Monday, March 09, 2009

What a week!

We were all sick at home this past week, we are still getting over it. My husband stayed home several days. When you home school your kids are kind of protected from the "school plagues" as children recycle viruses over and over... Except that when daddy is a teacher that advantage kind of goes away... He becomes the virus spy infiltrating our holly home school environment... oh well, there is not much we can do about that so we try to handle it the best we can, usually we take turns getting sick so that helps. The bad thing is that last week we were all sick at the same time and it was hard to get a brake, we needed to take care of each other and the children. Oh my! there is only one thing worst that having a nursing baby unable to feed with a stuffy nose and that is, having to take care of a sick baby when you are really sick yourself! Not fun!

The top picture is a plate of chicken soup I made today. I love to put avocado in my soup. I just love avocados. I would eat them every day if they weren't so expensive... This is one of those flavors combinations I learned growing up and I crave it so much, my dad used to put avocado in his soup and that is how I started doing it. I love to put it in my hot soup right before starting to eat. The cold avocado and its texture creates a great contracts in your mouth with the hot soup. Another estrange flavor combination I love is to put black beans in my spaghetti. This is also a growing up thing as we eat rice, black beans and spaghetti together in my country.
Another weird combination that I love is to put fruit in my salad, I learned this here when I saw people putting cranberries and nuts in their salad. I however, took it a step further and tried oranges, peaches, strawberries and nectarines. I really love the sweet and sour result in my mouth. What do you eat that you think might be gross or estrange to others?

Me encanta ponerle aguacate a la sopa (eso lo aprendí de mi papá), también el sabor de los frijoles negros con spagetti, (herencia del casado tico), y aquí en los Estados Unidos aprendí a ponerle pasas a la ensalada, incluso he probado poner gajos de naranja, nectarinas y melocotones frescos en pedacitos, sabe riquísimo! Qué cosas te gusta comer que crees que le parescan raras o asquerosas a otros?

Here is my crawling handsome little guy exploring around the house. 

Aquí está mi guapo bebé gateando y esplorando por toda la casa ya casi cumple 11 meses. No lo puedo creer!




Here is my sock progress, my dad's socks are coming along and it looks like I might be able to finish them soon. I am a little surprised of how much yarn I still have. I hope I don't have too much left over because I made the leg really short out of fear of running out.

Aquí están las medias de papi. Parece que al fin las voy a terminar...






Saturday, February 28, 2009

Come mom sit here next to me...

Ven mami sientate aqui conmigo...

Sock disaster...










I knitted like crazy to finish the second part of the foot for my Cat Bordhi sock class on Sunday. I chose the lace increase or foot expansion like she called it. It was a total disaster, not only did I place my lace increases in the wrong place but the fabric bunches up as I increase. When trying on my sock I can see that I actually don't need any increases at all if I want the sock to fit snug. So I think I am going to rip it and continue the foot without any increases and turn the heel like I always do with a short row heel which is really easy. I just don't see the point on complicating myself when the short row heel worked so well for me in the past and it is so easy. I do want to try Cat's Spring Thaw Sock published in Knitter's in the Summer 2008 issue (white socks on the bottom left). I haven't completely given up on her techniques, quite the contrary, I have gotten more interested on them and I am very likely to buy her book and try more things from it. It just seems like these lace increases are too open for my foot and I don't need as many stitches in that area as other people might. I am not sure I will go to the class tomorrow as it makes no sense for me to continue knitting on this disaster sock, all I want to do is rip it and that will give me no time to get the foot ready for tomorrow. We will see.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Coraline...


Last Saturday I went with R to the movies to watch Coraline. I was curious to watch it because of the "knitting" content of the movie. The sweaters Coraline wears in the movie are actual miniature sweaters created by a miniature sweater designer/artist . (open the upper drawer of the dresser to watch how she makes the tiny sweaters).

The movie is cute but it has some weird stuff in it and definitively some anti-christian concepts such as the "soul of children" been confined in a parallel world because the witch took the children's eyes? Weird... The witch looks to the outside world through the eyes of a doll that looks just like the girl she is planning to kidnap. Any girl would carry a doll of herself everywhere right? That is the trick. Through the doll the witch can sneak at the girl's life and if she seems unhappy she becomes the perfect prey. She would build a parallel world were everything is happy just the way the girl wants it. Then she asks the girl to voluntary sew buttons in place of her eyes so she can stay in the other world forever. I take it that this is how the kids that are trapped actually died... I don't know. I give the movie a C- maybe a C+. It could have been at least a B+ if the plot made more sense. There is also an scene were the two fat ladies perform an act practically naked, I thought this scene was not very tasteful considering the audience of the movie and also unnecessary. 










