Homemaker Chronicles

Thank you to all the ladies who left me lots of great ideas for a baby shower gift.  Bern, I love the Brest Friend pillow!  Besides being perfectly appropriate it also looks heavenly.

The others of you that put your eggs in the nursing cover basket, thank you for that.  The Boppy idea was perfect as well and I love the idea of getting a basket of several little things that have to do with nursing.

You all are so brilliant!

Are you wondering what I went with?  Aren’t you the least bit curious?

Oh well, I’ll tell you anyway…better yet, I’ll show you!!

First, I made a nursing cover.

I sewed together two pieces of fabric (1 yd. each), right sides together and stitch all the way around leaving a small opening to turn it right side out. Oh yeah, and pin the “neck ties” (in this case, ribbon) in between the pieces of fabric before you stitch. It’s just easier that way.

After turning the fabric I folded over the ends of the ribbon and sewed them to keep from fraying.  Then I stitched the hole closed.

Simple.

A reversible “hooter hidey” (as my husband so aptly named them) for my friend in less than 30 minutes and for $6.50!

Oh, but I’m not finished!

I also took this picture of a garden ornament that my mom has outside.

With a little wooptie woo, and some special processing (like layers, actions, contrasts and painting), this is what I came up with.

Can you tell what it is?

Give up?

It’s the letter “J” for Jillian, my friend’s unborn baby girl, of course.  I have painted initials and given them as gifts before, but I got this idea from my friend Jenny over who has Teapots and Robots.  Remember that wonderful give-away she did a few months ago?  Well, hopefully this will match Jillian’s Victorian-style baby room.

The picture cost $2.00 to print and the matte and frame were half off at Hobby Lobby to total $10.00.

I’m still not finished though.  Hang in there…

Next is the Boppy you guys suggested except I thought it was a little excessive to spend as much on a cover as I did on the thing itself.  So, I made my own slip cover.

I was easy.

I just went ahead and bought a ridiculously expensive and already made boppy cover to use as a pattern. After drawing it onto pinned-together papers, I laid it ontop of the fabric and cut out one full piece- the “top” piece.
Then, I cut out two more pieces individually, using my pattern, making sure each one over lapped the other so that they would form an opening.
I put right sides together, pinned it, stitched it up and turned it right-side-out to make a pretty pink terrycloth boppy cover!  This project took 30 minutes and cost $3.50.

To top it all off, I also bought her a multi-pack of nursing supplies to go with the Medela pump I bought for her.  “Spare no expense”, I always say!

Just kidding, I didn’t buy her a pump.  I am giving her my pump!  I’m totally cheap and would never pay $300.00 for  a breast pump, and I wouldn’t just give it away if I did spend that much.  Well, I might.

Depends on the person.

Anyway, you guys were my inspiration and I’m sure my friend will enjoy her baby gifts…I hope she will.

In total, I spent roughly $52.00 and my mom will be pitching in to buy the boppy (which was $29).  How did I do?  Compliments:  not necessary.  Comments/suggestions: are.

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Once upon a time lived a giant baby.

Under his giant foot he squashed all the daisies.

He sat down in a chair,

forgetting he was a bear.

Now, no one else can be lazy.

Actually, it made his mom laugh out loud for twenty-two minutes!

After which she grabbed her trusty camera for you all to get a good laugh.

That’s what you get when a monster baby thinks he is the size of a Mrs. Goodbee playhouse person!

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of breast-feeding the babies.  I nursed all of my kids for a little bit, but I REALLY nursed my last three.  (”REALLY” meaning, for longer than five weeks.)  Isn’t God so crafty to create a way for us to feed our children using our very own bodies?  That’s some outside-the-box thinking right there.

Seriously though, nursing is such a gift.  For the mom and the baby.  And speaking of baby gifts, one of my best friends of all time is having a baby shower, for her first baby, this Saturday.  I have been going over and over in my head what in the world to get her that would be special and at the same time, useful.

After going back and forth with all the sweet pink baby girl things, the polka-dotted bibs, the soft squishy teddy bears, and the all natural soaps, I decided that what I am really passionate about is breast feeding.  I mean, all the other stuff you can really do without, right?

Ahem…

Incase you didn’t know, I err on the side of minimalism when it comes to babies.  Many of those items we see on the store shelves are just propaganda…a way to get you to buy something you think you need for a child that will never know or remember the first two years of her life.

