I had no idea I had not updated for so long. Well, let me tell you what has been going on since the end of May...
MM is still not potty trained but we are going longer and longer with big girl undies, so I think that having me home now will help. When she gets too excited, she doesn't make it to the bathroom in time. Today, Andy was chasing her around the backyard with BJ in the stroller and she got too excited and had to be changed. But, she went potty this morning and had a dry pull up, so full potty training is just around the corner.
BJ is getting better and better about his digestion and we have managed to get him off all his meds! Now, of course, he is teething and we are dealing with drool, temperatures and crankiness. We go for a well baby on Tuesday and I am fully expecting my little moose to be well over 20 pounds. He wants to crawl in the worst way, but can not figure out how to get his knees down. He is so strong that he is doing push-ups instead (we are talking full marine push-ups!). Many times he is happy just standing on my lap. I think he is going to be one of those babies who wants to bypass the whole crawling thing and go straight to walking. MM is in trouble when he gets mobile. He is going to get her back for all those times he had to lay there helpless while she put his teether on his head or stickers or corn or an ice cube. At six months he is only about 8 inches shorter than she is at 3.
For my birthday, I got a bread machine. My husband is enjoying the freshly baked bread and I am trying different recipes. We have had different bread each week. I have done the boxed mixes so far and then I will branch out into the other recipes. I really like the Gluten-free Pantry brand. It is the cheapest mix and bakes up nicely. For bread more like Panera bread, Schar's bread mix is more expensive but the taste is richer too. I did try Pamela's Products best bread mix first, but I think I made a mistake with it since it came out small and more like sourdough. I would say, though, that having the break machine has been great. I figure that I have gotten more than 2x the amount of bread out of each loaf than I was getting when I bought the pre-made Gluten free bread and I have not spent anywhere near the amount of money. Even the Schar bread mix being close in price to the pre-made loaf was still cheaper and I was able to get twice as much bread. I will keep trying out recipes and report back. When I have perfected any, I will share what I did. So far I have not had to use the Gluten free setting on the bread machine even though one of the brands mentioned above said to do it; the recipe worked fine on a regular setting. My original thought was that I would break even with this machine when I had made 15 loaves of bread; now I am thinking I will break even closer to 8!
I am looking forward to the summer off. I have decided not to teach summer school and actually take the time to be with my family. I have missed out so much by going back to work when I did; I did not need to spend any more time away from them. Yes it will hurt us financially to not have the extra income, but I figure I will not be driving as much and I can really be frugal with meals since I will be home to cook, we will be okay. The children are only young once and I am not going to feel guilty about not spending time with them. They have enough hand-me-down clothes from cousins that I do not have to buy any clothes or toys (the neighbors gave us their swing-set!) so they are set. I am looking forward to catching fire-flies and playing "soccer" with MM in the backyard.
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