*Kickstart Your Labor Cookies

Yes, they do exist-- and they totally worked for me. :)

I got the recipe from a college friend (via Shoppingfortwo.com) when I was 39 weeks pregnant. She told me that she made them right around her due date and went into labor after nibbling them for a couple of days. I made them the night before my due date and ate them and went into labor the following evening! Not saying they're magical or anything-- but when you're pushing 40 weeks, it doesn't hurt to try. :) Anyway, I wanted to share the recipe here for anyone who's super prego and ready to pop! I was nervous to try them, but prego or not, they are really yummy. And really spicy! And apparently they work, so bake at your own risk. :) Here's the recipe:

2 1/2 c. flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 t. cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
8 T. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. molasses
1/4 c. egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and spices and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the molasses to the creamed butter, then add the egg whites until combined. Addd the dry ingredients slowly. Once incorporated, roll dough into 1 inch balls and place onto baking tray. Bake 8-10 minutes. Once cool eat as many as you can possibly stomach, lay down for a nap and wait for labor to begin!

Visit the aforementioned website for more testimonials-- and good luck! :)

*They were actually called "Break Your Water Cookies", but my water never broke (they did it at the hospital), so I modified it. :)

Adventures In Domesticity: Chore List

The reason this blog is so dusty, is due largely to the presence of this little nugget:

Gosh, I love her. SO much. She's 3 months old today and oh, how she has monopolized my schedule. And thrown a huge wrench in my ability to be efficient.

I've never really been great at resting. (I come from a long line of women who struggle with it.) I can always think of something that needs to be done. I can't sit down on the couch if I know the laundry is slowly spreading itself through the house like a renegade ivy plant. It's hard for me to just crawl into bed when our dressers are stacked with stuff that doesn't belong and a basket of clean clothes is collecting dust and wrinkles at the foot of the bed. (Neglected laundry is especially bad because I'm averse to ironing. So on top of a messy room, I will also have a husband who looks like he slept in all his clothes for a week.)  And the kitchen? Ugh. Forget it. Our counter space is minimal, so if you don't clean up after one meal, it looks like hurricane aftermath in there.

For these reasons, I am often guilty of being found with a pile of laundry in the middle of our bed at 11:00PM. Or wiping down counters and mirrors in the bathroom when I should be brushing my teeth. Todd and I have argued about this more than once. But what do you do when the house is too overwhelming to clean in one day and there's ALWAYS something to be done?

Allow me to introduce, our new weekly chore list:

MONDAY- Grocery Shopping & Floors
With a small child in tow, going to the grocery store is no small task. So I've made it my only Monday responsibility and it's worked quite well the past three weeks. I usually hit two grocery stores-- sometimes it's Target and Trader Joe's, sometimes it's Schnucks and Aldi. Either way-- we knock this out on Monday and avoid the store for the rest of the week if at all possible.

Todd does the floors (sweeping and vacuuming, we have hardwood with a few rugs). I will if I must, but it's not my fave. We mop once a month. (The first week of the month.) Twice if we're feeling really zealous. That may increase when Violet starts crawling.

TUESDAY- Bathrooms
One upstairs, one downstairs. I've slacked at cleaning the tub lately, but between the two of us, they both get the attention they need, once a week.

WEDNESDAY- Wipe all surfaces and clear away superfluous items downstairs
Wednesday night is when we host Gospel Community (which means roughly 20 people in our house from 7-10:30PM) so we straighten the couch up, take all shoes and bags, etc. upstairs, wipe the dusty surfaces and clear/clean the dining table and stereo console. We also usually sweep again.

THURSDAY- Bedrooms
This means our room and the nursery. Everything that found its way up to the bedrooms on Wednesday before GC gets put away on Thursday. I also wipe down the surfaces in the bedroom and every two weeks, change the sheets.

FRIDAY- Laundry
All of it. All day. Washed, folded and put away. (That's the hard part.) But it MUST be done.

SATURDAY- Kitchen (deep clean)
This means pulling out the toaster oven and cleaning the top of the stove and moving everything on the counters and wiping under it. It also means taking stock of the fridge and freezer, throwing out anything that's been neglected (hopefully not much anymore, thanks to the meal planning) and making note of what needs to be bought on grocery day.

