When Mom has a Hangover

Life is Good: Even with a Hangover

I have a mom hangover this morning. What's a "mom hangover", you ask? Many of the same symptoms of the hangover you are used to---headache, puffy eyes, stuffy nose, did I mention headache?, and that overall "I want to stay in bed with the covers pulled over my head for at least a month" feeling---but this time, induced by momming (my word, you can use it).

Yesterday, I mommed like crazy---all the typical things like getting kids up and fed and on to their days. (Yes, I'm skipping the "is everything in your backpack?", "I can't find my green hat...no not THAT green hat, my FAVORITE green hat, I can't go to school without this EXACT green hat", baby brother wants to be held instead of letting mommy get everyone ready for school and more drama.) Anyhoo, I mommed with the best of them yesterday--laundry done, baked goods in the oven, emails answered and written, lists made and items checked off, a half day at the big kid's school to do a special class project (great kids, they were a joy), a chat with the big kid's teacher (he's doing well, is silly & happy, and has lots of friends...phew), work, a work meeting, a playdate that involved SIX boys! SIX! It was testosterone-fueled cuteness including our littlest who kept getting in our friend's 8-mth old's face to say, "HI!" (Our third is officially mine. Sigh.)

But that wasn't the end of the day. After dinner, there were basement obstacle courses, a board game or two, a chase or three into putting on pajamas (the little kid), bedtime reading (we just started The Secret Garden...I can't wait for spring any longer)...And, of course, a bedtime conversation about what suicide is and why Meriwether Lewis shot himself (Thanks to a book about Sacagewea.) because growing brains don't have a pause button for moms who've had long days. Grant looked at me with big, surprised eyes and took the little kid and the baby into another room. I said a silent prayer and then employed the Susie Formula for answering tough questions---keep to the science & keep it simple. I explained that because of very little credible documentation, we aren't 100% certain about Lewis' death. He could have been shot by someone, he could have accidentally shot himself..."The book said he intentionally shot himself. Why would he do that?" Deep breath, silent prayer, remember: science & simple. And then, in short sentences, I explained that sometimes people's minds get sick just like bodies get sick. Maybe Lewis had a mental illness that confused his brain. I repeated this thought in a couple of different ways and then, silence.

So I'm telling myself. Be quiet. Don't complicate things. Be quiet. Wait for him to speak. And then the big kid says, "Okay I have one more thing..." Ugh. Please, Lord, give me the words.

"You will never believe what Sophia did today at school!" And breathe outtttttttttttt. (Thank you, God!)

A few more reports about school and I thought I was close to putting a pin in what had been a very full, caffeine-free day (yes! I totally forgot to have coffee. That is mom hangover-inducing on its own let alone my many tasks and adventures!). And then, as I turned the light from dim to off, the big kid declared, "I changed my mind. I do want to dress up tomorrow for "dress like your favorite book character day".

What?

I will skip the part where it was well past his bedtime and I had been asking this kid for three days to pick a book character so that we could put together a costume and how he kept saying that he didn't want to participate (which is totally out of character, so I should have seen this coming) and that I hate hate hate doing things at the last minute!!!

So I ask him who the character is. Danny Dragonbreath. Okay, Susie. You're a creative problem-solver. You can do this. People pay you to do this.

Breathe.

Then I put on my invisible super hero cape and thinking cap, channeled MacGyver's mom, and, by the grace of God, my brain was still functioning well enough to remember that we have a dragon costume (that fits our 4-yr old) with a separate dragon head. Danny wears a black t-shirt = check. Now, a tail. Enter green grosgrain ribbon and my best friend the hot glue gun. Costume complete. Thank you, thank you, thank you, God.

As tired as I was, I awakened often last night. This extrovert got too many shots of other people's energy yesterday. So when the alarm went off this morning, the pounding of the mom hangover began.

Grant was already off to work but had left a full pot of coffee waiting for me. (Swoon.) It was just the remedy I needed since everyone woke up earlier than usual. Deeeeeeeeep sigh.

I think my mom hangover is beginning to dissipate. Sure, the coffee helped. But no doubt it has been the early morning of snuggles, smiles, giggles, hugs & kisses and the adorableness of a 7-year old dragon bouncing onto the bus that was the real antidote.

It's supposed to be 46 degrees in Minnesota today. It's raining right now and the droplets appear to be washing the snow away. WOW!
Happy Friday!

Quick, Easy, DELICIOUS Apple Crumb Pie

Life is Good: Even the Crumbs!

I was just looking for my apple crumb pie recipe and realized that I had written this post, but never published it. My guess is that it had something to do with a pre-term newborn, nursing every two hours, pumping after each nursing, attempting to parent two other people, and oh, a whole host of other things going on at the time!
This is one of our family's favorite pies, especially Grant's. Try it! You will like it!
So...a year later, here is the post...

