Babies...

I want to have babies, badly. I love the Yankee so much and want to create something tangible that's a little bit of both of us. I want to be directly responsible for rearing a little life and trying very hard to craft a happy, productive member of society. It's an odd thing: when you announce to whomever you tend to make announcements to that you are going to start trying to have a baby, the underlying message is that you are your partner plan to have copious amounts of sex on a regular basis. No one seems to acknowledge this, but it's the truth, isn't it?

Heh, my mom doesn't really read my blog so I'm not worried about what kind of thoughts that might give her :)

So we're all ready to start trying this fall. October is officially our baby month, so if you'd like to schedule anything and I say no, please know that I am too busy doing what pleases the Lord :) For this reason, I went to see a doctor to just make sure all of my equipment is functioning regularly- only to find out that I have PCOS. So my body is currently making too many "male" hormones (that MUST be the reason for all of my scandalous and innapropriate jokes!). One of the most tangible side-effects of this condition is that making babies can be difficult. As in the conceiving part.

At one point in my life, I was clinically obese- as in a BMI of over 35- and was in a kind of pre-PCOS state. At thats point in my life, my doctor said that if I could manage to get pregnant, I would have in be on bed rest the entire time and inject myself with blood thinners. No thanks. So I lost 65 pounds and thought I had escaped the beast, but it turns out I didn't.

I am still trying to decide how I feel about all of this. I get a bit weepy and pouty sometime, but most of the time I just resolve to make a plan and attack.  The typical first step to treating PCOS is to lose weight, if you have weight to lose. I am still overweight, although not even close to where I was. I hate working out- I mean I HATE working out. And yet I know that it will make such a difference when paired with a healthy, reasonable, sustainable diet. But seriously y'all, if you gave me a choice between a filling and a workout, I'm really not sure which one I would choose.

This is the motivating thought that I keep coming back to: I have loved my babies for years, even though I don't have them yet. I think about what kind of mother I'd like to be and various strategies for dealing with random baby-ish things and I feel love in my heart for little ones that I am still dreaming of. I wholly believe that I will do many things for my children and because of them; if this is what I have to do to create them, to have a shot at holding my beloved little dream-babies in my arms, then this is what I will do.

If I need to lose 30 pounds and stop drinking coffee- I will. If I need to get used to darn old Tony Horton every morning- I will. If I have to incorporate more discipline into my life- I will. Because I really want to be a mother and I really want to carry and birth my own happy, healthy, bi-racial, potentially sassy, hopefully-not-too-wierd children.

But I still hate excercise. Really y'all... HATE IT.

So tonight I am a Happy Girl and by Tuesday I predict I will be a sore girl....

A Very Valiente Thought On Beauty

This is a post about my eyebrows. Mostly.

Growing up, I was a very wierd kid. I mean the kind of kid who ate rocks. It took me a very long time to learn to exist in society. Approximately 26 years, to be honest. I have two cousins who taught me more than they realize about being a lady and being feminine. There are still some things I haven't mastered yet, sadly.

So yes- this is a post about my eyebrows. But it's really a confession about my inner lazy-fat-slob-frump-girl. I feel like The Yankee and I need to have a conversation about my appearance approximately every six months- and a reminder about my humor, at least quarterly.

There are all kinds of Bible verses that discuss inner beauty- reminders not to adorn oneself with braids and pearls, charges that beauty is fleeting, and statements about what makes a woman a true beauty. And while those things are very, very true, we must also acknowledge that there is a difference between ugliness from a rotten attitude, ugliness from a geometric abonormality in a person's appearance, and ugliness because you just look like as hot mess. I believe most of my ugly days stem from that third category, with the occasional from the first. I like to believe that I don't fall into category two- and please don't tell me if I do (I can't handle that kind of honesty).

My eye brows are the representation of my cyclical beauty slumps. It's effing hot here in New York and my skin goes from dewey to shiny to oil slick before 9 AM. It's one pony tail day after another here, as The Yankee and I hover, scantily clad, in front of our one lil' window unit. It's very easy and easily forgiven to have low-key beauty days.

I didn't start tending to my brows until right before The Yankee started dating- a little over three years ago. Before that, they normally looked like this ---------------------------------------->

Notice the fan shaped spike above my left eye, which gets a little pirate-y every now and then, thanks to a swat in the face with a plastic swing by my big brother (thanks for that, Bro).

Once I did start grooming them, I made the novice mistake of going too far- and all of a sudden the space between my eyes was getting wider and wider.

I've been letting my brows grow and trying to stay on top of them, but they've gotten a bit crazy. I've gotten a little too casual and lazy about my hair, make-up, and clothes just in general- again, laregly because NYC has not embraced the 1970's gift of central air. So now Pinterest has all these great tutorials for make-up- especially for the eyes- I I can't help but notice them wonderful eyebrows on these ladies. So today I decided to really give it a shot and try to make my brows look nice.

The thing about beauty and make-up and hairstyles is that it takes work and effort. I do care how I look and I do want my husband to be proud of me. My frump days are mostly lazy days, but I am going to get better at it. I hereby promise to shape it up, put on a little lipstick, and get out of my grooming rut.



A Very Valiente Pinterest Review

I have high expectations for many things in my life; this inevitably menas that from time to time I am faced with great disappointment. This morning was one of those times.

I require that earth-friendly products work and work well, or else I don't use them. For example, rubbing plain old lemon juice into my grout as a stain remover has never produced anything but sore shoulders. Tying a bag of vinegar around my shower head only gave me a stinky bathroom. But then there was the miracle cleaner that was just wonderful. I also stopped using paper towels and doubled up on microfiber cloths- great choice, no regrets.

