Professional Motherhood!

Is there such a thing?  A great friend who is expecting her first child told me that her husband thinks she is going to be a professional mother just like me.  (she is going to be a great mom and hopefully not too much like me....there is much I should improve on) But this got me thinking....can one be a professional mother?  It also made me think of a clip from my favorite tv show (which I share at the end of this post).

So I found the good ole' Webster's Dictionary and looked up the definitions of both words.  It turns out you can be a professional mother.  Here are the definitions....

Definition of PROFESSIONAL

1

a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession

b : engaged in one of the learned professions

c (1) : characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace

2

a : participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer>

b : having a particular profession as a permanent career <a professional soldier>

c : engaged in by persons receiving financial return <professional football>

3

: following a line of conduct as though it were a profession <a professional patriot> 

¹moth·er

noun \ˈmə-thər\

1

a : a female parent

b (1) : a woman in authority; specifically : the superior of a religious community of women (2) : an old or elderly woman

With four children at home all day, there is little question that I am a mom...so I'm gonna just leave that one alone.

Obviously, all the definitions of professional that include monetary gain are not applicable.  I think 2b (having a particular profession as a permanent career) is a possibility.  However, for me definition 3 (following a line of conduct as though it were a profession) is spot on for how I view my life as a mother.

How does this effect my daily life?  I'm not sure there is one thing that I could name.  It just IS my daily life.  When we opted to homeschool there were people who asked "Don't you want to let them go to school and get a 'real' job?"  The question baffles me to this day.  My job IS real and important.  The fact that I do not work outside the home does not diminish the importance of my job in the home (just as the fact that some mom's do work outside the home doesn't diminish their job as mother).  

So viewing motherhood as my profession translates in many little ways.  For me, it means homemade meals more often than not, education at home, very rarely hiring a sitter (if Nanny and Pappy can't keep them they come with us), never using the bathroom alone, hearing about 4 (and cleaning up one) different pooping schedules that are not my own, and playing boardgames or watching tv shows that bore me except for the people I'm with.

What else does it mean?  It means my house is NEVER ready for surprise company (unless they are very understanding), it means going to Walmart with the family is enough to drive me to drinking or into a padded room,  it means I'm always behind on laundry, and my kitchen floors are sticky.  It means that I don't go on shopping trips with friends unless its on a weekend (and rarely then-I hate shopping-HA!)  

It means I lose my patience and raise my voice and react instead of respond!  It means a morning out with a girlfriend for breakfast and coffee is refreshing and a date with my husband is heavenly.  

It means that although there are daily challenges and frustrations, I would not change this life I have for anything.....or that's what it means to me.  

 

This whole conversation made me think of this clip from Big Bang Theory....

Again facebook and food is leading me here!

I am currently in 2 or 3 conversations on facebook about food!  And I love food!  I like to cook it, bake it, grill it, make it ahead and freeze it, and last but certainly not least, eat it!  But that statement should be qualified because although I am not a picky eater (I will literally try nearly anything once) I am selective about what goes into my (and my children's) body(ies).  We eat FOOD!  Not chemicals that have been processed in a lab and then dyed and flavored to resemble food.  This has effected nearly everything about our lives.  We are happier, healthier, and much better off (in my humble opinion) for it.  But it is not without difficulty.   One of my facebook conversations on facebook was prompted by an article listing 13 (THIRTEEN) substances found in "food" in American that are banned in food in other countries.  In order to eat healthy, we must be continually vigilant.  And this is annoying and overwhelming and frustrating to so many.  That makes me sad and not just a little angry. 

Without getting political, I think that if we got REAL FOOD to put in our bodies there would be less of a health care issue in our country.  (I will say no more on this subject).  It should be easy to put REAL FOOD in our bodies.  But the fact of the matter is that it isn't...we have to pay attention and buy and prepare food intentionally to eat real food. 

Also, in the interest of full disclosure or "keeping it real" - we occasionally eat at Wendy's or McDonalds....we buy chips as a treat and we eat sweets (although usually homemade) and we buy junky cereal (Cocoa Roos anyone) sometimes.  We like take out pizza.  But we try to follow a whole food, REAL food diet as often as possible.  "Cheating" (for lack of a better word) is not such a big deal when it isn't a steady diet.  

Today I am going to share a few blogs that have helped with our real food journey.  I am doing this from the top of my head while my kids do school so this is no means the entire list.  I will share more later. 

http://www.feingold.org/  This website (and we joined the organization) was the start of our real food journey.  We followed their diet strictly for over a year.  We have now become more relaxed but this really helped me learn what to look for and avoid. 

