conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

I was ironing in the dining room, walked back around to the kitchen to this:

The chair was already there, but I’m sure it will be no time before he’s moving them around. We have to make sure we tuck the chairs in under the table ALL THE TIME now. Also today, Colin climbed on Jim’s bed and dove into the buddy pile, tried to throw away Jim’s Chimchar in the diaper pail, crawled under his crib to hide, and tried to make paper go through my printer.

I picked up the old camera on Sunday, because the boys were being cute, and I left the card for the new camera upstairs.

Colin before the his first at-home haircut (February 16, 2008)

Jim coloring Easter Eggs (March 23, 2008)

The boys being cute together (May 18, 2008)

that after posting the pizza info, the pizza we had came out terrible. That’s two baking mishaps I’ve had this week (the other was a lame banana bread).

I had a couple more successes to balance out the mishaps. Sunday we had baked french fries. It’s something that I’ve only really made for me and the kids, on Dad’s school night. Cut up russet (baking) potatoes into fry-shapes. Make a mix of olive oil and seasoning, coat and bake at high heat for about 45 minutes. I got the recipe online, and it calls for paprika and chili powder — I’ve left out the chili powder on previous times, for the kids. This time I used a salt-free garlic herb seasoning, and with just two potatoes, there weren’t enough for all of us. A winner! And if Jim eats a whole plateful, even better.

Sunday morning I made whole-grain pancakes (corn, wheat, and oat), and today I made pancakes. Both have eggs and butter to fatten Jim up (he ate five pancakes), and calories in the syrup as well. And I have leftovers for school days too.

The downside to these is that I want them too, and they don’t fit into my lowfat diet. I just have to exercise self-control and have oatmeal instead, and then there will be more for leftovers anyway.

This is actually something that has been taking up a bit of my time lately, so I’ll bring it here. The deal is that the damage that Jim’s kidney incurred with the infection he had last year puts him at risk for high blood pressure. At the recommendation of the nephrologist, we’re limiting his salt intake to 1000mg/day, half the adult recommended daily intake.

The biggest hit we’re taking is milk and cheese — two huge staples of the high-fat diet we’ve been feeding him in an effort to keep his weight up — his seizure medication suppresses his appetite.

So anyway, tonight’s dinner is pizza. By making it myself (which we’ve been doing for over a year now, anyway), I can make a completely tasty low-salt version for Jim.

For the dough, I use a recipe from “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook” — it goes along with their pizza sauce recipe (which was a complete failure the one time I tried it). I modified it by heating the water before putting it in the bread machine, increasing the amount of semolina flour, and eliminating the salt. Salt is THE flavor maker in bread and dough, but with the strong flavors from the pizza, you don’t miss it here. Second is salt-free spaghetti sauce. There are two we’ve found, Trader Joe’s and Francisco Rinaldi. I think TJ’s is better, but the drive there sometimes means we have to make do with the FR. Lastly is the cheese. I thought that this would be the breaker on pizza altogether, but then I found fresh mozzarella at Trader Joe’s that is really low in sodium. I can chop it very fine, and it melts just like shredded cheese.

Now, we’re off to the park as the bread machine does its magic and makes the dough while we’re out.

New Hobby:

(My mother’s day present, a crochet pattern book. I’ve started an elephant and an apple.)

New Garden:

(Pictured l-r is zucchini, green peppers, plum tomatoes, regular tomatoes, basil, mint, and sunflowers. The sunflowers may not survive the heavy rain we got.)

New Glasses:

(Picked them out last week, picked them up today. No more headaches!)

New Haircut:

Had to go in the downpour yesterday, so we took advantage of being out, and finally got Colin’s hair cut. After his bath, I could re-create the fauxhawk!)

New Purse:

(Started this a couple weeks ago, working on it in bits and pieces. Finished it up Saturday. Like it alot, except I should have put a second pocket inside. I may go back and do that. Pattern is Wasp Bag from Machen Machen. I changed the way the handles were done, slightly, sewing them up then inserting them and topstitching. I left out her interior pockets and put in a zippered pocket for my phone.)

New skirts:

(The blue one needs ironing. Blue and pink were my first attempt, and are quilting cotton. The brown is linen I picked up on the cheap — $14.98. All are elastic waist a-lines.)

We haven’t been posting much because we’ve been enjoying nice weather, and plating gardens, flying kites, and cooking.

I had my relaxing mother’s day on saturday, and got some sewing done. A purse and a linen skirt.

Yesterday we had a “from scratch” mother’s day dinner — pasta primavera with shrimp, homemade dinner rolls, homemade cake with homemade chocolate frosting. OK, so the pasta was from a box.

Today, Jim’s school was closed — rainstorm caused electrical problems, so we were looking forwards to a VERY quiet day, but then Dad needs a suit drycleaned by tomorrow, so out we went.

To make the most of our trip out, we took Colin for his first haircut. He looks less-girlish now.

When the sun comes out, I’ll take pictures.