Crunchy Con Mommy

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

2012-03-08T09:47:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to bake bread 50ish times in 2012 and I'm posting lots of pictures and recipes so you can all see how it's going. I hope it inspires you to do some baking of your own. If you have a favorite bread recipe, please leave me a link in the comments and I'll try to make it sometime!

This week, I baked whole wheat sandwich bread by mostly following a recipe from Better Homes & Gardens (sadly I can't find their recipe online at all, so they either got rid of it or changed the name or something I guess!) It turned out really well-a bit crispier of a crust than store-bought bread, but otherwise fairly similar in texture. My husband and I both liked it toasted for his sandwich at lunch, and it was also yummy warm with honey and butter. Besides enjoying this bread's flavor and texture, we also liked knowing that there weren't any preservatives, artificial ingredients, or HFCS in this bread, unlike most of the wheat breads available for a reasonable price at our grocery store!

What you need:

2-3 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 packet or 2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water

What you do:

First, mix 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour with the yeast
Next, melt the butter in a microwae safe bowl or measuring cup in the microwave for 30 seconds
Add the water and brown sugar to the butter and microwave for 30 more seconds
Pour the liquid mixture into the flour/yeast mix and stir
Add the whole wheat flour and mix it up
Add as much of the remaining all-purpose flour as you can
Knead for about 5 minutes (should be smooth and elastic)
Put a little olive oil in the bowl, then put dough back in and swish around to lightly spread oil around bowl and dough surfaces to prevent sticking
Allow to rise until double, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours
Punch down and divide into two portions
Place in two 8in loaf pans and allow to rise until doubled again-about 30-45 min
Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes

My notes:

I am going to try filling a lagasna pan with water to create steam in the oven and see if that results in a softer crust next time.
The original recipe calls for melting the butter, water, and brown sugar in a saucepan, so if you are anti-microwave or just have the time, feel free to try that instead. With a toddler underfoot and beautiful weather outside, I was going for speed!
I used glass loaf pans and they worked out fine, but could have been a contributor to the crusty loaves. Metal loaf pans would probably result in slightly softer crusts.
One thing I recently discovered that is a huge help is "food and bread storage bags." Basically they are plastic baggies that hold a gallon of food. A loaf and a half (all the was left by the time I actually tried to bag it up) of this bread easily fit in the bag, which tied with a twist tie. Anyway, it is definitely keeping the bread fresh, which is awesome, and it was way way cheaper than normal gallon-sized plastic baggies. I definitely recommend getting some of these if you plan on baking your own bread (and they are definitely reusable for more than one loaf of bread) but aren't quite ready yet to buy a bread box, or haven't found the right one for you yet.

Cure for the Mondays 3/5/2012

2012-03-05T08:44:00.000-06:00

On Mondays I post stuff that made me laugh or smile in the last week. I hope they cheer up your day too, especially if you've got a "case of the Mondays"!

This picture makes me want both a fuzzy football shaped blanket and a new baby...

Source: northwestgifts.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Awww a mama tiger licking her baby....

Source: tumblr.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I LOVE the idea of sewing fabric bowl covers instead of having to use plastic wrap or foil. Besides storing leftovers (*only leftovers that I don't want in an airtight container, but I'd be using a tupperware or something then anyway and not foil or plastic wrap), I think these would also be perfect for putting over bowls of bread dough that are rising.

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

The idea of a fabric toilet paper roll holder seems both useful and decorative. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to sew your own too.

Source: img1.etsystatic.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

And this random funny quote made me giggle. Oh and um, almost fall off my unicorn.

Source: someecards.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

What has made you laugh and smile recently?

Check me out on Ain't No Mom Jeans today!

2012-03-01T08:36:00.001-06:00

I'm two places at once today! Besides my post below on Irish brown bread, you can also check me out on the mama fashion blog, Ain't No Mom Jeans pretending I know anything about fashion. Check out my post on dresses for very busty nursing moms here!

Sneak peek: One of my favorites of the suggestions I made:

Source: shop.guess.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Irish Brown Bread

2012-03-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm attempting to bake bread 50ish times in 2012 and I'm posting lots of pics and recipes to let you know how it's going. If you have a favorite bread recipe, let me know in the comments andI'll try to make it sometime!

I recently checked out the delightful Irish Country Cooking by Malachi McCormick from the library and love the recipes but especially the personality of the author, who grew up in Co. Cork in the 40's and 50's. The charming Mr. McCormick claims that brown bread, not soda bread, is the "real Irish bread". It sounded tasty, healthy, and quite appropriate for March so I whipped up a loaf. Here's how you can too:

What you need:

4 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sour milk

What you do:

Mix all the dry ingredients
Make a well in the middle
Pour the milk into the well
Mix well to, in the words of Mr. McCormick, "make a thickish dough, not too wet or floppy"
On a floured surface, form the dough into a roundish flatish circle, about 7 inches in diameter
Use a wet knife to make a big X on the top of the loaf
Bake in an 8 in cast iron pot prepared with butter (see my notes for more suggestions) at 400 degrees for 40 minutes

My notes:

It was super dry-drier than pie crust or biscuts-when I added 2 cups of milk, so I added about a half cup more. It is rather dry in my house, so I'd still recommend starting with 2 cups, but don't be surprised if you have to add more. I'd add extra no more than 1/4 cup at a time until the texture seems right.
Mr. McCormick suggests using an 8 in round cake pound with a lid in lieu of a cast-iron pot, but as I didn't have one of those either, I used two glass pie pans, one as the pot and one as the lid.

Hunger Equations: Get the Most Food for your Charitable Dollar

2012-02-29T10:45:00.000-06:00

Want to make the most of your money this Lenten season (and all year round)? Annie from PhD in Parenting put together this great infographic showing how many meals can be bought with $20 through a couple different common giving schemes.

Infographic by Annie @ PhD in Parenting. The code for the Hunger Equations INFOGRAPHIC can be found at the PhD in Parenting Blog.

The only thing I would add is that if you are buying Chef Boyardee etc anyway, it still helps to do the UPC code. The main takeaway point from this is that it isn't worth buying Chef Boyardee instead of what you would normally be buying because of their corporate giving program, since it isn't terribly nutritious and doesn't result in as much food for the hungry either.

Thanks so much to Annie for putting together this great infographic and making it available for others to post on their blogs!

Cure for the Mondays 2/27/2012

2012-02-27T08:21:00.000-06:00

On Mondays I post stuff I've seen in the past week that made me laugh an/or smile. I hope they brighten your day too, especially if you've got a "case of the Mondays"

I definitely think I need one of these wooden elephant bookshelves:

Source: wanelo.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I have a brother-in-law who does woodworking for fun. I wonder if I can convince him to make me one for my toddler?

How awesome is this toy Tintin rocket? (If you don't know who Tintin is, go here)

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I wonder if I could make one out of felt....

I think I need at least a couple of these bookshelf chairs. I wish I would've seen these back when I was on the library renovation committee in college...

Source: characterblog.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs. 'Nuff said.

Source: instructables.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I love the idea of making your own dinosaur eggs. The "recipe" is pretty simple (does dirt +sand+salt count as a recipe?) and the end result is awesome. I plan to make several of these to hide in the sandbox!

Source: crafts.preschoolrock.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I don't really know what type of decor they would actually go with, but I am in love with these book page sheets. Maybe a storybook themed kids' room? Or my room now just because I love them?

Source: ffffound.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

And I might have a slight obsession with otters, and this adorable picture of baby otters kissing sure doesn't help. They are even cuter than the otters on the Jeff Corwin show where he helped rescue otters in Monterey Bay that I ~~made~~ let my toddler watch with me this weekend...

Source: theberry.com via Kaila on Pinterest

What made you laugh and smile this week?

Homemade Pizza Crust and Sauce Recipes!

2012-02-23T08:57:00.000-06:00

For Valentine's Day, I made my husband homemade pizza from scratch. While I made it heart-shaped for the special day, you could certainly make it round shape for any day of the year (and my husband has requested it become part of our regular menu rotation!). Anyway, after scouring the internet and my cookbook collection for good recipes, here's what I ended up using.

Pizza Crust
2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour
2 1/4 tsp or 1 packet dry active yeast
1 cup of warm water
2 tbsp oil

Mix half of the flour with all of the yeast, water, and oil.
Add remaining flour and mix.
Knead about 6 minutes or until soft and supple
Let rest 10 minutes
Roll each half into an 11 inch circle
Pinch around the edges to form a crust
Cover and allow to rise for 30-45 minutes
Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until beginning to turn goldeny brown
Add sauce and toppings and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
from the Better Homes & Garden recipe

I let my pizza crusts rise on foil with cornmeal sprinkled on it!

And for my pizza sauce, I combined with a whisk:

1 12 oz can of tomato paste
3 cloves fresh garlic (mushed through my garlic press)
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp basil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

Mix all those ingredients, then add 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups warm water until you like the thickness. I made it really thick and used a lot each time, and it lasted about 6 pizzas.

I made one pizza for Valentine's Day with mozzarella and heart-shaped pepperonis and one with mozzarella, pepperonis, onion, and bell pepper. The one with the veggies was definitely better, but both were amazingly delicious. I kind of want to make this every night now.

Notes:

I made this with half whole wheat flour on another night since then and while my husband and I both liked it, the toddler rejected it.
Fresh garlic is obviously awesome, but it would totally work with garlic powder if that's what you have on hand. It would probably be fine without the red wine vinegar too, especially if you subbed in a little white vinegar. Anyway, specialty ingredients are great, but don't let the absence of them prevent you from making this!
I discovered that both mozzarella and cheddar cheese are way cheaper when you buy them in 2 lb bags. At my local grocery store, the regular price of the 2lb bags makes them cheaper per oz than even the sale prices on the 8oz bag.
Try making veggie pizza with a couple of types of cheese for a meat-free buy delicious Lenten Friday diner (and much lower cost than fast food restaurant pizza or fish from anywhere around me!).

Cure for the Mondays 2-20-2012

2012-02-20T09:07:00.000-06:00

Every Monday I post things that made me laugh or smile in the past week. I hope they brighten your day too, especially if you have a case of the Mondays.

How cute is this idea for summer? Freeze action figures in ice cubes and then have your kids "save" them by squirting the ice with squirt guns!

Source: greenjello.typepad.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I love the idea of chocolate dinosaurs inside a "dinosaur egg"-perfect for Easter egg hunts. I think I can even make my own pretty easily using my chocolate dinosaur mold and plastic eggs!

Source: preschoolactivitiesforpreschoolers.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

This makes me want to grow lots of edible flowers and freeze them all into adorable floral ice cubes

Source: theglitterguide.tumblr.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

My toddler would be pretty excited if I made this easy homeade glow-in-the-dark playdough! It's basically a standard homemade playdough recipe plus some glow-in-the-dark paint mixed together. Brilliant in its simplicity!

Source: sunhatsandwellieboots.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

If I was bored and had access to office supplies, I'd totally make an office supply X-Wing fighter like this

Source: instructables.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Next time we buy ice cream I'm totally baking cookie cups by using the bottom of a muffin tin. It makes me want to run out and buy ice cream right now just to try it!

Source: wilton.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

And I wish I would've thought of this before my wedding-I used rock candy as favors and had tons left over. Sprinkling rock candy on cupcakes would've been a delicious way to use up some of the extras!

Source: thepartydress.net via Crunchy on Pinterest

And what would Monday be without an arbitrary cute baby animal??? This mama lion lovin' on her cub warms my heart!

Source: zooborns.typepad.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Apple King's Cake (Whole Wheat Braided Apple Ring)

2012-02-15T05:00:00.000-06:00

Next Tuesday is Mardi Gras, so if you're looking for a fun treat to help celebrate with your friends and/or family, I've got the bread for you: Apple King's Cake.
The tradition of King's Cake is an old one, and basically involves a ring shaped cake that has some kind of token hidden in one piece. The person who gets that token is crowned "King" of that Mardi Gras party (often with a tissue paper crown). In the French village I lived in for a year as a kid, they used actual tiny ceramic tiles, and some people use plastic baby dolls (to represent the baby Jesus), but I gravitate more towards using a walnut or raisin so it's not quite such a shock to the person who finds it(and their teeth!)

To make this treat, I used this recipe from Rachael of La Fuji Mama on the blog Eat, Live, Run. She made it a straight braid, but it was pretty easy to adapt to a ring shape

Source: eatliverun.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

What you need:

the ingredients listed by Rachael, in the amounts she specified

What you do:

Peel, slice, and chop the apples as desired (or grate them if you plan on sharing with a baby and are concerned about choking. They should get soft from baking even if just sliced or cubed, but better safe than sorry!)
Mix apples with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice in a glass baking dish and pop them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes (about how long the rest of the process should take you)
Mix all the dry ingredients, then add the oil and water.
Knead for 6ish minutes or until the dough is smooth.
Divide the dough into two portions. Roll each out on a smooth surface into two rectangles.
Gently press the ends of the two rectangles together and form a circle. If the dough doesn't seem to be smoothing together well enough, just put a few drops of water on each gap and smooth is with your fingers.
Using a pizza cutter or knife (pizza cutter is easiest in my opinion), cut slits that go 1/3 of the way in on both the outside and inside of the dough and are about 1/2 inch wide to 1 inch wide each.
Get the apples out of the oven and spoon the apple mix onto the center of the dough.
Add a nut or raisin now if you are using one.
"Braid" the bread by pulling the strips across the apple mix, alternating beween strips on the inside and the outside of the dough circle. (See the original recipe for some great pics)
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Glaze if desired-add purple, green, and yellow to the glaze and/or sprinkles if desired for extra Mardi Gras flair.

My notes:

I used half whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and liked it, but I'm sure it'd be lighter and more pastry-like if you used regular flour. As with all recipes, if you use whole wheat flour instead of regular flour, use slightly less flour than the recipe calls for.
I didn't actually try to be that meticulous about it-I wasn't originally planning on posting it, I was just making a fun treat for my toddler and me on Epiphany (the celebration of the 3 Kings' visit to Jesus). So umm you can probably make the braid look a lot neater if you try harder.

PS How fun would it be to make a crown for the King and this jester hat for all the non-kings???

Source: blog.mardigrasoutlet.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

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Presumption of Good Will

2012-02-14T05:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the February 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Respectful Interactions With Other Parents
This Post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have focused on how we can communicated with other parents compassionately.

As a conservative Catholic who mostly follows “attachment parenting” or “natural parenting” practices, I’m pretty much guaranteed to disagree with just about everyone I meet on parenting practices, politics, and/or religion. But I try not to start fights, and to mostly get along with people. A book I recently read, however, helped me be much more focused in my efforts. In his book “Seek First the Kingdom”, Cardinal Wuerl from D.C. talks about having a “presupposition of good will” when Catholics are discussing divisive issues with Catholics who disagree with their positions, and I think that his suggestion is applicable to discussions in the parenting community as well. While as parents we don’t all share a common faith, we do share a common love: our families.

