Inspiration for the day

Thinking about Family

2012-01-05T07:47:00.000-05:00

I believe this is well worth your time. Sometimes it can be so hard to see past our culture to what God really desires from us. LOTS of food for thought in here. I haven't read his book. If any of you have, please do leave a note with your thoughts about it. I hope, for those of you with families, or hoping to have families one day, this will be a inspirational.

Blessings!c

Looking to the new year

2011-12-31T20:57:00.000-05:00

God has been working hard on me in the last year or so. He had brought me face to face again and again with the reality of myself, a nasty business I assure you. He has chipped away at me through sticky fingers and pee on the floor, and piles of laundry, and, and ,and, until I snap and the ugly me, who can stay so carefully hidden, even from myself, pops up and comes shining through- and I am shocked at who I am. Selfish, impatient, proud, irritable, vindictive, keeping track of every supposed wrong against me...all the things that are the very opposite of love.

A friend of mine cares for her mother, who is sick with dementia. Watching their struggles as this illness unfolded, I was struck with how illness can also strip you bear and reveal your heart. You no longer have the sense to hide your faults from yourself and the world. Yet some people face illness and loose their minds and become more beautiful and Godly with each passing day. I watched all of this and I knew if I wanted, one day, to be lit up with the Spirit of God, even when I had lost my mind I had to start changing now. There are so many carefully hidden weeds to be pulled. Even though I know all these things and have a heart to be a better person, I have found I can't make lasting changes all on my own. I need God himself to win these battles, that can so easily overcome me. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but I can't be filled with something if I'm already full. So many "good" things can fill our hearts and keep us from being filled with God.
I've also been thinking of how little time we truly have to do work like this. One of my dearest friends just lost her precious 17 month old baby, Lilly. I spoke with a mutual friend of ours at the funeral, and we made tentative plans to have dinner together. A couple of days ago, she passed out, they took her to the hospital and found that her heart was failing, though it is perfectly healthy. One day she is young and beautiful, cooking dinner and raising four kids and the next she needs an emergency heart transplant. I don't know how much time I will have to become more Christ like and to influence my children for Him. Each day is a gift that needs to be invested wisely, whether it is 17 months, thirty something years, or a hundred. I pray that we may all move closer to Him, make the very most of whatever little time we are given, and be purposeful in our journey each day.

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."

James 4:13-17

Trying to use all the deer...and get in the Christmas spirit

2011-12-13T22:32:00.000-05:00

What? You don't think that looks very Christmasy?
Well, neither do I.
There has been a LOT of life going on around here for the last few months, and it's been hard to try and mentally put these things on hold and focus on the holidays...but it is deer season too, lol. And the Lord blessed us with some deer meat. So I figured I would share a little slice of reality from around here. Prompted by Darian Allen's lovely cook book "The Forgotten Skills of Cooking", which is a perfect cookbook for any homestead cook who wants to learn how to use everything, and do everything (not to mention the fact that it is loaded with the most lovely photographs), we decided to try deer liver.
"For a big treat that evening [that the deer is killed] have the venison liver for supper. Really fresh, just fried simply in a little butter and seasoned with salt and pepper, it's one of the best things you can eat"

I don't like liver. Years ago when someone would ask me what foods I didn't like I would quickly respond, "Oh, I like everything but, runny eggs, creamed corn, liver, and octopus." First I learned that it was canned cream corn that I thought was so disgusting (I used to call it snot and boogers, shhh, don't tell my kids), and the fresh homemade stuff is just lovely. Then I learned to LOVE a poached egg on buttered homemade whole wheat bread...with fresh cracked pepper...umm makes me hungry just thinking about it. So I was determined to give it a try, since we had it and it was free or would be wasted. I must say it was hard not to think "Liver!? Gag!" while I was eating, but the pieces that were cooked to a pink perfection (rabbit trail: The directions said to have the pan on very high heat, and I left my iron skilled on Very High Heat for a little too long, and when I put the clarified butter in to cook, it smoked so thick I couldn't see the bottom of the pan, and while I was looking at it trying to decided if I should try and cook anyway the butter burst into flames and burned for a good three minutes, just like crepe Suzettes do in the movies. So. I decided the pan was just a little too hot) it had a lovely creamy almost mushroomy sort of taste. We all loved it, but the real surprise was just how much my toddlers loved it. One of the girls ate SEVEN servings! Seven. And she almost burst into tears when she thought the sixth helping wasn't coming fast enough. The funniest part was she completely refused to touch her mashed potatoes. So if you know someone who hunts deer, or if you do, you might want to give it a try. It certainly went over well at our house.
I like to try and be a good steward and use as much of the animal as possible. I have the heart in my fridge and I'm to try and do something with it next. My mom says she always enjoyed it just in stew. I've really enjoyed looking through the blog "Hunter Angler Gardener Cook" for ideas on how to use everything. I like a lot of game, but I'm not crazy about deer, but since it's such inexpensive free range meat for us I'm determined to learn to cook it well.
I've always loved corned beef...good corned beef anyhow, so I think I'm going to have to try this one out.
And this sounded like a really delicious way to prepare the heart. Isn't that a crazy sentence for our modern day world?
I'm going to try my hand at the venison bone broth, though I am a little nervous about the flavor, but I figure I can use it in tomato based stews if nothing else.
And I hope to try my hand at my own deer sausage this year.
Edible Aria can make anything look at sound great. I'm going to have to try this soup.
And I thought Quinn's Venison Meatballs sounded really good too.
So, umm, yeah, Merry Christmas!
P.S. I made a tomato veggie stew with the deer heart, and it didn't have any "deer" taste to it, though it was a little chewy. If there is a next time I will try to pound it some before I cook it. I rinsed it and cut off any pieces that seemed tough and fed them to the dog (yep we have dog now). Then cut it into about half inch pieces and dried them well on a paper towel. Then I browned them in olive oil in small batches, de-galzed the pan with red wine and add tomato sauce, spices, and veggies. We liked it well enough I would try it again.

Fall Recap

2011-11-19T11:01:00.001-05:00

The last of the garden's tomatoes and peppers, oven roasted with olive oil

Our first egg...I broke it trying to the "perfect interesting" picture of it, lol.

Drying homemade pasta, I like it so much it's worth the extra work!

Wish I was here...

2011-09-12T19:03:00.000-04:00

Would love to be here on the blog, telling you all about the wonderful things I have been learning and doing, but frankly it's just too low and the priority list right now. I've learned how to make my own sourdough starter and have been making some lovely sourdough breads and learning all kinds of things to do with the starter.

Making apple sauce and apple butter, and hopefully some apple cider as friends of ours have a cider press has been keeping us busy. The family we get milk from has had lots of extra so we have been dappling into some cheese making too. And I've been trying to chip away at decluttering and organizing the house, and fall cleaning. And lots of other things, but long story short, I've been busy, and I do hope to get back here to you before too long. Blessings!c

Mathew 6:30

2011-08-29T06:00:00.003-04:00

Mammoth Grey Strip sunflowers, which will hopefully feed our chickens

wild turkeys

sunrise, moon set

I saw the most lovely plan in Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy for making a summer playhouse using sunflowers and morning glories. Doesn't that sounds like the most magical thing for a little girl? I hope to try it next year.

Easy Summer up-do's for Long Hair

2011-08-23T06:00:00.003-04:00

I love my long hair. I love that it's feminine and counter cultural. I remember seeing a mother and teenage son together several years back and I swear they had the exact same hair cut. Our current culture seems so bent on blurring the lines between men and women, and frankly I want to part of it. But. In the summer, in the heat, I am sorely tempted to chop it all off, despite the fact that this is not what a actually want. But I have learned that instead I just need to commit to putting my hair up for the summer.
Of course one of the fasted and easiest ways to put your hair up is a pony tail or a bun. I've found this new little tool to be immensely useful. You can buy them at most any drug store, and I even picked mine up at the grocery store.

The thing I really love about them is that even with chasing twins, canning tomatoes or whatever craziness my day can hold, my hair stays up and in place and Lord willing out of the bread dough. I'm not sure how well it would work on thinner shiny hair (leave us a comment if you know), but I do know the work well on shorter hair. My mom had should length hair and they worked great for her. They work well for other things besides buns. There are a couple of ideas that come in the box, and I'm sure you could up with a few more.
But of course one can get a little tired of wearing a bun all the time and sometimes a pony tail is just not up and cool enough, so I've gone in search of all the different easy up-do that don't take too much time investment and stay up well. Some of them do take longer than others, and some do stay up better than others, but hopefully this leaves you with lots of inspiration. Before I get into the photos and descriptions of less common ideas here are a few easy ones.

Make a french braid (look it up on youtube if you don't know how), but pull the braid a little away from your base of your head as you are braiding and secure the end of the braid with a pony tail holder. Then shove the tail up under the braid and secure with hair pins.
Divide you hair, as you would for pig tails and french braid each side and secure each end with a pony tail holder. The cross the braids like you would for the first step of tying your shoes and pin it in place, taking care to hide the ends.
Pull your hair up into a pony tail but don't pull it all the way through, leaving it looped up...seriously, everyone modern American female already knows that trick, but I noticed a cute riff for this "do" on a friend's daughter, which is to wrap wide ribbon around the pony tail holder and tie a bow. It makes it look much less I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-have-no-time-to-care-for-my-hair look.

Most of these pictures were kindly taken by my sister-in-law...I sure am getting a lot of white in my hair these days. The twins must be making me awfully wise, lol. I'm not into high maintenance hair so I don't plan on dyeing it, unless The Man changes his mind and thinks we would like it better that way. I don't have to look at me all day, and I want him to be looking at me all day *smile*. Plus I think I can be plenty sexy with white in my hair...just think of Curella De Ville, right? lol. Anyway, back to our topic...
Here's the first one, which I am calling:

The Flip-Through Bun

1. Put your hair in a loose-ish pony tail.
2. Divide your hair between the pony tail and your head.

3. Pull the pony tail up and through the hole you have created by dividing your hair.

We always called this a flip through when I was a kid, and it can be a nice look all on its own.

4. Then take the ends of your pony tail and tuck them into the top of the flip through, and secure it with hair pins.

You can create variations on this look by moving your pony tail higher or lower, parting or rolling back your hair in the front before you make a pony tail, or by braiding the ends of your hair in one or multiple braids after step 3.

Here's the second "do"

The Flat Coil

1. Pull the front part of your hair up into a bun.

2. Then, hold it on both sides to keep it coiled, and flip it over so the top is now against your head. And secure with pins. (This also makes a nice look all on it's own.)

3. Take the remainder of your hair and divide it in half. Twist it up as shown in the picture below.

4. Wrap it around the flip bun and secure with hair pins.

5. Repeat with the other side.

It creates a look that is very similar to a bun, but flatter and with more intricate wraps and coils. You could change the look of this hair do, in several ways. You could divide your hair in the front, creating a part and then make two small buns or make a small instead of twisting and coiling it.

And lastly I remembered an article in an old magazine I have and looked it up for you. Click on the picture to view it full size. It's a little hard to read the text, but it's basically to small french braids at the front, and then you pull the rest of your hair into a loose bun and wrap the ends of the braids around the bun. I haven't done it yet, but I think I would just do regular braids instead of french braids to save time, unless I was taking more time to dress up for something.

Well I know the heat of summer is almost past. I did intend to get the post done sooner, but life seems to happen over here all the time! Even so I hope someone will find it useful. Blessings!c
P.S. After I made this post a friend told me of some other blog posts where they had gathered some great hair do ideas. You can see them here.

More Perspective

2011-08-18T06:00:00.005-04:00

My brother sent me a nice little note after my Perspective post few weeks back, and this is an except from it.
"I also don’t think you should feel like your sufferings are small. GOD gives people the GRACE to handle what they are faced with. It’s not about Richard Wurmbrand or you. With God’s grace, what he faced may have been far easier than what you face. You just have to make sure you are bearing the cross God gave you and not some cross you have created for yourself."
I thought it was such a good point that I wanted to share, and make sure I didn't leave an unbalanced perspective. There ARE things that in the long run truly do NOT matter, and many people will look back on their lives and see that they traded their life and time for a dung heap, a pile of crap, or even "good" things that don't matter.

“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them." Acts 14:15

A friend of mine gave me a bunch of very old canned goods, we're talking seven to seventeen years old, so that I could have the jars for my own canning. A huge blessing, but also a lot of work. I spent several morning up and out of the house by sun rise, emptying rotten food into a bucket to be dumped at the back of our land. A heart breaking job in many ways, and in the quiet of the morning I couldn't help but wish that the owners had shared of their vast stores, because I know there were people in their town going hungry, instead of leaving it for someone else to throw away. And I thought that's what God will do with many of our lives when we finally meet him one day. We'll stand before him with the fruit of our labors, things that in themselves are good, but we've let get out of hand and go putrid and rotten, and He'll shake his head in sorrow, knowing that all it's good for is to be taken somewhere to the back of eternity and dumped. It's easy to let even good things get out of their place.

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

In contrast we often deem things to be unimportant because they are "little", but the little things can be so critical. The Man fell in love with me and married me in part because I wore a certain shirt on a certain day. God controls and cares about all the little things in our life. In part because "little" depends on your perspective, and we don't have enough perspective to know sometimes what will make a difference. I remember I said something to a brother in the church parking lot, just in passing, about praying to God to find my keys. A long time later he told me what a big impact that comment had on him, something I forgot I said five minutes after it was done.

But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. Matthew 12:36

I guess that kind of strikes at the heart of these issues. My job as a Christian is to be faithful in ALL of life, in every breath, and react and respond to life in a way that lets God shine through me. It's hard. We are potty training, or as I sometimes call it, alternative diapering. They just wet their pants and I clean it up. And when it's the fifth accident for the eleventh day in a row, I don't want to react Godly any more. I want to do like Mrs. Hannigan on Orphan Annie, "Kill, kill, Kill, KILL KILL!" But when it comes right down to it the situation is not a big deal. My response is. And so are the lessons I learn, for as The Man reminded me, how many times has God cleaned up after me? Motherhood is spiritual warfare at it's best as far as I am concerned.

May God bless you with the grace, wisdom, and courage you need for today! c

A little of our life

2011-08-11T12:58:00.000-04:00

Just found in the grass

this kitty just showed up at our house...we're letting him stay for now.

babies and birds seem to be getting along ok

my giant mr. strippy tomato, weighed in at almost 1.5 lbs

Perspective

2011-07-31T22:53:00.000-04:00

I had trouble sleeping last night. The rooster knocked the hen house door shut in the evening and I didn't get out in time to open it, so they roosted somewhere else, outside. I looked and looked for them with a flashlight, but couldn't find them. The night before I had brought home two new silkies (chickens) and in an effort to slowly integrate them I kept them in a wire dog pen overnight. I got home with them at about nine pm and woke to find the pen drug to the tree line, and both little chickens gone, only feathers, and no sign of forceful entry anywhere. So I was rightfully worried about my chickens and called a friend who brought some live traps down last night. I had trouble sleeping for thinking of them, and for the fact that I kept dreaming that the sugar ants who have invaded my kitchen, and I haven't been able to get rid of, were crawling all over me. I finally woke up this morning because my face was in a wet spot. At first I thought I must have been sleeping with my mouth open and drooled, but my sleepy brain told me that couldn't be right because it was a very large spot and suddenly I was wide awake, because I realized that I had finally found the wet spot that correlated to the wet panties from last night. Yep. Sleep'n in pee-pee. That's me. Mother of twins.

Through a series of circumstances I ended up reading part of a book yesterday that has been on my shelf so long that I don't have any idea when I got it or how long I have owned it. It's called Tortured for Christ: faithful Christians heroically enduring agony, suffering and death in communist prisons by Richard Wurmbrand. This book says that Wurmbrand “spent three years in solitary confinement- seeing no one but his communist tortures. After three years he was transferred to a mass cell for five years, where the torture continued...After eight years he was released and promptly resumed his work with the Underground Church. Two years later, in 1959, he was re-arrested and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Mr. Wurmbrand was released in a general amnesty in 1964 and again continued his underground ministry.”

The following is what I read this morning: “I remember Piotr (Peter). No one knows in what Russian prison he died. He was so young! Perhaps twenty. He had come to Rumania with the Russian army. He was converted in an underground meeting and asked me to baptize him.

After the baptism, I asked him to tell us what verse of the Bible had impressed him most and had influenced him to come to Christ.

He said that he had listened attentively when at one of our secret meeting, I had read Luke 24, the story of Jesus meeting two disciples who went toward Emmaus. When they drew nigh until the village, “He made as though He would have gone further.” Piotr said: “I wonder why Jesus said this. He surely wanted to stay with His disciples. Why then did He say that He wished to go further?” My explanation was that Jesus was polite. He wished to be very sure that He was desired. When He saw that He was welcomed, He gladly entered the house with them. The communists are impolite. They enter by violence into our hearts and minds. They oblige us from morning to late in the night to listen to them. They do it through their schools, radio, newspapers, posters, movie pictures, atheistic meetings and everywhere you turn. You have to listen continuously to their godless propaganda, whether you like it or dislike it. Jesus respects our freedom. He gently knocks at the door. “Jesus had won me by his politeness,” said Piotr. This stark contrast between communism and Christ had convinced him. He was not the only Russian to have been impressed by this feature in Jesus' character. (I, as a pastor, had never thought about it this way.)

After his conversion, Piotr risked his liberty and life again and again to smuggle Christian literature and help for the Underground Church from Rumania to Russia. In the end he was caught. I know that in 1959 he was still in prison. Has he died? Is he already in heaven or is he continuing the good fight on earth? I don't know. Only God knows where he is today.

Like them, many others were not only converted. We should never stop at having won a soul for Christ. By this, you have done only half the work. Every soul won for Christ must be made to be a soul-winner. The Russians were not only converted, but became “missionaries” in the Underground Church. They were reckless and daring for Christ, always saying it was so little they could do for Christ who died for them....

I myself was later in prison together with souls whom God had helped me win for Christ. I was in the same cell with one who had left behind six children and who had was now in prison for his Christian faith. His wife and children were starving. He might never see them again. I asked him, “Have you any resentment again me that I brought you to Christ and because of this you family is in such misery?” He said, “I have no words to express my thankfulness that you have brought me to the wonderful Savior. I would never have it another way.”

Well I have to go, because the rooster is crowing, and I have a possum in a live trap in my yard, right in front of my chicken coop. And I have to make that big batch of sourdough pancakes for breakfast, and get the girls the ready for church, and take a shower, and I sure do hope some hens lived through the night, and not just two roosters and...

And some things in life that feel very important or insurmountable don't matter at all. Isn't a little perspective in our lives a breath of fresh air? Please God help me! Help me be willing to die to myself more each day and be more like you.

Scenes from The Haven

2011-07-25T06:00:00.015-04:00

That's my new favorite sweet tooth snack: frozen blueberries covered in fresh cream.

I haven't ever talked about it on here, for some reason I've felt a little shy about it. But The Man and I call our home and land "The Haven". We hope to make it a safe comfortable retreat for our family others and in this way useful tool for the cause of Christ.

The Foundations: Food

2011-07-18T06:00:00.003-04:00

I haven't really wanted to talking about my personal food philosophy, but I am starting to realize that so many of the things I would like to tell you about won't make any sense to you unless you understand some of the background thinking and research that I have been doing for the last four or five years. I want you to understand that the changes and understanding came slowly, and the choices we are making now as a family reflect a fairly long process of life change.

