Easy Breakfast Skillet

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe, and this one was too good to pass. It's great because it only requires one dish (a skillet, duh) and tastes awesome. It's also highly versatile, so feel free to throw in different veggies or meats (or take out the meat entirely to make this vegetarian friendly). This recipe yields two servings.

Ingredients

• 3 small bell peppers (red, orange, and yellow) or one large bell pepper (any color)
• 2 red potatoes
• 2 slices of turkey
• 1/4 of a Vidalia onion
• 1/3 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
• Spices: thyme, pepper, and salt

Directions

Dice all of your ingredients.

Add the coconut oil to your skillet and heat it up, then add your potatoes. Sprinkle with thyme, pepper, and salt to taste. 

Brown the potatoes over medium high heat, then add your remaining ingredients. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper if so desired.

Reduce heat to medium, and continue cooking until the turkey browns and the veggies get soft. Add half the mix to a small plate. My husband also wanted scrambled eggs, so I added his half to a larger plate to accommodate the extra food. Sprinkle each plate with half your cheddar cheese. 

Hubs used the same skillet to make his scrambled eggs. He used 4 eggs and added some salsa and mozzarella. 

Truncated Directions

1. Dice all ingredients
2. Brown potatoes, add spices to taste
3. Add remaining ingredients, add more spices if desired. Continue cooking until turkey is browned and veggies are soft. 
4. Plate and sprinkle with cheddar

Nutrition Information

	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Sodium	Fiber	Sugar	Protein
Bell Peppers	60	0	8	0	1.6	8	2
Red Potatoes	220	0	52	0	4	2	6
Turkey	60	4	0	420	0	2	8
Onion	16	0	4	2	0.8	0	0
Cheddar	110	9	0	180	0	0	7
Coconut Oil	60	7	0	0	0	0	0
Total	526	20	64	602	6.4	12	23
Total per serving	263	10	32	301	3.2	6	11.5

6 Months Old: Sitting up Like a Boss

Baby girl turned 6 months old on Thursday! We've tried some solids and she scarfs them down. My squee pig pig. It certainly makes for some interesting diapers (more on that below).

Around 5.5 months, baby E started rolling over from back to front. She's been doing front to back rolls since she was 5.5 weeks old (hmmm 5.5 theme going on here), but back to front is a lot harder for babies.

She also sits up without support now! She's been doing that for about a week :) She is so much happier now that she can sit up and play with her toys.

Baby girls weighs about 18 pounds. That puts her in the 82nd percentile for weight. So chubbers. I love me a chunky baby ^_^ She also did some serious growing length wise, but I haven't been able to measure that yet (a wiggly baby is also an uncooperative baby).

Beach Babe

Baby girl had her first trip to the beach last week :) She didn't seem too thrilled with the ocean, but she greatly enjoyed splashing in her baby pool. She did great on the beach though. She loves to people watch (who doesn't?) and was content to hang out in her bouncy chair with her new favorite toy: an empty water bottle. Hahaha.

Hanging out in the baby pool with grandpa

Learning to drive at the OBX.

We found some hilarious sunglasses.

We climbed the dunes (I love my ErgoBaby carrier).

Little shade roof  for the sweaty baby.

My mom and dad were on vacation too, so they helped us with baby girl. The hubs and I got to go on a couple of baby-free dates, which was awesome :D We also ran into a teacher both hubs and I had in high school. Such a small world.

And now for some new mom survival tips.

More New Mom Survival Tips

1. You will lose all the hairs. 

All of them. It started to happen to me around 4 months post partum and has just started to slow down a bit. Now I have a billion little tiny baby hairs growing in their place.I have a weird frizzy halo all around my scalp. So strange looking. Oh well. Try not to panic, you aren't balding.

2. Starting solids means disgusting diapers. 

My daughter was EBF until we started letting her try solids. Within a matter of days her poops began reflecting this change in diet. Breastfed babies tend to have yellow, mustardy poops. They don't have as foul of an odor as regular poop and it's way easier to clean.

Now with the solids we have epic blow outs and baby clothes soaking in the sink to avoid horrendous yellow stains. She also grunts when pooping since it's much more solid now. It's kind of hilarious to look over at my baby and see her get this serious look of concentration and then suddenly let out a weird grunt. It's probably not as funny for her though since her digestive system is getting used to solids.

Regardless, brace yourself. Gross poop is coming.

I-I-I I Workout

Hubs got super into lifting while deployed, so naturally he wants to make me do it too haha. Basically, I'm super weak sauce. My max bench press is 70lbs and my max deadlift is 120lbs. At least I can deadlift more than my weight?

Anyway, we ultimately ended up doing leg day. I just used the bar for this (45 pounds) because I can't figure out the hang clean thing to save my life hahaha. Hubs didn't want to add more weight until I can figure that out.

5 sets of 5 front squats with 10 burpees in between each set

Repeat 3X (first round I held a 22 lb weight, then dropped to an 11lb weight for the last two):
30 lunges (15 each leg)
15 sumo squats
25 tuck jumps

2mile run

That workout took about 46 minutes and burned 506 calories, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. My legs were a wee bit dead

Hold Your Babies, Mamas

The last week has been filled with heartbreak. A family friend recently lost their baby; he was about a year and a half old. I only know this family by name, but being a mother is a bond that reaches through space and time.

