The SAHM's Wonderful Day

I was really sick last week. I couldn't do anything, and my one year old daughter was also very sick I spent all my time on the couch nursing and feebly watching my other children, allowing TV to do most of the work. Today was the first day I actually felt normal. And though I have been trying to catch up on laundry and dishes and cleaning the house, I decided to make a trip to TJ's with all my children.

Crazy, you say? Oh yes it was crazy, but for one of the first times, it was wonderful. We went to Trader Joe's to exchanged the mistakenly bought club soda for tonic water. We got some other items for dinner and such. Then we went across the street to the new Aldi, which is awesome.

The new Aldi is clean and big and has brand new carts with a new way of buckling the kids in, which is sooooo much better. It is the greatest thing ever!

Anyway I got some great stuff at Aldi including desert, and then we went home. It was the least stressful day. And someone actually asked me if my kids were all mine. This the first time it has happened. I know it annoys many of you, but I feel like I never experienced this rite of passage into the bigger families club.

The cashier looked at my four kids and said with surprise, "Are these all yours?"
"Yes, " I replied with a smile.
"Any twins?"
"Nope, they are all two years apart,"
"Wow,"
It's not really a stretch. I am 28, and I have four kids. I think next time a cashier asks me I'll say,
"Nope, I'm just borrowing these two so I don't get carded."

A tale of 2 Babkas

These are my babkas, or paskas, is what my grandmother would call them. 

My grandma grew up in communist Russia, where it was illegal to celebrate Easter. My grandma, Wiktoria Lujakyczykow, told me that only old ladies went to church. At her house they never celebrated anything, for fear they would be found out. As a result traditions were lost. My Grandma's faith was never cultivated. 

When the Germans invaded Russia they took my Grandma from her home and sent her to a work camp. I'm a little fuzzy on the details but there she met my Grandpa, a Pole,  and soon they were married and had my dad. They then went to a refugee camp in Italy, then they moved to England, and finally they came to America to join my Grandpa's cousins. 

My Grandma has a recipe for babka, that she got from a friend. I don't know where she got it from. And that recipe calls for egg yolks. I was feeling cheap and didn't want to commit that many egg yolks to a recipe. 

I was also very tired. I knew we had to have babka, so I threw the ingredients into a bread maker, and hoped for the best. Resolving, if I had time, to make it the long way also. So I made two babkas. The one on the right was made in the bread maker, the one on the left made per my grandma's instructions, but with whole eggs. 

The results, they taste the same and to me are indistinguishable from my grandmas so I call that a win.

Happy 7 year post partum

So it's been 7 years since I delivered my first born. Wow. I don't feel like my life is crazy, but that is how I describe it to people. I just finished the third birthday cake this month. I have to admit. I am proud of myself. This cake is a mix cake because i just couldn't psychology deal with one from scratch right now, and iI have yet to accomplish a good recipe. The frosting is home made buttercream.
And I sculpted the figures out of fondant. The brown bird is chocolate fondant.

Self Feeding: I didn't know there was a name for this...

My littlest girl has started solid foods. This was not at my determination. Well it was, but it wasn't. The way I grew up my mom did not use baby food. She just gave the baby little bits of whatever she was eating. I thought this was the way everyone did it. I had no idea what baby food was for.

When my first little guy was a brand new baby I asked my older, child vetted sisters, when should I start feeding him solids. They both told me around six months he would be interested in food. That's when he will start pulling it off the plate and putting it in his mouth. This is what I went with. I would often eat with him by my lap and as soon as he started grabbing food and putting it in his mouth, than I started letting him have little bits of whatever I had.

I have done this with each subsequent child. Now number four has done the same thing.  It's pretty easy. I love it. It works for my kids. It works for the way I parent. It may not be the 'scientific' way, but it is pretty natural. I believe this is how people introduced their kids to food before science got involved in child rearing. Not to say that all science is bad, I just think that when it comes to child rearing, instinct is more important than studies. We have successfully survived as a species for quite awhile, without statistics and clinical studies.

But not just that. Also the fact that science is always changing. The one day it is bad to give your kids salt. The next it is good. Then it's bad again. Then good again. Now fat is bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. But the fats like canola oil, aka rapeseed oil, which the USDA says is so good for you, turns out to be a contrived oil that is good for Canadian agriculture, not particularly good for you, http://www.naturalnews.com/034733_canola_oil_rapeseed_food_labels.html

Then the fats that were deemed evil, because they are saturated, (Boo!) like butter and Coconut oil, are actually good for you due to their high digestibility and vitamin solubility. Things that people have been eating, because they are real and not completely contrive from indigestible material, ie hydrogenated oil (http://agriculturesociety.com/politics-and-food/whats-the-truth-about-cottonseed-oil/)

My point is not that we all need to be purest to survive, or even to thrive, just that I think our ancestors knew a little bit more about raising children than science discovers. Basically it seems to me that modern 'scientists' are trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather than trying to discover new ways of feeding our kids, why don't they research why the old ways worked so well. Lets try to understand why things are the way they are not try to redefine what they are.