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/  This blog is AWESOME!  Simple kid friendly things that are all real food.  I love getting ideas from her!  She also talks about how to pack real food to go which is something that is so hard to do sometimes....

www.pinterest.com  OK- I can't imagine that you all haven't heard of this one but it is a great place to find recipes.  I have found some great ones for homemade "mixes" and seasonings among other things too numerous to list.  Of course, you can also find a lot of junk food on there too.  :) 

So I am going to try to blog on this "regularly."  Of course, we'll just have to see how that goes.  :)

My last tip for today is to buy food as near to the way God made it as possible.  Instead of buying strawberries n cream oatmeal buy quick oats (or rolled or steel cut) and frozen strawberries.....cook it in milk and Voila!! real strawberry n cream oatmeal that is actually strawberries instead of whatever the company is trying to pass of as strawberries. 

Freezer baking! Muffin edition!

I was talking about this on facebook yesterday and people seemed interested.  One person even said they would read a blog post if I did one.  It is hard for me to do posts like these because I don't really think about what I'm doing....I just do it!  I tried to take pictures but that didn't go so well...partly because when I'm cooking I forget to take pictures and partly because I just have so much "help"  but I did get a few.

So this is what I did.  We like to eat muffins of all sizes and varieties.  I use them for breakfasts and for snacks.  I do not always feel like making muffins first thing in the morning.  So I make lots of muffins and freeze them.  They thaw and warm up nicely in the micro.  So today in just under 2 hours I made 2 double batches of muffins.  I make some regular sized muffins (2 plus fruit or yogurt=breakfast).  And I make mini muffins (2=snack).  This (with the few that I have left from my last baking frenzy) will be enough to last me about a month unless I get a wild hair to make another flavor...

Ok, where do I get these recipes?  The 2 I used today (recipes included at the end) were from Country Baking by Gooseberry Patch.  One is peanut butter muffins and the other is Oatmeal.  Both are yummy. Of course, I very very rarely follow a recipe exactly.  And today was no exception.  I will publish the original recipe and then share my changes.

But first....here are a few pictures I did take!  

My little helper putting the liners in the muffin tins.  To freeze I ALWAYS use a paper muffin liner.  Makes cleanup easier and freezing nicer. 

Finished oatmeal muffins.  I did not get as many as I'd hoped for from this double batch. 

Peanut butter muffins.  YUM!

OATMEAL MUFFINS

1 T lemon juice
1cup milk
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar , packed
1/2 cup shortening, melted
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda

 Add lemon juice to milk and let stand at room temp for 5-10 minutes.  Soak oats in milk mixture for 1 hour; then add egg and beat well.  Blend in brown sugar and add cooled shortening.  Sift flour with baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Combine with oat mixture and stir by hand 20 strokes.  Fill greased (or paper lined) muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

And for my changes.  I double this first of all.  Except I only bump the brown sugar to 3/4 cup and they are plenty sweet.  I also use 1/2 whole wheat flour.  And replace the melted shortening with melted butter.  Adding a teaspoon of vanilla is nice too.

PEANUT BUTTER BREAD

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 t vanilla
1 3/4 cup milk
2 1/4 cup flour
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

In a large bowl, blend together sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla.  Gradually pour in milk; mix well.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; add to peanut butter mixture.  Spread batter into greased 9X5 loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

My changes-  I double the recipe and use half whole wheat flour.  Other than that the only change is to bake in muffin tins (greased or with paper liners-PICK paper liners).  They took about 25-30 minutes but I just check every couple minutes after 15...toothpick should come out clean.

So for freezing just let them completely cool (COMPLETELY COOL!!! or your bag will fog up and then freeze and it is icky).  Bag them in gallon freezer bags labeled with the variety and the date.  And freeze!  Pretty simple.  I accidentally undercooked a batch the last time I did this and although they are fine they do not freeze as nicely so make sure they are fully fully cooked and the top isn't shiny (does that make sense?)

To eat from frozen; take whichever muffin you want...or one of each because the kids all want something different (another reason I like doing this this way)...pop them in the micro for a few seconds and eat warm.  YUM!!!

School day!

The Princess works on "trays" while the boys all do school work.  This was new and a HUGE hit!

She searched for the shapes and scooped and poured.

She kept most of them on her desk....and for the record my vacuum gets beans up very well!  ;)

getting some seat work done

The big boys are unhappy about their assignments....but they did them anyway

A new math game.  Addition facts from 0+0 through 10+10 are on popsicle sticks.  The cups have numbers 1-20....

