Home Sweet Home

I woke up yesterday morning and realized that before we left for church the snow needed to be cleaned off of the car. Wow, had I really not left the house since it had snowed? It snowed on Wednesday and it was now Sunday. As I was lying in bed pondering this, I realized I actual had not left the house since MONDAY! So last week I went to church on Sunday and to the Commissary on Monday. That's it! I spent the rest of my time at home, indoors, nice and cozy. I have always considered myself to be a "home body", but I never realized how much I truly love just being at home. I can get so much more accomplished and I don't spend money! Plus, I can wear my pajamas all day and not ever put on make-up or even brush my hair. All of that stuff takes time, time I could be spending getting something done on my to-do list. So yes, you can call me a hermit, but I am a very productive hermit!

Weekly Recipe

White Chicken Chili with Pine Nuts

Check out my recipe of the week! White Chicken Chili with Pine Nuts! This is a great dinner to make on a cold wintry day. It is quick and can be put in the crock-pot to simmer until ready to eat. I hope this dish warms you up during this cold winter season!

My Bed

I love getting into a cozy warm bed with a comfy mattress and pillows. I regularly tell Peter how much I love our mattress and pillows. However, what I hate is getting into a bed and having a horribly uncomfortable pillow or mattress. I personally believe that spending a little extra money on a great mattress and great pillows is totally worth it! Unfortunately, finding a great mattress and a great pillow is not always that easy, especially when you are living in Japan! I think I bought every pillow that the PX carried while living in Japan. Each of them lasted about 4 months before they were horrible pillows! I wasted so much money on pillows. But buying pillows online is also very difficult. If I can't feel it, how do I know if I am going to like it. Yes, I could read reviews, but there are always a couple of bad reviews that worry me and then I am afraid to buy the product. So as soon as we moved back to the States we purchased a couple of GREAT pillows! Now I will warn you, they were pricey. But they will last you a lot longer than 4 months and in the end I believe they will be worth it. We bought The Symphony Pillow by Tempur-Pedic. It is $100, but it has a 3 year warranty! I guarantee you that I spent more than $100 on pillows over the last 3 years. I wish I had bought this pillow a long time ago! As far as the mattress goes, we actually were able to purchase a memory foam topper at the furniture store on base while living in Japan. A memory foam topper is less expensive in comparison to a memory foam mattress. We have a king size bed, so a king size mattress is very expensive. The topper was a much better option for us. We have a 8" memory foam topper. It is amazing! If you are dealing with an uncomfortable mattress or pillow, I highly recommend these products! I just want you all to love your bed as much as I do! SWEET DREAMS! Also, if any of you have any comments about the above products, please let me know. I would love to hear your opinions!

Weekly Recipe

Spinach and Mushroom Gnocchi

Check out my recipe of the week, Spinach and Mushroom Gnocchi! Not sure what gnocchi is? Click on the recipe title above to get a brief explanation of gnocchi and a copy of this recipe! Sorry I am posting this so late in the week. Maybe it will be on your menu for next week!  I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as we did!

Weekly Recipe Change

Ok, so I am new to this whole blogging thing. I didn't like how I was posting my weekly recipes, so I changed it up a little. I created another blog that will only have my weekly recipe on it. Each week I will post the link to the recipe along with a picture of the recipe onto this blog. Don't worry! You won't be missing any recipes! I have moved the 2 recipes I have already posted over to the new blog. I think this will work better than my previous method of posting recipes! Also, if any of you are having trouble posting comments, let me know (besides Michela, I already know you are having trouble).

Rocking Worship

So until recently, Matias would not let me rock him to sleep. He would either nurse himself to sleep or I would have to bounce him to sleep. He would fight like crazy every time I sat down to rock him. However, for the past 2 weeks he has started letting me rock him to sleep. He also really likes a particular lullaby CD I got him. It is called "The Praise Baby Collection: This is My Father's World". If he wakes up sooner than he should from his nap, I just go in and turn on this CD and he will put himself back to sleep. It has been such a blessing! So last night I turned on the CD and sat down to rock him. I was really tired, so I prayed that God would allow this rocking time to go smoothly and for Matias to fall asleep quickly. I started singing along to the CD while Matias rested his head on my shoulder and I rocked back and forth. Soon I found myself in my own little praise and worship service! It was so awesome! Here I was rocking my precious blessing to sleep and at the same time worshiping my God in song! I am so thankful for the time I was able to spend with my Heavenly Father last night and thankful that God answered my prayers by allowing Matias to go to sleep quickly!

Blessed

I have truly enjoyed every second I have spent with Matias this week! He has been a very happy baby now that he is back on a schedule. I never really realized what a happy, easy-going baby he was until recently. I didn't really have another baby to compare him to. But after talking to other moms, I realized that Matias is not the norm.

