Friday Activities

Today was a day full of firsts for Joshua and me. We went to the local library for a toddler hour of story time, music time, and toy time. WHAT FUN!!!!! Then we went, with many of the same families, to the local park to play. It has been a beautiful day and Joshua wore himself out. When we got home he ate lunch and then has been asleep for the last 3-1/2 hours.

It was exciting and a little scary to meet the moms and dads at the library activity. I discovered that all of us are transplants to this area and even met people originally from Australia and Boston. I look forward to getting to know them more.

It is really fun to watch Joshua as he learns to interact with other kids and to explore his world on foot. Today he had a great time at the park playing with his ball and generally exploring the bushes, dirt, and paths.

Tonight is Pizza night at our house. I got several at a great sale in January so we have enough to get through mid-March. After we use them up I am going to try my hand at making and freezing them myself. I want to try a few with very non-traditional ingredients like a maccaroni crust. I saw that in a magazine somewhere a few years ago and thought it looked interesting.

Our furniture and stuff from one of our moving PODS comes tomorrow!!!!!!! We will be able to sleep on a bed instead of the cushions we have been on for 6 weeks and will have a sofa as well as all the kitchen toys. It will be fun unpacking this weekend.

Cooking Experiments for Freezer

So... since I've been awake for over an hour I thought I'd post some pics from my recent cooking
experiments. Here you go......

Enchiladas (I've made 140 in the past couple of weeks) for the freezer. After they freeze on trays I put in zip top bags and freeze them. Very easy to pull out and eat for lunches with a salad or side of veggies. I got this idea from
http://erratichomemaker.blogspot.com/


Twice baked potatoes with various stuffings. I made 24 for my first experiment. After these freeze on trays I wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then freeze in zip top bags.

Random Pics from June 07 til Jan 08

Here are a few random pics from our pickup trip in Guatemala in June 07 through end of Jan 08. The pic with 2 babies is from our trip to Guatemala in June 07 when we picked up Joshua and visited with Maria. We hope Maria will be home sometime by April 08. Will keep everyone posted.

Joshua & Maria in June 07 in Guatemala







Joshua in carseat in Jan. 08



Joshua at beach in July 07









Joshua at piano in Dec. 07


Joshua at
Christmas Day
dinner Dec. 07



Cheers. :)

My First Blog 2/7/08

Today with the encouragement of my friend, Brigette, I am starting my blog. Please be patient with me, as I have no idea what I am doing. :)

I picked the title of this blog because, as with everything in my life, I seem to be about 5 - 10 years behind others my age. I married at 29 and worked as a paralegal until I became a mom at 38, and am just now, at 39 becoming a homemaker and stay at home mom. It has been my dream since childhood to be a wife and mother and I have finally arrived!

Though I have wonderful examples of homemakers in my mom, mother-in-law, sister and sisters-in-law, I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. Having been in the working world for so long we got used to eating out and, generally speaking, I put my cooking, cleaning, and home organizing skills on hold. I must say that I am very out of practice. I actually googled "how to be a homemaker" last week! There are many wonderful women's blogs out there with wonderful advice and ideas.

We have recently moved to CA where John has taken job. Our yard has a grapefruit tree and a lemon tree! So, as you can see from the picture of Joshua playing in the grapefruits, I need to find multiple ways to use citrus fruits.

I have rekindled my love of cooking and am enjoying testing out recipes for food, most recently enchiladas, twice stuffed baked potatoes and graham crakcers. Also, in reviewing many blogs of homemakers I have discovered what is now referred to as OAMC (once a month cooking). I also discovered a wonderful website for recipes http://www.recipezaar.com/.

Though I enjoy cooking and find it creative and soothing, I would rather spend my time playing with my son, Joshua, who lights up my days. So..... on the weekends when Papa is home to play, I cook meals for a week or two and freeze them. Then, during the weekdays I don't spend the entire day in the kitchen and I can play with Joshusa more.

I am still working out how to get all the laundry done, keep the house clean, etc. I am a cloth diapering mom (love, love, love them!!!) and generally dry our clothes and diapers on the line rather than in a dryer.

So, there it is, my first blog post.