Mission of the week: Healthy Breakfasts!

Above is not breakfast obviously, its Chinese stir fry. I make the sauce in the vitamix (easy stuff like sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, corn starch) and then just toss it with veggies. Its good!

So this weeks mission is for us all to have healthy breakfasts. I have always done well with dinner and ok with lunch but have fallen short with breakfast. I always had eggs and toast and de-caf. coffee but Ness and Michael had cereal and milk. I was worried most about Michael because he eats breakfast so early and then gets no more nutrition until lunch. Sooo, after talking to a friend I decided to make him 5 broccoli quiches that I could freeze and pull out and then he toss into the toaster oven while he takes a shower. (He wont eat something microwaved). Anyways, if Sage hadnt been sleeping from 7 to 5 am (nurse then go back to bed) the quiches would have been forgotten. So this week when I was up at 5 am I would wake for Mike to wake and then remind him about his quiche. After about 3 days, he remembered on his own (yay!). Anyways, it has been successful! He likes them and I will make another batch for next week.
For Ness I switch between eggs and toast with Oatmeal (with almond butter and "real" chocolate chips..crazy I know). But he always begs for Oatmeal and Cereal. So I switch it up. Here is his on our new divided corelle plates for the boy that doesnt want his food to touch.
This week was my birthday so I made a Chocolate Chocolate cake from scratch for myself. And I am 10 because those are the candles that were already used. ;) We are still enjoying this cake by the way.

So I got THE BEST birthday present this year...New Floor!!!!!! My second best was a gift card to Ann Taylor and a date night out with my ol' husband. Third best is that Sage started MOVING AROUND THE FLOOR! He is army crawling, but moving none-the-less!
Before, this carpet was so nasty, even worse under the carpet..ugh!
After beautiful wood-ness! Its way easier to clean because we moved some furniture out. ANd look how lovely it is!
Here are some random photos for your enjoyment! Ness and Miles talking "bikes".
Daddy playing with Sage.
This boy is so darn handsome!
Look at him!
This is some fish (that mike caught) with kale, with edamame and Israeli couscous (this plate is for Ness).

:)
On other words, our church has a church garden and we are hoping to plant soon! I am excited, the church is literally 3 min. away. I am hoping to be able to feed our family from produce we grow. Fun right?

Food!

So I will now try to post our meals weekly, but these are a few from the past months that were successful. Above is Mike's favorite, its coconut chicken. Its WILDLY delicious! I just take chicken breast, cut it up, and then coat it with coconut (if its not sweetened add a bit of sugar), flour, and Tony's seasoning. Then bake. Make sure you melt some butter in the pan first, that adds to the deliciousness. And this is just some rice stir fried with various vegetables (including kale, my new fav. veggie).
This is a typical meal for Ness. He really likes his food to be "organized", the more "organized" it is the more he will eat. So these foods dont mash together, I think he ate everything on this plate. Its pineapple, grapes, cheese, bananas, and then carrots in almond butter (CHEAP at Sams) and honey.
My typical breakfast. It is a huge pain to make myself a decent breakfast, usually because I have to feed to kids too. And clean the kitchen (from my breakfast and Mikes) and get ready for the day. But when I do eat a nice breakfast I dont get hungry very fast and it def. gives me more energy. This is decaf. coffee with buttered toast (real butter) and fresh eggs.
This is another of Mike's favorites. Its roasted beets and stuffed green peppers. The peppers are just stuffed with dirty rice (ground beef, onions, seasoning, rice). And then topped with home-made bread crumbs.
This meal was actually a plesant surprise. That in the top right corner is Israeli couscous. It was REALLY good (in fact I may make some tonight), and then its just a normal salad with various veggies.

