An easy toddler lunch- pizza rolls

If you are like me, you are always looking for new meals to feed the kiddos without breaking the bank.  I came across this recipe for Pepperoni pizza rolls that I just had to try.  When I went to try it, I didn't have the recipe in front of me, though, so I made it my own. 

For my recipe, here's what you need (store brand is fine, I generally get Kroger brand unless there's a sale)

     1- 8oz can of crescent dinner rolls
     3 cheese sticks- you can use shredded mozzarella if you prefer
     pepperoni slices
     Pasta sauce
     1-2 tbsp melted butter
     garlic salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Prep your cookie sheet.  I usually use tin foil to line mine, but you don't have to.  It's quicker cleanup with tin foil and I'm a busy mom.

Cut your cheese sticks into 3 pieces.

Carefully open your crescent rolls and unroll them.  Beware the pop.  When I'm ready for it, I have to force it.  When I'm not, it scares me...  every time...

Spoon a little sauce inside the crescent roll.  This is optional.  Pillsbury's recipe doesn't do this.  They use the sauce for dipping, but I have a toddler that likes to dip foods and paint her arms with them, so I decided this wasn't the best idea for us.

Place your pepperoni on the crescent roll.  I only use 1 per roll, but you can use 3 and make a triangle with them.  My toddler isn't big on a lot of pepperoni, so less is better for her.  You know what your child will eat.

Add a piece of cheese stick- or shredded cheese should you choose that instead.

Roll your crescents up and place on cookie sheet. 
Spoon on your melted butter and sprinkle with garlic salt.   This step is completely optional, but I found that it made them so much better than plain crescents.

Bake for 10-14 minutes depending on what your crescent roll package says.  I put mine in for 11 minutes, but I know it's going to take me 1-2 minutes to get back to the oven when the timer goes off because I use the time they are in the oven to get other things done.

Allow them to cool a bit and pair with whatever sides you want.  Enjoy. 

My toddler ate all of her pizza roll before even touching anything else on her plate, which is quite unusual for her.  Usually goldfish are eaten before she even looks at anything else.  I guess these pizza rolls are a hit. Hope you enjoy them.

5 pieces of advice for the expecting mom

Having a baby is a very rewarding experience.  Trust me, that first time your baby looks you in the eyes, you will melt. There are a few things you should do before that little bundle of joy comes, though.
     -Take some time for you.  It seems simple enough, but once that little one comes, you won't have much free time.  When you do, you don't always want to take it.  Trust me, I have tons of things that I would like to do, but when my husband tells me to go take some time to do them, I miss my kiddos and never actually go.
     -Stock up on things.  Diapers, wipes, shampoo, toilet paper, toothpaste, you name it.  Make sure you have enough of the things you will be needing for a while.  Between the sleepless nights and sheer exhaustion of becoming a new parent, you aren't going to want to be running emergency errands because you are on the last roll of toilet paper. 
     -Meal plan.  You aren't going to be in the mood for cooking once your little bundle arrives.  Whether you stock up on frozen dinners from the store or make and freeze some casseroles that you can just pop in the oven.  Plan for it.   There are also some great crock pot meals that you can freeze ahead and then dump in the crock pot in the morning.  I wish I had done this with my first.  My husband came home from work many nights asking "what's for dinner?" and I had no idea and no energy to figure it out.  I barely had the energy to make myself a PB&J sandwich for lunch some days.
     -Take naps.  Pregnancy is exhausting anyway, so not only will this benefit you now, but it will also get you used to sleeping for short periods of time.  Many people will tell you to "Sleep when the baby sleeps."  It's the most common piece of advice that I got.  The problem with that advice is that if you do that, then you wont have any time to shower or eat.  Yes, you will wind up taking many naps while the baby sleeps after the baby is born, but you won't sleep every time.  Besides, some days it seems like the baby is just never going to sleep...
     -Grab your keys, phone, wallet/purse and leave the house.  Do it now.  I'll wait...

