Back in September Erin and I decided we would all go to North Carolina to spend Christmas with my mom and John. Once the decision was made we decided that it would be an excellent Christmas gift to surprise her. For three months we planned and planned our trip out there. On Christmas Eve at 6:00am we boarded our plane headed for Knoxville, TN. As we flew east the kids slept and Tim and I watched a beautiful sunrise at 30,000 feet. We switched planes in Dallas and our excitement started building. We were all hungry, tired, excited, and anxious about pulling off the surprise without letting the cat out of the bag. In Knoxville we picked up our rental car and headed further east toward Clyde. The weather was perfect. The sun was out and it was warm. As the distance between our car and mom's house got shorter and shorter the excitement in the car was so thick you could smell it...or maybe that was Erin. We stopped at the bottom of Breakwood (moms street) to change diapers and put the kids in their little Christmas outfits. We were like tornadoes whipping off clothes, putting on diapers, throwing clothes back on. We kept getting texts from Jackie telling us to hurry, that mom was back in her bedroom and John was having a hard time keeping her there. It was important that she stay in the bedroom because she could hear and see us pull up from any other room in the house. Then we quickly texted Jackie to let her know we were coming up the hill to the house. Two minutes later we were at the house. We were all shaking with excitement as we got out of the car and sprinted to the front door. We rang the doorbell...
Once the initial excitement wore off we got our things unpacked and settled in for the next few days. On Christmas morning we woke up and it started to snow. Half way through the day it looked very snowy outside. We opened presents and then headed over to Jackie and Aaron's new house to eat Christmas dinner with Aaron's family. I am please to report that they are a very nice bunch of people and we had a very good afternoon with them.
Since we were snowed in we played the Wii. Jackie got Just Dance 2 for Christmas so we all took turns playing that. Mom was a natural.
The fun had to end though so on the morning of the 28th we loaded back in the car and started our journey back. In the airport as tensions were running high due to our 60 carry ons, 2 little monsters driving us crazy, hunger, and exhaustion. Sophia broke the tension when she hid behind a pillar and screamed, "I am SO sick of my flamily! I am sick SICK SICK!! We all laughed until we cried. We were all feeling this way so for her to blurt it out was really funny. Despite the return trip we all had a wonderful time and on the way home discussed surprising mom for New Years.....
So I was going to write a comprehensive blog about cloth diapering since its diaper washing day but my mom made a request that I write a "story" about Sophia. So I will tell a little bit about what Sophia is up to a 2 years (and one month) old. She's:
Walking, Running, Jumping, Climbing
Knows most of her colors
Counts to 20
Speaks in complete sentences
Has a vocabulary so big I can't count any more (she picks up on every word mommy and daddy says and incorporates it into her playtime)
Knows the whole alphabet
Recognizes her written name
Can recognize many of the letters
Loves playing with her legos
Throws tantrums (but they seem to be getting better)
Dresses herself completely (except for her big jacket but including footie pajamas)
Loves to play with her babydoll Acaba (I didn't name her)
Kisses her sister and tells her, "I love you lyssa"
Takes one long nap a day (most of the time)
Loves to be read to
Hangs her coat on the door "nog"
Many many many more things...
Sophia is still pretty small for her age. I think she weighted about 21 pounds when we went for her 2 year well visit. She is a very smart little girl. She amazes me everyday. Mom, if you are nice I will do a 2.5 year update. Otherwise, you will have to wait until she is three ;)
On Monday Alyssa turned 7 month old. The time has gone SO fast. It is hard to believe she is 7 months because she is so small. She is only 12.5 pounds and is in the 2nd percentile for her weight. We all thought Sophia was really small but Alyssa is even tinier. Here is a list of things Alyssa is doing at 7 months old:
Crawling
Pulling herself up to standing and walking across things
Saying "dadadada"
Still breastfeeding (go me!!)
