What I Wore Sunday: September 29

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple.

Liturgy this week was a lot better than last week. Agnes fell asleep soon after we arrived at the church, and she slept through most of the liturgy. That means she wasn’t awake to be coughing and crying which is what leads to the need to suction. So she was easy to manage this week. Stephen was also better behaved compared to last week. He managed to bring a lightweight wood puzzle as his toy to church, which I’m not sure how we let that slip into the car, but we did! The puzzle didn’t cause that much disruption, as Stephen only dropped the pieces on the floor a couple times. After Liturgy, we did go down for coffee and so Stephen could play with the toys. That’s where the problems started: Stephen didn’t want to leave to come home! He cried the whole way home in the car. Jeremy distracted him a little by talking about pumpkins, but Stephen remembered he was mad and went back to fussing.

I’m really glad the recommended method of dealing with a tantrum is to ignore it. That’s what I want to do anyway!

I think the tricky thing with Stephen is that he generally listens to explanations and follows instructions, and willingly accepts suggestions. But, when he’s in his mood to tantrum, he just gets more and more worked up the more you try to talk to him, especially if you are saying things like, “why are you crying?” “what do you want?” or anything that is obviously designed to distract him from his fit. So, ignoring Stephen when he is in a snit really is most effective, I think.

Anyway, yesterday we forgot to do the picture right after church, but we remembered a little later, while we were enjoying our afternoon coffee. I’m teaching Stephen how to make coffee, and this time I made him a tiny cup that was mostly milk. He didn’t want to drink it which is a shame, because it would have been really cute!

I’m wearing a thrift store shirt with cut out tags, Old Navy pants I found in the Albuquerque Savers, and my beaded Minnetonka Moccasins. I love that shirt; it is loose and flattering, and I never feel self-conscious about my appearance when I wear it. The moccasins are at least 5 or 6 years old and still going strong. The beaded design is that of a bird.

Stephen is wearing size 3T clothes. He’s a huge kid. He’s been wearing 3T pajamas for a while, but he’s just now starting to fit into the 3T pants. We have to roll up the cuffs, but otherwise they fit.

And on the other hand, Agnes is a little peanut. She still wears newborn size or 0-3 month size sleepers. We have to roll up the arms of her clothes. The geneticist said she has shortened upper arms as part of her condition. I thought we just had to roll the sleeves because she’s a baby, but turns out she has an actual need for shorter sleeves. Whatd’you know?

 

I’ve really been enjoying Liturgy with our substitute priest. He is a great singer with a firm voice, clear intonation that is easy to follow, and an ear for the “key” we are singing in. Since the whole Liturgy is sung, these are all very important talents for a priest. I’ve always believed that anyone can learn to sing…I wonder if Fr. Sal would like some lessons to brush up when he returns from Ukraine? He’s not a bad singer, but a bit more confidence would go a long way. The choir can bully the key to where they would like to sing, so sometimes there is a fair portion of the Liturgy that sounds out of tune while the choir and Fr. Sal work out an agreement about the key to sing. Fr. Sal should be the boss of that, and if he sang with more confidence, the choir would be forced to sing in the key he chooses!

Maybe, just maybe I’ll mention it to him when he returns!

The Phenomenon of Recipe Rotation

I think Recipe Rotation is a real thing. The other day I was thinking about the foods I’ve been cooking lately, and they are not the same sorts of foods I used to cook last year, or even four years ago. I think my repertoire of recipes is shifting. It’s not that I don’t know how to cook those old dishes anymore, but they aren’t the first things I think of when I need to come up with a plan.

In the past week or so, I’ve made some version of oven-roasted vegetables three or four times. I made squash and carrot soup that started with roasting the veg in the oven before simmering and pureeing. This was served with crackers and cheese.

I made taco-stuffed sweetie peppers. This was served with rice on the side.

I made a squash and potato dish with bacon and cheese. This was served on it’s own as a complete casserole, but I would have done well to serve a salad or green beans or something.

I made a potato/carrot/beet dish with oil and fresh herbs. This was served with bread and cheese, and fresh cherry tomatoes.

