Just photos from Juy 5th to present

Early July: Loki!

Grandma Ardith comes to visit!

Watch Out! That dino just might bite your finger off!

Grandma Barb, Crystal, Jeanne and Loki take a walk in the woods.  This little bugger was blocking our path.  Jeanne helped us say SHOO, and away he went.

I do so love dragonflies... and they are everywhere here...

Isn't she beautiful?  She loves exploring the woods as much as mommy does!

Loki gets some nap time in with Grandma, while Jeanne and Mommy walk together.

Our little man.

Do you know how hard it is to get two kids to smile at the same time for a picture?

He can't sit up at this point yet, he's propped up in this picture.

The elusive 'mommy'  you can hardly ever see her in pictures, but see, she does exist!

Memaw and Papaw 'drop by' for a much loved visit!

I love this picture!

 

We tried several times to get a good picture of Loki with his hat on, but this boy does not sit still!

Jeanne and I got matching homemade shirts as a present (dragonfly!).  We have worn them out together several times now, she gets such a kick out of it!

Jeanne has been helping me bake in the kitchen a few times a week (this morning she helped me make dough for bread), in this picture she is holding a uber yummy chocolate cookie that SHE MADE, all by herself (well, kinda)

Hey, what are you looking at?

I painted Jeanne's, toenails, then I painted mine the same color.  Then I figured, eh, what the heck, so I painted Loki's big toe.  The rest were too small.  I got quite a few remarks about his green toes.  People are so silly.  Its just a painted toe nail!

While Daddy was in California for 6 days, my mother came over EVERY NIGHT to help me.  Without her, well, things would have been impossible.  THANK YOU MOM!  We even got to spend two whole days with her, and on the first day we went to the park.  Check out this boy in the stroller!

Big sis, RAN around the playground having a great time with Grandma Barb!

Time for SWINGS! 

Loki really loves his big sis, and will giggle with such delight to watch her play and run, and here swing beside him.

After the playground, we walked around the lake, and we met this little bugger.

..and a very large snapping turtle

...wild mushrooms

... a dear and her fawn, not 10 FEET from the trail.  If you look left and down from the deer, you will see brown with white spots, that is the very small fawn.

For some strange reason, Jeanne had been requesting to have sour cream at Grandma's house, so for lunch we had baked potatoes, covered in farm fresh veggies in season and LOCAL, with the large dollop of sour cream.  This was followed by much mayhem and the piano.

Both my husband and my mother suggested that Loki may want to EAT food (this was close to 5 months), I dismissed them, but they persisted.  I bought brown rice cereal, and let him try it.  With a shake of his head, he looked at the spoon, focused his eyes, GRABBED the spoon and carefully plunged it back into his mouth.  OK, I said, maybe he wants to eat.

Grandma bought a sunflower at the farmers market, and Loki loved it as much as Jeanne did at this age!

DADDY'S HOME!!!!  Both babes greeted him with big smiles and hugs.  Here is Loki kissing his Daddy.

Daddy just got off a very, very long plane ride....  He's tired, but happy to be home.

Sorry I haven't posted more frequently.  Things have been hard here at the Baker home, frantic at times.  We're still here though, and our family is still trying to find happiness in each day.  We are very lucky to have such supportive parents and friends.  We love you!

P.S.  Jeanne is constantly stumping adults, they all expect her to be 3 or 4 due to her use of language, and Loki has so far had avocado, sweet potato, bananas and brown rice cereal.  He is currently 23 weeks old or 5 months, depending what you want to count.  He has officially entered the 'eating zone' and I have got to get my but in gear and start making him his baby food!

Long time away

Sorry for the lack of update.... I feel super busy lately.  Let's see.  Hubbers went to San Diego for 6 days and my mom came over EVERY NIGHT to help me with the kids.  We were also lucky enough to have whole  days with her near the end of the week.  Then we were all consumed with spending all out time with Daddy.

I have a TON of pictures to upload, will try to do tonight... (read TRY), including ones form our visit with Granma Ardith! (so long ago).