...That was nice, wasn't it?  Remember that feeling.  Now that I've quit my job to stay home with the girls, my husband expects me to run the errands while he is at work.  He doesn't seem to understand how much work it is to leave the house.  I remember days with my first child where I had changed her clothes twice and my shirt three times before leaving the house only to have her spit up on me when I got to our destination.**  Not to mention the times she went poo the second I got her in the car.  My first was famous for doing that.  If you are just going on a short trip and think it can wait until you get to your destination, it can't.  Either the guilt of making your child sit in a nasty diaper the whole drive will get you, or the smell will.  I had to plan to leave 15 minutes before I actually needed to so I could be on time.  Now with a toddler and a baby I plan on 20-25 minutes before I need to for those last minute emergencies that are bound to happen.

**Bonus advice: pack an extra shirt for yourself in the diaper bag, either you will get spit up on, or, if you're breastfeeding, leak through at least one shirt if you are out for any significant period of time.  Trust me.  I've needed my extra shirt many times.  **

Being a mom is one of the most amazing, rewarding things I have ever done.  No matter how much my girls drive me crazy and how dirty my house is, I wouldn't change it for the world.  I'm a mommy, that's my superpower. 

Mom shaming

Let's be honest, we have all been guilty of mom shaming at one point or another. Some of us do it every day, some of us only once in a while, but we all do it.  I myself have been guilty of it.  It's just too easy to target another mom and criticize her to cover our own insecurities.  Look, we are all doing the best we can with the tools we have been given.

Maybe the mom whose child only seems to eat mac and cheese and hot dogs didn't have enough in the food budget for the week.  Or maybe her child refuses to eat anything else.

Maybe the mom whose child is always in ratty clothes doesn't have the budget to buy new clothes and has to rely on hand me downs to keep her child in clothes.

Maybe the mom whose child is making a scene in the store really needs those groceries so she can make a meal for her family before heading to work.

If we just assume, we will never know.  If you are a mom, you know how hard it is trying to take care of these unpredictable tiny humans without screwing them up too badly.  Each day is a new challenge and a new adventure.  If you are now or ever have been a working mom, you know how hard it is trying to keep your energy up to bring home the money to support your family and still manage not to let your time together suffer.  If you are a stay at home mom, you know the struggle to make ends meet on the budget and keep your household running smoothly.  No matter what, it's not easy being a mom.

Let's try to have some compassion for our mom friends.  Yes, they will make mistakes but I guarantee you will make just as many even if you don't admit it.  They will do things that you don't necessarily agree with, but not everyone shares the same parenting ideals.  The goal is to raise these tiny humans as best as we can.  So next time you see a mom that seems to be struggling, don't shame her, show her you support her.  The next time you see a mom with a screaming toddler in a public place, give her a smile, because let's face it, it's happened to you at least once.  Hold the door for the mom trying to push a stroller into a store.  Let the mom whose infant is screaming into the checkout line in front of you.  Rally together with your fellow moms. We are all doing the best we can with what we have.

Day 1

I finally was able to do it.  My last day at my job was yesterday. I am now officially a stay at home mom. I don't know how the finances are going to work out, but my girls need me here. I figured by now I would be ripping my hair out with my toddler, but she's being surprisingly easy on me today. I've been able to get a little bit of housework done and she even played by herself with no tv for a little over an hour. It was blissfully peaceful. 

Like many other moms I've spoken too, I'm guilty of using the tv as a crutch... Often. Maybe it's lazy parenting, but sometimes it's the only way I can get anything done.  My five month old sometimes won't calm down without watching "Moana".  I don't know what it is about that movie. Hopefully now that I'm home and won't be expending all my energy at work, I can limit tv time and get some creativity and learning going in my house. In fact, I'm about to hit pinterest and look up some activities now. 

Mama needs a sick day

The other day, I had the unfortunate luck to get a migraine.  It was pretty bad.  Of course, it was just me and the girls at the house, so even though I wanted to stay in bed and sleep it off, I couldn't.  Moms don’t have that luxury. When you’re a mom, you can’t call in sick no matter how much you want to. Even if your significant other is home, the kids still find you. My husbands response when I told him about my migraine was “I’m sorry honey.” Yes, he was at work at the time but he still didn’t really step up the extra little bit when he got home. Now, if he has a migraine, he spends the whole day in bed and doesn’t do anything. I bring him drinks and medicine. I have even left work early because he was throwing up. I almost threw up on both of my girls that day and all I got was an “I’m sorry.” One day, I really will take a sick day and he will have to figure it out. It will probably be when the girls are old enough to take care of themselves, though.

