dinner with friends on Friday night...so it'll be a long day.

Happy Seis de Mayo!

Well, we did not celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but we did go out this evening for a yummy Mexican meal at our favorite local restaurant, Pueblo Amigo!  I had Chicken Fajitas (that I ended up sharing with the chickens, they got the leftover grilled onions and peppers, some Gaucamole, Sour Cream, Lettuce, and a pile of Mexican Rice) and Garrick got his standard "Nachos".

Prior to dinner though, we had a fairly uneventful day.  My blood sugars were pretty high this morning, so I was really only up long enough to test and get some insulin.  I went back to bed after asking Garrick to check on me periodically just in case my blood sugars took a dip in the other direction.  Several hours later (just in time for Lunch), with more "normal" sugar levels, we headed out for Breakfast/Lunch and to do our weekly grocery shopping.  Of course, my afternoon plans were thwarted by my forgetting the coupons for potting soil!  I did manage to keep myself entertained though by watching A Turtle's Tale on Netflix...it's a cute little cartoon.  While I was "busy" with that, Garrick was (and still is) busily working away at whatever class he is currently taking in his Master's degree program (it has something to do with computers...other than that, I have no idea)!  Then, of course, was the aforementioned dinner at Pueblo Amigo.  Followed by a trip back to Fred Meyer, with coupon this time, to pick up 4 bags of potting soil!  Along with the 2 bags I had leftover from last year, I hope to have enough to plant my Tomatoes and herbs tomorrow.

A few weeks ago, I had family visiting.  My cousin who came is a wonderful woman whom I love to pieces!  We are a lot alike I think...  She even came bearing gifts for us!  She gave us a brand new HealthMaster!  I can't wait to start making some of the yummy recipes that came with it and will most likely "juice" my way through Summer when I just don't feel like doing a lot of cooking. 

She also stocked me up on makeup products, a full line up!  Of course, I don't really "know" how to "wear" it, but I do like playing with it and may figure out a decent "look" for myself one of these days!  This morning while "playing" with it, I found that the foundations are way too dark for my skin (according to Garrick, it looked like someone had punched me in the cheek while he was helping look for cotton balls).  So, when the search for cotton balls turned up empty, I realized, I also do not have makeup remover either!  I tried the stuff my cousin gave me...it worked but it left me feeling very dried out. 

What's a gal to do after that happens?  Hit the internet, of course!  I poured over pages and pages of "how to" guides to make your own...most just say to take a cotton ball and dowse it in Olive Oil to get rid of makeup "naturally".  Now, I have no problem with the "natural" approach, but I do take issue with just rubbing oil on me and expecting to be "clean" when I'm done!  So, after pouring over more pages, I came to the conclusion that I already had a perfectly good recipe here that I could modify (slightly) and have a great makeup remover!  So, I went back to the "How to Make Your Own Baby Wipes" page over at Want What You Have and did a little math!  I didn't want 2 1/2 cups of makeup remover after all!  I worked it down to 1/4 of the recipe, or just a little over 1/2 cup.  Of course, the little jar I grabbed only held 1/4 cup, so I just halved it again and adjusted as I went as well.

My Makeup Remover Recipe

4 Tablespoons hot Water (I turned the teapot on while I melted the oil)
1/4 teaspoon Melted Coconut Oil (I keep mine in a glass jar & mcrowave the whole thing for 30 seconds to melt it)
3/8 teaspoon Baby Shampoo (anything tear free)

I used my 1/8 teaspoon measuring spoon to measure the oil and shampoo, I wanted it to have a bit "extra" oil to help moisturize...you can use more or less of both of these ingredients, but I wouldn't go nuts on either!  Then, when they were in the jar, I measured the hot (not boiling, but it could if you want to wait and aren't planning on running straight to the bathroom to try it out) water into the little jar and gave it a stir (with the 1/8 teaspoon to get the last bit of shampoo and oil off it).

Simple, huh?  Of course, I still had the dilemma of not having any cotton balls!  I tried a few squares of toilet paper, but it left little balls of paper on my face, yuck!  Then, I grabbed a semi-soft cleaning cloth out of my linen closet (the lightest color I could find to make sure the makeup was actually being removed), dipped the corner in the solution and wiped away the makeup I wore all day!  Afterward, I wet the other side of the rag with cool water and gave my face a final once over (to sort of rinse the shampoo residue away but hopefully leave the oil behind).  An hour later, my face still feels clean and super soft!  This had the added bonus of letting me "try out" the wipe solution I plan on using once the little one actually gets here...if it works this good on my face, I'm sure I'll be happy about using it on his or her little hiney! 

