I'm trying to savor this one

Daddy, holding a wildly jumping baby, says "This boys' legs are getting strong, I think it's time I bring up the jumper from the basement." and though my mind knows that it's true, my heart cant help but whisper "no".


At dinner time, as Mal reaches and strains for my plate, finally grabbing a piece of bread and trying to stuff it into his mouth as fast as can be, I get that same gentle look from across the table, "He might be ready for some cereal soon, maybe we should pick some up at the store." And my heart of heart pleads, "No, he's still so little..."


This child I am trying to savor. Every moment I'm trying to hold onto because I know from experience that these moments wont last long. In those few minutes of afternoon quiet, when I know I have the choice between taking a nap, or tackling the laundry, or maybe reading a few chapters, I find myself instead just watching him sleep. So soon and he will be a defiantly independent toddler, so soon and he will be a man. And my heart says "no."


Not my oldest child, God willing not my youngest. I know my time to savor Malachi will perhaps be the shortest of all my children.


My happy Malachi. Easy-going and ever-patient, he is easy to sometimes overlook. He has a story to tell, though, this child. Born talking and I don't think he has stopped once since. And I cant wait for the day that he finds the words to tell it. I will be his most avid listener.

But at the same time I whisper "no". Our stories will diverge, at some point. There will be parts I dont know, parts he doesnt want to tell me. Words meant for other ears.

But at least I will know his first word was mine.



Josh refuses to hear it, but he's said it at least 6 times now.

5 years isnt really that long

One thing about being married for nearly 5 years is that you start to get a bit lazy about the whole thing.

For example, this morning I was baking a cake for a very dear friend who has been having a very hard week and making soup and bread for another newer friend who has just been blessed with a new baby. And as I prayed over the cake, and the rising bread, and the chopped vegetables; that they could be healing and that the people receiving them could be blessed by them, I wondered, when was the last time that I prayed over food made for my husband?

I mean, on the one hand, I make food for my family all the time. I figure I spend about 50% of my waking life in that kitchen of mine, either cooking or cleaning up after the effects of the cooking. And I try to pray over each and every meal as it bakes. But that is all very general. I mean, when was the last time that I made something specifically because Josh would enjoy it? When was the last time I made his favorite kind of cookies just because they are his favorite? When was the last time I presented a meal just a little bit special to show how I love him?

This is something I do all the time for others in my life.

Another thing I'm trying to spruce up a bit is the way I'm dressing for bed. It might seem a little silly but I came into a little bit of money to spend on myself recently and I've been searching around for girlier nightgowns then I currently own. Right now my bedtime wardrobe consists almost entirely of yoga pants and tank tops. And while that is comfortable, and while it is sometimes difficult as a nursing mother to find anything better, I think its worth the rather small effort to wear something slightly more appealing.

I think my goal this next week will be to think of at least 3 more things that I can do to show my appreciation for Josh. I feel like lately I've been taking him for granted. 5 years isnt THAT long, after all.

I hate being disapointed

We had to cancel our camping trip for next weekend due to forcasted rain, lots and lots of rain. I am way disappointed because it was the only weekend this summer that we could really manage getting out of town for the 4-5 days that make driving all the way to McCall to camp with Josh's family worth it. We could still do a 3 day weekend at Priest anytime we wanted but camping alone isn't nearly as fun, and a bit overwhelming with the boys so little. So it looks like there will be no camping for the Clarks this summer :(

Even worse news, we cant afford to do anything more exciting then camping this weekend. Seattle, for example, is way out. So I am left with a 4 day holiday that I'm no longer even looking forward to. Sure, I will probably get started on painting Zeke's new bedroom, and cross a few yardwork chores off my never-ending list, but really? I was planning on having FUN, not just doing chores for 4 more days of my life.