All week, we keep the kitchen in check together; Todd handles the trash and recycling and also helps with meal prep and dishwasher loading/unloading. I do the majority of the cooking and intermittent dishwashing.

SUNDAY- Rest
For real. I need practice, and since our Sundays are usually packed from 8-1, we need a day to chill.

*Since we've recently begun cloth diapering, I actually wash a load of diapers nearly every other day. But it's just one load, so not a huge deal. The kitchen, the trash/recycling and the diapers are three things that require daily maintenance-- there's no avoiding it.

This simple system has made a huge difference in our house and stress levels the past 3 weeks. No more arguments because of a laundry pile monopolizing our sleeping space. No more scrambling to vacuum before everyone arrives on Wednesday. And no more wearing myself out worrying about all the things that need to be done at any given time. Everything has its day-- rest included.

What schedules (big or small) have made your life easier?

Adventures in Domesticity: Meal Planning

Y'all. I meal planned this week-- and it was amazing! I am SO pleased with all the meals I made AND with how incredibly efficient our dinners were this week!

I just wanted to share in case anyone else has been thinking of trying this. I'm going to try and a make a habit of this, because 1) my daughter isn't getting any less mobile, so I need to maximize my efficiency at everything and 2) because it made my *grocery shopping day WAY less stressful. As in, I actually stayed UNDER budget for once because instead of buying a bunch of things we might eat for dinner, I only bought what I needed for these meals.

Thanks to Pinterest, it's a new dawn, it's a new day. :) Here's my meal plan from last week:

MONDAY- I'd planned on cooking this (via one lovely life), but Todd brought home Bread Co. leftovers from a late meeting and we had that instead. So we'll be eating this NEXT week. :) And I'm excited about it because I've never had quinoa before!

TUESDAY- Chicken Gyros (via The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Todd made the marinade (which is delish) on Monday night and we threw half a package of chicken tenderloins into it and let it marinate till Tuesday evening. We cooked it all up in less than 30 minutes and had enough left for lunch the next day. Also, we didn't make our tzatziki-- Trader Joe's sells a yummy one for like $3.79, and  I'd bought it last week in anticipation of making these. (And also ended up eating it with beef quesadillas and on pretzel thins. Yay fusion!) This super easy meal will definitely become a staple in our house.

WEDNESDAY- Garlic Parmesan Chicken & Noodles (via BHG)

Before work, I threw a package of 3 chicken breasts into the crock pot, submerged in water with a bit of salt and cooked them on low all day. When I got home, I shredded all three for use over the next few days. Tuesday night, I made this super easy one pot meal. I used half and half instead of cream and I did not make my own bread crumbs, because I had a box of panko-- and I love panko. It was yummy, and since we didn't have company, we had 2 portions left over.

THURSDAY- Sweet Potato Topped Chicken (via BHG) 

Rather than using canned yams (and because I knew I'd need more later in the week) around 4pm on Wednesday, I peeled, chopped and boiled 4 smallish sweet potatoes. I mashed them up with a bit of butter, put half in a tupperware for use later in the week and then used another 3rd of my previously shredded chicken for another yummy one pot meal.

FRIDAY- I had planned to cook, but ended up being treated to dinner at City Diner with the in-laws. Yay meatloaf and mashed potatoes!

SATURDAY- We had a pool party/cookout to attend during lunch, but for dinner, we finished up the leftovers from Wednesday and Thursday.

SUNDAY LUNCH- Sweet Potato Burgers with Avocado (via Healthy Happy Life)

Y'all know I love meat. So the fact that I didn't miss it at all while eating these burgers is really saying something. Truth be told, I've been looking forward to making these since I pinned the recipe 2 weeks ago so I had high expectations-- and this did not disappoint one bit! We didn't have lettuce, so we went without. And I didn't have white beans, so I used black. It didn't matter. Also, we halved the recipe and had enough for 4 patties. I used dijon mustard on mine, like the recipe said, but Todd chose to slather his with BBQ sauce (which is what he always uses as dip for sweet potato fries) and said it was delicious too. 