Grilled cheese with turkey and apple slices

To start off, if this information is new and shocking for you, then don't make any sudden life changes, especially big ones. Remember to always keep your priorities straight, and don't let food come before God or your family. Ever. Period.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.
1 Corinthians 6:13

So with that disclaimer lets dive right in. I come from a family that is pretty health conscious. My mom mainly cooked from scratch and taught us to do the same, really cooking not just following recipes. We didn't eat a lot of sugar, and I remember often wondering why I couldn't just be like the other kids have fruit roll-ups and gummy snacks in my lunch. I was almost an adult before I ever took any antibiotics, because mom always took care of our colds at home. So I thought I was pretty healthy, as far as lifestyles goes. But I was always sick. Always. Anyone who knows me well can attest to the fact. I got whooping cough at 24. Seriously. This and the fact that I was becoming a wife and mother spurred a deeper interest in researching and understanding the foods I ate. I was surprised to learn when I was already pregnant what a large roll the foods I (and my husband) ate BEFORE I was pregnant would play in the overall development and healthy of my future children. I would HIGHLY recommend the documentary The Ghost in Your Jeans, as a way to help you understand how the choices you make today (not just food, but so many choices) affect not just your children, but directly link to many generations after you. You can watch much of this documentary for free on YouTube, in little ten minute segments. This is a slight rabbit trail, but it is very interesting to watch it in light of verses like: Ex 34:7 and 1Cor 6:16-18. So we all have the opportunity to heal and harm the genetics we have and will pass onto our children. I started to realize how wide ranging the ramifications of my choices could be. In addition to that, as a wife and a mother I am the gate keep of my family's health, a job I take very seriously. Good healthy is a gift that cannot be bought, and is a huge asset if used properly in the kingdom of God. Generally speaking my kids will only eat as good as I allow. My kids can't make their own dinner, and even if they could they wouldn't have the wisdom to make choices that would bless them.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1Corinthians 6:19 & 20

So this obviously brings us to the questions what is healthy food? First eggs would kill you science said, then they are the amazing miracle food. Some people think being a vegan is healthy. Others think eating a high protein (low-carb) diet is healthy. Some think fats are bad, or salt is bad, or...the list could go on and on. There are so many opinions out there, and there is a lot of propaganda, a lot of flaky "science". So how do you know what to believe?
That's a tough questions and one I have asked myself and other quite frequently. The best answer I have found is to hold it up to the light of God's word, which might sound kind of obtuse, when it comes to something like food science, but the Bible has an amazing way of keeping us balanced and helping us to keep our world in perspective. It also talks a lot about food. Second I have learned to question my sources. I learned that food manufacturing is THE largest industry in the US. Stop for just a second and mull that over. The largest in of the wealthiest nations in the world. We are talking about a lot of money.
It's easy for us as modern day Americans to think that science is this unbiased, factual, objective machine, and that my friends is a load of bull crap. Everyone has a history and we all view the "facts" through that history. Science is no exception. You know this if you have looked honestly and openly at the science behind evolution. Science can have an agenda just like everything else, and most of them time that agenda doesn't really care about what is best for you.
"A good example is Harvard University where Dr. Frederick Stare, head of the nutrition department for many years, began his career with several articles delineating nutritional deficiencies caused by white flour and a study on Irish brothers that positively correlated a high intake of vegetable oils-not animal fats-with heart disease. Soon after he became department head, however, the university received several important grants from the food procession industry. Dr. Stare's articles and weekly newspaper columns then began assuring the public that there was nothing wrong with white bread, sugar and high processed foods. He recommended one cup of corn oil per day to prevent heart disease..." Nourishing Traditions.

So there is a LOT of money to be made or lost depending on what you believe and what those beliefs will cause to you to do, because it reaches into money made off of our poor health as well. Understanding that fact will help you to filter in the information you come across. The main aim of the food industry is to make money. Not to keep you healthy, not to say that they are all evil and want to make you sick (though I'm sure that is the aim of some), but that your healthy is not their main goal.

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil...
1Timothy 6:10

When I was trying to sort out all of these issues, I kept running across references to the book Nourishing Traditions. I hear about it on People's Pharmacy, from healthy nuts, from bloggers, from religious conservatives. It seemed to be popping up everywhere. So I decided to get a copy. Much of the book is simply a cook book, but it has a lot to say about food science and seems to be a very well researched fairly well balanced book. You can read a shortened version called Healthy 4 Life for free here. Other resources that affected my thinking include the documentaries King Corn, Food Inc., and Super Size Me. I also have found Real Food by Jessie Hawkins to be helpful. All of these resources have their own agendas and biases. It's important in any issue to listen to the arguments at both extremes.

More more than any of these, it has been simply paying attention to the world around me. It was hearing it a news cast that Toco Bell was being sued because their all beef tacos because they contain more "meat filler" than beef. Or learning from neighbors and friends who raise cattle that they had problems with some sick cow (often times it was cancer) and would take it to be slaughtered. I finally asked (fearfully) if the meat from a sick cow was set aside for non-human consumption. I was told according to the law if the cow could walk it could be eaten (though they did tell me the cancer spots where cut out...not that this helps me much). Yum! It was hearing stories from the chicken processing plants in the town where my parents lived (I talked about some of them at the end of this post). It was reading about the link between a low fat diet and depression. It was hearing from a friend that her daughter had constant yeast infections until they switched to organic milk. If you want to be healthy you have to learn to think for yourself. You have to learn to pay attention to the world around you. Learn to learn. Knowledge is power! You can't blindly trust the world around you with no ramifications. The world does not have your best interest at heart, not in any area.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:16

I know, this was a lot of some of you take in. Lord willing next time we visit this topic I'll try share some of the concrete conclusions I have come to about our diet and life style, and what it means for our family, but I know that our diet will continue to change as our understanding changes, and as we learn more.

Simplifying Breakfast

2011-07-11T06:00:00.012-04:00

I try to read through the book "Created to be His Helpmeet" every once in a while. Two copies were given to me by different people as wedding presents, and now I give out copies to women I think might "enjoy" it. I say "enjoy", because though it is not a difficult read, the book really stands up in your face and challenges you quite a bit. And I like that, though I don't agree with the author in all things. And every time I read the book I seem to walk away with so new challenge or discovery. One part that struck me this time through was, "Always offer your children only once choice for breakfast...Providing the same simple food every morning (except maybe Saturday) causes a child to look forward to getting cereal on that one special morning." And the author went on to describe how to do a weeks worth of simple cooking by morphing one crock pot meal into the next. "It is not a grouchy old husband or bad days that cause the problems of cooking and cleaning for young wives. It is the lack of simple planning."

I've also been reading the Reformation Acres blog and have been enjoying the inspiration and encouragement in the areas of laundry, cooking and cleaning. And I got to thinking about how much of my energy is directed into making these little decisions like, "What's for Breakfast!!??" while crabby hungry children cling to my legs wailing each and every day. So I started to think and pray about streamlining much of our life in these little areas, and leaving me with more time to enjoy my family. One issue was hampering me though; I'm an epicurean...a foody. I really do love to cook. I love to imaging it up. I love to see it come together. I love all the senses involved. The sizzle of onion in the pan, and watching it turn translucent, and then golden brown. I love to look in the fridge and find inspiration where many would find nothing. I would have been hard pressed not to fall among the leeks and onions crowd of Israelites leaving Egypt...oh and the melons. Don't forget the melons. So I had to come up with something simple...yet interesting. And this is what I have landed on for right now. Oatmeal. Doesn't sound like foodie food to you? Well here's how I'm approaching it. Oatmeal is basically a blank slate, like rice, and I can really dress it up in any way I please. While the blackberries were in I would pick some out of the hedge row and add it to our morning breakfast. I can simply continue through the year dressing up the oatmeal with what ever is in season, moving from berries, to peaches, to pears, to apples, to bananas and almond butter, or dried fruit in the winter. You could even go crazy and add chocolate chips. There are also spices to add, and nuts, or coconut or coconut oil, butter and cream or milk, and nut butters. (I have my first batch of homemade almond butter in the fridge right now. It was very easy, and since I never let it sit at room temperature the oil never separated. You can check out the directions here.) You can also dress up oatmeal with savory additions, like cheese, thyme, chives, bacon, onion, garlic, or even scrambled eggs. It's an interesting combinations, since oatmeal is kind of a sweet grain...I've only tried it once, and I can't decide if I like it or not. Basically what I'm saying is your imagination is the limit to your options, but what you do each morning basically stays the same. Muesli is also a good cold oatmeal breakfast dish if the heat is getting to you.

But I've gone an additional step in simplifying our routine. When I cook the oatmeal I make a double batch. Then the next day I take it out of the fridge and mash it well with a fork (you know how cold oat meal turns into a giant glob) add in any extras for flavoring (like the ideas above) and beat an egg into it all. If I have a lot and the oatmeal doesn't look completely coated then I add another egg. Then I plop down spoonfuls of this mixture into a well heated pan with lots of grease and fry them until they are golden brown on both sides. We eat them with syrup. And if there were ever any left I would save them as finger food snacks for the girls...but it doesn't seem to mater how much I make...there are never any left. They taste like a cross between oatmeal and french toast. It's a great way to reinvent any left over oatmeal, or any sort of left over starchy foods, like bread, mashed potatoes, or rice- but a word of caution, I don't think I would try this with instant oatmeal. I've been working this system for about three weeks now and breakfast is the ONLY meal I've not had any trouble getting the girls to eat, and I haven't gotten tried of it yet either. It really feels like you are eating something completely different the second day, and I guess really you are. So I just wanted to share, in case you might find it helpful too. Now if The Man gets tired of this at some point I will have to come up with a couple of systems to rotate through. We'll see how it goes. I'm saving muffins, pancakes, fresh donuts, waffles, coffee cake and all the other lovely breakfast things out there for Saturdays that I have enough gumption. Now I'm trying to turn my attention to simplifying and organizing my chores and lunch and dinner. Well see how it goes. Blessings!c

Chickens!

2011-07-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

We've taken the plunge! Our neighbor wanted to give the girls some chick for Easter, but said he would raise them for us until we were ready. I've been very surprised at how little work they have required. And the "work" is more like a fun little break from my day. I love how scrapes of food that would be composted or wasted are going to good use now. This picture pretty much perfectly defines the girl's positions on the chickens. One thinks they are amazing and can't wait to get a hold of them (and all animals- I pray no animals hurt her till her gets a little older, because she just be devastated) and the other thinks they are amazing, as long as they are behind the chicken wire. Our garden was kindly fenced in by one of the elders at church (he had asked me how the garden was and I told him the rabbits were getting into it, so he just came by and fenced it in), so the chickens will soon be able to roam free. I'm curious to see how that goes over with the girls. We have one rooster, pictured above. I'm not sure what breed he is, so if you know please pipe up! The best guess I've gotten so far is a Dominique mix, but he's smaller than the other two Dominiques, and he has lovely leg feathers, as you can see if this pic.There is a female of the same breed, and she is my favorite, sweet, sassy and submissive. She's the only one with a name so far: Henny Penny. I'm afraid to name too many of them, because things happen, and besides that I don't like the idea of eating things with names, though I will probably get over it eventually. It is strange to look them in the eye and realize just how disconnect I've been from my food most of my life. I've spent the last year trying to acclimate myself to the idea that I WILL kill and roast my own chickens one day. I'll just put on my big girl panties and do it. But thankfully that day isn't today.
We also have two Dominique and two Rhode Island Reds. They are really sweet and friendly. If I had known how easy they would be (as long as The Pestilence doesn't get them) I would have gotten some a long time ago. Both the Dominique and the Rhode Island Reds and a dual purpose breed, good for both eggs and meat. So hopefully we can start a nice rotation of laying hens and meat hens. I may have to add a Silkie or two to the mix, because they are good "broody" mothers and I just think they are so stink'n cute.Just a little factoid for those of you who might wonder why in the world you would want to raise your own chickens, "Hens that roam freely outdoors lay eggs with twice as much vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids as hens raised in cages. Their eggs also have a third the cholesterol. The benefits probably come from the food they eat..." Everyday Food May 2011 Ya think?Plus they taste so rich and amazing compared to what you can get from the store. Since I've gotten used to them, when the chickens stop laying in the winter, we pretty much don't eat eggs. The stuff from the store just tastes so horrible compared to "country eggs" as they call them around here. It's funny because just a few years back I would have just thought of eggs as eggs, and bought whatever was cheapest. It's take a while but the idea is starting to sink in that EVERYTHING is what it eats, and the "Nutrition Facts" vary completely depending on the environment and the quality of food (or soil) available. How can we expect to be healthy when the chicken we eat is breed to be so large breasted it can't stand up, or when feed under regular conditions grows to be 25 lbs (seriously!!! that's turkey size) or when you go to grab the chicken and it's leg comes off in your hand, because its joints are over stressed, or when construction workers (we're talking big rugged cursing ape type men) are so grossed out by what they see while working on a chicken plant building that they can't eat chicken anymore? I know those are stories no one wants to hear, but if you are eating chicken from the store...well you are what you eat, and you ought to know what you are. So that's why we want to raise chickens.
Since we are on the topic of birds, I haven't seen my guineas since about a week after I let them out. They may still be alive (since they are known for running away) or...The Pestilence may have gotten them...Dan-dun-dun-da
Blessings!c

Garden Update

2011-06-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

These are pictures from our garden in the very beginning of the month. We were late for our area getting our plants in, due to heavy spring rains. I can only imagine, if we had it in on time. A lot of what I have planted this year is experiential, for the coming years. We hope to put in a roof cellar before too long and I have chosen several varieties that were listed for "keeping" well, to see how they grow in our area. The corn you see here, I am very excited about. It's called Wade's Giant Indian and can be used as a feed corn for animals or for cornmeal. After over four years of thinking about it I have ordered a grain grinder, and am VERY hopeful that we may be able to eat corn bread from our very own corn. Might sounds silly to you but the idea gets me alllll excited! I have been reading up on seed saving and learned that if you want to save corn seeds you need to cover up several ears (at least 12 is recommended so you have several nice ears to choose from) with a paper bag if anyone is growing corn within two miles of you, to keep the variety pure. Then you take off the bags when they are ready to be pollinated and cut a tassel off and shake it over each ear of corn. We'll see how I do.
A neighbor hayed our field earlier this month. We all had a lot of fun watching. I was surprised to learn that they got 310 square bails from our lower field. As you can see the garden has changed a LOT in the last 20 days or so. It's just amazing! The corn is almost as tall as me. I have six or seven different varieties of tomatoes. We eat a lot of tomato products around here, and I'm hoping to put up a lot of them, canned sauce and dried. I think in a few more weeks my red and white potatoes will be ready to come in. We've been eating zucchini and yellow squash for a little over a week now. I just planted three total plants, and we're are getting more than enough. I'm going to try slicing, and a quick steam or blanching, and then putting them on trays to dry in the car. I plan on adding them to soups and stews in the winter and fall. We also have a watermelon plant, which is taking up a LOT of room, but I'm not sure is producing any watermelon. I only planted it because it was free. I hope next year to try some European varieties of melons. I still remember some of the melons I tried in France (way before I was a foodie or a gardener) and they were so much better than anything I've tasted in the states. We eat a lot of dried beans, which are of course very easy to store, and I have discovered that heirloom varieties taste so amazing compared to the stuff you can buy at the store. This year we are trying Black Valentine (should have planted more of these, two plants got eaten which leaves me with only four, the bugs have eaten the leaves a lot, but they still seem to be producing), Holy Spirit in the Red Eye (pretty bug eaten leaves, but still flowering well also), Christmas Lima beans (doing WONDERFUL so far, certainly the least bug eaten of my beans so far. I grew these from 4 or 5 year old seeds given to me, and the flavor is just amazing, sort of creamy and nutty, not anything like a typical lima and they are very large with burgundy and white splashes. I really glad they are doing well, cause I want to eat LOTS of these), and Lazy Housewife (these grow very well, the Japanese beetles have been eating them to lace (I've been picking them off the throwing them in a bucket of water), and an animal, rabbit probably, ate off two plants, but I think I will still get a good crop). I also tried Yellow China and that was a complete flop, lost a whole row. As soon as they came up something would eat those first two leaves. So they never had a chance.
I decided to try Black Fustu Squash this year, as the description really intrigued me: insect resistant, good keeper, and tastes of hazelnuts. They have really been my crowning glory in the garden. They were sowed in the ground and all of them came up no problem and so far from five plants I have at least 20 baby squash, with what looks like the hopes of many more on the way. And it has proven to be very insect resistance. All the plants looks great, even pretty I think, with sliver white splotched big soft leaves. Summer is no time to boast of the harvest, but if things continue in the way they have gone, I would certainly recommend them, provided they are right for your zone.I've also plants several sun flowers and herbs....much later than the garden. Some of them are just coming up, we'll see how they do in the summer heat. I figure a little something is better than nothing. I've done very little to maintain the garden, weeding and watering when I can find the time. I decided if I was going to do a garden this big I was going to need keep it as a lower priority and just be thankful for anything I got out of it, since so much of my time goes to the girls these days. It's amazing to see God's handiwork in both my growing girls and my growing garden.

Cookbooks for Homesteaders: Preserving the Taste

2011-06-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Years ago my mother and I had a chance to glean in some strawberry fields at the end of the season. The fruit was all either under ripe or VERY much over ripe and it was perfect for making the most lovely strawberry sun preserves. The flavor was just amazing, much like strawberry freezer jam, or spreadable fruit leather. So I searched the internet and found some basic directions for strawberry sun preserves at this site. My batch came our very well. I make it with diced fruit and accidentally left too little juice, but it still came out lovely. I put it in pans in the windshield and front seat of my car (I face the car to the south) on a sunny day, so I don't have to worry about bugs getting in it. Plus it makes the car smell lovely. If you don't have a dehydrator, or if your too cheep to spend money on drying foods (like me!) use your car. Cheep and easy and it doesn't heat up the house. Hopefully I will be putting the car to good use this summer.
I noticed the reference to the cook book Preserving the Taste in the directions for making sun preserves. Its out of print but I ordered a copy (the first version because -again because it cost less and I'm cheep) and got it in the mail just a couple of days ago. And I love it. Its a much lovelier book than the cover makes you think (not that I judge a book by it's cover or anything, *ahem* me?). I don't like the many of the current styles in home preserves:fruit flavored sugar jells. As a family we are trying to move away from sugar in our daily diet, for many reason I may talk about some other time, and the preserves in this book are lower in sugar and really let the flavor shine through. The author Edon Waycott, tells you how to make your own pectin, which I have been interested in for quite a while. It isn't all fruit preserves there are also relishes, pickles, syrups, dried fruits, and herb vinegars. None of them require a pressure canner, which I'm also not very interested in using, because it's another piece of equipment to buy and store, and it steals all the nutrients from your foods too. As a friend of mine said, it makes tasty roughage. If you have been wanting to make preserves where the flavor really shines through then this may be the book for you. I'm hoping to make some of the peach butter...but instead of making it in the oven, I think I'm going to let it set in the car to cook. *smile* I just can't help trying!
I ran across an interesting link with lots of VERY interesting pickles you might enjoy looking at. Now is the time of year for putting up as much as you can. I hope to be elbow deep in it all before long.
Blessings!c

Mama Made Easy: Frittata

2011-06-16T05:59:00.000-04:00

I love frittata for a couple of reasons. It's easy. I works for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's great for reinventing little bits of leftovers, and left over frittata is easy to reinvent. It has a fancy name, but basically it's an omelet.
You start by sauteing whatever you have on hand to put in it. My favorite things to add are breakfast meat, diced onion & potato, mushroom, spinach, yellow squash (I'm not a huge yellow squash fan, but I REALLY like it in frittata), beans (especially seasoned beans left over from beans and rice are really good adding a creaminess and flavor to the dish). I always dig through the fridge looking for leftovers when I make it. All kinds of left overs can make it in, be willing to just throw it in there and try if you think it might be good. Left over pasta, rice, green beans, just whatever you have. I will saute any uncooked meat and any uncooked veggies first. I always add any frozen veggies towards the end if I don't want them droopy and pathetic, and anything that is already cooked very last. I don't like to buy tomatoes out of season, but I love to use sun dried tomatoes with egg dishes. Since I'm cooking for the girls I take the time to rehydrate them in some hot water before I start chopping potatoes, but if it's just me I don't bother. Their sweet acidity adds a great punch to the eggs and tastes so much better than the styrofoam tomatoes at the store. While you are sauteing, beat your eggs with about a tablespoon of milk or water per egg. I would add more if I was stretching it to feed a lot of people, but I never measure. I make the frittata as big as I can so I will have leftovers, but you probably want to do about two eggs per person. If you are inclined you might want to pop it all in the blender or whip them a while to make it more fluffy. I don't go to the trouble, but I'm sure it's good. Add in any spices. Fresh herbs are especially good, if you have them. I usually go with a either an Italian (thyme, basil, oregano, etc) or Mexican (cumin, cilantro, chili powder, etc) flavor theme. Lower the heat on your pan to medium low, and take the pan off the heat. Make sure your sauteed veggies are spread evenly in the pan, and the pour the eggs over, making sure it covers the whole bottom of the pan, and put it back on the heat (this is to let the pan cool down a bit, you want the eggs to cook a little slower so they don't get rubbery). Then grate cheese over the top. Let it cook until the bottom seems to be set, and the edges are cooked, but the middle is runny. Then pop it into the oven under the broiler. It's done when it's puffed up and brown. Serve it in wedges like quiche, and add a salad for dinner, or toast for breakfast. The leftovers are some of my favorite part. Just put some mayo and mustard on bread and pop a wedge of frittata between them and you have a fabulous sandwich. I'll make this a lot when I have a busy day, because cooking once gets me two meals, and I also make it for unexpected dinner guests, as we almost always have eggs and leftovers in the fridge. The girls and I love it. Hope you will too! c

Guinea update II

2011-06-10T11:31:00.004-04:00

I let the guineas out this morning. They slowly came out, sticking in a group, and eating as they went, and enjoying themselves. I hope they stick around. Guineas are notorious for taking off. I can't see them around anywhere from my windows. We'll see!

P.S. Yeah! They were spotted again around four this evening.

Guinea Hen update

2011-06-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

We have moved the guineas out of the brooder. A friend came over to help, and I'm so glad. There were three of us and one catching net and still two of the eight guineas got away, mainly my fault. It's hard to know how tightly to hold a live animal even when it is flogging you, as my friend graphically put it. I've never been much of an animal person, but I'm going to learn to live with them.

