Gearing up to go....

So we've been praying we'd get to take two vacations this summer, each at a different end of the US.  Tony is going TDY to Florida and the kids and I can tag along with it costing us a very small amount, and that's only because we're going 2 days early so that Tony can actually get a vacation.  Our second vacation is to California to see family.  Tony will be doing most of the driving, plus sleeping on floors and being busy every day is not very vacation like.  So those 2 days in Florida are for him.  If we do get to go.... which we're praying that we do!  We have a few things that need to be worked out first.

I'm pretty excited.  We've been married for almost 12 years and we've traveled a lot.  However, we've NEVER taken a family vacation without any of the in-laws coming with us (and even one of those has been 3 or 4 years).  These will be our firsts!  And our first ever vacation, in-laws or not, with our beautiful girls.  So both are very important to us.  We've just never financially been in the place to vacation (without splitting the cost with an in-law!)  Something always comes up, we need a new appliance, there's a lawyer to pay, the car needs to be repaired, etc.  This year it's the same, our air in the van has died (and the washer is on it's last leg).  Since we're driving it needs to be fixed.  So tomorrow it is going in the shop.  I've been saving for it for awhile and we had a garage sale this weekend to raise money.  We're praying it's done by Friday, as this is when we are hoping to leave for Florida.  If that is fixed in time, we still need to make sure that the hurricane that is in the gulf isn't looking like it will hit where we are going to stay.  And if that looks good, the last thing we need to do is watch the oil.  If the smell seems to be strong where we're staying then we wont be going... Tony will have to go to his conference alone.  I just don't want the kids to have to smell oil the whole vacation.  And since it is something Tony has to do, once we're there we're stuck.  We can't just home early. 

So this week I guess we'll just be watching the news and praying for a speedy fix to our van.  Hopefully we'll know before Friday morning if we get to go or not!  And hopefully the van will be fixed closer to the beginning of the week so I have a car to get the stuff we need to go!  I'll keep you posted :)

Bittersweet Chocolate-Cherry Sorbet with Fresh Cherry Compote

This recipe is from the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light.  I wanted to try our new ice cream maker, but not make something that would take up my entire daily point allowance on my WW diet.

Just a few things before I get to the recipe.  One... Tony hates the word "compote".  He says it sounds like compost.  I suppose it's similar in meaning, but oh so different in taste!  Second, I used Turbinado sugar in the sorbet mixture, but not in the compote.  Turbinado sugar has 11 calories per teaspoon as apposed to 16 in white sugar.  It also has no added chemicals to it and in my opinion is pretty tasty.  It's just raw sugar.  I have been baking with it for years and recently started using it in more stuff instead of white sugar.  It does seem a little more sweet to me, which may be why this sorbet turned out SO rich.  It could also be because I splurged for the good cocoa.  Either way it is good.  Just rich.  Which is good if you are on a diet!  Because, then when I have a sweet tooth I just eat a spoonfull of this and it's pretty much gone.  Even if you do have a full serving it's still less than 200 calories and only 1.3 grams of fat.  A serving is only 3 WW points!  Pretty good for a cool summer treat.  These values are based on using white sugar, so if you use the Turbinado the calories are even less!  And third, you need an ice cream maker... sorry.

Sorbet:
3/4 cup red cherry jam (I used Simply Organic I believe, but it suggests Bonne Maman, which they had every flavor of BUT cherry at the store I went to)
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups water

Compote:
1/4 cup sugar (I didn't use that much)
1 pound fresh Bing or tart cherries, pitted and halved

1.  To prepare sorbet, combine first 4 ingredients in a heavy saucepan, stirring with a whisk.  Gradually add 2 cups water, stirring with a whisk.  Bring mixture to a boil, stirring well with a whisk.  (Boy, they sure don't want you stirring with anytying else do they?!)  Cool to room temperature;  cover and chill overnight.
2.  Stir sorbet mixture with a whisk (they sure like their whisks).  Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.  Spoon sorbet into a freezer-safe container;  Cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm.
3.  To prepare compote, combine 1/4 cup sugar and cherries;  toss well.  Let stand at room temperature 1 hour.  Serve compote with sorbet.  Yield: 7 servings.  (Serving size: 1/2 cup sorbet and about 1/4 cup compote).