Addendum

SUNDAY DINNER: Chicken Noodle Soup & Grilled Cheese (via Cooking Classy)

I had leftover ingredients from the week (a bit of shredded chicken, some onion, baby carrots, a few stalks of celery, egg noodles and grape tomatoes) and I found this recipe on Pinterest tonight. So, I adapted it, using what I had in the cupboard. It turned out delicious! Todd insisted on having grilled cheese as well, but we only had two slices of bread because I'd forgotten to take a new loaf from the freezer. However, I still had one pita left-- hence the modified grilled cheese you see in the pic. :)

I'll be trying to meal plan again this week-- but this time WITHOUT going grocery shopping. Our food budget is maxxed out till next month. But fortunately, we're stocked with frozen veggies and fodder for side dishes-- and one of our amazing friends brought us back a cooler full of grass-fed beef cuts, courtesy of Southern Farms (her Daddy's farm) in Louisiana. So we'll manage. :)

*That's right. I have a grocery shopping day now. I'll share my life-changing chore schedule in another post.

The Twelve Days of Crazy

Hi blogoverse. I have a baby now. :)

In preparation for the giant post about my daughter that is coming soon, here is the abbreviated but equally giant version of the daily "journal" I kept for the 12 days before her birth. So you can see the crazy for yourself. :) Enjoy!

***

TWELVE: I was sitting in the movie theatre watching The Avengers this weekend and in the middle of the movie, I thought “What if I started having contractions right now? I can’t have this baby tonight! I am super engaged with this movie and I don’t know that I can switch gears and psych myself out to have a baby tonight! I feel so mentally unprepared right now! I can’t watch any more movies until I have her! I can’t be this distracted!”

ELEVEN: At some point in the next 264 hours, I will most likely go into labor and deliver a baby. How is that possible? I think I’ve just seen too many movies and TV shows. There are too many possible scenarios and I just can’t stop thinking about where this incredible drama may begin… in the car? While I’m asleep? Walking down the stairs at work? In the middle of church service? At Erin’s graduation?!?! The possibilities are endless. Too endless for my sanity, I’m afraid. I can’t get it out of my head.

TEN: Seven pounds, nine ounces. This little chunky monkey has put on almost 2 pounds in 2.5 weeks! Granted, they say that the ultrasound measurements tend toward the high side, but still—if she keeps cooking, we’re looking at a sizable little baby! Not to mention a flexible one. Miss Violet had both her hands AND her feet in her face today during the ultrasound. I can’t even imagine how she must be folded up in there to have her toes on her forehead…  but she did! I wonder how she’ll sleep when she comes out.

NINE: Todd and I talked before bed about how crazy it is that we’re going to be parents. That we’re going to have a little baby in our house that we have to keep alive by ourselves. I’m already praying about her first few days of life. This is going to be a crazy ride. But I think I’m definitely reaching the point of being ready.

EIGHT: I couldn’t sleep last night. And I woke up this morning compelled to pack at least part of our hospital bag before work. I had some kind of light daydream about going into labor at Erin's graduation and having to drive from IL back to MO and getting pulled over and having contractions in the car and the policeman having to give us an escort all the way to Mercy. Ha! With each passing day, I'm readier and readier to snuggle this girl. Come on when you're ready, sugarplum! 

But please try to wait till we're back from IL and graduation tomorrow...

SEVEN: We made it through graduation! The stands were packed and it wasn’t exactly comfortable sitting in those bleachers for 2 hours…but we made it! Thank God for the Drury’s letting me borrow one of their stadium seats. That helped a lot. 

Just one week to go, little miss. The hospital bag and your diaper bag are officially in the car. I can hardly believe it.

SIX: Hooo boy. I’m back to being a little bit freaked out. 

Enough that I couldn’t get to sleep until 12:30 last night, thinking about induction and IV ports and epidural needles. :( Don't get me wrong, I'm still getting one. I feel like Mudear would encourage it. She would look at me crazy for trying to refuse any kind of help. She would say that yes, women are strong, but that epidurals are grace from God in the midst of our curse-- and I’m liable to believe her. I know it will be okay. But I’m just still a little nervous. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Violet to stay in there. But I just—feel like this otherworldly, superheroic part of me is going to have to emerge and take over in order for me to get this little girl into the world.  

