Delicious HEALTHY Oatmeal

I know its not really my style to post recipes...Not that I don't have a ton of good ones, but I'm no longer the resident chef in our house. Adam loves to cook & is amazing at putting together meals with what we already have on hand while I'm a recipe-follower. Plus he thinks that southern cooking will make us all weigh 400lbs. Drama Queen.

Anyway, my mother-in-law taught me how to make this super easy but healthy oatmeal. I guess she got tired of seeing my packets of overly-processed instant oatmeal lol! This type of oatmeal also lasts a lot longer since its not processed so I eat this for breakfast on the days I have to work. I make a pot of it on Sunday night & it makes enough for the week! Bonus :)

What you need:
1 cup of oat groats
4 cups of water
fruit of choice
sweetener of choice (I use brown rice syrup but maple syrup works well too)
nuts, if desired

How to make it:
Soak your  1 cup of oat groats in the 4 cups of water for 3 hours. After soaking, bring water to a boil, reduce to simmer & cook for 30 mins. Cover & leave on the stove overnight. In the morning, bring water to a boil then cook for another 15-30 mins until creamy. Add sweetener & fruit. Viola!

Now, it tastes like oatmeal but probably not what you're use to. It took me a couple times to get use to it. You may have to spruce it up to your liking...Obviously brown sugar or maple syrup will make it sweeter but brown rice syrup is a healthier option (I use 3T of that so imagine what I would use in sugar lol!) I prefer to put berries or bananas in mine. Sometimes pecans for crunch! I also like to mix whole ground flax seed meal into mine.

Educational Portion:
The groat is the hulled version of the oat. Supposedly you can plant a groat & it will germinate (maybe I'll let Nolin try it sometime as an experiment).This is the most nutritious way to eat oatmeal since it has not been processed & all of the nutrients have been maintained. Groats of any grains are hard to digest so soaking eases the digestive process. But this is also why they keep you feeling full longer. Your system has to work harder to digest them so the oatmeal doesn't pass right through leaving you hungry within an hour. I usually eat breakfast around 630-7am & lunch around 12-1230. My job doesn't leave time for a mid-morning snack so I need to feel full for as long as possible! Even Nolin loves this IF I've made it sweet enough. And put bananas & blueberries in it lol! Happy Eating :)

Delicious!

How Cute is This Kid?!

"Hmm I'm on my belly. By myself. And no one has laid on top of me yet. Where's my big brother?!"

"What?"

Look at them rolls!!

"Ooo what's that?!"

"Must. Get. Toy."

"Eh. This is one is MUCH closer!"

At 3 months old Mason is:

• Still in size 2 diapers, thankfully
• Wearing 3-6m clothes
• Propping himself up on his elbows
• Spins himself around in a circle during tummy time
• Holding up his head (but still loses control when he's tired)
• Rolling from tummy to back
• Talks & laughs allllll the time
• Smiles at anyone who will bother to look at him
• Grasping toys
• LOVES to snuggle with his arms wrapped around your neck
• Sleeps from about 8pm-4am (but sometimes sleeps in til 6am)
• Beginning to take a bottle, begrudgingly (& only about 2-3oz a day then you cluster feed when I get home from work)
• Is having more regular bowel movements with the help of probiotics & the chiropractor
• Rarely cries...Usually only when he's hot or Nolin has hurt/scared him
• Very ticklish!

Mason has been such a joy! He's STILL the happiest, most laid back baby. And bless his heart...He lets Nolin do whatever he wants to him!

A Tuesday Snapshot

4am: I have breastmilk running down my back from a 3m old who managed to undress himself in the middle of the night & a 2yo running around the house willy nilly in the dark.

5am: I finally wrestled Nolin back to bed. Not before he woke Adam up though. He shrieks "I want my Daddy!!!" while I try to nurse Mason back to sleep. Again.

6am: Nolin is STILL protesting being dragged back to bed...By kicking me repeatedly in his sleep. Good times.

7am: I'm finally alone in my big ol bed. Wait...Where's Nolin?! I jump up & run to the living room to see Nolin has pried the floor vent up & is stuffing it with musical instruments.

8am: I have breastmilk running down my back again. Time to sign this baby up for Overeaters Anonymous. Nolin has decided to make sure that every single toy he has that makes a noise is going off at the same time. I need a Starbucks delivery asap...

