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Showing posts from September, 2010

Thankful Thursday

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My two little rams. Blessings this past week Brighton's behavior this week has been stellar. He wakes up in the morning and makes his bed and Maggie's bed without me asking. He sweeps the acorns off the back patio for me and loves folding clothes. I actually don't mind doing it now, because I get to spend time with him while doing it. He's in charge of the washcloths. He does an excellent job of making the square into a rectangle and then into a smaller square. Earlier this week he had me come into Owen's room and showed me how he taped a paper cross to the wall. He asked me, "Does Jesus live in here?" I said, "Well, He lives in our hearts." My sweet little boy said, "But I want Him to live in here and protect Owen." Gulp. Oh boy, do I love his heart. Owen has been falling a lot since he's learning how to walk and climb and oh, how it hurts Brighton when Owen gets hurt. He is very protective over him. How thankful I am f

Wordless Wednesday

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Microwave-free living

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Why would anyone want to live without a microwave? My microwave is one thing I would never give up. How do you heat food up without a microwave? These are all things that I have actually asked over the past year. I know this information may only be useful to some of you if your microwave breaks and you are without one temporarily, but for some, maybe it will inspire you to say goodbye to technology's nutrient zapping oven forever. A wise friend of mine once said, " If I'm going to spend money on organic food, I'm definitely not going to compromise it in the microwave." It kind of annoyed me at the time, (sorry J) because I knew she was right.  In the interest of full disclosure, I still have my microwave. It's in my utility room. It got put out there because my awesome daughter kept putting her stainless steel sippy cup in it and starting it. Not good at all. So, ours actually poses more of a danger to us than most. lol When we move though, it will not mov

Lack of prenatal care, my arse.

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Minutes after birth at OU...notice no annoying I.V. :) First and foremost, natural childbirth advocates encourage unmedicated births because they are safer for mom and baby, not because we like pain, consider ourselves superheroes or want others to be in pain during childbirth. On Thursday, I went to an Amnesty International panel discussion on the Maternal Healthcare Crisis in America. I walked away disappointed. Granted, prenatal care is very important and the lack of it surely contributes to the health of mothers and their babies, but I feel like they missed the biggest cause of death or near deaths of mothers. I believe that the way birth is handled by the majority of providers in this country has got to be just as big of a reason as lack of prenatal care for the deaths of mothers in this country, not to mention infant mortality. Much of this blog post will quote information from one of my favorite and most informative books on childbirth, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a

Autism Anxiety

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I love him.  I'm anxious this week. I'm a little scared, a little worried. Starting October 1, we'll have new insurance that will allow us to see our normal pediatrician that we haven't seen since the day after Maggie was born. I've got three appointments made, one for each child. I've also got a speech evaluation set up for Brighton next month. Maggie has a lump on her toe that I'm concerned about, Owen is awesome, but I'll probably get a lecture about not vaccinating him and Brighton is perfect in my eyes. Brighton is the one I'm most concerned about though. I'm worried that the doctor is going to tell me that he's on the autism spectrum, something that I've worried about since he was 6 months old. This is not something that I would be ashamed of, but it's something that I have been fighting in my mind for awhile. Brighton is not severely autistic by any means, but he does have some autistic traits that have concerned me for a l

Toxic Tuesday: Cleaners and Carcinogens

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My arsenal of cleaning weapons. Many household accidents are chemical in nature. How nice would it be to know that if the baby gets into the cleaners under the sink, you're not going to have to call poison control? Chlorine bleach is a known carcinogen and America is washing their clothes with it, sanitizing baby toys with it, a dentist even recommended sanitizing tooth brushes with it! Agh!! I may not win the award for best housekeeper, but I bet I'd be in the running for the safest. The products to the right are the ONLY cleaning products I use in the house. Not only are they effective and safe, they are super cheap. We buy the baking soda once a year and vinegar by the 2 pack at Sam's every month. The hydrogen peroxide with spray bottle lid is at Walmart and Target for around $1. If I want fragrance or a "clean" smell, I put a couple drops of essential oils in the vinegar spray bottle. My favorite scents are lavender , peppermint , eucalyptus , and tea tr

It's over.

The logical part of my brain is having a hard time with this cleanse right now. I eat so healthy anyways, that I’m just not sure this is benefiting me anymore. I haven’t felt well since I had my amalgams out and I’m not sure what effect that is having on the way I feel. I do know that I haven’t had any energy or motivation the past few days. As a woman though, I’m unsure of the reason for that. It could be hormones, it could be emotionally related to an argument I had a few days ago with someone, it could my amalgam removal or it could be my body detoxifying. Whatever it is, I don’t like it. I’m tired of having to think out of the box for food. Everything I’ve made has tasted great, but I want some chicken soup. I want some salmon, I want some baked cod. I want fresh butter from the farmer’s mkt on my potato. So here’s what I’m saying, I had a good run. I made it 7 days without any animal products, caffeine, alcohol, sugar or gluten. I don’t feel like I’m failing at all by ending this.

