Things You Don't See in America: Part 11

I thought you might like to see this butcher shop we walked past last week.

I have to admit, I do not buy meat from a butcher shop like this... Meat hanging in the open air worries me. I buy meat from our local market, wrapped in plastic, on a Styrofoam plate. While I realize it may come from a butcher shop that looks like the picture, at least I don't see it happen.

The only thing that gets me is that sometimes, when I ask for ground beef, the man behind the counter reaches in and retrieves it with his bare hands. I just hope they have been washed lately and am grateful that I'm going to cook it before I eat it.

Quick Takes (vol. 4)

Yay, for Quick Takes, huh? Its how you know I'm still alive and well...

1: Its the Pregnant Talking

Brian and I were watching a movie last night and in the movie the suave and debonair man was drinking a martini with three olives. Which made me remember! I have green olives in the kitchen. I bought them weeks ago when I was wanting pickles, hoping they would make a sub-par substitute. They weren't very good. Which may be hard to tell, embarrassingly enough, considering I ate half the jar.

But I promise, they weren't very good... it was just the pregnant talking.

2. Boy or Girl?

Lots of people ask me if I'm hoping for a boy or a girl this time. And since I have three girls already, of course, I would love to have a boy. However, at this point, three girls in, I figure it is probably another girl.

I already know how to do girls. Plus, if it is another girl, I could make this work in their room. And who wouldn't love this? 

                                                                           Source: google.com via Christy on Pinterest

3: Ramadan Lights

All of our local mosques are decorated for the season. Tonight, we stopped the car and snapped a picture, just for you!

  

4: Speaking of Ramadan Lights

The girls insisted we hang our own lights this year. So we did. Along with our very own fanoose (lantern).

5: Current Project

My current project is a stocking for Brian. My mother-in-law made these felt stockings for her children and it has turned into a family tradition that I initially balked at, but have come to really enjoy. Hours of work go into these stockings, but it is addicting and I have a hard time putting it down at the end of the night. The girls each have one, and my goal is to finish Brian's by Christmas.

I then have mine to make and then one for the new baby. Always, around the time I think I'm about to catch up, we add another member to our family. In all actuality, I will probably make the new babies before I make mine.

6: Sweet Tea and Kool-Aid

My sister sent some kool-aid packets in her last package and it is quite the event when I tell the girls they can make kool-aid to go with dinner. I love it because they can do it all by themselves and it helps get them involved with stuff in the kitchen. They spread all the packets out on the counter, categorize them by flavor, choose and re-choose the flavor to go with dinner. Then they actually make the kool-aid. It is cute to watch their process.

You expect children to love kool-aid. But even more than kool-aid, my children love sweet tea. Savannah loves it the most, I think, but really, all three of them love it. We drink a gallon a day. I also make a cold, sweet tea out of Green Mint Tea and I think Savannah loves that even more than the regular tea.

7: Mafeesh Hyga (There is nothing)
Hmmm.... I cannot come up with a #7. Sorry. I suppose 6 will have to do for this week.
The grocery store is calling.

Quick Takes (vol. 3)

One: Cabbage Soup Revisited

Remember a couple of weeks ago I had this insane urge to cook and devour cabbage soup? Well, I was cleaning out my' fridge last week, when I found the leftovers. Now, don't imagine the leftovers as spoiled, because my 'fridge also doubles as a sneaky, random freezer. At random times, random spots in the 'fridge will freeze whatever it takes a fancy to. So when I opened this tupperware of cabbage soup, it was frozen. But it smelled like.... well, probably however you would imagine cabbage soup to smell. I take it as sign of improvement that I'm horrified that I cooked, ate, enjoyed, and my sweet little family pretended to enjoy cabbage soup.  
Who does that to the people they love? 

