Juicy!

Meagan here, As moms, we all try to make healthy choices when we are pregnant and nursing. I try to make sure my toddler gets lots of fruits and veggies and we try not to let her have a lot of junk. As I mentioned in my intro, I’m semi “granola.” I love killing plants with my brown thumb and even had a nice garden last summer. As much as I would like to garden again this year, I just don’t see that happening with a toddler and a new baby  I’ve derailed… I have been juicing for a while and have recently watched the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” and I LOVED IT! It got me even MORE excited about juicing. It talks a lot about juice fasts (which I plan to try after I’m done nursing). I also watched one called “Forks Over Knives,” and it really has changed the way I look at food (don’t watch it unless you are ready to give up meat and dairy). I am trying to find ways to cut back on the meat we eat in our house, and being married to a “meat and potatoes” man won’t make that easy. He and I have very different eating habits, and he is going to take some work. But with the girls being so young, I’m hoping it will be easier to teach them about making healthy choices now instead of waiting until they are older and have poor eating habits. My toddler has been helping me at the juicer and really gets excited about it! She asks for juice quite often, and I love giving her juice that doesn’t have added processed sugar and preservatives! This morning she helped me make some with 3 Oranges, 1 carrot, 2 white nectarines and a handful of raspberries… we both sucked it down! It was delicious! We also love Spinach, kale, celery, carrot, cucumber, kiwi and apple juice. It’s green and doesn’t look like it would taste good but it is wonderful! She calls it “Hulk juice” because it’s green and makes you strong like the Hulk. I have a glass of fresh juice in the morning with/for breakfast and usually at least one more glass with lunch or dinner. It’s nice knowing I’m passing nutrients on to the baby in my breast milk. Eventually, I want us to be at least a semi-meat-free home but that will take some time.

A prayer for my children

Most nights I lay in bed and pray for my family. I pray for my husband, for his health and safety. I pray that I am a good wife and mother. I also pray for my girls.

I am laying here tonight and felt the urge to type my prayer out.

God, thank you so much for all the blessings you have given me today. Each laugh and giggle from my precious babies is so beautiful and special. Thank you for their health. Thank you for the bond we share. Thank you for the cuddles I got after doctoring a hurt finger today. I hold those moments so dear to my heart.

Lord, please continue to bless us with health and happiness. We may not have much in earthly possessions but we are truly a happy family! Dancing to oldies and making play dough are memories I hope to have forever.

Help me to raise my girls to love you and respect you by respecting themselves. Help them to be shining examples for you.

Help their father and I to be great parents. Help us to love one another more and more every day. Help them to see the love we have for each other and know that it takes love, commitment and work to make a marriage last (Help us remember that too).

Help me to be like my mother, someone my children can come to with anything because they know I will help them and love them no matter what. Thank you for the example I had with my mother (and grandmother).

Thank you for all that you have given me, Lord. You knew my heart’s desires better than I did. Being a mother is something I wasn’t sure I wanted to be until it happened and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Thank you.

Amen 

Oh the guilt!

Let’s talk about guilt shall we?

Sometimes as a mom we experience what I like to call “Mom guilt”. I experience this when I am feeding my 3 month old and my older daughter (almost two) is crying for me to come play with her or when I put little sister in her Rock n Play and big sister in her high chair so I can run to the bathroom while they both scream their heads off. Mom guilt comes a lot more often now that I have two daughters to split my time with. I have a laundry list of things that need to get done around the house that never seems to be empty and I find myself staying up late so I can fold laundry and unload the dishwasher.

I have friends that either don’t have kids, just have one or have older children and either don’t know or don’t remember how busy a mom with a new baby AND a toddler really is! I don’t always have time to call and text like I use to. I feel so isolated sometimes. Friends will say “I never hear from you anymore” and I apologize but a little part of me is thinking “I don’t hear from you much either”. I feel like a bad friend because I can’t keep up with everyone like I want to and so now I have “Friend guilt” too.

