A Day in the Life

Happy New Year! (Alternate Title: I got LASIK!)

2012-01-08T14:32:00.002-05:00

Well, 2012 is here! I think one of the biggest changes for me personally this year has already happened.

I've had glasses or contacts for a long time - since I think 3rd grade (maybe 4th?) and while I have been VERY grateful that glasses and contacts exist, they aren't perfect. With glasses, they get dirty, you basically have no peripheral vision, every time it rains you get water on them, they slide down your nose......and so on. I stopped trying to wear contacts because they would only be comfortable until about dinnertime and I'd have to switch to glasses anyway, you weren't supposed to swim in them, and it was a pain to put them in....and so on.

So, when my eye doctor suggested to me that my vision was likely correctable through LASIK surgery, I was very interested! (And actually MOST vision problems can be corrected through the procedure, including many with astigmatism - the technology has gotten very good!)

We started investigating pricing, and different LASIK providers/surgeons to try to figure out where to go. As far as I could figure out - the biggie is to make sure that they open the "flap" with bladeless technology (a laser) and that they do a "custom" laser for the actual treatment laser. If you want more info about the actual ins and outs of the process, you'll have to google it - this is just my basic synopsis.

We went through Lasik Plus, which I understand has offices in many locations - there were 3 cities within 2 hours of us that we could have chosen from (we picked the office that google maps said was fewer miles away!). The initial exam was free - they measured my cornea to see if it was thick enough to do the treatment and did various other tests, compared my glasses prescription to my current eye strength, and answered some questions about the procedure. I was proclaimed "a great candidate!" and we went ahead and set the treatment date for 1 week from my first exam!

They send you home with a looooong list of potential problems and side effects that are POSSIBLE, even though the actual likelihood of having problems is extremely small. So, I planned out the weeks following making sure I had easy-to-cook meals in mind that wouldn't be too hard to fix if I had dry, irritated eyes, or if my eyes were tearing uncontrollably or some other such thing. I did all the grocery shopping, and in fact, I WILL NOT HAVE TO GO GROCERY SHOPPING AGAIN UNTIL NEXT SUNDAY!! :-) I made sure all the house cleaning was done and the laundry caught up.....just in case.... I was pretty nervous about the unknown, but deep down I was quite assured that all would turn out just fine, and the only side effect I'd experience from the surgery, if you can call it such, would be 20/20 vision! But still.....I was excited AND nervous all week.

So Friday came, the day of my LASIK surgery. I asked my husband to take my picture in front of the doctor's office door wearing glasses for hopefully the last time! (They have said that most people still need to get reading glasses around the age of 40 - but I'm hoping they may come up with new technology by the time I get to that point!) They give me another DVD to watch talking about post treatment care, I sign a LOT of paperwork, we pay, buy the fancy eyedrops they want you to use, they give me the Valium (so I am relaxed during the procedure, and am able to nap for the first 4 hours afterward) and then the Doctor calls me back to ask if I have any more questions, double check my prescription before they put the laser to my eyes, and then we go back to meet the laser surgeon. I get a hairnet to put on, the surgeon asked if I had any more questions, and then I followed them into the laser suite.

I was only in there for the actual laser treatment maybe 5-10 minutes tops. It was not painful to have it done. But how I wish I had better prepared myself for the actual procedure. It was pretty freaky to follow the nurse into the chair without my glasses (I couldn't see where I was going!) and not know what was going to happen next. That was TOTALLY my fault, because I SHOULD have asked more questions about the specific procedure, but I was thinking that "well, it won't last that long, it will be terrible/unpleasant no matter what, so I will be better off not knowing what's going to happen." I had plenty of opportunity to ask questions about the procedure and even could have watched the person that went before me through a window! I wish I had done that. I also wish that the Valium would have had more time to kick in! Even so, I'd do it again.

I don't know if the exact procedure is the same everywhere, but for me they had me walk in and lay down under the first laser, where they gave me numbing eye drops and then placed a "thing" on my eye (one eye at a time) to keep my eyelid open and they then created the "flap". I was disconcerted because I know at the dentist if you can feel it, you want to be sure the dentist knows!! Well, it was super uncomfortable to have that eyelid-holder-open-thingy in so when the surgeon asked "are you ok?" I said no! Anyway, I figured out that that part was just going to feel super weird, and got over it. It did not hurt even a little to have the actual laser flap created, aside from some bright light. Then the other freaky thing happens: your vision goes dark for just a moment (they do warn you about this). So then they repeat the process on the other eye: now the flaps are done. For me that was the worst part, which really only took like 3-5 minutes, tops? It was kind of alarming to know that after my flaps were made that I was to stand up and walk to the next laser machine. I had assumed that once the flaps were made that I'd have to stay still - but no, I was allowed to walk and blink, eyes open or not it didn't matter! The actual laser treatment was super easy. Same feeling of that eyelid-holder-open-thing, and keep focused on the red light for just seconds (they told me this was 9 seconds). There was a slight burnt-hair smell, and then that eye was done: the surgeon replaced the flap, kind of dabbed around my eye, put more drops in, and done! Repeat for other eye.

I was shocked when they told me I was already done! My vision was already more clear, though certainly not at all perfect, still very blurry. The surgeon looked at my eyes through a special machine, told me that the procedure went very well, gave me a pair of sunglasses, and told me to go home and take a nap. So my husband walked me to the car, and I propped myself up with pillows and rested for the 1.5 hour drive home, which I have almost no recollection of, because I was sleeping. I do know that my eyes watered a lot, and that anytime I tried to open my eyes the sun was so bright that I just decided to keep them shut, but they did not hurt. I never had any pain throughout the whole thing - the most discomfort was the feeling of a dirty contact, but even that was gone after I took my nap when I got home. My vision was still blurry after the nap, but clearer already. I had a lot of "halo" or glare around lights, which they told me to expect.

The next morning I woke up and headed to get ready to go (I had a follow-up appointment that we had to leave the house at 6:30am!). Matt asked me how my eyes were and I wasn't sure how to answer him. It seemed too good to be true....but I could see almost perfectly! Just a little halo still around lights, but I had peripheral vision! I could see the clock across the room! At my follow-up visit, when they checked my vision they said it was even better than 20/20, 20/15!

I have to put medicated eyedrops in at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime for the first week after surgery, and wear goggles to sleep for the first 3 nights. No rubbing the eyes or water in the eyes for the first week. I also have some artificial tears to put in about every hour or as needed. I have these really ugly looking red marks all around the whites of my eyes, which they say will be completely gone in 2 weeks. But no pain!!

I am writing this post on the Sunday after my LASIK procedure. The halo effect around lights is almost completely gone and I am floored at the difference in clarity in normal everyday things that I hadn't noticed in such detail before: the threads in the tablecloth, the grain in the wood on the floor - details in twigs in faraway trees, and best of all peripheral vision to be able to notice when my 2 year old is getting ready to smear mashed potatoes on my arm at dinner! At this point, I am very very glad I did it, and having seen such amazing early results (My vision should continue to improve slightly over the next 3 months) and if I had it to do all over again, I would gladly undergo the procedure, freaky as it was. Two things would have helped: more knowledge of the actual process, and allowing the Valium to set in better! But I am so glad I did it.

Now, at the place where I went they offer a lifetime enhancement - which basically means that if my vision gets worse over time, that they'll redo the LASIK again for free. In order to keep that, I am required to go back in a week, in a month, and then in at 3 months. Then I'm good to go!

I'm looking forward to life without glasses or contacts, and really great vision! Can't wait to go swimming with the kids without worrying about losing my glasses, or trying not to get water on my contacts. Looking forward to not having to clean fingerprints off of my glasses, being able to see the time if I wake up in the middle of the night....so many things! So I'm glad I did it, glad that the technology was available, and I am thankful that God allowed my eyes to heal so quickly!

Grains?

2011-03-17T13:57:00.002-04:00

So I think I mentioned that now that the "food challenge" is over, that we'd be eating grains, infrequently, and only if whole grain, and only if prepared by soaking to neutralize phytates and other harmful antinutrients they contain. (at home.....anywhere else, almost anything is fair game)

Well...it is extremely difficult to get anything good to come from 100% whole wheat flour! I tried soaked biscuits (tough, crumbly......almost a waste of jam) I tried sourdough bread, and while the flavor was excellent, the texture of the loaf was, well - bricklike. Not exactly desirable for a loaf of bread! The banana bread I made was pretty decent, actually, and really, the whole wheat sourdough waffles were super good - but even if it all tasted amazing and it all had perfect texture....I'm actually not convinced that grains really DO have a place in our diet!

Surprised? Me too.

Because on every day that I consumed whole wheat, I was exhausted! I mean, ready for bed at 7pm, take a nap in the morning while the kids watch cartoons, and maybe even sneak a nap in the afternoon! This is not me, people - I had not taken a nap in I don't know when.

I sure wasn't expecting to find that my 24 hour, buttermilk-soaked, whole-grain baked goods were making me sleepy and lethargic, but that's what happened.

I can't really imagine any special occasion where a breakfast of sleep-inducing waffles is a good idea. I mean, for most special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, or whatever) you have plenty of other things other than eating and sleeping planned, right? If eating grains makes me sleepy, which it appears to, I really would be wise to avoid the stuff, altogether.

Too bad, I was really hoping to enjoy an occasional whole-wheat baked good. But really, I'm not sure if the words "enjoy" and "whole wheat" really even belong in the same sentence. If I'm going to eat grain, give me unbleached all purpose white flour. At least I can make some amazingly delicious biscuits and sausage gravy with the stuff. Occasionally, and only on days when I don't mind if eating breakfast makes me sleepy. ha!

Food Challenge Menus Posted in February

2011-03-03T07:11:00.003-05:00

For reasons not quite understood by me, when I posted the week-by-week recount of what we actually ate during February, rather than posting in March, it dropped the posts in February.

So if you're considering giving no grains, no legumes, no sugar a try - and want to see what my family ate for Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Supper - for 28 days, just scroll down a bunch, and you can read that stuff. Otherwise - I'd skip it - it's pretty boring stuff!

But, I do recommend giving this a try. I'd say it was a very healthy way to lose some extra weight, we noticed great alertness and energy levels, and greater intestinal comfort.

We're making every effort, even after the challenge, to significantly limit consumption of grains, legumes, and sugar. In general, we intend to go without it, except for specially planned treats, or as guests we will gladly eat what is offered.

Food Challenge Summary

2011-03-01T07:42:00.002-05:00

For the month of February, my family challenged ourselves to eat no sugar, no grains, plenty of healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, meats, and drink unsweetened beverages.

It went quite well.

We tried a lot of new recipes, which for the most part were very tasty.
We gained a new appreciation of what it means to have "dessert" - as an occasional treat, not a daily occurance, and even then, being super-sweetened isn't necessary.
My husband who's been accustomed to drinking sweet tea every day of his life, has switched (happily, even) to unsweetened tea - and has plans to continue this!
I've become more aware of the importance of consuming fat - for cellular health, for being able to use fat-soluble vitamins, and the realization that without consuming fat, your body senses the need to store it. Not to mention that plenty of healthy fats are essential, necessary, vitally important to raise healthy children. I'm also more aware of how various fats and oils are produced, and have a better understanding of which ones are most healthful to use.
My husband and I have lost inches off of our waist and hips. Effortlessly - we did not increase our exercise levels in the slightest.
I've been motivated to source whole milk for our family, and have begun milking our goats.
We now notice how SUPER sweet a soda pop is. Maybe even sickeningly sweet....before it was just a normal, every now and then drink.
Fruit salad tastes sweet without sugar.
I'm very excited about the gardening season so I can grow and try new vegetables to get a variety in our meals. Brussels sprouts, beets, asparagus, kale, chard - I'm actually looking forward to preparing these veggies, and eating them!
I've become a better meal-planner, and become better at sourcing the least expensive, yet high nutritive value foods.
There are probably more, but these are the ones I can remember easily. Both myself and my husband have talked about the changes we made, and felt glad for having done it.

Will we continue eating the same way? In a word, no - but there's more to it than that. We did notice digestive and energy level upset when we consumed sugar or grains. We are absolutely going to minimize the frequency of consuming those items, and change the methods we use to prepare them, but not rule them out on a regular basis. Even for the duration of the challenge, we still ate those things when we were offered them by others, either as guests or if given gifts of food - and we'll certainly continue that.

Some basic changes we plan to put into place:

eating grain and sugar free at breakfast throughout the week, but enjoying a serving of special things on the weekends, but in smart quantities. Maybe on Saturday and Sunday we'll have a slice of banana bread with our fruit and sausage and eggs, or maybe a cinnamon roll. We'll no longer eat only cinnamon rolls for the entire breakfast meal!
when Lent begins, I intend to stop drinking coffee for the rest of the summer - although I'll carefully consider starting back up in the late fall when cold weather returns.
when we consume baked goods, they'll be prepared carefully - soaked for 12-24 hours to neutralize phytates and enzyme-inhibitors, and they'll be eaten with moderation.
I'll aim to avoid white sugar altogether - we have real maple syrup, honey, and stevia to use as sweeteners when the natural sweetness of foods isn't enough.
We're now using olive oil, lard, butter, and coconut oil - avoiding canola, corn, and vegetable oil. Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions, explains why this is a good idea. The next time we take a fat calf in to butcher, I'll ask if we can get the beef tallow.
I'm learning to make real stock on a near-weekly basis, and incorporating it into our meals. It's not that hard, but seriously nutritious and delicious!
I'm going to learn how to make whole grain sourdough bread!
I intend to donate all the unopened pasta boxes that we have in our pantry - those foods have no place in our regular diets. I think pasty pasta might nearly be the definition of empty calories. Yes, we'll still eat the opened packages, but very infrequently.
We'll continue to carefully plan out menus, and I'm going to work hard to try to preserve as much as possible over the summer in the freezer to help with the cost of eating this way.

And honestly, I can't ignore the benefits of eating the way we did in February - we're going to try to eat no grain, no sugar as much as possible, though we will also incorporate properly prepared beans, rice, and whole grains as special treats, maybe 2-3 meals/week. Yes, we lost a lot of weight going without grain and sugar - but that was not our main goal, and coming up this summer we will be much more active and will need more sustenance! I have penciled in to do a repeat of the February challenge from November-January to minimize weight gain over the winter, and maximize health during a timeframe that's typically filled with unhealthy (although delicious) holiday treats.

And just in case anyone else reading this is curious about our results, and wants to know what it looks like to eat that way for 28 days, I did keep track of what we consumed. I'll post them in 4 separate posts, by week. Admittedly, they'll not be particularly interesting to the majority of readers - but if you're considering giving this type of thing a try, it might help you see how we did it. I tried to keep track of how we felt physically and psychologically (cravings) day by day.

I'm glad we did it. It has helped us change our eating habits, I believe for the better.

Fourth and Last Week of the Food Challenge

2011-02-22T07:31:00.013-05:00

This is an incredibly un-interesting post, as it details everything my family ate for the 4th week of the food challenge. But it may be helpful for someone who is curious about our results, and wants to know what it looks like to eat without grains, legumes, and sugar (although there were some meals where we just ate whatever we were presented, with thanks!). I tried to keep track of how we felt physically and psychologically (cravings) day by day.

Day 22:
Breakfast: Banana Pancakes, topped with butter and triple berry mix. I also poured in a tiny bit of raw goat's milk in my coffee. Still not ready to feed it to the kids - the jury's still out on "to pasteurize or not to pasteurize", but until the decision is made, I'm just getting the frisky goats used to the process, keeping the milk in the fridge to feed to the dogs and maybe a bottle goatbaby.

Snack: oranges and walnuts

Lunch: pork bbq

Matt's Lunchbox: pork bbq, grapes, applesauce, tea

Snack: pumpkin nut muffins. When I made the first batch it only called for 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree....but there's about 1.5 cups in a can....so I made a double batch and froze the ones we didn't snack on.

Supper: leftover beef and broth - I'll slice up some mushrooms and simmer them, and we'll have "cream of greens soup" from the PB cookbook

Day 23:
Breakfast: pumpkin nut bread - I poured some of the batter into a loaf pan - it turned out fine that way, too.

Snack: there was a tiny bit of triple berry blend in the fridge, so finished that off plus some babycarrots

Lunch: ate at grandma's and had chicken and noodles with crackers - sooo good! Peaches for dessert

Snack: I ate a couple of pumpkin nut muffins with butter because I was ravenous. Then when Matt got home we all had girl scout cookies. Those are sugar and grain free, right? Ha! We each had half a serving of trefoils, and half a serving of thin mints. They were good, but not nearly as delicious as I had remembered them to be.

Supper: Meatballs with spaghetti sauce with mozzarella cheese on top. Yum!

Snack: 6 trefoils right before bed. it had been a stressful evening...

Day 24:
Breakfast: smoked sausage, orange/pineapple/strawberry/coconut milk smoothies

Snack: girl scout cookies

Lunch: leftover party chicken

Snack: pumpkin nut muffins, then white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies and lemonade at a friend's house

Supper: Ham, leftover cream of greens soup, peaches

Day 25:
Breakfast: smoked sausages, smoothies, I've been drinking goat milk in my coffee for a few days now, Matt and Cora today started "enhancing" their 2% pasteurized, Nesquik-ed cow's milk with whole, raw goat milk.

Snack: pumpkin nut muffins with butter, we all snuck a few bits of ham while I put it into freezer bags for another day

Lunch: hot dogs, pickles, spinach

Snack:

Supper: pork bbq

Day 26:
Breakfast: bacon, sausage, potato, egg scramble

Skipped the snack

Lunch: cream of potato/cream of celery soup, mixed greens salad with peachy chicken salad on top, pumpkin oatmeal cake sweetened with sorghum molasses

Snack: more cake

Supper: cabbage, carrots, onions, smoked sausages

Snack: each had a half serving each of trefoils/thin mints. We watched Charlie Brown's Valentine's movie - don't valentine's and sweets just go together? (excuses, excuses)

Day 27:
Breakfast: leftovers from yesterday

Skipped the snack

Lunch/Snack: Went to the Maple Syrup Festival for the first time. This was so much fun! The family operated sugarbush is the largest Maple Syrup producer in the state, and they have 2 festival weekends to give tours, live music plays, fun kids' activities, and of course, maple syrup! We had a FABULOUSLY delicious meal: 1st adult meal included 1/2 BBQ chicken, cole slaw, baked beans, dinner roll, drink, ice cream (with choice of apple, strawberry, blueberry, or maple syrup topping), 2nd adult meal included 2 maple grilled pork chops (soo tender) cole slaw, baked beans, roll, drink, ice cream with toppings, then the kid's meals were either a pancake or a waffle with the same topping choices as the ice cream, plus drink and a sausage patty. All of this for only $19!! Cora earned a tiny bag of free maple cotton candy (very tasty!) by collecting all the items in the scavenger hunt. We were able to sample maple cream on cubes of bread, different grades of maple syrup, and maple tea (wow! made with partially boiled-down sap poured over a tea bag, not quite syrup, but not pure sap either) We bought a 2 quart bottle of Grade B maple syrup for baking. We learned that grade A syrup comes from the early season sap which is higher in sugar, lower in mineral content, while Grade B syrup comes in the later season with less sugar, more mineral content and a higher maple-y flavor. It'll be easy to make the decision to go back next year!

Supper: leftover meatballs with tomato sauce, green beans

Snack: Matt brought home some vanilla ice cream, which we had chocolate sauce on top.

Maybe we didn't do so good on the no sugar, no grain thing today.

Day 28:
Breakfast: orange/triple berry/peach smoothie, sausage patties

snack: apples, tiny piece of the pumpkin oatmeal cake with butter on top

lunch: beef and mushrooms, peaches

Matt's Lunchbox: leftover smoked sausage and cabbage, baby carrots, apple, tea

snack: special reward treat - Walnut Meal Brownies from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook

supper: bacon-wrapped, spinach, garlic, onion, and mozzarella stuffed chicken breasts (baked at 350* for ~40 minutes, then put under broiler just until bacon crisped up! delish, and oh-so-fancy looking!

Thoughts: We've just been really impressed with how easily we've lost weight/circumference over the course of the month. Especially considering how low-activity we are in February - we did absolutely NO FORMAL EXERCISE at all. And really, we have not felt deprived - we've been eating delicious meals, making sure we're fully satisfied. Yes, sometimes we've craved sweets or breads and missed some of those things, but in general it wasn't that bad to "go without." Now of course, we did have plenty of "cheats" but by and large we did pretty good.

Third Week of the Food Challenge

2011-02-15T11:15:00.013-05:00

This is an incredibly un-interesting post, as it details everything my family ate for the 3rd week of the food challenge. But it may be helpful for someone who is curious about our results, and wants to know what it looks like to eat without grains, legumes, and sugar (although there were some meals where we just ate whatever we were presented, with thanks!). I tried to keep track of how we felt physically and psychologically (cravings) day by day.

Day 15:
Breakfast: smoked sausages, applesauce

Snack: the kids had deviled eggs and truffles. I had 2 truffles

Matt's Lunch: pork chops, broccoli, carrots, apple.....I forgot to make tea yesterday, so the poor man will have to drink water :-(

Lunch: leftover "hamburgers" with ketchup, cheese, and grapes

Snack: Luke had part of an apple, I ate the other half, then he was still hungry and ate 1/2 a banana. Cora had an apple and some walnuts.

I found out I had to return the Primal Blueprint cookbook to the library at the end of the week, so ended up hurriedly planning the rest of the week's menu, and rushed to the "healthfood" store in the next town before they closed. I wasn't hungry but knew it was going to be a while before I got home to supper, so brought a 100 calorie pack of almonds and walnuts and a piece of all-fruit fruit leather and a big bottle of water. Then I immediately ate it in the car and was hungry the rest of the night. Go figure! I also might have purchased an 85% cacao bar and eaten part of it on the way home....but I'm not telling. One thing I know is that I bought enough food that we won't have to go grocery shopping for the entire rest of the month.

Supper: I laid out all the ingredients for the PBCookbook's Bison Chili....only we used ground beef. Matt (sweet man that he is) fixed supper while I was gone. Everyone loved the chili, even the kids ate it right up. We had grapes, and a couple of kiwi, but they weren't quite ripe.

Snack: I ate a few of the truffles we'd made. I guess I haven't really changed my chocolate-snacking habits yet...but at least the chocolates I'm choosing aren't too sugary.

Day 16:
Breakfast: Matt and kids had smoked sausages. I made a "bahama mama" smoothie with strawberries (not stemmed) pineapple, ice cubes, and a can of coconut milk. The boys tasted it but wouldn't drink another drop, and Cora only had a little...but then she'd eaten her sausage already and probably wasn't hungry.

Snack: I had the rest of Cora's smoothie, and 2 bites of leftover sausages. Cora and Luke snacked at Grandma's. Matt skipped a snack.

Lunch: Were all invited to grandma's for chili (with spaghetti and beans and crackers and velveeta). It was delicious. We had some vanilla ice cream for dessert. Almost immediately after eating I felt sooo sleepy! I went ahead and took a nap, slept about 2 hours! As I was falling asleep, I noticed my tummy gurgling alot, but it didn't hurt - just making funny noises.

Snack: I didn't snack, just wasn't hungry. Luke and Matt had fudge rounds and twinkies and sweet tea with grandpa and it was soo warm outside we didn't need hats! Cora slept so long, I finally had to go wake her up from her nap around 4pm so she wouldn't miss the nice weather. She had a drink of water but wasn't hungry.

Supper: Seafood chowder - onion, celery, dill, black pepper, diced bacon, tiny cubed potatoes, chicken broth, a little water, cooked until the potatoes were soft, then added canned salmon (with the weird bones removed....I can't handle their texture!) a can of minced clams, and a pound of lightly sauteed scallops. I added a cup of milk and a cup of heavy cream, brought it to a boil and it needed salt but it was GOOD!

Day 17:
Breakfast: pumpkin nut muffins from the PBCookbook

Snack: Cora and I shared the leftover smoothie and an avocado, and she and luke shared an apple.

Matt's Lunchbox: leftover transylvanian stockpot, tea, apple and banana

Lunch: Leftover transylvanian stockpot, with a tiny 85% chocolate bar with walnuts for dessert after the kids went down for their naps because I have no willpower...

Supper: Coconut Curry from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook - everyone liked it!

Day 18:
Breakfast: Banana Pancakes and butter

Snack: Cora ate an entire avocado, plus an apple, and was still hungry. I had an avocado

Lunch: Leftover chili

Matt's Lunchbox: chili, other stuff (I can't remember anymore I'm trying to recall this info from day 20)

snack: cora helped herself to a piece of fruit leather, I had some frozen triple berry blend (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)

supper: Had friends over for pork bbq, applesauce with cinnamon, green beans, mashed potatoes with butter, some homemade bread (our friend brought it - it was delish!) and some corn chips and home-canned salsa (that another friend brought - yum!) Dessert was the triple berry blend with whipped cream: 2 cups cream, whipped until made soft folds, with a pinch of stevia, and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Day 19:
Breakfast: Zucchini Casserole from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook - very good!
Snack: didn't get one, were too busy outside and didn't get hungry before lunchtime

Lunch: leftover pork bbq, plus some fruit salad with kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, grapes, and oranges cut up together with whipped cream on top

Snack: kids had fruit salad or grapes, adults skipped snacks

Supper: Slow Cooker pot roast from the Primal Blueprint cookbook....wow, sooo good! fruit salad with whipped cream for dessert

Day 20:
Breakfast: assorted leftovers from the previous week, bananas
Snack: skipped it!
Lunch: I'd boiled a chicken in anticipation of needing some broth/stock for recipes in the following days, so I picked meat from the bones in fairly large chunks, added shredded italian style cheese, italian seasoning, capers, and a can of artichoke hearts, and a bit of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Baked it until the cheese melted - it was good, but I added too much salt. I also made a vinaigrette from EVOO, apple cider vinegar, stevia, basil, 2 garlic cloves, basil, and drained canned tomatoes, which we put on salads......it was almost like my hubby's french dressing that he loves, Catalina - but a bit too vinegary for his taste. I just really don't care for salad dressing!

Snack: fruit salad for all, except Luke, who only wants the grapes!

Supper: Leftover seafood chowder

Day 21:
Breakfast: clean-out-the-fridge breakfast bake: had some leftover sausage and bacon crumbles, some cheese, some chopped onion, green peppers, and olives, some salsa, and eggs with salt and pepper.

Snack: oranges

Matt's Lunchbox: leftover chili, green beans, fruit salad, and tea

Lunch: leftover coconut curry chicken

Snack: sliced pears, Luke and I shared a chunk of the 85% cacao bar. mmmm!

Supper: clean-out-the-fridge stew

Snack: I might have also possibly sneaked in another chunk of the 85% cacao bar while Daddy was giving the kids their bath....now all the chocolate is gone again, I'll have to rely on healthier things.

Impressions from the week: Overall, both Matt and I have been noticing increased leanness, and I can make it from Breakfast to Lunch to Supper without HAVING to snack in between, although I am very hungry by the time lunch arrives if I skip snacks, I'm at least not all shaky and weak. Also noticing definite fat melting away. It is totally effective at dropping the extra "padding" - clothes are looser, I'm getting bruised more easily (due to being bonier around the hips and elbows!) and I get cold/chilled faster. Not sure I like all of those parts, especially considering I was more or less satisfied with my weight before.

Salt, anyone?

2011-02-11T07:17:00.007-05:00

So I think it's a given to take another person's words with a grain of salt, right? Meaning, listen carefully, realizing that you can't always take what someone says as absolute truth - whether this is in conversation with a friend, or when reading blog posts on the internet, or yes, even when reading published books!

Right now I have checked out from the library 3 books on nutrition:

Mark Sisson's The Primal Blueprint Cookbook - based on the premise that we should eat as our evolutionary ancestors did
Laurette Willis's BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness - a guide to fitness and food choices based on Biblical principles, I get the impression that it's primarily geared towards those who are heavily overweight
Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions - suggesting that the food processing industry has created products that are non-nutritive and even harmful, and that we should all return to the way people ate before hydrogenization and white flour and table sugar, complete with recipes for doing this

In all of these books, the theme is healthy eating - but they all differ as to what is the best way to do that: one says grains are bad, the other says be sure to include whole grains; one says drink only cultured milk products, one says drink only raw milk, not pasteurized, and I've heard elsewhere that only pasteurized milk is safe and raw milk is dangerous; one says peanuts are beneficial, another says peanuts are harmful.......and so on, and on, and on. Full of contradictions. How can a person choose which to believe?

Now, one theme that is common to all of the books I've listed in this post is: Eat organic, or die! (this may be a slight dramatization). And this is where it gets difficult for me to find words to explain the rest of my post - I mean, why would anyone listen to some blogger's words over a published author???

On page 51 of Willis' book BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness, she writes:

"As you can imagine, the cattle in biblical times were not subjected to living in overcrowded feedlots, fed moldy grain, or injected with antibiotics, growth hormones, and steroids as are today's cattle."