**Notes:  Next time I will use less sugar and maybe less chocolate?  It's so rich Tony wouldn't eat it.  Baby Cakes however....

LOVED IT!

Nutritional info -
197 Calories
1.3g Fat
1.7g Protein
50.6g Carb
3.4g Fiber
0mg Chol
.9mg Iron
45mg Sodium
19mg Calc

Moments...

Here are some of my favorite moments from the past few weeks...

Baby Cakes rockin' out with the turkey baster!

Fancy Pants with one of our favorite people in the world, our case manager Kaci.  This was at our agency's spring picnic at the Shockey Stables.  Fancy Pants was a natural on the horses :)

Ginger (dark cat) and Caramel (light one) stalking each other

Baby Cakes was supposed to be helping me make pancakes with fresh fruit sauce but she kept eating the strawberries out of the measuring cup.  It was adorable!

As I was cleaning up the backyard for the guy who mows our yard I had that feeling of being watched.   Sure enough I looked down and found this staring back at me.  I'm still not sure if he was friend or foe...

Fancy Pants playing in the sprinkler.  Just look at that smile :)

Happy Father's Day!!

First I'd like to say Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there.  I know not many read my blog...but that's fine, I'd still like to say it :)  Especially to my dad and my sweet husband who is such a wonderful father!  I hope that as my kids grow they realize how lucky they are to have a dad who loves them so much and works so hard to make sure their needs are met.  A dad who loves them unconditionally and would never in a million years walk away from them.  They are some truly lucky children!

We had a nice day, some parts more relaxing than others.  Tony took Mini Jedi to church this morning where he won a book... not sure what to think about this book... entitled "Crazy Good Sex".  I know what you are thinking.  He won this book where?!  Yes, church.  You did read that right.  And yes, a Christian church.  I think it's actually quite funny.  I am a little glad that I wasn't sitting in the sanctuary when he won though, that is for sure!  I would have turned 10 shades of red!  However, like a good friend of mine pointed out, it's good to know that our church is a safe place to talk about such things and that people who may be having marriage issues wont be embarrassed to bring up such topics in small group or if they get counseling from our Pastor!!  That's all I'm going to say about that... well... almost.  Let me also add that I will NEVER look at Kellogg's Corn Flakes or Graham crackers the same way again...

While Tony was at church winning the "Crazy Good Sex" book, the girls and I were at home making Father's Day cards!  Awhile back I bought a Martha Stuart card-making magazine thingy from Michael's.  It has some of the cutest things in it, including these cards that look like men's shirts.  The girls really got a kick out of them and Tony loved them!  We gave him his Father's Day gift on his birthday one month ago today, an iPad.  We also bought a BBQ this weekend, but I will probably use it more than he does ;)  The kids picked him out a super dad shirt at Walmart while he was in Florida last week.

So after church Tony took me to the urgent care in town.  All my walking has inflamed the tendon that runs above my arch in my foot.  I've not been able to walk on it much for a week.  I finally went in and was told I need to stay off of it for a week to 10 days :(  This is not good news for my walking routine... I was pretty excited that I'd been walking 4 to 5 miles, 3x per week!  I did get new shoes, so once I can start walking again my foot doesn't do this.  I have to roll my foot on a frozen water bottle a few times a day, do some special exercises and wear a brace at night.  I'm not thrilled.  Also, once I can walk on it again I have to start with 1/2 mile and slowly work my way up to 5.  Not thrilled.

We got home and Tony soaked in the pool with the kids for a bit.  I got in for a few minutes but had to get dinner started.  I made Tony Albondigas soup for his Father's Day dinner.  It's one of his favorites, but it's very hard to find here in Texas... as in, I've never seen it on a menu here.  When we were growing up it was on the menu in just about every Mexican Restaurant in California.  I don't know if it's out of style or just not something they enjoy here.  I was even able to adjust the recipe enough that it was only 5 WW points!  I will post the recipe tomorrow.  I am a bit backed up on posts, so I will be catching up while I am banished to the couch.

So other than the cookie cake we are about to eat, that was our Father's Day.  Not too bad overall... I think Tony had a fairly good day.  He loved the soup and got to play with his kids.  And he loves his gift, even if he got it a month ago! 

Sew Crazy...

