Homemade Fun

The past three weeks we have been quarantining ourselves since we all(except for Tim) have a lovely case of the whooping cough.There is an outbreak in the area and we got it.So we have been doing a variety of fun activities in the house and around the yard since we cannot really go anywhere. My Mom, "The Grandma in BC" as the children call her, likes to send stickers to the children. They love putting stickers all over the house but I found this to be one of the funniest applications yet. He did not mind. stickers

Josiah kept asking about camping so one day I decided to set up the tent in the livingroom. I could have done the backyard but getting up with multiple people having coughing fits in the night is bad enough in a house, lets forgo doing that in a tent I decided. So the livingroom was a handy second choice. In fact no one seemed disappointed, this tent was a huge hit for all the children.

They played in it all day, "camping", playing lions (see the fierce lion below), hauling stuff in and out. Then Josiah and Annah slept in there for the night. They stayed up till 10:30pm in there but had a lot of fun doing so.

Another day Annah took a bunch of photos and she wants me to post the one below she took of me. I have been doing pretty good though I will be happy if I never hear another cough again. Due to the WC who have had to postpone out big trip to BC till the fall. This was very disappointing for me but I am glad we still get to go later. Since we are no longer contagious anymore and are slowly starting to feel better I think we will venture out a bit this coming week. However, I think it will be a few more weeks till the two little ones are fully recovered. Well I would have rather never had WC I am glad we are staring to see the end of it. On the positive side we should have life-long immunity now unlike the dubious, temporary coverage offered by the vaccine. I am thankful that no one got seriously ill and that it was summer so we could get out of the house and enjoy the healing sun or I may have gone cabin-fever crazy :) me

Gotta move it!

I can hardly believe my baby is six months now! He is such a happy, busy little man. He is all smiles (and sometimes drool and spit)and excitedly kicks his feet when anyone talks to him. He is moving around at a younger age then any of my other babies. He can now crawl from room to room and sit up very well for 10 + min. He pulls himself into a sitting position and is now working on pulling himself up to a standing position- a feat he can master with low furniture. He lights up when he sees his siblings and loves to play on the floor with them. He is a chunky monkey weighing in at about 23 pounds. He also loves to snuggle when he is tired and it is so sweet when he lays there nursing and looks at me with his big brown eyes. Yesterday we were bunny-sitting and we had two bunnies in a child's wading pool on the kitchen floor. Isaac puled himself up to the side of the pool and as a bunny would go in front of him he would lunge at it with his mouth open. LOL, maybe he was hungry? Anyways he is a great blessing to our family as all children are :)

Good-bye Wheat Part 2

So we have been wheat and gluten-free for almost two months now. Actually it has been about a year since Tim went off gluten and as a result we have all had less wheat in general for quite awhile now. Overall I feel healthier and like I have better mental clarity and more energy (usually). A big thing I do notice is that I do not need to snack as often. With high glycemic foods like wheat, after consuming them many people get a burst of energy or "feel good" as the wheat breaks down into sugars quite quickly creating a sugar high.But about two hours later when all the excess sugar has gone down, you can feel tired and in need of another "boost so you eat more simple carbs and the cycle continues (which can be very hard on your body and eventually in some poeple led to diseases like obesity and diabetes). If you asked me before I went off all gluten and high glycemic foods (like sugar, wheat, white rice, most processed carbs, ect)I would have said I was not caught up in this cycle. But now that I am off it I see I was. If I am out somewhere and I "cheat" and eat wheat I still feel fine so that is nice for the odd treat. Tim and Samuel only eat gluten-free though. Another huge positive about this diet is that we are eating healthier. Since we are not filling up on grains we are eating way more veggies and more healthy protein and healthy fats. Now that it is summer we are eating out of our garden and buying local, organic produce. Every week we also get a CSA box full of local produce from a local farm. We also got some grass fed, local beef and lamb. I find it easier and cheaper to eat healthy, local, organic food in the summertime :) So if we do not eat bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, crackers, donuts, or any processed food what do we eat? Well I am finding it is getting easier. Here is a sample of a couple days for anyone who is curious. :) Tuesday: Breakfast- Eggs (From our chickens :) and a smoothie (mango, spinach, coconut oil, banana) Lunch- Baby carrots, cheese, walnuts, oranges.(Tim takes leftovers from the night before.) Snack- Strawberries, freezies (lol, I know :) Supper- Spagetti squeash with sauce and meatballs, salad. Wednesday: Breakfast- Same as above. Lunch- Potluck at beach with friends. Supper- Steak, sauteed beat greens and mushrooms, steamed broccoli, strawberries with whipped cream. Thursday: Breakfast- Chocolate Chia seed cereal. (see here http://networkedblogs.com/zyuIm ) Lunch- Salmon spread (made with canned salmon, grted carrot, mayo) on flax seed crackers, baby carrots. Snack- Plums. Supper- Meatloaf, beets, baked sweet potato. And yes, my children ate and enjoyed everything except the sauteed beet greens. I am seeing that the more variety of veggies I serve the more they grow to like them. Anyway I am tired of writing about food. As a side note now that we are eating like this I feel full in the evening and do not need evening snacks. Ok, very strange when I publish this post it is not posting in paragraphs like I typed it out in- just puts it in one big blurb. Sorry about that but I do ot know what to do about it.