A friend of mine recently asked for favorite Thanksgiving foods on Facebook (thanks, Jen!). I have always loved my mom's sweet potato souffle and pecan pie, but sadly, they have been retired because our kids have egg allergies.

I have a new pie tradition, though. This has to be the simplest, yet most tasty dessert that just screams, "Autumn!" which is what the season should be if you don't live in Minnesota! Booooo for early snow!

Our big kid is having a Thanksgiving Friendship Feast tomorrow, so what am I doing tonight? (Tonight being my first night home with our newborn who arrived 26 days early.) I'm making an apple crumb pie for him to take to his class! Here's the recipe. It does not disappoint.

Susie's Apple Crumb Pie (Adapted from Martha Stewart) 
Pie filling

Approx. 2 ½ pounds assorted apples (I like a blend of Gala and Granny Smith for a sweet & sour pie), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/8 to 1/4 -inch-thick slices

Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

⅓ cup sugar

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

Crumb Crust (Makes enough for one 9-inch pie)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons oats (I used rolled oats)

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, and salt.
3. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining. Using your fingers, squeeze the mixture together to create pea-size to ¾-inch pieces. If not using right away, cover and chill until ready to proceed.
4. Evenly and firmly press a little more than half of the crumbs (about 2½ cups) into the bottom, up the sides, and onto the rim of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly into the edges.
5. Freeze pie shell until firm, about 15 minutes.

6. In a large bowl, toss together apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
7. Pour the mixture into the chilled pie shell, mounding apples slightly in the center.
8. Dot with butter.
9. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs in clumps over the apples to cover completely.

10. Bake, rotating halfway through, until the crust turns golden and the juices begin to bubble, about 1 hour. (Depends on the oven.)
11. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. The pie can be kept temperature, loosely covered, for up to 2 days. Or you can refrigerate it for longer.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Seriously, if you are looking for a relatively easy pie to make that will wow your guests, this is THE PIE! Happy Thanksgiving!

The Best Eggless Egg-free Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread Ever

Life is good: thank goodness for chocolate! (STILL)

I just made this yummy bread in prep for our littlest's FIRST BIRTHDAY! (Whew! Twelves months flew faster than a jet plane!)
This time, I omitted the cocoa powder because I have to grind up chocolate chunks to make my own and just didn't feel like doing that one extra step (a lesson I've learned this past year...sometimes you need to omit a step or two!)
Every time I have mixed this up, I remember that I want to just put a dash of cinnamon in it the next time. And then, I forget. So hopefully, with the help of this post, I will remember next time.) I put the batter in two loaf pans and cooked for 60 minutes.

The original post is...
This past year, we were so fortunate to enroll our oldest child in a magnificent preschool. All of the staff were joyful, kind, nurturing, and encouraging. To top it off, the school had a carpool lane, which meant that teachers stood out in the rain and snow and everything in between so that parents didn't have to. I felt especially grateful that I didn't have to get our littlest in and out of the car to drop off the big kid during inclement weather. So the last week of school, I made some chocolate chocolate chunk zucchini bread for the teachers at his preschool as a way to say, "Thank you!!!" for weathering the carpool lane (pun intended!) as well as creating an atmosphere of safety and fun for our child.

Eggless Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

2 C flour

2 C sugar

3/4 C cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

mixture of 3/4 applesauce and 1/2 T baking powder (mixed together in a separate bowl until foamy)

3/4 C canola

3/4 C buttermilk (I have often used milk and it has turned out well)

3 C grated zucchini

3/4 C chocolate chips or chunks (I got this recipe from my friend Merie. She used a 1/2 bag rather than measure them)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

3. Mix applesauce and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

5. Add applesauce mixture plus oil and buttermilk into large bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.

6. Mix in zucchini and then chocolate chips.

7. Pour into pans (half of batter in each) and bake. In my oven, this recipe is done after about 45 minutes. However, all ovens are different, so I suggest that you start checking the middle of the loaf with a toothpick or cake tester after 38-40 minutes.

Notes:

I leave the cocoa powder out of the recipe when I make this bread for my kids since they are allergic to nuts. Most cocoa powders are processed in facilities where nuts are present. The absence of cocoa powder doesn't affect how delicious it is. However, the addition of cocoa powder kind of "takes the flavor over the edge", if you will, and makes the bread much, much more rich. Try it both ways and see what you think!

The original recipe calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, but it makes for a very obvious cinnamon taste and I prefer it more subtle, especially when leaving out the cocoa powder.

This recipe was originally a cake made with eggs that my friend, Merie, who happens to be a marvelous and adventurous cook, posted on Facebook a few years ago. (Thank you, Merie!) I adapted it to be eggless and the result was more of a bread than a cake, so I bake it in loaf pans, but if you want to try it in a cake pan, go for it!