I finished the art wall in the nursery last night. That room is done, for all intent and purposes. Ready and waiting. Just like us.

FIVE: Little girl, I don’t want to rush you or anything, if you’re not ready… but I’m baking you some cookies this week. They are ginger cookies with cayenne pepper in them and they’re supposed to persuade you to come out. :) We’ll see if you budge. You don’t seem to be easily swayed by anything at this point… but if you’re anything like your mama and your grandpa, a little sugary goodness might change your mind. I can’t wait to see you!

FOUR: These freakin Braxton Hicks contractions are seizing me up constantly. I'm sure I'll change my tune in a few days and be wishing for them over real contractions, but man-- they are distracting. I also started seeking labor inducing advice from facebook friends. My favorites include, "Get all Song of Solomon", do hip circles on a birthing ball and a recipe for ginger cayenne "break your water" cookies! I'm totally going to make them. I mean, why not?! It's time to come out, little girl. I have to tell Dr. Alten my induction date tomorrow, but I do NOT want you in there that long. It's going to be a hip circling, cookie nibbling weekend at the Genteman house.

THREE: I've been griping a little about Braxton Hicks. Then the other day, I got all bold on facebook and I'm like, "Okay, bring me spicy food and give me crazy recipes and let's have all the sex!" to try and induce labor... But just now, as I finished my cereal (working from home today!), I got this wave of crampy pain. It felt very much like what I would imagine 1/4 of a contraction feels like. It was NOT cool. It was not fun in any way shape or form. It was also extremely mild, but at this stage in the game-- no joke. All of a sudden, I felt like the Lord was saying, "Really? You bought those ingredients for those cookies like you want this baby to come out-- are you ready right now?"

Ummm.... no. I can't confidently say that I am. 

I mean-- yes. I am. But... oh Jesus, Lord help me. This is going to get crazy. REAL quick.

TWO: I've been trying to compare this whole process to preparing for a band competition or a football game or a stage play. Tons of prep work and anticipation for a relatively short amount of show, in the grand scheme. Nine months of waiting and carrying and praying, then the 8-12 hours of serious pain and discomfort I've been fearing/psyching myself out about-- and then it's over! (And apparently when you look at that baby you don't remember any of it.) And like my friend Missy said, you have a really awesome souvenir. :) Not just, a memory of a performance-- you have a person in your arms and you can say "Wow! Look what I did!"

ONE: I don't know how to do this. I just have no idea. I think the most frightening part is that (praise the Lord) I haven't spent much time in hospitals or on medication or around doctors. This will be the most poked and drugged and hooked up to monitors I have ever been in my life. I don't know how to deal with that.

Todd keeps telling me its going to be fine. That he's going to be there and that I was built to do this and all of that... and it's true and I believe it. But really? There is no prep for this. And there is really nothing else to occupy my mind.

My due date begins in 4 hours. Jon Foreman is lookin at you, kid.

"Everybody's watching you now...

Everybody waits for you now...

What happens next... what happens next...

I dare you to move..."

DUE DATE

I felt nothing all day. I ate well and answered lots of concerned or curious texts and phone calls. I went to the store, alphabetized all the books in the living room, even swept out the garage for awhile. But no signs of contractions.

I ate beef and broccoli for dinner around 8pm. It was really good but I couldn't really get comfy afterwards. I thought I had gas or something... By 10:30pm, I thought it might be something else... After all it is my due date and I'd eaten quite a few of those hot cookies. When we finally opted to start timing my "gas pains", they were just over 7 mins apart.

What?

Todd went to go move the trailer from church parking lot. I packed, distracted and not sure how to feel. When he got home we timed them again-- sixish minutes.

I called the emergency after-hours line. The doc on call told me to wait till contractions were 5 mins apart for an hour, till the pain moved into my whole uterus. He said I should try to sleep.

So I did. But I couldn't. It's 2:19AM And now I'm sitting in our glider, rocking through contractions that are sporadic in intensity, but have been roughly every 5 minutes for 1/2 an hour.

