a newly aquired skill

I don't know what it is but the second autumn starts rolling in I get the itch to be crafty. There's nothing like snuggling up with a blanket, a hot cup of tea and a basket full of beautiful yarn. Knitting is the ultimate fall activity. For some reason I can neglect it and out right forget it even exists for 6 months out of the year, but as soon as the cool air rolls in so do my knitting needles.

However this year, I felt the need for a little change. (And no not b/c our newly elected president plastered in on every car from here to oregon) Instead of knitting, I taught my self to crochet and it has become my new favorite love. There is something so simple about twisting the beautiful yarn through your fingers and through the loops. You could almost get lost in the monotonousness rhythm. Hats have become my fancy. Stella almost has one in every color. I mean come on if you have to live on a budget this is a great way to keep your kids stylish! So instead of dozens of scarfs this year, I am making dozens of hats. So watch out you just might find one in your stocking.

the truth

please watch this

the best photographer I know

i know she's my sister and all but this is some amazing work. And if you are looking for pictures to use for christmas cards (and let's be honest, I know all of you send them out) then you've got to book her now b/c her schedule is filling up. And she's offering one amazing deal. Check her out.

oh and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the "kathe" album. Image number 6 is incredible!

sleeping problems solved?

So Stella has been sleeping 8hour chunks for the past two nights. Could it be a trend? Did we finally get to that magical 3 month mark that everyone talks about? I sure hope so. And I hope I didn't speak to soon.

side note: Stella loves our bed, but only when she is the only one in it =)

I love small businesses

ok so i'm totally obsessed with my cloth diapers. It's a new found love and totally addicting. You wouldn't know it but there are hundreds of types. After much research I settled on a brand called "gro-baby" these amazing diapers are totally organic and so easy to use and not to mention Stella has never had a diaper rash!

Anyway...I have been using these diapes since stella was about 8lbs so around 3 weeks old. And I got them from a great company which is based out of Montana and started by a Mom, called the natural baby co. Well these great diapes have been working great until just a couple weeks ago the elastic went out in two of them (we have 12 total). I thought it strange after just a couple months of use so I decided to be brave and call the company just to let them know. I mean maybe I did something wrong? Well I explained the problem and without even asking for my order number they took my name and address and are shipping me two NEW ones tommorrow! I mean talk about some impressive customer service. This makes me love them all the more...you better check them out.

just another reason to use arbonne

this is gross.

worth your time

if you don't read this blog, then you should start now=)

a family pic

here's a pic of my us at a vineyard visiting with some friends. Chris has officially donned his "winter" beard. I love him ;)

i miss rome

let me paint a verbal picture of the incredible lunch on my plate right now. An amazingly delicious sweet, juicy honeycrisp apple cut into eight perfect pieces with heaping mounds of crumbly, creamy fresh blue cheese decorated with thin strands of salty prosciutto. yum. Oh how a glass of wine would go so well with this masterpiece. Some how drinking in the middle of the day, while home with my 3 month old doesn't seem quite fitting =) I wish we were still living in Rome because that is the only way I could justify drinking half a bottle of wine with my lunch. St. Ambrose was so smart is his dear words "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"

the shred

Getting back in shape after giving birth was a bit challenging. Usually I am not a"work-out-video" type of person. I can never get past the overly chipper, super in-shape, extremely thin hosts of such videos. I would much rather spend a couple hours in the gym watching my favorite cooking shows. However with this new little bundle of joy I can't imagine dropping her off in one of the swine flu invested nurseries at the local gym. So alas I have conceded and have turned back to the work out videos.

Except that this time I found one! Yep that's right I found a video that I have done more that once. And while the host is still super in shape and slightly annoying her workouts produce results. You may recognize her she is Jillian Michael's from the Biggest Loser. And the video is called The 30 day shred. What I like about it is that it gives me a time frame. I like a schedule. Jillian says try it for 30 days and see what happens. Well I tried it for 2 weeks (can you believe I did a work out video consecutively for 14 days?!) I have to say those 2 weeks kicked my butt! But it's worth it, I am back in my old jeans! Now if I could just do the next 14 days...