Anyways, the pattern for the stars sweater is available in the Coraline website. I offered R to make one for her but she wanted me to make a doll of her instead. Which is also a little creepy to me specially in the context of the movie, but I said OK just because I can make a doll out of that context right? and R just wanted to have a doll like herself which is the concept of the American Girl doll, so why not? I had purchased the materials to make the Lula doll from the Lucinda Guy Book "And so to bed" which is one of my favorite knitting books. So I am using her pattern and using the materials I had, really I am just making the Lula doll with brown hair... LOL. It is an incredible fast and fun project and I can't wait to finish it. Except that I am supposed to finish a sock for my sock class on Sunday... So, I had to negotiate with R to let me knit on my sock as well. She is very exited about getting her doll done. 

Here is a random picture of the handsomest boys in the neighborhood. Just because.

-Click on picture to enlarge-
 

Monday, February 23, 2009

Bread machine goodness

I have been wanting to post about my Christmas present. It was this bread machine. It is a Kenmore unit. I absolutely love it! It has a setting for Gluten Free. For the first time we are able to make GF bread big enough for sandwiches. This one in the picture is actually a cinnamon bread mix. I use the mixes from Bob's Red Mill. I specially love their Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix. It is truly wonderful. 

I am amazed on how easy it is to make bread with these machines. I just put the liquids first, then the mix and the yeast in the center, close it and press a button. About two and a half hours later; voila! wonderful smell of homemade bread  all over the house! mmm.... 


Esto fue mi regalo de Navidad. Una máquina de hacer pan. Me encanta. Es super fácil de usar. Solamente se ponen los líquidos primero, luego los ingredientes secos y por último la levadura. Se tapa y se apreta un botón. A las dos horas el pan está listo y toda la casa se llena del delicioso olor... Mmmm Por primera vez tenemos un pan que es grande, para sandwich y que es rico y libre de Gluten. Utilizo un mix que viene listo de la marca "El Molino Rojo de Bob." La máquina combina los ingredientes, amasa la masa y hornea el pan. Muy feo?








Sunday, February 22, 2009

Me? A recipe? / Yo con recetas? de cuando aca?

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not exactly known for my love of cooking, however, once in a very blue moon an invention works really well. That is what happened today! This is what I made:

First I made brown rice with Quinoa. I used TSURU MAI a brand of California Brown Rice. It is a bit pricey but it is worth it. I had a cup of Quinoa on the top of the rice and cook like you would normally cook your rice. I personally don't like my rice mushy so I only use enough water to cover the rice about 2 cm max. so the grains stay loose. 

If you don't know what Quinoa is, it is a grain like little circles that is consider the MOST nutritious grain of all. It gives my rice a nutty flavor/texture that I love. I get mine at Trader Joe's. 


After that I chopped one huge potato in 1 inch squares and fried it as if they were french fries. (picture not provided due to embarrassment of showing my ugly skillet.

Then, in another skillet I fried about a cup and half of bell peppers of different colors cut in strips let them cook a little and add 1 pound of hamburger meat and about 10 grape size tomatoes cut in half. I had salt and pepper and garlic powder. I continue until cooked.  Finally I added a boxed of pre-washed chopped organic spinach, mixed, covered it and turned off the stove. (this will cook the spinach just enough). 
 

I served the meat over rice and put the potatoes on the top. For the final touch added ketchup to taste. Oh my gosh it was soooo good! 

Now if I could only get R to try it...



 List of Ingredients:
1  big potato
3 cups of brown rice
1 cup of Quinoa
1 pound of hamburger meat
5 oz of organic spinach
10 grape size organic tomatoes
1- 1/2 cup of bell peppers
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
ketchup

 

R's birthday / El cumpleaños de R

We got this scooter for R birthday. She loves it. I have driven the scooter too and I am amazed on how fast it can go! 

Le regalamos esta moto a R para su compleaños. Cumplió 9 años el pasado 10 de Febrero. No sabía manejar, este video fue hace días, pero ya la bandida aprendió a tener equilibrio y pone los pies arriba. Yo he manejado la moto y es increible cuan rápido puede ir, se sopla!

Tambien le hicimos una fiestecita en la casa. 







