Five Question Friday

It's still Friday (barely), so I'll play!

1. Did you have a favorite blanket or toy as a kid? If so, do you still have it?

I wouldn't really say I had one favorite, at least not one that I can think of at this time.  When I was younger I did have some favorites though.  One was my Cabbage Patch doll (remember those?!) named Alice.  She was bald, dirty, ugly as sin, and rarely wore clothes, but we had some great times together.  She's currently living in my office closet.  I also spent a lot of time playing Barbies (I had a million) and "House".  I think the Barbies are probably still in my parent's basement. 


2. Do you dream in color?

Totally.  I have super vivid dreams.  My husband hates when I have a bad dream involving him making me angry because I'll wake up and still believe that it happened for a while and he'll have to take some attitude from me.  Whoops.


3. How tall are you? Do you wish you were shorter or taller?

I'm 5'1".  Pretty short. 

Overall, I don't mind being short.  I kind of like it for some things.  For one, I never had to worry about wearing heels and being taller than my date for a school dance.  I could rock some serious heels and still be pretty short. 

Sometimes I really dislike it, like when I'm trying to get something down from the spice cabinet and end up not being able to reach, or having to knock the bottle that I'm going for down with a wooden spoon and other bottles subsequently fall on my head or into whatever I'm cooking.  Or when I'm pants shopping because seriously, who do they make pants for?  They're so long.  Even short length is too long sometimes.  Don't even get me started on trying to find dresses or capris that fit off the rack.  It ain't happening.


4. If you could have anyone's (celeb or other) voice as the guide on your GPS, who would it be?

Oh!  That one guy from the Progressive commercials.  I just like him and his voice. 

Scratch that... according to Google I'm talking about the Allstate commercials and his name is Dennis Haysbert.

5. Do you return your shopping cart to the corral or leave it wherever in the parking lot?

99% of the time I return it to the cart corral because I think it's rude to leave in the middle of the parking lot.  It could hit another car.  Also, I'm sure it's really annoying to the people who have to go retrieve the carts to have to go all over the lot collecting them and I hate when they're partially blocking a spot that I want to park in. 

The only time I leave it in the lot is when a stupid store doesn't feel the need to have corrals - like the Petsmart near us - and then I'll push it up against something so it doesn't roll.  I'm not going clear back into the store to return the cart when I have a baby in the car.  That's just unreasonable.

And the Winner Is...

The winner of the eco-friendly giveaway sponsored by Mason's Eco Mom is:

Comment #1: JustCorey! 

I just sent you an email to get your shipping info!  Thanks to everyone who entered and stay tuned for another eco-friendly giveaway!

Farmer's Market Purchases!

Our first Farmer's Market experience was last weekend. I scored an amazing tomato ($1), blueberries ($4 pint), and a HUGE bunch of fragrant basil ($2.50).  The prices were comparable to those in the grocery store, but the produce was SO. MUCH. BETTER!  And it was a fun family excursion.

Here is what I used my purchases for:

Saturday afternoon, when we returned home I used the beautiful blueberries to make a homemade blueberry pie.  I just couldn't resist cooking those plump berries into a sweet treat!




Blueberry Crumble Pie

Ingredients:

1 recipe Basic Pie Dough (see recipe below)

3/4 cup plus 5 Tbs. all-purpose flour

2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbs. granulated sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. salt

8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

5 cups blueberries (Note: I used 1 pint of fresh blueberries and most of a small bag of frozen mixed berries that I needed to use up.  I really wish I had made the pie with just fresh blueberries as they were really the star of this treat!)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl, stir together the 3/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, the 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 tsp. of the cinnamon and the salt. Scatter the butter pieces on top and toss with a fork or your fingers to coat with the flour mixture. Using your fingertips or a pastry blender, work the ingredients together until the mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of large peas. Set the topping aside.

In a large bowl, combine the blueberries, the remaining 1/3 cup brown sugar, the remaining 1 tsp. cinnamon and 4 Tbs. of the flour. Stir gently to coat the blueberries evenly. Sprinkle the remaining 1 Tbs. flour and the 1 Tbs. granulated sugar over the bottom of the prebaked crust. Pour the filling into the crust, spreading it evenly.