9am: Nolin spits yogurt everywhere & throws a flip flop at my head. When I smack his hand for throwing, he turns around & smacks the baby. I give him the "I'm about to lose my marbles & beat you" look & he takes off down the hallway. Watching his chubby legs try to keep up with his body cracks me up!!!!

10am: Really?! Prying up the floor vents again?! I thought we covered this...Now I have to grab the tongs again. This time its to fish my freaking flip flops out. And his cup. I'm building a house with vents in the walls. This shit is beyond ridiculous...

11am: Nolin grabs a pillow & asks for Buzz (aka Toy Story 2 that we DVR'd...Must buy these movies lol) which can only mean one thing...NAP TIME!!!

12pm: Still no nap. And bonus? He's decided to paint the carpet with spaghetti. As soon as I clean that up, he spits chewed up grapes all over. Seriously...When does this stage end?!

1pm: Still no nap. Well, for Nolin anyway. I can't seem to stay awake! He keeps telling me he wants me to go "night night" with him so I follow him to the bed, we lay down & as soon as I start to fall asleep he bolts from the room, slams the door & I hear giggles & the pitter patter of little midget feet running away in glee! He thinks he's clever lol. Punk!

2pm: He finally fell asleep. On the floor. Without his pants. Watching A Shark Tale. Whatever works...

*Now what do I do during naps...Eat? Dishes? Laundry? Pick up the house? Get ready for tonight...shower stuff, bath stuff, the boys' pjs, set their vitamins out, get Nolin's rice milk ready, make sure I have plenty of diapers/pullups by my bed for midnight changes? Get ready for the morning...pack my lunch, get the boys clothes out, pack up my pump? Take a nap myself? Catch up on blogging? Oh the dilemma...

3pm: Well damnit. By the time I made up my mind which of the above I wanted to accomplish, Mason woke up. And he's mastered a new skill!!

In case you were wondering...He sleeps on his stomach :)

4pm: Nap didn't last long. Nolin gets on the floor to play with Mason but ends up peeing on him. Mason counters by spitting up everywhere. I'm exhausted & tonight is bath night so I wipe them both down with wipes. I'm an awesome Mom right?! Afterwards Nolin brings me a bag of sweet potato chips (I assume that means he's hungry) & asks to watch Buzz. Again.

5pm: Nolin runs to the door to greet Adam. Hallelujah!!! I love when he comes home at 5 instead of 6! It's nice to have an extra set of eyes on Nolin & he makes AWESOME dinners (I'm especially pumped for tonight's spinach & feta stuffed turkey burgers, carrot parsnip cakes, tator tots & salad!) Plus he's hot. And he comes home dirty covered in grease & coolant. It so...Manly. Hahahaha!

6pm: Dinner was awesome. Minus the carrot parsnip cakes. Even my old trusty stone ground mustard couldn't save those babies :p Too bad the guy behind the meat counter at Earth Fare is apparently unfamiliar with how to package burgers though. Nolin apparently decided that his food was worth chewing but not swallowing. Ew. Mason decided his dinner wasn't enough & fussed for more.

7pm: Mason is starting to meltdown. I finally get him calmed down enough for a bath. He relaxes as soon as he hits the warm water...Til Nolin throws a hard bath toy at him. I snatch the screaming, wet baby & my fat add chases Nolin down the hall but Adam catches him 1st. In case you were wondering, its virtually impossible to thoroughly bathe a chubby, wiggly, screaming, pissed off baby. True story. Afterwards I feed Mason while Nolin screams for food. Again, that's what happens when you don't SWALLOW your food. So we give him his recycled dinner. He eats it while jumping on the couch & watching Alvin & the Chipmunks (I veto'd another round of Buzz). Watching him dance & listening to him quote movies is quite possibly my favorite past time. He's so smart :) Just not smart enough to listen when he's told to do something 847 million times!!!!!!

8pm: Mason is protesting going to bed even though he can't keep his eyes open. Silly boy...Nolin is dancing & singing like a mad fool to the Chipmunks...It's super funny! And cute :) Finally Mason caves in. After I lay him down I toss Nolin in the shower & scrub him up. Adam takes over the rest of the routine so I can shower myself. I hate, no LOATHE having long hair. What a pain in the ass.

9pm: Nolin is out!! Good job Daddy :) Now I have a million things to do to make my morning run smooth & easy. And I'm starving. Hopefully I can be in bed by 10 tonight...

