Summer is cooking

I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen over the past week. 

I tried to make my mom a birthday cake early last week, but I think the frosting I made was too heavy for the very light, springy cake, and it fell in on itself. We still ate it, though; it was tasty and extremely sweet.

Later, I made steamed buns for the first time. It was a Hawaiian take on them, filled with ground beef that had been sautéed with onions and seasoned with five-spice, hoisin, and soy sauce. They were ugly, due to my inability to shape the dough properly, but they were stinking delicious. We still have a bunch because I made a double recipe. I think steamed buns are something I could eat almost every day and not get tired of it.

We recently re-subscribed to Imperfect Foods, taking a break from eMeals for a bit. I am liking it because instead of picking the same types of meals (vegetarian, heavy on the Asian and Latin influences), I'm getting ingredients that I then figure out what to do with. 

Later in the week, I cooked the pork chops they sent, and made a big batch of purple mashed potatoes. We also had some mushroom ravioli with a lovely spinach Alfredo sauce.

This has nothing to do with our grocery delivery, but the past couple of days, I've made yak chews. I've been looking at them ever since we decided to get a dog, but they're so expensive. I found a recipe online, made them. Twice. The first time, I guess I didn't use enough acid so I was able to run the milk through a second time and did a second batch! Now we have whey left over that I'm trying to give to my neighbors who have chickens, if I can catch them at home.

If I ever do decide to purchase yak chews at the store, I'm going to buy these from Yak-9. They're local!

We finished paying for our dog yesterday, and within a couple of hours, got a notice to set an appointment for pick-up. We're scheduled for Sunday, August 8! 

They're getting so big! This is actually two litters together. Ours start coming home next weekend, then the others a week later. (Luke is the mostly-white dog with some brindle spots and a blue collar, sitting right by the big old bucket, watching his bro (or sis) try to chew the dog fence.)

This week, Mal and I finally made it to a different homeschool meetup than the one we usually attend. He met a couple of kids who played the same way he does, and as we left, he told me, "I had the time of my life!"

We met at Casa Costa in Old Leander, where James and I went a couple of years ago (the pandemic makes the passage of time so weird), and it was really good. This time, I got Portuguese fries, which I highly recommend, if they're the special when you visit.

The next day, we went swimming with the group we frequent, and Mal loved the pool so much that he just went back with James. I still have a bit of a sunburn so didn't want to re-expose myself yet.

Mal slept with James two nights this week. The first night, he kept having to use the restroom (his doctor says this is normal, just an immature bladder) and decided he'd rather be in a bedroom where the bathroom is in the same space, because he was scared of running five feet through the living room to get to the well-lit bathroom in the front of the house. The next time, he just decided he wanted to sleep in there. I slept GREAT both nights! 

It's about three years late, but Mal might finally be transitioning to his dad as the "favorite" parent. I don't mind that at all. It's been a good run, and I'm more than willing to share the title with someone else for a few years.

Some More Changes (We're Trying!), and Spring Cleaning?

This morning, I was trying to find the Ball jar seal toppers that I knew we had in our kitchen. This resulted in not only eventually finding the lids, but also in cleaning out one drawer and two cabinets, doing a load of laundry, and doing a load of dishes. I'm a little post-workout-sore from the bending and reaching and moving and whatnot.

I think I'm in... fall cleaning mode? Is that a thing? During the past week or so, I've cleaned out my side of the closet, donating 6 bags of clothes that I didn't ABSOLUTELY love (and, yeah, I know I don't need that many clothes, let alone that many excess clothes); moved a bunch of stuff from James's office under the house and straightened and cleaned in there (it's pretty tidy for what it is, but you're not allowed to judge my house-keeping by it please); I want to get to the storage shed (again); and then today, I got a lot of stuff done!

It seems like it's finally "cooled down" (highs in the 80s instead of 90s or low 100s) enough that I have energy to do more than the normal "sweep, wipe, wash" routine that I can't avoid regardless of temperature.

