recipe : cider & five spice braised pork shoulder

If you've known me for a while, you'll no doubt remember that one of my favorite things to cook (and eat) is Shanghai Pork Shoulder (recipe here). Well, our household was pretty sad to discover a soy allergy that now prevents us from partaking in this wonderful, bold dish. A few weeks ago, I set out to reinvent the recipe, and I am pleased to tell you that the results are amazing! If you're looking for an Asian-style recipe that is super-easy, bursts with flavor, and works well for both pork and chicken, here's your girl:

Cider & Five Spice Braised Pork Shoulder

Ingredients
4 pound bone-in pork shoulder
2c apple cider
1t Chinese Five-Spice Powder
5 star anise
1/3c oyster sauce
1T salt
1/2c sugar
3 cloves garlic
2 slices fresh garlic

Bring a large stock pot of water to boil, and blanch the pork shoulder for 3-5 minutes - until the outside of the meat is whitened and sealed. Drain and rinse in cold water.

In a medium stock pot, combine all ingredients. Add pork shoulder and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, turning meat every 30-45 minutes. Cook for 2-3 hours - until meat is completely tender and falling off bone.

Uncover, increase heat to bring liquid to boil, and cook until the sauce reduces to approx 1-2 cups or until sauce caramelizes, basting top of pork with the sauce throughout reduction time.

I find this best served with stick white jasmine rice and lightly steamed vegetables. Use the extra sauce (skim fat after it cools) on scrambled eggs, or to toss with noodles.


I hope you'll let me know if you try it - we used the same recipe this week to make chicken in the crock pot, and it was great. If you have a soy allergy, be sure to read the ingredients on the oyster sauce - some brands do contain soy.

Bon appetit, or as the say in China - gan bei!

cooking this week

After my last post about menu ideas, a friend emailed to gently suggest I was too ambitious in the kitchen. I wish that were the case! When I am having a bad day (or days), we eat a lot of scrambled eggs with pesto, our most reliably-eaten meal. The little tykes are finally eating boxed mac and cheese, and they really love the chicken breakfast sausage, party meatballs, and frozen gnocchi dishes we get at Trader Joe's. But I have had a constant struggle with my weight (and really, with eating well) since adolescence, and I have had high blood pressure on and off since my long hospital stay after being in a head-on car crash in 2004. I'm concerned about my own health, and I am really striving to set good habits for my children. I want my kids to be among the exception to the obesity epidemic we are experiencing in this country. I want to be around and healthy to meet my grandchildren and have them know me.

Maybe my meal ideas look a little complicated, but really the part I struggle with the most is cleaning up! For now, while I am still at home with my children, I hope to continue cooking meals with basic ingredients and avoid processed foods as much as possible. As spring unfolds, I also hope to find us eating more veggies, something often lacking from meals.

Looking back on what I wrote last week, I'm doing pretty well. My lack of specific planning showed a little last night, when I was in the middle of a several-hour-long anxiety attack. I ended up cooking brown rice (which Max ate) and made the sauce for butternut squash mac and cheese, but no pasta. Thankfully Laurie came home early and cooked up some breakfast sausage, made some corn, and we warmed up some of the delicious chicken pot pie she had made the night before. When the boys refused everything but the meat, they ended up eating whole grain c*heerios with milk and raspberries while I sat between them trying to catch my breath. What a mess!

There have been better moments, though, like when Korin came over on Sunday and we made our sweet potato gnocchi to freeze. It's so delicious, but sadly I'm the only one here who will eat it.


I made sweet potato and cheddar quesadillas, and the boys actually ate them!

I also managed to make four loaves of cardamom bread, but I forgot to add the cardamom. We gave loaves to friends and sent one to work with Laurie to the delight of her colleagues.




We also made a corned beef crockpot meal, but it was too sour for both me and Laurie. I think I'm going to throw together an easy lentil soup this afternoon, to go with that brown rice from last night. I want to get more meat-free meals on the table. Do you have favorite vegetarian meals? I'd love to hear em!

March menu ideas, anyone?