I am still in search of SOMETHING we can do around here. If we get a little sun we can go hike a bit at Riverside National Park (about 2 miles from our house). But for the most part, Memorial Day weekend is a bust. Josh didnt even sound like he was all that happy to not be at work :(

This last weekend was a bit of a bust as well. Our 120 gallon fish tank sprang a leak. Yes ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY GALLON TANK, leaking. So that pretty much took up a huge chunk of Sunday, as in everything except church. But it was Pentecost, so I especially didnt want to miss it. And anyways it went realy really well. Zeke went into the nursery alone for service for the first time EVER and there where no tears at all!! We were so excited and proud of him!

And I shouldnt call the whole weekend a bust. Saturday was a very relaxing and fun morning/afternoon, finished off with the 3rd BBQ of the year (we go to a lot of BBQ's). We're pretty sure the 4rth will be at our house for Zeke's 2nd b-day bash, which is coming up faster than I want to admit.

Anyways, outtakes from the good parts of the weekend:

Stuff that HASNT been happening lately

I'm not the smallest loser in my biggest loser contest. I have lost WAY more than 1 pound in the two weeks we've done so far. And my kids didn't laugh at me while I did day 1 of the 30 Day Shred yesterday trying to boost said pathetic weight loss, because I don't need Jillian Michaels in order to lose the remaining 15 baby weight pounds.

My husband doesnt regularly fall asleep while I am talking either.

And I dont allow my toddler to eat in bed.
Nor do I let my baby hog MY whole bed.

And neither one watches TV while I try to get a few minutes of peace.
I ALWAYS check Josh's pockets before running a load thru the washing machine.

And this guy...Hes not already 18 pounds and 13 ounces, nor 29! inches long. He's only 4 months today, after all.

Housekeeping Notebook

I wrote way back in March about trying to find a new household rhythm, especially in my housework, now that Mal is born and our family dynamic is completely different. It was also a Spring thing, I always want to reassess my household routines in the Spring. And it seems to be going around because since then I've had a ton of friends bring up their own housework and family routines, or lack thereof. Especially in the blogosphere. Ivory blogged about her new housework routine here. Stephanie about hers here. Kim has been blogging for weeks about her housecleaning funk (I'm the lovely friend she mentions, the ones that tells her to "get over it"...yeah, I'm a great friend like that.) Mary has unveiled the new Gardening Section of her housekeeping notebook.

I, also, have a Fly Lady-style housekeeping notebook. What can I say? I just love that Fly Lady. She is a woman after my own OCD heart. And though my notebook is mid-revamp (I think it will always be mid-revamp as my needs change and grow, and also as Target releases adorable Liberty of London file folders)....Sorry dozed off into a daydream about how much I love the Liberty of London for Target line. Anyways, I thought I'd share my notebook, unfinished as it is. The first section contains Household Routines. I started making it more "2-baby" as Zeke calls our family back in March, and now that its been implemented for a few week I feel confident in it.

*click to enlarge* (Blogger doesnt allow the uploading of pdfs, how lame is that? So I was forced to take screen shots. I HAVE all this in pdf however, so if you want just holler and I'll email them to you, Im all about sharing my obsessiveness)

The biggest changes from what I did before are 1. I do laundry every day now as part of my regular morning routine. Josh and I used to do laundry together over the weekend but now there is just far faar too much of it to handle in one day. Babies make more laundry then you can imagine. 2. I have a designated baking day now (it replaced laundry day). Its nice to make all the bread and desserts and muffins and snacks ect that we'll need for the week in one day, the ingredients are already out and cleanup is done once. I usually end up making some sort of dinner bread (pizza dough or french loaf or rolls ect), 1 or 2 loaves of sandwhich bread, some sort of dessert, and some sort of snack food. I also make cleaners on this day, when we are out. Or playdough.

