Category Archives: The Girls

Well, it is a new year, and I still haven’t gotten my shit together with consistently updating this blog. Things have drastically changed over the years. For starters blog just aren’t as popular as they once were. Everyone is flocking over to instagram, which is nice, but I despise the new “blog” format that is now taking place on it. Like, it was originally made for scrolling, and having several paragraphs on an image is exhausting to read, and type on a phone (I know I could type it on a computer and copy and paste but you get my point) Plus, I am sure many of the people who read my blog know, I am not aiming for only polished celeb blogs. I read all kinds. Everyone has something to bring to the table, and if I just want to read polished fluff, I think instagram does that just fine.

But the computer situation and napping situation is constantly changing, and finding time to sit on the computer and write is getting increasingly more difficult. But I would like to keep this blog going, as it does give me a creative outlet. But I do have some goals for this blog this year.

Post more

This seems obvious, but I have a bunch of ideas I want to write about. There are a million posts started waiting to be finished, so you know, I would like to finish them. I think I just need to get a little more casual about what I write and keep things to the point. I am not writing a mini novel.

Post more on Instagram

I love Instagram, and I remember when I first started blogging, instagram was kind-of just a way to plug content on the blog. I mean it still can be, but I am trying to get a little more open about just posting on a whim. It might be a little more kid/parenting centered, which may or may not be everyone’s cup of tea. And that is okay, but I do want to make more of an outlet for in the middle vegan parents. So much is super health and hippy dippy and I can’t relate to that. I know there has to be other people like this.

Update the layout

How many years do I say this? I would like to make upgrades to the layout because I will always love to make money from this blog because you know, we live in a capitalistic society. Upgrading the layout would help with search engine optimization and the like. But I won’t go totally crazy of trying to make my blog a marketable zombie though.

Visit more vegan restaurants

Part of what took so long for my “new year resolutions” post (site resolutions?) was that I was spending all my napping minutes looking up on Happy Cow at all the vegan restaurants in New Jersey. I want to try and buy less little snacks and spend my money at locally owned vegan restaurants. it seems more ethical to spend $15 buck on a meal at a small business than $15 on lots of little snacks at various major super markets.

And that is it, my major goals this year for the blog. Anyone have some fun goals for 2020? My personal goal is drink a lot during election day. God I am so stressed. I hope I don’t cry as much as election day 2016 *crosses fingers* But for now, here are some rando links that I’ve dug lately.

Gastropod: Eat the Invaders Episode – I love gastropod. They don’t release a ton of episodes but each one is well research, well structured, and well edited. This episode had me wanting to do some foraging with Wolfie in the spring.

Eat the Invaders – this is the site that is referred to in the podcast. It is worth checking out if you just want to skip to foraging, though it is just for North America.

Lott House and Old Cake Recipe – This article I found via The Full Helping and I found it really interesting. And naturally being a history nerd, I will be trying out this cake recipe (veganized naturally)

Oh No! Ross and Carrie Cafe Gratitude Episode – I love food history, especially vegan/vegetarian food history. Oh No Ross and Carrie do a double whammy episode talking about The Source Family, and their vegetarian restaurant (one of the firsts) and they talk about the shady background of the current Cafe Gratitude.


I am surprised that reflecting on previous and future years has been something consistent on this blog. I am not blogging as much as the past, but I want to try my best to stick with it because I know that I WILL have more time in the future. You know? If you are interested here are my old posts: 2015 | 2016 | 2018

But for now let’s reflect on my goals from last year-

Workout and Run More Often – This was a massive fail, as Wolfie hasn’t been into stroller that much anymore. I would get a few runs here and there but nothing long or consistent.

Photograph More Another massive fail.

Have a Cup of Tea Every Night I think I did pretty good with this. I didn’t have a cup of tea every night, but I think I have been drinking more tea, and I am also kind-of just admitting I just really like having only a few different types of teas. So I have been trying to get rid of the 10+ teas I do have and have it be a select few to choose from.

Get a New Job I got a new job and left it. I found that I probably won’t get one until certain things have changed in our living situation, things that are mostly out of my control for the time being.

Try and Lose Weight Another fail. I did not loose my pregnancy weight.

Read 20 Books Not bad, I was short one book (my goal was 32, 12 cookbooks, and 20 regular) but sadly most of the books were comics, sooo… not the best.

Bake at Lest ONE Successful Cake a Month Didn’t accomplish this, but I was happy with my posting from Vegan Mofo for 2018 though.

More Cookbook, Restaurant, and Recipe Reviews I did pretty well with this. I did a bunch of recipe roundups and cookbook reviews. Not so successful with restaurant reviews, it’s hard taking photos with a toddler guys.

Be More Patient with Wolfie as with anything, some days are better than others. I have been doing better with just going with his flow, letting him do his own thing and following along.

Update this layout! fail

This year most of my goals are centered around self image. I just want to feel better, eat more healthfully, and take better care of myself. It is really easy as a mother to give up certain things in your life, and as Wolfie becomes more independent I want to carve some time for myself.

Workout 3-4 Times a Week

Towards the end of 2018 I started to get the hang of working out again. I found that just doing a barre workout with Wolfie in the room way managable. Yes, sometimes he tries to stop me, or cries, but he is learning that it is a time that he has to play by himself. I want to try and get into the habit of doing it three or four times a week since it helps me feel better.

Reach 600 Read Books For Wolfie

If you have a kid and love the library you might of heard of the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge. It is pretty easy, just read 1,000 books before going to school. It makes sense why it should be easy, if you read 1 book before bed each night, you should be able to hit the target no problem. We read at least 3 books each night, and some during the day, so I decided to make my life harder and read 1,000 DIFFERENT books before kindergarten. We reached 200 before 2019, so I want to reach 600 before 2020. It is a stretch, but seeing how the year has been going so far, it isn’t impossible.