And I think it’s a great rule of thumb to assume that, even when we disagree with specific practices fellow parents employ, they are acting out of love for their children and a desire to do what is best for them. When we assume that loving motivation first, it seems easier somehow to reply kindly. To inform people of our different opinion without accusing them of child abuse or stupidity or laziness or any of the other horrible things we accuse ourselves of in the so-called “mommy wars.”

Of course, being nice doesn’t mean we can’t stand up for what we believe in. And in fact, when we disagree but accept that they reached those conclusions with love of their child in mind, we are more likely to share our views effectively. By sharing our positions on the issues, and especially the research, anecdotes, and life experiences that helped us form our opinions, we are much more likely to have a positive influence on that person and on other people who witness our interactions than if we attack our “opponent” and their motivations. The common expression is that you “catch more flies with honey”. The Cardinal describes it as “speaking the truth in charity.”

And that’s what I’m going to try to keep doing. I know I’ll fail sometimes and lose my temper and leave an uncharitable comment from time to time. But I am going to try to make a concerted effort to leave kind comments on blog posts I disagree with. I’ll attempt give honest compliments where they are deserved in addition to my views on the parenting practices in question. I'll try not to insult people personally, but focus my criticisms on the ideas we are discussing.

In short, I’m going to try to speak and type with a presupposition of goodwill.

***
Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon February 14 with all the carnival links.)

How to Respond Respectfully to Unwanted Parenting Advice and Judgment — At Natural Parents Network, Amy (of Peace 4 Parents) offers some ways to deal with parenting advice and criticism, whether it's from your mom or the grocery store clerk.
Judgement is Natural - Just Don't Condemn — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shared her views on why judgment is unavoidable and why the bigger issue is condemnation.
Four Ways To Share Your Parenting Philosophy Gently — Valerie at Momma in Progress shares tips for communicating with fellow parents in a positive, peaceful manner.
When Other Parents Disagree With You — Being an attachment parent is hard enough, but when you are Lily, aka Witch Mom, someone who does not enforce gender roles on her kid, who devalues capitalism and materialism, and instead prefers homeschooling and homesteading — you are bound to disagree with someone, somewhere!
Mama Bashing — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud reflects on the hurt caused on the blogosphere by mama bashing and pleads for a more mindful way of dealing with differences.
Accentuate the Positive — Joella at Fine and Fair shares how she manages interactions with the parents she encounters in her work as a Parent Coach and Substance Abuse Counselor by building trusting relationships and affirming strengths.
The politics of mothers – keys to respectful interactions with other parents — Tara from MUMmedia offers great tips for handling the inevitable conflict of ideas and personalities in parenting/mother's groups, etc.
Trying to build our village — Sheila at A Gift Universe tells how she went from knowing no other moms in her new town to building a real community of mothers.
Internet Etiquette in the Mommy Wars — Shannon at The Artful Mama discusses how she handles heated topics in the "Mommy-space" online.
Parenting with Convictions — Sarah at Parenting God's Children encourages love and support for fellow parents and their convictions.
How To Be Respectful Despite Disagreeing On Parenting Styles... — Jenny at I'm a Full-Time Mummy shares her two cents' worth on how to have respectful interactions with other parents despite disagreeing on parenting styles.
Public Relations — Momma Jorje touches on keeping the peace when discussing parenting styles.
Navigating Parenting Politics — Since choosing an alternative parenting style means rejecting the mainstream, Miriam at The Other Baby Book shares a few simple tips that can help avoid hurt feelings.
Hiding in my grace cave — Lauren at Hobo Mama wants to forget that not all parents are as respectful and tolerant as the people with whom she now surrounds herself.
Carnival of Natural Parenting - Respectful Interactions with Other Parents — Wolfmother at Fabulous Mama Chronicles explores how her attitude has changed regarding sharing information and opinions with others and how she now chooses to keep the peace during social outings.
Empathy and respect — Helen at zen mummy tries to find her zen in the midst of the Mummy Wars.
Not Holier Than Thou — Amyables at Toddler in Tow muses about how she's learned to love all parents, despite differences, disagreements, and awkward conversations.
Nonviolent Communication and Unconditional Love — Wendylori at High Needs Attachment reflects on the choice to not take offense as the key to honest and open communication.
Respectful Parenting As a Way of Life — Sylvia at MaMammalia writes about using her parenting philosophy as a guide to dealing with other parents who make very different choices from her.
Homeschooling: Why Not? — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares how parents can often make homeschooling work for their family even if, at first glance, it may seem daunting.
If You Can’t Say Something Nice… — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells her philosophy for online and offline interactions … a philosophy based primarily on a children’s movie.
Different Rules for Different Families — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children discusses how differences between families affect our children, and how that can be a good thing.
Respectful Interaction With Other Parents — Luschka at Diary of a First Child shares the ways she surrounds herself with a like-minded support network, so that she can gently advocate in her dealings with those whose opinions on parenting differ vastly from her own.
Parenting as a mirror — Rather than discrediting others' parenting styles, Kate Wicker discusses why she tries to focus on doing right rather than being right — and why she’s also not afraid to show others that she’s a heartfelt but imperfect mama just trying to be the best mom for her family.
The One Thing {Most} Parents Have In Common: They Try Their Best — Christine at African Babies Don't Cry finds interacting with other parents easier once she accepts that they are all just trying their best, just like her.
Finding your mama-groove: 5 ways to eliminate judge/be judged metality — MudpieMama reveals 5 ways of thinking that have helped her find her mama-groove and better navigate tricky parenting discussions.
Speaking Up For Those Who Can't — We've all had those moments when someone said something hurtful or insensitive, or downright rude that just shocks you to your core, and you're stunned into silence. Afterwards, you go home and think "Gosh, I wish I said…" This post by Arpita at Up Down, And Natural is for all the breastfeeding mamas who have thought "Gosh, I wish I said…"
Thank you for your opinion — Gaby at Tmuffin shares her go-to comment when she feels like others are judging her parenting style.
Mending — A playground conversation about jeans veers off course until a little mending by Kenna at Million Tiny Things is needed.
The Thing You Don't Know — Kelly at Becoming Crunchy talks about what she believes is one of the most important things you can consider when it comes to compassionate communication with other parents.
3 Tips for Interacting with Other Parents Respectfully When You Disagree with Them — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares what she has learned about respectful interactions on her parenting journey.
Peacefully Keeping My Cool: Quotes from Ana — How do you keep your cool? Ana from Pandamoly shares some of her favorite retorts and conversation starters when her Parenting Ethos comes into question.
Kind Matters — Carrie at Love Notes Mama discusses how she strives to be the type of person she'd want to meet.
Doing it my way but respecting your highway. — Terri from Child of the Nature Isle is determined to walk with her family on the road less travelled whether you like it or not!
Saying "I'm Right and You're Wrong" Seldom Does Much To Improve Your Cause... — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment writes about how living by example motivates her actions and interactions with others.
Have another kid and you won't care — Cassie of There's a Pickle in My Life, after having her second child, knows exactly how to respond to opposing advice.
Ten Tips to Communicate Respectfully, Even When You Disagree — What if disagreements with our partners, our children or even complete strangers ultimately led to more harmony and deeper connections? They can! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares ten tips to strengthen our relationships in the midst of conflict.
A Little Light Conversation — Zoie at TouchstoneZ explains why respect needs to be given to every parent unconditionally.
Why I used to hide the formula box — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen finally talks about how judgement between parents changed her views on how she handles differences in parenting.
Assumptions — Nada at minimomist discusses how not everyone is able to nurse, physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Shushing Your Inner Judgey McJudgerson — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction knows that judging others is easy to do, but recognizing that we all parent from different perspectives takes work.
Respectfully Interacting with Others Online — Lani at Boobie Time Blog discusses the importance of remaining respectful behind the disguise of the internet.
Being Gracious with Parenting Advice — Tips for giving and receiving parenting advice with grace from Lisa at My World Edenwild.
Explain, Smile, Escape — Don't know what to do when you're confronted by another parent who disagrees with you? Amy at Anktangle shares a story from her life along with a helpful method for navigating these types of tricky situations (complete with a handy flow chart!).
Balancing Cultures and Choices — Dulce de leche discusses the challenges of walking the tightrope between generations while balancing cultural and family ties.
Linky - Parenting Peacefully with Social Media — Hannabert's Mom discusses parenting in a social media world.

Cure for the Mondays 2-13-2012

2012-02-13T05:00:00.000-06:00

Every Monday I post things that made me laugh or smile in the past week. I hope they make you laugh and smile too, especially if you've got a "Case of the Mondays"

How cool is this: use the base of a celery stalk as a rose stamp!

Source: dollarstorecrafts.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I think this maze door latch is not only cool, but also could be useful for keeping pre-schoolers in

Source: wanelo.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

If I didn't have a husband, I would totally have a hot pink front door like this.

Source: gabbagabbagorg.tumblr.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I'd love to make one of these someday-it's a sandbox hidden under a play fort. I would be a little worried about spiders, but I think the protection from the elements and space-saving would make up for it.

Source: exaco.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

and if you're still looking for something to make your Valentine, check out Wild Olive's free embroidery patterns

Source: wildolive.blogspot.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Heart Shaped Donuts!

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm planning to bake bread 50ish times in 2012 and will post lots of pictures and recipes to show you how it's going. I hope you're inspired to bake something too!

Looking for a delicious treat to surprise your sweetie with this Valentine's Day? Whip up a batch of these half whole-wheat baked heart shaped donuts!

I modified a recipe I found here to create these "heart"y treats.

What you need:
Donuts:

1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cups whole wheat flour
3tbsp butter (or shortening or margarine)
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tsp yeast
3/4 cup warm milk
3 tbsp warm water

Frosting:

milk
powdered sugar
cocoa powder

What you do:

Put the warm water, sugar and yeast directly in the bowl you're using
Put the butter and milk in a glass measuring cups and heat both up in the microwave so that the milk is warm but not hot.
Mix the ingredients in the bowl with the yeast mix already in it.
Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes (it will still be a little sticky-it's just a sticky dough)
Allow the dough to rise until doubled (about an hour)
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until about 1/4 of an inch thick
Cut into circles or hearts (see note)
Allow to rise until doubled again (about 30-45 minutes)
Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.
Mix 1 tbsp of milk and 1 tbsp of cocoa powder in a wide bowl and add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time until you like the texture (should be fairly thick)
Fill a second bowl with sprinkles
Once donuts are cool enough to handle, dip the top of each donut into the frosting mixture and then into the sprinkles.
Allow to dry a bit and then eat!

My notes:

To make the donuts heart shaped, I first made them round and then pinched the top and bottom in the center until it was a nice heart shape.
If you have heart-shaped cookie cutters in various sizes, that might be easier and quicker than the circle method I used-just make sure the heart is skinny enough to still look like a heart after it rises in the oven!
These are tasty according to my husband and toddler and me, but they do not taste like fried, all white flour Krispy Kreme donuts-they taste like baked half whole wheat flour donuts. If you are looking for a delicious sweet-but-healthy, baked yeast bread with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, you'll love this. If you something that tastes like it has 5000 calories in it, you're going to be disappointed. I just want you to know what you're getting into here.
You can fry these and they will be a more traditional donuty, just not as healthy
If you'd rather not use wheat flour, add 1/4-1/2 cup extra flour so it's not too wet.

Fun Kids' Cooking Contest from Uncle Ben's Rice

2012-02-06T14:12:00.000-06:00

One of the easiest changes we made in our own kitchen to try to eat healthier is to cook whole grain rice instead of instant white rice. It was so easy and tastes so much better; we were kind of surprised that anyone doesn’t eat whole grain rice! So I was happy to hear that Uncle Ben’s rice is trying to encourage kids to eat healthier, starting with whole grain rice. They are running a cool contest on their Facebook page for pint-sized chefs and are offering a $20,000 cash prize (plus an appearance on the Rachael Ray show and a $50,000 cafeteria makeover to the winner’s school.) To enter, kids have to make a 3 minute video showing them cooking a healthy rice dish. There are so many delicious options-I think for most kids, narrowing down which one to cook will be the hardest part! To spread the word about the contest, Uncle Ben’s is also asking mom bloggers to share their best tips for healthy cooking with kids. I decided to go straight to the source and see what ideas a few kids I know had:

DB Age 12:

"Healthy cooking should have less fat, less sugar and be tasty. A way to do that is look for a recipe you like and then substitute the bad ingredients for good ingredients, like honey instead of sugar, don't fry your food, stuff like that."

CC age 5:

"Don't eat too much sugar every day. And don't eat too much ice cream, candy and stuff like that. Try whole grain cereal, maybe some eggs. Last night we had some healthy cheese dip with protein. It was awesome - you should try that recipe! That's pretty much all I know."

AH age 7:

"Use lots of different colors of food. Vitamins come in lots of colors and you need to eat them to be healthy. But, don't eat too many calories. You have to be careful with those things!"

I think clearly kids these days are being taught a lot more about nutrition than I was in the 90’s! I agree with their suggestions-look for healthy ingredients, lots of colorful foods, and avoid excess sugar. As a mom, one of the main things I try to do is buy “real” ingredients instead of processed food. If I buy a bag or box of whole grain rice, fresh lean meat like chicken breasts, and some fresh veggies, I can make delicious dinners for my family like stir fry, tacos, or cheesy rice casseroles that are usually much cheaper and healthier than anything I’d buy in a box or from a restaurant. And as their fun contest will show, many of these recipes are so easy a kid could do it.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Uncle Ben’s blogging program, for 6,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Cure for the Mondays 2/6/2012

2012-02-06T05:00:00.000-06:00

Every Monday I post things that made me laugh or smile in the last week. I hope they make your laugh and smile too, especially if you've got a "case of the Mondays"

I definitely want to try this easy slime recipe for some fun slimy play with my son!

Source: ourbestbites.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

This mama and baby giraffe snuggling together warms my heart

Source: joannagoddard.blogspot.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

These embroidered Sashiko coasters (Japanese embroidery) look so pretty, and Sashiko method makes the embroidery actually go really quickly-I definitely want to make some!

Source: stitchedincolor.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Hobo Mama, Code Name: Mama, and the Natural Parents' Network are having a fun giveaway for some Earth Mama Angel Baby postpartum products. If I were a new or expecting mama, I'd definitely be entering! (*please note that you can only enter on one site)

Source: hobomama.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

I recently read that Florida has a problem with an infestation of feral pythons....as in giant snakes that will eat small to medium sized animals, and presumably small humans if the opportunity presented itself. I also read a hilarious proposal that the snakes be hunted and turned into accessories like boots, belts, and bags. I think it's a great idea, and that I want this bag if feral python hunting drives down the prices of python bags

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

What made you laugh and smile this week?

Food Network's Almost-Famous Breadsticks

2012-02-03T16:07:00.001-06:00

I'm attempting to bake something bread-y 50ish times in 2012 and plan on posting lots of recipes and pictures to let you know how it's going. I hope you're inspired to bake something too!