10pm: I hate pumping. To make up for it, I eat a bowl of ice cream before bed.

A Day in the Life...

730am Nolin wakes me up by jumping on my bed & steps on my boob by accident. Milk shoots out on his leg. His hollering (& my painful cry) wakes Mason up.

800am Nolin's begging for pizza. He's running in circles chanting "Pizza!! Pizza!!" Must come up with a breakfast pizza...

830am Adam gives him a breakfast bar while I nurse Mason. He licks it, says "Ew" & throws it on the end table. Cue hand in diaper...

900am Nolin finally decides to eat his breakfast bar while dancing to music videos. Apparently all of his new dance moves require him to pull his junk out & flap it around...

915am He bolts out the back door in his birthday suit. Thankfully Adam is out there inspecting the pool...

930am The boys come back inside. Nolin runs to the fridge & begs for a hot dog. When I tell him no, he proceeds to scale the shelves to get one himself. I finally convince him to settle for sausage & eggs.

10am Adam goes out to water the plants. Nolin freaks out cause Adam locks him inside. His shrieking wakes Mason up. Again.

1015am We sit down to color Granny a picture. He flips when I put the picture on the fridge afterwards.

1030am Nolin locks me in his room to make me pretend to go "night-night" just so he can pretend to scare me. Silly boy :)

1045am He gets in trouble for hitting the tv with a toy. In retaliation he stuffs his mouth with tissues, chokes & spews wet nasty tissue all over the living room.

11am He tackles a duck while sucking his thumb.

1115am Nolin decides that the dogs don't REALLY need water to survive & dumps it all over the kitchen floor. Then throws a tantrum because I put him in timeout.

1130am Apparently because I didn't let him play in the dog water, he decided to play in the toilet. Awesome.

12pm For lunch I give him the hot dog he wanted earlier. He proceeds to chew it up & spit it out. In piles. On the living room floor. Even the dogs won't eat it now so I crawl around & pick up the nasty piles of chewed food.

1230pm He's screaming for food. Yeah kid, that's what happens when you spit your food out instead if EATING it. Duh.

By the afternoon he had played outside, gone swimming & had a nap only to wake up & pull Mr Winky out to pee on the living room floor in pure joy...

That evening Adam, distracted by Nolin's antics, accidentally puts too much wood in the smoker so our chicken dinner was a tad too smokey. Which meant Nolin got his pizza for dinner <insert eye roll> Afterwards, I attempt to put a screaming 2yo in the shower with me (as is our normal routine) but he wants Gramma to join us. Well that's just awkward. Eventually he settles down & we get ready for bed. While he goes out to the living room to watch a movie with Adam & Gramma, I give Mason a bath who wants NO part of laying in his little tub. Instead, he stands up. For the entire bath. While Nolin runs in, slams the sink drawer into my back repeatedly & tries to toss bath toys at his brother. Eventually Gramma comes to the rescue after hearing the obscenities flowing...I had reached that point. I nurse Mason to sleep, wait for his sheets to dry so I can lay him down (all 3 were dirty from spit up), watch UP with Nolin until I finally just pulled him into bed with me at 11pm cause I'm exhausted & its clear he has NO concept of bedtime.

Welcome to a typical day in our house. And people wonder why I look like a ragged hag. Duh.

My Big Boy

Sometimes at night, after Nolin falls asleep, I still hold him like a baby & cry.

I cry because I'm exhausted.
I cry because his behavior sometimes frustrates me.
I cry because I'm ashamed of my harsh words.
I cry because I hope that when he wakes up he only remembers the good times we had yesterday & not the fights over food, juice vs water, no throwing, no spitting, no climbing on his brother, etc.
I cry because its just so darn cute the way he "sings" as he's falling asleep.
I cry because I can't believe my baby is almost too big to be held like this.
I cry because I'm SO proud of the new things he learns & accomplishes every day.
I cry because I know I won't get to hold him in my arms forever.
I cry because as hectic as life is now, I can't imagine it without him.
I cry because he's my dream come true.
I cry because I love him so...

Nolin, no matter how many times our strong wills clash, no matter how many times we fight & argue over stupid stuff, no matter how loud our screaming matches become...No matter how big you get, you will always be my baby. And my arms will always be here for you when you're tired. I love you big boy.


Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!