Sad Days

So the last few days have been rather sad. Sad for Sadie because she's trying to cut a second tooth right next to her first one and it's making her very unhappy. And sad for me because I'm adjusting yet again to single-motherhood while Sadie is trying to cut a second tooth. It has made for a couple of really exhausting days! Sadie demands my constant attention from about 4-7 every evening and intermittently throughout the day when she becomes quite fussy. At these times nothing seems to pacify her. Today she got up early from her nap and within an hour was fussing and unhappy again. I laid her down thinking she might be tired again and she fussed awhile in her bed and then got quiet. She never did sleep, but a half hour later she was babbling to herself again so I went in to get her and as soon as I took her out of bed she started staring at the deer head on the wall, smiling and laughing at it. I held her up to it to see what she would do and she banged on its nose and poked at its nostril, thinking it was a fun new toy. I would have taken it off the wall and let her play with it all day if it made her that happy. :) The smiles didn't last long though and before we knew it I had exhausted yet again every possible trick. So I laid her on the floor and laid down next to her, more because I was so tired then anything. She continued to fuss and I got a tickle in my throat so I coughed and she thought that was hilarious. So we spent several minutes laughing at each other because I would cough or bark at her and she would giggle back. Here she is laughing at my barking.

I love her smiles and giggles! The other thing that seems to make her happy is going outside during her fussy time. Yesterday we went out and she started laughing and getting very excited when she saw Shelby. We spent a few minutes chasing Shelby around the yard and Sadie thought that was a lot of fun too. She watched Shelby's every move while we were out there. Unfortunately we have the worst summer of mosquito population since I can't remember when, so having fun outside doesn't last long. Bummer since that's where she's happiest.

Sadie has moved on to sweet potatoes today. It's fun to introduce her to new foods and see her reaction. She did really well with them and still thinks eating is so fun. She thinks she's pretty big stuff getting to eat grown up food. Now that she's eating solids, I've started researching and trying to convert our eating and cooking over to organic. I've been doing a lot of research on prices and how to get things as inexpensively as possible. We have a really neat whole foods store here that I think is owned by christian people and I can get bulk through them pretty cheap for my dry goods. So I got some flour and a few other things the other day and made my first loaf of 100% whole wheat organic bread. They're not the prettiest things but they sure tasted good. Here they are, freshly out of the oven.

And this is the inside. I had just sliced off a steaming, warm, fresh slice to eat and the butter was already melting on it. Mmmmmmmm good! Nothing beats the taste of homemade warm bread and I was very pleased that my 100% whole wheat loaf turned out. I can't even find 100% whole wheat bread in the store, it's all got bleached or enriched white flour too with lots of other additives. I figured my loaf cost me less than a dollar to make at home and it's organic.

I've been keeping my mind occupied by researching healthier recipes and trying to figure out how to be healthy and organic economically. It would sure help if I had a garden this year. Well that's next year's goal for sure! So today I made my bread and finally got around to making yogurt. All while tending to a rather fussy baby all day. It got interesting juggling all that at times, but I'm very pleased with the outcome and I still have my sanity at the end of the day. Though my body is tired and achy from scrubbing floors this morning and kneading dough for 20 minutes. Talk about a work out! I might have to put a bread maching on my list for Santa this year. :) If any of you have some yummy tasting whole food healthy recipes, please pass them on. I'm trying to put a list of recipes together that I can rotate through and then I can put meal plans together so I don't always have to wonder what I'm going to make. I've gotten a lot of help from hillbillyhousewife.com for economical ideas. Now I just need to add to it.