This kid!

This kid is quite cute.

This kid is still eating every 2 hours, day and night. Well, not quite true. I got a bonus hour last night. She fell asleep at 11 and then woke up at 2am, 4am, 6am, and then at 8am. Ug.

This kid has been gnawing on everything and drooling like a St Bernard. She is still quite cute though. Just wet.

This kid is learning to grab stuff and maneuver it to her mouth. Unfortunately, the only thing she can consistently get there is her own little paw.

This kid now weighs over 13 pounds. According to the Wii (which seems to be more accurate than our scale) she has gained 1.8 pounds in the last 4 days. I believe it!

Healthier cooking

Chicken Pot Pie

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1-2 cups cubed potato

1 cup sliced carrots

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 can corn, or cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cup milk

2 cups shredded cheese

4 cups cooked, chopped chicken

1/4 tsp poultry seasoning

salt and pepper

1 pie crust- uncooked

Cook carrots, potatoes and onion in broth till done. Add corn and peas. Blrnd flour and milk and stir into broth and veggies. Stir in cheese , chicken and seasonings. Spoon into casserole dish. Cover with pie crust and seal edges. Make several slits in the crust. Bake at 425 for 45 minutes

** To freeze, cover with foil and seran wrap to seal and freeze. Defrost 48 hours and cook as above.

I have been working on healthier meals. I decided that if we were going to consume empty calories, then they should be spent on good stuff like chocolate, cookies, and all that stuff you already know isn't good for you. Thus, I have been working on making our meals more beneficial for our bodies. Yes, I know lower calories is suppose to be good. However, if a whole wheat waffle and a donut have the same number of calories, the waffle is still a lot better for you.

I really like this pot pie recipe. I think I got it from Sharon. It is great for a couple of reasons. First, it tastes delicious! We had it for dinner last night. There are no leftovers at this moment. Second, it makes a lot. If you are a little family, you could put it in 2 pie pans and freeze one. That moves us to number 3; it freezes really well! Last of all is my favorite reason- no condensed soup required! I make my own chicken broth/stock, so there is pretty much nothing processed in this dish. And did I mention that it is really yummy?!

Jinxed

This is my sweet Rylee. See how she sleeps. She was such a good sleeper. She didn't go to bed very early, but once asleep at night, she was fantastic. I wrote about it in her journal 2 days ago. I commented on how she slept so nicely at night. Since then, she has been rotten. She has awoken every 2 hours and fussed. She ate and then fussed some more, rather than falling right back to sleep. What happened to my perfect sleeper who only woke to eat once between midnight and 7 am? I liked that baby! This new baby is no fun at all.

Work and Rewards

There was a recent Ensign article about work. I read it. And I read it again. And I felt guilty. Work? Sure, I work. I do a lot of work and I usually have a good attitude about it. My sweet husband works as well. I was incredibly impressed with him back when we were newlyweds (I still am, too!) and he graduated BYU. He had to wait a semester for me to graduate, and he took a job cleaning carpets. I looked at him and wondered why on earth a college grad would take a carpet cleaning job! And I realized he took it so he could support us. He wasn't too proud to do whatever job he could get. And in Provo, there's not a lot of jobs, other than the menial variety. I am impressed to have a man who will take what work he can and do it with pride to support his family. He never complained about cleaning carpets, either.

My parents taught me to work. They made me work when I was a kid, and I don't mind the menial labor jobs. There really is satisfaction in doing your job well, be it making cookies at the Brick Oven, or mopping the floors of the hospital. Yes, I actually enjoyed being housekeeping staff at the hospital. I worked 9pm-2am, cleaning bathrooms and other things. I didn't mind it at all. I minded the politics and other things, but the work was fine.

So, having read this article, I felt guilty. I am not doing very well on teaching my children to work. Its so much easier to do it myself. I don't mind doing it myself, either. To make it tougher, I'm not sure HOW to teach them to work. I know there are chores to do and rooms to clean, but how to make that a lesson in working because we need to, because it has to be done, and it can be done with a joyful heart? That's what I'm struggling with.

This week the messy house was a bit overwhelming, and after the girls knocked over the Christmas tree, Dan decided it was time to do something about it. So half the house was sparkly clean. I decided the kids needed some serious room-cleaning, and today I told them it was time. I told them what I expected and I told them that if all that got done, we could have an ice cream sundae party. The jumped to it with great delight. They stripped the sheets from their beds, picked up toys, emptied the trash, organized stuffed animals, and put the laundry away. There were no complaints and they all worked together with glee. It was wonderful!

My concern is, does this sort of reward/bribe teach them to work, or merely teach them that they need a reward to do work? It was wonderful to have it all done with a cheerful attitude, but will that translate to real-world situations? This mom stuff is hard sometimes.

But the ice cream sundaes were delicious!

When did I lose control?!

We had a great Christmas. We had a good weekend. Yesterday was fantastic as well. Today..... somehow I completely lost control. We had a play-date planned, because I knew the natives would be a bit restless. We had 2 of my friends come over, with 3 of the kids' friends. I thought they would all play nicely together. They did, but it involved a lot of running and screeching and it somehow required the pulling out of every toy they could in that hour. The toy pulling out was expected, the other total chaos was not. I don't know why it was unexpected, but it was. You'd think my children were savages, the way they acted. Plus, Callie kept getting food out. One of our friends had brought vanilla wafers and yogurt covered cranberries, and the other brought cocoa to share. So Callie figured she should share our cookies. I kept putting the bag back, and the next time I turned around, there were more cookies. (My delicious, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I made last night!) There were cookie crumbs all over, half eaten wafers, and random cranberries, and I never saw it happen. It suddenly appeared out of nowhere! The finally left the table and raced off to play, with more screaming and shrieking. In case you are one of our friends, it was all okay. The kids make bigger messes on their own and louder noises on their own, its just for some reason, I thought they'd play sweetly and quietly with friends, rather than so rambunctiously.

And somehow, that did not wear them out for the day. It merely set them up for an extended version of it for the rest of the day. Well, the rest of the day has involved significantly more tears, teasing and accusations of dastardly deeds. Plus, Rylee, (who was happy and content all morning) has been screaming most of the afternoon. It is a bit wearing on the nerves and amplifies everything else. I'm slowly teetering on the edge of santiy. Even as I sit here, I hear Callie saying "nah-nah-nah", And Marian is shouting "Shut-up". Oooh, now there is screaming......

Yes, Marian had pinched Callie in the shoulder. Sigh.

Let me remind myself why I have children, and why I love my girls, shall we?