It's all happening. Later today, we may very well have a baby.

21 Days to Go...

Well, hello there. :)

This morning could not be more perfect. And I'm willing to bet it's one of the last mornings of it's kind for a long time. Granted our new mornings will be a brand new kind of sweet, but I'm savoring this one for exactly what it is.

It's 8AM. I've been up for an hour. Candles are flickering in the fireplace. Birds are twittering outside, just loud enough to be heard sporadically over the soundtrack of the Austin Stone worship band. My darling husband is reading something on his phone in athletic shorts and a t-shirt and boat shoes. Our sweet, rotten 2 year old furball curled up next to him on a Mexican blanket that I bought in a border town during a Spring Break mission trip my junior year of college. The room is clean and comfortable, and apart from a bag of unfinished thank you cards on the floor at my feet, not much is out of place. There isn't a baby toy, a pacifier or a wadded up diaper in sight. There's a brand new high chair tucked into the corner next to the hutch in the dining room, and two boxes containing a baby food maker and a swing stacked not far from it, waiting to be opened.

The table is set for breakfast for six with disposable plates and plasticware, laid out as fancily as possible. In 25 minutes, our friends will arrive with donuts and fruit and juice and we'll sit down to eat and talk about the giant adventure that all six of us are chasing.

And the three little ones who are growing toward a first birthday will quietly enjoy sausage casserole and John Donut and a tiny bit of caffeine as their parents-to-be talk and smile and laugh and wonder what in the world life is going to look like with them in it.

I'm 37 weeks pregnant today.

I can still hardly believe that sentence applies to me. That means we made it! God has blessed me to carry this little girl to term, and if she were to decide at any moment that she's tired of the scenery of my womb, she could come out and no one would freak out (well, except me) and no one would stop her. She could literally be born at any moment, plunging my body into the craziest, most beautiful trauma I've ever experienced. I am terrified. I am intrigued. I am-- sort of ready. :) My desire to see her and hold her is stronger than my desire to not be in pain. And while I know she'll probably hang out in there a little longer, every action I take makes me wonder if it will push her over the edge. Every position I wake up in, with her wiggling around trying to get comfortable, makes me wonder when her little baby brain will finally think "I've had enough! I want out!" Because she's so high functioning, like that. :)

I am so grateful for the incredibly uneventful and positive pregnancy I've had. I'm so grateful for all of the gifts that have been given to us by family and friends in the last few months. I'm so grateful for an amazing family, 4 grandparents and an auntie who could not be more supportive or excited to meet this little girl. And an extended family so diverse that Violet's world will be a potpourri of skin tones, dialects, personality and life experiences from the very beginning. I am so excited to see how she grows up.

But I guess I've got to deliver her before any of that happens.

Fortunately, I come from a line of brave women who endured pregnancy and labor through the hardships of war and poverty. A mother who endured surgery so that my own life could begin. And a warrior of a grandmother who once literally shook her midwife awake to cut the cord as she finished birthing her own child, in her own bed, in the middle of the night.

So I'm going to be okay. :) And when it's over, Violet will be here and I will do my best to keep you posted on the brand new sweetness that will accompany the arrival of the newest Genteman.

Thank You, Tiny Prints!

December is a busy time, y'all. And as much as I want to be the amazing woman with a clean, perfectly cozy home, that smells like gingerbread and pine trees for the duration of the last month of the year, that is generally not the case. Especially these days, as I navigate life while harboring a little orange-sized person in my belly.

Christmas cards are one of those things that I always have good intentions about, but don't always come through on. Having spent four years and an ungodly amount of money on an education partial focused on graphic design, I should be able to pump out cute designs and perfectly edited pictures in my sleep... right?

Not so much. And the past few years, even when I didn't have pregnancy as an excuse, I don't always make my deadline for Christmas cards. Designing them is just the first hurdle-- sending them out is another beast entirely.

However, when someone offers to simplify your life and give you 50 FREE CHRISTMAS CARDS, it annihilates one beast entirely, and makes the idea of sending out Christmas cards unbelievably manageable. What's even better is when those cards are not even remotely cheesy, overpriced and/or chintzy looking.

