Sunday, July 28, 2013

Udderly Delicious!

So, I was feeling sorry for myself the other night because I had to work full time.  I like my job and I would want to work sometimes, just not full time.  I was irritated because I have to leave for work at 5:45am and I don't get home until 8 (or later) which is way after Alexa goes to bed, and sometimes after even Kate goes to bed.  I hadn't seen Alexa in more than 3 days and my only interaction with Kate was a bath and night time feed.  Anyway, I was moping around the kitchen trying to brainstorm ideas to make money from home and wishing that I had a marketable skill when I saw a Target ad on the counter advertising for a sale on all breastfeeding supplies.  (Oh yeah! I think you know where this is going now!)  So I thought to myself, 'That's what makes me (semi)unique...I produce milk!  Wouldn't it be hilarious if I sold my breast milk online.'  I walked into my bedroom still chuckling to myself and decided, just out of sheer curiosity, to try to google it.  OMG, you guys, there is a whole breast milk buying/selling world out there!  It's like the breast milk black market.  Except it's legal.  I think.  Legal or illegal, it's kind of creepy.

People post ads for their milk.  It's like the classifieds of human dairy products.  And not only are they describing (in detail) their milk, they are, in a way, selling themselves too.  And they sell it by the ounce!  Examples: "1000+ ounces of creamy fresh or frozen breast milk from healthy mother" (I want to know if the 'fresh' stuff is still warm), "Healthy, fatty milk for your little one", "Human dairy queen...", "Fit, healthy, Ivy-league educated mom selling...", and my personal favorite: "Fresh BM. Local sales only"  And that, folks, is why acronyms are generally bad.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm all about the nursing with Katelyn, more so than I was with Alexa.  But if I wasn't able to nurse her for any reason, formula it would be!  She gets 2 bottles of formula a day as it is anyway.  I mean, I understand that people want what's best for their baby.  And the people selling it are just trying to make some extra cash from their overflow (no pun intended) supplies.  Some of these women must be making thousands of dollars!  I checked, and there's about 200 ounces of milk in my freezer right now.  I might just sell off whatever Kate doesn't drink.  I could market my milk as "Udderly Delicious!"

Sunday, July 7, 2013

What's For Dinner?

Disclaimer: Nick is a really good husband and father. Seriously. He feeds, bathes and puts Alexa to bed at least three times a week because I am at work or teaching and he's done a fantastic job so far when he's been at home by himself with both girls when I'm working on a weekend. He even vacuumed the house last night as I was bathing Lexi. OK, I had to put that out there first. On to my story.

I'm not a good cook. I can follow a recipe just fine but I'm definitely not one of those people who just throws stuff together to form culinary awesomeness. It's just not something that I enjoy. Dinner never falls very high on my list of priorities and, if it were just me and Alexa eating, she'd have a peanut butter sandwich, I'd have a bowl of dry cereal and everyone would be happy. Now, Nick is different when it comes to dinner. He would love to have a four course meal every night, which obviously doesn't happen in our house...ever. So, when I was pregnant with Katelyn, one of the things that just irked me to no end was Nick coming home from work (at 4:00...plenty of time left for group decision about what to eat) and asking what was for dinner. At that point, having spent my day entertaining Alexa, cleaning, getting ready for the baby (and usually sleeping), the 'what's for dinner' question just really made me want to inflict some major pain. Or hide in a closet. (Or the more likely scenario: hiding in a closet while dreaming about inflicting pain) I imagined that Nick wanted to come home to me wearing a dress, heels and an apron, preparing this fantastic meal while Alexa was quietly sitting at the table teaching herself calculus. Reality was, obviously, just about the opposite. It was a good day when I was able to even take a shower and Alexa was usually running around like a little crazy girl, and occasionally naked (Alexa, not me. It's really hard to keep clothes on that kid!).

Shortly before having the baby, I decided that I had had enough. I realized that he was just asking an innocent question, so I had to come up with a way to answer that question without getting anxious, frazzled and mad. My solution: monthly meal plans. For the past three months, I have made a calendar with dinner planned out for each day. At the beginning of the month, we have one big Publix shopping trip and we only go back to the store half way through the month to get milk and fruit. Not only do we always know what's for dinner, we have saved a lot of money by staying away from the stores. Our meal calendars are posted in the laundry room and on the inside of a kitchen cabinet so everyone knows what's for dinner all the time.
So, Nick calls me at work the other day, from home, as he is standing in front of the refrigerator and as soon as I answer the phone he says "Hey, what's for dinner tonight?". Are you serious? I can't win.