Good-bye Wheat Part 1

I am always seeking to eat healthier. With so much cancer, allergies, chronic illness, diabetes, obesity and so many other health issues just becoming more and more common I think that it is crucial that we only feed our bodies wholesome foods. As the old adage says "Garbage in, garbage out". We cannot feed our body "crap" and expect it to function well for the rest of our lives. Especially with having children I want them to have a healthy body and learn good life-long eating skills while enjoying a wide variety of wholesome food. In a way I do not like learning about where our food comes from and how it is processed. The more I learn the more determined I am to just eat local, oraganic, small farm produced food or things I have grown myself. Just a few small examples of how messed up our food system is. Salmon is healthy, right? Well if you live on the East Coast you can eith have a) Atlantic salmon raised in un-enviromentally friendly fish farms full of chemicals and diseases and fed a dye to make their flesh pink or b) Wild Pacific salmon which is caught off the west coast, shipped to China to be processed un questionable procedures then shipped all the way to the Atlantic coast creating a large carbon footprint. Ok, well then what about the super-food, garlic? It is a powerful broad spectrum antibiotic and antiviral that boosts the immune system but the ones you but at the supermarket are not so "innocent". Apperantly, Canada grows some of the best garlic in the world which we export and then we turn around and import garlic from China which is many times grown in old landfills (because it will grow anywhere). Sometimes it gets overwelming and at times I think that "Ignorance is bliss". So my latest undertaking is "wheat". As you know, wheat is every where and in many, many food items. I got started looking at wheat since Tim gets frequent headaches so he wantd to try goig gluten-free to see if it helped. Well it did not seem to help his head much he finds he has more energy and mental focus and feels generally better when he is off of gluten (wheat). In the past 6 or 7 months I have felt that something is "off" with Samuel. He cried and whined all the time (or so it seemed), did not seem happy or full of life like he should be; plus in the past year he has not grown at all and recently has had chronic dirrhea. Since he fit all the syptoms for celiac disease I pulled him off all wheat and gluten for this past month. He is like a new child! His eyes have a sparkle back, he is MUCH happier. I almost cried a few weeks ago when he made a "joke", lol, well a two year old one anyway. I had not seen his humour in so long. His dirrhea is gone too. So after that I read Wheat Belly and researched wheat more. Turns out that the wheat we eat now is very different from the wheat even 30 years ago as it has been do genetically altered. The wheat we eat now resists more pests, stores longer and creates much bigger yeilds but is very hard for our system to properly digest. My baby has woken up and wants to nurse (his dad went there but from the sounds of it Tim does not have what Isaac wants) now so I will continue these thoughts later. What are your thoughts on this topic?

Stop and Smell the Roses

Due to some late naps, when bedtime was coming up the two middle ones were bouncing off the walls. So I decided to take them on a walk around our small block. They took along their strollers and babies. An off we went. But we got nowhere fast. Had to stop and pick a dandilion, look at a boy skateboarding, pick up a rock, sit and watch a beetle, re-arrange the "baby" in the stroller, talk to the old man on his porch, walk backwards, gather up sticks, stare at a dog. It took us a full hour to get around one small block but boy did we get to "stop and smell the roses" and we enjoyed doing so :)

Take Time

I have been thinking a lot lately on raising children and what my vision is for my children as they grow. I do not mean I want to plan out their lives for them but I do want to raise my children with God's help so that when they are grown they will be people who love and seek to serve Christ wholeheartedly. This is my number one goal. I also want to see them grow to be well-balanced, confidant, people who truly love others and seek to make a positive difference for God's kingdom wherever they may find themselves. While I cannot "make" this happen and I can as their mother teach, guide, pray and create a positive home enviroment for them.

Some thoughts I have had on how to do this are:
1)Pray daily with them and show them a genuine relationship with Christ and invite them to join in times of being in God's presence. Talk to them about God and His ways and love. I think daily is the key here as Christ is to be our life not a hobby or duty.
2) Demonstrate a real, genuine love for others. Help those in need, invite people into out home to share a meal who may not be able to repay it, visit those without anyone who are elderly or sick, pray for others. Expose them to a wide variety of people even the "lowest" so they can learn to respect others even a begger and show the Christ's love.
3) Have a strong, good marriage and make it a priority as this hugely affects the tone of our home and in turn them.
4) Take time throughout the day to actually listen fully to them, talk with them, hug them, show genuine interest in them. For me not to be so "busy" that I cannot truly connect with them and spend time with them.
5)For me to demonstrate through my own behavious how I want them to behave. If I am not patient/ kind/ peaceful/ ect how will they as little children be? To pray for the Holy Spirit to build my character as I seek to see theirs built.