I asked Chris to keep me accountable to working out every day and he made me promise this morning to do it. Does writing a post about it count?

Ok maybe if I get out of my pj's and put on my work out clothes I will do it, but I have to warn you you may get addicted!

simplifying my wasted time

So not that reading other blogs is wasting my time. In fact they are a great way to keep up with friends, read about current news or just check out recent pics. But as a new mom I am sure there are many (many, many) other things I could be doing with my time like for instance taking the laundry out of the dryer that has been sitting there for a full 24 hours(I am pretty sure my dryer has now become my second closet woops!). However this will simplify your blog reading and is a definite must if your time online is limited!

scheduling sleep

So the amazing sleeping schedule that I had for Stella is MIA. I don't know if it's the fact that we both have been a little under the weather or the fact that it's just sooo much fun to stay up late with momma and dada but she keeps going to bed later and later. I mean last night she was up until Midnight and Chris and I are totally in bed by 11pm kind of people. I guess it doesn't help that I am usually out of bed at 630am and ready to go to morning mass and the past couple days we have been snoozing late to try to beat this bug we have but I'm kinda in a place where I don't know what to do. Let her keep sleeping (which she currently is) and help her body rest? OR Wake her up and hope for an earlier bedtime tonight?

The girl loves to sleep so she will sleep a good 10-12 hours (waking up to eat once) BUT currently it's the wrong hours 11pm to 11am (ugh). And how on earth am I going to be able to move her bedtime all the way back to 7 or 8pm?!

Whew, seems like we may have a few grumpy days ahead.

All you seasoned veterans I would love your much needed advice!

my favorite diapers!

if you're into cloth diapers you've gotta check out grobaby's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9navHC7Qo

homeade butter
yes, it's true you can make butter at home. And in fact that is precisely what I did this morning. Thanks to a dear friend, my sister Lucy and I now enjoy delicious raw milk from a farm nearby. Upon opening my mason jar there is a thick layer of the best cream you have ever tasted (I would drink straight cream if it wasn't 50 calories a tablespoon!) . Not only have a been skimming this cream off to pour in my morning (mid-morning and afternoon) coffee, I now discovered that you can also make it into butter. I find it very fascinating to try to make the things from scratch that we normally just pick up from the grocery store.

So to make butter what you do is:
pour the fresh cream into a kitchen aid mixer and set to the highest speed it will go. It will take about 20 minutes but after the cream whips it eventually breaks and forms butter and buttermilk. When this happened I just strained the butter with a sieve and caught the butter milk in a jar. I then placed the butter on a sturdy paper towel and pressed out the remaining liquid. The result was a thick, beautiful yellow clump of butter that I promptly put into a container. You must press the butter into the container to remove all the air so that the butter doesn't spoil. Thanks to our modern (overly processed) store bought butter you never have to worry about spoiling (eww). Isn't it interesting how the things we eat now-a-days can last forever and not spoil? I am starting to think that this is a red-flag. Maybe I'll try to make sure everything we eat doesn't have a long shelf life. The more we process food the worse it is for us. (So stepping back off my soapbox) After all the buttermilk was pressed out (you can save this butter milk and use it later) I placed a thin layer of cold water on top of the butter to keep all remaining air out and then I popped it in the fridge.

Wow, that was too easy. (NEW: scratch what I said about the mixer and throw it in the blender on higher...it's so much faster like 10 min tops!)

So on my quest to try to make everything homemade I can check this one off my list!

a "write" of passage

Dorky puns aside, it's official I am blogging. I have joined the rest of the modern world and I am now sending my thoughts out to the world via the internet. So beware friends unless you want to know:

-the ins and outs of how we are raising our daughter to be a faithful catholic
-the amazing things the Lord is doing in our life
-the fascinating world of cloth diapers
-how to make everything from scratch
-how to pray the rosary in latin
-homeschooling
-or our semi-crunchy, organic, green, all-natural (what do you call us? we are obviously not hippies not to mention my husband would kill me if he heard me describe him as "green")

then this may not be the blog for you. But if any of those intrigue you then read on fellow blogger... to my friends bored at work add this new blog to your list and yes there will be baby pictures!