I also found my way to a new "favorite" blog that I've added to my list of daily stocking reading list!  Her recipe, looking back on it now, for the makeup removers is darned near the same...okay, exactly.  I just don't bother with purchasing water when I can just get it out of the tap.  If you "must" have distilled water though, boil it hard (you know, that really fast boil that spits hot water at you) for 10 to 15 minutes then let it cool to room temp, voila, distilled water!  She also has recipes for homemade shaving lotion, fabric softener, stain remover, and many more that I want to try!  Garrick will appreciate the fabric softener I think, he is still getting used to doing the laundry without dryer sheets, fabric softener in the wash, and OxiClean!  When I make the fabric softener, it will go in a spray bottle to be added to a washrag and tossed in the dryer.  We can't have softener residue in the washer, it'll ruin the cloth diapers!

I am still working on figuring out how to "adapt" my homemade Laundry Soap recipe to something that doesn't take up quite so much room and uses less water (it tends to separate and annoy me).  An added bonus to making it with less water would be that I would need less "product" per load because it would be more concentrated.  A note if anyone made the recipe I posted about a while ago...make sure you put it in either before you put the clothes in (while running water into the machine) or stick your full soap cup under the water stream.  Do not pour it directly on your clothes, especially dark colors!  I've had to put things back through the wash a second time because the white soap left soapy marks on the clothes!

Busy week this week....veggie planting, house cleaning, diaper making(?), and Friday I have another OB/GYN appointment!  We should know at this visit when our ultrasound will be (assuming 4 weeks from Friday since I'll be 20 weeks in early June)!  Today I am 15 weeks 5 days, if anyone is counting.  My how time is just flying!  We went this weekend and picked up the crib and high chair from Garrick's parents.  I had no idea what the crib looked like and was pleasantly surprised to see an exact match to the crib my parents had for me when I was born!  This one is much newer though.  I'm still considering using it downstairs in our soon to be moved office space though, rather than as the "full time crib", I think I still want one with no drop sides and stuff for the overnight use.  This will work excellent for baby napping in the shared office space though!  The highchair is perfect, it actually sits in an upright position (the newer ones lay back and drive me insane)!

Well, I'm off to take inventory of the "homemade" supplies I have/need...I think tomorrow will also be a day of making some "supplies" too!

Part 2...Because I Forgot to Finish...

 I managed to get myself to (and from) my appointment this morning with only minor up swings in my blood pressure, thank you to the jerk wad(s) that decided to cut me off without even bothering to look before they decided their big SUV needed to be exactly where I was driving at the exact time I was using that "spot"!  Not only did it happen three times on the way to the doctor's office, it happened a fourth time on the way home too!  Having avoided major catastrophe though, I made it home just in time for a late lunch (left over Mac & Cheese from our night out earlier this week and a cup of Mandarin Orange segments for nephew #3, after only minimal screaming that he did not want to go to sleep...I really hate the "food and nap" routine...).  I actually had a yummy Egg Salad Sandwich with Dill and some Hawaiian Sea Salt (which is, of course made in NY and is just "Pacific Sea Water" dehydrated with activated charcoal in it), it was pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

Then it was off to run a few errands (read as "wander around Wal-Mart for an hour") while Garrick got a little peace and quiet at home.  He worked from home today so that I didn't have to take the rambunctious 4 year old to the doctor with me, wasn't that nice?  While at Wal-Mart, I ran across their "discounted" plants, this is my favorite section!  Most of what they had was overgrown and poorly trimmed Pothos in giant hangers...they looked horrible and someone had gone through and just whacked away all the nice tendrils!  They also still wanted around $10 a piece for those...no thanks!  Then, tucked away in the middle of a bunch of dying plants (because they never bother to water the plants the sell) were four tiny little plants with bright green, waxy leaves!  Dry as a bone and in serious need of a good long soak, but in otherwise healthy condition (and only $1.37 each)!  What are they you ask?  Why, Coffee Plants!  These little guys sell for huge amounts of money in the "catalogs"...okay, maybe not huge amounts, but way more than I can ever justify spending!  From what I have read (and will now need to do more reading on these plants), if properly cared for, they will produce a fruit in four to five years (yes, I said years) that is actual, honest to goodness coffee beans!  The Scientific name for these little guys is Coffea arabica, so here's hoping for healthy, strong coffee fruits in the year 2016 (or 2017)!  In the mean time, they are a very pretty green plant that will help transform some of the carbon dioxide that we expel back into breathable Oxygen!  I did buy all four plants...and four new hanging baskets to plant them in.  I also bought four brightly colored large planters for my tomatoes this year.  What I did not buy though, was the soil to plant them in!  Next trip I suppose...

