We’ve utilized coconut flour around here for years. Coconut flour pancakes. Coconut flour bacon, egg and cheese breakfast muffins. Coconut flour blueberry muffins. And last but certainly not least, coconut flour lemon blackberry “donut” muffins.

photo credit: nikoretro

Since Sadie and I have been on a gluten free diet, however, I’ve begun to appreciate coconut flour even more. Here are a few reasons why I love it.

• Coconut flour is high in fiber. If you need a little boost in this area, this is a welcome thing. Of course, not everyone does – so you might want to make sure you combine foods made with coconut flour with plenty of fluids! And go slowly. You might not want to binge on several coconut flour chocolate chip cookies in one sitting, lest you experience bloating. Not that I would have personal experience with that or anything.
• Coconut flour is more nutrient dense than all purpose flour. Coconuts are a super food anyway and coconut flour is another way to get it into your diet. Incidentally, coconut flour does NOT have a strong coconut flavor. In fact I don’t notice it at all unless I use lots of coconut oil along with it. In addition, coconut flour doesn’t contain phytates like other grain and nut based flours, so it doesn’t need to be soaked or sprouted.
• Coconut flour has lots of protein. It sticks to your ribsmore than other flours. For instance, I could easily eat 3 muffins made with all purpose flour, but one is usually enough if it’s made with coconut flour. And pancakes made with coconut flour fill you up with no blood sugar drop later on. You can go all morning on a few small coconut flour pancakes. This is due to its higher levels of protein, fiber and fat.
• Coconut flour is gluten free. Yay! I’ve been using it in place of wheat flour as a thickener. Last night we had enchiladas and I always make the sauce from scratch. It calls for 1/2 cup flour, but I only needed about 1 T of coconut flour to thicken it nicely. And coconut flour doesn’t have a “gritty” texture like some other GF flours, and neither does it have a “beany” (yuck!) flavor of soy (double yuck!) or bean flours.

I get my coconut flour from Amazon. (I like Bob’s Red Mill and Let’s Go Organic, but others are probably excellent too.) I usually order several bags so I get free shipping. And if you’re new to coconut flour, don’t let the price put you off from trying it. Most recipes require just 1/4 or 1/2 cup coconut flour (even less for a pancake recipe). It soaks up LOTS of liquid so you’ll need more eggs and other liquids in the recipe, but it’s not as expensive to use as you might imagine.

Here’s a tip for baking with coconut flour: Mix your recipe and let it sit for a few minutes, then mix again. There’s no concern with overmixing as you might have with gluten based flours, and the extra mixing will help make the finished product less dense.

Do you use coconut flour a lot? What are some of your favorite recipes?

5 months ago Caleb decided that he was tired of just earning an (admittedly generous!) allowance.

He had a goal of earning $450 to get a vintage guitar repaired, and needed to earn funds, fast.

I set about brainstorming and searching ways for him to make money, and like a good little blogger I have to share them with you.

Ways For Your Homeschooled Teen To Make Money

• Babysitting.
• Yard work: mowing lawns, raking leaves
• Agricultural jobs: greenhouses, local parks etc – check state laws because some allow teens to work summer jobs.
• Lifeguarding. The American Red Cross allows 15 year olds to take the lifeguard certification class.
• Washing cars, auto detailing
• Walking dogs and petsitting.
• Summer day camps. Some of these hire teens as camp counselors to help with younger kids.
• Libraries may hire 16 year olds to stock and reshelve books
• Paper routes.
• Grocery stores – a few begin hiring at 14
• Selling on Amazon (books, toys, other items Amazon stocks)
• Selling on Craigslist – with a parent to arrange pickup at an alternate location.
• For the tech savvy – writing and selling apps or tutoring people in computer programs
• Plant care – watering and weeding indoor house plants for busy homeowners
• Guitar and piano lessons
• Tutoring younger kids
• Little League umpire or field crew – one mom told me her sons made a small fortune cleaning bathrooms at the ball park and clearing trash after games
• Pet pooper-scooper. Do the neighborhood you live in and beyond
• Assisting in family business – Caleb has worked for his Grandpa and his Dad and Stepfather.
• Sports tutor -help younger children practice

Caleb’s income generator of choice became a combination of working with his Grandpa, Stepdad and Dad in various ways, and selling on eBay. He worked out a deal to get rid of some stuff his Grandma had hanging around the house for a commission.

My oldest son with his fully restored 1960′s Epiphone 12 string guitar. And celebratory cupcake.

What are some ways your homeschooled teen has made money?

After I read Cure Your Child with Food: The Hidden Connection Between Nutrition and Childhood Ailments, I put my 7 year old (and myself) back on a gluten free diet.

I had already discovered that drinking pasteurized milk gave her symptoms. We drink raw milk, but occasionally she got pasteurized when we went to Starbucks and she would order a steamed milk. My system reacts the same way. Ever since I can remember I have had stomach pain and bowel issues when I drink pasteurized milk, but raw? I can drink several glasses a day with no problems whatsoever.

A particularly bothersome symptom, the nature of which is very personal so I won’t mention it specifically, disappeared immediately when I stopped allowing Sadie to have any pasteurized dairy.

This symptom had been an issue for many many months and was quite bothersome to her (and honestly, me too). Hence, it’s been fairly easy to keep her away from pasteurized milk.

Gluten is harder of course. I suspect gluten because several years ago I had extensive allergy testing  and tested positive for wheat allergy. This kind of stuff tends to run in families. She’s also having symptoms (coughing at night, and an occasional bright red nose that coincides with dark circles under her eyes) that make me suspect allergy.

After my tests, I stayed gluten free for well over a year. The only improvement I noticed was weight loss. (I was also going through a divorce at the time, so I’m not certain which was the cause.) Incidentally I’ve been off wheat for about 10 days and haven’t noticed my symptom improving. My bothersome health complaint is constipation. I don’t mind sharing. I’m going to give it a solid month before I re-introduce wheat.

To put it mildly, the issue of food allergy/sensitivity can be a source of consternation. Allergy tests are notoriously frustrating and even elimination diets can sometimes be confusing.

So I asked Kelly Dorfman, nutritionist with 29 years of experience and author of Cure Your Child with Food, if she would answer a few questions about kids and food allergies, and she agreed.

Carrie: What are some of the most common symptoms of food allergy among kids?

Kelly: First, I need to clarify that ‘allergy’ in medical terms means something that elicits a histamine reaction.  If you do not have a hive, redness, itching or swelling within a few hours of exposure to a substance, it not considered an allergy but a sensitivity or reaction.

By that narrow medical definition, it is pretty easy to see an allergic reaction unless it is deep within the digestive system. Just today, a mother reported to me that her toddler tried some black beans and within twenty minutes started vomiting profusely. That is likely an allergic reaction.

Food reactions and sensitivities are trickier because the reaction can be delayed or involve the nervous system.    Therefore, symptoms can be anything from stomach pain to mood swings to headaches. Skin reactions can happen a whole day after the food is eaten.

One of the most common symptoms I see that parents don’t think to link to food reactions is frequent illness. Another set of parents I spoke with this morning reported their son stopped getting sick every few weeks when we took dairy foods out of the diet. It has been a busy day for food reactors!

Carrie: One of the things I liked about the book is that it uses real stories from actual kids. Some of these kids had symptoms that most people would never connect with food. Such as: a feeling of always being hungry/lack of appetite, depression/bipolar, underweight/overweight, insomnia, etc.

Carrie: Why are so many more kids (it seems) having issues with food intolerance today? Is this just a fashionable diagnosis? A lot of people are doing gluten free diets, for instance, even if they have no real symptoms.

Kelly: I believe we are causing the problem by messing with the genetics of food and being poor stewards of the environment.  You cannot expect to dump 100 million tons of arsenic into the air and soil (which we did) and not expect it to come back to haunt us (hello, arsenic in rice). Unfortunately, that is one of hundreds of examples.

As far as genetic engineering goes, the dramatic increase in food reactions started shortly after the mass introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the food supply in the late 1990’s. Scientists warned the government that the kind of genetic alteration done when creating GMOs would likely lead to increased reactivity to food and it has.

Carrie: WOW. I’ve also read a lot about the hybrid wheat we have cultivated in recent decades being part of the problem. It contains more gluten, and food manufacturers put gluten as a thickener and flavoring agent in packaged foods, so we have more exposure.

Why do your books recommend supplements – especially zinc – for kids? Can’t we get everything we need from food?

Kelly: I don’t recommend zinc for all children but it is often low in the diets of picky eaters. Typically, picky eaters are heavy on the white foods: cheese, pasta, cereal and refined grains. Sometimes they will wash it down with a little fruit juice or even eat fruit but none of these foods contain significant zinc.

In theory, all the nutrients you need can be obtained from food.  In practice, this is very, very rarely the case. Intake studies consistently show that a majority of  children in this country have dreadful diets. And there is a big gap between what parents mean to give their children or think they are giving their children and what they actually are eating. Supplements, for me are insurance against modern living and a reality corrector. Other times, they are part of a targeted nutrition program designed to deal with a specific symptom.

Carrie: Why are allergy tests often ineffective?

Kelly: Because what you are looking for is very often not technically an allergy.  Allergy tests specifically look for a histamine response so if you are not having a histamine response, the test does not work.  Over half of the reactions people are trying to track down are not allergies.  Unfortunately, the tests looking for non-histamine reactions are not well developed. …yet.

Carrie: This means that the best way to confirm allergies is through elimination diets, which parents can do themselves.

How long does a child need to be on a restricted diet once an allergy is confirmed? Will they ever “grow out of it”?

Kelly: Usually somewhere between a few years and forever. Sometimes kids grow out of allergies but we are increasingly seeing kids grow into them. It is a trial and error process. One family took their son off peanuts due to a strong positive response to a traditional allergy test. It has been 2 ½ years and they asked me recently when they could try peanuts again. I sent them back to the doctor to retest peanuts to see if the child’s response is abating.  Only then would it be safe to try.

Kelly’s blog is here and her book is available from Amazon.com

Do you have food allergies in your family? What has your experience been like?

A few things that got my attention from around the web this week…

• Angelina Jolie had prophylactic double mastectomy. Her mother died of ovarian cancer, and Angelina has the genetic marker. It’s very, very sad that this is all medical science has to offer her. Here’s an alternative way of looking at it. <—- Worth saving.
• Why do I need to learn higher math? Show your kids this article when they ask why they need to learn all this math that Mom doesn’t remember how to do.
• The Feds are changing their tune when it comes to salt consumption. Traditional foodies have long claimed that salt is good for you, especially when it’s natural sea salt. Were the diet dictocrats wrong from the get-go?
• And finally, I loved this article from HuffPo: Do American parents have it all wrong?  I felt like I could have written this article. She mentions 3 things that I’ve written about here on my blog in the past two weeks: One, the Finns avoiding formal academics with kids under 7, which I wrote about here in my post on homeschooling. Two, that it’s ok for children to feel hungry inbetween meals. And three, Co-sleeping is also brought up. Apparently someone feels that, contrary to popular belief, co-sleeping doesn’t make your child a big baby into adulthood.

Awhile back, I wrote a post here about my middle daughter’s picky eating. Her eating habits were partially my fault, as I let things slide in the food department when I was pregnant with #5. Instead of insisting on her eating what the rest of us ate, I sometimes let her make her own food. Big mistake.

I became determined to help her cure her picky eating, and now 2 years later, she is doing MUCH better. Not only is she eating a lot more foods, but she is much more tactful when she’s served something she doesn’t like.

Reading Bringing Up Bebe and French Kids Eat Everything really challenged me and confirmed my beliefs about food that I had not been ready to implement.

Food Rules for Kids - Courtesy of Karen LeBillon @ http://karenlebillon.com/

For some time, it had bothered me that my kids had a “free for all” mentality about the kitchen.

In France, parents are in charge of food. Most American parents think that children need to snack every couple of hours, and that idea is supported by our favorite celebrity Pediatricians. I remember where this idea came from in my parenting journey – none other than attachment parenting guru Dr. William Sears. While I love his other ideas, the suggestion to let toddlers and preschoolers “graze” constantly probably led, in part, to my children’s developing tooth decay at a young age.

This constant snacking is also partially responsible for the increasing weight problems American youngsters have. Think about it: everywhere you see parents, you see snacks. It seems that noone can even run an errand with a child without taking food along to keep the child sated. I really think this is a bad habit that creates poor eating habits later on in life. Food=distraction, a remedy for boredom. Americans are constantly snacking, and the results are obvious.

So after reading these two books and talking with hubs, we make a family pact to eat only at approved times: breakfast, lunch, teatime (“gouter”) and supper.

It’s not that we starve our kids, it’s just that we encourage them to fill up at mealtimes and let their bellies rest inbetween. When you have a large family, what might be tolerable for one or two kids becomes intolerable when there are several.

Having 7 kids snack whenever they feel like it with no regard to our family schedule or budget is chaotic. It also creates many extra messes.

So that was the first change.

Then, we had conversations about how to tell mom we didn’t like something we were being served. The kids are great about thanking me for cooking a nice meal for them, but occasionally the picky child would loudly complain about the offerings. We gently pointed out the proper way to tell me that you don’t like something:

“Thanks for dinner mom. I’m not a big fan of ___, but the ___ was delicious.”

Or somesuch.

Limiting snacking meant that kids arrived at the table hungrier.

This was especially helpful with the toddler, who was making mealtimes a nightmare with bad behavior. Ensuring that she was truly hungry when we sat down to dinner meant that she would EAT instead of pestering her daddy and creating Oscar-worthy drama.

Initially they complained of being hungry inbetween meals, to which I would cheerfully reply, “Good! Hunger is the best spice!” I said that often enough that they quit complaining.

With the 10 year old, I also stopped letting her prepare alternate food for herself. In addition to pickiness, she has a sweet tooth and has trouble with self-control (meaning, if there is anything sweet in the house that’s meant to be doled out a little bit at a time, she will sneak and eat it ALL). We had to work on that too.

Another change we made was enforcing a “polite bite” rule.

I don’t ever require the kids to finish everything on their plates. In fact, if I’m serving something I know a particular person doesn’t care for, I give them a tiny serving, or even a teaspoonful. But they do have to TASTE the item in question.

After many months of this, I’m pleased to announce that the former 8 year old, now 10 year old, is no longer in the category of “picky eater”. At least, not out loud.

She willingly eats: mushrooms, shrimp, onions, parsnips, turnips, greens, broccoli, green peppers, brussels sprouts, asparagus, leeks, and even liver (though I usually sneak that last one into the food, she knows it’s there).

I memorized the phrase “You don’t have to love it, but you do have to eat it.”

We talked a lot about how food is a blessing, and how for most of history, people struggled to get enough food. And how it’s still that way in much of the world. I also shared that there were things I didn’t love, but I sometimes ate them anyway because other people liked it, and because it’s good food.

And I ate a beet.

Y’all.

That’s a big deal, because beets are literally the only food that I cannot stand.

But I ate it, and it wasn’t that horrible. I roasted the beets in the oven with olive oil and salt, along with potatoes and carrots, and found them palatable that way. Which brings me to my next point:

Try it served another way.

Even when my kids know there is liver in a dish, they still eat it, probably because it’s been served to them enough times. If your child hates a particular food, keep it on the menu rarely – in small portions, and served different ways. And require “just one bite”.

Don’t get emotional.

This one is a biggie. When I was pregnant and emotional At certain times, it’s hard when your child rejects food you’ve lovingly prepared. Keeping emotions out of it prevents mealtime from being a warzone. That’s stressful for everyone and it only makes the picky person dig in more. Take a deep breath and remember that most kids grow out of pickiness no matter what you do. (But educating their palate in the meantime is still the right thing for several reasons.)

It helped me to reframe picky eating from a “discipline” problem to an “education” problem. In other words, my child was picky because I hadn’t educated her taste buds properly. (Incidentally this is how French parents view food – as a matter of training and education.)

And finally..

Praise progress.

I made it a point to put my arm around my daughter and thank her for eating a food she wasn’t crazy about. It really made a difference for her. Mealtime came to be a good type of challenge for her and a place for her to feel good.