Delicious...but were they worth it?

This week I baked Food Network's Almost-Famous Breadsticks and while my husband loved them, I wasn't too thrilled myself. I guess for me they just aren't enough better than French bread to justify the white sugar and butter in them, or how sticky and difficult to work with the dough was. I was also unable to make them turn out nice and evenly shaped, which was frustrating. I certainly wouldn't make them for a dinner party, because why serve lumpy breadsticks when I could have nice rounded baguettes or rolls? They did taste pretty delicious (my husband said they were much, much yummier than French bread) and are an excellent side for any kind of Italian dish...if for some reason you're opposed to French bread.

Before rising. I thought they'd get less lumpy.

After rising and baking: still lumpy.

Seek First the Kingdom: Book Review

2012-02-02T19:06:00.002-06:00

What it is:
Seek First the Kingdom from Our Sunday Visitor makes the case for lay Catholics to engage in American politics, both by speaking the truth to their friends and neighbors and by confronting politicians about views they disagree with...but always charitably.

Who wrote it:
Cardinal Donald Wuerl of D.C.

First Impression:
Honestly, I was a little bored at first. The book starts out with some basic ideas that he builds upon later. I don't know of a better way to go about it, but it certainly didn't hook me from the beginning.

Overall Impressions:
This book gets much better as it goes on. Cardinal Wuerl makes compelling arguments about why and how Catholics should get involved in advocating for Christian values in everday life. He makes ample use of short anecdotes from "real life" and I really love the charitable way he encourages readers to promote their values, especially when in a disagreement. A quote that I really took to heart was

But we should speak with a presupposition of the other person's good will, or our shared concern for the Church, and with an awareness that we are all one in faith...Thus, even when we disagree, we strive always to speak the truth in love.

While he was referring to disagreements between Christians in that particular quote, I think the point holds true for most conversations in life. I think assuming good intentions on the part of whomever you are disagreeing with is a much more pleasant way to live one's life, and much more likely to be effective in helping you sharing God's love and truth.
I also thought he did a nice job of writing the book in such a way that it did not promote one political party over the other. A book that alienated one side or the other couldn't reach all Catholics the way Cardinal Wuerl aims to do here. I personally support a political party and honestly can't really see how Catholics faithful to the magesterium could support the other party, but he makes a compelling case for why the Church should not officially support one party or the other-even if all the lay people do. I also love the way he challenges readers to challenge policies within our own political parties that aren't in line with Christian teaching by reaching out to political leaders and letting them know where we stand.

Pros:

Compelling arguments
Real life examples
Non-partisan
Argues to do all advocacy with charitable attitude

Cons:

Starts slowly
Not a super easy read

The Bottom Line:
This book is a thoughtful look at the proper place of Catholics in public advocacy of Christian values and policies that promote those policies. It's a great book for Catholics, especially intellectuals, who are hesitant to let their faith influence other areas of their life, like their political and professional efforts.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Cure for the Mondays 1/30/2012

2012-01-30T10:48:00.001-06:00

Every Monday I post things that made me laugh and smile in the last week. I hope they help if you have "a case of the Mondays"!

*How cute is this idea for colorful drinks??

Source: cutestfood.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Basically, you freeze colorful fruit juice or Kool-Aid, then pour Sprite over the brightly colored ice cubes.Try it this weekend with ice cubes in the color of your favorite Superbowl team!

*Every time I see something like these adorable animal cupcakes I am more and more convinced I need to learn to use fondant...

Source: cutestfood.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

*No special fondant skills required to make these Teddy Bear car treats! I think these would be so perfect at a Teddy Bear picnic. The only changes I'd make would be to use 3 Musketeers and M&M's instead of Milky Ways and Sweet Tarts

Source: Uploaded by user via Crunchy on Pinterest

*I love this idea of re-enacting kid pictures as adults. I can think of a few specific pictures already that I'd love to try it with!

Source: Uploaded by user via Crunchy on Pinterest

What made you laugh and smile this week??

February Towel of the Month

2012-01-29T15:03:00.001-06:00

For Christmas, I gave my mom a "Towel of the Month Club Membership"-basically, I promised to embroider a kitchen towel for her each month this year(I forgot to take a picture of the "January" towel I gave her on Christmas to have something to open). I just finished the February towel and wanted to share it with you. I used this free pattern:

Source: french-knots.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

and decided to do the whole thing as if it were one big flowering plant-I made little stars where the circles above each flower are in the pattern and made the shapes below the flower all green like stems and leaves. I think the heart and pink make it Valentine'sy enough to be fun, but it is also generic enough to leave out all spring. I used stem stitch on the flowers, woven spider wheels and straight stitch on the green portion, and just kind of made up the yellow stars.
And here is my finished towel:

My February towel. Sorry for not ironing.

Have you ever embroidered tea towels? I have 10 months left to go, so please share your favorite patterns and motifs with me!!

French Bread

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm attempting to bake bread 50ish times in 2012 and I'll post lots of pictures, recipes, and tutorials here to update you on my progress and hopefully inspire you to bake some too!

This week I baked simple, classic French bread using this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens. I love that it is simply flour +yeast+water+salt. I actually cut the recipe in half and used whole wheat flour though, so to make their French bread my way:

What you need:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp of salt

A hunk of this French bread with Italian seasonings is great with spaghetti!

What you do:

Mix all the ingredients
Knead for 6-8 minutes
Let it rise for about an hour or until doubled
Punch down and form into 2 "baguettes" on a baking stone or cookie sheet with a little cornmeal or flour sprinkled on it.
Allow dough to double again (about a half hour or so)
Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until crust is hard and sounds hollow when tapped.

My thoughts:

I use a "Silpat" my mom sent me and it's awesome for preventing sticking.
If your house is really dry this time of year like mine is, you can add a tiny bit more water, but if you add too much, your dough will get droopy like mine did...I've made this recipe many times and the only time it wasn't perfect was when I added too much water. If you overcompensate, it will still work and be yummy, it just won't be quite the same.
The dough should be elastic and smooth-not sticky-if you have kneaded it properly.
If you keep your house cool during winter, let your dough rise a little extra long so it is nice and fluffy.
Delicious plain, or rub a stick of butter across the top and then sprinkle Italian herbs like basil, oregano, and garlic and/or some grated parmesan cheese on top for extra deliciousness (and to impress your family!)

5 Mom Inspired Driving Tips

2012-01-25T17:32:00.003-06:00

Esurance is asking moms for their best "mom-inspired driving tips", so I wanted to share my best ones so far from my time as a mom and from my memories of running errands with my own mom as a kid. Driving is something that doesn't come naturally to me, and my son went through a phase where he absolutely hated riding in the car, so it's something I've given quite a bit of thought to, actually! So here are my thoughts:

Plan ahead

Plan out your route before you go-I use Google maps unless it’s somewhere I’ve been a million times like the grocery store. If you’re going very far, you can also check your state DOT website to see if there are any road closures you should be aware of. I remember my own mom always kept an atlas with a spiral binding in the pocket behind the passenger seat.

Combine trips and buy treats

By going multiple places in our trip, you get more time out and about with less overall drive time-usually a good thing with babies who won’t tolerate too much time in a car. Frequent stops can lift spirits of curious little ones-especially if you throw in some fun stops just for them, like the toy store or somewhere with snacks. And treats from somewhere you were going anyway definitely counts too. One of my favorite places to go as a kid was the grocery store, because sometimes if we were very good, my mom would let us buy ice cream cones from the ice cream counter there (like how my current grocery store has a Starbucks, lol). My favorite flavor was black cherry, which I haven’t found anywhere since.

Drive gently and bring extra clothes

Some kids (like me when I was little and now my son…lucky me!) get carsick if you take them on a bumpy drive or one with sharp turns. Trying to turn gently and avoiding bumps increases the odds of making it to Target without anyone throwing up. But be sure to bring a spare outfit in case you fail. If you live somewhere cold and have a puke prone kiddo, you may want to buy an extra coat. A coat that smells terrible can ruin a shopping trip pretty quick, even if you change the whole rest of the outfit.

Keep your kiddo as safe and happy as you can

Some kids, especially babies, just hate car rides and will fuss no matter what you do. But hedge your bets by taking along some soft non-choking hazard toys and maybe some music your kids will like. And of course, be sure they are in a comfortable age-and-weight-appropriate carseat or booster that is tightly fastened. For older kids, video games like the Sega GameGear we had growing up might be a fun distraction for them so you can stay focused!

Take a chill pill

Once you’ve done what you can to prepare for your trip, and minimize distractions, just relax and try to enjoy the outing. Stressing out won’t help you be a safer driver-or have a good day.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Esurance blogging program for 8,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.
What memories do you have of driving with your mom?

Wordless Wednesday: March for Life

2012-01-25T16:08:00.002-06:00

The annual "March for Life" in D.C. was earlier this week and Bad Catholic caught up with some of the 40,000ish pro-life protesters at the event to make this video:

Cure for the Mondays 1/23/12

2012-01-23T11:37:00.002-06:00

On Mondays if I get around to it, I'll post things that made me laugh or smile in the past week in hopes they'll make you laugh and smile too, especially if you have a "case of the Mondays"! Here are my picks for this week:

*One of my latest TV addictions is Hart of Dixie, and I was totally afraid it got cancelled because 1.) fun lighthearted shows I like always get cancelled and 2.) they took a super long winter break, but
Hart of Dixie is back on the CW tonight!!!

Source: cwtv.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

If you haven't seen it, it's about Rachel Bilson aka Dr. Zoe Hart who moves from NYC to Bluebell, Alabama to do private practice medicine and befriends a former NFL star, a hick with nice abs, a lawyer, and a hilarious Asian waitress, and is frienemies with a Southern Belle with a chip on her shoulder. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, and I think does a good job of poking fun at Southern culture and rural life without being disrespectful. So yeah, check it out! (PS If you know me personally, it's not hard to see why I dig the idea of a hottie lawyer who eschews big city corporate law to return to his hometown...)

*A friend from college spotted this Black Magic Chocolate Cake on Pinterest and I can't wait to try it...it looks like it's gotten rave reviews from everyone who has so far.

Source: justapinch.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

*What would Monday be without an arbitrary cute baby animal picture? I can't help but gush at the cuteness of this baby alpaca!

Source: aimeelikestotakepics.deviantart.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

Grandma's Hot Rolls

2012-01-19T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to bake bread 50ish times in 2012 and I plan on posting lots of pics, recipes, and info on how well they worked! Check back each week or so to see what I've been baking up!

This week I made my Grandma's hot rolls. My Grandma used to keep these rolls on hand at all times-this is what my Dad took ham sandwiches to school on and what my Grandad ate at his lunch on the railroad, so they are extra-special to me. Most people seem to agree they are pretty delicious too (I took them to Thanksgiving at my in-laws house and a good number of them were eaten). Anyway, it's a pretty easy recipe and so far always turns out really well.

What you need:

2 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg
7 1/2 cup flour
1 packet (2 1/2 tsp) of dry active yeast

What you do:

Pour the water into a bowl (I use the bowl of my stand mixer).
Add the other ingredients and mix.
Knead for 8 minutes (I let my mixer do the kneading but usually for more like 6 minutes)
Scrape down sides of bowl if necessary and pour a little oil down the side to prevent sticking.
Cover with clean cloth and let rise until double (about an hour)
Punch down and let double again (another hour, maybe a little less)
Roll into balls (use a 1/3 cup measuring cup the first time to get a feel for the size)
Let rise on baking sheet until doubled again (not too long-maybe 15-30 minutes)
Bake 375 for 20 minutes or until golden brown

My notes:

This recipes ends up baking 24 rolls when I make them about 1/3 of a cup each, but I don't actually measure.
I use a metal lasagna pan to bake mine and they all run into each other, but that just makes them extra soft and fluffy

Toddler NOT thrilled he had to wait 20 more minutes to eat rolls

These are delicious with half whole wheat flour and I've even made them with all white whole wheat flour and enjoyed them, but reduce the amount of flour slightly because whole wheat flour is denser and will dry out your dough too much if you use the full amount.

What foods make your think of your grandparents?

Cure for the Mondays (1/16/12 edition)

2012-01-16T13:03:00.002-06:00

On Mondays if I get around to it, I'll try to post random things that make me happy-things that can cheer me up when I have a "case of the Mondays"

Giveaways galore at The Feminist Breeder to celebrate her new resources page! Go here to get the details and enter! My math is a little fuzzy today on account of it being Monday in all its glory, but I think they end Friday at Midnight based on the Rafflecopter countdown clocks...

Awwwww a mommy otter snuggling a baby otter:

Source: Uploaded by user via Crunchy on Pinterest

Rainbow cookies!!! They call them unicorn poop, which is yucky to me, but they still look pretty. It's basically a rope made of different colored sugar cookie dough. I think I'd twist it into a spiral or a knot or something and NOT call it unicorn poop but still enjoy its sugary prettiness. Oh and sanding sugar for sparkle is a must!

Source: themarysue.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

And coat the rims of a cup with sprinkles to dress up a festive drink.The original link/pic are martinis, but I'd totally do this for pink lemonade for a baby or wedding shower!

Source: stacey-lane.tumblr.com via Crunchy on Pinterest

And Pinterest in general. I am kind of in love with/addicted to Pinterest, which is where I found most of this stuff. You can follow me if you want and I'll follow you back!

What fun/silly/cheerful stuff have you seen lately?

My Experiment in Homemade Bread

2012-01-10T01:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the January Carnival of Natural Parenting: Experiments in Natural Family Living
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have reported on weeklong trials to make their lives a little more natural. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
***
I've been increasingly drawn to the idea of baking the majority of the bread my family eats myself for several reasons including:

It's inexpensive: one or two loaves of healthy bread at my local grocery store easily costs the same as a bag of flour, a jar of yeast, and a shaker of salt. Also, compared to most crafty or foodie hobbies, bread baking-even artisan bread baking-is a pretty darn cheap way to express your creativity.

It's healthy: most of the reasonably priced bread at the grocery store is full of high fructose corn syrup and all sorts of preservatives and additives. Basic French bread has only 4 ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, and water. Even quick bread and sweeter yeast breads tend to be healthier than their storebought counterparts, so while homemade cinnamon rolls aren't exactly a health food, they are likely to contain fewer bad ingredients than storebought pastries.

It's easy to customize: You can easily modify most bread recipes to include a variety of healthy and fun flours, grains, fruits, and spices. You can also easily avoid allergens and other ingredients you dislike or that cause you issues. For example, I'm lactose intolerant and sandwich bread (and many other breads) contain milk. By substituting lactose free milk or soy, almond, or coconut milk I can make delicious breads my stomach won't regret later!

It's delicious: homemade bread generally tastes better

So for a few weeks in December I tried baking all our bread myself and I discovered a few things:

It's really fun and easy to bake my own bread
My husband and son will both gobble down as much homemade bread as I'll give them
December is a terrible time to start a new project-even one that doesn't take much time or effort.
We don't need to eat bread nearly as often as we currently do.

