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Monthly Archives: February 2010
Onion Onion
I went to the pantry the other day to grab an onion and I found this:
I did a little research and discovered that the top is actually the same green onion you buy at the grocery store and some people grow their own green onions this way, right on their window sill. If you rest the onion on top of a glass and keep the roots in water (but not the whole onion 0r it will rot), you can keep snipping the greens off the top, leaving about an inch, and get quite a bit of green onion out of one single regular onion. I’m not going to leave this onion in a wine glass – I just thought it looked cool – but I might try the glass trick and see how much green onion I can grow in my window.
Have you ever found a sprouting onion in your pantry?
Happy Valentines Day
Micah is a little love bug, isn’t he?
Eric and I celebrated Valentines Day one day early this year with our friends, the Gilmore’s. We always enjoy their company! Lately it seems like every time they visit we make our “famous” homemade pizza, and yesterday was no exception. Barry requested it, and we can’t say no to a pizza request! Our pizza recipe has now surpassed delivery, Barry says, and I have to agree. It’s mouth watering! This time we made a large, five cheese and Italian sausage pizza with “garlic bread” crust. Everything, including the sauce is made from scratch and it is well worth the effort. In addition to the pizza, we made bruschetta with fresh chopped tomato and basil (Jayna’s recipe), savory garlic bread, a buttery Bundt cake drizzled with caramel topping (also Jayna’s), and fresh strawberries dipped in melted Ghirardelli milk chocolate. That meal had to be one of the top five meals I’ve ever eaten in my life; that is how good it was. I’m still thinking about it.
Today is a very special day. Micah is going to be dedicated at church this morning! We are very excited and our families will be there to see it as well. Afterward we are all going to a family restaurant for lunch. I am going to dress Micah up in his red sweater again! A baby dedication is a brief ceremony (as in a few minutes), a spoken covenant between the pastor, the church, and the parents, to commit to raising up the child in a loving, Christ-centered environment. I’m hoping Micah doesn’t freak out when the Pastor holds him during the prayer. Ha!
Spoonful of Sugar
The bubblegum flavored Amoxicillin left pink stains on his bib and one giant smile on his face. As it turns out, Micah was diagnosed with an ear infection in his right ear, as well as a cold. The cold was making him wheeze quite a bit, so he’s also on the syrup form of Albuterol. Ten days of squirting sticky pink stuff into the inside of his cheeks and he’ll be good as new.
The double tooth is growing, and this is the first time I’ve been able to catch all six teeth in one shot. He’s been giving me big sloppy kisses on the cheeks and mouth this past week (a new skill), except for some reason he thinks all of those lovely white teeth need to be in on the kiss, too. He never bites down hard, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous every time he pulls me in for a smooch. After all, how would I explain the teeth marks on my face if for some reason he decided to apply a little force?
Yesterday he stood unassisted for about four seconds before plopping his butt down on the floor. He did it twice actually. I haven’t been able to get him to do it again, though, and so I suppose he feels that he is not quite ready to add standing to his repertoire just yet. If he follows his typical pattern, he’ll be standing like a pro within a month. He’s always apprehensive and cautious to begin with, but then he’ll wake up one morning and decide he has mastered the new skill and nothing can stop him.
I Felt The Earth Shake
Around 3:57am, I shuffled to my son’s room where he was crying softly. I lifted all twenty pounds of him into my arms and settled into the arm chair by the window to feed him. I rested my head on the back of the chair and closed my eyes. Suddenly something slammed against our house (or so it seemed). My chair rumbled beneath me. I sat up and realized that my entire house was shaking. The pull chain on my son’s lamp was rattling and I could feel the reverberations in my feet. It lasted all of three or four seconds, but my heart continued to pound long after silence returned to the room. I woke up my husband to have him figure out what the commotion was, but he was only half awake and didn’t see anything suspicious around the house.