Okay, folks. This paints a picture that is NOT truly the plight of today's cattle!! This sentence (and similar ones found printed in many other books, magazines, newspapers, posted on blogs, and tossed around in conversations) asks readers to imagine the worst possible scenario, and then makes the assumption that these are the conditions that all beef producers intentionally replicate! This is not the case. And it's not just Willis' book - Sisson's had misleading information about the way poultry are raised, and Fallon's was filled with quotations from other's indicating the downfalls of modern agriculture. It's as if the people pushing organic intend to make others feel guilty for consuming conventionally raised foods - and this is a problem.

Those who raise animals for meat production do it because they LIKE animals. It is hard work. You can't call in sick. It doesn't matter if it's -3 degrees, sleeting, and all the water hydrants are frozen and there are inches of ice on the water tanks and it takes many times longer than normal to take care of the animals. It doesn't matter if you've made special plans to go out - when you've made the choice to raise animals, their needs come first! And if it's a cow having trouble calving, or the silo unloader has stopped working, or whatever it is - those emergencies come first!

We raise our cattle conventionally, though on a smaller scale than some others. We take their needs seriously. We need them to be healthy! We do what is best for them to keep them in good health and growing well.

Our feedlots are not overcrowded.

We do not feed moldy corn.

We give antibiotics only to the occasional sick calf, to help them get well.

We do implant our calves to help them grow optimally.

They're well-cared-for, never worry about running out of feed, hay, or water.

Do I think that anyone who believes the sensationalized, emotionally charged message that "conventional farming is evil, organic is perfect" will listen and hear the typed words of one blogger, over published authors? I don't know - but I hope so.

I've been thinking about interviewing my father in law (who does the majority of the day to day work with the cattle) about exactly how we raise a calf from birth to finishing. The way we raise cattle is not much different from the way the large feedlots and ranches do, aside from scale - and I think the good quality care the cattle really do receive may surprise some readers. Please know, in the meantime, that we take our animals' care very seriously.

Organic is fine, but conventionally raising livestock is not the evil that some will make it out to be.

The point is, you can't believe everything you read. I've taken away some great information from each of the three books - I'd actually recommend any of them! But when it comes to how animals and crops are raised, it's best to go to the source - the farmers and ranchers who take care of the livestock and produce on a daily basis, to see how things are really done. I applaud the movement for folks to become more aware of where their food is coming from, and it's not the grocery store! But take it one step further than the books you read - visit a farm or dairy or feedlot - talk to those who are actually doing it because that's the only way you'll really know.
Whose word do you want to believe? The producer who works day in and day out with the animals, or the outsider looking in?

Second Week of the Food Challenge

2011-02-08T10:45:00.014-05:00

This is an incredibly un-interesting post, as it details everything my family ate for the 2nd week of the food challenge. But it may be helpful for someone who is curious about our results, and wants to know what it looks like to eat without grains, legumes, and sugar (although there were some meals where we just ate whatever we were presented, with thanks!). I tried to keep track of how we felt physically and psychologically (cravings) day by day.

Day 8:
Breakfast: Pumpkin spoonbread except I multiplied the recipe and put it in an 8x8 dish. And I left out the raisins and nuts because my husband won't eat them. Turned out, he didn't eat it anyway. I thought it was good - but if you were expecting something sweet it certainly wasn't that. Gave Matt milk with cocoa powder again and instead sifted the cocoa powder, but for some reason he couldn't drink it because of the texture.

Snack: Apple for me and Cora, she also had another helping of the pumpkin spoonbread.

Matt's Lunchbox: unsweet tea, banana, leftover beef stir fry, home canned peaches.

Lunch: leftover chicken salad, oranges.

Snack: pumpkin spoonbread "granola" (put it in a 225*oven for hours until it crisped up....not bad!) Fruit leather, raisins. And here's the thing - I was never *hungry* this afternoon.......I just ate because it was habit. I'll need to work on this. My kids, however, seem hungry all the time. Maybe need to add whole milk as their primary drink rather than water? I'm sure they need more good fat than adults. Maybe I need to be more strict with them about no candy, no flour. I've been pretty lax with them when we're away from home, so maybe it's taking them longer to get used to not constantly having carbs?

Dinner: (are you ready for this??) Beef tongue! Boiled it for three hours with a diced onion and garlic. Peeled it, sliced it, added some frozen leftover beef roast to help trick my mind into thinking we were just eating beef, then spooned the gravy/souplike mixture over potatoes mashed with plenty of butter. It was actually really good. Just be sure that you and your dinnermates are having a very important conversation to help distract from the fact that you're eating TONGUE! lol. We had green beans too, and pickles.

Day 9:
Breakfast: Banana pancakes, Matt has reverted to drinking milk with quik. I can't stop him.

Snack: kids snacked at Grandma's. I ate a banana pancake.

Matt's lunchbox: leftover beef and potatoes, oranges, unsweet tea

Lunch: chicken alfredo with penne.

Snack: pumpkin spoonbread granola

Supper: lemon butter fish filets, lettuce and spinach salads, Cora and I shared an avocado, Matt and Luke shared green beans.

Snack: kids snacked at Grandpa's while Matt and I went to a church meeting, and on the way home had to stop at the grocery store and got some snack sized pepperoni bites.

Really, this challenge is going very very well. Much better than I anticipated. The only real drawback is how badly I do want some chocolate!! And I'm having a bit of a difficult time getting everyone filled up and satisfied at each meal. And I'm very glad I made sure to add the part about eating whatever we were served if we were guests, I just feel that's right.

Day 10:
Breakfast: Sausage, salsa, egg and cheese scramble. Similar to the muffins I made before, only fried in a skillet rather than baked. Since we don't need the on-the-go convenience factor the finger food muffins provide, the skillet and fork method suits us just fine.

Snack: shared avocado for Cora and I. Luke had pumpkin spoonbread granola. He loves it!

Matt ate out for lunch, he had some errands to run over his lunch break.

Lunch: smoked sausages, oranges.

Snack: walnuts for me. walnuts, prunes, and a glass of milk for Cora. Either that girl's going through a growth spurt or she's not getting enough to eat - she's always hungry! I'm thinking how can I add healthy fats to her diet? Maybe whole milk? I am completely seriously considering milking a goat or two to get raw, whole milk.

Supper: I never know what to call what I fix! Why do meals have to have names? Anyway, I chopped an onion, melted butter (should've added olive oil right away, but I ended up adding it later) browned about a pound and a half of deer burger, diced a green pepper, sliced mushrooms, minced garlic and sauteed that. Then I added salt and pepper and oregano and basil, and 2 drained quart jars of tomatoes, brought it to a simmer, then added about 1 cup of chicken broth. It was good. It was a lot like chili, maybe Italian Deer Chili. There we go, it's got a name now! It was filling, but Cora goofed off, said she didn't like it, and didn't eat it. Told her she could either eat it tonight or for breakfast in the morning.

Snack: I had a glass of fiberwise drink.

Day 11:
Breakfast: Matt had leftover sausage/salsa/cheese/eggs, I had leftover banana pancakes with butter, Cora had Italian Deer Chili (in case you were wondering how last night's dinner turned out). Luke slept through breakfast. You see, the boy has been waking up at 4:30 am every single day for the past 2 weeks plus. He will happily nurse back to sleep, then leave me to try to decide whether to try to fall back asleep in the 20 minutes before the alarm clock goes off or just stay up. Oy! But I thankfully have not felt the urge AT ALL to take a nap in the afternoon....whether it's the food we're eating or the vitamins I'm taking, or the combination - I'm not sure.

Snack: Carrot sticks and the last of the spoonbread with butter for the kids, I had just carrot sticks. I wish I'd have had some good fat dip so I wouldn't have been so hungry in between snack and lunch!

Matt's Lunchbox: Leftover Italian Deer Chili, carrots, tea

Lunch: leftover Italian Deer Chili, then I ate a small handful of walnuts after the kids went down for their naps.

Snack: kids had the last of the pumpkin spoonbread granola. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat!!! This is unprecedented, people!

Supper: slow-roasted pork BBQ, applesauce, iceberg lettuce salad - Matt and Cora had red french dressing, I had oil/vinegar/garlic/herb dressing, even though usually I don't like dressing. Didn't like it this time, either! Cora told me I should've had the red dressing, it was good. haha

Day 12:
Breakfast: Sausage crumble-diced bacon-diced fried potatoes-egg scramble

Snack: late breakfast so no snack

Lunch: Transylvanian Stockpot from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook, grapes, kiwi, strawberries, and some little debbie snack cakes (oops!)

Snack: chocolate truffles from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook

Supper: Meatloaf, potatoes, green beans

snack: tortilla chips, salsa, cheese dip, and a small pineapple juice/coconut rum over a game of euchre

the chips, salsa, and cakes were valentine's gifts from grandma and grandpa. We didn't specifically announce this whole crazy eating thing where we are giving up grain and sugars for a month, so we felt it only polite to induldge a bit! We enjoyed the treat!

Day 13:
Breakfast: omelets - everyone picked out what they wanted on from: mushrooms, olives, green peppers, onions, sausage, bacon, tomatoes, cheddar cheese

Snack: Cora had a chocolate doughnut with chocolate milk at church, Luke had a doughnut hole, I had coffee.

Lunch: leftover pork BBQ, applesauce, the rest of the fruit salad, baby carrots, potato chips, deviled eggs

Snack: chocolate truffles

Supper: Warm again, so Matt grilled pork chops and smoked sausages, and we also had broccoli, and apples

we were all exhausted. Maybe because it was Sunday night and we'd been active all day (I'd been spring cleaning the kitchen with my mom, Matt was working on our pop-up camper, moving hay, etc with my dad) or maybe it was because we were noticing the effects of our chips and lil debbies?

Day 14:
Breakfast: leftover sausage/bacon/potato/egg scramble

Snack: Apples

Matt's Lunchbox: leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes, tea

Lunch: smoked sausage, deviled eggs, grapes, a few truffles

Snack: deviled eggs, bananas, walnuts

Supper: "hamburgers" consisting of ground beef, ground deer (with a little bacon mixed in) and ground beef heart. pickles, cheese. Pretty weak as far as vegetables! Oops! Oh, and we had one package of little debbie cakes - Cora and Luke each had half of one heart-shaped cake, Matt and I split ours 1/3, 2/3 - he took the big half, because they're more of a treat for him than I. Then I had a few of the truffles we'd made from the PB cookbook.

This evening I also went ahead and ordered some goat-milking supplies! I'm very excited to give whole, raw goat's milk a try.

The second week had much fewer sweets cravings, but now I'm starting to lose inspiration for what to fix. I can't really get too excited about planning the next week's menu. But that's pretty typical for me in general, I get into a groove of being awesome at meal planning, then kind of fall off the wagon....

Why, oh why am I doing this??

2011-02-04T13:20:00.005-05:00

Why have we chosen to stop eating grains and legumes and sugar, and reduce our dairy consumption for the month of February? I have to keep reminding myself that there are only 28 days in February, we haven't necessarily chosen to change our eating habits forever.

Right now, just a few days in I cannot believe I would tell myself no to a small handful of chocolate chips. Saying "no" to chocolate has certainly been the most difficult thing for me about this entire thing, so far. One batch of brownies each week, or even every 2 weeks, couldn't be that bad, right?

But the truth is that we'd gotten to the point where we ate a sweet snack (cookies, brownies, etc.) twice a day. I'd often sneak in a few extras here and there, if no one else was in the kitchen. So I was eating sweets as a large portion of my daily diet. Not particularly nutritious!

For quite some time I would have to eat every 2-3 hours all the time or else feel all shaky and trembly. Like, I can't go from breakfast to lunch without eating, from lunch to dinner.

I had become a slave to food, in particular sweets. In truth, it was getting out of hand. I don't want to raise children to have eating habits like that. So things were getting pretty unhealthy, and in my house, I do all the grocery shopping, and all the cooking, and if we eat out, it's only because I wanted to. In short, I came to the realization that I pretty much control what my family puts in their mouths. Do I want to provide empty-calories or nutritive foods? Do I want to raise my children to not give much thought to the food they eat, or impart to them healthy eating habits?

Well, I think every parent wants to feed their children healthy, nutritious meals, and for them to grow up with healthful habits. But the problem is that children learn by watching their parents. My daughter pretty much only wants to drink chocolate milk, because that's the only way her daddy will drink milk. She also has become a candy fiend......like her mother. It's just very difficult for my husband and I as adults to change our eating habits - because we're used to eating the way we've always eaten. For instance, how do you have soup without crackers?? Well, we adults can realize that crackers have very little nutritional value, and therefore leave them out! And if we leave them out, our children will not automatically associate crackers with soups. So we're changing the cycle, choosing only foods that are obviously beneficial. Not that crackers once in a while are necessarily harmful for a healthy digestive system.....but they certainly don't have much nutritive substance to them.

Anyway....enough rambling. Here is a short summary of the benefits I'm expecting us to reap from this February Food Challenge:

Gain a greater awareness of what food choices we are making
Learn to only eat when I'm actually hungry - I've read that this type of diet (diet meaning the food we eat, not some faddish weight loss program) can help reduce hunger pangs - without the addictive power of carbohydrates (which to the body are really just sugars)
Retrain my tastebuds to recognize natural sweetness. I clearly remember a couple of summers ago my sister being horrified that I was putting sugar on grocery store strawberries. I told her they were tart compared to the ones we grew at home....but the truth is, we put sugar on the homegrown ones as well.
Give our bodies a chance for optimum health. If we choose to only put beneficial foods into it, it won't have to work as hard to remove the harmful things: sugars, phytates, enzyme-inhibitors...and it won't have to work as hard in digestion.
Taking on a relatively short, 28 day timeframe empowers us to make significant dietary changes without feeling "trapped" into forever. It will give me time to re-evaluate what to put on the grocery shopping list, and what to leave off. And with a 28 day time period we're well on our way to forming a new habit in our food choices!
Greater energy levels - not wanting to just lay on the couch, because I just ate a heavy meal that makes me sleepy.

I may add to this list as time goes on. If it's true that "you are what you eat" then there are in truth many more good reasons to keep a watchful eye on what's on your plate, in your pantry, in your grocery shopping cart. And please notice that I didn't place on my list a desire to lose weight. In general, I'm pleased with my body. I'm strong enough to do the things I need to do, and I fit in my clothes, and my husband thinks I'm pretty good-lookin' - that's all I need. I am not doing this to lose weight for looks - but both my husband and I have been creeping up in weight to more unhealthy levels, and I would really like for both of us to be around for a long time - the healthier our body weights are, the more likely we'll experience long term vibrant health.

Already we're noticing that the food we're eating is still delicious, it's filling, and at least for me I'm not ravenous between meals. I still eat snacks out of habit, but not because I have to because I'll start to get the shakes. But since we only have good foods in the house, it's okay!

Shepherd's Pie

2011-02-03T12:26:00.003-05:00

The February Food Challenge *is* underway. I'm keeping track of how things are going but I think I'll wait a while to publish those posts.

Last night I made Shepherd's Pie. It was so good, and really pretty easy and I wanted to share how I made it. Now, hardcore primal eaters won't eat white potatoes (too high in carbs), nor would they eat peas (legumes) but I see them both as more of a vegetable, and I'm not a hardcore primal eater, so therefore this meal counts!

I really don't like to cook in a messy kitchen, so I always start by making sure the dishwasher is ready to put dirty dishes in, and that the stovetop is clear, and that I have a clean countertop to work on.

Are you ready to make Shepherd's Pie??

1. Put 1 pound of thawed hamburger in a skillet on medium heat and with a spatula, chop it/spread it around until it covers the pan. Leave it alone.

2. Chop off the ends of an onion and peel the dry papery stuff off. Slice it in half from end to end, then put the cut side down on the cutting board and slice in about 1/4" sections, so when the onion is separated, you have half-circles. Dump the onions in the skillet with the hamburger, and give it all a stir.

3. Take a few cloves of garlic and mince them, add them to the skillet. Add several shakes of pepper, and about a teaspoon of salt. Stir.

4. Slice enough carrots to make 1.5 cups of carrot bits, roughly the size of peas. By now the hamburger should be browned (keep stirring every so often to make sure it's cooked evenly) Add the carrots to the skillet on top of the meat, and add 1/2 cup of water, then cover and simmer on medium/low - just hot enough that it bubbles. Leave it alone.

5. Grab 4 large potatoes, peel and slice into small, evenly-sized chunks. Put them in a pot, cover with water, and turn it on high heat.

6. Stir the contents of the skillet, then add 1.5 cups of frozen peas, and put the cover back on again.

7. Once the potatoes start to boil, turn the heat down a little so the pot doesn't boil over, then set the timer for 15 minutes. Now you can read a book to your babies, or fold some clothes, or whatever, but try to keep half an eye on the potato pot so it keeps boiling but doesn't boil over!

8. When the timer goes off, check the potatoes with a fork to be sure they're tender (if not, let them boil a bit longer). Stir up the skillet again, then pour 1/2 cup of milk over the contents and let it simmer. Pour most of the water off of the potatoes (leave a little in to help keep them creamy) add a half stick of butter, and mash away!

9. One last time, stir the skillet, then spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the top of the hamburger/veggie mixture. Dot butter on top, and enjoy!

This was a yummy, satisfying meal which the whole family enjoyed. I'd say it made enough to feed 4 adults. We fed 2 adults, a 3 year old, a 1 year old, and had enough for one leftover lunch. Let me know if you try it, how you liked it!

First Week of the Food Challenge

2011-02-01T12:55:00.012-05:00

This is an incredibly un-interesting post, as it details everything my family ate for the 1st week of the food challenge. But it may be helpful for someone who is curious about our results, and wants to know what it looks like to eat without grains, legumes, and sugar (although there were some meals where we just ate whatever we were presented, with thanks!). I tried to keep track of how we felt physically and psychologically (cravings) day by day.

Day 1:
Breakfast:
Rather than drink chocolate milk for breakfast, Matt had semi-sweetened tea. He had a breaded porkchop (leftovers from supper). When the kids woke up, they and I shared 2 avocados, and we each had a piece of cornbread (also leftovers). I drank coffee, no sugar, but with a splash of milk.

Snack: Everyone had an apple. Luke also had a piece of a homemade dinner roll.

Lunch:
I packed another leftover breaded porkchop for Matt, and semi-sweetened tea (I'm gradually adding in unsweet tea to the pitcher of sweet tea as I pour cups out of it. When this pitcher of tea is gone - it's going to be completely unsweet for the rest of the month.) The kids and I ate leftover enchiladas and applesauce for lunch.

Snack: Carrot sticks

Supper: I was able to check out on interlibrary loan Mark Sisson's cookbook for recipe ideas, as I needed hints on how to eat without grain! No noodles? For the first night, we had the Smoked Sausage and Cabbage recipe in there. It was very good! We polished off the majority of it between the 4 of us, Matt was still a little hungry though, but that's normal for him! Luke couldn't really chew the cabbage, but Cora ate it very well. The kids had some raisins, and we drank some fiber drink, too. I've read that part of the "carb flu" comes from yeast in your body dying off, and that plenty of fiber can help clear that out and help feel better faster. Can't hurt to try!

After supper we all played together in the living room and really had a fun evening, pushing, pulling, throwing, lunging, leaning, flopping, tickling, bopping a balloon all around. It was a really fun way to spend family time.

Matt and I are both feeling somewhat uneasy over trying to eat this way. Which is exactly why we've only committed to trying for one month! The thing is, today we totally ate plenty of grains, and Matt had sugary tea - so I guess we're going at this slowly. I just didn't want to waste any food! We're also keeping a close look at how much it's costing to eat this way. Staying on budget is important to us, so we'll just wait and see how that turns out. So far though it's not so bad. We measured our circumferences at belly button and hips. It will be interesting to see if there's much difference from the 1st and 28th days.

Day 2:
Breakfast was a concoction of 9 eggs, salt, pepper, a little milk, cheddar cheese, 1 cup of drained home-canned salsa, and a pound of mild breakfast sausage. Poured most of it into muffin cups, and fried the rest. Everyone ate it, and liked it! Even Matt who really doesn't like eggs :-)

Snack: I had an apple, the kids went to grandma's and ate whatever they wanted (and I'm totally good with that, actually!) I packed an apple for Matt.

Lunch: Matt had leftover breaded porkchops again, and a little container of corn. I went to grandma's and ate with the kids, we had sloppy joes (I have never eaten bread with my sloppy joes, prefer eating just the meat with a fork) peas and carrots, and mac 'n cheese. Applesauce for dessert. I said from the beginning if we were guests at someone's home we'd eat whatever we were offered and I'm sticking with that. The food (and the company) was great!

Snack: Carrots and raisins for me and the kids, just carrots for Matt

Supper: Shepherd's Pie - you saw my recipe I posted at the beginning of February. Other than coffee in the am, I drink water all the time. Matt's the same way except his "vice" is tea. He probably drinks 4 glasses a day.

I had a meeting at church and as I was getting into the car I spied a bag of prepackaged animal crackers in the passenger seat. Oh, my - how I wanted them! I threw them to the very back of the car so they'd be out of reach, then ran in the house to grab a couple of packages of dried fruit
snacks.....not "fruitsnacks" these are actually made of just fruit, and fruit juice! I sipped on decaf coffee with a shake of cinnamon and a splash of milk on the way.

After the meeting, I had to stop by the grocery store for a few things for the weekend's menu, and as I walked into the checkout I saw the display for the Cadbury eggs! Normally I would grab two, and eat them both on the way home. This time, I left them there.....but could not stop thinking about eating them. You see....in the past, if I wanted chocolate, or cookie dough, or whatever - I'd grab a handful of chocolate chips, or mix up the dough, or brownie batter, and eat it! In fact, in ridiculous amounts - I'd eat a cookie each time I walked through the kitchen. But I really couldn't get the notion of eating chocolate out of my mind, so I grabbed a handful of pecans, put them in a bown, and tossed them around in a pinch of powdered cocoa. It actually tasted good! But I wished I'd have just gone to bed, cause then I had nuts all stuck in my teeth then had to brush. This is truly a food CHALLENGE, and so far, at least when it comes to sweets - we're winning!

Day 3:
Breakfast: Matt had leftover sausage egg "muffins," the kids and I had Banana Pancakes (bananas, eggs, almond butter - with nothing but butter on top). Matt's coming down with a runny nose, which is looking like the starts to a sinus infection. Hope he can avoid that!

Matt's lunchbox: leftover shepherd's pie, baby carrots, unsweet tea, and he still hasn't eaten the apple I gave him on Tuesday.

Snack: Cora and I shared an avocado - we each had half, and she wanted more! Luke apparantly doesn't like them - he kept spitting out whatever I gave him. Each child got a sucker, but Luke only ate part of his. We're almost out of the halloween candy - when it's gone, it's gone and the kids won't get anymore candy for a while!

Lunch: kids and I shared leftover Smoked Sausage and Cabbage, and they each got a half of a deviled egg, and I ate a whole one. I was very very full after lunch.

Snack: For me, one more deviled egg (2 halves) 1/2 an apple, and snitches of the chicken I was pickin' for supper. For Cora, an apple. For Luke, some unidentifiable quantity of an apple (a large portion of it was shredded on the floor allllll around him).

*A side note about the baby: Lest anyone is concerned about how much my 14 month old is eating (cause it doesn't really sound like much) he still nurses quite a bit, probably 4-5 times a day, mostly when he's just woken up, or getting ready to sleep for naps or bedtime. It's such peace of mind to not have to coax him through meals - if he's hungry, he'll eat - otherwise I can count on him getting his nourishment through my milk.

Supper: I cut up a chicken, boiled it, removed the pieces from the broth and let them cool, then I picked the meat from the bones, returned the rest to the pot and simmered it for another couple of hours. I poured the liquid and bones and skin through a strainer and into a bowl. In the stockpot I added EVOO, a whole mess of veggies, seasonings, 1/2 of the picked chicken pieces chopped into tiny bits, and some broth. This made a very yummy soup! No noodles required! I reaaallly wanted a hot dinner roll to dip into the broth, but I was quite full without it even after just one bowl. Luke didn't eat hardly any - I think he's teeth coming in are bothering him a lot. Cora ate really well, and Matt took seconds, and polished off what Luke didn't eat. Matt commented that so far all the new recipes we've tried have been very good. Hooray!

Comments: I could NOT stop thinking about chocolate, specifically brownie batter. Oh how I wanted to make some!! But I didn't. Matt said it really wasn't that bad to get used to unsweetened tea. I'm so glad - that was one of my biggest concerns with this whole thing - the man practically lives off of sweet tea. If he hasn't drank enough sweet tea, he is grumpy - no kidding! So I am very glad that part hasn't been too hard on him.

Day 4:
I woke up in the morning feeling all shaky and trembly. Are these withdrawal symptoms? Or had I just not drank enough water? It was terribly cold overnight and the heater ran a lot, which left me with a very dry mouth due to low humidity - so maybe it was just dehydration. That does happen sometimes.

Breakfast: A smoothie. I was the ONLY one who liked it. :-( But I hadn't used a recipe because I couldn't find all the ingredients to the recipe I know is delicious. I just threw in a handful of fresh spinach, a small can of pineapple juice, a banana, some frozen fruit mix (had pineapple, strawberries, grapes.....other stuff too) and I also blended in an avocado in there. Matt ate maybe 1/2 cup of the stuff, so the poor man essentially went without breakfast. Cora did come back later saying she was hungry and finished hers, so it must not have been that bad.

Matt's lunchbox: Leftover chicken soup. Tea. Apple. Banana. I bet he comes home hungry.

Snack: Apples, and deviled eggs. I had two halves, kids each had one half.

Lunch: Leftover chicken soup. Didn't sound appealing, but we ate it anyway. Who says you have to LOVE everything you put in your mouth?

I am absolutely craving chocolate. I am not even remotely hungry (maybe thirsty) but all I want to do is figure out how to eat some chocolate without breaking the "rules".

Snack: carrots and raisins

Supper: Slow-cooked pork shoulder, green beans, boiled potatoes, applesauce

Day 5:
Breakfast: Leftovers of 1 sausage "cupcake," 1 banana pancake, applesauce

Snack: Didn't have a snack! Was busy all morning, didn't even want one!

Lunch: Tuna salad on fresh spinach

Snack: carrots

Supper: kids ate spaghetti at grandma's, Matt and I went out for dinner. I was all nervous we wouldn't be able to find anything to eat that followed the "rules" but it wasn't a problem. Ate at the buffet and had fish, pork chop, fried chicken (breading removed), "california blend" vegetables, green beans, salad, mashed potatoes. Almost shared a scoop of vanilla ice cream but decided against it!

Day 6:
Breakfast: leftovers just like the day before, except Matt drank milk with cocoa powder, said it didn't taste any less sweet than nesquik, except the texture of the cocoa powder was all chunky and weird

Snack: Cora had a doughnut and a Push Pop with her Sunday school class. I had a small glass of orange juice instead of a doughnut! We stopped at Aldi for groceries, and Matt and I each had a "100 calorie pack" of mixed walnuts and almonds, and gave Luke a piece of fruit leather to chew on. Cora was till working on her push pop.

Lunch: Beef, cabbage, broccoli, onion, garlic, sesame seed, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce stir fry over cauliflower rice. It was good!

Snack: Matt and luke and I had apples. Cora had real fruit fruit snacks.

Supper: First "warm" day we've had all winter - it was above 40 degrees so Matt offered to grill steaks. Yum! He also grilled a few smoked sausages because he thought that'd be easier for the kids to chew, and they loved them. We had steamed broccoli with cheddar cheese melted on top as a side. For dessert we had a grape, kiwi, and strawberry fruit salad. For "dressing" I ran two peeled oranges through our kitchen-aid mixer's food processing attachment and stirred the mix together. This was amazing!

Day 7:
Breakfast: 1/2 pound of bacon and fried potatoes, Matt drank milk with Nesquik

snack: leftover fruit salad

Matt's lunchbox: apple, fruit salad, leftover chicken soup, leftover stir fry, unsweet tea

Lunch: Me: leftover tuna salad on spinach, 1/2 smoked sausage, 1/2 avocado. Cora: smoked sausage, 1/2 avocado. Luke: 1/2 smoked sausage, still won't eat avocado.

Snack: apple

Supper: Chicken salad

Snack: Raisins

First week reflections: Not too bad! The food's been good, energy levels have stayed good, haven't been hungry, and we have lost inches off our waistlines. Really!

Biggest problem is dessert, and not drinking milk. Beginning to consider how difficult it would be to obtain whole-fat, raw milk for it's many benefits over pasteurized....hmmm....

What are the Rules?

2011-01-17T13:25:00.005-05:00

So I've introduced that my family is going to do a February Food Challenge, where we primarily will follow the primal diet.

I'm having some difficulties however in formulating our "rules" for this, especially considering I don't wholesale buy in to the philosophy behind the primal diet. And if I don't completely buy in to it, why on earth are we going to try it at all?? Good question! I first heard about this (admittedly somewhat crazy) primal thing from a fellow blogger. She gave it a try, posted that she found excellent returns for her efforts in health and physique and overall wellness. She's also a great researcher, and has posted compelling evidence that this particular diet can help ward off certain diseases, such as cancer. To me, it's worth giving it a try. Please take the time to read some of her posts. inthenightlife.wordpress.com So that's where I heard of it, I am convinced it's worth a try. This blog also points to another, and it sure sounds like the owner of that site may be the "inventor" of the primal diet. Read this article from the marksdailyapple.com which highlights some of the perks of the primal thing - I particularly resonate with reason number 2 - if I don't eat something every 2-3 hours, I get trembly. It would be nice not to have to deal with this.