Last time I was able to bring out the sewing machine I decided I wanted to blog about my sewing.  Recently I also decided I wanted to blog about everyday life.  I really had a lot of fun designing the blog and setting it up.  Not to mention sharing my sewing!  However, I really think that having a separate sewing blog is pointless since Mothering in a Shoe is all encompassing.  So I have imported my old posts from Sew Crazy into this blog.  They were all from earlier in the year, so I have tagged them all "Sew Crazy" and if you'd like to read them you can find my tag cloud and click that tag.  There are about 10 I believe.  Happy browsing! 

(I am going to go delete Sew Crazy right now, so if you have it bookmarked please delete :)

Share the Savings!

So... have you discovered the wonderful world of coupons while internet shopping? I don't remember when I first thought to run a search for a coupon, I think I was buying a rather expensive (for us) stroller. I knew the company who I was buying it through (AAFES) often had coupons but none were currently in my possession! So I ran a search. And the website that came up was http://www.retailmenot.com/. It was wonderful! That first time I found a 20% off coupon and got the stroller for what felt like practically nothing! From then on I was hooked. So hooked in fact that my friends tease me about it. If I order something online they will ask "did you use a coupon?" with a nice little snicker in their voice. Uh, YES, duh! Why not use one? I recently ordered a double jogging stroller and found a coupon that made it 20% off, no tax and free shipping. I ended up saving over $50! With that kind of savings why not do a quick search.
I've also lured my husband over to the dark side...hehehe. He ordered something off the internet the other day and when I told him I couldn't believe how much he paid for it he said "But I used an internet coupon!" After that I couldn't be too upset with him, he is learning. There are so many coupons out there, most are about 10% off, but that can add up! There is no sign up for these sites (not the ones I use), you just go, search your store and see what comes up. If you receive a coupon yourself you can go to the site and enter it for the rest of the web to enjoy.

Today we are expecting delivery of a playhouse for the girls. I paid a bit more to get one that was large. I know they have some fairly inexpensive small ones, however with 2 girls and who knows how many foster kids and what ages they might be, I wanted one that would be large enough that no one would be fighting over space. I ordered it on AAFES.com (which is only available to service members and their families) and although it was $25 for over-sized shipping, I found a 10% off coupon and saved $30, making the over-sized shipping basically free! I waited and waited for another 20% off coupon to surface before I ordered this play house but none have come up in months and it is a late birthday gift for both girls. Fancy Pants birthday was in January so I just couldn't wait any longer. Plus the grandparents chipped in, making it even less :)

So, even if it makes your friends tease you, internet coupons are fantastic with no strings attached! If you know of any sites other than retailmenot.com please list them in the comments for our readers to check out! I have looked at a few others, however they are often out of date...


***Disclaimer: Retailmenot.com has no idea I wrote this blog post. I am in no way affiliated with them, I just LOVE their website :)

Weight Watchers

So I have decided it's time to lose some weight.  I have plenty of reasons why I have gained weight over the past 6 years, but none are good enough to keep the weight on now.  Infertility and depression have a way of packing on the pounds!  We have adopted two beautiful little girls and even before then I had kicked the depression. But this weight!!  My goodness!  It's so much easier to put it on right?

I have tried a few different diets before.  But with PCOS it is nearly impossible to lose weight, but just looking at white bread or a potato will make you gain 5 pounds.  I've tried Weight Watchers before and had a bit of success, but not knowing what I now know about losing weight and PCOS.  Basically the secret is - you can't eat processed food.  Have you tried to stay away from processed food?  It's hard!  Even home made bread is processed... the flour (even whole wheat) is not in whole form.  When you have PCOS even whole wheat bread is a luxury!  All carbs must come in as whole a form as possible.  That means grains that no one has ever heard of like millet, quinoa, etc.  Oatmeal is ok and brown rice.  White rice is a major NO!  One meal with white rice could hinder the progress of a whole week.  The Sonoma Diet is good for people with PCOS and I love the food.  I just have such a hard time sticking to the "no sugar" at all and end up going off the deep end. 

So Weight Watchers it is because it's not so strict.  However, when I've done WW before I have eaten some frozen meals for lunches and once in awhile dinner.  I can't do that now that I know it won't help me lose any weight.  Frozen dinners = processed foods.  Easy but pointless...for me. 

