Mal's crawling!

I forgot to mention that it's official: Mal is crawling! All over the place, including off of the bed into the floor (so far, we've caught him every time). Because we don't have much space, the only places he can really practice are in his floor or on our bed. Can't wait to move... I think he'll be walking fairly soon after!

Jumbled thoughts of a tired mama

I might be wrong, but I think my son is out for a pretty good nap. I'd tried to lie him on our bed to put him to sleep in the tiniest glimmer of a hope that I'd be able to get up and get started on this beautiful Wilted Spinach and Mushroom with Bacon and Strawberries salad for dinner, but, alas, my husband was in there on a phone screen when I walked into the house with Mal screaming in fury, so overtired that he wouldn't fall asleep in the carrier on our walk. I swear, James has talked on the phone more in the past 5 weeks of job seeking than he did to me in all of the months we dated long distance.

So, I'm sitting here on the couch, typing over him. And I've thought a lot in the past few days, which I'll basically barf all over this post, in no particular order.

Sometimes, when I slow down, like I'm sitting in Mal's floor and he is doing something alone for a moment, and I can just think... I realize that I'm very, VERY tired. So, mostly, I keep moving.

Because I forget things, I've been reading through my blog from when D was Mal's age. She didn't get her first tooth until she was about the age he is now; he already has 2. She "got" waving at around 9 months, and I had totally forgotten that she didn't really nap more than 30 minutes at a time until she was about 8 or 9 months old, either. So there's hope, maybe, for this chronic case of non-sleeping! He sleeps more than half an hour, but only if I'mrighttheretouchinghim.

I had to stop reading, once I got a bit past D's first birthday, because I found myself settling into a funk. Stuff was super stressful and hard back then, and I kind of started wallowing in that as though it were my reality now, too. One of the things that keeps repeating in my brain is that I'd quoted someone as saying, about reading my blog at the time, "I can feel my brain cells dying, reading about Daphne picking her nose." At the same time, when I go back and read it, I find I'm only interested in the daily record of stuff we did. I don't really want to read about my thoughts on homeschooling or biblical doctrine or the dreams I had. I want to know what we were doing, where we were going, the funny stories about Mackenzie trying to climb into the bathtub with Hannah, or Daphne... well, picking her nose.

I don't write like that anymore. I usually only write when I think I have something to write about. Back then, I tried to capture every day, even in its monotony. If I were doing that, this would be my narrative of this day:

"Mal woke up early and in a good mood. His eyelid wasn't as swollen as I had expected, and it wasn't bruised. It was just scraped and puffy. He seemed no worse for the wear. I got him up, dressed, we hung out a while, and then I put him in the bike seat so we could check out the UT Tower playing 'Texas, Our Texas' live and in person!

"We got to the spot about 15 minutes early, so sat in the grass and enjoyed the cool, moist morning. Mal, of course, ate some leaves and grass (even though I'd brought him puffs), and a very cute long-haired blonde girl came over and told me, 'Your baby is very cute!' Well, of course.

"I was ready at 8, but thought the clock would chime first. It doesn't; it just heads into the song. So I missed the first couple of notes, but want to go back later, anyway, when the day isn't so overcast. It was neat to stand there and hear it, right between the tower and the Capitol.

"After that, we came back home, had breakfast, and Mal took his morning nap.

"I was super excited, because Daphne and I had a date to go to the mall for free stuff. When she got up, we headed over to Barton Square Mall and hit the Godiva booth first. They had their Easter candy on sale 40% off, so I got a bag of egg truffles, and Daphne selected our loyalty club free chocolate, a strawberry truffle.

"Next, we went up to Great American Cookie to use some coupons from a book we'd bought to support a friend's kid's school. We each got a free cookie, then headed to the second GAC to use a second set of coupons.

"On the way, we stopped to look at Hot Topic, and I saw a shirt that would be perfect for my sister: 'I would have picked Ducky,' with a picture of the Duck Man.

"At the second GAC, the cashier turned and asked an older lady, 'Do we take these?' The older lady asked where I got the book. I explained it, and she said it was only for the city where it was sold. I informed her that I was told differently, and she said, 'Well, it depends. We're franchisees, so we can choose to do it or not.' In other words, you're not. But she condescended to take my coupon 'just this once.' 'What about my daughter?' She said, 'I'm really only supposed to take one coupon per person.' Um, yeah. She's a separate person. Look at her, all walking around independent of me and whatnot.

"What was weird is that when we walked away, I'm pretty sure I saw tears in D's eyes. Dude, we got cookies. We won.