This list was not meant to be exhaustive. What is your vision for your children? What do you do to see it come to fruition? I would really like to hear your thoughts on this..

life schooling

I had a moment today where I realized how much I enjoy doing "schooling" my children and how smart they really are (yes, I am bragging but whatever:). They have an enormous innate desire to learn and discover their world. It is interesting to see their natural strength and weaknesses. Josiah just got interested in reading and can now read at a basic level. This is exciting for me, my first child to read :) He is very interested in Star Wars (even though he has never seen the movies, lol) so I wrote a bunch of my own Star Wars stories for him to read and he caught on easily. He is also very good at math related things and has a good memory. Annah loves drawing and drawing and has excellant fine motor skills. Her printing is very neat. This is one thing I like about homeschooling is that I can just expand on their natural interests and we can look into it as little or as much as we want. Everyday they are excited about the world around them. Here are some things we did today. (I think they learn with most everything they do but here are the more "school-like" stuff)

Most mornings we spend some time together doing what we call "school". We start by reading some Bible stories and a few other books. Then we do a calender and the weather. Next we do some games learning or memorizing letters, sight words, and the like. Then we usually do a page or five (if they are focused we do more, if not then we put the books away. I like having a very relaxed almost unschooling approach right now). In the afternoon is when we tend to do bigger projects. Also after "quiet time" Josiah and I have a reading lesson together.

Annah spent about an hour today drawing our family. Everyday she draws and colours. Usually Samuel will join her and scribble or peel crayons.

This cute rascal is the biggest problem when we want to do a more complicated or bigger project :) he gets into everything. Here he was trying to swipe my camera as he says "Mine. That is mine, Mom." LOL, everything is his these days according to him.

Here is an almost finished birdhouse Josiah has made. Well it may not be piture-perfect, I think it is pretty good for a five year who made it al alone. He has some basic tools in the basement and all by himself he designed, hammered, and sawed this. No help from Tim or I. Today Annah and him started to paint it.

This evening I printed off some free mazes from the Internet and they spent half an hour doing mazes together. (Anyone know of some good free sites you can print off games ect for young children?)

Four is More

So all the time people ask me "How is it havin four children?" The honest answer is that it is a real blessing and a real challange. At the beginning it was rough but now finally (Isaac will be two months in a week) we are finding our groove or rather I am. Isaac like to be held most of the time (and I think it is best for young babies to be in arms most of the time), so I find my baby carriers invaluable. He takes several naps a day on my back this way. Sometimes Isaac is fussy and can even cry (when he and Samuel cry at the same time- that is hard) but he more then makes up for it all the times he snuggles into me or smiles at me:).

All this does not mean we do not have times of chaos. Like the time I was nursing Isaac on the couch and Josiah comes running into say that Samue had poop on his bare butt and was n my bed. I had to leave Isaac sreaming on the couch while I put Samuel in the tub. Of course, this only happens when Tim is gone, which he is a lot. Usually though things are calmer and are getting easier. I can usually get supper made and on the table by 6pm. The house is reasonably clean and we do school most days. Most nights I even do a French lesson. Most days I feel happy and well rested. I would say that four children are doable if you are flexible, lean on God and have a sense of homour!

One thing that cracks me up is complete strangers asking me, quite often too, "Do you think you will have any more children?" I say "Perhaps!" I truly believe that children are a huge blessing, many are great! Sadly our culture does not usually agree but whatever. I think societal norms are something to be questioned and challanged not blindly follwed, something I have been thinking about a lot lately. Perhaps later I will share some thoughts but for now I am off to bed. Days are always better when I get enough sleep at night.

Growing and growing...

Mr. Chunky Monkey, ie. Isaac, is getting bigger everyday. Now at 5 weeks he weighs 13 pounds. He spends most of his day nursing (of course, growing rolls is serious business!), sleeping, and being held. He is awake more often lately and a few weeks ago he began smiling. So precious are the baby smiles. He does not like to be put down much so he is usually in my arms or on my back in a carrier. I also like it this way as they are only small and cuddly for so short a time, plus I also think babes belong with their mamas :)
OK, enough talking- take a look at this cute guy :)

Skating

We decided to try and all go skating. I was not sure how it would go with the two little ones but it actually worked out well. Centenniel park has a very nice, free skating location. A large pond that the park clears complete with a little heated cabin at the side. It was nice to get out in the fresh air and sunshine. Isaac slept the whole time bundled in a lot of blankets. Josiah and Annah still need a lot of practice skating but they are slowly getting it. It was a fun time :) Here are some pics.