This morning we had oatmeal with blueberries and fat free whipped topping.  Even the kids ate it!  So far they have loved most of the food I've made.  Tonight we had baked spaghetti carbonara and let me tell you, having lived in Italy, it was just not good.  It looked and smelled delicious coming out of the oven, but was so bland I wont make it again while I'm dieting!  I'll make it better once I hit my goal weight :) 

If you do WW online drop me a comment with your user name and I'll add you as a friend!!

Book Review: God's Promises for Girls

I've recently signed up to review books for Book Sneeze and my first book to look over is God's Promises for Girls, by Jack Countryman and Amy Parker.  When the book came I opened it up and my two little girls were sitting close by.  Both of the girls saw the book and instantly crawled up into my lap and declared it was theirs!  A small argument began about which girl would get to claim this adorable book.  The cover is very sweet and appealing to little girls, as my experience shows!

I sat with the girls after explaining that for now this was Mommy's book, and looked it over.  They of course loved the illustrations.  I scanned the table of contents and was very excited about all the different topics listed.  Fancy Pants is 3 and Baby Cakes is 2 and so this book is a little bit old for them, however, they love to hear about God and Jesus and so we picked a topic (Being a good sister) and opened it up to that page.  There we found a cute little poem about being a good sister and four Bible verses that talk about the kind of sister God wants girls to be.

I am very excited to this book!  I intend on using it as a reference when the girls are faced with difficult situations.  When they are arguing we can open the book up to being a good sister and see what God has to say on the subject.  Another great thing is that it isn't just for difficult situations!  There are scriptures on God's promises for when we are happy, thankful, how God wants you to dance, etc.  I would definitely recommend this book for anyone with a daughter (and there is a boy version as well!) I expect that my copy will be well worn before the girls have grown out of it!

"I'm Bored!"

So it is Day 2 of summer vacation and my Mini Jedi is already moping around.  The neighbor kids are home schooled and don't get much of a summer vacation.  I think they are off in July... but that's when we will be on vacation.  Last year Tony's parents took our Mini Jedi on vacation for a week, plus they were at our home for a few weeks.  We lived in a different neighborhood with more kids.  My mom came to visit.  There was a lot for him to do. 

We have a lot planned already - Library on Wednesdays, movie day with friends on Thursdays and the pool on Fridays.  That leaves Mondays and Tuesdays for him to drive me nuts with "No one can play, I don't know what to dooooo"  I really don't blame him all that much... There's only so much time anyone can play on their own, so I don't really blame him at all.  Our Mini Jedi is a great kid, he rarely complains.  He has the best imagination, he prefers to play outside rather than video games all day.  He loves to learn, gets great grades, is respectful to adults and the best big brother!  So I don't really fancy being irritated with him all summer because there isn't anything for him to do.  Instead we're going to find something!

I asked some friends for ideas and went searching on my own and here is what we've come up with for the summer.  Each of us has a 5 subject mini notebook, about 5x7 or so.  The first section is for our 5 summer goals.  We will each come up with some type of project at home, a service project for the community, a service project for the family and two others of our choice.  They have to be things that will take up the summer, not something we can just do in a day.  We'll keep goal and progress notes in the first section.

Another section from our notebooks we will be researching something we're interested in, something we want to know more about.

The third section we will be focusing on cooking.  Mini Jedi will be responsible for planning and preparing one meal a week for the family.  It will probably be on Tuesday nights as it's the only evening we're free after a semi uneventful day.  We'll also both keep a list of things we'd like to learn how to cook.  So far Mini Jedi wants to learn how to make sushi, scrambled eggs and french toast!  Again we'll keep notes on our progress.  (Right now we're watching the Karate Kid II and this cooking ritual the girl is doing is looking very interesting... we may just have to add that to our research and cooking sections!)

We still have two sections left.. I'm not sure yet what we'll do with them, but I'm sure we can think of something! 

Recipe Share

I've been promising to share some recipes for awhile now... I may have missed some, if so then please let me know!  I have been enjoying all the cooking... not so much the dishes :)  The first two recipes had ridiculous names, so I'm going to call them what I want.  The dessert recipes are from a Kraft Food magazine and the Salmon is from the new Hungry Girl cookbook. 

Since these are my first recipes on here, just a little background into my cooking.  Really just 2 things.