Organization 101

So I love Whole Foods, LOVE em! I dont get to go often by when I do go I spend about 20 min. in the bulk section getting tons of goodies. I usually end up with this:
This drives me insane. I usually forget half the stuff I bought and if I remember getting it I forget where it is (fridge? freezer? cabinet?). SOOOO I did this!
I bought some baby food for Sage on Amazon (subscribe and save REALLY saves!), well it was sort of gross, so I didnt continue the subscription (I make his food) but that meant I had jars! Also my mother-in-law had given us some jars. I have jars from Elderberry Syrup, Jams, Spaghetti Sauce (three organic sauces for $7!) and other various things. So now my cabinet is nice and neat! AND I know where all my stuff is.
Make sure you save your glass jars, they came come in handy for almost everything. Like the other day I made some bone broth for a soup, I made way to much, so I put it in a jar and froze it. I use jars for putting Sage's baby food in the fridge, and for taking it on the go.
Good way to save money!

Another good way..I made us some un-paper towels. It took forever to make (surger would be handy). But now if we make a sandwich we just pull out one of those (they are in a plastic bag dispenser I made).
Fun eh?

Its a new year!

(A bird! I couldnt get either of them to look at me because both were looking for a bird)

So now its 2012 and our minds are FILLED with New Years Resolutions!
Here are a few (just to humor you):
1. Learn Spanish (by Mike, so far he is doing well/Rosetta Stone)
2. Learn to play the guitar (by Mike, also doing well, practices everyday)
3. Stay within our budget, no savings! (its Jan. 15th and not looking good)
4. Get a new floor (in living room, wood, next friday!)
5. Stay within $350 a month on groceries AND eat healthily (yeah...)
6. Buy local as much as possible (started this last year)
7. Be positive
8. Keep the house clean
9. Organize all spaces that are a mess (so far we did the kitchen, laundry, my closet, shed, we have Mikes closet, Sage's closet left)
10. Sage will start sleeping 12 straight hours through the night (he is now down to 1-2 times waking)
11. Take away Ness's pacifier (ugghh)
12. Convert Ness's bed to toddler bed (double uggh)
13. Get Ness potty trained at night (not sure how this will go)
14. Read the bible every night (well it hasnt been a TOTAL bust)
15. Can I stop?

So yeah, we have been busy. Mike got me a Roomba for Christmas that is AWESOME! He cleans up almost every night, I am amazed at how much garbage he picks up, what is even more amazing is that used to be on our floor ALL the time, gross!

This little cute is now 9.5 months old. He is a total sweet heart (and look at that adorable face) but he is a stubborn little lad. And is not an "easy baby" like his big brother was. But, 9 months later, its getting better! He now has four teeth (which caused lots of pain)
This was Ness's first time to attend a friends birthday party. And what a way to start! Jack got a huge bouncy house perfect for energetic toddlers!

Daddy taking the boys "ridin on da boat" (as Ness says).
Look! We match! Momo L. got us matching shirts for Christmas!
Ness playing with his Christmas present from us. He LOVES it!

Pictures! Basket boy.
Oh yeah mama....

Swimming at Dot's house!
Mom, Im HELPING!
Swinging with Cousin Richard.




Eating outside when the weather was nice.

Ness is very proud of his "potty road". REALLY helped with potty training!

REAL Housewives

Real housewives never have time to blog! A good title for this would probably be "long time no talk" but wasnt that the last title? I HAVE to get better at this blogging thing! My mom wrote in diaries when we were young, and when we became older she allowed us to read them. There are things I read that I never want to read again in my mother's diary, but it was still cool to be able to look back. So I dont want to blog in the same way my mother did but some G rated memories might be nice.

