A Day in the Life of a One Year Old

Obviously, this post is a month old today. Happy 13 month birthday, Charley! Well yes, it appears blogging is not my top priority now that she is SO mobile! I'm a busy momma! Even so, I thought this deserved posting :) And it's taken me about two hours to get it up between serving breakfast and wiping tears and changing diapers and everything else- but, here it is, nonetheless!

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A Day in the Life of a One Year Old

June 7^th 2011

5:40am- you came into bed w/ me to nurse. When you were finished, you rolled onto your tummy, tucked your knees under and fell asleep.

7:02am – awake chatting w/ your sweet little raspy voice, “heh-ey”

7:04am- changed your very yucky poo- still a little tummy bug.

7:07am- nursin’

7:14am- I carried you outside to let the chickens down and check on the garden

7:20am- play time. A current favorite, the bead maze,

then pulling apart legos and handing them to me to put back together,

putting them back in the lego bucket,

and then a brief look at the 100 animals book we checked out from the library.

7:43am- getting cranky. I took you to your room and handed you your bunny-blankie (paw in mouth) and you took it and snuggled your head onto my shoulder. Yep, time for a nap! It’s earlier than usual, but you’re not feeling yourself quiet yet. I wrapped you up in your pink fuzzy blanket, turned on your sleep sheep, and left you to dream.

8:01am- you never fell asleep, just relaxed in your comfort zone. Now you’re giggling a little bit with your brother, who must be awake.

8:24am- I just left your room after nursing you & lying you back down

9:00am- you’ve been asleep for a little bit now, that’s more like your normal nap time. After leaving you @ 8:30 you cried some more, I picked you up and let you out of your crib for a bit but you were not happy. Saddest little birthday girl ever! So, I’m happy you’re sleeping peacefully now. Hopefully it’ll be a good one and all the restoration you need.

9:16am- went in your room and you were awake! Oh well, but you seem much happier now! We need to get ready to go to the grocery store.

happy shopper. One of your most favorite toys right now is this orange toothbrush. The handle has little balls in it, so it shakes like a rattle. You take it with you almost everywhere we go :)

11- got back from winco & nursed right away- you were DONE w/ that shopping trip!

11:15am – lego time w/ brother while I make lunch

12:03pm – all done w/ lunch, time to play w/ brother some more!

12:30pm- crawled into the kitchen to find me. I changed you, kissed your tummy & made you giggle, and nursed you to sleep.

1:30pm- you woke up and sat yourself straight up- your newest skill- and cried out because you’re still tired and couldn’t get back down & comfy. Tucked you back in w/ bunny-blankie.

2:40pm- awake, sitting up! Nursed and down to play.

3:35pm- pots and pans

3:50- nursin’ some more

4:00- shopping w/ mommy- rite aid, dollar tree, and joanns. Big girl! You got a few “pretty girl” comments while we were out. This was an out-of-the-ordinary afternoon trip, but we had to get a few things for your big party on Saturday.

I never got to record the rest of the day, but a typical evening looks about like this:

5:00- you come crawling into the kitchen, crying desperately for something to eat while I’m making dinner. I sit you in your chair and find something in the fridge to throw at you. Frozen peas, cheese, left over cooked meat, diced fruit, whatever! You usually cheer right up w/ a little finger food to put in your mouth.

5:30- time for the rest of the family to eat dinner. Half the time you’re happy to have more on your plate, the other half you’re done eating after I finally sit down and so I clean you up and nurse you while I eat.

6:30- we go for a walk as a family or you have play time w/ Daddy and Brother. Once in a while this includes a bath- which you scream throughout the entire duration. You hate baths. Tonight, however, you got to open your first birthday present! You've been eyeing baby dolls for a while, so that's what we picked out for you. You thought she was great and chewed on her hand- because that's how you say "i love you," isn't it?

7:30- bed time! Nurse, cod liver oil, diaper & jammies, stories w/ Daddy and Brother on the couch, and down for bed. You usually cry for a little while, then I nurse you, and lay you back down to fall asleep.

