brooke's bakery

i baked my first pie.

that's right people,

i'm awesome.

 

 

everything was from scratch.

the crust.

the filling.

and i used peaches off the tree.

 

i know,

you're impressed.

you might be feeling the need

to refer to me as betty crocker,

but i'm trying for something even better.

i'm going for my mamma.

the next linda turner.

 

 

 

 

ps- the crust is the hardest part.

i screwed one up and threw it away.

good thing it only takes three ingredients.

 

(you can tell it was all crumbly and wouldn't stay together.)

 

want the recipe for the crust?

then you can do whatever filling you want.

 

vegetable oil pie crust:

1 1/3 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 C vegetable oil

3-4 Tbsp cold milk

 

sift flour and salt together.

mix oil and milk together. beat with fork until combined.

make a well in the center of your flour and add milk mixture.

mix with a fork until moistened.

roll in a ball.

refrigerate 30 minutes.

(if you want crust on top, you have to do this twice)

roll out between 2 sheets of plastic wrap.

carefully place in pie plate.

peel back wrap and gently fit into pie plate.

add your pie filling.

place your second crust piece on top.

cut off extra and flute edges.

cut slits for it to breathe.

bake at 450 for 15 minutes,

then turn down your oven to 375 and bake for an

additional 40 minutes.

 

and that's it.

not nearly as hard as i thought it would be.

 

 

 

 

grab a tissue

someone else wrote this.

but i had to share.

you can see her original post here.

it's titled: a promise to my daughter.

 

I’m tired and she’s tired. And she’s been weeping with frustration, her face a smudge of red cheeks and snotty trails. I go down on my knees beside her little, chubby legs. They’re curving over the edge of her green froggy potty stool and she is glaring hot blue eyes into my face. I reach for her and she swats at me and doesn’t accept the comfort I know she wants. I gently take her hands and pull her up. Her tender self all frustration and sweat and nakedness melting into me. I cup her with my arms and my words and slowly stroke those damp curls back from her cheeks.
I’ve got deadlines and to-do lists and no clue what to make for dinner. There is one quiet window before the boys come home and we’re hoping to snatch a ten minute nap. But she’s inconsolable for reasons she can’t put into two-year-old words yet and I’m on my knees reaching for her.
I will always come, baby.

She’s in my arms and slowly beginning the ritual of stroking my right arm. Her curls are warm and sweaty and that pudgy baby cheek fits just under my chin.
I will always come.

I dance with her slowly – the rock and roll of motherhood – and I know this is a promise I can stake my life on.
I will always come.

When you forget your lunch. When you are sheep number 5 in the Christmas play. When you take up the recorder and bleat all the way through the Easter service. When you get that bad hair cut. When you think you want to be a beauty queen. When you swear off fashion altogether.
I will come.

When the mean girls make you want to shrivel inside your skin. When a teacher intimidates you. When you intimidate the teachers. When you think you can sing and try out for a musical, when you get laughed at and people point fingers at your hair and your shoes and your too bony hips.
My darling, I will come.

When that boy breaks your heart and you’re stranded at a college miles away, I will come. When the internship you thought was part of your calling falls through. When a friend gets sick. When the car crashes. When you have more long distance charges than you thought possible. When you run out of gas, chocolate chip cookies and faith.
I will be there.

When you say your “I dos,” when you you start your happily ever afters, when none of it quite feels like you thought it would. When you don’t know how to pick a mattress, when the sofa is in the wrong place, when you regret what feels like signing your life away to someone else. When you keep on keeping on. When you remember how to say sorry. When you need a safe place to say how cliche you feel all “barefoot and pregnant.”
I will so be there.

When the baby won’t sleep and the world’s on fire with sleep exhaustion.
Sweetheart, I will come.

When your husband’s out of work. When you’re down to one car and have moved in with his in-laws. When your job threatens to break your heart. When toddlers make you question your sanity. When you realize that you’ve made the worst mistake a woman can make. When you’ve run out of tears and still the tears keeping coming.
I will come.

When you move and move and relocate again. When you pack boxes and dreams and hope. When your life is a world of duct tape and questions.
I will still come.

And when your home is warm and your heart is full. When you’re at peace. When you need someone to share the joy, to watch the kids, to admire the dimples. When you want to remember that old recipe, when you still can’t pick a sofa, when you wish you’d never said yes to the dog. When you don’t know where you’re going. When you’re the most sure of yourself you’ve ever been. When you’re holding onto faith with just your fingernails. When you’re singing, “Jesus loves me this I know” and you mean it with every tiny, beautiful, miraculous part of your DNA, always I will come.

One hundred different ways I will come when you call. I will rock and roll you with my love and the promise that I will help you get back on your feet. I will hold your hand. I will rejoice. I will babysit. I will pass the tissues. I will wash the dishes. I will come.
Tonight. Tomorrow. And the day after. And after. And then some.

i cried because i know when these things have happened to me,

my mom came.

and i cried because i know when these things happen to brette,

i will go to her too.

 

 



gymnastics

crib gymnastics.

is it a sport?

because i'm pretty sure

brette is getting the gold medal.

 

 

these are three different mornings.

how is she moving around so much while being swaddled?

 

what a wiggle worm.

keeping up

part of my deal with ronnie about

staying at home with brette

was me selling my abilities to keep the house together too. 

the laundry.

the grocery shopping. 

the cleaning.

the errands.

i was a bit worried about being able to do it all

and also take care of a baby too. 

but luckily,

i have had a pretty great transition.

not to mention a super helpful husband...

