Yes, thank you, I know “this too shall pass”.  I always forget the truly difficult time of the first 8 weeks of sleep deprivation.  I know it will end and eventually this child too will sleep through the night, but I am a person who loves my sleep.  I don’t need to sleep until 11 or anything, just a simple 8 hours of continuous sleep will do.

I really am trying not to complain because I do have a healthy child and feel very blessed.  I just want to sleep longer than 1-4am.  Someday it will happen and I know it will get better but until then I apologize if I am just a bit grouchy with you or if I look a little glassy-eyed or if I have no memory of a conversation we may have had yesterday.

So good night everyone (everyone but me) sleep tight and to all of the television broadcasters out there – would you please put something else besides infomercials on at 4am?

Picture from here.

As you can see my green beans are ready!  Well, most of them anyway.  My mother-in-law picked several last week and I picked a bunch more tonight.  Is there anything better than growing your own food?  I know there are a few things better, but it is still so exciting!  I just thought I would share my new favorite green bean recipe.  As usual I don’t measure things very well.

Butter Almond Green Beans

Ingredients:

2 cups or so of Green beans, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup of Almonds

1-2 Tablespoons of Butter

Garlic Salt to taste

Boil fresh or frozen green beans for 5-7 minutes until tender.

Melt butter in a saucepan and then add the almonds and toast.  Once the almonds are toasted, add the green beans (after you drain them of course).

Saute the green beans for 2-3 minutes and add a little garlic salt.

Done and serve!

For more kitchen tips and recipes please check out  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace and I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfuly Domestic.

Okay people so I had a baby a few weeks ago.  I know you know that already.  So my son weighed 8 lbs. 1.6 oz. and when I got home I weighed myself and I had lost – 8 lbs.  Seriously, I only lost 8 lbs.  I was a tad frustrated.  Now since then I have lost about 7-8 more pounds.

But, I now need to get serious about losing the rest of the weight so for this months’ OAMC I am going to try a “diet” OAMC.  Now it is not really a diet per say but it is lower fat and calorie meals.  I need your help.  I have a list and I would like you to tell me which meals look the best because I need to narrow it down.  Also if you have a good freezer meal that is lower in fat or calories please tell me!

For this week my meal plan is from my freezer:

Burrito Pie and corn

Chicken Bombay, rice and broccoli

Teriyaki Pork chops, baked potatoes and corn

Pizza spaghetti bake and salad

Sour Cream Enchiladas and corn and rice

Homemade frozen pizza and broccoli

Homemade Pizza and salad

And here is my list of possible meals for the new OAMC:

Breakfasts:

Breakfast empanadas

Ham and Cheese Scones

Blueberry Scones

Dinners:

Hearty Lasagna

Black Bean Chicken Stew (done in the crock pot)

Cheese and Chicken Enchiladas

Bean Burritos

Crockpot Chicken Taco Meat

Diet Cola Chicken

Chicken Souvlaki

WW Chicken and Cheese Casserole

Low Carb Chicken Parmesan

Diet Coke Sloppy Joes

Easy Cheesy Lasagna

Bow Tie Casserole

WW Slow Cooker BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Desserts:

WW Chocolate Cupcakes (I know it uses a Devil’s Food Cake Mix)

Sides:

Freezer Italian Pasta Salad

For more menu plans, please visit Org Junkie.  Now I have to go feed my baby, have a great week!

Add New Post ‹ Extraordinary Ordinary Life — WordPress

We have had a lot going on these past two weeks.  We had our third child and my husband and I celebrated our ninth anniversary.  Nine years – I cannot believe we have been married that long.

Not only did I get a great husband when I married Ryan, but I also got fabulous in-laws.  My mother-in-law has come to stay with us after each of our children have been born.  She does laundry, fixes dinner and now watches the older children so that I can concentrate on my newborn.  I am so thankful for such wonderful in-laws who have honestly taught me so much and have been such a wonderful influence in my life.

My older children love the baby.  My son will wake up and ask where “his baby” is.  My daughter loves to be around him but we have to watch her pretty closely.

Big brother and Little brother

See what I mean? We gotta watch her!

Well, I cannot think of anything Finer than Family!

For more Finer Things Friday, please visit The Finer Things in Life.

I made this nursing cover before I had the baby.  I had never used a nursing cover before with my other 2 children.   I was not sure how I would like this cover, but after using it almost everyday for the last week or so I can honestly say that I love it.

I am not a fan of public nursing (for myself, I don’t mind if others do it as long as we don’t get a glimpse of the boobies), but I actually used this cover to nurse at McDonald’s today and it worked so well.  I was completely covered and I could still see the baby.

Also, I (well actually my mother-in-law) washed this cover and it still held its shape.  I did iron it because it was a little wrinkled.  If you can sew at all, I would encourage you to make this cover.  If you know someone that sews maybe you could have them make you one.  It really is a great cover that is worth trying out!  It works for me!

For more WFMW, please visit We are That Family.