Sprinkle the topping evenly over the blueberry filling. Bake the pie until the topping is golden brown and the blueberry filling just begins to bubble, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve at room temperature. The pie is best served the day it is baked. Makes one 9-inch pie




Basic Pie Dough Recipe:  

Ingredients:


1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 Tbs. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

8 Tbs. (1 stick) COLD unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

3 Tbs. VERY COLD water


Directions:


Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 400°F

Add flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor and pulse until combined. 

Add cubed butter to the food processor and pulse just until the butter begins to get cut into the flour mixture.  Then, slowly stream in very cold water while continuing to pulse until dough forms.

Immediately roll out dough using a rolling pin and a sprinkle of flour as needed.  Make sure to handle dough minimally as you do not want to melt the butter in the dough.  Cold butter and water will result in a delicious, flaky crust!

Transfer rolled dough to a 9-inch pie plate and pop into the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to allow it to chill.

Line piecrust with a piece of aluminum foil.  Fill with dried beans, uncooked rice, or pie weights.  Bake until the crust dries out, about 15 minutes; to check, lift an edge of the foil. Carefully remove the weights and foil. Reduce the heat to 350°F. Continue to bake until the crust is lightly browned on the edges and dry-looking on the bottom, about 5 minutes more. 

Allow crust to cool slightly and then add filling.

Pie and crust recipes adapted from Sugar & Spice by Celeste.

For dinner Sunday I made pizza with homemade crust.  Mark doesn't like tomatoes so I made 2 different kinds of pizza.  I'll give you both recipes :)




Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough


Ingredients:

2 cups whole-wheat flour1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white sugar

1 (.25 ounce) package (or 2 1/4 teaspoons of bulk) active dry yeast

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)


Directions:

Add yeast to water and mix.  Allow to activate for approximately 5 minutes or until you see bubbles/froth forming.

While yeast is activating: Measure all dry ingredients to the bowl of a mixer fitted with dough attachment.  Stir for a minute to make sure that all dry ingredients are combined. 

Add EVOO and water/yeast mixture to the bowl of mixer and turn mixer on low speed to combine.  Scrape sides of bowl with spatula as needed. 

Once all ingredients are combined turn mixer to a medium to medium-high speed and allow to knead dough for 8 minutes.

Once dough is kneaded, mixer bowl with a towel and set in a warm/non-drafty place.  Allow dough to rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Dough can be baked or grilled.

Adapted from AllRecipes

Margherita Pizza

Ingredients:

1/2 above recipe for whole-wheat pizza dough

EVOO

Finely minced garlic

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Sliced, ripe tomato

Feta Cheese

Fresh Basil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400-degrees.

Spray pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray and press dough out to approximately 10-inches in diameter.  Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Drizzle par-baked crust with EVOO and sprinkle with garlic and mozzarella cheese.  Top with tomatoes and a sprinkle of feta.

Bake for 10 minutes or until  cheese is melted and bubbly.  Pull from oven and sprinkle immediately with fresh chiffonade of basil.

Serves 1; a Confessions of a Trophy Wife original! 

Barbeque Chicken Pizza  

Ingredients:

1/2 above recipe for whole-wheat pizza dough

Favorite BBQ Sauce

Grilled Chicken, Sliced  (I usually utilized leftovers for this!)

Shredded Monterey-Jack cheese

Bacon Crumbles (or real bacon pieces)

Thinly Sliced Red Onion

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400-degrees.

Spray pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray and press dough out to approximately 10-inches in diameter. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Drizzle par-baked crust with BBQ sauce and spread over dough.  Top with sliced grilled chicken, cheese, bacon, and onion.

Bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.  Pull from oven and drizzle with some additional BBQ sauce.

Serves 1; a Confessions of a Trophy Wife original! 




Later in the week, I used the rest of the basil to make homemade pesto.  I used some in pesto chicken (another original recipe!) and froze the rest to use for a later date.