Lately I have been thinking that someone should do a show about Really Real Housewives and hire me to be on it. Although I seriously doubt it would be as popular as the already existing "Real Housewives", but it may be interesting just the same. Like today I had 30 cents off 20 gallons of gas (thank you Winn-Dixie!) so while going to get our locally grown grass-fed organic beef meat (from a slaughter house) I tried to run all the gas out of my car so that I could get the full savings. I ended up having to stop half way to get $4 worth of gas (a little over a gallon) so that I could make it. On the way back I gunned it a few times to burn out the gas so that I could get my full 20 gallons. Well Sage (the new addition) cried about 90%/1 hour of the trip and my brain was fried. I tried to call a few friends to make my trip faster, no success, finally I got Michael on the phone as soon as Sage hears my voice he goes from whining to all out wailing. So that made my nerves even more frazzled. I knew Sage was hungry, he started getting really mad at 3 hours (from his previous feeding) 0n the dot. As I was driving I remember a funny little tidbit that Whoopie said on The View. She was saying that one of the benefits of having a child in your old age (mid 50's) was that you could take your boob like a lasso and toss it to the child. If only.... ANYWAYS, I get to the gas station, set up the gas to pumping while feeding Sage in the front seat. 10 min later the car is full, at 19.1 gallons! So close! I tried to squeeze in the full 20 gallons but gave up at 19.5 gallons. Oh well..better luck next time...

I get to my mother in laws (who so GRACIOUSLY was watching Ness) we split up the meat. I know that Ness has to poop, as he is due. But there are about 4000000 false alarms before the real thing (one of my least favorite times of the day). We get home, I start unloading the meat and Ness says he has to poop, I ignore him, he stops, he says it again, ignore, stop, says he has to poop again, this time more frantically. I see him pinching his legs together (this is a tell-tale sign) so I grab him and run to the potty as fast as I can. Of course Im not fast enough, poop starts to make it's appearance, I hold him upside down hoping it wont fall on the ground. Well hes heavier than I had estimated, his rear end hits the couch, and of course, the poop falls to the floor. And again, of course, there is Pokey, ready for a "snack". I yell at pokey, Ness is still dropping pooplets, put Ness down tell him to go to the potty, make sure Pokey stays clear of the poop.....shew! I was able to pick up the poop, no stains or residue....Ness finishes up his pee on the potty.
See? They need to hire me! Oh the "exciting" things I could bring to their show!!!

So an update? Well Sage was born a little over 6 months ago. He is a super sweet baby. He always has a smile and every time I see him I want to squeeze him. He is not as easy of a baby as Ness was, he has a stubborn streak and feels the need to have mama near him very often. He is sleeping 9 hours straight then 3ish. So one feeding, I know that that is great, but its hard to forget that at this age Ness was sleeping 12 solid hours. Both of our little boys require bedtimes though and naps in their own bed. My fault I'm sure, but this mama needs quiet time too!!

Ness has just started to really notice Sage, by notice I mean sitting on his belly and bouncing (he does have a pillow-like belly). He has started to hurt him more than I would like. Yesterday he was in time-out about 4 times before he would say he was sorry to Sage for hurting him. Then the rest of the day he kept saying he was sorry to Sage, guess he wanted to be on the safe side.

Ness is day-time potty trained and no longer wears diapers during the day (except nap time). We will tackle the night/naps much later. But now he can really only hold it for about an hour. I was taking his diaper off at naps but he would sleep an hour and then pee on himself; one hour is not enough sleep for him.

Ness also has finally started talking. Better late than never!!

So I was just distracted by a friend coming over and totally lost my train of thought.

More soon, I promise! Some pictures to hold you over? (they are in backwards order..I never remember to do them right...)
My 6 month old sunshine. Isnt he a cutie pie?
HUG him!!
Big smiles!
Family jet-ski ride (Ness- wanna ride da ka key!)
Ness is to cool for school.
Ahhh! Cuteness! His eyes are beautiful like his daddy's
Faces of Ness. Silly eyes.
Cheese head!
Sage-before haircut.
Trampoline with cousins!
Brotherly love.
Family pic.
My baby boy is 2!!! He was very excited to be sung Happy Birthday to.
Cousin in the car that our neighbors gave us.
This is how we found him one morning....dont know what he did that night...
(before potty-training was complete) At least SOMEONE was using the potty!
My sweet Sage. About 1 hour after birth.
Sage only minutes/seconds old. Best feeling in the world. Born after a very text-book 12 hour labor, no pain killers! Totally natural! I was/are pretty darn proud of myself.
Join us right back here soon! ;)