Ree Drummond has an excellent blog. Reading it actually makes me feel better. I believe she is a kindred spirit. I love her humor, her content, and her photographs. I wish I was her neighbor.

Short review: If you love her blog, and you love simple and tasty family cooking, you will love this cookbook.

Why I love the cookbook: Well, on a strictly personal basis: I have hated the very thought of cooking for a long time. I started out my housewifey portion of my life excited about cooking. But having three kids and a busy life made me dread the stress of putting food on the table and everything that accompanied it: the planning, the shopping, the cooking, and most especially the cleaning (even after I got a dishwasher!). I have avoided trying or seeking anything new in my cooking routines for a long time.

Then I found Ree’s blog. I started reading it first for the photography section, then for the homeschooling section, and then every once and a while I would peek over at the recipe section. I hadn’t even really looked because most recipes I find online are complicated, fancy, require lots of ingredients I don’t normally buy, and not worth the hassle. However, the Pioneer Woman posted recipes that weren’t any more complicated than spaghetti and meatballs, ones you could probably memorize. They contained simple ingredients that you could easily locate in any grocery store. They sounded delicious and as they were tested by actual children, I know I could serve them here and have success rates with mine!

Most importantly, however, PW’s awesome sense of humor serves up the recipes. It’s fun to read (and nice to see it all photographed to show how things are done) and that makes me want to read the recipes, as nothing else has in years. She’s sassy, honest, and not afraid to use butter.

If you have the time and energy and paper and ink, you could print out the recipes from the site. But all the recipes I print out get stuck in the cookbook cupboard, forgotten about, and never actually made in the kitchen because I forget about them. I also don’t have large blocks of time to work with on the computer to find all the recipes I’d actually use. Having it all in a cookbook for me, with fun graphics and all of Pioneer Woman’s beauty and spunk, is wonderful.

Reading the cookbook is fun and the recipes are tempting. They are also so practical, and they will be used. Thanks, Ree, for helping me get interested in cooking again. I’m still a long ways from a scrumptious home-cooked meal on the table every night, but you make me want to be there again.

Our well pump went kaput. RIP, pump. The inspector guy said he’d been called out to inspect it before, but the previous owners and the bank that foreclosed upon the house decided not to fix it. Chances are, this pump is an old piece of work. So we’re going to be replacing it. Big, expensive problem. But water is necessary.

I’ve been having some issues with nursing Roger. One problem you can have with milk production is making too much milk. Long story short, the good fatty stuff in milk is richer at low volumes, when baby has nearly nursed all the milk out of the breast. When the milk factory is going crazy and producing a ton of milk, there is a lot of lactose in the milk without the fatty stuff to aid in the digestion of the lactose. Baby’s digestive system is overwhelmed by all the lactose, baby is fussy and often gassy. In case you are interesting in the nitty-gritty details, this article has them.

So, Roger has been having long crying jags where I walk him around the house and can get nothing done. It’s pretty stressful for everybody here.

To fix oversupply, block feeding is recommended. That means feeding on the same side for 2-3 hours (or more if necessary) to help baby get closer to emptying the breast. Also, not using a breast for an extended period of time like that tells your body that less milk is needed. So hopefully, we can get the message across to my body that it needs to cool its jets a bit and stop drowning the poor kiddo in lactose.

Gaaah. Too much. I think we need some cute baby pictures to help us feel better, right? Of course right!

widdle baby toeses:

Doting big sis:

Roger not screaming. we like it much better this way:

Nowhere is the ground touchier than when the formula feeding vs. breastfeeding argument comes up. Often women are left feeling very hurt and guilty over their choices, even when when they made their choices, it was the best for their family. I want to say that for me, there is no ‘vs.’ I have formula fed and breastfed for various reasons. I know women want what is best for their babies. There is nothing worse than somebody getting after you for a path you chose when you wish it had been another way, but for whatever reason, had to choose differently. So I am not going to get after you, no matter what choice you made, as long as you aren’t abusing your children or neglecting them. As moms, we need to be here for each other, love each other, and encourage each other. I don’t want anybody to feel ashamed or guilty.

I still wholeheartedly support breastfeeding. I believe it is an amazing and healthy gift from God that has wonderful benefits for both mother and baby. I believe that there are thousands of people out there who are not educated on the wonders of breastmilk, and firmly support sharing of information about it. However, this does not mean that I condemn formula feeding, or a combination of breastfeeding and formula feeding. Formula feeding is also a gift from God, and has wonderful benefits too! Formula has saved lives and made proper nutrition possible for untold numbers of babies. I firmly believe formula feeding and/or supplementing can be the best choice for many situations. I don’t think a woman has to give an excuse for her choice just because she is holding a bottle, and I want to support that woman just as I support a breastfeeding woman.

I will flap my yap a whole lot more about breastfeeding, because it is harder to do and not everybody knows about the benefits. Most moms who research their parenting choices do know. But there are many other people out there, older people who didn’t have the same information available as we do today, people raised in families judgmental and condemning of breastfeeding, and our youth, the future families of America.  These people, along with mothers, need to have firm factual information about breastfeeding.