More posts about kids and eating:

• Why teach your kids to cook?
• Help for eating issues

Helpful books on how to cure picky kids:

• French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters
• The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution: Gentle Ways to Encourage Your Child to Eat—and Eat Healthy

Note: After I wrote this post I got an email announcing that from May 12-19, You Can Do It Too! – 25 Homeschooling Families Share Their Stories is on sale for .99.

What perfect timing! YCDIT is packed with stories of parent’s homeschooling experiences and journeys. It’s wonderful for anyone just starting out or for more seasoned homeschoolers who just need a little shot in the arm. Go here to pick it up. It’s a hefty ebook, I’m still working my way through my copy.

Homeschooling: How To Get It All Done

I’m at a season of life in which getting our homeschooling done before 2 PM each day is happening consistently without any stress or hair pulling on my part.

This hasn’t always been the case!

Things can get a little tough during life changes like morning sickness, a new baby, a child going through a difficult stage (academically or otherwise), or for some other reason.

One of the recurring questions I see on homeschooling message forums is a desperate cry from new or just burnt out parents asking “How do you get it all DONE?!”

If you’re a homeschooling parent who is having trouble managing your day, I hope the following tips will help you. These are things I’ve learned along the way that, when I remember to practice them myself, make a huge difference.

The first three are part of my overall philosophy of education, others are daily disciplines.

If you’re skimming this article, here are the tips in bullet form. For more, scroll down and read.

• No formal education until age 7
• Know your why
• Teacher, know thyself
• Keep to 4 subjects a day
• Don’t be afraid to skip
• Set a time limit
• Create “must do” checklists
• Minimize busywork and teacher-intensive curriculum
• School year round
• Limit options
• Use audio books
• Meal plan
• Chores and housekeeping
• Sunday night homeschool prep
• Stay off the computer until schoolwork is done

No Formal Education Until 7

This is a big one. In many developed countries (France and Finland come to mind), there is little to no formal instruction before a child is 7. And yet Finland has the most literate citizens in the world, and French schools are notoriously tough. Recently I was reading a post by a stressed out homeschooling mom on a popular forum. She was struggling with getting all the subjects covered each day, and mentioned that she often can’t squeeze in history with her Kindergartener.

Gulp.

History and Kindergarten are two words that do not go together in my household!  (Of course, a 5-6 year old is going to get some history from the books I read to them, family Bible reading and study, etc…)

My Kindergarteners are learning how to read, playing outside, getting dirty and generally figuring out how to behave themselves appropriately. It’s very important for kids to spend a lot of time exercising their bodies and exploring their world before we require them to sit still and exercise their minds. Charlotte Mason had a lot to say on this subject, and so do a lot of modern day experts.

And just because I don’t require formal schooling, doesn’t mean the child isn’t learning a ton. They’re being read to a lot, asking lots of questions, doing early math through play, hearing me teach the others, figuring things out on their own, and they pick up a ton of knowledge this way. This summer I’ll be teaching my 3 year old phonics and some preschool math… only because she is ready and really wants to, and this will be fun for both of us. But it’s not a requirement.

Know Your Why

It’s not just kids who want to know “Why do I have to diagram sentences Mom!?” or “Why do I have to do this math when you don’t even understand it Mom!?”. We as teachers need to understand our why. Periodically I like to assess my overarching goals and values with homeschool. Developing a homeschool philosophy helps keep you from burnout.

Keep To 4 Subjects A Day

Interestingly, in the state where I live, homeschoolers are required to teach only 5 subjects: reading, language arts, math, social studies (which used to be called History), and science. How you handle this is up to your discretion. If you read and discuss a book about botany, that’s science AND reading. And if you do copywork and narration and dictation based on that book, it’s science, reading and language arts. Many subjects have a lot of overlap.

In our homeschool, we’ve found that it works well to do some subjects every day (math), and some subjects every other day (history). “Content subjects” such as literature, history and science don’t have to be done daily, whereas “skill subjects” like math and writing are best done every day. You can even focus on one content subject such as history or science on one day a week and do all of the lessons on that day. Some parents even enroll their children in a co-op or class for a few weeks a year to tackle a subject they don’t like or can’t seem to get to.

Don’t Be Afraid to Skip It.

If your curriculum has a lot of repetition, don’t be afraid to skip around. Some kids need tons of repetition, some don’t. (And they might need repetition in some subjects and not others.) Don’t be afraid to fast forward or skip around if your child has “got it”.

Set a Timer

In a school setting, subjects are divided into periods or classes. When the bell rings, students move on, no matter how much was accomplished. It might work for you to set a timer for your subjects – when the time is up, you’re done. Move on.

Create a “Must Do” Checklist

- and check things off as they’re completed. This could be a large dry erase board, a Kanban style board, or a simple computer document you print out and keep handy. I did this for a time, after the baby was born. Mostly because I needed the visual aid to remember what we were supposed to do every day. If you’re the kind of person who needs to check things off a list, create one to keep yourself on track.

Teacher, Know Thyself

Are you a plan ahead for the entire year person? Or do you do better planning monthly or weekly? I have a loose plan written before the beginning of the new school year, but I update and change things probably quarterly, if for no other reason than I get bored.

Minimize Busywork and Teacher-Intensive Curriculum

I don’t do unit studies because they require too much gathering of materials. At this stage, I need an “open and go” curriculum. I also make sure that everything my kids do for school really counts. That means reading real books together instead of doing “reading comprehension” workbooks.

School Year Round

We don’t currently do this, but it’s a great option so you can relax a little.

Limit Options

This won’t help you with moment by moment teaching, but it does minimize stress overall. Put blinders on. Behavioral economists have taught us that too many choices cause stress and unhappiness. If you tend to get stressed when reading homeschooling blogs, perusing Pinterest, attending homeschool conventions, or subscribing to “deal” sites for homeschool (I recently unsubscribed to Educents for this reason!), then forget it all. Once you’ve chosen your curriculum, STOP looking. Only let yourself look to these resources if you have a real need for something new. There is no perfect curriculum, so stop searching for it.

Audio Books

Using audio books when you are otherwise occupied (such as in the car, during meals or quiet time, or while doing housework) is a great way to get more done. We listen to Story of the World CDs while running errands to review history lessons. These are available on the Peace Hill Press website or Amazon. First Language Lessons audio companion (also from Peace Hill Press) teaches grammar. I just ordered this for my 1st grader. You can find free audio books online or at your library. They’re a great way to get more “reading” in.

Meal Plan

My entire day goes better if I know what’s for dinner. I make my meal plan on Sunday nights for the following week. It’s a few minutes very well spent.

Schedule Chores And Housekeeping

Some people do better if they get right into schooling before housework, because they’ll get distracted and never begin. Others need to have a semblance of tidy or their brains won’t work properly. I’m in the second camp for the most part. We do a quick cleanup of the kitchen and dining room and my oldest starts laundry after breakfast. Then I ignore the messes until later when schooltime is over.

Sunday Night Prep.

This is a habit I’ve had for some time that has proved invaluable. On Sunday night I sit down with my notebook and make my to-do list for the next week. I also think about what we’ll be doing in our homeschool then too. If you take a few minutes to print out worksheets you’ll need, make a list of library books to check out (or reserve them online), set goals, think about what supplies you’ll need for science or history activities etc – you enter your week with a proactive instead of reactive mindset.

Stay Off the Computer Until After Schoolwork is Done

This is perhaps the most important tip of all!

(Not to be confused with first world problems.)

Victoria said her first word yesterday. And of course it’s….

… DaDa.

That’s all right baby.

I was only the one who carried you for 69 weeks of years, and who experienced the precipitous labor and all. I’m the one who has had to lose 40 pounds to get back into her size 6′s and whose biceps scream at her at the end of the day. And who has nursed you all night long every night since. And I’m the one who has been whispering “mama” in your ear for two months.

But I’m not bitter.

Or anything.

Why do so many babies say DaDa first?

She’s also saying something that sounds like “hungry”. I sat down to feed her yesterday, telling hubby “she’s hungry”.

“Unga!”

And there’s ba-ba, and bwa-bwa (brother?). And mum-mum.

And hubby swears she said “Vika” the other day, which is one of the incarnations of Victoria. She’ll probably be 3 before she can say that.

Of course, she is still a budding genius despite her choice of first words. Do you know what she’s doing in these pictures?

She’s trying to make that toy spin. She’s seen her big brother do it, so she throws it and puts a little twist on it. Sometimes she succeeds!

Accompanying "BwaBwa" on Guitar

She’s the light of our lives.

• 1 cup of moldy mixed veggies – another casualty of “forgotten leftovers” in the fridge
• half a pan of soaked oatmeal – my kids like oatmeal, but the leftovers sat out overnight and got moldy fast. I can’t ever seem to get oatmeal right. I always make too little or too much, it’s never the right amount.
• half a bag of English cucumbers – oops. Forgot to make that salad I planned.
• 4 rotten bananas – the weird thing about these is that they never turned black. The peels just split open to reveal mushy, slimy bananas. And because gnats have taken over the kitchen at the moment, I didn’t want to save them for muffins or banana bread.

Well … progress, not perfection.

I am loving our farm share so far. The best benefit is that we are eating more vegetables that I wouldn’t normally buy. Like turnips, which are delicious cooked and mashed with apples, salt and butter. And lots of leafy greens. Which we do eat, but we’re eating more of so they won’t go bad.

For a week (at least), beginning Thursday, my 7 year old and I are on a wheat free diet. The book Cure Your Child with Food: The Hidden Connection Between Nutrition and Childhood Ailments has convinced me to give it another go.

This is a wonderful book by the way. If your child has any perplexing symptoms and your doctor can’t find anything wrong… give it a read. Food allergies can cause such a dizzying array of problems. From ear infections to sinus issues to depression, hyperactivity, insomnia, constipation, stomach pain… and more.

I have a confirmed allergy (blood tests, etc) and strongly suspect she does too. She went off wheat for a long time, and still had some annoying symptoms… but this was because she also reacts to pasteurized milk. Raw milk causes her no problems. I’m glad ALDI has begun selling gluten free products, so I can stock up inexpensively.

My oldest son just had to make deep fried Newman-O’s tonight. ARGH!!

I find it amusing when scientific research supports what parents do naturally, when they aren’t overthinking things.

A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found that cleaning a recently dropped pacifier with your saliva-meaning you put it in your mouth before inserting it back into your baby’s-may actually help strengthen your child’s immune system and keep them from developing certain allergies.

“At 18 months the children whose parents licked the pacifiers had one-third the risk of developing eczema compared to children whose parents used a different cleaning method.”

I find this hilarious. My sister, who had 4 boys like stairsteps, often told a joke about a mother’s ever-lowering standards as she adds more babies to her brood. It goes like this:

When the first baby drops the pacifier, you pick it up, boil it, and hand it back to the baby. When the second baby drops the pacifier, you pick it up, rinse it under the tap, and hand it back to the baby. When the third baby drops the pacifier, you pick it up, lick it off, and hand it back to the baby. When the fourth baby drops the pacifier, you take it out of the dog’s mouth and hand it back to the baby.

“Research has shown that babies need to be exposed to a wide variety of bacteria, viruses and other organisms to help their immune systems develop and mature properly. If this doesn’t happen early, the baby’s system tends to overreact to harmless particles like cat hair, pollen, or various foods, treating them as if they are dangerous, which can lead to allergies. Our emphasis to keep things exceedingly clean over the last few decades may actually be depriving a baby’s immune system of some of the organisms it needs to help it thrive, according to the study.”

There’s also evidence that children who live on farms are healthier, as well as kids who have several siblings, as well as those who grew up with pets. This study is an interesting counterpoint to one several years ago that seemed to suggest that kissing your baby was a bad idea because you could give them germs that cause tooth decay.

(Bacteria isn’t really responsible for tooth decay, but whatever.)

I wonder how many parents who read that info stopped kissing their babies because they trusted “experts” whose opinions flip flop around constantly?

None of my kids has ever taken a pacifier, but that’s not the point. Studies like this are the reason I don’t do hand sanitizer or use “sanitizing” cleansers in my home. And also why I don’t freak out if my 8 month old crawls under the dining room table and finds a bit of food her sister didn’t sweep up.

I find the comments on the above link hilarious too. The parents seem split down the middle, into two camps: the OCD germ freaks and the more laid-back ones.

Which camp do you fall into?

A few articles that impressed me this week:

• Have you seen these photos? Convicting, enlightening, and a wee bit sad. A good discussion starter with the kids. Where children sleep
• WellnessMama wrote a comprehensive post on natural alternatives to hormonal contraceptives
• An excellent article on gauging the odds and costs of breast cancer health screening from an economist’s point of view.

“A FEDERAL advisory panel recently set off a controversy by recommending that most women without special risk factors delay breast cancer screening until they turn 50, not 40 — and that mammograms then take place only every other year.”

There are only a few HOURS left to nab the Homemaker’s Ebook Bundle. I can hardly wait to begin delving into mine.

Have a great weekend!

Two of my favorite bloggers have written posts lately about baby sleep that I enjoyed.

Kim at LifeInaShoe linked to a tongue-in-cheek article on the dangers of reading baby sleep manuals.

And Headmistress of the Common Room shares links to research debunking the myth that cosleeping increases SIDS risk. Because it doesn’t. And the study that seemed to show a link was done in a very unscientific, crappy (that’s the scientific term) manner. They included babies who died while sleeping with a drunk, high, morbidly obese, sick parent or who were sleeping with an adult on a sofa or chair, or with siblings. Those scenarios aren’t safe, period.They shouldn’t have been included in the study.

Safe co-sleeping IS safe.

Everyone in developed countries is too worried about baby sleep.

Parents think that where baby sleeps and how s/he gets to sleep is terribly important and has repercussions and ramifications in their adulthood, when it just doesn’t and just isn’t. After my own unscientific, anecdotal, 15 years long research on 6 babies (and 7 kids, because while I didn’t raise my stepdaughter from infancy I can still think about how her sleep was handled), I’ve come to this conclusion.

I do it like they did in Luke 11:5-7. You might not get the point depending on what translation/version you read, but the family in Jesus’ example was co-sleeping. Which is what EVERY family did back then, and still does in probably 80% of the world. If co-sleeping was unsafe or wicked or detrimental to the marriage, then Jesus wouldn’t have mentioned it in this light.

No mammal leaves its baby alone at night except human mothers who read parenting books instead of listening to her God-given instincts and hormones.

Now, if your baby slept perfectly well (and you slept well) in a crib in another room, that’s fine too… I don’t judge anyone. But I also don’t accept the harsh criticism and judgment of parents and so-called experts who judge me for co-sleeping, and who claim erroneously that I am putting my baby at risk.

Most of my babies only napped well in my arms or near my body or at my breast, and they’re all (save the baby of course) out of my bed and sleeping through the night and don’t have sleep “issues”. And they’re perfectly independent sleepers now. All kids go through periods of needing more help to fall asleep at night. For some it’s when they’re babies, and for others it’s toddlerhood. My middle kids resist bedtime some nights… but that’s pretty normal too. (The older kids don’t do this because they’ve finally realized that they’re not going to miss anything terribly exciting and it feels bad to be tired the next day.)

Having Whooping Cough has messed up the toddler’s sleep a bit but she’s slowly getting back to her schedule and illness has that effect anyway, even with a baby who’s sleep “trained”. People who practice Cry it Out methods of sleep training report that they have to keep doing it over and over … after difficult teething episodes, after illness, after a move, after a trauma… if it “worked” so well then the repeats?

There is evidence that ignoring  a baby’s cries leads down a slippery slope whereby a mother becomes less and less bothered by her baby’s needs. And by bothered, I mean affected. A mother is supposed to be horribly uncomfortable when her baby cries. If she isn’t, it means she’s systematically trained herself to ignore what’s natural. She becomes insensitive.

“Responding to baby’s cries is biologically correct. A mother is biologically programmed to give a nurturant response to her newborn’s cries and not to restrain herself. Fascinating biological changes take place in a mother’s body in response to her infant’s cry. Upon hearing her baby cry, the blood flow to a mother’s breasts increases, accompanied by a biological urge to “pick up and nurse.” The act of breastfeeding itself causes a surge in prolactin , a hormone that we feel forms the biological basis of the term “mother’s intuition.” Oxytocin, the hormone that causes a mother’s milk to letdown, brings feelings of relaxation and pleasure; a pleasant release from the tension built up by the baby’s cry. These feelings help you love your baby. Mothers, listen to the biological cues of your body when your baby cries rather than to advisors who tell you to turn a deaf ear. These biological happenings explain why it’s easy for those advisors to say such a thing. They are not biologically connected to your baby. Nothing happens to their hormones when your baby cries. “

(Emphasis mine.) Source: AskDrSears.com

Guess what? Comforting your baby is good. (Do we need to spend research money to tell us this?)

