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!



A Happy Mess

Here are some recent ways that my life is a happy mess:

1.  Baking with a 2 year old is MESSY.  I still have grated carrots on my kitchen floor from yesteday's carrot cake cupcake baking session.
2.  Pink Eye Can Happen to You!  Yes, I caught pink eye.  I have no idea from where, but the kiddos didn't get it!  I am luckily on the mend...
3.  Diaper Bag Messes.  I picked up my girls from my mother in law's house the other day.  She told me that she cleaned out the bottom of my diaper bag.  I was extremely grateful, but also slightly embarressed because I know how dirty it was.  Think broken cheerios, leaked milk, squished fruit snacks, and crushed crayons messy.  Thanks Mom!
4.  No Shoes?  I have lost Anna's gym shoes, which I'm not sure would even fit her right now.  She has been wearing sandles all summer, which are great because she can take them off and on herself.  This morning the temp dropped to 45 degrees, so she rocked the socks and sandles look.  I really need to get to the mall and get the poor girl some warm kicks!
5.  Mixed DVD's.  Anna knows how to open the tv stand and remove dvds from their cases.  She even sometimes successfully accomplishes loading said dvds into the dvd player.  Usually she calls me over to help her, but not before she has gotten into many of the dvd cases, moved the discs from case to case, and scratched a few up.  Life is a box of chocolates- or a dvd case in my house- you never know what you're going to get!
6.  P.J.'s every day.  More often than not, Clara goes to the sitter's with her pajamas on.  On a baby, who cares, right?  It cuts down on laundry for sure, and it's a lot less work in the morning to not have to pick an outfit out.  I spent what seems like hours dressing Anna in the cutest things.  Poor Clara! 

Anna's First Sleepover

Anna had her first sleepover this past weekend.  Her cousin, Abby, came to spend the night.  Abby, who is 4, wanted to spend the night at our house before she started pre-school this week.  So on Friday night Abby arrived at dinner time.  The girls had a blast playing before bedtime and taking a bath together.  Anna mimics everything her older cousin does, which is pretty cute.  At bedtime, they settled down in Anna's twin-sized bed.  Abby had to get up once to use the potty and to get a drink of water, but once they fell asleep they slept well.  Until Abby woke up at 5:30am when the rooster started crowing.  She isn't used to the farm sounds like we are, and once up, neither one could settle back to sleep.

 

They watched cartoons at the crack of dawn and shared peanut-butter cheerios.  Once they shook off their drowsiness, they played hard all morning.  Lots of giggles.  It was a lot of fun and I feel like this was one of those "first" occasions to remember.



A Corn Binder

 

If you don't know my husband, he's an old fashioned kind of guy.  He likes old wooden clogs from Sweden, hangs original framed paintings of his ancestors on our walls, and sometimes pulls out his great-grandfather's pipe just to have it between his teeth (not to smoke). He also has two great big Belgian draft horses named Jerry and Digger that he occasionally uses for field work.

 

The dog, Sadie, likes to make sure everyone is behaving.  She sat in front of Jerry and Digger just in case they decided to take off.



 

These boys are gentle giants.  I feel fairly comfortable letting Anna be around them.  You can never be too careful, though.  One kick could knock you out.

 

After Eric's first pass at our two rows of corn in our garden, he had to pause to figure out why it wasn't tying the bundles of corn.  The corn runs through the binder and at intervals it is supposed to make a bundle and tie a string around it.  It was bundling, but wasn't releasing any string.  Anna watched her dad work, but was eventually impatient for a ride.

 

So Eric took Anna for a little ride and did the last row.  We now have several bundles of corn, which he leaned up into 3 "shocks" of corn stalks.

 

Afterward, we relaxed in the barn.  Anna and Daddy had their drinks of choice- pepsi and milk.  Anna says, "cheers, Daddy."

 

Almost 4 Months Old

 

The past 4 months have really flown by.  I feel like I've been back to work for forever, but when I think about how much has happened this year I realize how quickly time escapes.  Children grow too quickly.  Speaking of time flying, my poor mom made me burst into tears this past weekend.  All she asked was if I would be sending Anna to pre-school next year:  at 3 years old.  I had no idea they could go to pre-school so young!  And even if we didn't send her that young, the fact that she could go at 4, which once seemed far away, now seems right around the corner.  I literally had tears running down my face immediately. 

 

On a happier note, Clara has found her voice.  She is such a little talker.  I tried taking a video but it really doesn't compare to a live rendition.  Anyway, here is a 2.5 minute video of her "talking."

 

 

She's getting stronger every day.  I was amazed at how well she could hold herself up while on her tummy. 

 

 

Pretty soon she will be rampaging through a long list of firsts- first tooth, first foods, first crawl, and first steps.  Oh first year, slow down!



Fun on the Farm!