And I think its important to note that this schedule is an ideal. Its not always what happens. Sometimes I dont get around to my zone cleaning and it gets picked up on my Friday catch-up day. Sometimes it doesnt even get picked up then and just waits for the next week to roll around. Often my evening cleaning gets done the next morning because Im tired and dont feel like doing dinner dishes, even oftener clean laundry piles up during the week and gets folded Friday (how I love my catch up day). Sometimes none of it gets done and when Josh comes home from work he finds all 3 of us in pajamas and the house in shambles and I promise to love him forever if he will make us omelets for dinner (and sometimes he says I have to love him forever either way, but he always makes the omelets).


The quarterly routine chores get done usually on those blessed catch up Fridays, or when I'm on a strange cleaning kick, or if I've gotten everything done for the day early. I cross them off as I go, with the goal of having them all finished by the season's change. I also am trying to start to implement seasonal chores. My inspiration was my MIL pointing out that the area under our fridge needed vacuuming. It did. We've never actually owned a place or stayed in one long enough to need to do things like vaccuum fridge coils or change heater filters or power wash the exterior. So as we round into our second year living here I'm trying to figure out all the things that need to be done, and spread them out evenly into appropriate seasons.

After that I have a file folder of household information. The type of filter our fridge uses, the type of ink our printer takes, the colors of the paint in various rooms, ect.

The next section in the notebook is my project section.

Mostly this contains my Project Journal, which gets rewritten every season. I only have a blank example:
Because I like to write this part out in hand, there is just something about planning out creative projects by hand...its different to type it. The biggest section is Around The House, as our home is a constant work in progress. This summer, for example, I want to finish our upstairs which will include getting heat up there, finishing the walls in zeke's closet, painting zeke's room, and painting that bathroom. Other sections are: Celebrations and Holidays, with birthday and holiday and vacation and religious observance's plans; Clothing, where I list out things I need to dress the boys in the next season so I can keep an eye out for sales; and Crafts.

Behind the journal is a file folder with papers that have to do with all of that. A camping supply list for our upcoming camping trip, addresses to send invites to for Zeke's birthday, patterns I want to crochet, drawing I've done of how I want things to look, dimensions for a bookshelf I want Josh to build me, ect.

I never ever ever finish everything in my project journal. Its a planning space and sometimes a wish list space. Things that didnt get done at the end of the season are sometimes forgotten because my interest dwindled and sometimes moved into the next one.

The next section is titled Devotional.

Unfortunately the contents are too private to include :) For the most part its memory verses and a prayer list.

Im going to develop a Gardening Section as well, I think. So far I just have a graph of what I'm planting this year in my projects folder. But it would be nice to have notes on what grew well, what didnt, ect for next year. And also notes on our various bushes, trees, ect and how best to care for them. Its information I googled a lot last spring when we moved in and suddenly I'm finding myself doing it again.

And after that is just a file folder of "Other Stuff". A list of books to check out at the library, and books I loved enough to want to buy. A list of christmas gift ideas. Lists lists lists. I love lists, what can I say? This gives me a place to keep them.

I tried to create a meal planning section but I cant make it work for me. I plan our meals on our calendar on the fridge, I have done so almost since marrying Josh. He's really used to this and looks to the calendar when I ask him what he wants for dinner, he's not going to want to open up the notebook and flip thru. I plan 1 or 2 weeks in advance this way and keep a grocery list is on a post it next to the calender (again, no way josh will open the notebook when we run out of mayo, but he will write it on the fridge). It really works well for us and I realized trying to move it to the notebook was just forcing me to work for the notebook, rather than the notebook working for me.

I also know a lot of notebook people who keep all their bill info in there. I dont pay our bills, Josh does, but its a good idea. I also know people who keep an inventory of household supplies. I've found the "write it down on the post-it when it runs out" work fine for us but It just goes to show how useful a housekeeping notebook can be. Its a lot of work to set up but after that it's great. I must open mine 3 or 4 times a day and I go thru stages of wanting to just move my calender and adress book in there as well and just carrying it with me always, living out of it.