House update

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Well, that's about it. It's still only a picture in my mind. :) I've had a few people ask how the house building is going, and unfortunately, there's not a lot of building going on just yet. I had heard from people to always add on a couple months to whatever a builder tells you, so that's what I did initially. So, I'm not terribly disappointed we haven't started yet, but I am getting there! We've got two weeks from when the builder gets all the estimates finished and turned in to the USDA office before we can even think about starting. Last time we checked, the builder was still working on it. :-/ The USDA office will also freeze funds for rural development in October until the new budget gets in, so I'm not sure what kind of hold that will put on things. I keep reminding myself that all of this will work out perfectly in God's timing and I will be thrilled if we make it out there at all! So, until then, I've got 50 gallons of paint sitt

Simple Saturday :)

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"Food should be a source of nourishment for children, not entitlement, entertainment, or empowerment. If you concede your authority around food to young children, they adopt habits that may affect them throughout life." - Kim John Payne, in Simplicity Parenting. We have food issues with our oldest. He stopped eating new food around 1 1/2 and has gradually tapered down to only eating a handful of things at 4 1/2 years of age. Granted, I make sure the handful of things he eats are healthy, but this is not how I want him to live his life. I've let it go on so long because he has some sensory integration issues and doesn't respond to the threats of "you won't eat anything, until you eat this." He once went over 24 hours without food. It's been over a year since that incident and I'm thinking it's time to try again, but with a new approach. Simplicity Parenting suggests making dinner more predictable and simpler by having certain types of meals

Dear food, I win.

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(ETA: Just found out that this is made w/ GMO corn. No longer best snack ever.) Day 5 of Quantum Cleanse I almost threw in the towel last night. Not because following the diet restrictions are difficult, I've found that pretty easy, but because I am having a lot of pain with chewing and I've got a horrible earache from my TMJ acting up after having the fillings removed. So, to make myself feel better I grated a little bit of cheddar cheese on my quinoa and beans last night. I couldn't even taste the difference. We ate the quinoa and beans with some hot tortillas Seth made with corn masa and guacamole. This meal will definitely frequent our table a couple times a month after this cleanse is over. It has been the only thing so far that I've gotten excited about eating. Well, that and hummus. I can't eat crunchy things right now though, so my yummy hummus is just sitting in the fridge. Seth doesn't like it. I think the name throws him off, doesn't like th

I spoke too soon

Not feeling so hot today. Day 3 of Quantum Cleanse . I've never gone this long without animal products or gluten before. Like I told Seth last night, even if I ended this right now, I would totally be proud of myself. I'm not going to, but I never thought I could have this much control over food, so I'm pretty happy. Woke up feeling like I've got a low grade fever and just feeling run down. I also had my last 2 amalgam fillings out yesterday , so I could be detoxing the mercury and/or all the nitrous oxide. :) I remember when we started eating grass fed beef and chicken, I got two horrible stomach bugs out of nowhere, one right after another. Threw up for two days, no one else caught it. It was very odd. My mom suggested that I was probably detoxing from all those years of eating unhealthy meat with hormones and antibiotics in it. I thought she was crazy at the time, but I think she may have been right. I haven't even come close to a tummy bug in over 2 years now. S

Wednesday Meal Plan

At the end of Day 2 of Quantum Cleanse , I'm feeling really good. I think eating the oatmeal that has been soaked overnight is really helping with my energy and it keeps me full until noon. Here is the link to some wonderful information on soaking grains, nuts and beans. Today was much easier than yesterday. For Wednesday: Breakfast: Gluten free french toast w/ maple syrup Snack: Smoothie w/ coconut milk, bananas and blueberries Lunch: Salad w/ veggies, avocado and hummus Snack: Hot corn tortillas made w/ corn masa and guacamole Dinner: Quinoa and black beans

Toxic Tuesday

*IMPORTANT* For anyone considering having their silver fillings replaced, please follow this protocol. I have read stats as high as 60% of people who have silver fillings removed improperly develop a chronic disease less than 6 months later. I was one of them.   Here   is the protocol and   here   is where you can find a dentist in your area who follows it. There is one in the Oklahoma City area that I see and have had a good experience with.    I’m having the remainder of my amalgams (silver fillings) out today and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Read all the supposed studies that claim they’re safe and believe what you will, but I’m going with common sense on this one. Why would something that is extremely toxic outside my mouth be considered safe inside my mouth? Amalgams are made of 50% mercury. Mercury, isn’t that why they tell you not to eat a lot of certain fish when you’re pregnant? Hmm. I had a HUGE silver filling crack when I was in my early 20’s. I swallowed close to h

20 1/2 days to go! :)

