Party Planning

A few weeks ago, I knew my mother-in-law's 60th birthday was coming up and I wanted to do something special for both her and my father-in-law who turned 60 about a month earlier. As I pondered it, I thought a birthday party would be nice, because Marilyn often does this for us and we have rarely, if ever returned the favor. Hence, I decided this year we would throw them a big party for a big birthday :-) I'm not really a big party organizer, but I decided to give it a shot. And as it turns out, my extended 3 AM use of Pinterest came in quite handy, since party decor and food are a common theme on that site.

As with many of my good ideas, the bulk of it came to me all at once, and got planned out in my head in about in hour. Then I wrote everything down in my favorite recording place: the lowly steno pad. So good for so many things! Luckily, I had two lovely friends to help me put all my plans into action :-)

For the non-food aspect of the party (which is how I see most things: food-related and non-food-related), we had a number of things.

• We had a great Pandora playlist going of 50s and 60s country based on the likes of Gene Autry and co (Jay's favorite style of music)
• Our 7-year-old friend Josie made a fantastic poster with a giant 60 for people to sign. 
• Some friends made a great poster with pop culture from the years Jay and Marilyn were in high school
• Notebooks with kind thoughts from both of their workplaces
• A poster of sayings from Jay's hometown, Pigeon, MI. (Examples: "You ain't wrong." "You're just a dog, you don't have a face." "It's awful flat outside.") No one else knows what they mean, but Jay thinks they're hilarious. 

For sustenance, we had the following: 

• a ham set out for people to cut slices and make sandwiches with
• cream cheese carved into the shape of a 60 and covered with jalapeno jelly, to eat with crackers (great appetizer that Marilyn loves) 
• spiced nuts
• olives
• soft pretzel bites and cheese dip, cinnamon cream cheese dip, and mustard
• cups with veggies and dill dip
• Tex-Mex popcorn and Tuscan popcorn (Jay's Sunday night meal)
• Dove chocolates (Marilyn's favorite)
• German Chocolate jumbo cupcakes (for Jay)
• Carrot cake jumbo cupcakes (for Marilyn) 

While this may not have been the most elegant combination of food, I knew it was things they would like, and they did! It was great fun. While the party wasn't a surprise, the guest list, displays, and food were a surprise, so that was fun. A good time was had by all. 

Thankfully, the cupcakes were over really well, so I will share their yumminess with you now. :-) 

As is my new obsession, they were jumbo cupcakes, just for the joy of a big cupcake! My favorites were the carrot cake ones. (I probably liked those better because I forgot to add the vanilla in the German Chocolate ones! :-)) I chose this recipe because a reviewer said they tried 5 different carrot cake recipes for a wedding and this was their favorite :-) It has pineapple in it, which keeps it nice and moist. And my decision to add caramel drizzled over the top of the cream cheese frosting was not the wrong decision :-) As usual, the recipe came from Allrecipes.com.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Yield: 12 jumbo cupcakes

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose 
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour jumbo muffin tins
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well.
4. In a medium bowl, combine shredded carrots, coconut, and pineapple.
5. Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.
6. Fill muffin tins about 1/2 full, dividing batter evenly between all 12 cups. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour. Check with toothpick.

Frosting: 

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 t. almond extract

1 t. vanilla

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1. Mix all ingredients together with a hand mixer. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes. 

Topping: 

3/4 c. chopped pecans

Caramel sauce, drizzled over the top. 

1. Drizzle frosted cupcakes with 1-2 t. caramel sauce. Sprinkle 1 T. chopped pecans on top. 

Things I Learned on Maternity Leave

As I near the end of my 9 weeks at home on maternity leave (or in today's lingo, FMLA, for Family Medical Leave Act), I have finally had a few moments to reflect on things. More accurately, Pax has finally begun 1) sleeping longer at night, 2) taking naps and 3) taking naps that last longer than 10 minutes. Since I am more rested, I, being the terrible nap-taker that I am, have been thinking while I should be napping. These things that I've learned on maternity leave are what I was thinking about yesterday.

1) The baby is in charge. Period. If he wants to eat, end of story. Whatever I'm doing (for instance, eating breakfast) is officially over and/or paused until an unknown time. This morning my cereal sat on the counter until 10:30. If he has a poopy diaper, it needs to get changed, 5 seconds ago, unless I enjoy prolonged crying in my ear. If he is in a smiley, cooing mood, everything stops for that as well, because who could resist trying to keep this face around longer?

2) Get comfy pajamas. E. ssential. The first couple weeks after bring the little guy home, a person moves slowly, and the comfier you are, the better. I had a pair of the lightest, softest black pajama pants loaned to me that I wore for the last trimester of pregnancy and the 6 weeks after the baby was born. I was loathe to give them up...

3) On the other hand, never underestimate the power of a shower or fresh air. I am a shower person. I ALWAYS shower every day. First thing in the morning. So, when I got to take a shower the day after Pax was born, it was amazing. I finally felt like I could emerge from this crazy experience and rejoin the world again. Then, after staying in the house for so long and camping out with the baby, getting in the shower and cleaning off the dust that has been sitting around your house for a month along with you feels amazing. So does getting out and realizing that the world has changed to an entirely different season while you were dedicating most of your day to nourishing another human being. Exercise does a body good. It does a body even more good if Grandma can watch the baby while you get your exercise :-), though the sling is an effective back-up.

4) Let people help you. As I learned how to take on an entirely new role in life, it was immensely helpful to have friends and church family bring us meals. It meant we could sit around in the evenings and stare at this amazing new person in our lives! When my parents were here and I developed mastitis, my mom "took control" in her words, and made let me stay on the couch all day feeling sick. I haven't had that in ages! How fantastic :-D Having a mother-in-law come and fold my laundry (as much as I hated to let her do it), was a huge blessing too. As it turns out, it's awfully difficult to fold a T-shirt with one hand :-) If someone offers to do something for you, protest once for your dignity's sake, and then accept.

5) If something isn't right, get help. Generally, my "seek medical attention" philosophy is Wait a few days and see if it gets better on its own. This worked nearly 100% of the time previously, (but it sure helped to have a Nurse Practitioner mother who could confirm that there was nothing to worry about). My other medical philosophy is "Walk it off and/or Suck it up." Needless to say, I don't go to the doctor often. However, before the baby was born, through our Bradley classes and a book I'd read on breastfeeding, I knew within 5 days after Pax was born that something was not right, because I was in pain. The nurses at the hospital, my obstetrician, and a lactation consultant all told me that nothing was wrong, I just had to get used to the feeling. However, a wonderful person at church who has done a lot of work with LLL, convinced me that it shouldn't be that way, and so I kept looking elsewhere. Finally, I found a lactation consultant and a subsequent pediatrician who confirmed that something was wrong. The baby wasn't getting enough to eat because of the bit of skin under his tongue was too short. A simple 5 minute procedure took care of it, and he started gaining weight like nobody's business. Without  prodding from someone to get help, I never would have known this! So again, get help if something doesn't seem right. You've got time; do it.

And those are some of the things I learned while learning to be Momma, which as it turns out, can be a really enjoyable job  :-)

[This accidentally didn't get posted until now. Oops! We'll call it Mommy brain :-)]