It’s been coming for a while. It’s not great seeing as how my entire side-hustle relies on it, but I have slowly and surely been finding myself removing my need and want to be so attached to my phone. If you follow me on Instagram, you might notice that I got through spurts of inactivity. A lot of the time my inactivity is a result of being busy with work and home. Sometimes I look at my phone and I feel actual heebie-jeebies. Like I know I’m supposed to be posting on Instagram at least 2 to 3 times a day if I want my follower numbers to increase, yada yada yada. But here’s the thing, I spend a lot of my job trying to educate parents and teachers about how to create boundaries around cell phone and social media use so I feel like a real big hypocrite if I’m on it all the time. The worst is at night. I’m now 35 weeks pregnant and sleeping has become a bit of a chore but I do want to sleep and I don’t want that little blue light inhibiting what melatonin development is actually happening. And yet, I’ve become reliant on it — especially for the time. A simple press of that home button and I get the time but I also open the gateway drug for social media usage. That simple look at the time is like an invitation to just open it and start scrolling and so when the JORD watch company contacted me about their gorgeous, luxury handmade wood watches, I was intrigued. Thanks to my former addiction to my cell phone, I hadn’t worn an actual watch in years. But I love to accessorize and I need something to stop me from hitting that home button of doom on my cell so I accepted their offer for one of their gorgeous watches and I’m so glad I did!
The watch is absolutely stunning and unique. After learning more about JORD watches, I discovered this watch company values sustainability and efficiency. Their watches are built to sustain usage. It’s not just something beautiful to look at but it’s also a watch that can sustain a full-time working mother of 2.5 kids. That’s saying something! Also, for folks with a nickel allergy (like my mama), you can relax! JORD watches are made with 100% natural wood and we refrain from the use of toxic chemicals to either treat or protect the wood and feature stainless steel (304) clasps.
So I’m hoping I’ve whet your appetite for one of these chic watches because you have the opportunity to winby click here a $100 credit towards a watch of your choosing. JORD watches offers free shipping worldwide so my friends who live overseas can participate as well! Hooray! Inclusion! I absolutely love the variety of watches offered, which you can check them out here. I ordered the Frankie Series, which you can see here, and I highly recommend. Since every day is ‘Treat yo’self’ Day and Mother’s Day AND Father’s Day are both fast approaching, you’ve got a variety of ways to use that very generous $100 credit.
One lucky winner will receive the $100 gift card to spend on any time piece of your choice but you only have until April 1st to enter so get going and good luck!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by JORD Watches. All opinions are my own.
As you may or may not know, depending on how closely you follow this here blog or my Instagram feed, I am pregnant with our 3rd kiddo. As of this writing, I am just about 8 months pregnant. I still cannot believe that we are having a 3rd kid. I know I’ve mentioned that before but I still cannot believe it. When I was 8 months pregnant with our first kiddo (who is currently 5 1/2), I was so full of excitement and joy. I don’t so much feel that now and not because I don’t feel excitement or joy for my kiddos (if you know me at all, you know I probably love my kids a little ‘too’ much) but because the newborn stage isn’t my favorite. The first newborn stage I went through was marked by a 3 month-long bought of postpartum depression. The second newborn stage was actually kind of awesome, if I’m being honest. I knew what to expect in terms of the sheer exhaustion and, you know, the part where you’re terrified that if your baby even remotely looks at you weird it means they’re sick and/or don’t love you. I leaned into it, made a lot of espresso and allowed myself to binge watch a looooooooooot of shows (I love you, Homeland). But now I’ve got 2 others kids and, oh yeah, I GAVE ALL MY BABY STUFF AWAY. That’s right. I was so certain that we would only be having 2 kids that I sold off or gave away all our baby gear so now we’re back to square one. Thus, the impetus for this post.
If there’s 2 things I know about preparing for a new baby to enter your life it’s that above all else you need to have delicious, ready-to-eat food on hand AT ALL TIMES and you need baby gear that helps make your life easier (such as sleep systems, instant swaddles, easy-to-use thermometers and washable rugs). Therefore, I combined these two certainties to present to you this epic post of ‘Must Haves’ for both food and gear for new parents. If you are about to have a baby, send the link to this post to all your friends and family with an email that reads simply:
Dear Loved Ones,
We’re gonna need some help. See all links and items in this blog post (and here’s where you’d insert the link to this post).
Love,
Me
Trust me. They will respond. Ultimately, your loved ones will want to help! I hope you enjoy this post. I picked the baby gear items based entirely on items that I have been my ‘must haves’ for both kiddos and will be for this one save for the amazingness that is the DockATot (which was not yet on the market when our 2 year-old was born) and the Lorena Canal rug, which is also new to the market and has been a life saver for this type A cleaner.