Friday, February 13, 2009

Baby update






As you can see I found the camera cable so  I am out of control posting, making up for lost time... LOL

Ian is almost 10 months. here are some pics. Time is flying so fast, he is getting handsomer and handsomer each day. He has really started to babble, his crawling is getting faster and better, he makes funny noises to "scare" us. He is getting really cute. Still no interest in solids (sad face), I really need him to start eating solids so he can have dinner and be fuller and night and hopefully let me sleep longer... The poor guy has about 6 teeth wanting to come out in the upper front, so he continues to be Mr. Drool. 

Little things that make me happy...

A pajama sale at the Children's Place. These were only $3,99 each! 

A boric acid free contact lenses multipurpose formula. Which I had been looking for for months. Boric acid, aluminum and thimerosal (mercury) are things they put in stuff as preservative but are toxic for humans. I have started using my contacts more because Ian keeps taking off my glasses but I did not want to put boric acid preserved liquid in my eyes. When I went to see my eye doctor last month she gave a sample of this one. To my surprised it was boric acid free! 


I have also tried different natural moisturizers. I constantly scratch my nose because of my allergies and that area is extremely dry. I have tried many natural moisturizers, some very expensive, but only this one penetrates and hydrates my skin even in my really dry nose. I use it all over my body. It is called Miracle II. Here in town I can only find it at the Apple Tree. They also have the Miracle water which is great to stabilize your body's PH. This bottle is only $12 or so. It lasts a long time if you save it only for your face.


Abused mothers?

I have to admit that sometimes I feel abused. Not only it is exhausting to take good care of a baby but mine at least, tortures me at times. He slaps me on the face, yanks my glasses off my face, scratches me, twists a tender part of my breast without mercy, bites it too!, hits me with his head really hard, and the worst torture, keeps me from sleeping longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time. Yes, I do feel abused at times, and there are those moments in every mother's life when you just need to retreat, put the baby in the crib and let him cry so you can go and have a cup of tea, read a paragraph or two of a good book, or knit a few rows so you don't loose it. Lately I have been having one of those moments at least once a day.

I wonder if other moms feel the same way or I am just not keeping up because of my age...

I don't mean to complain but it sure is hard when you don't have any support system. Being from a Latino culture I sure miss having my family around these days, if nothing else just to have somebody to complain to... LOL 

My husband's family is... how can I put it... in Spanish we have a saying that describes them very well: "Brillan por su ausencia" (They standout for their absence). We only see his mom frequently and only for the past couple of years. 

My parents are divorced but they come and visit as often as they can. They fly all the way from Costa Rica at least once a year if they can afford it and call on the phone often. They both came to visit and help us when Ian was born. Actually my dad paid for mom to come and then he and his wife came shortly after. They provided tremendous emotional support during those days we weren't sure how bad Ian's birth defects were. I am so thankful for that! 

When they call they want to know details about the children, how are they doing, what are they doing new... etc... They call asking for pictures and are involved in our lives even from the distance. I feel that I took my family for granted when I lived there. I miss them. I miss how knit together families are in my country, how much everyone care for each other... I miss my culture...


Well, I left the baby cry for a while now and I have vented, so back to work!


Friday, February 06, 2009

I haven't post in a while, in part because I have been really tired... Ian has started waking up really early (5:00 a.m., sometimes even 3:00 a.m.) it really kills me! I am not a morning person, and early morning is my precious sleeping time... I try to nap during the day but I don't like to leave R alone, plus she also needs to spend time with mommy. 

I also had some issues with our router. It was open, meaning without a password, and I tried to secure it again but ended up totally messing it up instead. Now my router works but my wireless network doesn't, so James  and I fighting over the connection when he is home. 

Hopefully this weekend I can fix it...

Monday, January 26, 2009

Obama depression...

I am so depressed to see what Barack Obama is doing in just a few days in power... He is really power crazy, turning around all conservative regulations without hesitation and without seeking advice. With the stroke of a pen he legalized abortion by removing the baby's brain with scissors (with no anesthesia of course), closed GIMO without a having a plan of how to do it, limited the questioning of terrorists to name and serial number, signed a law that will force people to buy only hybrid cars, etc. The guy is truly out of control! He did not consult with major Economists on his so called "stimulus package" for the economy. He is just is just forcing into all of us his liberal agenda whether we like it or not. It would have been nice that he met with doctors to find out more about the procedure of abortion during the last trimester (which by the way is against the law even in most liberal European countries) before making a decision on that issue. I would have really appreciated if at least he had met with the auto makers and evaluated the consequences of placing more unnecessary requirements on the allready struggling auto industry. Ah! and wouldn't it have been wise to create a forum with the most brilliant minds in Economy from all universities in the country before pushing forward with a government spending plan created by politicians that don't know crap about Economy but that are ready pocket money from such plan?.