I had an appointment with my son’s pediatrician this morning, so as soon as we got breakfast down and our clothes on, we were out the door. I had forgotten all about the early morning disruption until I overheard the receptionist and another mom in the doctor’s office talking about an earthquake. Suddenly, it clicked. I couldn’t wait to tell my husband, who thought I had overreacted to snow falling off the roof or the normal sounds of a new home settling. As it turns out, my house is just under fifty miles from the farm in Elgin, IL where a 3.8-magnitude quake centered this morning at 4am. I had mixed feelings, relief that I hadn’t lost my marbles and a little fear that I had experienced my first earthquake. I immediately wondered if any damage had been done, but according to the news the last I checked, none has been found. The quake happened about 3 miles underground.
It was scary having my house shake like that, but a 3.8 magnitude earthquake is is nothing compared to the 7.0 earthquake that leveled Haiti. The Haiti earthquake was 1600 times as strong as the one we experienced here this morning. If such a brief and “mild” earthquake startled me so much, I can’t imagine what Haitians experienced just weeks ago. I imagine there might have been a young mother, like me, innocently feeding her child, only to have her entire world tumble around her. I forgot about the quake just hours after it happened, but the people in Haiti are nowhere near dealing with the destruction that tore their lives and families apart. My prayers are with them this afternoon.
Necessity is the Mother of…
…homemade baby food!
Before we started solids, I had full intentions of making all of my own baby food. Then the day came to start him on baby food and I found myself completely overwhelmed by the idea. I looked through recipes, instructions for steaming, which foods to use, etc, and I quickly reached for the jar of Beechnut instead. A few attempts resulted in Micah refusing the fruits of my labor since I couldn’t get the purees to be as smooth as the store-bought.
Now that Micah is getting into foods like spaghetti, pancakes, eggs, and other “big people” foods, I have revisited the idea of making my own purees since it’s no longer a necessity to make them so smooth. In fact, the opposite is true: I want them to be chunky! Still, I have been hesitating since it’s so easy to just grab that Beechnut and pop it in the microwave. So easy, that is, until you look in the pantry and realize you only have one jar left and it’s the one the baby refuses to eat!
Suddenly I’m raiding the fridge for veggies, digging out my steamer basket and trying to figure out how to make carrots a little more appetizing, since the last time he tried Beechnut’s variety he hated it. I’ve got three carrots and a slice of apple steaming right now over a pot of boiling water seasoned with pumpkin pie spice (in the water, not the carrots). I’m hoping the spice will seep up a little bit into the carrots without overwhelming them and add a little flavor. The apple should sweeten them up a bit. I plan on throwing it all in the food processor until it is semi-smooth and thick. I’m hoping that he will like it. Please, baby, please like it!
Spaghetti Face
Are words really necessary?
In Which She Collapses On The Keyboard
I am floating somewhere between exhausted and wired. My mind is racing as I ponder the events of this past week. It’s clear I am venturing into new territory in mommyland, a terrain full of bumps and detours.
My little baby is developing his own will.
He has also been ill.
He loves to lean on the window sill.
His whining has become very shrill.
Obviously he’s adorable still.
I am amazed at his ability to quickly lift up the floor vent and drop his pacifier down the heat duct in one smooth motion. He broke his first glass by swinging those crazy arms over the table and hurling it to the floor. Isn’t that like an official milestone? He pulled the last six sheets of toilet paper off the roll when I wasn’t looking. He has discovered his crib mattress makes a great trampoline. Nothing gets him more hyper than crawling around his room naked after a bath. He ate his first pancake. He sometimes screams when he doesn’t get his way.
He caught a cold this week, and of course every time he coughs I cringe. It sounds like mucous is breaking up in his chest. I remember coughing like that as a kid just about every winter during my “annual chest cold” as I called it. Because of this, I don’t worry. I still may take him in tomorrow to make sure his ears are clear, however; he keeps pulling at them.
Even though he is becoming quite the mischievous little fellow, he has also become such a sweetheart. It’s really endearing the way he gently touches my cheek or grabs his grandpa’s face with both hands and pulls his head in for a little nuzzle. He starts waving every limb and finger and toe when his daddy gets home from work. He squeals with excitement and crawls to the door to greet him.
I could go on and on of course, but this kiddo has tired me out and my bed is calling my name. I’ll try to update again soon, but no promises!