(or ocd, you pick)

it helped me to schedule out my days.

mondays i clean and do some laundry.

tuesdays i visit jaime and the girls.

wednesdays i finish up laundry.

and thursdays i run errands.

she sleeps all morning and i use that time to do stuff around the house.

(or i use it to shower and get ready if i know we have plans that day) 

in the afternoon we run errands and ronnie is home by 4:00. 

but lets be honest,

i do have those days where i need to get stuff done

and brette wants my undivided attention. 

so i have found two ways to get around it. 

the first item i would recommend is the ring sling.

you can find them on etsy,

but they can get expensive - up to $70. 

i just bought some fabric from hobby lobby and

had a family friend make me one. 

brette loves to be wrapped on me. 

she either spends the time looking at everything

or falls asleep instantly.

i use it around the house to clean

or if i'm running errands and she wants out of the carseat. 

 

(ring sling)

 

the second item is a portable swing. 

we use our big swing a lot,

but its so nice to have the smaller one too that we can take outside.

if ronnie is washing the cars or if i am mowing the yard,

we can take her with us and be hands free. 

she loves being outside so we can easily get

30 minutes to an hour of "free" time to get some outdoor chores done.

 

notice i made no mention of dinner?

ronnie normally takes care of that

or i get out one of my freezer meals.

and that's my last recommendation.

prepare meals ahead of time.

its fast, easy, cheap and healthier than the drive-thru.

i can't tell you how much we rely on these.

for me, it helped to have a plan.

 

 

state fair

 

since the state fair is only 35 minutes from where i grew up,

i make sure and make an appearance every year.

what's better than the rides, the lights, the food, the concerts and the beer gardens?

its one of my favorite summer events.

this year was a little different though.

i took my whole family and

instead of showing up at 6pm,

we were leaving by 6pm.

and instead of concerts and beer,

we did petting zoos and funnel cakes.

 

it was still a lot of fun

and it was nice to see madeline go crazy over the horses.

the babies did wonderful too.

they rode in the stroller or were wrapped on jaime or i.

i even found a nice little garden spot to nurse Brette

and a hay bale to change her on.

 

and yes,

we might have had one of those white trash "you-brought-your-baby-in-a-bar" moments.

but in my defense,

we needed a shaded spot to sit and eat our funnel cake.

the beer gardens won.

so i did get a little dose of my old time state fair

and ronnie had a couple beers.

hope no one minded our parked strollers while we listened to some country karaoke.

 

yee haw.

(giving eden some time to stretch her legs)

(madeline wore my DAD'S shirt from when he was a boy. a true cowgirl.)

 

(ronnie and brian totally enthused about the kids center)

(leaving the beer gardens... with our babies)

(changing a diaper and talking to grandma)

(madeline watching the horses)

 

(brette sleeping on me in her adorable sun hat)

(mammas and their wrapped babies)

 

 

health and wellness

we've had a rough couple days.

i've been sick these past couple weeks

and managed to pass it along to brette.

she woke up sunday with a horrible cold

and diarrhea.  

not awesome.

 

i asked my mamma friends for advice

and we came up with this plan:

 

aspirate the shit out of her nose

keep her propped up

well hydrated

and i sent ronnie to the store to load up

on baby vicks and a new humidifier.

it seems to be working.

she's not over it,

but she's definitely getting better.

the first night she threw up twice from the phlegm

so i had her sleep in our room the last two nights

just so i could hear her if she was coughing or choking.

but she's back to her room tonight

and doing just fine.

(ps- the night she threw up twice, she didn't even wake up.

i went in there. wiped her up. aspirated her nose. and laid her on a new pad.

she slept through the whole thing.  a total sleeping champion.)

 

meanwhile,

i had a set back of my own.

i think since brette was sick and

not as interested in eating

i developed a clogged milk duct.

let me tell you,

those things hurt.

i was walking around with a golf ball sized lump.

i read online, called my doctor and got advice from my sis-n-law.

basically nurse like crazy, pump, massage, and try a warm compress.

i've been doing all of that for the last two days.

plus i've been getting up in the middle of the night to pump when i normally wouldn't

and sleeping with a heating pad.

finally, this afternoon, it let down.

brette choked when the dam was broke and

i've never been so happy to squirt my daughter in the face.

and just like that, it seems to be healed.

thank jesus.

 

 

 

i'm just happy that we both are on the mend.

shot through the heart

brette got three shots

in her little legs yesterday.

i thought it was going to be worse on

me than her,

but truthfully, i think she hated it just as much.

 

it was one of those instant cries

where her face turns red and no

sound comes out because she is losing it.

i told her to breathe, which was a mistake,

because then she started screaming.

literally screaming, not crying.

it was high pitched and crazy. 

its definitely a different sound when

a child is in pain.

then came the crying.

when we got home i let her take a nap on me.

it lasted over two hours - which is huge for her

and gave me some uninterrupted snuggle time and computer time.
(as pictured below)

then daddy brought home some tylenol
and we actually had a good night.
i think the marathon nap plus the meds helped a lot.
today, she was a little fussy and running a slight temp.
 i gave her another dose of tylenol
and things seem to be on the mend.

 

 

i'm glad we don't have to do that again until october.

 

what did i do with all that time on the computer?

(besides blogging and checking facebook) i joined

parents as teachers and registered my family at the

catholic church so we can move forward with B's baptism.

 

 

more on both those things later.