Except for the stuffed peppers, these dishes feel rustic and simple. They are comforting to eat and simple to make despite the long roasting times. The hardest part is planning ahead to get the dish in the oven in time for an hour of roasting before dinner time. Even the fish I made last night for dinner was pretty rustic: slice some veg and make a foil packet, lay fish fillet over the veg and pour some sauce. Cook the foil packet. Easy.

I didn’t used to have a rustic cooking preference. A year ago, I was making a lot of pizzas, skillet suppers, mexican style food, and dishes served with rice. A few years ago I was making a lot of exotic ethnic foods, chili and stew type dishes, and casseroles.

This week when I made the roasted vegetable dish with bread and cheese on the side, I was surprised at how satisfying I found the meal to be, even though there was no meat and nothing complicated in the preparation. Jeremy agreed that he would also like to eat that kind of meal a couple times a week. That got me thinking about other rustic kinds of dishes I might like to sneak into my repertoire. Polenta with a variety of roasted or steamed vegetables. Simply seasoned chicken with fruit and cheese. Crock pot roast with mashed potatoes or rice.

I’m looking forward to exploring these options and making satisfying meals with simple ingredients. I’m happy my favored recipes are starting to shift toward the less complicated end of the spectrum. My life is complicated enough in other areas! Let the kitchen be simple!

7 Quick Takes: September 27

As usual, linking up with Jen Fulwiler at Conversion Diary.

1. I apologize for having an exceptionally quiet week around here at the blog, but seriously, if I had tried to write posts they would have looked like this:

or this:

2. Boo hoo. Did someone say Terrible Twos, because that’s exactly what I’ve got. “Time to eat lunch.” Tantrum. “Time to go upstairs.” Tantrum. “Time to go to bed.” Hoo boy. Biggest tantrum ever. Last night was definitely not my finest hour when it was time for Stephen to go to bed. I lost my temper and I’m ashamed. And scared of what will happen tonight. Can he just magically already be in bed without me having to put him there?

3. Speaking of Stephen, he’s currently obsessed with this movie.

It’s pretty cute, beautifully animated, and about penguins which seems to be the main draw for my kid. He loves penguins, for some reason. I haven’t pushed that animal on him, but he does have one story book about penguins and as far as know that is the root of his penguin exposure. Now he loves them, and he requests this film by asking, “watch penguins? dee bee dee bee dee penguins?”

4. A physical therapist came to see Agnes today to get her signed up for in-home physical therapy. She seemed pleased about Agnes’ development so far, telling us that Agnes is pretty much in line with where she should be for a 3 month old baby. That was thrilling for us given all the talk about developmental delays and physical limitations. We aren’t expecting that Agnes will grow up to be normal, but we are happy to hear that she is not currently far behind. Hopefully she will be able to continue exceeding expectations! The therapist also said that Agnes demonstrates great alertness and eye contact. We told her how Agnes seems to anticipate negative experiences like car rides, diaper changes, and suctioning, and the therapist said that is really wonderful evidence of advanced cognitive skill. She said young babies can’t usually anticipate. So, we’ll take that news at face value and not put any additional weight behind it, but we are very happy to have heard this news.

5. I’m planning to dress Stephen as a penguin for Halloween. I think it will be cute! I think he will love it! I haven’t decided for Agnes yet, because she is most likely not going trick-or-treat. I was thinking an alien, but no would see the costume except us. And everyone on the internet who looks at the inevitable picture.

6. Tonight for dinner I followed a recipe and made Tilapia Curry with Basil. I realized as I was putting the dish in the oven that I forgot to add the curry paste. Fail. I guess I actually made Garlicky Tilapia with Basil. Because that’s about all you can taste. It actually tasted okay, but it would have been better with curry paste.

7. I did manage to get Stephen to eat his dinner. He did not want to when I set the food on the table (“no. no. no.”) but I ignored his objections and ignored him. I ate my dinner and eventually he came over and sat down. I had to leave to attend to Agnes’ demands, and while I was gone, Stephen ate up his plate. Win one for mommy. Hopefully I can manage bath time with as much grace.

For some quick takes that are not about whiny toddlers or whiny mommies, go see Jen.