Two: Reading with Savannah

Savannah and I have been plugging away at our reading program and this week we began to read our first reader. She was ecstatic until she realized that she had to read it instead of me reading it to her. Most days, we have a few moments of complete meltdown, complete with tears and wails of disbelief that she can read these words, and then we settle down and read it quite well. However, we had a conversation that any of you homeschooling moms or anyone who knows Savannah, can appreciate:

Savannah: "I hate books!"
Me: "You can't hate books! We are a family who loves books!"
Savannah: "Then I am going to pack up everything, run away and change my name!"

Should I end up with any level of sanity, it will be a miracle not unlike Moses parting the Red Sea.

Three: 14 Weeks

(I'm 15 weeks today, but this picture was taken last Friday:)

Four: Genius Baby

Do you see how she is holding the pen? None of my other babies did this at this age... She will hold the pen with her left hand and carefully, carefully, position it in her right hand. Maybe she will be an artist?

Five: The Sound of Music

Today, for the first time ever! I was grateful for the door on the kitchen.

Emily and Savannah are currently headlong into a love affair with The Sound of Music and their father had the crazy idea that we should buy the soundtrack. It was charming the first twenty times. They dance along, imitating the movie as much as they remember. It is so cute to watch.

But today, after they began the soundtrack for the 120th time, I was happy to go to the kitchen, push the door so there was just a little crack so Sophie could get in and out, and listen to something a little less... umm... magical.

Six: Ramadan Kareem!
We are almost halfway through celebrating Ramadan! My little family has been having so much fun with Ramadan this year, that if it weren't for Brian's ban on otlob, I'd be sorry to see it go. I plan on blogging more about our experiences in the next week...

Seven: Confession

Last week I joined FlyLady.com. In 4 days all she wants me to do is get dressed in the morning and shine my sink. I love a shined sink... but those pesky dirty dishes keep getting in the way of my shine.

Weaning.

When Emily was 5 months old, my body quit producing enough milk to keep up with her demands. She became increasingly fussy when she nursed and when we introduced a bottle, she immediately took to it and never looked back. I never had to consciously do anything to wean her.

When Savannah was 7 months old, the same thing happened again.

Based on those two experiences, coupled with the fact that we were in the process of moving overseas, when Sophie was born, I expected that she would be just as her sisters.

No. No, she wasn't. I was very surprised when she reached 9 months and was still going strong.

10 months....
11 months....

When she was 12 months old I talked with Brian about weaning her. But it was just so easy not to, no bottles to wash, no stumbling to the kitchen early in the morning. And I was still holding on to the hope that, like her sisters, she would wean herself.

Sophie was still nursing three times a day at 16 months old. It seemed to be more of a cuddling time than an actual need for food. She liked to snuggle and stroke my hair while she nursed. If my hair were in a pony tail, she would fuss until I would take it out so she could touch it.

Then I got a positive pregnancy test. And all of my friends started fussing at me about nursing Sophie. They told me how bad it was for me to be growing a baby and nursing and how I must stop.

Several friends suggested using cactus juice to make her decide that she didn't like it. However, I just couldn't do that to her. It felt so mean!

We were only nursing three times a day, so the first feeding I wanted to eliminate was the naptime one. I found the Naptime Book that I used with Savannah at naptime and began reading it to Sophie before her nap during the day instead of nursing. She loved the book and quickly became okay with the switch.

After about a week, it was time to choose another one to eliminate. At first, I thought the morning feeding would be the easiest to stop, because I could just feed her something in the morning and continue the night feeding for another week. However, it was the evening feeding that was the easiest to stop and just as the naptime, we started reading a book before bed instead of nursing.

The morning feeding almost stopped by itself. Instead of keeping the morning feeding for another week, it started as every other day and then gradually dropped off.

As of a week ago, Sophie is officially weaned.
Hurray!

Behold the Deliciousness!

I recently came across a new blog whose pictures alone will cause you to gain 5 pounds.

Check her recipes out! And let me know how yummy they are... 

Oh, the things I would bake if I only had access to American ingredients.