Pesto   

Ingredients:

2-3 cups fresh basil

1/2 c. parmesean cheese

1/2 c. walnuts

2-3 cloves garlic (depending on the size)

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

(approximately) 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (just drizzle in until a thick sauce texture forms)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until chopped and combined.  Slowly stream in EVOO (approximately 1/2 cup) until a thick, sauce-like texture forms.

Can be used immediately to flavor pasta, chicken, soups, etc.  Or, freeze for later use in an ice cube tray or in tablespoons on a baking sheet.

A Confessions of a Trophy Wife original!

My Manifesto

If you pay attention to my "what I'm reading now" widget (I don't know if anyone does...) you may already know that I recently finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

This book is... amazing... brilliant... eye-opening... life changing... awesome.  I don't think I can say enough good things.  If you haven't read this yet read it!  NOW!  Although, I am going to warn you, it may make you want to move "off the grid" and never trust grocery store food again.  You have been warned. 

This wonderful, educational book, coupled with the horror documentary Food, Inc....

...and in addition to some of my own independent research has led to a change in thinking about food.  The food available to consumers to buy and the food that my family consumes. 

The conclusion that I have reached is we must "Vote with our food dollars" as Pollan says in his book and choose foods that are better for us.  I no longer find the general produce, poultry, and meats available in our local supermarket sufficient and I, the cheapest, err... thriftiest person around, am willing to pay more for a better product as that product is so important to the health of my family and especially my baby's - who is hurtling full steam ahead towards solids - delicate system and rapidly growing body.

Honestly, the aforementioned items are too important and in-depth to efficiently summarize here, but what it boils down to is the food industry is just that, industrialized.  We have eradicated small farming in favor of mega-farms which mass-produce cheaper, crappier products.  This has resulted in major economical, social, and health ramifications.  In our society cost is the bottom line, not quality.  And that is a scary thing when we're talking about the vitamins and nutrients that keep us alive and thriving. 

Now, I am a cheap person.  I'm always looking for a way to cut costs and do/get things for a cheaper price.  Why pay more when you don't have to? is pretty much my motto.  But there is a delicate balance between cost and quality.  It's not worth paying less for an item if it's severely lacking in quality.  And based on my reading, and watching, and researching we have been spending our money on far inferior products and I'm not willing to do it anymore.  Not only are the products inferior, but I'll go as far as saying that the products we have been ingesting may even be dangerous to our health.  I am not willing to compromise on the food that I put into my baby's body, so why should I compromise on what my husband or I am eating?  This is the question that has lead to a few changes around here as well as some changes I am planning to make in the near future. 

First, I am doing my best to make processed foods at home.  I already do a lot of cooking at home, but I am planning to start making all of our bread products.  I want to know what goes into our processed foods and have control over the ingredients.  It is possible to buy high-quality breads at the store, but they are fairly expensive (like 3-4 times more expensive than store brand whole-wheat sandwich bread that we usually buy) and this is a place where I have the ability to save some money and I enjoy making bread.  Win - win. 

Second, I am going to begin reducing/eliminating the use of some staples in my baking and cooking. 

     - White refined sugar will be replaced by sucanat, which is an organic whole cane sugar that is unrefined, naturally evaporated, and minimally processed in such a manner that it preserves all the vitamins and minerals.

     - White flour will be replaced by whole-wheat and spelt flours.  I usually bake with at least half white AP flour, half whole-wheat flour, but I'm going to try to cut back even further or completely eliminate the white flour.  In addition, I'm going to try some grain soaking techniques to make the grains easier for our bodies to digest and extract nutrients from.

     - Canola/Vegetable oils will be replaced with olive oil (for cooking) and coconut oil (for baking).  Canola and vegetable oils are not naturally occurring while olive and coconut oils are.  I already use olive oil for cooking, but coconut oil is new to me.

     - Margarine will be replaced by butter.  Margarine is essentially solid, colored, spreadable vegetable oil.  Butter is better for you and tastier.  I already use butter exclusively for baking I just need to use it for cooking and spreading.

Additionally:

     - I want to start purchasing organic produce according to the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 breakdown.

