Over Planters Anonymous

Maybe not so anonymous since this is a blog that is available for anyone that has access to the internet to view. . . now whether they do or not is a very different story.

Either way. . .

My name is Andrea, and I have a problem with over planting.

It is a very common rookie mistake. Sadly, I knew that going in.

My garden is doing great, but it is definitely getting rather crowded. Note to self - The planting distance guidelines on the plants/seeds should be doubled for just about everything.

My problem is short-sightedness. I was all excited in the spring about the garden and I was overzealous with the planting. I obviously knew that the plants would grow, I just didn't really think about just how much they would grow. Now my tomatoes are looking rather crazy, and I am very reluctantly having to prune them back a little.

I have a hard time pruning my veggie plants. I grew them from seeds or baby plants, it feels so wrong to just chop off pieces. I know it is necessary in a lot of cases, but I don't like doing it one bit.

Once upon a time, my tomatoes looked like this:

They were cared for with love, and they began to grow.

This was 2 weeks ago:

1 week ago:

Today:

They are taller than me now and they are incredibly dense.

There are plenty of little 'maters within that are at various stages of growth.

Here are some of the baby babies:

They are taking their sweet time growing and hopefully soon I will have bushels and bushels of tomatoes that I will probably have to share with friends and family. So far only 3 have been harvested.

Remember my purple heirloom?

Well, this impatient momma got sick of it sitting on the vine without growing for 2 weeks. So I picked it. I set it on my windowsill in hopes that it would turn. A week later it finally started to turn. I was an idiot and didn't take a picture of it, but it was made into a delicious caprese salad. I picked it too early though, because it wasn't fully turned when we ate it. I decided to eat it in a now-or-never moment because it would have gone bad sitting around for even 1 more day. It was still pretty tasty. I have a couple on deck that are getting close to full size on the vine so there will be pictures at some point.

My Topsy Turvy on the other hand is having some problems. I don't know if the soil I used doesn't hold enough moisture or what, but that thing dries out WAY too fast. On hot sunny days I have to water it twice a day, sometimes even 3 times. Even with that, it is a scraggly mess that looks like it is on the verge of dying. I have been adding organic plant food too, but it didn't look like it did much. Honestly I was about to give up on it a few days ago:

Dying mess!

Yesterday we were doing some yard work, and the hubs found a couple of beautiful red tomatoes on the Topsy Turvy. One was a roma and one was a cherry tomato. He fed them to Little Dude before I could get a pic taken, but they looked really good!

Today I have a few more cherries that are turning:

So. . . while I doubt the Topsy Turvy will give me an amazing yield, at least I am getting something from it. Unless it completely blindsides me with tomatoes, I think next year I will use it for just herbs.

On a final note about the Topsy Turvys, the strawberry one was great while it lasted. The strawberry season was short and sweet here in Minnesota this year, and both kids loved eating fresh strawberries. I think next year I will have a bigger strawberry patch on the ground though - since they are less maintanence that way. The Topsy Turvy required way too much watering. Here is what is left of that:

Stay tuned, tomorrow I will update everyone on the rest of the garden happenings and harvests.

Potty Training Boot Camp - Prelude

I would really like to work on potty training Little Dude one of these days. I plan on taking the potty training boot camp approach where you go cold turkey without diapers. It is a steep learning curve I guess. I got the idea from mamaginger.com where she spells out very well how to go about this. She also says to do it with 18 month olds, but we weren't ready for that at the time. It has gone long enough though, and it is high time I get my oldest out of diapers.

The problem is, this approach requires a couple of days of undivided attention and sticking close to home. First of all, I have a needy 10 month old that makes it hard to give someone else undivided attention all day long. Second of all, it is summer and we have been so busy that it is very rare for us to have two whole days or even one where we stay home all day. It is Minnesota and we value the short time we have nice weather since it is so freakin' cold for so many months.

Hmmm. When I read the preceding paragraph, all I can hear in my head is "wah wah wah wah, excuses, wah wah, excuses."

This needs to happen soon - preferably this week.

Maybe I should make a commitment to starting on Thursday. . . OK, Thursday it is.

I love planning through blog; it really helps me get my thoughts out!

I am sure Little Dude is capable of it. It will just depend on how stubborn he wants to be about the whole thing. He does ask to go potty on occasion. I always oblige him, but he only actually goes in the potty about half of the time that he asks to. It is sporadic though, and he hasn't made any big strides recently. It is a start at least. I know it isn't a foreign concept to him.