...drop the popsicle stick in the cup with the correct answer.  They had fun with it.

This little guy is learning to read.  :)

We've been home for around 6 weeks with our little Princess and we are finding a groove for getting school work done.  It has been a bit challenging to get into a routine but we're getting there.  Thanksgiving week, shotgun season (twice) and appointments have made finding that routine even harder....but we are still doing well.  I just love my job!!!!

Oh the LIST!!

check check check check check check.  We've been crossing so many things off that I am having trouble keeping track.  I will list the things we've crossed off and that we have gotten pictures of.  We have done a few other things on the list but there are no pics....so I'll wait and post them when we do them again.  :) 
In the last week, we can cross off.....

#14- go to VBS (I don't have pics of this one since I am working VBS and don't have time to take them.  Maybe I can get some of the official pics from the VBS photographer) :)



#17- visit the zoo

The boys were SO well behaved at the zoo.  We saw all the animals we had hoped to see except the tigers and spent a while checking out the penguins.  Great family day!

 
#39 - watch a baseball game

Daddy and the 2 little guys watching big guy play some little league

Up to bat.  So far he hasn't gotten on base cause he gets so nervous when it's his turn at the plate....but he'll get there. 

#52 - visit a different church

The King spoke at this church near STL last weekend and we all went with him.  It was a big church.  It was a lot of fun!

#62 - have a picnic

We had a picnic at a rest area on the way to STL.  The kids thought it was great fun. 

It is so much easier (not to mention cheaper) to do this on a long(ish) drive.  When the kids are done eating we let them run around for a while before strapping them back in the car.  Thankfully, we did this since shortly after this we got stuck in traffic and it took twice as long to get to the zoo as it should have

 
#78 - sleep at a hotel

We stayed at this hotel that was booked by the church the King spoke at.  When they booked it, he was going over alone....they couldn't get us a room with 2 beds.  So the kids all slept in sleeping bags on the floor  (1 on a love seat).  We had to sneak in a side door because we had too many in the room....but our other choice was for us to sleep in the van.  LOL!  The kids thought it was great!

 

 

 

Pasta e Fagioli

1 lb ground beef
1 sm onion, chopped
1 lg carrot, julienned (I cut it in disks cause I HATE julienne-ing veggies)
3 stalks celery, cut in "rings"
2 cloves garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can great northern beans
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)
1 can v8 (I used a little one but I think I should have used more)
1 T vinegar
1 1/2 t salt
1 t basil
1/2 t thyme
1/2 lb ditalini pasta (or other small pasta)

brown beef in stock large stock pot.  Add carrots, celery, onion, and garlic.  Saute for 10 minutes. 

Add remaining ingredients except pasta.  DO NOT DRAIN ANY CANS just dump them in!  Simmer 1 hour.

Meanwhile cook pasta in boiling, salted water for 8-10 minutes.  Drain.  Add to soup and simmer 5-10 more minutes.

This time that I made it I used more carrots and skipped the pasta.  I think that adding pasta makes it hard to reheat the soup later.  Eat with bread or the garlic sticks I posted last week!  YUM!

Eat your Heart out Olive Garden!

Are those not heavenly looking garlic breadsticks?  I certainly think so.  And since I snuck a "taste-test" breadstick from the other pan of them, I know that they not only look fabulous but taste fabulous as well.  If only my arm was long enough to pat myself on the back I would.....cause after baking these I deserve it.  :)

So I started with the recipe here.  But as much as I love (and I do mean LOVE) foodie with family and all her recipes (I've made several), I didn't follow it exactly.  For one, I don't keep semolina flour or kosher salt in the house.  And for another....I am just not good at following recipes.  I have done the braids and they are adorable but I wanted smaller sized breadsticks and more quantity and not braiding gave me that.  The braids were adorable though and I would make them again that way if I weren't trying to increase the quantity.  

So you can see her recipe there and following are my (minor) changes.  Make them however you want....but make them you must.  :)

I followed her recipe in my kitchenaide mixer.  I substituted 6 cups all purpose flour instead of the 2 different kinds of flour.  And I use 2 t regular salt.  Her directions also say to put everything in your mixer except the olive oil, garlic and seasonings.....but the 4 T of oil does go into the bread.  To make the sticks and not braids just follow her directions up to the braiding point and stop.  Instead of using olive oil to brush on mine I melted a stick of butter in a jar with a lid (lid OFF in the micro) added pressed garlic (3 cloves not 1) and the seasonings.  Then put the lid on it and shook it up....then I brushed it on.  and baked it!  My house smelled so so so so good!!!  :)