So when I came across the idea that baking soda and hydrogen peroxide could work wonders on all manner of greasy, hardened stains I was hopeful. I read all kinds of blog posts touting the great glory of the solution, so I tried it this morning. Just for the record, here is what I was hoping for. There is this:

And this:



For the record, I am a subscriber to "One Good Thing by Jillee" and I really like reading her posts. I saw the ideas on Pinterest first, not her blog.

 So here is where I started. I have a glass dish that I normally line with foil and spray with cooking spray anytime I cook mean or potatoes. Then I just toss the foil after dinner instead of cleaning the dish. Predictably, the cooking spray has hardened into an inpenetrable forcefield of funky chunks:

So I made a little paste, applied it to the pan, let it sit and "work" and the proceeded to scrub with a variety of instruments. I used a toothbrush, metal scrubber, Pampered Chef scraper, and a kitchen sponge. Eventually a lot of the gunk did come off, but it took a lot of work and there were still some bits left by the time I threw in the towel. It left me wondering- if I had just set about scrubbing the dickens out of the pan without the baking soda and peroxide, would I have gotten the same results?

I am totally willing to try this again. I have gas burners with some wierd food residue on them and two Corningware pans that could use some reviving. I give this cleaning solution a solid B.



A Very Valiente Good Idea

Here are two of my very own original ideas.

Instead of buying curtain ties, I use the cuffs I cut off the shirts I used to make our quilt.

When I cook ground beef, I use a baster to get the fat out of the pan, instead of pouring it down the drain. Washing the baster afterwards is a first-world inconvenience thast becomes even more annoying without a dishwasher. To give myself a head start, I fill a glass with soapy water and put the baster in it when I am done, sucking soapy water in a few times. The I use a toothbrush to get the gunk out completely.

I am going to attempt to pin these and see if anyone else finds them useful. Happy Saturday everyone :)

A Very Valiente Food Rut Follow Up

Food Rut be gone! The Yankee and I are in the clear, finally eating like People again.We adjusted some budgetary allocations, which reduced our food budget and that turned out to be a great motivator for me.Does anyone elser feel like broke times, or times when you are really watching your spending, leads you to great cooking? I do. For some reason, I simply tear it up in the kitchen when I have a stricter budget. In the past month, we've only gone out to eat twice (once was a gifted meal from a dear woman) and it's been great.

I will admit to one cooking disaster. We're talking food so bad that I simply couldn't convince myself to keep eating it- food so bad it made the Yankee's eyes water! I tried marinading a pork shoulder in this great all-purpose recipes that works on steak, chicken, and pork chops. I am not sure what happened but after 8 hours in my crock pot, it tasted like pickled supper. Blech.

I brought out some of our favorites that I haven't made in awhile, embraced the love of the crock-pot and the casserole, and found some new fun recipes on Pinterest. Here are some things I've been making:

Seems like everyone is pinning these foil packets:

 I made mine with potatoes instead of stuffing and used 1 tbsp of onion and chive cream cheese instead of ranch dressing, and they turned out pretty darn well. The broccoli looked a bit overcooked and kind of brown, but it was still crunchy and tasted fine. Next time, I'll probably steam it instead.

You might also have seen this Ro-tel recipe for an enchilada skillet dinner.

This was really good. A bit soupy- the recipe calls for a small can of tomato sauce, which I will probably leave out next time. I also used tortilla chips instead of tortillas, because they were on sale. I cooked a whole chicken in the crock pot on day and used the leftover for this recipe on the next.

I also had several friends leave me some suggestions on my Facebook wall, which I'll be trying in June. Happy eating everyone.

A Kinda Valiente Dream

The Yankee and I do not agree about the amount of "things" we should own. I am constantly getting the itch to downsize, downgrade, purge, declutter, donate- whatever you call it, I just want to get rid of my stuff. I think it stresses the Yankee out when I purge too often or too much at once. I know it drives my mother batty. I think I'd be happy if we owned a total of 7 pieces of furniture (I count bedside tables as one, since it would be lame not to have a pair). I think our little family would function most efficiently if we owned:

• A Captain's Bed
• Bedside Tables
• Couch
• Storage Ottoman
• Entertainment Stand
• One bookcase
• Dining Set (this also counts as one "piece")

Think about how open and wonderful our itty-bitty-NYC apartment would look!

Alas... we own books and a small collection of memorabilia, which necessitates more than one bookcase.

The Yankee loves media of all kinds, so we need a place to store 3 game consoles, all of rock band, a video game chair, various video games, and tons of DVDs (I confess, one whole binder is full of holiday movies).

So maybe my home won't look like this anytime soon ever:

Source

But a lady can dream, right?

The Very Valiente-est Quilt

So, y'all know I am sentimental (don't you?). I am a scrapper, a photo taker, and a memory keeper. I catalog all sorts of memories in my brain.

I have been saving the shirts that the Yankee and I were wearing during our DTR in 2009 for three years, always intending to do something with them. Either make a cover of a scrapbook or quilt with them, or some other craft. I didn't want them to just sit it a box for a hundred years, but I also didn't want to get rid of them because the memory of the evening is so special to me.

 I found this pattern online:

It's a pattern for frugal quilters with lots of fabric scraps leftover and decided to use it for out DTR shirts. Each one of those strips is 2 inches by 5 inches, which means I had to cut hundreds of little pieces. Then they had to be sewn together into squares, and the squares made into bigger squares.

Here is the progressing of the project:

Strips:

Quilt squares:

Finished product:

The finished quilt is the size of a normal couch throw blanket. I just couldn't sew any more strips or squares, so when it got to 5 x 7, I threw in the towel. This was not an easy project by any means and I don't recommend it for anyone who doesn't already sew well, for anyone with little kids (because it took about 10 weekends, doing nothing else), or anyone who doesn't really really really want to make a quilt like this.

Every time I use this blanket, I am a happy girl.