What I Wore Sunday September 22

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple, a bit on the late side, but hey the link-up is still live until tomorrow morning so why not slip in just ahead of the deadline?

Quick run down of the fam’s duds:

Me: dress from a thrift store in Billings, MT. Sweater from Target years ago. Boots are my new Clarks; ain’t they purty?

Stephen: the finest that thrift stores have to offer.

Agnes: sleeper second-hand from Cheering on Charlie. Puppy toy and car seat second-hand from Stephen.

Jeremy: I don’t know, but he always looks super sharp for church.

We got my dad to take a group photo. Agnes is openly crying. Stephen looks angry as all get-out, and Jeremy prodded me in the shoulder and commanded me to smile an instant before my dad snapped the picture. That’s because Liturgy was kind of horribly for us this week. Agnes was mad and she needed suctioning during Liturgy so Jeremy took two trips to get her and all her stuff into the cry room, and he was gone for a long time. While he was gone Stephen decided to make an icky diaper so I had to leave too. The rest of the time Stephen was a pill and kept trying to get us to leave the sanctuary and “go downstairs.” He got whiny and cried a little and refused any sort of distraction. So I have no idea what the readings were about and I couldn’t tell you anything about the priest’s homily. We didn’t stay for coffee afterwards because the last thing I wanted to do was “go downstairs” and reward Stephen’s begging, plus we were worried about Agnes. She didn’t look that great.

Turns out that was because she’s a bit sick. Yep, baby has a minor infection in her trach or airway or something. She is coughing a lot, producing lots of thick white secretions that need suctioned, and she requires more O2. I was convinced she would go back to the hospital since she’s been home for two weeks today and that was her previous record. Well, she’s still at home at least. We’re giving an additional antibiotic and cranking up the O2. Last night we couldn’t turn the O2 high enough for Agnes to wear the mist collar, so we had to put the HME back on, which for some reason, she seems to tolerate better. The mist collar is important, though, because it helps to thin out those thick secretions that can clog up the trach if you don’t keep up with suctioning! We did actually change her trach tube this morning to see if that would help, and it did. She still is struggling with the oxygen, and she is working to breathe a little more, and being little miss cranky-pants. But the pediatrician didn’t see anything urgently concerning yesterday when we took Agnes in, so hopefully this is something that Agnes can recover from at home.

The past few days have been really bad for me. I am soclose to the end of my rope, and I feel really overwhelmed. Jeremy has been working every night and my dad was away on a business trip, so the troops have been thin around here. Not to mention our nurse didn’t come on Sunday night so we took turns covering the time. It’s good for you, my dear readers, that I did not have time to write any blog posts. You don’t need an earful of my fatalistic depressive crazy rants. Hopefully things start looking brighter in the next couple days. Because my weariness is interfering with my ability to care for my children.

ISFJ theme song

Well, that didn’t take long. I devoted every waking moment since about 15 minutes ago thinking about a possible theme song for my Myers-Briggs personality type, and I think I found a good one.

 

Please pardon Pink’s costume. It’s the only performance video I could find that didn’t look like it sucked or was over-dubbed into Spanish.

7 Quick Takes: September 20

Hi y’all. Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

1. I read Jen’s quick takes before coming here to write my own, and her take about Delena’s take about Myers-Briggs Theme songs is really interesting. Right now I’m listening to Jen’s chosen theme song for her personality type, INTP. 

It’s pretty interesting. My personality type is ISFJ, according to the super quick test I found online. I wonder what my theme song would be? I will strenuously consider this and report back when I figure it out.

2. So a couple days ago I wrote about Stephen refusing to eat, and taking pictures helped him forget his tantrum and eat his meal. It has worked a couple times since then, but I think the novelty is wearing thin.

3. Last night Jeremy and I changed the sheets on our bed. Sashimi the Cat helped.

4. I made a dish from the Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine again tonight, but this time it was one of her “30 Minute Meals” and I followed the recipe exactly. Maybe I’m not the first one to discover this, but for real, her idea of “30 minute” meals is totally wonky. I knew this as soon as I looked at the recipe, and I know I’ve thought this before on the other occasions I’ve contemplated making a dish from that section of the magazine. This one was Spaghetti with Cauliflower and Tuna. Early this afternoon I took almost an hour prepping some of the veggies: cutting up the cauliflower, separating the parsley leaves and stems, and dicing the pepper. Then when I got started this evening, it took about 45 minutes active cooking time. Granted the recipe says things like, “two shallots, finely chopped. Four garlic cloves, finely minced.” But still, the only way you could do this recipe in 30 minutes was if you cook it on a 30 minute Food Network program and have a sous chef prep all the veg before the show starts.