This is my guinea catching hero. He caught two with one hand! If you've never been around these fast little birds you just don't know how very impressive that is. He has guineas himself, and has advised me to keep them penned up for a week in the area I want them to stay at, as they have the tendency to wander off. Hopefully nothing eats them in that time (dogs, coyotes, our pet bobcat). I've left feed and water outside the pen in the hopes that the two who escaped while find it and hang around their life long friends. I spotted one of them a couple of times in the grass but it's impossible to catch them...which hopefully will keep them alive. And as long as they stay in the area, alive, and eat my ticks I don't care what they do. Speaking of ticks, if you get a tick bit, put some lavender oil on it as soon you pull it off. It takes away most of the itching...might work on other bites, I don't know. I used to be completely creeped out by ticks, not having grown up with them. But people around here just accept it as a part of life, and I have learned to do the same. Mosquitoes carry serious illnesses too and very few people freak over every mosquito bite. Who has the time?

This is the temporary shelter my very kind brother-in-law built for us. And as you can see guineas aren't the only thing growing fast around here. The girls seem to be growing and changing every day. The birds seem to be adjusting well though, and enjoying scratching in the grass and catching bugs. They were ready to get out!

Feeding Babies

2011-06-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

My girls can eat! I jotted down what they ate one day, several months back...I think it was around 12 months...when I was especially astounded at how much they ate. These are approximate amounts by the way. I don't measure their food...as if I have the time!

1 sippy cup of milk
1 1/2 cups of rice, oatmeal, millet breakfast cereal with Brewer's Yeast and an egg yolk
1/2 cup of whole wheat pasta noodles
1/2 cup of dry cheerios
1/2 cup of spinach and chicken (with lemon and olive oil)
1 banana
1/2 a whole wheat oatmeal apple pancake
1 teething biscuit
3 large slices of mozzarella cheese
3 crackers with wheat germ

That is not how much both of them ate together, but they BOTH ate that much. I can safely say I have eaten no where that much today, lol. People comment a lot on what good eater the girls are. I say it's just like anything else you have to teach them to eat well. I read somewhere that can take as many at 15 "introductions" to a new food before the pallet can acclimate to it, so that gave me the courage to keep trying. I also remembered reading this quote from Living More with Less (a book well worth buying) "Children don't like vegetables? No, I never heard of that in my country! -Taiwanese nutrition student". I think to great extent children can be taught to be good eaters, it isn't genetic. I don't think little Indian kids eat curry just because they are Indian, but because that's what their parents cook. A friend told me that her child would only eat macaroni and cheese and pizza, all I could think was well I guess he would starve at my house, cause we pretty much never have those foods.Also I've developed two personal policy when it comes to food. One, you don't have to eat it but I'm not giving you anything else. One of the girls decided she didn't like peas, but pureed peas were for dinner and she was hungry. She would cry and cry, and then take a bite and cry again because she didn't like it. So I told her she didn't have to eat it and put her down from the table. And same thing again, cried for food, and when I would give her a bite refuse to eat. She wouldn't stop her hissy fit and wouldn't eat so I put her in her bed and told her she could come out when she would act nice (I know, I know I am SO mean). So she stopped crying and I got her back out, but knew she was till hungry, so I offered her another bite, and low and behold she ate the whole thing and was happy about it. She's never given me a problem about peas since, though I can tell they are not her favorite food. It's hard, but it pays off to stick to your guns. I don't purposefully make things I know the girls don't like to eat. I like for eating to be a pleasant experience for all of us. Two, I will only force one bite. The girls had been eating pureed banana for quite a while, and finally where old enough to eat it whole, but one of the girls decided she didn't like that weird looking stuff. I literally had to squeeze her mouth open and shove a bite it, and she fought me all the way down, and as soon as it was in her mouth went, "OH! That's what that is? Oh, that's yummy!
I wanted to share some of my favorite resources for ideas on feeding babies and toddlers:Baby Bjorn Bibs- The Man says he would have paid three times what these sell for. I used an old fashioned bib one time with the girls, and never did it again. The biggest reason was they couldn't shove these into their mouths. But overall they are are great (as you can see, I used them as feed bags on a particularly stressful day) and you just wipe them down or throw them in the dishwasher. This and the book listed below are now my go-to baby shower gifts.
Super Baby Food- Great resource, I would highly recommend getting your own copy. It has great ideas for foods I wouldn't have thought of, for grinding your own rice cereal in a bender (cheaper and healthier) to laying out what food to introduce when. I disagree with the author's in two areas. She recommends an all vegetarian diet, and all her recommendations are noticeably lacking in fat. We all need good fat's in our diet. Our brain is made of fat, and there is a whole spectrum of vitamins that your body cannot absorb without fat in your diet. Good fats to consider adding (depending on age) are coconut oil, olive oil, cod liver oil, and butter. There are lots of good websites with information similar to this book, but sometimes you really need to have a good book reference.
How to Eat- This is by the British TV cook Nigella Lawson. There is lots of good general cooking advice in this book, but at the back there is a section on "Feeding Babies" and it has a lot of good balanced advice about feeding your kids food that tastes good. It was here that I got the idea to add pesto to some of our bland rice or pasta dishes, and the girls love it and so do I. She gave me the courage to starting feeding the girls food with flavor.
Weelicious- This is a great website with lots of idea. I skim this site whenever planning meals for a little inspiration. There are recipes that cater to kids of all ages. One of our favorites here is the white bean basil hummus. We found it works well in place of mayo (if you happen to be out) in tuna salad too.
Please chime in with any ideas or resources you have found useful...if you happen to be feeding babies. Blessings!c

Proverbs 10:22

2011-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

These are my baby guinea hens (keets). They represent our first little plunge into country life. So far they are doing good. So fast and hard to get pictures of. They are supposed to fend for themselves and need very little feed, and they eat ticks (so I love them). I read one place that you can just let them rooste in your trees, and when there gets to be too many of them you shoot them out of the trees and eat them. So that pretty much makes it the perfect bird for The Man, lol. We'll see how it goes.

Matthew 10:16

2011-05-19T22:42:00.007-04:00

Have yo seen the new Disney princess movie "Tangled"? Its cute reworking of the old Rupunzel story, and has some great "one-liners". She is kidnapped as a baby by a woman who is using her, a woman who Rapunzel thinks in her mother. Only in rebellion against this wicked woman does Rapunzel find her true calling and place in life as a (drum roll....) PRINCESS! Cute right? But the movie has some additional very obvious messages for girls. How do you know that the person you call "mom" really loves you? How do you know what the rules she makes and says are for your protection (stay in your tower because it a big bad scary world out here) are really for your good and not designed to just hold you back from all the wonderful things in life? Rebellion may not be easy at times, but if you follow your heart you'll find you're really a pretty pretty princess!
What a lie from the pit of hell in pretty packaging. I know what a lot of you are thinking, "oh, come on! It's JUST a cartoon, lighten up!" Right, so you Christians out there believe that Satan is too honorable to use a lovely cartoon to plant seeds of doubt and rebellion in your three year old daughter's heart that can blossom as you she sneaks out of the your house ten years from now to have sex with her boyfriend...and become a pretty pretty princess too of course? God tells us we are in a war and our enemy wants your soul and the soul of your children to be damned to hell for all of time. There is nothing honorable about the way Satan fights us, and he's not above using ANYTHING to get to you. We're in a war, a war of ideas. Doesn't that sum up a lot of our faith? We all believe and build our lives on something, as Christians we believe we build on the only immovable foundation available, and that Satan makes war on this idea and the people who believe in it. Most Christian parents believe that stories have the potential to plant seeds that can change our lives, or else why do we take our children to Bible class and read them Bible stories? They may not understand it all right now, but God willing they will one day. These stories help to shape their life and their beliefs. Satan plants seeds too (Matt 13:24-30).
We need to learn to look at the message (the moral of the story if you will) and hold it up to the light of scripture and see if it is true. What does the Bible say about following your heart? about rebellion? The Bible doesn't teach us to act as if we immune to the devil's work, but instead to face it head on. We need to be on guard and to teach our children to be also. These are learned skills, souls saving skills, that need to be taught and exercised in our day to day life. But all of this means nothing if you don't know what is really in your children's books and movies. When you watch something with your kids, really watch it, and think about it, and talk about with them. Hardly ever does a movie have all negative messages, Tangled for instance has a strong theme of self-sacrificing love. Talk about the truth and the lies, but the main point is to talk about it. I know at some point, if you have active readers in your house it's not possible to know about everything they are influenced by. But that's a very good reason to teach your children these skills and to trust the word of God above all other things. We need a standard to compare things too, and the Bible is that perfect unchanging ruler.So where does this leave us on an issue of a cute cartoon like Tangled? I think that depends a lot on you, God, and the children involved. Some girls are too young or too easily influenced to grapple with these issues properly, and yet are very fertile soil for these lies to be sown in and bloom another day. For others this would be a perfect venue for conversation and exercising critial thinking skills. Staying alert and being engaged in this war takes an exhausting amount of vigilance. Are you willing to pick up your sword even at home?

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

"She's gone country...just look at them boots"

2011-05-11T12:14:00.005-04:00

I know I know, you hardly hear anything from me in months, and then BAMP two posts right together! I just had to share these moments with you.

With lots of help, I am finally moving towards making some of our "country" dreams come true. Most of my garden is in as of this morning.

I plan it get up with the sun and work in the garden a couple of days a week, before the girls get up. I thought it would be a real chore, but this morning it was so wonderful, the birds and the cool air, the fog slowly rolling back, and some quiet time with God. May you also have a blessed day!c

Happy Late Mother's Day: Beyond This Land of Parting

2011-05-09T10:20:00.005-04:00

I sing hymns a lot through the day. I started it when the girls were very little, when I was getting not sleep and mad as a March hare. It gave me a sort of anchor in all the insanity. And still, singing hymns helps me to stay focused on the important things in life and keep perspective, which can be hard to do if you have little ones howling at you all day. I'd highly recommend it as a way of life for any believer. So anyway, I was singing "Beyond This Land of Parting" which is an old hymn you may or may not know (you can listen to it here if you would like to). The girls were particularly fussy that day. They followed me around all day, tripping over each other (still working on walking), trying to get me, and "wailing and weeping". That's the only way I could think of to describe it. So slowly a new verse for this old hymn started to form its self out of my day.

Far beyond the crying, wailing, and weeping
Far beyond the diapers darkening this,
And far beyond the dishes laundry and teething
Lies a summer land of bliss

LOL, cause sometimes you just have to grit you teeth and say, "I'm going to heaven!" And when I'm there I will be glad of all these opportunities for self sacrificing service to others. I hope all you mothers had a wonderful day! LOVEc

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

Mama-made-easy: Banana Pancakes

2011-04-08T09:09:00.007-04:00

A friend of mine wanted my pancake recipe, so instead of taking the time to just e-mail her, I thought I would post it for you all too. These have been a great hit at our house. I love them because the girls can feed themselves, they freeze great, don't take up a lot of room, and are easy to reheat in the toaster. I haven't tried yet, but I'd be willing to bet you could try sweet potato instead of banana (might need to add a little more milk if it's too thick). Nuts or chocolate chips would be a nice addition, and you could smear the pancakes with nut butter and honey for a more protein packed meal. If you're feeding babies these pancakes, don't substitute something else for the butter. Our brains are made out of fat, and growing children need it in their diet. You can read more on the issue here. If you don't have any butter milk, just add a few table spoons of white vinegar to your measuring cup before you add the milk. I recommend you use King Arthur Premium 100% whole wheat flour, or something equally high quality and find ground. The pancakes come out so light and fluffy with this, that you family probably won't even know they are whole wheat (if you have issues with such a thing). This recipe should make around 30 something pancakes, and of course you can cut it in half, but if your a mama and going to all the trouble...just make a big old batch. So without further ado...

4 cups of whole wheat flour
8 tsp of baking powder
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup mashed banana (ripe is better)
4 tablespoons melted butter
4 eggs
Combine the first five ingredients. Stir well, and add the rest. Heat your pan or griddle until a drop of water dances and evaporates when it hits the surface. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto the skillet cook until brown, and then flip and cook on the other side (but you know all that already, right?) and don't forget them while you do something else...like right a blog post. Cause they will burn.
To improve flavor eat them with your pinkies sticking out. LOVEc

Living your priorities

2011-03-19T10:39:00.004-04:00

I haven't been around much lately, as you can see. Life has really been happening here, and some times it really bothers me that I'm not able to post as often as I would like. I have been learning so much, from life skills to spiritual lessons, that I want to share. But right now, this blog is not my top priority. My priorities, not that I always live them, go as follows:
1. God- my relationship with Him and obedience to Him.
2. The Man
3. My children
4. My health both mental and physicalThere as so many good things to be involved in. I'm passionate about so many things, cloth diapering, natural child birth, holistic health, hospitality, whole foods, home-schooling, bible studies, being debt free, knitting, making my own yogurt. Need I go on? because I could. No joke.
I had some friends who I used to babysit for every once in a while, with three lovely kids. I remember the mother was one of the first people to mention to me the dangers of cooking in teflon pots and pans. They had gotten rid of all theirs and replaced them with healthier alternatives. And from what I know, she was right, it's not a good idea to cook with those pots. But a year or so later the couple was divorced and their three child confused and heart broken. I think you get my point. What does it matter if you do all kinds of good things with your time and your life, but you get divorced, go to hell, or your child becomes a thief, drug addict, or worse, because of lack of training, attention, and love, but dog-gone-it, you fed them healthy 100% homemade meals! I remember Donna Otto, from my beloved Homemakers By Choice podcast, once said to figure out the things in your life that no one else can do for you, that you can't delegate to someone else. No one else can have a relationship with God for you. No one else can be a wife to your husband, and a daughter to your mother, or a mother to your children. But if those things are getting left behind, someone else CAN teach the Sunday school class, or make your yogurt :) I've found it to be health reminder of what is really important in life. Some times I have to walk away from the cooking dinner or the dishes or the laundry or the computer and just be with my children, read them a book or rock them and love...because no one else can be their mama. And their mama is everything to them right now. How's that for a scary thought? But that's a whole new blog post, lol. I pray that all my passionate posts and inspirational ideas never encourage you to get your priorities out of wack. Blessings!c

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Mark 8:36

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." ~Jesus (Matthew 23:23)

For those of you who like baby slings

2011-02-08T19:07:00.002-05:00

Here's a free promotional code I recieved. The shipping comes to just under $12 which isn't bad for a cute baby sling. You can take the exchange insurance out of your cart to lower cost too. Enjoy!c

1. Go to SevenSlings.com.
2. Click on "Shop Now" and select any baby carrier you like. Be sure to goto the sizing page to get the correct size.
3. Once you have selected your size, you'll automatically be directed to the shopping bag. Enter the promo code " CUPID " and we'll deduct 100% of the cost of the carrier - all you pay are the shipping fees!

Remember: the promo code is " CUPID " and you can use it more than once - just open a new browser window each time you do.

These Baby Carriers make great gifts.
Selections dwindle quickly, so get yours today!

Lots of sickness

2011-02-02T13:34:00.004-05:00

Someone in our family has had a stomach bug, cold, or flu every week I think since December 18th. I'm tired of it, but I won't bore you with my complaints. We started out with a stomach bug back then, and all of our tummies seem to be a little off track still. I've started using Tummy Tuneup from Beeyoutiful, which is a great supplement resource. I'd recommend requesting one of their catalogues if you have any interest, because their articles are very informative and helpful. I wish we had started using it soon, as I can really tell what a difference it is making.Tummy Tuneup is a pro-biotic, which is like the culture that are in a good yogurt. It's safe even for very small babies, and (I wish I had know this) long term more affective that gas drops on a colicy baby with tummy problems. We have also been steaming under a blanket tent (that's peppermint tea with some lavender oil in the pot). A $16 Vicks humidifier and some essential oils, lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint oil, has made steaming much easier and more pleasant. All those oils help with a cough from what I can read, and even if they don't, they sure smell nice. I have decided to take a correspondence course called "Family Herbalist". I decided on this particular course because though I have a lot of interest in and need for knowledge in simple family health care, I knew I had a lot of holes in my knowledge. It was particularly interesting to me because the author is a Christian, and I dodn't have to sort through a lot of New Age bull crap to learn about natural remedies and herbs. I've received my books and I'm almost ready to start. It's exciting to learn what a difference such small measure can make. We're not the only ones who are sick right now. Our dear friend Lilly, the seven month old daughter of one of my dearest friends was hospitalised with massive heart failure this past Saturday. We are praying for her all the time. If you need some encouragement in your day pop over to her blog, and make sure to note Lilly's prayer requests for the day. Don't to miss the amazing story from Saturday and the way God used them to touch one of the doctors. BLESSINGSc

Ideas for eating good and cheep

2011-01-31T23:01:00.007-05:00

This post started out as a comment on a blog, and since it grew so big I thought I would just make it a blog post. I love to look at the food budget as a good creative challenge. Anyone can make good food with lots of money. I think tight permatiers really help me to cook more creatively, especially since I want our family to eat whole foods. I guess my best tips would be:
1. Waste NOTHING- (this one is really hard for me). Stay on top of your fridge (noooo, not literally). Know when things are about to good bad and freeze or rework leftovers. I save my carrot peals and onion skins and such in a container in the freezer and use it with the bones of two leftover roasted chickens to make bone broth, and it's delicious btw. It's hard for us to think this way as Americans. It helps me to read books on ethnic food or really old (we're talking hundred +years) cook books to understand how other people make the most out of things. Look for recipies like this one I ran across for lettuce soup, which sounded surprisingly good, and gives you a use for wilted greens.
2. Stretch your meats as far as you can. Beans are a huge blessing. You can even buy some that are a little different (like my favorite, green french lentils). And of course there is brown rice and pasta and some many other things. Try a meatless night or week and cook all ethic foods, like Indian. I'm a meat eater, but Indian food has so much flavour you don't even miss the meat, which brings to another area to help your meats go farther, cook with lots of flavor.
3. Bake your own bread...huge mark-ups on bread and you can make much healthier tastier stuff as home. Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day is a good recipe to check out if you don't have much time.
4. Look for creative sources of food. I can get raw milk from a local Amish family for half the cost of organic milk. Get to know your local resources. Often you can get fresh veggies for less at a smaller family stand than you can at the farmer's market. Learn to forage. Plant blueberry bushes as hedges in your front yard. Grow your own herbs in pots. Go fishing. Look for sources to buy bulk from, but make sure it's food you eat. Oh yes, and ethic food stores, don't forget about them, especially for great deals on spices, which make cooking on a budget some much easier.
Just a few ideas. Please share any you might have! BLESSINGSc

Happy days

2011-01-21T17:14:00.004-05:00

I was changing one baby's diaper and keeping an eye on the other baby, who had wandered into the bathroom. I usually keep the door shut, since it doesn't seem like the best place to be crawling around, so it was as temping as a new playground. All the sudden in the middle of the diaper change I became aware of the sound of splashing water. I turned my head sharply and gasped! The culprit's grinning proud face quickly turned to tears as I abandoned the baby at the changing table and drug her from the toilet. Not a good practice I know, but seriously what else can you do when you find your eleven month old swimming elbow deep in the toilet?
While I finished the diaper change I kept the little screaming culprit from sucking her finger (her self-soothing mechanism, which REALLY made her scream) with my foot. I whisked her off for a bath in the sink as soon as everyone was in a safe place. I've been trying to form the habit of keeping one side of the sink clean at all times for just such an emergency. Boy did it pay off today!The girls stay busy busy all day, and I do too. This is the only cabinet in the kitchen they are allowed to play in.I double-dog-dare you to find anything sweeter than a sleeping baby, especially when the baby is yours and a twin!While the little ones were (and are still) down for a nap I ran outside to set up a compost bin. I know, makes me sounds like wonder-woman, don't you believe it. I just rolled some old tires that were left on the land to a different corner and stacked them up. I was just sick of throwing away my food scraps and knowing how great they would be for my garden this spring. You should have seen me running across the yard rolling tires in the snow, lol. Afterward I checked the mail and was delighted to find one of my long ago requested seed catalogs. So while everyone is still sleeping I'm going to go hide in the bed room and pour over it. Sure life can be hard, is hard, but you just have to grab hold of the little happy moments and hang on! BLESSINGSc

A little gift

2011-01-16T16:52:00.002-05:00

I made something just for you! (well aaaactually I made it for me and then thought you might like it too.) Click here to see what it is and down load and print to your hearts content. Hopefully I didn't make any mistakes in it, but you know, you get what you pay for. I think it came out lovely, but let me know what you think. BLESSINGSc

Another GREAT idea for your Christmas cards

2011-01-06T19:03:00.006-05:00

A dear friend of mine sent me an e-mail in response to the idea i posted about Christmas cards to share what her family does with their Christmas cards. They send them to a ministry where the cards are taken to Hondorus to support a small greeting card business run by two Christian women.
If you're interested in doing this too just send the front of the greeting card (you can get older kids involved in cutting them) to this address:

Society Of the Good Shepherd

PO Box 122

Amberson, PA 17210

For more information on this work visit their web site.
Blessings!c

Excerpted from "The Least of These My Brethern" which is Society of the Good Shepherd's monthly newsletter. This one dated Apr. 2005:A number of people of people have asked us over the past year whether they should still send us used greeting cards for Honduras. Definitely. In fact, now we have two sisters in Honduras who are making greeting cards to sell.