I am a little weary of posting this here because if I crash and burn, it will be here for the world to see. . . all 3 of you reading this that is. This is my life though and I'm not here to sugar coat anything. I am not super mom, my kid was not potty trained by 18 months, and we will see how this goes at 28 months.

Wish me luck!

Five Question Friday - July 22, 2011

Another summer week has come and gone. We had the hottest week EVER. Every day except for yesterday the heat index was above 100 degrees. . . well above in some cases thanks to the humidity. We mostly stayed indoors with the A/C on, but we got to use the inflatable pool a few times too. Next week is supposed to be a hot one too, but not nearly as humid so hopefully the heat index will stay below 100 this time. I heart central air!!!


   1. If your husband got the BIG V and you got pregnant what would your first reaction be? For the dudes, what would your first reaction be if your wife told you she was pregnant after the BIG V?

My first reaction would of course be shock seeing as how vasectomies have extremely low failure rates now a days. I don't know how anyone would not be surprised if that happened to them. If it happened within a few years of having it, I would have a much easier time accepting it, and taking it in stride. If it were to happen when my youngest kid is in high school or something I would probably shit a brick. Please, please, please may that NOT be me someday.

   2. Best memory about this summer so far?

I have so many wonderful memories so far, but as soon as I think about it in relationship to this question it all becomes a blur. Maybe swimming in the St. Croix with my kids. It was fun seeing how excited they were about the water and the weather was absolutely perfect.

   3. How often do you change your sheets? Your kids' sheets?

I change mine about every other week. The hubs and I almost always shower at night so they don't get dirty quickly. My kids' sheets get changed more frequently because of overflowed diapers, drool, spit up, and who knows what else. Sometimes it is once a week and sometimes it is every other night on particularly trying weeks.

   4. Having just gone through TSA, would you rather have a full-body scan or a pat-down?

Pat-down to avoid the radiation.

cartoon courtesy of DaveGrandlund.com

   5. Since it is fair time. . . what's your favorite fair (county or state) memory?

I am not a big fan of the state fair. . . blasphemy I know. It is way overpriced and other than people watching, it isn't all that exciting. I have only been to 1 county fair a few years back, and that is the Dakota county fair. It was fun and I had a lot of alcohol. My favorite fairs are the city fairs that are rampant in MN. They tend to be more reasonably priced and have better entertainment in my opinion. I like Lumberjack days in Stillwater, which is actually this coming weekend. We were there on my in laws' houseboat a couple of years ago. We got to watch the Led Zeppelin cover band Zed Leppelin which was actually really good. The fair is on a river bank and the stage faced the river so we had primo seats on the houseboat.

Lumberjack Days Competition

Unusual Pregnancy Symptoms

We all know the typical pregnancy symptoms that you read about in generic pregnancy books; I'm talking nausea, bloating, sore boobies, ummm. . . emotional-ness. These are all well and good - well, maybe not good - but I'm here to talk about weird pregnancy symptoms that sometimes occur, but aren't mentioned in most books. Just like the big kahuna symptoms listed above, the more obscure symptoms vary greatly from one woman to another. They can even vary greatly from one pregnancy to another. Don't think these symptoms aren't so much unusual as they are less commonly known about.

I'm going to start with a weird one that was my first pregnancy symptom with my second pregnancy- A small twitch in my calf. Do you ever get an eye twitch when anxious? Or an arm muscle twitch when you have over done it at the gym? That is what I was getting in my left calf muscle on December 27th 2009. I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I felt the small, involuntary tug. I barely took notice. A few minutes later it did it again. I was a little annoyed, but I quickly forgot about it again. Once my show was done, I got up and I felt a tiny twinge again that disappeared as soon as I started walking.

I walked into the kitchen to prepare my son's breakfast. I grabbed a clean bottle from the dishwasher, turned on the faucet, and waited for the water to run luke-warm. As I stood there, bottle in hand, impatient for the water temperature to rise, I stepped slightly to the left and my calf grazed the dishwasher door that was still open. It barely touched, but it got me thinking about the twitches I had felt earlier. They were small little twitches that were barely a bother. . . so why was I still bothered by them? I thought about it further and realized that they reminded me of the leg cramps that I got when pregnant the first time around.

