But I think I’m about ready to make the jump to the new blog.

(Squeal!!)

It’s not quite 100% where I want it yet, but it’s getting hard to work on two blogs at once, so I think the time has come to stop blogging here and start blogging there.

The new site:

littlecozyhouse.com

I’m trying to figure out how to link the two and automatically direct traffic to the new site, but since I’m a newbie at all this website stuff, I haven’t quite mastered how to do that yet.

SO…if you’d like to stay up to date on new posts at the new site, PLEASE subscribe to that blog, because I probably won’t be posting here very much.

I hope you’ll follow me to the Little Cozy House blog!

Unpacking it was the most exciting day I’ve had in a long time. (That may be a little pitiful.  But so true. )

Tresia, Bev and Lori bought it for us as a baby shower gift, and I’d never heard of it before then.  But ever since we got it, I’ve seen lots of infomercials for it on tv, and let me just say, it is 100% as wonderful as the infomercials make it out to be.

It’s great for that transitional period when your child goes from eating socks…

…to solids.  (When she’s 18, she’ll be mortified that I posted these pictures.  But I couldn’t resist.  She’s such a character.  I love her.)

So.  Here’s what is included.  (Totally sorry about the blurry pics.  Realized too late that my ISO was set way too low, and sadly, Photoshop doesn’t have a fix for blurry pictures.  )

It comes with a big batch bowl, two smaller batch bowls, the blender base, two different blades, 6 little serving containers (and a tray to hold them in the fridge), a silicone tray for freezing 12 servings, and a little spatula.  (Not sure why the silicone tray isn’t in the pic, but it is included.)  Oh, and you get a full-color handy-dandy manual and recipe book, which helps you figure out which foods to prepare and how much to give to baby each month.  I didn’t get much specific info from the doctor about a feeding schedule, so for me, the book was very, very helpful.

I tried bananas first.  All you do is slice up a banana, put it in one of the small batch bowls, add a little water, and turn it on.

It literally takes 10 seconds to puree, and VOILA!   Banana baby food.

At first I was concerned that it wouldn’t be pureed enough for Abby, but the blender gets it liquid-smooth.  I was very impressed.  I made a whole batch, and froze a bunch to use later.

It literally took 10 minutes and 5 bananas, and we ended up with enough food to last a couple of weeks.  (We’re only doing one or two servings of solid food a day for the time being.)

I made a big batch of applesauce for her, too.  That took a little longer just because you have to peel/slice the apples and steam them, but it still probably only took 15 minutes of actual prep time (steam time not included).  Love it.  Super cheap, too.  I think making baby food is going to save us a bundle.

You can even make your own rice cereal with the Bullet!  Yay!  I didn’t realize that at first so I bought a box at the store…but as soon as it’s used up, I’ll be making that with the Baby Bullet, too.

I’m sure a regular blender would work, but I love all the little accessories that are included with the Baby Bullet.  Plus, it’s stinking adorable.  I mean, come on.  Too cute.  I am totally about all the cuteness.

81. Last-minute babysitters.

82. Money to pay bills.

83. Reliable vehicles.

84. A snug, warm, toasty house.

85. Sunny days that allow me to line dry laundry even though it’s November.

86. Crafts that turn out the way I actually envision them.

87. Coffee. Nice, hot coffee.

88. Sunrises.

89. Mornings when baby sleeps in.

90. My wonderful, wonderful hubby.

The craft fair is next weekend, so we’ve been busy little worker bees trying to get things done.

We’re going a different route this year…no sewing. I have decided that I love sewing, but I hate sewing for craft fairs. And Tresia hates sewing period, despite my attempts to nudge her into being a little seamstress. So this year we’re attempting lots of little woodworking projects. It’s been big fun! Here’s a sneak peak of a few of them.

Fabric covered cork boards (the green one makes me swoon – love it!)

Chicken wire memo boards (can’t get over my urge to just keep both of these):

Crate shelf:

We’re also hoping to have some picture frames, some signs, and who knows what else. Stay tuned!

As you all know, a few months ago, my laptop pooped out.

As some of you may know, my miracle-working brother-in-law revived it and made my life complete once again.

One would assume that I would have learned my lesson to back up, back up, back up my photos and documents after that disastrous event.

Ahem.

Alas, backing up my laptop didn’t even cross my mind until last night.

When the laptop suddenly, out of the blue, died once again.

No warning, no notice, no anything.  I was in the midst of typing up a few blog posts when…BAM. Black screen.  Nothing. As my brother would say, it was D-E-D…dead. AGAIN.

So I threw it aside in frustration and moved to the desktop computer that we got after the last laptop malfunction. And I immediately copied all the photos on my camera to the desktop AND the external hard drive to avoid future loss of memories.  And I then played “Bejeweled” for approximately an 79 minutes straight.

It wasn’t until I went to unplug and put the laptop away for good in the “electronics that no longer work” corner of the basement that I realized it was already unplugged…thus leading me to the realization that it had indeed died…FROM A DEAD BATTERY.

Sigh.  Relief.  Jubilation!

Task #1 for today: BACK UP THE LAPTOP.

The end.

71. Mashed potatoes with mounds of butter.

72. Beef and noodles….Grandma T’s recipe!

73. Homemade mac and cheese….Grandma G’s recipe!

74. Pot roast and carrots in the crock pot.

75. Chocolate chip walnut banana bread.

76. Runzas…Sue’s recipe!

77. Homemade noodles.

78. Cheesy potato soup.

79. Rice crispy treats.

80. Caramel apple dip.

Since Abby’s a skinny little thing, she lacks chubby baby thighs to keep her wedged tightly into the Bumbo, so using it kind of became a hopeless cause.  Attaching the tray helped contain her a little, but since she can wiggle with the best of them, even that wasn’t enough to keep her in all the time.

Until recently.

Now we use the Bumbo as our high chair.

Since space is at a premium in the cozy house, I really did not want to buy a big, bulky high chair.  And I was having a hard time shelling out $40-50 for one of those cute little “space saving” chairs that sit on a dining room chair.

Then my brilliant mother reminded me about our Bumbo.

So we tried it and…voila!  High chair problem solved!

We just plop the Bumbo right on top of the dining room table (which is not recommended by the manufacturer but we do it anyway), attach the tray, and once we whip out the baby food, that child has a one track mind…to get the spoon and/or food into her mouth ASAP.

(See how twisted she is in the chair?  She can almost get herself turned completely around so that she’s facing the back.  Out of control.)

And on the occasion that the dining room table is buried underneath chicken wire, cans of spray paint, staple guns, sand paper, and a host of other items in preparation for an upcoming craft fair (ahem), I just throw the splat mat on the floor, put the Bumbo on top of the mat, and we camp out on the floor for chow time. And then, when mom and baby are wrestling over a container of pears and it gets spilled, it’s no problem thanks to the splat mat that protects the floor.  Love that mat!

(I didn’t get a picture of the splat mat, but it’s basically just a tablecloth that you throw down to protect the floor when feeding the baby.  I made ours using laminated oilcloth, which is easy to wipe clean, and just hemmed around the edges of it.  Super easy to make and way handy.  I think it’ll also be great floor protection during activities like finger painting and play doh.)

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
- Mark Twain

I love this quote.

It’s my mantra on days like today, when I have a to-do list looming in front of me that I just DO NOT want to tackle. When I’d rather squander the hours of the day away than face reality.

Chanting this quote in my head actually gets me going.

By tackling the items that I am dreading first, I get to enjoy the rest of my day without having a dark cloud hanging over my head. Or feeling guilty about the things I should be taking care of but have pushed to the side.

Thank you, Mr. Twain, for your words that light a fire under my hiney once again.

I had some potatoes that were on the brink of getting yucky, and decided to do a big batch of mashed potatoes to freeze.  I also had a bunch of brown rice, so I figured I may as well cook that and freeze it, as well. And since there were a couple of really brown bananas sitting on the counter, out came the Kitchen Aid to mix up a big batch of banana bread, too.

Nothing major to note when cooking any of these recipes.  You pretty much prepare them as you normally would…but I did have recipes on hand just to make sure I didn’t screw up any of the measurements.  The cookbook I used was “Don’t Panic – More Dinner’s in the Freezer,” which included lots of variations for mashed potatoes.  Jon’s a straight-up mashed kind of guy, so I kept them plain jane, but there are options out there that sounded super yum yum.

I ended up having about 4 pounds of potatoes on hand, which made about 6-7 cups of mashed potatoes.  I just prepared them as usual, which includes adding lots of milk, butter (about 1 stick), salt and pepper, then bagging it up.  I finally wised up and used a new method to make it easier to package hard-to-bag foods.  Usually I just try to balance the ziplock bag and hold it open while filling it up, be it with soup or BBQ pork chops or whatever I’m bagging.  This time, I grabbed a pitcher and placed the bag inside, which made filling it with mashed potatoes easy peasy.  Duh, Jen.  Not sure why it’s taken me two years of freezer cooking to do that, but I’m just glad I finally caught on.

The best part about making a huge bash of smooth, buttery mashed potatoes?  Licking the bowl afterward.  De-lish!

Cooking the rice was straight-forward, too – I think the only tip in the cookbook was to spray or drizzle it with oil before bagging it to keep it from sticking.

I also whipped up a few loaves of banana bread, with some chocolate chips and walnuts mixed in.  Dear banana bread – I love, love, love you.  It would have been totally easy to just leave all the loaves out and eat them up, but I exercised some self-control and froze them.

The thing I love about freezing food like mashed potatoes and rice is that you basically just turn them on and let them cook themselves.  Not much care and attention is needed, so you can turn them on and go about other tasks until they’re done. Plus, you can easily make huge batches.

So no main courses were frozen in this session, but these are definitely things that we eat often and will come in handy.