Not the mama

It really irks me when I am trying to get my toddler to do something (or stop doing something which is usually the case) and other adults have to chime in. You are not helping. I may make mistakes sometimes because I am, after all, only human, but I am fully capable of raising these tiny humans that I have given birth to. Please let me be. I do not need you to tell my child “listen to your mother” or to repeat the exact command that I have just said. I need you to keep quiet and let me be mama. You repeating what I just said thinking that it’s going to suddenly make her listen actually seems to confuse my child, making it more difficult. You are not the mama. Please keep quiet and let me parent.

Patience is a virtue

patience is a virtue and it is one that I don’t have. Only a couple months may seem just a short time to most people but to me it seems like forever. In the grand scheme of things to only have a couple months left is nothing when we started at 15months. All the planning and agonizing is down to just a couple months. We still aren’t financially ready. I don’t know if we ever will be. I just know that I’m at my wits end and can’t keep this up much longer.

Teardrops on my pump bag

I’m sitting here at work crying as I pump. This job is breaking me. To think just a year ago, I loved working here. So much has changed since then. I always swore that I never wanted to be a stay at home mom. Now, I would kill for it. It’s not just that I want to spend my days with my beautiful girls, it’s the corporate bull that I have to deal with on a daily basis. It’s the group text messages that blow up my phone after I’ve left for the day and on my day off. It’s the fact that an associate with no management experience got promoted into the position that upper management has been talking about getting me into for over a year while I was out on maternity leave. It’s the constant notes for me to do things that other people should have done. It’s the schedule changes that keep happening when other than my days off, my hours are supposed to be set. It’s the fact that in 2 months I will hit 10 years with this company and I have nothing to show for it other than both physical and emotional scars. It’s everything. The sad thing is that I’m not the only one around here that sees all the issues, But I am helpless until my hubby and I figure out how to make our finances work so that I don’t have to deal with it anymore. So, here I sit, crying over my pump bag, trying to figure out how I’m supposed to get everything done today and still have energy when I get off to enjoy the afternoon with my beautiful girls. 

#momlife #workingmom 

There's a teacup in my shower

Pretty much for the last 2 months my toddler has been showering with me almost every day. About 2 weeks ago, she brought her pink toy bathtub teacup into the shower.  I don't know why. It's a single teacup. It's not like we are going to have a tea party with a single teacup.  It made her happy, so I just let it go. The other night, she held it under my boob and said "this" which is what she says when she can't say the word for what she wants. So, I squeezed a little breast milk into it, thinking she would drink it.  Nope, she poured it out and held int under my boob again.  I told her no.  I wasn't going to put milkies in the cup if she was just going to dump it out. Of course, she threw a fit.  I stood up and just ignored it.  I'm so over the terrible twos and she doesn't turn 2 for a month yet.  When she calmed herself down, she decided to cover my belly button with the teacup.  Somehow, that made her happy. I don't understand why but she wasn't throwing a fit anymore, so I went with it.  I don't understand why a single pink toy teacup makes her so happy, but sometimes, we do what we have to do.

#momlife

Raining inside and out

After a week of absolutely beautiful week, it is pouring out today.  It matches my mood rather well.  My dad left this morning after being here all week to meet his new granddaughter and spend time with her older sister and I go back to work tomorrow.  The realization that I go back to work tomorrow is harder than my dad leaving. I have spent the last 8 exhausting, chaotic, wonderfully amazing weeks with these two tiny humans and today is the end of it.  

It's funny. I always swore that I never wanted to be a stay at home mommy.  I always figured that I would get bored being home all the time, but after being home these past two months, I feel like I've accomplished less than what I did when I was working full time.  Even on the most infuriating day with my toddler, I still loved every minute of it.  If our financial situation was different, tomorrow would be just another day, but sadly, we have too many bills to pay.  

As I sit here eating lunch with my toddler and writing this, I realize how many things I really should get done today, but all I want to do is spend time with my little family.  The dishes and laundry will still be there tomorrow.  The piles of stuff on the counter can wait.  My girls will only be this little for so long.  I'm going to enjoy today.

So as the raindrops fall outside, I wipe my tears away.  I go back to work tomorrow, so I need to enjoy today.