Oh wow were these a hit! Both of my sons and [Keith] loved these delicious pancakes!

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 3 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP baking powder
• 1 TSP cinnamon
• 1 TSP salt (I use kosher salt)
• 3 C milk
• 1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas
• 6 TBSP melted butter
• 3 large eggs

Directions

Stir/whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt). In a separate bowl stir/whisk the milk, banana, melted butter, and eggs. Gently pour the wet bowl into the dry, and stir JUST until there’s no obvious chunks of flour. You want lumps, lumps equal pancake perfection.

Grease a skillet or griddle (I used butter yum) and heat over medium heat (approx 300 degrees on a griddle): pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook the pancakes about 3-4 minutes per side, I use a timer. You want these to be golden brown, not pale or burnt.

I topped with butter, [Keith] put peanut butter on some of his, Tristan preferred to just cram them in his mouth (baby led eating at its finest lol), and Daniel liked maple syrup (the real stuff of course!).

Try these out and let me know how you enjoy them!

Other Participants

Make sure to comment after submitting your link!

At first I couldn’t think of WHAT to write. [Keith] hasn’t done anything to upset me, in fact he majorly cleaned and mopped the kitchen all day yesterday! Then early this morning I made the unwise decision to check my phone for any new messages or emails.

Now most of you know I have a fragile relationship with my family. I don’t have ANY relationship with my mother, a limited one with my brother, and an on/off again one with my twin sister.

This particular post is about an interaction with my twin sister.

My sister has two babysitters. A female babysitter and a male babysitter. The male babysitter watchers her daughter on Fridays. This pertains to the story.

A month or so ago she asked if I could babysit her toddler daughter on the 23rd of this month. I agreed. Plans changed and she no longer needed me to babysit. Ok not a problem.

This morning I get a text message “reminding” me that she had a doctors appointment on Friday. I wasn’t sure why I was being reminded so I sent back a quick “ok?” hoping she would explain why I needed this information.

She TOLD me I was on babysitter duty. Not asked. Never made solid prior plans. TOLD me.

See I have a huge issue with this. Being a SAHM does NOT equal automatic babysitter just because I’m “at home all day”.

The paraphrased convo gleaned from the actual texts:

Now see this is where I start to get a bit upset. She has not only TOLD me I will be watching her child, but insulted me, ignored what I said, didn’t say if the male babysitter cancelled or if she told him not to watch her this particular day, but then to insinuate she has babysat for me?

Granted, she had my son while I was in labor with the baby and kept him at her apartment while I was in the hospital recovering from the 2nd c-section. She also (a few years ago) had him spend one night at her apartment. She also has invited him to go with her to her future MIL’s place for a vacation. I don’t see how ANY of that compares to the current situation.

In the conversation she proceeded to tell me that I was causing drama with her because I don’t want to watch her daughter. That I will drop out of her wedding (not sure how that came up), that I hate my family, that I was verbally slamming her, oh and this classic line:

“How do you expect me to keep forgiving you for always bailing?”

Oh. No. She. Didn’t.

I literally stopped responding after that awful passive aggressive provoking from her.

Now normally I don’t post much about my family because it just hurts for the most part but I needed to vent!

How the heck does one even RESPOND to a situation like this? Was I wrong for not being a doormat and just accepting my apparent SAHM babysitter fate? Or was she wrong in TELLING me I was babysitting without prior discussion and then putting me down?

So for those of you with not so good relationships with your sister, brother, mother, father, whomever it is, PLEASE share in the comments something that made YOU go “Oh No {S}he Didn’t!”!

Since I was 15yrs old, I’ve always lived in apartments.

Last year I was laid up on bedrest for practically an entire year (the pregnancy & cesarean section recovery), so I wasn’t really able to do much of anything.

This year [Keith] and I decided to work on the yard (it’s been neglected) and try our hands at a small herb/fruit/vegetable garden! He built a garden box with Daniel for me which is even more awesome!