Now, this is not going to be easy. Overall, we do eat a pretty healthy diet, at least compared to someone who's eating out, drinking their calories (we only drink pop with pizza, which we make at home, 3-4 times per month), or otherwise eating more or less a junk food diet - we really do stick to more wholesome choices, and I prepare in my own kitchen the bulk of it. We even quit buying bread at the store - I bake it myself. But we still eat pretty much a "standard american diet," which, compared to a strictly primal diet means that we have a looooong ways to go! So I'm working out recipes and planning out our meals for February so it truly feels like we're indulging in healthful meals, rather than missing out. But what rules will I come up with for what Primal means to our family?

We will eat primarily vegetables, and a variety of them
We'll also eat fruit, but try not to go overboard, because they're higher in sugar
We'll eat plenty of meat. But I am not afraid of conventionally raised meat....we won't be falling for the "organic" stuff.
Something about healthy fat here.....not real sure I quite comprehend the primal-thinking on this one.
We'll drink a lot of water. And UNsweetened tea. Black coffee?? I already drink it without sugar, but do I really need to get rid of dairy??
If we are invited as guests to dinner - we'll happily eat what we're offered. But we really don't get out much, so this shouldn't impact the experiment too much, I think.

We will cut out sugar - including white and brown sugar, molasses, honey, artificial sweeteners - no sweets in February!
We will cut out grains. In February. Not sure at this point how long that will last - In March we'll likely start again to eat the corn we put up in the freezer, we'll likely try some soaked grains, including oatmeal - maybe we'll try some gluten-free bread recipes? But we'll do it slowly, one at a time, and see the results. And most likely sparingly - probably only when we know we're going to be working hard outside. But we'll stay strictly without for the duration of our food challenge.
We'll cut out legumes. Although I struggle with whether Peanut Butter, peas, and beans are really all that bad for you.
We'll reduce dairy as much as possible.
Continue to focus on keeping toxins out of our environment and off of our skin. (more on this in a future post - not sure it's really a "primal-ism")
We'll focus on the idea that this food challenge is NOT about going without, but about intentionally choosing what we eat.

Obviously, this is a work in progress. The blog I mentioned earlier has some delicious-looking recipes posted which we'll try, and I've been combing the web for more gems. I'll post up our menus when we get them finalized, and keep posted on any results.

The biggest thing that will be a challenge is the "carb flu" I've read about - the primal people say that when you stop feeding your body lots of carbohydrates, and replace it with fat as fuel, it takes a while to get used to. But that once you do, you no longer feel hungry every 3 hours (like I do now...) and will come out of that feeling and looking healthier. Based on the amount of biscuits and breads and cookies and brownies and noodles and pot pies that we are now used to eating, I'm actually wondering whether just one month going without sugar and grains will be enough to get past this so-called carb flu. We'll see - maybe we'll extend it if we have to. Life is a work in progress, and I've learned not to be ashamed if experience says a change of plans needs to be made.

If you watch this clip, PLEASE read the rest of the post, too!

2011-01-14T13:51:00.003-05:00

Have you heard of the Primal Diet? No? Curious? Watch this video clip, I think it sums it up pretty well:

Oh, where do I begin!?

First, I will say that this is the basic diet that my family is going to follow from February 1st-February 28th.

Does it sound crazy? Yes, it sort of is, but I'm picking out recipes that really sound delicious, and so that way it won't seem like we're going without grain and sugar, but instead intentionally choosing only meat, vegetables, fruit, and the like. We'll do it through February, a February Food Challenge (FFC), and see where it goes from there.

I've read convincing evidence that there are things in grains that can be very bad for the digestive system, and I've known sugar (and sweetener) is bad for you, but it's hard to stop myself from baking cookies. So this February Food Challenge will remove the grains and sugars, and then in March we may gradually add back some grains to see if that has any effects. We'll try really hard to stay away from sugar, even after the FFC (February Food Challenge) is complete, maybe use honey or molasses instead. So, it's a 28 day food experiment, basically, and both myself and my husband are on board and looking forward to seeing what happens.

Here's the thing - while I pretty much think that there's a lot of merit to this whole "Primal Diet" I also think that it's based on some premises or assumptions that I don't agree with. My issues with the Primal Diet are: Evolution of Man (and his diet), and the belief that Scientific Advances in Healthcare for Humans is Good/Scientific Advances in Agriculture is Bad.

First, on the Evolution point I'll just quickly summarize - I hold a Biblical worldview, and I believe that God created the world in 7 normal days. I believe God created livestock and wild animals right from the beginning (Genesis 1:25) which debunks the whole notion that man had to domesticate everything that is now domesticated. Also, Genesis 1:29-30 says: Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground- everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." And it was so. So, I just can't believe the notion that Adam and Eve didn't eat corn, wheat, soybeans, oats, and other grains and legumes from the beginning. Have you ever seen how beautifully green those crops can be?? So anyway, on this point - you'll either agree automatically or disagree automatically - either you believe in Creation or Evolution.

That said, I know that raw soybeans (if ingested in large enough quantities) can be toxic. However, it's safe to eat cooked soybeans, because it destroys whatever enzyme or phytate or whatever the compound is that makes them harmful. I think that it's totally possible that after The Fall and the curse of Adam (Genesis 3:17-19) when the ground was cursed, that the curse included making the grains somewhat toxic. I mean - blackberries taste really good, but they have protection in their thorns to keep them from being eaten up. Some caterpillars don't have a defense mechanism per se, but they are highly toxic to birds - that's their defense mechanism in their toxicity. It's possible (maybe even likely) that wheat and corn and soybeans and other grains all have their defense mechanism in a slight toxicity - and from what I've read, it seems that the phytates, certain enzymes, and gluten in many grains is harmful to the human body. However, I've also read some convincing words that indicate that (similarly to how soybeans can be safe to eat if they've been cooked) the harmful substances in many grains can be "processed" out by soaking for a certain timeframe in an acid medium such as lemon juice, or cultured buttermilk. Since I don't believe the evolution portion of the Primal Diet, in March, we'll be pursuing the notion of soaking grains, which I think will not be as time consuming as it sounds. But first, the FFC where we totally remove grains and sugars may well be eye-opening and I'm really excited to see where it may take us in terms of energy levels and having healthy weight.

So that pretty much covers the evolution thing, and the fact that while I do believe God's given us the freedom to eat as we choose, I also don't think it will be harmful to temporarily remove grains, and certainly not harmful to remove sugars.

Now, onto the part of the Primal Diet that indicates that Scientific Advances in Healthcare for Humans is Good/Scientific Advances in Agriculture is Bad. I pause here, because this is a touchy subject. I think we've come a long ways in improving healthcare, we have eliminated certain diseases from our population that used to be common through vaccination, there are skilled surgeons doing amazingly complex things to save lives, and prescription medications have saved lives. With the advent of great infrastructure and safe, well-paved roads, and the automobile, and therefore, the Ambulance, we are very fortunate in terms of this. Of course, some abuse these helpful things, so we have drug dependency and other problems that came along with the big money involved with the Pharmaceutical companies, and I've said in my last post that I disagree with the amount of immunizations recommended for babies, but by and large - we can agree that Scientific Advances in Healthcare for Humans has been good! Yes, it has, and it is, and there are many more humans living today that would not have survived without the modern healthcare and technology we're now accustomed to.

So with all these lives being saved through modern medicine and technology, comes additional mouths to feed. I read an article yesterday that said that American Agriculture feeds over 3 million mouths. That's a lot of hungry people that need to eat. 100 years ago, there was enough land for each family to have a garden and raise their own cow, keep a few chickens, and a good number of the population had a farm of some sort. Today, less than 3% of the US population are farmers. So how in the world is that small group of Agriculturists feeding that huge group of hungry people? How has this become possible?? Well, similarly to how science and technology has improved healthcare, Agriculture has come a long way.

Equipment - 100 years ago, tractors weren't nearly as popular as a team of horses (if they were even around.....sorry about my lack of citation and true fact in this post.....you'll have to admit that the video clip I posted had none of that, as well - if I had the time I could dig up citations and real numbers to back up what I'm writing) and as much as I like horses, they're not particularly efficient, time-wise! My husband is the tractor and farm implement smarty - he could probably tell you not only what year the first tractors came out but also the model, brand, horsepower, and other tidbits. So the modernization of equipment, which allows one man to do much more work for his time.
Seed Varieties - Seed companies have developed many different varieties of seeds which are bred or hybridized to perform well in a variety of situations, from drought conditions to clay soil and so on. Even the advent of BT corn, while controversial, has improved yields. Personally, I am not afraid of BT crops, or GMOs (genetically modified organisms) because I know the way the digestive system breaks up proteins, which is what genes are made of. I'm much more concerned with hunger than the biotechnology of the seeds used to plant a field to increase yield.
Herbicides - Herbicides are not used unless they become necessary. It is not possible to pull weeds out of an entire field, so how do you control weeds? There's cultivating, which is possible when the crop is still very short. But what if you get weed pressure after the crop is a certain height? Well, then you spray with herbicide. Not just for fun, but otherwise, the weeds will choke out the crop. We had a field this year that grew too tall for even the tall sprayer to apply without knocking down the corn - so it didn't get sprayed even though we knew the weeds were beginning to choke the crop, but at that point there was nothing we could do. An otherwise great crop had terrible yields, much much less than the average for that field just because of the weed pressure. If you eat a crop that at one time in the growing process had been sprayed with herbicide, it's not like licking herbicides off the plant! Farmers don't spray unless it becomes necessary to protect yields, and again, the benefits of increased yield far outweigh the scientifically unconfirmed dangers of eating food from a treated field.
Pesticides - As far as I know, we don't use pesticides on our conventional rowcrop operation. We do use pesticides on our garden if it becomes necessary. Annually, we plant green beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, and potatoes, along with some other garden varieties. We watch carefully, and if our green beans' leaves start to get eaten up and holey from insects eating them - we do not hesitate to apply an insecticide to our crop! Here's the choice once the bugs show up and start eating: we spray and then get to eat the crop, or we don't spray and the plants die. I choose judicious spraying!
Hormones in beef cattle - We castrate all the bull calves born on our farm, for the main reason that intact bull calves are more dangerous to each other, to fences, barns and equipment, and tougher to handle than a castrated steer. A castrated steer does not produce the same level of hormones that an intact male would, and studies have shown that a calf that has been implanted with hormones uses less feed, and fattens out faster, making them much more efficient. We also implant the heifer calves that go to the feedlot, as well, but choose not to implant heifers that will be saved back as replacement cows. I think that the benefits gained from implanting a calf with hormones outweigh the possible problems involved with eating the meat - I don't believe any studies have proven a health risk involved with eating such meat. Not to mention that I believe that the amount of artificial hormones used in agriculture is minute compared to the amount of hormonal birth control that soooo many women are taking. If we're having issues with synthetic hormones, we should look first to those that are actually going into humans by mouth or patch or injection, rather than the tiny quantities ingested by eating implanted meat.
Grass-fed vs. Corn-fed - This is going to go back to my Biblical worldview - but in the story of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) it says in verse 23, "Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate." I've never been to the Holy Land, but I'm pretty sure it's an arid, desert-like region. Probably didn't have much grass in the area, and certainly not enough to fatten an animal the size of a calf! That calf almost certainly ate grain, and if a grain-fed calf is good enough for the Bible, it's good enough for me!
Pastured vs. Confined Feeding - The "natural" lifestyle of a pastured animal is pretty dangerous. There's the threat of disease from wild birds or wild animal attacks, the fact that temperature is highly variable outside from freezing to high heat and humidity, and really - livestock did not thrive in the outdoor conditions! In a confined feeding operation building, the animals are fed at several regular times daily, constantly have access to fresh water, the temperature inside the building is regulated to not drop below or rise above a certain temperature - these are conditions that allow the animals to experience greater health and much less mortality compared to those living in a pastured situation. Some animals even get the benefit of not having to compete for food and water because they're given individual pens. Chickens, for instance, have been known to suffocate in a thunderstorm in a group setting because they'll pile up on each other, and the birds that end up on the bottom can't get air. Sows will lay on their baby pigs and suffocate them, which is why gestation crates were designed. These modern adaptations to agriculture are saving animals lives, and making their quality of life better. The fact that conditions are so controlled inside a confined feeding operation makes it possible to medicate less often, because the animals are healthier.

So those are some of the modern advancements agriculture has made that has made it POSSIBLE for the small number of farmers to feed the people that it does. These technologies are applied judiciously, and none are done unnecessarily. Without the current technology, many more people would be going hungry! I for one am extremely grateful for the advancements that science and technology has made possible in agriculture, for without it we would not be able to feed the people who are reaping the benefits of advanced medicine and surviving, myself included! I just feel that it's important to share some of the reasoning behind some of the technologies and changes that have been made, because 100 years ago, nearly everyone either had a farm or had a close relative who lived on the farm - people were very close to the origins of their food. Today, many people have no connections to a real farm, and many don't even plant their own garden. This is why I feel it's important to share this side of the story, that there are valid reasons for using some of the modern agricultural practices that are dismissed as bad in a definite one-sided way.

The video clip does not mention all of the chemicals that many Americans use on a daily basis in their homes and on their skin and the harm that they are doing to their bodies and the environment. The phosphates and harmful chemicals that are in most laundry and dishwashing detergent are wreaking havoc on our bodies and our environment, even though there are safe, environmentally friendly brands available, many of the leading brands are toxic. Shampoos and other cosmetics frequently have dangerous levels of formaldehyde and other chemicals that are harmful to the nervous system! Yet these companies don't change their formulas for cosmetics and household cleaners to be toxin-free because it's cheaper to produce them this way. The impact on health and the environment would be huge if every household switched their cosmetics and cleaners to healthy, safe, non-toxic products. And there are products out there that are just as effective, and some I've tried even more so than their conventional, toxic counterparts.

Don't get me wrong, change needs to be made! Many of us Americans are far too cavalier with the choices being made, from the food that is consumed to the products they purchase for their homes and bodies. I just feel that when it comes to feeding hungry people, the minimal compromises being made to health by using modern Agricultural practices that are frowned about by the Primal Diet/Lifestyle pale in comparison to the benefits of providing FOOD, and compared to the impact that a few other lifestyle changes could make toward health in changing household cleaning products, cosmetics, and careful food choices, it just really bothers me that Agriculture is being made to look like an enemy, when the reality is quite the opposite.

Yes, companies are making money from the sale of medications and other technologies, but in addition to the monetary profits, there is an obvious benefit to society when it produces food more efficiently. The video clip does not mention all of the donations that environmental groups are getting for promoting their fearful message of the "evils of modern agriculture" nor the donations that animal-rights groups such as HSUS and PETA who are the ones spreading the false notion that confined feeding is bad for animals. Did you know that The Humane Society of the United States receives more money in donations than the American Red Cross???? This is appalling to me, especially considering the lack of assistance hands-on animal shelters receive from the HSUS (less than 1% of donations received by HSUS go to animal rescues). The HSUS is primarily a lobbying group that is working to keep people from keeping animals at all, and would love to see all people become vegan. They are taking money from people who believe that the HSUS helps dogs and cats, and getting rich off of spreading lies about how livestock care is done and farmers, who use responsible practices to provide safe food to the best of their ability at an affordable price are being blamed unfairly. These types of organizations benefit by sensationalizing the truth and leaving out important information, and dipping into people's emotions in order to dip into their pocketbooks for donations. Maybe agriculture benefits financially from using the technology they do, but so too do the special-interest groups who are spreading the unproven slander.

Still reading my epic post? Thanks for hearing me out.

By and large, I'm excited to try the primal thing for the month of February. There's just a few key areas that I take issue with, that I felt the need to clarify my viewpoint on.

Do you have comments? First, please be sure you read the whole thing. And please be kind! Remember, I am just a woman who fell in love with a farm boy, married him, and now I stay at home with our children. I'm not a scientist, but even so I think my point of view has some merit. I'd love to see some discussion about this.

Sheep with a Different Beat

2011-01-12T12:28:00.003-05:00

Strange post title, eh?

Yeah, that's kind of the point :-)

I've always been a little different than everyone else. Mostly I'm okay with that, even quite pleased with being a little odd. But at other times, it gets kinda lonely having a different take on things. It's nice to know that your close friends and relatives don't think you're completely off your rocker! Mostly I've learned to accomplish that goal by watching carefully others' reactions during a conversation - even a fool seems wise when her mouth is shut, and I'm getting better at keeping shut!

There are a lot of things that I don't just follow along with "what everybody else is doing" on. Most of these have come out in the last 3 years, since becoming a mother. Just a few examples: cloth diapering, breastfeeding (and allowing the child to self-wean), the food I choose to feed my family (more about that in future posts, still developing thoughts about that one), immunization schedules, what we tell our kids about Santa Claus, the way I choose to trim my horses hooves . . . the list could go on and on. Really, it could. I've got good reasons for why I've chosen all the things I've listed, and I'm very very happy for it and feel in each I've made the best choice for me, even though many will look at me funny when they discover the difference.

I've even questioned myself whether I choose to be different just so I can "be different." I've decided this is not the case, because being different than those around you really isn't very easy. It's uncomfortable at times, and sometimes trying to find information about each thing is tricky because usually I don't know anyone doing it the same way! So it often feels like I'm pioneering a new path all alone, which while this can be exciting and certainly a learning experience, it's truly not preferred.

But it really bugs me when I see others I care about just do things "the way they've always done them" just for the simple reason of "that's the way I've always done that" or "that's the way so and so always did that and they were just fine." Firstly, what does "just fine" really mean? Personally, I'd like to give myself a shot of having better than just fine. I also feel that recently (like in the last 3 generations) technology in all realms has changed nearly all facets of life at such a fast pace that life today is drastically different than life 3 generations ago, and I'm not convinced that all of the changes have been for the better. Of course, many of them (electricity, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, and so on) have been very very good and I don't want to be without some of the modern conveniences - but some other lifestyle changes I question, and really wish more people would.

I've read the word 'Sheeple' and I think this accurately describes the mindset many have. You may have heard about sheep, and the fact that they aren't particularly bright, and that they'll typically just follow the tail of the sheep ahead of them, completely blind to where they are going. I think of 'sheeple' people as sheep wandering after each other lost, sheep without a shepherd. I don't want to be like that. I'm happy to follow the sheep in front of me, but only after I've stopped to have a look around and try to see if that sheep is traveling in the right direction. Mostly, I've been blessed by being surrounded by some very wise sheep, so I'm glad to follow in their footsteps, but even so I try to take a step back and think for myself before just blindly following along. And I always try to remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd - the shepherd's job is to protect the sheep from attackers that would do them harm, and to guide the sheep to still waters and green pastures. What a blessing, that Jesus would gently guide us in the right paths.

I'm glad to be a sheep with a different beat. Even if I do sometimes feel like I'm the only one I know who "_______" (insert weird thing here), I'm not alone - I've still got my Good Shepherd, gently guiding me.

I just pray for the wisdom to know the difference between being different for the sake of being different, and choosing the good path despite the fact that it's a little different.

*Oh, you're still reading?? I guess I could share bits of why I've chosen some of the things I highlighted.

cloth diapering - less diapers in the landfill, it's really not that difficult to wash them, I save a TON of money, fewer chemicals touching my babies' skin

breastfeeding (and allowing the child to self-wean) - I don't have to wash bottles, I know my child is getting the exact right nutrition at the exact right temperature, I love to cuddle up with my usually squirmy, not-so-cuddly active toddler and nursing offers a great opportunity for that, and I know that my baby will not nurse forever - they'll get ready when they're ready, and they don't even get all their teeth until they're much older than most people wean - so to me that means their nutrition would be lacking if I weaned them earlier. Besides, it helps me lose weight!

the food I choose to feed my family (more about that in future posts, still developing thoughts about that one) - we're going to do a "challenge" in February where we are very careful about what we put in our cups and on our plates. Not 100% sure what the "rules" will be yet, but I expect to see a big difference in energy levels and waistlines.

immunization schedules - I cannot believe how much the CDC recommends to inject into tiny, weeks or months old babies! Our kids still get all of the recommended vaccinations, but spread out over a greater timeframe.

what we tell our kids about Santa Claus - Santa is not real! It's a nice, pretend story - but Jesus is what Christmas is all about. And really - the story of a virgin giving birth to a God's only Son, in a barn, with Shepherds being told by angels, and the wise men coming because they saw a start - the true story of Christmas is miraculous enough, it doesn't need a fat man in a red suit to pass out presents too!

the way I choose to trim my horses hooves - I choose not to put shoes on my horse, and I try to trim so that her feet mimic what they'd look like if she were a wild mustang. This is healthier and more comfortable for the horse, and less expensive for me!

Oh, and I need to say this! Just because I'm doing things the way I do them, does NOT mean that I think you are wrong because you do things your way!! Your way may be perfectly right for you, please don't take me doing things my way as judgement about your way. I only ask that you make sure that you're doing things the way your doing them as a conscious choice you've made, not just because that's the way it's always been done.

A Child Changes Everything

2010-12-22T13:40:00.003-05:00

A few mornings ago, I had just rocked my son to sleep to his nap, when one of the songs in my CD changer really really jumped out at me. I've listened to the same 3 CDs since the day after Thanksgiving, when we started listening to our Christmas music, but I'd never heard this song the same way before.

The song? "Welcome to our World," the version I was listening to was sung by Michael W. Smith - online I've found lyrics by both him and Chris Rice, among others.

the particular lyrics that moved me so:

"Tender brow prepared for thorns
tiny heart, whose blood will save us
unto us is born."

I had just kissed my tiny son's forehead as I lay him down for his nap.
(just as Mary had likely kissed her God/Man Son Jesus)

My baby's skin so soft, hair so fine.
(it pains me beyond measure to take him for his immunization shots, I cannot begin to fathom a crown of thorns!)

My young child's whole body, while growing stronger every day, so frail and fragile.
(Jesus, while He was God, would choose to take death so that I would never have to!)

My son is precious beyond words to me.
(More and more, I am realizing, all people are so so precious to the point that our Newborn King would knowingly place himself in our cursed world to put himself through extreme torture, just to save us. I love my son, dearly so....but if I were truly honest with myself, would I be capable of doing what Jesus did for us? Miserable sinner that I am, I could not, not even if I tried.)

Certainly I'm not doing a good job of getting across the feeling of amazement and gratefulness and guilt and wonder and love that washed over me then, and has now every time since I hear that song. But I wanted to try to capture it and share it here. Try a search for this song, take a listen yourself. leave a comment and let me know which lyrics touched you.

She wants to make something like Jesus

2010-12-21T07:36:00.002-05:00

So this morning at the breakfast table, my girl (3 years old) asked me to tell her a story. "Okay," I said, "what about?"
She pondered, "umm, how bout Horses!"

Goodness, a story about horses, it's early in the morning, I'm still pretty foggy and not at all alert. I'd been reading in James the verses about "Boasting About Tomorrow" (Chapter 4:13-17) and feeling very convicted because I had just bought a new yearly planner.

Hmm, okay, horses. I asked her if instead it would be okay to have a story about a donkey. Thankfully, she excitedly agreed. So, rather than dream up a horse story, I read to her from Matthew 21, about the Triumphal Entry, and how Jesus sent his disciples to get the donkey and her colt and how he rode the colt into the city while the people shouted "Hosanna in the highest!" and we did it too.

I asked her if she liked the Donkey story and she said yes, and I went back into my morning fog of sleepiness, but my girl started jabbering about dressing up and it made me snap into attention. She said she wanted to dress up so she would look like Jesus. Wow! I told her what we really needed to do was to make ourselves look like Jesus on the inside and that was what Jesus wants from us, anyway. We need to love other people, just like Jesus does, and to serve other people, just like Jesus does. I asked her if we could try really really hard to do that together, to make ourselves be like Jesus, and she agreed. Now I am one happy mama, but my goodness, what a challenge! To model what it's like to be like Jesus so she can look like Jesus. Can't do it, not on my own strength. Jesus, fill me up with your Holy Spirit so I can look like you!

Then, she says she wants to make something like Jesus made. Where does she get this stuff? Is it something her heart craves without even knowing it?? When do we lose these desires as grownups? Well, I tell her, Jesus made disciples, he made fishers of men. She says, "Can we do it Right NOW?"

I didn't give her much of an answer....after all, it was 6 something in the morning - how do we make disciples Right Now? This silly mama does not even begin to know how to shepherd this little child's heart, to help her "make something like Jesus made right now" But I pray I don't squelch her spirit's desire to be like her Savior!

Updating and Exercising and Procrastinating

2010-11-30T10:59:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted on this blog! And this isn't going to be interesting reading by any means, but I just felt like writing. Right now my daughter is playing play-doh, my son is sleeping, and I'm trying really hard to pretend that my house is not a complete wreck of a mess, that my floors and countertops aren't sticky, that the bathrooms smell fresh, and that the carpet doesn't have little bits of dirt all across the floor. It isn't really working!!

It's raining, gently, really more of a drizzle. Which really, is good because we had such a bad drought all summer and fall that we really do need to catch up before the growing season in 2011. But it's presenting me with a bit of a problem.

You see, on the way up to my parent's house the Friday after Thanksgiving, I committed to doing some form of exercise every day between now and January 2. I'd been doing really well all summer long, running/walking regularly with the kids in the double jogger, and had really improved my fitness and was feeling great. Loved doing it, and loved how I was feeling lighter on my feet especially. I was healthier! But then......Halloween happened, where we brought home more candy than we gave away, and I have absolutely zero willpower when it comes to sweets. So now I'm losing ground again and really not liking it. I'm sure the Thanksgiving holiday and all the eating that took place across 4 days has not helped me any. So, I committed to working on maintaining a higher activity level daily for the rest of the year.

My sister and her friend are doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred DVD, together, but separately, and she was on day 4 or so and my mom, aunt and I joined her on Friday. It was pretty easy, or so I thought, until the next day where I was very sore! Saturday was spent mainly recovering from the shred and we did do some walking outside. Sunday was a flurry of activity helping with my husband's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary dinner, but I managed to put the running shoes on and rather than riding in the car to Matt's parent's house, I ran. Maybe 1/4 mile?? But probably way less. Monday consisted of a small fever in the morning and pushing through trying to avoid sickness, thankfully Matt had already planned a vacation day that day so I wasn't trying to do it all by myself, but still yet very little got done in the way of housecleaning. My exercise was 45 minutes of walking, leading Ginger the horse for a Reins to Recovery riding lesson. Not a big exertion, but yet I felt it was good enough for someone who felt on the verge of sickness.

I feel fine today, and had thought that with the cold front coming through later tonight I would go ahead and run with the kids in the stroller this morning, but that's not going to happen with the way it's steadily drizzling rain. Maybe the weather will clear up enough later that I can still get that run in. But right now it's not looking good.

And so presents the problem that I'll be facing all winter - how in the world to get any exercise in while keeping everyone warm and healthy with the impending nasty winter weather to come?

Oh well, it'll get worked out somehow....I know I'm not the only one with this problem, and I sure hate to wish time to fly by any faster than it already does, but boy, I'll be glad when Spring arrives!

Rice Krispy PEEPS

2010-04-06T10:05:00.004-04:00

What do you do with 3 packages of Marshmallow Bunny Peeps when your husband considers marshmallows to be "raccoon bait," your 2 year old is quite energetic enough, thank you, and you are attempting to lose the baby weight???

Well, I am happy to say that they make great Rice Krispy treats! Combining green, yellow, and purple Peeps gives you a nice green color to the marshmallow goo...and yes, they taste very good!

I have to say I felt sort of cruel melting those sweet little bunnies in the pot...but it was worth it :-)

Apple Pie

2010-03-21T15:33:00.003-04:00

My neighbor had been having health troubles in the past couple of weeks, and we have been quite concerned about him. Death is something that everyone living will eventually succumb to, and with illness, that reality seems more imminent. So he's been on my mind quite a bit lately, especially since I do not know whether he has a relationship with Jesus. I've felt as though I'm being led to speak with him, just to be sure he's had a chance to form a relationship with Jesus my Savior, who is my hope not only for eternal life, but gives me hope and assurance in everyday life.

I'd come to the decision that I would go over to his house and visit with him, and make a point of talking about the eternal life that is offered through Christ. I wasn't exactly looking forward to this conversation - it could certainly be very awkward, and no one really enjoys awkward conversation but I felt it was important enough to risk a bit of awkwardness. Now, this person is someone who I've always enjoyed talking to - in fact before Luke was born I had the opportunity to chat with him for a few minutes almost every day, and always enjoyed this. He is not married, and does not have children, and he is also not much of a people person, and has good brothers, sisters, cousins and friends who've been helping him out a lot, and I didn't want to tire him out with too many extra visitors if I'd have come, so I waited.