 

Anna has so much fun going to the barn to visit the animals.  I told her, let's get your bibs on like daddy and go to the barn!  She replies, "Look mommy, I'm a farmer, like daddy!"

 

Sweet Corn

Last year we bought our corn from a local farmer, but this year we planted two rows out in our garden.  Eric says that the corn required the least amount of work on his part to grow.  He took one drive through with the corn planter and the plants grow so fast that they quickly shade out any weeds. 

So into my freezer goes many dozens of ears of corn.  I had intentions of keeping track of how many dozen ears, but it gets too difficult to remember as you're juggling blanching, cooling, cutting, and packing.  Plus mommy duties.  I figure I've got about 40+ half-quarts frozen and 15 pint-sized jars of corn.  I think we're set for the year.

I think I husked corn for a year...

I used this large pot to blanch the corn for 5-6 minutes.  Later I switched to a smaller pot, as I figured out that I can't quite reach the corn that sinks to the bottom with my tongs.  After getting my fingers in the hot boiling water several times I figured many more blanching sessions was worth saving my hands.

I discovered that this was the easiest set-up:  one side of the sink I cleaned really well and filled with cold water.  In the other bay I put a large bowl to cut the corn into.  My stove is directly across from the sink (open the oven door and you almost hit the sink counter), so it was very easy to throw the ears from hot water to cold.

I placed a regular bowl in the bottom of the larger bowl to set the ear of corn on.

I used an electric knife.  I found that this really made the job quicker and easier and a little more fun.  I've hardly used my electric knife.  Maybe annually to cut a ham or turkey.  So I felt like I was getting some value out of it.

Repeat many times.  The blanching time allows you to work in between on cutting or packing.  Or keep an eye on the kids.  I really really wish I had that open concept house where I can see the girls at all times.  Instead, I run from kitchen to living room every 5 minutes.  (I have this fear that Anna is going to drop a toy on Clara's head one day soon). 

I mostly froze our corn, because I think it turns out well that way.  I did give canning it a try, but we haven't tasted it yet so I can't say whether I'll do it again next year. 

Yummy!

Little Clara

Little Clara turned three months old on August 8th.  She is really growing and changing every day.  This week she discovered her thumb.  Anna was a pacifier baby, and I kept trying pacifiers with Clara but she usually spit it back out or sucked for a few minutes at the most.  The other night when I put her to bed, in went her thumb and she instantly closed her eyes and fell asleep.  I knew at that moment that she was going to suck her thumb. 

From that night on she has been sleeping through the night, 10 hours.  I'll take it.  Eventually we will have to think about ways to get her to stop sucking her thumb, but for now I think it's pretty cute.

Feeding the Calves!

Anna was so cute feeding the calves the other day that I had to run back to the house to get my camera.  Our calves are housed outdoors in huts.  This works really well for calves because they prefer to be outdoors with plenty of ventilation, light, and cool air.  They even do well in the winter, although we do put tarps up to shelter them better from the wind. 

Anna spent about half an hour just moving grain buckets from one calf to the other.  Some were heavier than others, which she found challenging.  Sometimes she stacked three buckets together, and sometimes she distributed one to each calf.

Move it here...

Move it there...

Oops, this one needs a bucket, too!

She also enjoyed identifying the colors of the buckets.

She says, "Yay, Anna feedin' the calves!"

The calves were curious about what was going on.

Look how cute her butt is all muddy.  She fell down a little incline.  It had been raining for a couple of days off and on, so her new little pink boots were getting broken in well.

Ta-Da!

Little Corn Husker

Our sweet corn from the garden is finally ready (August 12) and we were excited to taste it.  I made Anna work for her supper.  Here is a video of her determined to husk that ear of corn.  She husks corn like she unwraps presents.  Slowly and methodically.

Our Girls

Girls are so much fun!

I enjoy saying, "how are my girls?" when I pick them up after a day of work.  I enjoy dresses, and pink and purple, and I'm really looking forward to doing girly things like prom dress shopping and make-overs.

I think they look a lot alike, with some minor differences.  Clara's eyes are still gray, whereas Anna's eyes turned deep brown within a month or two of birth (like her daddy's).  I don't think that Clara's will be bright blue, but they may be gray, or green, or hazel, or even brown eventually.

Clara always sleeps with her hands clasped by her face.  I love this picture because she looks like she is praying.

Since I've returned to work I feel like I hardly ever get to cuddle with my girls anymore.  It makes the time we have together very precious.  Clara fell asleep leaning against me.

She loves the cow-shaped mirror that hangs over her play mat and really seems interested in watching herself kick.  She's actually quite content to lay there by herself for a long time.

Anna says "cheese!"

Smiley girl!  I swear, all you have to do is look at her and she'll smile back at you.  She loves interaction!

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!