Resolutions: Reading

I want to read more books this year. I want to spend less time in front of the computer. Thanks to PaperbackSwap, I have lots of fun books waiting to be read!

In 2010, I want to

• read every children's book in the house. I'm tired of reading the same ones over and over and over again. It's time introduce some "new blood" into our reading routine! :)

• reread Mitten Strings for God. I have been working on my 2008 (yes, 2008) blog book and rereading my Simple & Slow Friday posts. I had forgotten how much I really enjoy that book and how it puts my role as a mother into perspective. A MUST READ!

• finish Henry and the Great Society. I've been on chapter 2 for a couple of months...
  

• Lies Women Believe. I don't know that I'll finish this or not, I'll have to wait and see what it's really all about. I'm very sensitive to *Christian* books. If I don't agree with an author's use of words right off the bat, I generally don't finish the book. I'm very conservative in my beliefs.

• pick up Treasuring God in Our Traditions... again. I really want to give this book another chance. It comes highly rated at Amazon.

• The Power of a Praying Wife. See comments to Lies Women Believe. I really enjoyed reading Created to be His Help Meet last year and would like to continue growing in my role as help meet and wife.

• All New Square Foot Gardening. We will be doing a garden this year and not just in pots like last year!! Can't wait!

• finish Nourishing Traditions. I'm 3/4 through. I started this January 2008 and this book has totally changed to way I view food. HIGHLY recommended!

My reward for reading these books? To purchase Eat Fat, Lose Weight. (Unless I earn enough Swagbucks to get it free first!)

stArt: The Little House

A Story + Art = A Great stART!

As part of our unit study on community, we read The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. It is about a little house in the country that was built so well that the owner never wanted it to be sold. Seasons change, generations go by and the house sees the countryside change as the city comes in and takes over. At one point, skyscrapers are built all around the little house. To find out how the book ends, you'll have to read the book yourself. :)

I was "lucky" again this week as Will took it upon himself to do something based on a book we'd read. Here he is with his skyscraper... "many stories high," as he said. (The paper he's holding is an award he gave himself for the world record in skyscraper building. LOL!)

stArt: Planes and How They Work

A Story + Art = A Great stART!

I stumbled across this book (along with the books on Ships, Trains, and Cars) at Books.A.Million on their reduced table and immediately fell in love with them. They were the answer to a long search for age appropriate books that explain how big machines work.

Will, age 7, has loved trains since we was 2. Not only does he play with his train tracks daily, he talks of boilers, domes, pistons and the like. These books are perfect for broadening his horizons to other machines while giving the younger boys an inside look into them as well.



These are flap books and pull-out books at the same time. Not all pages have flaps, but all pages have the side pull-out that goes into more detail about what is inside the machine. Above is a sample from the Plane book. (You should be able to click on the image to make it larger.) This page discusses the wings and tails. The pull-out page discusses what material the tail is made of and goes into a little more detail about the rudder and elevators. I love that these books use the real-life names for the parts, too.

Now for the ART PART!

Will constructed the following planes on his own without help or prompting from me. I just happen to have the camera nearby and was pleased to see that our first stART project in action!

I was informed that the first two are bi-planes and that the final is a jet that has the engines in the rear.

I was also informed that Witt (2 years old) was flying his jet backwards... the round blue pieces are the engines that should be in the rear. :)

For more StART participants, click HERE.

What's Good to Eat?

We have so much going on that I literally feel like I have a series of posts to do. There is no clear beginning so I'm just going to start with the topic of our current food choices.

*This is an excessively long post.*


But first, I feel the need to say these are personal choices that feel right for our family. What we are working towards is in no way a reflection of what I think everyone should be doing. I am not judging anyone's choices... this blog is about our life and what we are doing. Food choices are a big part of our family, but it's no longer only out of necessity due to of life-threatening food allergies; we're intentionally making different choices.

What am I talking about?!?

I'm talking about baby steps towards whole food living: whole wheat, unrefined sugars, organics, home grown food, removing preservatives and additives as much as possible... just to name a few. Eventually (HOPEFULLY!) raw milk, free-range organic eggs, keifer, and other things I had no idea about 4 months ago.

Really, this journey of conscientious food choices started with Witt's allergy diagnosis. When we found out he is anaphylactic to dairy (and allergic to eggs & peanuts), we went into survival mode. Our diet at the time was SAD (Standard American Diet). We ate out 2 - 3 times a week, had tons of prepackaged foods in the pantry, and drank 4 - 5 gallons of store bought, non-organic, pasteurized milk weekly... and I rarely read a food label.