 OK, my two minutes free time are up, Loki requires me to hold his toy for him.

Love you!

Cooking day!

The family slept the latest today we have all week long! 6:20 am. Then we all started cooking! While drinking my coffee I started some yogurt in my slow cooker and made 'Southern Pesto' (from wildly affordable organic), and started thawing some bread dough to bake later today. While I don't have a food processor, I made due with our blender. It "worked", but with my having to stir a whole lot. It uses parsley, walnuts, olive oil and parmesan cheese and was really good!

For breakfast hubbers made 'fried' tomatoes topped with my pesto. Whoa goodness!
(I tried rocking Loki down, no go)

Then Jeanne and I baked chocolate drop cookies (from same cook book). (hubbers tried to rock Loki down, no go). The cookies came out really well and Jeanne loved helping me in the kitchen.

Now, I am locked away in my bedroom with Loki asleep in his carrier. He finally fell asleep for his 'morning' nap at 11:20 am. Lite bugger.

Hubbers is planning lunch now. I can't wait to find out what it will be!

Rain and the Farmers Market: State Farmers Market Raleigh

Well, none of us slept well last night.  We (and by that I mean me) woke up in the middle of the night, shocked by the loud, vibrating, thunder.  I woke Paul hurriedly and asked him to get Jeanne, as I was sure she would be frightened by the loud noise at 4:30am.  Hubbers shuffled his way into her room, and I listened to him through the monitor quietly enter her room (shuffle, rustle, rustle........ shuffle).  Hubbers was walking back to our room. He brought a dead, asleep Jeanne into our bed.  Apparently it was mommy that needed extra snuggling in the storm.  Either way, the four of us stayed in bed together for another hour.  Then all da Bakers were wide awake at 5:30 this morning.

The rain.  It doesn't rain in Raleigh like it does in Massachusetts.  First of all, if it rains in MA, it is likely it will rain for days.  It will rain when you wake up, then rain all day long, with nary a break in the showers.  In Raleigh, they report the "possibility" of rain everyday, but the percentages are always 20% and below.  If there is a 20% chance of rain, people won't leave there house "just in case".  Weird little people here, quite afraid of the precipitation. 

But this morning, it was a deluge.  Quite out of the ordinary for it to rain here in the morning anyway, it usually showers after 2pm (like it can read a clock or something).  Mom and I chose to wait a little longer before heading out, as while we won't melt in the rain, I didn't want Loki to get soaked on his way into the car.

We finally make it out of here by 8:30am
The State Farmers Market is much larger than the Western Wake, but I wouldn't say 'much' better.  Some of the prices were better (garlic was 50% cheaper, peppers were $1 cheaper), but some of the farmers were definitely selling old food.  A keen eye and patience, and we were able to get some really nice stuff!

Left to Right:
7 peaches:$5
2 yellow tomatoes: 1.50 per pound, but see honey comment)
4 red tomatoes: $3 and change
2 garlic bulbs:$1
2 red peppers:$2.50
1 green cabbage: $2 and change
box of figs:$3
2 pints of blueberries (spray free):$3
1 pound local raise sausage:$7.50
1 dozen local eggs (NOT IN PICTURE):$4
1 large 44mL local wildflower honey:$14(farmer said honey was $14, but she told me my total purchase of honey and yellow tomatoes was $14, go figure!)
bag stringless green beans:$3 and change
1 large cantaloupe:$2

Jeanne tried the figs, and really liked them.  It was my first time eating fresh figs too!  Nice texture, not too sweet.  Just right!

The honey, oh, the honey!  I think I will try to squirel away money each week for honey from different farms.  Oh, what a difference it makes.  This honey has a nice mellow, taste.  Compared to honey I buy at stores, it is lighter in color, not so sticky sweet, and leaves me smiling!

All while I was shopping, Jeanne was having breakfast with her MeMaw and Papaw!  They were sweet enough to 'stop by' on their way home (which really isn't  on their way).  Jeanne had a blast, and Loki worked his magic on them too.  Only showing smiles and cooing the whole time of course, and all the crying and screaming for me and Granma Barb in the car.