Loose the Last Baby Fat

When I made my goal last year to loose weight I think I was honestly at my original weight. But a lot of my motivation is that I would like to fit in my old clothes rather than buy new ones, and I liked how I felt when I ate more healthfully and worked out. So I might WEIGH the same, but I am not the same size nor feel the same. So I am begrudgingly actually dieting in the new year. I would like to loose MORE fat, and GAIN more muscle. We will see how it goes, because truthfully, restricting my food intake can make a grouchy Mom. Putting my happiness or my families happiness on the line for a smaller waistline isn’t an option.

Eat More Meals with Wolfie

I hate when people assume that vegan kids aren’t picky eaters. I mean sure my kid will eat some thing other kids will snub their nose at, but uh, I can’t get him to eat what I serve him ALL THE TIME. So I think it will help if I just sit down and eat almost the same meal with him.

Read 20 Books

I always try and set a goal for books and in general I want to read more books. 2017 I read 4,637 pages, only one was a cookbook and three were comics. 2018 I read 6,000 pages but eight were cookbooks and twelve were comics. So sure I read more, but I didn’t read as much that was culturally enriching.

Goodreads: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009

Update This Layout

NO EXCUSES! I gotta get this done. I really need to nag Jon to help me with this.

Dress Up More

It is so easy to put on some leggings and a junky shirt with Wolfie, but it can be a little depressing. I am sure anyone who works from home will agree, you just feel better when you look nice. Although I might not look great 24/7, I would like to put on some cute clothes when heading out for the day, even if it is just grocery shopping.

Dye My Hair a Fun Color

I recently JUST cut my hair since I don’t know when. Okay, well the last time I remember cutting my hair was before getting married, which has been many years ago. I am thinking about going to Talking Headz and bleaching my hair, then dying at home. I already have some dye picked out, but Talking Headz specializes in coloring hair and they use vegan products.

Any goals or challenges for 2019?


Hey Guys, just thought I would give a little update for everyone. You might of noticed I’ve been hardly posting the past few months. Well, I’ve been busy naturally, so I will give some quick breakdowns.

1) VEGAN MOFO! I’ve been trying to prep for Vegan Mofo 2018. I might not be quite as active as every single day, but I have a bunch of posts all ready to go, so there definitely be more than one post per month like I have been doing lol

2) I started a new job! And quit. I was working for Aldi’s to earn some more money, but it became quite clear that the amount of money being spent on daycare and paying for sick visits were not worth the amount of time effort and stress it was putting on our family. Sadly, it means less income for us, but it is best for our overall health and happiness for our family

3) We went on vacation at Bushkill Falls in PA. Hopefully we will have a little post about that, but who knows.

So that’s really it. I will hopefully have my cookbook review of the month tomorrow, and I will be skipping the month of September so I can stick to the them for Vegan MOFO.


The cafe at The Grounds for Sculpture. Thinking about making a touring series of New Jersey, anyone interested?

Reading: I finished up The Magicians at the beginning of Febraury. I have mixed feeling about it. There was some sexist overtones, which I didn’t like. But ignoring that part, *note spoilers* I found once they got into Fillory things really picked up and was a hard book to put down. It became clear why this book has been so popular. I think I will continue to read the series, because I AM still curious about what is used in the books, and what went into the TV series. But I see why so many people didn’t like the book. I thought the summary of “Harry Potter goes to college” was very wrong. I think it would be better to say that it pokes fun at the Chronicles of Narnia series. I thought the first half of going through ALL the details of college was too much. It was so much to read to just get to the good part. I don’t think it paid off. I MUCH prefer the TV show dividing up the college experience with the initial trip to Fillory.

So after reading that I went crazy! Okay, so I had some easy reads. I am going to try and plow through the “saved” titles that I have on the app for my library. About two years ago I put Step Aside, Pops on my list, not realizing it was book 3 of a collection of webcomics. The web series is Hark! A Vagrant! In general the comics tend to be about historical figures or literature, but can really be about whatever. I loved it, and read it in 2-3 nights. My favorite one would probably be the Cinderella story. Best part are the protein snacks in her pocket XD

I also finished up Vacationland. This was a slight cheat because I started it before but I had to return to the library before I could finish it. It is a newer release so there was a waiting list. I really enjoyed it, though I think it could of been a little more polished in the story telling. There was a pretty big jump from Massachusetts-swamp to the much better Maine. I also wonder how this reads if you aren’t a John Hodgeman fan. I get his whole mocking-pretentious tone, but when reading some Goodread reviews, I don’t think it comes off as making fun of himself.

FINALLY My sister shared this New York Times Article by Michael Ian Black about talking about masculinity with boys. This has already been an issue I’ve been thinking about as a feminist mother of a boy. It seemed so obvious what to do with a girl, but I was a little nervous about a boy. But I think many of the same dialogues we have with girls, really should be talked about with boy. They can do anything, if they want to sew, sew. If the want to dance, dance. If they want to play sports, that’s fine too. I think it would of been nice for Michael Ian Black talk about gender on a sliding scale like with modern gender theory, but I understand he didn’t want to loose more conservative audiences.

Crafting: I’ve been getting REALLY close to finishing the one cross-stitch for my friend’s baby. He is now turning a year old, so I am rushing to get it done by middle of the month. So hopefully you will see completed photos soon. I will also be making a small cross-stitch for my new niece. It’ll be a simple letter cross-stitch for her nursery. I also made her this beautiful upcycled bonnet. I added it to the shop, which I can custom make in any size.

And on a quick note of OTHER PEOPLE’S crafting- I love the art by Danial Ryan. Also this guy spent forever making this sphere made entirely out of matches. It is interesting to read his experiment, and it is really beautiful looking, especially the burning of it.