5. Also, that recipe above requires a “6 to 8 oz can of sustainable tuna.” What, will the recipe fail if you use unethically-farmed tuna cans in your dish?

6. Has anyone ever done a HomePath mortgage or HomePath Renovation Mortgage to get a house? Jeremy and I are looking into it because you can get a house for as little as 3% down, and the renovation mortgage allows you to borrow what you need to update a house as part of the whole mortgage package. There are a ton of houses “with potential” around the area, and we agree except we lack the capital to invest in a property that needs attention. And we like the low down payment!

7. We took the kids out on a short trip again today. Agnes really extremely hates riding in the car. She starts crying as soon as we put her in the car seat, and keeps going and going the whole time we’re driving. She does get tired and she has to take breaks, but when she feels rested she starts “screaming” again. She flails her arms, her hair gets really sweating, she kicks her feet, bubbles form at her mouth, she squeezes her eyes shut and turns pink. The pulse-oximeter beeps and beeps. It’s actually quite comical. It’s fortunate she makes very little sound when she cries because that would take the situation from comical to tragic and someone-please-for-the-love-of-god-make-the-baby-stop-crying! territory.

Go to Jen’s page for more quick takes. Thanks for reading!

Taco-Stuffed Sweetie Peppers

I don’t usually post food stuff on here anymore, not because I’m not cooking and baking! No! Because I always forget to have the camera handy while I’m cooking or baking, then I forget about it and all the food gets eaten before I can take a picture. But, this time I thought of the camera soon enough, and you will be so pleased that I remembered because you are going to want to go make these little darlings just as soon as you finish reading this post. These stuffed peppers are so delicious, I could have willingly eaten the entire lot of them, if I had less will-power and lacked the forethought to consider my future heartburn should I attempt such a feat. So, long story short, these are delicious.

I read a stuffed jalapeno recipe in the current issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray that inspired me. I love jalapeno poppers, but the recipe in the magazine used sausage and cooked them on a grill. I didn’t have sausage and I didn’t want to get out Jeremy’s grill. So I adapted!

My dad has been getting these little sweet peppers in his weekly CSA produce bag, and this was a good way to use up a bunch of peppers. I did use some jalapenos too, but mostly the sweeties.

Taco-Stuffed Sweetie Peppers

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup taco seasoning

1/4 cup water

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese. I used one regular and one low-fat

1/4 cup shredded jack cheese

1/4 cup plain greek yogurt

16 little peppers

1 cup crackers crumbs. I used Breton originals but any cracker should do. Except maybe Triscuits.

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

 

First, make taco meat. I put in less water than you normally do for taco meat because I wanted the meat dry. Then, while the meat is cooling, slice off the stem ends of your peppers, cut them in half, remove seeds, and lay them out real pretty on a baking sheet.

Put softened cream cheese in a bowl with some shredded jack cheese and a little greek yogurt and Mix it up.

Add the cooled meat and mix it up.

Using a thin little spatula, smear the filling onto each pepper half.

Melt some butter and crush some crackers. Make a crispy topping! Then dip each pepper popper into the crumbs and press to stick the crumbs.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.

Oh they are so, so good. Taco-y and pepper-y, and crunchy and creamy.