The latest one to start into this business is Norma Ramos. This past year, the Society of the Good Shepherd made a small loan to Norma, enabling her to purchase colored paper, special scissors, glue, card stock, patterns, and other items to make greeting cards. She makes some of the cards totally from scratch, using designs cut out of the colored paper. On other cards, she cuts the picture off of a used greeting card and then glues it on the front cover of the card she is making. For either type of card, Norma places a Scripture verse or some other Christian message on the inside. Norma also hand makes the envelopes for each of her cards.

There would probably be little market in the United States for such homemade cards, but they are quite popular in Honduras. In fact, Norma is able to sell them for about the same price as commercially made cards. Rather than competing with Nelly Lainez (the other Christian sister who is making greeting cards), the two of them cooperate in their businesses so that they sell to differing stores. In fact, Nelly let Norma use the computer that Nelly purchased with a Society loan. Both women use the computer to do the lettering for their cards.

Norma said that the largest demand is for Christmas and birthday cards. She sells her cards in various local stores, as well as at nearby town named Otoro. Otoro is about half the size of Siguatepeque, but people from a lot of surrounding villages shop there. The price for coffee beans has firmed up quite a bit, and this has helped all Honduran business--including the card business.

Making the most of your New Year

2011-01-03T17:16:00.009-05:00

I love the New Year. It may actually be my favourite holiday...though I don't really think of it as a holiday so much. For me, the New Year is about a fresh start, a blank slate. Just typing those words makes my heart beat just a little bit faster. Do you have any idea how much I need a blank slate? What an amazing thing to be able to shake the dust off and run to Jesus for a do-over. THAT is what January is all about for me.This is the perfect time of year to stop and take stock of where you have been, where you are going, and where you want to be. It's so easy to get off track, to not be the person you want to be, to not live your convictions in the day to day. I was e-mailed some ideas for looking over the past year and I think they are worth sharing. These ideas come from Doug Phillips, the founder of The Vision Forum.
1.Out line and chronicle the many blessings of God
You might consider making this a family event. When I read through the Old Testament I see time and time again that God wanted His people to mark the ways He worked in their lives and share it with the coming generations. I know how easy it is to forget the ways God works in my life. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have family traditions of honouring the way God has worked in your life? Phillips suggested looking through your bills, paper work, photos, news paper clippings, calendars, blog and journals to help you think about the past year. He also gave a list he uses to consider the previous year. You might use it to come up with your own list.

Where did I/we travel?
What were the most important sermons I heard this year?
What books/articles did I write?
What significant household projects did we accomplish in 2010?
What were the most important meetings of the year?
What special friendships were made this year?
Which children lost teeth, and how many?
Who grew in physical stature, and how much did they grow?
Who learned to read this year?
What diet and physical exercise regimen did I maintain to honor “my temple”?
What books did I read? Did we read as a family? Did my children read?
What Scriptures did my family memorize?
What loved ones died this year?
What were the great personal/ministry/national tragedies and losses of the year?
What were the great personal/ministry/national blessings of the year?
What were my most significant failures/sins for the year 2010?
What commitments have I made to overcome sin in 2011?
What significant spiritual and practical victories did I experience?
In what tangible ways did I communicate gratitude to those who have blessed me and invested in my life?
What are the top ten themes of 2010 for my family?

2. Say thank you to the people who have invested in you life
Sit down and write them all a note. Be specific in your thanks. Pray over each note. Consider giving them something tangible as a thanks.
3. Forgive those who have wronged you

I'm hoping with the help of some child care to set aside some time to think over this past years in all its glory and failure, and to recognize the path I am on, and where I wish I was. 2010 has been full of mountain tops and deep dark valleys. God has certainly taken me places I never dreamed of going. I hope you to will be able to carve out a little bit of time to recognize what God has done in the past year and lay the foundation for a purposeful new year. I pray it will be glorious. c

Christmas clean-up

2010-12-28T17:08:00.004-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was...well. It was...humm. I wouldn't say it was horrible. But it was pretty close to. I spent Friday night a week ago up till midnight with one the girls who had a stomach bug. I had spent three weeks planning a Christmas party for the next day which had to be cancelled. Then I was in bed with a fever of a 100 or more and a stomach bug for two days. And so it went around and around the family. I've had it twice now, and spent Christmas morning sleeping on the floor at The Man's parents house. I did manage to sit up and watch the girls open their first Christmas presents and eat wrapping paper though and that was fun. The Man and I spent most of the day yesterday trying to catch puke from both the girls. Yep, stomach bugs and twins. Joy. So if you pray at all, please pray that this bug is gone from our family not to be passed around or shared ANY MORE!On a much more cheerful note I heard a lovely idea I idea I thought I would share. Put all your Christmas cards in a stack in the dinning room, and once a week pull one out, read through it as a family and spend that week praying for the people that sent you the card. Maybe even drop them a note as a family and them know you have been thinking of them and praying for them. Well I hope you are recovering from the holidays. Blessings!c

Early Christmas

2010-12-14T18:35:00.004-05:00

Well its official: I'm a country girl! The Man took me to town last week and bought me a lovely pair of work boots. Can you see the stitching and little stars on the sides? They are already making the outside work around here much easier. I can't wait to get my seed catalogs and get my new boots dirty! If you garden and would like to add to some heirloom seeds to you garden in the coming year you really should check out these catalogs: Seed Savers and Bountiful Gardens (their catalog is great, by the way, like an education is gardening). Also I ran across a really interesting web site selling heirloom bean seeds. There are enough beans for you to cook with in the bag, and full descriptions of the flavors. I love this a idea, cause who wants to plant a whole garden full of something only to find out you can't stand to eat it. They claim that heirloom beans have much more interesting complex flavors and textures. I cooked with one heirloom bean, a kind of speckled lima bean and they were just lovely: nutty and creamy tasting. Like no other bean I had ever tried. I know- it's not even Christmas yet and here I rattling on about seeds. But really there is no better way to spend the long dark winter months than pouring over the bright glossy pictures and warming descriptions of a seed catalog...unless you a have a fire and someone you love to snuggle with. But I don't have a fire (yet). So till then I'll sit near the space heater and dream of spring. Blame it on the boots!
Merry Christmas to you all!c
P.S. This has absolutely nothing to do with this post. But I ran across the most interesting how-to craft tutorial today and thought I would share.

Dealing with a baby's cold

2010-12-07T19:47:00.003-05:00

The girls and I are going through our second baby cold (well we were two months ago when I first started this post, right now we all seem to be pretty healthy). Everything is more fun with twins, right? *smile* I have found several natural things to do, many of them are the same treatments my mom and her mom before her used. So far we have been able to take care of things without the help of a doctor. I'd love to hear about things that have worked for you too. Any ideas I haven't tried?
(I feel silly saying this, but of course I am not a doctor and I'm not trying to practice medicine here. I'm also not saying you need to do any of these things; just sharing what I do.)
Saline Nasal Spray I picked this up at the pharmacy (for whatever it is worth, the Walgreens pharmacy in our area seems to carry more natural type remedies) and it's made just for babies. The brand I picked up is SinuCleanse, and it has worked really well for us. I especially like that you can clean it out and use it again.
Baby vitamin C Look for this at the natural food store. It comes in a liquid and there are versions safe for every age baby. Unfortunately I was unable to pick this up until after we were all better, so we will try this on the next cold.
Collodial silver Silver is a natural anti-biotic. This was discovered before penicillin, which is one reason fancy old-fashioned baby toys are made of silver and we have the phrase "born with a silver spoon in his mouth". But they had trouble getting it into a form that could be easily used by the body, and then penicillin and other things were discovered and it was left behind. Silver is used medicinally today in the form of Silvadene cream as a topical anti-biotic on burn victims, as it is one of the few things effective and gentle enough to keep the burn clean. When I had a cocker spaniel he would get a sort of ear fungi in all the folds of his ears and the vet would give us a sort of cream-ish silver drop solution to put in his ears and it would take care of it. Up until the 70's hospitals would put silver drops in babies' eyes to prevent them from going blind in case the mother had gonorrhea. You can buy a little machine that will take silver and through an electrical process make it into little particles small enough to be suspended in water (a similar concept to homogenized milk) and this process is called "collodial". You can also buy collodial silver at a health food store. The wonderful part of silver is that it can be used on so many things. It is effective topically or orally or in your eyes or nose. Even more wonderful is that the body doesn't build up resistance to it like most newer anti-biotics. I give the girls a little bit from an eye dropper if it looks like the cold isn't clearing up. Colloidial silver is wonderful stuff to have around for more than just babies. I've used it the dozen plus times I've had a breast infection to keep the infection from spreading. A few drops in the nose are great for a sinus infection. You can put it directly on poison ivy to help clear it up. The uses roll on and on. It's hard to find accurate information on silver because the pharmaceutical companies can't make any money off of it since it isn't patentable. The only side affect I've been able to learn of is that with constant high daily doses the skin turns a blueish color, and it's not reversible. This is what I know I about silver, and hopefully I have my info correct. Be sure to leave a comment if you know something about I don't.
Chicken Broth You can read about how to make this yourself in the previous post. I made sure I didn't use any vegetables that the girls hadn't already eaten- don't know if really necessary or not but that's what I did, and let them drink it out of a sippy cup. Its nice for those days they don't really feel like eating anything much.
Eucalyptus Salve You know Vicks Vapor rub. Nothing new to tell here. I did pick up a "baby" version of it with rosemary and lavender and it smells nice.
Steam I've done this a couple of times with one of the girls who developed a rather thick cough. Just boil some water on the stove, then take it off and add some white vinegar. Then I sit with the baby on my lap and set the pot of steaming water in front of us on a stool or chair (with a pot holder under it) and cover the pot and our heads over with a towel or more recently I've found a terry cloth robe works really well. I try to make sure I have some toys to keep the baby busy and her hands off the hot pot and some tissue to wipe her nose and probably mine too. When her cough was really bad I would do this several times a time, after I fed her.
Since I started this post, which was quite a while ago I've hear that sage in steam works really good for breaking up congestion. But I'm not sure if that's as leaves or oil in the water. If you know anything about this please do share. Blessings!c

Mama-made-easy: Chicken Broth

2010-11-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Making my own chicken stock is a passion with me. Seriously. Don't know how I could get so worked up over chicken broth? Well in case you haven't noticed I'm passionate about a lot of things, lol! So you are fully warned, I'm going to do my best to persuade you to be passionate about chicken broth too. First of all, if it's made right it has all sorts of wonderful health benefits, and from the food scraps you would have thrown away you can make a food that is almost as nutritious as the meat originally was. The healthier and better quality your chicken is to start with the better it will be for you...you know the old adage "you are what you eat". The second thing that really gets me worked up about chicken broth is that you can make it from food scraps you would have thrown away. Are you hearing me here? You can take trash and turn it into this amazing golden broth. Which brings me to the next reason I'm so crazy about this stuff: it tastes soo much better than the average stuff at the store. In fact in good enough that you could just pop it in a mug and curl up on the couch sipping it, especially if you have a cold. And last of all it adds delicious flavor to anything you cook. You can add it to the water you cook your rice in, to soups, and sauces. I'm constantly finding new ways to use it. Oh wait! I've thought of one more reason to love it. It helps you save money on the grocery bills. Take some of this broth, add some diced garlic, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes. Bring to to a boil and slowly stir in a beaten egg and you have a filling egg drop soup for lunch. How cheep is that? Or add any veggies chopped up with dried beans and just a little bit of meat even. You get the idea? It really helps you provide nutritious meals on a little money.So now hopefully I have converted you to the idea of broth making and your just dying to know how I do it :) You can make broth from fresh chicken (uncooked) or from the bones left over from cooked chicken (though you probably wouldn't want to use chicken that was cook with sauce). If you are using the left over chicken bones it will taste richer if you either use more than one chicken (you can keep the bones in the freezer until you have another one or are ready to make it) or use less water. All you have to do is cover it with water and either put it on the stove on the very lowest setting or in your crock-pot. Then add some veggies and or spices to it. I don't like to spice or salt by broth much so I am free to add flavorings to anything I am cooking with it, and make sure I'm not over salting. I save all my carrot peels, onion and garlic ends and papers, the tops of tomatoes, the stems from fresh herbs in a container in the freezer (the only things you WON'T want to use is anything in the cabbage family-broccoli etc- or anything in the potato family). Celery is especially a wonderful addition. I'm not crazy about it fresh, but it lends a truly lovely flavor to broths. Add about a table spoon of vinegar or white wine and that will help break down some of the bone marrow and minerals in the bones and add to the broth's nutritional value. Don't let the broth come to a boil, and let it simmer as long as you can. I usually leave mine for eight hours. Then let it cool and remove all the "stuff", veggies and bones, and thrown them away. -Funny story, once The Man was helping me in the kitchen and misunderstood my directions and poured the broth down the drain after meticulously picking everything out of it. It didn't help that I was pregnant, nauseous, and really in the mood for chicken soup, lol. I've learned to speed up this process by setting a colander in a larger bowl and poring the broth in and then throwing away everything left in the colander.I take some of the broth and freeze it in large containers (old yogurt containers seem to be a good size for me) and take the rest and freeze it in ice cube trays, which is typically about two tablespoons, so it is easy to add to a little to cooking rice and other dishes. That's it. I hope I've talked you into giving it a try. And with all the roasted turkeys out there after Thanksgiving might just be the perfect time to try your hand at some turkey broth. Blessings!c

Knitting for babies

2010-11-15T17:19:00.007-05:00

Few things are sweeter than babies, but babies in hand knits are! (I'm trying to fight the urge to make some sort of "knitting for babies' pun -think knitting for dummies. Don't worry I'll keep fighting, lol.) The patterns I'm linking to here are just perfect for someone who has the basics of knitting down but is tired of knitting scarves and dish rags. If you haven't learned to read patterns then I would suggest either getting a book from the library, google and Utube the abbreviations, talk with a friend who already knows, or go to a local yarn shop, buy a ball of yarn, and ask for help.

The Aviatrix hat that Miss Teary-Eyes in sporting here (unfinished I might add) looks MUCH more complicated than it looks. It's actually knit on straight needles, and even watching the twins I can whip one out in two days...if they are good days anyhow. Oh bad days I just dig in and hold on for dear life, lol. There are instructions from newborn up and for many different yarn sizes. It's nice for little ones because it straps on.
*grin* I love this picture...toys all over the place, and they pick up one block each, crawl into the cubby and have a wonderful time smiling at each other and banging their blocks. You can't see the sweaters they are wearing very well in this pic, but they are variations on the same pattern. I knit up half a dozen of these little sweaters while I was pregnant. It's a top down knit, so you start at the collar and work your way down and then come back and add on the sleeves. You can down load the pattern here. After I knit the first two I got a little more adventurous and started to add lace patterns (from the Internet or books) down the back and sleeves, or as the first picture shows cables. Cables like most new techniques I've learned in knitting looked really scary to me until someone I had taught to knit showed me how easy it was, lol.
And if you don't know how to knit, I strongly suggest you learn. For in the words of Nanny (from The Nanny and the Professor),

"Of course you can do it! The world would be a better place if everyone was knitting on an afghan."

LOL
Blessings! c

The Power of God

2010-10-27T22:38:00.004-04:00

I have missed blogging so much! You know when I lay in bed at night, if I can't sleep, I think of all the posts I would like to write and just how I would word things. Isn't that funny? I've had a half written post I've been trying to finish for almost a month now, but it's been giving me fits...a little bout of writer's block I guess *grin*. And "real" life takes up SO much time these days. But I've decided to stay up a little late tonight and share what's on my heart tonight.
Some times the power of God can be shown to us in the simplest things. It's been very dry in our part of the country these last few months. I was talking with one of the farmers at church and after hearing how hard they were working due to lack of rain I told her I would be praying for rain. That was about two weeks ago I started praying about that. I had heard several people say that we were in for some weather, but it wasn't until we woke up at 1am to the most rockus (I think I made that word up, but it seems like such a good word and you know just what I mean by it and that is the point of words so oh well) thunder storm that I realized God was answering my prayer. I never can listen to thunder without thinking of poor Job and the some of the first words God spoke to him out of the whirl wind, "Brace yourself like a man, and I will question you and SHALL answer me!" Ouuu gives me shivers just thinking of it. And then I jump from that right to, "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." So I just lay in bed glorying in the bigness of God and His AWESOME power, and that despite the fact that He is mightier than the most amazing display of power I know (thunder and lightning) he likes for me to pray to Him! How amazing is that? So the next day when I got up I decided that I would pray for God to make my internet work again, as it had mysterious stopped worked on just one of our computers and I really had no idea what to try to make it work again. I knew he might have some good reason for saying no but I decided I would just ask Him that the next time I booted up the computer that it would just work. Wouldn't you believe it! that just how it happened! Well I had to let out a whoop I just so tickled, lol. So that night when I discovered and I had the beginning of ANOTHER breast infection (I've had almost a dozen now) it was hard for me to pray with faith and ask for Him to just take it away in the night after I spent the evening working on it. I had to remind myself of all the ways God has helped me in the last few months and years. I thought back to the birth and how faithful He was to me then and all the ways he helped us since and did the very best I could to fight off demons of doubt. Wouldn't you know it I woke up the next morning and the lump was gone!

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" Matt 7:11

Lessons from Lilly

2010-09-27T17:54:00.004-04:00

Its easy to get caught up in the day to day: packing and unpacking, refrigerators that suddenly stop working, even though you have only used them for a month, babies that scream in a very mean sort of way...all. day. long. all day. and then everyone in the family getting a cold. Are you starting to realize that I'm not speaking hypothetically? Sometimes someone needs to remind us of the big picture, help us to remember that "we are but a vapor" like dew on the grass, barely here for a moment. All of us. I live better when I remember this. It makes me a better mother and wife, a better Christian. We only have a little while to make a difference in our own lives and the lives of others, only a little while to do what we can to help the people around us to make choices that bless them eternally.

For the past few months Lilly has been that reminder for me. The doctors said she wouldn't live through her birth. Yet she did. She's three months old now and fighting still. Lilly has taught me so much. Its easy to wonder why God lets things like this happen. But Lilly has taught me that every life has a purpose. I've never known anyone who has touched, inspired, and challenged so many people in just three months of life. Lilly is scheduled to have a much needed heart surgery tomorrow. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. You can find out more about Lilly at the blog her mom keeps. http://pray4lilly.blogspot.com/(This is a little top I made for Lilly. You can find the pattern for it in "Weekend Sewing")

Lilly inspires me to kiss my babies every day, and to love my husband better, support him better, and remember that everyday with the people I love is a gift, not a right, and I should use it wisely. And I must say that her amazing mom, a dear friend of mine, inspires me to rejoice in the face of hardship. How does Lilly inspire you?

(On a side note, Lilly's parents have had trouble finding a hospital that would provide a surgery she needs and will die without. Many hospitals stopped offering the surgery on babies with Trisomy 18, which Lilly has, once Obama's health care bill was passed. I have no idea why it happened so quickly but it did, and if you aren't aware that socialized medicine marginalizes the weak and devalues life then it's time that you looked into these issues.)