Love you, baby girl! Happy First Birthday!

It feels like a photo day

So let's catch up on May!

Charlotte discovered the tunnel. It was a little scary, but she made it!

And I'm sorry, but could she be any cuter? I just couldn't help myself.

My Momma, on mother's day <3

More Mother's Day fun, w/ Matt's Mom and Grandma "GG." Poor Charlotte was so "done" at this point, it was a long day!

Rowen playing with his little bud JJ

Charlotte enjoying homemade saurkraut on her hotdog. Mmm.... i have the weirdest kids :)

kombucha!

aww..... Charlotte lovin' on Daddy. (and a spatula.) Matt's face is one of utter enjoyment and disbelief- Charlotte is VERY stingy with her lovin's! (I'm pretty much the only one that gets them, ever.)

Would you believe we actually had a day nice enough to go to the Zoo? Rowen holding hands with his little buddy Adler.

Charlotte found the tupperware cupboard. She dumped out the bucket of lids. (organized, aren't I?)

Examined each one...

and then put them back. Sweet girl!

This morning we went to a (don't be shocked) McDonald's play place with our good friends the Carters. I know, I know, yuck, right? But the Mommas enjoyed a cup of coffee and the kids REALLY enjoyed climbing their hearts out. I do believe we'll be making a regular play date out of it!

You can make that? Buttermilk!

Oh, I know where she's going with this one, you say. I've known that little trick forever! Just add some lemon juice or vinegar to milk and let it curdle for a few minutes and..... oh, wait my dear friend. This is so much better. And just as easy. If you like to cook with buttermilk (or drink it, you crazy person. I know you're out there.) Or if you have some buttermilk that's going to expire and you're not ready to whip up 50 fluffy pancakes, you have got to try this. And then thank me later for the money your saving and for it's pure deliciousness.

Okay, are you ready? This is so great it just tickles me to share it. You need milk (not ultra-pasteurized, it wont work) some store-bought buttermilk (it's the last time you'll ever buy it, I swear.) and a jar w/ a lid.

Measure 2 Tbsp buttermilk into your jar...

add the milk with your left hand while taking a picture w/ your right... no no, don't do that. Unless you have lots of towels near by. Just pour in two cups of milk. Okay?

screw the lid on and shake it like ya mean it. (for a minute! Make sure you do a little dance while you're at it. Endorphins, I tell ya!)

Set it somewhere that you wont touch it for a day. The timing is not exact and depends on the temperature of your kitchen, but technically it's "24 hours." But really, who's counting? Just don't leave it there a week, okay?

And while you're here, feel very blessed that this is not what YOUR fridge looks like. And let your imagination run wild with just how bad the SIDE of the fridge is. heh. Oh yes, the organizational queen of old is dead. six. feet. under.

Finally, take it down and give it a good stir so you can admire it's beauty. Try and contain your urge to eat a spoonful. (okay c'mon, I dare ya! I've always thought buttermilk to be disgusting until I whipped up my own batch. Ooooh mama.)

refrigerate and make biscuits at will! Or whatever your favorite buttermilk recipe is.

If you think it's been in your fridge a touch too long and you haven't used it yet, scoop out another two tablespoons, add it to two cups of milk..... you get the picture :) And feel free to double or half the recipe, the ratios matter, not the quantity. Enjoy!

A few Photos of the kids

...'cause that's what everyone REALLY wants, right? Enough about enzymes and rancid oils already. ;)

a little easter egg huntin' w/ Pop-pop. i love this last one. They both have such cute looks on their faces!

The gals are finally outside... But this was a few days before. Trying to cram onto the edge of the brooder box to roost. I can't believe how big they are! Look at this photo of when we first got them:

seriously.

Rowen entertaining Sissy w/ donkey kicks all around her.

just before our bike ride. Rowen is SO cool. Charley is sucking on an apple slice. She knawed at it for about two hours- the duration of our sunny day adventure. Hehe. (more impressive than that, she kept her hat and sunglasses on the whole time. yeah!)

