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.