Pregnant brownies

I think I might be pregnant. I have brownies in the oven right now. Not for an after-dinner treat, but for the main course. You can thank my cravings and my hubby. I told him to talk me out of making brownies for dinner, but they have peanut butter in them. He loves peanut butter. Besides, the brownies are made with eggs and peanut butter, which have protein, and you're supposed to eat protein when you're pregnant, right?

Right. 

The hardest part about baking while pregnant is that you often have to break one of the cardinal rules of baking: taste it before you bake it. Luckily, my hubby was on hand to be my official taste tester and give his chocolatey thumb's up (and will be on hand to make sure I don't eat an entire pan of brownies by myself. He's such a giver). The only part I was able to taste was the peanut butter filling (which is why I'm calling these "pregnant" brownies: they're carrying around peanut butter goodness in their middle). I may or may not have cleaned that bowl with my finger. 

Shortly, my pregnant brownies will be cooked to perfection and I'll finally be able to taste them! Recipe to follow (after dinner). 

How to not stick to a budget and/or have nice things.

With so many posts floating around the Internet about how to budget and/or have nice things, I thought I'd weigh in on my experiences. So, how do you not budget and/or have nice things? Simple! Have pets. Or probably kids, but I don't have any experience with those yet. This is the culprit responsible for today's anti-budgeting-and-nice-things:

He's a little monster, but he's my (our) little monster. 

Last weekend, this handsome little monster decided to eat a baby squirrel. Shortly thereafter, he developed a cough. My thought was that something crunchy from his tasty tasty kitty treat got lodged somewhere in his system. My hubby is of the "lets wait and see if it gets better on its own" school of medicine (likely from his years of experience as a Doc in the Navy). So we waited, until this morning, when we were tired from a night of listening to the little monster coughing, when I made an appointment to take him to the kitty doc this afternoon. 

Even though my hubby and I have 3 kitties, we don't have a kitty carrier. Luckily for me, the little monster is the "good" kitty. Last time he needed a trip to the kitty doc, he did fine loose in my car, so I figured we'd do the same thing this time. I plopped him on the passenger seat with the words "please don't poop" (we have a history of cats pooping in cars). 

He didn't poop. He did get car sick and puke. Twice. The first time, he started yowling so I stopped on the side of the road in time to witness the little monster puking on the backseat. The second time, I identified the yowling sooner, stopped the car sooner, and pulled him onto my lap to try to settle his stomach with soothing and looking out the window. It was a great plan, until it wasn't. When he started making the sound (you know the one I'm talking about), I had little choice but to catch his puke. In my hand. And then roll down the window and glop it onto the ground. 

And that is the last time I put a kitty in the car and don't bring a towel. Actually, I should probably just ALWAYS have a towel in my car. 

After the little monster successfully emptied his stomach onto me and my car, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We spent over $200 to learn that he most likely has asthma and/or seasonal allergies. On the plus side, the kitty doc accidentally took extra X-rays of his abdomen and didn't find any trace of last weekend's tasty tasty kitty treat, so no negative consequences there. Except for the baby squirrel. 

And there you have it: how to NOT stick to a budget or have nice things. 

Start a fire

On warm, sunny days like today, it's so easy to be productive. Even taking frequent breaks so I don't over exert myself (not something I worried about before I started growing another human), I've already finished two (albeit small) painting projects, cleaned up the yard, gathered some firewood, washed the dishes, and done a load of laundry. And there's still another 5+ hours of daylight (okay, 4 now... The Avengers was on tv). Have I mentioned that I'm solar powered?

Even in sunny Southern California, days aren't always warm and/or sunny. This past weekend, we got an inch of much-needed rain. But, I'll admit, it's hard for me to want to get anything done when it's gray outside. Especially if it's chilly, too. Like I said, I'm solar powered. 

When it's chilly, I tend to huddle up with whichever warm bodies are readily available (any combination of hubby, dog, and kitties). Over the chilly, damp weekend, my hubby got the fireplace going to the point where I was comfy in just a t-shirt. Until I needed to take the dog out, obviously. 

The point is, I was warm enough to be productive, at least a little bit. And I worked on something that's going to help me be warm next time it's chilly and damp out. In less than an hour and for almost free, I made 84 fire starters. How, you ask? Let me show you!

First, gather all your supplies: as many cardboard egg cartons as you have (free), sawdust from cutting firewood (also free), candle wax (I got 10 pounds of wax on Amazon for less than $20, which is enough to make more than a year's worth of fire starters), and a double boiler (which prevents the wax from behaving badly while you melt it).

On the kitchen counter, fill each egg carton well with sawdust. 

Then, melt the wax in the double boiler (I think I spent $10 on my double boiler, and I only use it for melting wax, which means I literally never clean it. Hooray!). See the melty wax in the middle?

Pour enough melted wax on top of the sawdust to almost fill each well. 

Here's the tough part: let them cool on the kitchen counter until the wax is hard (tough for me because this literally takes up ALL of the counter space in my tiny kitchen). 