1.  I don't measure much.  I know people who don't measure at all... I wish I could say that.  Things like strawberries and pound cake... those so don't need to be measured!  The more the better!  But the cheesecake part I did measure everything since it needs to be a certain consistency.  I do a lot of "oh, that looks good".  Another example - when you make cookies and it calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips.  What's the point in measuring that?  There is no wrong amount of chocolate chips in the cookies (unless you put too few in!)  But I stick to the flour/sugar/baking soda/salt/butter measurements to get the right consistency of cookie...

2.  I don't always stick to the ingredients listed in the recipe.  Recipes are guidelines.  Kind of a suggestion of what sort of ingredients to put together.  If a recipe sounds pretty good but you don't like a few of the ingredients don't throw it out!  Just switch it up to what you like.  If something else sounds better then do that instead.  It took me a few years after learning to cook to allow myself to deviate from the original recipe.  But now I rarely follow them for anything but desserts.

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle (Their name: Layered Strawberry Cheesecake Bowl.  It's really a Strawberry Cheese/Short Cake)

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries (I probably put more in, I didn't measure them)
3 Tbsp sugar
2 pkg (8oz each) Neufchatel Cheese, softened (Just leave it out for an few minutes in the Texas heat!)
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 pkg (3.4 oz) Vanilla instant pudding
2 cups thawed cool whip lite, divided
2 cups frozen pound cake, cubed (1 inch)  (I bought a 16oz frozen pound cake and just put some in the bowl until it looked good.  I think it was probably a little over 2 cups but I wanted to make sure the bowl was filled well)
Bakers semi-sweet chocolate (the recipe says 1 square but I used 2 or 3)

Combine berries and sugar and refrigerate until ready to use
Beat Neufchatel cheese until creamy.  Gradually beat in milk.  Add pudding; mix well.  Blend in 1 1/2 cups cool whip. 
***Now.... here is where I strayed.  It says to spoon half that mixture into the bowl.  And if you don't want to be all fancy, then go ahead and do that.  However, if you want chocolate on the side of the bowl then you need to melt the bakers chocolate now.  Once that's done, spoon it into a baggie and cut a tip of the baggie with whatever knife you have lying around.  (The one you cut the strawberries and pound cake with).  Decorate the trifle bowl as desired.  I just swished the bag back and forth to do the bottom, and then kind of did the same thing on the sides, but I tilted the bowl as I went.  There is some artistic liberty here so go for it. Once you are done put it in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes.  If you're reading this before hand then you may want to do this part first and then mix up your cheese/pudding/milk mixture while it's setting.  But I decided spur of the moment to decorate the bowl.***

Ok, back to the recipe - Spoon half of the Neufchatel mixture into your bowl, decorated or not.  Top with cake and berries, whichever order you want, then the remaining cheese mixture.  It says to refrigerate for 4 hours... I did not do this, I didn't see that part until right now.  Mine turned out fine.  I did refrigerate for about 30 minutes once I was completely done.
Melt chocolate (if you haven't already); drizzle over dessert.  Top with remaining cool whip.
Special extra (which of course you have to do!): Melt 1 additional chocolate square.  Dip 5 strawberries in chocolate, letting excess drip off.  Refrigerate 30 minutes.  Use to garnish dessert (you should do this at the beginning so they're ready at the end)


Cheesecake Brownie Bites (Was: Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Babies)

1 pkg (19 to 21oz) brownie mix (I used Ghirardelli's) (plus whatever is needed to make said brownies)
1 pkg (8oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla (or just half a splash, I rarely measure this)
1 1/2 cups thawed cool whip
20 maraschino cherries

Heat oven to 350F.  Prepare brownie batter as directed on package.  Spoon into 20 paper-lined muffin cups.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, peanut butter and vanilla with mixer until blended.  Spoon 1 rounded Tbsp. into center of batter in each cup, pressing lightly into batter.  Bake 30 minutes or until centers are set.  Cool. 
Serve topped with cool whip and cherries.
(I tried to do mini ones of these for a party, but I left them in the oven too long and they wouldn't pop out of the mini pan.  I also had no liners.  So I just crumbled them all up into a bowl and topped with the cool whip and cherries.)

Crazy Pineapple Salmon Teriyaki

Notes: This only makes 1 serving.  I bought a 12 oz salmon fillet and doubled the sauce and pineapple for Tony and I.  The kids had fish sticks.  Next time I will get enough for everyone though, they all had bites and they all liked it!  I love Asian chili sauce, so I also made some brown rice to go with this and had some over that.  I only made 1 packet, but next time I will divide it up into separate packets for faster cooking time. This would taste GREAT with chicken too!  And it would be a great camping meal.

