Just Winging It

So often, I realize that I try to overthink motherhood.  I try to read about raising babies and toddlers.  How to feed them the best foods.  How to handle tantrums.  But sometimes the best child-raising outcome is one that happens naturally.

Anna is finally potty trained!  I have been putting her on the potty in spurts of diligence off and on since she was 1.5 years old.  She is just over 2.5 years old.  So this long year of frustration over whether she was going to EVER going to go on the potty has concluded with much amazement that she simply decided one day to GET IT.  There was one morning where she went through 6 pairs of undies before 9am.  Another afternoon where she peed on my (new) couch not once but twice.  It always seemed like when I pushed she pushed back.  I tried rewards:  m&m's and marshmallows.  I tried a made up a potty song that was really not very catchy because I can't remember the tune now.  When she indicated interest in riding a school bus, I told her that only big girls who go on the potty can ride school buses.  I bribed her with the offer of taking her to the zoo if she went potty all the time.  Well, none of those things seemed to work and I did feel a little guilty for all of the bribing!  Finally, I relaxed a little.  Probably because I was exhausted of the whole issue.  I let her tell me when she had to go.  And she did, and has been dry for a month now.  Even more amazing, I thought that it would be another year of wearing pull ups at night but she has been waking up dry in her big girl underwear. 

So there is one example of how just letting things take their natural course has been effective.  I have also been pleasantly surprised with Clara's reaction to trying table foods.  I followed all the common "food rules" with Anna.  I fed her pureed veggies before fruits so that she wouldn't get hooked on the natural sweetness of fruit.  She doesn't like (many) veggies.  I never gave her samples of my ice cream and cake until her 1st birthday.  Clara has gotten the benefit of loosened "food rules," mainly because I don't want her to develop challenges with trying new foods like Anna.  So Clara gets little tastes of anything that she can gum.  She's had waffles, toast, hard boiled egg, scrambled egg, shredded cheese, string cheese, corn, peas, carrots, peaches, pears, pot roast, spaghetti, and even cake and ice cream!

So maybe part of being a good mom is overthinking each decision and worrying about whether I'm making the right one.  But I think part of learning to be a good mom is learning how to wing it.  How to let the "I'm not doing enough" and the "I have to follow the rules" go. 

Milk

For anyone who doesn't know us, we are in the milk producing business.

Our cows make the healthiest product in the world, and what other fluid can you take and make into hundreds (or thousands?) of other products that are tasty and good for you too?

I've always been unsure of how to answer people who think that humans are not made to consume milk as adults.  But I read this interesting article today that I just had to share.  I've never thought about it like this, but there is evidence that we WEREN'T able to drink milk as adults, but our genes have changed over time to give us "lactose persistency" or "lactose tolderance."  And that happened because milk has been so good for people's health.

So enjoy a glass of milk while you read this interesting article.

50 Posts

Clara's baptism was November 4th.  She was sooo adorable in her little white dress that my mom bought for her.  Like a little doll.  The baptism was wonderful, and I really felt the support from our family for Clara's faith and life with God.  I attended Sunday school every Sunday while growing up, but the past five years have felt like coming home.  I love our little Lutheran church, and what it is coming to mean to our family.

 

 

Afterward, we had a little luncheon that I put a lot of thought into.  The food was all easy to prepare, but there are always a million and one small details that you have to remember (and feel bad about forgetting).  I was happy to use some of our farm-raised produce in the soups.  For the beef vegetable soup, stew meat from one of our steers, green beans, corn, carrots, onions from our garden; and for the potato soup, the potatoes and onions.  I ordered a cake and had some help with some fruit salads.  A vegetable and cheese tray, rolls, and a salad rounded out the soup.  We have a ton of leftovers!

 

After Church, I did some cleaning, but mostly played with my two very exhausted girls.  Did I mention that daylight savings time ended on Sunday?  I really appreciated the extra hour to get ready in the morning, but the girls woke up at normal time and were well past their noon or 1pm naptime.  But they were so tired that they couldn't close their eyes for more than half an hour, much to my dismay.  I was hoping to catch a little catnap.

 

Despite being extra tired, Clara happily sat playing with toys.  Yes, she sat.  For a long time... until she fell backward with a clunk.  I'll keep the boppy behind her just in case for another week or so until she's a little more steady. 

 

Such a simple accomplishment.  But so momentous for babies!

 

Another momentous occasion?  Over 50 posts on Ginny's Happy Family.

Clara, almost 6 months old.

Baby Food

I always think that the second child must get the short end of the stick.  Well, any child after the first.  You have more time and energy to do more for the first.