It’s hard to get out of the house with two girls under the age of two. We have different nap times and somebody is almost always hungry. Friends want to go to the mall or to lunch and I want so badly to go and spend time with people my own age but I just can’t. A girlfriend came by to hang out a few days before my birthday because a sick 22 month old kept me home when we were supposed to have a fun birthday lunch with friends. It was so nice to have a friend over! My house was a mess and I hadn’t showered all day but I didn’t feel judged at all. IT. WAS. BLISS. I had felt so awful for having to cancel my lunch plans and was so disappointed to miss out on girl time so it meant a lot to have her come to me!

I’m just having a hard time meeting everyone else’s needs and still finding time to eat and sleep. Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I’ve been doing things for everyone else all day (laundry, dishes, errands and such) and I have a toddler begging for cookies right before dinner and a baby crying to be nursed while I’m trying to get dinner ready. I feel like I’m losing my mind at times!

I don’t want a break from my kids or my husband, I want a break from cooking, cleaning and everything else. I want a personal assistant, a maid and a chef please! 

If you have a friend with a new(ish) baby and she hasn’t called in a while, give her a call and tell her you love her. Offer to bring lunch and a chick flick over one day and let her know you still love her (even though she may not currently be nurturing your friendship like she used to).

Food for thought

What mom really has a lot of time to cook? I know I don’t! I have to say that I use the heck out of my crock pot! I use it at least twice a week! Making roast, enchilada filling, BBQ chicken, soup, chili and many other delicious things! Tonight I am going to share a couple of recipes. Also, do yourself a HUGE favor and get crock pot liners!! LIFE SAVERS!!!

This first recipe is for Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup. This one is a favorite in our house!

You’ll need:

1 Box Chicken or veggie Broth or Stock

4 Ounces of Sour Cream

1 Cup chopped celery

1 Cup shredded carrots

2 Cup Milk (or Heavy Cream)

2 or 3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Noodles of your choice (I use Egg Noodles)

Salt, garlic and poultry seasoning to taste

I season the chicken with poultry seasoning, garlic and salt and put it in the crock pot with the broth, carrots and celery. I let that cook in the crockpot on high for 6 hours and then I shred the chicken, add the sour cream, milk and noodles… I cook the noodles before I add them to the soup but you can add a little more liquid to the soup and then put in the dry noodles to cook for the last hour (you can also use canned biscuits cut into quarters instead of noodles and have dumplings!).

The next recipe is another one made up and have played with over the years… Enchilada filling!

I get the biggest can of red enchilada sauce they have, a can or black beans, a can of diced tomato and 2 or 3 chicken breasts and cook it on high for about 6 hours or low for 8. Shred the chicken, use a slotted spoon to drain sauce off the filing and roll up in tortillas, use the remaining juice and goody to pour over the top, cover with cheese and bake at 350 until cheese is melty (about 10-15 min).

My last recipe isn’t crock pot but is sooooo yummy!!! Iron skillet cookie!!

You’ll need:

1 Stick Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
1-1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in an 8 inch cast iron skillet on med heat on the stove, add both sugars and the vanilla and remove from heat. Let stand about 5 minutes and then add the egg to the butter and sugar mixture (you want to wait the 5 min so the egg won’t cook in the skillet before you add all your ingredients), whisk it well into the butter and sugar. next you’ll add your flour, baking soda, and salt, and (very carefully) stir until smooth and well-mixed. Lastly, stir in chocolate chips. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on the top and around the edges, but soft in the center.

I made this cookie tonight after dinner and there wasn’t a bite left! It’s really good with caramel ice cream on top.

Happy eating!

Agree to disagree

After a discussion with a fellow mom the other day I felt the need to step on a soap box for a moment…

Nobody is going to do things exactly the same way you do them. We all raise our children differently. There is nothing wrong with breast feeding or bottle feeding, cloth or disposable diapers, circumcision or no circumcision, making baby food or buying it, daycare or no daycare, turning your car seat around at the minimum requirements or waiting a little longer or even having your daughter’s ears pierced as a baby or waiting until she asks for them. As long as our children are growing and are loved, what is the big dang deal?