One 5-ounce salmon fillet
1/2 tablespoon thick teriyaki sauce with 20 to 25 calories per tablespoon
1/2 tablespoon sweet Asian chili sauce (we used a sweet and spicy one)
2 pineapple rings packed in juice
dash cayenne pepper, or more to taste (I used crushed red pepper flakes, it sounded better... they always taste yummy on cooked pineapple!!)

Preheat oven to 375F.
In small bowl, mix teriyaki sauce with chili sauce, set aside.
Lay a large piece of heavy-duty foil on a baking sheet and spray with nonstick spray.  Place the salmon in the center, and top with the teriyaki-chili sauce.  Flip salmon over and coat evenly on both sides.
Top fish with pineapple slices and sprinkle with cayenne pepper.  Fold together and seal the top and bottom edges of the foil, and then the side edges, to create a well sealed packet.
Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until fish is cooked through.
Allow packet to cool for a few minutes, and then cut to release steam before opening it entirely. 

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we did :)

Summer Fun Starts NOW!

Today is the first official day of SUMMER BREAK!!

(That is my Fancy Pants in the picture :)

Summer break for a parent is not quite the same as for a kid.  This year however it is a little more for me than just having our Mini Jedi home each day.  It's also a break for me from what I've been doing for the last 2 years, fostering kids.  Well, along with the rest of my family, but most of the work falls to me since I stay home.  It's work I enjoy doing (and yes, having 3 is a vacation for me).  But even a kid who enjoys school looks forward to that summer break.  There is a lot I am looking forward to!  Yesterday I wrote about how excited I am to have the time to cook better meals this summer.  I'm also looking forward to hanging out at the state park pool with my other crazy friends, taking the kids to the library, park, visiting grandma, our trip to California and just maybe a trip to Florida.  I am looking forward to taking the kids to the local farmers market and maybe on a trip to pick our own peaches from a farm near here (I don't care for peaches and TJ is allergic but I'd like to make some preserves for my Tony, who loves them!)  I am looking forward to early morning walks withe friends and my girls who call it "walking around".  When Baby Cakes sees me pull out the double jogger she says "Are we going to go walking around?"  Yup! 

I plan on enjoying every minute I get with my kids this summer.  Fostering is what God has called us to do, so we will continue.  But for this summer it's just us and it's all about the fun!

Falling in love with cooking

Our Mini Jedi was one lucky kid, he got 100% of our attention for 9 years.  He really got the best of us, we did more as a family, I cooked more meals and better meals at that.  This summer, while we take a break from fostering, I want to get back to the simple life and share all the great things our Mini Jedi got with our Fancy Pants and Baby Cakes.  The first thing I am going to focus on is our meals.

I truly love to cook.  I didn't always, but a few years into our marriage I began to love to create meals that my boys would like.  We lived in Italy and had the freshest ingredients available to us at all times.  Our landlord lived above us and had an awesome garden, full of vegetables, fruit trees, fresh herbs and grapevines.  They loved to take our Mini Jedi (he was a toddler at the time) and let him pick grapes right off the vines and shake apples off the tree.  There is nothing quite like biting into a warm apple freshly picked.  I was able to pick fresh apples for apple pies and there were many knocks on our door with fresh vegetables the landlord wanted to share with us and even his homemade wine. 

I also loved walking down to the market every Monday morning to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from the vendors.  There were also meat and fish trucks and just about anything you could want.  The markets were one of my favorite things about Italy!  I loved walking through with my Mini Jedi in his stroller, having all the old Italian ladies fuss over the American baby.  I was so incredibly shy that even buying fruits and vegetables from the vendors (you know, it's their job to sell them) was a bit painful.  Every Wednesday and Saturday the fruit and vegetable truck would drive down our street bright and early "Frutta, Frutta, Vedura" would be shouted from their loud speaker.  They had the best fragole (strawberries) in the whole area! I also would buy freshly baked bread and fresh cheeses.  It's no wonder I still dream of Italy and consider it our "home" more than any other place we've been. 