First, the DockATot. DockATot is a multi-functional lounger, co-sleeper, playtime lounger. When Siona, our oldest was born, we tried every kind of co-sleeping or bassinet on the market (I mean, not really, but it felt like it). Eventually we just gave up on co-sleeping as the co-sleeper we had didn’t fit our bed and it only fit on one side of the bed so only one of us truly got to co-sleep. With Eden, we gave up entirely and swaddled her and set heron a pillow in between us (I’m sure you’re thinking we are negligent parents for doing so but I’m happy to report that little infant is now a healthy, sassy 2 year-old). Because I was terrified of rolling on top of her, I barely slept when she did. But now the Lord has brought us the DockATot and I am so thrilled for this item to be on the market. For safety reasons, the DockATot is meant to be placed in the middle of the bed, which allows for husband and I to both feel like we are co-sleeping with our newborn. It’s made in Europe and designed in Sweden, tested for breathability, hypo allergenic, machine washable and OEKO-TEX certified, which means it was independently tested and certified so you can feel safe knowing the folks at DockATot truly believe in baby safety. Seriously, all that’s left is for the folks at DockATot to figure out how it can do my taxes and it would be THE perfect all-encompassing parent tool.
The DockATot
2) Lorena Canal Rugs is also a product I only recently discovered and, honestly, even if you don’t have kids, it’s an amazing product. First and foremost, you need to know that they are machine washable and can be dried in the clothes dryer. I repeat: THESE RUGS ARE MACHINE WASHABLE! In addition, the colors used in these handmade rugs come from all natural dyes, eco-friendly and contain no VOCs like most carpeting and rugs. And if the fact that all parents can now breathe easily when their kids are handling washable paint around rug wasn’t enough, you can also feel good about the purchase of a Lorena Canal rug as proceeds from the sale of their products go towards the Sakula Project, a school the company founded in Haryana, the North of India. Dudes, seriously, it’s a win-win.
Lorena Canal Rugs
3) A Diaper Clutch (one featured is from Skip Hop). My dear friend, Rachel, went off registry when she got me this as a gift when our first baby was born and I’m SO glad she did. This is the item I get all friends who have their first baby. Seriously, I NEVER go off registry but for this one, I do. It’s an all in one — carries the diapers, the wipes and is the clean thing you lay your baby down on for a change. I have legit laid this puppy down on the floor of an Anthropologie and changed a baby’s diaper on it. We use it to this day. It’s come in handy on planes, trains and in automobiles. I can’t tell you enough how this has saved our tushes!
4) A GOOD sound machine – I use the same sound machines for drowning out my loud Jersey husband as I do for blocking my confidential conversations with students as a school counselor. I learned my lesson when I bought a ‘cute’ sound machine rather than a functional one when our 2nd kid was born. Though the sound machine was adorable, the actual white noise sound it made sounded like a broken TV. The one pictured is the model I recommend. Therapist grade, baby!
5) An ear thermometer – OK, we have gone through every kind of thermometer possible and an ear thermometer is the best. I learned this when I started supervising a school nurse and she ‘schooled’ me on the best products for adolescent health care. We had received a digital forehead thermometer with the birth of our second baby and, to this day, I still can’t work that thing and husband is convinced it’s always a degree or two off, which counts! And so, I say to you, get thee a good digital ear thermometer and be done with it!
6) A SwaddleME Swaddle – or really ANY swaddle that is user-friendly and doesn’t require you constant access to maternity ward nurses who can swaddle a baby in just about anything. I gave up on trying to achieve the perfect swaddle about 2 weeks into the birth of our 1st born and have been in a believer in velcro-based swaddles ever since. Seriously, DO IT.
7) The Backpack Diaper Bag – Oh, you think I give a crap about the latest designer, over-the-shoulder diaper bag? Cause I don’t. I started using backpacks as diaper bags when the oldest was 2 (about 3 years ago) and haven’t looked back. I started with a standard backpack and then upgraded to a yoga backpack within 6 months. Next thing I know, the market is being saturated with diaper bag backpacks. Now, I’m not saying I STARTED the trend, necessarily. But I’m also not saying I didn’t. Seriously, every time I was out with the kiddos and had the over-the-shoulder bag on and bent down to help my toddler with something, I would knock her in the face. Backpacks do not facilitate the toddler knock out PLUS, they’re better for the back.
8) The Wubbanub – I don’t know what it is with our babies and Wubbanubs but they love them. Our kids aren’t pacifier kids (they’re usually done with it by 6 months of age) but as infants, they love the Wubbanubs. I can’t point to what it is about them, except they’re super cute and harder to lose because they’re bigger than a standard pacifier that doesn’t come with a plush animal attached to it.
9) A Portable High Chair – Holy cow! Honestly, to this day we do not have one of these and we NEED ONE! We suffer through it as semi-constant roadtrippers and it’s a nightmare. Ultimately, we end up sitting the kiddo in her carseat, which is on top of a table, or one of us ends up with the baby on us the entirety of the meal. #neveragain
10) A Plush Sloth – Do I really need to explain this one? It’s a plush sloth! GAH! I want one!
