Mmmm...baby food!!

I do not consider myself a holistic person (I don't do organic, I can't say that I am overly conscientious about the planet, I use plastic bags, I am not 'going green'). Nor am I an overly healthy eater (I consider dessert to be an appropriate meal). Typically I am willing to pay a premium for convenience (as long as the premium is minimal).

However, I have decided to MAKE Emrie's baby food. I will openly admit that I don't save a whole lot of money making her food as opposed to buying it, some of it is no healthier than jarred baby food since I used some canned veggies, and I only use re-usable jars because they are cute and fun.

So why choose to make her baby food you ask? Simply because making her baby food is probably the one thing I ENJOY doing in the kitchen!

I am able to make a mess, package it nicely, clean up quickly, and experience the joy of watching my daughter try new (typically gross) foods all in the matter of minutes. And the expressions she makes are priceless.

Here is a photo journey from beginning to end of the process:

Some of the veggies I was making today...we have already experienced carrots, peas, green beans, and avacado

Then you pour the chick peas in a food processor


Blended veggies ALWAYS smell gross...good thing Emrie doesn't know the difference


I like to color coordinate the lids with what is in the container...I'm a nerd


Finally, Emrie wearing, I mean enjoying the final product...apparently spinich is her thing (actually as you can tell by her rolls, all food is her thing:)

1 Year, 1 baby, 3 homes, many changes

It certainly has been a while since I posted anything, and you are about to find out why. This past year has been AMAZINGLY strange (well, not that strange considering our track record, but strange none the less). Last I wrote we had just moved back to Fort Wayne and I was pregnant. Here is the still long, but condensed version of what went on in our lives the past year.

July 15th, 2010: We moved into the St. Clairs Retreat home in Fort Wayne. It was beautiful and huge and I couldn't wait to get started decorating. Phil was working for Perry Corporation as a major accounts rep and I was starting work as the Title I coordinator at Imagine Schools on Broadway.

September 2010: Phil and I had been in Fort Wayne for a little over 2 months. I was due in 3 months and was frantically trying to get the house together (finishing the basement ourselves...bad idea). On September 11th (Phil's parents were visiting us for their anniversary), we receieved a 6 page handwritten letter in the mail from a family we did not know. They told us their story about walking through our house before we bought it and they were interested in buying it, but then their 20 year old son had a stroke leaving him partially paralized on one half of his body. He would have to live with them indefinately and because of the layout of our house (there was a staircase from the garage to the basement and a seprate wing of the house with a bedroom, bathroom and staircase to a bonus room above the garage) their son could live with them but still have privacy and freedom. This letter was their proposal to buy our house.

I, being 6 months pregnant and having JUST moved for the third time in 4 years imidiatly said NO!!! Phil, however, said, "honey, this is just a house to us, four walls and some furniture, we can make home anywhere, but this could really afford them something to make their quality of life better." We had also been reading through the book "The Hole in the Gospel" (I don't recommend reading it unless you are prepared to have your life changed). Phil was convicted to pray for God to challenge us and he felt this was our challenge. I was kind of mad at Phil for a little while that he would even consider giving up our house because I truly had pictured raising our kids in this house as teenagers. Long story short, I FINALLY realized he was right and just asked that they would let me have the baby and when my maternity leave was over we could discuss when we would move out and sell them the house.

December 21, 2010: We had our beautiful little girl named Emrie Delayne Van Gelder. Born at 9:53 pm, 8 pounds 6 ounces, 21 inches and lots of black hair.

January 2011: When Emrie was two weeks old we met with the family and talked about selling the house. We were looking to do it in a couple of months. Then when Emrie was three weeks old I began having the feelings of wanting to stay home, on her four week birthday, Phil came home for lunch and said he got a really weird phone call from a recruiter who wanted to interview him for a job as a Vice president of sales for Copy Co who sells Xerox.

The reason this was so significant is that Phil has ALWAYS wanted to be a V.P. or President of a company, this company was looking specifically for a late 20's man who had a little managerial experience which PHil had, and it happened to be in Indianapolis where we have always said we wanted to settle in for the long haul and Phil's parents moved to Indy just two years ago, so there is family close and his base salary would be what the two of us combined had been making!

Fast forward a few weeks. Phil went through a grouling interview process where he had to travel all over the country to do interviews and FINALLY they picked him for the job. The timing couldn't have been better. I was going to return from maternity leave at 10 weeks and they hired him when Emrie was 9 weeks old. So I told my principal and staff that I wouldn't be returning, packed our house up (no small task packing a 6,000 sq. ft. house with a newborn) and we moved that weekend.

March 5, 2011: All of our stuff went in storage and we moved in with my in-laws! We were supposed to close on our house in Fort Wayne at the end of March, but there was a delay so that didn't happen until the middle of May.

May 2011: Phil and I found a house in Carmel Indiana that we love and is really close to the church we attend. We are super excited.

June 2011: The plan was that I would be a homemaker (I LOVE being a mommy and am looking forward to this new career). In the meantime, I recieved a call from my old boss who asked me to come help start the school year with one of the Imagine Schools in Indianapolis. I will be working periodically throughout the summer and for the full months of August and September as a consultant and extra set of hands and eyes for the school administration.

This pretty much brings us up to date. Going forward from here on out I will try to blog more often than just once a year:)

July is shaping up to be VERY busy...Emrie and I are going to California to visit my family, I work for a week, we move into the new house, I work for another week, then Phil and I go to Mexico (just the two of us...super excited) then work starts for two months for me.

Look for much shorter updates soon!!!