I made two different recipes--one with cocoa powder (for the teachers) and one without (for my kiddos). Here is a pic of both recipes in the dry ingredient stage.

In this pic, the batter is ready to be poured into the loaf pans.

Here is the Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version...

And the Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version (I used Enjoy Life chocolate chunks.)

 

Finding Peace

Life is Good: and messy

Note: Well, hmmm! I wrote this a few weeks ago--okay, maybe more than a month ago?--but it appears that it must have been on one of those days that I was a little more sleep-deprived because instead of clicking "publish", I must have clicked "save" instead! Baby boy is really doing great at sleeping through the night most nights, so maybe it isn't fair to blame this one on him. But, I will! It's cumulative, right?!
; )

I have a basket of clean clothes waiting to be put away, sitting on the buffet in the dining room. And one upstairs in our bedroom, too.  There are dirty dishes from dinner in the sink. The dining room rug needs vacuumed. There are toys to be put away in two different rooms. If you know me a little bit, you know that this does not sound like me. This is not how I like to run this house. This is the stuff that makes me nutty.

It's taken me three days to mark one item off of my very long to-do list. I'm behind on doing our taxes. Okay, getting our stuff put together for our tax guy to do our taxes. I need to use a magic eraser on the wall going up the staircase. And I'm fat. I have baby weight to lose (ugh) and I've also been dealing with some extreme swelling. I mean, extreme. The kind of edema that hurts when you get down on the floor to play superheroes and hurts when you stand up to play Simon Says. The kind that make people's eyes bulge when they haven't seen you for a while. Nothing fits well and depending on the day and the degree of my swelling, some days, nothing fits at all. I've never been overweight and so this is a strange existence that I don't enjoy.

I have thank you notes to write and three Christmas gifts to mail. And a new baby gift. And a birthday gift. In fact, I still have about 20 Christmas cards to mail. Or maybe 40? Why is it so hard to pull out the hard drive, hook it up, and search for those addresses? I have friends' calls to return, photos to download, oh gee, the list goes on. This kind of disorganization plays havoc with my head. It's so unsettling. Now I have a headache.

And yet, I am happy. So happy. So absolutely, truly happy.  In fact, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. Really.

And it's not because everything is perfect. But everything is just right. I have this overwhelming sense that everything is finally how it is supposed to be. And I have three little blue-eyed boys and their daddy to thank for it.

I've found this sense of peace like I have never known before. It was a gift from our littlest one. His arrival, albeit surprising, has given me a sort of rest assurance. It sounds absurd and it is hard to articulate. It's like I've been holding my breath and now, I can let loose and...breathe.

I used to look at pictures of my two, sweet big kids and no matter how cute or funny or silly the photo, it always seemed like something was missing. Not that I am not absolutely grateful for those two big kids. Not that I haven't been utterly enjoying every single morsel of a minute of a moment with them. But still, it was like things were just a little off.

And now, our family is complete. Within minutes of the baby's birth, Grant said it aloud and the funny thing is, I was thinking it at the exact same time.

So this love letter is for our youngest. Don't ever doubt how much you are loved. Or how much you were wanted. Or how precious you are to this family. Or how very incomplete we were without you. You and your brothers are our sunshine. Our cherry on top. So I'm going to take a deep breath and try to savor each and every sweet moment.

Brotherly Love

Life is Good: and precious

Our big kid has been home sick from school for three days. And he has been miserable. Not because he feels bad--he's had a fever that rises pretty high, then drops down a little, then rises again, but no real discomfort beyond feeling tired. The misery has come from not getting to go to school. Every day, he pleads to go and then complains that he "won't learn a single thing today!" Poor kid. He really loves school and we are so grateful for that.

There's someone else in this house that has been miserable the past couple of days, too. No, it isn't me. I've definitely been kept on my toes here and there, but it's been okay. The miserable one is our little kid. Each morning, the first thing he asks me is if his big brother is sick. When I tell him that he is, he frowns dramatically and tells me how very, very sad he is about this. It's been hard on everyone---I've tried to sequester all three kids in hopes that while the big kid is getting healthy again, the other two will remain that way. Being apart has made us all feel out of balance.

Today, in an act part defiance and 100% love, the little kid went and got a chair from his little table and chair set and carried it to the door of the big kid's bedroom. Then, he went and got some toys and sat on the chair. He asked his brother, "Do you want to play with me? I stay right here and you watch."

And so I just had to write this down. It was the sweetest moment. Totally ordinary, but nonetheless impactful to me. I need to remember this. This is one of those moments to treasure. This is who we are. Sure, we go places, we do things, we know people. We're lucky and fortunate and blessed in many ways. But when it comes down to it, it's moments like this one that define our family. There's nothing more rewarding to Grant or me than to see these sweet little, voluntary displays of love shared between our children. This, is love. This, is family.