Writing about food these days seems extra weird. I mean, I’ve talked about the privilege of food writing before (and how I struggle with it) but I’m tellin’ ya, ever since that election 2 weeks ago . . . boy oh boy, the things I love to do, and I’m talking the trivial things like food blogging and Instagramming, seem sooooooooooooooo extra silly. I mean, for the love of Gd, some racists a**holes vandalized a playground dedicated to MCA from the Beastie Boys. A young Muslim student at my graduate alma mater, University of Michigan, was approached by a stranger who threatened to light her on fire if she didn’t remove her hijab and a Muslim teacher in Georgia found a letter in her classroom telling her that her “headscarf isn’t allowed anymore.” The note, scribbled in black ink, also told her to “tie” her headscarf around her neck and “hang yourself with it.” I mean seriously, world, WTF!? So yeah, you see what I’m getting at with the food thing?
I’ve been seriously wrestling with how to make sure I don’t stand idly by while all this hate is being spewed. I am not a fan (for myself — good for you, not for me but good for you) of Facebook as a means of protest but have been known to post the occasional shocking article or two. That said, Facebook is already saturated with the same articles and I am trying to be mindful of participating in any armchair advocacy. The day after the election I led 6 guided meditation sessions at work for those colleagues of mine who were struggling with the results and that felt good. That felt purposeful and productive. I’ve got a list of Senators and State Reps. to call though, to be completely transparent, I’m a little nervous to do so as I’ve never done that before. I’ve signed up to bake for a bake sale whose profits will go to support causes I believe in but the thing I’m most wrestling with is whether or not to march and if so . . . do I take my daughter? I always imagine myself marching for something I believe in right alongside my own daughter, if I were blessed to have one and now I have two! I came of age marching against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I marched for fair wages in Chicago and for the equal rights of the LGBTQ community in Marietta, GA. But, truth be told, I’m scared. I’d love to take my oldest but I’m scared that something bad might happen and then what? Was I marching because I need her to have an experience or because I need to have an experience? I really don’t know the answer to that question just yet.
Before the bake.
The one thing I have done this week is visit the opening night gala for MAZON’s extraordinary installation called, This is Hunger. This Is Hunger is an experiential learning tool whose goal is to bring about community engagement, awareness and education around the issues of hunger in the US. Basically, This Is Hunger is a high-impact, experiential installation on wheels—literally, it’s a big rig. When the 53-foot-long double expandable trailer is parked and open on both sides, it provides almost 1,000 square feet of interior space to take participants on a voyage of awareness and activism: to help them understand the stark reality of hunger in America and to spark their commitment to taking action that will help end hunger once and for all.
The big rig is touring LA (locations here) and the country. Tickets are free but do need to be reserved. I hope you are able to make it there. It is astonishingly powerful, provocative and creative and I am so grateful for MAZON and especially Emily for inviting me to attend.
But OK, seriously, this pie!! I had to. I just had to make a purple pie with cheese. I mean, why not? And let’s just get something out-of-the-way . . . I did not make the pie crust. Nope. Not at all. Gang, I have 2 kids, an intense full-time job and my husband is prepping to defend is dissertation. Time is the greatest of currencies and our household these days so if I can present you with a tasty pie that came in a ready-made crust, well so be it. The thing to note about purple potatoes is that they are a lot starchier than russet potatoes so you will need to counter act the starchiness with the moisture of the milk, butter and cheese. Do not worry that you’ll lose some of the purple of the potatoes with the additions of the add-ins. The purple becomes more pronounced during baking. Oh, also, I call it “Galaxy Pie” because I had made the moon shape on purpose but once it was baked and I sprinkled the coarse sea salt on the pie, I thought it looked like stars along side the moon against the night sky. No?
Savory Mashed Purple Potato Pie with Garlic Cream Cheese
Ingredients:
2 pounds small purple potatoes, peeled
1 frozen pie crust
1/2 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup (half a stick) butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 5 oz. package garlic and fine herb Boursin
Maldon or other flaky sea salt for topping
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make sure your pie crust is mostly defrosted. Once it is, prick the bottom all over with a fork and set aside.
Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water until they are very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain; return the potatoes to the same pot and mash well. Mix in the milk and melted butter. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add more seasoning depending upon preferred taste.
Crack the eggs into a small bowl and whisk until well combined. Add the eggs to the mashed potato mixture. Now, here’s where you can do 1 of 2 things (or both, it’s up to you). I made 2 pies for this recipe. 1 pie has 1/2 of the Boursin mixed in and the other has it lovingly dotted along the side as a moon decoration. You can either dump all that Boursin into the potato mixture for an extra creamy, garlicky potato pie OR you can decorate the top of your pie with the Boursin. I let it soften a bit more and then just dotted it along with sides with my fingers. It’s totally up to you. Both are delicious options.
Once you’ve fully prepped your pie, place it into the oven and bake for roughly 20 – 25 minutes. Add a last sprinkling of coarse sea salt (like Maldon) to the top and serve hot.
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