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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Time to plant potatoes



The Monday after Easter, we had absolutely beautiful weather in Seattle. It inspired Paul to clean house outside on our patio. He presured washed the everything pulled all the dead plants out of my raised garden beds and potato cans. Out patio looked beautiful ready for me to start our spring planting. Last year I didn't plant much of garden. A few flowers but no vegetables since I was expecting our first child I didn't think I would be up to doing a lot of gardening and I just wanted something pretty to look at outside.


Fast forward a few weeks. I was walking back to the car from having lunch with some of the mom's from the Next Months group that I attend with Madeleine every week at Birth and Beyond. We needed a rain break since it had started sprinkling outside and neither of us had rain coats. So we ducked into the city gardens store in Madison park. They were just starting to put out their vegetable starts and then I stumbled upon the potato starts. A couple of years ago I grew a batch of potatoes in garbage can and two years I bought two more garbage cans for that purpose, but this year I actually managed to plant the potatos. At the end of summer I'm sure we will have an abundance of red, white and blue potatoes. I'm looking forward to some very patriotic potato salad this fall.






Part of the potato planting challenge this year was that I had empty three full size garbage cans full of dirt so I could plant my potatoes in the bottom. The idea is that you put a little bit of dirt in the bottom and then place your potato starts. After the potatoes start of growing then you cover the plants with dirt until the garbage can is full of dirt and growing potatoes.




Tuesday, January 31, 2012

First bus ride

Yesterday Madeleine and took her first bus ride to down town on metro. I needed to apply for an enhanced drivers license since I'm planning a short trip across the boarder in the near future. $15 for an enhanced drivers license is a lot cheaper than renewing my passport.

It took two days of appointments and chasing down paperwork but within the next couple of weeks I should be the proud owner of an enhanced drivers license.

The picture is of Madeleine on our way home on metro today.

We have survived five months in the land of parenthood.

This coming Sunday will mark our daughter's five month birthday. It will also mark the one month anniversary of me returning to work. While I can't say that I'm in love with my job... I can say it has been a progressively good experience for everyone involved. Good father/ daughter time and good time out of the house for mommy.

I'm lucky that I have the type of job that I can "leave at work" and one that allows me to do things that I enjoy like knitting, reading and various other craft projects.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

First weekend back to work

Well DD and I had our first big separation last weekend. Last Thursday was my first official day back to work. DD and DH had some quality bonding time together. They were in a positive grove together by the end of my work weekend. DH and I are fortunate that our work schedules mesh so that we don't half to find an outside care provider for DD.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Freezer Cooking

About a month before DD was born I stumbled upon a freezer cookbook, with recipes that you prepared in bulk. One of the best recipes that my DH and I like is a basic red sauce.
Today we made the large batch which makes about 2.5 gallons of sauce. That's a lot of sauce you say but we freeze it in one quart increments which is perfect for dinner and lunch the next day. And it's cheap to make about $10 if you have all the spices on hand.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The little things

I never thought I would be so excited about being able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time...but the slept for about 7 hours last night!

At midnight my husband and I were googling information on how to help our baby sleep more at night on our smart phones and landed on the same Dr. Sears article.

We are in day one of our sleep plan. Tonight we will begin Madeleine's bed time ritual to help ease her into sleep. Ill keep you posted on our parenting journey.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Adventures in parenting...

Prior to Madeleine's arrival I dragged my husband to what seemed like a thousand child birth, infant care education classes so that we would be prepared for the arrival of our little girl. We didn't make to the last class, because unlike any other baby in our combined family histories Madeline decided she was making her debut into the world early. Two
Weeks to the day! On Labor Day.

Our birth plan went right out the window when my blood pressure wouldn't cooperate. I'm glad our birthing class instructor had taken the time to drill into our heads that we might not have the birth we had planned for and that the real goal was to have both mom and baby survive the ordeal and be healthy at the end of delivery.

I just wish the instructor had taken the time in our breast feeding class to teach the same lesson...breast milk arrives on its own schedule and it's okay to supplement with formula while you are waiting. My hospital stay would have been greatly improved.

First lesson - be flexible.

Madeleine was a tiny baby. So tiny that my dad was too nervous to hold her...my mom fixed that right away. She was only 6lbs 7oz. All the 3 - 6 month clothes that we planned on fitting right at birth were TOO big! Along with all the diapers we had stashed away... Thank goodness the hospital sent home a stash of diapers that lasted for a few days.

Next lesson: have some newborn clothes ready!