"But on the way home, Mal started babbling (this was after he was crying when I first locked him in the carseat) and Daphne turned the music up on the radio. I just started crying. I told her I liked hearing his happy noises, and talked to her a little bit about how sort of difficult our outing had been... like she had only gone because she felt she had to (she kind of did) and how I wish we could have fun together. I realize she's probably exactly like I was at this age. My mom used to come home and tell us, 'I am respected and appreciated at work, then I come home and you treat me like stupid garbage.' I would roll my eyes (internally), but now I *so* get it. I miss my girl a lot. I want to enjoy the young woman I have, but she seems bound and determined to have as little of that as is humanly possible. And it hurts.

"It's difficult to balance my reasonable expectations as a parent, respecting her need to be herself against my fleshly feelings and need for affirmation. Blergh.

"When we got home, Mal finished the nap he'd started in the car, and I ordered pizza for a job. We ate while James finished up a job test thing he'd been working on all morning, then Mal and I went outside to sit on a blanket in the shade and figure out his new car seat. As much as I'll miss his sleeping in the old one, I keep jamming his over-hanging feet into stuff, and every time I put him in or get him out, it loosens the belt because he is SO heavy that it's difficult to lift the carrier straight up and I end up pulling it sideways instead.

"James had finished up his test by this time and came out to hang for a while, then he kept Mal company while I put the car seat in the car. It's nice! He's going to be riding in style."

So... see? I believe "blog" is short for "weblog," right? That's what I used to do. Logs. Captain's logs. Star date: every few days from the early 2000s. Sorry if you lost any brain cells to that; someday, I might be happy that I recorded it!

I'm pretty sure Deuteronomy 11:19 implies co-sleeping. It doesn't say, "When you put them to bed," does it? So maybe I am the one growing my kid God's way, Ezzos. Think on that.*

James wants to film a movie trailer for a movie "along the lines of all of the game movies that never should have been made" (think: Battleship, Mario Brothers, etc.): 2048. In his version, it is people maybe dressed in squares hooking up or trying to find each other, etc. In my version, it's like a Liam Neeson vehicle where someone appears to have been kidnapped, but they're really just walking in from the car REALLY SLOWLY because they're playing 2048.

Ooh! Wakey baby. Salad time! Oh, here's a pic.

SWING!

*No shade to people who don't co-sleep. Believe me, I wouldn't if we had any other option that included parental sleep, but we don't. This is part joke, part satire, part justification for my reality.

Best Burger EVER

I want to show you something. It's the best burger I have had in Austin, and maybe ever.

I've eaten quite a few burgers here in the ATX: Hopdoddy, Freddie's (yeah, the Fredelvis AND some of my daughter's Stuffed Frederonie), Twisted Root (the first one, before it closed, on West Campus), In N Out, Elevation Burger, P. Terry's, Phil's Ice House, etc. Although I haven't tried the burgers at Spec's at South Town Square (290 and Brodie), which a friend says has the best he'd eaten here in town. That one's on the list for "next time we're down there," fo sho.

However, this one right here... I made it! And if I'd had any idea how awesome it was going to be, I'd have made it a point to do the "food blog" thing and photograph the process. But I didn't. So you'll just have to read text absent food porn, for which I would apologize, but if you do this thing, you will be *so* happy, you'll just totally forget about the lack of snaps.

First of all, I had a bag of the pretty incredible "Traditional Italian Style" pizza dough that they sell at the Randall's deli (there's a review of it here, though the price has gone up from 2011 to $1.25 now). I took it out of the bag and separated it into 4 pieces, which I rolled somewhat imprecisely and put on a sprayed pan, baking at 350 for 17 minutes (we turned the rolls after 15 minutes, just to kind of brown the other side).

I had gotten a pound of ground turkey on closeout last week (actually, my mom bought my groceries... Thanks, Mom and Dad!), and was planning to make burgers. My husband, who, incidentally, used to work the grill at a family-owned burger and ice cream joint back in Van Buren, Arkansas, said, "I don't know why I just had this vision, but it's something about trying to cook turkey burgers. When I get hamburger, I always get the leanest possible, but with turkey, for some reason, I'm picturing it falling apart or sticking to the pan or something because it's too lean."

With that in mind, I grabbed one of the avocados we had, mushed up the whole thing, and mixed that in with the pound of ground turkey. I added garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, Kosher salt, and pepper... I would say "to taste," but I don't recommend sampling it. I guess "to your taste or preference" would be appropriate. And that was it.

As the buns were finishing up, I heated our cast-iron skillet. Then I poured about a tablespoon full of hazelnut oil (which, incidentally, I purchased on clearance at that exact same Spec's more than a year ago) on the skillet, gave it a minute to heat up, and placed the 4 patties.

