J and J week three

It's all about the side dishes this week! (And one dessert that I am super excited about)! 

• Cheesy Picante Potatoes  

1 can Cheddar Cheese soup (10 3/4 ounces)

1/2 C. Picante Sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder

4 C. cubbed cooked potatoes

Paprika

cilantro

Add all ingredients except potatoes and cilantro to a skillet or saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes. Top with cilantro. 

• Broth Simmered Rice

1 can (10 1/2 ounces_ Chicken broth

3/4 C. water

2 C. uncooked rce

•  Cheddar Broccoli Bake

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1/2 C. milk

pepper

4 C. broccoli

1 1/3 C. french fried onions

mix all ingredients except onions. pour into a 1 1/2 qt baking dish. Top with onions. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

• Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake. (I might have to keep this one a secret. Maybe sell it to the highest bidder).

"Whoever makes a Garden has oh, so many friends."

I went to the library once and checked out many books on gardening and have been enjoying a garden for the past three years now. I love being in my garden and watching things grow. I enjoy planting seeds with Joshua. When Joshua was about just a year old he started helping me in the garden. He had observed me planting seeds and wanted to try it. He took a "bite size Snickers" he has found in the house, took it out to the garden, dug a whole, put the snickers in and covered it with dirt patting it down with a shovel. And for the past three years he has been helping me in my garden. This year I chose to do all low maintenance stuff in my garden because I have a newborn baby. But, she sleeps all day and is a perfect baby, so I am planting some more stuff this weekend. I just hope it isn't too late. 

I have already had great success from all my berry plants. We are enjoying many fresh strawberries and will likely have blackberries, raspberries and blueberries to enjoy next week. Our apples should be ready shortly as well. It is very rewarding to have a garden. I have enjoyed it very much.

Toodles

On Tuesday we were driving home from the gym and there was a PETCO with a sign that said, "Adoptions Today!" I thought I'd take Josh in to see some puppies. When we got in there they sayd it was in fact over the weekend that there were adoptions and they just hadn't taken down the sign yet. Joshua was a little upset that there were no puppies, but was satisfied with snakes and turtles. I didn't have anything else planned for the rest of the day so I decided to take him to the SPCA to see the puppies. We saw our little Toodles and just fell in love! 

We also fell in love with an adult black lab, but he was just too big for our house. I am still thinking about him though, 3 days later. . . He was so sweet. So, we went to the puppy room and they had just received four puppies from the same little: boston terrior/beagles. So precious! He house the body of the terrior, but is colored and howl like a beagle. It looks like he will be the size of the terrior and he has a beagle snout. 

He has been a great addition to our family. Josh just loves him. They chase each other in the back yard and have a great time! The dog loves Miriam. He licks her feet whenever she is in her bouncer and Miriam gets the funniest look on her face because she is so confused! It's great. He is crate training and is doing very well with that. Potty training, well, that's another story. But, he still needs some time for that. . . .

Joshua's favorite TV show, and by favorite I mean it's all we watch, is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There is a character on there named Tootles so that is what we named the dog. I wasn't sure on the spelling when I did the registration for his chip, so I spelled it with a D. The correct spelling is with a T, but since it is D on his chip I will just keep writing Toodles.

Julie and Julia week two

Last week was almost successful. I made it home from the grocery store without pesto, so i couldn't try the asparagus dip. And I bought a store brand of what I thought was sprite, but aparantly it was store brand Mt. Dew. It was called "Citrus Pop" . . . very misleading. . . So didn't get to try the raspberry drink, but I will this week, because I am really looking forward to it!

The recipes I have selected for this week came from my Disneyland cookbook and are:

• New England Pot Roast
• Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup
• Tonga Toast
• Flame Tree BBQ Sauce
• Rice Cream with Strawberry Sauce
• Choux Fritters

I am looking forward to this weeks recipes!! I will report daily in the comments, as usual. 

Blessings, blessings, blessings.. .

I am very blessed with very good and smart children. I have always felt that Joshua is advanced for his age. (I know, I know. What mother doesn't think their kid is the smartest in the world). He crawled early, he walked early, he talked early. . . He's very helpful and very smart and jsut such a good boy.

He and I do school together almost everyday. He has a little trouble concentrating at home so we go to the library almost everyday before we go to the gym and we do school together. Sometimes he focuses well and other times he doesn't. Sometimes we are there for 15 minutes and other times we are there for over an hour.

We are starting to see lots of progress being made. He know his alphabet now. He has a little trouble remembering the letter 'E', but I think it's because it comes after 'D' and 'D' ends in an 'E' sound so he thinks he is saying it. He knows how to read his name and is working on writing it. He learned how to hold a pencil last week, so this week hopefully we'll see some improvement in him writing his name. He knows numbers 1-10 by sight, but we are still working on their concepts. I have color tiles that you use on overheads and I pit them in groups, one for each number, but he didn't understand it. Instead he spread out ten tiles and assigned them each a number instead of putting the number ten with the group of ten tiles. He is reading several sight words, but refuses to use the flash cards unless my mom does them with him for some reason. . . silly boy. 