I have a little basil patch and strawberry patch going on. I planted:

• 4 – basil
• 10 – strawberry
• 1 – thyme
• 1 – oregano
• 2 – cilantro
• 1 – lavender
• 2 – red bell pepper
• 1 – jalapeno pepper
• 1 – pink brandywine tomato
• 1 – cherry tomato
• 1 – spring peas
• 1 – zucchini

It’s hard too, I would LOVE to go crazy and take a HUGE part of the front AND back yards and turn them into a producing garden!

The only experience I have gardening is growing herbs in a pot, so this will be interesting to watch! Hopefully everything will produce abundantly! I would of course, appreciate ANY hints/tips/suggestions. As it is, I am fighting with my emotions towards the backyard which is 90% covered in confederate violets.

So here’s a bunch of random photos of what’s in our yard!

Lastly, I would appreciate any help in identifying this plant! [Keith] thinks it may be a wild raspberry plant.

I must be doing something right because I’ve had three amazing blogs nominate me for the Honest Scrap and Beautiful Blogger Awards!

So a big thank you to Alexandra, Mommy D, and Michelle!

Basically each award asks me to share random facts about myself. In the case of HonestScrap, 10 facts and with Beautiful Blogger Award, 7 facts (of which I was nominated twice), so that’s 24 random bits of information. Some are serious, some are not so serious.

24 Random Facts

• 1. I was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day while my oldest son was living with his bio-father (I wasn’t handling it very well). I quit cold turkey the day I found out I was pregnant with the baby at 3 1/2wks gestation.
• 2. I had a whirlwind relationship with Keith. Met at work. Had one fateful night. Moved in about 3 weeks later. Became pregnant with the baby 2 1/2 months after that! Been almost two years and still going strong. Fate!
• 3. I have a tendency to be very cluttered however I LOVE the “idea” of being super organized. Perhaps because organized people use cute folders and containers.
• 4. I love cookbooks but rarely (if ever) use a recipe. I usually come up with my own.
• 5. I don’t know who I am most of the time. I went from being raised in a very physically/emotionally abusive household to a VERY abusive partner (Daniel’s bio-father) to being a single working mom for 6 years to being a SAHM to two boys. It’s confusing sometimes.
• 6. Even though I find no issue MAKING friends and I can be very social, I have hardly any friends locally. Part of it is the majority sort of “dumped” me when I became pregnant with DS2 and part of it (for making new friends) is that it’s hard to find mommy friends that I can get along with.
• 7. I haven’t spoken to or had any contact with my mother since December. Life is a lot more peaceful because of that.
• 8. I am VERY intelligent. No seriously. I also get told often that I am “well-spoken”. Even MORE often I am told “you are good with your words”. I’ve also had people become irate with me, “just because you use and understand big words just makes me confused”. Sweet.
• 9. I can not stand chocolate or most “sweet” or “snack” foods. For desserts I like only vanilla ice cream and apple pie.
• 10. I struggle with being nocturnal and insomnia. I have the worst time turning off my “thoughts” if you will, long enough to sleep.
• 11. I am highly judgmental when it comes to other blogs. CAPTCHA makes me scream. Partial RSS feeds make me angry and unsubscribe.
• 12. I tend to go above and beyond for people (especially online). I have to be careful that I’m not taken advantage of sometimes.
• 13. I really do not like peanut butter.
• 14. I am somehow unable to grasp the idea of a “playdate”.
• 15. I am completely self-taught when it comes to photography, CSS, XHTML, design, etc. I find it very easy and it “clicks” in my head.
• 16. I have one tattoo. It’s “Imagine” surrounded by stars on the back of my neck. I can’t remember the last time I saw it lol. I want more, just not sure of what! I also have my tongue pierced.
• 17. I tend to have an addictive personality. I have to be very careful around alcohol.
• 18. Deep down I would love to be the typical 50′s housewife. However I just barely manage to feed/entertain/keep the kids clean on a daily basis, much less anything else.
• 19. I really REALLY want an Ergo or Mei Tai. Baby is getting too big for his Moby (it will sag) and I can only do so much with the ring sling. I want to be able to do a back carry so I can be more productive when outside.
• 20. I have very strong convictions in how we parent. Breastfeeding until child self-weans, baby-led eating, no vaccinations, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, babywearing, unschooling, etc.
• 21. I love to read. I just never have the time to do so or I have problems finding a series to pick up. I wouldn’t mind book suggestions that’s for sure.
• 22. I really would love to have 1,000 RSS subscribers and 1,000 twitter followers this year. I like the idea that I am connecting with a lot of people.
• 23. If we could afford to, we would most likely pick up and travel the US or get a home in the country.
• 24. I long for perfect suburbia grass however our yard is COVERED in confederate violets.

