Dinners on the deck

The weather's getting warmer and we're rediscovering the deck at dinnertime. This evening, I commented to Matt that a year ago today, Anna Kimball could have been walking and tromping around the deck making mischief as she has been this week with Emery, but the poor thing was still scooting. And this made having fun outside more tricky. Oh, how grateful I am that that season is behind us ... and oh how I pray this baby due to make his/her arrival any day now will outpace his/her sisters when it comes to walking. If not, well, oh well, We know no other way!

Last night Anna Kimball snagged my napkin and I sort of wondered why, but got distracted. Then, minutes later she started trying to drag the heavy cast aluminum chairs across the deck and I got frustrated. But then, Matt told me to turn around because bless her heart, she was just trying to "set the table" for her and Emery to have a second dinner. Melt me.

Last week Matt mentioned we hadn't had fish much lately and I then explained my fish frustrations - we can't get good fresh fish here, the mediocre stuff is still expensive, who really looks forward to fish for dinner, what nutritional value other than a ton of protein does the cheapest fish, tilapia, really have, etc. etc. etc. 

But then I went and bought a bag of frozen tilapia at Target and lo and behold the girls love it. So as much as I loathe being trapped into "we always have 'X' to eat on such and such a night," pan-fried tilapia might become a regular rotation in the dinner diary now.

I've tried this before

A dinner diary. Nothing fancy, just jotting down what we ate each night, if for no other reason than to give myself the satisfaction of looking back and seeing that even if it feels like I can get nothing done in a day, I did make dinner.

I tried doing this a year or so ago and it lasted about a month. This Christmas Matt gave me a gift card to create a custom journal and since my current personal journal is gathering dust, I didn't see any reason to make a new one with the wishful thinking it might actually get written in. So I made a new dinner diary and have been faithfully recording our meals since mid-January.

For the past week or so, I've been in a huge cooking rut, though maybe it's more of a grocery shopping rut. I'm thoroughly exhausted by trying to plot out when to go to which store for what, how to plan within our budget and dietary preferences, how to think on the fly when something I didn't know was on sale actually is, or when "x" item of produce or meat isn't available/looks pathetic, etc. etc. etc.

I haven't come up with any great solutions yet, but one thing I know is this - we eat ground turkey once a week. So why am I not buying four pounds of it on the first of the month and freezing three of them? That would at least solve one night's dinner dilemma each week.

On that note, here's February 24th's turkey dinner - turkey sloppy joes. Enjoy! We did.

Carrot soup and a snow day

Today I had no real plan for dinner, since I just didn't know exactly how this snow day would evolve or what kind of leftovers we would have from the nights before. I tend to lose a little steam when it comes to cooking on Thursdays, and when better to wing it than on a snow day?

I also tend to feel a little panicky if I don't have a stash of carrots in the fridge, but the sad truth is that they often get neglected until they are rubbery and pretty much unappetizing. Naturally, today I had almost two pounds of carrots sitting in the crisper, getting less and less crisp by the day. I knew I could do some kind of baked potato main/side, throw in some leftover pork for Matt, but what to do about a vegetable? Roasted carrots just didn't sound right. I did have kale, but I really didn't feel like washing it. But then I remembered soup! (How could I forget soup? I could eat it daily in the winter and be happy) And just as I was about to tackle a slightly complicated carrot soup recipe, I remembered reading this - how to make any pureed vegetable soup in 5 steps. Bingo. Easy. Peasy. Throw in some white beans from last night's dinner and it gets even more satisfying.

Our snow day should really be reclassified as a snow morning. Even though we had around six inches on the ground at daybreak, by early afternoon the sun and warm temps had done quite a bit of work melting away our winter wonderland. Oh well. It was beautiful and fun while it lasted.

New habits

I really wouldn't call myself a "crafty mom." However, since we've been spending more time at home recently and since perhaps I might subconsciously be trying to overwhelm the girls with my "fun-ness" before I become the sleep-deprived, irrationally emotional mother of a newborn, we've been seeing quite the uptick in visual arts around here lately.

Today's mess, I mean craft, was scented microwave puffy paint. I know, kind of sounds a little weird, but it's actually so easy and the girls had a lot of fun with it. I wouldn't say they created anything that resembled anything, although Emery did crank out a few E's that survived microwaving, but the process of whisking and squeezing the paint more than made their morning. Especially since the craft was preceded by a dreaded trip to the dentist for Emery, who screamed so hard that at one point we were surrounded by three dental hygienists as well as the dentist himself, all trying to placate poor Emery.