Back at home again, after watering our newest green additions, Nephew #3 and I went out in the backyard to continue the "quiet work time" in the house.  He had great fun plucking the leaves off of the abundant Dandelions in the yard and tossing them in the chicken run for the girls, who gobbled them up as fast as he could pick them!  He also got to run off a bit more steam, always a good thing.  While outside, I did manage to check on all of my Rhubarb and even take a peek at the Raspberry bushes too!  The Rhubarb that moved here with us is surviving, but staying very small...I don't think it likes the location that it is in, but I like it there, I can see it!  The new plants, that we planted last May, are doing great though!  In fact, some of the stalks, while still not gigantic, could be picked and made into Rhubarb Sauce/Cobbler/Cake/Etc... already!  The Blueberries didn't survive last summer, not really sure what happened there, but they never did very well.  However, the Raspberry bushes have taken off like rockets!  I need to get under them somehow and pull some weeds...oh how I wish I could put my chickens on leashes and let them out in the yard to do their chicken-y thing!  Sadly, my gals would take the opportunity to "fly the coop" I fear, and I really don't trust the neighbor dogs to be as afraid/respectful of them as poor Rosie is.  I believe only 2 of the original 4 starts survived, but what did live is filling in the space very nicely!

I know I said I wasn't going to "do the plant thing" this year, but I just cannot help myself it seems!  As soon as the weather turned to the warmer side of things, I was drawn like a moth to a flame...a pretty, potential ridden, good smelling...flame.  I'm already hungry for the sweet red berries (that probably still won't appear for a few more years) from the raspberries, the tart and tangy Rhubarb (a veggie in disguise as dessert), shrimp wrapped in long ribbons of Sage, and Tomatoes...oh the things I plan to do with those!  Of course, the mint gets tossed in with the shrimp sometimes too, but it's main purpose is for tea...or just rubbing it and smelling the bright minty flavor/smell wafting around the deck and on my hands!  I could live without the smell of the catnip, but the cats love it so much, I just love giving it to them!

I am totally and completely wiped out now, but I did manage a full, home-cooked meal tonight and dessert!  We aren't low-carbing while I'm pregnant, mainly because I could not stomach the thought of an egg during my first trimester and it really is just easier to follow the directions of my doctors than it is to argue with all of them (Endocrinologist, OB/GYN, Nutritionist, Dentist, etc...they all have something to say about how I should be eating and generally treating my body now, even though most of them loved the effects of the low-carbing, especially the weight loss)!  So, dinner tonight was Spaghetti (whole wheat pasta, at least it's better than plain white flour pasta...) with "fresh Mushroom" Prego (for pure irony) sauce.  I also sliced up and browned a Beef Kielbasa and tossed it in the sauce after draining the excess fat off.  Nephew #3 also helped make Garlic Butter today before we went shopping!  We melted down a stick of unsalted butter and added 4 heaping 1/2 teaspoons of Chopped Garlic to it, after blending the garlic in, we added about 1/2 teaspoon Parsley to the mix (for color), a few grinds of black pepper (he loved getting to help with the grinder), and just a bit of the "black sea salt" I mentioned earlier.  We made garlic bread using the butter mixture and "Health Nut" Bread, which happens to be my favorite of the "non-Rye" breads, Rye of any flavor is my all time favorite, but it doesn't make for very tasty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I also got a dessert made today...sort of.  I have had a no-bake cheesecake sitting in my kitchen for about 3 weeks waiting for me to make it, today while we were out shopping, I picked up a six-pack of "single serve" graham cracker crusts and finally got the "cake" made!  I know, not a huge accomplishment...but it is for me, lol...now if I could only get the cupcakes made and frosted (those ingredients have been on the counter for a month)!

We were going to skip nap today, to see if it made bedtime any easier, but after all that running around today, I laid down with him to catch up on Eureka (I can't believe what they did to Felicia Day's character last night!) and he was out within the first 5 minutes of last week's show!  I let him sleep for about an hour, while I finished watching the show and then cooked dinner, when dinner was ready, Garrick went and got him up...which translated into a lot of whining about how he wasn't going to eat anything (including his last cup of orange slices, which he loves).  Once he had time to wake up and we had finished our meals, he was ready to eat!  He gobbled up his oranges and tried his (now cold) spaghetti noodles with nothing on them.  Then, he asked for them to be warmed up (we had already offered this "service") with a little butter (like his Uncle had)...after they got a warm up, he happily sprinkled Parmesan cheese over his 1/3 cup serving and cleaned the plate!  Of course, reminding him there was a "whole cheesecake" in the fridge with his name written on it didn't hurt either, lol.  We did go watch this week's episode of Eureka before we had dessert, but all in all, the evening was pretty pleasant, considering we have a 4 year old running amok in the house!  He's even in bed, jammies on before 10pm tonight!  We tend to keep the kids up later when they visit so that they sleep in a bit later as well (from their normal routine), this "trick" always takes a few days, but I now have the little guy getting up at 7:15am rather than 5:45am!  I still have to get up earlier than I normally do, but it isn't nearly as bad.  They all go to sleep in our room too and get moved to the spare bed when we're ready for bed...this frees up my computer for use in the evenings, lol.  Once we get everything moved downstairs (yes, I was talking about doing that last summer too, but now we need one of the rooms to be a nursery), that plan will change and they can just go to bed in "their" bed.  It is cooler in our room though, so having them shut in there makes it easier for the boys to go to sleep and also cools the room down significantly so that is is nice and cool for us when we go to bed too.

