Kitchen and Kids

Infant Loss and Remembrance Day – October 15th

Posted on October 14, 2011 by kitchenandkids

Tomorrow is the day of remembrance for those of us who have lost an infant to miscarriage, still birth, or SIDs. And let me tell you, there are way more people out there than you would have expected that have experienced such a loss. 1 in 4 women experience a miscarriage daily, and then the innumerable amounts of still births and SIDs deaths make up the rest. No matter what, a loss is a loss, and loss hurts. Just because some of these babies never made it out of the womb doesn’t mean the loss wasn’t painful or they shouldn’t be remembered.

In the spring we lost such a baby at just over 10 weeks gestation, and let me say it was a painful loss both emotionally and physically. Do I know if it was a boy or girl? No, but I did pray for peace, understanding and clarity. With that I decided that my baby was a girl and we would name her Allison Grace. I just felt the need to give my little unknown angel an identity. Regardless if they have a name or not they are still a loss and need to be remembered.

This past week a friend of mine, Melissa at Beautifully Chaotic, has been working fervently on a tribute to those precious lost babies, and I had the honor to lend a hand in the balloon release she had earlier this week. We released over 200 balloons in remembrance of those little ones. Two of those names were mine.

(pictures provided by Sky-Marie Photography)

Melissa also put together a beautiful video documentary of her own loss and the balloon release. I hope you will take a few minutes to go over to Destiny in Bloom and read her article and watch the video. Even if you haven’t had a loss, I bet you know someone who has. If you want to read more about the babies that were included in this video you can read the comments that were left for Melissa here.

Wordless Wednesday – Different But The Same

Posted on October 12, 2011 by kitchenandkids

I just love this little face! Even a year later there hasn’t been much change. Yes, she has more hair. Yes, she has more teeth. Yes, she has more words. Yes, she is a bit more emotional. But, she still likes to eat. She stills loves to smile. She is still a happy girl. And, most of all she is still my little princess.

Here are some other great Wordless Wednesday posts

Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Tagged photography, wordful wednesday, wordless wednesday | 17 Comments

This Week In Our Kitchen: Week of October 9th

Posted on October 9, 2011 by kitchenandkids

Great news!! I had this weeks menu planned last week. Yeah!! I just made a couple of changes and there you have it.

I cannot for the life of me remember what my husband’s favorite meal was last week. I think last week we had good food, but not over the top spectacular. The Ceaser Chicken was really good. We did enjoy that. Maybe this week we will have that over the top, forever ingrained in our memory dinner.

If you would like some great budget friendly recipes, check out my article at Destiny In Bloom, which is an on-line women’s magazine. I hope you take a moment to go out and read my article, as well as the other wonderful articles published there.

Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.

Sunday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches (Costco) and chips. (I wasn’t expecting to be home to cook so I wanted something very simple.)

Monday: Beer Marinated Chicken Tacos, Black Bean and Corn salad, homemade tortillas and Guacamole (This is a new recipe so once it has been evaluated by the family we will see if it is blog worthy. Stay tuned!)

Tuesday: Cajun Oven Fried Chicken, PW Mashed Potatoes and roasted asparagus

Wednesday: Fields of Faith Tailgate Party

Thursday: Spaghetti and Meat Sauce (I am cheating this week – Prego Spaghetti Sauce. I might make my homemade meatballs, but I am not sure at the moment.)

Friday: Shredded Beef Tacos ( I snagged this recipe from a commenter on This Week For Dinner.)

Saturday: Beef and Black Bean Chili and cornbread (Will post recipe next week.)

As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.

Feel free to leave your ideas, too. Happy Cooking!

You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.

Posted in This Week In Our Kitchen | Tagged meal planning, menu plan monday, menu planning, weekly menu plan | 1 Comment

Have You Lost A Little One? Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Posted on October 7, 2011 by kitchenandkids

On October 15th it will be Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and I know that many families out there have little ones they have lost to miscarriages, still births and SIDS and that is a DIFFICULT thing.

Last spring we were excited to find out we would be adding a fall baby into our family, and we waited with bated breath to announce this blessing to our friends and family only to get a few shorts weeks away from our 2nd trimester to lose that precious baby. To say it was hard is an understatement. It was one of the most difficult things I have gone through to date. Besides the physical pain, the emotional pain was unbearable. To think I wouldn’t get to hold my precious baby, watch it grow, teach it about life was hard to swallow, but through wonderful friends who had experienced the same kind of loss I was able to work through the pain, not to say that some days aren’t a little more teary than others, but I do know I will see my baby one day, and that gives me comfort. However, in the meantime I want to remember Allison Grace for what she was – my child.

A friend of mine, Melissa at Beautifully Chaotic, has been inspired by her own losses to do something magnificent to honor her two precious little ones and all of those little ones out there that have been lost. She is going to be putting together a short video documentary to honor those lost babies. She will also be doing a balloon release on the video with the babies names on balloons.

I would love for you to go over to Beautifully Chaotic and see what Melissa has planned. You can also include your baby as well if you wish. Melissa will be collecting names until October 8th at midnight. You can either go to her site to leave your baby’s name and the date you associate with their passing, or you can simply do it here. If you aren’t comfortable leaving a comment, you can use Melissa’s contact form or my contact form to have your baby’s name included.

Remember – You are not alone!