The awards also want me to pass them on to other bloggers so I would love it if YOU also did this on your blog! I seem to be totally unable to just select a few people.

Thanks to the suggestion from Kristi here’s a photo post of pretty spring flowers!

I’ve never really had a positive thought about my body until AFTER I had my first son. Oh and I need to lose 100lbs.

Growing up my mother was always yo-yo dieting and when I hit puberty (ugh joy) and gained some weight, I was right away told I was getting “fat” and that I needed to restrict my eating.

Bring forth highschool where I worked for Baskin Robbins and Taco Bell (at the same time) where I had access at no cost a TON of junk food. Also in our high school there were pop and snack machines everywhere so I used to drink a can of coke in EVERY class to keep myself awake.

At this time I knew I was a bit overweight but still had pretty high self-esteem. I felt pretty most of the time, had no problem socializing, and really didn’t think about my weight much if at all.

Fast forward a bit to when I was with Daniel’s biological “father” and all he and his family drank was pop (his VERY diabetic mother as well) so since I liked pop well enough, even though we never really had it IN the home, I picked up that habit REAL quick.

I then became pregnant with my oldest son. When he was just barely a year old I found out his biological “father” had been involved with one or more sexual relationships outside of OUR relationship (we were engaged). I would wonder if I wasn’t thin enough, pretty enough, GOOD enough. Once I kicked him out, within 5 months I lost around 80lbs, naturally. No diet, no restrictions. I felt FANTASTIC. I was healing emotionally and seeing myself as being gorgeous.

A little bit less than a year later I permitted him to move back in with me and regained all of that weight within 4 months PLUS some. I even joke today that he made me fat.

Let’s skip past when that relationship died (thank god right!) and when I dropped 40lbs and met my life partner Keith. By this time, even with my scary stretch marks, my sagging breasts, my c-section scar, and my fatness, and had fairly normal self-esteem.

I then became pregnant with my baby son. Put on bedrest for pretty much the entire pregnancy. Ended up with another awful c-section.

During the pregnancy where I gained NO weight (had hyperemesis from week 4 through the birth), where I was told by family, by the medical professionals, that I was FAT. I needed to NOT EAT SO MUCH, (um remember… hyperemesis? Not eating was NOT a problem). I was told I needed a repeat c-section because I was FAT. Yep super valid reason there right.

Due to that emotional (and physical) trauma, I feel just awful about my body. Granted it doesn’t LOOK any different really. A bit bigger from the weight I gained AFTER the pregnancy.

I look at my belly that contains two scars on it’s uterus and covered in stretch marks and I am torn between being amazed that it housed two amazing little boys and feeling angry that I am told often by society that I am not worth much, that I am “ugly” because I’m not thin.

Going from being overweight in highschool and NEVER having that be an issue to being an adult and seeing all the media thrown at our children by society… it hurts me.

So how do I cope? I eat right, (most of the time anyway), I quit Weight Watchers, I talk about my issues about my body to my boyfriend, and realized that I need to start LIKING myself the way I am now. I may never think my stretch marks are beautiful or feel special when the baby is pinching my fat rolls while giggling hysterically, yet I like to think I have some redeeming qualities somewhere!

Of course, I wouldn’t mind losing that 100lbs either.

Other participants:
Please comment after leaving your link!

Recently I stopped by my good friend’s place to hang out for a bit and naturally I brought along Tristan, my 6 month old son who (of course) is breastfed.

Overall the visit was fine but there was some moments that made me feel uncomfortable. She has an almost 19yr old son who was in the living room with us and naturally the baby (since it was past midnight) needed to nurse.

Her son never said anything negative or stared, he was busy playing on his computer! We conversed normally, he even asked if the baby was eating or sleeping.

During my 5 hour visit, the baby nursed many times and during a couple of his marathon nursing sessions, my friend gestured and whispered that I should try to hide my breast because her son was in the room.