So... this morning I was looking for the jar lids because it occurred to me the other day that I could make split pea soup, which is one of D's staples, for significantly cheaper than the Progresso I've been buying. Those cans are typically between $1.80 and $3.00, depending on the store. Meanwhile, a bag of dried split peas is $.80 at the most expensive local store; I used 2 onions that probably cost around $3, and then I already had spices, salt, and a bit of oil. In the end, I only had 4 servings, so it was only about 1/3 the cost of buying from the store. But I'll be able to make 6 servings, probably, when we have an immersion blender. I lost a bit from transferring the mixture to a blender, then to a bowl, then back to the pot... and then when I realized it was a little "crunchy," I moved it to the Instant Pot. But it was after I'd added milk, so some solidified at the bottom of the pot, and I didn't try to mix it into the soup in case it tasted burnt. Lesson learned: Get an immersion blender, do the whole thing in the Instant Pot, and... that'll make it a lot cheaper.

Also, it's vegetarian, which the Progresso soup is not. I like the ham flavor, and I think D does, but this stuff is good, too. We're taking further steps to move our diet more toward plant-based. James and I both like vegetarian food and often eat vegetarian or vegan dishes when we eat out. D has been more resistant to this in the past, but with our having birds has stopped eating fowl (which is in SO MUCH STUFF... like even pepperoni Bagel Bites and Pizza Rolls!!). And I think I mentioned trying to eat less beef just because of how environmentally exhausting it is to raise cattle for meat. We'd been getting most of our meat from pigs, and even then, I was only cooking meat about 3 times a week. We've been having fish about once every couple of weeks. I know that needs to come up. And D mentioned that pork isn't a favorite, so...

We switched our eMeals from diabetic back to vegetarian. We tried it and 2/3 of us loved it a year or two ago. I've since honed in to the fact that D doesn't like peppers of any kind (like me! though I'm able to eat small bits of bell pepper cooked into dishes), tomatoes, or cucumber. Actually, D doesn't like lettuce, either. Basically salad stuff. Spinach cooked into dishes seems to be okay. I'll try to choose our meals wisely to avoid these things and cook dishes we'll all enjoy.

Meanwhile, Mal has narrowed down the pool of foods he will eat to: chicken nuggets, corn dogs, French fries, apples, ice cream, candy, mashed potatoes, watermelon, cheese pizza, cupcakes, ham and cheese sandwiches, boxed macaroni and cheese, butter noodles, and the white part of a boiled egg. How is he still alive? I don't know. He used to eat a wider variety of foods, though still not a whole lot. And he's committed to only eating foods he's eaten before, so dropping things like broccoli and grapes and scrambled eggs makes it very difficult to make sure he's getting the proper nutrition. We're back on vitamins after having stopped at some point in the past when I felt he was probably getting 'most everything he needed. Sigh.

On the upside with Mal, he has started letting us use toothpaste with fluoride! Given his sensitivities (which are FAR more extreme at his age than D's were at this age), that was a hard sell! But a couple of months ago, I noticed a grey spot on one of his non-capped molars. Double sigh. However, we've kept at it and after a while, it went back to white. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow we have someone coming out to give me an estimate on replacing our windows. We do not have the money to do this, but we're also losing a lot of climate controlled air from our craptastic windows. Just to satisfy our curiosity and perhaps develop a savings strategy, we're going to see what we might be looking at. Man, trying to be energy-wise is super expensive!

Okay, idiots. That's it for today. Thanks for reading! And drop me an email if you'd like, since as far as I can tell, the comments still aren't working. My email address is firstname.lastname@hotmail.com, except, you know, with my name. Au revoir!

House (Not) Hunting

Our lease just renewed last month. We have at least one more year at the Nuthaus, and because we're such good tenants, the landlords raised our rent "only" 5% rather than the standard 10%. Well, gosh, thanks, gracious masters. The fact is that they raised the rent at the house on the other end of the lot 20% when the previous tenants moved out, and I know ours is going to increase next year, too. According to this report, the average PER-BEDROOM rent in our ZIP code is $1161. We are NOT paying that much for our three-bedroom, and that rate includes both some student housing (which seems to be about on target with this, if a kid wants to rent a one-bedroom apartment; if they go with a three-bedroom, they can usually get that for about $900 per month for their one bedroom) and the condos downtown, which are all high-end. Here's a snapshot of the ZIP on Zillow. It actually makes that rate look on the lower end.