I made him a "book nook" under his desk. I covered part of the desk with a sheet and put blankets and pillows and Christmas lights in it where he can do his "homework." He loves it! Part of his homework is to do "15 minutes of quiet reading time" every day. He just goes to his book nook and looks at books. That's usually the time I take to sew, or have "me time." It's nice. He likes his book nook and usually ends up staying there longer than 15 minutes and I get a good amount of time to myself ( I try to suggest doing "quiet reading time" during Miriam's nap so that I can have "me time"). (Pictures of the "book nook" to come).

And, the best for last, as of yesterday, he has finally made the switch to UNDERWEAR!!! YEA! He has been using the potty since he was 18 months old, but wouldn't wear underwear. But, he has been wearing underwear for the past two days!! Yea! And we have gone out to various places and he has used the toilet several times now in public places. I am so proud. I am just so blessed with an intelligent boy who loves to learn and help and just be all around wonderful. 

Postpartum Depression

I have been having some pretty wicked postpartum depression these past few months. It's been very unpleasant, very hard. . . It is definitely hormonal and not emotional. I notice it after every time I feed Miriam. It's like my body goes into overdrive or something to produce more milk and then all the hormones make me unbalanced and that brings on the depression. It is physically a horrible feeling. For me it feels like a weight on my lungs and it feels like it is hard to breathe even though I am breathing normally. And It makes me want to do absolutely nothing. I turned off my cell phone for days, I deactivated my facebook and I didn't leave my house for long periods of time. I am still having trouble with it, but it doesn't feel quite as physically hard as it was before. It feels more like baby blues now that hard core depression. I do count myself lucky that it isn't so bad that I don't want anything to do with my children. It's just that I don't want anything else to do with anyone else in the whole world. But, one good thing did come from this; I learned a little more about myself. 

I am a very anxious person and obsessive about some things (I have OCD). And I was always so focussed on making sure that I was getting out of the house and socializing with people and all that. . . and then I'd leave and spend the rest of the day going over every detail of whatever situation I was just in and replay everything in my head. It makes socializing very hard for me. But, I know it's important for Joshua and for me to avoid depression. So I always made sure to do it. But, ever since I got back from Arizona I haven't seen anyone! Or got together with anyone! And I feel the best I've felt in months! I guess I am introvert like that or something. And Joshua is introvert too. When I suggest playing with friends he always tells me he'd rather stay home. So I don't know how this will turn out. I might feel crazy next week after not hanging out with people and change my mind. But, for now, I've discovered that I am very happy to just be by myself.

I am getting together with friends three times this week. One to go strawberry picking, another for "kidswap" and I have play group at my house on Wednesday. But, while I am still struggling with PPD I am glad that the friends I will be with this week are ones that I am VERY comfortable with. What I mean by that is that I leave their presence and feel calm and relaxed and I don't replay our whole gathering in my head. I have some friends that I listen to talk about other people or even answer a phone call from someone and be one person on the phone and then hang up and act irritated with the person. Then I leave them wondering if they are talking about me the way I just listened to them talk about others, or do they hang up the phone after talking to me and roll their eyes and act irritated? And I beat myself up over stuff like that. But, the people I will be with this week I never leave them wondering those things. And that's what I need right now while I am struggling with this.

I don't need help right now. I did before I left for Arizona, but I don't feel that I need help right now. I don't need anyone to check up on me or anything. I feel like I have things under control. But, I am glad that I discovered that about myself and learned that it is okay to just be by myself. I have started cooking a lot and my garden is really taking off. So I am keeping busy. I get sad a lot when I am doing all of those things, but it isn't like before where I would turn off my phone, or close all the blinds in my house to make it dark and make it look like no one is home. Gosh, and as I am writing this I am realizing just how bad it all really was. Ugh. PPD is so awful. It's the worst depression I've ever felt in my life.

I reactivated my facebook and keep my phone on now because I am ready to join the world again! I got to the gym almost everyday because I need to do some hard core strength training--I have been dislocating A LOT lately and really need to strengthen the tissue and muscle around my joints. That's also good for Joshua to get interaction with other children since I don't hang out much with other people in the ward anymore. But, I am ready to function again. I am ready to be useful and affective again. I am ready to be happy again! I love my family and I want to be happy and pleasant for them. 

I have Postpartum Depression--and that is real life in "Laymon's" terms.

Julie and Julia

Last week I went to Disneyland with my family and bought a "Cooking With Mickey" cookbook. I skimmed through it and was inspired by the different ideas. I get so excited every time I buy a cookbook. I mark all the recipes I want to try with a post-it note. But, life gets busy and hectic and I feel like I never have time to cook.

I counted my cookbooks and magazines today: 50+. My new goal is to pick one recipe book a week and try one new recipe from it every day. As I have been trying to pay more attention to myself and my mental and physical health lately, I have rekindled my love for cooking. I have found it very enjoyable, relaxing and satisfying!

My recipe choices for this week are:

• Easy Muffins (pancake mix with fresh or frozen berries)
• Cookies and Cream Brownies
• Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade
• Antipasto salad
• Mexicale Hot taco salad
• Mayonnaise and Herb Asparagus Dip

I will report each recipe in the comments. I only have six for this week. I may end up only picking five or six each week because, let's be honest, there will be days when things will be beyond my control and I just won't be able to get around to it. That's how it goes. That's life, in Laymon's terms.