This guy is all about creating a perfect world, in his own view. He is governing for himself not for all Americans, he is governing driven by ideology not common sense, and the worst of all is that he is not taking advice from anyone... specially the experts in each matter. The fact that he is acting so hasty really scares me...

This is depressing me so much I have decided not to watch the news for at least a week. I feel sick of my stomach... What the heck is wrong with the people of this country?! that not only elected him but go along with anything he says even if it sounds crazy? and why? just because he is cool? just because he is Afro-american?  Give me a brake! I just can't take it anymore, I can't believe there are still 4 more years of this to come...

We really have to pray for this country! May God help us all!      

Saturday, January 24, 2009

9 months


I love naked baby pictures... makes me what to bite those chubby legs... I hope nobody is offended or consider it to be inappropriate. I just simply love them! Here are a couple. 

Ian has been achieving all kinds of benchmarks:
- He learned to drink from a cup at 7 or 8 months
- He started crawling at 7 months
- Now he just learned to stand up by grabbing furniture (but does not know what to do next and eventually lets go causing him to fall back... ouch!)
- Just the other day he grabbed the spoon that I was using to feed him apple sauce and attempted to feed himself. (it was so cute!) 
- Whenever we imitate his babbling he starts babbling really loud da-da-da-da-ma (it is so so cute!)
- Also this month he started to take my glasses and then tries to put them back on me...
- Kindly offers to share his pacifier with us... :-))
- He loves watching sister play.
- He loves to watch his "Your baby can read" videos.
- He loves taking baths.
- He has 2 lower teeth and the two upper front are about to come out!
- About a week ago he attempted to wave good-by back at daddy.

Wow! I should keep writing this daily so I don't forget. Things happen so quickly it is easy to loose track of time. 

Me encantan las fotos de bebes desnudos, se ven tan lindos! Espero que nadie se ofenda por estas fotos pero a mi me encantan!

Ian ha estado aprendiendo muchas cosas en las ultimos 3 meses:
- A los 7 - 8 meses aprendio a gatear y a beber del vaso
- Acaba de aprender a pararse agarrandose de los muebles, lo malo es que despues no sabe que hacer y se suelta y se cae para atras... auch!
- El otro dia agarro la cuchara con la que estaba dando de comer Gerber y trato de comer el solito, se metio la cuchara en la boca una y otra vez, de lo mas lindo!
- Cuando lo imitamos el empieza a balbucear "da-da-da-da-ma..."
- Me quita los anteojos y luego me los trata de poner...
- Se quita la cupeta y nos la ofrece...
- Le encanta ver a la hermanita jugando
- Le encantan los videos de "tu bebe puede leer".
- Le encantan los banos de tina.
- Ya tiene dos dientes abajo y estan por salirle los dos de arriba.
- Hace como una semana trato de decirle adios al papa con la manita.

Wow! Que monton de cosas! Tengo que escribir todo esto dia a dia para que no se me olviden, el tiempo se pasa volando y crecen tan rapido!

Friday, January 16, 2009

New Years Resolutions

<click on the comic strip to enlarge>

I thought I would share my new years resolutions even though I am not a fan of such, just for fun.
1- Read the bible more
2- Lose 20 ponds
3- Knit more
4- Eat better
5- Cook more

We will see what happens...

Aunque no tomo muy enserio las resoluciones de Año Nuevo decidí compartir algunas de las mías:
1- Leer más la Biblia
2- Perder 20 libras
3- Tejer más
4- Comer mejor
5- Cocinar más

Veremos que pasa...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New knitting gadget... Un nuevo implemento para tejer


Here is my new knitting gadget. It is a hands free light I plan to use in long trips in the car. It always bothers me when I am driving in the car and can't knit once the sunlight is gone. I can also use it when my family is watching a movie and don't want me to turn on the light or when the baby is sleeping and I don't want to disturb him by turning on the lamp. I will let you guys know how does it work when I use it. 

I purchased it at target.com just type "hands free light" in the search box.

Este es mi nuevo implemento para tejer. Es una luz para la oreja para poder tejer en la oscuridad. Pienso usarlo en el carro y también en la casa para poder tejer cuando el bebé está dormido sin tener que encender la luz. Que fiebre la mía!