Workin' Momma Tales

This last month I returned to the office. I can honestly say that the first day was the most emotional drive to work ever! Every day I tell myself not to be dramatic, that thousands of moms return to work at six weeks and leave their babies but this is H.A.R.D. So much harder than I expected. And making it more complicated is the fact that thanks to doctor appointments and the "Icepocolypse 2013" as they're calling it, we haven't had enough "normal" days in a row to establish and maintain any form of a routine.

I haven't struggled with any Postpartum Depression, and about the extent of my Baby Blues revolved around complete and total exhaustion. That being said, I truly question if I'm dealing with a bit of PPD in consideration of how poorly I'm dealing with this transition. As I was venting and talking it out with a friend I realized that much of my frustration is that after coming back to work almost all my time revolves around the fact I am working. I get home from work, spend 10 or 15 minutes hugging and cuddling Cora then I have household responsibilities I have to rush to in preparation for the next day of work. Pumping makes my milk supply go up so much that I have to pump at home to prevent engorgement, there's another 20 minutes pump time (two or three times while I'm home) and then storing milk and sanitizing pump parts and bottles for the next day is almost an hour of work each night. Many working moms I see have the expendable income to hire a housekeeper to reduce some of that evening chore load, they also eat out quite a bit to ease the time in the kitchen; these just aren't options for us.

Pumping breastmilk at work is also an adventure on its own! I'll have to do a seperate post on that later. If you were ever wondering why employers, by law have to provide a place other than the bathroom for a working mother to pump (and many large companies provide a place other than the persons office) - it's because pumping in your office can be very awkward! I figured it wouldn't be a big deal, I have a perfectly good door & pumping in my office would allow me to work while I pump. WELL... I rarely close my door, if anything I half close it to indicate I don't have time to talk and would rather not be disturbed. Nevermind that my door closed normally means I'm either not here or not available, I swear half the time I close it now to pump someone (always a man...) comes and knocks on the door! This leaves me sitting there thinking of an appropriate response because "just a minute" doesn't quite cut it and "I'm pumping" seems too personal/tmi. OR they know I'm pumping so rather than coming to my door, they buzz my phone to talk to me. As if it isn't horribly awkward to talk to someone while a machine is milking you.

My Crazy Daily Bag!

I'm also not ashamed to admit that I cried like a baby when I spilled 4 ounces of breast milk all over my desk. (It may or may not have also been a hard day and our cat died the night before...)

Everyday I look like I'm moving into my office! The bag holds my pump, pump parts & stored milk for in the fridge at work, lunch, purse and backup drives for the office I have to carry to and from work each day. 

My survival tips

Lists! Embrace that Mommy brain and start making lists now! They're the best and it's the only way I get everything ready for Coralie for the next day and all the stuff I haul to work for pumping each day. Not to mention any normal life things I need to remember!

Crock Pot! It's no secret that I have a slight love affair with my crock pot, it's been so nice that dinner is just a few quick steps away from finished many nights and I don't have to take the time to prepare something from start to finish. We've had several meals revolving around the things I've made multiple servings of in the good ol' crocker - Baked Potatoes, Buffalo Chicken, Taco Meat. Those three meal preps fed us for six nights with variations on the meal. Boring but efficient!

Moms, how do you do it? Does it get easier or will I always feel this resentful about working and leaving my daughter?

It's Very PINteresting (Buffalo Chicken Love)

                           Hello, my name is Rebekah and I am addicted to Buffalo Chicken.

Check out My Kitchen Apron & all the great recipes!

       A few months ago when I was in the midst of my past addiction/love affair with my crock pot (I still love it, I've just learned to balance it out with other forms of food prep...) I stumbled across this pin on Pinterest.  The next trip to the grocery store I picked up some Franks Buffalo Sauce. It has been true love since the first night when I smelled this delicious recipe cooking as I walked in from work!

      My current philosophy with food prep is that if you have time to cook one meal, you probably have time to prepare two.  I either double the recipe and we eat the meal again in a day or two, it becomes left overs for lunches or in the case of this Buffalo Chicken, it can become several different meals with a singular theme.