Watching: O.J-a-thon! Ugh. Man, I knew O.J sucked, but now I really know he is super terrible. It is also interesting watching because I wonder how different things would be if the trial happened today. Like there was SO much support from the black community. He was the symbol of police brutality against blacks. But since of the Times Up movement, I wonder how many people would of backed him because of his abuse record. ANYWAYS, if you didn’t guess, I finally watched O.J. VS The People. It was pretty crazy to watch. I remember the trial going on when I was little, but not much. Just that it took forever, and I distinctly remember all the jurors being excused.

Naturally my enthusiasm prompted Jon to suggest the 30 for 30: O.J Made in America documentary mini series. It was pretty nice. They did ignore some of the hype that OJ vs The People covered- the hair, the jury, the nude photos, but 30 for 30 does an in-depth look at the race issues in LA and how OJ became famous. Oh and you learn how OJ was a dick BEFORE the trials. Then they covered how he got caught afterwards. It is a little sad to see that some people still have a sour taste in their mouths about “white justice” with O.J. As someone who is mostly removed from the politics of the time, all I see is a man who abused a woman, and got away with it at the time because of his wealth and fame. Such a shame.

Wolfie: Hmm… so much has been going on with our little nugget. Our museum membership ended at the end of February so I headed it one last time with Wolfie. I don’t think he really cared much about the actual art, but he liked exploring the city and playing with his food at The Tasty. My sister also came down from Brooklyn to hang with him. We took a brief trip to the Grounds for Sculpture and as always he loved doing some light walking and looking all around.

He is also getting some molar teeth. Poor kiddo. Some days he seems totally find and cool, and other days he will wake up from nap time in absolute tears. It is very odd since it skipped a bunch of other teeth, so now he has 6 teeth on top, three on the bottom. So weird. 9 teeth in total.

New hobbies? He now holds onto his head for Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (btw why did they animate a kid who ISN’T doing the dance?!) and he also waves his hands to the song Down By the Bay. He is also starting the bad habit of watching TV. Towards the end of the day, yeah I’m guilty. I just want to sit for a little bit. So I usually put something on for me, and figure Woflie will do his own thing. Well, he has been sitting and watching maybe at the max 10 minutes of the screen, usually Planet Earth. So, I gotta keep an eye on that.

Exercise: I was doing pretty well with the Winter Shape Up program, but kind-of fizzled out during the last week. But I my goal next month is to try and run more with Gavin before his afternoon nap, so I can shower while he is asleep.

But I have a few interesting articles. My sister sent this article about the sexual history behind barre fitness. She mainly sent it as we were talking about it, I liked it but only do barre inspired youtube videos because of the vibe that classes get. I think maybe we should be talking about the link with sex and fitness more, especially for women it can be helpful (outside of sexual liberation.) Basically sex is better because of a strong pelvic floor muscle, and if you know anything about childbirth- YOU WANT A STRONG PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLE! If I’ve learned anything from The Complete Guide to Postnatal Fitness is that kegals are a little more complicated than what most descriptions explain. It is an embarrassing thing, and a lot of Mother’s don’t talk about it. For many people, it goes away. For some people it is a consistent problem ranging from just a little pee to complete incontinence.

I also enjoyed this youtube exercise video roundup from Cup of Jo. I love her summaries- and makes me want to try some of these workouts. I wanna push those leaves out of my way for the “mountain climbing” workout, or just oggle at Jane Fonda’s lace body suit. Man I need that. But she tries out on of my favorite YouTubers Yoga With Adriene.

Listening: I was a big fan of Stuff Mom Never Told You when Cristen and Caroline were the hosts. The current hosts I am not in love with, but I still give a listen (most podcast hosts need to grow on you, right?) Well Cristen and Caroline have a new podcast! Unladylike! I am already in love, especially since there is a lot more solid editing going on with the episodes. So far I’ve listened to How to Ride a Bike and How to Get a Yoga Body.

What’s your favorite thing about this month?


Well, it is the end of January and it was just as hectic as last month. We spent most of the month without a washer, so I had to schlepp Wolfie and the laundry to my in-laws and my sister’s house to get it done. Then my shoulders and neck muscles were strained and I couldn’t pick up Wolfie, and when I was JUUUUUST about well enough to start to pick him up again, my husband got the flu. And then Wolfie got a cold. And just as Wolfie’s cough is under control- I am pretty sure I got a cold. So- you know- cool. Oh no wait- Jon has the cold now. *sigh*

Well, the month is over and we are just crossing our fingers for a mellow month.

Reading: I started this year with a LOOONG book, so it isn’t helping my reading challenge stats. XD I am reading The Magicians. I talked about how I watched the SyFy series, and didn’t like it at first, but I eventually got hooked (like all SyFy series.) Part of the reason I bothered to pick up the book was that I remember reading about how they switched a lot of thing around in the book and the show to tell the story. One thing I noticed was how much they tried to diversify the series. Some characters were clearly white, but they switched their ethnicities. The show also tried to include more women and made them more dynamic. I am about halfway through and it is JUST getting to the juicy part, so I guess I will have a better idea of if i liked the book next month.

Watching: We are having a total Queen-a-thon by watching The Crown and Victoria. Funny thing is that I don’t care much at all about the monarchy. But I do find it intriguing that it has lasted so long, and I love strong women. It started with Jon wanting to watch The Crown and when I found out that there was a series for Queen Victoria, I thought her life was much more interesting.

Comparing the two I think The Crown is MUCH better. I think they do a better job balancing the personal conflict with the family with political issues of the time. Victoria is a lot more melodramatic, and I don’t think does as good of a job setting up what is going on. Like the first episode Victoria kind-of came off as petty and paranoid, but I later found out WHY she was so distrustful of Sir John Conroy. So there has been a lot of watching Victoria, then listening to episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class.