     - I'm going to avoid all processed foods as well as anything with high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, or any derivative of such. 

     - I want to start purchasing local free range eggs and chicken and grass-fed beef.  This is likely something that will happen a little further down the road after we have already made some changes.

     - We are going to start eating locally as often as possible.  This is easy to accomplish in Ohio during the Late Spring/Summer/Early Fall as there are a plethora of farmer's markets all over the place.  There's nothing better than fresh, vine-ripened produce farmed with mindful techniques.  The taste puts imported grocery-store produce to shame and the prices are comparable since you are buying directly from the source.  Also, you have the benefit of being able to speak directly with the farmer who picked your produce for questions and tips, not to mention that produce was picked recently as in yesterday or a few days ago.  And the person selling you the product can answer this question because they were likely there when it happened.  To find farmer's markets in your area visit LocalHarvest.org.  Next year, I hope to talk Mark into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share.

So, that's my plan for improving the health of my family through the food we consume.  Yes, these changes are going to cost more money, but in my opinion, that money will be well spent and that says a lot coming from me. 

Tomorrow, I'll share what I purchased on my first Farmer's Market excursion and what I made with my purchases!

An Eco-Friendly Review & Giveaway!

Sponsored by:

Mason's Eco Mom is an awesome shop on Etsy which features all sorts of fun hand-crafted, eco-friendly items for momma and baby like cup cozys, bibs, cloth nursing pads, and cloth wipes.  Her prices are very reasonable and her items are very cute! 

Note: If you have yet to check out Etsy, get thee to the site right now!  It's a wonderful online community of unique, imaginative, quality, handcrafted items.  I can spend hours on there just "window shopping" and exploring all the fun things people have listed.

Mason's Eco Mom provided me the opportunity to review a set of her cloth wipes.

And I have to say, I LOVE these!  As y'all know we cloth diaper.  We have been using disposable wipes that were left over from the first few weeks of Jack's life when we were still using sposie diapers and the most annoying thing about disposable wipes is you have to separate them from the cloth diaper.  The used diaper has to go into the diaper pail and the wipe has to be thrown into the trash generating waste and something else to deal with.  But with cloth wipes, you can throw them right into the diaper pail along with the diapers and throw them right in with the laundry on wash day!  How cool is that?  One less thing to worry about.

The other really great thing about these cloth wipes is they have 2 textures.

 

One side is a nice soft, thick flannel and the other is birdseye, which has a texture to it.  The great thing about the birdseye is that it has just enough texture to help with wiping the ucky messes, but it's still soft enough to be gentle on baby's delicate bum.  Because you can utilize both sides of this single cloth you really only need one per diaper change unless of course there is an extreme situation, which does happen. 

I've been using a homemade wipe solution that I made by mixing a squirt of Dr. Bronner's with water in a squirt bottle.  It sits at room temperature so when it's time for a change I just squirt it directly on the wipe and we're ready to go.  I tend to squirt the soluntion on the textured side of the wipe, use, and then fold the wipe to the still dry flannel side to make sure everything is fully clean and dry.  This has worked very well for us and 1 wipe per change (even with dirty diapers!) vs. the 3-4 we usually need with disposable wipes is so nice! 

Overall, these are a great wipe and I've loved using them!  I would fully recommend them to any cloth diapering family, but even if you use sposies they would be good to use because they're so much nicer on baby's delicate skin and you're in control of what's going on their bum instead of using chemical-laden wipes.

Mason's Eco Mom has graciously provided to one lucky reader the chance to win one of her other fabulous products:

A set of 3 reuseable cloth nursing pads! 

Now, admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about nursing pads as I never had a need for them with my lack of milk and all, but if I had to deal with an extra layer of fabric in my bra I would want it to be these! 

First, the prints are too cute.  You don't get that with the disposable kind.  And second, they are SO soft!  Each pad is made with 3 layers of white flannel (soft and absorbant!) and 1 outer layer of beautiful cotton.  Seems to me that using these would improve the whole leaking milk situation : )

To buy any of the products discussed and more visit Mason's Eco Mom's Etsy shop.