If you want an expert to quote when meddlesome people are disturbed by your co-sleeping, quote Professor James J. McKenna’s of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory

Of course, I won’t lie and say that co-sleeping is never tiresome. Pun absolutely intended. It can be, especially with a toddler who won’t nap well without you. But there are ways of weaning an older baby or toddler from your presence during naptime. And there are gentle ways of discouraging nighttime nursing in an older baby or toddler, or even night weaning altogether.

Honestly, when my babies are young, I enjoy slowing down my activity while they nap on me. Sometimes I nap with them, other times I wear them in a sling or front carrier while I carry on with my work (great exercise!). Taking a daily nap when you have a young baby is a good idea for several reasons. One, you have more energy for your husband at bedtime. Two, you help keep your fertility away. Nursing during a daily nap is an important part of Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing or “Ecological Breastfeeding”.

Once babies start crawling and walking, they usually tire themselves out well enough to nap alone, giving you some time to spend with other kids or doing what you want. Or, naptime can be a daily Quiet Time like it is in my house, where I can read or study or browse online while resting and enjoying a break from ALL the children.

What’s your philosophy on baby sleep?

Some time ago, I interviewed Dr. Heather Manley, mom and Naturopathic Physician, on the show. The topic was Creating a Natural First Aid Kit.

Dr. Manley is the author of a bunch of books for kids called Human Body Detectives. They take you on a microscopic tour of the body and are great for homeschoolers or any parent who wants to make learning about the body and how it works fun for kids.

Just a quick heads up that one of the books, Battle With the Bugs, is FREE to download for Kindle (for your laptop, phone or cloud if you don’t have an e-reader) today and tomorrow only. 

Go HERE to download it FREE

And click here to check out Dr Heather Manley’s other books on Amazon

As a reminder, the HUMONGOUS Homemaking Ebook Bundle is only on sale for about 24 more hours. Read more about it here or go directly to the order page here.

My family loves the movie Nacho Libre. We’re big Jack Black fans anyway, but there’s something about this movie that overturns our giggle boxes for weeks after we see it.

There’s a scene in which Nacho asks his companion and fellow luchador why he hasn’t been baptized, Esqueleto replies, “BeCAUSE. I neva got around TO it, oKAY?”

Nacho’s response? Well, see for yourself.

As I looked at the list of things included in The Ultimate Homemaker’s eBook Bundle, I realized that many of these I’ve already read and loved and intended to review here on this blog.

I never got around to it.

These include: Tell Your Time, One Bite at a Time, 31 Days to Clean, Frumps to Pumps, Minimalist Guide to Baby’s First Year, Mindset for Moms, 42 Days to Fit, The No Brainer Wardrobe, Simple Blogging, How to Have Your Cake and Eat it Too and 4 Moms of 35 Kids.

Wow that was a mouthful.

It’s here I have to admit my serious blogging procrastination habit.

Each one of these books was excellent. The No Brainer Wardrobe has overhauled my closet and made me think differently about my clothing. (It’s also the reason I have matching wooden hangers and nothing else in my closet!) I think of this book every time I buy clothes or look at my closet.

4 Moms 35 Kids is awesome for us moms of several kids, but the advice is wonderful for any mom, and was written by a couple of my very very favorite women online.

How To Have Your Cake And Eat It Too is de rigeur for a blogging mom or anyone who has a work at home business. (Or who wants to!)

Simple Blogging gave me permission to have the blog I really wanted instead of someone else’s idea of the perfect blog. I LOVE this book and Rachel herself. Actually, I DID review this one here: Simple Blogging.

Tell Your Time is a really short ebook, but it’s the David to Goliath “time management” tomes. I still have this one printed out in my files and often think of it’s 4 categories.

In a nutshell, several of the ebooks in this bundle are easily worth the less than $30 price tag.

You owe it to yourself to check it out. And as Tsh of SimpleMom.net pointed out, buying ebooks is a wonderful way to say Thanks to a blogging mom you read every day for FREE. (I wrote about this point here in my post about supporting bloggers.)

On top of that, there are several other bonus products added that are actual physical items you may have had on your wishlist!

Go here to check it out!

Last Sunday while I rested in bed, a thunderclap shook the walls behind me and made the entire house vibrate.

I didn’t know it yet, but lightning had struck a large tree in our yard.

It’s become an object of fascination as well as a huge plaything for the kids.

It’s hard to appreciate how massive it is, and how high up the kids are when they walk up the trunk to the branches, from the pictures.

The only bad part about it? It landed smack on top of Sadie’s garden, which she has been diligently working in for weeks.

Once again someone is trying to tell me that gardening is NOT one of my core competencies!

But believe it or not, after some digging around, Sadie spotted her tomato plant with a small green tomato on it!

Somehow we will manage to crawl under the branches and dig it out so we can transplant it.

Most bloggers post their “links” posts on the weekend. But Saturday was busy and Sunday… well, I laid around and  couched out all day with my teething, runny nosed 8 month old while hubby had the other kids.

It was wonderful.

It’s so great to be able to spend some time alone with my little one, just showering her with all my attention.

Saturday we took the family to see Life of Pi at the dollar movie (aren’t those great when you have a bunch of kids?!). If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you MUST. The adults and kids alike loved it, which is a tall order for a movie. Although I must say I was a wreck at the end, in the last 5 minutes after Pi revealed… well, I won’t spoil it. (If you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about.) I’m intent on reading the book now too.

Speaking of being a wreck, the newest episodes of Call The Midwife are up on the PBS website. Puddles. Puddles I tell you! I can’t watch that show without sitting in a puddle of tears. Does that show affect you that way?  I guess I’ll always be a sucker for birth. Apparently I’m not alone in that because one of the producers of the show said that the male actors leave the set with big tears rolling down their faces. They work with tiny, days-old newborns and the birth scenes just get to them.

I enjoyed this article in defense of mommy blogs. Be proud of your mom blog!

And finally, this week you can pick up a HUGE steal: 39 Homemaking Ebooks plus tons of bonuses… for $30. I’ve read several of these already and each one of them is worth the price! Click here to visit The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle.

No, I’m not having an existential crisis.

I left my NOTEBOOK at OfficeMax.

When I realized what I’d done, there was a moment of panic.

My small notebook contains my life.

Everything is in this small notebook.

I keep a list of words I want to remember and use. Seriously, I’m not happy unless I can use tableaux or chits properly in a sentence.

I keep my to-do lists in here. Blog posts I want to write, along with notes.

I write down lists of things I need to purchase. I have next year’s homeschool curriculum planned for each kid in it.

I track my life in this notebook. A man I admired greatly once told me that what you measure, you can improve. So I write down every dollar I spend. I keep track of my grocery spending so I stay in budget.

I keep a gratitude journal in this small notebook. I write down things the kids do that make me smile.

If I have a problem, I brainstorm solutions in my notebook. I set goals and make plans on how to achieve them.

I take notes in it on books I’ve read, points I want to remember.

In an era of digital everything, I prefer the ease and simplicity of paper and pen. There’s just something sensual (and, for me at least, more meaningful) about writing things down.

I’ve been keeping a notebook like this for years, and it’s part of how I stay sane and organized in the midst of a busy family. When I use up all the pages, I start over. My notebook isn’t much to look at. The spiral is all bent out of shape and it has coffee stains on it, but it’s very important to me.

What about you? How do you organize your thoughts?

I did… eh… not so hotra.

As it turns out, The Frugal Girl hosts a weekly “Food Waste Friday” where people can be held publicly accountable for the amount of food they waste.

Ulp.

I did manage to eat leftover oatmeal for breakfast (and to sneak a little of it into a casserole I made, nobody noticed!). I added to my freezer stash of “someday stock”. I kept my list of “remember to use me!” items updated.

But there were several unhappy faces on that list as well, because I wrote down the stuff I DID throw out, namely:

• About a half pound of grass fed liver – yikes. I used some of it in Cajun Dirty Rice (the kids ate it and nobody cared about the liver), but the rest? Oops.
• An entire carton of cottage cheese. I was planning on making this breakfast casserole, but I haven’t been energetic enough in the mornings to put that together. In fact, my 12 year old son has been making breakfast 3 times a week.
• A couple of potatoes – weird, because we love our potatoes around here.
• Half a green pepper – it simply got lost in the fridge door.

Folks, that’s about $10 worth of food. Double ulp. That’s $40 a month. That’s…. a meal at a restaurant, which would be far more fun than throwing food out.

This weekly accountability thing is great. As one of my favorite authors, Laura Vanderkam states, it’s good to make laziness embarrassing. Also – my husband reads my blog!

What I Learned

There are a few things I will do differently now.

When I buy liver, I’m going to immediately divvy it up into one cup containers after putting it through the food processor (this, incidentally, is my secret to getting it into the kids each week: pulverize and hide it in ground beef!). No excuse for that half a green pepper, next time it will go into the freezer instead. And I need to be more realistic about what I’ll actually cook when I make my menu. Lately I’ve been quite sleep deprived and a complicated breakfast just ain’t gonna happen.

What do you do to avoid food waste?

Siblings in a large family definitely have an advantage when it comes to learning about gender differences.

Consider the following episodes.

I’m currently reading Swiss Family Robinson aloud to my 12 year old son. Sometimes I read while I’m putting the two youngest down for a nap. (Two birds, one stone.) It’s sneaky because the toddler doesn’t realize she’s being lulled to sleep. So yesterday I asked Julien to bring the book to my room.

He forgot.

After I emerged from my bedroom, two casualties sprawled out on my bed, I asked him why he didn’t come in with the book in hand.

“Mom. (He places one leg up on a chair.) There’s something I’ve got to tell you about men. Or, there’s something I’ve got to tell you about ME. When you ask me to do something, a) I might be busy and don’t want to stop what I’m doing, b) I may be really comfortable where I’m sitting and relaxing or c) in 5 to 10 seconds, I forget.

Laughing uproariously stifling giggles, I replied:

“Actually, Julien, you DID just tell me something about men.”

Scene Two:

10 year old Ilana, whose job it is to unload dishes from the dishwasher (and it’s her big brother’s job to load), begins loudly and excitedly fussing at him for putting pots and pans in the dishwasher.

“Julien! Stop putting pots and pans in the dishwasher! They don’t get clean! Just LOOK at this dirty pan! WHAT is it doing in the dishwasher??!”

She stomps out of the kitchen. At this point I tell him:

“Julien, here’s something you need to understand about WOMEN. Sometimes, you just need to let them vent. Don’t argue. Just let her vent.”

He asked for it.

• Is organic better? Apparently fruit flies think so. This is an awesome article not only because it adds weight to the evidence that organic food is better for your health, but also because a 16 year old girl has earned the respect of the scientific community.
• I did a quick review of a few books I read recently on my other blog.

After reading What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend and as I spoke of in this post, we’ve been working on making our weekends better. For the first few months after the baby was born, I felt too tired to do anything exciting. We did mostly chill things like hanging out at the playground or taking the kids to the guitar store. But now that my energy has picked up and we’re all finally well, hubby and I have been planning things better.

Last weekend we hit up the Renaissance Festival. The kids have a blast dressing up, and there’s cold beer so the adults are happy. Our oldest tried his luck at busking. Note: Do not adjust your screen settings. Those are not his real ears.

I didn’t even go last year because Ruby was not yet 2 and therefore not old enough to enjoy the festivities (just old enough to be hot and bothersome) and I was 11,000 weeks pregnant. This time Ruby had a blast and the baby was outside my body and happy to be toted around in the sling so it was perfect. Here’s Ruby dressed up as the tiniest Shogun.

The best thing about the Renaissance Festival is that if you are a nursing mom, you’re set. Nobody bats an eye if you nurse the baby because there are heaving bosoms everywhere around you anyway.

This weekend we hit up a local amphitheatre and enjoyed a production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” JR. The Junior means that the actors were aged 9-18. It was great. Even our most musical-phobic son enjoyed himself more than he would ever care to admit.

What did you do this weekend?

I’m making it a goal to reduce our family’s food waste.

I do several things in an attempt to keep our grocery budget reasonable yet as healthful as possible. I do some shopping at ALDI. I carefully meal plan each week. We eat meat in small portions and focus on cheaper ingredients. We eat leftovers for lunch and sometimes dinner. I cook everything from scratch. I save bread crumbs in the freezer for casserole toppings, veggie scraps and meat bones for broth.

Still, I can definitely improve, especially in the area of wasting food. An embarrassingly large amount of food is tossed out each week in my home. I literally cringe inside when I have to throw away food. It feels immoral to me, especially when I know the problem is poor planning on my part.

We decided to sign up for a vegetable share from our favorite farmer. This is the same farm from where we get our raw milk, eggs, sausage, beef and sometimes chicken. Today was the first day we got our produce box.

I don’t want one tiny bit of this organic, local food to go to waste. 

Here are some ways I’m planning on eliminating food waste in my home:

Freeze (Instead of Refrigerating) Unused Food and Leftovers

I can’t remember where I first heard this tip, but I credit the person with being a genius. Food that’s placed in the fridge is often forgotten, or it looks a little yucky or questionable by the time you get around to reheating it. If it goes straight into the freezer when you do your post-meal cleanup, you can buy some time!

I’m really, really guilty of forgetting about leftovers in the fridge so this is a very important one.

Leftover Night

The other day I declared it “Bits and Pieces” for dinner, and we had a trip around the world, culinary style. There was leftover Indian Lamb Sag, leftover Chinese take-out, and leftover enchiladas. It was a big hit!

Planning this into the menu weekly or biweekly is the key. My kids and husband aren’t picky about eating leftovers, but I think adding something fancy like a dessert will increase the “wow” factor.

Organize The Fridge

I’m in the habit of cleaning out the fridge before I shop each week, but that’s not enough… because cleaning it out means throwing stuff away.

I need to work on keeping the fridge more organized. I’ve created an area for leftovers that I don’t want to freeze (usually, things I know we’ll eat for lunch the next day).

Also, I’m putting a piece of paper on the side of the fridge with a list of things I don’t want to forget to cook. Nothing’s more depressing than wilty veggies or moldy berries.

Getting the produce box is exciting for me because I know I’m supporting several local farmers, as well as increasing the variety of vegetables I eat. This week we got spring mesclun mix, pecans, turnips, collard greens… and I’m a teensy bit embarrassed to admit it, but some kind of greens that I don’t even recognize! Nevertheless, they were delicious cooked with a little bacon, onions, olive oil and tossed with apple cider vinegar.

How do you reduce food waste in your kitchen? 

When it comes to school supplies, I’m definitely a minimalist. I would much rather spend more of my homeschool budget on books for the kids to read, and field trips, than fancy schmancy school supplies that will mostly end up being clutter.

I think often of people who are admired in our culture, and how little they had by way of “school supplies”. Laura Ingalls,  beloved American writer, had a piece of chalk (one piece), a slate that she shared with her sister, and just one or two good books, one being the Bible. Abraham Lincoln read Aesop’s fables over and over because it was the only book he had, and he did math by “writing” sums on a shovel (with what… a piece of coal? A stick burned at the end? I’m not sure).

My point is that we don’t need a lot of “stuff” in our home school classroom. A few things you don’t need:

• Math manipulatives. School supply stores are full of tubs of doohickeys and tchotchkes you can purchase for use as math manipulatives. Today my 1st grader (and her 2 year old sister!) did their addition and subtraction work with … navy beans. You can use raisins or nuts (fun because you can eat them after a correct answer!), Lego pieces, small toys, gewgaws, knickknacks, baubles, thingamajigs, or any other small doodads lying around your house… and I’m sure you have plenty of those!

There are a few things that area fun and helpful however. Here are some of our favorites:

Mechanical Pencils

I prefer these over regular pencils because they don’t need to be sharpened. Pencil points breaking, needing to hunt down a sharpener, the accompanying mess… it’s a distraction.