Exercise: I love doing the Winter and Summer Shape Up programs by Gina Harvey, and this year I wanted to the Winter Shape Up, but because of my neck and shoulder injury I had to wait a week. But I’ve been following the program fairly spot on for the first week. I will hopefully continue with this momentum for the rest of the program.

Eating: I’ve been cooking a lot from Salad Samurai and Great Grains Cookbook to post a review on the blog. I pretty much finished Salad Samurai, but I have one more recipe to make, and I need to return it to my local library. The Great Grains Cookbook still has a lot more to go.

I also been going nuts with Whole Food’s almond milk lattes. I love getting my coffee there because they don’t charge extra for plant milks, and for a whole week they took a dollar off any drinks with their barista-sweetened almond milk! A latte for less than $3?! YES PLEASE! I pretty much went so often I now tallied up a free drink so horray!

And I had my first FitQuick waffle. I bought the double chocolate raspberry since they were on sale (Is Holly discontinuing this?) and ended up being $20 when all said and done with the shipping. I have to say it was strangely nice to make a waffle so fast (I never do mixes) and it was the best waffle I’ve made yet. Clearly we need to cook our waffles longer than the machine is telling us too. The waffle had a little of that powder protein taste, but not much. I just wished for more raspberry and more chocolate flavor.

Podcasts: So it is the new year and everyone is trying to loose weight (oh wait! that’s me!) Although, my goals are mostly to workout more and eat more healthfully (and intuitively) rather than drop a dress size. My favorite podcasts have a few diet-culture episodes that are making me happy. For example Gastropod just released a WHOLE episodes on dieting, but in a very body positive way. They talk to the author of one of my “want to read” books, Calories and Corsets. I think they do a great summary while being sensitive to the body positivity movement.

And if you want to add more to your diet history, you can check out Gastropod’s Calorie episode, Stuff You Missed in History Class’s Linda Hazzard’s Stavation Heights, Sawbone’s The Salisbury Diet, Sawbone’s Weight Loss, and FINALLY Oh No! Ross and Carrie’s Purium Transformation Part 1 and Part 2. Clearly there is the content warning about weight, food, and body image. And a quick little spoiler about the Purim Transformation, Carrie got the test results back, and there is lead in the shakes. Just a little FYI.

Wolfie: As you can see I FINALLY posted his last two month updates on the blog. I don’t know if I will be making posts every month as a summary. Maybe one every six months? A year? Random little life udpates? I don’t know. I also know at some point he will be getting too old for me to invade his privacy like this, so we will see.

BUUUUUTT…. until then let me share a story that will totally embaress Wolfie when he gets older. Now, I know many readers aren’t Mom’s so let start by saying the WHO (World Health Organization) recommends breastfeeding for at least 2 years. This really isn’t common in American society, lots of Mom’s still nurse, but it is kind-of weirdly hush-hush. ANYWHO, I’m still nursing and Wolfie is starting to point at things and go “whaat?” (imagine a little boy saying What like a parrot) Now he is constantly whacking my boobs saying “what?” Progressing more and more- Mommy- Bra- Boob- Nipple- Shield. It’s weird, funny, and creepy all at the same time. But it is a great story to tell his future partners. And to make things weirder- he now can say boob. Luckily this is not his first word- it goes (in order) “All Done,” Ma-ma, Da-da, more, “Brown Bear,” up, what, THEN boob. Thank god.

Crafting: Fell off the “crafting” wagon. I’ve been busy overall, plus there has been some issues with being sick and trouble falling asleep. So after awhile I was nervous it would mess up my sleep. But I saw my basket with all my projects and it is a giant mess. So I am trying to rush with getting my one needlepoint done for a friend, hopefully I will have photos to share next update.

Goals: Well, some goals I am doing well, like I’ve been working out a good bit and trying to eat more healthfully (with varying degrees of success) The whole tea thing was going strong for awhile, but I’ve just been trying to focus on minimal snacking (doing good with limited it to just a few chocolate squares) but some nights my tea is just amari… which isn’t the worst. XD I’ve already fell behind on my cake challenge, but I will probably make up for it by making two next month. Oh well.

What’s your favorite thing this month?


ALMOST got a gift from the William and Sonoma’s Hater’s Gift Guide. Alas, you can only hate on the monogram old fashion/low balls, not the monogram mugs. ^__~ PS I use this mug all the fucking time.

Hey everyone! Remember my last post talking about how rough things were kind-of financially (ie a new car and a large vet bill?) well our washing machine broke on New Years Day! HORRAY! Also Wolfie definitely has a cold. Great way to start the new year right?!

Well, I use to always make a post making various goals for the new year. 2014 was mostly about getting my butt into gears to work on the blog- back when I kind-of did some fashion posts. While 2015 I actually set some specific goals. So that meant that 2016 I reflected on if I kept those goals, or not. But I never posted anything for 2017 because of being busy with Wolfie, but also because of Post Partum Depression. So in that vain I will reflect on my 2016 goals-

Work out More Often – Not really. I think I had a good string going for awhile, but then I got pregnant and had a baby and well, you will see below

Start Practicing Yoga and Meditating – Nope. Not even close.

Stop Late Night Binge Eating – Not really, mostly because once I started to nurse I would have to cram calories in my mouth so eating a late night snack became common place again.

Read 28 Books – I got close! I read 24 books.

Start trying to get pregnant – accomplished

Buy a second couch – This never happened in part because my husband REALLY wants to get a new one. He has been dragging his feet about getting a second hand couch from the restore. Little does he know this meant that he won’t be getting a second couch until our child(ren) are less disgusting.

Hike More – Aside from the whole baby thing- I think we hiked a little more? I definitely took much more frequent daily walks

Visit a new vegan restaurant with Alexa once a month – This didn’t happen at all.