Consider cloth diapers

2010-09-16T12:59:00.006-04:00

I can remember when I first heard about cloth diapers. I was honestly unaware of anyone using cloth diapers in this day and time-in the US at least. Seriously, who would want to wash poop when you can just throw it away? Years later I had a friend who used cloth diapers and when I saw how many benefits there where I knew it was something I wanted to do too. And the funny part is that I actually love it. Weird I know. But I'm not the only one. Another mother told me, "I'm looking forward to having another baby so I can use start cloth diapering again." Sounds crazy, but I thought I would tell you about here just in case you had never heard of it either.
So. Here are the benefits of cloth diapering as I see them. The cost of disposables and wipes for twins till 2 1/2 years old I calculated at $3,400 and cost of cloth diapers for twins $400. Wow! This is the biggest selling point for me. It really gives me the feeling of doing my part to be a good manager and steward of The Man's money, which I believe is part of my job as a wife. Now I must mention that we do cloth diapers in the most simple way possible, but like most anything in life you can spend as much money as you want on cloth diapers. I figure a low average cost of disposables for a week for twins is $20. If the girls were perfectly potty trained by 2 1/2 (that's not my goal, just trying to drawl a line for comparison) the cost of disposable diapers would be $2,600. I don't know how to calculate the cost of wipes because I only use disposable wipes sometimes when we are out. It seems like a decent guess would be $800. Below is a cost break down for cloth diapering. The only cost that would increase if we used diapers longer would be the laundry detergent. Many of these items I found used, on sale, or were given to us but I'm counting the average list cost. You can click on the links to see items that I like and where i have bought things at. Remember these are costs for twins.
2 newborn size non adjustable diaper covers $15
4 small diaper covers $48
6 large diaper covers $102
24 flat diapers $24 (this was the cost when I bought them, evidently it's going up at this site)
4 snappis (modern diaper pins) $12
4 pocket diapers (for night time) $60
3 bottles of Charlie's Laundry Soap $75
1 Wet bag (this is to put wet diapers in when your out, you can just use a grocery bag or a zip lock, but I really like the wet bag) $16
Cloth wipes $.40 (I just cut 8"x8" squares out of four old receiving blanks bought at a yard sale for 10 cents each and did a zig-zag sew machine stitch around the edge
Wipes solution $12 (I use a little of this soap mixed with a generous amount of water and a drop or two of lavender oil. It looks like one bottle of each will last me for diapering both girls).
So the grand total is $364 and I would round it up to $400 for shipping. It is worth noting that I bought most things on this list below the prices I listed here. In addition to these cost savings most of the stuff I have bought I am keeping in good enough shape to use again for the next baby.
A lot of people worry about doing laundry all the time. I have to wash baby clothes pretty often anyway, and after the diapers are rinsed I throw everything in the washer together, so I don't end up doing much more laundry that I would otherwise. In addition most days I hang out the diapers to dry, as it helps them last longer. Hanging laundry as a new mom has helped keep me sane. It's a nice little QUIET time to myself with some sunshine and fresh air. I really love it.
Cloth diapers breath well and aren't full of chemicals. We use disposable diapers when we travel or are very busy, and the diaper rash problems we have had came from disposables.
Wow...this post has taken me days to write...little snippets at a time. I'll try to return to this issue in the future and give some more how to and technical information on cloth diapering. Until next time~
Blessings!c

Mama-made-easy: Muesli

2010-09-01T13:51:00.006-04:00

I've been wanting to share a yummy easy breakfast dish that has served us so well in our busy, hot, summer days.Muesli is basically a soaked oatmeal, which is great since it doesn't heat up my kitchen first thing in the morning. I measure out my oatmeal according to the serving size on the box and add in coconut, cinnamon and dates (I'm not a huge dates fan, but both The Man I really enjoy them in this dish) and then pour about half as much water [correction: I thought that looked funny when I first typed it up...I typically used a little less than the same amount of water] into the bowl as there is oatmeal. You'll have to play with the amount of water you use, and change it to fit your taste. I like mine dryer, where the flakes are kind of individual and not mushy. Then cover it with a towel and leave it out to soak overnight (that's the other trick, remembering to do it before you go to bed). Then in the morning I dish it up into bowls and top it with fresh fruit (berries, peaches, and bananas are all wonderful) give it a squirt of local honey and pour milk over it just like you would box cereal. You can also try topping it with yogurt. It's a great alternative to boxed cereals as it's cheaper, healthier, and more filling. Just a little idea from my busy world to yours. Blessings!c
P.S. Click here for a link to another muesli recipe you might try.

The influence of media

2010-08-10T07:05:00.006-04:00

I have been without the internet for almost a month and a half. Wow-a very different world for sure, lol. Since I knew there was such a thing as the internet that's the longest I've been without it. I'm sure it's been good for me. In all honesty I've had kind of a hard time getting back into doing things on the internet, blogging and checking e-mails and such. It has got me to thinking about how I relate to the media around me. You may have heard me mention or read here that we don't have television at home. We own a lot of movies and enjoy netflix, but we don't do TV. But I have been watching a LOT of TV recently. I've had access to it while house sitting and such. I have one of those personalities where I have enough self control to not buy all the sugary foods, but I don't have enough self control to buy them and not eat them all the time. And that's the main reason I got rid of television; it turns me into a drooling lazy zombie. I know that not all people have the self control issues I have with television but I think there are several good reasons for you to consider pulling the plug yourself.

Advertising is purposely designed to make you discontent. Sure you can TiVo it and watch just the show, but some of the best and most expensive advertising happens during your favorite show. Sure HDTV is pretty clean, but I'd be willing to bet it doesn't help you cultivate a contented heart. Personally, I think magazines hit me even harder in this area.
Advertising is designed to manipulate YOUR CHILDREN. Just stop and really think about this for a minute. Do you really want someone you don't know to use psychological manipulation on your kids to get to you, for their own greedy ends? Do you think your kids are happier if their lives are full of flashy plastic toys and sugar cereal because they have been duped into begging for these things? How would you feel if someone came to your house and tried to do this in person?
Almost all television is in direct conflict with the command of Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
Television is a tool for social warfare. If you are a christian your calling is to show the world that there is another way to live. This is the war we are fighting. Look at the social difference between 1930 and 1960. What other time period has seen as much social change? I believe mass media like radio and television played a huge roll in this dramatic change. If we can't be a holy people set apart for God's use in the way we relax then how can we work for him?
If your like me and don't know when to shut the TV off it steals your time and possibly your motivation to do better things with your time and your life."Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15 & 16 This is not to say I don't believe in rest and relaxation. God is Lord of the sabbath, remember? In the old law He sets aside one whole day a week for rest. There are other options for rest besides TV, and most of them are healthier.
It helps make sin and evil seem not so bad.
It teaches people to sin. Don't be so naive as to think that you are above it, and it doesn't affect you.

I truly believe that if Christians in America don't learn to stand up and live what we claim we believe the cause of Christ will be lost here...and I believe the hearts of our children will often be lost in the process. So I want to issue a challenge. Would you be willing to go a month without television? Spend the time you would normally devote to TV seeking God's face and ask him to show you ways this media may have been holding you back and consider doing away with it for good. I was amazed at the things I found in my heart and my life that changed after I got rid of TV (one of which was I lost weight almost instantly from being more physically active...just a little perk), but it took my much longer than a month to "detox" from television. You may say it would be no big deal to give it up, and that's great! So do it then. Even if it's no big deal to give it up there may be unknown blessings in it for you. Or it might be a really big deal...and I do feel compelled to add a little side note here. I know that most of the people reading this are women, and that tv often has a very strong hold on guys in the form of sports. So let me just say to you married women that this issue is NOT worth a divorce or marital strife. Thankfully The Man and I are in agreement on this issue (but it was something I started while I was single and something I looked for in a husband). But if we weren't my answer to the situation would be to put the TV in a cabinet with a lock, and let him keep the key. Yep, my self control on this issue is THAT bad. Pretty sad I know. I've also heard of a family who kept their tv in the closet, and would only get the TV out to watch something if they really deemed it worth the trouble. I also understand that you can watch any sports event on the internet, so there are lots of ways around this issue with some creativity. If you are willing to step up and take this challenge either personally or as a family, would you drop me a note and tell me about it? Blessings!c

Little peek

2010-07-09T15:59:00.005-04:00

Sunset from the place we were house sitting at, just over the hill from our house.

I'm visiting were I can get on the Internet for a little while and despite the fact that the house is still a mess and not all unpacked I thought I would share some pics. Our first night at the house was July 4th! Its amazing to be out there. I couldn't begin to describe it if I tried, and there is so much to do and plan and work on.
These counter tops can out of a spray can. Amazing hu?!! Shhhh...don't tell. It's our little secret. We will be installing more cabinets and some open shelves later on.
Didn't the rug I made turn out nice? I'm pretty pleased with it.

And I have a few of the roman blinds I sewed installed, and we like the way they look, and more importantly the way they block out the afternoon sun! Even though my contributions to our home are small compared to The Man's, it felt so good to know I had used my time wisely before the house was done and had my own contributions to make to our home. I wonder if that's how it feels when we get to heaven...if we are prepared and have used our time wisely.

Well that's all for now. We still don't have Internet at the house, but when we do, and I have the house settled, I plan on being back more regular. Until then, blessings to you all. Drop by and see us some time! We'd love to have you.

*smile* c

This is the house that love built

2010-06-05T15:36:00.012-04:00

Installing siding

Painting...yes the ceiling is a funny color. No, it's not an accident. And yes I do like it...wasn't sure for a little while, but thankfully I do, lol.

Building the kitchen cabinets

Building the HANDLES of the kitchen cabinets. Seriously how cool is that! I have some very talented people in my life!Everywhere I look I see all the love that has gone into making this house. There are our new neighbors who have lent us tools and been so generous and kind. Co-workers who have come out to lend a hand. Our new church family who suprised us with their generosity and drove over an hour eeeeearly in the morning to paint and work on the siding in the heat and the bugs, even though neither The Man nor I could be there. The friends and loved ones who worked on the house in the snow! And The Man's family-I must mention them specifically, many of them have come out, but his direct family has given us SO MUCH.

And then there is The Man. Ahh The Man. He's worked in the heat. He's worked is the cold, and in his very favorite, in the cold WET weather. He gotten up at 4 in the morning again and again to work on the house. And he's done it almost all himself. The permits, the foundation, the framing, the siding, the plumbing, the painting, the trim work, the porches....with a exhausting drive for perfection. He is poured so much sweat and love into this house it's hard for me to believe.
And above all this there is God's love for us. Time after time when we could not see how things would work out God would amaze us by pulling it all together. It has been such an amazing journey of faith. God's latest work has been so wonderful. We are weeks away from being done with the house, and a neighbor has asked us to house sit for him! So we get to be practically next door instead of over an hour away, and see each other for lunch, and not have to get up soo terribly early, but on top of that I can get all that sheet rock dust cleaned up of, and the house settled and a little organized before we move in. That is SUCH a gift, because I'm still coming to grips with fact that I have MUCH less energy and abilities since the birth and while nursing twins, and I don't do well in chaos. So I'll make this part bold just in case you haven't been reading my ramblings...We move in a few days and the house should be done and ready to move into in just a few more weeks if all goes well. I AM SO EXCITED! But our phone and internet will be severely limited for the next month or two, so you're just going to have to wait a while to see finished pic and you probably won't be hearing much from me for a while, but then that's what I said before the twins were born, so who knows! God may supprise us again! Until next time keep us in your prayers as in addition to the move with little babies I will be adjusting to doing all the house work, cooking and cleaning myself. And on that note I must run as some little one is wailing for her bedtime snack *smile* Blessings!c

Learning to be a good mother

2010-06-04T20:00:00.002-04:00

A friend left a comment on my blog a while back saying that it seems I've fallen quite naturally into the my new roll as mother. All I could think while reading it was that I must not be leaving a very balanced impression here. I was recently given a book on twins. As I read the following lines from it all I could think was how very accurately they describe the first month or two for me.

"People who have not brought up twins probably underestimate the importance of having enough sleep at night in order to cope with their babies needs during the day. As a mother of twins you have unprecedented demands made of you at a time when your physical resources may be seriously depleted by a tiring pregnancy, followed perhaps by a difficult birth...In these circumstances you may feel inadequate and depressed, especially if this is your first experience of being a mother. The demands made on you are heavy-but none the less you do meet them. If you meet them a way that feel less than ideal, it is not the you are inadequate, but that you are in a most difficult situation...When your experiences do not match up with your expectation, you may feel cheated, without realizing that the fault does not lie with you. Often there seems to be little you can do except sit it out as calmly as possible, and take a break, however briefly, whenever you can. However welcome and loved your twins are, there may be times when you feel you can't cope with the relentlessness of their demands." Twins: from conception to five years

My dad just told me today that a few years back the Marines did some studies to find out the quickest way to turn a man into a killer (gruesome thought) and their answer was sleep deprivation. I believe it! My but there were some dark days those first few months, and how I have envied moms who do seem to fall so naturally into motherhood, but then maybe they have had just as tough a time as me and I just can't see it. But in those difficult days I learned many important lessons.My need for God. There were some nights that I literally thought we would never make it, that three o'clock would never give way to four o'clock, that the sun would never rise on the earth ever again, and I would forever be stuck in those moments with little red faced babied who screwed their eyes shut and screamed so loud my ears rang. It sounds very silly in the calm light of the next morning, but that's just how if felt in those moments. Looking back on those dark nights I realize that my very worst moments were when I was so deep in the "depths of despair" (to quote Anne) that I forgot to look to God. I forgot that to ask Him for help. I forgot that my God would hear me and part the heavens, fly on the wings of the wind, expose the foundations of the earth to snatch me, little crushed me, up out of deep waters (Psalm 18). God has given The Man and I the awesome responsibility of raising, loving and training up these children of His, and He will help me every step of the way, if I will only look to Him. I try to remember to take everything to Him, especially when I can't figure out what is wrong with one of the girls or what I should do. God always knows, and He's always willing to help, though the answers are not always what I expect. No matter how demanding life is I need to clear a little space to maintain my relationship with God. I've learned to read my Bible while nursing and pray while doing most anything, and even leave little screaming people in their beds when nothing seems to be working and get a breath of fresh air or a glass of water and pray for the strength to keep trying.
Balance. I used to think that motherhood was all self sacrifice, like the story I heard of the mama bird who stayed on her nest in a forest fire when she could have flown to safety, and under her scorched lifeless wings where found her safe little ones. She died protecting them. I still do believe that motherhood is about radical, exhausting, daily self sacrifice, but that's not all it's about. I know of a mom who never stopped to go to the bathroom when her children were young and needed her so much, and she ended up really hurting her body. Somewhere there is a balance between being a good self sacrificing mother and taking care of yourself so that you have a self to sacrifice. Yeah, I know. It's a catch 22. Two key traits of a good leader are being ready to sacrifice everything for the cause, and staying mentally and or physically ahead of those being led, so as to be worthy of leadership. What a difficult balance! I may never learn how to walk that line the way I should, but I still have a responsibility to try.
Grace. I do most things all the way and when I fail, I fail BIG. It's bad enough to fail yourself, your God, and your husband, but it seems extra heartbreaking when I fail my girls. They look to me for everything, and that is such a big calling. Little as they are and though I know they don't understand I always ask the girls for forgiveness whenever I have fallen short of my calling. Then like Jacob wrestling the angel for a blessing, when the storm is past I try to find a quiet moment and look back on the situation and learn something from it, force my mistakes to become blessing for the future. (I read a wonderful post on this very topic recently). And after that the best thing I can do is move on, determined to do better in the future. I can already see that as a mother I will need to show myself grace often.
Blessings!c

Mama-made-easy Crazy cake

2010-05-27T08:01:00.000-04:00

I found "The Everything Book" at our local library when I was a babysitting teenager. I loved the book so much and never forgot it, always wishing I had my own copy. So with some money I was given for the girls (and yes that was an ok way to spend the gift money, if you have clicked on the link, its a book full of things to do with kids) I bought a used copy from Amazon (since it's out of print) and this is a little recipe from the book. It is perfect for those days when I know The Man has worked extra hard and I want to have a little something special for his dinner, just so he knows how much he's appreciated. I've made it several times in the last few months. And a couple of those times I even whipped it up while breast feeding one of the girls. There are a couple of things to love about this cake.

No preservatives or ingredients who's names you can't pronounce like a box mix might have
EASY clean up
Your kids can help...would be a great way to start teaching them to bake
You probably already have all the ingredients
Uses no egg or milk for those with food allergies, which also makes it less expensive
VERY yummy

The recipe doubles well for a larger crowd, in a 13x9 pan. You want to make sure you don't over bake it though. Every oven is different so keep an eye on it. You'll know it's done when you touch the top with your finger and and firm. You know you've timed it right if its still a little fudgy on the bottom.

Directly into an 8-inch square cake pan measure and stir together
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Then measure the following ingredients directly into the pan:
1 teaspoon of vanilla
6 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup of cold water
Make sure you stir it well and catch the corners of the pan so you don't leave any dry powder there. You'll know it's well mixed when all the batter is the same consistency. When that's done tap the pan on the bottom and sides a few times to let some of the air bubbles come up and wipe down the sides so it looks pretty and clean after it's baked.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 mins

As good as this cake is, it's REALLY over the top with this Browned Butter frosting. Sounds a little odd I know, but that just makes it better to serve company, since they probably have never had it before. It tastes almost like the toffee in a Heath Bar. These portions are just barely enough to coat the 8 inch square cake, so if you like it thick, increase the quantity. If you make it a couple of times you'll be able to tell the proportions without even measuring, just by how it looks and feels.

Browned Butter Frosting
3 Tablespoons of butter
1 1/2 Cups of confectioners sugar
1 to 2 table spoons of milk, half and half, or evaporated milk
Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat until it foams, bubbles and turns golden brown (if you do it too long and it gets little brown flecks, don't worry it will still taste good). Cool to room temperature. Combine butter sugar and vanilla. Beat to blend. Add 1 tablespoon of milk and beat till smooth. Add more milk a little at a time until the consistency is spreadable.Try it. It's shockingly easy, lol. Come on now, you know I have to throw a baby picture in there some how ;)
Enjoy!c

Mama-made-easy

2010-05-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

What's Mama-made-easy? It's meals that are easy for a mom with two small little girls to whip up. It's meals that I feel proud to serve my husband and enjoy to eat myself. They are recipes that have a lot of flavor but don't take a lot of time, and most of them are pretty frugal. These are some of my goals as a homemaker for my cooking: nourishing, pleasing to the eye and pallet, easy on the budget. I'm mainly posting these recipes for myself, as reminders of things to cook on days I just can't think, or when I need inspiration for meal planning. But I hope you'll find them inspiring too. Blessings!c

Breastfeeding

2010-05-22T08:00:00.002-04:00

Despite the 14+ feedings I do a day for about three months now, I'm no expert on breastfeeding. We had a lot of problems to overcome at the beginning. It takes a little while to learn the techniques to good breastfeeding (well it took me a while anyway) and it can take babies a little while to learn how to feed well. I had to be away from my girls and in the hospital not long after the birth, and pumped during that time, and I was on medication so the girls had to go on formula for a while, and I lost a lot of my milk supply, which had to be built back up. But we have worked through all of it, and the girls are growing SO good. You absolutely should get more comprehensive advice if you plan on breastfeeding, but here are somethings that I didn't find in the books.

Breastfeeding is not intuitive, or at least doing well without pain and bleeding isn't instinctive anyway. It's something you need help with to be successful at. I had more that one experienced mom help me with my latching and problems I had at different times in the learning process. Seek out women who really enjoyed breastfeeding among your acquaintances, go to LaLeche League meetings, or hire a lactation consultant. What I'm saying is don't be afraid to look for help. I would have never made it without some!
If breastfeeding is painful for you in the beginning use the breathing and relaxation techniques you (hopefully) used in birth.
It kind of like learning to drive a car, a lot of motor memory skills. And just like you weren't ready for Nascar after your first driving lesson, its going to take you a little while to get the hang of it. Give yourself some grace, and remember all the reasons it's worth it...you know the reasons, you've read them. But I must say now that I've got the hang of it...well breastfeeding is just one of the sweetest things. It had the power to create such a lovely, comforting, soothing bond between you and your baby. The first time your baby looks in your eyes and she rubs her little hand up and down your side while feeding and then relaxes and falls asleep in your arms you'll know it was all worth it.
Keep your fingernails cut short as you come closer to your due date. I think this helps with just handling new babies in general, but it especially helps when you have to unlatch your baby.
Get some lanolin for breast feeding (Lansinoh is a brand that is available at most drug stores) and use it after each feeding. When I was having pain during feedings I was encouraged to express out a little breast milk and then stand in front of a fan and let it dry before I put on any lanolin. Air drying can be very helpful. Getting some direct sunlight on your breasts each day is supposed to be helpful also is healing up an cracking and bleeding. Try heat or cold to sooth pain.
If you are having a lot of trouble with cracking or bleeding and are considering quiting because of it try pumping for a while instead of feeding, so that you can heal up. Pumping helped me get an idea for how breastfeeding should feel if I'm doing it right, which helped me know when I was doing it wrong and it gave me time to heal. I am told that breast pumps can be rented from a pharmacy, but I have never tried renting one.
Check your breasts regularly for knots or painful spots. Massage them as you feed to get them worked out. You need to take care of these as a clogged milk duct can grow into worse problems. If you have some knots that won't move try to get extra rest and fill a bowl with water as hot and lean over the counter and soak your breast i the bowl for ten minutes massaging it occasionally, then breastfeed as soon as you can afterwards. That was the tip that worked the best for me.
There are lots of ways to increase your milk supply. Mother's milk tea worked pretty well for me, but there are LOTS of ways to increase your supply. If you suspect that your baby is not getting enough food be carefully about running right to formula, as that could cause you to have even less milk. Your body increases the supply to meet the demand, so make sure she spends lots of time sucking even if you need to give her something afterwards. Make sure to drink plenty of water.
Keep some reference materials around on breastfeeding. Having a copy of "The Womanly Art of Breasting" around has helped me lots when I ran into an issue that I wasn't sure how to deal with. I found this article on latching really helpful. I wish i had read it before I started breastfeeding.
Breasting feeding can be a wonderful opportunity to do your Bible reading and listen to some great pod casts. An ipod has turned into one my small blessings in mother hood. I have listened to several books on librivox (I highly recommend this one, and this one, and this one...too much fun and very encouraging too) and of course this is the perfect time for the Homemakers By Choice podcast (it was such a blessing and encouragement for those weeks that we couldn't make it to church). If you need a little inspiration for all the cooking your not doing, ideas for quick dinners, and just plain old entertainment (even The Man, who's interest in cooking equals zero finds these podcasts interesting when he hears one) you must check out The Splendid Table, and if you start feeling horribly disconnect from the rest of the world (I couldn't believe it, there were major earthquakes that I didn't even know about until weeks afterwards, lol) you might try this podcast for a five minute update on the news of the day.
After I became comfortable with breastfeeding I was able to use a ring sling (there are some lovely ones at this site, though I didn't get my ring sling here, I did get a wrap carrier and the shop owner was MORE than helpful) to breast feed and do things like type up an e-mail, make lasagna, or soothe a SCREAMING baby in while shopping (covered of course). That discovery has been a real blessing.
I had a lot of trouble keeping the girl's hands out of the way while trying to get them latched. Swaddling while feeding can help you get through that stage if you have problems.
Lastly, breastfeeding is not just about food, but also about relationship. My two girls are different people and they interact with me and feed differently. Get to know YOUR baby. Learn to understand her and speak her language. I heard a story the other day of a lady who could eat anything while breastfeeding but deviled eggs, lol. It upset her babies stomach. Sounds crazy, but she figured it out. The best thing you can do as mother in most any area is know your child.

