Homemade Baby Food cont...

So I mustered the courage and pureed my chicken dinner!

This is before:

This is what it looked like after:

I used the baby bullet that my husband and older daughter gave me for Christmas last year, and it worked really well!

The consistency is a little gritty and the color very pale. I don't know how to fix that! But I'm going to keep trying and researching how to get a better consistency with chicken.

But Maggie ate it up just the same! So I must not have done too poorly.

Here's what I did:

I roasted a 3-4 lbs turkey in the oven stuffed with lemon, onion, sage, thyme, rosemary, and apples. I lined the pan with carrots, celery, apples, lemons, onions, and potatoes. (425 degree oven, 1/4 turn of the pan every 20 mins, for about an hour to an hour 20mins. I cover with foil for the most part of cooking and right when it's almost done, I remove the foil to crisp the skin.)

Once it was done, I stuck it in the fridge, and didn't get the courage to puree it until the next day.

I put 1/2 the breast, potatoes, apples, and carrots in the blender. (I cut up extra apples and carrots and put them in with the cooked ones) Poured plenty of water and PUREED!

I kept adding water as I needed to achieve the creamiest texture I could.

The end :)

Homemade Baby Food

Let me start out by saying that I have been trying to make all of Maggie's baby food from home using organic or all natural ingredients. I haven't been as consistent as I wanted when I started this venture, but I feel like I'm finally getting my groove.

Anyway my friend Chrissy, fellow blogger and mommy of two, gave me this wonderful and EASY idea!

I milled some old fashioned oats (of which I always have in stock and in abundance!), milled it into a fine powder and cooked it till it was nice and smooth. (You can make bigger batch to reserv for other meals) I let it cool and mixed with apple sauce. VOILA!  A hearty, homemade, easy breakfast for my little peanut. And she LOVED it. I couldn't believe how much she ate.  This meal cost me pennies! I always have these ingredients on hand.

I also baked her a chicken dinner consisting of all organic chicken, potatoes, apples, herbs, lemons celery, carrots, and onion. But how in the world am I suppose to puree this!!!!! 

Anyway, once I've figured it out, I'll let you know how it went. Wish me luck!

Science with Lia-- Alka-Seltzer lava lamp

I am in no way a creative mom, but I LOVE to learn new things and science is particularly interesting. I stumbled across a blogger who home schools her children, and she is always doing amazingly fun experiments and projects. It really inspired me to find more resources, blogs, websites, books on experiments that I can do at home.

We did some salt experiments a few days ago. CLICK HERE to read that post.They were easy, fast to do, and a perfect introduction to the world of home learning. 

Tonight we did another experiment. Here's how it went.

We started by pouring oil into a bottle about 2/3's full. (it would look cooler if we had more oil and less water. more like 3/4 oil to 1/4 water. Incase you want to try it at home)

Then we filled it the rest of the way with water and observed how the oil and water don't mix. We also noted that the water sank to the bottom and the oil floated on top. (water is more dense than oil)

Then Lia put food coloring, drop by drop, and noticed how each drop sank to the bottom.

The food coloring didn't mix with the oil, but once it reached the water at the bottom, the color mixed pretty quickly.

Then came the fun part. We broke apart a couple of alka-seltzer tablets and dropped them in. (The tablets released carbon dioxide gas and sent blue bubbles into the oil) Click play on the video to see our lava lamp in action!!

 Last we screwed on the top tightly and made waves! FUN :)

Salt Science with Lia

We observed the effect salt has on ice tonight. Being from the Deep South I am not very familiar with ice and cold weather. So tonight as I am explaining to my daughter that people who live in very cold climates pour salt on the roads when they've iced over and why, I was feeling out of my comfort Zone.

Needless to say I learned a thing or two tonight as we watched the salt basically eat through the ice. I was shocked! Haha i was probably more impressed than Lia was!

But we weren't done with the salt yet! Observe our gorgeous salt paintings!

The worst part of me

You taught me
The worst part of me.
How to be and stay angry.
How to scream
And how to yell
How to beat
And how to dwell
On all the imperfect and
Inconvenient traits
Of those I love and those I hate.

Delve

GMO Corn, you son of a....!

For a latina who eats corn tortillas at almost every meal, the discovery that 198% of corn is genetically modified and is surely going to kill me slowly and painfully has me really reevaluating my life.

And it's not just my corn, but the sugar I use to sweeten my oatmeal, my cereal, my baked goods, my coffee, and tea.

The high fructose corn syrup in ALL of my prepackaged sweets and soft drinks.

My edamame.

My cereal.

My frozen veggies

My life has become genetically modified, and I am not pleased.