At this point, we had been trying to conceive in a "just let it happen" fashion. I had several negative pregnancy tests the couple of weeks prior, and I was convinced that I just needed to wait for Aunt Flo to come so that we could try again next month.

The twitch got me thinking though, could this be a pregnancy symptom? It sounded like a long shot, but I had a stash of dollar store pee sticks in my bathroom cabinet, and I wasn't shy about using them. I was rather unconvinced still; I was just testing for good measure. Those pee sticks in the cabinet were burning like fresh allowance in the pocket of an 8 year old. I peed, and walked away to tend to my baby. I don't know exactly how long it took me to get back to the bathroom, but it was at least 10 minutes. When I finally did, I think my eyeballs tried to jump out of their sockets when I saw that faint pink second line.

So there you have it, I knew (ok, suspected at best) I was pregnant because of a small twitch in my calf. Definitely unusual, but I think these kinds of stories are common amongst mommas who have been pregnant more than once. Leg cramps are a more common pregnancy symptom in later pregnancy, but I hadn't yet heard of small muscle twitches being the little red flag of impending motherhood.

Here are some more potential pregnancy symptoms that are less well known:

• Drooling in your sleep - From increased saliva production and also hormones that cause your muscles to be more relaxed (relaxin).
• Snoring - Relaxin again
• Hip pain from sleeping on your side - This can pop up way before baby is big enough to put any pressure on you physically. This is once again an effect of hormones. I suggest getting a thick body pillow to put between your legs at night ASAP.
• Gas - This is a more common one, but it bears repeating because it can be jarring if you aren't expecting it.
• ACNE - Hello puberty
• Blood on toothbrush - Gross I know, but your body ramps up blood production while preggo which makes even healthy gums much more susceptible to bleeding.
• Metallic taste in mouth - The technical term is dysgeusia and it is caused by changing estrogen levels that affects your sense of taste and smell. 
• Craving non-food items like paper, chalk, or soap - This condition is known as pica and it is also a well-known pregnancy symptom. Some research suggests that pica can be associated with low levels of iron. I actually found myself wanting to nibble on paper a few times - so weird.
• Depth perception issues - All the extra blood flow going on causes your blood vessels to dilate which can cause dizziness, vertigo and decreased depth perception. My parallel parking skills became a hot mess during my 2nd pregnancy. I *may* have caused a dent or two in someone's license plate.
• Smell cravings - We all have heard of food cravings such as the cliche pickles and ice cream, but preggos can also experience smell cravings. It makes sense since both taste and smell are highly connected. During my 1st pregnancy, I craved the smell of my cat Mia (but not the other cat Spike). She really didn't smell like much being a relatively clean cat, but I felt the need to go sniff her frequently. That didn't happen the second time around.
• Food aversions - This is a relatively well known symptom, but I don't think women are necessarily prepared for how strong these can be. Many women don't have all that strong a food cravings, but have crazy food aversions. They might last all pregnancy, or they might change from day to day. They might be weird obscure foods that you never normally eat, or they could be your favorite food of all time.
• Food intolerances - I have always loved eating eggs, but whenever I get pregnant, my stomach can't handle them. It isn't so bad that I can't have anything with egg in it, but if I eat a whole egg while preggo, my stomach hurts the rest of the day. I'm sure these intolerances vary for everyone; for me, it lasted a few months post partum each time.
• Crazy vivid dreams - Lots of women report dreaming way more during pregnancy than ever before, and being able to remember vivid details. These dreams are often emotional in nature which makes sense since everything is more emotional in nature while you are pregnant.
• Irrational freakishness - This anxiety goes hand in hand with the emotions department. The best way I can think to describe this is with my own example. Whenever my hubby and I went somewhere together and he drives, I usually have no issues with it; he is a rather good driver. When pregnant and he drives, I hold on for dear life and freak out internally (and sometimes externally). Every time I think he is going to hit or get hit by something my heart starts racing. . . and that is roughly every 30 seconds. Some women have anxiety issues to an extreme where they actually get panic attacks during pregnancy.
• Overwhelmingly emotional - Yeah ok this may be the most classic symptom next to morning sickness, but I don't know if I was prepared for the randomness of it before actually experiencing it. I cried at commercials on TV for goodness sake. I'm not talking particularly sad ones like the childrens' fund in Africa stuff; I'm talking a random Charmin commercial or diaper commercials. I remember a pregnant friend of mine started bawling one Christmas season when The Cristmas Shoes song started playing. Yeah it is a sad song, but she started crying before any words were even sung.