It had been suggested to me on Saturday afternoon that he might enjoy some dessert brought over to the house. I was happy to learn this because I'd been wanting to help with meals, but wasn't sure what to bring that would fit best with his diet. So I made the plan that I'd make a pie - either Peach or Apple, and decided on Apple Pie, in fact, it's baking in the oven as I type this. I'd bring some pie over later Sunday afternoon, and talk with him at that time. I figured it'd be an easy way to have an "excuse" to have visited him, and I knew that God would give me the words to speak.

It had been a busy Sunday morning, neither Matt nor myself were dressed for church, and both Cora and Luke were still sleeping, and we had less than 10 minutes before it was time to go. It was crazy....rush, rush, rush, get in the car, and go! I left the house at 7:38, and was almost sure I'd be late for church. On a normal morning, I'd be stressed and tense after rushing around like that, but I found my heart just full of praise! I was smiling, singing out loud, just full to overflowing with PRAISE in my heart for God's goodness. This lasted from a little bit after I had turned North from the river bottoms, the whole way to church, and then even after the first couple of songs (and then I had a baby and a toddler to focus on!). It was a GREAT feeling.

As Matt and I had just reached the parking lot after church and were loading the children into the car, Matt answered a phone call. It didn't look good, and he mouthed the news to me before he hung up - our neighbor had died. I was shocked - yes, we'd been concerned for his health, but I had plans to talk to him that very afternoon! That afternoon...and I was too late! I don't know what to make of it.

First I felt terrible. I felt so badly that I didn't make it a point to talk with him sooner. Then I remembered that the family he was raised in were likely regulars at Sunday School and church in his childhood at least, and I firmly believe that your salvation doesn't depend on whether you are an active church goer, what matters is that you put your faith in Jesus having atoned for your sins - it is faith, not works, that allows men into heaven. I wanted to know what time he died. I still don't know for sure, but it was probably right around the time I was driving to church, when I was so full of Praise that I couldn't keep it in. Could it be that God was giving me some reassurance, allowing me to join in the celebration going on in Heaven at the moment when my neighbor had been called to his heavenly home? I don't know, but I think it's possible, and I like to believe it's true.

So we're mourning the loss of a good neighbor and relative today. Someone who I'm really not sure where he'll be spending eternity, because I never had that conversation with him. I have hope that he is in heaven rejoicing, but I don't know the answer. I do know that we have been promised that any who know Jesus as their personal Savior, any who believe that He took on their sins and their punishment instead of them, was crucified, and then defeated death by rising from the dead - any who believe this have been promised eternal life in paradise with God. I also know that those who do not put their faith in Jesus as their Savior do not have the hope of eternal life, but will be doomed to spend eternity in hell. I wish I'd had that conversation with him.

And that's why I'm posting this. Where a person will spend eternity is too important to wait, so I'm posting this as a reminder - please don't let yourselves get too busy to take the time to have those conversations when God puts it on your heart to do so. I guess I don't feel guilty about my neighbor, talking to him today was something I was going to do. The pie and plan to talk to him were on the day's agenda. I truly think that there's a strong possibility that there is rejoicing in heaven over him today. But I urge you reading this: is there someone you've been meaning to share Christ with? Someone who you know could benefit from having a relationship with Jesus? Please don't wait to share your faith with them. It could impact them for eternity.

Now to decide what to do with this pie.

Tools of the Trade

2010-02-22T12:13:00.003-05:00

When you are a full-time mom, you spend a lot of time with cleaners of various kinds.

Yes, it's true.

Maybe not one of the most exciting parts of the job....but it's got to be done.

Washing dishes, wiping countertops, mopping floors, scrubbing toilets and showers, and we can't forget the LAUNDRY!

With one mommy (who gets spit-up on quite a bit), one daddy (who works around grease and out on the farm), one two-year-old (who's learning how to use the potty), and a baby (who spits up) - we do quite a lot of laundry. And I didn't even mention the laundry I do for our cloth diapers (and training pants).

Last month I tried a new laundry detergent that has really improved the chore of doing all that laundry. This stuff is amazing. Clothes that had stains on them previously are coming out of the wash clean, and without any extra scrubbing on my part!

Possibly the most amazing thing is how it's significantly decreased the amount of time I spend on laundering the diapers. I used to have to run them through two washing cycles: once with baking soda and vinegar on all cold water, and then again with detergent with hot water. Without that first step, the diapers would come out still smelling like....well, DIAPERS, and that's not a good thing! So now that we've switched brands, I just run the diapers through with our new laundry detergent on hot water and completely skip the first cycle. And they smell fresh!

Maybe not a big deal for some people, but this saves me time and water on the diapers, and gets me cleaner clothes all around....and for the same money! Not bad, if you ask me!

Cora's First Haircut, and Room Pics

2010-02-20T07:02:00.002-05:00

So this is Cora and her animal pillows. I made the zebra, elephant, and giraffe, the monkey was deeply discounted at Joann's. Also visable is the quilt I made for her bed.

We found those wall stickers at WalMart on clearance - there is a tiger, a parrot, a couple of monkeys, and some tree frogs. Cute, and Cora LOVES them! They're made to stick on teh wall, and you can peel them off and reposition easily without damaging paint.

This is the valance I made from scraps leftover from the quilt. I still haven't bought a light blocking blind for this window yet.

And now for the haircut.

After her bath yesterday, I was having a TERRIBLE time trying to comb through the tangles at the ends. I said, enough of this - we are going to give you a haircut! So I combed as far down to the end as I could easily, and cut the tangled part off. It ended up being about 2-3 inches. Really it was only the front that needed it, but I trimmed some off the back too.

It's pretty obviously not a professional's work, but it's a lot easier to comb her hair now, and it is clear as can be my Cora girl is pretty pleased with her new 'do! (in process she actually kept telling me to "cut more".....I think I better keep the scissors hidden away carefully!!!!)

Merry Christmas

2009-12-21T12:23:00.003-05:00

So, again, I am being made to think about what Christmas is all about.

"Jesus is the reason for the season"

"Santa Claus comes and brings toys to all the good girls and boys"

"It's a time for friends and family to gather together"

"It just wouldn't be Christmas without the presents"

The last quote was a line that really stood out at me from the children's christmas program I attended with my family on Sunday. It isn't Christmas without presents? Really??

My little family of four is working on what we really believe about how to celebrate Christmas. We want to have a tradition that means something to our children after they've grown and left the nest. We're not sure how to do that.

I do know that I believe that celebrating Jesus's birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Christ was the ultimate Gift that God gave us. The Wise Men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gifts for the baby Jesus. These are all good reasons why we give gifts to each other. But how many? How expensive should they be? Do we measure expense by cost in dollars, or as an expenditure of the time spent to create the gift, or as a percentage of income? Who should spend the time to think about the gift: the gift giver, or the receiver (in writing a Christmas Wish List). Do we really gain any Christmas Cheer by giving pointless gifts to people who don't need anything anyway?

I also know that Santa Claus isn't real. We won't be having anything Santa in our home. Santa is a nice, cute story, but we will be encouraging our children to believe the truth - Santa isn't real, neither is the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. Jesus, the son of God who was responsible for many miracles in the Old Testament and capable of anything, was born to a Virgin, whose birth was announced by Angels and a Star, who was worshipped by Shepherds, who grew up and lived without sin, who died as atonement for my sins, and rose from the dead, and by faith in him I am made worthy of heaven. The real story, true as it is, is unbelievable and amazing enough to keep me from seeing a need to fill my children's heads with lies about Santa.

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is widely accepted as being a stressful time. Between decorating the home, buying and wrapping gifts, and going to parties, and baking goodies, and taking pictures, and writing and addressing and mailing Christmas Cards, singing carols, going to church....where do we find the true meaning behind all the busy-ness?? What's the point? To me there has to be a good reason to invite all this stress into my family's life.

So...the point of all this rambling writing: How to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way? Yes, it involves gifts - but how to avoid presents becoming the main event? Do we find a way to give to the needy? (anything you do unto the least of these, you do unto Me) What ways can we build meaningful holiday traditions that keep Christ the focus of CHRISTmas? I wish I had an answer for 2009....but hope to have one in place for 2010 and beyond.

What We've Been Doing Lately . . .

2009-12-15T11:09:00.006-05:00

Since Luke was born, we've been spending a lot of time just trying to keep living life! It has been pretty hectic with our little 2 year old and our littler newborn, to care for the family between diapers and feeding and laundry and trying to keep flat surfaces clear of clutter (sort of clear, at least!). The only things that consistently got taken care of were the people - the housework and laundry are not the first priority at all! We are so thankful for our mothers, who have spent a lot of time helping out with housework and that has been such a blessing! We also had some friends bring some delicious meals to our home, which was not only a big help, but it felt great to have people to care for us in such a giving way!

The biggest problem really was my own ambition. Cora's birthday is December 8th, and I had wanted to re-do the South bedroom for her to sleep in - I made a quilt, a valance, and have sewn up pillows in the shape of a giraffe, a zebra, and an elephant. We'll soon be hanging a tiger picture on the wall, and possibly other animal pictures if we can find them. We'd wanted to move her to her Big Girl Room for her 2nd birthday. I had fully expected Luke to have been born sometime in October, since his due date was October 31st. I decided to wait until the baby was born to start on the bedroom project, and since he waited until November 10th to be born, and stayed at the hospital much longer than we'd anticipated, that was a big mistake! I had less than a month to finish all those projects, so every spare minute was spent in the sewing room. I did finish most of the sewing by her birthday party that we had on Saturday the 12th. It was a fun project, but I shouldn't have attempted it with a deadline like that with the new baby!

Sunday, December 13th, was another big day for the family, because Luke was baptized that day. My parents and grandpa and sister stayed overnight so it would be easier to make it to 8:00am church. Of course, I forgot my camera, but many others took pictures, so I am sure they will be willing to send them to me (I hope!). Luke was a good baby during the baptismal ceremony, and looked very handsome in his outfit. His grandma hosted a dinner afterwards, which was delicious!

(Cora in front of her birthday presents from her great grandparents, grandparents, aunt, and parents - the big box is filled with the animals, and wrapped in the quilt I made for her bed)

(Luke showing off one of his fitted cloth diapers - so soft, so comfy!)

(Tummy time is more fun with daddy and big sis too!)

(Cora and her baby doll, Mommy and Luke)

(Luke and Baby Doll with their Mommies in their wrap carriers - hands free is nice!)

I think we have been getting along pretty well!

Birth Announcement!

2009-11-24T10:47:00.003-05:00

The newest member of our family is 2 weeks old today, so I am a little late in getting this out. I am fairly certain most of you already know about him anyway, but I still must write about it in the blog!

Luke Edward was born on 11/10/09, at 3:35am. He was over a week past his estimated due date, and we'd had a prenatal visit Monday afternoon, I was dilated to 4cm then, and everything looked fine in the NST, but we had planned to induce by that Friday if he hadn't been born by then. Monday evening was normal, uneventful, we went to bed, but at 11:39pm I was awakened by a VERY INTENSE contraction! I went to the bathroom, climbed back into bed, and about 10 minutes after the first one, I had another one. I stayed in bed until the 3rd one came a little less than 10 minutes later, but these were so very intense and obviously the real thing that I woke Matt up - "It's time!"

He ran around the house getting things put in the car while I attempted to get dressed (not too easy when you are in labor!). Finally I was ready to go, we got in the car and called his parents (12:44am) who live across the road to come and stay with Cora, and we were headed to the hospital. It's about a 40-45 minute drive to the hospital depending on traffic conditions, but my dear husband made it there in just over 30! His strategy: travel at a reasonably super fast speed to avoid getting a ticket for reckless driving, but he wasn't going to slow down if he saw another car - he thought that if we did get pulled over we'd get a police escort the rest of the way!

When we got to the hospital they let us in, we rode the elevator up to the second floor, and then had to walk the rest of the way to the birthing center, while a tech escorted us. I had to stop about every 50 feet for a contraction! Finally we made it, and they gave us a room, and it seemed like from there nothing ever slowed down. Nurses and techs asking questions, getting a heart rate reading from the baby, getting my blood pressure, me changing clothes, our doula arriving, them saying we had to move our car (thankfully, our doula was there and was able to get most of our stuff inside, then move the car....I could not have been without Matt at that point - those contractions were coming hard and fast and just would not let up!).

I was officially admitted to the hospital at 1:55am. Labor was really intense and never let up - with Cora I had a big contraction, then got to rest for several moments between the contractions. Seemed like with Luke's birth - I'd have a big contraction, just barely catch my breath, and then the next one would come. People were always asking me to do things in between contractions (reasonable things, really, but I was in labor and just wanted to rest!).

I spent a lot of time on a birth ball while Matt sat on the bed and I leaned on him and rocked back and forth, and was sooo glad we'd brought the exercise ball from home that I was used to - the one they had at the hospital was TINY! After they asked me to get in the bed so they could check my dilation, I then mostly was sitting up on my knees, facing the back of the bed, leaning over the back with it raised up for support. At some point, the doctor checked me and I was fully dilated, and I pushed for a little while in that position, until they had me flip over and sit down to actually birth the baby. I am not for sure how long I actually pushed - things were going so fast and I had no concept of time, but Luke was born at 3:35am.

They gave him right to me, and I was able to hold him for a little while, but I ended up hemorrhaging pretty badly, so the nurses took him to the warmer while the doctor worked on me to stop the bleeding, deliver the placenta, and stitch up my small tear. I ended up with a couple of shots, and they had to start an IV because I had lost so much blood. After I was taken care of, Matt brought Luke over (sometime around 4am) and he nursed for a little over an hour. Around then, the baby nurse came back to check his respiration, and it was in the 60's and higher (normal is in the 40s). She was concerned and was going to ask the head baby nurse, and it turned out they wanted to keep him for monitoring for a while until his breathing slowed to a normal rate.

Turned out what Luke had was TTN, which is basically just a fast respiration rate - it looked like he was panting. It isn't something that's preventable, or predictable. Sometimes it happens because the baby inhales amniotic fluid on the way out, sometimes it happens in a fast birth (like his was!) because the baby doesn't get enough time in the birth canal to squeeze the lungs and get them cleared out. There was no treatment for it, just time - as the baby adjusts to life outside the womb, he gradually begins to breathe normally. He didn't need to have oxygen, or an IV, just stayed on the monitor to track his respiration rate, heart rate, and oxygen levels. Since he was breathing so fast, it wasn't safe for him to be fed by mouth - there is a risk of aspiration which could lead to pneumonia. So, I pumped every 3 hours, and he was fed by a tube.

This went on until Thursday morning, around 9am, when finally his breathing had slowed enough that I could breastfeed him again! This was such great news - we'd been told that once his respiration got down, and once it was clear he was nursing well, that we could go home!

Unfortunately, I had to be discharged from the hospital by midnight on Thursday, so the remainder of that night was spent in the 4th floor "boarder parents lounge" which was an unsecured room in an unused wing of the hospital next to Pediatrics that had fold-out couches and a bathroom with a toilet and sink. My mom stayed with me so I woudn't have to stay alone and haul my stuff back and forth each time. Whenever Luke woke up and was ready to eat, the Nursery called Pediatrics who came down the hall to get me. I'd wake up, use the bathroom, stumble down the hall to the elevator, weave my sleepy way down the hall, request entrance into the birthing center, knock on the door to the nursery, wash my hands, and finally, 10 minutes after first learning he was hungry, nurse my baby. It was not at all ideal, but it was definitely better than him having a bottle and unlearning how to breastfeed!

So, after having been up all night on 11/10/09 when Luke was born, the longest stretch of sleep I had in the hospital was Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning) when we went from 1am to 6am and just skipped one pumping to try to get some rest. Other than that it was more like 2-3 hour stretches of sleep at a time, and by Friday morning I was EXHAUSTED! Being newly postpartum, hormonal, spending all that time awake, and in the nursery, with the monitors that beep nearly constantly, and having to be super careful of the wires strapped to your newborn anytime I held him - it was super stressful! We were VERY glad and so grateful to be discharged from the hospital Friday afternoon, we finally got to introduce Cora to her little brother, and started being a family of 4 at home!

Now that Luke is 2 weeks old, we're starting to get into the swing of "normal" - he's a really great eater (birth weight was 8lbs, 1oz, at discharge was 7lbs, 11oz, and on Monday at his first weight check was 8lbs, 9oz!), his big sister is very understanding that little Luke needs a lot of attention from Mommy and Daddy because he's a newborn. And really, even with such a rocky start, things are going pretty smoothly now - what a wonderful blessing from God!

A Happy Halloween - But No Baby Yet

2009-11-01T06:22:00.003-05:00

I really had not planned a costume for Cora for Halloween. But on Friday afternoon it became apparant that I might as well have something ready, since the baby was not here yet. I had just assumed we'd have been busy with other things, since the due date was October 31st!

But what to dress her up as? Well, every morning and night when we do chores across the road, we look for our neighbor's beautiful white cat. We see him most times, and Meow at him, and wink at him (like cats blink their eyes at you) but he hasn't let us pet him yet. So...Cora was a white cat for Halloween. She already had the white shirt, white tights, and white shoes. I sewed a tail, stuffed it with polyfil, and stitched it to a skirt made out of an old t-shirt, and the hat with cat ears was made from an old t-shirt as well. I used pink lipstick for the kitty nose, and eyeliner for her whiskers. She absolutely LOVED getting dressed as a kitty!

We got ready, took pictures, and of course had to show the neighbor how his cat had inspired Cora's costume! Then we took pictures at our house - me with the hat I had hoped her little brother would have actually worn on his head today! And Cora, being adorable, and holding her kitty cat tail.

Then we headed to "trunk or treat" at Matt's aunt and uncle's church, and Cora really got into the spirit of grabbing candy! She said "meow" a lot, and shook her tail, and it was a really good time.

This is being written and posted Sunday morning, and no signs of baby coming yet! He's for sure not going to be a Halloween baby though!

Still Pregnant!

2009-10-26T10:34:00.004-04:00

Baby is due the end of this week, though! So excited for his arrival! We are so ready to meet him. Bags are packed. I've been doing a once-over of the house every night before bed to make sure everything is mostly clean, just in case I do go into labor and we have to leave! That way everything won't be a huge mess when we return. It seems a little crazy, but then it's been nice to wake up to a clean house in the morning!

The last two weekends we've been trying to get out of the house, anticipating that soon we will be more or less house bound with a newborn during flu season. Besides the fact that it's probably easier to get out and about with one child rather than two!

Last weekend, we tried out the mexican restaurant in town on Friday night - it was very good - nice fresh food! The menu made it clear what you were getting too, which was nice. We headed down after church on Sunday to Bass Pro Shop, and Cora loved it the minute we drove in the parking lot - she saw the boats, and all the stuffed animals, and the aquarium - it was well worth the drive to see her face light up every time she turned her head when she saw something new!

On Saturday this weekend we drove down to Madison and walked along the river - Cora in her stroller with Daddy pushing. It was a chilly, but beautifully sunny afternoon, and the fall colors along the banks of the Ohio River were stunning. There was a sign for a restaurant on the water, Lighthouse Cafe I think it was, and we ate down there. A barge went by, and we rocked gently with the wake of the boat as it passed while we ate our dinner. It was really neat! After dinner, we walked some more, and tried to get some chocolates to bring home (or in my case, eat on the way home!) but pretty much all the stores were closed up by 6pm! There are a lot of shops to look at in Madison, but it's pretty much a daytime town! We ended up going to a local coffee shop (love patronizing the local places rather than Starbucks when I get the chance!) and got a decaf Vanilla Mocha, and the woman gave us a cookie for Cora, free! Matt doesn't drink coffee, so he shared Cora's cookie. It was a fun little outing for the three of us.

It will be interesting to see if we end up having to come up with something to do this weekend, or if we will have the baby by then!

The "Nourishing Breakfast Challenge"

2009-09-09T17:35:00.004-04:00

I'm in!

Michelle over at "She Looketh Well" has begun a "Nourishing Breakfast Challenge" where all week she will post recipes. For each breakfast you try and comment on, you get entered to win a book! Check out the link to the challenge here!

Soap!!

2009-09-09T06:54:00.003-04:00

Last week my soap order from Cheeky Maiden Soap Company arrived. I am in love!

Pictured above is the Lavendar Baby Bar, the Breakfast Bar (with raw milk, honey, and oats), and the Nettle, Cedarwood, and Grapefruit Shampoo Bar, in their new home in our upstairs bathroom.

From the Cheeky Maiden website:

"Cheeky Maiden Soaps are REALLY natural soaps! She's picky about ingredients, and always avoids synthetic colors and preservatives! Our soap is now being forumulated without the use of synthetic fragrances as well. Not all handmade soap is the same! Cheeky Maiden offers unique handcrafted soaps formulated from a base of pure Olive, Palm, Avocado, Castor and Coconut oils. Shea Butter is added to create a luxuriously smooth, cleansing bar of soap. Her soaps will delight your senses! Swirls of natural color and light fragrances turn shower into spa! The perfect gift, each bar comes wrapped in its own designer label and tied with a bow. If you have never used handcrafted soap before, you are in for a real treat! "

Why do I bother to tell you all about my new soap?? If you surf over to her site and place an order as a first time customer, and put my name in the box, I will get $3 off my next soap purchase, and I am already planning what soaps I will get! So help yourself out, buy some GREAT soap, and help me out - put my name in for my discount when you do! :-)

Countdown to Baby - Lots of Work to do!

2009-07-29T12:32:00.003-04:00

Today is July 29, and I am now 27 weeks pregnant! Less than 13 weeks to go before baby arrives (that’s assuming he doesn’t come early!) and our family grows from 3 to 4. This pregnancy is going a lot faster than I thought! How exciting! But…..oh man I have a LOT of things I need to get done/under control before this happens!!

I’ve come up with a week by week approach that should help maintain my sanity.

For August, there is, in no particular order:

Sewing projects – maternity dress, dresses for Cora, a little tote bag for Cora, one baby project
Packing and going on a week’s vacation (fun, but hard to get much accomplished at home!)
Preserving corn and tomatoes (sauce, salsa, etc) for the year
Put away/sort Cora’s clothes by size, box up what she’s grown out of, and what she’s not big enough for yet.
Go through Cora’s little baby clothes, and pick out the stuff that is gender neutral that our son can wear.
Come up with an effective organization system for our laundry/hall/mud room/mail desk. (ha! Sounds impossible!!)

September’s tasks include:

Birthday parties
Reorganizing the computer room/office AND KEEP IT THAT WAY!!!
Sewing projects: More baby stuff, plus get started on some matching dolly things for the Big Sis!
Reorganize the Attic Room (my sewing/craft/storage room) so that Cora can be in there without getting into trouble
Finish re-upholstering antique rocking chair.

By the end of September, I’ll be approaching 36 weeks, and I hope to have all the baby stuff purchased, prepped, and ready for use by the time I reach 37 weeks – the time when a baby could be born and considered full-term. It won’t hurt to be ready by then, but I’d sure be scrambling if baby came early and I wasn’t!

I’ll need to:

Wash stuff: car seat covers, crib sheets, clothes, cloth diapers
Buy the stuff I don’t have for baby: boy specific clothes, newborn sized cloth diapers, and other miscellaneous things – I’m registered at Mom4life.com – lots of really good things on my registry list if you’re looking for a good baby gift (wink, wink!!!!) Especially the Tummy Tub baby bathtub, the Twilight Turtle (as a nite lite alternative), the LilyPadz, the BumGenius Diapers (and the matching BabyLegs!), the Aden and Anais Muslin swaddling blankets….well, all the products I've registered for on that site will be VERY handy.
Get all the birth day stuff ready – food, snacks, baby book…..and so forth.

October’s work (beyond being sure all baby gear is ready to go):

Deep clean the house
Make sure plans are in place for Cora for both during the birth and after baby is born to help her feel important.
Food prep – making meals and freezing them for later use!

If I’m still pregnant the week baby is due, I plan on congratulating myself for getting everything ready in plenty of time, taking long walks, getting a hair cut, deep cleaning the house (again!), and just enjoying the last days of being a family of three before our new addition arrives!

My Toilets Smell Like Cedar!

2009-07-29T11:17:00.002-04:00

Yes, I actually had fun cleaning the bathrooms this morning.

I'd been putting it off for the past week or two - my pregnancy body was making me feel nauseaus at the very thought of smelling the normal cleaning chemicals I use to clean the bathroom - toilet cleaner, and all-purpose bathroom cleaning spray. Every time I use those things to clean with, I have to use the fan in the bathroom, since the smell of the cleaning solution just makes it really hard to breathe. Besides, those chemicals are supposed to be unsafe for use during pregnancy (or that was my excuse, anyway!).

So I'd been putting it off. Matt offered to clean the bathrooms, but hadn't gotten around to it yet(!). Recently some of the youth from our church came by and helped me do some deep cleaning in the house, including washing windows. I was about to run out of Windex, so I called my MIL and she came to the rescue - she sells Watkins products and brought by a bottle of the Watkins Lavender and Rosemary Window Cleaning Solution - very very nice! The house smelled amazing of the lavender and rosemary essential oil for several days after the windows were cleaned. I really like it, and it will be tough for me to go back to buying regular windex after this!

She gave me a Watkins catalog, and they have other cleaning supplies in there too. A toilet bowl cleaner that has orange essential oil, and an all-purpose bathroom cleaning solution with lemon essential oil. I loved the thought of having my bathroom clean without the chemicals, and citrus-y smelling, too! But, the prices were a bit prohibitive, and while I was at Jay-C Plus yesterday, I stopped by the "hippy" section of the store - with all the organic foods and cleaners, and found that they had a Cedar scented toilet cleaner for half price. I also bought another all purpose cleaner, but I'm not as impressed with it (no scent).

So, as I was cleaning my bathrooms this morning, actually ENJOYING the scents that the cleaning products I was using were giving off, I felt quite happy with my purchase! This just may be the start to me beginning to investigate using more natural cleaning products, maybe even ones I can make up myself!

Here's to having a clean, fresh-smelling home!!

Making Myself Teachable

2009-07-27T08:06:00.002-04:00

Several months ago I found a little piece of home decor at Hobby Lobby I liked so well that I purchased it - it's now hanging in our living room on the wall. It's a little metal sign that says "Show me your ways, O Lord, guide me in your truth, and teach me. Psalm 25:4-5" Pretty simple, really.

I've been thinking though, about that verse, and life, and it's becoming obvious to me that I am making life more difficult than it needs to be.

Going through a time where you have to make a hard decision?? Check!

Having long talks with the spouse about said decision?? Check!

Lots of time spent in prayer, both alone, and with spouse?? Check!

Still having a hard time finding an answer to what to do about said hard decision?? Check!!

Here's what I've decided is missing: I am not spending time in the Word (reading the Bible). I've slacked off big time in that department. Yes, God uses a lot of ways to communicate with His children, but perhaps this time He needs to communicate through the Word. I plan to make a conscious effort to get back into a habit of reading scripture. When I do take the time to do this, I feel much more connected with God, when I let other things happen first and don't take the time to read the Bible, well....I feel less connected. Why do I continually fall out of this good habit? (don't answer that question....it's rhetorical)

Anyway, my prayer today is that God will gently lead me back to a closeness with Him through reading His Word, and that He will show me His ways, guide me in His truth, and teach me, and give me a teachable spirit!

4th Anniversary Dinner for Four!

2009-07-25T16:06:00.003-04:00

Last week my husband and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We decided to make a dinner with the same menu items as our wedding reception, look at the pictures from our wedding album, and watch the video footage that Rick took of the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception. We listened to music during dinner, which Cora really enjoyed grooving to in her highchair!

If you're wondering about the title to this post, attendees at this dinner included my husband, our daughter, and of course, I am eating for two these days! :-)

I bought a dozen yellow roses for the table (the bridesmaids bouquets had yellow roses in them), and put one of our crystal wedding frames on the table, we pulled the curtains shut in the dining room, lit candles, poured sparkling apple cider into wine glasses. I made a two-layer white cake with white frosting, which I topped with two daisies (daisies were the main flower in our wedding).

The menu was:

BBQ Meatballs

Ham and Cheese Finger Sandwich

Cheesy Garlic Potatoes

Fruit Boats

Veggies (Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Carrots)

Crackers and Cheese

For dessert I baked a white cake with white frosting, but we were too full so didn't eat any. I also made some fudge. We DID eat some of that. :-)

It was a fun way to have a romantic evening at home. If you haven't tried celebrating your anniversary this way, I recommend it!

And, I have to tell you, the Ham and Cheese things I made weren't exactly like what we had at the reception - we had Mini buns with deli meat 4 years ago. This time I made up my own version of an open faced finger sandwich, here's the recipe:

Mix one package of diced ham with about 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, and 1-2 tablespoons fresh chives. Open a tube of crescent rolls and cut into small triangles, about 3"x3"x4", place on a cookie sheet. Spread each triangle with The Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb Spreadable Cheese, about 1/2 teaspoon per triangle. Place ham, cheese, and chive mixture in the center of the triangles, using up all of the mix - the triangles will be full. Bake according to crescent roll tube, or until dough is baked and golden brown. Serve hot.

Catch Up!

2009-07-03T10:16:00.004-04:00

Well, I feel like I haven't updated the blog in a while, so here goes!