 

Let it be said that I am doing something special for Clara that I did not do for Anna.

 

I am going to make her babyfood. 

 

I'm not really sure why I thought it was so big of a job or daunting of a task when Anna was a baby.  Of course, I haven't attempted said job yet, so maybe it is going to be a lot of work.  But right now it seems like it's going to be easy.

 

Here's the plan.  I bought a kitchenaid mixer attachment which strains foods.  I've already used it a lot to make spaghetti sauce from my tomatoes.  Yummmm!

 

I am going to run large batches of veggies and fruits through it to make purees, and then freeze the puree in ice cube trays.  Each cube will be about 1 ounce of food.

 

We had a large abundance of carrots from our garden.  We actually do not happen to eat cooked carrots, and we couldn't possibly eat all of them raw (I did make some carrot cake).  So my goal was to use most of the carrots for baby food. 

 

Since Clara is still a month or two away from eating baby food, I decided to get the carrots into the freezer for now.  I can later pull them out and heat, run through my nifty kitchenaid machine, and voila! baby food to freeze! 

 

 

I washed and peeled carrots for 2 hours.  Yeah, that wasn't so much fun.

 

 

I cut the carrots into slices and blanched for 5-6 minutes.  I eventually figured out that dumping the entire pot of carrots into a strainer, and then putting the strainer right into cold water allows you to avoid having to scoop carrots out of the boiling water and into the cold water and then scooping them out again.  Ideally, I should get a large strainer that can go in my pot so that I don't have to discard the boiling water each time I blanch. 

 

I got over 20 quarts of carrots.  I am hoping it makes a decent batch or two of baby food.  I feel good about saving some money and hopefully having excellent nutrition for my little peanut.  She had better like carrots!



Of Life and Death...

This morning Eric brought 3 roosters to the Amish for slaughter.  We bought 12 baby chicks in March to raise up for eggs.  The chicks were supposed to be sorted for sex (all females) but we ended up with 4 roosters out of the bunch.  We really just want eggs, but the roosters will make good meat.  We are keeping one of them just for kicks and to hear the early morning "cock-a-doodle-doo!" that we've gotten used to.

Eric brought one of the roosters over for Anna to pet while we were loading the car for work in the morning.  She pet him and was pretty excited to see him up close.  She played with the baby chicks when they were little, but this big guy looks nothing like the fuzzy baby he started out to be.  She really enjoys listening to them crow in the morning and early afternoon (yes, I never knew that they were so vocal in the afternoon as well as the break of dawn). 

She had no idea that this guy was on his way to be slaughtered.  Even if she did know, she will be raised face to face with the cycle of life on the farm.  Calves are born, baby bulls are sent to the auction barn within a few days, and older mother cows who aren't productive anymore are sent for meat.  I've grown up knowing how all of this works, and you learn to not get attached.  Such is the life on a farm!

Anna Try It? Yumm, Mommy!

My picky eater is still picky.  But there is a bit of light to this dark cloud.  She seems to like raw vegetables and fruits.  Ok, so not all raw vegetables.  She spits out raw peas (even though they taste like candy to me!)  Here is my girl, all sweaty from running around on a hot afternoon, snacking on a raw green bean freshly picked and snapped.  It was her idea to try it, too.  She's also started eating watermelon and canteloupe.  "Juicy!" she exclaims.

Pickles Pickles Pickles, Oh My!

The past few weeks I have been trying to keep up with the abundance of our garden.  I am very tired of cucumbers and zucchini, two vegetables that ANY gardener can grow because they produce like maniacs.  I am not a huge pickle fan, but my dad loves bread and butter pickles and Eric eats sweet gherkins (little whole pickles).  We do not like relish, but I am even making relish just for fun.  I have also canned over a dozen jars of dill pickles.  I have no idea who is going to eat all of these pickles, and I will very likely be giving jars away to anyone who likes them.  Here is how I can bread and butter pickles:

This is my family's recipe for bread and butter pickles.  You can also find a ton of pickle recipes on the internet.  I recommend looking for ones approved by the USDA and Cooperative Extension, as there are some unsafe recipes floating around out there.  Here is a USDA Guide to Pickling, with recipes.

I just learned that powdered alum, a common ingredient in traditional pickle recipes because it helps to make pickles crisp, is actually toxic in amounts over 1 ounce.  I encountered alum in a dill pickle recipe given to me by a relative.  I was tempted to use it anyway, but it just isn't worth the risk.  I used pickling lime (Ball Pickle Crisp) instead.  We have not tasted the dill pickles yet to see if they are crisp, because it takes a little while for them to develop a good flavor.

