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I’ll have to admit that I saw this recipe on TV one night during a midnight nursing spree. Unfortunately for me I had forgotten my robe and it wasn’t my belly that was being filled with warm goodness. So as I sat there shivering (seriously! It had to be 60° in the house at the time) I watched Sam the Cooking Guy make this super easy soup and decided I must have it.

Of course I didn’t have all of the ingredients, except for potatoes. When I told Matt what I was planning on making I could see his eyes kinda fall. He’s gotten smart enough to not let his face fall anymore. But he trudged on, like a trooper, to the store and back and ate my soup like it was directly feeding his starving soul. Lo and Behold, it was amazing! It was like eating thin mashed potatoes with all the goodies, but BETTER! The cream just gives it an extra oomph, I think.

Potato Soup (adapted from Sam the Cooking Guy)

Ingredients

• 5 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 big red onions, diced
• 4-5 cups chicken broth, diced - just kidding I normally use just enough to cover the potatoes when boiling, so this may vary)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
• Diced Ham or Sausage (because it’s not considered a meal in my house without meat in it {insert eyeroll}) (optional)

This recipe makes alot, 10-12 servings, so feel free to cut down the amount of ingredients if you’re not feeding the entire Horde.

Here’s the PhotoShop goodie I was talking about. It wasn’t made in Photoshop though. For most of the image editing and aligning I used Krita, which has a more PhotoShop-style GUI. But I used GIMP for the text and layer shadows. I guess they both have their specialties. The pictures aren’t perfect but I did the best I could with a camera I’m not used to. The subject is cute enough to make up for all of that though.

Click for a larger version.

I must admit that the idea was not mine. I “borrowed” it from another mama on one of my forums.

When I was pregnant with Declan, I briefly heard about teaching babies sign language. I looked into it some and found the Signing Time DVD’s and ordered one when Declan was still very young. The research I had done said that children who learn a second language (American Sign Language, or ASL, is considered a language) not only have higher IQ’s, but that signing helps eliminate the terrible twos and teaches acceptance of people who do things “differently”.

The little boy that I provide daycare for has Down Syndrome, just like my older sister Bonnie. I remember my mom mentioning that they thought Bonnie may never be able to truly talk so they started teaching her ASL. These days we can’t get her to be quiet! Part of this little boy’s therapy is also sign language, because whether they talk or not, it usually happens a little later than normal. Imagine understanding so much, but not being able to communicate or respond.

So we’ve pulled all out Signing Time DVD’s out, we have the first 6, and we’re trying to use as many signs as possible. Not just when he is here, but through the whole day. Declan is really doing so well. It seems like overnight he knew 15 new signs, and it makes me wonder if there was just a certain stage that he reached where it all kind of clicked in his head.

He knows:

• Mama
• Papa
• Orange
• Baby
• Shoes
• Sock
• Moon
• Play
• Apple
• Milk
• Cheese
• Cracker
• Help
• No
• Stop
• Potty
• Water
• Hungry
• Full
• Warm
• Hot
• Cold
• Grandma (kinda)
• Blue
• Share
• Play
• Sit
• Dance
• Eat/Food
• Wet
• Cereal
• More
• Want
• Please
• Sorry
• Horse
• Bird
• Dog
• Cat
• Car
• Plane
• Baby
• Cry
• Diaper
• Cheese
• Ball
• And more I’m sure.

We’ve found this is be very helpful: ASLPro.com - It has videos of just about every sign!

Speaking of how grown-up Declan is getting, he always wants to help wash dishes, but ends up soaked every time. I’ve got my next craft project all planned out. Stay tuned!

Yay! They’re finally completed. I know some of you are just dying to see them.
If there’s anything parenting has taught me, it’s that kids play with the darnedest things. Just now I had to take a backscratcher away from Declan because he was playing in the dirt with it. Right next to him sat a whole set of sand toys, including little shovels and rakes. One thing that seems to be universal is cars and balls though.

Unfortunately throwing has become great fun. Most of the balls we have are wooden and belong to wooden playsets in one form or another. Hello Arcadia Door!!

So I made these:

They were very simple to make - 6 identically shaped pieces sewn together, stuffed and hand-sewn shut. I didn’t even spend a dime, using only what we had on hand. Like I mentioned in a previous post my plan was to disembowel some old stuffed animals and use the stuffing, but Mudder guilted me out of it. Instead I washed up an old grungy pillow really well and used that stuffing. Now that’s using my noggin. The stuffing was a little lumpy, so they’re not perfectly round, but the kids wont notice. It also would havebeen easier if I had a nice pair of pinking shears. I bought a pair, but didn’t realize that pinking shears in the scrapbook section are only going to shred the fabric not cut it. To think I thought $4 pinking shears were a steal!

I also had some square scraps, from some bean bags, laying around, so we made a cube while we were at it. I think it’s my favorite so far.

Today is a busy blogging day. Keep a lookout for more entries!

So, as usual, something I’ve said in one of my blogs has made someone angry. To be frank, I really don’t care. It’s not like someone took offense and was adult enough to talk directly to me about it. Oh no. The story I’m gathering is that a still anonymous person found the comment, alerted the person that the comment was about, then the person the comment was about spoke with Matt’s dad who asked Matt who finally told me about it. Pretty lame considering Matt and his Dad are completely innocent to the whole situation.

I understand that what I put on my blog is public and anyone can read it, but I’m getting really tired of people always spying on me and then going behind my back about it. The same thing happened when a certain family member discovered we were trying for another homebirth. This person even had the audacity to approach other family members about it and ended up sending an email to Matt asking him to reconsider. Yes, you read that right - I’m the one birthing the baby and they wrote to Matt like he really has any say in it. (He does, as we throughly discuss all major decisions, but in the end he can’t call trump on me just because.) Anyone that’s known me for longer than 5 minutes knows that I can’t stand confrontation, so if you were to come to me with your concerns it’s highly unlikely that a argument or fight would ensue.

And to sum this nice little entry up, I still stand fully by the comment I made. 1000%. If you have any question, comments and concerns, please feel free to contact me like an adult in one of the bazillion ways I am available for communication.