I recently wrote about struggles with bathtime and bedtime - no more! We purchased a "shampoo rinse cup" from One Step Ahead, which has a flexible side that molds around our daughter's head and keeps the water from going on her face - no more crying when we have to wet, lather, and rinse! Yay! She LOVES bathtime now. Often, now that it's summertime, we incorporate bathtime right before bedtime, and once she turned 18 months old, she no longer gets to have her "special" blanket all day - only in her crib at naptime or bedtime, so that gives her extra incentive to head to bed. So, a relaxing routine + getting to see blanket helps!

Cora's "Aunt" Louise brought her this rocking horse, which she loves! She "feeds" him crackers, and makes sure he gets plenty of water to drink, as she holds up her sippy cup to his muzzle. What a good horse owner she is!

Cora and I headed to visit her aunt Jill, where we had a very fun time getting to visit her and play on the playground. It was a really nice spot that was just for younger kids, many had babies smaller than Cora, but the majority were her size, a few were a little bigger. She LOVED watching the other children play. We also got to go to Barefoot Kids while there, which sells cloth diapers, and purchased some DreamEaze all-in-ones, which so far are GREAT, and a couple of pairs of training pants, though she's not really quite ready for that yet.

Then in mid-June we had the annual extended family gathering where nearly all of Matt's side of the family gets together here at the farm. His dad was one of 9 children, so all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, and their children assemble here at the farm. Many of the aunts and uncles live within a few miles of the "homeplace" which is just 1/4 mile north of our house. The kids get to play in the barn, go on hayrides to check the cows and calves, go along and do chores, play with the kittens, and just do all kinds of outdoor/farm things. The adults get to visit, enjoy plenty of good pitch-in cooking, and enjoy getting together again. It's always a fun time! Cora was one of 3 babies born within about a month of each other, and the littler ones got the first chance of sorting through the sunflower seeds to look for coins.

We had a taco buffet at our home on the Saturday of that weekend, and as we waited for everyone to arrive, the girls blew bubbles in the garage for Cora to watch and try to pop. If you haven't played with bubbles in a while - it's surprisingly fun even when you're not a kid anymore!

Then the next weekend was Father's Day, and we took this picture in our front yard early the morning before we headed to church. ((Isn't that girl and her daddy cute together????))

Then after church for Father's Day we headed to the lake where we met up with my parents and sister who had camped the night before. Cora got to go on a few bike rides, Dad grilled steaks, we had a delicious lunch, then headed down to the lake where amazingly we were the only ones swimming at that spot. Cora had fun playing in the sand, and we all enjoyed cooling off in the water.

And this week was our county fair. We went as a family on Tuesday, and then worked the Farm Bureau booth last night, giving out free popcorn, while Cora wandered the fair with her grandparents, and had fun collecting stickers (she didn't wear them, grandma and grandpa did!) and seeing the sights. The picture is of her in the car seat (I took the picture, Matt was driving). She has just been jabbering away a lot more lately....no clue what she's saying, but she even speaks with her hands for emphasis! It may be time to get some regular Signing Time videos, since we only have Baby Signing Time. I know we've avoided a few tantrums because she's been able to tell us what she needs/wants without being able to speak clearly yet. She's close, but the sentences she rattles off now are nowhere near coherent, but you can sure tell she thinks they are!

Of course we've been busy doing other things too, and don't feel bad if I didn't mention a specific activity, but I just included the ones I had pictures for!

The Church as Christ's Bride

2009-06-09T06:58:00.002-04:00

We Will Dance

Sing a song of celebration
Lift up a shout of praise
For the Bridegroom will come
The glorious one
And oh, we will look on his face
We’ll go to a much better place

Dance with all your might
Lift up your hands and clap for joy
The time’s drawing near
When he will appear
And oh, we will stand by his side
A strong, pure, spotless bride

(Refrain)We will dance on the streets that are golden
The glorious bride and the great Son of man
From every tongue and tribe and nation
Will join in the song of the lamb

We sang this song in church this Sunday. It’s never really struck me before like it did this time, but it just clicked with me. Jesus is our Groom, our husband-to-be. “We” the church – all believers in Him – are His Bride. Hmm. Think about that for a minute. All kinds of people have lots of different views on what marriage should be, but Scripture has laid it out pretty plainly what the husband and wife’s roles are: distinctly different, but both necessary.

Anyway, singing this song made me think of my wedding day. I was so excited. Especially after the opening songs, and all the attendants were already up front, and they had just closed the doors to the sanctuary of the church so I could make my entrance with my father. I was so excited I was jumping up and down. In my Wedding Dress! And, after all the many many hours of preparation to be ready for that day, why shouldn’t I be excited?

We were engaged in October, 2004, and married July 23, 2005, and that whole time frame was filled with much tender thought and preparation for this big day. The church, the flowers, the cake, the caterer, the invitations, the guest list, the dress! So many details needed to be attended to. This doesn’t even count the preparation of myself the day of: getting my hair and makeup done, manicured and pedicured, putting on that big wedding dress that required undergarments I don’t even know the names of! All this in addition to every day life: as a Purdue student, as a part-time employee at a bagel shop, as a woman engaged to the man who was building our home. This was an extra job! It was a lot of work to make sure everything was just right!

And so, remembering the ecstatic feeling I had as I was preparing to walk down the aisle that day after all the months of hard work and preparations and loving thoughts of how wonderful it would be to be married to my soon-to-be husband, I felt a little bit ashamed singing that song in church on Sunday. I mean, I’m excited to be Christ’s bride….but certainly not jumping up and down with a silly grin on my face excited. And as for preparations: essentially nonexistent! I mean, sure, I go to church on Sundays, and pray, and try to read the Bible somewhat frequently…..but this is not the all-consuming, using every-spare-minute preparation that I demonstrated in preparing for my Wedding day in July 2005.

With that, I hope to be able to change my focus, and bring it more towards Jesus and the things He is doing in my life and the lives of others. I want to actively pursue serving Him more, to prepare for that day when the Bridegroom comes. So many people don’t yet know Jesus, and that day will not be a happy day for them – how can I sit complacently and ignore that fact? It is so important to share, and it’s just too easy to forget that. So, my prayer today is that God would give His Bride, the Church (including me!) an increased desire to be faithful to Him and His lifesaving work, and to demonstrate that increased desire by behaving as a dearly cherished Bride. Thank you, God, for always being faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to you by letting other things get in the way.

Cloth Diaper Update (Again)

2009-06-01T10:06:00.002-04:00

Diapering a toddler is a lot different than diapering a newborn, or a crawler. My nearly 18-month-old daughter is becoming quite adept at removing her diapers at will. Not good. Part of the problem is that the velcro on the Bummi's diaper covers is not sticking as well as it used to. Very disappointing.
I am very happy with the BumGenius diapers we bought from Mom4Life. They are one size adjustable, which means they are supposed to fit from newborn through whenever. They fit Cora well at about 22 lbs, with room to grow. She actually gets happy when she sees that I am getting ready to put one of those diapers on her! It's cute. Plus, it should be easy to pack the diaper bag with a newborn and a toddler if they both can wear the same diapers. The drawback to these diapers is that they are pocket diapers, which means I have to stuff them before they can be used, which is time-consuming and annoying.

The Kushies AIO's I bought are basically just shredded. The waterproof cover has fallen apart and is useless. I can still use these diapers at home between naps, but they are sketchy. I know I still saved money using these diapers even though I won't be able to use them with baby #2, but it is disappointing to have them not last.

I am impressed with the Bumkins AIO diapers. We got several used from Jackie, and they don't appear to have aged a bit since Cora's been using them. They aren't all that absorbant, though, which means they aren't as bulky. But you need to change these with each pee (like you should with every diaper), so that makes them not-so-good for nighttime or naptime or in the car. If these diapers get a big pee or more than one pee, they start to seep into clothes. But, they are very easy to add an insert or doubler to, which then makes them a good choice for naptime or car time. The only thing I would really change about the Bumkins is that they don't have elastic, which I think helps with the fit around the legs and helps contain poopy messes. Otherwise, long-lasting and a good diaper.

So, I'm on the search for the "perfect" cloth diaper. Give me a one-size adjustable diaper, with elastic at the waist and legs, yet is AIO, but can easily have a doubler added to it if needed, that WILL LAST a long time. If anyone knows of a diaper that fits the bill, please, please, let me know!!

A Growing Family

2009-05-29T12:23:00.001-04:00

I wrote this blog post on another of my blogs just now, and wanted to share it here, on this blog, too.

Mom4Life Mother Load Giveaway

2009-05-27T09:43:00.003-04:00

Check out Mom4Life's online shop - one of my favorite sources for innovative products for babies and toddlers, breastfeeding and cloth diapering needs.

Landscaping Improvements!

2009-05-26T11:43:00.004-04:00

This is the area just outside our front porch "before" we worked on it a little this weekend:
And this is what it looks like "after"!

Matt used the weed-eater really close to the ground, then we raked the grass off, then he used the tiller as much as possible. I dug up the rest of the sod (not all that much) with the shovel by hand, then he re-tilled it to make it smooth. We placed the stepping stones so we'd still have a direct path from sidewalk to the south porch, and I intend to plant a couple of Yucca plants (perennial, supposed to be easy-care, get kind of large) between the stones and the daylilies. I put rocks where I want to put them, but they're hard to see. Then, for now, petunias to fill the gaps, but soon I want to find a perennial low-growing, flowering ground cover, but I haven't found the right one yet.

I am pleased with how it turned out. The pictures don't really do it justice. I have a double shepherd's hook stuck in the ground, and I was going to feed hummingbirds, but I prefer for the hummingbirds to feed from the flowers in the garden - I think it's better for them! The other thought I had was a couple of wind chimes, but then to find two that coordinate. What other options are there for inexpensive things to hang from a shepherds hook?? I put some snowflake christmas ornaments out there this winter, but I'll definitely want something more summery for this season!

Rubber Ducky, You're the One!

2009-05-13T16:09:00.003-04:00

.....You make bath time lots of fun! Rubber ducky I am awfully fond of you!

Okay...so often whenever I think of giving Cora a bath, that is the song I think of/sing to her! (It's from Sesame Street)

For a long time Cora was fine with taking baths.....then she started to HATE them....screaming from start to finish, trying to crawl out of the tub.....bad stuff. That lasted all of about 2 bathtime tries before Mommy couldn't handle that behavior.

So she takes showers with Mommy. I hold her in one arm on my hip, while I wash her with the other, and then switch. Works pretty well. She even has learned it's fun to open her mouth and let the water fall on her tongue. If Daddy's home I pass her out to him for drying, and I shave my legs without her. Otherwise, it doesn't happen. No one's commented about my hairy legs yet, so it works for me!

Well, I'd been trying to think up ways to get her to have fun playing in the bathtub. She has some pretty great tub toys, she enjoyes swimming, or playing in puddles (alot!). I already had a non-slip tub mat in there to keep her from slipping around. So I drew up a bath and got in with her, and we played with her toys, got her comfortable in the water, and she didn't want to get out!

Now, after I hold her for a while in the shower, she wants down, so she can play with her toys in the water! I guess all I can say is be careful what you wish for, because now instead of crying when she's in the tub, she cries when I take her out!!

Interesting and Worth your time Video

2009-05-12T11:45:00.002-04:00

At the end of the video clip (about 9 minutes) you can find a link for Segment 2, 3, 4, and 5. I would suggest it is well worth your time to watch all 5 segments. Watch them, let me know what you think!

Check it out:

Sleepy Head, Time for Bed

2009-05-11T07:38:00.002-04:00

Bed time has changed over time since Cora was first born in December, 2007.

When we first brought her home, it was whenever we could finally get her to sleep, and she certainly didn't sleep through the night!

Then later on, she'd usually finally nod off around 10 or 11pm...much later than mommy wanted, since daddy had to be in bed earlier since he had to be at work but Matt would go to bed, then whenever I could finally get Cora asleep, I'd go to bed, but sleep in after he got up.

That pretty much lasted until September, 2008, when we had a bad windstorm on a Sunday afternoon, which put us out of power until sometime on Thursday that week! We were operating on generators to keep the freezers frozen, and lanterns or flashlights at night. That meant no TV on in the evenings, and no nite lite either. Surprisingly, our daughter was ready to go to bed well before her previous usual bedtime of 10 or 11pm, somewhere around 8 or 9 when it got dark, plus, she was sleeping more soundly through the night!!

We quickly discovered how sensitive our daughter is to the light when time for bed, so all winter, all we did was just turn out all the lights in the house, and she knew it was time to go to sleep.

In comes spring, and with it daylight savings time. Uh oh - soon it will be staying bright light out until 10pm for a good part of the summer, and we'd prefer our daughter to keep her bedtime around 8 or 9pm....but how????

So far, what we've been trying is to implement a more structured bedtime routine. Sometime after dinner we make sure she's in her pajamas (often it's just the clothes she had on all day if they're still clean - she wears mostly comfy knit clothes anyway) then play with her for a while in the living room. After a while we let her pick out a book to read, read it, then offer her a chance to go potty, put her in a night time diaper, brush her teeth, find her blanket, and than daddy carries her upstairs.

The trouble is, she's begun crying as daddy carries her up the stairs. Thankfully, she's usually calmed down and quiet (asleep) by the time he gets back down the stairs, but it's tough to put her to bed crying. I'm hoping she gets accustomed to this routine, and starts going to sleep easier. She's been weaned for about a month now, which it was a lot easier when she'd nurse to sleep, then daddy would carry the sleeping baby upstairs and calmly and gently lay her in her bed, still asleep. But, nursing is not an option - baby's decided she's doesn't want to anymore! And it still worked pretty well when it was already pretty dark at 8pm, but now that it's staying light-ish til 9pm...we're running into problems.

Anybody got any night time routine tips they want to share, to help make it easier for our daughter to go to sleep willingly??? I'd love to hear them!

Happy Mother's Day...or...Cora Got Her Stitches Out!

2009-05-11T07:26:00.002-04:00

Right after church Sunday morning, we headed back to the ER, where they said we could bring her back to remove the stitches and it would all be included in the bill. There was absolutely no wait, but Cora could definitely remember her previous experience at the ER.

She was uneasy once we got her out of the car, and cried every time the nurse tried to do anything to her: take her temperature, wrap the little thing around her toe to take her oxygen and blood pressure, look at her..she was nervous! When he walked us back to the room, with the bed in the middle, she just all out started crying, poor girl!

There was a lovely mural on the wall though, of an African Safari - a giraffe, elephant, monkey, lions....very pretty, and she had fun looking at the animals which was a great distraction for her, and she was pretty calm. At least until anyone would come in the room, when she'd start crying again. She was especially distraught when more than one would come in at a time. The doctor came in and took a look, then gave the nurses the okay to remove the stitches. They did a good job. I held her legs, Matt held her head, and one nurse held her arms up over her head while she laid down on the bed. Another nurse took out the stitches. She cried, but it was more at the restraint than anything.

We stopped at CVS for some scar treatment - they had one especially for kids, which we bought. She rubbed her cut once after we got her home and awake from her nap, which broke the little scab loose, and she bled a little, but put a tiny bandaid on which helped for a couple hours until she pulled it off. Eventually the scab which she'd rubbed loose fell off, and I was worried that we'd had the stitches out too soon, but the longer she goes, the better it looks. We're putting polysporin on it until the once-scabbed part gets more healed, then we'll use the scar cream. Glad she's on the mend.

One Brave Child

2009-05-04T10:02:00.003-04:00

Last night was supposed to be a calm Sunday evening. We'd finished supper by 7, and Matt and I settled onto the couch to watch "America's Funniest Videos" while Cora played in the living room in front of us. It was a nice, relaxing evening. AFV had just gotten over, and we had started the first part of Extreme Makeover and was just going to watch til the first commercial, then put Cora to bed and call it a night since Matt had to be at work in the morning.

Cora was a bundle of energy, going from her mommy and daddy, then back across the floor to a toy - just having fun. She took off towards the dining room away from us and tripped, and I heard the "thunk" of her head hitting the rocking chair. I leaped off the couch and picked her up, I knew she'd need comforting, but I was not expecting to see the blood streaming from her face!!

Panic!! We did pretty good, tried pressing towels to her face to stop the bleeding, and just went immediately to the car seat to head to the hospital. Matt drove, I sat next to Cora. She was a sight! Drying blood all over her face, covering her shirt, I had blood all over me. I prayed out loud on the way to the hospital that God give Cora peace and allow us to get in and be seen right away. Wouldn't you know, not a single person in line at check in, and by the time Matt had parked the truck they took she and I back while he filled out the paperwork. They worked on cleaning up her face, and then had to strap her into this thing called the "papoose" that was basically a straight jacket for babies, while someone held her head. She HATED that, even worse I think than when the doctor stitched up her face! He numbed the area, then cleaned her up, and started in on the stitches - 6 in all. They put an antibiotic on the stitches, since it was a bad place to try to bandage. The minute they unstrapped her and I could hold her again, she stopped crying. We're supposed to take her back in 7 days to get the stitches out.

She fell asleep on the way home, and I tried to hold an ice pack with crushed ice to her cut (they said to try to ice it as much as she would allow) after we got home and before we got her out of the car seat. Well, that woke her up, and she just couldn't calm down until almost 2 hours later. We changed her, we gave her some water, we watched Baby Signing Time, she played on the rocking horse. She was starting to calm down, but her eye was itchy, and she kept rubbing it, and accidentally bumping against her cut, which made her cry all over again. Finally she calmed down enough that she was ready to sleep.

She woke up pretty happily this morning. Not too much swelling, and was just ready to eat breakfast and play. What a blessing to have such a happy natured child, and to know that she's got a Heavenly Father watching out for her too.

Schedule

2009-04-30T12:21:00.004-04:00

I am so excited to report that I have found a system that seems to work towards motivating me to keep a clean (ish) house!!

Seriously, I hate cleaning. Enough to the point that I have a tendency to allow things to pile up and up and up until what was once a simple job of sweeping the floor becomes a monumental task involving picking up lots of things off the floor first so you can even see it! Especially with the warm weather coming on, I had been really sadly slacking off in this department.

So I came up with a list of all the things I thought should be done around here. Some stuff to be done every day, some to be done once/week, some once/month, some quarterly, biannually, or just annually. Some stuff (like taking out the trash and laundry) has to just be done "as needed."

I've listed the Daily and Weekly jobs below:

Daily Job
Wipe off kitchen countertops, glass stove top, and dining room table
Sweep hard floors

Weekly Job
Mop Floors – "Mopping Monday"
Clean Bathrooms – "Toilet Tuesday"
Vacuum Carpet – Wednesday (If windows are open, vacuum bugs from sills)
Town Run – Groceries, etc – "Thrifty Thursday"
Handwash Dishes - Friday

Yeah, I know, it's really cheesy that I have come up with "catchy" names for my chore days. But you have to get your motivation where you can!! I have been doing this for a week now, and it has REALLY helped! It looks like potentially our house will always be clean! Maybe not all at once, but doing all the cleaning all in one day never works for me, especially chasing around a 16 month old toddler! I am so glad I have found a system that seems to be working for the way I like to work (a little at a time) and allows me to keep a clean house and not feel guilty about not playing with Cora (she can either help or wait 'til Mommy's done sweeping the floor - it doesn't take up that much time anymore).

So I've been doing it for a week now, and what was once a HUGE job, was broken into tiny steps that were actually quite managable. Plus, I get the weekends "off" :-)

Anybody out there want to share tips they use to help with finding the motivation to do housework?? I'd love to hear your hints!

How would you spend it?

2009-04-16T12:08:00.002-04:00

So I am pretty sure I'm going to enter the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes. Hope I don't wind up with mountains of junk mail, but $5,000 a week for the rest of your life is hard to pass up!

I haven't even entered yet, but still I am daydreaming of what in the world I would do with $5,000/week.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

First, I would try really hard not to tell ANYONE.

We'd pay off the mortgage on the house (not sure if there's a prepayment penalty on that one, though)

We'd put some back in investments for each of our children. For college, or their first car, or house, or something good.

I'd make sure to get all the horsey, endurance tack that I wanted. Probably a new saddle! Maybe a living quarters trailer? The trailer we have now is a stock trailer - dual purpose - livestock and horses, so it'd be nice not to have to "share". Definitely would also get another super-safe, trail broke horse - a "husband" or "friend" horse, so if I had someone who wanted to ride with me, they could.

We'd get a tractor for Matt - he's been wanting a smaller tractor to use for hay, etc. Probably several other farm-related items. We'd get our LGD a buddy so he would always have a doggy friend, besides just goat-friends.

I'd hire someone to help me in the house, either a couple days/week or a couple of hours/day Monday - Friday. With two babies, I'll be having my hands full! Plus, cleaning isn't included as one of my top 50 favorite activities.

Nicer Vacations. Although, we really do enjoy the vacations we take (it's more about who you're with than where you go), but we'd probably start going to more fancy, expensive places. Like Hawaii. Or Europe!

That's all I can really think of! Of course, we'd probably quit buying our clothes on sale, and we'd probably start buying top of the line stuff (like the $400 stroller, rather than finding on at a yard sale!). But I hope we wouldn't go too over-the-top.

So, that's all the things I can imagine us doing for ourselves, but what's really exciting to me is what all we could do for others with our money! I mean, $5,000/week -that's a LOT! We could have all the stuff I mentioned and still have PLENTY to give to others.

I'd also like to be able to give to those in need as situations come up and as God leads. Like the people who have been affected by the flooding last year in June, like those who have health concerns w/out insurance and need help - it would be great to be able to freely give generously and anonymously in times like that!

Our church would get money, certainly, but I'd like to be able to give to others in need as well. Like the Pregnancy Care Center, an organization that helps women and men who find themselves in an unexpectedly pregnant situation to made godly decisions and provides them resources.

There's lots of worthy organizations, it would be tough to narrow it down, but we'd be lead to give to the right places for the right reasons. I just hope that if we did actually win, we'd be able to remember and do things for the right reasons, not get selfish. Realistically, there is no way we'd win, but it sure is fun to think about what we'd do if we did!

What would you do? If you want to participate, answer and leave a comment here so I can see
what you put down!

Announcement!

2009-04-13T09:01:00.004-04:00

Well, it’s about time I announce this on the blog: My husband and I are expecting our second child!

We’re very excited about it, the baby is due around the end of October, first of November. Cora, our firstborn daughter, will be 22 months when she becomes a big sister.

Stay-at-home-mom, Keeper of the Home - Real Life Reflections

2009-04-09T08:56:00.003-04:00

I have posted up what I consider to be the reasons for why I stay at home and keep house, my "Ideal" job description, if you will.

I have a confession to make: most of the time I do not live up to my ideal.

I don't even come close.

A lot of the time my house is dirty. There are often times when I can't find a clean spot on the counter to make dinner. I often wait too long to wash diapers and barely get the latest load dry before my daughter needs a change. I spend (waste) way too much time on the internet. My toilets don't get cleaned real often. I actually dislike cleaning quite a lot. Sometimes Cora stays in her pajamas all day if we don't plan to leave the house (sometimes mommy does too...).

All of this is to say that while I may aim big, I am no superwoman. I don't always (usually never) have it all put together. To me this is saying a lot about how much time really needs to be committed to doing this job - because if someone who doesn't even work outside the home can't find time to get it all done, how could I ever do it if I worked part or full-time??

But, God does call different people to do different things, and as much as I am convinced in my heart of hearts that this is the job for me (and arguably, most married women and mothers), it is quite possible that He is calling other wives and mothers elsewhere. Now, I am not at all trying to make wives/mothers feel guilty for choices they have made that are irreversible. Nothing can change the past, but it is certainly not too late to change the future. Earnestly seek God's face on these things - he may have bigger plans for you than your 9-5 (or whatever hours they are) and it is possible you will find that God is calling you to stay at work. Only you and God can decide that, I am not here to judge, I'm only trying to put into words what I feel is the vital importance of staying home with children and keeping house for your husband. There are also some women who are experiencing difficult circumstances - single mothers, for instance, who have no choice but to work to provide for their children. Not judging those women, or anyone. That is not my place. I just wish to shed some light into the important role that a woman does have in her own home. If she doesn't fulfill that role - who will?

I just feel that the voice of the wife and mother who stays home is quite silent compared to the mainstream "American" way path of high school, college, get a degree, get a career, and don't let marriage and family get in the way of pursuing your dream. It may not be directly spoken, but I certainly have had to struggle with this attitude for myself. I genuinely believe that I have the better part by staying home and fulfilling my duty there.

The “Ideal” I Strive for in Keeping House – Why I do This Part II

2009-04-09T07:32:00.003-04:00

Now, for the wife being the keeper of the home. (See part I on being a stay-at-home-mom here) This is proving to be a more difficult topic to write about than I thought - I have to say I'm having a terrible time writing out my thoughts on this, so I may not be very clear. If you have questions, please do write them in the comments section, and I will try to answer them to help clarify what I mean.

I believe that God created men and women to be different. Each has different talents and abilities given to them, and each person brings different traits to the marriage. These different skill sets that husband and wife have help each one to be a helper to the other. In the most basic sense, I believe that the husband's role is to support the family by providing for their needs, and protecting them as the head of the household. He is to have the final say in important decisions, and he has a very important role in raising his children by demonstrating what a godly man lives like. A wife's job is parallel and yet opposite to her husband's - she is to oversee the home in a way that puts to greatest use what the husband has provided, and as keeper of the home provide a haven there where she, her husband, and her children can be safe and grow as a family. The wife is to respect her husband, and he loves her dearly. When both husband and wife are operating in these respective roles to their utmost, using their talents and skills that God has given them, the whole family will operate more smoothly than if each family member acted as an individual.

My goals in keeping the home for my husband are more about feelings and love and respect than actual written out "rules." I'm striving to be a "wife of noble character" as described in Proverbs 31:10-12: "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life." The rest of the chapter goes on to list specific ways that this wife serves her family. I feel that each married couple will have a different list of specific ways that will best serve their family.

Each husband and wife has different likes and dislikes, and special skills and talents, so each family will look different in how it lives out those Bible verses. But, to me, no matter how the verses are lived out specifically, in general, to me the point is that both husband and wife are expected to have "noble character" toward each other, and that means that both husband and wife will be looking to the other's needs in a servant like attitude. As Christians, servants are what we all are called to be, and we must first be willing to serve those in our own home before we can effectively serve others. If I am serving my husband to help him be renewed and refreshed when he comes home, I am able to help prepare him to show Christ's love to those he comes in contact with - the same for my children. If I can serve them by training them with Christian values and guiding them and preparing them to go out into the world, as a whole our family will have greater impact for Christ than if each member of the family had to serve themselves, then leave the home and try to serve others.

I mentioned before in a much previous blog post that I had made up a list of goals I had for myself, and I think here is an appropriate place to share them. It shows some specific tasks or ideals that fit for my family because of our specific talents, preferences, and personalities.

To make my husband know how much I love him by caring for him everyday and being a joy for him to be around. Proverbs 25:24 - "Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife."
To have a solid faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus, and be an obvious example to those I meet in all walks in life. In other words, I want to be seen as a Christian not only at Church, but everywhere I go; at the bank, in my home, by our family - everyone. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. . ."
Make our home a pleasant place to be. Keep it clean and tidy, decorate it so that our surroundings are pleasing to the eye, all without spending too much money.
Grow a flower garden around our home and landscape it in a pleasing way, so that we can enjoy our yard and feel proud of it, and eat produce from our vegetable garden.
Raise children and teach them how to be creative people and to be strong Christians in a world where "anything goes."

#1 just makes sense because I know my husband - his "love language" (the way he best shows love and receives it) is by doing things for other people. He likes to take care of me - by changing the oil in my car, by taking care of things so that I won't have to worry about them. I want to strive to show that kind of love back to him (by making sure he has sweet tea in the fridge and a snack when he gets home, etc.), even though my main love language is different (I prefer to show and receive love by spending time, listening, snuggling, talking - and I "safely trust" that my husband is trying to increase the way he shows that to me, even though it takes him way out of his comfort zone)

#2 and I feel #5 in fact goes along with the stay-at-home-mom post, in that as I try to work hard daily to improve my faith walk and relationship with Jesus, my daughter as well as others will see that, and prayerfully she will see things that her mommy does by faith that she will be able to model as well. However, I first must be patient and kind and serving towards my family at home, or else how hypocritical will that look for my daughter when she sees mommy being so nice and patient to others, but I can't seem to keep my cool at home. This is an area for me that needs the fruit of the Spirit! I pray that I can be more and more Spirit-filled so I can have the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that a mother needs in ways that she can only have supernaturally! No mother (or anyone!) can have all of those qualities to the extent that she needs them alone - she needs God's help through the Holy Spirit.

#3 and #4 go together - You know that feeling you get when you check into the hotel or cabin you are staying in on vacation? A relief as you crash on the bed after hauling your luggage in after many hours of strenuous travel, "phew...we're here - we can finally relax and forget the stress of life, we're on vacation!" That is a feeling that I hope to be able to recreate daily in my home. I truly desire to make our home a peaceful haven of rest from a busy and hectic world, so that while I work in the home, when my husband comes home from work, while my children are learning and growing up, we can continually be renewed and refreshed physically, mentally, and spiritually. This is a lofty goal, but I do think it can be accomplished with diligence on my part, and a spirit of love and service on behalf of the rest of the family members. I don't think that this feeling can be accomplished without viewing keeping the home as a fulltime job.