The first year of Witt's allergy we ate out as a family about once a month (Witt was still breastfed or on jarred baby food and contained easily); we switched our prepacked foods from whatever we wanted to dairy-free egg-free peanut-free prepackaged foods, and drank about 4 gallons of organic soy milk weekly. Looking for allergens on labels had become our way of life.

Once Witt was more mobile and on table foods, we no longer went to restaurants as a family (although Jeff and I continue a weekly lunch date out). Prepackaged foods decreased a little as I found it was more economical for me to cook from scratch. Massive soy milk consumption continued. I started paying attention more to labels... not just the allergen info, but it became, "What in the world are these 27 letter long words???"

Late 2008, as I started searching for more and healthier recipes to replace our standard prepackaged foods, I continually ran across a highly recommended book: Nourishing Traditions.

I decided to check further into this book. I searched for it on Paperback Swap first to see if I could get it for "free". Nope. There were over 400 other members "wishing" for the book. So, I decided to get myself a Christmas present. :)

This was my much anticipated gift Christmas morning and I'll be honest... when I opened it and looked at all the recipes containing whey, milk, and eggs I was disappointed. I thought there was no way I would ever use this book, but I started to read it anyway as Sally Fallon had several chapters prior to the recipes regarding fats, vitamins, minerals, etc., and even a chapter on food allergies.

I was amazed at what I read regarding food studies, how big businesses are controlling what goes in our foods, and how all these refined foods are really just filling a void in our stomachs - not nourishing our bodies at all. Before I even got to read the chapter on food allergies, I was putting two and two together thinking, "It is no wonder there are so many food related problems today with all the artificial stuff we've been feeding ourselves these last few generations!"

About this time, I also started researching soy more heavily.

I had already read a few scary articles regarding the estrogen levels in soy. One in particular continues to stick out in my mind regarding boys that grew breasts, which was linked to soy consumption. Have you read your labels recently? Soy is in almost EVERYTHING and it has been linked to a lot of bad, bad things and is dangerous! We decided to stop drinking soy milk and we've switched to almond milk... which is absolutely delicious by the way!

So these baby steps bring us to today. I am, of course, nowhere near where I want us to be, but these things take time in my world. I'm slowly transitioning our recipes by replacing some of the refined ingredients with less or non-refined ones.

Here are the main updates to our diet so far for 2009:

• No soy milk (although we do use soy yogurt and cheeses from time to time)
  
• Whole wheat flour is replacing all purpose (unbleached) by 25% - 75% of the flour amount called for.
  
• Coconut oil is replacing dairy free margarine in all baked goods and sauteed foods
  
• Sucanat , maple syrup, honey and other natural sweeteners are replacing white refined sugar by 50 -100% of the sugar amount called for
  
• Making more baked goods from scratch for healthy breakfasts and snacks
  
• We have planted seeds to grow some of our own fruits, vegetables, and herbs this year (a first for us!)
• Making nourishing chicken broth from bones (I also did this with venison!)

Changes I want to see take place before the end of the year (Please note that I am not expecting these to be 100% complete changes... ie. I use the word "more" not "all")

• Buying more organics. Honestly, I currently buy few organics fruits & veggies because of price. Hopefully our garden will supply a lot, but we go through so much fruit!! This will probably be by far the most expensive change for us.
• Find a reputable free-range chicken farm. I know there are some around here, but I just haven't gotten to that yet. I hear they are delicious, though!
• Shop our local farmer's market once a month (ours is quite expensive, but those peaches are fantastic!)
• Introduce granola cereals (instead of using extruded cereals)
• Learn more about and attempt soaking grains
• Learn more about and attempt sprouting (and more sprouting)
• PRAY PRAY PRAY for a full removal of food allergies from Witt by his next testing in December 2009.

Benefits I have seen so far:

• 6 pounds lost this year with only the above changes
• Major reduction in sweet cravings
• Sodas taste and feel like corn syrup - I have no desire for them
• I don't feel the need to eat as much when I eat whole, unprocessed foods (seriously!)
• Just an overall sense of feeling better, whether it's all in my mind or not, I don't know, but I'll take it either way! :)

Negatives

• Going from white flour to whole wheat flour is not very "kid friendly"in many cases - at least not for a 6 year old raised on white flour. (bless his heart...)
• I need to find a balance between altering and not altering recipes (ie. Jeff's not too excited about me putting whole wheat flour in his favorite cornbread. Some things need to be left alone and I need to respect that.)
• I'm having a really hard time staying within my $125/week grocery budget.
  
• It's all a little bit overwhelming at times and I need to continue to remind myself that baby steps are the way to go for our family.
• We currently can't get the benefits from raw milk or from eggs with Witt's allergies so we're only working within the boundaries available to us.

