Friday, May 20, 2011

My children have finally, FINALLY learned to play outside. And they do it unceasingly, happily, muddily.

They even ASK to go outside. To which the answer is normally, "YES! PLEASE DO!"

This makes me happy.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Links I Loved Recently

Pickled Radishes. Aren't you intrigued? I am intrigued. Plus it'll give me something to do with the radishes that I harvest from my garden, since nobody ever eats them. Ha!

Neat homeschooling stuff - One of these sites has paper toys you can print and fold, for free. Cool!

Green Cleaning - I seriously clean everything in my house with vinegar, baking soda and water. I really like her suggestions on cutting down on paper products. We still use a lot of paper. Cloth napkins, handkerchiefs, and rags instead of paper towels would save us money and trees. ;)

Homeschooling methods to keep you sane, from an experienced homeschool mom. She is also writing a lot about using the McGuffy Primer right now, something I'm fascinated by. We will probably get a set for our kids to use!

A good reminder about how to make friends who encourage you.

Questions to spark conversation. I was taught to make conversation by asking people about themselves. Lately I find many people never learned this skill and feel very awkward if there is a lull in the conversation. It is fairly easy to memorize some universal questions that you can whip out in a pinch, and learn something about people while you're at it! I always like new question ideas!

What neat things have you found recently?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Pregnancy is funny

Things that have made me think about puking in the past few days:

Garlic
Coffee
Eggs
Chicken

Honestly, because my morning sickness is, and has been with each pregnancy, totally manageable, I actually find it amusing. It is a little reminder that my body is working hard and that I have more than enough hormones to keep this little life safe and happy.

Oh, and I also burst into tears over a blog last week. That was funny too.

We're interviewing a midwife on Thursday, and I'm hoping she can help me narrow down my dates. I *ahem* haven't had a cycle since February. I have had negative tests since then, but it's been several weeks since one. Sooo... :) This is new territory for me. I always knew the exact day before! I figure I'm somewhere between 5 and 8 weeks. I've been obviously nauseous all week though, and that always started at week 6 with all three of the girls. If I'm 8 weeks we could have another Christmas baby. Oy!

Monday, May 9, 2011

In the past five days...

I have...

-dealt with another severe allergic reaction to food (Hannah)
-driven all three kids to a Dr's appointment in Denver by myself
-gone to a small claims court hearing in yet another chapter of the crook landlord saga
-practiced and prepared two different worship sets, totaling 12 songs
-typed out all 12 songs into powerpoint so we could display the words
-shopped for a birthday present
-led worship
-attended my nephew's first birthday party
-led worship again, this time with a migraine aura that made my left hand numb and my left eye nearly blind
-had a migraine for 8 hours
-got the kids ready for church by myself while Nick led worship
-attempted to open a bottle of water kefir, the cap literally exploded and sent kefir flying THROUGH a kitchen towel, and onto the kitchen ceiling, window, me in my church clothes ready to go out the door, the counter...
-attempted to take a nap while the kids protested
-hung out at my parents' house for Mother's Day
-went out on a date with Nick (yay!)
-ate large amounts of rotisserie chicken at Whole Foods and felt good afterward (yay!)
-looked at books about greenhouses at B&N
-made turkey stock
-made dried kiwi
-cleaned bag balm off the cat...
-wiped up MORE mysteriously spilled water kefir
-cleaned my bathroom except for the floor (which also needs it)
-locked myself in the pantry and had a meltdown while poor Nick tried to encourage me and the kids yelled

And this afternoon? I will be either making myself a kefir strawberry banana smoothie and taking a nap, or playing in my garden during naptime. Whichever I FEEL like I wanna do, gosh!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

What should I feed my kids? Part three...

Ok, so, where do you even find all this weird food?

I'm glad you asked. :)

1. Find a local chapter of the Weston Price Foundation. Seriously. These guys are awesome. Want to know all there is to know about making your own probiotic foods? They can tell you. Contacts with ranchers, farmers, farm fresh eggs, you-name-it. They often do group orders of products to get bulk discounts and cut down on shipping. Not to mention, they are fanatical about being healthy and it is both totally hysterical and completely inspiring. If you're here local and want to come, the next meeting is Saturday, May 14th. Come with me!

2. Real live butchers. Most supermarkets don't have these anymore, but often you can find them. Here, we actually have a natural meat market that's awesome. Any kind of meat you can think of, they have! It's not as cheap as direct from the rancher, but there's lots of variety and they'll do special orders.

3. Health food stores. Take your time and look at everything. Read labels. You'll be amazed at what you find! Here we have locally or regionally-owned stores as well as Whole Foods. Often the smaller stores are cheaper, but not for every product. Shop around!

4. Realmilk.com. Here's where and how to get raw milk. Depending on the laws in your state, you might have to jump through some hoops. Here in Colorado, farmers actually sell you a share of their herd, and you pay monthly "boarding fees" in return for milk. In California, raw milk is totally legal without the goofiness. Also go to that site and do some reading if you still think raw milk is dangerous. Please. :)

5. Customprobiotics.com. I haven't ordered here yet, but have heard great things and plan to soon. Talk about buying in bulk! Their bottle will last hundreds of doses! According to GAPS, you only need to take their "baby" dose every day to stay healthy.

6. Co-op/bulk ordering. Azurestandard.com is great. A friend heads up group orders from Golden Organics and Frontier Organics and the prices are only 5% over wholesale plus shipping. (The prices on the sites are retail).

7. Join a CSA. This is something we haven't actually done yet, but would like to. You buy a share of a farm's crop and in return get regular deliveries of veggies during harvest. A variation on this is to do something like Door to Door Organics. (Let me know if you want to try Door to Door. I can send ya a coupon!)

8. Join Gnowfglins' eCourse. I have read Wardeh's blog for years, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I offered to teach gluten free modifications to her awesome sourdough course, and she accepted! I get paid a small percentage of the sourdough course each month, as well as any other sales I direct to the site, just so you know. But even if I wasn't involved, I would wholeheartedly recommend this course! She teaches you how to cook healthy food. Period. Everything from cooking dry beans, to making your own stock, to making anything under the sun out of sourdough, to even making your own cheese and sour cream! If you don't know how to cook and have no idea where to start, take the course, watch Wardeh make the different foods on video, ask all your questions in the forums, get foolproof recipes, and before you know it, you'll be a master chef. OK, maybe not. But you'll surely make progress. ;)

I hope this gives you some resources to find healthy food for you and your family. If nothing else, spend some time clicking around and checking it all out. If healthy eating is new to you, it can seem very overwhelming. Just pick one thing to learn about, and start reading. If you want to, you can be an expert before you know it! I'm always happy to answer questions as well.


Health is something I believe God wants for everyone. When we make these kinds of positive changes, we can serve Him better, because we spend less time being sick all the time! We're also caring for the temple of the Holy Spirit in a way that is honoring to Him. Our modern lifestyles and society are hard on our bodies, but these things can help build your body back up to its full intended strength and vitality. I pray health for you and your families - spiritual, physical, emotional...