Watch a Movie Once a Week – This didn’t happen at all either

Start working towards the goal of being a Dietitian or Wellness Coach – Hey look another goal that didn’t happen! As I did more research about becoming a registered dietitian I became more confused if it was something I wanted to do. I am still kind-of confused of what direction I would like to take my career.

Goals for 2018

Workout and Run More Often

Surprise, surprise. This makes the list again. But unlike my previous goals, this one REALLY is essential. I have pretty much cut out exercise from my life and that is bad. I was at one point walking everyday about a mile or two around the neighborhood, but stopped since it has been really cold. Recently I had a few nights where I tossed and turned for hours getting only 3-4 hours of sleep, and I never had that problem. I am fairly certain it has to do with extra energy (a long with other stressors)

Photograph More

I was thinking about doing a Photo a Day challenge again, but I already forgot to take a photo on day one. Oops. But I haven’t been using my SLR camera much, and I would like to start using it again and playing around with the settings. I’ve gotten out of the habit since Wolfie is a little handful. Maybe start a photos of the month post?

Have a Cup of Tea Every Night

This was actually a goal from 2015, and I think it would be nice to bring back. It is nice a relaxing and will help curb my habit of a late night snack. It is important to get rid of the late night snack because I am not nursing a whole lot less. 

Get a New Job

I have been wondering what to do for a living for awhile now. I went to school for Film, thinking I would spend my life working on movies and such. But I decided sitting in front of a computer wasn’t what I was passionate about, and there was a lot of competition in the field. And even now I can’t decide what I want to do. I love food but I know it is market that is hard work. I love my job as a framer but it doesn’t pay the bills, and I can never REALLY work full time there. So I am going to try to either get hired at another place, or find another source of income as self employed.

Try and Lose Weight

This has been a topic that I’ve been thinking a lot about. I try and be very body positive and fat positive. I am not fat, but I try and keep negative fat talk out of my language. But I can’t help but want to loose some of the baby weight I’ve gained, and maybe some more. I have so many clothes that I don’t fit into anymore, and that bothers me. I know I am not going to fit into everything, but I would like to try to loose some. I won’t be going crazy with the dieting, and some of my goals are well intentioned. I want to work out more (read above) and eat more healthfully, which I kind-of don’t anymore. These are my two main ways of trying to loose weight, so that’s good right? I am also going to work on not putting myself down if I fall short on this goal.

Read 20 Books

I think I always set book goals because of Goodreads. I like to read but I am a slow reader. I thought I was going to read SOO many books in 2017 because of nursing. But that didn’t happen. Instead of reading while nursing I was more likely to play games and scroll instagram on my iphone. But now that I am sleeping more regularly I am getting in more reading time before bed. So maybe setting the goal of 20 books isn’t so crazy. If you are curious you can check out my reading summaries from previous years.

Goodreads: 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009

Bake at Lest ONE Successful Cake a Month

See not that devoted to the whole diet thing. XD As mentioned I wanted to continue my American Cakes concept for Vegan MOFO (maybe doing some American pies) so I want to get a jump start so I don’t go into a sugar coma when it comes time. I have a few I already have ALMOST ready, just need a few extra tweaks and photos

More Cookbook, Restaurant, and Recipe Reviews

I might not have THAT many new restaurant review since I am a little broke, but I can do more recipe round ups and cookbook reviews. I miss doing them, plus it really helped me make the most of my cookbooks. I have a few I haven’t even TOUCHED since receiving them. Making these reviews help me delve deeper into them.

Be More Patient with Wolfie

I’ve been very quick to get angry lately with Wolfie. It might be because he secretly has been sick for the past two weeks. Regardless he is getting older and how I react will seem normal, and therefore he might grow up to be more short tempered. Ugh. Being a parent sucks, being accountable for your actions. Plus, if I am lucky, we might do potty training this year so… that will need lots of patience.

Update this layout!

My husband and I say it every year- make a new layout- update the blog- do more with it. And we never do. THIS WILL BE THE YEAR! I want a new layout that looks a little more professional. I also want to up my SEO game, because I write posts that I DO WANT PEOPLE TO READ. Sometimes I don’t care about hits and traffic, but then there are few posts that I think can be really helpful to people and I wish they could find them. I don’t want my layout to be 100% cookie cutter, but I would like to have look a little cleaner, plus I never really finished editing this layout to begin with.

So what about you guys? Any plans or goals for 2018?


Gosh talk about Vegan MOFO drop off! Okay so I posted quite a bit RIGHT after Vegan MOFO, but only posted ONCE in December. Yikes. I mean, it was about tacos, everyone loves tacos right? But I figured I would keep people in the loop about what the heck has been going on.

For starters it goes without saying that I’ve been busy this holiday season. Thanksgiving, Wolfie’s Birthday, and a Christmas marathon. And I am sure every parent know this- but once kids in the mix, Christmas ramps up to new levels of crazy. On top of the expected craziness we had two major life blips. Let’s start with the less sad-

THE CAR: We had two cars, one is nice and decent, the other is a disaster. It was never a nice car, it accelerated slowly, braked slowly, and had lots poor design feature. Mainly that when it rained sometimes the water would leak through the inside. We had a bucket to catch said rain water. It was 14 years old, and we were reaching that point of should we or shouldn’t we pay for any sort of repair. Sadly we reached a point where the most recent repair didn’t work, and the check engine light wouldn’t go off. It ran, but there was a scheduled state inspection and if the check engine light is on you don’t pass. This happened two weeks before the deadline. We had no choice but to get a new car.

This cut into our time and finances as we were not ready to buy a new car. Which sucks. And this has been all watered down from all the little details of suckatude. The summary is that we ALMOST could of gotten away with driving our crummy Dodge Neon for a little longer. But we didn’t.