Photo shoot

2010-05-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

With some generous gifts from our church family and some "real" family we were able to do a photo shoot. I really wanted to do it so I could have some pictures of me with the girls since I am usually behind the camera. I'm so glad we spent the money on this, even though money is tight right now, because they are growing and changing SO fast. I can look at pictures from two weeks ago and see how they have changed.The day of the photo shoot was pretty crazy. We were able to find a photographer who would come shoot pictures at the house. I don't think it would have been possible without that! When one baby wasn't crying the other one was. And then we did some naked baby pictures...and of course Daddy got pooped on, lol. But what lovely images we have for our efforts!

Mum's Day

2010-05-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

This will be my first mother's day. How my life has changed in the past few months. Sometimes I just look them in the eye and I can't believe I actually have babies...much less twins. It's amazing to watch them grow. They are SUCH different little people.In celebration of mother's day I have a few little gifts for you. The first is a mot her's prayer calendar. What a blessed idea! I'm framing my copy to hang on the wall. It gives you a reminder to pray for something each day of the week. I've been praying these things not just for my children, but also for The Man and I, and that we will have the wisdom to train and instruct our children in these areas. The second is this amazing and simple chocolate creme brulee recipe. Really now, need I say more? We are getting milk from a local family so we had lots of extra cream and I added whole milk to that instead of the half and half...and we had fresh eggs from our neighbor Farmer Mike who seems to have some very busy happy healthy hens. They have the yellowest yokes I've ever seen. This stuff is gooie chocolate glory. I just ate some :) And to top it off it is such a nice easy recipe, but HOW impressive! This is definitely going into the impress a guest, love a husband, cheer up a moma cooking list. Oh and by the way, if you don't have any little ramekins to bake it in just use coffee mugs. You might think about toping it with some fresh strawberries. I was going to do that, but I got so excited I eat the whole thing before i thought of it, lol. (And of course you don't want to waste those egg whites, so then you need make some of these) May God bless all you mamas out there and all of you who are waiting and preparing to be a mama one day! c

Joy in the Morning

2010-04-30T10:11:00.007-04:00

Pretty much nothing about our birth story is typical...but then it must be that every birth is as unique as the people involved. We decided, after much prayer and thought, to fly in a more experienced midwife to join our birth team. God worked everything out as she was available and willing to come during our due date, and we were so blessed to have her. I had to work hard the last few weeks to avoid anything that might make me go into labor, especially my walking and yoga. I wish I could have done both of those things till the end, as I lost a lot of muscle and energy and felt far more uncomfortable when I couldn't exercise, but you do what you have to. After all the pieces were in place and we were sure everyone was ready, they induced me. I was fully dilated after about...man it runs all together...a few hours I guess of focused relaxing and breathing (our mothers outside the birthing room wanted to know if anything was wrong because I wasn't screaming :) fully dilated that is except for the cervical lip, which took forever to go away. I had to labor on my back and couldn't move around much at all so the midwives could control what position the girls were in. There were many positions I was interested in trying to labor in and on my back was NOT one of them. But it was for good reason. Every time they would check me there was a different baby and a different presenting part, lol. I like to tell people we had a Jacob and Esau birth. I labored in candle light with classical music playing and slept between contractions all through the night. I had back labor, and "front" labor too, lol. I kept my red and white striped socks on through the whole thing, a semblance of modesty I guess. It's hard to say when labor started exactly but we had around 12 hours of it. Penelope was born feet first and Celia came an hour later with a bigger head and her hand next to her face. There isn't any way I can really describe it all. It was powerful, painful, an amazing gift.

For me our birth is something rather sacred, it was about God working through The Man and I to bring people into the world who simply "weren't" before and now they are here. God created people through us, through love; how powerful is that?! It thrills my heart to think of it even now. The girl's birth was about learning just how great and faithful my God is, and how with Him I can do SO much more than I ever thought possible, that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear nothing because God is with me...and I repeated those words over and over to myself through that dark night.

The midwife told me in one of my dark moments, don't worry, the joy comes in the morning (Ps 30:5). And she was right. As the sun began to rise the four of us lay in bed together and all the hardships of the night melted away. I knew that this was the best way I could start motherhood, with the knowledge that I can do hardest things to protect and provide for my children, the knowledge that when my strength gives out God will pick me up and carry me to the finish line, and that no mater how dark the night gets, as children of God, we have the firm promise that joy WILL come in the morning. It's funny, even being a child of God has a different meaning for me now.

Here are some of the things I learned in our birth process, little and big.

Just because your baby is breech doesn't mean you need a c-section, though it might. There are other options out there, like in my case flying in someone who is knowledgeable and experienced in breech and twins births. Be your own health advocate and don't ignore your instincts. Do your own research. But most of all, seek God's face. C-section was not the best option for us. I believed it before the birth and I believe it now.
People always say how ugly you will be to your husband during birth, and I always hated the idea. I secretly (literally, I told no one) vowed I would prove them all wrong, and that I would not let pain make me turn on my best friend and the person I loved best in the world. I did prove them wrong. I never yelled at The Man even once in the 12 hours of labor. As hard as it is you can decide not to be hateful during birth...it's a waste of precious energy anyway.
Birth can make me an irrational coward. It my darkest moments I wanted what I fought so hard against: a c-section! Make sure you really trust your birth team and they have a clear understanding of your priorities and goals in a birth. I needed to be surrounded by people who really believed I could do this and would help me believe it too when I got lost in the pain.
The Man is no coward. 12 hours of labor. 12 of them. And he left my side only twice.
Hiding scripture in your heart is an unmeasurable blessing in life.
Drugs to dull the pain would really do me no good. It was hard enough to figure out how to push (since I never had the urge to push) it would have been impossible for me if those muscles were numb.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me, literally.
Good health through diet and exercise can make all the difference both for moms and babies.
The little details can really matter to me. Lip balm, drinking straws, and having my hair out of my face in a pony tail were all really important that night.
Saying WOW during contractions helps open the cervix. "Wwwwwooooooowwww" Don't be afraid to try things that you think other people might think are stupid if it helps you
Environment is VERY important to me: low light, music, no people i don't know coming in and out, and no tubes in my arm.
It won't last forever, even when your sure your are going to be in labor for the rest of your life, it won't last forever.
Natural birth makes for very healthy babies. Even with 12 hours of labor the girls came in the world bright eyed and lovely. The midwife said Penn smiled at her as she was coming out.
I can do what I must as a mom for the health and protection of my children without complaining.
Jello jigglers made with Knox jello, real fruit juice, and honey are my perfect labor food...and anyone who thinks you can go through 12 hours of labor without some food to give you energy is crazy in my book.

A day later The Man read to me as I lay in bed recovering and he came to this psalm, Ps 20, a psalm I had given to and prayed for so many friends in hard times. The Man and I wept together as we realized God had done just this for us:

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices
Selah

May he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans!

May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

O LORD, save the king!
May he answer us when we call

Going somewhere?

2010-04-15T18:35:00.001-04:00

Easter Greetings

2010-04-04T20:20:00.004-04:00

Hope you had a lovely day too!
Blessings!c

I know you'd rather hear about the babies...

2010-03-25T19:26:00.006-04:00

but tough nooggies (lol, don't you just love my spelling) because we have news that is wonderfully exciting! The house is dried in!!!!! All the windows are in and we paid a small roofing crew to put on the metal roof. We've passed another inspection and we're ready to start electrical and plumbing now! Ahh! We're getting so close! BEHOLD...This is the second story of the house. Lord willing one day it's going to be two more bedrooms and a little half bath, but until the money comes in for that we are going to be finishing and living in just the down stairs. The Man and I just love the way this space feels. It might be our favorite part of the house now. Aren't the gables just lovely? Can you believe how hard The Man has been working? I'm just so proud of him I could bust!The girls and I went out to the land for a couple of hours with The Man one sunny afternoon. I LOVE coming over the hill and suddenly our house appears. At one time there was an old house on our land, so I was excited to see if there might be any bulbs coming up anywhere, and I wasn't disappointed.Oh, we are getting closer and closer all the time and both of us are just itching to get out there in this house. Patience...the theme of my life right now *smile*.

For those of you who "Always wanted to have twins!"

2010-03-21T14:42:00.007-04:00

Just in case the last post left you with the (very incorrect) impression that I find being the mother of twins an easy job description, I thought I would share this with you.
The Man has hardly left my side since the girls were born. He's been my right hand, caring for me while I was sick and doing all he can to help me adjust to taking care of both girls by myself. I jotted down this log on the first day that he was gone, taking care of some of the work on the house. I started at 6:30, since one must start somewhere, but must mention that 6:30 was proceeded by a very difficult night which included holding a screaming Penn (we like to call her Screaming Meme when she's like that...the child has some lungs!) through the night.6:30 Breastfeed Penn and we both lay in the bed with me trying to snooze between soothing her little cries till
7:30 Penn starts screaming bloody murder (she's had pretty bad stomach issues). I put on sweatpants with one hand while holding her (oh you think that is no big deal? just try it some time), and head to the kitchen to bounce, pat, burp, and feed her a warm bottle of water and apple juice. Finally relaxes and falls asleep. I put her down and pour a bowl of cereal when
8:00 Penn cries again and I change her diaper. Her arms are flying everywhere so I swaddle her and sooth her back to sleep. I get the bouncy seat and put it in the crib so she can sleep upright and not spit up. Works like a charm until
8:15 Celia fusses. Diaper change. Feed...feed Celia that is.
8:45 Wake up Penn and feed her (to keep them on the same feeding schedule so I don't go bloody insane). I change her poopy diaper. Almost have a clean diaper on and a HUGE poop comes out. Change again. Don't have the diaper fully on and another, but smaller poop comes out again. Change diaper again. Thank God that we are using cloth diapers and all I have to do is wash these instead of wasting that many disposable diapers...which cost SO much, till
9:15 Celia fusses. Grandma holds her. I throw away disgusting, soggy, barely touched cereal from almost two hours ago. Stand in the kitchen like a exhausted ninny trying to think of something easy to eat that does go soggy. Peanut butter and honey toast and a pot of tea.
9:45 Celia sleeping fitfully. Swaddle and she falls sound asleep on the bed next to me (since the crib is full of bouncy seat). East toast, drink tea, listen to ipod and respond to some text messages while snuggled in bed (note: should have just eaten and tried to sleep) till
10:45 Celia fusses. I can tell she is working on a poopoo. I take her out of the room so she won't wake up Penn. Rock, bounce, and generally attempt to sooth. I set her on the bed in the guest room, still screaming, so I can go to the bathroom myself, and I throw a quick tooth brushing in there cause I know it's now or never!
10:50 Change Ceila's diaper. No poop yet. Still crying. I feed her till
11:15 Penn cries. I feed her till
11:30 Celia cries. I change her and she has the biggest poopy diaper I have EVER seen.
11:45 Penn cries and flails her arms everywhere. Change diaper and swaddle.
12:00 Realize I've eaten nothing but peanut butter toast. Put chips and grated cheese on plate and pop into the microwave to make nachos till
12:05 Celia cries. Swaddle. She falls asleep.
12:10 Finish making nachos and eat in bed room next to two, praise the Lord, sleeping babies. After which I realize that the instead of putting the cd player on repeat all it was on repeat song...and I've been listening to the same song over and over again for over an hour, lol.It's ridiculous and exhausting even to read isn't it? I wrote it all down so I could share it with The Man when he got back...which seemed like forever...since I knew, "I had such a crazy morning" just couldn't quite express how it had been. And beyond that I know all this hard stuff I am doing, the memory of it will fade, but I wanted to remember this one and all the exhausted accomplishment I felt when they were finally both sleeping. And know what? In all that, with all the tears that flowed from 6 till noon, I never cried, lol.
Trial by fire. Trial by fire.
Blessings!c

Little moments big day

2010-03-08T20:39:00.008-05:00

I slept between every feeding until 4pm when I finally managed to get dressed and the day felt like a complete loss...Especially since I had heard rumors that this was going on outside.

But thankfully the last part of the day made up for it. We had a bath today (as in the children. Me? Bath? Ha ha ha).
Think these girls might be a little different? You have NO idea!

And our first ride in the stroller. Dad and I proudly walked them up and down the driveway.

And it was so nice we got to do a feeding OUTSIDE! Praise God the sun still shines!

And now here I sit, tired but fulfilled. I fixed dinner for the first time since b-day! And Penn and I had an epic battle of the wills that lasted over an hour...but I think I have won. Both are peacefully asleep, Praise God for his mercy. And we started cloth diapering today. It's enough. More than enough. I'm off to the living room...and room I have hardly seen in days...to just sit...and breathe...and drink water so I can keep my milk supply up.

Oh, and btw- God blessed us all with FOUR HOURS of solid sleep between feedings last night! Can't ask for much more than that!

An update from the Bedside

2010-03-05T14:21:00.008-05:00

SO much has happened. There was the 12 hr labor. I'll have to tell you all about that some other time, but for now lets say it took a lot of energy & was a beautiful thing. I lost control & screamed only once in those 12 hours & I never snapped at anyone: two things I'm very proud of because they were such hard work to achieve. Then there were these amazing babies! Penelope smiled the very first moment she was born. And you can see how alert and beautiful they are. All I have to say about that is: Brewer's Diet, Brewer's Diet, Brewer's Diet! Then off and on came the full body shakes followed by dripping sweats, along with all my other bodily recovery issues. Breast feeding was going great and getting easier every day. And every day I felt a little worse. We thought it was hormones, those shakes and sweats. It wasn't. With a fever of 104 the midwife had The Man rush me to the ER and I was admitted to the hospital under the care of the good backup doctor whom we had gotten to know over the past six months. It was a scary hour for me, kissing my babies good-bye and going to the ER for the first time in my life. I had an infection in my uterus (like a bladder infection). This was five days after the birth. Nearly 30 years old and I was in for my very first hospital stay. It was the nicest, quietest, little hospital with the nicest nurses and it was just horrible, because I couldn't sleep. Every time I would, something would beep or someone needed my blood or whatever. Eight days after birth I was able to fly (metaphorically of course) back to the birth clinic and see my babies again. But now I had a new problem. I had less than seven hours sleep in two straight days...and that was preceded by the round the clock feedings. It felt like the sleep switch on my brain got stuck & I couldn't figure out how to reset it. It felt like my brain was flying 90 miles an hour & slamming on the brakes every little while. It felt like a bad roller coaster I couldn't get off & it just kept getting worse & worse. I wanted a sleeping pill but felt too guilty (as a mother) to ask for one. Finally I reached a very serious point where I was the edge of my last bit of brain power & logic. The midwife assessed me and gently suggested I might be getting a little "manicy" (not really the right clinical term we found out later but it worked for the moment). So the backup doctor was called again and he suggested some sleeping pills. Praise God! Sweet sleep! How am I now? Quickly/slowly recovering. Why am I spending precious energy working on a blog? In all honesty,I'm not . Part of getting my brain to relax & rest has been to write down the things that are rolling around in my head-so they can get out of my head and I can rest! Right now I am sitting in bed with a breast pump in one hand (we are trying to keep my supply up) and a pen in the other. I can't stand the idea of forgetting any of these wonderful days since the birth. How can I call them wonderful? LOL, well you see I haven't told you anything about the amazing spiritual journey of these days. God has changed me more and brought be closer to Him in these few days than He has in my whole life put together. And that's not all. He has done the same thing for half a dozen people around me through my hard times. I feel so honored to have been the tool He used for the others. God had to bring us low to lift us high! I weep tears of joy over just the thought of it (and it's not the baby blues, because The Man has wept with me) and praise God's name!
May you all be as blessed as I am and welcome the low times with open arms so He may lift you up!

Photos fresh from the baby farm

2010-03-03T20:36:00.004-05:00

We JUST took these pics within the hour and HAD to share! It's feeding time and we are waiting for our bottles!

Wait wait! I think I found it!

YES! It's a nipple! MILK at last!

Awww! MAN!

Isn't she lovely...both shes

2010-03-02T11:15:00.009-05:00

Celia

Penelope

Penn

Celia

Can you believe how lovely these kids are for just under 2 weeks?!?

1+1=4

2010-02-22T22:39:00.005-05:00

(Celia) (Penelope)

Praise the Lord our wonderful daughters have arrived! Delivered in the early morning of the 20th. Penelope and Celia arrived very healthy and well developed. Penelope came first breech (footling) weighing in at 5lbs 13oz, and measuruing 17 3/4". Celia was delivered vertex (with her hand at her face) over an hour later weighing 6lbs 8 oz and measuring 20". C did absolutely marvelous and is recovering well. She remains tired and sore, but doing outstanding overall. Thanks to all for the many prayers on our behalf. Our God has been mindful of us and our girls, and blessed us again and again these past 9 months and especially during the 12 hr labor. Praise His Name and blessing to you all!

Seasons

2010-02-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

Well, we've made it past 38 weeks now. No. No pictures. Just imagine the last picture but bigger. I've gained six pounds in the last two weeks...pack'n it on till the end! And from everything we can tell, that's not too far around the corner. After all I've finished almost all my to-do lists, so what else can I do but have some babies, lol. I don't feel scared or worried or even like most pregnant people I know crazy ready to not be pregnant anymore. I just feel ready and excited. But, I'm also not in labor at the momemt, so we won't count our chicken's before they hatch. So this will probably be my last post for a while, maybe quite a while. But rest assured that I have fully trained The Man in the skills of blog posting, and hopefully he'll be on here before we know it to post some pics, and weights, and names, and things like that. Who knows when I will be back. All my time is going to be devoted to figuring out how to be a mama (can you believe it???) which won't leave must time for blogging I'm sure. Please keep us in your prayers. Love to you all! c

"Wise is the woman who cherishes each season and cheerfully anticipates the next."
author unknown

Our life in approx 115 sq ft

2010-02-11T17:40:00.011-05:00

I thought I might share some pics of the "nursery". As we are currently homeless, we feel very blessed to have a room to call our own, for now, with my parents. I have worked VERY hard to try and maximize the space, while trying to keep the clutter down. No easy task, but a rather fun creative challenge as I have to keep changing things to meet new needs. Our under 1,000 sq ft house is going to feel like a mansion after this.

I put a lot of thought into what kind of baby gear might work best for us, both now and when the house is done. I opt-ed for a pack-and-play that will work as a bassinet for both babies (and got it almost brand new at a yard sale for $25...it even has a little noise maker/light attachment). When the girls get bigger we have another pack-and-play that was generously given to us and plan to use one for each instead of cribs. (Note the convenient location of the TUMS bottle and the ipod in the attached storage basket at the end, lol.) While the pack-and-play is at the raised height I am storing all the baby blankets in the bottom of it. Don't ask me where they will go when we have to lower it, cause I just don't know :)

You can see the two wooden framed images on the wall behind the "crib". They are a project I finished a couple of weeks ago. I had been thinking about times I've babysat for screaming children, and when I wanted to sing something to sooth the child (and frankly myself) practically every song I knew just flew out of my head, except maybe sometime very un-soothing like Jingle Bells. So I thought of some good old hymns I like and then copied them down (I'm afraid you can't see it very well in this little pic, but I wrote in all down in free form bubble script and it took me forever, especially when I messed up half way through!) on heavy water color paper and framed them with some very cute vintage baby wrapping paper I picked up months and months ago. The song in this frame is "Can you count the stars?" and it's an old hymn my dad used to sing to me when I was little. You can read the lovely old words here. Just reading them lowers my blood pressure, and that has to be a good thing for a new mama, right?

