Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Image source

To say that a baby completely changes your life is an understatement.  And anyone who says that having a baby is easy is a big liar.  It is good though.  O, so good. It challenges you and pushes all kinds of boundaries that you thought you had.  Endless reserves of patience?  Not so much.  A clean, clutter-free abode?  No longer.  Pride in the fact that you never watch TV? Ooo...look "What Not to Wear" is on again.  That makes 7 episodes this week and it's only Tuesday.  Time to blog?  Huh, that was over a month ago already.  Yikes.  So, yeah, to say that things are different at our house goes without saying.  But being a momma is good and there are lots of great moments everyday. 

One of the things that has really been challenging for me is being able to cook and bake.  I love to cook and, before baby, it was my outlet.  I'd come home from work, rest a little by curling up with a book, and then dive into the cathartic and wonderful mode of making dinner.  Unfortunately that time no longer exists.  By that point in the day, Charlotte is most often tired, fussy and overstimulated and wants nothing more that to be held close and told that it will all be okay.  Of course, I can't even count on that by that time of day.

One thing I can count on though is a nice period of time in the morning while she naps.  Which has led me to explore more slow-cooker meals.  I used to poo-poo slow cooker meals as being for lazy people.  I would say to myself, "How hard is it to take 45 minutes to cook a meal?  Seriously."  Uh, yeah.  Now I know.  The good part is that I've discovered some yummy, quick to prep, and interesting meals.  Here's what we've tried so far:

Green Chicken and Rice Soup
Buffalo Chicken Soup
Creamy Crock Pot Meatballs
Pork Roast in the Crock Pot

They were all delicious and I highly recommend it.  The Buffalo Chicken Soup was my favorite of the bunch (put blue cheese sprinkles on anything and I'm a goner) and my husband really liked the Green Chicken and Rice Soup a lot. 

Of course, people with babies aren't the only ones who use a slow cooker.  My friend Melanie uses hers a lot because it makes dinner quick and easy when she gets home from work.  Slow cookers make tender, moist perfect roasts.  They are a staple of church pot lucks. 

There's a reason for that--slow cookers make life easy!  I don't know what took me so long to figure this out...

The Ultimate Homemade Adventure

I have to say that having a baby is the ultimate homemade adventure. It has been a little bit crazy and different, but in a really good way.  Little Charlotte is now just over a week old and is kind of amazing.  She eats and sleeps like a champ, and has already surpassed her birth weight. 

Since she's been born, I've had family here to celebrate Christmas and hosted my book club Christmas party.  Both were amazing.  I loved having my family here and wished they could have stayed much longer.  As it was we were contented with a spectacular Christmas feast, including my first turkey (and the most delicious turkey recipe I've ever had!).  And while I did the menu planning it was truly a whole family affair to get it on the table.

Our holiday table included a salad with pears, dried cherries and goat cheese.  The Bourbon Roasted turkey followed with apple-cranberry stuffing, and Sweet Potato Casserole, plus a pecan pie for dessert.  The recipe for the turkey came from the November 2011 Country Living magazine, and while the recipe is not on their website any longer, some dear soul has posted the recipe here Maple Bourbon Roasted Turkey.  This is seriously the most delicious turkey I've ever had, and the gravy is spectacular (and I even normally hate gravy).

So far, being a mommy is the best homemade adventure ever.  I think Miss Charlotte and I have lots of cooking, baking and crafting ahead in our future!

Welcome to my homemade life Charlotte!

Making Merry

Even though it feels too early to me to be thinking about Christmas, I feel like this year (because of baby) I have kind of had to.  I've done a little Christmas shopping, which feels really wrong since I've always been so adamant about not starting until after Thanksgiving.  The past couple of years I have made Christmas presents, and I loved it.  It's fun for me to make them, and fun to give people handmade, one of a kind items as well.  I didn't feel like I could commit to that this year though--what if baby comes and I don't get it all done?!?!  So, I am doing store bought presents, but in order to keep up the craftiness, I have done a couple small Christmas sewing projects.

My family has the tradition of filling eat other's stockings (you get a big present and a stocking stuffer from each person).  So, when I was in high school, my mom made pretty, quilted stockings for our family.  Then, as we've added more family members with me and my sister's husbands, we've made stockings for them as well.  This year, we'll have two little babies for Christmas, so it felt right to make them stockings as well.  They really are a quick and easy project.  I drew my own pattern and then used this tutorial to figure out how to put it together.  They really only took me about 45 minutes each. 

The one on the left is for my nephew and the one on the right is for Baby B.  I just did a little big of quilting on each one, and you really only have to do it on the front of the stocking.  I did both sides on Baby B's and it actually makes the stocking a little thick and hard to get things in and out of with all the fabric layers.  Oh, well.

I also had picked up a piece of flannel after the Christmas season last year.  I don't know what I thought I'd make out of it at the time since I bought about 4 yards of fabric, but it was cheap and I tucked it away.  As I was looking through my fabric bin last Friday, I decided that the flannel with it's cheery holly and red-striped print would make really cute flannel lounge pants.  So, I made a pair for myself.   Then, because there was still fabric left over, I decided to make a little pair for Baby B as well.  I used a basic unisex pattern from Simplicity for my pants (Lounge Pant Pattern--except not the plus size pattern, since this pattern runs HUGE!  I didn't see the regular one on their website though.)  For baby's pants, I used this adorable pattern from Jackie Clark called Britches and Bloomers.  Both patterns are super easy and only took about an hour each to make (if that.)  Check 'em out:

Here's a better picture of baby's pants.  I am thinking that I may be able to make a little embellished onesie to go with them. This is the backside with it's cute pockets.