Food is so hit and miss with this nephew...he'll gobble something down and then the next day (or even between bites), he'll decide he "hates" it!  The other day we had chicken and cheese taquitos for dinner and I made Deviled Eggs to go with them (for variety).  Mind you, I was extremely happy with my (slightly over-cooked) hard-boiled eggs, really hard-steamed eggs, since my egg cooker steams them, they were the first eggs from our girls that I tried to cook in the shell!  I had read how difficult fresh eggs were to peel, so hadn't tried it before.  Honestly, these eggs aren't exactly "fresh"...we have a stockpile of around 5 dozen eggs in the fridge right now!  So, the eggs I cooked were about 4 weeks old, perfect!  Anyway, back to the Deviled ones, nephew #3 took a huge bite of the egg half I gave him after asking what I did with the "yuck" in the middle, and loved it!  However, I think he figured out that the creamy center wasn't just mayo and mustard like I had claimed, because after proclaiming how much he loved deviled eggs and that he wanted to eat all of them...he wouldn't touch it again!  He also only ate about half of a cheese taquito too.  He refused lasagna hamburger helper too...but we did finally get most of that down him with trickery and bribery (we have a half-gallon of ice cream in the freezer that he hasn't gotten any of yet because he forgets about it after he's done eating!  Other stuff he just inhales (sometimes after refusing it for hours or at least other meals)!

Happy Easter (Early)!

I probably won't be around "here" much tomorrow, so I wanted to tell everyone (all three of you) Happy Easter!  Whether you are a church-goer or just an "Egg Hunter", have a great Sunday tomorrow!

As for today though...I successfully got a size "small" diaper pattern printed out to go with the "newborn" size I got put together the other day!  Oh, I also relocated the page I got the pattern from that, you know, contains the directions on how to use said pattern...here it is in case you are wondering what the heck I'm yammering on about.  You do have to "register" with the forums, but so far I haven't noticed anything "bad" about signing up with them...you can even just link it to Facebook (if you're lazy like me)!  So, here I sit with two of the cutest (clearance) fabrics, a brand new pair of snap pliers (specially made for the tender plastic diaper snaps), a pack of "icky" colored snaps, a yard of PUL (Poly-Urethane Laminated) Fabric, and no real "want" to cut out the stinking pattern!  I just want it to magically "happen" and be ready for me to sew!  I have the same stalemate going with the ingredients for Chocolate Rice Krispies right now...oh how I want to sink my teeth into a yummy krispy treat...but actually do the cooking?  Yuck. (Yes, microwaving butter and marshmallows counts as cooking...)

I think I may make a size small first out of "scrap" materials from the boxes in the dining room (What?  Where do you keep your fabric?), hopefully before my trip to Central Oregon in a few weeks.  That way I can try it on my sister's baby to check fit.  He fit so perfectly into the little tiny all-in-one I bought at Other Mothers!  The waterproof liner that goes into these diapers is the same size for the newborn and small size (bonus!), so the plan is to follow the directions to make the liners "removable" with snaps rather than stitching them in permanently.  Also, this means I won't have to put the PUL in my dryer, extending the lifespan by many, many uses!

I got these two fabrics in the clearance section at Jo-Ann's the other day!  $6 a yard for the brown one with dots (so I only bought 1 yard) and $3 a yard for those cute Dinos (I bought what was left, 2 inches shy of 3 yards)! The dino print is very thin, so I may end up lining that one with a white (blue, green, yellow, whatever) anti-pill fleece on the inside, it would make it warmer and less "see through" at the same time.  I also bought a couple of yards of a Christmas print...but I can't share those pics...ya know cause it's for gifts this year!  I figure with a teeny tiny at home this Christmas, I won't have too much "craft time" in October, November, and December this year).

I'll either get a diaper made today or the chicken coop cleaned...maybe both, but that's a little heavy for an afternoon where I haven't napped.  We finally remembered to go buy Hay today!  So now, I really have no excuse not to clean out the coop.  While at the feed store today, I got to peek in at the babies (chicks)!  They only had two little Brahmas (cute little black and white mottled chicks) left and a half full tray of Cornish Crosses (meat birds), happy chicks they were though!  With that many chicks in the one bin (and so few in the Brahma tray), they were all pretty quiet!  If only I could convince my other half that we "need" more chickens, lol.  (That dream will take winning the lottery and moving to many acres...)  Speaking of my girls though, they have just been tearing through the Oyster shell recently!  Has anyone else noticed this or is this another of those "unique to my chickens" things?  They have a bird feeder dish that holds 1/2 cup each of grit and Oyster shell and I have had to refill the OS every other day for the past 2 weeks!

Well, off to clean the coop (or make a diaper)!  Enjoy the weather a little maybe too, it's 51 outside and sunny!

Another Busy Week!