Now, that numbered list and the explanations given are pretty obvious that they are specific to my family. Each husband and wife must look for ways to show their love for their spouse in ways that will be most obvious to them.

I just have felt so committed and convicted that being a stay-at-home-mom and keeper of the home is the best place for me to be, that I just have to share my conviction with all. I don't think there's any way I could accomplish all of this without devoting the bulk of my time to doing it, and thankfully my husband has seen the fruits of my labor and also values what I do. We both have made sacrifices financially for me to stay at home, but for us, those sacrifices pale greatly in comparison with all we have gained. In fact, we both have said that even if circumstances change (if Matt loses his job, or some other unforeseeable happens) we are willing to do much more sacrificing to ensure I am able to continue to do my work here at home, because it is a powerful work that can certainly really impact the lives of our children in such a positive way.

Being a keeper of the home is a job I wish I had begun since we were first married, so I would have been more practiced at it before our first child arrived. Having a baby to care for certainly makes keeping the home more difficult. Part of the reason I am writing this is that staying at home just was not at all a vocation I ever saw as valuable unless there were children involved. I no longer see this as true - a wife can do so much for her husband and her household with her time - she can use her talents and skills to stretch the dollar her husband brings home, she can show hospitality to others by inviting them into her home, she will have more time to serve others outside her home (mothers with newborns, helping the sick, volunteering...and so on). A lot has changed in our culture since it was no longer popular for wives and mothers to stay at home after th 40s and 50s, and a lot of that change has NOT been for the better. It is possible that if more wives and mothers stayed home and served their families first, that we might see a shift back to a lower divorce rate and other social problems.

After having made the transition to stay-at-home-mom, keeper of the home, and having seen how difficult it was for me to try to find a "job-description" and validity in a world that keeps implying that what I am doing isn't worth it, I sincerely hope that I can give validity to other women who see value in these same things, and to encourage them to make the leap, or continue to be diligent in their very important work as wife and mother.

The “Ideal” I Strive for in Keeping House – Why I do This Part I

2009-04-09T07:29:00.002-04:00

So what’s the big deal? Why do I find it so important that I stay home with my daughter, and keep the home for my husband? (Keeping the home will be covered in Part II)

The main thing for our family right now is caring for the baby as a stay at home mom. Holding the baby, putting her down for naps, wiping her bottom after a poop, teaching her how to roll a ball and play with blocks, giving her baths, changing her clothes when they get dirty, nourishing her – these are all things that someone must do for a young child. And it is a short, certainly not comprehensive list. It is my not-so-humble opinion that no one besides a child’s own mother is going to do any of these tasks with as much care, love, and fondness as she can.

Certainly, day cares and babysitters provide adequate care. The children are fed, changed, wiped. Maybe even with love. I’ve been a babysitter before, and really enjoyed taking care of those children, but absolutely nothing can compare to the kind of love that I have for my daughter. It’s just a different kind of love. The child the mother has carried for 9 months and painstakingly gave birth to is much more special to her than any other child could be. I also feel that adoptive parents can and do love the same way or greater than birth parents – the adoption process I understand is a grueling task to go through. I’m not saying a child put in day care or with a sitter isn’t getting adequate or even good care – I’m just saying that absolutely Mom is going to do a much better job.

For me and my husband, we choose for my daughter to have the best care, all the time, and that is by being in the care of her mother or father. Sure, sometimes we leave her with a sitter for an evening, but the majority of her time is spent with her parents.

Aside from just the basics of child care, I think another big job a stay at home mom has is child training. Having Mom at home ensures the child can receive timely discipline when necessary, rather than allowing bad behavior to slide and slowly escalate. If Mom worked all day, and the day care ignored inappropriate behaviors, then Mom or Dad is the “bad guy” when she has to discipline them when she picks them up, and perhaps to avoid feeling as though they’re disciplining their children all the time, they avoid discipline altogether. If mom is with the child throughout the day, one of her roles will be disciplinarian, but she will also be able to provide for her children in other ways, so since she has more time with her child, she can be disciplinarian, cook, playmate, teacher, and so she will feel less guilt for spending most of her time disciplining, since that will just be a small part of her job as stay at home mom.

Another big part of child training is the fact that children learn by watching what those closest to her and around her do the most. I take my daughter with me most places I go, and she is learning by watching me interact with the people we come in contact with. She learns by watching how I spend my time even while we’re at home. She learns from me by watching how I speak to her dad – facial expressions, voice tones, volume. Beyond just the basics of everyday life, she is also watching her parents as they live out their faith. She’s learning by watching and imitating the things we do. This fact of how she learns is both great and intimidating. The main thing I must accomplish in order to teach her how to be a responsible adult is to demonstrate the desirable behaviors to her. Whoa! What a responsibility! Imparting a value system through example sounds like a fulltime job in itself, and is a powerful reason for the parents to be the ones caring for the child, so that they can be sure their values and faith system is being passed on to their children.

Our family has decided that the benefits of me being a stay at home mom to care for and discipline and be an example for our daughter is absolutely worth it to our family.

A Sequence of Events

2009-04-02T07:19:00.004-04:00

Check out those rocks!

Ooops!

Better get back up.

Up . . .

Almost there . . .
Phew! Made it :-)

My Cora's still a little wobbly trying to walk in the great outdoors, but she isn't afraid to keep trying! Fortunately, the falling isn't too far down for her, but she is one tough cookie!

Mom4Life Giveaway

2009-03-31T08:13:00.000-04:00

Check out the link here!

My Journey Home

2009-03-26T09:10:00.002-04:00

This is such a personal topic, and I am having difficulty deciding how far back to go in writing. I don’t want to bore you to death, but yet I don’t want to leave anything important out, either! So bear with me, you may get more than you bargained for but is that necessarily a bad thing?

Growing up, my sister (not quite 3 years younger) and I stayed with my grandma part time, while mom worked part time, when we weren’t in school. I don’t remember the pre-school days, so Mom will have to fill in that part if she wants. Eventually, Mom started working full time, which I remember most clearly due to having to spend long hours at school after hours to be picked up, especially after high school on days when I didn’t have sports practice. I went to a private Christian school from preK-8th grade, and then a private Christian high school. In the summers when we were old enough we either stayed home by ourselves, or with the other set of grandparents who lived across the road. I spent a lot of time showing my horses in 4H and rated shows, and decided I wanted to work with horses “when I grew up.”

I then went to college, with a goal of learning what I needed to run a horse farm. Well, I learned that I didn’t have what I needed: a big name reputation in horses, and plenty of money! I met my soon-to-be husband my freshman year. We dated while at school, and then after he graduated we made the long-distance relationship work – we knew we had a special thing together and decided it was worth it. Soon we started talking of marriage, and I worked out how I could finish the necessary credits to finish my Animal Agribusiness degree in 3 years at the main campus. We got married in 2005, and I commuted to the local college to finish up my degree. I walked in the graduation ceremony in May 2006.

After we were married in 2005, I started working part time at a very large egg farm. This company was #3 in the nation for egg production, and one of the bigger animal agribusinesses in the area for me to intern at while I finished my degree. I was on track to become a manager in some capacity at this firm, working a while at different locations to learn all aspects of the company before deciding where the best fit was for me. I started full-time at this company immediately after graduation. It wasn’t a perfect fit for me, but probably about as good as I was going to find here locally. I spent some time interviewing at other places, but found no other options, so I stayed, and eventually earned some seniority, got a raise, and was doing well.

We started feeling the itch to grow our family. I say “we” even though Matt has always had it in his mind that he was going to one day get married, and have children (one or two). Me, I was neutral on marriage (until I met Matt, then I was definitely interested!) and I certainly didn’t want children! In my naïve thought – all you did as a parent was take care of your children, work all day, come home and make dinner and crash – you were too tired to do anything else because your kids (through having to provide for their various needs/wants) took up all your time. Somehow, I managed to forget my thoughts on child-rearing, after seeing many of our friends having babies (so cute!) and I finally came around and thought this would be a good idea for Matt and I, too. Matt had always wanted at least one child, and being very practical, gave it some thought, and while we may not have been perfectly financially ready, he had been given the advice by some of the guys at work that “you’ll never be ready for kids until you start having them” so he decided that we might as well start trying.

So at my next GYN appointment, I mentioned this notion to the doctor, who pretty straightforwardly said that we’ll just need to stop taking the Pill, and start trying! I had wanted to wait a few months (use other form of birth control) to make sure all of the remnants of having taken the Pill for quite some time were out of my system, but the Doctor assured me that it was just fine to go ahead and try, since we didn’t know how fertile we would be, that it may take some fertility treatments. Well, 2 periods later, I was getting pretty late, and wouldn’t you know – I was pregnant! (and on a side note, I don’t ever intend to use the Pill as a form of birth control ever again – after stopping it’s use, I found my moods to be much better, my weight to be more easily controlled, and I have also found out more about how it actually works, and that it actually prevents implantation of a fertilized embryo, rather than preventing ovulation in the first place, as I originally thought…that’s a lot like early abortion. Besides, no form of birth control is 100% effective, so I’m having difficulty justifying it’s use at all – doesn’t God know what’s best for us, anyway? This could be a big topic, perhaps a separate post on it some other time.)

So, anyway, we found out we were expecting. I kept working it turns out until the forecasted due date (December 7, 2008). All along we kept talking about what to do after my FMLA time ran out. We both liked the idea of me staying home with our child, but weren’t exactly sure we could swing it financially. Some pros: no one would take better care of our baby than it’s own mother, I could save money by making more from-scratch meals, we could have a cleaner home, I would have more time to do things at home and we could just relax and enjoy family time when Matt got home from work, I wouldn’t have to try to figure out how to handle breastfeeding while away from baby, and other myriad small things (of course, it turns out we were DREAMING when it came to some of the supposed new realities of having a stay at home mom at home, but maybe someday, when there aren’t such small babies in the house). Some cons: less income, I might end up going crazy by having to stay home, I might drive Matt crazy by talking his ears off when he got home. There weren’t as many cons, but yet they were some pretty powerful ones. Hard to imagine bringing a baby home and not being able to support it, or going nuts trying to make things work.

So, after some evaluation (and not as much prayerful consideration as there should have been) I decided to take the company granted 6 weeks off, plus the rest of the Family Medical Leave Act allowed time off, for a total of 12 weeks off, and see how it went. I could not imagine leaving this 12 week old tiny baby who was dependant on my wholly for nutrition, and who I was just starting to get to know. I applied for an additional 6 weeks of personal leave time at work, which I could have kept applying for every 6 weeks, for up to a year. At the end of this 6 weeks, I chose to allow my leave to expire, thereby quitting my job. I wasn’t exactly (at all) put together, I was struggling to find my feet with a newborn and a new career that I had essentially ZERO training for as a stay at home mom, but it was so fulfilling and in my heart I (and Matt) knew it was the best for not only our daughter but our family.

A couple of weeks later I got a call from the office manager of my former employer. They had had a few people either quit or get fired, and were in a bind and was hoping I could come in and fill in for a few weeks at any number of hours I was willing. At the same pay rate as when I had left. I told him I would talk it over with my husband and let him know. We decided to go ahead and do it, I’d work 2 days a week, find a sitter from church for Cora, I had talked to the manager about how I was committed to continuing breastfeeding and would need to be allowed time and a private, clean place (not a bathroom) to pump milk. Things were falling into place. The first person I called was willing to stay with Cora, so I called the office and had my first day back scheduled.

Then just a few days before I was to start, she called and said it wasn’t going to work any more for her to keep Cora, due to an upcoming surgery. I let the office know I was having trouble finding a sitter, but I was still trying. I called another person, it wouldn’t work for her to watch my baby. Called someone else, the last person I was going to try. She said she would be happy to do it, but asked me a couple of questions: What was I going to miss on those 2 days/week – her first words, her first steps?, and Did we really really need the extra money? The extra money would have been nice. The uncertainty of what milestones would have been missed was hard to wrap my mind around – I wanted to be the one to be with my child as she experienced childhood – not someone else. I wanted to provide for her security, not the turmoil of being one place 2 days a week, then back at home sometimes, here and there other days. I felt the security of knowing she was going to be with Mommy was important. I felt that it was important to be able to continue nursing her, which has been proven to be the best for babies.

I just couldn’t see leaving my tiny baby girl with someone else (even someone I trusted well) even just two days each week. God had given us this responsibility, and as such we had the job to raise her to our best ability. Intentionally choosing to leave her with someone else when we didn’t have to didn’t seem to be in her best interest. So, I called the office manager the very day before I was to start back, and told him that while I had found a sitter, I could not justify leaving our girl. I apologized for flaking out, and thanked him for the opportunity, but told him that ultimately I felt that being a Mom was the more important job that I was given right now.

It turned out that having to go through that process of actively deciding that being a stay at home mom was the best for our family was a great experience to go through. It gave me conviction that though it was not the easiest thing to stay home, it was the best for our family. But, as much as I wanted to and was convinced that this was to be my career, I had never HELD a newborn before, let alone been the sole caretaker for one. Never washed diapers, never done a great job of having a clean house, never actively pursued the various activities involved in keeping home. It was definite, head first, on-the-job training. I didn’t really have an example to work from, either. My mom had either worked part time or full time, and Matt’s mom worked full time since he was a baby. I don’t have too many close friends whose husbands farm part time in addition to working full time, who garden, can, freeze, breastfeed, are involved at church, are learning to sew, do cloth diapers, who keep the home, who cook for their husbands, who raise goats, who ride horses as a hobby, and are actually sane. Actually, I don’t know ANYONE who does or even attempts to do ALL those things well, myself included!

While I pretty much feel inadequate in most of the areas of my current job description, at least I have been able to work through in my heart that it is a valuable job that is definitely worth doing. I don’t think that anyone besides the mother and wife would strive to do as good of a job as I aim for in the same tasks. I am proud to be a stay at home mom and keeper of our home. I’m not always proud of the amount of things I’m able to accomplish (some days NOTHING gets crossed off on the to-do list) but I can always be proud of the choice our family has made. By making sacrifices to make sure I can stay home and raise our daughter, we are making sure she will have as good a foundation of faith as she can, that she will KNOW she is loved, and that there will be someone always there for her if she needs something.

For me, I cannot imagine myself being successful working and being a mother and a wife. At least one of my duties would suffer. Would it be my family who’s mother is exhausted from working all day, coming home and trying to put supper on the table while keeping up with laundry and cleaning house on the weekends? Or would it be my job performance, because of having to stay home with a sick child unexpectedly? Either way, I would not be able to do my best in any realm, and how could I be happy by not succeeding in ANYTHING?

Later, I will share what I view as the “ideal” job description that I have as a stay at home mom and keeper of our home and wife to my husband. Let me tell you, it’s enough to fill 8 days a week, and I rarely get it all together, especially now that Cora’s little. As much as I want to, I am not able to do everything I would like, the house isn’t really all that clean, we eat out sometimes, we run out of milk or eggs occasionally. But, for me, it is so worth it for my husband and daughter to know by my presence at home and my actions that they are important to me. If you’d have asked me even 5 years ago if I would be a stay at home mom and wife, I never in a million years would have guessed myself to be convinced of these things, but now I can’t imagine life any other way.

Today, it’s really not the norm for a college-educated woman to “give up” her career to do what I’m doing. A lot of people seem to think I’m “wasting” my education. A lot of people expect me to go back to work once Cora’s in school. Even I assumed I would go to school, find a job, and work – motherhood and family was never really something on my radar. But, I will argue that I have certainly NOT wasted my education, nor even “given up” anything at all – rather, I am so fully blessed by the opportunity to be able to do what I am doing, that those women who have never considered staying at home are the ones who are missing out on something very special. My only hope in posting about this is that someone else who is on the fence as I was at one point will be able to read the story of our journey, and make their decision with a little less of a struggle than we did. Sometimes the right thing isn’t the easiest, but it’s certainly the most rewarding. Do what God says do, and he will take care of the rest. I pray that God will make His will clear to those who might be reading this and wondering about their vocation and calling.

Home

2009-03-24T09:25:00.002-04:00

Over the next while, you can expect to be reading a little about our family's journey towards me being a stay at home mom and wife. Why we decided it was best for us, and what it means, and also I will post up the "ideal" that I'm working towards.

I have been meaning to do this for quite some time now, and was inspired to begin the actual posting after reading this blog.

It was a bit of a struggle for me to finally feel right about the decision we made, I think because of a lot of the societal pressures for everyone to go to college and find a job, and different views in parenting many people have. It was tough for me, and so part of why I want to write this out at all is to help other women who might be "on the fence" about whether to stay home with their babies or to go back to work. Maybe if I write about how we worked through all this, it will be a little easier for another family who is thinking of making the transition.

To me (although it took a lot of time and thought and prayer to come to this point) being a stay at home mom and wife is one of the most noble and important "careers" that any woman can choose for herself. It doesn't come with a lot of recognition or glory, but I do believe that a woman can have huge impact on her family by the choices she makes.

I'm looking forward to writing the next few posts, and I hope that by reading them, you can see why I am so happy to have been blessed with the job I've been given.

Parenting at Risk!

2009-03-19T12:14:00.003-04:00

I've posted up a video of this issue a while back, but this is such a critical issue! I am urging everyone who reads my blog (or is a parent) (or who values the fact that parents know best for their children) to PLEASE, Please check out this link and the related link, http://www.parentalrights.org/ .

If this thing gets ratified, it has SERIOUS implications for our children and the future of our nation. If it goes through it will not be good. We need to stand up.

An exerpt from the blog post I linked:

"If The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is ratified, then each child will have a list of rights, of which they will be taught to know by heart in the public schools that they will be attending by the choice of the UN and our government. Here are a few of those "rights:"

The right to privacy - Yep. If you suspect your teenager has pot stashed in his room, you would not be allowed to go in there and find out. Your child could end up dying from a drug problem, but you couldn't interfere, or it would have violated their "right to privacy."

Freedom of expression - If your toddler throws a temper tantrum, you are not allowed to do anything. If your teen starts yelling the 'f' word out the widow of the car while you are driving to the grocery store, you are not allowed to do anything. The parent would have no right to interfere with the child's "freedom of expression."

If your child decides to take home another child and go to their room and close the door and have sex, you cannot stop them, else you'd be violating their "freedom of expression" and "freedom of privacy." Do you think I'm exaggerating? I'm not...

Here are a few excerpts from HSLDA:

"Under Article 13, any attempts to prevent their children from interacting with material parents deem unacceptable is forbidden. Children are vested with a "freedom of expression" right, which is virtually absolute. No allowance is made for parental guidance. Section 1 declares a child's right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.

"In Article 14, children are guaranteed "freedom of thought, conscience and religion." Children have a legal right to object to all religious training. Alternatively, children may assert their right against parental objection to participate in the occult.

Article 15 declares "the right of the child to freedom of association." Parents could be prevented from forbidding their child to associate with people deemed to be objectionable companions. Under Article 15, children could claim a "fundamental" right to join gangs, cults, and racist organizations over parental objection."

I mean - if reading that doesn't get your hair raised at the thought of your children (or any children) being granted that kind of freedom, I don't know what will. I mean, I was a good kid, but I know that there were MANY times that my parents stopped me from doing some REALLY STUPID things - I wasn't happy about it at the time, but now I know it was for the best. Just imagine what could happen if each time a teenager was grounded for doing something they could charge their parents with a crime! Not a good idea, folks!!

This is an important issue, please take the time to get informed.

Mommy Necklaces Give-Away

2009-03-19T10:33:00.003-04:00

I got an email today from Mommy Necklaces - a company that offers (in my opinion, very cute!) nursing necklaces. These necklaces are designed to be baby safe, and for baby to hold onto while nursing, rather than pulling at Mommy's clothes, nose, lips, hair......whatever they can reach! (yes, this happens!)

They just started up a new blog, and as a way to promote it, they are giving away three gift certificates for any nursing necklace you choose! Keep it for yourself, or give it away as a gift. I think these necklaces are pretty enough even someone who's not a momma would be proud to wear them.

Check it out!

http://www.mommynecklaces.com/blog/

Be Careful Little Eyes What You See

2009-03-17T08:23:00.004-04:00

On Sunday evenings now, we go to a young adult Bible study group. It has been great - really wonderful to get to have christian fellowship with people your same age. Never really had that before, and I love it.

We used to have it on Tuesdays, and Matt's parents were able to keep Cora, which was nice because they got to visit with each other, and we got to have uninterrupted conversations! Well, they aren't available to watch her on Sundays so we bring Cora along.

Last Sunday we watched a movie, The Matrix and I have regretted letting her watch it with us ever since. The Matrix was a good movie for the group to watch because it does have a lot of parallels to Christianity that can be drawn and discussed. However, it also has some really super creepy and disturbing things in it that I wish I would have kept Cora from seeing. It was almost hard for me to watch parts of this movie.

Now, she is 15 months old, and she didn't appear to be scared or otherwise affected by seeing the movie. She probably had no idea what was going on (I hope...). But the fact is that as her parents, we are responsible for protecting her from things she doesn't need to be seeing, and I feel we failed her on Sunday night.

I hope that from here on out we can be more careful and judicious when choosing what she watches until she is mature enough to make those decisions on her own.

Shoes, Please!

2009-03-12T06:53:00.002-04:00

Miss Cora has really become a fan of shoes. If she is not wearing shoes she will find a pair of her shoes in the house and bring them to me, earnestly holding them up as high as she can so I will take them and put them on her feet for her.

She loves wearing shoes. Sometimes even if she is already wearing a pair, she will bring me a different pair - so she can have a switch. Silly girl!

:-)

Facebook

2009-02-27T08:11:00.003-05:00

So....today I signed up for facebook.

I resisted for so long - I felt it would take up too much time. We'll see, I mean Matt's signed up, and it doesn't take HIM a lot of time, but then he never logs on!

Are Parent's Rights to Parent their Children at Risk??

2009-02-27T06:53:00.003-05:00

Take a look at this video, and then go to www.parentalrights.org

It sure sounds like it!

Consider checking out the site I linked, and learning as much as you can about what is going on with this, I believe it is urgent! Your children are at risk.

A Walk Outdoors

2009-02-19T06:53:00.002-05:00

Cora went on her first walk outside yesterday! She's gotten now to the point where she chooses to walk more than crawling. It was sunny and around 55 degrees outside so we put on jackets and hats and started off on our sidewalk holding hands.

It wasn't very long before she veered off and wanted to walk in the grass, so we did, and then we walked on the driveway, and we walked all the way to the barn at the gate where the horses are.

It was fun, I could tell Cora really enjoyed her new found "freedom." One drawback is I'm going to have to start wearing brown shirts - her shoes got pretty muddy, and when I picked her up on my hip I'm sure I got to wear a little mud too. Oh well.

My little girl is growing up!

Baby Signing Time

2009-02-18T07:21:00.004-05:00

For her birthday in early December, Cora got a set of Baby Signing Time DVDs from her dear parents :-)

We'd been hearing about baby sign language from various sources: friends, the internet, and when I found the DVDs on sale, well, we got them. They've been a GREAT way to learn sign language. Cora gets so excited when we put Baby Signing Time on - she starts signing "baby" and wiggling and grinning. She loves the DVDs!

After about a month, she started signing back to us: Eat, More, and sometimes Please.

Her signs aren't perfect, but you can tell what they are in context.

She can sign:
Horse
Dog
Eat
More
Thank You
Shoe
Hat
Car
Bus
Wash Hands
Brush Teeth
Milk
Finished/All Done
Potty
Fish
Baby

She tries to sign Cat, and Sock - but it's not recognizable unless you are talking about Cats or Socks, and she moves her hands sort of kind of like you'd sign for those things. She also understands other signs, but hasn't tried to copy them yet

She even will sign short sentences - Last night she signed Eat More!

I want to learn the signs for Your Welcome, God, Love, I Love You, and so on, so I can teach her to pray short little prayers (like at mealtime) using baby sign language.

Using Baby Sign Language has been fun, educational, and it's shown us that our daughter can communicate with us even though she's not able to talk clearly.

A Poem

2009-02-11T14:01:00.004-05:00

This is a poem I didn't write, I'm not sure who did. It came in a forwarded email to me from the writer of this blog, and I really like the message. Feel free to send the link to other moms you know! If you're reading this, and you are a mom, know that you have the MOST IMPORTANT JOB there is in the world - thanks for being a great mom to your children! Keep up the good work.

Prettiest Mom

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations..

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom..

Baby Stuff Series - Playing

2009-02-11T07:21:00.003-05:00

Playing

When your babies are small, they learn by being around their parents and observing what goes on in their world - watching you interact with others and go about your daily life. This is a big part of why baby wearing is so helpful for them - they are around you more. But, Playing is also a big part of learning for babies and children. Narrowing down exactly what toys are "have to haves" is a tough area to say – we aren’t big on Cora having every toy there is out there, but we want her to be able to play at her age level, since for babies playing = learning. Choose your toys carefully, the toy aisle has so many options! Sometimes our daughter seems to have more fun playing with stuff in the kitchen, or climbing on pillows or the rocking chair, or peekaboo with her blanket, that we just haven’t spent much on toys.

Blocks

BOOKS (board books for when baby is young - they like to chew!)

Rattles/teethers

Boxes - Cora loves putting things in boxes, putting herself in boxes....it's fun for her!

A "bouncy" seat - some immobile play station where you can put baby in the seat that has fun toys attached - Baby is safe (can't get into things they shouldn't) and can be reasonably entertained. Don't count on baby staying happy there for longer than 10-20 minutes, and you've got to stay in the same room with baby to talk to them.

A ball that baby can hold onto, a doll, and some soft stuffed animals

A basket or tub of toys that baby can empty and then fill back up

We also recommend trying the Baby Signing Time DVD’s. They’re a really fun way to learn signing. It helps communicate with a baby who isn't great verbally yet - they can tell you they want to "eat" or "drink" or want "more" or need to go "potty" Baby Sign Language is a wonderful tool!!!!

CD’s – our daughter loves music. Try to pick music that is meaningful. Trust me – otherwise you’ll find yourself humming, “Cackle, cackle, mother goose, have you any feathers loose?” out loud! I’m on the lookout now for praise and worship music that is sung by kids. I also remember growing up having tapes with bible verses put to song – which was great, fun to sing, and easy to memorize! Cora's grandparents have gifted her with a PraiseBaby "Born to Worship" DVD that is a music video w/ worship songs geared for young babies and children, and also some Cedarmont Kids DVDs, and these have subtitles in case you parents have forgotton the lyrics to some of these christian classics (I know I forgot some of them!).

The picture I'm attaching with this post shows Cora sitting in the box that holds the blocks, and you can see most of the toys she has - a little car scooter thing that converts to a "walker" that she can hold onto and push along as she walks, she's got some shape sorter toys, a "rollercoaster" beads on wires thing....really I'm sure you can't go too wrong with the toys you pick!

As much fun as toys are - nothing matches how much fun baby can have playing with YOU!! Your baby loves giggling at funny faces you make, when you tickle them, when you swing them up in the air, when you sing and dance - Baby's favorite things to play with are the people they love - and I really do mean that!

And this concludes the "Baby Stuff Series"!! I hope someone found the tips and lists helpful, or someday will. Again, I've said before but I want to reiterate - not everything I've written here will be the best for every family, but it has worked well for us, and I wanted to share our experiences as food for thought for anyone else that might benefit.

Thanks for reading!

Baby Stuff Series - Soothing

2009-02-10T09:51:00.001-05:00

Soothing

Infants Tylenol – when NOTHING else works, or for fever!
Mylicon – if baby is kicking her legs, and fussy, she might be gassy.
Hylands’ Homeopathic Teething Tablets – these really do help, almost instantly! Use when baby is really drooly, wants to chew, and is fussy.
A cold teething ring often helps
Swaddling Blanket - sometimes removing the option of squirming with a younger baby is comforting for them
Pacifier, or thumb – this is up to the child!
Our daughter really likes hand knitted blankets, a sort of “security” blanket. She has picked out a favorite - a teal one her grandma made for her.
Nurse your baby, carry your baby, play music, take a walk OUTSIDE.
Sometimes distraction works well. Come up with something that seems TOTALLY AMAZING to your baby. You can always try performing the "chicken dance" which ALWAYS worked for our daughter!

Any other fun and helpful tips for soothing a cranky, fussy baby?? Post them up under the comments section!

Do as God says “do” – He will take care of the rest.

2009-02-09T13:34:00.003-05:00

I'm going to take a quick break from the "Baby Stuff Series" I've been writing about to post this - it's been heavy on my heart, and I wanted to share with everyone on the blog. Thanks for reading.

Mark 1:16-20
“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.”

Wow, to have faith like that!

Notice – these guys just up and left what they were doing at the call of God! They left it all, to follow Jesus. They didn’t go home and check their budget or savings to see if they had enough money to be able to “afford” to follow Jesus. I'm sure if they would have analyzed the cost/benefit of doing so fiscally that they would've decided it was a poor business decision! Praise God for giving these men the faith that they had!