So I've adjusted by replacing all of my food with organic food that only cost 500x's more than conventional foods, but I feel is totally worth it because I'm paranoid that I'll grow a third arm due to the exorbitant quantity of corn tortillas I've ingested.

Add this to my all natural cleaners, my organic milk, organic cheese, organic eggs, organic flour, organic beans, organic butter, etc...
Because I'm eliminating rBGH, steroids, antibiotics, food coloring, waxes, pesticides, and Lord only knows what else!

It's just disgusting that one has to take so much care and spend so much money to get normal, natural produce. I mean what the hell!?!??!?!?

Anyway, here's a cool guide that you can print out and take to the grocery with you to help you avoid purchasing GMO food!
-->CLICK ME<-->

A failing mom

I find that ever since Maggie was born my patience with my older daughter has been so little that it's barely existent. Tonight was the single worst night of my life as a parent. I completely flipped my lid on Lia. I feel like Lia has received the short end of the stick when it comes to my patience, attention, humor, gentleness, enthusiasm, you name it, and I've neglected it with regard to her--for the last SEVEN months.

This is what I feared most about having multiple children--that inevitable favoring or better treatment of one child over the other. And what makes it worse is that you feel it in your soul. Everything about your interaction is feigned. It's like you're trying so hard to be patient or kind with one when it comes so easily with the other.

I rationalize by telling myself that I'm like this because Maggie's just a baby and perhaps she just sucks up so much of my attention and warmth that I'm drained by the time Lia comes around. And perhaps it's true, but that doesn't excuse how harsh I can be toward Lia. She's just a little girl too, and I'm completely convinced that this is a critical period in Lia's life and I'm totally messing her up.

I need to pray more. I need God to intervene. I need to fill myself up with so much of his love and grace that I'm overflowing like a fountain and covering both of my girls!

Tomorrow Lia and I had planned a mommy/ daughter date, and I hope it goes well. But I once read this quote that said something like "you can't damage your relationship with your child with one bad day, but you can't fix a relationship with only one good day." And I totally agree. If tomorrow goes perfectly well, it will only be one day-a drop in the bucket- compared to the many bad days!

Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way

I'm currently reading "Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way," by Blessed John Paul II. He wrote this with the intended audience of his bishops. Men that govern and serve diocese around the world--leaders of the Church. He goes into minute detail over several traditions, symbolic practices, artifacts and customs within the Church--all that seem to have had profound emotional meaning to him. 

I can sense his deep respect and connection to these rituals, but his most poignant commentary is when he deflects from the official churchiness of something and just communicates universally on the calling to be a leader in the Church, the expectations of a leader, the qualities of a person whose aim is to guide his congregation to salvation and even those outside of his congregation--those who have yet to accept Christ--into the loving and just arms of God. 

Having once been a student of the Catholic religion, I have first hand experience with the traditions and customs that come with being a Catholic, even as simple as genuflecting before entering your pew and when to appropriately make the sign of the cross, when to stand, kneel, sit, etc, and I've observed and studied the traditions and symbolic acts of the priests, the nuns, the arch-bishops, and even the pope himself! 

Our lives as Catholics are like carefully choreographed dances--each move a symbolic act of some ancient milestone in our faith that we must routinely perform lest we forget the significance of those early revelations and veer off the righteous path toward damnation. 

What's my point?!?!?!

My point, I suppose, is that God's love is our only salvation. That regardless of what tradition we may practice, when we feel deeply the love of God--enough to allow it to penetrate our every cell so that it transforms us into people who love others no matter what--then whether I genuflect, or cross myself, or celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday or practice any other routine, tradition, or custom that inevitably creeps into all churches (because we as humans crave routine and familiarity) we are universally saved through Christ's blood. BECAUSE I am now completely convinced that not a single Christian denomination can have the full, complete, and perfect expression of faith. Because we as people are not full, complete, and perfect practitioners of faith. Because we as humans are incapable of knowing the fullness of truth without the Spirit's revelation. 

I find that once upon a time had someone criticized Catholicism for its customs I would have lashed out with my defensive guns ablaze. (And to be honest, I do still find myself defending this religion wholeheartedly from attack stemming from ignorance and intolerance--even from other Christians.) But  having stepped away these several years, I can see how and why these ancient rituals seem archaic, redundant, and unnecessary to others who do not feel the profound emotional and spiritual connection within these acts as many Catholics and especially the clergy of Catholicism feel. Reading this book just shows me further how God can use any number of expressions to tie souls to Himself, to connect man with His eternal Spirit, to enable His people to experience and feel His presence. 

Regardless if we find them unnecessary, it is clear that John Paul II respected these symbols of his succession of the apostle Peter. He loved the Lord, and he loved the Lord's people. So in the end, regardless of his routines, he was a holy and blessed man, worthy of respect and a cherished model of Christian living.