I'm just going to take a moment and use the old blog as a notepad. Menu ideas for the next 2 weeks. Please feel free to contribute!

herbed polenta (try again)
butternut squash mac and cheese (I now make this sauce and freeze a couple of pints - great to defrost on hard days)
farfalle with myzithra
corned beef slow cooker dinner
red curry with steamed veggies, zucchini and chicken
quesadillas (try for the first time) what do you like to put into yours?
quiche
sweet potato apple casserole (breakfast?)
chicken pot pie
sweet potato gnocchi (Korin? Want to make some together? Maybe on Monday afternoon??)


chocolate beet cake
zucchini bread
peanut butter oatmeal cookies

challah do you have a tried and true challah recipe?
cardamom bread
Kelly's almond scones

I'd also like to make some Chinese pork dumplings to freeze - anyone interested in getting together to make a couple hundred with me?


Do you have a good recipe we should try? Bring it on!!

on the table (or floor)

the ew face

Well, so much for daily blogging, eh? Maybe someday life will shape up that way again. For now, I thought I'd share with you some links to recipes I've been trying.

Remember how I was excited about weekly menu planning? Well, it hasn't gone so well. For one, the boys are getting pickier by the day, and when I try new recipes (or sometimes even old ones), they don't eat what I'm serving. Pot roast was a hit one week and a total flop the next. Ribollita soup was gobbled up once, never to be touched again. As a rule, neither of them likes leftovers. To complicate matters, my sister is lactose intolerant, so many things I make, she can't eat. For me to be left with (for example) a 9x13 pan full of three cheese baked ziti to eat myself is just frustrating.

How do you all deal with picky eaters who are not yet old enough to serve themselves? Those of you who've never had this problem, well, just don't tell me about it, ok?

Here are a few of the recipes I've tried in the past few weeks:

Baked rice: very easy, great cleanup. I was the only one who ate any, and it was a little crunchy for my taste. I'll try it again and use a little extra water.

Chocolate chip zucchini bread: delicious, and the boys will eat it. I was glad to get rid of the zucchini, which until now has been one of the only veggies I could count on the boys to eat. Alas, those days are gone.

Polenta wedges: really tasty, but the boys wouldn't touch it. Really annoying, since our most reliable dinner is sliced polenta from a tube and marinara sauce.

Mom's chicken pot pie: mmm, how we love a good pot pie. I got my toddlers to eat the inside, but they wouldn't eat the crust. The first time, they turned up their noses to the whole thing. I'll post our family recipe soon.

What's on your menu for this week? In this house, we may have eggs and polenta every single day.

Memere's Oatmeal Bread

The theme for February's NaBloPoMo is "ties." I'm not sure if 1) I'll manage to post every day, or 2) make every post reflect this theme, but I'm going to give it a try again. It seems fitting that just yesterday I made my great-grandmother's oatmeal bread recipe for the first time. You know how I love to bake family bread recipes!

This generation has brought about major changes in the way our family connects. For several generations before, family on my mother's side lived in tight community - my mother grew up with her paternal grandparents living upstairs in a typical Massachusetts "double decker," her maternal grandparents only a few blocks away. While some of her siblings have moved out of state (to New Mexico and New York), three of the five have kept their families close by.

We grew up living just two hours away from all of our grandparents and most of our relatives. We saw them fairly often, and got to know our uncles and aunts and to some extent our cousins. We spent our childhood with four living grandparents and three living great-grandparents. What a blessing!

Memere was my mother's maternal grandmother. Thinking about her now, I realize I don't actually know a lot about her life. Named Edna, I know she was part Irish, but she was French-Canadian through-and-through, preferring to speak French. She lived to be well over 100 years old, though I didn't see her after she fell ill in her late 90s. I remember her to knit for us every Christmas, and recall her always in the kitchen - a petite elderly woman chattering away with my grandma in French. Was it Mem who made the poutins that became the stuff of family legend? Was it her mince meat pie that always appeared at holiday meals? Was this bread recipe passed down to her? I just don't remember. The next time I visit Grandma, I'll have to learn more about her mother.

my grandma (Mem's daughter) with Shoghi last summer

I got this recipe from my mom ages ago, and it was very easy to put together. When it came out of the oven, I actually didn't like the molasses fragrance, but I cut into the hearty bread this morning, toasted it, and ate it with butter and my raspberry jam, and wow... I think I have a new favorite bread. Earthy, mildly sweet, a smooth, dense texture - this oatmeal bread is fabulous. I hope Mem feels the love from a couple generations down today, and knows she's missed and loved. Five generations so far have been nourished by this yummy bread.


