I'm Back...Sort Of

Hey everyone! Thanks for remaining patient while I was trying to figure out life with a new baby! I had a baby girl back in January and she couldn't be cuter. She is actually pretty well behaved too, at least for the most part. Life can be pretty hectic with having to take care of her all day but I am trying to find a way to make it all work out. In other words, when I find time I will blog but I'm not sure how often that will be, certainly not every day. She does seem to have the uncanny ability to need something the second I try to get anything done (including showering or even eating).

I have managed to get things done around the house, usually after David gets home from work and it's his turn to watch her. In the beginning, my mom was here to help and that was a huge relief. It was especially nice because I did end up needing a C-section so recovery wasn't that easy (and I am still recovering. My abs are completely shot so carrying her around all day can really cause some pain. I'm not supposed to exercise til 6 weeks post partum and I'm only 5 so hopefully things improve in the next week. I did have a pretty good recovery though and could even do stairs after just a couple days.)

In addition to trying to keep things running around here, I have also taken up knitting! I have gotten some help from David's mom (who has been knitting since she was in college) and then additional help from YouTube. I started out making a washcloth for practice but since I had no desire to make a washcloth, it was just easy, I decided to find a different project once I learned the stitches. So now I am working on leg warmers using double pointed needles (DPNS). It's not as hard as it sounds but is definitely a new skill. I'm almost done with my first one though! Too bad I still have to make another one. It's fun and something I can work on for just a couple minutes and stop whereas with my sewing projects, you have to start with a pretty decent chunk of time (I'd say at least 10 minutes if you want to get anything accomplished) and then a stopping point isn't always obvious. With a baby, that's just not do-able anymore.

However, I am still sewing. I have needed to make more nursing pads (breastfeeding is actually going easier than I expected!) and I am working on a bag bag (using my previous pattern) for my mom. It's quick projects like these that keep me interested and happy with my progress but it's not taking too much time away from the rest of my life.

Hope to talk to you all again soon!

Goodbye For Now

After 3 time changes, my c-section is (hopefully) officially tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1:30pm. I have to be there at 11am and can't have anything to eat after midnight tonight. I can have sips of clear liquid until 6am. I'm really mad about this because when my c-section was scheduled for 7:30am (getting there at 5am), I couldn't have any food or drink after midnight tonight. So instead of going 7.5 hours without food, I am now going 13.5 hours without food. I don't get it but I'm going to starve! I'm sure the baby will be worth it and everything but still. I'm not sure why that didn't get changed. Plus, sips of clear liquid (examples given were water, apple juice, and 7 up) isn't really going to do squat because I can't have enough to equal anything worth having but I suppose anything could be better than nothing.

Anyway, rant over. Since I will be in the hospital a minimum of 3 days and unable to stairs, bending over, etc plus I'll have a new baby (and my mom here to help out, although David is also taking off of work), I will not get to blogging (or doing anything worth blogging about) for a while. I'm not sure when I will make a come back but I am fairly confident that this isn't good bye forever.

I have been nesting a lot lately. I've been making more burp cloths, nursing pads, and a crib sheet. I never did get around to making enough cloth reusable pads (for bleeding, not nursing) but everyone always says that there will always be things you wanted to get done but didn't, even when you know exactly when your baby is coming (of course, there is still a chance I could go into labor before then but I really highly doubt it. Teeny has shown no signs of coming anytime soon--which makes me wonder if I wasn't having a c-section when Teeny would come.)

So for those of you who have wished me luck, thank you and I will try to keep everyone updated as soon as I can but please bear with me and understand it may be a while, even months. 

Pork Chops and Donuts

Yesterday, David worked from home because I had a doctor appointment (they told me that they counted the weeks wrong and my c-section makes more sense at 41 one weeks so now it is the 22nd--less than a week!). On these days, I find it easiest to make slow cooker recipes because then I can guarantee he is home (not stuck in traffic or at work) when it's ready. I know they can stay on warm for a while but I don't like to do that, plus that means eating alone. Plus, we usually have time for a nap when he's work from home because we don't have his hour+ commute. Then when we wake up, dinner's ready. It's really quite convenient.

So I decided on pork chops and something with mushrooms. I found this recipe but I modified it a smidge and I cut it in half (since I was only making two pork chops). If you use fresh mushrooms, be sure to cut the water (or wine) in half since they will let out moisture too. I wanted to keep the sauce as a gravy so I was trying to be very careful about how thick or thin it got. I only used a half of an onion instead of a whole onion (if you were cutting the recipe in half) because that seemed like plenty of onion to me. I also added carrots and red potatoes (but next time I'll add these halfway through because they caused issues with the amount of liquid in the pot and especially the carrots, cooked really fast).

It was really good though! The pork fell apart and you didn't even need to use the side of your fork to cut it. I would definitely eat it again. Since we added so many vegetables, we have some of those leftover that tonight we will serve over quinoa (for the protein--otherwise we'd use rice).