Let's talk, my friends-- about Tiny Prints.

This is a mere sampling of the beautiful holiday cards they have to offer-- oh, and these all house just a single photo! They have collage layouts and tri-fold layouts, and the site is SO easy to sort by type and style. Good luck deciding on just ONE layout to go with for Christmas. 

The cards above would all work well with the photo we're planning to use-- and we're DEFINITELY sending a card this year, simply because we want to make sure that everyone is aware of that fact that this is the Gentemans last Christmas as a family of two. (Well, two people. We do love our furry boy, he will always be our "firstborn" :) Anyway, I can't think of a lovelier way to make the announcement than with one of these gorgeously designed cards.

The most amazing part of this whole deal? Is that F word I mentioned earlier-- Tiny Prints is offering 50 FREE cards to bloggers who promote their website! How sweet is that? On a carefully planned budget that now includes lots of saving for baby gear and maternity leave, this offer is a humongous and very timely blessing. Merry Christmas to you, Tiny Prints!!!

p.s. I would post the link to the form for more info on this promo, but the form was recently taken down :( However, you should absolutely check out the site because unless you're an amazing graphic designer with a miraculously open schedule, you won't find cuter cards for your time and money. Check it out!

O Tannenbaum of Misfit Toys

It's Christmastime, y'all!

I love Christmas traditions. Today, I decorated our tree while listening to the same vinyl that my mom and I used to listen to while decorating the tree when I was 5 years old. (Merry Christmas Johnny Mathis, if you're wondering.) It trips me out that our kids will hear and know those same songs someday. And now that I'm a grown up, I've begun a few traditions of my own, one of which, I'd like to share/confess with you today.

As my college and Nashvillian roommates can attest, I collect hideous Christmas ornaments.

It started in college with a tacky Christmas ornament exchange that spawned in me a rabid enthusiasm for sad, tired, busted looking ornaments. Now, every year after Christmas, I go hunting for new additions to my menagerie of misfit ornaments.

Allow me to introduce you to a few of my favorites:

Brego, the stick horse (He needed a kingly name. He's my favorite. But don't tell the others.)

Levar, the bedazzled butterfly.

Jojo the Circus Bear (you can't tell here, but his right leg is just a bit too short to reach that unicycle pedal.)

Scarebear (crudely crafted and permanently affixed to a single snowshoe)

Sonic, the pinecone hedgehog.

Santa Snake- one of my originals from the tacky ornament exchange listed above.  He may have once been only a shrunken head sporting a fancy holiday hat. He is now a parsel-mouthed transfiguration gone frightfully wrong.

Sexy Strawberry didn't make the tree this year. The manface is just too awkward.

Count Flatley- his feet flail about as if independent from his body! (Also, his middle opens up and you can put some kind of ghastly treasure inside...)

Roadkill- I don't know how this guy made it into the store y'all. It's supposed to be a cat chasing a mouse. I  bought it from Marshalls about 3 years ago. 

Leggy Pup- Also did not make this tree this year. You guys want to name this one? Shoot me some options.

Also-- a lost ornament that deserves a mention: 

Gilded snowman was a thin 2-D metal snowman, painted on one side to look like a traditional snowman. The paint job was evidently horrible because the artist then doused the paint with glue and dipped the snowman's facade into a vat of tiny gold beads, then crudely wrapped the snowman three times with gold wire. I don't know what happened to it, but I've never seen its equal... and I still hold out hope that it will turn up someday.

Trimming the tree with my misfit ornaments has become an annual delight, with more creatures being added to the "family" every year. I can't wait to show them to my kids. We may eventually have a separate, smaller tree exclusively for the Misfits. 

I've become more fond of the weird, shoddily crafted ornaments (Scarebear, Sonic, etc.) than the just plain weird ones (Pup and Strawberry). But all are welcome. So in your decorating, if you come across anything super weird that you're embarrassed to put on your tree, or encounter some hideous beast in your post-christmas shopping trips and you want to add to the collection, I'd be glad to give them a good home. :)

What's your favorite holiday tradition?