How a boy becomes a Boob Man

Many women have encountered them. Those men who instead of looking you in the eyes, stare at your other pair. Don't get me wrong, not all men do that. Some men have no choice, hell, some women have no choice when they see a pair coming at them in all their glory. Boobs are great, really they are. Some are big, some are small, some you just don't see at all.

My question, how do boys become boob men?

I have one theory. Remember, it's just a theory. I breast feed. I decided that if I could, I would. Not everyone can. Some babies just don't latch on or there isn't enough milk production. Other women decide it's just not for them. It's an individual decision that every pregnant woman makes. When making that decision they take a lot into consideration. Researchers say breastfed babies have lower rates of illness, it boots their immune system, it helps the Mom lose weight, and more.

If you have breastfed, or are considering it, you may or may not know that there's one, shall we say side effect to breastfeeding...... your child just doesn't look at you in the same way. I don't know if breastfed girls are different from breastfed boys. I didn't notice it with Charlotte, but Harrison, well, see for yourself. He's a Boob boy. Will he be a boob man? If he's like his Daddy, I say there's a good possibility.

Hey Babes! Mama's up here!!!!!

Hello Weekend!

Well, It's the weekend. Again. It's amazing how fast the weeks are going by. I'm into my 4th month of my maternity leave and Christmas will be here before we know it.

About a month or so ago I started writing in my diary all the things we had on between then and Christmas. There weren't that many weekends that we had free. Between family birthdays, tree hunting, family gatherings and trying to fit in a few meals with friends, the weekends are very busy. Fun, but busy.

The craziness starts in full form next weekend, but this weekend is pretty busy too. We started Friday morning by taking a trip out to Topsail to visit Nana & Poppy. We're off to friends tonight for supper. I'm really looking forward to the adult conversation and catch up. They too have a little boy, so I'm going to enjoy spending some time with him.

Tomorrow will be a day of dance and shopping. Charlotte has dance, I won't be dancing. Well, not a lot. Maybe a little around the kitchen. While I've been doing some of the Christmas shopping during the week, It's nice having another pair of hands in the shops. Andrew likes shopping though, so while most men dread the stores, going out and getting bits and pieces for Christmas is fun for him. I say it all the time. He's different. In a good way though.

Sunday will start with a swim with the kiddies in the morning followed by a family birthday at Wall Nuts. I'm really hoping adults can climb the wall too. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

And then, it'll be Monday and the week will start all over again. Crazy.

So, whatever you do this weekend, have fun. And maybe take a moment to dance. Charlotte is always dancing and is a very happy little girl.

Coffee and a Chat

The house was quiet. The babes were asleep, Daddy was fighting the bad guys and Mommy was sneaking out of the house..... yes, she'd be back, but for a hour or so, she was going to sit in a coffee shop and chat with another human being that she didn't see every single day. Yup. Mommy was meeting a friend for coffee. Something she hadn't done in a LONG time.

And so, I went to the local coffee shop for adult conversation with my best friend. We'll call her Jill. Ok, so being friends for 32 years means the conversation is not always that mature, sophisticated or note-worthy, but it's conversation that doesn't include the words pee, poo, no, no, no don't do that and raspberries. Well, not all the time anyway.

Sitting there, catching up, it was nice to be out without the kids. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids so very much. I can't imagine my world without them. But boy, it was nice to be out and not having to worry about where they were and what they were doing. It was also nice not to be at Walmart or Dominion. That's usually where I go sans children. Shopping for the mundane.

While chatting over a gingerbread latte, the subject got onto food as it usually does. Jill told me about her love for gingerbread cake and I told her I had made a great Pumpkin Gingerbread for Thanksgiving. She asked for the recipe and so, I thought I'd share it with you all. If you don't like pumpkin but still enjoy gingerbread, I think you'll enjoy this. You don't really taste the pumpkin, but it does make the cake very moist and delicious.

So, I returned home after my coffee with plans to meet up again soon with Jill. We're going to try and make it a monthly thing if not more regularly. We both needed to get away from the usual evening routine and it was perfect. 

Thanks to my husband for holding down the fort. I brought him back a Vanilla latte so it wasn't all that bad!

Here's the recipe I found on allrecipes.com

Pumpkin Gingerbread

3 cups sugar

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice cinnamon, and clove. In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

I made one loaf and then used the rest of the batter to make muffins that I then put in the freezer. They're nice to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon when your kids are asleep, or, for your afternoon break at work.  Another idea is to make mini loaves and give as hostess gifts. 

Enjoy!

Spelt Bread

Today was a day of rest... for Harrison. With his Christening and then two days of out and about, the little guy needed some sleep. And sleep he did.

So, while he did that, it was tidying, cleaning and baking for me and Charlotte.

Charlotte wanted to help... really she did! 

Once the tidying was done, I decided to try my hand at making some spelt bread. I can't eat a lot of wheat and I do like a piece of toast in the morning. I've tried making spelt bread in my bread machine but it comes out quite dense. Good for toast, but I wouldn't eat it in a sandwich. My Mom gave me a spelt recipe that is very easy to do and makes just a couple of loaves at a time. I had a loaf of hers a couple of weeks ago and it was very good. So light and fluffy. The secret - light spelt flour and very little kneeding.

