Earrings

Do you ever leave the house and feel naked?  Then you reach up and figure out you forgot to put on some earrings.  So you go back in to grab a pair, even though its making you late.  If so, then you, like me, loooovvvvveeeee earrings!  I have a bunch that I grab from various places like flea markets, thrift stores, rummaging through my mother's jewelry drawers and of course different stores.  I always go through phases where I wear the same pair or style for weeks.  Currently, I am into wearing my post earrings.   My favorites are the yellow ones, they always put me in a great mood and they are the perfect pop of color for any outfit!

My Saturday

Saturday was a lovely day, great weather and all!  I finally figured out how to use my griddle without the pancakes sticking and whipped up some pancakes and apple chicken sausage for breakfast.  My family demolished them!

Then I met up with my friend and her daughter to go thrifting.  I am on the hunt for a table for the front door, so we hit up a furniture space.  Unfortunately, I didn't see anything. Next up we checked out a fabric store and I found some fabric to make some curtains for my bedroom.  I will post about those later.

Then we checked out this children's consignment shop.  My friend found some cute short overalls for her daughter.  It's a great space and has awesome prices.

Lastly, we went to the Treehouse Play Cafe.  Its an indoor play space and they also serve food.  The baby attempted to crawl and I can tell in about a month or so, it will be a great place to go meet up with other moms.  Also, my egg salad sandwich was awesome.

The day ended with a game of Monopoly and some yummy cream soda floats.

I do so love the weekends!

Baby Food

Now that my girl has hit the 1/2 year mark, its time for baby food.  We tried some rice cereal and that went well, so I am moving on to fruits and veggies.  With my son, I cooked some foods, but mainly depended on commercial foods by a company called Earth's Best, they are all organic, no GMO's and have no added sugar.  I will probably still use them when I travel.  However, for my day to day use, I have decided to make my own baby food.  I found this video that gave step by step directions for making your own food.  It was very simple, it didn't take a lot of time and was under $10 to purchase the produce.  I made apples, green beans and yams.  The bananas I simply put in a bowl and mashed them with a fork until they were pureed.

For the apples:  Using a medium sized dutch oven, I filled it with about 3 cups of filtered water and left it to boil.  Meanwhile, you can wash, peel, core and cut the apples into chunks.  Once the water is boiling, add your apple chunks and leave them to boil for about 10 minutes, or until the apples are soft.  Next, scoop the apples out of the pot into a blender or food processor.  You can add  1/4-1/2 cup of water from the pot to the blender as well.  Blend until apples are smooth.  Place in a glass container and put them aside to cool.

For the green beans: I did the same process as with the apples, except I just trimmed and washed them.

For the sweet potatoes: I heated the oven to 375 degrees, washed the yams and pierced them with a fork then placed them inside and let them bake for about 45 minutes.  When they were finished I removed the skin, placed them in the blender and blended them until smooth.  I added a little of the water from the apples, as well.

This is how they all came out.  I let them cool a short while and then placed them in breast milk bags for storage in the freezer.  The bags are good because they have measurements on them.  Another good option is ice cube trays, each cube is equivalent to 1 oz.

I ended up with about 8 oz. in each bag, and with her taking about 2-4 oz per day, at this point, this will last for a good amount of time.  It's good in the freezer for 6-8 months, just make sure you get the air out of the bag completely.

Enjoy!

Brunch at Standard Tap

The other day, we went to brunch with friends.  Initially we were going to my favorite brunch spot Green Eggs Cafe in Philly.  They got there ahead of us (of course, I am always running late) and called to say that they were waiting, but the line was so long, they were waiting outside.  They have a 3 1/2 year old, so needless to say, waiting for an hour was not an option.  My friend suggested another place down the street, Standard Tap.  I was not thrilled.  For starters, its a bar and she mentioned that there was no wait for our party of 7 group, which is unheard of at any good brunch spot on the weekend.
In light of our situation, lack of time, not wanting to move our cars and the lack of anywhere else that was close by, we decided to go.
When we arrived, they seated us at a lovely table by the window, so there was tons of light and we had tons of room, which is important when you are carting around a stroller.  I couldn't get my fav, an americano but the coffee was yummy.  We took forever to order, because I was waiting for a menu and didn't realize it was written on a board on the wall.  A few of us ordered the Standard Eggs, which included eggs your way, breakfast meat, fried potatoes and a biscuit.  Idris ordered the french toast with blueberries and my friend's husband had the french toast with pear butter.  The food was soooo good!  I  completely forgot to take pictures, before I had consumed most of my food, sorry!  The potatoes were awesome, the biscuit was big and reminded me of home, and the pancakes were fluffy.  By the time we were leaving the place had filled, so I guess we just got there at a good time.  My only complaint was that they only had pork products for their breakfast meat selection and we don't eat pork.  I actually find that so irritating.  In 2013 there are far too many vegans/vegetarians/non-pork or beef eaters for restaurants not to have options, but I digress!
If you are in Philly, check out Standard Tap website.

Got Milk?!

Just like last time, I plan on breastfeeding for a year.  However, I noticed that my milk supply appeared to be decreasing.  I still have 6 months to go and was desperate for a fix.  So I got to surfing the web and came upon this recipe for lactation cookies.  If you are like me, you are probably wondering what in the world lactation cookies are?  Basically, they are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with flaxseed and brewers yeast which help to boost milk production.  The author lists a bunch of variations to the original recipe, but I just kept it simple and they were great.  I definitely have noticed an increase and will continue to make these.

ENJOY!

TGIF...

So glad its Friday!  I am looking forward to my weekend.  Brunch with friends, going to the art museum and my mom's coming to visit, which will probably lead to an impromptu date night!  Which we are in dire need of.  I look forward to the weekend because the stress and grind of the week finally comes to a halt and I can enjoy my son without the stresses of making the bus, homework and after school activities.  Although, baseball is starting in a few weeks.  Anyhow,  I usually make a big breakfast one of the days and we lay around in jammies and bum around watching TV, listening to music and surfing the web during the cold months.  Not to mention, I can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and read my magazines, when she takes her morning nap.  Once springtime hits though, I make everyone get dressed and we head out to the farmer's market early.
We usually plan to do something-a museum visit, hiking/biking or hanging with friends.  Our evenings consist of movie or game nights and some fun dinner like tacos, burgers or BBQ!
How do you guys spend your weekends?