I told them to have goofy faces.

Okay i didn't. I just only snapped one picture and that's what I got. :)

Making the most out of our one sunny day: picnic dinner (broccoli raab w/ cheese, nitrite/nitrate free hotdogs, probiotic ketchup and raw milk. Oh yeah, we eat guuud when Daddy's gone.) It was Sissy's first hot dog. She would have eaten the whole thing if I hadn't given the last two bites to Rowen. Oink!

You can make that? Mayo!

Stop feeling guilty about spreading the white stuff on your sandwich- try this and know that you're doing something GOOD for your heath with every bite! It's ridiculously easy. I'm serious. It took me WAY longer to write/post this blog entry than to make the mayo. *snort*

I'm still perfecting my recipe, but that's the beauty of it. Change is a good thing!

Step one: gather your supplies, and make sure they're room temperature. You'll need:

1 egg + 1 yolk from pastured hens. (Yes folks, they're going to be raw. You want the good stuff.)
1 tsp raw sugar or other sweetener if you like (you can totally do without)
1 tsp raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
3/4 C olive oil (cold press)
1/4 C coconut oil
1 tsp whey (liquid drained off yogurt or kefir)
sea salt & paprika

If it's less than 76 degrees in your kitchen, your coconut oil will be solid. I like to fix this little "problem" by putting the (full) measuring cup in a tray of hot water. Liquefies right quick!

whirl the eggs, sugar, vinegar, and whey in a food processor until it's nice and frothy. Slowly pour in the oils while it's running, like so:

I made my first batch with vegetable oil because I still had it. It was.... eh.... not the best. Second batch was half coconut oil, half olive oil. It was yummy, but a tad too coconuty. This batch at 1/4 coconut 3/4 olive is pretty tasty! Essentially, you could use whatever combination of oils you wanted to as long as you have one cup. If you're just getting into more "natural" cooking and going w/ coconut & olive is making your eyes bug out 'cause they're so expensive ( i know... i know...) you could start w/ half veg oil & half natural oils. That would cut the cost, and at least you're going better than store bought. Baby steps, people. I'm thinking my next batch might be 1/4 bacon grease... wouldn't THAT be tasty??? Baconaisse... ooh, the sky's the limit when you make it yourself!

Sorry. I'll stop day dreaming and get back to the process.

Next step: admire it's thick, lusciousness, and season appropriately.

Here's the part that is really going to eek you out. Forgive me.

Put it in a small jar, close the lid, and leave it on your counter for about 12 hours. Raw eggs and all. (then refrigerate and enjoy.) You see, that's why you put in the whey. All the happy organisms in the whey go to work on the mayo, fermenting it and INCREASING the nutritional value- and the shelf life! Normally homemade mayo will last about 3-5 days in your fridge. And who wants to clean the food processor every time you want a turkey sandwich? This lovely stuff will last several months, if you don't eat it first. :) It took me a while to get up the nerve to try fermented mayo because I thought it would taste... well.... fermented. (and the whole raw eggs fermenting on the counter for half a day thing...) But honest to goodness this is the yummiest spread. AND it's actually good for you! Healthy, natural oils (instead of rancid oil, which is what all the stuff in the store is made of. If you're not aware, vegetable oils (soybean, cottenseed, corn, etc.) are processed at such a high heat that they turn rancid. Like when you have the heat too high in your pan and the butter starts burning and smoking? yeah. yuck. Then to mask the unsightly odor and color, they bleach & deodorize it. But I digress....)

where was I? Oh yes... pastured eggs, and oh-so-many enzymes to aid digestion and overall well being. :) Eat up!

Cost analysis:

2 eggs @ $4/doz = $0.67

1t raw sugar @ 5#/$6.65 =$.02

1t raw apple cider vinegar @ 32oz/$2.75 =$.01

3/4C olive oil @$6/ltr = $1.06

1/4 C coconut oil @ 1gal/$39=$.61

whey = free

spices = too little to count

Total: $2.37 for about 12oz of delicious, healthy, organic, probiotic mayonnaise. Let me know if you try it, what you use, and how you like it!