The next day we talked on the phone and she made it a point to inform me that she “discussed the breastfeeding” with her son, that she asked him how it made him feel (apparently he said he was just not prepared for me to “whip it out and just do it”), and overall made a really BIG DEAL (in my opinion).

I was a bit surprised, granted she formula fed her kids but from what I recall nursed her son until he was 3 months old (she quit because she thought at his 3 month growth spurt that he was “starving”). Also we’ve been friends since before I got pregnant with Daniel and she is MORE than aware of my style of parenting.

I have other similar situations, for example a few weeks ago at the local grocery store, we were about to pack up and go home when my brother surprised us in the parking lot. I was in the backseat of my car, breastfeeding the baby in his carseat (mad skills yo!), when after 10 minutes of conversation my brother realized the baby was nursing and told me I should cover up with a quilt.

After telling him he was out of line, he got irate, tried to get my 8yr old son (who self-weaned at 4yrs old), to “agree” that “mom should cover that up”. My son was confused, a bit freaked out, and now has little to no interest in contact with my brother. He told me later that he didn’t even know what his uncle was trying to SAY.

In both situations, I have NO idea how MY feeding MY son had a damn thing to do with anyone but ME and MY SON.

I won’t even go into the recent facebook drama!

So Natural Parenting Community, my question is this, how do you handle your family and friends when they attack you or create a “situation” out of YOU breastfeeding YOUR child?

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Replace hitting with…?
  Acacia at Be Present Mama is at a loss on how to handle her three year old’s hitting.
• Two Questions
  Alexandra at Breastfeeding Momma would like some ideas on how to strengthen her bond with her 8-month-old daughter; she’s also looking for input on an emotional topic: vaccines.
• Balancing Needs When Baby Trumps Mama
  Alison at BluebirdMama wonders how her child’s need for noise and energy balances out against her need for quiet and space.
  (@childbearing )
• The McDilemma
  Annie at PhD in Parenting is on the arches of a McDilemma.
  (@phdinparenting)
• Where is the mutually agreeable solution? When parenting calls for blood draws
  Arwyn at Raising My Boychick has a child who needs regular blood tests that are torment for him. How does a parent honor a child when his health is on the line?
  (@RaisingBoychick)
• When To Wait To Nurse
  Cave Mother wonders what age toddlers can be asked to wait to nurse.
• I don’t love you Mama!
  CurlyMonkey wonders what to do with her daughter’s intense feelings.
  (@curlymonkey_)
• Help a Mama Out
  Danielle at Born.in.Japan isn’t getting much sleep with her cosleeping, night nursing, cranky little guy and hopes you can help with some suggestions for shuteye.
  (@borninjp)
• Dear Abby: My daughter really misses her Daddy
  Darcel at The Mahogany Way needs to know how to help her daddy’s girl get the connection with her father she needs
  and not feel left out in the process.
  (@MahoganyWayMama)
• What’s Going on at School?
  Deb at Science@home is in a quandary: how can she find out what really goes on at school without stepping on the teacher’s toes?
  (@ScienceMum)
• April Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting Advice
  Dionna at Code Name: Mama wants to find volunteer work that includes her toddler.
  (@CodeNameMama)
• How do you deal?
  Erin at Beatnik Momma does not want to engage in “mommy wars.” She’d like your input on how (and how much) to discuss her natural parenting choices with curious friends and family who parent differently.
  (@babybeatnik)
• Dear Abby
  The Grumbles at Grumbles and Grunts gave her son a banana…and no solid food since. What’s the next step in baby-led weaning?
  (@thegrumbles)
• Excuse me, I have a poop question
  Jessica at This is Worthwhile has a question for you about toddler tinkling.
  (@tisworthwhile)
• Peer Pressure
  Kate at Momopoly worries what message her daughter’s new friend is sending
  but how to break up such an infatuation?
  (@Momopoly)
• When I Fall Down
  Katherine at Momioso.com needs your wisdom on how to be more gentle and at peace with herself.
  (@naturalparent)
• A question of sleep and sanity
  KeepingMumSane needs your toddler cosleeping advice in order to, well, keep mum sane!
  (@keepingmumsane)

