Cooking Shortcuts

I really enjoy cooking, but I don't always want to spend a lot of time prepping a meal. I can do parts of the prep work throughout the day, and Cambry is good at playing in her jumper in the kitchen or sitting in her high chair with toys watching me. However, it seems like there are always other things to get done so I don't want to use a bunch of time cooking.

Lately I have been taking a few shortcuts like using frozen pre-chopped veggies (like onions) instead of fresh, using a tube of cilantro paste instead of chopping fresh, or leaving out some ingredients if they are difficult. And for rice I just buy the 90 second bags of plain brown rice. I kind of hate doing that because I'm cheap, but sometimes the desire to save time trumps the desire to save money.

I have a few quick go-to meals for those nights when there is no time for prep, and am looking for more. One of my quick meals is breakfast for dinner. We used to do this every Sunday night but ended up getting a little burned out on it. We do eggs over easy and turkey bacon on english muffins and smoothies. We still do this fairly often but not every Sunday. Doing a super easy Sunday dinner is one of my goals in order to make Sundays as relaxed as possible. I don't do anything fancy on Sundays.

One of my other go-to meals is stir fry. I almost always have the ingredients on hand and it is really easy to do - no chopping (except for chicken) and no measuring. I do have fancier stir fry recipes that I make sometimes, but when it comes to a quick dinner I just keep it simple. The frozen bags of stir fry veggies and pepper/onion blend are great. Add some soy sauce or other sauce, cashews or sesame seeds, and it is a great quick meal.

My last go-to meal is tilapia. We almost always have frozen tilapia fillets on hand. They thaw out so quickly, and all I do is pan fry them with some olive oil and seasoning.

If all else fails then I eat a Healthy Choice meal. I usually only buy them when Greg is out of town. I am too lazy to cook anything if it is just for me.

Play Date

I went to a play date last week with some of the other moms in our Sunday school class. I think Cambry enjoyed being around all the other babies, and I definitely enjoyed chatting with my friends. Kellie took a picture of all the little ones. Considering no one is screaming or crying in the picture and most are looking in the general direction of the camera, I think it was a huge success! I need to start taking more pictures at play dates because I think it will be fun too look at pictures of Cambry with other little babies and see how they change over the years.

Thanks Kellie for the pictures!

(Callie Beth, Wes, Carter, Roane, Zachary, Cambry, Maelee, Max)

Happy 4th!

We had a nice 4th of July yesterday. It was fun to have family time since Greg had a day off work. It was kind of nice that it fell in the middle of the week because it felt like an extra mini weekend. Although if I was the one working I would rather have a 3 day weekend. We did some stuff around the house and then went to the pool in the afternoon. We had friends over in the evening for dinner and games, which is always fun. Of course I had to dress little one up and take pictures. This is our niece Hollyn's dress - it is size 12-18 months but it fit Cambry -ha! I tied a blue ribbon on it to add some patriotic flare. Why is it so fun to dress up babies for holidays?

By the way, Cambry's new thing is to scrunch up her nose and breath in and out of her nose real fast. It is so funny. It's like one day she just discovered her face could do that and now she does it all the time. She is doing it a little bit in some of the pictures, but not full out.

Boutique and Grocery Shopping

Is it just me or does there seem to be no baby boutiques in Houston? Well I just discovered one - Dimples. I think it has been there about a year but I just found out about it.

It is on 19th street in the Heights. It is really cute. Their stuff is pricey, but that is to be expected from a boutique. They had some really adorable clothes and accessories. Bows/headbands/clips are my weakness so I got 2 flower clips for Cambry. They stay in pretty well too. Anyway, they aren't paying me or anything to write this, I just wanted to share since I have been looking for a cute baby boutique and finally found one!

Speaking of shopping, this week I put Cambry in the child seat in the cart for the first time. I know I just wrote about how I love wearing her (and I still do), but since she is sitting up on her own now I was excited to use my cart cover. It only took me 10 minutes to set it up, figure out the straps, get her in, and attach her toys in the parking lot - ha, new mom alert! I think she liked it.