Toulouse sitting on wrapping paper like the good old days- and sporting her new hair cut

TOULOUSE: I don’t post as much about her, but Toulouse is an important member of our family. Like parents do with their children- Jon mixes up Toulouse’s name with Wolfie’s all the time. Instagram followers may have noticed that I posted recently about my cat. She wasn’t eating which is rare because she is normally meowing up a storm and begging non-stop.

We went to the vet and got blood work done. She had INSANELY high levels of a toxins in her body. I can’t remember the specifics but when I first wrote the numbers down they were so far fetched I thought I misheard him. The vet even said he has never seen numbers so high. After much crying and freaking out, we came to the conclusion that we should treat her for kidney inflammation before getting the biopsy results back. We were mentally prepared to put her to sleep.

She almost immediately started to improve. She became a lot more sociable, and slowly gained more and more of her appetite. I didn’t give a big ol’ thumbs up on instagram because I wanted to wait until we got the biopsy to make sure she would be ok. She is. She got pretty much all her blood levels under control. The vet was pretty shocked.

Now, here is the downside. She took a really long time to eat her food last night. We are fearing that her kidney is flaring up again, and that isn’t too far fetched. The vet asked if we had certain medications that she might of eaten that would cause the kidney inflammation. We couldn’t think of a cause, so that left the lingering thought that the trigger would still be around the house. I have a sneaking suspicion it might her Greenies treats. I knew they had recalls in the past, but seeing all the complaints on consumer affairs, it is a little sobering. We always gave her some treats before bed, and didn’t have any troubles. ONCE she vomited from them, we threw the bags out assuming it was a bad batch. I recently got a HUGE tub of them, and I think we got it right when she started to get sick. We just stopped giving them to her. The lack of appetite could just be holiday stress, but we will keep a close eye on her.

THANKSGIVING: I didn’t really talk about Thanksgiving so I will keep a small summary of what we made. We had a low key Thanksgiving at our house with my Mother and Father in Law. We made:

Thanksgiving went well. Wolfie seemed to like all the different Thanksgiving foods, until we gave him the cranberry sauce. Oh boy. I regret that. Afterwards that is all he wanted. He was not happy, and at one point we had to mix the sauce with all the other food and spoon feed it to him. I also remember him going to bed pretty early, and we showed off his sleeping skills to his Grandma and Grandpa by falling asleep on his own in the crib.

Walking between apartments in the snow

CHRISTMAS IN BROOKLYN: This is the second longest trip Wolfie has taken. Much shorter than traveling deep into Long Island to Amityville, but still pretty long. We went into my parent’s car again, and drove through the snow. We had SOOOO much packed! Much more than what I would normally bring. We had lots of food, gifts, but the biggest thing was the stroller. We were going to stop by my sister’s new apartment (which is cute as a fuckin button) for appetizers then walk to my Aunt’s for the main course. That meant walking in the snow with Wolfie. It was both a pain and a little magical. Hopefully in a year or two he will be making a trip up to Brooklyn to visit his Aunt to check out all the fun Christmas stuff in NYC, the mainstream Rockefeller Center and the lesser known Dyker Heights.

It turned out to be a pretty nice trip. It was a nice practice run to see how Wolfie would react to bigger crowds. He was going to have lots of family at his birthday party, on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. He seemed pretty chill with everyone, and I think there were enough people he knew that he felt comfortable. The downside was that on the ride home it took him awhile to fall asleep. My Father is a little foot heavy on the gas and breaks so he would periodically wake up on the ride home- plus the salting vehicles are clearly being driven by mad men.

Early Christmas presents

But let’s be real- what did we eat?! Well I made the Welsh Rarebit casserole from Vegan Casseroles. I have to say I was really surprised by how good it turned out! I was scared it would be terrible because the bread went stale- yikes, and I made the sauce ahead of time and it was super solid. But it all worked out. Some people didn’t like it though, the beer I picked out was VERY hoppy and bitter. I made the Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, and Grape Quinoa Salad from The Full Helping. If you are going to make a salad for a big party- this is a great one! I can’t remember if I doubled the recipe or not, but we had leftovers. I probably would of spent more time roasting the veggies, they were a little underdone. But the leftovers kept well, and it was easy to mix together the day of to bring up. Then for dessert I slaved away making the Beer Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Tart from Vegan Pie in the Sky. If you are thinking that you’ve never heard of that recipe that is because it is a modified recipe from the Salted Chocolate Caramel Tart. I don’t like to toot my own horn but I think this was the star of the party. Though I am not sure if I’ll be making it again anytime soon. It took a lot of time to make the crust and caramel. Lots of time spent on setting and waiting.

WOLFIE’S BIRTHDAY: I am hoping to write up a long post about the party for the blog. I think it was fun, and it would be nice to talk about hosting an all vegan party with people who might not dig all vegan food. What I can say is that everyone loved the cake! And I am waiting for my Father in Law to go through the photos on his camera. I forgot to put my memory card into mine. Yikes!

ILLNESS: Oh boy. There were a few people who came to Wolfie’s party who were almost over a cold. It wasn’t that big of a deal really. But then Jon got sick. It was a pretty mild cold. No big deal. Then I got sick. Still, no biggie, mild cold right? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I got so sick. I later found out that my Mother in Law got the same bad cold as well. And since it was the holiday season it just lingered. I was sick, and so anxious about all the things I had to do, cooking, wrapping, etc that I spent three nights in a row tossing and turning until 2-3 in the morning, and waking up between 5-6 for Wolfie. It was awful. I am just getting over it, so it has been over a week. Now my husband has the cold so, you know. Not fun.