Memere's Oatmeal Bread

1c quick-cooking oats
2c scalded milk
1 pkg active dry yeast
4-6c flour
1/2c molasses
2t salt
1/4t ginger

Place oats in large bowl, cover with scalded milk and allow to cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in 1/2c warm water and 1t sugar. Stir in molasses, salt and ginger to yeast mixture, and add to oat mix. Stir in 4 1/2 cups of flour and knead for five minutes, adding more flour as necessary to make a firm, slightly sticky dough.

Place in oiled bowl and cover with a warm, damp towel. Allow to rise to double (I preheat the oven to 170* and then turn it off. This decreases the rise time if your house is cool). Punch down and divide into two. Bake in a greased bread pan at 350* for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack and serve warm with salted butter and homemade jam!

crazy friday

Dear Mom,

Sorry I missed your call today. I forgot to charge my phone last night, and it died this afternoon right after I heard your voicemail. You asked how things are going, and wanted to check on Shoghi and the new shift to forward-facing car seats.

Little guy is doing much better - the fever passed, but left behind it those horrible canines doing their nasty work on his mouth. He's been pretty possessive of Mama (something new) and has started hitting all of us in some brand new (and very long) temper tantrums that started up right after the sickness had gone. His way of talking also changed. I'm glad this dramatic behavior shift didn't come after a vaccine - it seems very pronounced, and I definitely would have been concerned. As it is, I guess it's just a developmental shift and we'll just continue to try to think creatively about what he needs from us (i.e. me and Laurie) to help him feel secure.

As far as the car seats goes, they're quite happy with them, I think. Max especially is really talking about things he sees, which is fun. The photo of Shoghi sleeping is from the day after his fever passed. He has been sleeping a LOT these past few days - as in 12 or 13 hours at night and 2 naps of 1.5 - 3 hours during the day. Poor guy is pooped. See the french fries in his sleepy hands and his furrowed brow/pout? Damn those teeth!


Today was such a packed day - why do I try to squeeze so many things in on the same day? I was really smart last night, though - I laid out everything I would need for us to get out the door, which sometimes can take a full half hour! From the moment we woke up, I was on the go - first morning snack (grapes and mozzarella), then breakfast (scrambled eggs with avocado and cheddar, sliced orange, waffle with jam), and morning nap. Max decided to skip his nap, so instead of doing some of my planned prep, I spent about 30 minutes trying to get him down. Finally I gave up and Laurie took over so I could shower. I packed our diaper bag and hopped in for a 5-minute wash.

We were out the door by 9:45, and I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself. It wasn't as stressful as usual, and I was excited to get to our first destination - a Reggio Emilia-inspired daycare/preschool just 7 minutes from our house.

Sadly, I was disappointed by the experience. The school was in a nice facility, but that's just what it was - very functional and institutional feeling. Fluorescent lights felt very harsh in the classrooms, which were set up exactly the same way as the traditional preschool I worked at in high school. The 18-30 month room felt very small, and I was very disappointed that they didn't have a single climbing apparatus, either inside or on the small toddler playground.

When I asked about their philosophy and how they characterized it as RE, the assistant director told me that they were very proud of their educational focus and curriculum, which from what I could see was just basically a plan for what the kids would do every day, moving them from free play to art, to gross motor play, etc. She told me that the teachers give an art project and show the kids what it "should" be, and then let the kids do what they want with the materials.

Another question that's very important to me is how they deal with normal toddler aggression. I listened to the teacher tell me that they use redirection and comfort the hurt child, but when I pressed them for further actions they take with biting children (I told them that Shoghi is just growing out of a biting habit), they immediately jumped to telling me about having the kid removed from the program for two weeks until they stop the biting behavior. Needless to say, that landed pretty hard on me. A truly experienced toddler program should have a detailed explanation for how they deal with behaviors such as this, and not simply indicate to a concerned parent that things could go from redirection to expulsion. It just seemed to lack expertise and certainly didn't seem to involve the parent in any kind of strategy.