Often, when a woman decides she wants to breastfeed her baby, she encounters challenges. It takes a village to raise a child, and she needs good information about meeting those challenges. We want to be a good village and help her get the information and support she needs to help her accomplish her goals. Many seemingly overwhelming hurdles can be overcome, and women who have walked the path before can help the challenged mother on her way. Sometimes, the mother makes the choice to formula feed or supplement. We can still be encouraging to that woman and her challenges and choices. She is still giving her child wonderful nourishment. I know as well that a woman, even with no breastfeeding challenges, has the freedom to choose to formula feed. There is nothing wrong with that.

So, all that to say, please, do not take my support of breastfeeding as a judgment to formula feeding. It’s not about us vs. them. It’s about all of us trying to parent the best way for our family. It’s not worth fighting over, and I won’t fight it.

We forgive them for that. How could we not with a face like that?

First, they are so small. Even though Roger is in the bigger end of the newborn range, newborns are just so much smaller than everyone else around them!

Their heads smell sooooo good. I just can’t stop kissing him.

They make the funniest faces. It’s like they are trying out all the new muscles in their faces, or doing trigonometry in their heads, or just perplexed by the funny people all around them.

And ohh, the noises. Roger is a snorter. He is the snortiest child I have ever met. And he snorts when he is hungry. Which is almost the whole time he is awake. He also grunts. And sighs. And coos. And squeaks in his sleep. It’s all the most adorable little repertoire of almost-vocabulary to be found in the human species. Even the way he breathes heavy is adorable.

I forgot how much they eat. And how dead serious they look when they are nursing. I forgot what interrupted sleep felt like. I didn’t miss that part at all.

I forgot how they can just fall asleep anywhere, and just when you think they are going to sleep a good long time, they wake up two minutes later and scream at you. They also scream at the nurse taking their underarm temperature, daddy changing a diaper, and anybody doing anything different than holding them and feeding them.

I forgot how wonderful it is to snuggle a newborn in a wrap. And how good they sleep when they are there.

Many things I have forgotten, and am now remembering. I thought I’d better write them down because this time is very brief. And I will probably forget again.

Shotgun Creek, 4th of July:

Wendell Bridge in Sweet Home, with Aunt Rosa:

And our recent trip to the Oregon Coast, beautiful weather, kids had a blast:

Baby bean Baker boy…is squirmy, getting bigger, and making Mommy’s life uncomfortable. But hooray for healthy, uneventful pregnancies. I am planning for the birth and hoping to do it all-natural like Viv’s birth, and write in a lot on the birth plan to prevent medical ‘protocols’ that are routine but not necessary, like fetal monitoring, routine pitocin after delivery, etc. Right now I am at 28 weeks gestation, baby will arrive late July or early August. Bring it on!

Viv is our little two year old-who is not quite two yet. She’s got plenty of attitude and will tell you exactly what she thinks. She is still our most affectionate child, loves hugs, cuddles, and kisses. Lately she is obsessed with putting her babies in her little stroller, and bringing them to Mommy to wrap up in blankets. It’s all rather adorable. She’s got a bit of stranger anxiety going on and will randomly hide her head against Mommy when we are out with people. She loves her family. When Kyle comes home from work, she yells “Papi! Papi!” and will run to him and demand to be picked up for a hug pronto. It’s just an adorable age, if you ignore the fit-throwing in Walmart because Mommy won’t let her sit in the grocery portion of the cart.

Peter is coming out with a rather fun personality. He is still our goofy guy, with a huge grin and quiet demeanor around non-family members. He’s proven to be mini-Kyle, looking and acting much like Kyle did when he was a toddler, according to our sources. Most of the time Peter has a hard time paying attention to things going on around him and is rather uncoordinated, so he is our accident-prone child. He loves singing and will sing along in the car with Dave Matthews. We’re getting close to potty training, I just need some undivided attention time for a few days, which doesn’t really happen, so we’re waiting for summer when we’ll have more staff on hand.

Todd has exploded as a preschooler with what he is learning. He has gone from being able to count to ten at the beginning of the school year to being able to count to over 115. He recognizes and knows the sounds of all the letters and guesses at words he sees ‘reading’ the first letter and judging the context. His motor skills have also skyrocketed. He will be doing one more year of preschool due to the age cutoff and needing to work on more social skills.

I have been knitting a lot. I am trying out all sorts of patterns and learning a ton. At the end of Mary I have an art bazaar I am sharing a table with another knitter at, and have been working on doing little projects to see what will sell. It’s a ton of fun, and very addicting. I have a feeling I’m a knitter for life. Still pregnant, but we covered that already.

Kyle is about to wrap up another school year. This year he’s been teaching Spanish 1, 2, and 3, Algebra 2, Physics, ESL Christianity, and doing ALL the computer work for two campuses. He is frequently exhausted, especially now that allergy season is upon us. We’re praying for a much lighter load for him for next year. Kyle’s big spring project has been planting trees to grow a hedge in front of the house. Now that is done and hopefully all the little guys live and thrive.

We have a few other projects on the drawing board for this summer. Kyle needs to take some classes to keep certified, and we’re having the baby, and between all that I’ll probably take the kids to Vacation Bible School and we’ll finish the garage and have a yard sale and get bunk beds and a play set for the kids and solve world pollution and other incredible things. We’ll just have to see what we have time and energy for.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”

“Wait? you say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

“My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, “Wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

“I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

“You’d never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

“The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait.”

We found a T-ball set to be great fun. Especially chasing after the ball in knee-high grass! Our mower has been broken. We’re mowing it this weekend, I promise, I don’t want to lose the kids in the grass.

Yet another fun Salem trip!

And some singles: