And Then I Became a Mom

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017 nk330Leave a comment

I’ve been going through my blog posts from the beginning to organize and delete some. I love reading through those early posts about moving to and settling in England — it seems like so long ago! I also have to laugh at a few posts… mostly about things I said. It’s interesting to see yourself grow and change through old musings.

I had written a few posts with thoughts on being a parent, and I just laughed and laughed at my naive ideas. I think I had some good intentions with my hopes for parenthood, but wow, actually becoming a parent is such a shock to the system! I know when I was pregnant, I kind of avoided reading books about caring for infants, because I didn’t want to become obsessive about doing things the “right” way. But having a challenging baby meant I had so many questions and concerns about things. I scoured the baby websites. I asked so many questions on Facebook pages. I bought ALL the books I could get my hands on for ideas, suggestions, and information. I’m sure I went overboard, but I just needed answers!

I think one reason parenting is so different now is social media. Social media is so helpful in some ways: you can quickly connect with people to get advice about things, you can read through other peoples’ questions and concerns, and you can vent and commiserate with people you don’t have to see every day! But social media and the internet in general can be so anxiety-provoking too. You can Google things and get worst case scenario answers. You can ask a question on a breastfeeding Facebook group and be told everything from “your baby is normal” to “you need to get checked for a lip/tongue tie immediately.” Other people are well-meaning, I’m sure, but treating the internet like a medical professional can definitely be a bad idea. Not that I think medical professionals always have it right either, but that’s a whole separate topic!

Distance, I believe, plays another big role in parenting. I’m not sure if this is a global thing or more of an American thing, but people just don’t live near their extended families anymore. Not having family nearby means no built in support network for raising children. I think this changed fairly quickly too. It wasn’t that long ago that families generally stayed in one area, with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins only a street or a town away. Having family ready and happy to help makes a huge difference in the parenting experience. And being far from family? Well, it might just drive you to buy every book out there on baby sleep, breastfeeding, and early learning!

So what am I getting at? Nothing really, haha. I was just having a laugh at my pre-parenthood self and pondering parenthood in general. And I thought that, on the subject of parenthood and kids, I’d share one of my son’s favorite recipes: homemade chicken nuggets!

Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4-6, depending how hungry your toddler is

2 eggs
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 400F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a shallow bowl, lightly beat the eggs. In another shallow bowl, combine the panko and plain bread crumbs, Parmesan, garlic powder, pepper, and salt.
Working in batches, dip the chicken pieces in the eggs followed by the Parmesan mixture. Make sure to coat the pieces evenly.
Arrange the coated chicken pieces in a single layer on the baking sheet.
Bake until the chicken is cooked through 15-18 minutes, turning the chicken at least once.
Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

The sides shown above are Pepper Jack Cheesy Mac & Honey Garlic Green Beans. The only things I skip with the macaroni and cheese recipe are the tortilla chips on top and the crushed red pepper (too spicy for Gerrit), although it’s yummy with those ingredients as well!

Daily living · Recipes

Recipe Binder Revamp

September 29, 2017 nk3303 Comments

I know I’ve mentioned here and there that I have been trying to cook/eat healthier and lose weight. I tried making healthier foods. I tried working out every day. No weight loss! I was so frustrated and disappointed that my efforts were just not giving me any results. About a year ago, I decided to try The 21 Day Fix through Beachbody. It was honestly the best thing I’ve done for my health in a long time. And no, I’m not trying to sell you anything! I just want to share WHY it worked for me.

Although I had been eating healthier, I wasn’t eating well. And by that I mean that I was not being mindful of my portion sizes, and I was still eating way too many carbs and dairy products. I felt silly using these little colored cups to measure out my food, but it worked! I am such a visual person, and using this color-coded system was right up my alley. I also started drinking Shakeology every day. It really helped me in several ways: it curbed my sweet tooth, it gave me a boost in the afternoon (so I could cut out my Dr. Pepper habit), and it was filling enough to prevent me from snacking before dinner!

The workouts were great, although I didn’t always do them. I don’t like working out. Period. But I liked the trainer, Autumn, and I liked that the workouts were only 30 minutes. And I lost weight even without working out religiously. I had read so many times that losing weight is 80% nutrition and only 20% exercise, and it proved to be true! Just being more conscious of what I was eating, how much I was eating, and choosing to eat healthy foods was a game changer for me.

Like I said, this was not a sales pitch! I wrote all of that leading up to this: my recipe binder has changed tremendously since I last regularly posted recipes on here! I want to start sharing some of my new favorite meals, because eating healthy can still be very yummy. I will slowly be deleting recipes from here that I just never make anymore and adding ones that have become some of my new favorites. Many of them are “21 Day Fix approved,” meaning that they are compatible with the program that I did, but I’ll be adding other ones that are fairly healthy too.

Not to leave you hanging, I will share one of my new favorite side dishes: Honey Garlic Green Beans. And here’s a little secret: I make mine with frozen green beans! My husband couldn’t even tell that they were frozen. I just rinsed them with some warm water in a colander before tossing them in the pan with the olive oil. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s healthy!

I will share the recipes for the homemade chicken nuggets and the macaroni and cheese from the photo soon, but this mama needs to get to bed. I blog in the wee hours now…

Crafts · Recipes

A Brown Bear Birthday Party!

November 7, 2015 nk3303 Comments

I started mentally preparing for Gerrit’s first birthday party when he was about 6 months old. I think I was just so thrilled that we had survived the first half of his first year that I figured the second half of the year would be a breeze. Or something like that, haha. One of the first books that Gerrit showed interest in was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Loving “Brown Bear” a little before he turned 3 months old

It continued to be a favorite as he approached his first birthday, so it was an easy choice for a birthday party theme. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found a lot of cute ideas on there to use. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to use them all, because 1) I got sick just a few days before the party, and 2) I’m a procrastinator who couldn’t pull it all together because of the stupid cold bug that I caught. I’m not bitter about it at all. 😛

I’m so glad that my sister Becki was able to come to take photos of the weekend’s events. She’s done beautiful photos of my other nephews and niece, but we hadn’t been able to take advantage of her talents since Gerrit had been born. I was excited to put her to work!

I loved how the backdrop for Gerrit’s cake smash came together! I had seen the idea on Pinterest using 3 cheap plastic tablecloths, but I figured it would be even better with 6 of them. My mom and Andrew’s mom put it all together, and I couldn’t have been happier with the result. It’s so bright, colorful, and festive! My Cricut made the banner come together quickly to go above Gerrit’s high chair.

The “My First Year” mantel was one of my favorite decorations for the party. I collected various 5×7 photo frames, painted them to go with the colors in the book, and got prints of Gerrit’s monthly photos. I also scoured Amazon for animals in the appropriate colors (blue horse was a tough one…). My sister found a few other animals that she sent to me so I had extras to add to the snack table:

My mother-in-law did such a nice job arranging all the fruits and veggies in a rainbow for the snack table! There were strawberries, raspberries, and red pepper strips (red bird), mandarin oranges (gold fish), pineapple slices and yellow pepper strips (yellow duck), green grapes (green frog), blueberries (blue horse), purple grapes (purple cat), and blackberries (black sheep). We also had mozzarella cheese (for white dog), Teddy Grahams (for brown bear, of course), and Goldfish crackers (for gold fish). All kid-friendly foods that I hoped would be just as yummy for the adults.

We also had a “healthy” birthday cake for Gerrit which made enough batter for a half dozen cupcakes for the kids at the party. I think everyone enjoyed the cake, and I was happy that Gerrit wasn’t getting loaded up on butter and sugar.

I originally looked into some activities for 1-year-olds to do at the party, but in the end I just pulled out some of Gerrit’s favorite books and toys and put them on the shelves of the gift table. I’m so glad I decided to do that: so much less for me to do, and all the kids (from 6 months to 6 years) enjoyed the toys and books. I was pleasantly surprised!

Gerrit would have been happy with one gift, haha! He was a little annoyed with me making him put down each new toy to open a new one. Luckily, the older kids were happy to help him unwrap his presents.

Gerrit loved all the kids, and he’s at the age where he really doesn’t care if anyone opens his gifts for him, so I was happy to let the other kids help him out. Plus it made the process go a little faster. One-year-olds do not have a long attention span! And then we got to move on to the cake smash:

Surprisingly, Gerrit did not get upset when everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to him! He was a little uncertain about it, but he didn’t start crying (yay!). I had been singing the song to him for a few weeks beforehand, hoping it would prep him a little. I have no idea if it worked or not, but I’m glad there were no tears.

I think Gerrit had a great time at his first birthday party! He enjoyed munching on different snacks (we found out he really likes Goldfish crackers), he loved watching and playing around the other kids, and I’m pretty sure the cake made him pretty happy!

A huge thank you to my sister for the beautiful photos — you rock! I’m also so thankful to our parents for helping us prepare and pull it all together when Andrew & I were feeling so under the weather. And we really appreciate the friends who came out and spoiled our little boy with fun presents (and presence!). It was such a fun afternoon, and we had a very happy little boy!