And lastly we have the girl's dresser, given to use by a friend who didn't need it anymore more. It's just the right size for a changing pad which we screwed onto the back. All the diaper changing supplies and cloth diaper stuff is conveniently located in the top drawer. We are REALLY hoping to make good use out of these, especially after I saw the price of diapers combined with the fact that with twins we can expect to go through 12 a day. Yikes! I know washing diapers is work, but so is earning money...to spend on diapers...to fill with poo-poo...) The step peddle trash can is our cloth diaper pail, lined with a water proof bag that can be washed with diapers.

So for now, this is our little home. And I must say, that even though some people would feel panicked about the levels of unknown in our life right now I can only seem to feel blessed, content, and frankly happy. Especially in light of some stories I heard just in the last day. One was a young woman (friend of a friend sort of thing) pregnant with twins and about a foot shorter than I am-meaning not much room for two babies. She has just been hospitalized with pre-term labor and she's not due till April. But that's just the start. She's newly married, and got married because she was pregnant. They are in debt up to their eyeballs, and...yep there's more...the day after she was hospitalized her husband lost his job. Or even harder than that was the pod-cast I listened to today about the mom who found out she had breast cancer about the same time she found out she was pregnant with her second set of twins. She beat the cancer during the pregnancy and then four months later had massive heart failure, and now lives with a complicated heart pump. So. Suddenly the of idea of being a new mom to twins while living in this lovely little 9'x13' home doesn't seem like such a hard thing to do.
Blessings!c

Unless the Lord...

2010-02-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

We're at 37 weeks! Do you know what a big deal this is? This means no prematurity. 37 weeks has been my goal for suuuch a long time. I almost can't believe I have made it. I have certainly had some big I-am-SO-over-being-pregnant "moments" (or meltdowns maybe is a better word). But even since then I've found if I can get enough sleep and I'm not made to go anywhere (and I really mean anywhere) then I can still stay in a fairly good mood and feel pretty decent too. But, that's said, I would very much prefer NOT to stay at this point for the rest of my life, lol. Everyone around here has started paying very close attention to me. If I stub my toe and say "ouch" mom will come hurrying over to the bedroom door and with big eyes ask if I'm okay. "*sigh* Yes mom. I'm not in labor. I'll tell you if I'm in labor. Promise. So stop it. You're driving me crazy." Lol Then the other night in one of my ten trips to the bathroom I blew my nose and The Man leaped the few steps to the bathroom out of a sound sleep with a gasping, "Are you alRIGHT?" So just in case you were wondering. I'm okay. I'm really really okay. Just waiting for the right time.
In other news the house has been on hold for about the last month, due to The Man being out of town and the weather, which has not been helpful at all. We've been very prayerful that we might be able to get everything dried in before the girls come. The framing was officially finished yesterday! Praise God! So now the last of the wall and roof sheathing is all that's needed to dry it in. But we are also praying that we won't worry about it, but accept and trust God's timing. He has really been so good to, bring everything together just when it is needed.
This passage below has been kind of theme for us, and our phase of life right now. The first time I remember really reading this Psalm and thinking about it, I couldn't makes sense of the abrupt change of topic. It seemed to be about two very different things. But after really thinking it over I came to a different conclusion. I think this Psalm is about where you invest your life. It seems to be contrasting the idea of giving your material life all your heart and worries with giving your life focus to family. It seems to me that God thinks investing your life in children is a far better use of your time and energy, if that is your calling, your heritage. Just thought I would share. Blessings!c

Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.

Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

36 weeks

2010-02-03T12:41:00.004-05:00

You know, I found out a little while back that 38 weeks is considered full term for twins. And that just tells you how close we are now. We had the ultrasound yesterday and I would say all things considered the results are good, and I still feel such a peace about it all. Thank you so much for the prayers! We have one head up and one head down, and that is a very workable situation. So right now I'm doing the best I can get to rest and prep at the same time. I've been washing all the baby clothes, organizing the room, starting to pack for the birth, finishing up thank you cards, buying those little odds and ends things that I still need, all that kind of stuff. If I have the time and energy I'll try to post some pics of some of my recent progress, but I'm not making any promises. Between all that there has been lots of sleeping late, naps, and reading (I'm already through two and half novels!). Generally speaking I'm still feeling very good and getting around just fin; God has been good! I'd say we are offically in the calm before the storm now. Blessings!c

35 weeks

2010-01-26T10:34:00.006-05:00

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I'm setting aside today as a special day of prayer for these little babies, with an additional special request that they both be head down by the next ultrasound, February 2nd. Blessings!c

Down shift

2010-01-22T10:43:00.008-05:00

I've finished the curtains! Whoo-hoo. That was such a big weight off my shoulders, and I might be as far as half done on the thank you cards, which is a pretty big deal. I've decided I have definitely hit a "slow-down" period. Most of the projects are done, or close to, or they really don't matter that much, and I'm just plain tired. I had a good cry, pep-talk, and prayer session with The Man that helped me work through every thing I have been feeling about the girls being breech, and that was an even bigger weight off my shoulders. I don't have words for how thankful I am to have him in my life.
So in the vein of wanting slow down and just relaxing a bit, I've been dying to read something, ironic I know, considering ALL the baby prep reading I have done. But I am completely burnt out on baby books. I don't care how good the book is, I've been reading about it none stop for six months and I DO NOT want to read about it anymore. I have missed some of my favorite books that are in storage, the ones that feel like old dear friends I have read them so very many times. At the top of such a list would be a few things by Gene Stratton Porter and most anything by L.M. Montgomery.
We made a trek to the library yesterday to see what I could find, and low and behold, the very very small local library had a copy of my very most favoritest (you see how much I like it? I have to resort to bad grammar to even attempt to express my feelings, lol) book by Porter, Laddie- A True Blue Story, which can be hard to find in big libraries. It really did make my day.
On top of all of this, one of my dearest friends is flying in today for a weekend visit with the girls and I. The timing couldn't be better! Well, I'm off to write some more thank you cards! Please keep the prayers up. Your words of encouragement have meant so much to me. Blessings!c

Breech

2010-01-21T11:22:00.003-05:00

Yep, still breech, both the little stinkers. We had the ultrasound yesterday afternoon. I feel even more disappointed than last time, even though we are only at 34 weeks and there is still time for them to change. I feel so confused. I never thought that actually being able to birth my babies would be so important to me, but it is, it really is. And I wonder why this is happening. I know there are much harder things happening all over the world to people, and that I should keep this in perspective, but I just feel glum, and there's no getting around it. I'm trying to remember that God doesn't make mistakes, and He only says "no" to His people when he has something better in mind. Please keep all three of us in your prayers: for the girls to turn and for me to be filled with peace over this. And selfish as it sounds, if you are doing this, could you drop me an e-mail or leave a comment letting me know? I could use the encouragement. Blessings!c

These are a few of my favorite things...

2010-01-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

Prego and baby prep things to be specific ...not saying this stuff is right for you, just saying that they were a blessing to me.
A note on the books and documentaries, though it should probably go without saying, there is nudity in some of them. Some how that just seems to happen when people are being born ;)

Books:

The Happiest Baby on the Block- (didn't read the whole thing, just the how-to. The dvd really cuts to the chase, if you can get your hands on it.)
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer
To Train Up a Child
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Active Birth

Documentaries:

The Business of Being Born
Orgasmic Birth (I know, I know, sounds smutty, but it's not. I learned a LOT of interesting things from both these movies)
Is an exercise video a documentary? I don't think so, but I'm listing it here anyway. Yoga for Your Pregnancy

Foods:

Eggs: the perfect protein. I've eaten an average of three a day for the whole pregnancy (which is saying a lot since I'm not crazy about them), and have had them every way possible: omelets, french toast, egg drop soup, homemade egg nog, egg custard, hard boiled eggs (dipped in a mixture of salt pepper and dill, think of it as a quick deviled egg), in tuna salad, poached eggs on toast, and most common in my chocolate smoothie.
Cottage cheese. 1/4 of a cup is a serving of protein or of dairy. That's hard to beat.

Maternity clothes:

This shirt. Can't you tell? It's been in so many pics over the last few months, and it still fits and is comfortable. I think it's because of the gathering on the sides and how long it is.
Prego stretch pants. Since it feels like I'm wearing tight clothes even when I have NOTHING on, it's been hard to find pants that I can stand to wear for very long. So I have graduated to the mu-mu...err I mean dress (it just looks like a mu-mu on me!) and stretch pants look.

Miscellaneous stuff:

Netflix- perfect for getting those off beat documentaries and nice long chick flicks for all the rest time I need these days
Our ipod- this has been great for when I can't sleep at 2am. Often a cd or pod cast will lull me right back to sleep, and if it doesn't then at least I'm entertained and not feeling all crabby about the lack of sleep
Belly Balm- has kept me for feeling crazy itchy all through this winter, which is saying a lot as big as I am getting, and it looks like it will last for more that the pregnancy (if it lasts for this twin-mama-belly it should last for you!). The only draw back is that The Man doesn't like the smell of it- it's unscented. I also have hardly any stretch marks, though I can't say I know it was because of the Belly Balm.

And now for a quick belly update: Lord willing I will go this week for an additional ultrasound to check the babies positions. On Saturday the mid-wife thought Baby A was head down and Baby B was head up. I suspect they are both head down today, but there has been a LOT of moving around. I've had a few really bad nights, but overall I'm doing really well and feeling good. I just have less and less energy every couple of days; I'm probably gaining a pound of baby a week now. That's a lot to get used to. I've also started seeing the chiropractor once a week, and it helps SO much. We're getting really close to them being here. The count down has already started in my head...and thankfully I'm almost done with those curtains! LOL c

Trying to make the most of the time...

2010-01-11T11:07:00.013-05:00

Shew! We are getting close! I've been working hard (as hard as a 7 month prego girl carrying around 9lbs of babies can, which means LOTS of naps and breaks and lots of time spent eating) to get some of the projects I really wanted to finish completed before they come. So it hasn't left much time for blogging or responding to e-mails. But I AM trying to get around to them all. So here is an overall update on the things here.

We had a lovely shower earlier this month. Family and friends where so terribly generous towards us. My mum-in-law organized the shower and did such a lovely job. She knew that I didn't like baby shower games and stuff like that, so instead she had everyone fill out index cards with advice for this next phase of life. It makes so much more sense to me to celebrate a birth as the transition to a new phase of life, instead of sniffing foods out of a baby diaper or doing a cross word puzzle, know what I mean? Now I'm slowly trying to work my way through all the thank-you cards I want to write. I really hope to get that done before the girls come, because I'm pretty sure I'll have no brain left for things like that afterwards. Oh and find places for everything to be stored too. Many of the gifts are still out in the car, lol.
We had our seven month check-up about a week ago. The girls both look great as far as their growth and measurements-higher than average weight even for a singleton (my mom loves that word-lol). But thankfully not too much higher than average. We did have some disappointing news: our good little girls who have been vertex (head down) for about three month BOTH flipped to head-up! which is not an ideal birthing position, and could mean that I have a c-section instead of a natural birth. I wanted to cry and really almost did; I felt so deflated. But thankfully the mid-wife gave me just the encouraging words I needed and the reassurance that there are things we could do to help flip them back around. I've spent a lot of time reading http://spinningbabies.com/ (btw- I did NOT find it to be a well organized website) which has a lot of helpful information on positions, we did a round of acupuncture involving moxi sticks which has proven to be over 70% effective in turning babies, and I have been asking everyone to pray (including you). Some people find it astounding that I actually want to deliver these girls naturally, and would see a necessary c-section as a blessings of sorts. But to me it's like saying you would rather like saying you would rather have an enema than go to the bathroom. If you need an enema I'm sure they are great, but if you don't, well just go potty for crying out loud!
Then there are all my projects. There are always things to be knit, for the babies, myself and a couple of close friends, but those aren't the highest priority right now. The project at the top of the list these days is Roman shades for the house. I'm one of those anal/picky people who doesn't like how a house looks from the outside when all the windows have different bright colored curtains, a rather polka-dotted affect if you ask me, and I also don't like cheep blinds. In addition to all this I don't want to spend a lot of money, because I am cheep! I've always liked the clean look of Roman blinds so after a quick search I found this tutorial on making them. Then I realized if I didn't want to spend some months living a gold fish bowl of uncovered windows I'd have to have these done before the babies came and before the house was done. As soon as we had all our windows purchased I went to this great HUGE local fabric store (if you ever come to see me, and like to sew at all I will completely take you there), where I found some fabric I just loved on sale. And when we took it up to be cut, there were imperfections in the fabric (imperfections I might add that didn't bother me in the least) so they took a dollar a yard off the sale price. We ended up getting well over 30 yards of light weight upholstery fabric, the really wide kind on a big roll, for $55! If you buy Roman shades pre-made one shade can set you back that much. So now I'm in the cutting and sewing process. I grossly under estimated how difficult it would be to cut such large piece of fabric perfectly square (or as close as I could get it to that), and I'm pretty sure that will be the most time consuming part of the project. One other thing we are doing to save money is putting in our flooring later, when we have more money. I plan to paint the sub-floor a dark chocolate brown. But I wanted some sort of rug in the living room, to make it more comfortable, and again didn't want to send a lot of money, so I've been chipping away at this project. Again the most time is spent in the cutting; I even got The Man to help me cut some of the strips. It's coming together rather nicely though I think.

So add to these activities weekend birthing classes, getting The Man off to work in the morning, with some good breakfast in him and lunch in hand, organizing our very small room for when the babies come, taking breaks and watching The Cosby Show and BBC movies, laundry, and church services, and....well you know how it goes, just life, life all the time. And all this time my belly gets bigger and bigger every minute. Praise God for all his blessings! Help me prepare for the days to come.

Blessings! c

Work day!

2010-01-04T10:02:00.010-05:00

This past weekend was pretty busy for The Man and I. I'll tell you about The Man's weekend first. We had a work day for the house! The Man spent several days planning the different projects which could be done that day, so as to get the maximum use out of the guys who were kind enough to show up early in the morning on a bitter cold Saturday. I am SO excited about the progress being made! I wasn't able to get out there this weekend (but I'm hoping I will get to tomorrow). These pics where taken by a couple of different guys out at the site and my Dad, who brought lunch out and offered to lead a few verses of "We'll work till Jesus Comes" lol.Lots of progress was made. They put up some front steps and a stoop. Note: we plan on doing a wrap around porch when funding allows; The Man says the tiny little stoop looks silly, but at least it will get us into the house :)All the doors and windows on the first floor are installed! Ah I can't wait to see it for myself!And about a 1/3 of the roof rafters have been put up, so getting the place dried in will be the next very exciting goal! Then comes plumbing, and electrical, and insulation, and....so on and on. Praise God for such kind friends who so generously gave to us. May God bless them all!

What a year!

2009-12-28T16:54:00.005-05:00

It's pretty amazing to look back on this year. There have been SO many unknowns, changes, fears and joys in the past year, and God has navigated us safely through it all. One feat I am particularly proud of in this past year is that I have read the Bible all the way through. It would have been really easy goal to push by the wayside with a new marriage, three moves, the miscarriage, and pregnancy that this year have brought, but somehow I seemed to keep up with it. Now don't get me wrong there have been plenty of weeks of 'catch-up' here and there, but the point is I've made it. It doesn't really seem to matter how much Bible study you do, you still need to go through the whole thing pretty regularly, and it had been a while since I had accomplished that goal. (Just a little note, I read through in a different translation this past year. It's amazing the little things that will jump out at you when the wording is slightly different.) If it's been a while for you, I'd suggest you think about making it a New Years resolution. It's been a huge blessing to me!Is that not the cutest baby bump? They aren't even born and they are already cute!

I love the beginning of a new year, that fresh slate, the anticipation of new growth. It's the perfect time to sit down and take a look at who you have been and who you wish to be. Almost every year since adolescences I have made New Year's resolutions (and cajoled/forced my little sister to do the same when we were little). But this year I'm afraid of try and make any specific goals. I do hope to hold onto my habit of daily reading, and to deepen my prayer relationship, but most of my thoughts center on the challenge of motherhood right now. Do you realize that a reasonable guess puts the babies arrival in six to nine weeks!!? This is by far the most exciting and terrifying adventure I have ever embarked on. I believe God has given us the family to teach us, to help us prepare for heaven. If that's true I think one large part is a new understanding of the depth of love God has for us, and another large part of motherhood is about death to self. I'm in awe of both things. How do you prepare for such a calling, despite all the books one can manage to read, preparations made, and piles of baby gear? Frankly if I think about it too much it scares me to death. I've decided to do the best I can, pray a lot, try to take just one day at a time, and try not to have too many expectations. I feel sure that despite the lack of New Year's resolutions, 2010 will challenge and change me more than any of the past years. Despite my fears, I know that these babies are a blessing from God, and I know can trust him to provide what I need to be a good mother. God help me to remember it in my moments of fear!

May God help us all to embrace the destiny of each day~ c

Merriest Christmas

2009-12-22T22:20:00.012-05:00

Are you having a wonderful holiday? I pray you are! I can't help feeling so very blessed as I slow down for the holidays. God has been so generous with us (despite the fact we are technically homeless and without any regular income), and worked through so many different people to bless us in this strange season of our lives. I couldn't even begin to thank them all. I know there are some hard days ahead of us; I know it. But you know what? "Hard times" don't mean you aren't ridiculously blessed. I'm still so blown away at how God is providing for us. We had another appointment today for the babies, and everything is still wonderful with them. I'm almost as big as a nine month pregnant person, lol. Can you believe it? I still do feel pretty good though, praise God! Lots of growing and sleeping and eating going on. And Christmas is really the perfect time for these activities.

Meanwhile The Man and a couple of members of his family have been really working away on the house. This was the progress by the 20th:And we have this great foot bridge (our Christmas present from The Man's parents) installed over the stream to the barn- where all the house supplies are.

I was able to go out to the land myself and see our new walls in person for the first time today.
And The Man and I had our first meal in the house together!Below is the view from our dinning room/kitchen windows. We've got a lot of windows-lol. But we got almost all our windows from a building salvage place, and tried to work with what they had is stock.And this was the progress by the time I left this afternoon. When The Man (and "crew") left at the end of the day today all the walls, interior and exterior where up! How great is that? I'm so excited about it all I can hardly stand it. It was so amazing to actually stand in the house plan I have been looking at and working over on paper for the last few months. I know it's going to be small, very small, but standing in it and walking through the rooms I couldn't help but feel confident that we'll be able to make it very comfortable. A happy little nest.May God rain down blessings on you all too!
Merry Christmas
c

Six month check-up

2009-12-14T07:30:00.002-05:00

Since I'm carrying twins, which is considered to be higher risk (btw- I read the other day that there is a 60% prematurity rate among twins, how horrible!) I have an ultra sound once a month. The visits are timed just right, because about a week before the appointment I start to really wonder and/or worry about how they are doing. Are they growing like they should? Are they putting on weight? Are they both okay? I've felt lots of moving, but are both of them moving? About two weeks before this past visit Baby A, which is highly complicated medical term for the baby positioned to birth first, turned completely sideways- which I must say wasn't the least uncomfortable or funny looking (joke). And then I couldn't tell what position she finally settled down into. The Man and I were prayerful that she was head down; we pray that God prepares them for a healthy natural pregnancy. If this little stinker (Baby A) isn't head down when it comes time to deliver then a c-section is necessary, so its pretty important to me.
But so far I leave every appointment with a sigh of relief and smiles on all my health care giver's faces. My blood pressure and sugar are both very good. I gained a little more weight than I thought I had which was comforting. And the babies? Just too darn cute! And both still girls, and BOTH head down! What a relief. Their measurements and weight and almost exactly match the averages, Baby A is even a few ounces bigger. I just love hearing that they are doing okay! So as of right now everything looks really good, and Lord willing things will stay that way. God has been very good to us. Blessings! c
P.S. As much as I have complained about it, I think much of the twins and my good health can be attributed to the Brewer's diet. If you're expecting I'd recommend you check it out, especially if you have multiples.
P.P.S. These pics were taken about a week ago, and it feels to me like I've grown even bigger since then!

Nursing Covers

2009-12-10T10:56:00.003-05:00

The Man and I have prayed a lot that God would stretch our money and help us to find good deals on things- both in building and in babies. So far it feels like He has been very generous in answering that request. A couple of days ago a friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a promotional code that let's you get a free nursing cover (a very cute one by-the-by) for the price of shipping. I thought I would share it here too just in case anyone else could use one- either for themselves or a present. So here's the scoop-
Go to https://www.uddercovers.com/ order anything you like, and then punch in the promo code "Christmas" and they will take $32 off your order. It's a little less than $9 in shipping for a nursing cover. And for whatever it's worth, the friend who sent this to me said she really likes her's. Blessings!c

Building update

2009-12-07T16:27:00.011-05:00

We passed our foundation inspection on the last day of November :) Happy happy day I must tell you. The Man (who had the blessing of his dad's help Tuesday through Friday of last week) spent Tuesday prepping and cleaning the barn to store our lumber delivery. Yep, so this is our house, some assembly required. They managed to get the sill plate, floor girder and all the floor joists installed before I could get out there to take any picture, so this is a shot of the underside from the crawlspace door.