So, although we're not "house-hunting" and in no position to move now (between the baby and the legal commitment to the house and the fact that it's so hot, I get exhausted watching our across-the-street apartment neighbors moving in and out), I do keep an eye out on Zillow and Redfin to track real estate trends. There have been a couple of interesting homes that have come up, including a neat elevated house in Lago Vista, north of "Lake" Travis, which has been reduced in price over $50,000 since I started looking at it a couple of months ago. But as much as we love the house, until James can work from home, it's not a great option; ten hours of his time per week is too much to pay, even if the mortgage is reasonable.

This weekend, though, we went and saw a house that James said he "liked... more than I expected to." Here is the Google Street View of the house, which is on a busy road but totally fenced in.

We got to the house a little early; it's only 3 miles from where we live right now. So we drove around the neighborhood and found it to be charming. The houses were built in the late 1940s, so it's very established. Most of the streets are tree-covered, perfect for biking and walking.

There has been an annual 4th of July parade and block party in this neighborhood, which is Austin's oldest HOA, for more than 55 years. In addition to that, it's directly adjacent to a new development that is very popular (more expensive) and growing rapidly.

In fact, this homeowner sold 600 square feet at the back of her lot to the developers so that they could build a pathway to connect this older neighborhood to their hike/bike trail.

Between this house, which is at the terminus of the neighborhood, and the new development is the awesome park where we had Daphne's 11th birthday party.

Behind that is a kids' museum, and in front of it is a food trailer court. The house itself is one mile from a newly-refurbished swimming pool that has slides and a beach entry. Also, the house is only a couple of blocks from the democratic school I've been obsessively investigating for the past few weeks. As much as I'd love Daphne to go there, she's not interested right now... but it might be a good fit for Rooby. The house is no further from James' work than where we live now.

The house is 67 years old, cinder block and stucco construction. It was originally a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home and there has been an add-on, so it's 3 bedrooms now. There is also a mud room that they recently expanded. It is where the washer and dryer are, and it's not air conditioned, which might be a little sticky but will save money. They just put in 14 inches of insulation in the attic.

Apparently, there was a detached 2-car garage and carport in the back of the quarter-acre lot when the current owners moved in, but it was falling apart, so the man tore it down and built an outdoor storage shed, painted to match the house. It looks like it has solar-powered lighting. The current owners also put in a patio, enlarged it, and poured a driveway most of the way to the back of the property. They've recently put in a $50,000 wrought-iron and wood fence, and James noticed that the gate in back has grape vines trailing over it.

Also, there is already a place to plant a garden. And they have a kinkajou, so there's a structure in place outside that is the perfect size/location for a chicken coop, if we decided to build one and get chickens. We don't have to clear out anything; the area's ready.

Our patio furniture would be perfect out back. We'd have to get a lawn mower, but it's really the front yard that requires attention; the back doesn't have a lot of sun-exposed grass. Here's the back of the house from about the middle of the back yard.

So, that's the good stuff. I mean, it's also close to a bunch of local restaurants and, unfortunately, chain shopping, too. And the owner said the house is "basically a bunker" because of the construction.

But here are the main things that give us pause. First of all, the owner's fiance seems to think the house will be ready to list in the next 30 days. If that's the case, we can't jump on it at this moment. The owner is retiring and she said she just wants to be out by next spring. If they do it that way, we'll be in a better position to make an offer.

And there's the biggest rub: This house is expensive. We could spend the same amount of money and get more than twice the house if we bought further out, but neither James nor I has any interest in living in the suburbs. We'd prefer farm land, but, again, the commute is an issue right now.

To go into debt for this much is frightening, and especially I dislike the idea of having the weight of that resting solely on James' shoulders, since I'm not working any more. It is at the upper end of our budget (and for us to buy the house we want, we pretty much need to spend that much), and limits his options as far as taking a gamble on a job he'd really love but that pays less than what he's making right now. Also, if we had any unexpected expenses, I'm not sure how we'd manage without going into more debt. At present, we are completely debt-free. At the same time, if we kept renting our house for 10 years, we'd have paid the asking price for this house (minus interest, of course). 

It seems pretty likely that the value of this property will increase as the development next door gets more popular and builds out. And interest rates are low enough right now that even with a VA loan and no money down, our monthly payments would be the same as what we're paying now for rent. The difference now is that if James wanted to take a different job with a lower salary, we'd just have to move when our lease elapses. No trying to sell a property.

So that's where we are right now. I'm hoping we have a few months to think about it, and to see how James likes the changes at his office, and whether this is going to be a good long-term fit for him. We really like the house. But it DOES only have one bathroom (having two bathrooms is definitely at the top of our "must haves," so that's a giant compromise). It's an old house, and those tend to have surprises fairly frequently. What a great neighborhood and location, though.

It's a conundrum, for sure...

A New Vlog Entry (the 10th!) Touring the Nursery

Here we are at 34 weeks and some change, and Rooby is on the move. Nearly constantly. Also, I am having contractions all of the time. Fortunately, the contractions aren't painful; they're not even uncomfortable. The baby's moving is usually fine, just weird, except when the movements poke up against an internal organ.

Also, the originally-named hormone relaxin is at work, and sometimes I have to stop want I'm doing to breathe through a brief ligament stretch.

Other than that, I'm as healthy as always. Normal (low) blood pressure and pulse, ease of mobility, holding chiropractic adjustments, and trying to get as much bike-riding in as possible. Exercise, except for swimming, has to happen before or after 8 AM and 8 PM, as the temperature plus humidity plus UV means daylight is out for anything but water activities, preferably indoors or at one of the cold venues like Deep Eddy or the Barton Springs pool. James and I walk together to some places on the weekend, but it's really disgusting outside.

I'm on track to gain about 25 pounds this pregnancy, which will put me at about 20 pounds less than I weighed when I gave birth to Daphne. I'm not too worried about any of that, though, because I'm feeling awesome and doing so well.

When I went to the chiropractor today, I felt bad for the other pregnant lady there. She was having a difficult time getting up and around, and breathing heavily while sitting there. I feel very fortunate, and pray that my health and well-being foreshadows positive outcomes for Rooby, despite the fact that James and I are older.

Anyhoo, here's the promised vlog update! Come look at the nursery.

After the Fact (a sort of follow-up to my last post)

As I mentioned last time, I had some pretty intense postpartum depression after Daphne was born. What I'm about to talk about, the ideas I had after the fact and the plans I have this time around, likely would not and will not avoid an incidence of the mood disorder. I just noticed some things that I could have handled better the first time around.

Over the years, people have mentioned to me my "strength." I don't know what that means, but in practice, it apparently means that people assume I am very tough, very brave, and can handle a lot on my own. Which is true, to an extent, but after Daphne was born, I was terribly lonely.

I didn't aspire to my office job I had before she was born, but the fact was that for five years of my life, I'd been around a peer group for 40 hours a week. I was happy to be home, but I had no social contacts at all. I had incorrectly assumed that after you have a baby, all of your people - friends, acquaintances, former co-workers, people from church - show up at your house, dropping in and maybe sometimes even being super pesky. Gosh, there are so many, "If you come visit me after the baby's born, here's how to do it right..." lists online, it seems like this is an epidemic.

Perhaps, in the same way I apparently put out the "don't you dare touch my belly" vibe that successfully repels all but the most intentionally obnoxious people (yes, I'm talking about you, Jennifer and Sarah), I also accidentally put out the "we just want to be alone" vibe... which was definitely not the case.

After Daphne was born, no one who was not related to me came to my house. Literally no one. I felt isolated and lost. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing or feeling, and I was unprepared for the deep sadness (wasn't this what the last months had been expectantly leading up to?) and loneliness (there's literally always a little person *right here* every moment of the day... and night!) I experienced.

Daphne's dad was out of his element, too; a first-time parent, he had no idea how to support me and was probably just trying his best to get used to his new role. When, about a week in, he walked in on my crying over Daphne, who'd just started her first bout with hiccups, his response was, "You have to pull yourself together."

Note for new dads: This is not an effective cheering strategy.

The bright spots in my days were when my pregnant sister and her almost-two-year-old daughter visited, when I got out among people in the "real world" (as opposed to my black hole of a home where all I could feel was sleep deprivation and hopelessness), and when my not-too-close friend Janice would call and share the dark thoughts she had after the birth of her only child. These were the times when I felt "normal."