Basically, it went really well until I got overly busy with Christmas. I underestimated how much time I needed to spend on sewing Christmas presents and we ran out of bread. No one even noticed for like a week, which tells me that we really don't need to be eating as much of the store-bought stuff as we had been, even if I don't make homemade to replace it. We can eat brown rice, pasta, & potatoes and have a much more balanced diet. And less high fructose corn syrup!

So my plan for 2012 is to eat less bread overall and make significantly more of it myself. In fact, to help keep myself accountable (and just for fun) I've decided to do a bread baking challenge in 2012: I'm going to attempt to bake bread 50 times this year and post once a week about the recipes I'm using. Sometimes I'll make savory breads that can basically replace store-bought sandwich bread or buns, and other weeks I'll do quick breads and sweet bready treats.

To kick it off, this week I made Whole Wheat Blueberry Oatmeal bread from the blog From Judy's Kitchen and here's how it turned out:

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Blueberry Bread-yum!

Quick. Easy. Inexpensive.

Delicious.

What's your favorite bread recipe? Leave me a link or recipe & I'll try to make it sometime in 2012!

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

Make your own moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer.
Cold Water Only — Brittany at The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot water to wash laundry.
Family Cloth... Really?? — After lots of forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides to take the plunge with family cloth.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day — Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and recycling every day.
Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she feels.
Craftily Parenting — Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting makes her a better parent.
Changes — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen couldn't choose just one area to experiment with, so she wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life!
Life without Internet: Not all it's Cracked up to Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected.
My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting progression all the way to trying raw milk.
mama's new little friend. — Sarah at Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to "green her period," and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product!
Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works better than the store-bought chemicals!
Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the oil-cleansing method.
I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro couldn't decide which experiment to run, so she did them all.
7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family — The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the "holiday junking" with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an explanation of macrobiotics.
Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results.
Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution — Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over to crystal deodorants and definitely isn't looking back!
Going Raw (for a while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares her family's experience with raw food.
Do we get to eat gluten today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in his diet … but it's really hard to tell for sure.
Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie.
Our cupboards are full...but there's nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather than going shopping — but there's something that she just can't bring herself to do …
Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the future.
Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home, and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity.
The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
Experiments in Natural Family Living - Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family's switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
My Natural Beauty Regime — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares the results of banishing cleanser and soaps from her bathroom, as well as a couple of natural homemade recipes that have worked well on her skin.
Unplugging and Creating a Rhythm: Our Experiment in Natural Family Living — Dionna at Code Name: Mama focused less on gadgets and spent more time with her family to create a healthy rhythm for the new year.
Experiments in Natural Family Living: 5 First Steps Toward Preparing for a Natural Birth — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama discusses how she tackled the pressing matter of how to begin preparing for a natural birth.
All you need is...vinegar! — Kristen at My Semi-Crunchy Life learns that one household product can replace all the cleaners in her cabinet.
Nope Nada Ixnay Negative Pass Decline — Zoie at TouchstoneZ finds out what shakes loose if she says, "YES!!" to anything anyone asks of her over the space of 10 days.
Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been hanging around the kitchen for too long.
Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that's so easy she didn't even realize it was happening.
Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn't sure how successful her worm bin will be, but she's having fun anyway.
Miles to Go ... — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she's in real deep.
My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
OMG Mom is Home... All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No 'Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the world of no 'poo.
My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning — Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.

Honda's Annoying Anti-Marriage Car Commercial

2012-01-08T16:28:00.000-06:00

Have you seen the Honda "proposal" commercial?

In case you don't want to watch it, I'll give you the quick run-down:
It starts with a man proposing to a blond woman who is probably in her late 20's or early 30's. She, in an aside to the camera, states "Married? There were so many things I was gonna do first!"
We then flash to scenes of her driving with some friends to a mountain she wants to climb, loading a pink drumset into her trunk, and on a movie set so she can "finish my short film."

We finally go back to her poor boyfriend to hear her say "ok, but we have a lot to get done first"...just the response every guy wants when he proposes, right?

Now I know Honda is just trying to sell cars-they probably don't really care whether married couples or cohabitating hipsters are buying them. But I still don't like the attitude this commercial perpetuates. That you have to go "find yourself" before marriage, not just by determining your core values so you can seek a spouse who shares them, but by accomplishing some sort of bucket list of single adventures. That marriage means you won't get to do anything fun or exciting anymore, or have hobbies, or a brain. That smart girls delay marriage until they do everything they really want to accomplish first. And then they can settle for settling down.

A waterfall we saw on Mt. Rainier

But marriage shouldn't mean an end to adventure or fun or chasing your dreams...it just means doing them together! To be honest, the only time I've gone hiking in the mountains was after I was already married (*gasp*...don't tell Honda!) and my husband, my Dad, my Mom (*double gasp*...people who've been married 25 years still having adventures too...don't tell Honda!!) my big brother, and I all hiked Mount Rainier together. If you are considering marrying someone who wouldn't be supportive of your adventures (like drum-playing, which seems like a one-person gig) and/or having them right there with you (like hiking, if that's your thing), they are probably not a good choice for you. No one should have a marriage that is actually a fun-sucking end to all adventure in your life. A good spouse is the absolute best support you can find for accomplishing goals and chasing dreams. They'll be there clapping, cheering, helping, and chasing right along with you--and in return you can help them chase their own dreams and end up doing fun and exciting things you might never have tried if you were single.

And the thing is, marriage is an awesome adventure in itself. It means sharing your whole life, your heart, your home, your ups and downs, everything with one person forever. Unfortunately, fewer Americans are choosing to take part in that adventure now than ever, and the ones who do are choosing to do so later in life than previous generations (check out this Washington Post article or the actual Census Data if you're interested). Attitudes like the one perpetuated in this Honda commercial certainly aren't helping inspire young people to seek marriage. I don't think one commercial alone is going to be the deciding factor in the culture wars occupying our nation. I do believe that the cumulative effect of so much of our entire media treating marriage as inconvenient and restrictive makes a difference in the way young people approach courtship and marriage. I would love to see companies like Honda instead feature married couples-and single people-whose adventuring status has nothing to do with their marital status.

Because marriage isn't the end of adventure, it's the beginning of adventures together.

*I notified Honda via Twitter of my post and they thanked me for my feedback but didn't reply beyond that (in case you were wondering!) I'll update again if I hear anything more from them!

Book review: My Storytime Bible

2011-12-31T11:33:00.001-06:00

What it is: A children's Bible targeted at pre-schoolers and early primary grade kids written by Renita Boyle and illustrated by Melanie Florian

First Impression: I was immediately impression by the colorful illustrations and thought they did a good job of making the stories appropriate lengths for little people with short attention spans!

Overall Impression: For the most part, we really liked this book. But as my husband and I read the book, he eventually noticed a major error in the text-the book states in the Adam & Eve story allegedly based on Genesis 3:1-7 that "the fruit from the Tree of Life tasted lovely and lush. They never ate from the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad" (pg 10).
The Bible we have at home, the New American Bible (school and church version), says later in Genesis 3 that

"God said...Therefore he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever." The Lord God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden... (Genesis 3:22-23)

Clearly Adam and Eve never ate from the Tree of Life.

We haven't noticed any other discrepancies between this children's Bible and our adult Bible, but we aren't really biblical scholars either.

The Bottom Line: The book seems well-written and beautifully illustrated, but contains at least one worrisome error that indicates their editorial process may have been lacking. To me, it's just not worth potentially confusing kids by reading them Bible stories containing errors. I don't recommend this book.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on My Storytime Bible. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

2011-12-30T19:46:00.001-06:00

Looking for something delicious to do with leftover candy canes? These rich chocolatey cookies full of crushed candy cane pieces and dark chocolate chips are sure to be a hit with your friends and family this New Year's!

What You Need:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup crushed candy cane or peppermint bits

2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

What You Do:

Mix the wet ingredients
Mix the dry ingredients
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix
Add the candy and mix (I had to mix it by hand, even with a Kitchenaid mixer, which I usually don't have to do even when suggested in recipes. I recommend it if you want the candy cane pieces mixed in evenly!)
Bake at 375 degrees for 9 minutes.

Helpful Tips:

Using a pie server with serrated edge may make it easier to remove the cookies from the cookie sheet
The cookies maintain their round shape better if you let them rest a minute or two on the cookie sheet before transfering them to a cooling rack or festive plate
Makes almost exactly 5 dozen cookies when I use my cookie dough scoop (I don't know the capacity but the cookies end up about 3-4 in in diameter after baking)
To crush candy canes, try putting them in a large ziplock bag with pretty much all the air squished out or in between two layers of plastic wrap and them smush them with a rolling pin.

I modified this recipe from the German Chocolate Fudgy cookies on the Crisco website.

2011 Reflections & 2012 Predictions for Sewing!

2011-12-28T16:11:00.002-06:00

Sew, Mama Sew! asked bloggers to post about their favorite trends of 2011 and their predictions and plans for 2012, and I thought it'd be fun to play along. So here are my thoughts:

Sewing Trends I loved in 2011:

Mug rugs.
Contests where you win prizes for sewing stuff, like Prudent Baby's embroidery and knit stocking contests, Sew Mama Sew's doll quilt contest, and Stitched in Color's fall colors contest.
Hedgehogs.
Cute but-not-boring boy-friendly fabrics like Zoology and I Heart Cute-bots

My Favorite Project of 2011:

The felt "fruits of the spirit" in my header were all hand-sewn and embroidered by me as a Christmas present for my niece who's almost 1. I think they turned out really adorable and I definitely grew as a seamstress by doing them-I learned several new stitches just to make them, plus gained a lot of experience with soft toy construction in the process (I modified a few patterns from other people and made some of them out of my own patterns!)

Trend I'm SO Over:

Toadstools. They're moderately cute, but the drug connotations make them something I don't feel like I can really put on kid stuff, and seems like they were everywhere in 2012.

What I Predict for 2012:

I saw Amanda Carestio predicted on Sew Mama Sew that we'll see more dinosaurs in 2011 & I really hope she's right. I think we might see lots of fun patriotic projects this year as it is both an Olympic year and presidential election year. I also think we'll see lots of juxtaposition of neutrals like gray with bright neon colors and deep colors like tangerine tango.

I don't think the natural parenting movement is going anywhere, so I think patterns that crafty moms can use to make toys and clothes for their own kids-or with their own kids-are going to continue to be hot, and so are sustainable supplies to make them with like organic cotton and locally-sourced wool. Oh and animal hats for kids are hot on the playgrounds near me-I hope we see lots of fun tutorials for variations on that theme!

My crafting hopes & dreams for 2012:

I'd really love to make my first quilt in 2012. I'm also hoping to learn to sew with knits better so I can make my own clothes and do simple alterations to my existing wardrobe.

I'll definitely be making fun soft toys for my toddler son and my toddler niece too.

My thoughts on social media in 2011:

I love social media. Sure, some people are jerks, but I think the information sharing and friendships it enables are worth encountering a few trolls. For example, the other day I tweeted Bari Ackerman of Bari J and We Love French Knots a question about what needle to use with weaver's cloth...and she actually replied! Pre-twitter a fabric designer and sewing book author who lives across the country from me & who I've never met would have been totally inaccessible to me. Instead I was able to gain knowledge from her and find out how super nice she is. And that is pretty awesome in my book! I would love to see the craft community catch up to the mommy blog community in terms of twitter parties (with fun prizes!) though!

What crafty trends did you like in 2011? What do you want to see more of in 2012?

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T16:12:00.000-06:00

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas full of family, food, and fun!
Merry Christmas!!

Easy Meals for Busy Weeks

2011-12-21T16:04:00.002-06:00

I don't know about you, but for me it's tempting to turn to an alternating schedule of $1 oven pizzas and fast food so that I don't have to cook when I'm already busy with last-minute holiday cleaning, cooking, present aquisition/creation, and other preparations. But I know that my toddler (and me too!) is going to eat waaaay to much chocolate/cookies/junk this weekend, and he's already starting to get unsettled from all the excitement and not eating as well as he sometimes does. So my new strategy is to attempt to serve healthyish-but-quick/easy, kid-friendly meals this week. I try to include some meat, some grains, and some red/green/orange veggies each meal. Some of my best ideas so far include:

Baked Chicken Strips+Veggies
Simply cut 2 inch by 3 inch (approximately...I didn't actually measure. I just chopped) out of fresh boneless skinless chicken breast, place in a glass baking dish with a little oil in the bottom, season with a little black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, or whatever other seasonings your family likes,and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes (until juice run clear, the meat is white instead of clearish pinkish and the outsides are a little goldeny brownish).
We also baked french fries and steamed some peas and carrots when we recently made this, but you could add any veggies you like.

Pork Roast One Crock Pot Meal

Put a small pork roast in a crock pot (I think the ones we get are usually around 2-3 pounds, but I could be wrong...pick one the right size for your family for each adult to have close to a half pound (8 oz) of meat, and less than that per kid depending on their size). Add a 1/4 cup of apple juice if you have any, and season the top with garlic, onion powder, chili powder (a lot) and black pepper. Drizzle a fair amount of honey across the top. Turn the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. When there are about 2 hours left of cooking time, add 1-2 carrots (peeled and chopped into half or thirds) and 1-2 red potatoes (chopped in half) per person.
Take it all out and eat it!

*We usually cook two days worth of meat when doing this and make pork tacos or pulled pork sandwiches the next day with the leftovers

Spaghetti
This one is obvious, but brown some meat (or bake some chicken), boil some noodles, add a jar of sauce or make your own from tomato paste and fresh garlic (surprisingly easy to do, actually), and voila! a great meal toddlers like with minimal effort!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

picture by "Jerry" via Flickr Creative Commons.
I love how he used grape stems for the arms!

I love to use the Better Homes & Gardens buttermilk pancake recipe (I make my own "sour milk" by leaving a couple of tablespoons of vinegar in a measuring cup with some lactose free milk for about 5 minutes, as recommended in their cookbook and it seems to work pretty well) and use either half whole-wheat flour or all whole-wheat flour. (If you're into soaking your grains, you could easily make the batter a day or more ahead of time.) And to tempt a toddler even more, try making the pancakes into a fun shape. Even without a fancy pancake mold, you can make a snowman by simply making three circles and using blueberries, chocolate chips, or anything else you want to make eyes, smile, and buttons. My toddler gobbles them down!

What meals do you make on busy weeks?