Post-Its and Post-It Flags

I find uses for these every day. The flags are great for keeping your place in teacher’s guides and student workbooks. They don’t rip the paper. They don’t fall out like bookmarks. They don’t damage the spine like shoving a pencil in there would. When you pick up the book, you can turn immediately to the spot you’re starting at that day.

The multiple colors are great for keeping track when you’re teaching two kids out of the same book, or for quickly flipping to a section you need (like instructions, index, or the answer key).

One Homeschool Binder

Some home schooling parents are big binder freaks. To each his own, but I’ve never been big on having a ton of binders. I don’t save schoolwork, for one. I find that it’s immensely satisfying to throw stuff away at the end of the day. It has a finality to it. The kids love ripping pages out and tossing them.

My oldest son has a writing notebook that he uses for Writing With Skill (Susan Wise Bauer’s suggestion), and a history notebook that he writes test answers in (so he doesn’t mark in the book, saving me money when the next kid uses it). He also keeps a Literature notebook (also Susan Wise Bauer’s suggestion, per The Well Educated Mind), where he keeps notes about the books he’s reading.

Some children, however, like to have a binder to keep their work. My 9 year old daughter is the only child who enjoys doing this, so I let her. She likes to add additional stuff to her binder, like extra material she prints out from the Internet, stories she writes, etc. (This is work that she isn’t required by me to do, but does on her own.)

I do have a homeschool binder… just one, for myself. I keep stuff in it that I need to have at my fingers each day, all in one place. I wrote about creating a homeschool binder here. It has answer keys, our daily and weekly schedule, and other goodies that I’ll actually use.

Notebooks and Composition Books

Of course, we buy these by the caseload when they go on sale super cheap! There is never, ever enough paper in a home school household, it seems. So I stock up when the various stores have them as loss leaders for .01 or .05 each, and buy enough for the whole year.

Emergency Chocolate and Wine

For mom, of course! I get these two cheap at ALDI.

Or, The Lesson of the Laundromat

Unlike a lot of cultural memes, I’m glad the phrase First World Problems has been absorbed into the vernacular. I’m not sure how or when it became a “thing”. Maybe this guy, whom my kids enjoy watching, came up with it.

Anyway, around my house, when the phrase “first world problem” is lobbed at an offender, it serves as a quick reminder to have a little perspective.

It goes something like this:

“Ugh! My laptop is taking forever to load this site.”

…… “First world problem!”

“I’m the only person who refills the water filter pitcher!”

…. “First world problem!”

“It’s hard getting the rind off this ($7 a pound Trader Joe’s) gouda cheese!”

… “First world problem!”

You get the drift.

So this week I have no washing machine. The thing has apparently decided it’s had enough of being run 3-4 times a day and just up and quit on me. The landlord is being curiously silent about the matter, probably figuring that he didn’t sign up for this (when we moved in we only had 5 children, and he’s already replaced the dishwasher and dryer). We think he wants to get rid of us.

So while we search Craiglist for a suitable model, we’re slumming it. Which means taking laundry to the clean, well lit and air conditioned coin laundry down the road.

You know what I think?

Washing machine ownership is overrated.

When I was a single lady with 4 kiddos, there was a period of months in which I didn’t own a washer and dryer. And aside from the budgetary issues associated with dropping $10 a week at the coin laundry, I learned to enjoy the routine.

Think about it. You take ALL your laundry and fill several washing machines at the SAME time. 23 minutes later, you throw ALL your laundry into dryers. 45 minutes later, several loads emerge. You call all hands on deck to fold. In and out in 2 hours – and the laundry is DONE for the WEEK.

Owning 4-6 washing machines isn’t something the average family is likely to do. But think of how much faster it is to batch this activity instead of spreading it out, one measly load at a time.

Also, there is laundry cart Olympics.

I'm so glad that at almost 15, he's not too "cool" to enjoy this.

Yesterday I took the kids to the Pediatrician. The 3 youngest had an appointment, and I wanted to make sure they were ok after our bout with pertussis.

I suspected that the baby had coughed herself a mild umbilical hernia, and I was correct. Her little belly button looked “funny”… it was sticking out a bit, and blue around it. The Doctor said it was harmless, just a cosmetic thing, and would heal on its own. She had lost several ounces, but the Doctor wasn’t worried. She has her appetite for solid food back now, and he said she would make up for lost time. She’s in the 75% percentile for height!

Several of us have lost weight. It looks fine on me, I needed to drop a few pounds. But Caleb and Ilana look a little gaunt.

But other than that, we have had no other complications of Whooping Cough. I am very thankful.

Everyone is still very fatigued however. The older kids willingly go to bed very early, and a few times last week they even napped in the middle of the day. I feel exhausted, as if I can’t catch up on sleep. But I know I will.

We were so very, very fortunate.

Life is finally back to normal, after a solid month of sickness.

Spring is bursting in bloom, and it’s gorgeous outside. I’m looking forward to writing about other topics again!

The Pertussis Posts

• We have whooping cough
• Waiting for pertussis test results 
• Whooping Cough part 3
• On the Mend

The baby is sitting on the floor playing with toys.

This isn’t remarkable, babies do this every day. Only when they don’t, because they’re too sick to waste any energy playing.

It’s so easy to take that for granted.

We seem to be on the mend.

The kids are bickering a bit.

I’LL TAKE IT.

Really sick people don’t expend energy fighting.

Victoria is feeling much better. She slept better last night than she has in a week, and for once I was in the bed instead of holding and rocking her in the easy chair all night.

We had one scary night. I panicked and called an ambulance. Not because she was coughing, but because she wouldn’t eat and I was worried she was getting dehydrated. (She wasn’t. They said she looked fine.)

I’m not usually one to panic, but this much sleep deprivation will make anyone a little crazy.

Spring will come. It will be warm and beautiful outside and this whole “Whooping Cough” experience will be something we wistfully remember.

“Remember that Winter of 2013 when we all got Whooping Cough?”

“Ah, yes. How did we ever manage?”

A few friends from our congregation, and my parents, have brought food over. Vat-like pots of soup, noodles and other easy to eat things. I haven’t had to worry about dinner for days which has been wonderful with a baby who just now TODAY has let me put her down for the first time.

The middle kids have had the easiest time of it. Actually Ruby doesn’t cough much at all. She did have Strep in the middle of all this, and that’s what was making her miserable.The day before yesterday she woke up at 11 am after having slept about 15 hours, and that made her turn a corner.

The hardest hit seem to be the two oldest, who are still sicker than anyone else. Zoe went back to school (which I thought was a mistake) and I ended up running to pick her up yesterday. She was out of it with fever. Too soon to get back out into the world.

We’re all coughing a little less every day. I think it’s going to take me a week to get caught up on sleep.

The other posts in this series:

1. Whooping Cough – first sick kid and positive pertussis result
2. Waiting For Pertussis Results – had remaining kids and hubby tested
3. We get test results (3 positive, 5 negative, 1 undetermined)
4. On the Mend
5. Post Pertussis

The other posts in this series:

1. Whooping Cough – first sick kid and positive pertussis result
2. Waiting For Pertussis Results – had remaining kids and hubby tested
3. Part 3
4. On the Mend
5. Post Pertussis

Anyone for Whooping Cough Hangman? Sadie won, by the skin of her teeth though.

We got Pertussis test results from the Hospital today.

Victoria – positive
Ruby – negative
Sadie – negative
Ilana – negative
Julien – negative
Caleb – positive

Still waiting to hear about hubby.

Julien and Ilana are symptom free at this point. It is possible that they WILL come down with whooping cough however.

Sadie is asymptomatic too, although she does have coughing at night. It’s not reaching the choking stage, and probably never will, even if she does get WC eventually, because of the Vitamin C treatment. Is this a false negative? Or does she have something else that causes a cough? Or has the Vitamin C kept the 4 negative kids from falling ill?

Caleb is also doing better, as is Zoe. Neither of them are having the choking cough, and Zoe went back to school today. If I made decisions on her behalf, I would have kept her home to rest more,  as her sleep is still interrupted, but sadly I’m the underappreciated Evil Stepmom

I would not be surprised if she caught something again from her schoolmates in a very short period, as she is especially vulnerable now.

Three days ago I started to get sick. Moderate fever (102-103F), sore throat, chills, body aches, headaches, cough. Time will tell if this is also Whooping Cough – I actually seem more sick than the kids did at this stage, as they presented with milder cold symptoms.

Other than the sleep deprivation that comes from waking up whenever anyone in my house coughs, I’m feeling better today.

Vic seems to be doing well. She only had two coughing episodes last night, lasting just seconds each time. I felt terrible because I had forgotten to give her a nighttime dose of Vitamin C. I won’t forget again!

I am so very thankful for many things: that these cases have been as mild as they have, and that I knew about the Vitamin C treatment which has been nothing short of miraculous for us, and that Victoria is an older infant and can handle the coughing episodes now.

Meanwhile I’ve collected a ton more links with family’s stories of Whooping Cough – some of them in vaccinated children, some not.

Saturday we took all the kids to get tested for Pertussis. (So far we only know for sure that Zoe, 13, has Whooping Cough.)

Zoe is staying with relatives until she’s no longer contagious (though it’s probably too late for that). She is doing better. Her case has been a very mild one, thankfully. This is probably due to the megadoses of Vitamin C, which are reported to reduce the coughing by 2/3.

It’s a simple swab up the nose, over with faster than a sneeze. Nobody cried, not even the baby.

The only other child who has symptoms is Caleb, 14. He is quite fine and feeling well during the day, but coughs at night. The day he backed off the Vitamin C (because it gave him runny stool), his cough got worse that night. Proof enough for me that it’s doing its job!

My husband is coughing, but we’re pretty certain that it’s his seasonal allergies. It’s been very warm here lately and he always coughs this time of year.

When we went to the urgent care facility on Saturday, I had everyone wear a mask. The staff thanked me later for this and said that if we hadn’t been properly masked, they would have had to notify everyone in the building at the time that there was Pertussis exposure (assuming the tests come back positive of course).

It was really annoying that a boy was walking around the waiting area coughing his lungs up with no mask. ARGH. His mother seemed totally nonplussed. Finally a nurse came over and put a mask on him.

I’m thankful that, unlike my husband’s experience last Thursday, this Doctor was actually respectful and we had a nice dialogue about vaccination.

The conversation went like this:

Doc: “Is your decision on vaccinations due to religious belief?”

Me: “In part, yes.”

(I answered this way because some vaccines contain aborted fetal tissue.)

Doc: “You might want to think about vaccinating the older kids. The little ones are fine (I’m assuming they’re not in daycare?)”

Me: “That’s correct.  And these children are homeschooled.”

Doc: “…but the older ones will be going into high school and college and they’ll be exposed to all sorts of things. You could skip Chicken Pox, HIB, and the HPV vaccine. You could even skip DPT since we never see Diphtheria or Tetanus anymore, but I would recommend the MMR.”

Me: “Thank you. It’s not a decision we revisit regularly as we continue researching vaccines.”

Anyway, I was glad the staff didn’t make a stressful situation worse by chastising us.

I’ll update when I know test results, which hopefully will come back today. Meanwhile Caleb is confined to his room (his brother has moved out for a bit), and everyone is in quarantine. We haven’t gone anywhere except to urgent care and the hospital.

Right now I’m staying at my parent’s house with the baby until we have more info.

The Pertussis Posts

• We have whooping cough
• Waiting for pertussis test results 
• Whooping Cough part 3
• On the Mend
• Post Pertussis

Quite an opener, isn’t it?

At first I planned on naming this post “Whoop… there it is”, but thought better of it. This illness can be really scary, and I’m not taking it lightly. But a girl does have to keep her sense of humor, no?

I’ve been reading and researching Whooping Cough for about 14 1/2 years since… you guessed it, my oldest child was born. Of all the so-called childhood illnesses, Whooping Cough scared me the most. Every time my kids come down with a sickness, I check their symptoms with the books I have on hand. As a result, I knew the symptoms of Whooping Cough well.

So last Saturday, when we were at a party and after running around playing a game, my stepdaughter Zoe began having a coughing fit and turned purple, I looked at my husband and said, “Babe, that sounds like Whooping Cough.”

The very next day, we quarantined her in her room and I started her on the Vitamin C treatment Dr. Suzanne Humphries recommends here. We ordered the powdered sodium ascorbate online because we couldn’t find it anywhere. While we waited for it to ship to us we had her take powdered ascorbic acid we bought at Whole Foods.

After her first large dose, she coughed up a huge wad of mucus. Which is exactly what should happen as the Vitamin C thins the mucus and allows you to get it up, and is what Dr. Humphries says would happen.

I hoped I was wrong about the diagnosis, but her case was textbook, and I knew the Vitamin C wouldn’t harm her even if it wasn’t Pertussis.

About 2 weeks previous, she had mild cold-like symptoms: a sore throat, malaise, runny nose. This is how Whooping Cough begins: the symptoms are indistinguishable from the common cold. It’s only after a couple of weeks that the cough begins to get worse, after the initial symptoms have gone away.

By Tuesday the cough had begun to get worse. We had a couple of rough nights with little sleep as she coughed, turned red and vomited. My husband took her to the hospital Tuesday evening to get her tested.

It wasn’t easy getting the diagnosis, because when my husband took her to the hospital, the Doctors immediately discredited him, began verbally abusing him because of Zoe’s unvaccinated status, and insisted that “it couldn’t be whooping cough because she hasn’t been coughing long enough”.

They didn’t want to test her, and Zeke had to insist. So their course of action would be for her to continue spreading it to everyone around her until they decided she had been coughing long enough for them to do a simple test?!

On Thursday, we got the test results – Zoe has confirmed pertussis.

(And may the attending physician feel like the horse’s rosette she is because I,  an “uneducated” mother know more than she does about diagnosing this illness. This is where I am awesome.)

So far, Caleb (14) has a mild dry sounding cough and no other symptoms. He had a mild sore throat a couple of weeks ago. Julien (12) and Ilana (10) have no symptoms. Sadie (7) has a mild dry cough, no other symptoms. Ruby (2 1/2) has a “junky” sounding cough, and mild fever that comes and goes. She is playing and eating normally and not acting sick.

And Victoria (7 months) has a mild runny nose. She’s playing, eating and sleeping normally.

I’m fine (I did have a mild sore throat for a few days two weeks ago) and my husband has a mild cough.

Do we all have it? I don’t know. Time will tell. 

We are all taking the megadoses of Vitamin C. It’s calibrated by body weight. To make things easier, I add the correct amount of powdered C to a bottle of water, label it with a name, and have the child sip on it all day. For Ruby, I added a bit of honey and called it “lemonade”. She’s drinking it just fine. It’s making the kids go poop more frequently, but other than that there are no ill effects (and that’s probably a good thing anyway).

Since Whooping Cough has been in the news so much lately due to increasing numbers of cases in several states, I’ve been collecting info and links for months. I knew this day would eventually come, and I wanted to be prepared so when it did happen I could begin a plan of action instead of freaking out and panicking.

Here’s what I know about Whooping Cough. I hope this will be helpful to you.

You need to know about this illness no matter if your child is vaccinated or not.