Now, of course, I realize that I could have called people and asked them to come over. They would have. But I was new at the whole thing, and I wasn't used to asking for care for myself. I wasn't "strong." I was inexperienced and stupid.

I realize that part of this is that I don't have a wide circle of close friends in real life. I worry that I come across as standoffish or preoccupied, when I'm actually just socially awkward. I suck at small talk, and I do find it exhausting getting to know new people through most of the layers and walls we put up early into relationships. In fact, this weekend, I found a video that pretty much explains how I feel in most social situations:




I understand, too, that some people really want to be home for a week or three or six with "just" their core family, both to bond and to avoid germs. This is totally not me. Today, at our birthing class, the instructor mentioned that they prefer mothers to stay in bed (basically, allowing for showers and some walking around for circulation) for three days... and this sounds like a nightmare. Daphne was born at around 2 AM on a Friday; I went to church Saturday night and out to dinner on Sunday evening. And, again, those were the better moments of those first days home.

So, if you're in Austin, be prepared for me to call or text or Facebook message you and ask you to come over for an hour or so, just to see the baby and chat for a while. I will need it. And I'm old enough and wise enough now to know to ask for help. If you definitely want to be on the "call list," email me and I'll be sure to add your name with a big old star beside it.

Random thoughts on baby products

For the past few months, I've been making lists and checking them twice. It's time for me to tell you about my secret job at the North Pole.

Not really. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm a planner. I have a list of everything we'll need to have before the baby comes, stuff that can wait until after, and together James and I have an evolving action list of what needs to happen to empty out his office so that we'll have a place to put all of this stuff -- and the baby -- when it all arrives.

First of all, there are some things I'm just not getting. I'm not getting a carseat-compatible stroller. I don't walk the mall very often, and if I do, I'll use the infant carrier. Same thing for walking up the Drag or downtown. Besides, a lot of the stores and restaurants make maneuvering with the SUV strollers extremely unwieldy.

I am on the proverbial fence about a changing table. I didn't have one with Daphne, but we had carpeted floors with padding underneath, and I didn't mind plopping her down on a blanket to change her diapers. I'm still trying to figure out the wood floor situation, and, of course, keeping my eye out for a bargain in that regard.

But enough about me.

During this whole process, I have had some questions about items available for purchase. I've already given you my take on the ladies' undergarments, but purveyors of maternity lingerie aren't the only offenders in my book.

1. Why are so many clothes for newborns and older infants lightly-colored? Pastels or white with some print seems to be *the* thing. Have the manufacturers spent any time with these children? Are they aware of the messes that occur in and around these filth factories? I want some strong browns, navy blues, deep reds, dark oranges, grassy greens. I don't even care if they fade a bit in the laundry and get each other dirty. The whites usually look dingy after the second wash, anyway, PLUS they're stained with drool and whatever other gunk gets on them and never quite goes away.

How did pastels become the color palette of babydom, anyway? Vibrant colors stimulate their vision more.

2. Words. Ugh. Why are there meaningless words on almost every article of clothing made for babies? I mean, I get it if you want to express something specific. In fact, we do have a onesie already that says, "Excuse me; I believe you have my stapler." That means something. It makes James and me laugh. If you don't have context, let me Google that for you.

So I get things like "Daddy's Little Girl" or pop culture references or quotes from famous Renaissance poets. But the words "Away We Go!" with a picture of a truck, or "Let's Play!" or "Cute Playful Pal" with a picture of a dog, or "I Dig You!" with a picture of a backhoe or just the random word "Cute!"... Ugh. The kid is too small to see the words herself, so it's not like you're exposing her to written language when she wears it.

Also, a lot of the wording is very gender stereotyped. Things like "Princess of the Castle" or "Yes, I'm a Diva"... can you imagine Daphne's horror if she saw pictures of herself as a baby and I'd put her in that kind of thing? (For the record: I didn't.)

3. Speaking of sexist, if the clothing has pictures of dinosaurs, vehicles of any kind (including construction equipment, space travel, trains, boats, motorcycles, and passenger cars), sports involving balls, or fish, the clothing is almost definitely for boys.

Some animals seem to transcend gender, like monkeys and dogs. Frogs and raccoon are weighted toward boys, while cats and owls and horses lean to girls. The exception here is if the horse is saddled and looks like it might be from the Wild West.

