Thursday, January 15, 2015

Mid-Month Confessions Starts TODAY!


It's time! Our first Mid-Month Confessions blog hop has arrived. I have to say, my list grew rather long as the month progressed, and taking a moment to write down some of my ridiculous moments from these past few weeks at least gave me the opportunity to laugh at myself.
Confessions Banner
Elizabeth and I want this to be a fun place for us to "air out our dirty laundry" and be able to laugh with one another about our less than perfect moments. We want it to be a place to connect with other bloggers and put our non-highlight reel out there so that we can all feel a little bit better about ourselves. :)

You can read my list below, check out Elizabeth's on her blog, and we'd love for you to write your own post and link up at the bottom of either one of our posts! (Remember, you only have to add your entry once and it will show up on both blogs.) If you don't have a blog, you can share your confessions in the comment section below our posts and we'll reply below.

So here goes!

-I knew pregnancy brain was a real thing because I experienced it for 9 months. But mom brain takes things to a whole new level. There are times, too often to count, that I feel completely unintelligent when I speak. For instance, this week, I explained to Matt that our plumber showed me the most effective way to "plum" our drain in our shower in case we had any future issues with it clogging. I believe the word I was looking for was plunge.

-Also this week, I overflowed not one, but two water jugs onto our kitchen floor because I kept the water running and got side-tracked doing something else. And by this week, I mean it happened twice in the same day. Within the same hour.

-When I read E's intro post about me, I laughed out loud when she said I had a super stylish wardrobe. When I was teaching, I would pick out my clothes the night before so that Matt could tell me if they matched or not. That plan was devised after more than one instance of him really sweetly telling me at the end of the day that he wasn't sure if what I was wearing went together. In which case I would naturally say that I had worn the outfit all day and that it probably would have been better to know that before I spent eight hours in a school full of students, teachers, and parents. So yes, fashion is not my strength, but I'm working on it. ;)

-Sometimes (okay all the time) when I'm at home with Ryan and Tally during the day, I will talk to them and have them respond to me in different voices. Annnnd sometimes those voices say what a great mom I am and how it's so fun to hang out with me all day. ...It's probably safe to say words of affirmation is one of my love languages- although I tend to think I have an equal distribution of all five.)

-This week, when Andrea, Teagan and Reynolds met me and Ryan at the mall, Teagan looked at my shirt and said, "Aunt Hea... shirt.... match... mommy's PJs" (see confession #3)

-There has been more than one occasion where people are trying to get Ryan's attention for a photo and calling out his name for him to look with no luck... Until I say, "Try, 'Doodle'" and it works like a charm. It is in those moments that I realize I should probably start calling him by his name. Or come up with a less awkward nickname.

-On Monday of this week, I had Ryan sitting next to me in the nap nanny while I was pumping. About the time he starting arching his back to try to get out, Tally started whining incessantly about his toy that got wedged under a piece of furniture as I reached for my very full water cup but missed and knocked the entire thing over on my laptop keyboard. All while the pump was still doing its thing. I refrained from saying what was going through my mind and instead went with, "NOT a good moment." If only it landed on the pump instead. Wah wah. 

If you feel so inclined, you can pray that my air out contraption will work and that my computer will turn back on when I try it tonight!

-Earlier this week, I received an email from a guy who works with Sean Lowe's marketing team asking if I would be interested in reviewing his book For the Right Reasons and writing a post that would include an excerpt from Sean. In a hot minute I felt like my blog was WAY cooler and WAY bigger than it is and had visions of becoming the Atlanta rep for the team and coordinating book signings and speaking arrangements for his visit and how Matt and I would naturally become besties with him and Catherine once we all met. Oh and I forwarded the email on to Matt and a friend about three seconds after I finished reading it. And both fittingly made a super big deal about it which only made my cool factor go up even higher than it already was. Love them. ...So at this very moment, the book is on the way, unless the whole thing is some sort of crazy scam, in which case I already have great material for next month's confessions.


Alright y'all, I'm kind of cringing at some of the things I just put out there, so don't leave me hanging here alone! Write your own Mid-Month confessions and share them by linking up below this post (remember, one entry will automatically show up on both of our blogs). We'd also love for you to link back here by using the button below somewhere in your post. Just copy the code underneath the image and paste it in the HTML of your blog post.
MID MONTH CONFESSION

Big thanks to Tricia Nae for the banner and button design! 

And don't forget to stop by E's blog to check out her confessions- she is hilarious!- and find a new friend or two from the links below!

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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Rigatoni alla Vodka

This is my absolute favorite sauce. It's not quite as quick and easy as most recipes I post, but it is SO worth the little extra time it takes!

And side note, I'm having to work on Matt's computer since I poured water over my keyboard two days ago (praying the air-out trick I'm doing right now will work!!), so my better pictures are in the iphoto library on my computer while the ones in this post are from my phone. Really praying I can get it to work again because working on a non-mac computer after using a mac for so long is driving me crazy! okay... vent over. :)

On to the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

1T olive oil
2T butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet onion, diced
2 cups vodka
2 cups chicken stock
2- 28oz cans whole tomatoes (I use Nina's San Marzano from Costco)
1 pound rigatoni
1 cup heavy cream
20 leaves fresh basil, chiffonade
2tsp sugar
1tsp salt
I also add the end piece of a block of Locatelli parmesan while the Vodka reduces- if you don't have this, add 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan when you add the basil.

DIRECTIONS:

Sauté onions in butter and olive oil until onions are clear (about 5-7 minutes). Add garlic and simmer for 2 more minutes, stirring the entire time so the garlic doesn't burn. 

