Photography Friday: Just Like Daddy

The Little Dude got his 4 month shots today. He's grumpy, so this is going to be brief. Liam looks so much like Dan. He is even developing some of Dan's mannerisms. Last week, Liam and I brought brownies to Dan's office for his birthday. I made Liam some really cute, computer geeky onesies to wear.

Article: How to Live Within Your Means

(I came across this article from corporette.com  last night and liked it so much that I wanted to include it in my blog. I think her suitcase/budget analogy is really great. There's no secret to living within your means. You have to spend less than you make. That leaves 2 basic options: spend less or make more. )

I think living within your means is a bit like packing a suitcase: you have to edit and curate what you have in your life right now. Stick with me here — whenever I go to take a trip I pull out everything that I want to pack and have it sitting on the bed in one big pile, usually evoking at least a joke or two from my husband. And then I’ll keep adding things to the pile — a t-shirt here, a bathing suit, a dress, whatever — under the theory that hey, that thin t-shirt is just a little thing rolled up. Or that dress, you know, could just be folded in half and laid flat — it barely adds any bulk at all! And then I’ll go to put things in the suitcase, and the damned thing won’t close, so I have to remove things and figure out what I really want.  It doesn’t mean that I can’t have the things that come out of the suitcase: it just means that they can’t come with me on the trip.

So: in this analogy, your budget is the suitcase, and the idea of “living within your means” is what you can pack into your suitcase. That said, I think there are two big ways you can live within your means: the mechanical way and the more difficult study-your-budget way.  The mechanical way is pretty easy:  pay your planned expenses (bills, loan payments, etc) at the beginning of the month, and then put the amount of cash you have left in your wallet.  When it’s gone, it’s gone — time to shop your closet, eat from your kitchen cabinets, and suggest going to the free museum night with your friends rather than going out for dinner.

The more difficult way is to actually study where your money is going — analyze it, and make adjustments.  Ultimately, I think this is the more fruitful, useful way of living within your means — you end up with more money to spend on the things you want and need, with better habits for the long run, and without quite so many “deprivation” feelings.  (I’m a big fan of tracking your finances in general, whether on paper or through something likeMint.com, which is the free tracking software that I use.)

• Choose a place to live that is within your means. This is a huge subject, and one we’ll talk about more in depth in the months to come, but for now: don’t rent or buy more of an apartment or house than you can afford.
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• Study your bills. Sure, you may have had HBO and Showtime (and ….) for as long as you can remember — but how much do you really watch them? Similarly, your landline: do you use it? After 9/11, I insisted on having a landline — but after a few years I realized that the primary thing I was using it for was to call myself from work and leave “don’t forget X” messages. Helpful, but not worth the $50 or so I was paying to Verizon on a monthly basis. Ditto the gym: how often do you really go?
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• Avoid temptation. If your “going home” route takes you past your favorite store — maybe only take that route home once a week (if at all). If you regularly buy stuff online, leave your credit card at home, or leave it in a drawer at the office that requires you to get up to get it. If you’ve memorized your card number, get a new one. (Is it a bad thing that I have memorized my card number? Sigh.)  Sometimes, “temptation” can even take the form of certain friendships — we all have that one friend who insists on going to the $21 martini place to “settle in” for the night, or that friend who insists on ordering a bottle of wine “for the table” and then drinks most of it.  You don’t have to stop seeing that person, but you can’t turn a blind eye to your budget when you do see them — so either tell yourself you’ll only see them once a month, or insist on choosing the place when you go out.
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• Finally, study the little things — this is kind of like that collection of thin t-shirts in your suitcase; one of them won’t break the bank but they really do add up in the aggregate.  So consider this: Do you regularly pay $1.50 for a soda at lunch when you could buy a 6-pack at the store for $3 (or drink water)? Do you have a Starbucks habit? Look at how much you’re really spending on lunch on a daily basis — can you cut that by even a little bit?

4 month update & photo

What a stud!

Where did my little baby go? Liam is 13.8 pounds and is starting to get those yummy baby thighs. I don't know exactly how tall he is, but I had to remove the large head positioner from his car seat.