      Since we are being diet friendly around our house right now caloric intake is a big factor in meal planning. I am a big believer in changing habits (which I'm working diligently on right now) rather than "dieting", at 267 calories per serving (according to the recipe calculator on My Fitness Pal) - you can easily adapt portion sizes and side dishes to fit in to your daily calorie goal.

Day 1: Buffalo Chicken Burritos - I just mix up whatever box of rice we have in the house, (if I'm really planning ahead I break out the rice cooker) I serve up some chicken, mix it with the rice and we eat it in a tasty tortilla.

Day 2: Buffalo Chicken Pizza - I break out a store bought pizza dough crust and sprinkle it with shredded cheese, the buffalo chicken and I drizzle buffalo sauce and ranch across the top.

       I am thinking that next week will be a Buffalo Chicken kind of week and I'm planning to break out a couple of these new recipes I found on Pinterest.




Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese.  I'm going to have to play with this recipe. Unfortunately, the Pin links me to a long and complicated version, and while I'm sure it is delicious, I very rarely spend that much time prepping a single meal and certainly not one focused around mac & cheese.





















Buffalo Chicken Taquitos - The recipe looks pretty tasty and I'm sure the creamy flavor of the Cream Cheese blends well with the spicy tang of the buffalo chicken sauce!

A diet friendly lunch idea is to wrap up some of the chicken topped with veggies and a little ranch all wrapped up in a large piece of lettuce.

 

And, lastly - for the last of the left-overs: Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas. It's such a simple concept, I can't believe I hadn't thought of it myself already. Just add cheese (and since we like spice - maybe a little more Buffalo Sauce) to a tortilla and you're set!

Check out my Pin Boards for food & crock pot recipes!

1 Down, 100 to go!

       Number 18 on my 101 List is to create a recipe board using recipe cards.

       The idea here is that if you plan out a couple of weeks worth of meal plans you are much less likely to eat out because you don't know what you can make for dinner or don't think you have time to cook. Also, you will spend less money (or at least spend more wisely) when you grocery shop. This is really important to us since we are trying to free ourselves financially. I already coupon and price match almost every item that goes into our grocery cart! It saves us a ton of money!! (if you are interested in couponing and how to get started, I highly recommend Hip2Save!)

       My plan is to consistently plan out two weeks worth of meals, allowing for a night or two of eating left overs, we can work to eliminate the frantic calls between John and I at 5:00 on our busy days trying to figure out what we can do for dinner that night. We already do crock pot meals, and that helps a lot - but hopefully this will help us free up some of that wasted budget space on fattening fast food and unused groceries.

Background for Menu Board 1

       I got my idea for a menu board from a few places, Pinterest primarily though. I really like the idea of creating your own dry erase board so that you can easily write out your plans and any memos to go with that days meal. I also really liked the idea of having recipe cards so that I wouldn't fall into a rut of having the same things over and over again simply because I couldn't remember other things we liked or would like to try. My solution to create a hybrid of the two is to put a pocket on the dry erase board with recipe names and where to find that recipe (if needed...I obviously won't be putting a recipe for your basic spaghetti or quesadilla etc.) and that will allow me to just flip through the cards when it comes time to make meal planning decisions.

       For my board background I was going to use a cute piece of scrapbook paper. BUT, I'm was work, there was nothing to do since no one was in the office after Christmas; I was determined to get started on the project, no use in wasting the first of my 1001 days! While poking around on Pinterest looking for a solution to not having scrapbook paper or time to stop at the store tonight, I stumbled upon one of my (forgotten) favorite things by Martha Stewart for weddings! And, right below it on her website was this other gorgeous printable template, so between the two - I had my pieced together background for the board.

Background for Menu Board 2

When I got home and went to frame the paper to finish the project I found a much larger frame than what I had remembered having. So, this is my finished product! It will let me write out the menu for two weeks, any grocery lists, messages etc. Then on index cards I wrote out the name of dishes we make and if I anticipate needing to reference the recipe I notated where I can find it.

(The picture quality isn't the greatest, but you might be able to see that on Wednesdays and Thursdays I have listed "Biblical/Sandwiches". We have church activities on Wednesday and we coach basketball practices on Thursday so we either have a Biblical meal, seek and ye shall find ; ) or we plan ahead and take sandwiches.)