• Whooping Cough has never disappeared in the US. It comes and goes in cycles every 4-5 years. (WhoopingCough.net)
• The vaccine’s effectiveness is debated, but most sources agree it wears off in 2-4 years. Currently, W.C. outbreaks are taking place mostly among the vaccinated. This study, done several years ago, showed that 86% of children who got Pertussis were fully vaccinated.
• Unvaccinated children and immigrants are NOT to blame for the current epidemic. (PBS.org – see point #6)
• Whooping Cough is wildly underdiagnosed. Quote: “It is my opinion, based on my research, that the actual number of cases that occur is at least 10 times the number reported.” Source: WhoopingCough.net
•  If you or your child has ever had a cough that lasted for more than 3 weeks, there is a 30% chance that it was Whooping Cough. (Lost this source, will keeping searching for the link.)
• Only about 50% of people actually “Whoop” when they have Pertussis. The “whoop” sound is when the person’s lungs become empty after a prolonged coughing fit, and they gasp for air. Older children and adults usually don’t “whoop”. I have never heard Zoe whoop. (Source)
• There is no medical treatment (antibiotics, steroids, etc) that has been proven to limit the severity or length of the illness. (Source) Some Doctors may insist that the sick person take antibiotics to help prevent others getting sick, but there is no proof that this works. Antibiotics, according to some experts, will only make things worse because they hamstring the immune system. (Source) (In my opinion, the reason Zoe has this illness in the first place is because, unlike the other children, she has had several unnecessary rounds of antibiotics. She seems constitutionally weaker than the others for this and several other reasons.)Quote: “The consensus is that antibiotics may limit the period of infectivity but do not alter the clinical course and are not indicated in close contacts. Most cases that come to treatment have already been coughing and spreading the disease, and antibiotics are of limited if any use.” – Source
• In a similar vein, cough medications are worthless for Whooping Cough. What you want is not to stop the cough, but to help the cough be more productive (i.e. thin the mucus so it can be expelled). Things that act as an expectorant (Vitamin C, steam, etc) are more helpful.
• The Vitamin C treatment has been studied and shown to be effective in minimizing the length and severity of the cough (the studies were small, but still impressive). (Source) Links: Japanese study Vit C and whooping cough |Pertussis vit C Success Ormerod 1937 |A Preliminary Report on the Use of Cevitamic Acid in the Treatment of Whooping C
• People who are in the whooping cough (symptom) stage of Pertussis (disease) look and act normal inbetween coughing paroxyms. So if you take your child to the Doctor and the Doc doesn’t hear/see the cough, they’re not likely to suspect W.C. It’s a good idea to record the kid coughing (your cell phone likely has an audio note app).  Older kids and adults may only cough at night, or after eating. Babies and toddlers cough more, but again – the coughing fits may be spaced out.

Here is a list of blog posts I have collected where Moms share their family’s experience with Whooping Cough:

• Life In A Shoe (Kim C, mom of 11- W.C. made its way through her family years ago)
• SouleMama (her 5 young children all got W.C.)
• The EcoMom – great info on treating Whooping Cough naturally
• LifeNut – another mom of many
• Great article about managing WC in breastfed infants
• MommyEarth -W.C. makes it way through her 6 children
• BirthOlogie -mom of 5 describes her kid’s bout with W.C.
• Rachel of LusaOrganics shares her experience with W.C.
• ModernAlternativeMama – didn’t get officially diagnosed
• Brew Crew’s pertussis adventure – great, heart wrenching post with helpful tips and advice
• 400 Things – her 3 youngest children caught Whooping Cough

Has your family contracted Whooping Cough? Please share your experience and any links below.

All The Pertussis Posts

• We have whooping cough
• Waiting for pertussis test results 
• Whooping Cough part 3
• On the Mend
• Post Pertussis

Last week I met three fellow homeschooling mom friends at one of those indoor jump places. As our kids played we chatted about homeschooling, books and Jane Austen.

And reluctant readers. Turns out each of us have one.

In a house full of bibliophiles, I also have a child who I consider to be a reluctant reader. But he is very nearly reformed at the moment.

In 3 out of 4 cases, the child was male, so I will use the male gender for this post. While I generally eschew gender stereotypes, it’s pretty much established that a reluctant reader is more likely to be male.

If a household doesn’t value reading, then the kids aren’t likely to become big readers. Being read to and having lots of books around and parents who read a lot generally makes for a literate kid. But I trust that none of the readers of this blog are slackers in this area, so I’ll discuss the other kinds of issues that can cause a child to be a reluctant reader.

I think there are three basic reasons why a child might not love reading.

They are: the child can’t read well and so it’s a chore to do so, the child who has a short attention span/memory and can’t get involved in the story, and the child has a kinesthetic learning style, meaning he prefers to move around, take things apart, and use his hands to learn.

First, rule out whether this child is struggling with the mechanics of reading well.

If this is the case, and the child is struggling to read, go back to a basic phonics program and review it. The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading is excellent. If you drop everything and do phonics for a few weeks, this might solve the problem. (Don’t forget an eye check if it’s been awhile. My 7 year old began to complain about her eyes, and at first I thought she was faking, but after taking her in for an exam, she needed glasses after all. She’s been reading a lot more, and reading better, since she got them.)

If it isn’t a case of the child not being able to read well but simply preferring to do other things, here are a few pieces of advice that have worked for us.

First, let me state that I’m skeptical of some professionals who want to diagnose a learning or reading disability when the problem could be solved by a patient parent.

Back to my morning with the other homeschooling moms. One of them said she has a friend whose son was struggling with reading, so he took him to a shrink.

Huh?

Anyway.

The shrink said that he had no short term memory, and as a result he wasn’t reading or comprehending well. As if this is a life sentence. I can’t help but be skeptical of this. I believe memory is a muscle that can be strengthened.  Since when is “not paying attention long enough to make sense of what you read” a mental illness? If it is, I bet most Americans are crazy, since many people in this country don’t pick up a book to read for pleasure after they graduate. (Shudder!) I think this is because TV, internet reading (if it’s exclusive) and the like lead to lazy habits. We don’t have to think anymore.

The worst part about this is that my friend then said that she was convinced that her son suffered from the same malady. While I was at first concerned about coming across as a know-it-all, I realized that this mom was really vexed by the situation.

So I told her that my opinion after much research and observation, is that many things we call an illness nowadays is just our low expectations. In generations past, there was much emphasis on memorization in education. I remember doing narration and dictation in school, and the friend I mentioned? She is from Italy and told me that there, she had to memorize long poems – such as Dante’s Inferno. She also had a lot of dictations and riassunto (summarizing).

Now, kids are entertained with electronic devices that do all the imagining and remembering for them, and cell phones with everyone’s phone number programmed into them. (When I have kids to my home I ask them for their mother’s cell phone # and the majority do not know it.) They don’t have to remember anything. Of course, there are kids with a bona fide learning disability but I think they’re truly rare.

Lest you think I’m some kind of expert with perfect kids, let me mention that last year, my 11 year old son had some problems with homeschooling and many days ended in tears for him (and me). This year he is doing wonderfully and has made so many strides in reading and grammar, because of my change in approach.

The only change? Doing narration and dictation.

At first dictation was terribly difficult for him but now he is quite good at it. Dictation and narration help to strengthen the memory muscles so the child can a) pay better attention to what he’s reading and b) retain it long enough to make some sense of it.

A brief description of dictation and narration:

Dictation simply means you read aloud a sentence (or two or more, depending on ability) that you choose to the child. Encourage him to “see” the sentence in his mind and to listen carefully. Tell him beforehand that you will only read it “X” number of times (at first I would have to read the sentence(s) over and over but now I only read them 3 times and he’s got it!) so they know they had better pay close attention. After you have read it several times, ask him to say it back to you. If you need to, prompt him one word at a time. Have him say it over and over until he’s got it, then ask him to write it down. Watch while he does it so you can correct any errors (in spelling, punctuation, etc) immediately.

The dictation sentences are prepared for me in the Writing With Ease books, but you could choose anything: a short scripture, lines from a book you’re reading, anything you like.

Narration means that you read the child a passage aloud and then have them summarize it briefly for you in their own words. Insist that they use complete sentences. If they don’t, I gently remind them to restate their answer in a complete sentence.

We do narration after reading our history lessons for Story of the World, and a couple of times a week as part of their writing work (from Writing With Ease).

Narration and dictation help with that memory issue mentioned earlier. Julien used to be the type of kid who just could not get the sense of what he read. Whether I read it or he read it himself, he would need me to restate the main points aloud to him.

No longer.

Narration and dictation have helped him discipline his mind to hold ideas in it longer. Which is the whole point!

As far as a child being a kinesthetic learner and needing to move about, well there’s not much you can do about that. Some kids will be that way all their lives. I know people who can’t talk on the phone unless they’re pacing the floor. Or who cannot speak unless they’re gesturing passionately. Some people can take things apart and put them back together again and build things that have the rest of us scratching our heads. They can also read maps better than anyone else.

That doesn’t mean they won’t learn to love reading.

A final tip: try to associate reading with pleasure. Read to a baby or toddler while they nurse or rock to sleep. Don’t push a child to learn to read too early. Make books fun. Discard (not permanently, just until another time) a title that doesn’t get you and your child excited right away. Read aloud with children even when they’ve been reading well for years.

We do a nightly read aloud as a family, including mom, dad, teens and little kids. I also do read alouds with the kids as individuals if they need it.

Another suggestion?

Limit electronic entertainment and ban it outright occasionally. We do a weekly Screen Sabbath where noone uses screens (even parents with their phones). During Quiet Time/Nap Time, no screens are allowed. Kids who might not otherwise will pick up a book out of sheer boredom which is what you want! It’s also a good idea to assign an older child to read to a younger one. It makes them feel grown-up and is a good way for them to bond.

I love this book for research, inspiration, motivation and suggestions: The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. Another wonderful pick is How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell.

More about helping the reluctant reader:

How to get your kids to love reading

The pleasure of having your child read to you

What are your tips for encouraging a reluctant reader?

I don’t know about you, but I find that our larder goes empty a day or two earlier these days. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out why this is so, when it dawned on me that everything is getting more expensive.

Therefore, when I head to the grocery store with cash, I’m getting a little less food than before.

Not good. I don’t want to spend more on groceries.

My grocery shopping strategy has changed over the years depending on how much 1) time 2) energy and 3) money I have available at any given time.

photo credit: Thomas Brenner

Right now, I’m getting most of my groceries at ALDI.

I began shopping there in earnest again several weeks ago and have been pleasantly surprised at how low my tab is at the end. I still have to get some items elsewhere. ALDI doesn’t have coconut oil (yet), a staple in our home. I buy non-bromated flour (ALDI flour doesn’t say it’s non-bromated so I leave it alone). I get our milk, eggs and meat from a local farmer and our bread here.

But the bulk of our produce, canned/dried goods and other household stuff (TP) comes from ALDI.

The prices are just insanely low. And I LIKE the fact that the store has less selection. Making decisions is one of the most fatiguing things we do. Making choices reduces willpower. My kids say that I’m in a better mood when we shop there. (I’m not making this stuff up.) I find it a relief not to have to choose amongst 13 kinds of salsa. Who needs 13 kinds of salsa when 2 will do? (Mild, medium. I keep jalapenos in the freezer for hubby who likes hot.) I have better things to do with my time and my brainpower than have to make that decision, hundreds of times over, in the span of a shopping trip. That kind of nonsense just leads to my sniping at my kids later.

I do what I can, people.

I have nothing against coupons, but even when I was doing coupons, I rarely beat ALDI prices… and couponing is stressful (at least, for me) and very time consuming. Besides, as so many people have pointed out, using coupons makes it uber tempting to buy crappy processed food.

Shopping at ALDI makes it possible for me to pay $7.50 for a gallon of raw milk and $5 for a dozen farm eggs from happy hens. (I also get real honey, sausage, chicken and beef from the farm.)

I understand the desire to shop at a froufrou highbrow grocery store as much as the next gal. Heck, I go to Trader Joe’s every couple of weeks to get fancy stuff I love. Like those chocolate buttercream cupcakes. Coconut oil. Organic fair trade coffee (I never buy cheap coffee!).

ALDI ain’t froufrou. It’s very utilitarian, bare bones basic. But hey, even hipsters need to save money nowadays. Especially young hipsters. The last time I went to ALDI, on a Sunday night, it was twentysomething hipster night or something, because the place was crawling with ‘em. (ALDI might be a great place to hang out if you’re single. If you meet someone there, you know they’re frugal and sensible and not high maintenance.)

Even if you don’t want to shop at ALDI regularly, consider going there just once a month to stock up on staples.

Here are a few more pointers.

A few tips for making the most of your ALDI shopping experience:

1) If you don’t like the ALDI near you, try another. There are 2 locations close by me. One is great, the other has nasty produce. Guess which one I shop at? I see people online sometimes complaining about ALDI produce and if I were to judge all locations based on the crappier one, I would come to that same conclusion. Try another location.

2) Bring your bags. I usually put mine right back into the car after I unload the groceries so I don’t forget.

3) Keep your receipts and make a list of things you will buy at ALDI. I’m particular about food so there are certain things I won’t buy at ALDI. Ketchup, for instance. It has HFCS. (But really we have to read labels no matter what store we shop at, yes?)

The mustard, however, is a go. And there are certain items that I ONLY buy at ALDI because the price is so good. I’ve found that the quality of some items is inferior. Dishwashing liquid and powder, for example. They’re no good. The razors cut my legs up too. But I love the ALDI brand leave-in conditioner for my curly hair and the facial cleanser is nice too. My husband prefers their hummus over Trader Joe’s. They offer pure maple syrup (we go through 2 bottles a week) cheaper than anywhere.

4) If you buy a product and it’s poor quality, bring it back. They will replace it AND give you your money back. I’ve taken them up on this offer more than once and it’s always granted cheerfully.

My ALDI shopping list is here and you can download it if you like. (Google doc.)

This is by no means a list of everything you could buy and love at ALDI. It’s simply my weird little list.

Before anyone asks, why do I buy Bugles? They’re the only “snack” food I buy, because they’re made with coconut oil instead of cheap nasty vegetable oils. A compromise food that the hubs and kids love.

4) Keep a sharp eye open for organic products. Yes, ALDI has a few. I buy organic potatoes and apples there, organic blueberries and strawberries, as well as organic blue corn tortilla chips. A few weeks ago ALDI experimented with offering raw cheese. I bought as many as I could to send a signal to management, but sadly they disappeared. They do offer KerryGold Irish cheese sometimes though, as well as other fancy cheeses that we like.

ALDI sells wild caught salmon, y’all. I would not be able to afford to feed my family wild caught salmon otherwise, because we eat 2 pounds at a sitting.

One last thing. I like shopping at ALDI because there is no toddler eye-level rack of candy and gum that the 2 year old can bite/grab/knock to the floor before you notice and then have to pay for.

Also, there are no magazines at the checkout. You know those magazines? The ones with the mildly pornographic photos? Those magazines embarrass my sons. They call them “gross”, and what they mean is  “inappropriate and immodest” and I don’t like those images being thrust into their faces in a place as innocent and ubiquitous as the grocery store for goodness sakes. It’s a real benefit not to have to see their embarrassed faces when we go to ALDI!

Do you shop at ALDI? What do you love or hate about it?

Other posts about ALDI:

• Healthy ALDI Meal Plan
  

It doesn’t take a village to raise a child. I take major umbrage with that statement.

However, it does take a family to raise a 2 year old.

Ruby was getting on everyone’s nerves this morning. It has been a cacophony of whining, crying/screaming when everything didn’t go her way. Caleb had his fingers in his ears, sitting at the table trying to do his writing assignment. Sadie had retreated to her room, unable to focus on her math amidst the noise.

I nursed her. She ate a good breakfast. I tried reading her a story. I played blocks with her. Still, she was overreacting to everything, shrieking constantly, defying my authority and being generally naughty.

And so I retreated to the cool of the basement with the baby on my hip, to deal with some delicate laundry.

Actually, I’ll be honest.

I needed a moment away from the 2 year old.

To calm down so I could deal with her appropriately. I could feel myself getting angry.

When I came back upstairs, Julien was rocking her in his arms and singing his own version of Three Little Birds by Bob Marley, edited on the fly to fit the situation.

“.. you should worry
’bout everything…
‘cos every little thing’s…
not gonna be alright…”

I guess this is just what a 2 year old needs to hear every once in awhile.

We all have mornings like that every once in awhile, don’t we?

I remember how difficult it was having these days with my oldest son, alone with no other people around to help.

This little one, however, has several available to take turns when Mom’s patience is nearing its limit.

And that is a very good thing.

She will say, "Let's fly", and he picks her up and "flies" her.

Some parenting issues have no real answers.

For instance, how is it that children (and husbands) can knock the hand towel off the towel bar, and not notice it much less replace it?

Why is it that some kids insist in being booger eaters? I mean, I get picking your nose. It’s all stuck in there and blocking your breathing, and who can be bothered to get up off the couch to get a tissue?

But… eating boogers?

Whatever happened to a good honest flick?

I try to explain to two particular children who shall remain nameless that boogers are a waste product, and just as we would not think of ingesting other bodily waste products, neither should we eat boogers full of detritus that the nose is trying to get rid of.

To no avail, sadly.

Here’s another dilemma:

When two sisters argue over Whose Friend It Is.

She’s MY friend because she’s the same age as me.

She’s MY friend because I met her FIRST (at the same event, on the same day, minutes before you, but still!).

How do you handle this one?