Town Home in Houston

Our friends are selling their town home, so I wanted to pass this info along in case anyone is looking for one in Houston, or know of anyone who is.

It is a 2 bedroom (plus study) town home located on Potomac. It is really nice - I posted a few pictures below. As of right now it is not listed on the market so you won't find it on HAR, but if you want more details email me and I will put you in contact with them.

Productive Parenting

Being a stay at home mom with one baby isn't always easy, but I do feel like I have time to get what I need to get done (most days). I know life will just get busier so I am enjoying the current pace of life.

Sometimes I don't really know what to do with Cambry or how to entertain her. We usually get out the house every day (play date, bible study, grocery store, Target, library, Grandparents house, etc). She likes being out and about so I think it is good for her (and me!) But if we spend all day at home, it can be hard to think of things to do with her.

My friend Kristen told me about this website www.ProductiveParenting.com . You can sign up to receive daily emails of simple things to do with your child according to their age. It is nothing mind blowing, but it is nice to have a new suggestion each day.

I also have some other goals for myself regarding being intentional and how I spend my time.

When I nurse Cambry in the morning after she wakes up I want to spend it praying for the day, for Greg, and for Cambry. I am tempted to use it to just check email and read blogs but lately I have been trying to spend those few minutes in prayer instead.

In my mom's group we are challenging ourselves to memorize scripture, so I have been writing each week's verse on a notecard and taping it to the wall by Cambry's changing station. I try to pick one of the verses to read outloud while I am changing her. A lot of times I forget, but i do read them when I think of it and it has really helped me to memorize them. Since I am there all the time (my friends/family tease me that I change Camry's diaper every 15 minutes, ha!) it is a great spot to have them.

When I am worried about something, I have been trying to go to the Lord first instead of google...or babycenter, or Dr. Sears, etc. It is habit to look online for answers as soon as she gets a rash or a fever or something else, but I want to make it a habit to pray first.

I have other mommy goals but those are the ones I can think of now that I have been concentrating on.

As a side note, Cambry is still hating all solid food including rice cereal, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and pears. I am thinking maybe we just take a break for a few weeks then try again? As soon as she sees the spoon coming she looks disgusted. The girl who puts EVERYTHING in her mouth will grab the spoon but will turn it around and only put the other end - the clean end - in her mouth. She is so funny.

And on another note, she has been doing so well this week with bed time! She has been so fun in the evenings. She has been in great moods, laughing and smiling and being so silly. We have so much fun making her laugh. She is so adorable we just eat it up. I think there was only 1 or 2 days this past week that she cried for a bit at bed time. Several days there was no crying at all when we laid her down awake, and then there were a couple nights like tonight where she only cried for a few seconds when we walked out of her room but then settled herself down and fell right asleep. YAY! She slept through the night twice this week, but the other nights she woke up once to eat (usually around 3 or 4 AM). Not bad at all!

Baby Wearing

I love baby wearing. I have 2 different Baby Bjorns that I bought used. I just bought the second one recently because it has better back support than the original design. I also have a Maya wrap that I use on occasion which allows me to wear Cambry on my hip.

I love my sister's Ergo carrier and would love one of those for a future baby.

I would also love to try out the Moby wrap on a future baby. I see so many people using those for their newborns and they look so nice and cozy for a baby.

I know soon Cambry will get too heavy to wear but I sure am enjoying it now.

We had fun going on a walk on the beach wearing the babies.

We thought we could do a quick walk before the storm came in, but we were wrong. We had gone down the beach a ways and had just started to turn back when the rain came. Hard.

We all started running for the house. Greg was wearing Cambry at that point. We couldn't really run fast with babies. It was kind of like the Napoleon Dynamite run where you keep your upper body and arms in place and just run with your legs. I'm sure we all looked awesome. The babies didn't even seem to mind. Kyler was on Cody's back and he was having the time of his life. He was laughing the whole way home bouncing all around in the rain.

Here are the boys wearing their babies in Galveston.

I love this picture! I think it totally looks like Greg is modeling for a Baby Bjorn ad. Love those two!