Creamy Pimento Cheese Dip

Caiden's latest dip for his snack time pretzels.

one 8oz. package cream cheese- softened
2 cups extra sharp shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup mayo
a pinch of garlic powder
one 4oz. jar diced pimentos, drained

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy; add cheddar cheese and continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in mayo and garlic powder. Stir in pimento. Chill for one hour.

Easy and Yummy!

An Inspirational Breastfeeding Story

This article was published in Mothering Magazine- a magazine that simply rocks! The article is one of my favorites in terms of demonstrating just how powerful of a bond breastfeeding creates between a mother and child. It also reinforces how if we let our natural instincts lead us in parenting, so often things work out amazingly well. In reading this I was reminded that it's ok to disregard the social "norms" of how to raise our babies!!! Do read this!!! I promise you will enjoy it!

http://http//www.mothering.com/breastfeeding/unweaning-georgia

A Yummy Punch

We served this at our Halloween party this year and it was very tasty!!! Initially I thought it sounded odd- carbonated milk?!!! But it really turned out great!

Orange Cream Milk Punch

1 Quart Vanilla Ice Cream
2 Pints Orange Sherbet
1 16 Ounce Can Sprite
1 Quart Milk

Place ice cream and sherbet in punch bowl. Pour in the milk and Sprite. Stir gently and serve immediately.

Victoria's Surprise!

So just for the heck of it I decided to search "nursing bras" on the Victoria's Secret website and to my surprise I actually got two items in the result! I never knew that VS sold nursing bras, not that they actually do any advertising for them and obviously nursing bras are not what makes VS 's world go round. But then I got to thinking what IF they did market nursing bras on a larger level. Just imagine what that would look like... the cover model wearing a nursing bra, nursing bras in all sorts of colors and lace trims. And what would that do for the breastfeeding culture in our society? Perhaps adding more of the glamour would make breastfeeding a bigger part of who we are? Would more mothers choose to breastfeed to emulate the beautiful models wearing the nursing bras???

Certainly something to think about!

Today's Baking Project

After searching the internet for a good recipe for zucchini banana bread I came across one I decided to try. I also came across a really cool blog in the process that has lots of healthy recipes in a very easy to search format! Here's the link to the blog and recipe:

http://yasmeen-healthnut.blogspot.com/2008/07/light-flavor-of-zucchini-along-with.html


Gotta go take the bread out of the oven:-)!

A Fun Website:

Here's where I've been hanging out this evening, lots of neat stuff to look at!

http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/index.html

Just What You Need

I'm sure you can recall times in your life where you were in need of something but didn't have it on hand at the moment. And all you could do was think about getting whatever it was you needed- everything else you were doing kind of came to a stand still and your only focus became how to meet that need.

A simple example of this that comes to my mind is when you find yourself suddenly very thirsty with nothing on hand to drink and all you can think about is getting an ice cold water. And maybe I'm crazy- but when I've been in this situation and I'm rushing into a gas station to buy a bottle of water, I swear my mind is racing and I want the check out person to ring me up super fast because I NEED to drink this water. Then the moment comes when I twist off the cap and guzzle that water and it tastes so darn good! Ahhh such relief!!!

So I'm making an assumption that is how my son feels when he wants to nurse. I don't get a lot of warning ahead of time- we aren't really on much of a nursing schedule these days, it's certainly not as frequent but when he needs to nurse it's really a big deal! He can be playing and be so content, then in the next second he's walking to me and climbing in my lap to nurse. And if I need to put something down or have him wait just a minute, he becomes completely devastated, which I totally get if I think about how I would feel if that gas station clerk wouldn't let me buy my water!

A few nights ago I was in bed nursing my son to sleep and I was watching him very closely and taking in all the expressions on his face as his nursed- becoming more and more relaxed, comfortable, sleepy, and happy. I then thought to myself in that moment of bedtime "This is all he needs." Such a simple request from my baby boy and who am I to say he can't have breastmilk?! Despite the outside pressures of our silly society to stop nursing when a baby turns one year old, I feel confident I am making the right choice. My little one year old is still a happy breastfed baby, who also loves to eat his solids and try new foods. This makes me a proud mama.