Rowen Strider May 4th

notice his feet are up! Love the strider bike. what a gorgeous day!

Do you worry about feeding your kids meals that other people have provided?

This week I started reading "Real Food: What to Eat and Why" by Nina Planck. A couple things were so encouraging to me early in the book that I just had to share them :)

The first one especially- as I learn more about real food, and at the same time, the disasters of industrial food, I worry about my kid's diet. ("worry" is not the right word, we are SO in the Lord's hands!) I can feed them nourishing foods at home, but what about when we go to other people's houses for dinner? What about eating out? I am just as concerned about my heart as my kid's diet. I want to have (and to foster in them!) a heart of graciousness, thankfulness, and hospitality. To shun others because their food choices are not the same as ours is sin. Plain and simple. So this first excerpt gives me peace because these kids were having only SIX nourishing meals per WEEK, and saw vast improvements. Read on:

"...in one experiment, Price fed malnourished kids one meal daily, six days a week, while they ate as usual at home. The therapeutic meals included liver, fish chowder, or a meat stew made of broth and carrtots; a buttered whole wheat roll made with freshly ground flour; tomato juice with cod-liver oil; and two glasses of whole milk. The meat, dairy, and eggs came from animals raised on grass, which Price had found containted more vitamin A than animals raised on grain. It was the American version of the traditional diets: rich in protein, vitamins A, B, and D, omega-3 fats, and minerals. The children's health- and their performance in school- improved sharply. "A properly balanced diet," Price wrote, "is good for the entire body."" p28 "Real Food" Nina Planck

With a husband with borderline high cholesterol, this one also interested me greatly!

"The study of blood cholesterol and its various subcategories is getting more spphistiated by the hour, but the conventional wisdom holds that it's better for high-density lipoprotein (HDL) to be high and low-density liboprotein (LDL) to be low. Casually known a the "good" and "bad" cholesterol hypothesis, this idea emerged with it became clear that the number they call "total cholestrol" was a poor-very poor- predictor of heart disease. Today, most experts believe that low HDL and high LDL are "risk factors" for heart disease, which means the two conditions are statistically correlated.

"But I'm not so sure. There are two important caveats to the rule that high LDL, in particular, is dangerous. The first is a lesson from Statistics 101: correlation does not necessarily imply cause. In other words, high LDL does not necessarily cause heart disease. Instead, it could be a symptom (or marker, as experts say) of heart trouble. The second caveat is equally serious: many studies show that high LDL and heart disease are not linked. In 2005, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons reported that as many as half of the people who have heart disease have normal or "desirable" LDL. Also in 2005, researchers found that older men and women with high LDL live longer. When the rule- high LDL is dangerous- doesn't apply in the elderly or in half of the heart disease cases, the honest scientist can only conclude one thing: the rule eeds a second look. Some cholesterol experts believe the rule needs more than just tweaking. "There is nothing bad about LDL." says Joel Kauffman, Professor of Chemisty Emeritus at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. "There never was.""

it's quiet around here...

So I've gotta say, I'm loving the "homeschooling" with Rowen. I wish I were posting all the fun activities we were doing, especially the cute Easter stuff, but to be honest, I can't do both! :) (And I keep forgetting to take pictures.... heh heh) I'm not sure how the blogging mommas stay so on top of it. And the kiddos are the priority :) So I'll write that post about how easy mayo is eventually- but for now, I'm off to scoop up my yummy baby who's chatting away in her crib!

A few photos- for you photo junkies out there. You know who you are!

The water is super hot. Gloves on the feet so he can put his feet in the sink! ha. He'd really like gloves his size but I can't find 'em.

sissy's first plate. aw, big girl.

I'm not sure why, but I was super impressed by this little structure. The matching and the even...ness.... is that a word?

found this in his room the other day. His pillow is on the bottom, and all the animals are piled on top, head up, in quite the mountain. Topped with a blankie of course. Night night, animals!