Project Puree

Is everyone as excited as I am that the new season of Project Runway finally started? There aren't many TV shows I love anymore, but I LOVE PROJECT RUNWAY! I can't explain it. Its on Lifetime now though...Lifetime? Really? What a lame channel. I hope they show re-run marathons like they did on Bravo. I love Project Runway Re-Run Marathons... I need a bumper sticker.

So, Project Puree is going on in the Curley household. There are people who think I'm an alright cook. But I am pretty sure my husband isn't one of those people. This is probably because although I will usually follow directions and go with old tried and true recipes when cooking for others, I tend to do all my experiments on my husband's meals. I'm an "estimator" and a "substituter" at heart and sometimes that really works! And sometimes it makes for a weird dish full of baked chicken breasts SOAKED in Tabasco sauce... This is so true that when I make him something that tastes good... he always seems genuinely surprised.

Nevertheless, I decided to make Leah's baby food myself. Lots of reasons...

1. healthier (Or at least I know exactly what's in it...)
2. simpler (she eats what we eat and vice-versa... I'm convinced this is going to make me broaden my horizons too... like eating prunes and mushrooms... yuck!)
3. cheaper (my first project cost less than $1 for about 24 ounces of baby food!)
4. simulating-er (she develops an expansive palate because I can offer her a wider variety of foods, flavors and textures than are available in stores...blah...blah...blah...now that I have said that she will probably end up being the kid who will only eat American cheese and tater tots)
5. funner! (This is the main reason because really...what's more fun than puree-ing?) (Can you tell I'm having a little trouble with suffixes today...)

I can't tell you how elated I was to make my first batch of baby food for our little curley q. We started with sweet peas.... how appropriate. Kevin says "the only thing that would be better is if you grew your own peas in the backyard and THEN made the baby food out of it." Sounds sweet and encouraging doesn't he? Except that this is the way he (lovingly) makes fun of me. To this wicked attempt at ridicule, I only smile and say "OK." So you can look forward to a future post about the creation of the-curley-family-vegetable-garden. ;)

My first experience was so much fun I decided to share it with all who care to see!

Here we go!! Peas...

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I just thought this one was a cool picture.
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Doesn't this girl look excited about her mama's cooking?

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And into the food processor...my new #1 favorite appliance. (My #1 used to be my stand mixer, but it is in need of repair. Plus, I just never had that many foods that needed processing before. It pretty much only got used at Thanksgiving and Christmas... not anymore!!)

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Alrighty, looks pretty baby-foodish... lets give it a try! (look at that color!)

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Hmmm... not your favorite you say? (I'm trying not to say "is it yucky?" too often... instead when she makes this face and I am dying laughing I say "is it not your favorite yet?")

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And I know many of you think it may be borderline abusive to take pictures while your child gags so hard she throws up (not spits up but actually throws up!) but it was an accident. I was laughing so hysterically (tears actually running down my face) at her funny faces while Kevin fed her the first 2 bites that I didn't notice how SERIOUS the gags were. So sad...

(MotheR of the YeaR nomination please) .

Good thing we had that bib with the pocket on the front! Poor baby.
Turns out, it was just a little thick. A little dab of freshly expressed breast milk to thin it out did the trick. Yummy! (TMI?)

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Not too shabby...

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At first I wanted to get the fancy contraption from Williams-Sonoma that steams and purees your food with the push of a button. I asked around and found out from a-friend-of-a-friend that these basically steam everything right into mush. No opportunity for the customization I desire. (However, if any of my friends have this contraption, I still want to see it in action.) This same friend-of-a-friend, who was hailed as the "homemade baby food queen," turned me on to these nifty little containers that can go in fridge, freezer, microwave and dishwasher! Perfect!

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Just fill them with 1 or 2 ounces of whatever you are making and freeze.

LOVIN IT! We'll keep you posted, I know you can't wait.

I hate you, Facebook!

I'm unaware which part of hell froze the day MY MOTHER (and all of her friends) got a Facebook page. But I know it had to be chilly down there somewhere on that particular day. I'm lamenting the loss of so many good blogging friends... to Facebook. So many reasons (excuses) I've been given...
"Its more fun." "You can interact with people more easily." "There's more to do." "My pictures upload so much faster." "EVERYONE is on it!"

Every time I ask a friend why they haven't posted a blog recently the answer is the same "I'm always on Facebook!" I, however, can not access Facebook, because I do not have a Facebook account or page or whatever, and therefore I can not keep up with these folks!

"OHMYGOSH!YOURNOTONFACEBOOK?"

Nope. I think I am one of the last 16 humans on Earth without a Facebook page. Why? Because I have a problem. I become too easily addicted.

Example: It was a few years ago that a friend called me around 9pm one night and said "You will never believe who I found on myspace!!!!!!" And 8 HOURS LATER... I finally turned the computer off... my mind still click, click, clicking! The click, click, clicking from a friend's page to one of their friends, to an acquaintance of that near stranger who happens to know one of my other long lost friends... weird, small world... click to that friend and find more people you may have been loosely connected to at one point in your life and click on one of them... and it never ends!!! Eventually you start clicking on people you don't know who look slightly interesting or have a funny phrase under their picture and soon you've visited the "space" of A ZILLION COMPLETE AND TOTAL STRANGERS and you have seen all their "favorite links" and all their stupid YouTube videos!

and you feel really really weird about it...

I find it difficult to control these addictive behaviors, and therefore I try to avoid them. Blogging can be kind of the same. I try to keep up with several friends (old and new) via their blog pages. I try to stick to just those few that I know of, but inexorably my eye wanders to the blog list of a friend and I find someone else I think I know... and I click! Not often though. Probably only a handful of times, because I know I have this problem. I always think... "What (and WHO) am I missing by NOT doing all the click, click, clicking that I yearn to do?"

