Food

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I am a bit obsessed with food lately. I absolutely love to cook, and I've been reading books such as An Eater's Manifesto and Real Food. :-) I am soooo becoming a health nut. ha I was shopping in Whole Foods the other day, and as I looked around I thought, You know, I used to walk in health food stores and inwardly chuckle at the weirdos. Now I AM one of the weirdos. hee hee The Whole Foods shopping started when Evan and I decided that we should switch to organic milk. I still shop at Aldi, but now a lot of the items that were bought at Walmart before are now bought at Whole Foods since I don't want to make THREE grocery stops. And I happened to buy organic carrots one time...and now I'm hooked. The good thing is that I only go to Whole Foods every two weeks or so. Just walking through the produce section of that store makes me want to cook.
To further seal my fate as a health nut, I am now getting a grain mill for Christmas. I have yet to decide which one I am getting, but I am getting one. :-) So much more to say, but I think I'll go for tonight!

Life

The days are going by so quickly! I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is next week. I am so thankful that I will actually be able to eat a Thanksgiving dinner this year!! :-) Last year I had all four wisdom teeth removed the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was as bad as I thought it would be but no more so. And it's over now! I can't believe it's already a whole year later, and this year I have two wonderful children heading into the holiday season!
By the way, I found my first white hair tonight. Evan saw it yesterday, but tonight was the first time I actually saw it for myself. Interesting. I suppose I've earned it this year. ha
Noelle is two and a half months old already. She doesn't appreciate sleep as of yet, but I'm hoping she will soon be won over. :-) With Nathan I was able to be a bit more firm in my schedule and desires; I could sleep whenever he slept the next day. With Noelle, I have learned to be more flexible. Some nights we do whatever it takes to get sleep because I have to be completely awake the next day, and mommy naps are almost unheard of. So, I will have no clue as to whether her sleeping habits are due to my lack of consistency or her personality. ha
Hmmmm, I was going to continue to another topic, but I think I'll stop and actually start a new blog entry. ;-)

What's new?

Well, not too much, actually. :-)
I have started using cloth diapers and wipes, though! So far, so good. The only complaint I have is how big Noelle's backside is with the cloth diapers! ha Other than that, I quite like them. Evan, who was against them, was even impressed with the diapers that I got. ;-) I made my own wipes with one of Nathan's receiving blankets, and they seem to work quite well. I have a spray bottle with a wipe solution that I keep with my diaper things, and I just spray a wipe when I need one. Interesting, no?
I have been on a "crafty" spree lately (I think because Hannah was here), and I knitted Nathan a hat, made a sling for myself/Noelle, and made pajama bottoms for Evan. Oh yeah, I also knitted Noelle a bonnet, but it fits Nathan. ha We all got a good laugh out of it, anyway! I am hoping to find another cute knitted hat pattern for Noelle and get that started. Hancock's had all of their McCalls patterns on sale for $1 last week, so I bought several patterns. Yay!
That's all for my update now!

Walgreens 9/27

My net loss: $1.67.

I would have made a small profit had I not grabbed the wrong dental pick things. Argh. Walgreens had them mislabeled, and I did not double check my ad. See the shirt? One dollar. :-) I'm sending some Theraflu home with my sister-in-law. ha

Refried Beans

2 pounds dried pinto beans, soaked overnight, drained, and rinsed
2 yellow onions, cut in half
2 red onions, cut in half
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 stick of butter
4 t. cumin
2 t. coriander

Place the beans, onions, and garlic in a crockpot on low. Cover with water and add salt. Cook for 8-10 hours. Melt butter in a large pot. Add the beans, leaving the extra juice in the crockpot to add to the beans as needed. Cook and stir the beans for 5-10 minutes. Mash with a potato masher or use an immersion blender, adding the extra juice to reach the desired consistency.

I put measure out 2 cups of beans in freezer bags and freeze them. We love these refried beans, and I like knowing what all went in them! Some people skip the "frying" (butter) part altogether; but the butter makes for a much better consistency, in my humble opinion.

I made these this morning and used my nifty new immersion blender!! The beans were so smooth!! :-) Anyway, I now have five bags of frozen refried beans in my freezer. Yay!

The Countdown is over!!

I made it to 37 weeks and 1 day!! Noelle is here and healthy, and she is doing great. We had a little bit of a rocky road the first day because her blood sugar and temperature were low, but she stabilized quickly. I was glad that I got to breastfeed her for an hour after she was born since I didn't get to feed her again until almost twelve hours later. They gave her formula, and I wasn't sure she would go back to breastfeeding, but she did! I even got cleared to stop supplementing with formula before I left the hospital, and she is doing great. Praise God! He is good.
Now I am getting back into the swing of life and finding my new "normal" with two kids. Tomorrow will be the first official day of being alone with my two kids from the time Evan leaves until he gets home. :-) I am just having to readjust my ways for this season of life. I used to get most of my "chores" done during the week while Evan was at work; now I'll most likely be doing most of those things on the weekend when I have Evan around. Of course, I'll do my best to get things done during the week, but I'm just not setting my expectations that high for a while. ha If things get done, fine; if they don't get done, fine.
Yesterday I boiled eggs, made a ton of rice, made cookies, made a menu, grocery shopped, and did laundry. Today I made and froze waffles and black bean burritos. It's so nice to have things in the freezer to pull out on short notice. Plus, I think I am just happy with the fact that I'M BACK IN CONTROL OF MY KITCHEN!!!! Woo hoo! ;-) I love my job, and I'm happy to be back.
Oh, today I also ran to Walgreens and got two packages of True North pistachio chips, two boxes of Triaminic strips, two Cow Tails (interesting), and a bottle of olive oil. My net loss was about $1.50. The overage from the True North chips and the Triaminic almost covered the total amount of the olive oil (which I had just run out of). Yay!

36 Weeks!!

Yay!!! :-)
I am pretty happy about being this far along. I am off all medication as of last night, which means I didn't have to set my alarm for every four hours last night!! It was wonderful to only wake up to empty my bladder! ha ha For some reason, my bladder and my pill-taking schedule never cooperated. You wanted to know that, right??
This morning I cleaned up a bunch of my "bedrest junk." This week is going to be pretty busy, so I felt that it was time for most of it to go. I also have been packing my hospital bad, although I still don't have suckers. Evan has looked for the kind I want and couldn't find them. Now he just tells me that I won't want them anyway. ha I know how it will work: if I don't get any, I'll want them; if I have them in the bag, I won't use them. ;-) Now I just need to pack Nathan's hospital bag for "just in case." We don't plan on having him up there, but I'd like to have a bag ready anyway. All Evan would have to do is give his phone to Nathan and let him watch a movie, really.
Woo hoo!!