The older of the two insists that she wants to have a friend that her sister doesn’t have. Passionate fights over email addresses and phone numbers ensue.

I offered to procure a sharp sword and a bodyguard in order to split the friend in two, a la King Solomon, hoping that the real friend would please stand up and beg to give said friend to her sister.

I’m at a loss.

What do you do in these situations?

I’ve started a new habit around here. In the afternoons, when I head to my bed to put the 2 year old and baby down for a nap, Julien (12) and Sadie (7) take turns coming into my bedroom for read-aloud sessions.

This accomplishes a few things: One, Ruby falls asleep easily because she doesn’t realize I’m trying to put her to sleep. Two, the time is put to productive use but I still get to rest some.

For Julien, I chose Swiss Family Robinson. My oldest has read it 7 times and when I asked him if it would be a good choice for his younger brother, he replied in earnest, “Yes, but it HAS to be unabridged. The abridged leaves too much good stuff out!”.

So far we’re enjoying it, it’s a lovely story of faith, courage and family life…although it is a little odd that we’re in chapter 4 and still don’t know the narrator’s wife’s name (we knew the boy’s names immediately), and she seems to be little more than a maid, with no opinions of her own. Ah, well. You can’t have everything.

Sadie is hearing The Trumpet of the Swan, which was a favorite of mine when I was about her age. (There’s just something special about E.B. White, no?)

Unlike Julien, Sadie insists on reading a portion aloud to me first. Yesterday listening to her was a bit surreal. She read a passage about the proud cob discovering that his son Louis had no voice. As vain as he tended to be, he handled the situation with tenderness. She read it so well, her cute still somewhat babyish voice putting feeling into the reading, emphasizing the right words and changing the voices depending on who was speaking.

A very warm feeling came over me. It felt like happiness, nostalgia and something else mixed together and poured all around my belly. All the hours I’ve spent reading to her suddenly paid off, and she was able to bring me happiness by reading to me.

Anyway, it was lovely.

P.S. If you have a reluctant reader who suddenly begins complaining that she can’t see well, take her to get an eye exam. She might need glasses like Sadie did.

By the way, if you’re a big Anne of Green Gables fan, or want your kids to become one, check this out: The Anne Stories: 11 Books, Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne’s House of Dreams, Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside, Chronicles of Avonlea, Plus Audiobooks for just .99 on Amazon. Did you know that you do NOT have to own a Kindle to buy and read Kindle books? You can read them on your phone or computer!

This week my kids are doing standardized tests.

I’m not administering these tests because I believe they’re valuable, but because I have to in order to comply with the law.

I have a problem with standardized testing, and the whole thing is making me irritable. I resent this intrusion of the state into my family life and parenting.

Since I don’t have to actually show the tests to any authorities, and if they showed up at my door and requested them I would flatly let them know that fact, it’s especially annoying that I have to stop TEACHING in order to test them.

I dislike standardized tests for several reasons. One, a standardized test proves that a child a) is good at testing (and doesn’t tell you how intelligent they are or how well they learn) and  b) has been taught what’s on the test.

“3. to choose or establish a standard for.”

Who should best decide what “standards” I set for my kid’s education?

“…And these words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut. 6:6,7

(This is the primary reason I homeschool, so that I can do this teaching all day long.)

Since the state doesn’t give birth to my children, feed them in the night, clothe them, hold them when they’re sick, read stories for hours each day, worry when they begin toddling around, and teach them right from wrong, I don’t think they should get to decide what my kids learn and what assessments I use to gauge their learning. They have requirements for my homeschool, but don’t provide any assistance whatsoever. I buy my own school supplies, books, textbooks. I pay for field trips. I pay school taxes to support a system I don’t believe in.

The kids are doing well on these tests, incidentally. But it’s interesting to me that my 10 year old daughter, who is a wonderful student and reading constantly, is showing signs of test anxiety. I assured her that noone is going to see this test but me. I explained to her my feelings about testing so she understood where I stand, but she’s still stressed about it and did quite poorly on the  practice test.

“1. to bring to or make of an established standard size, weight, quality, strength, or the like: to standardize manufactured parts.”

Kids (like all people) don’t come standardized and I don’t believe their education should be either. There is no body of knowledge that every 10 year old or 14 year old “should” learn.

As I explained to my children, what if there was a test for all 40 year olds and the government demanded that 39 year old adults take it so we can “pass”? How would I do on the test? How would your dad do? What would be on the test? (And who gets to decide that?) Are we both intelligent? Do we know the same things? And does it matter?

How do you feel about standardized testing in your homeschool? Is there a requirement to do testing in your state?

August 13, 2012

11:07 PM – I can’t sleep through these contractions. Take note of the time. Could this be it?

For two solid weeks I’ve been experiencing “show” (which is why midwives refer to show as “a whole lot of nothing”). For a couple of weeks, cramping that kept me awake at night.

I start documents on my computer and fill random slips of paper with every little sign, little details about my day, anything that felt relevant.

August 14, 2012

12:09 AM – I get back up. Can’t sleep through these. Relocate to the couch where it feels cool. Prop myself up with pillows and begin to breathe and repeat the mantra I adopt: “Warmth, pressure, ooooopen….” . Remember to keep my lips loose.

Wake up to a balmy late summer morning, discouraged and heavy. 13 days past my due date.

All my other babies came early.

As illogical as it sounds, I feel that I will NEVER have this baby.

Glance at the bassinet beside my bed with longing and sadness. It feels almost like a grieving, as if I had been cheated.

I should be holding my little one by now.

6:30 AM – Take a bath. Musn’t be smelly if this is the real thing. Contractions slow. Take a nap (a “nap”? At 7 AM?).

Go for a walk with hubby, who has stayed home from work. I’ve been hauling my enormous belly around the neighborhood, feeling like a freak show, 2 miles a day, hoping it will loosen something up. Try not to think nasty thoughts about my neighbor, a woman who was due two weeks after me but who had her baby 5 days ago. Fake a smile when she tells me to “walk up that hill, that’ll put you into labor“.

Maybe if the only exercise you get is going from the TV to the fridge, I mutter to my husband through gritted teeth later. I hug him and cry a little bit, tired and discouraged. Contractions have petered out.

11:15 AM – Call the midwife back, and tell her NOT to come. Nothing’s been happening for hours. I feel foolish, like a little girl whose hand is caught in the cookie jar before dinner.

Use the bathroom…four times. Feel a tiny bit hopeful, as this is a sure sign for me, always.

11:45 – My husband takes Zoe to school. He had kept her home thinking that today would be the day. (She missed Ruby’s birth and we really wanted her around this time.) He goes to work. I feel relieved, not having people around waiting for me to go into labor, like a watched pot that never boils.

12:30 – Napping (again) with Ruby, woke up with a strong contraction. Get up, putz around. Nothing….

The blown up but empty birth pool and realistic baby doll that served as my focal point during labor

3:00 PM – Thankfully Ruby is napping too, as I need to concentrate now. My other children are with my Mom, so it’s just me in the house alone, for which I’m thankful.

I take a moment to write down 3 scriptures: Philippians 4:13 – “…for all things I have the strength by virtue of him who imparts power to me.” – 1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love.” – Jeremiah 1:8 – “Do not be afraid, for I am with you to deliver you.”

Put the piece of paper on my dresser so I can read it over and over.

Contractions begin again suddenly and take everything I have to manage.

Ruby wakes up, and I’m almost thankful because her presence forces me to act calm. I feel intense back pressure. It’s hard to stand up, I lean over my dresser and halfway squat a lot. Something powerful is pulling me, hard, towards the ground.

I grab the baby doll and look at it intently during contractions, reminding myself, often out loud, that “it’s a baby. That’s what this is. That’s why I’m doing this. That pressure is the baby coming.”

At this point I begin calling out to God, out loud, over and over. The contractions are coming right on top of one another and I can’t move or wrap my head around them.

Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah help meeee!! Hearing my own voice out loud seems to bring me back to reality.

4:30 – Somehow I manage to get my phone and call my husband. I breathlessly tell him to HURRY home. He calls the midwives and gives them the same message.

4:45 – Hubby is home and brings the pool, which was blown up weeks ago, upstairs to the kitchen. The contractions and pressure are so strong that I cannot use my legs. I pick up one leg and then the other, over and over, as if I were stepping on hot coals.

“…warmth…pressure…ooooopen….” I repeat at each contraction.

“… the baby’s coming… toooooo fast!…” I say to my husband, who comes in and out of the room to check on me. I grab him firmly by the shoulders and tell him, “Please remind me what I’m doing. Please keep telling me the baby is coming! And please don’t look scared.”

He reemerges and informs me the pool is full if I want to get in.

“I would love to… but I can’t walk!”

“Would you like me to carry you?”

The thought of him chivalrously carrying me to the kitchen, as ungainly and awkward as I am at my current weight, makes a funny image pop into my head and we laugh together for a minute. I’m thankful for the comic relief.

With his help I somehow crawl to the kitchen. The pressure is so intense, I cannot stand upright.

5:00 – I get into the pool.

Rocking from side to side, gripping the sides of the pool seems to help. I know I’m wiggling the baby down.

A particularly strong contraction hits me. I lean forward and plant a long kiss on my husband, which seems to make things open up on the other end of my body and give me a little relief. (Must’ve been a good one, judging by the smile on his face.)

I know it’s only minutes away.

I’m vaguely aware of the fact that one of the midwives has arrived. They haven’t touched me yet, only standing back to let it unfold. I hear my parents and the kids. I don’t want the kids watching just yet. It’s taking everything I’ve got to keep it together, and I’m afraid I will lose it if they talk to me or touch me.

I hear this loud, undulating howl come from deep inside my throat. I can’t control it, and I’m not even sure it’s me. (My mom said later that it sounded like a Native American war cry.)

I reach inside and feel something soft and slimy … for some reason I don’t really understand, I crook my finger like a crochet hook and break it. I feel the baby’s head just past the waters as they rush out.

“Did you just break your water?“, asks my midwife with a raised eyebrow.

“Umm… yes… is that ok?“, I feel like that naughty girl again.

“Of course! It’s your birth, you can do what you want!” was the reply (or something like that).

My body curves into a “C” shape. Briefly, the image of our neighbor’s dog squatting on my lawn pops into my head, and I realize that must be what I look like right now. Again I laugh at myself and am thankful for a little levity.

5:30 PM -

Victoria Helen Willard, born August 14, 2012

We love you Baby V. Why did it take me so long to write my birth story?

I’m not exactly sure.

Perhaps because it took me 2 months to recover from the birth. Moms say they want a fast birth, but I would prefer to labor for 8 hours than 2.5! A fast labor compresses all the work into a short period of time and is more painful and intense. It was wonderful, but hard on me.

It was so short that it was hard to make any memories. I’m so thankful that I had the presence of mind to jot down brief notes on paper. For weeks after V’s birth, I would look down at her and think, “Oh… that’s right, you’re here!“. It was surreal.

I remember reading Little Women as a teenager and, like most people, enjoying it very much. I wanted my girls to read the book (or to read it aloud to them), so I picked it up again to re-read it.

What’s interesting about re-reading books I loved as a child is that, as a mother, I enjoy them from a completely different perspective. 

This go round, instead of identifying with the awkward, when-will-I-fit-in Jo, I found that I related to Marmee. Before, I didn’t think much about her character. As I read the book it struck me that Marmee was a very wise woman, and that moms living in the 21st century can learn a lot from her. A few examples:

photo credit: bluebirdsandteapots

Marmee let her children learn without too much lecturing. 

When the girls decided to laze about and do nothing for a week during their summer break, Marmee allowed the experiment. Within days, the girls were irritable, nervous and bored – which is exactly what Marmee knew would happen. The linchpin was when she herself took the day off to demonstrate how unattractive selfishness really is. I love what she says here about work:

“…so I thought, as a little lesson, I would show you what happens when everyone thinks only of herself. Don’t you feel that is is pleasanter to help one another, to have daily duties which make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and forbear, that home may be comfortable and lovely for us all?”

It would have been easier to just tell the girls to keep doing their chores, but they would never have learned the valuable lesson that….

“Work is wholesome… it keeps us from ennui and mischief, and is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion.”

Marmee gave her children a wide berth.

Since she had her own interests (her charity work, for example), Marmee didn’t make the mistake of making her children her entire existence. She also encouraged the grown and married Meg “not to forget her duty to her husband out of love for her children”, and kept her own marriage at the forefront.

The girls had a lot of freedom to pursue their own interests and play, even though the two oldest had to work for pay.

Marmee waited for the right time to offer advice.

When the aforementioned Meg complained about her husband leaving her for more interesting company once the twins were born, Marmee had been concerned for some time about the situation. She held her tongue until Meg asked her for help.

I love what she had to say to the harried and stressed new little momma… in a nutshell, it was:

• Get some exercise
• Don’t drink too much caffeine
• Let your husband help with the kids more
• Get help with the babies so you can get out once in awhile

I love this quote:

“She (Meg, after the birth of her twins) was nervous and worn out with watching and worry, and in that unreasonable frame of mind which the best of mothers occasionally experience when domestic cares oppress them. Want of exercise robs them of cheerfulness, and too much devotion to that idol of American women, the teapot, makes them feel as if they are all nerve and no muscle.”

Marmee advises Meg:

… let John (the twin’s father) hve more to do with the management of Demi (the strong-willed boy twin)… let Hannah come and help you; she is a capital nurse, and you may trust the precious babies to her while you do more housework. You need the exercise, Hannah would enjoy the rest, and John would find his wife again.

Go out more, keep cheerful as well as busy, for you are the sunshine-maker of the family, and if you get dismal there is no fair weather…. Don’t shut yourself up in a bandbox because you are  woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take your part in the world’s work, for it affects you and yours.”

Sage advice for avoiding postpartum depression, I’d say.

Did you love Little Women? Have you read it again as an adult? What were your thoughts?

p.s. My kids have caught Little Women fever. After finishing the book, I rented the 1994 movie adaptation (which happens to star several of my favorite actresses). We watched it one evening, and even the boys enjoyed it more than they let on, I believe. The next day the girls watched it again and 11 year old Julien joined them.

“Oh Jo, how could you? Your one beauty”, has become a favorite line around here. The girls are building a town called Concord in the basement, complete with school, bank and nursery, and Zoe picked up my well-worn copy of the book and began reading it herself.

p.p.s. The Kindle version of Little Women is free at the moment!

…or, How To Get Your Kids To Stop Opening Your Packages.

But the former title made you click, didn’t it?

I feel obliged to share a text conversation that took place between my 11 year old son and myself. You see, whenever I get a package in the mail, my kids all run to ask if they can open it.

Today Julien stayed home while I went to the grocery store, so when this package arrived, his curiosity got the better of him, so he texted me.

Julien: You got a package in the mail, can I open it? From FedEx ground.

Me: Ok.

Julien: Was that a yes or a no?

(What a smartypants. Sounds like his Mother.)

Mom: Yes

Julien: Thanks

(….waiting….waiting….)

Me: What is it?

Julien: Julien: It’s a bra

Me:  Hahahahaha

I’m pretty sure this is a “YIKES” face in all cultures.

That’ll learn ‘em.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

This morning a few of us woke up with a sore throat. Ilana felt cold, so she and Sadie snuggled into her robe. Best friends and worst enemies (at times), these two.

I made potato soup for everyone. It’s great comfort food, cheap and nutritious, and wonderful when people are under the weather. Or when the weather is yucky. Or anytime. One can use any excuse to make potato soup!

I shared a recipe here on my page about cheap eats.  Since then I’ve tweaked it a bit. I never measure, so adjust to your own tastes and family size.

Uncle Fred’s Famous Potato Soup, Carrie Style

- Snip a few slices of bacon (kitchen shears make this easy, or use a knife) into lots of pieces, and begin cooking on low in a large soup pan. You don’t want them to brown, just give off lots of flavor and fat!
- Dice onions (or shallots) and celery and maybe a carrot (for color and visual interest) and add to bacon.
- Peel (or not) several potatoes and chop, add to the pot.
- Add just enough water to cover and simmer on low/med until soft (about 15 minutes)
- Sometimes I take a blenderful out, puree it then pour it back in. It gives the soup a thicker body. But you don’t have to do this. I also love this soup with leeks, it makes it sweet and yummy!
- Add lots of salt, pepper, and a dash of cumin. (Trust me!)
- Now pour in lots of milk, and if you have it, some cream. The soup is ready to serve to little kids at this point, but warm it a bit for adults.