Why We Don't Do Santa Pictures

2011-12-18T20:07:00.000-06:00

We've decided to forgo the ubiquitous pictures-with-Santa, and the reasons why boil down to:

1) Some kids hate it
2) Long lines
3) Expensive pictures
4) Kids expect what they ask for
5) Not really the reason for the season

picture by Kevin Dooley via Flickr Creative Commons

Some people consider them an essential part of Christmas-even if it upsets their child. Parenting magazine has even put a "Scared of Santa" slideshow on their website and asked parents to share pictures of their kids "Scared of Santa" on the Parenting Facebook wall. I think it's sad that there are parents who find their children's discomfort funny and want to make the unpleasant moment public. And I think it's disgusting that Parenting magazine is trying to capitalize on people who don't respect their child's desire to not be sitting in some stranger's lap.
For our own family, we basically decided it's not worth our time and money to wait in a long line so our toddler can either scream or ask for an expensive toy we aren't really getting him but which he will then expect from Santa and then have a mediocre, overpriced picture of our kid and a stranger who represents the secularization and commercialization of Christmas.

I don't necessarily think it's bad in all cases for parents to do Santa pics, especially with older kids who've expressed interest in doing so. (If I remember right, I'm happy and smiling in all the pictures my parents had my brothers and I take with mall Santas), but I think that parents who ignore their children's discomfort at being handed over to a stranger, especially parents who then laugh about it, are being disrespectful of their children.

And I know it's not the right choice for our family.

Do you do Santa pictures? Why or why not?

Christmas Preparations

2011-12-10T00:37:00.000-06:00

The bad news is that I haven't posted in like a week due to an annoying cold.
The good news is that I caught my husband's Grandmas head-cold-that-zaps-every-ounce-of-energy and NOT his colleague's flu that apparently causes you to spend at least a day or two unable to keep anything down.
Cross your fingers and knock on wood I don't catch the other!
Anyway, I have been up to all sorts of Christmasy fun and will try to post some of it soon. I'm almost done with coasters for my Grandma & I may even get an upcycled Christmas stocking made from my old sweater and Hubby's old button-up shirt done in time to enter the Prudent Baby serger contest tomorrow night. I'm also going to post on how to make the easiest felt finger puppets ever (if my idea works).

To celebrate feeling better, my toddler and I baked gingerbread cookies. I apparently baked too much pumpkin bread (mostly muffins) this fall though because he keeps talking about his "pumpkinbread boys!" He was surprisingly good at cutting out shapes and had a blast decorating with sprinkles. And we sang Christmas carols while doing it.
It feels like Christmas!!

Cheap Natural Deodorant that Actually Works for Me!!

2011-12-02T08:58:00.001-06:00

I've mentioned before my search for a natural deodorant that doesn't cost a million dollars (or $18 like the Lavanila stuff I love from Sephora) and actually keeps me smelling nice. Well, I have good news! This:
Arm & Hammer Essentials Natural Deodorant. I bought it at Wal-Mart for just under $2 and it works perfectly...even on the second day after a shower (because let's be honest here...moms don't always shower everyday and need a deodorant that works the second day too!) It is aluminum and paraben free so hurray for that! I feel much better about having that all over my skin than the 99 cent Suave I was using before. My only complaint is the scent-it is fairly manly. I'd love for them to sell the same product in a more feminine scnet. Anyway, if you are looking for a good natural deodorant too, I encourage you to check out Arm & Hammer Essentials Natural Deodorant, and hopefully it will work as well for you as it does for me!

Wisdom from my FB friends

2011-12-01T01:02:00.000-06:00

I saw this today on Facebook & loved it:

I don't know the original source so if you do, please let me know so I can link to it!

P.S. Despite liking this sentiment, it is really bothering me that they used "are" instead of "is."
I guess schools are good for something after all! ;)

Cyber Monday Giveaways on Melissa & Doug Facebook Page

2011-11-28T12:07:00.000-06:00

Have you been entering the cyberMonday giveaways on the Melissa & Doug Facebook page? Every hour today they are giving away awesome toys like a train table, so head on over, "like" them, and enter away!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-26T14:22:00.001-06:00

I know I'm a couple days late but just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who actually reads this! I hope you're having a weekend full of family, fun, and good food to eat. I'm so thankful to have a wonderful family, a beautiful house, and plenty to eat and drink. I am truly blessed this Thanksgiving and always!

Nutter Butter Bite Acorn Cookies!

2011-11-19T18:57:00.001-06:00

When I saw these super cute acorn cookies on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to make them. It turned out the link didn't end up being to a tutorial, just a picture though, so I had to make up my own technique for reaching that end result, and wanted to share it with you:

Ingredients:

Nutter Butter Bites
Hershey's Kisses
Mini chocolate chips (any brand)

How-to:

Twist apart each Nutter Butter bite and set the sides with the filling still on them filling-side-up on a plate. These will be your acorn caps and the filling is your glue for this stage.
Unwrap Hershey's kisses. These are your acorn bodies.
Gently press a Hershey's kiss onto each filling-covered Nutter Butter bite half (I recommend letting little helpers eat the rejected halves of the Nutter Butter Bites).

I found it easiest to dip the mini chips in the spoon!

Melt some of the mini chocolate chips plus a teaspoon of milk per quarter cupish of chocolate chips. I used a Pyrex measuring cup and the microwave; a double boiler system would produce slightly smoother chocolate but you'll be using such a small quantity that I think the difference wouldn't even be noticeable.
Dip unmelted mini chocolate chips one at a time into the molten chocolate so just their base gets some of the molten chocolate on them (this is your glue).
Press the mini chocolate chip with the molten chocolate on its base onto the top of each Nutter Butter bite half to make a little stem.
Allow to cool/dry, arrange cutely, and attempt not to eat them all prior to Thanksgiving!

My version of Nutter Butter Bites/Hershey's Kiss acorns!

Congrats Lesli for Winning the Miniclasix Giveaway!

2011-11-19T18:04:00.001-06:00

Congrats to "Lesli" who was comment #72 and won the baby boy outfit from Miniclasix. It's adorable, and I know some little guy in Lesli's life is going to be super cute in it this winter!

Scents from Nature I Love

2011-11-11T21:25:00.001-06:00

Have you heard about the fun sweepstakes 7th Generation is running? They are giving away a trip to an exotic and lovely scented place of your choice, like France, Italy, or Vermont. To spread the word, they wanted to know what natural scents moms love and where they take us. Here are a few of mine:

Salty Sea Breeze

The air at the beach always smells…unique. And while some people might not like the combination of seaweed and salt, to me it will always make me think of warm summer days spent on the beach playing with my brothers when I was a kid in California. I loved making sandcastles, searching for seashells, and even playing Frisbee (even though I was terrible at it). Somehow I even have fond memories of peanut butter sandwiches that were slightly crunchy from actual sand. It sounds gross now, but back then it was just another part of the beach experience!

Real Christmas Trees

For the past several years we lived in apartment buildings where we were sadly not allowed to have real Christmas trees, but growing up it was a family tradition for both my family and my husband’s family. When I smell that fresh piney smell, I’m taken to past Christmases full of candlelight and cocoa, of matching jammies and bow-covered presents piled high under the tree.

Apples

I love the scent of fresh apples…and apples baking! When we lived in California, we used to drive up to a little town in the mountains at least once each fall and stock up on fresh apples, (plus the rest of the time had them on stock from the grocery store!), and when we lived in the Midwest continued to find fresh apples from local orchards each fall for a special treat. My favorite kind is golden delicious, but I've always loved Granny Smiths and Braeburns too. The scent of apples takes me to that little mountain town and to my mom’s kitchen where the pies were the best I’ve ever had!

Lilacs

My Grandad was an avid gardener, and one of the showpieces of his garden was a giant lilac bush. Every spring it would bloom with sparkling white flowers and fill the entire yard with a beautiful scent. Even now that he’s gone, I remember him whenever I smell lilacs and hope I’ve inherited his green thumb. I remember at least twice growing up begging for a pair of overalls because that’s what Grandad wore to garden-which he seemed to spend most of his spare time doing-and I wanted to match him. Lilacs make me think of his overalls and his love!

What scents from nature do you love?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Seventh Generation blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Miniclasix Baby Outfits Review & Giveaway (Ends 11/18)

2011-11-11T18:24:00.001-06:00

Do you know what your little guy will be wearing this year for your holiday celebrations? If not, I have the perfect giveaway for you! Miniclasix sent an adorable outfit for my niece plus is giving one of my readers this dapper outfit for a little boy in size 3months. (Perfect shower present for a winter baby!) Miniclasix baby apparel is available for purchase at stores like Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, in baby boutiques around the country and on Amazon and mainly features classic styling and colors, which I love.

The dress for my niece arrived quickly and was in perfect condition. The fabric felt nice and the stitching seemed sturdy. My sister-in-law and I both liked the classic styling. It’s like a mini sugar plum fairy dress! And look how cute my niece is in it:

For your chance to win the navy blue and gray outfit in size 3monhs for a little boy in your life, please leave a comment by Friday November 18th at midnight US Central time saying which of these Miniclasix outfits is your favorite:

For extra entries, do any of the following and leave an extra comment for each extra entry telling me what you did:

Follow Crunchy Con Mommy on Google Friend Connect
Follow @CrunchyConMom on Twitter
Tweet or RT the following: “Win a baby boy outfit from @CrunchyConMom by entering here by 11/18 at midnight (Central): http://tiny.cc/5fxvs #miniclasix #giveaway” (1 entry per day)
Leave a comment on another Crunchy Con Mommy blog post and tell me which post you commented on (1 entry per day)
Find your favorite Miniclasix outfit on Amazon and “Like” it and tell me which outfit you liked in your comment. (1 entry per day)

I’ll pick a winner using Random.org on 11/19 and contact them by e-mail or Twitter. If I can’t find a way to get a hold of them or don’t hear back within 48 hours, I’ll pick a new winner.

I received a free outfit for review purposes (I’ll never recommend a product I haven’t tried and liked myself!) but received no other compensation for this post. The Amazon link is not an Amazon affiliate link.

This giveaway was listed at OnlineSweepstakes.com

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

2011-11-10T18:43:00.001-06:00

I love Melissa & Doug toys so I was pretty excited to hear about this fun program: Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting! Our favorite Melissa & Doug toys are their puzzles-they seem to have the perfect puzzle for every age and stage!

If I did this right, I get a $25 off coupon to use on Melissa & Doug toys on their website!

Wise Words

2011-11-10T18:38:00.001-06:00

Inspired by the Happiest Mom, each week I try to post a quote that recently made me think, laugh, smile, or all three.

"Always underpromise and overperform"

-Jeff Probst, host of Survivor, on life lessons he's learned from the reality TV series (spotted by my mom, who follows him on Twitter. Good work mom!)

How I Label Hard-Boiled Egg

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

We love hard-boiled eggs around here, but it's easy to get them mixed up with the raw eggs if I'm not careful. So here are some of the ways I like handle hard-boiled eggs:

1.) Save an old egg carton and mark it as specifically for hard-boiled eggs. You could even have your kids decorate it with paint/glitter/stickers/etc

2.) Write on your eggs with pencil. My dad used to do this when I was growing up. Two of the best strategies I've found are either write a "B" on the top of each or write "Boiled" and then draw a squiggly line all the way around the egg so that no one could miss it. If you have kids in school, you could write silly things on eggs like quotes, jokes, or even simple greetings to be enjoyed when they open their lunch boxes. Since you don't eat the shells, I personally am not worried about a little graphite from the pencil being on the outside of the shell for a couple days.

And voila! your eggs are ready to be eaten straight out of the shell, deviled (my favorite) or as part of egg or potato salad!

Monster Pants from Torn Jeans

2011-11-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

I saw this adorable idea for revamping a pair of jeans with a hole in the knee on the American Felt & Craft blog this summer and liked it so much I bought a pair of jeans with a hole in them at a garage sale for a quarter, and today I finally monstered them up:

Basically, after cutting away the fringey threads, I cut an oval of red felt bigger than the hole plus a line of white teeth and then backstitched around the circle to create a monster mouth reverse appliqué. Then I cut two white circles for eyes and embroidered an X on one and a woven spider wheel on the other.

I thought it was pretty cute and my toddler was really happy about his "scary monster" pants.
I think you could easily do some other cute reverse appliqués out of felt on torn jeans, like a sunflower on a pair of girls jeans.

I used acrylic felt and have washed(cold, delicate) and dried(low) the jeans with no noticeable damage to the monster.

Homegrown Faith: Book Review

2011-10-28T17:29:00.001-05:00

What it is
A devotional book for moms with a short story and corresponding reflective questions for each week for each week of the year.

Who wrote it
Heidi Bratton, a mom of 6 and well-known Catholic author of over 20 books

My thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. I loved that the chapters are 1.) short and 2.) designed to be read each week rather than daily, because I think that makes it totally practical for pretty much any mom to actually be able to have time to read this book (as opposed to a daily devotional that might become overwhelming...am I the only one who tends to give up once I get a few days behind?) I think her stories are engaging and mostly hit on really universal themes that any mom could relate too. I did think a few of the chapters seemed sort of arbitrarily thrown in there-namely the ones about a mission trip she took to South America. They didn't feel like they flowed with the rest of the book very well, even though they were well-written, relatable, and made me think just as much as the other chapters. I can see this book being especially great for something like a playgroup/book group where the moms want to read a book together and chat about it but don't want something so overly complicated that they can't also watch their kids while doing it! A few of her suggestions were too cheesy for my tastes, like talking about what scents make you want to be virtuous, or drawing a picture of an activity your family likes doing together. I would certainly not want to actually have to do all of her suggested activities!

Pros

Short chapters for busy moms
Enjoyable and relatable

Cons

Some pretty cheesy suggestions for reflection activities
Some chapters don't quite fit in

The Bottom Line
This book is definitely worth buying to read by yourself or as part of a group. I'd also recommend it as a gift for a Catholic mom in your life. The book can be started at any time, but the first chapter corresponds with the first week of Advent, so now would be an especially perfect time to start reading it!

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Homegrown Faith. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Technorati Claim Code

2011-10-28T17:09:00.002-05:00

This is my claim code to start tracking this blog on Technorati :)

S7WQ2G9CHH2H

Wise Words

2011-10-27T17:01:00.000-05:00

Inspired by The Happiest Mom, I'm trying to post a quotation (almost) every week that made me laugh, smile, and/or think. Hope you like them too!

You got to have a dream,

'cause if you don't have a dream,

How you gonna have a dream come true?

-Bloody Mary in the song "Happy Talk" from Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific

Celebrate Color: Fall Leaf Dishtowel

2011-10-24T11:03:00.000-05:00

When I saw Mollie from Wild Olive's post about the Celebrate Color contest and the adorable patterns she created to go with it, I couldn't resist stitching up a tea towel with these cool fall leaves.

To customize it, I first found a fall color in my house to work from. We just painted the walls of our new house a beautiful goldeny color that I thought would be perfect for the yellowy leaves, and I had a thread color that is pretty similar (our kitchen isn't actually that color-just the living room and dining room-but if it was, I probably would've picked a thread color a shade or two darker or lighter to avoid being too matchy matchy). I then picked shades of red, brown, orange, and green that made me think of fall and went well with my goldeny yellow. I ended up using DMC brand thread in colors 937, 815, 921, 422, and 975. One of the most fun things was that my mom recently sent me her thread organizer and the green, red, and orange I used were from her old stash. Based on the labels, I know they were bought at Target, which means they must have been bought a long time ago!