To win it:

You have several chances to win please read carefully and leave a separate comment for each entry you have completed!

Mandatory Entry: 

Follow me publicly with Google Friend Connect (button located on sidebar to the right).

Additional Entries:

- Visit Mason's Eco Mom and tell us what other product you would like to try other than the nursing pads OR what product you would like to see her carry.

- Vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs.  This can be done once per day.  Remember to leave a separate comment for every entry.  (Button located on sidebar to the right)

- Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following: "Win an Eco-Friendly #giveaway from @Stefibeth.  Sponsored by Mason'sEcoMom!  http://snipurl.com/zs9xr ".  This can be done once per day.  Remember to leave a separate comment for every entry.

- Grab my button and put it on your blog or website.  Leave me the link to where it is located in your comment.

- If you use cloth wipes, share what you use for wipe solution.  If you do not use cloth wipes, tell us something you have done recently to become more eco-friendly.

Giveaway will close Thursday, July 29th at 12pm EST and a winner will be chosen via Random.org.  Thanks for participating!

4 Months!

Being that Jackers is closer to 5 months now than 4 I'm a little behind on posting these pictures.  It has taken me a while to upload them from my camera to the computer, but without further ado... the cuteness:

Jack is SO CLOSE to sitting up on his own.  He has total control on the sitting up part and can do so with minimal assistance, but he hasn't quite got the balance thing yet and will just topple to the side in a sitting position if you don't help him stay up. 

He hasn't started on any solids yet, but his night time sleep hours have become a little erratic recently so this might be a sign that it's time for a little bit of cereal.  We'll see.  He's still mostly sleeping through the night, but he's been waking in the morning a little earlier and occasionally will wake for a night time feeding.  We've also had a couple of harder nights with getting him to sleep, but I think that may be due to teething as he's definitely showing signs of this and has been for a while now.  He's still sleeping in our room overnight. 

His two favorite toys are Sophie the Giraffe and his feet.  He tries really hard to get his toes in his mouth, but only succeeds sometimes.  He's very interested in grabbing them though.  He also has been chewing on his hands a lot probably due to the teething.  His new favorite toy is his Jumparoo!  This kid loves to kick his legs all day long so the Jumparoo is a perfect outlet for him.  He goes crazy in this thing!  I'll have to do a separate post on this soon complete with pictures and video so that you can experience the sheer joy of him in his Jump Jump.

He's doing better with naps.  On average, he usually will go down for 3 naps a day (late morning, afternoon, and early evening) sleeping for about 45 minutes at a time and he's been napping in his crib.  However, some days are better than others with the napping.  I wouldn't say he's too consistent with this and we REALLY have trouble transitioning him from sleeping in our arms to sleeping in the crib.  As soon as his hiney touches that mattress it's like an instant alarm waking him up, but if we put him down before he's fully asleep he won't go to sleep.  It can be very frustrating at times!  We're hoping he grows out of this! 

What else has been going on...  he's been rolling from tummy to back for a while now, but he won't do it all the time.  At his doctor's appointment last week she put him down on his tummy and he flipped right over 1-2-3!  I guess he wanted to show off for Dr. T!  He now weighs 14lb 5oz (50th percentile) and is 24 1/4 inches in length (around 75th percentile).  Still long and lean!  He has *almost* outgrown his 0-3 month onesies, but not quite.  We did buy some 3-6 monthers last week so they're all ready to go!

And his newest interest is our faces.  Recently he has begun reaching out for our faces to feel them (and sometimes pinch, slap, or scratch them, OUCH!) and he's also interested in touching our mouths, especially when we talk.  I love it!  It's like you can see the wheels turning in his head:

"why does momma's cheek feel softer than daddy's?"
"what's this thing moving for?"
"how about this thing on the side of their head, what's that?"
"And all this soft stuff hanging off of momma's head, it's really easy for me to grab and pull!"

I got mah hairz did

FINALLY!  My locks have been craving some pampering for a while! 