Ladybugs, fruit, mythical creatures (like mermaids and unicorns), baked goods (cupcakes, cookies, cakes, lots of sprinkles), and, of course, flowers are found pretty much exclusively on girls' clothing.

The clothes are for us, of course; the parents. So why do we buy this crap?

4. Crib sheets. Mattresses with waterproof pads on them aren't the most comfortable, so we need cotton or the newly-illustrious minky sheets to place between baby and pee-proofing, right? Why is the average price of a fitted crib sheet about $25? There are custom sheets on Etsy for upwards of $50, but even on "regular" websites like Target.com, they range from $10-40.

Again, do you know what happens to these things? They get a lot of icky fluids on them and need to be washed constantly. Because of this, I need a good two or three crib sheets. I also need them not to be pastel colored!

Someone needs to come up with a crib sheet replacement that is like the old diaper inserts that everyone uses for burp pads now. It should be cheap, dark and/or infinitely bleachable, and, oh yeah, cheap.

It looks like I might need to hit the actual stores for this thing, and I do not look forward to that. On the other hand, my postal carrier might wonder if I'm selling drugs or laundering money with all of the deliveries I'm getting right now. At least one of them knows I'm expecting, since she called me out to help her get the office chair we bought Daphne and then, upon seeing me, asked if my husband was home. Hopefully they'll straighten out my reputation through positive gossip.

____________

Those are my primary gripes, plus this is a pretty long post, so I'll stop for now. I'm not even going to go into the uni-tasker bottle heaters and stuff like that today. Yeah, it's probably coming, though...

He's just not my type

Last weekend, James and I went to Whole Earth Provision Co. to look at hammocks. In trying to decide between a full-out "matrimonial" hammock or two hammock chairs, we decided to measure our back porch to see which would fit better.

When James got the tape measure, he also measured his office, which will eventually be the nursery, so we can plan how to fit the stuff we're going to need.

The resultant measurements throw into stark relief one of the fundamental differences between James and me. If I'd measured the "nursery," my output would have been a Post-It Note that said: 11'2" x 8'5". For the porch, I would have noted that we have about ten feet of usable length (sadly, we have to use some for storage because of the lack of indoor places to stow things).

Not James. James realized in his measuring adventures that his office/the nursery is not square, so the width at the front of the room is different than the width at the back. Here is what he presented to me.

There it is. The measurements we needed, along with other measurements he took because he was there, and that's the kind of thing he does. Also, this is in inches. Which means I have mentally to convert to feet, for some reason, because that's how my frame of reference works.

My point here is that James and I are just plain different. This kind of overwhelms my pea brain. But if I'd done the measuring, it's entirely possible that I would have purchased a chair that would have been too wide to fit through the door opening.

Now I can take this schematic shopping with me (still a couple of months down the road) and know exactly what I'm dealing with.

James and I were discussing earlier this week how our strengths happen to fall in very different places, and how brilliantly this is working out for us. We seem to have all of the important bases covered, and it all falls beautifully into place. <3

Anxiety?

Last night, I had a dream that I was in this really long line at a barbecue place, and I'd ordered and was waiting to pay for and receive my food when I saw that just in front of me was James... and some lady who was like model-pretty (but almost Playboy Bunny pretty). I was furious. While they were chatting with each other, I managed to get in front of them.

The lady at the register said, "I can't pick up your food yet; it's too hot. Let me get these guys first." (Referring to James and his date.) So I motioned to James, and he looked curious then came up to the register where I was standing.

I got up in his ear and said, "So much for this being our special place, f***er. I hope you choke on your food."

Then they paid and left. I had his shaving brush, and I was trying to throw it at his head, but my arm was asleep, so all I did was toss it into the cash register, which he thought was funny.

So, there's that.

Then I had this vision of my getting pulled out of the airport security check to go through one of those backscatter scanners, and my refusing to do so. Then when I went to get the pat-down, they were frustrated that I couldn't stand the way that they wanted me to, so they manually posed me, and I screamed out in pain. At that point, I was put on a No-Fly list, and wasn't able to go on the trip.

Apparently, my "nesting," which has been focused on wanting to cook and clean, is now going into anxiety about change. Yeesh.