Those hormones affect EVERYTHING, no doubt about it!

What are some weird or unexpected pregnancy symptoms that you have experienced or heard of?

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - July 20, 2011

I dug these two gems up from my online cell phone album:

This was Little Dude drinking a bottle earlier this year. He wasn't drinking bottles on a regular basis anymore at that point, but that day he needed some meds and wouldn't take them any other way. He lifted his legs up, waved them all over, and kicked the bottle lightly as he drank. He used to do this when he was younger too.

Baby Boo at 8 months also drinking a bottle. She drank the whole thing in this position.

  She prefers to have her feet elevated while she takes a bottle, but this was the first time she did it with her legs out like that.

So the question of the day is:

Why are my kids such weird bottle drinkers?

Spaghetti and Grilled Meatballs

This is a delicious and nutrition packed classic with a small twist. I randomly tried it this summer and it was delicious so I figured I would pass it on. Grilling the meatballs versus broiling them yields a delicious smokey flavor that goes amazingly with red sauce.

The recipe itself will be just for the meatballs themselves seeing as how I'm going to assume that most people can figure out the pasta and sauce portion on their own. Everyone has their own preferences on marinara sauce; mine is definitely Newman's Own:

Specifically, Newman's Own Organic Tomato & Basil Marinara is my favorite, but all the Newman's Own line is pretty delicious. I bought this brand before I cared about organic or natural foods, and I bought this brand before I knew about all the good that the Newman's Own company does. As far as the pasta goes, I love Barilla Whole Grain - Thin Spaghetti. Not everyone can handle whole grain pasta, especially after a life time of eating white. It is soooooo much healthier though. Plain white pasta is akin (metabolically) to eating spoonfuls of white sugar. It took me a few tries, but now I like the whole grain pasta as much as I do regular. I challenge you to give it a try. The Barilla isn't super grainy textured, and I think the thin spaghetti is great for those with texture aversions since it is harder to tell with the thinner noodles.

 Anyhoo, on to the meatballs!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef (I recommend 15% or less fat content)
• 1 raw egg, lightly whipped
• 1/2 cup of plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 red onion finely chopped
• 1 tsp of garlic powder or 3 finely chopped cloves
• 1/2 tsp of dry basil or a few leaves of fresh chopped 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped veggies - I used bell pepper but several different ones work such as carrots or broccoli. This is a great way to "hide" veggies in a picky eater's meal.

Making the meatballs:

Start by mixing the dry ingredients into the ground beef. I usually just use my hands in a bowl, but if you don't like touching raw meat, throw everything in a gallon size Ziploc baggy and mush everything up from the outside. Then, throw in the egg and mix again, followed by the fresh chopped veggies and mix once more.

I know my kids love peppers so I leave them roughly chopped. Go finer, or even use a food processor for the really picky eaters. Go ahead and start cooking the noodles, and heat up the marinara sauce before assembling the meatballs.

Make sure your grill is very clean before preheating it. I set it to a medium temperature for the meatballs. While the grill is heating up, form the meat mixture into 1" balls. Before setting them on the grill, use a basting brush or a paper towel to rub some cooking oil on the grill grates to prevent sticking. Otherwise some people use non-stick grill grids. Lay the meatballs on the grill:

Allow them to cook until they are no longer pink in the middle (160 degrees), turning them halfway through. It took about 8 minutes on my grill on medium. Take them off once cooked. My family loves bell pepper so I took the extra pieces and grilled them along with the meatballs to add to the spaghetti sauce.

 Once they are done, they should have some nice charring on the outside:

 Assemble with the noodles, marinara sauce, and fresh parmesan cheese:

 I choose to load on the grilled peppers too.

Bon Appetit!

Dealing with Second Child Guilt - Revisited

Sibling relationships - and 80 percent of Americans have at least one - outlast marriages, survive the death of parents, resurface after quarrels that would sink any friendship.  They flourish in a thousand incarnations of closeness and distance, warmth, loyalty and distrust.  ~Erica E. Goode, "The Secret World of Siblings," U.S. News & World Report, 10 January 1994

It is incredibly common for parents to feel guilt over having a second child. I have heard it from friends and I have seen it in online mommy groups. I imagine it can be the case for additional children beyond the second too. While the guilt doesn't stop most people from actually having a second, it certainly can weigh on a your mind and even create anxiety. I wrote about this mommy guilt a couple of months ago and it has been my most popular blog post by far. I think this is because it is a subject that so many parents relate to. . . and search for on google. I certainly am not immune to it as you can see from that post, but I'm here to share my perspective today as a been-there-done-that momma. I'm no expert by any means, but I think a positive spin on the subject might prove helpful.