We cooked the patties covered for about 5 minutes per side. Then, for good measure, I flipped them again and did 5 more minutes on the first side. When I flipped them the final time, I topped them with Colby Jack cheese slices and turned the heat off about 2 minutes in. But always keep them covered! It helps the cheese melt perfectly, too.

We prepared our buns to our liking (I had ketchup and mustard, as you can see in the picture above; James had mustard and mayo, and my daughter had ketchup and mayo), and dressed it only with spinach. Oh, and, of course, some of the caramelized cheese that had melted off of the patties. Crunchy and salty and, as my nephew says, "behdicious."

James said he really liked the pizza crust bun. It was denser than the typical hamburger bun, which stood up well to the patty. With the turkey, although it won't shrink like hamburger when you cook it, it will swell up and not be quite as wide -- as long as you don't "smash" it with a spatula/turner. And PLEASE, don't smash it! You *want* that juice inside the patty! That's the rule with all burgers always. Don't squash them!

Adding the avocado seemed to eliminate everything that makes a turkey burger less desirable - dryness, crumbling, difficulty cooking, lack of flavor - and added good fat, folic acid, and more! Try it and let me know what you think!

Review: Arturo's Underground Cafe and Bakery

One of our favorite places to eat around here is Arturo's Underground Cafe at 314 W. 17th Street. During the week, they operate as a take-out and bakery, serving sandwiches, breakfast tacos, quesadillas, and pastries. If you look on Yelp, they have very good reviews. We've never been during the week, though.

We've always gone to their weekend brunches, when the cafe is open. I can't believe I haven't written about it before, but since we did a first today, I decided to let you guys in on our secret!

The cafe is literally underground. That window in the background is just above sidewalk level. On the bar to the side, they have all of their condiments and coffee, tea, ice, etc. If you ever visit their restroom (which appears to be just past the bus sink) and see how tiny their kitchen is, you'll know why they bring as much of the cafe operations downstairs as possible!

On the weekends, they have a more limited menu than during the week, apparently. We've never had any problem with choices, whether we wanted something savory (James always does) or sweet. Or a mix. They used to have on the menu a Mexican/French toast, which was made with their cheese jalapeno bread. Although it's no longer featured, they still have the bread and they still offer French toast, so I'll bet you could talk them into it.

They do have a really good Caribbean French toast now, which is made with rum caramel and bananas. I thought I'd end up with left-overs, but no.

Today, however, due to my and my baby's feeling under the weather and our not wanting to fight the closed streets for a bike race after yesterday's Longhorn Run "fun," we ended up not going to church (and, in fact, vowing not to get in the car at all) and finally made it to Arturo's "Heathen Happy Hour."

What is Heathen Happy Hour? It's from 10-12 (church hours, typically, see?) on Sundays, and they have $3 mimosas (that's a buck off regular) or a pitcher (about four drinks) for $10, AND *FREE* chocolate chip cookies as long as they last!

I started off with a Mimosa and chocolate chip cookie (fresh out of the oven!).

The cookies were delicious and had a real "homemade" feel about them (as opposed to the cookies we get across the street, which I love, but which are very uniform in shape whereas these look like they're crafted more by hand). My husband tasted his and saved all but that bite for proper dessert, but I think he's from another planet because there was no way I could let a warm cookie cool like that.

In addition to the fun offerings on the menu, there was this:

... which is what James got. I ordered something I've had my eye on for a long time: bagel and lox. Pretty straight-forward, but we've been several places here in Austin AFTER church, and they've always already run out of lox! Since we'd gotten to Arturo's just as it was opening, I knew this was my shoo-in opportunity.

I got a plain bagel, but you can choose an "everything" if you want. It was piping hot and very tender! This made a great, fresh, satisfying sandwich.

That's James' Chupacabra (with the cookie waiting on him... weird-o) and it was fabulous! There was a lot going on, flavor-wise, but nothing overwhelmed anything else. The Hollandaise was rich and creamy, and the poached eggs were absolutely perfect. The potatoes are well-seasoned with one side nice and crunchy from the pan, and the others soft. So good.

Now we just need to try Arturo's during the week. The menu looks a little cheaper, but the portion size is also smaller. James did have left-overs from his meal.

The weekend brunch, though, we can heartily recommend. I'm not telling you to skip church, either, but if you go to a church with Saturday night services or really early/late Sunday service, the Heathen Happy Hour is a fun little kick, too. Try to get there early, as the first batch of chocolate chip cookies is apparently the best!