Where I've been going for nourishing information:

Heavenly Homemakers (mama to 4 boys! fantastic recipes!)

The Nourishing Gourmet (Dairy free, very informative)

Local Nourishment (down-to-earth, real tests and trials of this foody life; also has a daughter with a milk allergy)

Naturally Knocked Up (although I'm not and don't plan to be again! LOL!)

Team Bettendorf (12 kiddos! and a new milking cow!)

Keeper of the Home ( writes about what a woman's body needs nutritionally... among many other great topics!)

Passionate Homemaking (love this page of natural living info!)

Yahoo Groups: Discussing Nourishing Traditions

Weston A. Price Foundation


So that's the first of a few "big topic posts" I have mulling around in my head. The buzz word for our family this year is "CHANGE" - good changes, but big changes none-the-less.

Too Busy for God?

I am definitely in the "noisy season" of my life with three boys ages 6, 3, and 1. :)

Unfortunately, I think I have used that as a bit of an excuse. I have recently been very open with my husband about my lack of personal study. I think it was good for him, too, as we have made a new goal of getting up before the kids to have our own time with God and with each other.

Honestly, we've only followed through with our goal a few times, but I can certainly tell the difference in my day when I've had my personal time with God. I really need to get more serious with it. I enjoy so much reading God's word... why is it so hard to get started again?!?

This past week, I have started reading "Created to be His Help Meet". I'm only one chapter in, but already love this book. (Thanks, 4 Fun Boys for the gift of this book!) I look forward to focusing on how to become a better helper to my husband and encouraging him as he leads our family.

I do, however, pray throughout the day. Especially when someone requests a prayer. I say a prayer RIGHT THEN and THERE because I might forget it later at my "scheduled" prayer time. This has made a huge difference for me and by having already said a prayer, I generally do remember to pray for the person again!

It doesn't matter where I am or how short the prayer may be... I just do it. I have felt the power of prayer and I know it works. Asking and allowing others to pray for us has been a HUGE blessing to me and I try to return that blessing when I can.

We pray with our boys every night before bedtime as well. At first it was just with Will and Nathan since they share a room. We'd tuck them in and then say a prayer, but it was becoming difficult to keep two little boys still and quiet. {grin} Jeff had a brilliant idea of kneeling at the bed to pray with them (which just warms my heart, btw!).

One night, we decided to have Witt join us and it didn't take him long to fall right in line. The next night when we said, "Ok, it's time to pray," he ran to the bed, kneeled down, clasped his little hands together, and bowed his head. It was the MOST PRECIOUS thing I have ever seen!

A few nights later, I attempted a picture before the prayer, and this was the best shot I got (Will is on the far right in blue pjs)... I'll be trying again for a better picture, but I think you get the idea for now. :)

I look forward to Living Simply Saturdays over at Keeper of the Home.

GO DAIRY FREE!

I was a little leery of purchasing another dairy-free cookbook. I've got several, but find that I just like to convert standard recipes to dairy free instead of finding strange ingredients.

NoWhey,Mama wrote a positive review about this book and I began to think about it. Then I emailed her and asked her is she really liked it or "was she just sayin' she did". Isn't that just awful of me!?! I can't believe I did that!

Anyway, she reconfirmed that she liked it, so I ordered it for myself for Christmas (that another whole post in itself).

Let me just say, "I AM IMPRESSED WITH THIS BOOK!" I love it. I really, really do. The first part of the book is about making the transition to DF, the health benefits, etc. Then she goes into different substitutions and how to make your own at home - sometimes for pennies!

It's not all about DF, though. She takes into consideration some other allergies and of vegans. It is truly a comprehensive book that anyone could use. She discusses different oils, how they should be used... which "milks" taste best in different recipes... being frugal... and she does it with a sense of humor as a real person who's been there... done that.

We've been DF for a little over a year now and I have learned SO MUCH from this book in the last month. I truly wish I had the book when we first made the switch.

Let me just say that I haven't even made it to the recipe section yet and I'm recommending this book! I've perused a few recipes and look forward to trying them out, but the information in this book has been so useful and opened my eyes to other options.

If you are thinking about getting this book, I HIGHLY recommend it!

And right now you might be able to get it for FREE!! NoWhey,Mama is hosting a giveaway at her place this week for a free copy! If you don't win, however, you can always get it from the GoDairyFree site (among other places).


P.S. I wrote this review by my own free-will... I get nothing in return for it except knowing that I'm suggesting a really useful book to those on the path of Dairy-free living. Enjoy!