Wolfie gets some cousin time on Christmas Eve. Take note of his hands- he is signing more… I guess more xylophone time plz

CHRISTMAS EVE & DAY: Well, since I was sick I skipped out Christmas Eve get together. Bummer. But I still spent the morning cooking, oddly. I kept it simple and made a Martha Washington Great Cake from American Cakes, but it crumbled out of the cake tin. It tasted awesome, but I need to tweak the recipe I guess. So I scrambled to make a Derby Pie from La Dolce Vegan! Let me tell you- it is a very ugly pie but soooo yummy! I also made the Tempeh Sweet Potato Shepards Pie from Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook. I didn’t try the pies until the next day, but both were amazing. Since I wasn’t there I only heard stories about what went on including a giant cousin bath tub session, Wolfie stealing a pacifier out of someone’s mouth, and kids dropping the f-bomb. 

Christmas Morning my Mother and Father in Law came over. We ended up having a bunch with leftover Tempeh Sweet Potato Pie and Tofu Scramble from Oh She Glows. I made Norske Kanelsnurrer (Norwegian Cinnamon Buns) from Seitan is my Motar. I liked how they weren’t as sweet and sticky as tradional buns, but I didn’t like how I couldn’t let it rise overnight. I can tweak the recipe, I am sure, but otherwise we didn’t get to eat these until past noon, past brunching time.

This was the first year I hosted Christmas dinner with MY side of the family. Usually we would spend Christmas morning with at my sister’s with my immediate family, then dinner with Jon’s parents. But we switched it around this year now that we have lil Wolfie. It occurred to me that Jon’s parents could stay for dinner, so they left so my family can exchange gifts, then came back for the dinner. So, I think we can say my family isn’t too keen on holiday foods. Like we have nothing against it, but we aren’t against straying away from it. So we ended up doing Indian food for dinner. My sister made some chicken dish (like a butter chicken), brought some frozen naan and samosas. My mother made the Makhani cauliflower dish from Vegan Richa and a spiced rice dish with peas. While I made masoor dal tadka via slow cooker and the famous Mango Tofu Curry. We were going to make more but forgot- got lazy- dunno. But we had plenty for 9 adults, and 3 children. It was pretty yummy. Dessert was pretty laid back, just cookies from my sister, and leftover derby pie.


What a crummy start to this new chapter of Wolfie’s life. The Monday after turning four months there was a gloriously perfect day! Wolfie slept for an hour and half in the morning and in the afternoon, and slept through the night. The next morning I woke up to people working my roof. The guys start from 8 in the morning to 7 at night. It was AWFUL! I was starting to get into a groove with Wolfie, wake up at 7, eat, play, eat, sleep after 2 hours. But it was more like eat, rush around packing things, eat, run to my in-laws, unpack, eat, try to sleep, fail, eat, play, eat, try to sleep, fail, eat, get fed up, go for a ride, well you get the idea. And getting home wasn’t so great. Wolfie wasn’t bothered by the banging, but they were working on the roof while I was rocking him to sleep! They are done and we have a nice new roof so I am happy.

Wolfie celebrated his first Easter. We aren’t very religious and Jon and I have a particular irk about Easter. So we had a low key Easter dinner with his parents. We tried to dress him up a little but he spit up on his clothes right as I took out the camera. haha. It should be interesting how we handle the whole Easter thing next year when he is a little older.

Wolfie’s sleep as always is all over the place. At one point he was falling asleep all by himself at night and IT WAS AWESOME! He was even sleeping through the night. Then he randomly decided he wanted someone to walk him to sleep, and he would wake up in the middle of the night. I eventually told my husband that something had to give. I couldn’t be up at night AND struggle to get him to nap during the day. He also getting better as staying awake in the car and the stroller. Eek!

So we had him cry it out. It sucked the first night. It took an hour and ten minutes of crying before he fell asleep. The only good thing was that unlike most babies, he cried a lot less the second night. Now he mostly does a protest squawk then starts dozing off. We also had to do this since he wasn’t a fan of the crib. We are still working on the transition as we try and get him to sleep in the crib for naps. Ugh.

The worst was the heat waves. His head would sweat while I rocked him to sleep then stick to my arm when I put him in his bed. This caused him to wake up and then get no sleep. AWFUL! Since we are trying to get him to sleep on his own, one night he cried for 45 minute which was odd since he was starting to just sleep without any crying. We had to feed him some cold formula and bring in the BIG fan in his room. Instantly fell asleep after we did that.

And since the heatwave was so bad we started him on solids. Pretty much he didn’t want to breastfeed because it was way too hot to be held. When I would go into cooler rooms he just wanted to look around. It was so frustrating. At that point it JUST hit 5 months so I thought- why the hell not? And you know he really liked it.

In my usual fashion I forgot to keep working on this post as the month went by. Ack! So the past few weeks are much fresher in my memory. The food- the sleep- mother’s day- first CSA visit! So I will let this post be insanely short.


Ways Wolfies is Really A Wolfie

  • He drools all over the place
  • Sometimes he spits up on his toys then sucks off the spit up. Gross
  • The cat is kind-of scared of him
  • People tell him he is “such a good boy”
  • We are teaching him how to roll over

Oh boy. Things are moving fast. Wolfi is starting to be a little more FUN. Less dangling of toys and more efforts from his part. He was trying really hard to grab things and put them in his mouth, but his eye hand coordination wasn’t the greatest. But my sister suggested I buy a play mat at a second hand consignment shop. Luckily I found this cute space themed one, and after setting it up, almost immediately Wolfie started to reach for the dangling toys.

Most of his time is spent trying to shove things in his mouth. Yup, we are in the early stages of teething. There are rings of spit around his neck, and his gums were red and sore. He didn’t want to eat and could barely sleep. It was sooo awful. One night I didn’t sleep longer than 2 hours at a time. The pressure on his teeth has curbed a little, but we still don’t see any teeth yet.