We all make decisions for our children hoping they are the right ones but chances are we will all make some wrong decisions. Zoey (almost 2) drank a little Dr. Pepper yesterday, this is a rare treat in our house, but it kept her awake half the night! Parenting FAIL!

I am a semi stay at home mom (I work 2-3 days a week) and I am fortunate enough to have family that keep my girls for me while I am at work. I am so thankful for that because a good daycare is really pricey! I wish I could stay at home with my girls all the time but that is MY preference and I surely don’t look down on moms with a different preference! Some moms have to go back to work and have to put their children in daycare while other moms chose to go back to work so that can provide more for their children and show them what a working mom looks like. These are all fine options!

I chose to breast feed my girls and I am so lucky that I CAN! I make enough to feed my baby (and even donate to a few moms and babies that wanted breast milk) and both girls had a great latch from the start! Some moms chose not to due to medication or preference while other moms try but have supply issues or baby just won’t latch. Formula isn’t poison.

With my first I had a mild PPD and for a while I thought I was just sad for no reason because I had a strong connection to my baby but I was so miserable if I didn’t have her with me (not just “oh I miss my baby”). That made going back to work full time really hard! Some moms have different forms of PPD and others are lucky enough to never have it at all! It isn’t my fault that I had PPD and if you are dealing with it, it’s not your fault either! Call your doctor and talk to some girlfriends that have dealt with it before. Maybe you can help someone that is dealing with it now if you have dealt with it in the past.

My point is, we all have different circumstances and do things differently but that doesn’t mean that my way is right and your way is wrong. Who am I to judge what another person does? We are all doing our best and rather than tearing each other down for things they do differently why not build each other up? As moms we have enough “mom guilt” on our own without things like the “iphone mom” post that circulated all over facebook a few weeks back. You’re doing the best you can and that is all anyone SHOULD expect from you! Remember, friends may come and go but your children will be in your life forever. Do what is best for them, love them and protect them as best you can because as they grow they will become our closest friends.

Big changes

So much has changed since my last post! Zoey started walking right after her birthday! She has learned so many new words! A couple of my favorites are "shone" for phone and "Cungle" for cuddle... The child loves to cungle! She loves watching Iron Man on TV with her daddy and it doesn't matter which cartoon or live action movie it is as long as it has Iron Man! She will pick up some random toy or object and pretend it is a phone by holding it up to her ear and talking. She loves to be read to and one of her favorite books is "Giraffes can't dance"! She loves to sing into her toy microphone. She cooks in her toy kitchen and sometimes she takes her paci over to the toy kitchen and "washes" it in the sink! She loves to color and paint! I make paint out of yogurt or sour cream and food coloring and she goes to town painting her high chair tray and her entire body! Below is a picture of a bath after a painting session.


She loves Beauty and the Beast! when Chris or I have a cup of coffee she BEGS for a sip! she loves to hide so you will say "where is Zoey" and she can jump out or pop up and grin! That baby girl brings me such joy each and every day!
Another big change, We have a new baby girl!! Isabelle Inara was born Thursday, January 17th at 8:24 in the evening! Weighing in at 8 pounds 5 oz an 20 & 1/2 inches long! Big sister Zoey LOVES HER!


This was taken the day we brought Isabelle home from the hospital.