He thinks he's a big kid. He doesn't like to sit reclined in the bouncer or car seat anymore. He does mini-crunches to try to sit up. He hasn't rolled over from tummy to back again since the times he did it when he was about 8 weeks old. He rolled over from back to tummy for the first time on February 24th and again on the 26th. He can support himself sitting up for a few seconds. He laughs pretty regularly now and babbles/squeals all of the time. He is really social and becoming more and more interactive.

He is right in the middle of the "4 month wakeful period." He was sleeping really well for a while and only waking up once a night. That has totally disappeared and he is up 3 or 4 times again. He goes back to sleep easier now though and is only up for 30 to 45 minutes depending on how long he nurses.

I'm doing okay. I've lost all of the baby weight plus some. I really need to gain some muscle though. Nursing is going well. I haven't had anymore plugged ducts. I wish Liam would take a bottle though so that I could have a little more Julia-time. I've still got the baby blues and should probably go see my OB about it.

Photography Friday: Woody

The Story: I'm not going to bother with stats and outtakes this week. This is one of the photos for the "secret project" I have been working on. I'll post the rest once I complete the project, which will hopefully be next week. It depends on how long it takes for me to get all of the prints.

Recipe: Italian Soup & French Bread

I have wanted to make my own French bread for a while now. Oh-Em-Gee, it is so good! There are few things better than a warm piece of bread right out of the oven.

Italian Pasta & Bean Soup (adapted from a recipe passed along at a women's group at church)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups of elbow macaroni, uncooked
15 oz can of cannelloni beans, drained & rinsed
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 tbsp dried parsley
Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a pot on medium-high heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 5 minutes. Add beans and tomatoes and cook until the pasta is tender. Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Remember to cover any leftover. I left the pot to cool before putting it in storage containers and it lost a lot of the moisture. This recipe is halved from the original, except the tomatoes (because it's hard to only use 1/2 can of tomatoes. There were too many tomatoes and not enough pasta. I would have also liked some more veggies, maybe squash or eggplant or zucchini. 


French Bread (from French Bread 2 from allrecipes.com)
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp active, dry yeast
1 egg
1 tbsp water
2 tsp sesame seeds

Combine water, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in a bread machine. My bread machine requires liquid ingredient first, then solid and yeast last. Select the dough setting. Dough takes 90 minutes on my machine. 

When the cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. With a rolling pin, roll into 10 inch by 8 inch rectangles. Roll up jelly-roll style and pinch seams to seal. I didn't know what jelly-roll style meant, so I looked up a YouTube video of how to make French bread. It is too hard to explain and I didn't save the link, so that is what I suggest you do. Place loaves seam side down on a greased pan. Cover and let rise on a warm heating pad until doubled, about 20 minutes.

Whisk egg and water. Brush over loaves. Make 4 shallow slashes with a knife across the top of each loaf. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. I made 1 loaf with sesame seeds and 1 without. I preferred the one with the sesame seeds. 


Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Try to not burn your mouth as you tear into the fluffy deliciousness of freshly baked bread.

Photography Friday: I am not a slacker

I took pictures this week, but they are for a "secret project" that I am working on that Dan isn't allowed to see yet. I'll share them soon. Until then, enjoy an old photo. Dan was taking Liam's clothes off and made him a Toadstool outfit. He is 4 days old in this photo.

Photography Friday: Valentine's Day

The Stats: 
Nikon D70
Sigma 18-55mm
SB-600 speedlight at +3.0 pointed toward the ceiling
1/500 sec exposure
f/4.5
ISO 200
31mm focal length

The Process: Adjusted white balance and increased exposure with Raw Shooter Essentials. Cropped with Microsoft Office picture editor.

The Story: Happy Valentine's Day from Liam & Julia.

The Highlights: I'm going to really enjoy consuming these props.

The Lowlights: I think that I traumatized Liam. He really hated the sound of the M&Ms moving on the plexiglass and freaked out a little. He will probably never be able to eat M&Ms. He kept making M&M angels, which resulted in the white background showing. I was going to edit it with Gimp, but I am not that talented.

The Outtake: Liam tries to scoot away.