I cannot imaging losing a child, losing my baby. I have wept for this family more times than I can count. I prayed and I screamed and I sobbed for this family.

If there is one thing I learned from this tragedy, it is to truly cherish every moment I have with my daughter. Tomorrow is not gaurenteed. I have heard people say to not coddle my baby, to not rock her to sleep--that I'm spoiling her if I do.

I never paid those people much mind--she is my child, not theirs, after all--but now more than ever, I will rock her to sleep. I will cradle her face and soak in as much of her as I can.

My heart hurts so badly for this family. I cannot bear to think about it. So I write instead.

Mama

My body aches for you mama
I clutch my little one to my chest
and I cry into her hair
for as long as she will let me

My heart has screamed for you
because this is bitter and wrong
A mother should never have to bury a child
A mother should never have to bear that kind of parting

Each night that I rock my child to sleep
I imagine the last time you put yours to bed
Not knowing it was really the last time
Not knowing that goodnight would become goodbye

I wonder what color his pajamas were
and if they were his favorite
I wonder what he thought about
and if his hair still smelled like shampoo

I do not know you, mama, we have never met
But this weight in my chest is agony
There is sorrow that burns beneath my ribs
I do not know you mama, but we are bound by name

We are mama
We are the name screamed in the night
to wipe away tears and soothe bad dreams
I can't imagine the nightmare you wake to each day

---

Please help this family if you can.

5 Months Old: Meeting Daddy

DADDY IS HOME :D Our little family is finally whole.

Baby E got to meet her daddy for the first time July 15th. I had a photographer come out to capture his homecoming, and I am so glad I did. We got some excellent pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Baby girl loves her daddy ^_^ I was worried she would be scared of him, but I played recordings of him reading books to her. Knowing his voice helped ease transition immensely. 

Having the hubinator home is such a relief. Major props to single moms, I have no idea how they raise children alone. Caring for baby girl on my own was one of the more difficult things I've had to do in life (I'm pretty sure childbirth wins that title haha). Traveling back home frequently helped since I had my parents' help, but it's not the same as having my husband home. 

Our homecoming wasn't quite what I thought it would be. There were tons of wives, children, and family members waiting for the men to be released, so there was a lot of nervous tension. Baby girl, our photographer, and I showed up around 1530. The guys were supposed to be released around 1600, which I knew would not happen. Not nearly enough "hurry up and wait". They ultimately got released around 1700. 

This massive flood of men collided into a wall of ecstatic women and children, and all the while I'm searching for my husband. Eventually, most of the families reunited and started dispersing to go home. Hubs wasn't there. I cannot explain the complete adrenaline crash that followed this realization. I went back and checked my phone. Sure enough, I had a message saying he couldn't go with the main group and he would be another 15 minutes. 

Suuuuuuuuuuure, haha. 

I felt kind of bad for the photographer. Some of my husbands' friends found me well before he was released. As they would walk up to say hi, I could feel the question of, "Is that him?" That happened about three times. 

It worked out in the end though. Since practically everybody was gone, there aren't a bunch of random strangers in our photos :) Plus, some of our friends got the hubs' gear together for us and put it by the car since he was so delayed, so that saved us some work. 

It's been so amazing to watch the hubs with our daughter. He is so fascinated by everything she does. I love watching him interact with her and talk with her. 

Speaking of little miss, she is 5 months old today! And she is gigantic. I know I say that all the time, but she is. She barely fits in 6 month clothes and is mostly in 9 month clothes now. It all depends on the brand of course. As of the 24th, she weighed 16.8 pounds. Thankfully, most baby clothing brands give a weight range so I can just go off of that rather than what month-size they claim the outfit is. 

I swear she normally is a very smiley baby. She gives me dead face when she sees my phone.
I have to sneak the pictures now to capture a smile.

Look at how much bigger she is!

Baby girl has reached some new mile stones. She's been babbling for months, but now she says mama! She obviously has no idea what mama means, but she says it all the time :) She is also so close to being able to sit up unassisted. She can do it for 5 seconds or so, but ends up keeling over to one side eventually. She's also working on her crawling skills. She's no where near actual crawling yet, but she turns herself around in circles and can push herself backwards.

She also greatly enjoys her walker. I know the powers that be recommend against using them, but whatever. My house has no stairs and I'm watching her anytime she is in it. Plus, she loves to motor around. For awhile she could only push herself backward, but she's figured out forward movement now :)

She also likes to chuck all of her toys as she scoots around and then is highly confused as to where they all went.

The toy graveyard

Growing up, my brother and I each had a child-sized rocking chair that our granddad got us. Dad repainted mine and bought a tiny toy one. He painted it to match for baby girl to use for dolls and such when she gets older.

It is currently the perfect size for her.

Look at the bad mambajamba lookin' so fly. 

We also have a nimble nook pack n' play now. I call it baby jail hahaha. She seems to like it well enough.