It may sound weird, but fruit salad always makes me think of God. The beautiful red strawberries, the blue blueberries, the oranges, the bananas . . . when I see the colors of a fruit salad it reminds me of how awesome God is. It is truly unbelievable to me how intricately this fruit is designed. It is truly beautiful. I love it.

The way that I make fruit salad is truly simple.

I cut up different fruits – strawberries, blueberries, oranges, bananas.
I add some lemon juice to keep the cut bananas from turning brown.
I add some honey – about 2 tablespoons – depending on the amount of fruit and then I put the salad in the fridge and usually refrigerate it for an hour or so until I need it.

It is good and it is simple. You don’t need a lot of ingredients.

For more kitchen tips and recipes please check out  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace and I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfuly Domestic.

Well, I haven’t been blogging very much as you can tell.  I am just trying to adjust to the new normal.  We are doing pretty well.  I have had some pain, but nothing horrible.  I have been having a daily headache but I believe that is due to my current lack of sleep.  I am one that rarely has headaches so this is a little new for me.  Also, of all times, my one and only wisdom tooth is growing in.  So I am having weird jaw pain from that, but I am going to dentist tomorrow to get it checked out.

And yes I know, this too shall pass.  Things will be back to normal soon.  In the meantime I am so thankful that my MIL is in town to help with my other two children so I can concentrate on my new little man.

Hopefully I will be back to blogging more soon.  In the meantime I am incredibly thankful for the freezer meals that I have and for my cooking club ladies because we have been eating those meals for several days now and it has been wonderful!

We will be eating mostly from the freezer from my last cooking session:

Burrito Pie and corn

Chicken Bombay, rice and broccoli

Teriyaki Pork chops, baked potatoes and corn

Cooking Club meal

Sour Cream Enchiladas and corn and rice

Homemade frozen pizza and broccoli

Homemade Pizza and salad

For more menu ideas, please visit Org Junkie.

I am sitting here on my bed with my new little man, Caleb, laying next to me.  He is moving all around and looking and being oh so sweet and good.

I just wanted to update you all on what we have been doing the last few days (as if you didn’t know).  Yesterday was actually our first day home all together.  My son had jaundice (as did all of my children) so this time we were proactive and decided to stay in the hospital and keep the baby under the bili lights.  Fortunately the hospital we stayed at has an Inn that we were able to stay in one night for free.  Since I am breastfeeding this worked out well because I got released and Caleb had to stay.

I came downstairs every 3 hours to breastfeed.  This is another reason to be thankful because I think doing this actually has kind of put Caleb on a schedule.  He is eating really, really well.  The third is definitely easier.  I am guessing it (breastfeeding) gets easier with each child.

Anyway, Caleb had to stay in the hospital a total of four days, but he is doing wonderful now.  So last night was my first night at home since last Thursday.

I did write a very LONG birth story, but my husband prefers that I do not publish it so I said I wouldn’t (unless he changes his mind), but I will tell you just a few things.  First of all, I couldn’t have done it without my “team” which included my husband and my sister who is a nurse.  Neither one of them agreed with my decision.  They often were whispering to each other during my labor, but they both encourged me and were still supportive and they did not let me know how nuts they thought I was.

My Team!

I have to say that I have kind of long labors – 22 hours with my first, 12 with my second and 7 with my last one.  This time the pain did not get too bad until towards the end like the last two hours.  I won’t give too many details except to say I did it without anything – no IV no epidural or anything.  It wasn’t horrible although I did call my friend Heidi and kind of yell at her pretty soon after I gave birth because she has went natural with all of her kids (3 so far) and she was one of my few friends who kind of inspired me to try it.  Lindsey was another one of my friends who also went natural and also my friend Nicole.  But, if they hadn’t encouraged me I might not have ever tried it and I am glad I did.  I can say that now that it is over.

Also, it was kind of funny, but two of my friends from church also delivered their babies the same weekend that I did.  One delivered on Friday.  I delivered on Saturday and the other friend delivered on Sunday (she also went natural, but it was her first so she had an 18 hour labor).

This is turning into  a long post.  So I will try to wrap it up.  I am so thankful for so many things.  I am thankful that everything went well and that we are all healthy.  I am thankful that my other children seem to love the new baby and are not jealous.  In fact my older son sang songs to the new baby and gave him his favorite blanket and put one of his batman figures into his bassinet.  It was so cute.

My daughter just keeps wanting to steal Caleb’s pacifier.  She loves to look at him.   She is also trying to climb into everything that is the baby’s.  She climbs in his car seat, his pumpkin seat, and she also tried to climb into his bassinet (not while he was in it).  So, we are watching her closely.

I am just so thankful for the family that God has blessed me with.

Here is our newest little man.  And below is a picture of his brother taken 4 years ago:

Do we see a resemblance?

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

My friend Cristi started writing for an online paper called The Examiner.  You can find her articles here.  When she told about this on her blog I thought it was interesting so I also applied.

I am now doing some writing as a “Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner”.  If you would like to check out my first article, you can read it here.   Just ignore my photo, I really need to find a better one.