I got my spelt flour yesterday. The flour needs to be light, not dark and a company in Donovan's (G.J. Shortall Ltd.) sells it in a 20lb bag. A lot of flour if you aren't going to make a lot of bread, but worth it is you do. I tried making it in the bread machine yesterday. It didn't turn out as well as my last batch. This morning, I gave the more traditional way a go. It turned out pretty good. Charlotte liked it. Not as good as Mom's though. But, practice makes perfect. I'm looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Here's the recipe:

SPELT BREAD
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 cups warm water
3 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp. melted butter
2 tsp. sea salt
6 cups spelt flour

Combine warm water and honey in a bowl.  Add yeast.  Let stand 10 minutes or until the yeast softens and rises.  Stir in the butter and salt and three cups of flour.  Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon.  Add remaining flour in increments until the dough becomes too stiff to stir.  Then place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about six minutes, add remaining flour if and as necessary until dough becomes smooth and elastic.  DO NOT OVER KNEAD.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl.  Cover and let rise in a warm draft free spot for about 1 hour or until double in bulk. Punch dough down to deflate it and divide in half.  Form each half into a smooth loaf and place in greased loaf pans.  Cover and let rise in a warm draft free spot for about an hour or until the dough has risen to top of the pans.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place the pans on a heavy baking sheet and bake 45 minutes or until tops are light brown and crusty.  Remove bread from oven and the pans.  Place bread on baking sheet.  Turn off the oven and return bread to oven to crisp for 5 minutes.



Enjoy!

Warm bread with molasses and a cup of tea. Yummy!

Fruit Cake - You either Love it or Hate it.

Fruit cake. These two words make a lot of people stop in their tracks as if they've been hit by one. Especially around Christmas time. Not everyone is a lover of this fruity cake. Cups and cups of raisins, currants, cherries, mixed fruit, that's a lot of dried fruit for anyone. When it's combined with spices and flour and turns out dry, then the only thing it's any good for is keeping your stocking atop the mantle on Christmas Eve. Well, stop here folks. I make a mean fruit cake if I do say so myself. I do have practice though, because my husband Love, love LOVES fruit cake. Not only do we have it at Christmas time, but, believe it or not, it's also his birthday cake. To say my husband is a fruit cake connoisseur is a little bit of a stretch, but he is particular and gives this one two thumbs up.

So, when Harrison's Christening approached, and it was time to bake his cake, what else would it be if not fruit? I took the opportunity to make two smaller cakes instead of 1 large one so that we'd have one for Christmas. That's one less thing I have to to bake in a couple of weeks. My Mom on Sunday made the very good suggestion that we put the rest of the cake away for Christmas. HA! HA! HA! Keeping fruit cake away from my husband, and alas it seems Charlotte, is like, well, trying to keep chocolate from me!

Below is the recipe I use. This is my Nan's recipe. Mom always made it growing up so yes, I too like fruit cake. At Christmas.

Nan's Boiled Dark Fruit Cake

1lb currants
1 lb seedless raisins
1 cup mixed fruit
1 cup red cherries
1 cup nuts (optional)
1/4 cup rum
2 1/4 cups warm water
2 1/4 cups white sugar
1 lb margarine
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs

Measure fruit, rum, water, sugar, butter, spices and salt into a large pot. Bring to a boil. Stir often and boil for a couple of minutes. Cool.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and stir into cooled mixture. Stir in eggs and mix until well blended. Batter will be quite wet.

Line pan with greased wax paper. Pour batter into pans. Bake at 275 for 3 1/2 hours for a large cake, 2 1/2 hours for smaller cakes. Let cool. Wrap well and store in cool place.

Enjoy!

Thank you little one

When you're an innocent little baby, you have no worries, no fears, nothing to hide. All you do is depend on the ones around you to love you, feed you, clothe you, keep you warm and safe.

When you're an adult, the opposite is true. You have your worries, your fears, things to hide. People depend on you to be loved, fed, clothed and kept warm and safe. I can't imagine my life without these things. Sure, I'd like to have less worries and fears, but they make me who I am. The people who depend on me, well, I depend on them just as much and for that, I thank God every day.

When I look at my little innocent baby, no matter what is happening around me at that moment, I can't help but smile. Especially when a raspberry gets this result. Thank you little one.

Mom, you're HILARIOUS!

Harrison's Christening

Today we celebrated Harrison's Christening. Joined by family and friends, we had a lovely service followed by a get together where Harrison was showered with love.

Harrison was wonderful. He hardly made a peep during the service and then had a cuddle with everyone while all the time was full of smiles. (Except when we made him put the dress on again!) I felt very proud of both him and Charlotte today and appreciated so much the time spent with all our family.

I found today very special in so many ways. I was raised a Catholic and attended church weekly growing up, but once I became an adult and moved away from home that changed. It's not that I don't believe in God, or in something greater than us, it's just that I guess I don't feel I get a lot out of going to church. Part of it is that I don't agree with all the rules of the church.  I find it difficult listening to the sermons when I don't necessarily agree. I guess it's a matter of listening and making your own decisions as to what you get out of it. I see God all around me, when I look at my children every day, on a beautiful sunny fall morning, on a crisp clear night when the moon is full. I feel that you don't have to go to church to be religious or believe in something greater. But, as I sat in church this morning, I found myself for the first time in a long time considering going more regularly. Part of it is for my children. To give them the chance to make up their own minds as my parents did. The other part is for me, to continue my growth as a person and a parent. Hopefully as we all grow, so will the church in it's beliefs.

Getting Charlotte and Harrison baptized was the beginning of their journey to self discovery and a continuation of mine. I can only give them the start that my parents gave me and hope that whatever path they choose in life they will be happy and healthy.

Fruit Cake & Cupcakes. My first attempt at a fondant decorated cake.

Our wonderful family 

My two beautiful children. 

Harrison and his God Parents, Mel and Uncle Darrell

Big Sis and Baby Bro

After all day, Harrison let me put the dress on one more time to get a couple of more pictures

Last but not least