Our House in the Middle of Our Street

Today I was really in the mood to make some home-made food (this is rare for me...I'm more of a sandwhich and chips girl), and I got this new cookbook for Christmas, so I thought I'd try it out. Here's a pic: I spent a few hours roasting 2 pumpkins, carving out the flesh, and pureeing it, putting it in bags, and dating them. I also had to steam 2 yellow squash, 2 zucchinis, 1 head of cauliflower, 1 head of broccoli, 2 apples, a bag of carrots, and something else (but I can't remember). Just steaming and putting all those items in the blender is a time consuming process. Now, I have my freezer stacked with about 25 1/2 cup portions of the aforementioned fruit and veggies puree style. My first recipe was "Applesauce Muffins" and after screwing up the 'way' to mix the batter (I always put in my ingredients even before I read the directions..I'm impatient...), they turned out pretty good. Not only are they made with applesauce but also 1/2 cup of puree...

This Christmas Eve we spent time over at the Mast house with the family, but it didn't quite feel right with one of the family members gone (Kurtis is in Zambia for 2 more months). We had a great German dinner followed by a few "House" episodes (what could be better?). As the presents began to be unwrapped (or 'untied' in our household) we all noticed a rather large box waiting until the very end. In it was mom and dad's surprise--ours--a new TV! Stefan and I have joked around about it because we have never had to buy our own TV--ever! The first one I received from my mom a la upstairs, and our second was a family friend's gift to us as he got a new one and had no use for it. The little 12 inch box TV (no remote, no antenna, no nothing) has suited our family just fine for the past 3 years, and we had no intentions of getting cable or using it for any other purpose than watching a movie or two a week. However, Stefan and I got a 26inch HDTV flat-scree...

Lately, I feel as if I can't get enough of the internet. My surfing/reading has capped well over 2 hours a day...usually mid morning when Lukka is asleep and late at night--also asleep. I feel like I can read in peace and have gotten very intrigued with numerous blogs over the past few weeks. Here's a few of them (hopefully, if you're female, you were lucky enough to receive my 'mass woman' email with a LOT of websites on it, but if not....well...sorry): http://www.modestlyyours.net/ http://www.etsy.com/ http://www.radiantmag.com/ The first is founded by author Wendy Shalit, who wrote, "Girls Gone Mild" (one of my all-time favs...and you know me, I'm VERY picky when it comes to books). I am really thinking of getting this hoodie for myself (see picture).

I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver this weekend and found it to be one of the better books I've read in the past five years (other than Girls Gone Mild, by Wendy Shalit). Stefan and I came to the conclusion that we would like to buy as locally as we can, and organically as we can...we can't exactly move to a farm and grow everything ourselves, but we can reduce our footprint somehow, and this is how. Not only that, but with all the statistics in there about cows with hormone injections, and 70% poultry in our nation contaminated with bacteria (produced from CAFOs--big feed lots--the company's won't state this directly to consumers (DUH) but assume that everyone cooks their meat well enough that it 'should kill all of it'. Not to mention the fact that cows (once slaughtered and "mushed"--my technical name for it) are given to chickens and other poults as feed and then the cows get their feed of oats and chicken poop (their ...

So Lukka hasn't really gotten all THAT better yet, he still has a small temp. and is taking about a two hour nap for every hour he's awake...and sleeping completely through the night, too. He is still kinda cranky, a pit pale, but is keeping things down, so that's the best news. In other bad news, our entire family (Stefan's parents and sister) have all gotten as sick as us, now. Stefan and I both got very sick last night (feeling better, just a bit weak now) after what we thought was the mixture of never eating fast food (our bodies just aren't used to eating it!) and something bad in the Chinese food. Now we know it probably wasn't the food, but a bug the little guy's been passing around, but we still won't go near that type of food for a LONG time. At least Lukka picked a week to be sick that the weather is bad, so I wouldn't want to go out anyway. Other than feeling just a little sub-par, at least I can catch up on some reading!

the pics of him playing were taken yesterday...when he was happy instead of sick!

Yes, the title isn't a joke. This morning around 8AM we found Lukka still asleep in his crib, surrounded by a yellow mucusy-drool all around him. We didn't know what it was, but figured since he was very stuffed up, maybe it was mucus mixed with drool as it seemed he'd left his mouth open last night. Feeding #1-vomit. Great...he hasn't done this since he was about 5 weeks old. Try again, feeding #2-vomit. This goes on and on (while on the phone with a nurse), every half hour or so after I feed him for roughly 3 minutes each. Stefan goes out and gets pedialite (now 10 AM) and after only sipping less than an ounce, throws up 3 times, and its now all yellow-stomach bile. He didn't ingest anything, so we don't know what it could be. I have never felt more scared and useless as when he was in my arms, drenched (I'm drenched) and his pale, limp body is just hanging from me, unable to even follow my hand with his eyes. Of course, he has to get like this on a Sunday...

I know, I'm only on page 54...I've had a week, but I've been doing other things--making Christmas bags and tags, a stocking for Lukka (ok, if it looks a bit weird, it was my first 'go' at something other than squares...and I ran out of fabric) but just sitting on the couch I am aghast at what Barbara Kingsolver and her husband Steven Hopp has to say about our food. In an insert essay titled, "The Strange Case of Percy Schmeiser", Hopp writes, "In 2006 Congress passed the National Uniformity for Food Act, which would eliminate more than two hundred state-initiated food safety and labeling laws that differ from federal ones. Thus, the weakest consumer protections would prevail (but they're uniformly weak!). Here's a clue about who really benefits from this bill: it's endorsed by the American Frozen Food Institute, ConAgra, Cargill, Dean Foods, Hormel, and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. It's opposed by the Consumers Unio...

This little brown bodysuit is my favorite of Lukka's and I just wanted a picture of him in it. The second picture is one of the many I have of him "reading" a book! Yesterday we went tree hunting and found a nice little 4 footer, and I'm about off to decorate it and make a few Christmas bags while Lukka sleeps (or cries).