Add vodka (all of the alcohol will cook out- this is a family-friendly meal!) and the end of the parmesan block (if you're using shredded parm, wait to add that at the end). Simmer on low-medium heat until Vodka is reduced by half (about 5-7 minutes), making sure to move the parmesan block around so that it doesn't stick to the pan. 

Add tomatoes, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil (if you're using something other than San Marzano tomatoes, add a small pinch of baking soda after the tomatoes have boil to reduce acidity), lower heat so that the tomatoes simmer but don't boil, and cover with a lid for 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes, remove lid and mash the whole tomatoes with a potato masher (looks like this or this) or fork until they are all crushed (if this doesn't happen easily, cover for 2-3 more minutes... and watch your clothes! This part can be messy.

Add stock. Allow to simmer for 3-5 minutes so that it reduces slightly. 

Add heavy cream and basil. If using shredded parmesan, add that here. 

Season with additional salt, pepper or sugar if needed.



Cook 1 pound of rigatoni to al dente, drain, plate, and cover with sauce and shredded parmesan for garnish.

This amount of sauce will easily cover 1.5lbs of pasta if you're cooking for a larger group. I like to keep the pasta and sauce leftovers separate so that the pasta doesn't get mushy, but if you're serving the entire sauce in one night, you can add the rigatoni back to the pan and pour the sauce over it to mix before serving.


This is delicious as a side to chicken or fish like I did here:

Or on it's own if you're a pasta lover like me. :)


Don't forget to join us TOMORROW for our first Mid-Month Confessions link-up! The posts will go live at 8am EST. And remember, if you don't have a blog, you can still share your confessions in the comments section! Can't wait to laugh together at our less-than-perfect moments this month. 

See you then!

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    Tuesday, January 13, 2015

    Ryan's First Food and Thoughts on Baby Led Weaning


    Ryan has been showing a lot of interest in our food lately so we had talked about what we would give him to try as his first food. I had a friend send me an amazing list of websites about introducing solids, and she also shared her own personal food journal on what she gave her son and the order in which she introduced new foods. Her resources were SO helpful!

    Also, a few weeks ago, I gave Ryan a cold raw carrot to gnaw on to help his teething gums. He seemed to really like chewing on it and even ate some of the shavings he sawed off with his two little bottom teeth!

    I had posted this picture on Instagram and jokingly said that we were skipping rice cereal and going straight for raw carrots. But then the more I thought about it and saw how much he was eyeing the foods that we were eating, I thought he really might like feeding himself whole foods rather than a mashed up version of the same thing.

    That's when I learned about a philosophy called Baby Led Weaning (weaning referring to the introduction of foods, not the end of nursing), that basically follows that exact idea. Babies start solids when they are showing interest in eating and learn to feed themselves whole foods with their hands.

    As with most parenting decisions, I feel like introducing food is such a personal choice with a million different "right" ways to do it. We just went with what felt right for us. We're not necessarily "following" BLW or any particular feeding philosophy, we're just having fun with the process and not worrying too much about the "hows"- how much, how often, how long... We just want to enjoy this new stage with him and hope to help him love a variety of different foods in the process.

    We decided to give him an apple first because we were cutting one up for ourselves and thought he might like to try it. (I had also read to begin with light-colored foods- specifically yellows and oranges- and then move to darker colors.) It was so fun to watch him explore the apple and figure out how to get it to stay in his mouth. He liked biting on it and naturally spit out the pieces that were too big for him, so I never really had a moment of feeling nervous about him choking on any part of it. He also figured out that he could get juice out of it and starting sucking on it for a while! It was a pretty sweet and fun moment for us as his parents watching him figure out how to eat food for the first time.

    I'll be honest and say a big reason for not pushing a specific routine with solids is the convenience of breastfeeding. Our routines are pretty simple right now! He ate a chunk of an apple on Sunday and didn't eat anything aside from milk yesterday. Tomorrow we may try apple again or test out a sweet potato or banana. We're looking forward to introducing him to lots of different foods and hope they all go over as well as the apple did!



    Did your kiddos have any foods they loved?! And did you find that a certain style of introducing solids worked better than another? I'd be interested to hear what worked for your kids since we're just now jumping in, so any thoughts and/or ideas are much appreciated!

    Also, if you're not entirely comfortable with trying the BLW method, here is a great resource for various homemade, pureed foods your little one is sure to love! Click here to check it out. 

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    Monday, January 12, 2015

    Mid-Month Confessions Coming on Thursday!


    Just a quick reminder to save the date for the first Mid-Month Confessions Blog Hop on Thursday, January 15th!
    Simply write your own blog post sharing your “less than perfect” moments from the last month and then share your link on here or at Teaching Sam & Scout that morning.  (Link-up will go live about 8AM on both blogs.) This is a perfect opportunity to meet some virtual friends who also have messy houses, dirty clothes, and an ability to laugh at themselves despite it all.  (Don’t have a blog? You can still participate by sharing your confessions in the comments!)
    MID MONTH CONFESSION

    Here’s a cute little button (designed by the wonderful Tricia Nae) you can use in your post if you want. (To grab it, just copy the code below the image and paste it into the html of your blog post. Only the image will show up in your post, and it will link directly back to the Mid-Month Confessions posts on my blog!
    Also, if you missed it, I shared an interview with Elizabeth late Friday afternoon that you can check out here (and she shared one with me here), and on Saturday I posted a list of Top Ten Children's Books for The Earliest Readers that you can check out here. I've loved reading your suggestions in the comments of that post and on Facebook! It sounds like there are a number of new books we need to read. Thanks for the ideas!

    Can't wait to link up with everyone on Thursday. My one piece of advice for the confessions is to not over-think it. Your post can be two sentences long and might be just what us other mama's and working women need to hear! The idea is just to put it out there and not worry about being perfect. See you then!
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