It was great to see them both, and I wish them an easy, QUICK, drive home!
Ug, I'm tired. 

Cook For Good: Linda Watson

I've been reading this blog lately: Cook for Good
It's written by Linda Watson, who also wrote the book Wildly Affordable Organic (and she lives in Raleigh).  The premise of the book is to buy and eat local mostly organic foods for $5 a day.  It also means making all your food from scratch.  It is much cheaper to eat local food, and certainly to make everything yourself.  As we have seen our budget tighten more and more each passing month we pay mortgage on an empty home hundreds of miles away, we have had to change quite a bit around here.

One of them being ME COOKING!

Today's blog from Linda had this recipe.  Blueberry rice pudding.  I read it as I rocked Loki down to sleep (for the 7th time, literally, tonight).  I just so happen to have a cup of brown rice in the fridge, and half a pint of blueberries left over from the farmers market this weekend.   I thought this would be a great breakfast/dessert for Jeanne.  She loves rice and blueberries!  So I put on a pot of brown rice so I could make a half batch of pudding in the morning.  Then I figured, well, I'll measure out the dry ingredients to save time in the morning.

Then, reading the recipe again..... Eh, screw it, I'll just make it tonight!

Your turn, make some dessert/breakfast!

I'll let you know how it turned out.
....... 75 minutes later.....

HOLY      FLYING        SPAGHETTI         MONSTER!

This was amazing!  The blueberries were so sweet, they really had all the sugar content this dish needed.  You will notice a small spoon amount missing in the photo.  I couldn't resist!  HA  Breakfast is made!  Too good..  Please, do yourself a favor and get some fresh blueberries and make some brown rice, you will be so happy you did!

.... my two tasters had this to say "yum!" and "It's good, but I don't like sweet things for breakfast".   I did find the pudding more like a dessert than breakfast like, next time I will halve the sugar to make it more appropriate for an anytime meal.

Jeanne likes the blueberry pudding!  But like always, she like to pick out all the blueberries first.

YOGURT SUCCESS!

Holy Guacamole!  I made my own yogurt last night, this morning the spoon dipped through thick silky yogurt!  I am filtering some to make it more 'greek' like and added honey to the rest.  So smooth to the taste!  WINNER!

Edited to add this photo: 

Jeanne eating homemade yogurt with fresh local peaches!

Food so far

The quest for yummy food continues in our home.  I froze 3 of the summer squash/zucchini grated so I can make tomato sauce later.  Hubbers sauteed the green bean with some carrots and a  1/4 piece of bacon  (this was soundly devoured by Jeanne mum and hubbers within 24 hours).  Two of the peaches were eaten the day we brought them home, and 1 has been eaten each day by Jeanne 'all by self'. 

I hope to make pizza dough tomorrow during 'nap time', but if 'nap time' is anything like today, I will onlt be runnign from one room to another calming sleeping but crying children (what is up with babies having nightmares that make them scream in their sleep! A 2 year old too! within the same 10 minutes!).  Hopfully tomorrow will bring less sleepy tears and more sound sleepers.

Last night, we had Chicken Korma, made in my slow cooker.  Jeanne ate 2 full servings with brown rice, and made a mess when she tilted her tray to drink all the juice left in her tray.

Today, I try my hand at making my own yogurt.  Do you eat yogurt?  Do you make sure it's organic?  Do a price comparrison on the 32 ounce container of your yogurt, and a gallon of 'like' milk (organic for organic, non-organic skim for non-organic skim).  Boy do those prices add up!  I will let  you know how the experiment goes, but I am already preparing to filter my yogurt through coffee filters to make it 'thicker' in the morning. 

Stay tuned!

P.S.  Now that I am trying to make as much of my own foods as possible, I am feeling the loss of a good food processor.  I have a blender with an 'attachment', but the volume it hold is minuscule.   OH if I could make my own black bean burgers or my own crust for a peach cobbler!