Then again if I had an Android I could probably just do all this in that... :)

I am the worst dieter ever

First, you know you are jelous of my lilacs :)

Next, I joined this Biggest Loser contest with some friends. I think I mentioned it. Well Monday was our first weigh in and I've got to say I was majorly impressed with everyone's loss. We're talking like 3 pounds in just a week for some of these ladies! I lost 1/2 a pound...all of 0.3% of my bodyweight, lol. My ultimate goal is to lose 9% of my body weight (15 pounds) so it was fairly comical to do my math and come up with 0.3%. I laughed for quite a while.

I'm fairly impressed with myself, though. I've never lost more than 1 pound in a week so 1/2 a pound is doing decent in my track record. And this is why: I am a horrible dieter.

I LIKE to tell myself its because I already eat whole foods and exercise everyday, so I cant really implement some big change for big results. I also like to tell myself its because I'm breastfeeding, so I cant calorie restrict too much. And I remind myself that Josh will kill me if he ever found out I'm doing some sort of Master Cleanse or No-Carb thing (Josh is crazy opposed to diets that go against common nutritional knowledge, he has no patience for it).

Mostly though, and we are talking 90% here, I am a horrible dieter because I have no self control. My nods to stepping up the weight loss included making a cobbler with granola instead of the usual dumpling deliciousness (mix frozen berries with a bit of sugar and bake at 375 for 15 minutes, top with granola and bake for another 10...it's awesome on ice cream). And then I made Brioche with whole grain flour and went light on the fillings (sugar and cinn instead of delicious cream cheese and preserves), but lets all admit that Brioche shouldnt be in the home of a dieter at all.

I literally cant stop baking. As soon as I think about stopping baking I get all mopey like "a life without pastries is a life not worth living!!" and then I eat an entire pint of Bailey's Irish Cream icecream to console myself.

It is a bit ridiculous.

I did start to implement replacing 1 meal each day with a Green Smoothie. Basically the idea behind a green smoothie is to take 60% fruit and 40% greens and then blend it with water. A lot of what Im reading says to drink 32 ounces of this stuff, but Zeke and I split 24 and believe me it is plenty.

Zeke is actually pretty fond of them. That kid would eat anything, true, but they really arent too bad as long as you drink them cold and fairly quickly (they start to gel after a while).

You have to switch up your fruits and greens for the full effect, so we get to play scientist quite a bit as well. These pictures are from our first, which was 1 apple, 1 bananna, orange juice, and spinach...basically what was around the house. But since then we have stocked up on supplies and have used pears, peaches, frozen berries, lemons, and pineapple in the fruit department and lettuce, kale, mint, parsley, and dandelion greens in the greens department.

Elsewhere in the house, this kid:
Is just getting fatter and fatter. Good thing HE didnt join the biggest loser contest, lol. Malachi is over 18 pounds now!! I cant wait for his 4 month check-up (which is coming up soon) because I want to know how tall he is as well. My guess is freaking tall.

At least there is one person in the house worse at dieting then I am.

Mothers Day

We aren't really huge on certain holidays around here. I love holidays and celebrating and I've made efforts to make Thanksgiving and Christmas and Birthdays and Easter and the Fourth of July meaningful. But then there are other holidays that we either downplay or don't really notice at all; St Patricks day, Valintines Day, Halloween, our Anniversary ect. These days don't really have much meaning for my family.

And I think Mother's Day will probably fall into that category. Motherhood is hard work, and a position that should get its fair share of honor. But at the same time I cant help but feel silly about the whole thing. And as I try to articulate why I cant really say. It has something to do with the fact that motherhood should be celebrated every day...but then again so should thankfulness and Christs birth and resurrection. Or maybe that my motherhood isnt really all that miraculous so doesnt deserve a holiday. We all do it and many of you better than me. But no ones birth in our family was miraculous, and I feel strongly about celebrating birthdays. And its not as if I don't celebrate some holidays for reasons all my own. The 4th has always been more a celebration of summer and bbq then anything to do with our country, and it might be one of my favorite holidays of all.