We found out we were pregnant on Sunday June 14th, 2012. We got up early enough to go have breakfast as a family before church and I ordered the same omelet I always ordered from Susan's and I couldn't hardly eat any of it. I told Chris that I was feeling morning sicky and wondered if I was pregnant, he laughed and didn't seem too worried. After church we had lunch with his parents at Red Lobster and I couldn't eat my shrimp scampi so I made him stop at Walgreens on the way home so we could get a pregnancy test. Needless to say we were quite surprised!!
For the most part the pregnancy was pretty un eventful. There was an episode in October when the baby didn't move for 18 hours and I ended up in the ER for a couple of hours to be monitored. She was just having a lazy day and wanted to scare mommy.
On Friday, January 11th I started having pretty regular contractions that lasted all weekend but they weren't always consistent and were never super intense. I had them off and on from the following Monday until Thursday the 17th.
On the day I went into labor (the 17th) I had a doctors appointment at 8:45 in the morning. When Dr Reiter checked me I was at 3cm and between 70% and 80% effaced. He told me he didn't think I would make it to the end of the day. He offered to go ahead and have me admitted but I wasn't having contractions so I went home to get ready for work (I was working 11 to 3). When I got to work the girls surprised me with a food day!! We ate and I told them about my appointment and about how my contractions had picked back up around 10:00 and were more intense. I ended up going home at 1:15 and called Chris to come on home too.
We got to the hospital around 3:00 and I had progressed to 5 and a half cm! They had me fill out a pile of paperwork and stuck an IV in my hand before taking me to a room. I got my epidural between 5:00 and 5:30 and was about 7cm by that point.
My mom, auntie, sisters, brother and nephew came up to the hospital around 6:00 or so and took turns coming in to see me.
Close to 7:00 they put me on pitocin to get me from 9 to 10 cm. At around 7:30 the nurse had me roll over on my side because Isabelle's heart rate was slowing down during my contractions... That scared me but after rolling from my left to my right she did better!
By 8:00 I was feeling a major urge to push! I wasn't in pain (thanks to Dr. Taylor and his magical epidural) I just felt a lot of pressure and had to really fight the urge to push! I kept telling my nurse that I needed to push soon but she said that Dr Cunningham (the on call doctor) was about to be in surgery and I would have to wait a while... Uh no, this baby is coming! I told her I was really fighting the urge to push and she called Dr Taylor back in to give me more pain meds. When he came in he asked me if I was in pain and I said, "No, I feel pressure and I need to push! You might have to catch this baby." He and the nurse laughed and she told me that he had to be in that surgery too. Did nobody care that I was having a baby!? About that time Dr Cunningham came in and said something about the upcoming surgery and I said "I need to push NOW." The nurse checked me and Isabelle was less than an inch from crowning! Within minutes they were telling me to push. I pushed twice and she was out!
We spent Thursday and Friday night in the hospital before finally going home! I missed Zoey so much while we were at the hospital but she did get to visit twice.
Chris went to pick her up at his parents house after he dropped me and Isabelle off at home on Saturday afternoon. He sent me a picture of her at Walgreens while they were waiting for my prescription to be filled and I just broke down in tears because I had missed her so much! It was so good to have our little family all together!
In the past two weeks we have had so many friends come by to visit us and bring us meals and it has been such a blessing! We are truly a blessed family!!
That is all for now!


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One whole year!

My precious baby girl,
I cannot believe that you are already a year old! I never knew time could go by so fast! You are truly more beautiful and more fun every day!

We have had family in for your birthday party (held on Saturday the 19th), your great grandparents came in from Texas and stayed for a week! It was so nice to spend time with them. Your aunt Ayesha and your cousins came all the way from Georgia! They will be here for a couple more weeks! You love to pull your cousins' hair... They don't love it as much :-/
You are learning new things almost daily! Today you started making kissing sounds when I make them at you and earlier this week when I blew you a kiss you blew one back to me!!
You love the clock at Granny and Papa Cooke's and will say "clock" when it starts singing every hour!
Today I picked a doll up off of the floor at their house and covered it up with your owl blanket and you leaned down and kissed the doll on the face! So sweet!!
You wave at everyone and you love to clap! When I put you down for a nap you "sing" yourself to sleep.
You have been cutting some teeth on top (you have two on the bottom right now) and they are really bothering you :( you cry and cry all of the sudden and shove your whole hand into your mouth.
You hardly want to be fed anymore because you want to do it yourself! Big girl!!
I never in a million years thought that such a tiny person could hold such a big piece of my heart! You are a beautiful girl Zoey and I can't wait to share your childhood with you!
Mommy



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