1.  He regularly sleeps 9-10 hours a night, which gives me time to pick up the house, spend time with my husband, or read after he goes to bed. After that, I can still get 8 hours of sleep. He also takes two (2-3 hours each) naps a day! That gives me time to blog, clean the house, or cook. I love naptime!
2. He loves to eat! Matias is eating 15-20 ounces of food a day and nursing 4 times a day. He eats almost anything! His favorite foods are asparagus, squash, and peaches. I think he must be going through a growth spurt because the amount of food he is eating seems like a lot! We call him "Our Little Porker."
3. He is starting to play by himself quite often. Granted, he completely by-passes the toys and goes straight to Mommy and Daddy's stuff, but if pulling books off of a shelf makes him happy, that's fine with me! I pick up those books about 5 times a day.
4. He is a great traveler! He plays, watches a movie, or sleeps in his car seat. He rarely ever cries while in the car. I actually just ordered him a new car seat. It is a Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL. (I did not order the color shown on the link). I will give you a quick product review on it once we have tested it out!

I don't know why I am so surprised that he loves to eat and sleep. Peter and I both LOVE to eat! I consider myself to be a "foodie".  I just love food, but I have always told Peter that as much as I love eating, I would always choose to sleep over eating! Any of you who know Peter should also know that he loves to sleep! That man can (and does) fall asleep anywhere, at anytime! I feel so blessed to have such a happy baby! I thank God for him every day, sometimes more than once!

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Psalm 139:13-15 

Mom, I'm busy! No time to pause for pictures!

I just love making a mess!

Ooo, what is all of this stuff in here?

He has started pointing at everything lately!

Stayin' Put

So I can check one thing off of my list! I don't have to downsize now! Peter received his orders yesterday and we are staying at Quantico! YEAH! We really wanted to stay here for 3 more years. But the monitor had told Peter before Christmas break that the chances of that happening were very slim. So we turned in our top 5 choices of where we wanted to be stationed and Quantico was not on the list at all! So we had prepared ourselves to move this summer. And for those of you who don't know, we just moved into our house here in Stafford, Virginia this past August (2010). Therefore, we weren't quite ready to pick up and move again. So God worked it all out for us! He knew I had some very special friends moving here this summer and needed to be close to them again! We will soon be having a partial reunion of the Kishaba International Girls in Quantico, Virginia! This is such a blessing!

My 3 New Favorite Things

Sometimes the little things in life just make me happy. You know simple little things that just make your day better. Lately I have discovered 3 new products that I truly enjoy. None of them are very costly. They are all actually quite cheap. But just having them around makes my day more comfortable, easier and yummier! So here are the 3 things I recommend each of you go out and get today!

1. Old Navy Fleece Pants *These pants are the most comfortable pants ever! I bought 3 pair! Of course I found them on sale at Old Navy for $5. Online they are $10.99. So check out a local Old Navy Store to see if you can get them cheaper. 
2. Neutrogena Make-Up Remover Cleansing Towelettes *They remove mascara very quickly and easily as well as other make-up. I can wash my make-up off while nursing Matias to sleep or while I am lying in bed right before I go to sleep. It is just so much easier than getting a wash cloth and soap and standing over a sink in the bathroom. I always seem to splash water everywhere when I do that. It makes such a mess!
3. Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Little Bites Chocolate Cereal *YUMMY! I am not a huge fan of chocolate. So I am kind of surprised that I like these so much. I don't know why, but they just sounded good to me when I was at the Commissary. They are not too chocolaty. They have just enough chocolate to satisfy! And it's cereal so it's good for you, right?

Such simple things that just make my day better! Maybe they could make your day better too! 

So much to do!

Sitting on Grandma's stairs.

We are finally home after visiting with family for Christmas! We had a great time seeing everyone, but we are glad to be back in our own beds! Matias sleeps so much better in his own bed. Christmas break was so relaxing! I didn't have to do dishes, clean the house and I had a lot of help with Matias. Now that we are home I feel overwhelmed with everything I need to get done!
My list is as follows:

1. Create a budget for 2011
2. Pack up Christmas decorations
3. Put Matias' 9 month clothes in storage and get out 12 month clothes
4. Downsize (sell or give away thing we don't need in preparation for move this summer)
5. Organize the office
6. Remodel Half-Bathroom
7. Lay tile in 3 other bathrooms (prepping for renters this summer)

I know there are only 7 things on the list, but this is on top of everyday chores. You know, like dishes, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. So I guess my New Year's Resolution would be to be very productive this year! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

The whole family with Grandma Craig.

Opening gifts!

My new baby food cook book.