Just a note, you will have a bunch of extra filling. You can make a third pan of peppers, or use it for burrito filling, or on nachos, or eat it with a spoon straight out of the bowl, or…

Treasure Every Moment

Today we had to eat lunch and we served spaghetti with meatballs, and a glass of milk, and this was just totally unacceptable to Stephen. I think the underlying issue was that he wanted to keep watching “Yo Gabba Gabba” videos, but he came upstairs willingly enough when I told him it was time for lunch. Anyway, when we tried to sit him down to eat, he pitched a fit to end all fits. Jeremy and I ate our delicious lunch while Stephen rolled and screamed and cried on the floor, and we got to talking about how this was probably one of those moments we are supposed to cherish. “Cherish each moment; they grow up so fast.” Yadda yadda. Then I decided I should take a picture of Stephen throwing a tantrum so I could post it online and be like, “treasure every moment, ha ha. Even this one? ha ha.” So I got out the camera and Stephen was like:

I noticed you were trying to capture an action shot.

Then I told him to lay down on the floor and cry some more because I was trying to put together a really good, snarky type of blog post. So then he was like:

Actually, I think this is funny.

At this point I realized that the take-a-picture thing might actually be able to snap him out of his fit, so I was like:

Now mommy wants to take a picture of you eating. Come sit on your chair.

So he did. And he ate.

Isn’t it fun to eat your lunch?

Then we tried another one:

Now mommy wants to take a picture of you drinking your milk like a big boy.

And all this time, Agnes was over in her crib, not wanting to be left out of the fit-pitching fun:

Waa. It’s my three-month birthday and no one is serving me cake! Waa.

Happy three-month birthday to Agnes! She is doing well at home and we are all getting used to her being here. The night nursing is going well and Jeremy and I are thinking all our future kids should be trach babies so we can sleep through the night.

 

 

Our Journey to the East

Someone just sent me an email asking what took Jeremy and me to the Eastern Catholic tradition, and as I was writing I thought, “gee, this would make a purdy good blog post.” I hope my emailing friend doesn’t mind!

Jeremy and I had been going to Roman Catholic church, but as you can imagine, every parish has its own “vibe” and the way they do things. So when we moved to Akron, we took some time to shop around to find a parish that had the things we liked, and lacked the things we were happy to do without. We wanted a parish that celebrated reverent liturgy, with a priest who was obviously spiritual and not “tired” of his ministry. We wanted good music, or at least music that didn’t make us want to plug our ears! We wanted a parish where the prevalent mood was one in support of the Pope and keeping with Church teachings. We love the Pope and we wanted to be surrounded by others who do, too. We wanted a parish with a strong devotion to Mary the Blessed Mother. We wanted a parish where the actual church building looked like a church inside and out, rather than like a gymnasium or auditorium with an altar at one end.

So, with all that in mind, we shopped around. We actually have a few friends who worship in the Eastern Catholic tradition so we had heard about it before. The way the Catholic churches shake down is, there are two major branches: the Western (Roman, Mozarabic, and Ambrosian) and the Eastern (everything else that is Catholic). The Eastern Catholics tended to branch off more specifically according to ethnic groups, geographical regions, and language spoken. The Bishop of Rome (the Pope) is still the universal pontiff for everyone, but all the different Eastern Catholic Rites also have their own Patriarchs. And each ethnic tradition has their own Archbishop. There are several major Eastern Rites: Alexandrian (Coptic and Ethiopian Catholics); West Syrian (Maronite, Syriac, and Syro-Malankara Catholics); East Syrian (Chaldean and Syro-Malabar Catholics); Armenian (Armenian Catholics), and Byzantine (Albanian, Greek, Melkite, Ruthenian, Ukrainian and others). All these Eastern Rites are in union with the Pope of Rome, so we say all these churches are “in communion” with Rome. That is why Jeremy and I could just up and decide to go to a Ukrainian Catholic Church! There are some differences in the organization of hierarchy and stuff between East and West that I don’t feel really comfortable discussing, so I’ll move on to the liturgy!

I’m not too familiar with all the Eastern Rites, but each Rite has a favorite liturgy they use for worship. The two big ones for Byzantine Catholics are the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom and the Liturgy of Saint Basil. Any Eastern Catholic Church that uses these liturgies for worship are going to be similar to each other. The main difference will be with whichever ethnic language is thrown in. Jeremy and I have learned how to do a couple of the responses in Ukrainian!