I guess I figure if I have to pay someone $1500 a month to watch my two kids 3 days a week, I'm looking for something that is a much more creative environment - one that feels relevant to my children and one whose approach and curriculum will support the kind of development I want to give them. Not that I can even dream of affording such a huge sum of money to send my boys to daycare... I find myself more and more wishful that I can somehow afford a Montessori program. Going back to school to become an ESL professional is seeming more and more like the thing I should do if I'm going to find my way back to working a job that will support us.

From there, we went to visit our little twin friends. The boys and girls ran around getting into stuff while Elizabeth and I shouted fragments of conversation at each other from opposite ends of the room. (ok, I exaggerate a little, but you know what I'm talking about if you've spent time with 4 curious 1-year olds). We had a fun visit and left there in time to come home for a snack of peanut butter and banana (a first, which they gobbled up!) and a nap.


You might think this meant a break for me, but nope. I didn't even sit down for the next hour and a half. I had signed up to bring dinner to our former babysitter, who just had a baby two weeks ago. I actually succeeded at making my weekly menu (for the first time!) and had planned on making sabzi pollo, that wonderful Persian rice dish with baby lima beans, dill, parsley, and garlic. Being slightly delusional as I always am when it comes to estimating how much time things will take, I had decided to buy fresh herbs, which meant 30 minutes of washing, pinching and chopping. Oh, and our garbage disposal has been broken for a week, which also disables our dishwasher, so I had to do quite a lot of dis washing before I could even start cooking. Max woke up while I was in the middle of making this meal, so I set him on the floor with a canister of dry split peas and let him go at it.

I was pleased with how he played with this Montessori-inspired activity. I gave him the canister with the peas and a 1/4 cup measure, and showed him how to scoop the beans into a second bowl. This was the second time I tried this with him - the first being just last week when he was only interested in eating the hard, dry legumes, which didn't thrill me. This time he played with them for quite a while, which bought me enough time to finish most of the prep.

Here's Shoghi, meeting the baby on Wednesday. He's really starting to grasp the concept of "gentle." Both the boys really love seeing babies - they've started asking for them when we get in the car.
I won't bother going into the bizarre baby fever that seeing and holding this little peanut is provoking in me.

We didn't get out of here to deliver the meal until 3pm, which is basically the start of the last two hours of their playtime. We got back to our neighborhood at 4, and I decided to drive right to our good old quiet mall and let them run wild. It was pretty exhausting for me keeping them corralled by myself, but it was good for them to run around for a while.

Home again, then dinner, cleanup and our bedtime routine, and now the boys are in bed at 6:45. I have an entire kitchen of dishes to wash, but my new strategy of getting the floor wiped down and the toys put away while the boys are awake is really working well - it's not quite so overwhelming when I finally get them to sleep.

Well, that's how our day went! I just thought since it was already too late to call that I'd send a little (ok, a very long) note your way.

Love to you and Dad!
c

winter pantry

In case you weren't aware, the Pacific Northwest is a place of bountiful fruit harvests. The berries (of more varieties than I can possibly name) start coming in late June, and keep going with late crops until the end of September. It's really amazing to live in such a place. I was so inspired by my friend's canning prowess that I decided this would be the year to learn.

In July, right before we left for Massachusetts, we picked 15 pounds of blueberries in about 90 minutes. Of course, the boys helped...


I was afraid we were going to miss all the action - especially peaches - while back East. One weekend right after getting back to Portland, Korin, Ryan and I headed out to a farm for marionberries. I wish we'd gotten photos - Max was on Ryan's back, and by the time we were done picking, Ryan was drenched in purpley-red berry juice. Korin graciously made jam for me, and by then I was convinced I could do it myself. Though we weren't able to pick any raspberries ourselves, I was still able to get amazing deals at our local farmer's market on flats of raspberries, marionberries, and blackberries... and then my love of preserving fruit took hold.

Picking late season blackberries on Sauvie Island.