So I have no excuse or pat reasoning. Josh bought me flowers yesterday on a trip to the grocery to pick up a forgotten ingredient I needed. And that will most likely be the beginning and end of Mothers day around the Clark home.

Except for some internal meditation on my thankfulness to be a mother at all. And perhaps that right there is what mother's day is for me, and why I have such a hard time with the idea of the holiday. I get the feeling that I am receiving more than I give in this situation.

Here She Goes Again

If you dont want to hear my opinion, you have my permission to go read something else. Josh and I are often amused by THIS. I have the somewhat guilty pleasure of reading THIS from time to time as well.

Now to your regularly scheduled post....

I read today about the american pediatric society possibly allowing female circumcision and have been pondering it all day. If you have never heard of female circumcision my friend Ivory provided THIS explanatory article on my facebook comment about this. For the nutshell version, however, it is the removal of part (or more rarely all) of a female's clitoris. Its been practiced for centruries and occurs in at least 28 countries today, including Egypt (90% of women) and Somalia (97% of women).

The stated reasons for female circumsison include religious significance, keeping girls pure (it limits sexual pleasure and in the most extreme cases completely prevents sex), that it makes girls more fertile, that it is cleaner, and most commoly that it is tradition, and that its necessary for peer acceptance (in cultures where circumsision happens in the pre-teen years many girls are eager to get circumsized since remaining uncut will cause them to be different and teased).

The reasons against include that it is against sexual freedom (again because it severely limits sexual pleasure), that it can cause infection and even sometimes be dangerous, that is is often performed without anesthetic, and that it is almost always performed without the girl's opinion in the matter.

For a long time now female circumsision (or how it has been recently dubbed female genital mutilation) has been illegal in our country. The american pediatric society, however, is considering allowing a small "nick" in order to pacify parents who otherwise would send their chidlren back to their home country to get a more full job done. Ivory commented that this idea is pretty bull, because any motivated parent is going to want to get the full deal. I accede to her logic but what is most interesting to me is the similarity to our own circumsision practices and yet the completely different feelings most americans are having about this.

A lot of what I'm reading on the net today are the opinion that this female mutilation is disgusting and either should nto be allowed at all, or should be allowed in this "small nick" capacity in order to stop a fuller job being performed elsewhere. People are very pissed at the APS and even more pissed that this female mutilation is in existance.

Yet, for jsut a second, think about this.

They want to circumsize their women because its religiously significant. For the Jewish, male circumsion is VERY religiously significant. For Christians....well Christians do it because they used to be Jewish and back then they did it.

They want to circumsize because it keeps girls pure. Male circumsision had its biggest growth in popularity in the late 1800's when it was thought to prevent masturbation (which of course leads to insanity).

They want to circumsize because it makes girls more fertile. Ok you got me there.

But also because it is cleaner. A HUGE argument for male circumsision. And I will even give you that up to a point its true. A circumsized boy has a 1 in 1,000 chance of getting a urinary tract infection in his lifetime. An intact boy's chances are 1 in 100 so greatly increased although its still only 1%. Although to be fair, 20% of circumsized boys will experience an infection because of their cicumsision.

And most importantly, the number 1 stated reason for female circumsision is because it is a CULTURAL NORM. They do it because they have always done it. Because it is just the way it is. Because they want their daughters to be just like their mothers, just like all the other girls. They are afraid of "lockerroom" teasing. Sound familiar?

Our form of circumsision also changes (and some studies say limits) sexual pleasure. Our form can also cause infection and be dangerous, its also performed sometimes without anesthetic (although this is thankfully less and less common) and almost always performed without the boy's opinion on the matter.

Im not really defending female cicumsision here. But I do think if you are one of those (and there are many of you) that support male circumsision up and down and left and right, but think that the female counterpart is disgusting and wrong...figure out why. How much of your disgust is because male cicumsision is "normal" and female isnt.

Because the only differences I see are the cultural ones.