And this?....drum roll please! This how far they got by the end of the day Friday! The Man built me a floor! And I walked on it too! Isn't it just the most lovely thing you have ever seen? And completed in such a short amount of time, for just two guys, don't you think?

You know what comes next don't you? WALLS! Unfortunately we're on hold for a week, while The Man is (again) out of town. It's starting to get exciting though! Blessings!c
P.S. That white-ish stuff you see on the ground is snow. How great is that? It snowed on our land. Makes me dream of the day we'll be sitting in this little house watching the snow come down snuggled up on a couch, with a fire...and probably a little someone crying in the background or needing a diaper changed or something- lol.

My bag

2009-12-01T11:56:00.012-05:00

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving! Can you believe that it's the first day of December? You know what this means? The girls will be here in just a few more months! I can't believe it! I go back and forth between being so excited I can't stand it and and sheer panic. But I've been steadily working, trying to get as much done before they come as I can. Every morning I wake up and make a to-do list for the day, in an attempt to not waste any of this precious time. This project has been on my list for over three months. Since I'm going to be pretty attached to a diaper bag for the next few months/years of my life, I had decided I would just make my diaper bag my purse. Since I didn't like the idea of a purse with balloons and teddy bears on it, and all the stylish ones seemed to be out of my price range, I decided I would make my own.I found the perfect bag in Weekend Sewing, a book full of great sewing projects. My parents were out of town for a week, and The Man was spending his days out at the land working at the land. So with the house all to myself (and quite possibly the last solitary week of my life for a very very long time-what changes have come on my life!) I decided to start this project. I left everything out on the kitchen table, and left myself plenty of time to try and engineer everything jussst right.The directions called for just one pocket inside, but of course that was silly talk. I needed lots and lots of the perfect pockets: for pens, cell phone, keys, diapers, changes of cloths...you know, all the stuff. I also got two super duty magnets (found at the craft section at wal-mart) and sewed them into the binding at the top for an invisible closure.

It took me a couple of days, for a couple of hours each day to get it done, but I think it came out pretty nice! I need to do a little re-enforcing stitching at the handles (with my contrasting kelly green thread-LOVE it!). I'm hopefull that it will be big enough, but a part of me knows that it doesn't really matter how big it is, I will always need more room!

So. One project down...I'm not sure how many more to go. I've already started the next one though, a nice easy one: homemade cloth baby wipes.

Homemade Christmas...mainly

2009-11-21T08:00:00.004-05:00

Between building a house and building twins, we are trying to save as much money around here as we can these days. So with my slowed down schedule I have been busy chipping away at homemade gifts.
Canned goods are high on the list this year: homemade apple pie filling, organic jelly (made from the peels and core left over from the apple sauce- stuff you might otherwise throw away- here's the recipe I used), and sugar free apple sauce (which is so sweet and amazing- we let the apples cook down for forever in the crock pot; it tastes something like liquid fruit leather). A neighbor of my parents had three high producing apple trees with the fruit just rotting away on the ground, so we asked if we could pick up anything that fell. You might think that we just happened to luck out with all this free fruit, but you could probably find a similar source next year, if you live in fruit producing country, if you just look. That's the key part, looking! I drove past the same places for years before I realized that there was a grove of pecan trees...that were going completely to waste, or a pear tree that year after year no one seemed to care about at all. You just have to get up the guts to knock one someone's door and ask if you can use what is going to waste. You can also look for gleaning opportunities. One year my mom and I were able to glean, for free, at the end of the strawberry season, before they tilled in the fields and planted something else. The fruit was all either over ripe or under ripe, but we picked away, and I have to tell you it made some of the most amazing strawberry preserves I've ever tasted.Knitted objects are high on the list too. Shawls, fingerless gloves, baby sweaters...all sorts of projects have been flying off the needles these days.
Used books and new from amazon and a magazine subscription also made the list. One gift that particularly stumped me was for my mother...she's always a little tricky. But I heard her saying how much she could use a binder full of those clear pockets that will hold a standard size piece of paper, to hold all the recipes she clips and prints from different places. So while she was out of town I made this (I used family pics with us eating in the collage too...copies of course not the originals) and gathered up all the stray recipes I could find in the kitchen and popped them into her lovely new book. So this one is an early Christmas present, waiting for her when she gets home.

Need some ideas for gift giving in this budget crunched economy? Check out these links for some great ideas!
http://gnowfglins.com/2009/11/18/chai-tea-gift-mixes/

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/11/handmade-gift-carnival.html#more-2402

There are a LOT of things in these links... I can get lost looking at all the good ideas in these links!
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=291

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=653
The list for this year is not complete yet, so more ideas will be posted in this link. http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?cat=25

Blessings!c

Building update

2009-11-19T08:36:00.007-05:00

I've been a little slow posting these pics. They are from last week. We had some family members who were able to come out and help for the day, which is such a blessing, since most days The Man is out there on his own.Thankfully God has provided almost two uninterrupted weeks home for The Man to work on the house (with decent enough weather to work in), and he has some help again today. He's hoping to finish laying block today. So the next big step is a foundation inspection...maybe sometime next week??? We'll see. And THEN framing! It's so exciting! I wish I could help with it more...but then The Man can't help me grow babies, so I guess it's fair :) c

Prego me

2009-11-14T11:24:00.005-05:00

We had another check-up at the end of last week, and both babies are still girls (sorry mum-in-law, I know you were still holding out for a boy and girl). Praise God, things look WONDERFUL! I've already gained 30 pounds (which is how much you supposed to gain with one baby by the end of your pregnancy incase you didn't know). It's one of the best things I can do for the twins- to make sure that they go full term. It's hard and strange to see the numbers on the scale go so high, but I'm trying to swallow down those feelings and focus on making sure that I do everything I can to get these babies here healthy. I was reading the other day, from one of the MANY books in that stack, that the two most important things you can do when prego with twins is get rest and eat lots. I know it sounds silly, but to do those two things the way I really should, it takes purpose and focus. I realized in thinking about it that even though the path God has been taking us down seemed all wrong to me at the time (moving back in with my parents was never a part of my plan) God has been unfolding his perfect plan for our lives every day. He's has put me in the ideal situation to see that I can achieve these things. I am so grateful that though our life changes so fast that I can't make plans from one month to another, I can trust in a God who can make plans for me.
We had two other exciting pieces of news from the exams! The girls weigh more that average for 24 weeks, just a few ounces more, but for twins that's wonderful news. And for the really big news: both of the girls are now head down, or in medical speak: vertex, vertex. This means that they are in the ideal position for a natural birth, and hopefully they stay that way! God is great! Blessings!c
P.S. I have had an inspired, yet not so very original, idea recently. You can see all the information I have been reading and gleaning from different sources. I was struggling to figure out how I would remember some of the things I have found useful in all my research. I could see myself thinking, "Yes I remember reading some good advice for how to deal with this," as two babies scream at the top of their little lungs, "yes, seems like it was in a book." And all this knowledge I'm trying to gather up would be scattered to the four winds with every head splitting scream. So. I decided to make a "Baby Binder". I'm photo copying key things I want to remember books, and printing things from the web, three hold punching them, writing notes one them if I need to, and organizing them in the binder. My own personal emergency baby reference :)

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

2009-11-09T09:40:00.003-05:00

I think the twins had their first fight, lol! The both of them spent about a minute pummeling my internal organs, my stomach and as far as I could tell each other. It was quite an event! And The Man is back finally. We spent a long time in a seeming endless rotations "Ouu quick! Their kicking, feel now!" and then minutes of complete stillness, when he finally felt one of them kick! By that point he had kind of lost interest, and was sticking his hand on my stomach just to please me, when he kind of jumped and said, "Was that it?" He said it felt kind of like a heart beat. Sweet little babies. I must say, even with all the throwing up I have done, and other umcomfortable things, I still really enjoy being pregnant :)c

Love of lists

2009-11-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've been thinking; thinking of how hard it to be purposeful about my live sometimes, to live consciously, even when I have so much to be conscious of it's still hard. How hard it can be to not be swallowed up by the bog of daily minutia! Sometimes just living daily aware of the little gifts is a struggle. But I think I'm a better person when I do. So I started thinking about all the little things that inspire me...inspire me to happiness, rejoicing, contentment, giving, loving, and patience. It's amazing how small they can be, and yet some of them are so big. Noticing the good things in my daily life helps me to live so much better in the big things. It helps me keep life in perspective.
I can't help loving lists, all sorts of lists for everything...and that's where my thoughts ended up. So here's the list of things big and little that inspire me (to help me stay focused):
1. Seeing, really really seeing. Looking up, at the clouds, the sunsets, the flight of birds. Noticing the way the light falls and the way it's quality changes with the time of day and the time of year and the place. Spending a little of every day enjoying nature, even if its only a very small piece of it. Looking for that one small, sacred, beautiful gift from God among all the ugliness if I have to. Enjoying the richness of textures around me. Good artwork, pictures that relax, inspire, or transport me, pictures that help me remember the people I love and the places I have been.
2. Music. It can changes the mood, lift up and transport or settle me down. Make me dance. Help me praise. It can make sunshine where there is none, and help disagreeable tasks pass quickly.
3. Eating. Good food, not fast food. Chopping it and roasting it and mixing it. Noticing the way a warm cup of tea makes me relax. Savoring the tastes and smells; eating slowly. Sharing these things with others and watching them enjoy.
4. Reading. It can relax and rejuvenate. It changes me, helps me walk a mile in someone else's shoes. It instructs. It helps me dream. And there is really no book like the Bible for inspiration.
5. Making. Baking. Digging. Knitting. Writing. Sewing. Planning it all. Even cleaning...at times.
6. Forgiveness. Few things strengthen my resolve more than true un-begrudged forgiveness. I don't always do better the next time around, but it keeps me trying.
7. Looking nice. Such a silly one, yet it can mean so much. Wearing happy colors on a cloudy day. Putting on mascara. Getting a hair cut. Painting my toes. These silly little things make me feel differently, better, about myself, affecting the way I interact with the world.
8. Prayer. It's were I take my burdens, joy, hurt, discouragement, failure, heart break, exhaustion. It's where I get refueled.
9. People. Some times they make you want to be more, they help you to know that you could be more, because they are more. Some times they make you so frustrated you are inspired to be nothing like them- the complete opposite. Some times you love them so much it changes everything about your life.
10. God. He's so giving, loving, patience, just... He's so much more than I can ever be, yet He's everything I want to be. Getting to know Him better, helps me to understand more who I am, how I should live. And certainly all the other gifts come from him.
What inspires you?
(For another fun list check out Rae's list of HOW TO PLAY and STILL DO your WORK)
May God bless you with and inspired and purposeful day! c

Guess what????

2009-11-02T18:04:00.003-05:00

I saw the babies move today! It was amazing! Both of them moved too. Now I just have to guard my belly so that no one else gets to see them move before The Man gets home, lol.

For The Man

2009-10-31T08:00:00.001-04:00

Even when you're gone
Somehow you come along
Just like a flower poking the sidewalk crack and just like that

You steal away the rain...
Don't know how I lived without you
Cuz everytime that I get around you
I see the best of me inside your eyes
You make me smile
You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild

That's from a song called "Smile" by Uncle Cracker...who is not my favorite, but it so well described the way I feel about you, that I couldn't help but smile, smile and think of you when I heard it on the radio today. Can't wait for you to be home. The girls and I miss you. LOVEc

Baby Research

2009-10-29T08:00:00.002-04:00

(these are just pretty fall pics...eye candy...nothing to do with the topic.)
When I got pregnant the first time, before the miscarriage, I couldn't figure out how to pick a doctor, and so I started to do research (I completely get this habit of researching things from my father. I think it's genetic, lol.) to try and figure out my best options. About that same time I ran across this blog post, which gave me lots of food for thought, though I still disagree with some of it. And that led to more research and renting this documentary on NetFlix which I HIGHLY recommend it to ANYONE who is pregnant and making plans in this direction. After all of this, I became fairly sure that I didn't want a typical hospital birth, but rather a midwife, birth clinic, or home birth option (home birth is out since we don't have a home, and I'm a first time mom with twins). I'm really glad I was able to make an informed decision about what sort of birthing care I wanted and what was best for me and the babies, instead of just doing what other people do. Oh and btw just in case you care all of this does not mean I won't transfer to the hospital care if it's need, but only if it's needed.

I said I would share some of the things I have been reading in all this research. I've tried to be REALLY picky about what books I read because I know there are only so many things you can learn from a book and if you read too much then you just end up freaked out and overwhelmed. So I did lots of research and took recommendations on books before actually spending the time to read anything. Here is the list I have gathered so far:

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth- This books was incredibly help full to me. I learned so much about how your body handles birth. The first half of the book is all first person birth stories, but not the scary screaming it was so awful kind, though they don't pull in punches either, just a nice balanced look at how a health birth goes. Until this book I was pretty afraid of giving birth, but now I'm not.
The Christian Childbirth Handbook- I've only read though part of this book so far. Of all the information I've gleaned out of it so far (which isn't much, because I haven't read far) I think I like the idea of memorizing scriptures for the birth the best. I mean when would you need the power of God more that giving birth?
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer- This one was recommended to me, or else I probably never would have picked it up, with a goofy title like that. But I wanted to find something about get your baby on a schedule, and this book fit the bill just perfectly. One other thing I really liked about it is that it talks about the different types of babies, personality styles if you will, and how to "read" your baby.
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding- A classic from the La Leche League. The idea of breastfeeding was a little intimidating, and the idea of doing it for twins is much more so. But it seems like one of those things that you mainly need to do and not read about so much. We'll see. My best friend loved this book, but I've been kind of struggling to get there. So much of the info on breastfeeding is mixed up with the info on parenting, because the two issues are closely related. But I don't want to practice some of their parenting advice, like co-sleeping for exsample. So it feels a little labor intensive to read through.
To Train Up a Child- This book was given to us by my in-laws when we married, and it's very good. Some of it is a little too hard core for me, but generally speaking I really like it. The main idea is that you take the time to train your child in private and not just wait till things go wrong in public and then try to hold it all together (something I know I would be VERY bad at) and train and discipline all at the same time. There stance is that there is a difference between training and discipline and if you train right you need to discipline very little in the longer run (and they have the kids and grandkids to prove that it works) . I've read though it once, not long after we married, I hope to read through it a few more times before the babies come, so my life won't look like this, lol. This book has given me so much hope and encouragement for parenting.
I hope to find a good book on baby sign language and to do some more reading on elimination communication or EC. You can read more about that here if you care to.
Blessings!c

Date night

2009-10-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

The Man, being the very thoughtful, nice, and lovable man that he is, took me to the symphony this past weekend (and it's worth noting that he really doesn't care for classical music, unless Bugs Bunny is involved, but he knows I like it). The babies kicked all over the place during the performance, though I'm not sure if that was due to the music or the tight panty hose. I think the symbols may have startled or excited one of them at one point, cause I got a strong kick right after. I think I may have been the only mom to bring my very young children out that night. *smile* c

Lots of building projects

2009-10-22T12:21:00.009-04:00

I have been spending most of my days and m&d's (mom and dad's). But yesterday I needed I break, and The Man asked me to come out to the land with for the day with him, which turned out to be just the change of scenery that I needed. I had the most wonderful day.

It was all misty and lovely in the morning when we got there, and I just sat on a pile of contrete blocks, knitting (I also dropped one of my needles down one of the holes in the large stack of cement blocks and The Man had to stop and fish it out for me), reading, and watch The Man work. The birds out there are amazing, singing and warbling all over the place. It makes me so happy to think we're going to be living on this lovely place.The Man has made wonderful progress. In this pic you can see that the footings are all dug, mainly through the aid of a neighbors tractor. Later in the day I was even able to help tie up the re-bar for the footings, which made me happy, because I wanted to be able to say that I helped build the house too-lol.Here's a pic of how the re-bar is tied up to little stakes, in case you aren't familiar with the process. This way when the concrete is poured the re-bar is perfectly in the middle of the footing. The county inspector came out and said it was best work he had seen in a while (yahh! for The Man!) and we were all clear to pour the footings. One inspection down, three more to go! Our county inspects new construction in four phases: footing, foundation, framing and FINISHED. The concrete is schedule to be delivered today. We are also supposed to get some rain today, but it hasn't come yet, and hopefully it will hold off till they get everything set. God was so good in giving us just enough sunny days to get this work done before the rain comes back.
Our neighbours have been an incrediable blessing to us during the building process, helping The Man with all kinds of little things. You should have seen them as they helped him put up the bracing for our temporary electric pole, lol. It was like The Three Stooges! God bless our crazy neighbors! It's so nice to be getting to know them well, and say things like, "Oh yes, those are Old Joe's cows. You wouldn't believe how much he paid for them!"and you really wouldn't.

Meanwhile "back at the ranch", as my dad likes to say, I keep chipping away at my own building project...or should I say projects...
Blessings! c

Girls!

2009-10-17T14:40:00.012-04:00

Even thought both The Man and I wanted a boy and a girl, I’ve found myself very excited over the idea of girls. For whatever reason twin girls seem less intimidating to me than just the idea of twins did. I feel like I know what to do with girls, which makes the idea of The Man’s next deployment more bearable. I know all about tea parties, and baby dolls, and that Anne is spelled with an “e”. And ohh the cute things to do for two little girls. One of my dear friends told me about this pattern available on Ravelry (a great website for knitters and crocheters, with lots of free patterns and other neat stuff). (copyright Kate Davies-she is the designer of this pattern called "owlet" http://needled.wordpress.com/designs/ for more info)

Couldn’t you just EAT two sweet little girls with sweaters like that on??? So I’m ordering the pattern today, cause I just can’t stand it. There is a free grown up girls pattern of this sweater too. And I love the idea of having one for myself also, but even with all the time I have right now to sit still and do something like knit, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen.

Despite all the incessant cloudy, rainy, drizzly, depressing weather I have been getting all kinds of things done these day. I must be in a nesting phase, though I have never really understood what exactly that means, lol. With Mom’s help, I have been canning apple sauce, and pear sauce, getting ready to make pear-apple jelly, we even made a large batch of burritos, tortillas and all, from scratch. A lot of work, but they are so good, cheep, healthy, and filling. The Man has been getting a lot done for the house too, even though he’s out of town right now. We finally have all the permits, the driveway is in, and the foundation is all laid out. I hope to have time for a more detailed update on all this stuff soon. Have a blessed weekend! c

Drum roll please....

2009-10-14T19:23:00.003-04:00

It's been a good day. With all sorts of nice things happening, but we're almost late for church, and The Man is going to kill me-lol. So I'll get to the point.
We have two very healthy baby.....
girls!
Can you believe it?!

What do you think?

2009-10-13T15:42:00.003-04:00

Many of you know that I did not want to find out the sex of the baby before it was born. It was rather funny. Since the time I realized you could find something like that out before the baby was born (when my old sister was first pregnant) I knew I would want to know. Till I got pregnant, and then all of the sudden I realized that I did not want to know before the birth; I wanted it to all be a part of the experience of birth. Plus everyone is so shocked and persistant about 'you just haaave to find out!' and I am ornery enough to enjoy not doing what everyone else says I must, lol.
But.
Since we don't know where we will be living, or where our income will be coming from, and it is twins, I have changed my mind. I have decided there is so little I can make plans about- I can't even get a nursery ready, and so many plans that need to be made that I am going to find out the sex of the babies.
From the moment I found out it might be twins, I knew it was twins and felt sure that it was a boy and a girl. This also happens to be what The Man and I would most like to have, though that's not really the important part. I have an ultra sound scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and Lord willing we will find out then. Any bets on the sex of the babies?

5 months and 1 year

2009-10-12T12:14:00.009-04:00

This past Saturday was our one year anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long already. He planned a trip, a surprise, to Savannah, where I have said several times I have wanted to go. It was a record hot day in Savannah, and we mainly walked (which can be a little taxing on a five month pregnant person, but a long afternoon siesta helped fix that) around town looking in shops and eating good food. We ate breakfast at The Express Cafe in downtown before we left town. Supper yummy food. You should try it out some time. That's an egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast bagel on my plate. Simple and wonderful. The Man came up with the, bar none, perfect first year anniversary present (which is paper)...a letter about our first year, which practically reduced me to snotty sobs. It hasn't all been easy, which you know if you're a part of my life, or read this blog. I counted it up and about 4 months of this first year we have spent apart from each other (if that doesn't sound like much to you, you should try it some time), and I know the years to come hold more of the same. But my dream of so many years, a marriage with my best friend, has come true. He thinks he's gotten the better end of the deal in this marriage, and I know that I actually have.
You can't ask for much more that that. I am more thankful for this wonderful, frustrating, loving man of my heart and for these children of his I carry than I can ever express.