I love these next verses:

Luke 12:22-34
“Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what will you wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is there today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What peace and freedom from worry our heavenly Father has given us in these potentially scary economic times! We don’t have to worry! He has promised to feed us and clothe us and take care of us, what more can we ask?

Is God calling you to do something that you are afraid is beyond your budget or current income? How do you know if it’s God’s voice calling you, or some other distraction of this world? Sometimes it can seem frightening to fully follow God’s will (trust me, I know and still struggle with this) but the reward is great!

Some things that can help you to decide if the thing in question is truly God’s will for you:

Prayer. Pray to God asking Him to show you his will for you. If you earnestly seek his face, he will show you. Of course, this is often on God’s time, not ours. It helps to remember that he did, after all, create the universe and he knows the history of everything even before it happens. He will guide you if you let him.

Read the Bible. Have you taken the opportunity yet to read from God’s Word on a regular basis on your own? There is power in his word – sometimes rereading verses I’ve read many times new insights can really jump out. There is the reason the Bible is called the “Living Word” of God. He speaks to us through it. Give it a try if you haven't yet.

Personal Evaluation: What harm to you or others could come? Remember opportunity costs of time spent away from family. What kingdom benefits are potentially there if you do? Is this something that has repeatedly been on your mind? Is it for selfish ambition or is it something God is calling you towards in order to show others His love through you?

These decisions can be tough. I’ll give you a few examples from my life: starting a Young Adult bible study (something I never did, but have felt like I “should” do, thankfully someone else in my church stepped up and started one), spending time working with my horses (something that has always been fun for me to do, yet takes me away from my family but still yet puts me in the presence of others who I could potentially be a witness to) and starting a parent’s bible study (something I felt was important and that there was a need for, yet has not been well-attended by other parents – was it really something I was supposed to do?). None of these things is necessarily “Right” or “Wrong” (rarely is something so black and white!) but if God wants me to do it, he will provide what I need to get the job done!

When God calls us to do or change something, it is important to act on it! So you’ve come to the conclusion that God is calling you to do something that you think is beyond you for some reason. This could be finances, this could be personal skills, this could be anything that you feel would hold you back from being able to do whatever it is God is asking of you.

One phrase that I have come to love but can’t remember where it came from is this: “Do what God says “do” – and He will take care of the rest” Why on earth would God ask someone to do something they could not do by themselves and let them fail trying? I firmly believe that if we are genuinely after God’s own heart and seek to bring others to know him personally, that he will help us along the way to do what he has asked of us. Remember Moses? Remember Joseph? (the one with the colorful coat) Remember Daniel? Remember the apostles? These guys didn’t necessarily have it easy, but they did what God asked of them, and he came through and provided them what they needed when they needed it most.

God will always be faithful to his children. I pray that you and I can be faithful to him and trust that he will always provide for us, and then boldly go and do what he asks of us!

Baby Stuff Series - Feeding

2009-02-09T08:06:00.003-05:00

Feeding

Mother’s milk exclusively IF AT ALL POSSIBLE for the first 6 months, continue nursing as a supplement to solids for one year + (or, listen to your baby, they will likely tell you when they need to keep and/or are ready to be finished nursing, each mama/baby is different)
Mom will need a loose but well-fitting nursing bra or two. Try oversized sports bras - easy to lift for nursing access.
Nursing tops with empire or all around underlayer openings, don’t have to be prints, solids work fine. It’s not fun to have to get your tummy out, too, and nursing shirts help with this! Once baby’s latched (and prayerfully, STAYS latched) the breast is pretty well covered, so tops with nursing access are WONDERFUL, especially when away from home or with company.
It is possible to nurse your baby while wearing baby in a carrier or sling. First, adjust your clothes (this is where nursing tops are handy!) then put on the carrier/sling. Then, put baby in carrier, latch on, and you're nursing - hands free! Unfortunately, I didn't figure this out for a long time - hopefully this will help someone else who is thinking "how in the world do you nurse in one of these things???" Adjusting your clothes FIRST is the key!
Washable bra pads, Bravado makes some good ones. If you have to have disposable, try the Lansinoh brand.
Water bottle for mom to carry in diaper bag when out and about - it is hard to drink enough water when you're nursing!
Try waiting to introduce solids until baby is interested in what you’re eating. Our daughter has refused pureed baby food since she was 8 months old, and is eating table food and breastmilk, and will be until she gradually weans herself.
Baby spoons, get a bunch, you can accumulate a lot of them in the dishwasher!
Bibs (but, our daughter keeps pulling hers off – in that case, a good stain remover!)
Seat – We have a chicco travel seat that attaches to the table. I wish we had bought this one: http://www.theportablebaby.com/metoochair.html because it's smaller and looks like it would pack up easier. A high chair is handy for raising baby up to watch you while you make dinner.

Any other baby feeding tips or suggestions?

Baby Stuff Series - Bathing

2009-02-08T18:18:00.001-05:00

Bathing

Rubbing alcohol and Qtips for newborn cord care (before the “stump” falls off)

Baby wash

Baby Lotion

2 or 3 Fluffy, absorbent hooded towels

Baby sized washcloths

Large sink (the kitchen sink works well!), lay prefold diapers in bottom to prevent slipping

When baby’s ready for the bathtub, get a non-slip tub liner and a few toys

Terry robe for the parent who is going to dry the wet baby off!

Got helpful tips on bathing a baby? Fun stories? Share them here in the comments section!

Baby Stuff Series - Diapering

2009-02-07T07:51:00.000-05:00

Diapering - I highly recommend practicing Elimination Communication (EC) with your child and using cloth diapers!! This is a great thing to try with your child. I'm sure that there are other things to note if you must use disposable, but I don't have a lot of experience with that. Please consider cloth! It's a really great option. Here is what you'll need to do this:

Cloth Diapers – There are so many brands and styles it's amazing. All-in-ones, pocket diapers, and prefolds, fitteds, contours with covers are the main "styles" to choose from.

Diaper Bag (recommend Ameribag Healthy Back Baby Bag!)

2-3 Wet Bags

Diaper Rash Cream (try them all, rotate through, use coupons!)

Wipes

2 buckets with tight-fitting lids (1 five gallon, one smaller)

OxyClean

Detergent

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Research elimination communication (EC) and try it with your child!

I'm sure that there are other things to note if you must use disposable diapers, but I don't have a lot of experience with that. We used the disposables we got for baby showers and what they gave us at the hospital for the first month or so until they got used up. Washing diapers is really easy compared the the amount of money I would have spent on buying diapers to get soiled and thrown away - give them a try!

Baby Stuff Series - Carrying, Moving, and Transporting

2009-02-06T07:42:00.000-05:00

Carrying/Moving/Transporting - After our daughter was born it was hard to imagine going places without her. We'd been given the gift of a healthy baby to train up and part of that is spending time together and modeling what to do in various situations. Now, that said - going places with a baby is a lot harder to do! But, some of these products make things a bit easier on you:

Infant Car seat

Combination seat (rear facing or forward facing, when child is big enough)

Small stuffed animal/soft toy for baby to play with in the car

Slings are perfect for newborns and small babies. I have this kind: http://www.mammasmilk.com/slings_catalog.php

When baby is able to sit up, you’ll want to graduate to a soft-structured carrier. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A CHEAP ONE! We have an Ergo, and really like it, bought it here: http://www.barefoot-eco.com/ Though, I can’t help but wonder what life would be like if we had tried the Pikkolo by CatBird baby, I like the look of it a lot. Try Ebay or craigslist, you can sometimes find good, used carriers there at a discount.

Diaper Bag – The Ameribag Healthy Back Baby Bag is what we have now, and it’s great. You can wear it on your shoulder, you can wear it across your back, or you can turn it around and wear it across your chest if you have baby in a back carry in the carrier. So versatile, so organized. And using this bag plus a baby carrier allows you to be HANDS FREE! That is key to making things easier when going out and about. http://www.ebags.com/ameribag/healthy_back_baby_bag_in_distressed_nylon/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=92849

Stroller. We have a hand-me-down that rolls pretty nicely on the gravel around the farm, and since it was a used stroller we don’t feel too bad about pushing it through mud or otherwise getting it dirty. It has a basket so I can haul a couple of flakes of hay, or gardening tools, or for whatever it is we’re doing outside. We also have an umbrella stroller we keep in the car, although I pretty much hate it and would much rather use the Ergo now that we have it. The problem w/ the umbrella is that it has too narrow of a base, the wheels are so small every crack in the sidewalk or stray piece of gravel derails OFTEN, plus there is no place to put your diaper bag if you are out and about (but that’s why the Ameribag Baby Bag is so great!). There’s lots of different strollers out there, lots of price ranges. Take your pick, you’ll get use out of it somehow, I’m sure!

Play yard, aka Pack ‘n Play. For picnics, for naps, for sleeping in hotels.

Baby Stuff Series - Sleeping

2009-02-03T10:01:00.003-05:00

Sleeping - This is something little babies do a lot of, and that their parents spend a lot of time trying to get them to do!

When you have a newborn, lots of people give you advice, and one woman (I didn't even know her....she was just admiring my daughter in a store) said, "The more they sleep, the more they sleep." At first thought you may say "what!?" But, it is true! If you try to keep your baby awake too much for fear they won't fall asleep at night, that is when they wake up more at night. So let your baby rest when they are sleepy, chances are they will sleep later just fine. To help you with this, you'll want to get:

Arms Reach Mini Co-sleeper (or a bassinet in the parents’ room) until baby can pull up

Infant swing – baby can watch you and has a comfy place to drift off for naps

Crib for naps or when baby is big enough to pull up and has outgrown the Arms Reach Mini Co-Sleeper or bassinet

Waterproof Mattress Protector

2 Fitted Crib Sheets

2 rectangular crib sized waterproof pads

Make crib in this order: Mattress, Waterproof Mattress Protector, Rectangular waterproof pad, Fitted Sheet, rectangular waterproof pad, Fitted Sheet. This way, when baby “leaks” or spits up at 2am, all you need to do is whip off the first sheet and pad and baby still has a comfy place to sleep.

Keep the room dark, no night light (baby and YOU will sleep better without! Trust me!)

Swaddling blanket as long as baby sleeps better with it.

Sleep sack for chilly nights

Humidifier

If you know your child is sleepy but they won't fall asleep (don't want to miss out on anything!) try putting them in a baby carrier and go about your normal activities. Your body movement will often lull baby to sleep, and you can then put them in the crib or whereever to nap.

Don't be afraid to nurse your baby to sleep. This REALLY WORKS and there is nothing wrong with using that to your (and baby's) advantage. I feel it is part of the way God designed the body to work - nursing is so relaxing for both baby and mama (the closeness, the cuddling, the warmth, and the hormones released really make them both sleepy!) and it just lends itself to helping get baby to fall asleep relaxed and with a full tummy.

Got any other tips or helps or products that really helped with getting YOUR baby to sleep? Share them here in the comments!

Baby Stuff Series - Pregnancy/Hospital/Immediate Postpartum

2009-02-02T15:31:00.005-05:00

Pregnancy - This is probably one of the areas that varies the most person to person. Women have such a diverse range of style and clothing preferences that I'm just going to list the stuff that I *had* to have or found most important.

A comfy pair of sweatpants that don't look too grungy - mine were "regular" not maternity....and I still wear them pretty often (though they look a lot grungier now!)

Maternity shirts that cover the ENTIRE belly (very hard to find, especially after month 7!!)

Our baby was born on December 8, but even on the chilliest days I was always HOT! Remember that little bun in the oven really does make a lot of heat, and plan your wardrobe purchases around this!

If you have a wedding or some other formal occasion to go to while you are pregnant, try really hard to find something that makes you feel feminine and pretty. Remember that baby belly really is beautiful, no matter how "tank-like" you may feel waddling across the dance floor!

Hospital - There really isn't all that much stuff you need to bring with you to the hospital. Of course, I packed enough stuff that Matt had to take 2 or 3 trips to get it all in (and that didn't count the infant car seat!) ..... but that was way way overkill. They don't let the laboring woman do much while she's laboring (really, you won't want to anyway!!) But there is some stuff you'll be glad you brought. Our state requires a blood test 48 hours after baby is born, and if you leave the hospital before that test, then the baby has to have the painful test done a second time. So, you'll be spending a few days there - but it's not all bad - you can pick whatever you want to eat and they'll bring it to your bedside, very convenient! Any questions you have about your newborn's care will be answered for you. Not such a bad deal.

Baby book - when your baby is born the nurses will take their footprints, and will be willing to put those in whatever you brought along. I suggest getting footprints put in the inside cover of little photo brag books as gifts for the grandmas. Tell the nurses this BEFORE labor gets serious, because otherwise you will forget (I did! Sorry moms...)

Camera! (and extra batteries! and an extra storage card for your digital!)

Plenty of flexibility and resolve. Things may not go the way you envisioned (maybe a tear, or a cesarean...or whatever), but ultimately you will (God-willing) have the same end result - a healthy baby! This is probably one of the hardest things you will do, but ABSOLUTELY worth it!!! And, God will see you through.

I didn't have one of these for Cora's birth, but this product has caught my eye and I will be seriously considering it if God blesses us with any further children: http://www.mom4life.com/catalog.php?item=904 I do remember the gown they gave me at the hospital being really awkward when it came to putting on the monitor around my tummy to measure baby's heart beat and contractions, so I can't help but think that this skirt would make things easier. Plus, those gowns left things pretty exposed when it came to first nursing - one of these skirts plus a comfy top with nursing openings might be the ticket!

Toiletries - toothbrush, deodorant, etc.

Going home clothes (sweatpants!) Pick something you won't mind if you don't look super slender in, cause you won't be back to pre-baby shape yet at ALL!

Husband clothes/toiletries

any nursing pillow you might have (Boppy, etc)

For your newborn all you need is an outfit for the picture, and outfit to take them home in, and an infant car seat. Don't bother bringing your diaper bag with you - when you leave the hospital, you're probably going straight home anyway, and you won't need to stop to change the baby in the 20 minutes it takes to drive home.

I had brought a bunch of magazines thinking I would get bored sitting around the hospital. Ha! Plenty of visitors - nurses, family, the baby's doctor, my doctor, friends, people from church, and then meals arriving, then the hospital had a tv, plus the videos they show you about newborn care, and nursing your baby, and learning to hold your baby, and swaddle your baby, and finally just being able to HOLD your baby in your arms....trust me - you won't be bored. 48 hours isn't as long as it sounds.

Immediate Postpartum - This is a time for healing for mama, bonding for the newly grown family, learning to nurse and care for your baby, and special memories.

It's also a time to forget about your body image, because you just can't be worrying about that - there's other more important things! For AT LEAST (probably longer) 6-8 weeks you will still be wearing maternity clothes - stuff that fit you when you were around 6 months pregnant. So pay attention to what fit you then, and keep it around.

About a day or two after they send you home from the hospital, your milk will come in. This is uncomfortable, but just keep nursing your baby when they are hungry, and eventually milk production will even out to a point where it's comfortable for you and meets baby's demands. They all say to get a supportive nursing bra - I disagree - I found that a tight-fitting bra made the breast baby wasn't nursing feel very uncomfortable during let-down. I ended up mostly using loose-fitting sports bras with absorbant, washable bra pads, and that removed the problem for me. Experiment, use what works for you.

Bra pads. I suggest trying Bravado nursing pads, they come in a package of 6 (3 pair). If you must get the disposable kind, try Lansinoh brand. (don't bother buying lanolin - the hospital gives you a sample which is PLENTY if your baby quickly learns how to latch properly. But, if you have problems with soreness, then you can run to the store and get some, otherwise save your money) Until you've been nursing a couple of months and things even out, expect to have some leaking when baby is nursing - be prepared with bra pads!

Nursing tops. Try the bra/tank with a nursing opening paired with a zip-up hoodie for around home. Glamourmom has these, so does Motherwear...there's lots of brands. Also get a few (several) tops with nursing access for out-and-about, if baby gets hungry, it makes things a little easier.

Nursing Nightgown (or other sleepwear). For the first few nights home from the hospital, my mom and mother-in-law stayed with us and let us get some much needed rest. If baby woke up, they changed her and brought her to me to nurse back to sleep. So since you may very well be up all hours of the night with company around, get a nightgown that has easy nursing access that you won't be embarrassed to be seen in.

Burp cloths. When your milk supply comes in, it's a shock to baby's system. This is when spit up starts to happen!!! Keep a burp cloth on every couch and chair and in every room - be prepared :-)

Try not to do any work other than caring for your baby until your baby is at least 8 days old (that's how they did it in the Bible!). Get the rest your body needs - labor and delivery is HARD WORK, learning to nurse and care for your baby isn't easy - focus on that for a while and get the rest you need and bond with your newborn. Ask close friends and family to help with meals and laundry for a while.

I'm sure there are a few things I've left out, and of course each woman's labor and delivery is VERY DIFFERENT. You'll be at the hospital longer if you had a C-section. It'll take you longer to feel like moving if you had a tear or episiotomy. Pain like that is worse (in my opinion, I had a tear and it was unsensible how much it hurt after the numbing for the stitches wore off) because you have already reached your main goal: delivering a healthy baby. Stick it out, you'll heal soon enough (in the mean time use the stuff they gave you at the hospital, and stock up on witch hazel pads!).

I'd love to have others post comments up here of their experiences and things they found most helpful in these delicate times of Pregancy, labor/delivery, and first few weeks postpartum.

Baby Stuff Series - Clothes and Layette

2009-02-02T15:18:00.003-05:00

Clothing
You’ll need a set of each of these in each size (newborn, 0-3 mos, 3 mos, 3-6 mos, 6 mos, 6-9 mos, 9 mos, and so on). This will be variable according to the season, though it’s a good place to start. Also, used is great with babies, since usually it wasn’t used all that much the first time since they grow so fast! Baby does NOT have to have all new stuff. Also, there is a lot of brand variation in sizing, some brands run larger, some smaller.

3-4 Footed Sleepers, of various weights/warmths

Sleep sack – For newborns try the kind that come with a swaddle that velcros, you probably won’t need one at all in the summertime, unless you keep it very cold with air conditioning.

Onesies/Bodysuits/T-shirts, around 5 – can be long or short sleeved

Bottoms - Pants, shorts, or skirts, 2-3 pairs, I like the pants that have feet attached.

2 Sweaters

Around 5 cute outfits, warm or cool weather, depending on season

2 warm hats or sun hats, depending on the season

About 5 pairs of socks, a few pairs of tights if you have a girl.

Soft-soled baby shoes. Most of the time baby does NOT need shoes. If your (prewalking) baby is wearing shoes it’s probably because you like the way they look or because someone has told you “you forgot to put the baby’s shoes on!” Yes, they’re cute, no, they’re not necessary. Now, once baby starts walking, maybe, but again, just soft-soled type. Baby can’t tell you if they’re pinching toes, but with the soft soles, you can easily feel where baby's feet are in the shoe.

Swim suit – many of these have a built-in swim diaper, or get the fabric kind - No need to use a disposable swim diaper. Swim diapers hold in solid waste only, urine goes right through! Plus, usually you get to know your baby’s “poop schedule” and can plan swimming outings around this.

Cuddle Wrap – these are perfect for using in a stroller on chilly days with newborns. http://www.cuddlewrap.citymax.com/home.html Sometimes the person who makes them can get sports designs or whatever you want; if you can find the fleece fabric, she will make them!

Baby bunting – we tried not to take our daughter outside if it was below freezing, but cold weather requires a warm bunting, a hat, and lots of blankets piled up on top of baby in the stroller. For more active babies, try a snowsuit and jacket, hat, boots or adult size mittens on the legs. Try to dress baby warmer than you are dressed when going out in cold weather, since they won't be as active.

Get creative when it comes to cold weather baby wearing. I’m working on sewing up a windbreaker jacket to wear that has a place for baby’s head to peek through, to keep both of us warm. There is a company that makes a vest designed for baby wearing (Peekaru), but that won’t help keep your arms warm, will it? You can wear baby in a front carry and just not zip your coat up all the way.

So there you have it - a basic list of the clothing your baby will need. Many babies have way more clothes than this, but I have found that this list will get you plenty of clothes so that you aren't finding yourself waiting on the washer to finish before you can dress your child!

Baby Stuff Series - Introduction

2009-02-02T09:04:00.004-05:00

Are you expecting a baby? Are you at a loss as to what you REALLY need for your bundle of joy? There is a TON of marketing out there to try to get you to buy many things not needed for your child, and some of the stuff you need (or actually will use) is not available at some of the typical “registry” places.

This week I plan to begin a series of Baby Posts to formulate a list of what we actually used ourselves with our first child. I know this isn’t necessarily something that is going to be interesting to everyone, but I have been working on this for a while and wanted to post it while our experience with a pre-toddler was still somewhat fresh.

I've split things up into several "categories" and each day I'll post a list of items that I found necessary/helpful for each, and probably some hints that worked for us. Categories will include things such as Diapering, Feeding, Clothing, Bathing, and so on.

DISCLAIMER: We did not become experts at babies because we had one! BUT, we got along very well with our daughter, and so I’m passing on our experiences, for your information. When I was pregnant, I was always trying to find out what other people actually used with their babies. I mean, do you really want to trust the registry list that Wal*mart or BabiesRUs gives out? They’re TRYING to sell you MORE stuff! Anyway, I don’t want to come across as if I think I “know-it-all” because I know I don’t, and I bet this list will change with every child we have. I just wanted to put this information out there in case anyone else is like me and likes to read about what others have used/tried with their children. Take this with a grain of salt, not everything is for everybody. Use what you think will work, forget what you think won’t.

We Had a Rough Beginning . . .

2009-01-29T13:01:00.003-05:00

. . . to this week! On Monday afternoon Cora was a mess - she vomited off and on all afternoon for about 6 hours! Poor baby - luckily she was able to sleep through the night and after that showed no further symptoms.

Then Tuesday evening I started feeling nauseous and after going to bed was up every hour or every half hour going to the bathroom, starting at 10pm lasting til 3:30am - talk about a rough night!!

Before the alarm went off Wednesday morning (pre-5:30am!) Matt had to get up and was having the same thing - stomach flu nasty stuff.

We both were very pitiful all day Wednesday, slept for most of it.

Did I mention the snow storm? Oh yes, we also had a LOT of snow and ice and then more snow, making it necessary to plow our driveway Tuesday (should've done it Wednesday, but were way to sick to do more than just the necessary chores). Doing chores was no picnic between having to brave the precipitation as it was still snowing at the time and feeling so sick (Thank you, Matt - you're so brave and tough!).

You might say it was bad timing to have the snow and sickness at the same time, but I say our God was watching out for us. If it hadn't have been for the snow, Matt's mom would've been at work and wouldn't have been able to take Cora for us on Wednesday - that was a huge help - we were able to rest and puke all day without having to worry about caring for Cora too!

So this week has started out rough - but over Tuesday night I couldn't help but be grateful that while I felt TERRIBLE at the time, at least I wasn't a cancer patient dealing with chemo that got sick with every treatment (or some other health problem that is way worse than short term stomach flu!). What I was dealing with was just temporary, but a great reminder (thanks, God?!) to be thankful for the good health I do have most of the time.

After a good night's rest, Matt's back at work, and Cora and I are doing fine at home today.

Cinnamon Pear Sheet Cake

2009-01-27T08:04:00.003-05:00

So I made this cake last night. It is deliciously moist, and fruity. Try it out! So far as I know, it is a unique and one-of-a-kind original recipe :-)

1 boxed white cake mix
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 29 oz can Pear Pieces in Light Syrup
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven, grease bottom only of a 9 x 13 pan. Drain pears, reserve liquid. Use liquid from can of pears in place of the water called for on cake mix box, add cinnamon: otherwise, prepare as directed. Add the drained pairs, stir in by hand.

Pour cake mix into prepared pan and bake as directed on box. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. While waiting for cake to cool, prepare frosting

about 2 cups powdered sugar
about 1/3 cup shortening
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
remaining reserved liquid from pears

Beat together shortening, powdered sugar, and cinnamon. Gradually beat in pear liquid, a few tablespoons at a time until frosting is the desired consistency. When cake is cool, spread frosting on cake and enjoy!

2009-01-26T21:46:00.002-05:00

Last weekend my family attended the Indiana Young Farmer Conference. This is a great experience for anyone interested in Agriculture (who lives in Indiana, who is a Farm Bureau member, who is 18-35 years old). Farm Bureau covers the hotel (one night) and all your meals and snacks, and provides great entertainment as well as educational and networking opportunities. There is actually now a website network for Indiana Young Farmers, which is great!

I found this link on there, which shows some interesting 2-4 minute videos on YouTube about the pork industry in Ohio. Very informative. Be sure to check it out. There is a lot of false information put out there by various groups (PETA in particular) that is simply not true and is sadly tarnishing the reputation of animal agriculture without cause. The videos in the link help show the facts about what really goes on with people who raise livestock for a living. Raising animals is hard work, and if someone didn't like the animals and enjoy being around them, they wouldn't have them in the first place.

If you have considered donating money to an organization that claims it stands for animal welfare, please be sure you know to what cause you are really donating. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is largely a political action group that lobbies towards the goal of vegan lifestyles for all. Nothing wrong with being vegan if that is a choice you have made, but that certainly isn't a choice I want forced upon me by legistlature! PETA even states on their website that they want to eradicate the use of animals for human gain, which even includes (according to them) keeping pet dogs and cats - they want to stop people from having pets! Many animal welfare charities claim they stand for animal welfare, but in reality they are pushing to have laws made based on wrong information, or misinformation.

I myself very much love animals! I have two horses, one of which is 29 years old and can no longer be ridden, he is retired but he will have a home with me as long as he lives. We have adopted a Great Pyrenees from Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue, and currently are fostering 4 of their other livestock guardian dogs until they are able to find forever homes for them as well. But, I firmly believe that donating money to the HSUS or PETA does not help animals, it just lines the pockets of those at the top of those organizations. If you are interested in helping animals, consider donating to a breed rescue, such as IGPR, or your favorite dog or cat breed. These people (often volunteers) really do seek out animals who are in bad situations and help them, whereas HSUS pretty much just lobbies Washington and never actually helps individual animals in need of rescue.

Want to learn more about where I stand on animal welfare? Ask me! I'd love to talk about it.

Save me!

2009-01-25T16:14:00.002-05:00

Check out this link with suggestions for saving money!

Anyone else have any simple suggestions for ways to cut costs???? Post your comments here!!

God Bless America!

2009-01-23T10:43:00.003-05:00

So our country is facing some tough times! Anyone noticed? Lots of companies are losing money, cutting back production, firing/laying off employees, closing their doors.

Our country (Americans) is (are) doing a lot of things that are just plain wrong, no matter how you look at it. Going off the assumption that the Bible is the only truth and that following God's ways brings life and hope, is it any wonder that our country is dealing with the economic downturn and the things that go with it?

Now, I don't mean to judge. I am a sinner saved by grace, and I am by no means perfect. I AM trying my best to allow God to work in my life to make me more and more Christlike, but I make mistakes all the time. I may not have actually killed anyone, but it says somewhere in the Bible that if you have angry words towards someone you have murdered him! God's Word says that one sin is equally bad in His eyes as the next. Lying, stealing, murder, adultery (so much as looking at another lustfully!), homosexuality....the list goes on - no one is worse than the other, each is EQUALLY wrong and condemning.

In fact, some of these "acceptable" sins are quite commonplace even in churches: coveting, concealing the truth, spreading rumors. Some that aren't as readily accepted by church members are extremely commonplace in the TV shows we watch "religiously" - a variety of sexual sins, overt drinking or drug abuse, murders (CSI, etc), jealousy, and so on. Think back to the shows you watched last week - can you think of even one example where the people portrayed did things that were truly God-pleasing? I firmly believe that the stuff you watch (and laugh at, and are entertained by) is more ingrained in you than you want to admit. If you can get a big kick out of a nasty joke...ask yourself why you weren't repulsed by it. Where are our hearts and minds? Read Amos 6:1-7, "Woe to you who are complacent . . ." Why aren't we taking a stand in our own households to begin diligently trying to follow God's loving commandments? He gives us these things for our own good, not our harm, not to spoil our fun! Check out this post I wrote a while back on a verse in Phillippians: http://adayinthelifeofnicoleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/idols-or-whats-really-important.html

If you've ever had a chance to read parts of the Old Testament, you know that REPEATEDLY the children of isreal fall away from God - they start worshipping other gods and doing what all the other godless nations around them were doing. God would send prophets to warn them that he was going to overtake them if they didn't turn away from their evil thoughts and actions. They almost never listened, God would send some army in to take them over, and then after they'd lost everything they would come back to God.

I am going to suggest that America is EXACTLY LIKE the people of isreal right now - we have fallen away, and we are beginning to lose everything! America has been so accustomed to prosperity that we have "forgotten" that we need God because we think our food comes from the Grocery store and that the money that buys that food comes from the companies we work for. Everyone was so concerned when the stock market crashed. Folks, the stock market does not know how many hairs are on our head! The stock market did not lovingly create you! Every good and perfect thing comes from God! No where else! We must keep bringing this to the forefront of our minds. Let's not become complacent and say "it doesn't matter if we sin, God still loves us" Yes, He does, but He wants us to be faithful to him.

