Recently

Happy Sunday!  The weekend is coming to a close, but hopefully y'all got to enjoy it.  In my most recent Thankful Thursday post I mentioned that I wanted to be more present here on the blog for the reminder of this month.   And what better way to do that than to share some of the recent things have been going down in the YUMMommy household?

Cooking

Recently, I roasted my first pumpkin. It was a mini pumpkin, but a pumpkin nevertheless.  We first got the mini pumpkin to use as Fall decor with plans to scoop out the seeds at some point.  However, the pumpkin ended falling into a pot of boiled water and the outside started to shrivel up.  Then, Moo got the awesome idea that we should just eat it.

So, after a week of bugging me about it, I finally cut it open, took out the seeds, sprinkled it with some sugar and roasted it in the oven.  We tried it and kind of liked it.  Plain pumpkin has almost an earthy taste to it in my opinion.  Most pumpkin food and drink items that I have tried are sweet (see here) and when I'm making my pumpkin pies, I usually purchase pumpkin filling from the store.

After eating half of the one of the sides, I decided to scoop the rest of roasted pumpkin into a ziploc bag to save until I could figure out what to make with it or until we were ready to roast our two bigger pumpkins and make a pie. Then I woke up Saturday morning craving biscuits and I decided why not make some pumpkin biscuits.  They turned out pretty nice.  I still need to tinker with the recipe a little bit to get the taste I want, but I'm happy with how my first batch turned out.

Daydreaming 

Last week, I chaperoned Moo's class field trip to The Hunter Farm and had a blast.  I'm from a small town aka the country aka backwoods SC.  My mom grew up on a farm, several of my great cousins have or have had farms and we used to live across from a farm here in the Queen City.  Yes, there are farms here in the QC!

When I was younger, I dreamed of owning a farm.  I love animals, nature and the comfort of having a country feel.  I could totally see myself collecting eggs, grooming horses and even milking a cow.  Since, seeing Gentle Bessie there at the farm, I've been daydreaming again about skipping the whole house hunting business and just buying some land on the outskirts of the city and building my dream farm. 

Moo is down with it too.  And I have no doubts that living on a farm would be a lovely adventure for JJ. However, my husband is very much a city man.  Chasing chickens and scooping cow poop is NOT on his radar.  He's not about that country life at all.  The horses might not be a big deal if he didn't have to clean the stables. 

Sampling

I've been a member of the House Party network/site for a few years now.  They recently launched Chatterbox, where you can pretty much sign up to review products and then share your opinions via social media.  A few weeks ago, I was selected to try out the new Bear Naked Layered Granola Bars.

I'm no stranger to the Bear Naked brand and was confident that the bars would be good.  And oh boy were they good!  The Fruit and Nutty flavor is hands down my favorite.  It's chewy, crunchy, sweet and salty.  Can't forget the chocolate.  Even though chocolate does a number on my skin, I still love it.

I ate the first box in two days while I was out on outings.  Moo and JJ are allergic to nuts so these will mostly like have to be kept in the car locked up in the glove box for me to enjoy when I'm riding solo.  I don't want to chance anybody climbing the pantry shelves to get one of these and ending up in the hospital.  Definitely, recommend these if you are into granola bars!

Reminding

Recently, I've been noticing that my little guy has just been going through a roller coaster of emotions.  He's not feeling his therapist and shows her the door pretty much immediately.  He's cranky and moody out of the blue.  And don't get me started on his stubbornness.  

'No' has become his all time favorite word aside from 'chip,' 'juice,' and 'Tom' (Thomas the Train).  For me all of these things are a bit frustrating.  It's not so much the fact that he's doing them, but more of the fact that I don't know the reasons why.  Then, it dawned on me that maybe he's getting frustrated because he can't fully express himself the way the he needs and wants to.

I had to remind myself that motherhood is not just about me.  It's mostly about my children actually.  Or at least it's supposed to be.  I hate the fact that I can't put myself in my son's shoes to better get a read on what's going on with him.  For so long, I've been used to him being so easygoing and chill with the exception of jumping off of couches and climbing on tables.

There was a post circulating on Facebook about a mom with a special needs son and she stated that she if had had a choice, she would have killed him.  That for me is such a disturbing statement, but also a heartbreaking one to know that this mom has fallen into such a rut of despair dealing with his special needs and disabled son that she no longer sees his life as being of value but just a burden.  I don't even want to end up feeling anywhere close to that about my son.

I've always believed that his being special needs was never a burden on me.  Is it tough, hard and unfortunate?  Yes. A burden? No.  Pregnancy and birthing babies comes with a lot risks.  This is why you have to truly prepare yourself for reality and not the rainbows they sell you on tv or in these magazines.  Thus, I'm committed to doing all that I can to help my little guy get back to his usually cheerful self.

Tears maybe shed, tantrums will undoubtedly be thrown, and JJ may never be able live on his own, but I'm in this motherhood game for the long haul no matter what challenges arrive.  At the end of the day it's important that both Moo and JJ know Mommy is ride or die for them.  There is no hopping off the wagon just because a few more bumps got thrown in the road.

Preparing

Moo's birthday and Christmas are right around the corner pretty much.  And I'm getting prepared.  No waiting until the last minute.  Gift shopping and wrapping has commenced.  We were all set to throw Moo a party this year with a Strawberry Shortcake theme and some of her school friends, but she has changed her mind.  We just could our first American Girl store and she has requested that we spend the day there sans friends.

I was bummed at first, but not anymore.  Moo has always been about family and keeping it simple on her birthday.  I'm honored that she wants to spend her special day with just us.  Besides, I have plenty more years to come for birthday parties, God willing.

So, what have you been doing recently?