In the name of full disclosure I think both female AND male circumcision is pretty disgusting, unnecessary, and even harmful. Both of our sons have remained intact and Josh and I strongly support our decision there. The question of whether either surgery should be illegal is a headache...and one that makes me very glad I'm not in charge of deciding such things. While allowing this "nick" could definitely garner some cultural respect and normality to bigger, badder, and uglier forms of female circumcision and I would really hate for that to ever happen.... Well at the same time I cant see how we can morally allow one (male circ.) and not the other (a female nick).

I'm very willing to hear your opinions on this.

Although I will say right now that I dont buy into the whole "male circumsision prevents STDS!" argument, so dont even try me on it. A. These studies are being performed by people with very serious investments in getting a good result...mostly christian organizations (and for reasons I dont know, christians are very invested in circumsision) and people that make a lot of money on circumsizing. Also, all these stories about how circumsized men in Africa are getting AIDS way less are really really bull. Circumsision is rare enough in Africa that the men that get one got it to prevent AIDS, and are therefor the men working in probably many ways not to get the disease. Also the study was repeated here in the US and found to have no similar results.

B. Ok, lets even say that it IS true and it does make your chances of contracting an STD slightly less...so what? With the prevalance of STD's these days (what was it I last heard? 2 out of 3 people in their 20's have one?) I dont really want my kids relying on their circumsized status to protect themselves.

On Child-Labor

Zeke is obviously too little for chores. Unless you count picking up his toys. I suppose you could say that Zeke has one job. He does pick up his toys before nap. And he helps out around the house in other ways as well; he likes to help unload the silverware and to set the table, I think the highlight of his day sometimes is turning on the dishwasher, he often takes things out to the recycling bin or the compost pile, he likes to spray and wipe glass cleaner, and he's lately taken it upon himself to feed the cats as well as the turtles (which he has to be lifted to do), he's become a master at sorting laundry. So Zeke pretty much helps out around the house all day long to tell the truth. And its getting to the point where its honestly helpful. Turning on the dishwasher was never that big a deal for me, but not havign to feed the cats is nice. And he's getting pretty decent at window washing/ many times I dont go over what he did. But for the time being its always his own idea. We offer and if he wants to help he does, but if he doesn't, we just do it ourselves.

Someday, though, it wont be quite so voluntary. And he will also be able to do the chores by himself, instead of just helping. Josh and I look forward to that day all the time. I know for a fact Josh does every single time he mows the lawn (a dreaded job).

Im not sure when that blessed day will come. Maybe when he stops helping out around the house so willingly. Zeke will have to be at least 3, and more likely 4 to even really understand the concept I think. But there it is...like a golden horizon...chores.

It may be the secret reason we had kids, I know I always suspected it of my own parents. :) Because, you know, having the livingroom poorly vacuumed every week is sooo worth the effort of rasing children.

We havent figured out what chores will really look like in our house. It honestly depends on so many things. If we homeschool, for example, the load will most likely be heavier, I will be busier and the kids will have more free time after all (I know many homeschooling families and almost none find it necessary to go 9-3). Josh sees it as a free-form "You do what I ask and when" type thing but I'm kind of a chart person, personally. I have chore charts for MYSELF for goodness sake. And since I am the main child-rearer I'm almost sure that's how it will go. I just love a good chart.

We do agree there wont be any money involved, however. So pretty much we are sure our kids will think we are the meanest parents EVARR. Which just might be our goal, in a way, or at least an indicator that we are on the right track. I have a feeling any preteen that always loves their parents has a good possibility of having bad parents.

We just really believe that paying for chores undermines the reality that we are all members of this household and we all need to help it run. Also it makes is easy to say "Well then I wont do the chores and I wont take the money" which I did at 15 when I got my first job. Or my siblings often did right after a birthday and they were flush with cash (like 20 bucks!). We fear paying for chores might foster a sense of entitlement. Housework is a reality, after all. I'm not payed for it, Josh isnt payed for it, why should kids be?