The price for weekend brunch is a little higher than some of the other mom/pop places around here, but the food is elevated more than some of the places around here. My bagel and lox was $8.50 and James' meal was, as you can see, $13. With two mimosas and a coffee, it was about $33. We don't eat here super often, but Arturo's is tied with Clay Pit for the walking-distance restaurant we have patronized the most in the past two years.

Austin Google fiber space and event

This morning, we braved the "traffic delays" (dead stop for half an hour) to go downtown... And, yes, we could have walked faster, but my daughter had somewhere to be at 11, so we needed to be able to get out quickly (at which time the streets were back open again).

Where did we go?

The old Austin children's museum!

...Which is now the HQ for Google fiber here in Austin. We've been meaning to go check it out, anyway, but today they had an event, Saturday Morning Cartoons, wherein they were showing stuff from Disney Junior and, allegedly, XD (which is how we got my 13-year-old to go, though they never showed any XD when we were there), and having breakfast.

The first thing I have to tell you is that about nine months ago or so, there was a similar event at a downtown hotel that was a pancake breakfast (I think affiliated with ACL or some other larger event), and they took RSVPs, but they had reached their fire-marshal-approved limit about 20 minutes before the event even started, so even though we all got there when it was supposed to begin, we were turned away. So, I was a little nervous about arriving at this thing as it began, but our road was closed down for the run, and my teen doesn't do really early mornings.

However... there were more staff there than visitors when we arrived! (5:2 before we got there.)

First, the space.

It's a big, wide-open room with various couches and poofs on which you can sit and watch the big-screen television or use your own device using Google fiber's 1 gigabit internet. (See my girl there on the left in the "Gravity Falls" pine tree trucker hat? "Gravity Falls." You know, from Disney XD. We were kinda hoping.)

There is an interactive area to compare the regular internet speeds versus Google fiber. I loved the mouse. There are a couple of other televisions streaming programming, too. 

The space is very comfortable. A lot of the couches have blankets, in case you get chilly. Nice touch.

The Star Wars cartoon actually looked pretty interesting.

Also, there are signs up in the common area that say, basically, your presence is acknowledgement and agreement that you might be photographed and your image used without compensation or further permission, so if you don't like it, you

Today, though, was special. In addition to the displays, wi-fi, and complimentary copies of the NY Times newspaper, they provided...

... breakfast! Including...

...a doughnut bar! It included chocolate, glazed, blueberry, and cinnamon doughnut holes as well as scones. They had chocolate syrup, vanilla icing, maple syrup, sprinkles, and bacon bits for toppings!

Oh, and milk, coffee, and OJ.

I was super impressed by my idea of chocolate syrup and bacon. However, it was the cinnamon doughnut holes that were super addictive! Nonetheless, my husband ended up co-opting the choco-bacon thing, too.

If you're in the downtown area, Google fiber space is worth dropping into just to check it out. But you might as well take a gander at their website and see if anything special is going on. They have a couple of kick-off (and closing) happy hours coming up, and a tailgate party next Saturday afternoon!

Tightening the Belt (but only metaphorically)

Most of you know that I have and ADORE eMeals. If you're tired of trying to think of what to feed your family all of the time, I highly recommend it! It's healthy, easy, and they make your shopping list for you! I don't have an affiliate link, and it does me no good to tell you that, but I'm telling you... Go to Groupon and other similar sites until you find a good deal on breakfast, lunch, and dinner for six months. Save all of the menus and shopping lists. You can change dinner menus (there is only one breakfast and lunch menu) every month, so try a few and you'll end up with a variety at the end of the six months. They try to use seasonal produce a lot, so if you do it for a year, then that's even better. Also, they send out periodic special menus, like a dessert menu on Valentine's and a full meal menu for Thanksgiving and Easter.

But I digress.

Since James has been out of work, I've been doing groceries a little differently. First of all, I haven't been using Instacart (that *is* an affiliate link; use it and you save $10 on your first order AND get free delivery!), since, although it's affordable, you can't take advantage of in-store sales with their service. Instead, I've been going to Randall's and buying only what's on sale.

For instance, I'll start in the produce aisle and last week got a treat when all of the berries were on sale! Strawberries were only $1.25 and blackberries and blueberries were $2.50. I ended up putting them all together, and we've had fruit salad a couple of times this week. This coming week, my parents will be here and want to take us shopping. Personal watermelons are on sale $2.50, avocados are only $1.25, and bagged salads are $2.50, too. So we'll start there. :)

Then, I go back to the lunch meat kind of area. I start at their "ah, crap this is about to expire" stuff and can usually get a few Lunchables or Hormel Revs or whatever those protein things are that have meat, cheese, and nuts on sale half off.