Since I expended so much effort with the craft and dentist, I decided to take it easy on myself for dinner. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I am coming to grips with the fact that I often put too much pressure on myself to cook complicated dinners. Not because I think anyone around here really expects complicated, but because sometimes I don't get satisfaction from making quick-and-easy chili recipes.

I'm realizing this is going to need to change some once Baby D #3 decides to make his/her appearance, so I'd better start adjusting now. Hence, turkey chili even an eight-year-old can make. This chili comes together in less time than it takes to conduct a scented microwave puffy paint project and actually has depth of flavor. If you're like me, you probably already have most of the ingredients on hand, making it an ideal finale to a day when dinner just doesn't need to be complicated.

Anna Kimball is 2!

Our sweet, silly Anna Kimball turned two last week. It's fortunate that she seems to be in a good stretch here behavior-wise, so I have all kinds of glowing things to report about our new two-year old, who I know could hit a stretch of "terrible twos" again any day now. Around Christmas she had a slew of tantrums that compelled me to order a cheap baby gate to set up in the doorway to her room for time-outs. Of course just as soon as the gate arrived, the tantrums started to die off ... so we are enjoying these pleasant moments as they come.

Anna Kimball is far more opinionated than Emery was at age two. For instance, she won't tolerate at least half the clothes in her dresser and will definitely not wear tights right now. She knows exactly which two books she wants before bed - they aren't always the same books, but no substitutions will be accepted. She also has the odd bedtime ritual of always insisting that we switch the monkey lovey that's in her bed with the spare monkey lovey that's in her top dresser drawer. "Two monkeys!" she cries and that's when we know it's time to make the switch.

Since Anna Kimball barely wears most of her own clothes, it's a pretty good thing she's basically the same size as Emery and is now working her way into Emery's wardrobe, too. She's in the 75th percentile for height and the 90th for weight. You'd think that would mean Anna Kimball is a good eater, and I guess in some senses she is, since she's always ready for the next meal (or "MUNCH!" as she calls it) but she is still very selective about what she eats.

Currently, her favorite activities include Play-Doh, playing with her Critter doll house, pretend cooking, playing with dolls, looking at books and dress-up. In some ways, she plays better on her own than even Emery does now, something I attribute to being a second child and something that also gives me great hope that Baby D #3 will be even more independent than his/her sisters!

Anna Kimball is a cuddler for sure and her cheerful disposition brightens this house every day. I love how she's not quite a big girl yet (well, in one sense she is I guess!) but is slowly becoming more intentional and learning new skills with each passing week. It can be so fun to observe this process, especially since now I realize how brief it really is.

I supposed it's time to end this "Ode to Daughter #2" before a tantrum erupts - Happy Birthday Anna Kimball! We adore you!

Catching up, briefly

I'm going to be brief, because the thought of trying to recap all of November and December is entirely overwhelming and unappealing to me right now! Sounds trite, but family and fun are pretty good summations. We had Thanksgiving in Florida, then some Christmas chaos, some respiratory ailments (those actually were not fun, surprise surprise), and Christmas in Virginia. I'll let these fantastic pictures taken by my talented sister-in-law speak for themselves and cross my fingers that 2014 will bring with it more motivation to regularly blog.

Halloween and a getaway

For all the build-up in Emery's little mind about Halloween, I think it lived up to its fame. For weeks, even months, she was certain she would be her "blue ballerina," which is her favorite dress-up costume that she wears nearly everyday. I wasn't about to tell her that most kids get new costumes or have their moms make them something!

Handing out candy was almost as much fun, if not more, than peddling for some herself, though encounters with scary masks forced Emery to cover her eyes while still graciously offering a Kit Kat.

Then, over the weekend, Matt and I were able to get away for a night while Grammie tended to the girls. We did quite a bit of hiking and I felt quite a bit pregnant catching my breath up the hills. I also felt quite a bit pregnant when my chicken salad sandwich at lunch just wasn't good enough (I'm sure it was fine!) and I sent it back to the kitchen with no appetite for a re-do and then pouted at my lunch of french fries.

The fall colors were glorious, as was the peace and quiet and what seemed like a decadent number of extra hours to sleep, considering that we turned the clocks back on Saturday night AND traveled to the Central Time Zone! Now that's a 24-hour vacation worth repeating.