This has been heck of a busy week for us!  Monday and Wednesday I had dentist appointments and got 2 fillings on both days!  My teeth suck...   Tuesday was a trip to the Endocrinologist, where I got in trouble (again) for not getting my fasting labs done!  I really wish you could make an appointment for those...I'd be more likely to actually go then!  I did get them done on Wednesday though...I skipped my morning coffee before my dentist appointment (at 7:30am) and went in for my blood draw with an almost entirely numb lower jaw.  Try spelling a name with an "f" in the middle to someone when half your tongue and lip are numb and not working properly!

On Tuesday I stopped in on my eye doctor to make an appointment there as well (for Monday).  While we were there, nephew #3 played with their toys for a little bit...he was really good during my Endo visit and only interrupted twice!  He also got stickers at both offices...they gave him two stickers at the Endocrinologist, so when I asked him what he should say at the eye doctor (as she was passing him the basket to pick from) he said "I want two!"  That, of course, got the whole staff laughing...and then he said his please and thank you.

Tuesday was probably our busiest day this week.  I have been working hard to arrange our days so that my other half still gets to take his SUV to work and not have to worry about us dropping him off and remembering to pick him up again.  So, after picking him up from work on Tuesday (he worked from home while I was at the dentist to watch our nephew), he dropped our nephew and I off at the Mall and came home to get the coupon (I forgot to print it before we left the house that afternoon) for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants (Perkins)...they emailed me a 20% off coupon and it was Tuesday, kids eat free!  Northtown mall has a kid play area (that #3 refers to as "the park" that is padded from top to bottom and perfect for even the earliest of walkers to run around in without getting hurt.  However, when getting dropped off...we got let off at the opposite end of the mall!  It was a lucky break though...I have been promising to take #3 back to see Santa since we got back to Spokane.  He got to see "him" in Bend while I was visiting, but he said he forgot to tell him something and wanted to see him again!

#3's list of "somethings"...

• dog bone (for both dogs)
• a wooden house (that he can paint himself...black!)
• Furniture for the house...every room, please!
• Please come early so we don't have to wait so long!  (This is really due to the two of us having to travel home on the 24th...but he likes the idea of being Santa's "practice run" for this year!)

He could have gone on and on, but there was a line forming behind us by that time!  He got a little coloring book, thankfully they weren't giving out candy canes like they were in Bend, and then we set off to finish our walk to the play structure!  Can you believe they want $30 for a single 5x7 photo here?!?  This is probably why I can't remember ever going to do this as a kid...

We made a pie this week too!  It's gone now...but it was pretty good!  Pumpkin "Custard"...but I cooked it a little too long, so while it was still creamy, it cut a little better!  I modified a recipe given to me by my Mother...who modified it to her liking from a recipe they were giving out at the WIC office (typed and printed on a computer, so who knows where they stole it from!).

Here is "Marcy's Version...Pumpkin Pie/Custard":

• 2 cups Pumpkin (either from a can or from the "real" thing...I used 2 "Pie Pumpkins" that I baked the night before)
• 3 eggs (I used fresh eggs from the girls, so Large eggs)
• 2 cups "Milk product" (I used Hood's Calorie Countdown*, Coconut, Almond, and Soy are all good subs...or mix and match!)
• 2/3 cup Splenda (I think it could have used a little more "sweet", but a fresh whipped cream would add to this too)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon Clove
• 1/2 teaspoon Ginger (Or you could use Pumpkin Pie Spice...but I would still use the Cinnamon too, just replace the other spices with it!)

Put everything in a blender or mixer (this filled my blender to the very tip top edge) and give it a whirl to mix everything really well.  I Pulse my blender with each ingredient...start with the eggs and "milk", then add your Splenda and spices...finish by adding in the pumpkin!  I started with the pumpkin and it was really hard to get everything to blend well.

Pour into a pie plate (or two if they are shallow, or even small glass dishes...use a water bath with the small ones though) and bake at 350 for 30+ minutes.  The original recipe says 45 minutes...I think mine took about 75 minutes though...hard to say when you have a little guy running around the house!  Start checking it after 30 minutes...just keep setting the timer for another 5-15 minutes (after 30 it looked very soupy still so I gave it 15 minutes and then slowly increased how often I was checking it).

The really observant have already noticed, I'm sure...but there are a few things I'd like to point out about #3 in that photo right there.  First, he's wearing my kitchen apron!  He had just got clean pajamas on, and I didn't want pumpkin on them since he was going to my bed when he finished his pie!  I had to tie the neck hole up to make it fit him, but otherwise it is perfectly kid sized!  (I smell another craft project coming on!)  Now look at how nicely he's sitting up to the table...since we don't have a high chair/booster seat anymore, he is getting to sit in a regular chair with a 12-pack of Diet Cola on it!  It is working very well...even if t does look, um, well...trashy!  Lastly, do you see the television on behind him?  Chicken Channel!  Now see my chickens...one out of the three is actually on the roost!  One is on the side of the nest box and the last one is in the nest box!  This is how they have chosen to sleep since the weather got cold almost nightly!  It is never the same chicken in the same spot either...they take turns getting pooped on by being the one in the nest box!  I have tried going down and moving them, but this is how they always rearrange back to once I leave.

Perkins knows how to get kids to eat...at least our nephews anyway!  All three of them clean their plates when we got here!  (Remember, I said we went on Tuesday...)  While we did actually bring food home for #3 after this meal, he ate everything I let him have while we sat there!  This was our second trip to eat with him...and this meal went over much better than the previous meal.  During our first visit, he chose the pancakes with chocolate chips.  He ate all the chocolate off and refused to eat the pancakes!  We eventually got him to eat one of the "ears" it was shaped like a bear head (big round with little round ears), but unlike the photo which was two small pancakes and a large one, this one came as one large pancake!  He ate the rest over two more meals.

Tuesday I got him talked into the "Rainbow Sprinkle Pancakes" that also came with bacon (and powdered sugar and whipped cream).  We immediately slid one of the pancakes off of his plate while he ate the mountain of whip cream off the top!  #3 also chose to take his 2 slices of bacon home.  So, he ate one giant (to him) pancake for dinner along with a glass of milk (I think it was chocolate, but I could be wrong).  When he finished his milk, he asked the waitress for a glass of water instead of a refill, I was proud of him!

This morning while he was still asleep, I started to assemble the gifts to get them wrapped!  Of course, he got up before I finished that step, so he got to help with some of the wrapping too.  First though, it was off to gather my stash of empty boxes!  I save boxes like a madwoman throughout the year specifically for Christmas!  Square (or at least straight and flat) packages are so much easier to wrap than how stuff comes packaged...  Anywho, my box stash inhabits a large portion of the closet that is also doubling (tripling maybe?) as the "warm, dark place to make my Homemade Sauerkraut!  Also in there is a leaf to a large dining room table that we are currently not using (the rest of the table is taken apart and being stored in a room in the garage).  Needless to say, things ran amok on me and while trying to catch the table leaf as it went crashing down toward my jars of 'Kraut...I got caught averting disaster (in the form of broken glass and half fermented cabbage all over the place)!  I have no idea what "bit" me, but it is still bleeding a little and I need to change the band-aid again...6 hours post "incident"!  But, you aren't "really" wrapping gifts until you draw blood, right?

Gift wrapping has been a bit of a "bother" for me this year too!  It appears that all of my boxes are just a hair too big for the amount of paper I have!  This partially wrapped gift that is pictured here for example...no matter which way I turned the box, the roll of paper was just not bog enough!  I ended up putting a piece of "scrap paper" to fill the hole...it was from another roll entirely and doesn't match, but what does an almost 4 week old care about the wrapping, right?  I had to "Patch" together almost every package I wrapped!  Some of that though was because I am actually running out of wrapping paper!  I'll suffer through this year and buy more after Christmas when I can get it for $0.70 a roll or less!  The one pictured here I actually bought a year or two ago at World Market after Christmas...they better enjoy it because I am never buying paper again that doesn't have a squared pattern or those little grid lines on the back!  I can't cut a straight line to save my life!
I did get a good amount of wrapping done, but am not finished by a long shot!  What I have left though are all smaller gifts and all I have are large boxes!  I did notice that I need to get some quality toy shopping done though...I hate the fact that I don't have any good "toys" for the boys!  Lots of clothes this year...for everyone!

While I was busy wrapping, #3 went to watch Toy Story 3 (Thank you Netflix for putting it on the streaming video list!) in our room.  This is about how he's spent every day when we're home!  The grin is because he just can't help himself!  Any time he even thinks I might be taking a picture, he grins and says "Cheese!"  He actually watched about 75% of the movie before he got up wanting something, I think that's a record!  He is currently fighting nap time...2 hours and counting!  If he'd just fall asleep everything would be great!

That Four-Letter Word...

Snow, of course, what were you thinking?  They are calling for it overnight tonight here in Spokane, yuck!  Even though they are really only calling for "up to 1/2 an inch", it's still coming and preparations need to be made ASAP!  So, after my 2-week post-op appointment today (where I got the all-clear and told I can skip the 6-week appointment unless we'd like him to be our "we-want-a-baby" doctor), I ran around town in preparation for snow and my being out of town in the near future.

Yesterday my shoes started falling apart, and I mean literally...chunks fell off the sides of both shoes!  So, my first stop was the mall to pick out a new pair of shoes, in fact, I got two pair.  Payless (as always) is running a BOGO sale, you know, where you get the second pair for 50%.  So I picked up a new pair of Champion "Fitness" (I wore through a pair of these over the summer, but they are so comfortable!  These are ones that have the "yoga ball" styled toes and heels, so you kind of rock while you walk.  I liked them and they were on sale for $24 (normally $35).  For my second pair, I spied a pair of Champion "Activelite".  They have a flat sole, but are designed for walking in and were on sale for $19 ($9.50 with the BOGO deal).  Since I have been going through shoes so fast recently, I suppose that means I'm more active than I was a year ago, half off a pair of shoes was well worth it in my opinion!

Next was the grocery store for a couple of reasons, first of all, I was starving!  I didn't cook this morning and had planned to grab an Atkin's bar on my way out the door, but forgot it.  Since I needed to pick up some more needle caps for my insulin, I also stocked up on bars and shakes for when my sister goes into labor (any day now, so trying to be as prepared as possible before hand).  I also got a package of Grape Tomatoes, they are so yummy!

Last stop before heading home was another trip to the feed store.  After researching online, I decided on the bucket and bird bath heater to keep the chicken's water thawed this winter.  Usually I can find better deals online than in store, but this time, Aslin-Finch beat out Amazon!  For $34, I got my de-icer and got it installed today!  While there, I also picked up a bag of Cracked Corn (corn is like a nutritional space heater in the girl's bodies, the energy used to process it keeps their body temps up, therefore warmer chickens!  Since the suet cake went over so well on Sunday, I bought several more as well as a suet feeder, which was harder to figure out how to use then it should have been.

Then it was home to start the "winterization" of the coop & run.  All that really meant was "get something up to keep snow from blowing into the coop".  For the most part, it's protected, but there is that one spot, to the left of the staircase down off the porch, where the coop has a hardware cloth "window" built into the coop.  That was easy enough to protect and took the least amount of time of anything out there today!  I had saved the old shower curtain a few months ago when I replaced mine.  After running it through the washing machine with a light load of clothes, I hung it up to dry over the railing and then folded it up once dry.  Today, I unfolded the curtain, grabbed my staple gun and got to work stapling it up!  I wanted to still allow air flow through the window, they'll need the venting to keep the moisture from breathing down in the coop as the temps drop, so I tacked it up on the last beam, about six inches from the coop wall, and then down one side.  On the side actually under the stairs, I added a few staples to the coop to angle the curtain in and help try to protect that open window.  The curtain still had "flow" and is not tacked anywhere along the bottom, that way it hopefully has enough give to not get torn down too soon!  However, we do buy the cheap liners ($3-6), so replacing it won't be too hard to do.

After getting the plastic curtain up, is was time to "pretty up" the rest of the coop and run!  They got fresh pine shavings in the coop, as well as fresh Orchard Grass in the nest boxes.  The Alfalfa Hay that was in the boxes got dumped into the run for them to pick through.  They didn't eat it in the boxes, but once it was on the ground, they have been having a ball finding all the bits of leaf and such in it!  Anything to keep them busy and entertained...  Here's a good view of the lights I got strung up over the weekend too, I forgot to reset the timer, but will get that done this afternoon as well.  They have all been spending more time in the boxes since hanging the lights, but I think we're having a water issue now that is holding up the egg producing.

With the purchase of the de-icing unit, hopefully the girls will again have unlimited water flow!  It was simple to hook up too, just lay the unit flat in the bottom of the bucket and plug it in!  Of course, to do that, we had to drill a new hole and get a new hanger positioned where the short 6-foot cord could reach the outlet.  The water is now hovering over the sand box turtle...but at least they'll have water!

We've had to punch out two cord "holes" in the cover over the outside outlet now...the lower cord is for the light timer (an outdoor-rated extension cord) and the top for the water heater.  That was much easier to do the second time around, when I figured out how to get the cover off!

Doing the clean-up in the coop meant a few added treats and storage options as well.  To the left here you can see the relocated water system, the old hay that is a new found toy, and the Cat Litter container.  That container is full of Cracked Corn!  Weather proof, and most animal proof too!  There's even a bowl I use as a scoop in there for a fast treat!  I cheated and sprinkled some corn into the hay for this photo op...

I love reusing these Litter containers...the one in the front actually has the extra extension cord wound up in it!  This keeps the girls from pecking at or pooping on it.  The two containers stacked behind it are full of Chicken feed.  With ouring about a cup r so straight in the feeder, a 50-pound bag of crumbles fills three of these litter containers.  The third one resides in the black garbage con to weight it down a bit, the hay, pine shaving, Oyster Shell, Grit, BOSS, and Meal worms don't weigh all that much!

One last "treat" to keep the chickens happy, healthy, and entertained through the colder weather months was the Suet Cakes.  On Sunday I gave them a "High Energy" Suet cake, which they still have part of laying under their feeder, however, the dirt on it bugs me to no end!  So, I picked up a $3 suet holder today, along with several more suet cakes, they're on for a good price and at one or two a week, I wanted to have enough to last!  I know it's really hard to see here, but the black wire thing near the concrete pillar is the holder, holding a Suet Cake.  I have hardware cloth on this corner of the coop too (covering a one to two inch gap), so it was a easy spot to hook the Suet hanger to that kept the cake away from outer walls were other "wildlife" (squirrels and wild birds) could get at it.  The girls are a little afriad of the cage at the moment, but I'm sure they'll figure out there's a yummy treat in there soon enough!