Steps to a Blissful Sunday

To day is Sunday. Sunday is a day of rest created by God for man. That's right God created this day of rest and worship because we need it. I know I do. The problem is as my family gets older and larger, the day has become less boring, and less restful. Now I appreciate a boring Sunday because we are now busy 2 out of four weekends a month. 

But this Sunday has the makings to be blissful. 

First I had to wake up way to early this morning, because my son received the Light of Christ medal for his cub scout uniform. The little modest ceremony took place at the 8:00 mass which meant we (husband and I go to bed at 2 am) had to get up at 6. We struggled out of bed. I struggled to get the kids ready, to go outside and warm up the car, we struggled to get there on time. We made it. We celebrated mass. We received Christ, then a blessing for our throats, and John received his award. 

Getting up early has given us the whole day to relax and reflect. We got donuts on the way home. I have dinner in a crock pot. I am simmering orange peels with cloves and cinnamon on the stove, and my house is trashed. It may never be clean again, while at least not today. 

Today I reflect on my choices and struggles. My struggle is keeping house. I stink at it, but I'd rather stink at that than at anything else. So I painfully offer my house to God today. I ask him to bless it. Bless those who dwell in it, and those who will visit it. I need today, without it my week wouldn't come close to standard. 

Catching up the over view

Thanks to my dear friend Renee, I feel inspired to blog!! But I really have been remiss in my blogging so I feel like doing a quick run down of my feelings and experiences for about the last month. We'll see where this jumbled mess of thoughts ends up.

First I have been going through some major stress, in comparison to the rest of my life. I would have to say only junior year of high school was more stressful than now, and I'm not even sure if I can really compare the two because real things, not the stress of peers and fear of being a social outcast, are what's doing me in now; however although more tangible, I guess real and tangible and not even close synonyms, more real these problems are, the more joys I have and have because of them.

I have four awesome kids that have increased the amount of love, life, and joy I experience. And these awesome people and the one in heaven, have cause me great amounts of stress, joy and sorrow. And I am pretty sure that I am a better mother now with four than I was with one. Better that I love more, I am more patient (believe it or not), and yell less (at each individual child, probably yell more on the whole). I treasure my moments with my kids more. I hope that I will be a better mother with 8 than I am with 4 and a better mother of 12 than of 8 (Shhhh don't tell anyone about the 12. I look crazy enough already).

I'm still on the stress thing... Stress caused by my weight, weight from my last baby. I just can't lose. Exercise and dieting might work, but I'd have to stick to it for more than 5 days, and I just can't.

But then I read an awesome blog by Renee, http://3acres.blogspot.com/2013/01/7-quick-takes-friday-finally.html
She talks about going paleo, well not actually paleo (which I will never!!!!! do) but giving up grains and dairy, something that I would never have considered before reading her blog. She not only gave encouragement to the person, who feels as though they would die from lack of bread and dairy (ie myself) but also tells the foods she used to cope with it. And my, my they sound good.

So now I think maybe, I should try this giving up grains and dairy thing. But then I would have to give up coffee. That sounds horrible and good at the same time. I could put coconut milk in my coffee, but my sister found out that it screws with progesterone levels. Since I have miscarried, and I could theoretically be pregnant at any time, this freaks me out a little. So to start a diet without coffee... To be suffering without both that would be a sacrifice, and forcing myself to eat meat and vegetables without cheese... Seems like a good Lenten offering.

I guess I didn't get to the overview but next time...

Celebrating St. Nicholas

It's finally here! I have been waiting for St. Nicholas day since summer! Every year I bake 1st. Initial cookies. The kids put out there shoes. I fill them with candy and put the cookies on top.

My family has a traditional sugar cookie recipe used for St. Nicholas day. This year I made cookies, filled their shoes with (chocolate) gold coins and gave them candy canes, and I made traditional Speculatius.

St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra in the 4th century. Story has it that a poor widow was with out food and money and St. Nicholas at night filled her shoe with gold coins. The candy canes recall the shepherds staff, which the bishop uses to lead Christ's "sheep". 

I'm not sure that the initial cookies have any religious associations, they are a tradition in my family. My Mormor, Swedish for grandma, made the cookies for her 13 kids, each with a different color frosting. My mom made them for me and my 6 siblings. I make them for my four little ones. I made a small cookie for the baby.

I am so happy to have a small respite from Advent, even though we are only a few days in.