I traced the pattern using the easiest laziest method I could think of-I loaded Mollie's PDF on my laptop, draped the towel over the screen, and traced the pattern with a water-and-air-soluble marker. No ink got on the screen (I traced lightly and then went back over it afterwards) and I didn't have to print the pattern out or use any interfacing.

I used a simple stem stitch on the whole thing and left off the cute little faces so it would suit my husband's tastes too and not just mine (I have to admit, I find the little faces Mollie puts on everything totally adorable).

Thoughts on Wood Floor Refinishing

2011-10-19T10:05:00.000-05:00

We are in the middle of getting our wood floors refinished in our living room, entryway, and dining room, and I'm pretty happy about the results so far. It's been a steep learning curve though, and here's what I wish I would've known a week ago:

Do your homework

Know the process. There've been a couple times when the procedure followed was a little different than what they did with my mother-in-law's floors, but because we hadn't read online and/or asked our flooring guy at the beginning, we weren't sure at what points the procedure was supposed to be different and what points they flooring guys may have missed a spot in their haste (and there was a little of each occurring). Researching ahead of time prevents you from getting taken advantage of while also reducing the amount of time you have to spend checking in on the people refinishing your floors. Also, check out other blogs and websites to see how other people handle renovations. For example, The Happiest Mom is having her kitchen renovated and reading about her kitchen renovation has been helpful to me during my floor refinishing!

Be flexible

Because of sounds and smells, our normal schedule wouldn't work at all (and obviously we couldn't use certain rooms at all!) We found the only way naptime for the toddler could possibly work was to either nap during the floor guys' lunch break or to drive around until the toddler fell asleep in the car and sew in the driveway while he slept. Also, you may need to make alternate arrangements for sleeping, cooking and/or laundry depending on what areas of your house become inaccessible, so get creative. Use futons, air matresses, crock-pots, microwaves, and the hospitality of friends and family to be as comfortable as you can during the time your house is being worked on.

Get out...but not too far out

Again because of smells and sounds, it might be a good time to plan outdoors activities for you and your kids, but the catch is that someone probably needs to be available to get home quickly in case questions arise. So it's a great time to play outside in the yard, visit a friend or relative or park just a few blocks away, or go to a store that's just a couple of miles away. Make sure to give your cell phone number to your flooring guys, and ask how things are going before you leave in case they already have a question but were waiting to get to a natural break time to ask you about it.

and above all...

Relax

Stuff will be different than what you're used to. Stuff will go wrong.
It will be noisy and stinky and disruptive to your kids.

And it will be over in a couple of days.

And your floors will be beautiful.

And you'll be fine.

If you'll excuse me now, I'm going to go shop somewhere not very far away from home...

Wise Words Wednesday

2011-10-12T20:17:00.000-05:00

Inspired by The Happiest Mom on Wednesdays I'll try to post quotes that made me smile, laugh, think, or all three!

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

-Margaret Thatcher

Rainy Day Fall Fun

2011-10-10T09:32:00.001-05:00

I definitely need to get some great rainboots for my son and I, but until then, a rainy fall morning means inside fun. So what are we up to?

Counting Pumpkins
I bought some small pumpkins for decorative purposes, but decided to place them in a basket in the playroom until I was ready to do my crafty things with them (ideally, putting the smallest 2-3 in the nook of a wreath for my front window). My son loves them. He counts them. He stacks them. He requests I sing "5 Little Pumpkins" approximately 10,000,000,000 times per day. He drives them around in a Little People schoolbus. I'm not sure I'll have the heart to take them away when I'm ready for wreath-building!

Homemade Play Dough
I use my mom's recipe of:
3 cups flour
3 cups water
1 1/2 cup salt
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cream of tartar.

Mix it all together in a saucepan over medium/low heat until it gets thick and starts pulling away from the sides. Add food coloring and/or glitter as desired. Watch for plastic cookie cutters, toy rolling pins, and even Playdough brand toys at garage sales to enhance the doughy fun without spending a bunch!

Going Visiting
On a blustery day, visiting someone's house (like Grandma's house!) can be an easy way to ward off cabin fever. Plus, it's fun to have someone else to chat with! If you don't have relatives nearby, ask a friend to bring her kids over, then maybe next stormy day it'll be her turn to host!

Settling In

2011-10-08T00:42:00.000-05:00

We've been in our house for almost a month, and I'm beginning to get tired of not feeling *really* moved in yet. We still have boxes to unpack (just a few) and things that haven't been assigned a permanent home yet (quite a few). But I feel like I can only get ahead a teensy bit at a time, and even then only at the expense of regular household maintenance like laundry and dishes. It's tempting at times to wear the same outfit all next week and eat off paper plates just to see how much progress I could make on other projects!

The best advice I've seen so far was from "The Fly Lady", who said something along the lines of "you didn't pack in a day so don't expect to unpack in a day either". Even so, I wish I could make my progress just a little bit faster!

How do you get ahead on laundry and dishes? Or do you feel like you're always playing catch-up too?

Our Flu Season Game Plan

2011-10-05T14:38:00.000-05:00

Last winter we got slammed by several colds (including once when the toddler and I both spent most of a day lying on the couch and floor vomiting-yuck!) and I’m hoping to avoid the same fate this year. To avoid getting sick as much this year, here’s my game-plan:

Eat healthy: Eating healthy foods like lots of fresh fruits and veggies will boost our immune systems. Plus, they taste good! We’ll especially try to include foods with lots of Vitamin C like citrus fruits.
Take our vitamins: Even though I believe it’s best to get your vitamins from a varied diet, I realize that our diet may not quite be cutting it just yet. We’ll definitely keep taking our daily multivitamins to fill in the gaps our diet may be leaving.
Wash hands often: We play outside a lot, and I think it’s good for my son to get to dig in sand and dirt and carry sticks and rocks around and other such outdoorsy fun. But once we’re done, I plan to be vigilant about washing hands to ensure we aren’t bringing in unnecessary gunk.
Take off shoes inside: This is one of the biggest things I’ve heard from families who try to keep their families germ free without the use of lots of chemical-take your shoes off everytime you come inside. We’re lucky enough to have a really nice laundry room that can double as a mud room when we come in from the back. I plan to place some kind of bench along with a little rug that people can put dirty shoes and boots on so we don’t have to sit on the floor to do it.
Wash laundry –especially linens-often: As we go places throughout the week like the library and grocery store and work for my husband, we’ll naturally pick up all sorts of germs. To help keep them at bay, we should probably wash our linens more often during flu season-maybe changing bedding once a week instead of every other week, and changing hand towels every couple of days.
Sanitize key places: I’m not a big fan of using chemicals all over the house, but I do think they can be useful when used strategically. Specifically, during flu season I may use Lysol wipes or something like that regularly on my doorknobs, phone, and on shopping carts because those three places are such germ magnets. I think if I use the harsher chemicals on those places, I can get away with using something milder like vinegar/water/essential oil blend most other places without putting my family at risk of catching too many nasty flu germs.

We’ll probably get sick at some point this winter, because that’s just how winter goes for me usually. But hopefully these strategies will prevent at the minimum a major illness, and if all goes really well, maybe we won’t even get sick at all! Either way, I think we’ll be healthier if we take these steps this flu season.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Lysol blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

My To 10 Tips for De-Cluttering your Playroom

2011-09-28T09:05:00.000-05:00

Our playroom pre-organization

When we moved into our new house, we were excited to have a room to designate as our play room/family room and promptly moved all of our toys in there. Unfortunately, this resulted in the room looking like a hurricane hit, scattering toys far and wide across the floor until our nice new rug was hardly visible. So while we still have a few more improvements to make before we can call our play room totally clean and organized, here are the top 10 tips I’ve picked up so far for de-cluttering kids’ toys:

1. Group like things together. This makes it easier to find things, which minimizes the phenomenon of dumping the entire toy box out to find the dinosaur that fell to the bottom…that happens to people other than me too, right?

2. Invest in good bins and baskets. Obviously you need something to put your toy groupings in, and I think it’s worth it to get nice ones if you can. Diaper boxes will work in a pinch, but coordinating baskets or nice shelving units are much cuter and allow for easier stacking in most cases.

3. Put stuffed animals in a pop-up hamper. Pop-up hampers are cheap and allow air flow to your soft toys, keeping them from getting musty. They also keep the toys visible so your kids don’t get worried about where their favorite teddy bear disappeared to.

4. Sturdy bookshelves are key. If you decide to store books on a bookshelf as opposed to baskets, make sure it is one that your kids can’t knock over (especially if you have toddlers) and consider anchoring it to the wall to make extra sure.

5. Rotate toys. If you have more toys than you have space for, store some of them away in a closet, and rotate which ones are out. It’ll seem to your kids almost like they have new toys every couple of weeks while reducing clutter for everyone!

6. Say good-bye to baby toys. When your kids have clearly outgrown toys, it’s time to get them out of the toy room. If you aren’t done having kids yet, stick them in a plastic tub, either a clear one or one labeled with the age of toys so you can find it easily next time you need it. If you don’t want/need to keep them yourselves, donate them to a friend, a family at church, or your local Goodwill shop!

7. Keep mommy clutter to a minimum too! I can’t be the only mom who’s found action figures UNDER the pile of unfolded laundry after searching all day everywhere else in the toy room! If I had just folded my laundry right away, or left it in a basket until I was ready to fold, I wouldn’t have had that problem! Also, it sets a good example to your kids if you keep your messes cleaned up just like you ask them to.

8. Limit food and drink. If you choose to allow food and drink in your play room, set clear rules for appropriate use and make sure empty bowls, cups, etc are never left laying on the floor to rot.

9. Take care of coats and shoes. For us, this mostly means taking coats and shoes off somewhere else, but also means being vigilant about hanging up coats and throwing shoes in the closet promptly if they do make it into the playroom.

10. Enlist the aid of your little helpers. Kids will probably need to be asked to help clean up their toys. Make it more fun by singing a clean-up song, and clean along with them to set a good example.

Awesome new toy organizer. Will post more about it soon!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hot Wheels® blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Natural Deodorants: My Quest to Avoid Both Hazardous Chemicals & B.O.

2011-09-27T14:43:00.001-05:00

Early in my nursing journey, I noticed that if I put deodorant on without putting a bra and/or shirt on first, I'd end up with deodorant smushed onto my breast. Too close to where my son was eating for my comfort. So for a while, I just made sure to always put clothes on before the deodorant instead of doing things in the other order. But then I realized: there's gotta be a better option. I've tried several "natural" deodorants since then, and here are my experiences so far:

Tom's of Maine's Natural Deodorant:
I broke out into a rash immediately upon using this. The company was super nice about it and not only sent me a refund check but also a coupon for a free Tom's of Maine's product, so I go some toothpaste out of the deal, my rash went away, and all was happy in my armpit world again. Except that I really really wanted it to work. Their deodorant is readily available in stores I shop at regularly and reasonably priced. Anyway, awesome customer service despite the weird allergic reaction. I couldn't find the one I bought last time on their website and saw they have several new varieties, so maybe I'll try again (and keep some Benadryl on hand just in case...)

Trader Joe's
I really really wanted this deodorant to work too, but it just didn't. It was inexpensive and easy to get if you live near a TJ's, but it just didn't stand up to my odor on summer days filled with toddler chasing and walks to the park. I smelled bad enough I couldn't actually have comfortably gone anywhere I would have seen anyone I knew without showering and putting on deodorant that actually worked first. Sad.

Crystal deodorant
I bought the cheapest rock crystal deodorant from Walmart and it pretty much did nothing for either wetness or odor. Total bummer. I know some people swear by this stuff, so maybe it'd be worth trying a more expensive brand sometime (I already threw it away, but never noticed a brand on it in the first place...I just remember it was the cheapest one!).

Secret Natural Mineral
I got a free sample of this deodorant through Facebook and was kinda shocked to discover all they did was add some natural ingredients along with the artifically concoted one, to create one greenwashed, ineffective, Frankendeodorant with a long long ingredient list.

LaVanila-undoubtedly the best if you can afford it!

LaVanila deodorant from Sephora $18
I bought this with a giftcard and it worked awesomely. I love this deodorant and if I were a millionaire, I'd use it every day. But as an ordinary gal with an ordinary bank account, this stuff is just too overpriced to justify. It kept me sweet-smelling and reasonably dry all day long even on busy outdoorsy days, and I really wish Lavanila would try to develop a deodorant line closer to the $5 price point. I can justify buying deodorant that is $5 instead of the 99 cent Suave stuff I've been using, but $18 is just exorbitant.

the bottom line: For now, I'm going to keep looking. I've heard there are several other natural brands available in stores, and I've even heard the suggestion of just using baking soda, but given how stinky I was even with most of these deodorants, I really think I probably need more than that. Where I live, it is simply not socially acceptable to have noticeable BO, and I'm not willing to be a pioneer in that area. Hopefully I'll find something reasonably priced and effective one of these days!!

What do you use to fight underarm odor and wetness?

*I bought all of these deodorants with my own money/birthday giftcards with the exception of the Facebook freebie Secret brand sent which was available to all Facebook users and not a special freebie for bloggers or anything. I was not asked to review any of these products; I just thought it could be helpful information for others investigating healthier deodorant options too!

Felt Halloween Coasters Tutorial: Jack O'Lantern & Candy Corn

2011-09-24T17:02:00.000-05:00

Upon moving into our new house, we discovered that we no longer own any coasters, and to rectify matters and add some seasonal flair to our house, I decided to whip up some Halloween inspired felt coasters. They're super easy to make and add cheerful fall colors to your table. Want to make some of your own? Here's how I did it:

Materials:

Felt (any type will work, but the higher the wool concentration, the more absorbent it will probably be) in orange for either, black and brown for the pumpkin, and yellow and white for the candy corn. Scraps should be plenty for one or a pair; you’ll probably need sheets or yardage to make large quantities.
Matching embroidery floss
Embroidery needle

Candy Corn:

First, cut a triangle out of orange felt to be your base. I made the widest part of my triangle wider than the base of the cup I want it to be for and made the triangle slightly longer than it is wide.
Trim your corners so they're rounded. Real candy corn isn't sharp, so neither should the points of your coaster be!
Cut strips of orange, white, and yellow felt to be the top of your candy corn. I started with rectangles. After ~~eating an entire Brach's candy corn~~ researching for accuracy I determined that orange should be the middle color with yellow on top and white for the tip.
Pin or hold in place your strips and trim the sides to be even with the sides of the base. You should also trim the top of the white and bottom of the yellow pieces now. I left the orange piece a litle bit big so there was about 1/4 inch of overlap under each of the other two colors. Mine ended up pretty straight, but don't stress it if they aren't. My uh "research" found that many pieces of candy corn have slightly diagonal lines rather than strictly horizontal lines between colors.
Place the yellow piece and orange top piece on top of your orange base and stitch down using a decorative stitch of your choice. I used scroll stitch (which is actually super easy) but I think a simple running stitch would work just as well if you aren't in the mood for learning a new stitch. I used orange floss for this. Next, place the white on top of the orange and stitch it down too, using the same stitch or a different one for variety.
Now trim all of your pieces so they match the base.

