Please Help! Kitchen SOS

Friends, I need your help. That Proverbs 31 lady stands outside my house and shakes her head at me in dismay. Baby girl and I have been at this gig for 13 months already and I cannot get myself together enough to do more than one thing at a time. I used to like to cook and did so with fairly decent results. I scrubbed and diced fresh ingredients and cleaned up afterward. Now I'm lucky if I can nuke a potato and manage to get the plate in the dishwasher.

I am TERRIBLE when it comes to meal planning. I don't even know what meals to plan anymore. I'm trying to be extra frugal since Manny is yet again laid off, but many of the recipes on the "frugal" sites are based on condensed soup and onion soup mix - dairy and MSG are no-nos in this house.

Please, please give me your tips, suggestions and recipes. There has to be a way to prepare healthy, tasty, economical meals on a budget that do not require every pot in the house. Right?

Oh yes, another caveat: I cannot do prep during naptime. I am lucky if this child naps once a day, and when she does I have to stay with her. She absolutely refuses solitary sleep, and by the time I finally get her out (which takes some doing) I'm not going to risk waking her by slipping away. It just doesn't work. This is my life.

PIOG Breastfeeding Offensive!

PIOG Breastfeeding Offensive!

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Good Reads for Moms of Girls

This post is from the blog of a young Orthodox Jewish mother living in Israel. While our religions are sadly not the same, this young woman and I share many points of view when it comes to parenting. She often posts about things that have been bouncing round inside my own brain, this topic included. If any other like minded moms have any further reading material to recommend, particularly regarding raising girls in this declining culture, I'd love to hear about it.

**Bonus points for suggestions that do not include some sort of Victorian repristination. While that is all well and good if someone really likes the Victorian era, I am not convinced that idealizing another historical time period that was just as sin riddled as this one really accomplishes a whole lot.

Hard Times Come Again No More

Manny has been laid off indefinitely for the second time in a year. We know the Lord will provide but this is still nervewracking for me. When I was working it wasn't such a big deal. Even though we have emergency funds put by we still have no idea how long this latest dry spell will last. I sometimes wish that he could find salaried work even if it meant a lower annual gross. Not being able to adequately plan drives me crazy. When things like this happen I always think in the back of my mind that I might have to go back to work. And the thought of leaving my daughter sends me into tears. Sucketh much for the woman to be the sole degreed adult in the household - and I never thought something like that would ever fly out of my head.

A Craptastic Day

It has been one of those days. In fact, it has been one of those days all week. Baby girl is 9 months and has 8 teeth already, every one of them hard fought. She is now currently working on the molars of doom. We just had an inconsolable screaming bout, the likes of which have not been seen since the bucket car seat was in use. Mercifully she is now sleeping and I pray God that she will stay that way for just a little while. Naps are a joke and nighttime sleep isn't much better. Her most favored comfort - nursing - seems to cause her pain as well. I can't tell you how much I hate not being able to help her feel better. Pray for us!!

Derelict Blogger

That would be me. I'm still here and all is well. I happen to have an extremely high needs baby. E is attached to my personage in various ways 24/7. I am not exaggerating when I say that. I don't get a break even when she naps, as she won't sleep without me next to her. When she does sleep, it is only after she has fought getting there like a mortal enemy. My girl doesn't want to miss anything. As my gramma used to say, "I'm a woman who minds me own business - and everybody else's!"

In any event, I'm back in business thanks to an inexpensive little baby computer that now lives next to my bed. There's only so much Fox News and Discovery Channel one can watch while the baby sleeps. I tried reading but the page turning bothered E. Yes, she's that sensitive. The sound of paper turning over would cause her to wake, but the TV and computer don't bother her. I don't think I'll ever figure it out but there ya have it.

If anyone is still out there checking this site out once in a while - thank you! I hope to be around more often now.

Attention Babywearers

Babywearing has become really important to me. It is the only way I can get anything done. When big government attempts to needlessly reduce my choice as a consumer as well as put many skilled women out of business it ticks me off. If you haven't visited TBW in a while (or ever) they have a most upsetting news brief:


(copied from TBW website for the link averse)

TBW Statement Opposing the Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act

There is little more important than keeping children safe. However, The Babywearer is gravely concerned about the impact of the pending Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act. We believe that if this Act is enforced, there will be serious economic consequences on the child/baby product industry, and specifically to manufacturers of babycarriers. The Act would require ALL manufacturers - including small business owners who sew their products by hand and artisans who sell to help support their art - to submit each piece of their product for cost-prohibitive government-approved testing. Each component - buttons, threads, fabrics, padding, etc. would need to be tested independently for lead content. The cost and extent of this lead testing would be impossible for any small business to afford. Thousands of small businesses will be forced to close. Consumers will have fewer products to choose from. In the babycarrier world, the only products that will remain will be ones those that are manufactured en masse - and are widely considered inferior to those made in smaller quantities. The date that CPSIA is set to be enforced has already earned a nickname by many experts: "National Bankruptcy Day." Please write to your Senators and Congressperson and express your concern about the CPSIA. More information: Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/e...SIA/index.html About the bill: http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/legislation.html Read more about what's being dubbed National Bankruptcy Day here: http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

(Of course, if you live in my illustrious State, you have to wait to find out who the highest bidder is until you write said Senator. I <3 Patrick Fitzgerald.)