Harvested grapes and blackberries --- from our own urban backyard! Our neighbor's grapes are draped into our yard, and wow, I had no idea how amazing fresh grapes are. Next year, we'll be making grape jam for sure!

Over the past month, I have canned and frozen an extraordinary amount of fruit for the boys. I feel so abundant and blessed to have such beautiful fruit to give them all winter long. All the fruit was local, and it feels good to know that over the winter, I can just buy local apples to give them fresh fruit, and the rest will come from my own pantry. For my first season of ever doing this, I think I kicked some serious ass! The peaches specifically were so easy and so, so delicious that I canned a TON. Don't ask me how I/we managed to do this with two toddlers under foot. It was definitely hard, and many, many afternoons I stood by the sink in the kitchen, peeling peaches while the boys whined and threatened to pull my pants off by the legs, wondering why I was making such efforts. Most of the work was done at night - their 7pm bedtime helped.

Two nights ago, we finished the exhausting work of preserving into the night, and today I stowed away all the jars in our cabinets and in the garage. Here's what we got:



Frozen
Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries and Marionberries:
4 gallon bags
17 quart bags
(this does not include what we've already eaten, which must be 2 gallon bags by now!)

Basil Pesto - 15 1/2 pints

Canned
Peaches
22 quarts of sliced peaches in low-sugar syrup
8 pints of low-sugar jam

Marionberry - low-sugar jam
2 quarts
7 pints

Blackberry - low-sugar jam
8 pints
1/2 pint jars - 3

Raspberry - - low-sugar jam
1 quart
3 pints
1/2 pint jars - 9

Tangerine Slices (canned by Korin!)
7 quarts

Strawberry-Raspberry low-sugar jam
2 pints

Blueberry Butter
1/2 pint jars - 7
1 pint

Barlett Pear Slices
10 quarts

Totals:
32 quarts sliced fruit
29 pint jars of jam/butter
19 half pint jars of jam/butter

"raspberry, jazzberry, razzamatazberry"

ta da!

One fun thing that's been going on, pretty much since the boys' birthday a few weeks ago is that they are imitating songs and finger plays. Laurie had taught Shoghi to clap a month or two before we left, and the boys were both starting to do the signs for more and milk, but now it seems like a giant leap in understanding has taken place.

signing "more" after his first ice cream cone during our visit to cape cod.

My mom, dad, and I sang songs with them quite a bit, and now they will make the hand motions for pat-a-cake, 5 little monkeys jumping on a bed, some of them from the wheels on the bus, peek-a-boo, and open, shut them. Max has mastered blowing kisses and making the "shhhhh" sound with his finger in front of his mouth.

"throw it in the oven for baby and me!"

We have a new DVD of some old Sesame Street songs, and Max has started actually singing - I kid you not - "ba-ba-bamba" and "quack-quack-qwamba"(only the ba and quacks!) to one of the songs. It is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen or heard.

This morning, Laurie was doing "ta-da!" with them, and I got these cute photos of Shoghi:



Today was a great day. I opened the back screen door and the boys went in and out of the house to the back yard for probably an hour or more. It seemed to prevent the stir-craziness that occurs here about twice a day. Our back yard isn't great - there are prickly plants in the "grass" so I have to keep them contained on the "patio" (which we call "the slab"). It started to rain and I just let them keep going:


To answer Jen's question from comments, I started giving the boys pasta when they probably each had 4 teeth. I cooked some rice pasta really soft and let them eat it with their hands. For a good month or two, I mostly fed them orzo or alphabet pasta if I wanted to give it to them. As of today, they both have 8 teeth - Shoghi has 4 front tops and bottoms, and Max has 4 top fronts, the bottom middle two, and newly the top two molars! I just stayed close and really observed them to see if they were ready for the pasta. Lately I've been giving them sauteed polenta - they really love it with marinara sauce (or pesto!). HTH!

harvesting

Since returning to Portland, Laurie and I have been in a little bit of a mad dash to gather up some more of the amazing fruits of the Pacific Northwest for our winter pantry. Since we almost completely filled our freezer with blueberries, marionberries, and blackberries in June and July, we had to expand our reach and try out canning. On Tuesday, we met after work and took the boys out to Sauvie Island Farm to pick basil and late season blackberries.