I enjoyed knowing that I was in the place where my ancestors were from, maybe not the same area as we're from Palermo, Sicily... but I felt very in touch with my roots.  And cooking is something my Italian side of the family loves to do, and does very well.  So I started to try new things.  I joined recipe e-zines, searched recipe websites and found pen pals to share recipes with and printed hundreds of recipes.  I bought cooking magazines and clipped even more recipes.  I have had them organized at least 5 different ways over the years, but here is the most recent (although in desperate need of a cleaning out!)

One day I saw a Joy of Cooking cookbook at the bookstore on base and I begged Tony for that cookbook.  It was awhile before I actually got it, but once I did I dove right in and started trying anything that sounded good (I now have 3 different versions of Joy of Cooking).  Slowly I added to my cookbook collection until one day I realized it was quite an obsession. 

(This is only some, some are still in boxes from our move in August)

When we moved to England even more possibilities opened up.  Within weeks of moving there I'd bought the first three of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks and fell in love with his recipes full of fresh and delicious ingredients.  I now own all but 2 of his books!

So that is the short story of how I became cooking/cookbook obsessed.  Once we became foster parents and ended up having 4 and 5 kids at a time my cooking suffered.  I am ready and very excited to get back into it this summer.  I want to teach my girls to love cooking as much as I do.  We are growing some of our own ingredients so we can have fresh like we did in Italy all those years ago.  I have looked forward to daughters to share this with and this summer it is one of our goals :)  (Although, Mini Jedi loves to cook too!  He still remembers helping me make pancakes at 2 years old)

So Few Children I Don't Know What To Do!

So I've been waiting and waiting to write another blog post because no one wants to hear me complain and whine.  I've been trying to think of a way to make this family transition we're going through a bit funny so that it makes an interesting read.  No one wants to read a blog full of complaining and boohoo-ing. 

Both our foster boys left last week.  Monster on Wednesday afternoon and Jr. midday Friday.  It was a bit of a rough week, also finding out one of my best friends is moving, our vacation plans changing, and a few other things that just didn't make for a fun week at all. 

I think so far the most noticeable difference in our home since the boys left isn't that it's finally clean, but that somewhere in their totes and suitcases I packed away my brain!  Jr. left Friday and it just all went downhill from there.  I'll try to give you some examples but even those I don't have organized into days... I know they happened and over the weekend but if it wasn't something that happened at the church picnic we attended or at Abilene State Park on Monday where we spent the day, then I have no idea when it happened...

At one point over the weekend (Weekend being Friday - Monday, since those are the days Tony had off) I had 4 things I needed to do.  Four, just four.  Well while trying to complete those four things I walked across the living room four times... no idea where I was going or what it was I was trying to do!  Tony, having observed my mindless wandering, stopped me and asked what on earth I was doing!  I explained to him that I really had no idea.  After he stopped laughing and making fun of me he made me a list of the things I wanted to do and suggested an order to do them.  I believe one of them was to find a shirt to wear for the day.  I went to the laundry room to get one I knew had just been washed, only to remember that Tony had passed me with the clean clothes only 2 minutes before that and my clean shirt was now on the other side of the house, in my bedroom. 

One evening I went and had ice cream with a few friends.  We decided to walk around Walmart afterwards.  I think I all I bought was bubbles for the girls.  At the checkout my brain failed to function.  I think it was at that point I realized that my brain just doesn't know how to function anymore without 3 toddlers and an infant screaming in my general direction.  My friends were very obliging and made very loud kid noises for me so that my brain could power up and complete my transaction. 

And that's how it's been.  This morning I startled every 5 minutes as I was getting ready to leave the house, thinking I was about to leave without a child.  It was so overwhelming and upsetting that I finally just sat on the couch and cried for a few minutes.  Then got in the car to go hand in WIC cards and drove right past the WIC office.  Even as I type this I keep listening for 4 different noises in the house, not just the 2 that are here.

As a mom you anticipate your child's needs.  All moms, but probably more so stay at home mom's, who rely on very few other people to help care for their kids, are always thinking ahead at what they need to do.  Make meals, snacks, take kids to the doctor, medications, play time... the list goes on.  Once a foster child leaves our home my brain doesn't just stop anticipating their needs.  There is no on/off switch.  So for the next few weeks I will just have to deal with this weird foggy head feeling.  Spending time with my three forever kiddos is definitely the prescribed method to clear the fog, so I plan on doing a lot of that too :)