Soooooo delicious.

Speaking of potatoes and leeks, I made Pioneer Woman’s Potato Leek pizza last night and it was delish. I love her cookbooks and both of mine are falling apart.

Caleb and I also made her Cinnamon Rolls…. and Oh.Mah.Gawd. they were divine. Only, next time I plan on cutting the sugar by about half. And I made them with coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.

I have a freezer full of cinnamon rolls for the next few Sunday breakfasts!

Ruby just had to wear Hitchie in the Baby Hawk yesterday.

Why do kids get to a certain age and decide they have to make weird faces for the camera?

And, is there anything sweeter than a sleeping Daddy/Baby shot?

I didn’t think so.

Linking to Our Mothers Daughters

To download this interview, please click here (mp3 format).

This week I interviewed Dr. Lon Jones of CommonSenseMedicine.

Dr Jones is an osteopathic family physician and an expert on xylitol. His interest in xylitol began when he used it successfully to treat his granddaughter’s recurrent ear infections. He then applied what he learned to his medical practice.

You may have heard of xylitol before while researching  dental health. Xylitol, derived from birch bark, is a natural sweetener that does not contribute to tooth decay.

Multiple studies have shown that xylitol reduces the incidence of cavities, and that this result continues even after the use of xylitol ends.

[Side note: my Father old me that his 4 Great-Aunts chewed on birch bark to care for their teeth (they lived before the era of convenient drugstores and toothbrushes!), which I thought was interesting. The Native Americans also used birch bark in this way.]

Dr. Jones is sharing:

• How xylitol prevents tooth decay.
• How much xylitol to use for maximum effectiveness
• Whether xylitol is “natural” or not
• Concerns about the safety and possible side effects
• What the Finns know that we don’t
• How to choose oral care products for maximum benefit
• Other uses of xylitol including prevention of ear infections in kids and as a sinus rinse
• How using a neti pot is like douching (yikes!) and more

Mentioned on the show:

• My family uses Earthpaste, and its number 2 ingredient is xylitol
• Dr. Jones recommended the books The Boids and the Bees and  Why We Get Sick
• Xlear (pronounced “klear”) nasal spray to soothe and cleanse nasal passages

Linking up with Simple Homeschool for their Day in the Homeschool Life series. I’m not vain enough to think that anyone wants to see the minutiae of my day, I do these posts for myself, as a reminder of all that I do in the course of the day that looks like nothing yet leaves time for nothing else.

7 AM, the earliest I manage to awake these days. I miss my morning time mightily, but try to appreciate these warm sleepy mornings snuggling with a baby knowing they’ll pass so quickly. I attempt unsuccessfully to disengage so I can take a quick shower but it isn’t happening, so I decide to balance a laptop on my knees while rocking and nursing V. I take this time to finish up an article I’m writing for a Fiverr client. Ironically, it’s on breastfeeding.

Hubby brings me a cup of coffee. It’s a small cup, and cut with boiling water so I don’t get too much caffeine. This is our morning ritual.

7:42 – The boys are up and headed to the kitchen to start pancakes. I usually cook breakfast but they decided they wanted pancakes this morning and got an early start.

Still writing, trying to get the word count up to 1200. The 2.5 year old is up now, to my chagrin. It’s a bit too early and she’s grumpy.Thankfully she decides to shadow her daddy all around the house. She calls him Zeke. It’s complicated.

7:54 Ah. 1274 words. I like to over deliver. Apparently this client is happy because she’s ordered many articles from me. I put the laptop aside and get dressed and change the baby. Her diaper is cold and stiff from being hung outside overnight. She doesn’t seem to mind. My deodorant is missing from the bathroom. I recover from the temporary mind blow that is “I have kids old enough to steal my deodorant.” Retrieving it from the girl’s room, I notice they’re cleaning up, which pleases me, because it’s Friday which is room deep cleaning day.

Make the bed – sort of, one-handed, with a baby on my hip. Mascara, concealer under my eyes. Lip balm.

Check on breakfast progress in the kitchen. Ruby is asking for yogurt and pie. She gets neither, since I don’t let her eat inbetween meals or she will create all kinds of drama at the table. She decides to lie facedown on the floor in protest. She has temporarily misplaced her father which produces screams of anguish. “He can’t find meeeee!”

Briefly fantasize about hiring a French au pair to whip her into shape. She finds her daddy and all is right with the world again. (How dare he venture into the shop to get ready for work!?) Her next request is to jump on the cham-po-ween.

Hubby asks me if there’s anything new on his to-do list. (His idea, not mine, and no, you can’t have him.)

Manchild Caleb, 14, walks my stepdaughter Zoe to the bus stop. (She is in public school. My husband didn’t have the best impression of homeschooling until he married me. Her educational future is currently under renegotiation.)

When manchild arrives back, I decide there isn’t enough food left for a Growing Boy so I fry him two more eggs. I have noticed that there is a direct correlation between how many pieces of bacon I eat and my emotional resilience. I decide today is a 3 piece of bacon day. Someone oughta do a study. Oh, wait.

I hug and kiss hubby out the door. Pause here. Niiiiiice.

….and wipe the kitchen counters, start dishes soaking for Julien. I can’t think with a dirty kitchen.

I issue various and sundry warnings and admonitions at the breakfast table. “We don’t throw food Ruby we say “no thank you”. “Please put your bottom lip back into your head Ilana.” “No namecalling.” “Ask nicely please.”

9 AM: Everyone’s dressed. Bible reading. We used to do several chapters, but now we just do one or two, so we have more time to discuss it. Psalms 52 and 53. I nurse the baby and then she plays on the floor next to me and Ruby.

Girls run off to finish cleaning their room. Ruby seems settled now after nursing a bit. (Yes, I’m tandem nursing.) I snuggle two warm bodies into my lap and we read a story.

Oldest begins his work, which he does independently, only coming to me to report what he’s covered that day. He and his brother use Khan Academy for math. Caleb is studying trigonometry.

The girls ask me to inspect their room, and when it passes muster they start math. I help Sadie with bar graphs. Ruby pushes her huge overstuffed, one-eyed bear around the room in a stroller, then requests my assistance potty training “Hitchie”.

Julien The Procrastinator decides to create drama with his sister by a) jumping in the coveted chair next to her and b) attempting to gas her out by farting repeatedly.

I send him outside with Ruby to jump on the cham-po-ween. It takes them nearly 10 minutes to get her jacket on and Hitchie all ready.

Quick homeschooler joke by Caleb: Why doesn’t Dave Ramsey do trigonometry? … because he doesn’t cosine.

Baby, tucked into the sling, is nursed and patted to sleep for her morning nap.

I go back and forth between the girls helping them with math. They’re both being a bit needy this morning. They don’t usually require this much assistance. I give them a pep talk about Hard Things Are Good For You and tell them that the phrases “This is too haaaaaard” and “I caaaaan‘t” aren’t allowed in my home and that challenges are things to be overcome and that things you have to learn become easy once you learn them.

I feel like Jo in Little Women when she exclaimed, “I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!” (I refuse to raise niminy-piminy chits.)

I get an email from Caleb, he’s shared his writing assignment with me via Google docs. I read it. In an attempt to discourage his brother’s procrastination, he then proceeds to tell Julien that I’m writing about his silly antics on my blog. Caleb has apparently sneaked a peek. I pick up the laptop and run, Julien gives chase, and the baby stares up at us with saucer eyes.

Caleb practices his guitar – a new song he’s learning by The Traveling Wilburys.

I create a child account for Sadie at Khan Academy as she wants in on the fun. (I generally eschew the use of computers for schoolwork but Khan Academy is my one exception!) She and Ilana finish up their math using KA.

I pull Ruby into my lap and we rock in the rocking chair while she eats an apple. I sing a song to her that I’m trying to help her memorize. It’s called “Pray Anytime”. After we sing it a few times I let her watch the video on my phone.

I start boiling chicken thighs for tonight’s Tortilla Soup.

11:00 – We take a break for chores and to start lunch. The boys reboot the dishwasher and washing machine. I make carottes rapees. (That’s fancy talk for grated carrot salad.) Caleb makes tuna sandwiches.

We sit down to eat, which elicits a grand mal tantrum from Ruby. It takes several minutes for her to settle down after the horrible injustice of being buckled into her high chair.  I know some of you may think it’s cruel to expect a 2 year old to sit and eat her food quietly, but when a toddler makes mealtime stressful for the other 8 members of the family, SHE must change. I instantly regret letting her sneak that apple earlier, because now she won’t eat, which means that 20 minutes after lunch is done, she’ll start asking for snacks. After sternly charging (using impromptu sign language) the other kids to ignore her, doing my best to remain emotionally cool (and after relocating her high chair outside, her still in it) she decides it’s no longer worth it to scream and agrees to eat a little cheese, after I insist she ask nicely. She also has to take “just one bite” of carrot salad and tuna.

11:40 – Every meal is stressful right now because of Ruby’s antics, and the baby also insists on being nursed as soon as she smells food, which means I generally gobble down my food with one hand and an accompanying backache. You would think that I would figure out, after 5 months, to nurse her before I sit down to eat, but I never do. Lunch is over, but I hardly feel satisfied.

Caleb sends me a new writing assignment to check. I read over it and make a suggestion.

I send Ilana outside to watch over Ruby. Jumping on the cham-po-ween is always a winner.

Language with Sadie. I nurse the baby while doing a lesson on nouns. I’m thankful for the chance to sit down, because that niggling pain in my midback has turned into a full on scream that makes it hard to breathe.

12:20 – Writing: Dictation with Ilana and Julien. It’s gorgeous out so we head to the deck and take Ruby so she can ride on her tricycle. It takes a long time. This is our first year doing dictation so it’s a new skill for these two.

12:35 – I take a quick break to nurse the baby again and rest. I chat with Julien and Ruby begins tickling my feet and tells me “Mommy you snell wike poop“. Julien, too, apparently “snells wike poop” so I’m not offended.

I fend off requests. “Mom can I get on the computer? Mom can I watch a movie? Mom can I watch a video? Mom can we go somewhere? Mom can I have a cell phone?”

No.No.No.No. Hail naw.

(And actually, I do end up buying a Tracfone, just for emergencies. We don’t have a land line and I sometimes feel nervous about that. Hubs and I don’t believe that kids and cell phones mix.)

I turn away excessive demands for my help. “Mom what’s 6X8?” “Mom how do I spell Willy Wonka?” “Mom do I capitalize ‘fortitude’?”

It’s your job to figure that out kiddo.

1:11 – Caleb is finished with his work so he goes downstairs to play Wii. The other kids play on the gymnastics equipment for a bit while I do writing with Sadie. I read a passage from The Saturdays, have her summarize it, then she does copywork.

Meanwhile, I burn the chicken. Or maybe it’s the beans. I dunno, what’s that smell? The baby has fallen asleep in my lap and I don’t want to get out of the recliner.

1:35 – History with Ilana and Julien. We read about the Inca. They answer my questions about the passage we read and I send them off with a brief reading assignment.

Caleb comes up from the basement and prepares a pot of tea for le goûter. I snuggle with Ruby while she eats a coconut macaroon. (Snacking is fine at snacktime, just not every 20 minutes all day long!) I ask her if I still smell like poop. She says no. I’ve come up in the world.

The mail truck passes by and several children run outside screaming. First Caleb brings me a cup of tea, then Julien (see a pattern? I do have these men of mine trained!) I drink two cups, hoping it gives me the energy to get through the second half of my day.

I decide to skip language with Julien and Ilana today since we did a very long lesson yesterday. That means we’re done with school for the day.

Ruby insists on having her “diaper changed” (she’s been potty trained for months) and climbs up on the changing table, naked. I play along, just this once.

2:33 - We do a quick tidy of the living/dining room. Apparently the tea did the trick because I feel like taking the kids to the thrift store. At red lights, Caleb rubs the sore spot in my back.

Miraculously I find something I’ve been wanting for weeks: a pair of skinny jeans! This brings my pants-that-fit total up to a whopping TWO pairs (my husband says my wardrobe is a little too minimalist.). I also picked up an antique French glass jar, identical to the one that used to hold my kitchen utensils but that sadly broke last week. Score!

I’ll get to the exercises in this book, I promise….

4:22 – We’re back home. I strap a screaming baby into the Baby Hawk and start dinner.  She falls asleep, thankfully, and Ruby plays with her big sisters for a few minutes. They have a bag of naked Barbies from the thrift store. Julien unloads the dishwasher, for the second time today (it won’t be the last).

4:44 – Hubby is home, Ruby spots him while she’s outside with Ilana. He takes over Ruby duty. At around 5 he and I step out for a walk. He normally lets Ruby walk, but this time he puts her in a backpack, and I have Victoria in the Baby Hawk. This is our time to discuss our day and generally chit chat. Ruby falls asleep, which is bad news, since she will now be very difficult to get to bed tonight. Eating and sleeping are issues with this girl at the moment! It’s not all bad. She has moments of pure sweetness, not to mention comic relief.

After our walk, with two sleepy babies, we sit and read for a bit. I look at the blogs in my Google reader, him The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.

Dinner. The baby is old enough to sit in a high chair, so Caleb buckles her in. (I remember to nurse her before dinner this time!!) She throws toys and hubby repeatedly retrieves them. I put a piece of avocado on her tray, just to see what happens. She smashes it repeatedly with her hands. Fun stuff! I’ll start offering her food in a couple of weeks.

6:22 – Dinner is done, hubby reads a Bible text. We discuss it. I lie on the sofa and work on this post. Hubby brings me a glass of wine.

I. KNOW.

The kids do their evening chores, and hubby helps me finish tidying up the table and the kitchen.

Ruby awakes, grumpy. He rocks her while Caleb starts a batch of brownies and Ilana works on cream cheese frosting. Julien is on his iPod, which has been calling to him all day.

7:30 – Family read aloud. Right now it’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

Writing a “day in the life” posts is a bit like writing a birth story. It’s not really possible to include every detail. There were many times I drank a glass of water, changed a diaper, helped defuse a sibling argument, reminded a child to get busy already, removed the baby from under the sofa from where she gets stuck after crawling backwards across the living room. I spoke calmly to a toddler while she created Richter scale fits. I picked up endless empty glasses from various areas around the house. Located lost shoes and socks.

I herded cats and created spaghetti bookends.

- The list of tools we use for our homeschool curriculum is here.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Do you believe in the equilibrium/disequilibrium theory of child development?

I do.

Wholeheartedly.

I wonder if adults experience the same?

{pretty}

(Two pretty girls and a pretty big brother against a pretty backdrop of greenery.)

If so, then I’m definitely in a period of disequilibrium right now.

Nothing I do seems to be working very well. And I can’t seem to make my goals happen.

Two steps forward, one step back. Just like a toddler who screamed most of the morning.

I’m definitely not in a pretty phase at the moment.

{happy}

Although I did discover a recipe for “Minimalist Bread”.  And it’s so super simple that even *I* can’t screw it up. It’s so yummy.

Minimalist bread makes me happy

{funny}

The boys think that every person resembles an animal. And they say Victoria is a mouse.

Does she have a future as a Mouseketeer?

{real}

Hey, who says hand-me-downs aren’t cool? She waited eagerly to grow into this one. Size: 9 months.

RockRockRockRock Rock 'n Roll High School

One of the best live shows I ever saw, circa 1993, with Social Distortion opening.

Did I ever tell you that I just recently found out that the Ramones weren’t actually brothers?

I’m a little slow.

(Linked to Our Mothers Daughters, probably the most encouraging little blog that ever was. Don’t we all wish we had an Auntie Leila?!)

A clean freak I am not.

I tend to care more about order. For instance, I’m a little OCD about my books. They’re always neat, and organized by color. (I’ve tried other systems, but this one makes the most sense to me! It’s visually pleasing.)

I make sure the kitchen is always clean. It gets cleaned after every meal, with help from my 11 year old son. The sink and stove are nice and shiny before I go to bed. And the bathroom gets a once over by my 7 year old daughter every day. These are the most important areas to me because dirtiness here can impact our health.

That being said,  I definitely like using cleaning products that make the whole cleaning experience a) easier and b) more pleasant.