While Laurie and I took turns picking and watching the boys, they reached for every berry at arm's length, munching on berries in all stages of ripeness. They had fun, and so did we!




While we were out there, we also got 20 pounds of peaches, and a bunch of bartlett pears. Yesterday we combined our efforts and juggled watching the boys with putting up the goods. We did 9 pints of pesto and 7 quarts of peaches in a light syrup.


Aside from how hard it was to do this with two toddlers under foot, I was impressed at how quickly we managed to get it all done. The canning itself was as easy as Korin has always promised.

The boys absolutely love the pesto, and will gobble down an entire peach if given the opportinuty. After having fresh pesto with penne last night for dinner, the boys and I had scrambled eggs with pesto and tomatoes this morning for breakfast. I just love that they are into eating such great foods!!

baby fave foods

At 11 months old (gasp! their 11-mo bday was yesterday!), the twinnies are eating a ton of foods! Admittedly, I've been leaning a little too heavily on fruits, so their enthusiasm for veggies is a little less than I'd like it to be, but all-in-all, eating is progressing quickly and with lots of fun and smiles. In just another month, I'll be making two huge changes by adding egg whites and switching the boys to cow's milk from formula. I have to say, I'm very glad our time of using formula is coming to a close; it just is too weighty emotionally for me. Not only does it serve as a constant reminder that I never could breastfeed them exclusively, it's also a sadness in that I just couldn't afford to continue giving them Earth's Best (or as we call it, Earth's Most Expensive). I hate to think of the garbage that's in the formula we use, what with all the corn, soy, and GMOs. It will be nice to serve them something as simple as a little organic milk.

The boys love to eat off our plates, so if we eat with them, it's inevitably one bite for mama, a bite for the twins!

The first meal we all shared as a family continues to be a staple. Split pea soup with yam and ginger is a favorite, especially when Laurie makes us some fresh bread to go along with it. She's even been making it with flax meal to replace the egg so the boys can eat it! Here's the recipe, in case you're looking for a savory, delicious soup that can also serve as one of your baby's early foods:

Yam & Split Pea Soup with Ginger

2c dried split peas (green is my preference)
3 medium yams or sweet potatoes, diced
3 leeks, diced
2T fresh grated or minced ginger
4 celery stalks, diced
3 carrots, diced
1t salt
3T Bragg's Aminos or soy sauce
1/8t cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients except cayenne pepper in large pot or crock pot, and cover to 2" above veggies with water or stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 2 hours or until all the ingredients are soft. Serve as-is or blend to create a smoother soup.

***

Since Laurie went back to work, managing the household needs has become a big challenge for both of us. We all need to have easy, delicious foods prepped and ready, and finding the time to do that has been hard. A couple of weeks ago, I used the time with my sitter to grocery shop and cook several meals, and that's what I have on tap for today, too. Last time, I made a crock pot chicken, riboletta soup, the split pea soup above, Rachel Ray's mac & cheese with butternut squash, and since it was Laurie's birthday, I also made the delicious Shanghai Ham she loves so much - all in just 4 hours. I doubt I'll be quite that accomplished today, but I do hope to make at least 3 dishes, including the mac and cheese. I'm not sure what the other two will be yet, but I'm thinking dalh, some kind of casserole with whole grains and lots of veggies, and maybe a big pot of oatmeal cooked with fruits and a little cinnamon. Better make room in the freezer!

Shoghi taking a first bite of rice pasta.

What are your favorite whole foods recipes that both your babies and the rest of your family loves?

day to day

Today was a good day. It started off with a good night for les enfants, and then flowed into a sweet cuddle for we three in bed, the coffee and playtime, our dear and wonderful caregiver was with the boys while Sister and I went to a Marketing for Mama Micro-Business Owners session that I held (part 2 in a series), and then this afternoon proceeded to be easy and nice. Went to post office, shopped for new pants, magazines for Treasure Mapping, and printed photos, came home and made delicious dinner... The only bad thing that happened was that my sis got a migraine and poor little Max has his first ever runny nose, which is unimaginably pathetic and earned him lots of snuggles and extra TLC at bedtime tonight.