After that, I hit the manager's "specials" (again: expiring) at the meat counter. I've gotten some dang good deals, and today cooked 14 drumsticks that I bought for under $2. They were delicious!

Meat for the week in hand, I think of what might complement the protein and go look at the dairy sales. There are usually at least a couple of cheeses on sale, and maybe even half off if they're expiring. Also, there are two other sales kiosks near the refrigerated stuff.

Anyway, all of that to say (I'm ready for sleep!) that I'm spending about $60-80 per trip instead of $150-180 per delivery. This will last us at least a week, sometimes longer. Plus we are still eating out a bit, but only if we have coupons or there is a special. 

It's sort of fun, and I'm having great luck just Googling stuff like "mushrooms, bacon, spinach." Ooh, stuffed mushrooms?! Yes, please! Or the other day "skillet chicken thighs" came up with this awesome creamy balsamic chicken. Tonight, I Googled "baked drumsticks" and found this, which was easy and delicious. I did all 14 of them, so we have 8 for left-overs.

Tonight, I also made biscuits with chocolate gravy, and we finished up that berry mix I mentioned before. Kind of an unmatched meal, but it worked. For lunch, I used left-over shredded chicken and beef broth from the freezer, the rest of a package of frozen mixed veggies, left-over black beans (had used half a can for something yesterday), the rest of a package of frozen onion, some frozen green beans, cumin, garlic powder, and pepper to make some awesome chicken tortilla soup.

So, we're making it work. I'll be glad when James is working again; we needs us some income! But figuring ways to make money stretch farther is also kind of fun.

Night, humans!

Our anniversary!

This week was James' and my second anniversary. We got married on April 1, James said because it'd make a good joke. I think that's only partially true. I also think that he wanted to be sure he remembered our anniversary for the rest of our lives.

We have a tradition of not doing anything "special" on holidays so they don't feel like duties, but he did actually plan a family outing and took us to The Salt Lick.

I don't know whether you've ever been to The Salt Lick, but there's typically a two-hour wait. We got there 10 minutes before they opened at 11, and we got right in (after playing on campus a bit; it is beautiful! There are even a couple of playgrounds for the kiddies) and had a magnificent feast, then were done (stuffffed) by noon!

And while that's all well and good, I wanted most to share this (understand, I'd like to share more, but the baby's only temporarily asleep in his car seat and I'm boiling eggs hoping to make them deviled soon and we need to leave for a group lunch in half an hour, so... life). It's something I've realized over the past few months, and it's the thing I appreciate most about my husband and our life together:

James loves me. He loves all of me. He loves my flaws (or tries to) and quirks and everything about me. That might be a "duh" thing for some people, but I can honestly tell you that, except for my parents, I have never had someone who absolutely and unconditionally adored me. I can't be too loud or too big or too much or too passionate about stupid things. I can't embarrass James. I never feel self-conscious around him. He makes me know I'm loved all of the time no matter what.

And he's seen me at my worst, with the back injury and again in the past few months when I've reached the end of my rope parenting a newborn. He's seen me at my worst and still looks at me like I'm the best. All of the time.

I don't worry that my skirt is too bright or weird or age-inappropriate. I am not concerned that I haven't managed to shower in two days when he leans in and rubs my leg. I'm not self-conscious about the fact that I just a few minutes ago was talking about trying to eat less to get ready for weaning but now I'm shoving a Tiffwich into my face... probably because he's the one who bought it for me! I don't feel embarrassed when I yell something in public before I really think about what's going on. Or if I get so excited that I run or skip or dance on the sidewalk.

In short, I am allowed to be me. Without fear.

Don't get me wrong: James will tell me the truth. Some of the painful things he's said to me (and, man, after two years, they're very few and far between) include: "Honey, I'd love to make you happy right now, but you're being completely irrational" and "No, sweetie, you're not a bitch. You're just bitchy sometimes." And he was right both times. The first one was harder to hear. I can't argue with the second one. Well, I really couldn't with the first, either; I wanted two things that were mutually exclusive.

BUT... He loves me. I know that he does. I don't fear losing him. I don't worry about alienating him. And I DO NOT take that for granted. The security that comes with the absolute surety that I am cared for and appreciated actually makes me MORE desirous to repay him with all of my heart and all of my life. 

I love my James. I cannot wait to see what the next two years bring. Then the next four. Then eight. Then 16. (I could go on all day; he's been playing a lot of 2048 lately, so I have the multiples down pretty good.) <3