Eating lots of grains and fruit and some veggies (she loves applesauce, peach, oatmeal, barley, carrots, and pears)
Teething (she has two bottom teeth)
Holding her toys and passing them back and forth between hands
As I mentioned a few days ago, we are all nursing colds. It is amazing how yucky a cold can make you feel. To get some relief we turn to herbs. I don't like putting the chemicals found in cold medicines into my body and especially not into the little bodies of my kids so I give the natural remedies a chance first and then if we don't start to get better I will use the "western medicines". Many modern medicines we take today get thier main ingredients directly from plants. The difference between getting the medicine from the dried herb and getting it from a pill is that the pill has all the nutrients that herbalists believe (me included) are essential to healing the body. So, I will be putting some natural remedies up on here whenever the occasion arises. This occasion allows me to talk about herbs to relieve a cold.
Four or five times a day I brew myself a cup of tea that has echinacea, elder berries, and peppermint. Echinacea and elder berry are very effective in boosting the immune system so at the first sign of any illness I begin brewing myself a tea with both. Elder berry is very gentle so its a good herb to use with children. Plus it kind of tastes good. Peppermint adds a good flavor to any tea (as herbs don't always taste as good as nyquil) and the menthol found in peppermint helps open up nasal passages. If my nose gets stuffy I put 3 or 4 drops of Eucalyptus essential oil into a bowl of boiling water, put a towel over my head and breathe deep. Eucalyptus is effective in opening up nasal passages as well. It is always a good idea to drink lots of water (many common ailments are a symptom of dehydration) but it is most important during an illness. Brewing hot tea helps you to get your daily amount of liquids. If you are interested on buying some herbs my favorite place to buy them is Mountain Rose Herbs. They have many organic choices and they offer information on every herb. They also have essential oils and other neat things.
Since we are all nursing small colds I wanted to make a really simple but hearty soup. I chose our all time favorite which we call Patchwork Soup. This recipe was given to Tim as a gift one Christmas by a customer on his route. It literally takes me about ten minutes to get cooking and an hour later we have dinner. I accompany the soup with LaBrea brand bread that we buy at Smith's. We get the multigrain or, "the kind with twigs" as our nephew Mike calls it. So here's the recipe.
Patchwork Soup 1 cup dried split peas 1/2 cup barley 1/2 cup brown lentils 1/2 cup brown rice 1 T dried parsley 1 t minced onions 1 t salt 1 t pepper 1/2 t minced garlic (or better, use fresh) 1 t season salt
Add everything to 3 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Cook about an hour or until all parts are cooked (usually the peas take the longest). Stir occasionally and enjoy. Its really hot when its done so I let it cool a little while. It stores well in the freezer and fridge. It will turn into a jello like consistence but you can add a little warmth and water and it will turn back into soup.
On Sunday we celebrated Sophia's 2nd birthday. I can not believe it was two years ago that she came into our lives. I have to say, the last two years have been incredibly fun and challenging at the same time. I had no idea that you could love another person as much as I love my little Sophia, even in the middle of a tantrum...in the middle of the grocery store. We started the day off by letting Sophia and Joey paint pumpkins.
Then we celebrated with a party. Lots of family and a few friends were there to party with us. We got a pinata which turned out to be alot of fun. All of the kids got to take a whack at it several times. See Sophia hit it here. Then we sang her happy birthday and ate some vegan cake!!
Then we rushed out the door to go Trick-or-Treating!
It was a very good day. Happy Birthday Sophia! Vegan cake recipe to follow, no time now.
Ok, so, this is my first blog post ever. I am a little nervous. I decided to start this blog to record some of our family's more fun moments. I also wanted an outlet for some of my recipes and to show off some of the things we do to live a little more green. I know there are probobly 50 million blogs out there by housewives but this in the only one that is written by me, and I am one wierd duck. So subscribe so I will atleast feel like people are reading this. I will try to keep it updated frequently but with kids, school, a marriage, and a house to run I may not find the time sometimes. For sure I will post atleast once a week. So here it is in all it's glory, my blog. I will be doing some designing and arranging as I have time so the look may be changing. So come back periodically to check it out.