That's it! They might not be the prettiest fire starters, but trust me, popping one of these little guys in the fireplace under some tinder (little pieces of wood, for you city dwellers) is SO much easier than crumpling up every piece of scrap paper you can find! And cheaper than the store-bought fire starters (that don't work as well, anyway). I'll follow up with instructions for how to use your homemade fire starters next time we have a day that's chilly and/or damp, but until then I'll be outside recharging in the sun!

Finding Happiness

In honor of today being Mother's Day, and because I'm going to become one in five short months, I've decided to take this blog in somewhat of a new direction. 

My hubby and I have chosen to live our lives differently than most of our (especially my) peers. Instead of idealizing a life in the suburbs, we've decided that we would be much happier moving out of civilization and into nature, which is why we have made our home in the woods. Literally. This is our backyard:

Pretty awesome, right?

Anyhoo, I grew up in the suburbs and living in the woods has definitely been a learning experience for me. And, I'm hoping, that it can also be a learning experience for anyone else who thinks they might be interested in taking the plunge that I'm taking. Or maybe my experience will give you the confidence to take your own plunge in your own search for happiness. 

From here on, let's focus on making improvements. Making improvements to our home, our diet, our feelings of self-sufficiency, our happiness, and whatever else we can improve to make our lives, our family, and our planet better. 

Winning

There is no winning when you're pregnant. 

You try to do the right thing, abide by the rules of what you should or shouldn't do, should or shouldn't eat. You do your research. And then, inevitably, whatever you think is okay to do or eat, you're wrong. 

One pregnancy website, book, or "expert" tells you that you need to cover yourself with sunscreen the moment you step outside, and another tells you to avoid sunscreen like the plague because of all the chemicals in it. I figured the doctor would be the most reliable tie breaker, so I asked her. She told me to wear baby sunscreen, which sounded reasonable, so I bought the regular baby sunscreen the next time I was at Target. I mentioned this to a couple of friends who also happen to be toddler moms, and they both went off the handle about how you have to get a specific baby sunscreen because the regular (read: cheap) ones still contain nasty chemicals you don't want leaching through your skin into the tiny human in your belly. Of course. 

Or maybe you're hungry (not unlikely when you're pregnant). You're on a lovely vacation in Italy and you see a place to get gelato. As you're finishing your Snickers gelato, you think to yourself "I hope this is okay for me to eat. I don't think it has any deli meat or sprouts or soft cheese or booze or raw eggs in it." And when you get back to your hotel that night, you read that while some gelatos are safe to eat while you're pregnant, some may contain questionably processed eggs and therefore, nasty bacteria. So it's okay to eat the fruity gelatos, but don't eat the creamy/custardy/eggy flavors like the Snickers gelato you just finished. Yep, that sounds about right. You then spend the entire rest of your time in Italy eating lemon and strawberry and coconut gelato while sneaking covert glances at your hubby's cup of chocolate and peanut butter and coffee custardy goodness. 

Or maybe you're going to be in a wedding while you're pregnant. Let's just assume it's tomorrow (it is). Your first inspection of the Internet tells you that you can only wear a select few brands of nail polish that don't contain select nasty chemicals (are you noticing a trend yet?). You go through your not insubstantial nail polish drawer and find that you own 3 of the select nail polishes that the Internet told you are acceptable. Except that when you look at the ingredient label, you see the words "formaldehyde resin." Well, shit. So you go back to the Internet for more answers, and find that one of your favorite brands is considered safe (for now). 

But who knows what new information will come out tomorrow about the horrible things you shouldn't do while you're pregnant. See what I mean? There is no winning when you're pregnant. 

Tiny

At this point, I might as well just come right out and say it: I'm pregnant. 

My honey and I have known about the tiny human growing inside me since Valentine's, but didn't want to announce it right away for the usual reasons. We shared a little before the recommended twelve weeks, but I already haven't been able to button my pants for several weeks and anyone looking at me would be able to tell I'm starting to have a belly. 

All of this means, though, that I have a lot of early-pregnancy stuff to catch up on here before my memory fails completely (I'm already partway there thanks to constant exhaustion. Growing a human is hard work). 

For now, I'll stick with the short version: no nausea (yay!) but I'm exhausted all the time. And I'm so glad I learned early on that looping a ponytail band through a button hole makes it less obvious that your pants don't fit (also yay!). Preggo pants most likely coming soon. 

Seasons

We had a beautiful February. I know we desperately need rain in California, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy basking in the sun when it's out. All of our plants got tricked into thinking it was springtime and so, of course, they all started budding out to enjoy the sun as well.

The sun is most certainly not out today. 

Today, we have the joy of our first real snow since Christmas. My honey and I took stock of the plants and decided our apple trees are on their own. Same for the daffodils. But we wanted to help our little nectarine tree that is quite literally in full bloom. My honey wrapped the little tree in a garbage bag to keep it warm. 

So now the dog is scared of the nectarine tree because she's scared of garbage bags. 

Luckily for her, it's supposed to be warm and sunny again by tomorrow, so we should be able to unwrap the big, scary garbage bag from the nectarine tree in the morning.