This is the biggest difference for me between a Roman Catholic Mass and a Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy. The feel of the two liturgies are totally different. The reforms of the liturgy that occurred in the 1970’s for Roman Catholics did a lot to streamline Mass, update the language, and open up some areas for a parish or diocese to do something individual. The liturgy of the Byzantine Rite didn’t go through this reform so there are lots of repetitive prayers and litanies, and the liturgy is almost entirely the same week to week. There are just a few things that change for each Sunday or feast day. I like the repetition. I like that the priest sings almost everything and the congregation sings all the responses. I like all the litanies. The Eastern Divine Liturgy feels mystical to me, with the cool chanted music, incense, bells, symbolic gestures, and icons. I love that we are hit with the fragrance of incense as soon as we walk through the door on Sunday. The fragrance of incense and pyrogies! I love gazing at the beautiful icons of Mary and Jesus and the saints.

I grew up Roman Catholic and Jeremy has been catholic for 15 years, so it’s hard for us to put aside the Roman thing! We still are more in tune with the Roman calendar of saints and feast days. We still pray the traditional Roman Catholic prayers at home. We still really like Latin! We celebrate liturgy at a Byzantine church and we try to incorporate some of the Eastern spirituality into our lives. We love icons and pray with icons at home. We try to remember to make the sign of the cross “backwards.” It’s a process, like any faith journey. And we’re enjoying it!

What I Wore Sunday: September 15

Today we had some positively Autumnal weather. It was nice and cool and crisp, perfect for the first time taking Agnes to church since coming home. Liturgy was earlier than normal because our priest is visiting family in Ukraine for a month, so we have a substitute priest who also takes care of his own parish in Solon. I bet he probably had to say Liturgy here, then scoot up to his own parish in time for Liturgy there. I am grateful he came; I like going to Liturgy, and he was a really good singer!

So, we had to get up and out the door in record time this morning, taking Agnes and all her gear, and Stephen, and we all had to look nice too! I took the opportunity to wear some more fall-appropriate clothes, including my new pair of boots!

The boots are Clarks, Ingalls Delaware style, in “grey” which is actually taupe. I purchased them through Amazon using a ton of change I found lying around the house. We took the change to a coinstar machine that has a feature where they don’t charge a service fee if you convert the coins to a gift card. So we used the coins to get an Amazon gift card, which I then used to subsidize the purchase of these super nice leather boots. They’re a real brand, and high quality, and I would not be able to justify their purchase if I didn’t have the “free” money to help! I wear boots almost exclusively in the winter with my skirts, so I needed to get a style that would be comfortable and attractive for everyday wear. I’m pleased with them so far! I think they will really hold up to my abuse!

The skirt is from a bag of clothes someone gifted to me when I was pregnant with Stephen. The shirt is Motherhood Maternity. I opted not to wear a veil today because I wasn’t sure what would shake down with Agnes and I didn’t want to worry about my veil getting in the way if I needed to emergently replace a trach tube or something. Plus, this week I got my hair cut for the first time in a year. I didn’t intend to go that long, but it was hard for me to find a time to do it! The stylist took five inches off the bottom, then used thinning shears to remove some the extreme thickness. I really like the look and feel of my new ‘do. I think I will always ask for thinning from now on!

Agnes did a great job at church. We got there a little early so we could set up her tube feeding before Liturgy started, and she pretty much snoozed through most of the liturgy. She did start fussing more towards the end, so I got her out of her seat to hold her and she calmed immediately. We lugged her travel bag, pulse-oximeter, oxygen tank, and feeding pump. We took up an entire pew! After Liturgy we went down to the basement for coffee and everyone was excited to see her back. They exclaimed over how big she is compared to the last time we took her to church a month ago. They said she is cute. We talked with a lady whose younger son was born with some issues similar to Agnes, and he is now a more or less healthy nine year old (I think he’s nine). He is an altar server and very sweet. He played with Stephen the whole time we were talking to his mom. We are so blessed by this church community. Everyone is so supportive, and no one seems freaked out by our special baby. A few of the ladies had the opportunity to hold Agnes, and she loved it.

Agnes has definitely learned that if she fusses and cries, someone will pick her up and snuggle. She adores being held, and pitches a royal hissy fit in her crib until someones comes to attend to her demands. It’s a good thing she is an adorable little miracle baby!

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple. Go check it out!