Laurie and I have been cooking dinnerfrom scratch almost every night!
We have a core of weekly menu items, and add one new recipe a week. Last week, it was this fantastic butternut squash pizza - we made it with chevre instead of milk-based cheese.

Things are evolving nicely, I have to say. Here are some photos of our daytime antics:

Max, playing with his wooden rattle.

Shoghi is so mobile, he has taken to carrying things around in his mouth!

I just love how they can both manage to find their way over to me, now, and climb all over me. Shoghi is just like a little Sunny Beaudelaire (sp?), biting everything with those two little teeth, so you gotta watch out!

Max can now sit for quite a couple of minutes, completely unassisted!
Just look at that darling smile, would you??

Nights continue to progress. Bedtime is a multi-hour process that takes us all the way back to a 2:30 nap (which sometimes lasts until 4!), then playtime or a walk, dinner, then a full half hour of time without clothing, which the boys LOVE. Their typically challenging late afternoon demeanors are almost always transformed when every last stitch of clothing is removed, and they roll around, cooing, playing, and practicing all of their new moves until the mood shifts again, and it is time for pajamas, bedtime stories, and bottles. Then we bring them upstairs (usually Max first) and do a little crib-side routine for each of them. Actual bedtime still involves mmore unhappiness than I would like, but we're working on it.

Shoghi loves to look at us upside down - it makes him laugh every time.

Snuggling with mama - it's almost bedtime!

One of Shoghi's many amazing physical feats!
These boys can hit more yoga poses than I can!

accomplishments

Part of the joy of being in our own space, I am discovering, is doing the work associated with taking care of my family. I just wanted to share some of the other ways my/our life has changed, and managing a household is one of them. I didn't think it would be a joyful change, so the fact that it is seems like a brilliant gift.

For starters, over the past week I have been working very hard to create a schedule that works for the boys and for me. It's shaping up! This is key to getting anything at all accomplished. They nap at 10 and 2 now, with a third shorter nap at 5 or 6, then bedtime is btw 7:30 and 8. We have "scheduled" book and music time! I know it might sound weird, but the predictability helps me know what to do with them, and when I can go out with them, and when, on good days, I can get stuff done. In addition, this regular schedule seems to be helping poor little Maxy get some better rest. I got some good advice about his fussy predicament and took it to heart. Today he has slept for more than an hour at both naps!

naked and semi-naked times have taken hold in our daily schedule.
here are the boys in their brand new fuzzy bunz cloth diapers.

We've been making Korin's awesome beef/veggie lasagna, which only takes about 20 minutes to put together, and last night we tried this recipe for cream scones, replacing the milk for coconut milk like K does. They were beautiful, but a terrible failure because we thought we'd try adding baking soda in the place of the baking powder we didn't have. Ever wonder about that? Well, it tastes gross, so avoid our mistake.

yummy-looking but terrible-tasting scones.

Today I feel most accomplished, having made this delicious chicken crock pot dish and even fresh bread, which is rising as I type. I modified the chicken dish by adding carrots, garlic and some sweet potatoes right at the end... YUM! I also managed to swiffer the floor! All while my children napped!

the meal's a-cookin'

Can you even imagine what a relief it is, to have them sleep and be able to get some things done? I mean, this is not a small deal for me, as even before I had kids I would resort to the simplest of meals. Seeing Korin cook meals every day really inspired me, though, and made me see that it is possible, and only requires that you do some menu planning and get things done whenever you have a moment. I'm really proud of this, and also the fact that I'm cleaning up our living room every night, either before the boys sleep or after. It makes such a difference to come down to a room that's clear of toys and stuff, knowing we're starting a day fresh. Again, I didn't used to be much of a neat person, so this is real change for me! I like to clean it up as a part of the bedtime routine so they get used to seeing all their little things put away and can associate that with a calming down.

the living room at the height of the day.

And speaking of accomplishments, dear Shoghi got his first tooth today! It was a pretty intense process, especially in the 2 or 3 days prior to the big eruption, but we can just barely see it now, and I'm so relieved for him! Yay Shoghi! Max's gums don't seem at all swollen, so I'm guessing he's got a while to go.