Anyway, back to the bread and butters!  Cut your cucumbers, onions, and peppers.  I was crying so badly after 6 onions that I stopped there.  Anna came in and was watching me cut vegetables and she was even crying; the whole kitchen was fumigated with onion.  After my first batch I picked up a Progressive onion cutter, like this one.  I am in love!  I had way fewer tears using this handy kitchen tool.

Let the cucumbers sit under ice for 3-4 hours.  Drain.  Simmer your pickles in the vinegar/sugar/spice mixture.  The spices I use are celery seed, tumeric, and ground cloves.

Stir the pickles every now and then while simmering for 15 minutes.  It takes awhile for them to come to a simmer.  I snacked on some freshly picked blueberries while I was waiting.

I also prepared my jars and water bath canner so that everything was ready to go as soon as the 15 minutes was up.

Pack the hot pickles and pickle juice into hot, sterilized, jars.  Place the hot lids on them and screw on the bands.  Process in the hot water bath for five minutes. 

Remove the jars and place them on a wire rack to cool and enjoy the sound of jars sealing!

Red Raspberry Jam

I really enjoy picking fruit.  I mean, what could be better than being out in the sunshine picking fresh beautiful berries and bringing it home to make yummy stuff like pies and jams?  So far this year, I've picked strawberries in June, and blueberries and raspberries in July.  I drag my girls along with me, so I rarely pick for more than an hour. 

A couple of weeks ago, my dad and sister went with us to pick raspberries.  It's been a hot summer, so the berries we picked were some of the few left on the bushes.  Here is step-by-step how I made raspberry jam:

I washed the berries and put them in a pot to mash one cup at a time.  Added pectin (I buy Certo boxes) and followed the directions on the box. 

The recipe is the same on the box as it is in this You Can Can! book.  Yes, I can can, can you?

I stirred the raspberry jam, while heating.  Once it boiled, I added the sugar all at once.  Make sure you have enough sugar on hand!  This recipe took 6 cups!  I often do double batches.  You'll get diabetes just looking at 12 cups of sugar.

While your jam is "cooking," put some lids in hot water to keep warm and start your water bath canner boiling.  Clean your jars.  I often run my jars and rings in the dishwasher on sterilize and try to time it so that they are hot and ready at the right time.  You could also just boil your clean jars in the canner.

Check on the kiddos.  Yup, Clara is still sleeping.

Anna is watching cartoons...

Uh oh, Anna decided to come check out what mommy's doing.  "Mommy doing?"  Here, play with some alphabet fridge magnets.  Later, I resort to throwing canning jar rings on the floor for her to play with.  She likes to put them on her wrists and ankles.

Put your raspberry jam into the hot, sterilized jars.  Fill to the right height on the jar, according to the recipe.  Beautiful!

Get the lids out of the hot water to place on the jars.  I use a magnet stick, which came in a canning kit.  Oops, the end of it melted because it was resting against the hot canner.  Make sure you don't do that! 

Put the lids on and screw the bands tight, but no need to crank it.  Put them in the canner and process 5 minutes, according to your recipe instructions.  Make sure you time it from when the water begins to boil again.

Dishes to wash.  But before you know it, the timer goes off and your jam is processed.

Remove jars and place on a wire rack.  My favorite part is listening to the lids pop as they seal.  It is so satisfying!

Clara is still sleeping.  What a good baby!

With a little bit of work, you can put up plenty of jam for a year's worth of toast, waffles, and bagels.  Eric especially loves homemade jam.  He even gets pretty possessive over it, so I have to make extra for family and friends to give away (and sneak it to them).  Strawberry and raspberry are his favorites, but I've made peach jam, too.  Blueberries I'd rather just freeze and make pies and other desserts from.  Oh what fun!  Next time I'll post about making pickles.  Stay tuned!

Fresh From the Garden

Eric loves to plant his vegetable garden every year.  I love to eat it.  Yesterday's dinner was as follows:

Grilled chicken on a fresh-from-the-garden salad (literally picked an hour prior), green beans freshly snapped, and oven-fried zucchini sticks.  If you try the zucchini sticks, try adding some parmesan or some other seasonings/flavors.  They were pretty bland in my opinion.  Eric didn't even try them.  Otherwise, they were a snap to prepare and are pretty good.

I discovered that my picky eater prefers raw green beans to cooked.  I don't know how long I've struggled to get her to take one bite of a cooked grean bean.  She was so excited to bite into a raw green bean, and once she started she ate about 7-8 of them!  Hey, it's even healthier raw than cooked, so snack away dearie!