Posted in Miscarriages | Tagged infant loss, miscarriage, pregnancy and infant loss remembrance day | 4 Comments

Wordless Wednesday – Football Lights

Posted on October 4, 2011 by kitchenandkids

Number 17 …

Here are some other great Wordless Wednesday posts

Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Tagged photography, wordful wednesday, wordless wednesday | 13 Comments

This Week In Our Kitchen: Week of October 2nd

Posted on October 2, 2011 by kitchenandkids

I am still having a hard time on finding anything that sounds good. This week it is a little heavy on Tex-Mex. I guess that is what Baby Z is craving. I had to force myself to figure out something different for at least one night so I didn’t burn the rest of the family out.

Last week I tried several new recipes with great results. I think my husband’s favorite were the Texas Two Step Pork Chops, which I will need to make again so I can get pictures and put up the recipe. I will get the recipe posted in the near future. As I am in Texas we can pretty much grill year round, for those of you who aren’t maybe you can use an indoor grill or save the recipe for a pretty day.

Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.

Sunday: Take out from Market Street. I have a sick and clingy toddler, which made cooking a bit difficult.

Tuesday: Marinated Ceaser Chicken, Buttery Pasta, Ceaser salad and garlic bread.

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Friday: Shredded Beef Tacos ( I snagged this recipe from a commenter on This Week For Dinner.)

Saturday: The boy is at a youth event so we will use this time for a semi-date night. We still have Little Miss.

As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.

Feel free to leave your ideas, too. Happy Cooking!

You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.

Posted in This Week In Our Kitchen | Tagged meal planning, menu plan monday, menu plans | 7 Comments

Wordless Wednesday – I Spy With My Little Eye …

Posted on September 28, 2011 by kitchenandkids

… something in the refrigerator that I didn’t put there.

Here are some other great Wordless Wednesday posts

Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Tagged photography, wordful wednesday, wordless wednesday | 11 Comments

This Week In Our Kitchen: Week of September 25th

Posted on September 25, 2011 by kitchenandkids

I am not entirely sure what I want to eat next week, but what I do have planned sounds pretty good. It is just so difficult to plan good meals when we have football practice 4 nights a week. My son hates for us to eat without him, so the challenge is to have dinner ready at lunch time and with home schooling that is near impossible. I am still in school mode at that time, and I am not even considering cooking.

Last week we had so many great dishes it was hard for my husband to give me his favorite, but if I had to take a guess it was the Pepsi BBQ Chicken, Dill Potato Salad and garden salad. However, the Cajun Chicken Pasta, and the Greek Chicken were also hits. I love it when the dinners are winners, because it is guaranteed they will eat the leftovers.

Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.

Sunday: Chicken Fried Steak, creamy mashed potatoes, and some kind of veggie.

Monday: Phylo Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday: Texas Two Step Pork Chops, Baked Beans and Grilled Corn

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken over Angel Hair Pasta with Parma Rosa Sauce, Cheesy Crescent Rolls, and a garden salad with homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

Thursday: Beer Marinated Chicken Tacos, Black Beans and Guacamole

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Fish and Chips

As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.

Feel free to leave your ideas, too. Happy Cooking!

You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.

Posted in This Week In Our Kitchen | Tagged menu plan monday, menu planning, weekly meal plan, weekly menu plan | 7 Comments

Kids Say The Darndest Thing …

Posted on September 22, 2011 by kitchenandkids

After an internal debate with myself I have decided to add things that are not necessarily kitchen related. It seems as of late I try a new recipe out, eat it, enjoy it and then think “Wow, I should have blogged about it!”, so you guys are missing out on some great posts. I will get better about that. I attribute it to pregnancy. The first trimester is a bit taxing, but now that we are past that I have no excuses. However, there is more to my life than cooking. I have two wonderful children, a great husband, a crazy old dog, a hyper young dog, and a super affectionate cat, so surely I have more to write about.

And I do ….

How many of you know a backseat driver?

I do, and this particular backseat driver is the least annoying one I know, especially since she is so darn cute and doesn’t know the slightest thing about driving.

At 2 1/2-years-old, she is finding her voice. Everyday she says new things, strings together new sentences and sometimes just has me cracking up.

With all of her brother’s activities we are ALWAYS in the car – his home school co-op, there and back; football practices, there and back; footballs games, church, grocery store, etc… You get my drift lots of car time, and for co-op and football it seems we find ourselves in traffic and hitting red light between here and there, so …from the backseat, over the sound of Wiggles on DVD, I hear –

“Dive, Mommy, Dive!” The only thing is, Mommy can’t drive! There are cars stopped in front of me. “Honey, I can’t drive. See the cars aren’t moving,” I reply. Only to hear a bit more emphatically, “Dive, Mommy! Go fast!”

The first time I heard this I came unglued – a two-year-old backseat driving? Even my 12-year-old doesn’t backseat drive. She also likes to tell me to “Dive faster!” Which I inform her I can’t because I am going the speed limit, however, apparently her daddy likes to accommodate her requests. She will eventually realize Mommy and Daddy are different.

I think it is fascinating how young children learn to talk. My daughter emulates others, especially her brother, which is not always good. As a 12-year-old he tries to see what he can say without getting in trouble – not much, but that doesn’t necessarily stop him and it most certainly does not stop his sister from repeating him. I guess I can always listen to her to find out just what he is saying, she will inadvertently tell me.

The other day when we went to a store with my parents, I had to go to the restroom. When I came out, she said “Teet, Mommy?”, which I ignored and then a little louder she said, “Poop, Mommy?” Ugh!!! Really!! I did not know I would be asked these incredibly embarrassing questions at stores from my sweet, precious, girl. Oh, well. Lesson learned! I guess in the future I will let her know how my visit to the bathroom went before she asks.

I would love to hear your funny toddler moments. Please share with me.