• April Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting advice
  Lauren at Hobo Mama needs a chiropractor … or help getting her 36 lb toddler to walk up the stairs.
  (@Hobo_Mama)
• Driver’s Ed for Mommies
  Maman A Droit is a self-confessed terrible driver and is scared to drive with her baby in the car.
• Solo Parenting
  Mammapie at Downside Up and Outside In needs tips for being a single working mother while her partner’s away.
  (@mammapie)
• Itsy Bitsy Biter
  Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting needs your advice about her daughter, otherwise known as the pitbull.
• How Can I Avoid Beauty Obsession?
  Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! is at a loss ever since her tomboys turned into wannabe princesses.
  (@bfmom)
• Seeking Stability in Chaos
  Michelle at Seeking Mother is in a heart-wrenching position. She needs your input on how to make a toddler feel secure during a time of transition, the illness of a parent, and multiple (new) caregivers.
  (@Seekingmother)
• Mama, That’s Too, Too Boring!
  Michelle at The Parent Vortex started out asking how to encourage her preschooler to get dressed
  and four days later, she began to without prompting!
  (@TheParentVortex)
• Dear Lovey Hart, I am Desperate.
  Mommy Soup from Cream of Mommy Soup has several questions for you, from how you play favorites when no one’s your favorite to how to tell off strangers curious about the ample size of your family.
  (@mommysoup)
• Diaper Duty Dilemma
  Paige at Baby Dust Diaries has a simple request: talk to her about cloth!
  (@babydust)
• What Do You Need My Son
  pchanner at A Mom’s Fresh Start wishes her calm four-month-old hadn’t turned into an inquisitive and dramatic six-month-old. How do you handle changes in baby’s personality?
  (@pchanner)
• Dear Natural Parenting Community
  Sarah at OneStarryNight wants to know how to respond to criticism from family and friends over breastfeeding.
  (@starrymom)
• Natural Parenting Carnival
  Help
  Sarah at Consider Eden feels like either her to-do list or her parenting is suffering, because she can’t do both!
  (@considereden)
• To potty learn or not to potty learn – that is the question
  Sheryl at Little Snowflakes wants to know whether it’s time to start potty training.
  (@sheryljesin)
• Seeking Patience
  Starr at Earth Mama looks to the collective tribal wisdom of this community to learn how to teach patience to children.
• A Dirty Girl Comes Clean
  Tashmica at Mother Flippin’ is struggling. How do parents deal with their inability to keep their children protected from danger?
  (@Mother_Flippin)
• Uli and the Pussy Cats
  Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis has a toddler who likes to put kitties in headlocks and ride them like horsies. How best to separate the little beasties?
• Perceptions of Discipline
  Zoey at Good Goog doesn’t use conventional discipline with her child
  and doesn’t know how to respond around people who do.
  (@zoeyspeak)

Photography is all about light.

Controlling aperture permits YOU to control the amount of light and there by controlling depth of field (how sharp or blurry the photo is).

I suggest (if your camera has this option) you shoot in aperture priority (usually AP or A on the dial). You can control the aperture and it will automatically select a shutter speed.

Basically when it comes to aperture, the LOWER the number, the MORE light is let through and the more SHALLOW (or fuzzy) the photo/background becomes. The HIGHER the number, LESS light is let through and MORE of the photo is in focus.

f/2.8

f/4

f/8

f/13

f/20

f/32

As you can see in this progression, starting with the first photo, barely anything is in focus, the background is just a wash of color and only a couple petals are in focus, by the time you reach the last photo, EVERYTHING is in focus including the window screen which is now well defined.

When you hear someone saying, “I shot wide open”, usually they are referring to using a LOWER number aperture, like f/1.8 for example, which lets MORE light through the lens and creates SHALLOW depth of field.

Now remember how I mentioned that photography is all about light? If you are in a brightly lit area, direct sun for example, you may NOT want to shoot “wide open”. Doing so again lets the maximum amount of light through the lens and in that bright scene it could be TOO much light and overexpose (make the photo too bright/white/washed out) your photo.

Eventually I will do a really basic shutter explanation, ISO, and how to put aperture and shutter speed together.