However, when you're baking a human and then tending to said tiny, defenseless babe your looks and upkeep tend to go by the wayside.  Thankfully, Mark was on vacation from work on Friday and I got a tip that the salon was offering 20% off services for short-notice appointments so I took advantage and got a trim! 

*sigh* MUCH better!  Of course most of you don't know what a mess it looked like before, but basically just imagine a limp, shapeless, overdue for a trim, split-end mess.  It was to the point where I didn't even like to wear it down.  ICK! 

Sale @ Restaurant.com!

Use coupon code "FUN" for:

$10 certificates for $0.80

$20 certificates for $2 

This is a great way to save some cash while eating at restaurants you love or a great opportunity to get a discount while trying a new place!  Simply go to the website and enter your zip code to find participating restaurants near you.  Just make sure that you read the fine print because some restaurants have specific restrictions such as certificates only being valid Sunday - Thursday, or a minimum purchase requirement. 

I love using Restaurant.com to save some money while dining out because as we all know, eating at a restaurant is expensive!

Sale ends July 12th!

An Award!

And I don't even have a speech prepared! 

A big Thank You! to Kaley @ A Tale of Three Poags for my very first blog award!  I'm too excited! 


Here are the rules for accepting this award:

(1) thank the person who gave it to you
(2) tell 7 things about yourself
(3) pass the award on to some marvelous bloggers, whom you have recently discovered and think are fantastic.


7 randoms about me that you may or may not already know:

 - If something is really popular it tends makes me like it less.  I guess I get burnt out easily.

 - I could eat cheap Mexican food every time we go out to eat.  It's my favorite and it ALWAYS tastes better in a restaurant.

 - I prefer driving in the far left-hand lane so that I don’t feel like I’m going to be squashed between the other cars.  People be crazy.

 - I’m totally phobic about going places by myself.

 - I love carbs.  Pasta.  Potatoes.  Bread (::drools:: especially bread!).  I love it all.  For proof please see my tuchus. 

 - I love hand-crafted items and I wish I were cool enough and talented enough to make everything myself.

 - I love the movie Grease. I can sing and dance along to every song. My favorite part is at the end when Sandy comes to the graduation festival looking like a bad girl, but that’s probably everyone’s favorite part.


So now you know me a little better! 


I am nominating the following blogs to receive the Versatile Blogger award:

The Domestic Wannabe

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Life

Cowboy Boots and Baby Booties


I lovingly stalk your blogs ladies!

Patriotic Baby!

Here's a shot of Jack in his 4th of July outfit purchased by Pa and Uncle Tom!  He's currently working on sitting up and you can see that even though he started falling over as I was trying to get a good shot he was still able to help support himself by putting his arm out.  I think he'll be sitting on his own mighty soon! 

The Great Vomisode 2010

Our entire household has been battling a cold since last week.  I came down with the nasties last Wednesday and proceeded to barely sleep that night due to congestion.  When I woke up on Thursday morning to feed Jack his morning bottle I discovered that he too had been blessed with a snotty nose.  I'm half awake feeding him a bottle in bed and I'm silently praying that he'll go back to sleep quickly after finishing up the last ounce he had left of the bottle so that I could try to get a bit more sleep before getting up for the day.  Things looked promising. 

That is until he proceeded to projectile vomit the contents of his belly all over the place.  What I have yet to understand is how 5 ounces of liquid going in turns into about a gallon coming back out?  Because Jack did not throw up 5 ounces.  He threw up a bucket of liquid. 

Said projectile vomit went all over him.  All over me.  On 2 comforters.  A blanket.  A flat sheet.  And even managed to soak through the flat sheet to to the fitted sheet and leave a spot on the mattress itself.  It was EVERYWHERE! 

Thank goodness Mark hadn't left for work yet and was able to rescue me and my vomit covered self because nothing is worse that sitting there helplessly covered in vomit with a baby on your lap who is also covered in vomit and not knowing how to move from the spot you are in without creating more of a mess.  YUCK!  And poor Jack... I think this whole vomisode stemmed from the phlemmy nasal congestion he had.  Poor baby. 