Go ahead and strip me of my natural mom card, but I do not clean with vinegar!

I don’t like my home smelling like a pickle factory (and yes, I’ve tried mixing essential oils in with it, doesn’t work!), and I find that it just doesn’t clean things as well as I want it to.

Vinegar doesn’t make the chrome in my bathroom shine, and it doesn’t cut grease as well as soap does. (For most of my cleaning, I use a super simple mixture of 1 tablespoon castille soap in a spray bottle of water.)

The folks at Celadon Road sent me a selection of cleaning products. Their company aims to use organic and eco-friendly ingredients, and they have a home business opportunity because their products are marketed through direct sales. (Which is pretty cool and not smarmy like multi-level marketing.)

They gave me: Lavender Eucalyptus All Purpose Cleaner, Lemon Mint Glass Cleaner and Lavender Laundry Detergent.

First, the bad news.

I didn’t care for the Lemon Mint Glass Cleaner at all, because it was kinda streaky.

The ingredients were impressive though: Water, Club Soda, Lemon Juice, Peppermint Essential Oil, and Cornstarch.

Nothing questionable there.

It smelled lovely and worked just fine as a counter spray, but for glass and windows and my stove it left something to be desired.

They claim that the scent repels flies which would definitely be a plus here in the summer.

I did really like the Lavender Laundry Detergent (it’s available in other scents too, like Cedarwood, shown to the right – which would be lovely on hubby’s things!).

It smelled wonderful (duh- lavender!) and cleaned extremely well, and it worked fine for cloth diapers too, at least in the short term – but because it contains essential oils, my suspicion would be that over time it would lead to problems. Essential oils leave a coating on the diapers that makes them repel water. Ditto for towels.

But my favorite product of the 3 by far was the Lavender Eucalyptus All Purpose Cleaner. I simply loved it. It smelled amazing – even my 11 year old son, who is sensitive to odors, asked me, “Mom! What is that wonderful smell?!” after I used it. It made the entire house smell amazing.

It was also very effective. It worked great as a counter spray, it cleaned my stove well, and it worked wonderfully on wood too. I didn’t use it to clean my bathroom, but the tea tree and eucalyptus oils would be good for killing mildew.

Celadon Road also offers home decor, stuff for pets and kids, jewelry, skin care, kitchen goodies and men’s stuff. Definitely worth checking out.

Have you tried any Celadon Road products? What were your thoughts?

“Put down the book, Ilana. It’s time to do history.”

Even as I’m saying it, I realize it sounds weird. She’s absorbed in a thick novel, reading it for the second time.

(I didn’t homeschool so we could have School at Home. But the temptation is always there. Control. Me, me, me.)

“Julien, please put the guitar away. It’s time for history.”

(History is his favorite subject, but he was serenading the baby….)

We get history “done”. We look at a picture of a quipo. I consider having the children make one, so they can keep track of things. Like how many times they are kind to sibling. Or how many times they do their chore. Me, me, me.

Good thing we don’t have any string.

I go to the kitchen for a second to find something. I go back into the living room to see how everyone’s doing with their math, only the children have all scattered.

I want to feel irritated. The baby quiet on my hip, I engage in momentary self-pity.

“Why am I always having to chase these two down!?”

Then I look out the window. It’s a beautiful day. I watch.

The boy and girl, objects of my pursuit, are outside on the trampoline. The boy is holding a toddler’s hands carefully so she can jump without falling over the side. She isn’t crying anymore about her scratched eye.

I decide to breathe. And let go of the tension to Get Things Done.

History can wait a bit.

Yes?

[Note: Don't forget to enter to win the giveaway of organic papaya products here. You have until Wednesday and there are only a few entries!]

The other day an online friend emailed to ask when the baby was due.

Baby V turned 5 months old on the 14th.

I did not approve this development. Hmph. Kids these days.

Time truly flies.

She now has 2 teeth, and wasted no time in experimenting with them. I think I jumped a foot off the rocking chair when it happened.

Now I have to be cautious with her because if I try to nurse her when she’s not really in the mood, she’ll take a nip out of boredom. First she gets that little mischievous look in her eye.

Thankfully she responds well when I ask her not to bite in a “no nonsense” tone. I’ve had a couple of persistent biters in my time, and she doesn’t seem to be one of them. For her it seems to be more about just feeling these new weird things in her mouth and seeing what they can do. She often sucks on her teeth like an old person.

Speaking of nursing, just for fun I decided to make a check mark on a piece of paper to see how often she nurses during the day. From around 8 AM to 9:30 PM, I put 17 checks on the paper. That does not include all the time she nurses during the night either!

You know my favorite thing?

The way her feet curl up on my arm. The toes are the best. So velvety soft and adorable. I will miss that.

Even she can’t resist munching on them!

My guest this week is Jessica Oren of HerbalPapaya.com.

We’re talking about the many benefits and uses of papaya for health and well-being.

Among other things,  papaya has been show to:

* support the blood
* strengthen the immunity
* great for birth and after as a comforting herbal sitz bath
* pain relief
* papaya is great for kids – it’s low in sugar and nutrient dense
* helps acid reflux/heartburn in pregnancy
* traditionally the seeds are used for parasites
* autoimmune illness.

Here is a link with more information on the health benefits of papaya.

Jessica shares how she uses papaya in her family’s natural healing tool chest and that science is just scratching the surface of the benefits of papaya for health.

She is also giving away a selection of Organic Papaya Leaf products to a listener!

In order to enter, please leave a comment below. A winner will be randomly chosen on Wednesday, January 23 at Noon Eastern time.

Thanks for listening!

What do you have planned this weekend?

As a reminder, the HealThy Mouth summit is launching tomorrow. I’ll be tuning in for sure.

Next week, my 11 year old is getting an ALF (advanced lightwire functional). The ALF is an example of “functional orthodontics”, which is superior to the traditional orthodontic model of pulling teeth/braces. I’ll be posting a lot more about this and the research that led to my choosing the ALF for my son next week.

In the meantime be sure to sign up (FREE) for the HealThy Mouth summit and learn from some of the … leading leaders in unusual methods. (If you can name that movie you get a gold star from me!)

Speaking of weekends, do yours need an upgrade?

I recently read another of of Laura Vanderkam’s ebooks, What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend: A Short Guide to Making the Most of Your Days Off

For several months now I’ve realized that my weekends needed a bit of an upgrade. Hubby and I enjoy doing things outdoors when the weather is nice, but during the winter we tend to get a little blase about recreation.

After reading Laura’s book, I realized we were doing a few things right already. For instance, we take a “Screen Sabbath” every Sunday. No laptops, no video games, no smart phones. No email! Honestly, that last point is hardest for me and hubby because we tend to pick up our phones absentmindedly. It’s out of habit instead of need.

I also (attempt!) to cook less on the weekends. Even though I enjoy cooking, it can be laborious done three times a day, day in and day out. But taking 9 people out to eat is neither relaxing nor how we wish to allocate our money. So I still have to cook, but I try to make things that can be reheated (soups and stews) as well as easy sandwiches and soups.

We also sometimes plan a small project that gives us (at least, the adults!) a sense of satisfaction. Something like a small decluttering project, such as cleaning out the basement. The kids are the ones who nasty it up so we enlist their help. With all of us working, we can tidy it in less than an hour, but it gives us an energy boost for weeks to walk into a cleaner basement.

I also make a to-do list on Sunday nights for the following week. I love waking up on Monday morning knowing what’s what.

Last but not least, I try to make sure I have a good book for the weekend. The last few weeks I haven’t had anything good to read and I was so frustrated when I had a pocket of time with sleeping babies and occupied kids… and no book to settle into!

Weekends are supposed to be restorative, but as Laura points out, not making some kind of plan means we don’t make the most of that time. We have as “anchor events” our volunteer work and worship that takes place every weekend, but that leaves a lot of extra time that we don’t want to fritter away. In the end, it’s more fun to make memories than rest.

Check out Laura’s ebook (it’s 2.99) if your weekends could use some tweaking: What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend: A Short Guide to Making the Most of Your Days Off

Last week we recuperated from a particularly nasty virus of some sort. This week we’re back at school. I’m very thankful for this, because without the routine of school my days felt a little boring.

{pretty}

What’s pretty to me? Seeing an older sibling comfort a young one. Yesterday I handed off a fussy baby to a certain young man. One of his tricks is to serenade her with guitar playing. I think she puts her hands on the guitar to feel the vibrations. And it works every time!

{happy}

Speaking of eldest, Caleb is a big LOTR geek. Several days ago he baked lembas bread. Perfect for little elves with high metabolism. Honey, almonds, kumquats… delicious!

{funny}

Caleb, seen here with a serious case of early morning bedhead, learned he could indeed do the hula hoop whilst playing Led Zeppelin’s Rain Song on guitar.

{real}

Ruby has decided that she owns everything, including Victoria’s stuff. For instance, the baby swing. She crawls in, straps the buckles on, and proceeds to fall asleep. Umm, why has noone invented a toddler swing yet? She actually broke the thing, and hubby had to repair it. Of course, he made it stronger so it could support the 25 pound 2 1/2 year old.

What’s going on in your world?

Linked to pretty happy funny real

If you’ve read The Happiness Project0, you’re familiar with the terms “maximizer versus satisficer“.

A satisficer (that’s me) has high standards but once she’s found something that works, she is satisfied with her choice. She doesn’t have to find the perfect, ideal item like a maximizer does. (My exception? Choosing car seats for my babies. That warranted hours of research into crash tests and the like.) And she doesn’t enjoy that kind of searching either. She generally feels happier once the choice has been made, instead of enjoying the process. (Read: I hate to shop.)

Since I also have minimalist leanings, this means that I sometimes find myself with literally nothing to wear. And I don’t mean that in the general feminine way of “I don’t have something perfect to wear” or “I don’t have anything I haven’t worn 10 times lately” or whatnot.

I mean that at times, I literally lack enough items in my closets that fit and that, put together, can make up an entire outfit.

Is it sad that I’m 37 years old and this is true?

Whatever. I chalk it up to my frequent size changes due to having several babies. And the fact that I refuse to keep a lot of clothing around that accommodates all those size changes. (There goes that minimalist thing again.)

So when fellow blogger Modern Mrs. Darcy mentioned a service called StitchFix, which has a bunch of fashionable ladies (actually I don’t know, they could be guys…) sitting around waiting to ship you nice clothing… to your home… in the mail.. so you don’t have to go out shopping (Are you getting this?), I was all, “Somebody get my purse!”.

I signed up immediately, and scheduled a “fix” that next time I had no clothing. Right now I’m about 2 dress sizes larger than my normal size. I know the weight will come off, but in the meantime I don’t want to look like a scrub, y’know?

So the nice box arrived in the mail a few days later.

It had several items in it, all of which I tried on. Which was fun. I didn’t have to stress about who was going to watch the kids while I “shopped”. I just handed the baby over to hubby and slipped into my bedroom.

The first item was this jacket which was very cute… for my Mom. And I mean nothing offensive by that, it was very Chanel-y, and Paris Hilton probably owns that jacket in powder pink, but it just wasn’t me.

So I folded it nicely and put it back into the handy-dandy prepaid shipping envelope to send back to StitchFix.

Next item was this cute but too trendy “bubble” top and what were they thinking sending this to a newly pospartum woman who already has bubble issues in the belly areas?

Back in the envelope.

Then there was a cute scarf but I already own 4 which is more than enough.

Then a cute teal top that I almost kept except I already own a couple of shirts too similar.

A somewhat awkward selfie with my favorite accessory, a sleeping baby on my hip.

Then the piece de resistance, a black and blue cardigan that took me 5 minutes to figure out how to put on. I mean that. It came with instructions and I had to use them. (And the little card with pictures attached was helpful too. It has little “outfit ideas” for the fashionably clueless such as myself. Course I don’t own any of the other pieces so it’s a moot point but they get a thumbs up for trying.)

I hit pay dirt with this cardigan, because I have not taken it off for a week. Literally I have found myself waking up in the morning with the thing still on.

My cardigan is covered with baby snot at this point and smells like me (and not in a good way) and needs to be washed, but I would have to remove it in order to wash it so…

The thing is, this cardigan is not something I would ever pick up at the store and try on. But I love it! And it goes with everything I own. It’s basic without being boring. The back has a cute v-shaped cut and I can roll up the sleeves and roll the shawl part way down to change it up, or I can throw a stretchy belt on it to cinch it.

StitchFix is a keeper.

Here’s a rundown on how it works:

* Go to StitchFix and create an account (free). Fill out your “Style Profile”. It asks you a bunch of questions about what you like and don’t like, your lifestyle, sizes and such. It shows you a bunch of pictures of outfits and asks you to rate them. That kinda thing.

* When you need a ‘fix’, log in and schedule one. You can do this as often as you like, or make it automatic each month. Up to you.They charge you $20 at this point, which is refunded if you buy something.

* Box arrives in the mail with a prepaid envelope. Try stuff on. Keep what you like, send back what you don’t.

* Go back to StitchFix and pay for what you kept. That’s it!

My usual shopping routine goes like this: For kid’s clothes, eBay is where it’s at. I have the kids go on and look for themselves, saving items to my Watch list. I login and make the final decision and buy what they need. This works great for kids who don’t have tricky lumps and bumps and curves like myself.

I also shop at my favorite thrift store every time they have half price day (every couple of months). Just last week I was there and I found a beautiful red silk Ann Taylor skirt in my size. And some nice Gymboree stuff for the baby. I like thrifting, but it’s hard to create your entire wardrobe this way because you can’t just walk into a thrift store and find exactly what you need. It’s a plan ahead or serendipitious type of strategy. StitchFix is going to be how I round out my wardrobe without having to shop. Whee!

I’m also hoping it will help me put a little more “style” into my “personal style”, kwim?

affiliate disclosure

Last week a group of parents had the world rocked under them. There are no words to describe the pain and anguish they are experiencing.

There are many things I’ve wanted to say here this week but it all seems … shallow.

I have a first grader.

Every time I look at her, I think about these grieving parents.

I say a silent prayer for these suffering parents. And I thank God for her.

This little girl challenges me every day. She makes me proud, angry, happy, impatient. She make me laugh, cry, and sometimes raise my voice.

And I couldn’t imagine life without her.

She is dancer, gymnast, imp, little lady, sister, friend, student, reader, mascot, comedienne, trampoline jumper, baby sister sitter.

She is proud. She is sassy. She is nothing if not energetic. She is spirited and hot-tempered. She is social and friendly. She is messy and hard working.

20 little people, little first graders, were stolen from their parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends.

Why did this happen?

I’ll tell you.

It’s not because “things happen for a reason” (Eccl. 3:11). And it’s not because God willed it (Job 34:10 and James 1:13 and 1:17) and especially not because he needed new angels in heaven.

So why did this happen?

Because Matthew 24:37. Because 2 Timothy 3: 1-5, and especially because 2 Cor. 4:4 and 1 John 5:19.

(You can read more here.)

This is not a blog post.

Right now I don’t have time to blog.

Because I spend all my time doing this:

“That’s ok, I’ll just spend the next several months hanging out on your hip Mom. Carry on…” -
Love, Queen V

I used to write early in the mornings.

But now I have a tiny person who wakes up the instant I do, no matter what time that is.

And even if I do manage to accomplish this:

I still don’t have time to sit down and write. (I know the baby is on her belly. Don’t judge me. She rolls over that way on her own.)

Because in those few moments I usually run around the house like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, hands flapping at my sides, muttering “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”  and trying to throw some dinner on or clean up the house a bit.

Or helping the girls with this:

And even though they are made to clean their room every day before they get computer time, it still looks like this at some point every day.

This is not a blog post.

Because I can’t seem to string two sentences together intelligently at the moment.

Also, I seem to have lost my mojo.

I’ve even considered selling off all my websites, because I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

If I were to write a blog post, it might be about this attachment parenting backlash I keep reading about online. That’s really getting on my nerves. Or maybe it would be a review of some of the cool products that have come my way in recent months. Or perhaps I would discuss that weird limbo that is your life when you have a newborn. Where you don’t want things to change and you don’t want the baby to grow up, but desperately need her to. Or perhaps something else, like a review of the Giver quartet, which we recently finished reading aloud.

Or something.

If only I had the time.