Blanket stitch all the way around

Jack O'Lantern:

First, use the biggest cup you like to drink from regularly and cut a circle a little bit bigger than the cup’s base out of orange felt. Basically any roundish shape will work, but I tend to like fairly round pumpkins that are slightly wider than they are tall. If you’re making a lot, try making lots of different shapes for extra charm!
Next, cut a black circle just barely smaller than the orange circle (so it doesn’t stick out the edges)
Draw or trace a face or design you like on the orange circle. Cut it out using small scissors or an Xacto knife.
Cut a small rectangular piece of brown felt to be your stem (make it slightly longer than you actually want it to be since part of it will be hidden).
Place the orange circle on the black circle and tuck the stem in between the two layers at the top.
Stitch as desired. I used a simple running stitch around the edge about ¼ in from the edge and I think it is cute and sturdy!

For extra fun, let your kids draw the pumpkin faces for you on paper circles the right size and you'll have cute coasters to remember their art by! (I drew this myself, but my drawing skills are about the same as a first grader. Luckily I'm better at crafts than art! On further reflection, I probably would stick to candy corn coasters if you're as awesomely bad as me at drawing)

Coming Soon on Crunchy Con Mommy

2011-09-17T15:13:00.000-05:00

We're slowly but surely unpacking all our stuff into our new house, which I'm in love with despite it's flaws (any century-old house is bound to have them). Once I have my kitchen put away and locate the rubbermaid tub containing all my pants (it was shorts weather when I packed...thank goodness for the one pair of skinny jeans I kept handy!!) I'll be able to start doing fun things like craft projects I can post about. Here are a few things I have up my sleeves you should check back for soon:

Felt Jack O'Lantern Coasters

Appliquéd pillowcases for a kid's room

Me raving about the sewing machine I get as a birthday present

Kitchen valances and hopefully coordinating cloth napkins using the leftover fabric

Embroidered hankies for my husband

Adventures or misadventures in removing and/or painting faux-wood panelling

Friday Finds

2011-09-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

I've been crazy-busy lately, but wanted to share some things I've recently found & loved!

Bison Booties

How adorable are these handmade baby booties??? I totally want to buy one in every color for my niece.

Crappy Pictures

If you haven't already heard of the Crappy Pictures blog, you're missing out. Check it out for humorous parenting thoughts illustrated in self-proclaimed "crappy pictures" that look like they're done in Microsoft Paint.

The Celebrity Stork

Candy Kirby of the Laughing Stork insanely launched several new blogs just after having her second baby. Please visit her site and click on some ads, 'cause I'm sure she downs a hefty amount of caffeine to keep it all together. (Oh, and did I mention she's hilarious?)

Wise Words Wednesday 8/31/11

2011-09-01T00:45:00.001-05:00

Last week Meagan at the Happiest Mom had a great idea-"Wise Words Wednesday". I think I'm going to start doing it every week along with her! (And I'm starting off awesomely but posting when it's actually Thursday.) Anyway, without anymore ado, here's a quote I liked this week:

We do not serve people because they are Catholic; we serve people because we are Catholic.

from Christopher Haley in Creating a Catholic Ghetto published on First Things earlier this week (discussing the potential negative impact of the healthcare bill and it's weak religious exemption on Catholic institutions like hospitals and charities).

How about you-what have you read that has inspired you, made you laugh, or made you think this week?

Old House Revival Priorities

2011-08-28T23:16:00.000-05:00

We bought a beautiful house that's nearly a century old and has much work that needs to be done. In reviving* our new house, in fact, there's so much to be done that it can't all be done at once, so we're having to really decide what should be done in which order. And since this is my first house, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm trying to ask advice of more experienced relatives and do as much research as I can on design blogs and the This Old House website and books from the library. So right now what I'm thinking is:

Safe and Clean
Obviously making sure everything is safe and clean so the toddler can have free license to explore the new digs is the number one priority.

"Public Spaces"
My next goal is to (as much as possible anyway) make the main floor of my house pretty because that is the part of the house company will see when they come over. I also count the exterior in that, but probably won't do much with that beyond trimming back weeds etc. until spring due to weather.

Most Used Spaces
Once that's taken care of, I'll move on to spaces that are more private, but used often, like our bedroom and bathroom. We'll make sure they're safe and clean right away, but then eventually will work on making them awesome and decorated to suit our tastes.

Other Spaces
We won't really need to use our attic or basement right away, but it would be nice to eventually finish them nicely and decorate them and stuff once the other areas are taken care of.

How do you decide which household projects to tackle first?

*I checked out a book called Reviving Old Houses the other day from my local library and loved the term the author coined and his explanation of why-I agree totally that the goal should be to show off the things that are beautiful about your features, but update the things that are not beautiful or no longer functional. It's not a museum after all, but a home.

Weightless Book Review

2011-08-24T17:10:00.002-05:00

I've been a fan of Kate Wicker's blog for a while now--ever since I stumbled upon it during a natural parenting blog carnival we were both participating. So I was thrilled to have a chance to review her new book, Weightless through the Catholic Company's reviewer program.

What it is:
In Weightless, Wicker discusses how her Catholic faith has helped her overcome her body image issues including eating disorders and offers tools for women to use to help embrace their own bodies--just the way God made them. In her own words,

Weightless is not only for women like me who have faced an eating disorder, but for any woman who is trying to spackle God-shaped holes with thinness, physical beauty, youth, or food.

Favorite Quote:

Imagine God appearing to you at this very moment and handing you a beautiful, tangible gift-let's say a lovely crystal vase. Would you not do everything you could to keep it clean, untarnished, and sparkling? Would you not add sprigs of greenery and blossoms to make it even more magnificent? You'd surely place it in a prominent place, and every time you saw it, you would be struck by its beauty and be reminded that it was a gift from your heavenly Father.
We should treat our bodies with the same care and admiration.

Pros:

Uplifting
Well-written
Great combination of personal anecdotes, statistics, Bible verses and quotes from spritual leaders like saints and Popes

Cons:

Narrow focus may make some portions uninteresting or uninspiring to readers who can't relate (i.e. readers who aren't moms or who aren't Catholic)
Short length...I want more Kate Wicker!!

The Bottom Line:

Weightless is a great book that I highly recommend for any Catholic woman who is struggling with body images and/or self-esteem. While it's no replacement for professional treatment in the case of serious eating disorders, it is like having a friend you can turn to anytime, who knows what you've gone through and wants to remind you how much God loves you. I think Weightless would be a great book choice for any Catholic women's book groups comprised of women college-aged or above, and especially for a mother's group.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Weightless - Making peace with your body. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible. I received a free copy of this book from The Catholic Company for review purposes.

Moving

2011-08-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

We're moving soon so I've been busy lately with preparations from that. I'm not too worried about packing and setting up utilities and all that (although we are working on it!) My biggest concern is the huge adjustment for my 2 year old son. He's a pretty smart, sensitive little guy and I know it'll be a big deal for him. So far, some ideas I've come up with to ease the transition are:

Pic by Robert S. Donovan via Flickr

Create Routine

We've recently gotten him into a somewhat elaborate bedtime routine of toothhbrushing, jammies (after toothbrushing since he sometimes gets a bit damp from the brushing!), bedtime story, prayers, then sleep. I'm hoping that by having a fairly set routine, we can then do the same routine in the new place and that will help him feel at ease

Favorite Things

When we move, I'm going to grab his favorite things-his favorite stuffed animal, favorite bedtime story, etc and make sure they're in a specially designated bag that comes into the house first thing. We're also going to put a wooden cross that we currently keep above our bed in that bag and my husband will hang it over our bed before we go to sleep the first night.

Don't Push Other Changes

We are getting to the point that we anticipate breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and diapering all coming to an end soon, but we aren't really pushing it right now because I think the stress of all those changes plus moving at once would be too much for him to handle gracefully. So while we're not trying to get him to nurse more and we are still leaving the potty seat out available for his use, we aren't actively trying to get him to change his current behaviors on any of those issues yet.

New Fun

Besides new space to explore, we also have some fun surprises like a sandbox (courtesy of Grandma) planned for the new house to help shift the balance in favor of being different-but-good instead of different-therefore-bad.

What are your best tips for helping toddlers get used to moving to and living in a new house?

Felt Crinkle Fries Tutorial

2011-08-11T10:53:00.001-05:00

This tutorial was originally posted in May 2011. So far, the fries are holding up well to vigorous toddler play :)

As a newbie to felt food making, I've been trying to start with foods my son loves. And as much as I'd love to pretend that's quinoa with eggplant & brussel sprouts, he wouldn't recognize any of those things even if I managed to make the awesomest felt food versions of them known to man. So instead I've got some fruit, a sandwich, an egg (not too terrible nutritionally so far, right?) and now...crinkle fries. We don't have them all that often, but when we do, my son gobbles them up. But all the fry patterns/tutorials I found were kind of lame 2D renditions (maybe they're supposed to be smushed McDonald's fries?), so I had to come up with my own. And when I showed him the first felt fry I finished, he was super excited and clearly recognized it. So if your kid is a fellow french fry lover, give this a go!

Materials:
Yellow felt (one sheet of felt should easily make 8-10 fries)
Matching embroidery floss.
Stuffing of your choice

How-To Make It:
1.) Cut out 4 rectangles of yellow felt for each fry you'd like to make. They all need to be the same length (mine were about 3 inches long), but I think it looks cute to have the two side pieces narrower than the top & bottom of the fry. The important thing is that the top & bottom are identical and the two sides are identical.

2.) Use blanket stitch* (or whipstitch if you'd prefer non-crinkle fries) to attach the four pieces together to make a rectangular felt tunnel.

3.) Cut two small squares of felt to fit the ends of your fry (I just stood the fry-tunnel up on the felt to figure it out. If you prefer measuring, the end pieces should have two sides the same width as the long top of the fry & two sizes the width of the long side pieces.)

4.) Attach one end piece, then stuff the fry with poly-fil, wool stuffing, felt scraps, or whatever else you'd like. A pencil or stick might be helpful for shoving the stuffing way down in.

5.) Sew on the other end piece. If you want non-crinkle fries, you can stop here!

6.) This is the slightly tricky part. Thread yellow embroidery floss on to your needle and loop it around the fry, going underneath the thread at each seam but not into the felt.

7.) When your loop is back where it started, pull it really tight and quickly secure it (I used a small knot incorporating the seam I started from.) This is your first crinkle! Repeat this process 3-4 more times until you're happy with the number of crinkles.

8.) If you're making these fries for someone who still chews toys (or whose younger sibling does), I'd recommend sewing several fries together in little clumps to reduce the choking hazard. (I think we've all had fries stick together like this for real, so I don't think it ruins the realisticness at all.)

Voila! French fries.
Bon Appetit!

*I linked to a fabulous video from Bari J of We Love French Knots in case you don't know how to do blanket stitch yet

How to Deal with a Diaper-Change Houdini

2011-08-10T16:37:00.002-05:00

Ahh my little squirmonster. As a rookie mom, I never saw the diaper change escapism coming. But oh, it came. When my son could roll over, he tried to roll over mid-diaper change. When he learned to crawl, he'd crawl away as I turned to open the diaper cream. And now? Well we've mostly got him trained to lay down on command, but there are still days you can find my toddler squealing while running bare-bunned across the room.
Here's what I'll do differently next time:

pic by Spigoo via Flickr Creative Commons

Nip it in the Bud

Not expecting it (don't babies want to get that poop and moisture off of them?!?), I didn't react firmly to my son's initial attempts to Houdini his way out of a diaper change. I think I probably giggled the first couple of times it happened. Next baby, I'll be sure to respond more firmly and make it clear mommy doesn't think that's funny.

Distract

I'll also make more of an effort next time to make sure the baby has a toy or something to entertain themself with while I do the dirty work. I once saw a mom with a slightly younger squirmonster attempting to escape his diaper change at the end of a LaLecheLeague monster and promptly pulled out one of my son's toys and let the other baby play with it. He was entranced and the mom relieved. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's so nice!

Prep Well

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes I'd need both hands to open the diaper cream, leaving my son unencumbered in his escape attempts. Now I know better. I open the diaper cream before laying him down to change him. I also pull out a handful of wipes if there's poo in the diaper, and I unfold the diaper so it's ready to go. Doing all that stuff ahead of time doesn't take any longer, but it sure makes the amount of time I need the baby to lay still on the floor/bed/changing table a lot shorter!

Speed it Up

This is one that's tough for me. I didn't have much baby experience before having my son and I'm a sort of slow diaper changer. But I know I have to make a conscious effort to go fast so that it doesn't take longer than the time he's willing to lay there (obviously this doesn't always work if it's a big messy diaper, but for standard pee-only ones this is my strategy) Another way to speed things up is to use smart tools, like new Huggies Slip-On diapers. I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but we have used Huggies Pull-Ups and it's amazing how much faster you can change somene small and squirmy when you don't have to mess with those annoying tabs (which I always seem to rip when I used any brand other than Huggies and then have to start all over with a new diaper! Ugh!)

So that's my game plan for smoother diaper changes next time I have a new baby. What are your best strategies for dealing with a squirmy baby during diaper changes?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Huggies blogging program, for a gift card worth $35. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Decorating a New House!

2011-08-07T12:48:00.001-05:00

We're getting ready to move and here's what I'm thinking as a color scheme for my new house:

"Billiard Table" and "Fresco Cream" actually match existing tile in the house and I don't plan on painting anything those colors.

For my son's room I'm thinking "Garland" along with this fabric, Zoology in the bright colorway. I actually won a yard of fabric from Sew, Mama Sew! a few weeks ago and this was my pick. I'm thinking a dark red sheet paired will a pillow or two made from the zoology fabric plus the green walls will be really cool (I hope!)

And I'm considering this fabric from Jo-Ann's for some window valances in the laundry room (Yay main-floor laundry!!) or playroom/family room. It matched the paint colors (I brought my paint chips, lol) in the fabric store much better than on the screen. I'll do sheer curtains most of the rest of the house.

What do you think?? Know of any other great fabrics that would go well with these colors?

Dog Days of Summer

2011-08-03T06:30:00.040-05:00

These are the days of summer when I start wishing summer was over. As the weeks drag on of weather so blisteringly hot I don't feel safe taking my toddler out during most of the daylight hours, I just get tired of it. But I'm trying to still make summer fun for my son, so here are some of the best ideas I've come up with on my own or gleaned from more experienced moms for making the best of the dog days of summer:

Eat Out
Eating lunch (or breakfast...or dinner...or a snack!) outside is an exciting idea to most kids, yet has a clear ending time (when you're done eating of course!) so you don't then feel obliged to stay outside all day long on days it may really be too warm to do so. Find a shady tree and spread out a blanket and some simple foods and you're all set. For added fun, make it a teddy bear picnic (or just stuffed animals in general) and/or invite friends over to join in your picnicking adventure. Don't forget drinks-hydration is key when the mercury is high!