After a quick strip and a speed shower with Daddy, Jack was as good as new.  Babies can be messy, but they do clean up remarkably well.  I also managed to clean myself up and eventually the baby was fed and back to sleep.  However, I was left with a mountain of bedding covered in baby vomit.  What to do...? 

I hate washing bedding.  It's so bulky and annoying.  Washing sheets isn't a problem, but I hate hate hate having to wash the rest of the stuff.  There's just no good way to do it other than taking it down to the giant washers and dryers at the laundromat, but seriously, who wants to do that?  So we very inefficiently washed each comforter separately and hung them outside to dry.  They are now fresh and cleaned without too much of a hassle. 

The last item of bedding that needs to be washed is an electric blanket.  Yes, it's 95 degrees outside and I still have an electric blanket on the bed.  I get cold.  Don't judge me.  How the heck do you wash an electric blanket?  The tag specifically says NOT to dry clean.  Surely you can't submerge it in water... right?  Wrong.  According to the care tag, the proper way to wash an electric blanket is to submerge it in soapy water for exactly 2 minutes and then pull it out to dry on low. 

??? 

Now how is this task going to be accomplished neatly?  Because I'm fairly certain that I'm not going to be able to submerge the blanket into soapy water and scrub the vomit out in exactly 2 minutes just to then pull the sopping, wet mess out of the water and transfer it to the dryer.  It'll drip everywhere and be completely saturated with water!  *sigh* Someone did not think out the whole process very well. 

I'm honestly considering shoving the blanket into the depths of a closet and doing my best to just forget about the whole mess.  Never to be heard from again. 

Remember When We Celebrated Holidays ON Holidays?

Today's rant is brought to you by communities who feel the 4th of July should be celebrated on a day other than the holiday's namesake. 

It isn't called the 3rd of July.  It isn't called the 2nd of July.  It's called the 4th of July because it's commemorating an important event - my birthday.  ;) 

Yeah, my birthday is on July 4th, which pushes Independence Day over into the realm of greatest holiday ever.  When I was younger I thought July 4th was the greatest day to have a birthday because there's built in fun - parades, fireworks, cook outs, who doesn't love the 4th of July?!  Nobody*.  That's who.  This year I'll be 24 and I still think July 4th is the coolest day evah to have a birthday. 

I like to associate with people who also have birthdays on July 4th.  Like my husband.  That's really the only reason I married him.  We discovered the night we met that we shared a birthday.  We were clearly meant to be.  That's right, I have to share my most awesomest birthday day with the hubs.  It's okay though because he doesn't care about his birthday as much as I do so I can be a special day hog, which I am. 

Thank goodness Jack was a February baby.  A whole family filled with July 4th birthdays would have been just weird. 

But what's the deal with communities celebrating July 4th on a different day?  When I was younger the holiday was actually celebrated ON the holiday.  Crazy, I know.  The last few years I've seen a disconcerting trend in communities who have their celebratory activities on a different day.  Not because of weather, but just for the heck of it, it seems.  Odd. 

This year, I'm not sure if all of the U.S. just doesn't feel that holidays are sacred anymore, or if July 4th falling on a Sunday gives people the vapors for some reason, but it seems like every community in the area is having their festivities on any day, but July 4th.  Some fireworks are tonight, some festivals are tomorrow afternoon/evening, but I'm actually unaware of any local area who is having fireworks on the 4th so they are certainly not in the majority.

Am I alone in thinking that celebrating on a different day than the actual holiday undermines the importance and original meaning of the holiday?

I think I'll just start celebrating all holidays on random days.  For example, henceforth, my birthday shall be celebrated on the 1st Saturday in the month of July.  Why?  Because I like Saturdays.  Christmas will be the 3rd Thursday in the month of December.  Why?  Because it maximizes holiday time off from work as most employers will give you a pity day off for the day after Christmas if it falls on a Thursday.  I'll just go ahead and re-write when I'll celebrate holidays with no regard for what the holiday stands for or when it's meant to be celebrated.

*Excepting Canadians of course. My condolences**.

**I kid!  I kid!  Some of my favourite (<- eh?) people are Canadian.  True story.