Also last night, David had such a hankering for donuts since we had talked about picking some up after my appointment but ended up not doing so. The weather wasn't the greatest so we didn't really want to go out and buy some (plus buying donuts at night is always risky because they've been out all day. Mornings are really the best time to go). I found a recipe online that uses cake mix, since I didn't want to wait for the yeast to rise in the traditional recipes. Plus, we have box cake mix on hand for some reason (we don't usually). I'm not sure where the recipe people got their cake mix because they ask for 18.25oz of mix but our boxes were only 15.25. However, we decided to make it anyway and adjust from there if it was too liquidy. I'm so glad we waited because they ended up pretty thick as it was. I don't know what that extra 3 oz of mix would've done to it but I don't want to find out!

We don't have a thermometer that went high enough for the oil temp so we had to guess. At first, the oil was definitely too hot and they cooked way too quick. So we turned down the heat (more than we would've guessed was right but they started coming out better) to basically low. We didn't add the sugar at the end (mostly out of laziness I think). Of course they're deep fried so they're going to taste good but they remind me of the ones you get at Chinese buffets. They're good but not quite what I would call a donut. It seemed to get rid of the craving though so mission accomplished!

Water Resistant Fabric

I am getting frustrated at my fabric. There were some specific ones that I bought as the top layer of my reusable pads. Some are cotton, some are flannel. Currently, if you pour water on them or lay them in a puddle of water, the water beads up and pools or runs off instead of being absorbed into the material. This is true of new things, especially towels. So I washed them. I tried hot water. I tried cold water. I tried using (homemade) detergent. I tried using no detergent. I tried a vinegar rinse. I tried no extra rinse. I tried using dryer balls. I tried air drying them. These things got washed a LOT. If washing them was going to help, it would've by now. We never use fabric softener (which is what most people online seem to think the problem is). I also tried beating them up (twisting them, rubbing them, crumpling them). I am seriously out of ideas.

I am very disappointed because for once, I had a specific use for my fabric and it just isn't working out. Plus, I'm now not sure what to use to top my pads because this isn't working out. They're all different brands. They're from different stores. They weren't all bought at the same time. I truly don't get it. Some of the flannel topping I used for the burp cloths are from this bunch and after my excessive washing, they got absorbent. I'm not sure what makes those ones different from these ones. They were even washed together!

If anyone has ANY advice, I would really, greatly appreciate it because I am at my wit's end. I'm going to end up having to use this fabric for something else and I really don't want to.

The one thing I haven't tried is sun drying them (but that's because it's winter and we don't really get sun here in winter. I'll have to wait til spring).

Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Also this weekend (yep, two blog posts this Monday!), we had to eat up some leftover dirty mashed potatoes. Neither David nor myself is really a fan of leftover potatoes because they always get weird when reheated. Plus, there was really only enough for one person. I decided to look up what other people do because surely we can't be the only people who hate leftover potatoes. That was when I found this recipe.

We cut it in half because we only had one cup of mashed potatoes and made a few variations. This is what we did.

1 cup cold mashed potatoes
1 egg
1/2 tsp flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil (we used a big skillet since it needed a lid and there was no way 1 tablespoon was going to be enough. We still had some sticking issues with this amount too)
1/4 cup Colby Jack cheese

We mixed it all in a bowl (minus the oil) until smooth (I thought our potatoes were lumpy enough that this wasn't going to be possible but David got it down to a really nice consistency). Heat your oil over medium-high heat. Then you squish the mixture into a pancake shape in your pan. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. You will have to scrape the pancake off a little bit since you don't turn down your heat or flip the pancake but that's okay. It makes a really nice, crispy bottom. I will warn you that the moisture created by leaving the lid on the pan will make your oil sizzle and jump (but with your cover on, it's not a problem).

This tasted MUCH better than leftover potatoes but I still felt it was missing something. The garlic and cheese definitely helped and I wouldn't call it bland. It was also buttery because our potatoes were (one person had commented that if your potatoes are bland, your pancake will come out bland). David thought it was great and we both agreed we'd eat it again as is so it's a keeper!

DIY Burp Cloths

I have a variety of flannels and cottons with baby/nursery prints that I had planned to use to make things for Teeny. Most of these are fat quarters so I knew it had to be a small project. I decided to make burp cloths because they sounded really easy and I could get 3 burp cloths out of one fat quarter. We also need more burp cloths because we only bought a 4 pack and I hear you need more like 12-20 (depending on your baby and how often you do laundry).

Online, it appears most people use those pre-fold diapers and either use them plain or add a decorative strip. My mom used these and swears by them too but I didn't want to buy something in order to make mine so I used what I had on hand: microfiber towels (like the automative cleaning ones--you can get 2 for a 1 dollar at the dollar store).