Get Wet
While swimming in the pool is the most obvious wet summer fun option, most pools are not well shaded and on the worst heat days, can be too sunny to be safe for kids for more than a couple minutes. Instead, try playing with some combination of sprinklers, hoses, water guns, water balloons, baby pools, and slip & slides placed in some shady grass. That way you get all the wet fun without the bummer burn.

Exercise Early
Taking a long walk with your strollers, trikes, bikes, and rollerblades can still be an option on triple digit days, but you have to think smart about when is the best time to go, and that may mean waking up early. Wake your kids up early to go do something fun and outdoorsy, and let them nap in the warmth of midday to make up for it if they are the type who will (if they're the type who'll refuse the makeup nap and be grumpy all day, forget I said anything).

Window Shop
Another walk option is to go somewhere indoors other than your house. Walk around the mall or a big store like Wal-Mart or Costco. During the summer, I've been intentionally shopping in bits and pieces instead of buying everything all at once because it makes such a huge difference in my son's mood if we get out and walk somewhere for an hour or two on days too warm to be outside and I personally feel bad not purchasing anything (although I don't think there are rules that you must purchase things in order to walk around most stores). You can also combine this with the "walking early" idea, like the morning we walked to the grocery store and bought two donuts, then ate them as we walked home!

Indoor Surprises
It can also make too-hot days more pleasant to intentionally make indoors more fun by having special surprises. Try making homemade playdough, teaching your kids a new craft, building forts from cardboard boxes, make sock puppets, or do something else silly that they don't get to do everyday.

How do you keep your kids entertained and cool on days when it's too hot outside? How hot is too hot for your family?

Natural Family Planning

2011-07-29T13:43:00.001-05:00

This week is "Natural Family Planning Awareness Week" according to the US Catholic Bishops, so I wanted to take a few minutes and share some of my thoughts on NFP!

My husband and I proudly practice Natural Family Planning. We believe the Catholic Church's teachings that contraception is at odds with God's plan for marriage and sexuality, and are grateful that God created women's bodies in such a way that it's possible to determine fertility and abstain during fertile periods if there's a serious reason to do so. When we feel we have a sufficiently serious reason to avoid pregnancy, we use the sympto-thermal method of NFP, which involves taking my temperature every morning and checking for cervical mucus when I use the restroom. I used to chart it by hand, but I'm lazy/making smart use of available tools and use a free app on my iPod Touch to chart now*, which also does a lot of the interpretation and makes that aspect easier too! We chose this method because the cross-checking of different fertility signs seems to most fool-proof to us, but there are also several other highly reliable methods like Billings, Creighton, and NaPro that other couples we know have chosen and had great success with, both in spacing children when necessary and achieving pregnancy even when struggling with low fertility.

As I've been reading other posts for NFP awareness week, one thing I've been struck by is the prevalence of comments essentially saying that NFP is way too hard. And for us that hasn't been the case at all, so it makes me sad that so many people seem to struggle so much with it. Reading those comments made me resolve two things:

1.) I'm going to try to seek out NFP messageboards like Fertility Flower** or discussions of NFP on Catholic messageboards and offer encouragement and support to women who are struggling with NFP. I think we need to build up a sense of community, and more experienced women can share tips on how they've made it through any patches where NFP seemed a heavy burden.

2.) I'm going to look into how to become a NFP teacher. It appears that there may be some free online courses to become an NFP teacher, so if that's really the case, I might try to take one or more and become an NFP teacher for my diocese so I really have the knowledge to support other women who want to succeed at NFP but feel like they can't for some reason.

Anyway, if you have never really read about Natural Family Planning, I encourage you to do so, and if you already do NFP, I'd love for you to leave your best tip for successfully practicing NFP in the comment section!

*In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I did help the app designers with some of their translations on a volunteer basis (they're based in Switzerland). I received no compensation then and do not receive any compensation if you download the free app other than warm fuzzy feelings

**I'm friends with the woman who runs Fertility Flower on Twitter and she is soooo nice! Seriously, if you're at all interested in NFP chat her up!

Bunny Finger Puppets Take 2

2011-07-28T12:13:00.000-05:00

My niece recently needed a get-well present, so I stitched up a couple of bunny finger puppets using the pattern I created for my son's Easter basket this spring, but using super bright girly colors, and here's how they turned out:

The only things I'd consider changing before making them again is to use a different color or embroidery floss for the eyes, but I wanted to make one brown like my sister-in-law and niece's eyes and one blue like my brother's eyes, so I ended up using thread colors that maybe didn't show up the best. I think she'll like them exactly how they are though!

Hospitality for Pregnant Guests (repost)

2011-07-22T13:16:00.000-05:00

This post was originally posted in June of 2010. I now have a beautiful niece who is on the verge of crawling!

My brother and his pregnant wife visited last weekend, and I put a lot of thought into making them (mainly her) comfortable, partially by trying to remember what made me most comfortable during my own pregnancy, so I thought I'd share my philosophy on making your home welcoming to a pregnant friend or relative!

Keep her hydrated!

It's easy to get dehydrated anytime you're pregnant, but especially on the road, and some people are shy about asking for drinks before their host offers them. So offer early and offer often! To drink, we had available:

Water
Milk
Orange Juice
Raspberry Lemonade (Simply Lemonade brand with nothing artificial in it-I LOVE it!)
Root beer (caffeine free!)

Feed her well!

She may be nauseous and not eat much (so get stuff you like too so you're willing to eat the leftovers!), or she may be pretty hungry and constantly eating. Either way I think it's important to have lots of yummy things available for her. Because of cravings and aversions, I tried to come up with a wider variety of options of snacks than I would for a "normal" guest.
I like to have at least one snack from each of these categories available:

Sweet: I baked brownies plus we had ice cream to go with it!
Salty/bread: My SIL loves peanut butter sandwich crackers so we got those. Pretzels and wheat thins could be great options too!
Protein: Besides the PB crackers, we also had hard-boiled eggs available.
Fruit: I picked bananas, but sweet apples could be good too, like Fuji or Galas, or grapes, but I'd avoid really acidic fruits like pineapple or granny smith apples!

For meals, also offering a variety of choices can help ensure there's something she'll like even if some of the options aren't appealling to her. For example, we made bacon, eggs, and potatoes for breakfast, plus had pancake stuff ready in case the smell of bacon made her feel sick or anything like that, and we asked ahead of time if that meal sounded good to her (it did and was sooooo yummy!!)

Gift her!

Okay, you don't have to give her a present everytime you see her if it's someone who visits often, but if it's a relative or close friend, giving them a gift like maternity clothes (including hand-me-downs) or a great book like The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding can help her feel welcome and let them know you're excited about the pregnancy.

Give her privacy!

If like us, you're lucky enough to have more than one bathroom, set one aside as exclusively hers, even if you don't normally for guests (her hubby can share it too). There's nothing worse than feeling like you have to hurry up and puke because someone's waiting on the bathroom! We cleaned the guest bathroom and filled it with fresh towels, a new bar of soap, and new bottles of shampoo (Suave-they're like 99 cents/bottle) and body wash (coconut scent from Bath & Body Works). We'll use what's left of the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, but because they were new, the guests could tell they were intended for their use and weren't just our junk we forgot to put away! Alternatively, you could get small "travel-size" bottles and then let your guests take them with them or throw them away. I figure most people bring their own stuff, but it's good to have it out in case they forgot something!

Don't expect too much

She may be very tired and not feel up to doing much. Or she might be just as energetic as ever! It's perfectly fine to offer all sorts of fun, like going for walks, to a movie, out to eat, etc. but be sure she feels like she can set the schedule based on her needs and be ready to just relax at home if that's all she feels up to.

What are your tips for hosting pregnant friends and relatives at your house? What have others done while you were pregnant that made you feel comfortable?

Stay-at-home Mom (repost)

2011-07-21T14:35:00.000-05:00

This post was originally written for inclusion in a blog carnival hosted by NursingFreedom.org in June of 2010. See the bottom of this post for more information on NursingFreedom.org.

I would love to be breastfeeding and/or pregnant for pretty much the next 10-15 years of my life. Crazy? Maybe a little. But let me explain. My hubby comes from a family of 6, and his mom is one of 8 kids. His aunts have between 2 and 9 kids (the one with only 2 is the youngest and may have more!) Family gatherings at his grandparents' house are some of the most joyful events I've ever been exposed to, with kids running around, teenaged cousins watching sports together, engaged 20-somethings showing off their rings, middle aged aunts cooking and gushing about their grandkids and bragging about their honors students, and nursing mamas and their grinning babies. Seeing these happy large families has given me the confidence that I could successfully raise 6-8 kids if I'm able to have that many.

So for me, and for other mamas who want or already have large families, the issue of nursing in public seems even more pressing. I guess it's sort of like taking the concept to the logical extreme. Because the nursing phase of my life (hopefully) won't be over anytime soon. It will be a big chunk of my life. In fact, when my almost-year-old baby is a teenager, there's a good chance I'll be nursing a new baby.

Very few people in contemporary American society would argue against the proposition that women in general have the right to be in public places. Yet many of them do argue that nursing moms should just stay home until their babies are old enough/weaned enough that they don't need to nurse in public. I've seen this proposed in the comments on pretty much every news story I've read about a nursing mom being told to stop or leave the public place she was at. I've also heard it from relatives.

Which leads me back to my 10-15 year plan. If I have older kids and teenagers and nurslings at the same time, I can't live in some sort of babies-and-mommies-only-dreamworld. I will have to (and want to) be out in public, driving my kids to stuff and watching them compete and perform.

And you know, babies don't "choose" when they want to nurse. They get hungry and want to eat, or get frightened and want to nurse for comfort. Period. There isn't a thought process like there is for adults, or an understanding of time that allows babies to think "well, we're almost done here, so I'll just wait 15 minutes to nurse." At some point (although I'm not sure when) a nursling may be old enough to be asked to wait and to understand what that means enough to be willing to do it. But not for a long while. Anyway, if a nursing mama and her nursling are out in public for hours at a time, there's a good chance the little one will want to nurse at some point.

My question for people who say nursing mamas should stay home is this: if my current baby turns into a baseball player, and has a tournament, do I not have as much right as any other parent to go watch him play? And what if I do have a nursing baby-say 4 months old, old enough to be out and about, but young enough to be nursing exclusively and frequently? To argue that I should stay at home instead of being present at my older children's activities is an infringement of my rights as a parent, and my human right to go out in public.

Guess what? I'm not hiding in my house for the next 15 years so I can nurse my babies. I'm going to nurse my babies in front of their older siblings. And any of their friends who happen to be around. I'll try to use discretion, but I honestly don't think it damages kids psychologically to see mothers breastfeeding (which seems to be the implication of many people who argue that they don't want their kids to "see that"). I think it's probably good for them, if anything.

If you can make it work financially, I think being a stay-at-home mom is best for kids, which I believe is well-supported by social science data and anecdotal evidence. But to argue that moms actually have to literally stay in their homes? Absurd.

Visit NursingFreedom.org any time to connect with other breastfeeding supporters, learn more about your legal right to nurse in public, and read (and contribute!) articles about breastfeeding and N.I.P.

Do you support breastfeeding in public? Grab this badge for your blog or website to show your support and encourage others to educate themselves about the benefits of breastfeeding and the rights of breastfeeding mothers and children.

&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nursingfreedom.org/p/carnival-of-nursing-in-public.html" title="Carnival of Nursing in Public"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.babydustdiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/inip1.png"  alt="Art by Erika Hastings at http://mudspice.wordpress.com/" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;

Let's All Try Not to Be Jerks (Repost)

2011-07-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite posts from my previous blog. It was originally posted in March of 2011.

This afternoon we went shopping at Kohl's , and my 20-month-old-tomorrow son threw an epic tantrum. He was basically inconsolable until we got home and he nursed to sleep for a nap an hour earlier than normal. Poor guy. I don't really know what was wrong. He might've been hot in his big coat-it was warmer than forecast according to the thermometer in my car. Or he might've just been tired-we did play pretty hard yesterday. Or maybe he was hungry or thirsty or his tummy felt weird or any one of a million possibilities. I tried to calm him down as well as I could without dropping the glass cutting board and toy helicopter I'd grabbed already (I had a $10 off anything coupon-the toy made the cutting board I needed expensive enough to use the coupon. I paid 24 cents for both!).

And as I walked towards the front of the store, it felt like a walk of shame. People were literally glaring at me. Mostly fellow mommies.

Yeah, that's right fellow Kohl's shoppers: I trained my toddler to scream on command just so I could come do it in the store and ruin your shopping trip, bwahaha! I thought him bashing my head with his repeatedly was an especially nice touch to make it seem less staged.

The other moms must just have been jealous their kids aren't similarly trained to tantrum on command. Yeah, that's it.

I seriously don't get it. Other than a couple of kind women in front of me in the check out lane, no one talked to me or smiled at me. The moms with older kids in tow didn't say "hang in there! He'll outgrow it soon". They just glared. The moms sans-kids browsing the toddler tees didn't say "aw poor guy, must be naptime when you get home." they just glared too.
If everyone just ignored me, I wouldn't have cared. But if you make eye contact with a mom dealing with a tantrum and your facial expression is best described as a scowl, that's not cool. If you are seriously such an awesome parent that your kid never ever tantrums, then please, share your wisdom. And if you've been there done that, offer an encouraging smile. Offer to grab the glass cutting board I'm almost dropping by trying not to drop my kid. Or something.

For my part, I'm going to try to be more conscious of this too and when I'm out and my kid is the happy one and someone else is having a frustrating day, I'm going to try to be the opposite of the jerks I was shopping this today. I'll try to offer an encouraging smile, a "hang-in there-we have those days too" from a fellow mom in the trenches.

Because caring moms already feel terrible when their kid is upset. It makes us sad that our child is frustrated or struggling with some emotion or discomfort they can't express in a more mature way. We don't need strangers making us feel worse. Why not try to make each other feel better? Because a calm, encouraged mommy is more likely to be able to calm down a toddler, to figure out what's bothering their kiddo and think of creative solutions.

Let's all try to not be judgey jerks, ok?

Welcome!

2011-07-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new space. If you're a new reader, you can expect to find a mix of posts here on natural parenting topics like babywearing and breastfeeding, my take on political issues from a conservative slant, and thoughts on where the Catholic faith and conservative Christianity in general fits in to all that. I do write product review posts (hopefully with fun giveaways!) and posts sponsored by companies and will always disclose to you when I do so, but I won't lie or promote companies I wouldn't feel comfortable with my own family shopping from or eating at. I'll also post pictures/tutorials from fun crafts I'm working on-I love sewing, especially embroidery and felt toy making.

Thanks for stopping by. Check back soon for more Crunchy Con Fun!