Now that I am five months post partum, I feel pretty much back to myself physically. Of course, I'm not nearly as strong as I once was and my lungs are no where near their past capacity. I frequently forget this though.

Bearing that in mind, I did this workout today:

30 sit ups
21 Burpees
21 Dumbbell (DB) swings
30 sit ups
18 Burpees
18 DB swings
30 sit ups
15 Burpees
15 DB swings
30 sit ups
12 Burpees
12 DB swings
30 sit ups
9 Burpees
9 DB swings
30 sit ups
6 Burpees
6 DB swings
30 sit ups
3 Burpees
3 DB swings

I've done it before pre-baby and it took me about 15 minutes. So there I was thinking I would do this workout then go for a run.

27 minutes later, I was finished haha. It is deceptively difficult. Then again, there is a reason nobody likes burpees. 

4 Months Old: When Life Gives You Lemons

Baby E is a big, four month old baby today! As of yesterday, she weighed 15 pounds and 10 ounces. What a biggin'. She has figured out I must be doing something when I pull out my phone to take a picture of her because she just blankly stares at it now. She absolutely refuses to smile if she sees my phone pointed at her. What a stinker. Also, her big toes nails are painted red hehehe.

Here hair is getting a lot lighter.

Here are our other attempts at a 4 month picture.

Thinking hard about this smiling thing.

Trying to eat the hand.

Not even gonna try to be helpful.

For the last few weeks, baby E has been a teething fool. She drools constantly, bites everything, and gets a serious case of the grumps in the evenings. Gripe water seems to help though.

It's been a rather trying month. Baby girl tested positive for MRSA. She doesn't have an infection or anything, she's just been colonized. I had to swipe some goo inside her nose for 5 days to get rid of it, and it was pretty awful. She absolutely hated it and screamed the entire time. Thank god that nonsense is over. She also has eczema, so I have to slather her up in industrial strength moisturizer. It seems to be getting better.

My knees have been killing me and I finally got an MRI done. My doctor though it was a meniscal injury, but it turns out I have fluid build up. They suggested physical therapy, but when exactly am I supposed to do that? Work, schweet babe, and flying solo do not add up to free time to go to physical therapy.

I also had a freckle on my face biopsied . It showed up under my eye last summer and started to darken and grow this summer. The results came back as a moderately abnormal, precancerous mole. It's also much larger and deeper than they originally thought as well.

Apparently it's a bigger deal than I thought because the dermatologist wants it taken care of as soon as possible. I asked if it could wait until after summer since we have a lot coming up in the next month, but she said absolutely not. She says it's an issue because of how quickly it started to change after showing up on my face. Then she dropped the word "Melanoma" casually in conversation.

I now have to go see a plastic surgeon who specializes in surgery near the eye. As the dermatologist put it, "The scar shouldn't be bigger than a centimeter." Last time I checked, a centimeter long scar is frigging huge when it's on your face. I'm really not thrilled about it, but it's better than leaving it and having it turn into melanoma. Blah.

And lastly, I had my post partum pap come back "unsatisfactory," so I have to get it done again. Because that is every woman's favorite thing to do.

Oh, and I can't take baby girl to any of these appointments. No babies allowed, they say. We live to make your life more difficult, they say.

Basically, life decided to upend a box of lemons on me. I found this picture on the interwebz, and it sums up how I feel about it:

However, it's not all griping and moaning. Baby E does some super adorable stuff now. The best things she does by far are blow rasberries and giggle when tickled. She wasn't ticklish up until a week or so ago. Baby giggles = endless entertainment.

In an abrupt shift in focus, I found some quality old photos. Well, actually, my parents unearthed them from the depths of our sunroom, but whatevs. They're awesome.

See? My baby looks like me too, dagnabbit.
Also, dad is big cheesin'

This is my first cat, Kitty Boos. Look how big his head is. I'm 5 in this picture. 

For some reason I wanted all of those barrettes in my hair.
Also, look at dem curls.

Guitar cat.

There are a ton of other pictures, but my mom said she would scan them so they're better quality. These are just pictures I took of the originals with my phone, so they're kind of funny looking.

Fitness, fitness, fitness time. I was chatting with an old friend in the last week or so, and I realized I haven't posted any workouts in awhile.

I got an interval timer for Christmas this year, and I am getting a lot of use out of it. Here is a 30 minute leg and core workout I did the other day (use weights for a bigger challenge).

Legs: 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

squats
forward lunge - left
goblet squats
forward lunge - right
squat pulses
side lunge - left
curtsy squat - left
side lunge -right
curtsy squat - right
reverse lunge + kick - left
sumo squat
reverse lunge + kick - right
curtsy squat pulse - left
forward lunge pulse - left
curtsy squat pulse - right
forward lunge pulse - right
plie squats
lunge jumps
squat jumps
alternating side lunges

Core: 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest (repeat 2x)
scissor kicks
Russian twists

jack knives

plank hand taps

reverse crunches

I also went to a friend's baby shower recently (due in a couple of weeks!!). I got her some diapering and baby bath supplies, made her a diaper cake, and knitted her a baby blanket. Love me some baby blankies.

Having a sewing machine makes putting borders on blankets sooooo much easier. No more sewing them on by hand, woo!