What outdoor winter activities do you like to do? Since it is finally snowing here I think next time we will try sledding.

The Free Birth of Isaac

Two weeks ago I gave birth to my precious, third son, Isaac Stephen. Here is his birth story for those who are interested.

I guess it all began nine months ago when God blessed us with the conception of a new life. Fast forward to January 2012. By now I felt huge and was ready to be done being pregnant. I had a very healthy pregnancy and a very active baby who kept me up late at night with all his kicks. With this pregnancy I had done all my own prenatel care (I did this with Samuel too), in which I focused on good nutrition and exercise. Tim and I also planned on a quiet homebirth with just our family and one close friend present. By January I had everything ready: all the baby diapers and clothes folded, my sling hanging up and a few basic birthing supplies stashed in a drawer.

On Friday evening I had some contractions come every 30 min and stay like that but then when I went to bed they petered out. The whole weekend was like this- off again and on again. I was tired of getting hopeful only to discover it was not the real thing so I made some plans for the next few days to distract me.

Then on Thursday morning (Jan 5) I woke up at 5am. At first I thought, "Here we go again with the 'false' labour." But 30 minutes later things were getting so intense I had to get up and walk around so then I knew it was the real deal. I called my friend, Emily, who was coming to the birth to give her a head's up since she lives 2 1/2 hours away and I have fast labours. The next little while was quite peaceful as the house was quiet and dark. I lit a candle and walked and swayed through the waves (this is what I called the contractions as it more aptly discribed how they felt like to me). It was a time I could tune into my body and baby as it went through the remarkable process of birth.

After awhile Samuel (1yrs old) woke up early since I was no longer in bed beside him. I then woke up my husband, Tim, to watch Sam so I could focus on the birth. Emily also showed up and sat quietly in the background. The waves continued to last about a minute and came every 7 to 8 minutes. When things would get a bit intense I would breathe and slowly walk around while focusing on being in the beautiful presence of Jesus. It would be just Him, me and the baby.

By 9am Josiah (5yrs) and Annah (4yrs) were awake and things got noisy and bright. I could tell the waves were not being effective as I focused more off the birth and more onto everything else going on. Labour kind of stalled (as I have seen it do many times in distracted mamas) so I knew I needed to get refocusd. Tim put Samuel down for a nap then took the two older ones to a freind's house. As soon as Tim pulled back into the driveway "Boom" things started happening fast.

I started having waves very strong, intense and close together. After several of those my water broke and I felt the baby move down. At this point I decided to get into the birth pool Tim had set up for me in the living room. The water did not seem to help a lot as I had a few more powerful waves. At the same time I could feel the baby making his way though the birth canel.

He made his way down very quickly. All at the same time I could feel the burning as his head stretched my perineaum but also the amazing feel as I cupped his emerging head in my hand. And then his head was out and I heard him make a little noise. At this point I was in the pool, kneeling down (like the classic kneeling proposal position). Tim sat quietly in front of my watching it all and Emily was off to the side filming it. But in the moment for me it was just an incredibly intimate time of just me and my baby as he emerged into the world. After a short pause I felt his shoulders rotate and then all of him slipped into the water. I sat back and lifted him up onto my chest. I was the first one to touch and hold him (I found out later it was only about 10 minutes from the time Tim got home till Isaac was born at 10am).

It was a magical moment, relief it was over but such a joy at holding my new baby in my arms. After a few indignant yells my new son immediatley started looking to nurse. Once he latched himself on and he stayed at my breast suckling for the next hour. He was perfect in every way and I had to thank God for him. I was surprised at how thick the vernix on him was, more then any of my other children had at birth.

We relaxed in the pool for awhile, getting to know each other. After about 25 minutes the placenta came out with minimal bleeding. At this point I decided to get out of the pool and get into bed. Tim took a few minutes to hold his new son. After we got settled in bed Isaac fell asleep (and he basically slept the next week away). Samuel woke up and was more interested in the still attached placenta then the baby (we cut the cord after three hours). Tim picked up the older two and they were very excited to meet Isaac. They all crowded in the bed to see him.

All in all it was a pretty easy birth but a very empowering experience. I spent the next 5 days in bed focusing on bonding with my new baby. He is a great nurser, cuddler and sleeper. I recovered from birth very fast (I only had one tiny tear that healed quickly). The next day when we weighed him, Isaac was 8 1/2 lbs and 20 inches. AS I write this, Isaac is now two weeks old and snuggled up in my lap nursing. I am very blessed.

Here are a few pics. In the last two he is only a few minutes old.