First of all, if you are considering having a second child or are pregnant already, try to let go of the notion that everything has to be equal amongst your children. This can never be the case, nor should it be. Circumstances will be different, and your children will be different from each other. There is no one-size-fits-all model for parenting a child.

Secondly, yes I am sure you can come up with all sorts of reasons to be sad that your current one-and-only will no longer be your baby. Trust me, they will always be your baby no matter how many siblings come along. Both of my kids will be my babies until the day I die. Having another child doesn't make them grow up faster. Yes, you might notice it more because you have a new baby to compare them too, but younger siblings don't make older siblings grow up faster - time does that. Birth order psychology is a rather contested subject. Some people believe that birth order plays a large influence on the personality of a person while others don't think it matters at all. I don't think anyone knows the answer definitively. I do think that loving each of your children to the best of your ability results in well grounded and confident people regardless of birth order.

The most important thing to keep in mind while fighting back the guilty feelings, is that a sibling is a gift. Despite jealous tantrums and rivalries, I truly and thoroughly believe that having a sibling is a huge one up in the world. That doesn't mean that having a single child is bad, I don't think that at all. I just think that having a sibling is worth any negativity that may come with the territory in the vast majority of cases.

I have 4 brothers and sisters myself and I could not imagine my life without them. If my parents ever expressed guilt over having them, I would be tempted to slap them upside the head. My sisters and I had a rocky relationship growing up, but none of that matters in the long run. I know that I always have them in my life no matter what and I hope they all feel the same.

The first group shot of us back in 1989

We had fun everywhere we went

Cheesy studio shot - I know

Whenever I start feeling guilty that one of my kids is not getting the ideal treatment because of his/her sibling, I remind myself that they have each other. That is much more powerful than that extra trip to the park that mommy didn't have the energy for because they are both being a handful that day.

They will always have each other throughout life, even though they may not always appreciate each other:

Basil Ginger Pork Chops

This is a recipe I whipped up a while back when I was out of fresh ingredients. I tried using dry ginger powder and dried basil and it actually turned out really well. The rub leaves a really flavorful, almost-crust-like coating on the pork that is super yummy.

Ingredients:

• 4 6oz. pork chops
• 2 tsp of powdered ginger
• 1 tsp of dried basil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• Drizzle of olive oil

Making the Basil Ginger Pork chops:

Turn on grill and allow to heat up (I use medium heat on mine).

Spread the 4 pork chops out on a plate: 

In a small bowl, mix the ginger, basil, salt, and pepper. Drizzle the pork chops with a little olive oil. Take the ginger mix and rub it into the pork chops really well on all sides.

 I let them sit for ten minutes to let the rub sink in a little while I prepare a side dish. Here I wrapped some sweet peas in aluminum foil and drizzled them with dressing and a tiny bit of salt. Green beans, bell peppers, broccoli and a many other veggie sides are really tasty prepared this way.

The perfect dressing to go with the pork chops is Newman's Own Sesame Ginger dressing. It is my all time favorite dressing.

Here is a random little trick I picked up I think from Rachel Ray. She may be obnoxiously perky, but this trick is a really good one. If your grill is dirty, instead of just using a grill brush, use half an onion to get the grime off. It works well plus it seasons the grating with oniony deliciousness.

 Once you're done cleaning, cut the dirty surface off the onion and save the rest for a different meal:

Throw the pork chops on the hot grill and allow them to cook so that they are charred on both sides. The timing will depend on the heat of your grill and the thickness of your chops. For mine it took about 7 minutes on each side. Make sure the juices run clear and the internal temperature reaches around 150 degrees if you are unsure of done-ness (that's a word right?). I throw the sweet pea packet on the side without being directly over a burner.

 Take the chops off once they are done and put them on a clean plate. Allow the chops to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or else they dry out easily. Leave the veggies on the grill on indirect heat while the pork chops rest. After ten minutes turn off the grill and grab the veggies.

I like to serve this meal with some brown rice too:

So flavorful!