So what is a girl with an addiction supposed to do when she just wants to keep up with a few blogs and this FACEBOOK keeps stealing her friends, family and her joy!!??!!??

Finale - It does make me feel weird to look at people's "stuff" on the Internet when they don't know that I'm looking at it. So I try not to. If I go to your page, I usually let you know the first time... so I'm not just a no-commenting-voyeur. On the contrary, if I happen to walk by your house at night and your lights are on and your blinds are open... I will look in. Not peeping tom style... but in a non-creepy way from the sidewalk... I slow down and I look and see what the inside looks like... what color you have painted your dining room... etc... Why don't I feel weird about this?

aaaand cut!

It's no secret that Leah Curley has had a few difficulties in the hair department.

It fell out in some spots... she rubbed it off in a few other areas... and it grew REALLY long everywhere else. The worst parts are the bangs and the baby mullet. Her Grannie was afraid the bangs growing long and thick between her eyes would make her go cross-eyed. I was more concerned that the mullet would make her want to start watching NASCAR and drinking Keystone Light.

So last week, cousin Leslie came over with her professional tools and just trimmed up those two areas. I didn't want to take away all the "character" in her hairdo.


Before...


Another before shot... (as you can see in this picture, we try to spread out the bangs across her forehead to protect her vision)

"I can't look..."

"So long, baby mullet of mine..."

After... our clean cut little Curley Q!

Thanks Leslie!!

gimme a head with hair!

Hair Hair Hair Hair Hair Hair Hair... Flow it... Show it... Long as God can grow it.. My Hair!
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July was a big month for the littlest Curley (her 5th month of life) ... but here it is in a peanutshell...

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Some of my favorite moments lately are just before bed...

(in her jammys only! no more swaddle! she flops all over that bed, making up for lost time with her newly found freedom)

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And also first thing in the morning! She is just delighted to wake up in the morning... especially if she wakes up in time to see her daddy before work. She comes in to play on mom and dad's bed before breakfast. The next two pics are probably my all time favorites. :)

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"I'll have what she's having..."

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Rice cereal! Her very first bite of ANYTHING other than milk. She keeps a little extra in her neck folds too, in case she gets hungry later.

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Playing with her cousin Jaxon... he's a rapper if you didn't know.

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On her 5 month birthday we had her pictures made.
Here are just a couple of the top picks.
(We had Donald Trump's hairstylist come for the photo shoot.)

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She is a champion nose-honker. No matter where you are, it's the one thing she NEVER miscalculates..

This is Kevin's favorite face... she is saying "goooooooo"

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The first time she made a boy cry...

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Huntin for more cereal... or maybe some oatmeal!

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"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....".

She keeps her stopper in place this way now....

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So that she always knows where to find it... you think I'm kidding.

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One of my favorite parts of the month of July was the last week, when I helped with the PRECIOUS 2nd graders in the Kids Summer Praise Musical at our church. I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching such young kids learn an ENTIRE musical in ONE WEEK! Incredible. And they learn so much about the Bible at the same time.

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For years I used to help in a similar summer music program at the church where I grew up. But this was my first time to work with school age kids since becoming a mother myself... and what a new perspective I had! All of the sudden I'm no longer a "fun-young-hip-happening-helper." I'm "somebody's MOM" and I tried to embrace the tasks required of "somebody's MOM" with dignity (e.g. the task of givingthehairyeyeballtomisbehaving8yearoldboys).

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I'm sure I've said many of the same things in years past, but this time when I said "Let's not stand on (or jump up and down on...or crawl over...or crawl under...or lay down on...or lay down under...you get the picture) the church pews" and "All four chair legs need to be on the floor" it felt so different.... like... I REALLY MEAN IT GUYS! QUIT IT! By the way... I think I was meant to be a girl mom... Boys are really DIFFERENT. Why was it never the girls doing ANY of these things?

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It was a wonderfully exhausting week, and Leah got to spend lots of extra time with her Grannie and her Bitty. And she got her first spikehawk!

That Friday night she came with us to see the kids musical at church and out for Mexican food after that. It was a darn good way to end a great month. And she was pooped!

"Now would someone do something about my HAIR??"

Happy Bloggin Anniversary

Its been one wonderful year since that fateful day last summer when our toilet broke and I started a blog. So much has changed, and yet so much remains the same.

• I still feel a little weird each time I share our family information (not to mention pictures of my internal organs and bodily fluids) with the WORLD WIDE WEB and yet I do it anyway.
  
• I still feel like I should have funnier things to say... I laugh all day long like an idiot at things I find hilarious and when I sit down to blog I can't remember all the funny stuff!
  
• I still prefer to talk to people face to face, although I find myself saying "I didn't tell you that? Well its on my blog... go read my blog!"
  
• I'm still really behind on uploading our pictures. Although relatively speaking I've gotten much better than I used to be (uploading every 6 months max). But now that I take 300or400 photos every single day, proportionately I stay just as far behind as ever.
  
• I still blog about our plumbing issues.
  
• Kevin still thinks blogging is silly

I continue to be amazed every time I hit spell check and I have (ONCE AGAIN) spelled Curley incorrectly! Its obvious (to blogger) that I meant to write curly, culley, carley, curler or my personal favorite... Curlew!

One last thing... To celebrate year #2 of blogging, I've changed fonts. Curlew is my name, Veranda is my game. I don't mean to imply by "year #2" that there will be MUCH blogging about "#2" although, as we all know, it DOES happen...even at church. As you can see...

More on that to come! Year #2 just might be THE YEAR OF #2 after all!