6.

There are 6 days til Thanksgiving. I had meant to start this yesterday and do 7 days of thankfulness but yesterday I blogged about Ben.

Today I am thankful for:

1. Living in America, where I am free to think for myself and expressing my own opinions
2. My mother, for giving me a wonderful example of what a mom should be
3. The Internet, for giving me unlimited access to so many things that spark my imagination
4. My dad, for being an awesome example of what marriage vows mean
5. Being able to read, reading is one of the only things I get to do just for me
6. My husband, for making me laugh like no other

Tomorrow I shall regale you with 5 thankful things - catching a theme here? :-)

11 Months.

OH wow. OH WOW. He's 11 months old. This time last year, I was anxiously awaiting his arrival. I really didn't think I'd make it til December - I was convinced that I was going to go into labor on Thanksgiving day and my doc wouldn't be able to be there. As it was, I still had a month to go (and even then, I had to kick the little brat out - he didn't want to come out and play!).

At this point in his life, it seems like he's picking up on something new every day. He's a champion cruiser, surfs the couch, the coffee table, the walls, the window sills, the dog, anything he can use to pull himself up. Earlier this week he started copying my "what?" hand sign. I don't know if this is the actual sign for it, but when I ask him "what is that?" or something along those lines, I always put my hands up and make a questioning face. He just randomly started doing it, too!

At 11 months he is:

• pulling himself up to stand on just about everything
• letting go and having a few moments of free standing with no support before he sits down
• beginning to feed himself with a fork (I'd been giving him a spoon but a light bulb went off that he might be able to spear the food better than trying to scoop it up and I was right)
• mimicking lots
• crawling more on all fours than his army crawl
• eager to walk - he'll go over to his walking toy and walk by himself with the toy and recently he's been pushing around the barstools and dining room chairs as well
• eating less milk and more food (he's down from 30 ounces a day to just about 24/25)
• some of his favorite foods: anything with pasta, bread, applesauce, avocado, banana.
• some of his least favorite foods: peas and chicken
• said his first word: ock (meaning "cat" or "dog") - last night he began saying "bap" for "ball"!!!!! Pretty excited mama!!
• still as toothless as the day he was born
• getting harder to take smiling pictures of - he'd rather look around, go off and explore, whatever, than look at me and smile
• pretty solidly down to 2 naps a day (on Little Gym days, some times he does 3)
• he's wearing all different sizes of clothes. Anywhere from 9 months to 24 months - it really depends on the maker. For shirts it's mostly 12 to 18 months but he has some 9 month size shirts that fit still. Pants is the weirdest - the size that would fit him the best would be like a 9-12 month but they don't make that size. Most 12 month pants are way too big and are too long - those that fit around the waist are generally high waters on him.

We're very much looking forward to his first Thanksgiving and Christmas! It feels like his first Christmas (even though it isn't) since he slept through it last year. I'm busily planning his party! I can't believe he'll be a year old in a month! We're keeping the party small, to family and one "friend" (because can you really have a "friend" at 1? ha ha) because my house is small and I don't want to overwhelm him. I think I'm pretty solidly locked into a theme and I'm kind of excited for it!

Risotto.

Tonight I made the most delicious risotto I've ever had. Perhaps I should clarify and say that I've never had risotto before. HA! I don't know how authentic this is, but I know it's dang tasty. I got the recipe from Once A Month Mom. I made only a few modifications, based on what I had. I didn't use link sausage, I used ground sausage. I didn't use both Parmesan and Romano cheeses - just the canned Parmesan cheese. She has further instructions on her blog if you wanted to make this ahead and freeze it.

Super good!!!

Italian Sausage Risotto

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
16 ounces Italian Sausage links (like Johnsohnville), sliced
1 cup apple juice
1 cup onion, diced
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1.25 cups rice
1 cup Chardonnay or dry white wine (can also sub apple juice)
3.5 cups chicken broth
1 cup peas, frozen
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/2 cup Romano Cheese, grated

Directions:

In a large saucepan, cook the sausage in apple juice. When finished cooking, remove from pan and slice. Heat oil in a large stockpot, add sliced sausage and onion, cooking until browned and softened, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme, cook for one minute longer. Add wine and rice and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Stir in 3 cups of the chicken broth. Lower the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until broth is absorbed. Add the rest of the chicken broth slowly, stirring until rice is cooked and creamy. Stir in peas and cheeses; cook until heated through. Serve.

Thankful.

Recently I've been feeling like nothing in my life is going right. Even the little stuff feels like it's piling up on me. It's easy to get down and in a dark cloud of Murky Dismal and focus on all the crud instead of the good.

So, in light of Thanksgiving coming up in just 9 days (holy. cow.), here is my list of things I'm thankful for:

1. Instead of being annoyed that all 4 of the florescent bulbs in my kitchen are burned out at the same time, I'll be thankful that I have a home to have burnt out lights in.
2. Instead of being frustrated that the light in my fridge burnt out, I'll be thankful that I have a fridge (with FOOD in it) to have a light bulb be burnt out in. There are many people that would be thrilled to have a fridge full of food and a burnt out bulb.
3. Instead of being upset that my thermostat won't allow us to reprogram it, I will instead be thankful that it still works and keeps my house warm (if not precisely at the times I'd like).
4. Instead of being down that it's been almost 2 years since I've been on vacation, I'll be thankful that I've been allowed the opportunity to stay at home with my son (which has been my dream long before I was planning to have kids).
5. Instead of being depressed that my mom is dying, instead I'll be extremely thankful of the time we have left and cherish every moment.
6. Instead of resenting having to be creative to make my budget stretch to cover all our bills, I'll be thankful for those bills - as those bills mean I have wonderful things to enjoy every day.
7. Instead of wishing I was able to eat out more often, I'll be thankful that I'm a pretty good cook and enjoy making meals for my family.
8. Instead of being disappointed that I can't run out and buy every little decorating item I decide I have to have, I'll be thankful that I'm creative enough to make nice things to make my house home.
9. Instead of wishing my best friend lived here instead of in Ohio, I'll be thankful of the loads of time we get to spend talking every day via email and chat (and that she's willing to spend her hard earned money and use her hard earned vacation time to come visit me for Ben's birthday!!!!).
10. Instead of being frustrated that Ben isn't the best sleeper (he's so inconsistent), I'm so thankful I was blessed with a happy and healthy child.

I have a sign in my kitchen that says "a house is built with walls and beams. a home is built with love and dreams" - and it's very true. Our days are what we choose to make of them.

Scalloped Potatoes.

Friday night my menu called for ham with scalloped potatoes. I've home made them in the past but mostly we just box it for dinners. Since I'm trying to make my food budget stretch further, making them myself was more of a savings, so I set off in search of a good recipe. We ran out of cheese a few days prior (and I'm trying my best to do without if I mismanage and run short of something prior to grocery day - all those little side trips to the store really add up) so I needed something without cheese. Now, traditionally, scalloped potatoes don't have cheese - if they have cheese, it's potatoes au gratin (because I know you really wanted a lesson in cooking). It seems, though, that about 90% of the scalloped potato recipes I looked through contained some cheese or another. I went back to my old reliable allrecipes.com and picked this one. It received really good reviews and best of all - I had all the stuff on hand. These were so good we didn't even have any leftovers (and Ben enjoyed them as well, and he's iffy on potatoes).

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

5 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Paprika

Directions

· In a greased 2-1/2-qt. baking dish, layer potatoes and onion.

· In a saucepan, melt the butter; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add broth, mayonnaise, salt and pepper; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thick and bubbly. Pour over potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika.

· Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours or until tender.