The good news is that while people generally are known for making mistakes and it is easy to lean towards doing wrong (what is it about some sins that make them so attractive, make them seem like the easy way?)...the good news is that no matter where we are in our walk in life, God DID create us, he is our Father, the one who made us and wants a close relationship with us. Even if we have a nasty past, God loves us where we are. Now, that's not an excuse to keep on sinning, but our Heavenly Father loves us, he wants us to come to him and let him clean us up and allow him to gently mold us into the people he wants us to be. God wants us to be close to Him, to pray with him, to read his Word - that's how we learn about who He is, and how we learn to be truly our happiest. At least that's the way it's been for me....I can look back in my life and say that the times when I was TRULY happiest was when I have been closest to Him, and the opposite is also true (the worst times have been when I have been farthest from Him).

I am writing this post as a sort of introduction to you before you read the link to this though-provoking writing by the author of one of the blogs I follow.

Here is a quote that I especially like:

"I believe that we are about to go through a time of "pruning" that will be painful in the short term, but glorious when it is over."

God gives us painful times in order to bring us closer to Him. Don't push Him away, but allow him to make us "glorious" as we become more and more Christlike!

Check the rest of it out:

http://generationcedar.blogspot.com/2009/01/our-culture-of-death-makes-way-for-life.html

Pray for our nation, pray for Christians, pray for those who don't yet know Christ, pray for yourselves and your family that God uses these tough times for his glory.

(thanks for reading....I apologize if I got too bold!)

Cute, Cute, Cute - a sewing project!

2009-01-20T11:31:00.005-05:00

Check out this link:

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

It is a link to a 'tutorial' for sewing a "Crayon Roll." My Cora is going to have to have one of these once she learns to color!

A side note: The other day I bought her some big fat crayons (way too big for the crayon roll) even though they say 18 months +. She isn't too impressed with them yet. I will show them to her again in a couple of weeks. Eventually she'll be ready for them, and make some pretty pictures for everyone!

They're supposed to be ergonomically designed for her chubby little hands. If nothing else, they're cute and colorful! Kind of like a weeble-wobble; they don't fall down!

Turkey

2009-01-20T06:51:00.004-05:00

After Christmas, I bought a 14.5 lb. turkey on sale at the grocery store. I put it in the freezer, knowing I had cheap meat in there that we could prepare later, eat, and then freeze the cooked meat for yummy things such as turkey pot pie, any number of casseroles (turkey and chicken can be interchangeable) and a yummy recipe called Turkey Cranberry Wreath (a turkey filling inside a crescent roll crust).

It had been VERY COLD last week, so as I was thinking of ways we could help keep the house feeling warm, I took out the turkey Thursday morning to thaw. Running the oven for the several hours it takes to bake a turkey, plus cooking the rest of the fixins' ought to make for a warm house! We had it on Sunday, my parents were here to visit. It was fun preparing lunch with my family around! It turned out great!

I put the big pieces of meat on one large plate, to be eaten as leftovers and to be broken up into smaller pieces and frozen in the next couple of days. Last night, Matt, Cora and I had turkey dinner again, and again, it was yummy!

Here's the VERY BAD NEWS: We all FORGOT to put the big plate FULL of leftover turkey BACK into the refridgerator!!! It sat out overnight, uncovered.............I am so sad/mad we both forgot to check the kitchen to make sure that didn't happen. What a disappointment!

At least we got two very good meals out of this turkey. And, it won't go completely to waste, as we now have 5 great pyrenees dogs living at our place that will be happy to help us dispose of the turkey. But, what could have been wonderful turned out to be a disappointing waste, mostly. Oh well, hopefully now we will be more careful.

I don't like exercising!

2009-01-18T20:17:00.004-05:00

I don't like exercising.....

....but I love tossing my 1 year old up in the air shouting, "Wheeee!!" almost as much as she loves me to do it.

I don't like exercising....

....but I don't mind hauling hay, feed, and water to the goats, dogs, and horses during chores every morning and night.

I don't like exercising....
....but when my daughter is sleeping peacefully in my arms, somehow I don't seem to notice (too much!) how much my arms are burning from trying to hold her up.

I don't like to exercise....

....but I had a great time helping my dad and my husband load up a pickup truck bed full of firewood this afternoon.

I don't like to exercise....

....but it sure it fun to jog alongside my mare Arabee to condition her and walk her through the woods up and down hills to get her used to the new trails.

I don't like exercising....
....but it sure is fun following my daughter up the stairs as she's learning to go up, and now back down safely - she's getting quick!

*******

What is it about exercise "in disguise" that keeps it from seeming so much like "work?"

Elimination Communication

2009-01-16T07:35:00.001-05:00

Elimination Communication, or ‘EC’ for short, is a great parenting tool that involves helping your young baby go potty in an appropriate place other than their diapers. I learned about it by accident when researching different types of baby carriers at this website: http://www.wearyourbaby.com/Default.aspx?tabid=306 Here is another source for learning about EC: http://www.tribalbaby.org/ECindex.html

Now for our story of why it makes sense to try EC, and how we practice it:

We’ve had our daughter in cloth diapers since we ran out of the newborn sizes we got from the hospital and from baby showers (it didn’t take very long!). She was a very good natured newborn, but sometimes got upset, for no apparent reason. Dry, wasn’t hungry…..but then moments later upon checking the diaper again, it was wet. I believe she was trying to tell us she had to pee! Some sources claim that babies have a desire not to “soil the nest” which makes a lot of sense; even some animals seem to have this desire. However, through diaper use, we “train” our babies to potty in their diapers, since we don’t usually help them go anywhere else with traditional diaper use.

They say it’s best to start EC with newborns, so they never get used to the idea of going into their diapers. Barring that, they also say there’s a “window of opportunity” at 4-6 months when babies are more developmentally ready to communicate their need. Before that age it’s more or less “timing and guessing” than actual elimination “communication!”

By the time we decided to try EC with Cora, she was 7 months old, so she was pretty used to peeing and pooping in her diapers. We started by offering her the chance to potty right away every time she woke up, either from naps or in the morning. We did this by taking off the diaper, holding her with her back to our tummy and supporting her under her thighs over the bathroom sink, and making a “pssssssssss” noise. If she started peeing, I would say “Look! You’re peeing!” so she’d know what was going on, and keep making the “psssssss” noise to associate the noise with the action. For pooping, if she had been doing a lot of farting or straining, I’d offer her a chance to do that too, holding her in the same way, but clenching up my tummy muscles so she would get the idea that she needed to “puuuusssssshh those poopies out!” Again, saying “look! You’re pooping!” so she’d know what was going on. We use more of a “shhhhhh” sound (drawn out after saying “push”) for pooping if we know that she has to #2, and the “psssssss” sound for #1 (sounds sort of like running water).

If she got fussy for no apparent reason, we would try offering a chance to go potty. Often, she had needed to pee or poop and would go right away. Sometimes, we were wrong and she would just fuss and squirm. If she fussed we’d right away stop trying and put the diaper back on, since we’d assume she just didn’t have to go. Eventually she got to where she would come to us when she needed to go, or start crawling towards the bathroom. When she was good enough at sitting up by herself, we bought a little potty seat that sits on the toilet and transitioned from us holding her over the sink to potty to her sitting on the potty seat to potty. Sometimes she had a preference for being held, sometimes the potty. Now she almost always wants to sit on the potty seat. She understands what the toilet paper is for (and can sort of wipe for herself), and really enjoys watching the toilet flush.

You may be wondering….If baby is peeing or pooping in the sink…..THEN WHAT?! Well, I actually have found that I much preferred simply wiping out the sink after a poop with a double layer of folded toilet paper and dropping it in the toilet to flush over trying to wipe off a diapered baby’s bottom after liquidy poop had made it’s way into every crevice. It was MUCH cleaner for both of us. Urine was easy to rinse the sink out and “flush” that way. Baby urine isn’t very “potent” so no real smells associated with that (at least not worse than the diapers!)

Many EC’ers have “diaper free” time. They say it will help you learn baby’s subtle cues right before they eliminate, but we didn’t do that. We chose to keep Cora in her diapers so that there wouldn’t be so much pressure to communicate – if we “missed” and she went in her diaper, it wasn’t too big of a deal. It has been important that EC is pressure-free, so we aren’t pushing her too fast. It isn’t “toilet training” but just a time where we offer a place to go potty when our child hints at the need to go. She’s gotten better and better at telling us, from going 100% in diapers, and gradually now 6 months later she is probably peeing on the potty around 30% of the time, and pooping on the potty 75% of the time. This saves us on diaper washing, saves from the worry of a urinary tract infection from that poop getting where it shouldn’t be, and hopefully will save us time when it comes to toilet training later on down the road!

So, if you have a baby, give EC a try! What have you got to lose? Be sure to check out the links at the top of this page for better, more detailed information.

Cloth Diaper Update

2009-01-16T07:31:00.001-05:00

Some things have changed since I first wrote about cloth diapers here on this blog.

I’ve discovered that the Kushies diapers WEAR OUT pretty fast. The waterproof outer part of the diaper begins to shred after a while. This is even on brand new diapers that we bought and used only with Cora. The hand-me-downs we have are all but shredded to bits!
Even though they’re more expensive, the Bumkins All-in-Ones have held up well! I have several of them that diapered two children before we got them, so they are on child number three! They are holding up well. I will suggest that the extra wear you get out of these makes them worth the higher initial investment, especially if God blesses you with more than one child!
Once your child starts eating solids, their poops begin to change. They are smellier, chunkier, and way nastier to wash. Don’t lose heart and give up cloth! They sell things called “Diaper Showers” that are easy to install (all you do is just ask your husband!) and are (almost) life changing! Lift the toilet seat, turn on the diaper shower, MAKE SURE ITS POINTING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, and spray the poops off of the diaper. Have your diaper pail handy (right next to the toilet) and use the pail’s lid to catch any drips. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and a poop will just shake/fall off the diaper into the toilet, but usually they stick – and with the diaper shower this is no longer a nasty problem.

Spraying off the diaper with the diaper shower pretty much removes the need to soak dirty diapers, so they can go into the dry pail for wet diapers. When the 5 gallon bucket is full, we now dump all the diapers into the washer, run a cold water wash first with about ½ cup vinegar, ½ cup baking soda, and a cold water rinse. When this is done, wash with as hot of water as you can make it with the small amount of detergent. When wash and rinse is done, run an extra spin cycle to remove more water, and dry diapers as usual after checking for freshness.
We’ve tried out a BumGenius all-size diaper. It’s a pocket diaper, which I do not prefer (stuffing the inserts takes too long and is annoying) but it has other really great qualities. The lining keeps the wetness away from baby’s skin, the Velcro tabs have elastic for a better fit, and it supposedly can adjust to fit all ages of babies. Haven’t had it for very long, but I do like it, all except for the fact that it is a pocket diaper. I will be interested to learn how long it compares to others as far as being long-lasting.

I will keep updating info on using cloth diapers as I learn more! Hope these tips help!

If you missed my post “Cloth Diaper 101,” here is a link: http://adayinthelifeofnicoleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/cloth-diapers-101.html

Hot Morning Coffee

2009-01-15T07:03:00.005-05:00

Every morning I treat myself to a hot latte, and usually it comes with a yummy treat, like the one shown in this photo. I found a recipe online for latte mix (it's really good!) and recently tried a new coffee cake recipe, as shown. If I tried this at a coffee shop, the latte would be $3.50, and the treat $3.00....making the weekly total well over $50!! So I am saving big money here!

Okay, so I must confess that usually I don't light candles and have the nice place setting when I drink my coffee in the morning, but really, how relaxing would that be? aahhhhh :-)

I wanted to share the recipes I used. The latte is a Pumpkin Spice Latte, and it ends up kind of frothy after you stir it up, and the cake is a Coffee Coffee Cake, which recipe I found in "Better Homes and Gardens" issued in April 2006. I put off trying the cake, because it calls for strong brewed coffee, and Matt REALLY doesn't like coffee, but it turned out that even HE likes it! So it must be good!

Pumpkin Spice Latte Mix

1/2 cup instant coffee (slightly heaping)
2/3 cup sugar (slightly less than full)
1/2 cup instant nonfat dry milk powder
1/4 cup powdered coffee creamer
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

Add all of the ingredients into a dry bowl. Use a fork to combine everything evenly. Put into a resealable container. To enjoy a latte: Add two heaping tablespoons latte mix into your favorite coffee mug (this is assuming it is a large mug!) or to taste. Pour hot water into the cup. Stir, and enjoy!

**NOTE: I generally double this recipe since I pretty much drink it every day, and use 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf coffee granules.

Coffee Coffee Cake

Heat oven to 350 degrees, grease and lightly flour 10" fluted tube pan (bundt pan)

Whisk together in a bowl:

1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add 2 eggs, slightly beaten - whisk until combined.

In another bowl stir together:

3 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Whisk dry ingredients into coffee mixture until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 20 minutes, remove from pan to serving platter.

**NOTE: the recipe in the magazine called for a "coffee-hazelnut syrup" to be poured on top of this cake, which I did not prepare because it sounded sickenly sweet and sticky. I was going to shake powdered sugar on top, but never got around to it. This cake is good heated in the microwave with butter on top.

New Gadget!

2009-01-14T08:09:00.002-05:00

So I added this new feature to my blog, called "Reactions" What you do is after you read a post, you can put a checkmark by your "reaction". Easy!

Do you Agree?
Do you think you will Try It?
Do you think it's Neat?
Are you left asking What?!

Wanna add this feature to your blog? I learned how by reading the 11/6/08 post on http://buzz.blogger.com/

Interesting Reading

2009-01-14T07:52:00.002-05:00

I found this linked in one of the blogs I am following:

http://hindsfeet.blogspot.com/2008/08/allow-allow-god-who-am-i-to-allow-god.html

I thought it was well-written and it also made me think.

What about you?? Any opinions?

Look Who's Walking Now!

2009-01-13T12:08:00.001-05:00

Check out this video of some of Cora's first steps! I took this video this morning. The quality isn't great since I took it on our camera, but it'll have to do!

Here's the story:

Sunday night, Mommy was sitting on the couch and Daddy was sitting on the floor about 5 feet away, leaning against the loveseat. Cora has a tiny stuffed Pooh bear and a tiny stuffed turtle, and she was chewing on the turtle, then crawled to Mommy and handed it off to her. On a whim, I handed her Pooh and turtle, and said "go hand those to Daddy!"

Who would have guessed it, she teetered off, a toy in each hand, and walked all the way to Matt! She did this several times, going back and forth, bringing those toys, first to daddy, then to mommy. :-) Little, tiny baby steps, but our little girl can walk now!

How exciting! It's a little sad, because I was holding on to her being my little baby as long as she wasn't walking, but I am very happy to see how she's growing up! She's so special to us, and soon she'll be walking EVERYWHERE! For now though, it is still faster for her to crawl :-)

Sorry for holding out so long to tell you all, but I really wanted to make sure I got video footage of her doing this for "proof" Hope you can view it! It took a really, really, really long time to upload!

Helper

2009-01-12T06:47:00.004-05:00

One of my goals lately has been to make a conscious effort to have Cora (my 1 year old daughter) help me around the house.

How can a 1 year old help her mother?? Well, it's not so much that she is ACTUALLY helping, but by her doing the things that I know she can do, that I have asked her to do, perhaps she believes she is.

When I am carrying her when I leave a room, I ask her to please turn out the light (then I quickly walk away so she doesn't get a chance to flip the lights on and off a whole bunch!). This actually takes a very long time, because she hasn't quite figured out the "physics" of the way a light switch works 100%. But Mommy asks her to please turn out the light, eventually she does, and I thank her for doing it
When I sweep the floor in the dining room, I have her help by moving the chairs out of the way. She loves doing this. She doesn't always (ever!) put them where I would have put them, and she needs guidance to put them back where they belong, but Mommy asked her to move them, and when she complied she got an enthusiastic thank you.
Over the weekend, Matt and I treated ourselves to a cup of ice cream, and I had dropped my spoon. I asked her, "Please hand Mommy the spoon, so you can have some Ice cream with us" And she VERY QUICKLY did just that! So she proved that she is able to follow simple instructions (especially for a little ice cream!)

Cora really enjoys picking things up and handing them to people, or emptying containers (or drawers!) On rare instances, she will re-fill the containers that she just emptied, but generally not fully. I will try asking her to please put all the kitchen towels back in the drawer she just totally emptied. oh, and to fold them back up first! Do you think it will work?! :-)

Anyway, this may seem all silly, and it may in time prove not to work. I am hoping that by really fostering her will to help me, that she will continue to want to do so after she actually CAN help me. Soon she will have the ability to empty the dishwasher, sweep the floor, and so on, but will she still desire to help me if I prevent her from "helping" me now?

My hope is that while it is taking me longer to do things now by having Cora "help" that I will foster in her a desire to serve that her mother didn't have. I clearly remember being a stubborn, ungrateful child who REFUSED to help on cleaning Saturdays (sorry mom and dad!) I am really hoping to be able to avoid at least some of that kind of selfish attitude in my daughter. It may or may not work, but it can't hurt to try, right?

Does anyone have any other ideas for how I can have Cora help me around the house?? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Three Blogs?!?

2009-01-09T12:48:00.004-05:00

Am I nuts?

well, probably, but the reason behind me writing three blogs is because I just have too much variation. I don't want to bore people with stuff they don't want to read about, so I will need to be more specific in each blog.

This one, A Day in the Life http://adayinthelifeofnicoleblog.blogspot.com/, will mostly focus on family and home-related stuff.

Then there's Adventures on Arabee http://www.adventuresonarabee.blogspot.com/ which covers all things horse-related. Read about my venture into Endurance Riding, my dream for driving carriage, training, riding bitless and barefoot, and other horse things.

My newest venture into blogland is My Indiana Home http://www.formyindianahome.blogspot.com/ No "real" posts yet, but I plan to use it to talk about farm-related things. Raising livestock, why I think it is totally moral thing to eat meat, and why farmers (in my opinion) both crop and livestock are some of the more misunderstood people in our country, and probably worldwide.

Of course, each blog will likely include things from the other two, because really it is all so intrinsically related in my life that I won't be able to help but have some drift.

Just FYI

Getting Brave-r!

2009-01-08T13:19:00.003-05:00

Check out Cora the cutie! She's GREAT at standing up by herself, but just hasn't *quite* got the guts to take more than 2 or so leaning/reaching steps of walking. I love this picture - doesn't she look like she just is seriously considering walking to her daddy?

But, I was there. Right after the picture was taken, she dropped to her knees, and CRAWLED.

She's still my little baby for a little while longer...

Camping Stuff

2009-01-08T12:53:00.005-05:00

I posted previously about how my family went camping for the first time over Labor day weekend in 2008. We enjoyed that, and being as Matt's hobby (jeeping) is easier to do on a camping weekend, as well as my hobby (endurance riding?) also requires camping (but with the horse!), we figured we'll be doing lots more of it.

For Christmas I had requested some camping stuff - dishes, utensils, some Lodge cast iron cookware, and got it, and was scratching my head as to how in the world to store and transport it.

Then, I remembered one of the wedding gifts we had received (july 2005). It's a "picnic cooler/caddy" and it came with 4 plates, cups, spoons, forks, knives, a cutting board, a "cheese" knife, salt and pepper shakers, and a wine bottle opener. All the utensils have special straps to secure them with, and there is a nice-sized insulated zipper pocket. Would all the new camping stuff we got fit inside???

Yes! It does, it is perfect :-)

**This is the picnic caddy filled up, with enough plates, cups, and silverware for 8 people! Plus some handy utensils for dinner prep! The thing on the left side is an insulated wine bottle holder! What a fancy picnic that would be :-) hehe. I'm guessing we won't be using it for the purpose it was intended for!

**This picture shows it mostly zipped, with a view of the insulated cooler section, which is holding 4 bowls and 4 cups. There is still room for more, if needed. Another view of the wine holder, and the back shows that it's intended for use as a backpack, but I have stuck a tablecloth in the straps instead. There's another carrying strap on the top I can use.
Not bad for a once-forgotton wedding present, hey? :-)

customization in progress...

2009-01-06T13:53:00.002-05:00

You can expect to see some aesthetic changes in my blog in the next while.

I've already changed a bit, but it isn't "perfect" yet.

More changes to come!

2009

2009-01-01T10:35:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, my family certainly didn't stay up to see the new year in....we were all in bed by 9! Between Cora's teeth coming in (all of them at once, it seems...she is miserable) and me just coming up from being sick, and Matt running around taking care of the both of us, we were all so tired!

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but I think this year calls for at least one.

A little background first: There's a place called Stream Cliff Farm nearby our home, that I love to visit with friends and family (mostly women....it's almost too girly for the guys, but not quite). Everyone always says it's so relaxing to come there and dine in the tea room, and wander through the gardens, check out the gift shops, and it IS lovely place. I try to go as often as I can, they are only open in the gardening months, and I usually make it three or four times per year. A visit to Stream Cliff leaves a refreshing feeling.

My little family lives on the farm that was built by my husband's great-great-grandparents, on top of a hill, with a beautiful view all around of pastures with the charolais/angus beef herd, the goats and horses, the pond, and the river. There's a creek that runs through one of the pastures at the bottom of the hill, and when it's not too dry you can hear the water running peacefully into it. Since I started staying at home (and after we had done quite a bit of landscaping work around the house) my Dad began marveling each time my parents would come for a visit how nice it is to be at our home, that it's a peaceful place. (below is a photo Matt's uncle took from his paraplane of our homeplace)

Anyway, at a recent visit to Stream Cliff, a friend of mine remarked that she'd love to be able to come there all the time, it was so relaxing, and what was it about the place that made it that way? It got me thinking, and I can't really think of a good reason why our homes can't be that place. Can't we make our homes peaceful havens of rest from a busy and hectic world? I think we can, and that is part of my New Year's Resolution for 2009.

This has been a goal of mine for quite some time, but I think that now with things in our world being so crazy it seems, that 2009 is a great time to pounce on that opportunity. I actually wrote out a list of 6 goals I had (on january 31, 2007) and it's posted on my bulletin board by the computer, it's full of good stuff, and I may share the entirety of it some day, but here is #3 and 4 on that list:

Make our home a pleasant place to be. Keep it clean and tidy, decorate it so that our surroundings are pleasing to the eye, all without spending too much money.
Grow a flower garden around our home and landscape it in a pleasing way, so that we can enjoy our yard and feel proud of it, and eat produce from our vegetable garden.

I've already got a good start on some of these things, but there is always more that could be done. I think this is something that really starts in the heart. Somewhere in Proverbs it says that it is better to live on the corner of the rooftop than to live in a house with a quarrelsome wife. (imo the same is true of the rest of the family members, but I know it seems women can be more.....irritable, and mouthy!) So, I will start with attitudes, then work from the inside of the home out.

What ideas do you have for creating a "homey" "peaceful" "resting" feeling at home?

What New Year's Resolutions are you working on in 2009?

looking forward to your comments :-)

Parent's Study

2008-12-16T15:50:00.004-05:00

At my church, we have just begun a new Bible study for parents, based on the Bible and also using the book Leaving a Godly Legacy by Charles Stanley.

It is not at all too late to join in!! Plenty of room for more parents to come! At the first study, we had three couples, and went over the introduction and first chapter of the book. It talked about the goals of the book, we discussed personal parenting goals and hopes for the study, and it outlined some of the guidelines for keeping it a Godly study (confidentiality, stay focused on Bible, etc.). Chapter 2 is going to begin digging into the Bible and seeing how we can use what God is teaching us to teach our children.

The next study is going to be on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 6:30pm. If you know me and are interested in this study, email me, we can get it worked out!

(**I must confess that part of the joy of blogging comes in sharing photos!! Can't help it!**)

My Christmas List

2008-12-12T11:55:00.002-05:00

Every year I am asked for a Christmas list - you know, a list of things for my loved ones to choose from to buy gifts for me. That's what Christmas is all about, right? Ha. I've been struggling with Christmas this year, for the first time.

It started with an invitation to take our daughter to a "Santa Party." She is one. Santa is NOT REAL. Already we are being pressured into teaching our daughter about good ole' santa who delivers presents to all the good little girls and boys in one night in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. Cashiers at stores ask her (she's one!!) if Santa is going to come at christmas. Well, we are going to the santa party, but folks, we are going to tell her that santa is made-up.

If we teach her the line about this fat guy in a red suit that can fit through chimneys, how in the world should we expect her to REALLY believe us about Jesus, who was born to a virgin (ha!) did a bunch of miracles, never did anything wrong (ha!), was killed, and rose from the dead (ha!) to save believers' souls. I mean, really - without the Holy Spirit who can convict us that God created the universe and can do anything, this whole Christianity thing is almost as unbelievable as Santa Claus. So we fill our children's heads with stories about Santa, and the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, and the real Christmas Story. If the first three turn out to be false, why would they believe the last????

Especially when we're running around, baking food, putting up decorations, lights, trees, writing christmas cards, buying more, more, more for people who don't really need it. We know the truth about real christmas. We know it's about the special gift of our newborn king and savior, but we sure don't act like it. We're ignoring the real reason for the season and we don't care. We like getting presents!!

I hope next year when I am asked for my "christmas list" I will ask for my family members to use their money to give to those much less fortunate than I. Then Christmas will begin to get back some of it's real meaning. If Jesus as the newborn saviour of the whole world allowed himself to be born in a barn and worshiped by shepherds, can't I give up my list of "wants" when there are so many truly IN NEED of the basics - food, water, clothing, shelter?? We are called to be like Jesus, who came to serve, lets start honoring Him on His birthday, rather than honoring ourselves in indulgence, when so many don't even have a meal a day.

Check out this video - it's awesome.

untimely death........

2008-12-11T07:42:00.004-05:00

.........was the title in the subject line in a forwarded email sent to me from Jacke at http://endurancegranny.blogspot.com/ Pretty interesting facts, so I wanted to share it here! Can anyone really say that God doesn't have a sense of humor, or that He doesn't care about us, or listen to what we say? You bet He does!

DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?
I SURE DIDNT TILL NOW

Death is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death!

Make a personal reflection about this......

Very interesting, read until the end.....
It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7):

'Be not deceived; God is not mocked:
for whatsoever a man sow,

Here are some men and women
who mocked God:

John Lennon(Singer):

Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said:

'Christianity will end, it will disappear.
I do not have to argue about
that. I am certain.

Jesus was ok,

but his subjects were too simple,

today we are more famous than Him' (1966).

Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.

Tancredo Neves(President of Brazil ):
During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency.

Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.

Cazuza(Brazilian composer, singer and poet):
During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ),

while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:'God, that's for you.'

He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.

The man who built the Titanic:

After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be.

With an ironic tone he said:
'Not even God can sink it'

The result:I think you all know what happened to the Titanic

Marilyn Monroe(Actress)
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show.
He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her.
After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said:
I don't need your Jesus'.

A week later, she was found dead in her apartment

Bon Scott(Singer)
The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang:
'Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell'.

On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

Campinas(IN 2005)
In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend.....

The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car:

'My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You.'
She responded: 'Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full '

Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died,
the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact.

The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken

Christine Hewitt(Jamaican Journalist and entertainer)said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written.

In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.

Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus.

Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he is still alive.

Back in the Saddle

2008-12-09T12:02:00.009-05:00

Yesterday was a warm day for December, in the 40's, and my husband surprised me by asking if I wanted to ride when he got home, that he would watch Cora so I could do that! How sweet of him! So, I made sure to take advantage of that opportunity.

This is a photo from early October. Yesterday was the 17th ride I had on Arabee since I started riding again back in September....before that it had been at least 2 years since I'd ridden. It feels so great to be riding again! I know the equitation isn't great, but at least I'm up there!

We're riding in a Dr. Cook's bitless bridle, which she goes great in. She's barefoot - I've started trimming her hooves myself. Since the photo was taken we've added a beta breastcollar from http://www.runningbear.com/ and I made a set of rhythm beads for her to wear. We also have a crupper to help keep the saddle from slipping but I'm having problems with the T, so it doesn't stay on well, but Arabee has adjusted to wearing it just wonderfully. I'm riding in my mom's dressage saddle, but I added some shenandoah trail stirrups (from ebay) for comfort.

I still need to work out my winter riding wardrobe (to keep warm and dry), but I'm hoping for a pattern to make some riding tights from warm material for Christmas, as well as a set of stirrup cages for safety.

Beyond the fact that I get a great deal of fun out of riding, I'm still trying to really look deep and decide whether this is a God-thing or a Nicole-thing. The idea of endurance (I have a goal of completing two 25 mile LD rides this summer) is so exciting, but the amount of time it will take to do right is tough to reason around. Both my husband and my daughter need my time, it can't be spent two places at once! I guess we'll see what happens - I'll keep riding as often as opportunities like this come up, I'll try to give Matt the same kinds of opportunities for time to himself.

I believe that if you put God first, and His will, that he will make time appear for the other things, if He chooses. So, I will make serving my family the priority, and if the opportunity arises for me to enjoy the horses he's put in my life, I'll be back in the saddle again!

**for a more horse-specific blog, check out this one: http://adventuresonarabee.blogspot.com/