I prewashed all my fabric (I usually skip this step but since it was going to be for a baby and their skin is so sensitive I thought it was necessary. It also added absorbency to the flannel). Then I cut each microfiber towel in half so it was approximately 7x12 inches (these sound small to me but if you put it on your shoulder, it actually covers a lot of space so I'm not worried about it. Plus, the store bought ones aren't much bigger either). Then I cut a fat quarter of flannel and a fat quarter of cotton in thirds the long way (in other words, cut the 22 inch side into 3 pieces, about 7 inches wide). I found this wasted the least amount of fabric and towel. You could technically do it in half and have 11 inches wide but then you waste 2 inches of your towel.

Then pin your three pieces together: cotton right side up, flannel right side down, and the towel on top (if you put the flannel on the bottom like I did, it gets stuck in your machine and you miss stitches. I'm not sure why but it's VERY frustrating so leave the cotton on the bottom. My machine didn't have a problem with the towel). Sew around the whole thing (I used about a quarter inch seam allowance) but leave a gap to turn. Turn it, iron it, and hand sew the gap closed. Then I top stitched about a half inch around the whole thing. Some people also say to top stitch it twice across the middle (cutting it in thirds) but I didn't find this necessary. Then you're done!

I made two last night because I ran out of time to finish my third one. The feet are my flannel side and the animals are my cotton side. I'm also not entirely sure why they ended up two different sizes (this was true before I even sewed them) but that's okay. I am very pleased with them. I did a water test on them (since I don't have a baby to do it for me yet) and the flannel and microfiber both absorb really well (and dry quick!) but the cotton for some reason is repelling the water, which is why I thought it would make a good back. It takes a good half ounce (in the same spot) before the cotton starts to feel wet.

Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole and Cleaning the Chest Freezer

Last night, I was in the mood for tater tot casserole. I knew this would use up some things in our freezer (veggies, meat, tots,...) and we had planned on reorganizing our freezers so the less we had to deal with, the better.

I have made tater tot casserole before, similar to my mom's, with cream of mushroom soup but I was unable to find that recipe so I googled around for it. Instead, I found this recipe and boy am I glad I did! This recipe was so unbelievably good!! As with most recipes, we did modify it just a touch. We used frozen vegetables (we freeze peppers and onions when they're on sale, the corn was half a bag of frozen corn, and we added half a bag of frozen peas and carrots) and left out the chives but everything else was the same (that's probably the least we've modified a recipe lately).

We happened to have both the bold sauce and the cream cheese, even though neither is a staple in this house. I am pretty sure you could get away with using regular sauce if you wanted and leaving out the cream cheese if you don't have it. Since we added more vegetables (the peas and carrots) than called for, we just added these when we added the corn.

I'm not sure I agree with the 6 servings. Those must be real servings, not what people eat servings. We only got 3 servings out of it but we probably could've done 4 if we had to. 6 would've been a little skimpy (but probably healthier). Since we had the starch, meat, and protein all in the casserole, we didn't serve it with anything. That's the great thing about a casserole. However, if you were trying to stretch the servings, you could serve with a side salad or something like that.

As I mentioned, we also cleaned out our freezers last night. We have a chest freezer and the freezer attached to our fridge. Both were getting messy and hard to find things and our chest freezer needed to be defrosted. We put everything from the chest freezer into a big box and put it in the garage (our garage isn't heated and with the temps being in the negatives, we weren't worried about anything thawing). Then we left the freezer open and unplugged for a few days to let everything melt (we did an initial scraping but since we weren't in a hurry to get the food back in the freezer, we thought this was easiest). Then last night, we put it all back. We have two baskets and a shelf in our freezer, with the rest being open space. We made one basket meat (minus fish since it didn't fit), one basket fruits and veggies, and the shelf is what I call "quick food" (i.e. pot pies and TV dinners). We don't have a good way to organize the rest of it because it's just a big open space so we took a box without flaps and put our pizzas in there (you can tell we eat really healthy in this house...) on their sides and then put our fish and other miscellaneous items next to the box.

We have a lot of empty space in our freezer so we also have frozen 2 liters (of water. We drank the soda, then refilled) to take up more room (to make the freezer more energy efficient) plus we give these to Cocoa on hot days during the summer to lick and lean against.

Our other freezer was much easier to organize, simply because there was less stuff. Our chest freezer has a seal on it that after you open it once, you can't open it again for like 5 minutes (sometimes it's annoying, most of the time it's great). This means everything open that would go back in the freezer (for instance, a pail of ice cream), goes in the fridge freezer since this one doesn't have that seal. We also decided to keep all our after Teeny meals in there. This freezer is also rather empty looking but there's not much we can do about it. We looked into combining that freezer into the chest freezer but that doesn't help because we can't turn the fridge freezer off and it doesn't work the other way, to have the chest freezer go into the fridge freezer because it wouldn't all fit. Guess we need to go shopping!