It of course brings up the problem that children do need to learn fiscal responsibility. And the best, and perhaps only, way to learn how to handle money is to have some money to spend. We havent 100% solved this cunundrum as of yet. Do we have "required" chores and then extra jobs that can be done for money? There is always some big non-everyday work that needs to be done; yardwork, or cleaning out a closet, or babysitting a younger sibling. Do we just instill a weekly allowance that doesnt have any connection to chores? When does a kid need money anyways?

The many things to ponder. But thankfully we have some time to ponder it. Josh and I always like to stay a few stages ahead, so we can get our fighting out before the fact :). If we ever have a daughter Im going to have to start breaking him down on the make-up issue as soon as she cuts her teeth.

Any thoughts? How do you handle chores?

A Day of Accomplishments

1. We got a lot of gardening done in between rain showers. I got all the weeds pulled up in the garden and elsewhere in the yard, I picked up all the sticks that fell and will be in the way of mowing the lawn, Josh started digging out the squash bed, and I thinned our lettuce, spinach, and peas which came up thicker than intended. The strawberries look fairly thin, but I'm not surprised since they are transplants from last year, I think we will buy some starts to thicken the patch up since these probably wont fruit this year anyways.
The original plan was to do our summer planting (squash, tomato, beans, and peppers) over the next two weekends but its been so cold I am chickening out. So wait they do. I might have to get a bigger container for my starts if it takes much longer though.

2. Mal is standing if you give him a hand for balance. He will also sit on his own if he feels in the mood for it.

And he will make this creepy face if you pretend to be eating his stomach.
For some reason it reminded me of this face that Zeke used to make...
But then I realized this one was WAY more creepy.

3. I made some really funny looking bread.
Where I went wrong was in trying to get creative and make a tic-tac-to pattern with my slashes on the top instead of the normal parallel ones. That little center piece was a good 2 inches high, lol.
But the real accomplishment was that I succeeded in week 1 of making all our own breads. I made the loaf featured above for dinner one above, 4 biscuits for dinner another night, muffins for breakfast and snacking, and 2 loafs of sandwich bread. I'm using the book artisan breads in 5 minutes a day and it is wonderful. You mix up your dough in 5 minutes and then just pull it out and use it when you need it. So this week was more hard as I had to mix the two doughs for peasant loafs and sandwhich loafs but now this week I just have to pull a chunk out when I need it, let it rise a half hour, and bake it.

3. Zeke learned to recongize the letters E and Z, which both stand for "Geekey!" as he sadly pronounces his name.

4. I got up the bravery to join a biggest loser competition with my friends. My goal is to not be last place. Josh says since there are like 15 of us and it's 6 weeks long there will probably be at least one person that gives up and either loses no weight or gains weight. I would like to not be that person.
In reality, though, I have 15 pounds left to lose after Malachi's birth. I would like to lose those 15 pounds but at the same time they dont seem to bother me enough to get me to actually work to lose them. So maybe the competition will give me the reason I need to work at it. I know that part of the problem is exersizing is nearly impossible in the rainy season with two children under 2. I cant go outside and I cant go to a gym (remember Zekey the stranger-danger freak?). Also since I'm breastfeeding it's not really advisable to do any calorie reduction diets. I can eat HEALTHIER but not LESS. And seeing as I already dont drink soda and dont eat many processed foods I have a hard time seeing what habits I have left to change.
Im going to try some green smoothies once I get to the store to buy ingridients. I have heard horrible things about them. Like they are disgusting. And they make you throw up. So I'm not really looking forward to it.

5. Also....sleeping baby.

6. Oh and soon to be accomplished. A night out!! The 5th night out since Zeke was born, in fact, which is pretty sad if you come to think about it. But we are finaly ready to make this a normal thing. Zeke will accept anything if you let him watch TV the whole time (and we totally totally will if it means we can leave the house without him) and Malachi took to his first bottle like a champion.
So now we just need to find a babysitter. Kim, you have sisters right?