So I'm eating salad for lunch. I've never been a huge salad eater and I'm missing the crackers and cheese that usually go with it. Trying to figure out what I can eat next to get the salad taste out of my mouth. lol Maybe a glass of coconut milk and some oatmeal cookies. Here's my meal plan for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to vegetarian gumbo tonight and cornbread!  Tuesday Meal Plan Day 2 of Quantum Cleanse Breakfast: Healthy Banana Cookies , carrot and celery juice Snack: Smoothie made w/ 2 bananas, blueberries, hemp seeds, cacao nibs and coconut milk Lunch: Leftover vegetarian gumbo w/ brown rice Snack: Veggies and hummus Dinner: Fried eggs and potatoes cooked in flavorless coconut oil , gluten free toast w/ honey sweetened jam.

Um, Yum!!

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Monday Meal Plan Day 1 of Quantum Cleanse : Breakfast: Oatmeal (soaked overnight to increase digestibility) w/ blueberries, maple syrup and cinnamon Gluten free bread baby! Snack: Gluten-free toast w/ coconut oil and fruit jam made w/ honey instead of sugar Lunch: Salad w/ bell peppers, cucumbers, avocado, carrots and homemade honey balsamic dressing . Organic corn chips and homemade salsa. Snack: Apple and organic peanut butter Dinner: Gumbo and brown rice with homemade cornbread

My kids don't fight anymore...

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Okay, maybe that is a small exaggeration. Compared to what their relationship used to look like though, it is not. Everything used to be a fight. I had to have two of every toy b/c they fought over every little thing, even a rolled up piece of paper at one point. I had read in Simplicity Parenting that it was common for kids with a multitude of toys to fight constantly over them. One is usually trying to keep order (Brighton) and the other is usually the destroyer (Maggie.) I started simplifying the toys a week or so ago. At first it was hard. I was in the mindset that everything needed to be donated. So I donated about 25% of their toys. We still had way too many. Next step was moving some into storage. That was easier for me because I didn’t feel like I was just throwing money away. I moved about 50% more of their original toy stash into storage. The quarter that’s left is a combination of favorites, toys that inspire creativity and about 15 books, 5 for each child. What happe

Superfood Substitutions

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To preface this post, I’m not a weight loss expert and this isn’t a post about losing weight, though I do believe that substituting healthier choices in place of others can have an impact on your weight. You don’t have to eat differently than your partner or kids, you don’t count points or buy expensive, processed frozen food. Granted, I have been blessed with a pretty decent metabolism, but I don’t stay skinny just because of that. This is the book that changed our life, diet wise at least, which led to other things. Real Food by Nina Planck is a book about embracing whole foods and the fat that comes along with them. You can eat GOOD food that’s good for you if you can get past the multitude of aisles of processed food at the grocery store. I am not a cook, I hated cooking until a couple of years ago. Allrecipes.com helped with that. Even with those recipes though, it was hard finding “whole food” recipes. So now I make healthy substitutions for most recipes. Baking seems to be the

Wordless Wednesday

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White sugar and witches

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As costume catalogs come in the mail and Halloween quickly approaches again, I wonder how to keep my kids away from the negative side of this holiday. I’m all for dressing up and pretending, my kids love that. In fact, they wear costumes year round. I’m not a fan of the scary costumes and decorations. Last year at Sam’s we had to strategically walk around the store so that life-size demonic figures wouldn’t scream at the kids. Almost as much as I hate the demonic stuff, I hate the candy obsession that comes with it. We steer clear of conventional candy around here. For special treats, they usually get organic fruit strips , organic 85% dark chocolate , xylitol sweetened gum , or their favorite, “ strawberry candy ,” which is fish oil disguised as a starburst. We don't use white sugar. We use raw honey and pure maple syrup to sweeten things and when baking. We don't drink soda pop and I stopped buying fruit juice over a month ago. The only juice they get now is fresh carrot, app

Hypocrisy at its best

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Yesterday when we called our farmer to see if we could pick up some milk, we were told that they’re not going to be selling raw milk anymore. I was pretty upset for the first half of the day because we have grown to depend on this farmer and his milk every week for the past 2 years. While stewing over all the possible reasons including threats from state agencies, I just got mad. We supposedly live in a “free” country. We can buy cigarettes that are KNOWN to cause cancer, parents can drive around smoking in the car with the windows rolled up with the kids in the backseat. You can feed you kids high fructose corn syrup in the form of a soda pop with every meal if you want to. But, in many states in this country, you can’t buy raw milk. This is so silly to me. In Oklahoma, you are allowed buy raw milk if you travel to the farm and buy it. I’m thankful for this, but how silly is it that a farmer can get in trouble for meeting someone halfway and selling them milk that they are willingly b

Owen's big day in pictures...

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The end. :) Big thank you to Sumer Melton for the gorgeous pictures!