Remember how I said I went to the Mall today?  This really disgusts me...only because I'll be so freaking sick of it by Christmas!  They have already begun decorating the Mall for Christmas!  November freaking 2nd!  Okay, it isn't overboard (yet), and there was no Christmas music being played...but come on!  Those strings of lights hanging are covered in bits of ribbon, bows, and those little Mylar "fireworks" looking things too.  I could handle the lights, and [probably wouldn't have even noticed them, but the big red bows with fake pine greenery?  Ugh.

In other news...my blood sugars have finally decided to cooperate with me!  My surgeon was very impressed with my recent readings, but I think he was even more impressed by my being able to wake up with a sugar reading of 36, get up, and treat it myself.  Like most people who aren't Diabetic, they go by the numbers others have told them are the "coma thresholds" and are impressed to see people up and moving at anything lower than that arbitrary number.  (Case in point, once when I was at camp, so we're talking 20 years ago, one of the camp counselors had a low blood sugar at one of the "dances"...she had a blood sugar of 9 and was still up and active!)  At any rate, we did discuss the size of my fibroid (the parasite living off my body for who knows how long) and decided that it may have been contributing to my insulin needs as well. 

Below is a photo of my logbook for this week.  [I really liked my "free" logbooks I got at a conferrence a few years back, they are made by drug companies to be given away at these sorts of things...I have no idea how to get my hands on more of them!  Lilly makes the best logbook, followed closely by Sanofi Aventis!  What I have now is the best substitute I could download and print off the internet...]  If you look to the far right near the top, you see that 52 at 4am?  That was the result of taking 5 units of Lantus before bed the evening before!  Prior to surgery, I was taking 26 units every night before going to bed.  Now, back in the left most column...138 is still a bit high for a "normal" person, but when have I ever claimed to be normal?  For me, this is a great reading!  This morning was even better at 103.  However, lunch today, even without eating anything other than an Atkin's bar while out and about, killed my average for the day! (Yesterday too...this afternoon isn't pictured here.)  I'm going to give it another day or so before I start messing with my morning Lantus, but it appears I may need a bit more in the morning to hold me through lunch and into dinner.

Speaking of the size of my fibroid, it was impressive all in it's own right!  My fibroid weighed in at 455 grams (1.003 pounds)!  That's just barely over a pound, but that isn't even the part that makes it sound big!  An "average" Uterus weighs 70 grams, making my fibroid 6.5 times the size of an average Uterus (making the combined over 7 times the size it should be assuming anything about me is "average")!  The doctor told me I am still very swollen and will notice that going away over the next several weeks (possibly a few months), but there was nothing he could do to help with the "skin sag" I have going on. 

On the weight front, I have lost all of my "surgery weight" that I gained thanks to a sugar-filled electrolyte IV bag!  I've even gone down "unofficially" (since it isn't Friday yet) a few more pounds!  This morning I weighed in at 254.0!  I was sitting at 256.8 the morning of my surgery.  Little steps...my next mini goal is fast approaching, 247.2 will be 50 pounds gone forever!  Only 6.8 pounds to go!  Since I have switched to wearing exercise shoes already, I'm not really sure what my reward to myself is going to be...my original plan had been a pair of Sketcher's Shape-Ups, but having tried them on and compared to the Champion brand ones, I prefer the less expensive shoe.  I still want to keep the "exercise" theme going because 50 pounds gone was my "start point" for really working more activity into my weight loss.  I can't lose 150 pounds on diet alone!  Maybe a DDR game for my Wii?  The issue there is that I still haven't found a decent spot to keep the Wii where I'll actually use it!  I already have Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, but they haven't been touched in almost a year...and the Wii Fit was the entire reason I bought a Wii in the first place!  In January no less when the balance boards were worth their weight in gold if you could get your hands on one (we lucked out and the Circuit City 2 blocks from our house got a shipment in and my other half went down to grab a ticket 2 hours before the store opened for me...they only got 6 in and were basically raffling them to the first 6 people that read their paper and got there before 8am.)...it only took me 2 weeks to get one, but some people had been looking since November for them!  (I've had my Wii for about 2 years now, so this may or may not be the case come January...plan your fitness needs well in advance of the "Resolution Rush"!)

I'm tempted to get a gym membership, but I don't like being the "fat girl at the gym who can't keep up"...and jump ropes are out because my bits giggle way too much for that!  I've even tried getting in a simple walk for the exercise, but that was lonely alone and the other half just isn't all that motivated to go with me, it lasted about 3 weeks.  If I could get a super deal on one of those sit-up machines (padded metal frame that assists you in "proper form"), that might be an option, but I don't think I could justify another piece of equipment when I am so bad at using what we already have!  Maybe just an alarm to remind it's time to get up and go use the Wii, lol.  Any suggestions?