While we’re on the subject, I believe many of those baby items actually allow for separation between mom and baby and as well as supporting slack in parenting.   (I’m not against baby products, I just prefer to keep it light.)  By keeping the child on it’s back starring up at the ceiling or bouncing in a seat that vibrates, we allow these new moms an excuse to not have to figure out why the baby is crying.  Naw, just put her in a seat that bounces while she screams her brains out.  Yeah, that’s it!  Separate yourself from her then hang your head and cry because you can’t understand what you’re doing wrong.

No, no, no.  Instead, what I would encourage is hold that baby, get to know her needs and wants.

Feel her.

Understand her.

Swaddle her in a soft blanket and sit down for a minute, holding her close.  Better yet, nurse her and make her feel wanted, cared for and loved.

Relax.

Sing and talk to that baby.  Tell her about God and what all He has done for her.  Teach her about her fingers, toes and eyes.  Sooth her.

Yeah, she won’t remember that either, but she will be secure in knowing that her mama loves her and knows what she needs when no one else in the world will understand.  She’ll later learn to come to you and rely on you when she needs help pulling up her panties after going potty, or when she can’t figure out an algebra problem, or when her boyfriend breaks up with her and she needs advice.

As silly as it might sound, I believe that nursing is the foundation for a relationship with your child.  It’s not the only way to achieve a great relationship, I just think it’s important and a God-given way that happens to also be a gift to the mom.

Wow, I didn’t intend on ranting.  I really wanted this post to be about getting your opinion on what you think is a “must-have” item for nursing.  If you aren’t totally offended or put off, I’d love a comment with a recommendation for a nursing gift that I can give to my friend for her unborn baby girl.

If you are totally offended and put off, well…I’m sorry.  It’s just my opinion.  You can leave yours in the comments or heck, start a blog frog discussion.

I’d love to hear another perspective.

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Look who officially began school.

Well, home school.

Hey, it counts!

Titan’s been writing his vowels and sight-reading a few three letter words for a couple of months now.  Once he turned five I decided he outta learn something other than how to play Lego Batman on the Wii, and so far it’s going well.

He can add a little bit, as long as the addends don’t require any more than 10 fingers, he can write his name really well, and overall he’s a pretty logical little boy.

While Titan has learned so much since turning five I have learned one very important lesson…you can take the Wii away from the boy, but you can’t take it out of the boy! Luckily Titan is motivated by two things, Wii and candy, so we can get quite a bit of school work done with that knowledge.

Bribery is a God-given right that parents must utilize when necessary.

So…what age will you start your child in K-5? Join me in the blog frog for a quick discussion!

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles

Pay close attention…those are not all my kids!

There were actually nine kids and four adults.  We were outnumbered- big time.

We did it!!

How was your day…in pictures?  Upload to your blog and then link up to mine!

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Here are my three oldest…jumping for joy.  They just love to hold hands and hop over little streams.

Sike!

They rarely ever hold hands and if they do it’s because they are pulling the other INTO the stream.  That is why this picture is so special, because they are genuinely enjoying each other.

There are more at

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Go see my buddy, The Vine Woman, for today’s F.H.M!

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

What I love about home school is that it doesn’t have to look like school school.  I mean, the public school I knew didn’t really birth in me a thirst for knowledge.

I wished for more of a knowledge famine.

Actually, to me school was a reason to hang out and wear cute clothes.  I am trying to guide my children in a little more stable-uh-mindset.  School is actually meant for learning and learning is actually good.  I have to remind myself of that sometimes too, because I really didn’t and still really don’t enjoy sitting in a chair and listening to someone teach me about something when I’d rather be outside exploring or figuring it out for myself.

In light of all that stuff, here is a project we done to help us be teached better.  (just kidding)

This is a fun project we did recently:  Backyard Birds.

Supplies:

• bread crumbs
• dried fruit (raisins)
• coconut
• binoculars
• paper
• crayons
• cardboard

First I put all the food on a plate and headed out to the backyard; 5 kids in tow.  Then I explained to them that there are many different kinds of birds in our very own backyard and I asked them a series of questions about what kind they have seen out there in the wild forest that is the public walking trail.  Then we talked about what those birds might like to eat and threw out the prepared bird food onto the ground around the house.  (I made sure the food was near our windows for the live viewing to be held later on)

As we came back inside to watch the birds gobble up the little pieces, we talked more about what the kids have already seen and expect to see out of the backyard birds.  We talked about nests and what they use to make them and we searched the trees with the binoculars to find some.  Then all of the sudden we heard a sweet little chirping from the tree outside.

