Wordless Wednesday {Susannah's First Fajita}

Susannah, age 2 (almost 2 1/2!)

A Menu Plan... for real

It has been a very, very long time since I've had a written menu plan, or even an un-written menu plan.  I've been doing a lot of "you mean we have to eat again today?!" thinking, then scrounging around in my head trying to come up with what I can get made for dinner in the time that is left.  Some days I would come up with a plan earlier in the day, many days it was mid-afternoon or *ahem* even closer to dinner time before I'd have a plan (which by that time really is not a plan, it's a panic).

(My husband just showed me something on the guitar that he is practicing... it is totally foreign to me, but I'm happy that his practice is working even if "it's weird! But it makes perfect sense!"  :-) )

I have also been going through an extended time of little desire to cook or bake.  I am hoping that having a menu plan will help that.

Since Susannah is older (all of her almost 2 1/2 years "older") I have started thinking through breakfasts a little more.  This will be the first time I've planned a breakfast menu.

Monday: Breakfast - Oatmeal
                Dinner - Fish, Rice, Squash (if I can get some from my MIL) or another veg.

Tuesday: Breakfast - Pumpkin Muffins (already made), Yogurt/Fruit Smoothies
                Dinner - Chicken Fajitas

Wednesday: Breakfast - Eggs & Toast
                      Dinner (church night) - Hamburger Pot Pie

Thursday: Breakfast - Baked Oatmeal (I'm on the lookout for a GOOD recipe.  Send 'em my way!)
                   Dinner - Liver w/ Onions, Mashed Potatoes/Gravy, Corn on the Cob

Friday: Breakfast - French Toast, Yogurt/Fruit or Cottage Peaches*
              Dinner - Lasagna, Garlic Bread, Salad

Saturday: Breakfast - Cereal
                  Dinner - Leftovers

Sunday: Breakfast - Egg Casserole
               Lunch - Crock-pot Meal or Leftovers

Have a great week!

Oh, I almost forgot!  *Cottage Peaches is what Susannah came up with for Cottage Cheese and Peaches.  So now I just call it "Cottage Peaches".  :-)

Weekly Randoms

Sylvia enjoying a little time in the Johnny-Jump-Up.  She hasn't figured out how to jump in it and Susannah wants to show her how.  Today I had to stop Susannah from "helping" Sylvia jump!  :)

In a desire to add some better structure to Susannah's day, one day after lunch I very much on a whim decided that it was going to be the first day of school.  "School" is a very loose term, and the time of actual "school" lasts probably all of 10 minutes.  She loves it and I have to say that I do, too!

1st Day of School - Letter A

Sylvia was also needing some variety in her day, so I had Daniel get the "car" out of the attic.  Susannah tried it out first to make sure it was still in good working condition.  :-)

Sylvia takes a turn in the car.  Chomping on her fists - or any toy she can possibly grasp - 

is very common these days.  Maybe teeth, maybe exploring. :-)

Friday evening we took the girls to Grandma and Papa's house and then Daniel and I headed to the mountains for a 2 day mini-vacation by ourselves.  With Daniel's work being incredibly busy this summer and working on the house addition (his week of vacation really was not vacation for any of us), we desperately needed some away-time. 

This was the view from the front porch and living room:

We were lazy, but we did not eat lazy.

We took along Filet Mignon for one meal.

We had a Herbie-athon.  Yep, we watched

all four of these in 2 days. (Daniel had never seen them.)

We slept, talked, relaxed (both body and brain!), dreamed, and tried to take pictures of ourselves that we both looked decent in. :-)

We came home refreshed, blessed, thankful for the time away with each other, and excited to see our girls again.

A Blowout, A Bee and a Barf Bucket

 What a title, but this last week included ALL THREE of those things.  I have pictures to prove it.  I think it was about Wednesday that I thought "I sure would like to start this week over... NO! I don't want to do this week over, I just want to get it done!"

Sunday morning Daniel needed to leave extra early and for another reason we were taking both his truck and the car to church, so that meant that I could come later with the girls.  Typically this would be a good thing. :-)  After Daniel got up to get ready, I fell back asleep quite soundly and did not get up as soon as I would have liked, but it was still going to work out mostly ok and we weren't going to be too terribly late for Sunday School.  I had Susannah fed, dressed and ready, myself dressed and ready and most of the stuff we needed to take (diaper bag, etc.) gathered and ready.  After I fed Sylvia her breakfast earlier (which was first thing for me), I had put her back in her bed to play in a contained area while I did other stuff.  No big deal.  I heard her talking and chattering and sounding happy most of the time. 

However, when I went in to put her dress on her (I'd already changed her diaper), this is what greeted my eyes and nose!!

Not only had she had a dirty diaper... but she'd had a major blowout and rolled and wiggled around in the mess.  It doesn't show up well in the picture, but her entire left leg was COVERED with yellow baby poop.  It was nasty.  She was also flailing her arms around and sucking on her fingers... I had to not even think about the fact that she had probably ingested some already digested food.  *gross* 

I quickly got on the phone to Daniel to let him know that we were not even going to make it to Sunday School, hopefully we would get there in time for church.  Then I swooped Sylvia up and gave her a full-blown bath.  We did make it to church right in time for the service.  :-)  Whew!  I was looking forward to having a normal week ahead.

And there were some normal things, like me catching Sylvia sucking on her toes one night.  :-)

But lo and behold, the blowout was just the beginning.  Tuesday evening I decided that Susannah would enjoy seeing some of the Olympics, so we settled onto the couch to wait the last few minutes before they came on at 8:00. 

We're sitting there and as nonchalantly as ever, she says "Bud ear?"
What on earth, did she just say "bug ear?!" Thinking that a bug (gnat, whatever) was flying around her head, I asked "Do you have a bug in your ear?"
Putting her finger up to her ear, very calmly "Yeah"
Quick as a wink, I turned her head so I could see the ear she was talking about and my heart skipped several beats.  I had to keep myself from screaming or otherwise freaking out.  Down in her ear with only about 1/4 - 1/3 of him sticking out was a yellow-jacket.

I am not kidding.  I had to shove my own fear of being stung way, way, WAY down beneath my Mom-Cape and while trying to keep Susannah from poking in her ear any more with her own finger, I gingerly reached in and was able to grab the bee's rear-end and pull him out.  I immediately dropped him, not wanting to hold him any split second longer than needed because I did not want to get stung.  I looked at Susannah's ear closely to make sure that she had not been stung (which she had not), and then looked at the bee to see if it was dead or alive.  It was alive, but barely. 

I only have a guess as to how the bee may have gotten into her ear: we were outside swinging earlier in the evening and my guess is that the bee was flying along and collided with her ear in just the right way that it (a) knocked him out and (b) shoved him down into her ear.  I do not have to guess how she did not get stung (I still shudder when I think about it!), and that is the grace of God.  No other explanation is possible. 

Sooo... we recovered from the bee incident and my heart eventually resumed beating normally again.  (By the way, Susannah had and has no idea that bees can sting, so to her having a bee in her ear was as innocent as having a lady-bug crawl on her finger.)

And then...  Thursday morning I went to wake Susannah up.  I opened her bedroom door and she is lying on her bed awake.  She sits up and says something about "spit out on pillow".  I look, and at some point in the night she had gotten sick and thrown up on her pillow.  She never cried or anything, and obviously went back to sleep.  Her pajama shirt was covered in dried vomit and she even had some in her hair.  Oh boy, oh boy. 

We went right away to the bathtub and I gave her a bath.  Then she had a little bit of toast and applesauce for breakfast, which did not stay down for long.  She spent the rest of the morning on the couch watching Baby Einstein movies.

At lunch I was able to coax a few crackers into her, and they did not stay down either.  Early afternoon she was able to keep down a cracker and some water.  After her nap (which I was nervous about, but she needed a nap) she still wasn't 100%.  By bedtime, though, she was feeling and acting much better and was able to eat a gentle meal before going to bed.  The next morning she was chipper and fine!

Wanting to end the week on a good note, Friday night Sylvia had her first meal of solid food (rice cereal). This is a picture of her first taste, which she was pretty excited about!

There were no out and out cues or indicators that she was ready for "real" food, but she had started eye-ing our food quite seriously and both Daniel and I felt like she was ready (5 mo. and 4 days old).  Boy oh boy was she ready!  The first meal she loved.  Saturday night's meal was so-so (but she was also quite tired).  Sunday and Monday nights' meals she was very eager and excited about.  Last night I couldn't get the food in her fast enough!

Now we are into a new week and so far it is going ... as normally as normal gets, I guess. :-)

Wordless Wednesday {Making Chocolate Chip Cookies}

Butter

Brown Sugar

Whole Wheat Flour

~Susannah, age 2

Random Bits and Pieces

Here are some bits and pieces from the past several days.

A few weeks ago, we got a bunch of new-to-us toys, including these big lego blocks that I found at a consignment store.  Susannah spent quite a while yesterday building this piece.  She called it a "train".

Today was very cloudy and supposed to rain (it never did).  Susannah was getting antsy and I really needed to get some cleaning done in the kitchen.  We had already done several things together so I knew she just needed something different.  I pulled out a 2lb. bag of dried beans, got out some stuff for her to scoop, dump, pour and mix with, and put it all on a blanket on the kitchen floor.  She had so much fun!  She played before lunch, after lunch, and after supper!  

It took me all of naptime, but I made homemade spaghetti for the first time.  It certainly took a bit of learning to figure out how the dough works the best for rolling it into spaghetti.  By the end of the batch, it was going fairly quickly.  This is only some of the "finished" product (uncooked).  It tastes great!!

Susannah reading to Sylvia. :-)

Yesterday morning Susannah and I brushed our hair together... and then we both put on our glasses.  Hers were borrowed from Mrs. Potato Head and I'm not sure how much they improved her vision.  :-)

Sylvia still sucks her fingers and likes to hold on to her blankie, too. :-)