Aunt Justine watched Gavin one night so Jon and I could have a “date night.” He slept like a lil angel for her.

Even though he was having a hard time sleeping, he is now sleeps for most of the night. We are ranging from seven hours all the way to eleven and half hours! Whoo! Mama’s getting almost eight hours of a sleep consistently. Hell, one night I got NINE hours of sleep. It was glorious. Even his daytime naps have been better as well. Most of the time little Wolfie is sleeping 30 minutes, but one week he consistently slept 30 minutes then a longer nap later. Do we have days where he gets no sleep? You bet.

Some good news for my buff new mom arms- Wolfie weighted 15lbs, 10oz, putting him in the 50th percentile. Which means his growth is overall slowing down! Horray! He was starting to get a little hard to manage, but if he growing slower I am sure it will be easier over time.

This month has been both exciting and uneventful all at the same time. Although Wolfie is growing and learning, it is hard to pin-point his skills outside of “better.” He can grab things more tactfully, he can babbles more frequently, etc. But I do have one very interesting story.

See my husband almost always had a little help from me in the mornings. So when Wolfie was first born he had to do everything himself so I could feed him or sleep. He got the hang of it all but still couldn’t make the time for shaving. So he just grew a beard. No biggie. It was winter and it was cold. Now he thought that spring is coming and we have a better handle on things- it was time to shave.

In the middle of his shave job I had to do something (use the bathroom? eat? I don’t know anymore) so I asked if he could hold the lil Wolf for a second. Next thing I know he comes out of the bathroom with a 70’s stache. Holy cow did Wolfie hate it! He gave his Daddy a look and burst into tears. Clearly were were evil parents and torchered him long enough to capture the moment. Don’t worry, Jon shaved the rest of the hair and Wolfie recognized his Daddy again.


Man, what a month this has been. It feels like it flew by but I think it’s mostly because I wrote his “2 month” post pretty late, so it FEELS like the month was just between baby posts. I said it once and I’ll say it again, each day he becomes more and more human like and more and more massive. 

Wolfie is now becoming an infant- not a newborn, but a full blown functioning baby. It’s pretty exciting! The crying is much less, he tries to talk, grabs things, and is drooling…a lot. The scary thing is how fast he is growing. I think I can say he is growing at a not-so-normal pace. He is now wearing 6-9 month clothing…. at 3 months! I could kind-of wrap my head around him wearing 3-6 month clothing at 2 months. I mean that isn’t too far away, right!? It was just a few weeks early! Today I grabbed a footsie jammie that was warmer but larger in size since it has been pretty cold. I figured it would be baggy on him, but it actually fit really nicely. At this rate he will be a full grown adult by the end of the year.

It is too early to be happy about booze.

All of his rapid growing has actually taken a toll on me. I guess little Wolfie is growing so fast that he has been waking up after only 4 hours of sleep for midnight feedings. This led to me being sleep-deprived, and a sleep-deprived me leads to crying me. At one point I went out for grocery shopping, and it was just a bad day. I was expecting a day off from watching Wolfie, but my Mom cancelled. I didn’t get any continuous sleep like I normally get. And it was incredibly windy so that Wolfie was constantly crying inbetween the car and the stores. It became clear that he wasn’t going to stop freaking out, and I started to get upset that I couldn’t even go grocery shopping. I had lots of produce and bagels, and couldn’t put them back so I went to pay for them. The cashier asked how I was doing, and I just lost it. I started crying, and the poor guy had to deal with a crying baby and a crying Mom. I feel as though I must not be the only Mom to have a meltdown, which helped me to feel better again. I figured I would try and make the trip again for the rest of the groceries, and it was MUCH more succesful.

Wolfie has discovered the joys of shoving things into his mouth. Too bad he isn’t very good at holding things and putting them into it.

I have to say though, Wolfie is a champion sleeper at night, just a crummy napper (10 hours and 20 minutes of solid sleep!). In fact the napping gets worse everyday. I rock him for 30 minutes, and he only sleeps 30 minutes. And it is just getting to the point of him getting too big to hold for long periods of time. Worse yet, he is such a light sleeper that transferring him from my arms to the bed usually wakes him up. So I have been trying to get him to cry it out to help him learn how to fall asleep on his own.

Let me tell you guys… it sucks!!!

Wolfie is getting really good at holding things. He also likes to munch on the dino horn.

I know most doctors say it doesn’t hurt the baby. Many people compare it to driving around in a car. You don’t stop the car, and hold your baby till he stops crying. You keep going until you get what you need done. But there is something awful of just sitting around waiting for him to stop crying. In fact this is the first time I waited long enough for him to fall asleep. It felt awful. I hope his crying lessens and lessens ’till I can just put him down. He would be such a happy baby if he just naps for an hour twice a day. YOU HEAR THAT WOLFIE?! THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO DO!

Overall I am feeling much better. Maybe it is medication, maybe it is the therapy, or just getting more sleep. I am getting all those squishy baby feels, and I am not getting all excited about seeing other people’s babies (who am I?) The other day I caught myself just walking around with Wolfie for an hour and enjoying it. I think it helps that I am getting out more.

This photo was taken the day after Alexa visited. This lil man is pissed that she’s gone.

Oh and Wolfie (finally) got to meet his Aunt Alexa! I think he was thrown off by her pink hair XD. The visit was great for me, since it has been forever that I’ve hung out with people my age, well, I’ve been hanging with my friend Justine a few times. We tried out a restaurant that will hopefully get posted. Also Alexa will be proofing my posts since I am too tired to notice run-on sentences and misspelled words. 

*Editor’s Note (aka Alexa’s note): Guys I am SO IN LOVE with Jen’s lil’ Wolfie. He’s so lucky to have such a great mama and dad on his life and I hope I get to squish his baby face again soon!!!*