It was our cardinal buddy calling to his wife.

She was too good to eat our food offering, and he was too busy trying to get some bird-lovin’ to stop and nibble, but I was able to snap a picture.

Then we noticed a sweet little red-breasted Robin in the neighbor’s backyard.  She was pulling worms up out of the ground- for her baby chicks we assumed.  Adia really enjoyed watching her hop around!

I’ll bet you guys didn’t figure me for a bird-watcher, but I’m thinking about taking it up as my new hobby…as long as they come to me.  You know, if they fly into my backyard, I’ll watch them.

That makes me a bird-watcher, right?

After watching all the birds NOT eat our free buffet, we went inside to continue the project.  I had printed off some pictures of a few common birds and I paired the kids up so that we could all color together (an older kid with a younger kid and me with Salem).  They learned all about the bird in which they chose to color and they even drew a few little details to show off their newly acquired knowledge.

*Another option would be to have the kids draw what they saw instead of coloring a picture.  You can decide!*

It was special to see them get so excited over ordinary backyard birds!

For the grand finale, I had the kids cut out their birds and we glued them to a piece of cardboard for show.

Now our artwork graces the windowsill overlooking the area where we lovingly laid the food, so that all the kids can be reminded of our time together and joy it brought us.  Doesn’t that sound like the perfect little family project?

Gag me with a spoon…

Truthfully, it was fun for the time and a great way to get the kids engaged, but it really was one of those “throw it away in a couple of days” projects- when the kids finally forget about it.  Those are my favorite ones!  Plus, now Adia draws my attention to every single bird she sees while walking or driving.

Do you have any idea how many black birds are in central Arkansas this time of year?  Three million…at a minimum!

Many more projects and fun crafts to come.  I’ve just recently realized we do crafts all the time and you guys might want to try some of our ideas.

Not necessarily.

But it’s possible.

You like?

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Life…

is…

good!

Don’t you agree?

What enjoyable thing have you done this week?

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Remember this post I did recently about what foods we’ve been eating since all the snow had kept us cooped up?   In that post I offered to divulge our recipes if anyone requested them and boy was that a winner!

I mean, my inbox was so hoppin’ that Bugs Bunny couldn’t keep up.  Request after request came pouring in at all hours of the night and I was just so honored that you all wanted my recipes!

I’m lying.  That did not happen to me.

What did happen is that I did not get a single response, not even a comment on that post, and certainly not any emails.  And that is why I decided to post my coveted Tilapia Tacos/Enchiladas recipes and I even felt like throwing in the avocado salsa recipe.

I knew deep down inside you all want to know how I make them.  Just call me clairvoyant!

Here’s how it goes:

• Avocado Salsa,(recipe follows) or store-bought salsa
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika
• 1/3 cup cooking wine or white grape juice (apple juice or ginger ale will work also)
• 8 ounces tilapia fillet, cut into 1-inch wide strips
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 corn tortillas

Assemble the salsa first so that it can refrigerate while you cook the rest.

Combine flour, cumin, paprika and in a medium bowl. Whisk in wine to create the batter.

Coat tilapia pieces in the batter, allowing them to drip over the bowl and carefully transfer to a heated skillet with the olive oil already in and warm. Cook over medium-high heat until crispy and golden, 2 to 4 minutes per side.

Meanwhile warm the tortillas in the microwave for a minute or in the oven wrapped in foil to hold in moisture.

Place the fish inside the tortillas as you pull them out of the skillet, layer on a few black beans, sprinkle cheese (as my kids call it- it’s just shredded cheese), and lastly the avocado salsa.

If you wish to make enchiladas, simply leave out the salsa and place the filled tortillas in a baking dish.  Cover with your favorite enchilada sauce (I prefer the green chile sauce) and bake for about 15 minutes.

It’ll change your life people!

Avocado salsa recipe:

• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced
• 2-3 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Combine all the ingredients, refrigerate for a bit and then serve on the tacos or as a side dish with chips.  And please eat ALL the salsa in one sitting or within a day.  I don’t think you’ll be able to help yourself, but I don’t think you will want to eat it the next day after seeing what those avocados will do overnight.

bleck!

Now, aren’t you glad I forced you to have my recipe?  Well, you’ll thank me after dinner tonight!

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles