In Need of Prayer

This isn't for me, this time. I have two very dear friends who are in different stages with pregnancies but need prayer. Friend 1 and her husband have been struggling with infertility and finally had IVF a couple of weeks ago. She knows she is pregnant now but is in that very anxious first stage, wondering about whether she is pregnant and with how many. They only had two successful embryos, both of which were implanted and they aren't in the financial position to do IVF again... please pray for healthy pregnancy and at least one, if not two healthy, full-term babies.

Sadly, another very special person who was expecting lost the baby on Friday night. She was about 8 weeks along. I am so sad for her. They have been trying for about six months and she has several health problems that make getting pregnant more challenging. Please pray for her that she gets the right kind of support from those around her and that, if it is possible, that they conceive again soon. She has great faith that God has great plans and that there is a purpose for everything and is being really strong but I know she needs some cherishing right now.

Thanks!

Around the Kitchen

I really was born into the wrong ethnic group. My background is mostly Scottish and Irish, not cultures known for their soul food. I am not an exceptional cook and you won't find any particularly exotic offerings in my kitchen but one of my love languages is certainly food. As you know if you have been around here for long, I have very mixed feelings about being back at work and when I feed my family "from scratch", healthy, yummy food, I feel as bit less guilty and like I am doing my job to provide for them.

I wouldn't say that I am a health food nut but I do try to avoid proceeded foods as much as possible. Since Baby Bean refused to eat baby food entirely and we went the "Baby-Led Weaning" route, it is especially important that the food we eat is low in salt, preservatives and chemicals. He is a huge fan of baking and so that has been a big focus lately, especially mini-muffins.

Usually, when it comes to food, I share links to recipes I have found online or I plug a cookbook I am really enjoying. Today, I am pleased to offer a recipe that is truly my own! It came about just before I went back to work - I like to try and make breakfast a special meal and with out new morning routine, timelines are really tight. I got the idea for a breakfast cookie and this recipe was born. I did some research online and combined ideas from a number of recipes. I wanted something low in sugar, whole grain and not containing honey (since Baby Bean is under 1 year, honey is still no-go). Just so you know, I am following the new guidelines for feeding and since Baby Bean doesn't come from a background with any nut allergies, he is already eating nuts. I would like to try this recipe with sunflower seeds to replace the walnuts so that Pk can take them to school (nuts are not allowed in schools here) but I haven't actually tried that yet.

Good Morning Breakfast Cookies

2 eggs

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c melted butter

1 c shredded carrots

1 c ground walnuts (you can just chop them but since Baby Bean is still little, I worry about choking)

1/2 c raisins

1/2 c chopped dried apricots

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c rolled oats (not instant(

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 salt

1 1/2 c cheerios

Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with silpat sheets or parchment paper.

In one bowl, combine the eggs, brown sugar and butter until well mixed. Add the carrots, walnuts, raisins, apricots and stir just to combine.

In another bowl, combine flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Add the cheerios and stir until just combined.

Drop by spoonfuls on the cookie sheets and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until firm and golden. Cool two minutes and then transfer to racks to fully cool. Makes roughly 2 1/2 dozen.

(My kids LOVE these and we find they are perfect for a snack in the car after swimming when they are hungry. My father-in-law didn't know they were breakfast cookies and he greatly enjoyed them with his cup of coffee).

Before I go, I do want to share one cookbook and one link. I have told you before about Jonni McCoy's cookbook, Healthy Meals for Less. I love this cookbook. It is simple, very kid-friendly food with a short list of ingredients, most of which are either natural or she gives recipes for natural ingredients. This week, I went and bought all the ingredients for her onion soup mix and then used it in a couple of the recipes in the book that call for onion soup. The flavour was terrific with about 1/4 the salt and none of the preservatives and chemicals in dry soups. Dh loved the meals and even Pk, who is in a picky stage, was willing to eat. The "Chef Miser-ly's Mac and Beef" and "Popover Pizza" are Pk's favourite meals of all time. You can't beat them - cheap, quick and healthy.

In terms of a link, we made a discovery this week. I had been hearing about kale chips and wondered about them. I know that kale is one of those wonder foods and I have been wanting to get us to eat it but really, doing nothing about it. In the last week, it has become a staple. I saw the recipe on a blog for kale chips and decided to try them. They are absolutely delicious and ridiculously simple the make. The kids don't love them as much as they are supposed to but will eat a bit and dh and I really indulge. They are really worth a try!

Stop on By

Two friends have started blogs and I am sure that they would love some visiting traffic. Both are mommy blogs but with very different orientations:

Lora, of "The Hugging Home", is a mom of 3 and a true wit - she's fun and wise and worth a visit

Sarah, of "Just Another Mommy Blog" is a young mother who I have gotten to know who is sweet and very good at being who she is (which, in my opinion, makes her very wise in her early 20's)

Say hi from me if you stop by to visit either of them.

Breast is Best?

I complained the other day about not having a rant. I spoke too soon. Let the ranting begin.

As you might know, I am a CBC-ophile. I listen to quite a few shows on podcast, one of my favourites being "White Coat, Black Art", which is an insider's view of the health care system hosted by Dr. Brian Goldman. In honour of Mother's Day, there was a show on breastfeeding.

What is it about breastfeeding that is so incredibly polarizing and that makes us so unkind to other women? On the show, the discussion was about women who had various kinds of trouble breastfeeding and the experiences that they had with the healthcare system through their troubles. As I listened, I could, to some degree, sympathize with the struggles faced by these women. With both of my babies, I had trouble with my children being slow to regain lost birth weight and in both cases, I found it hard to get the help and answers I needed (although the second time round, I was smart and hired a wonderful lactation consultant to come to the house and who actually had more experience than an 18 hour course - she was brilliant and so reassuring and helpful). I could totally relate to the worry, the frustration and the helplessness that these women were experiencing and with my first child, I had been the victim of a very grouchy hospital lactation consultant who was probably having a bad day but who was very mean to me when I was least up to dealing with it.

There were a couple of things that really bothered me about the show and the comments that I read afterwards on the show's website. The first is the damage begin done to the cause of breastfeeding by so-called experts and breastfeeding proponents who stubbornly maintain that if you "do it right" (e.g., correct the latch, drink enough water) or take their herbal supplements, that everything will be fine. That so clearly sends the message that 1. women who have trouble are somehow to blame for the problem and 2. they put babies at risk. What these dogmatic supporters don't realise is that they are totally undermining what it is that they hope to achieve. Women who feel inadequate or who are given simplistic answers to complex problems are going to give up and go to formula. They are going to be defensive and shut down the discussion entirely. Wouldn't it be better to have babies getting some breastmilk than none at all, which is the result of this head in the sand approach?

The other thing that bothered me is the fact that in this discussion, there is so little information about what causes these supply problems in the first place. I find that this is territory that is so unclear. As someone who likes to research, this is so frustrating. If the more natural people are to be believed, our supply issues are related to traumatic births (e.g., inductions, forecep deliveries, c-sections, lots of intervention) and that epidurals are largely connected to supply and latch issues (mom's hormones not acting the way that they should and babies who are lethargic and don't latch properly due to exhaustion, leading to poor supply). While I tend to be a bit skeptical about the claims of the natural health people, thus far, that's the only argument I can find that makes any sense. If so, aren't women being set-up to fail? On the one hand, the medical establishment pushes the message that breast is best while also telling us that we need all these interventions to have babies without telling us the possible risks. The answers aren't so easy though - as a woman who has delivered very large babies vaginally and at least in one case, was induced, I am not sure how confident I am in a totally natural birth. For women whose births are easy, sure, but I don't know whether I am up to that.

What really gets me is what comes from all of this. I am not a fan of formula. I admit it, for some, probably paranoid reason, I do not want my babies getting formula. Yes, I know that for some women, they feel it's their only option and I am not about to judge. Especially if I lived in the U.S. with the unreasonably short maternity leaves, formula would probably be my friend, too. I just can't get past the fact that formula has a list of ingredients that are chemical/processed, it comes in cans lined with B.P.A. and that it is manufactured by companies who, to put it mildly, have not got a track record for functioning out of altruism. It just doesn't seem safe to me. And yet, all this breastfeeding backlash leads to more formula being consumed.

And then, of course, I read this article and almost lost my mind. While I think that there are some interesting points (I, for one, have always thought that the claims in terms of the benefits of breastfeeding had to be somewhat overrated - simply put, women who breastfeed are women who are willing to put their own lives on hold for their children and I'm guessing that breastfeeding isn't the only thing that they do more intensely that might benefit their children), the feminist thinker quoted made me crazy. First, she questions the benefits of breastfeeding and then there is the comment that "breastfeeding is oppressive to mothers." Hello? It's oppressive to feed your child? Personally, I think that spending an exorbitant amount of money to buy stuff I have to make, bottles I have to sterilize and heat and having to schlep bottles around is much more oppressive than having to pull out my breast a few times a day (although, I expect she is referring to the fact that we can't just hand the baby off to someone else). Of course, if mothering is so oppressive, we could all stop doing it...

I just wish we could have a calm, reasonable conversation about breastfeeding. I wish we could be honest about the fact that formula is second best without all the guilt being laden upon women who give formula. I wish that those in favour of breastfeeding could be more kind and supportive to those having issues and stop pretending that problems don't exist. I wish that in our hospitals, we could have certified and highly experienced lactation consultants available in the post-partum departments so that women could get quality support before they leave the hospital and struggle alone at home. I wish that the marketing regulations for formula companies were truly enforced so that I didn't have to get all the formula coupons when I had my son. I wish that formula wasn't in such demand that it is kept under lock at the grocery store (how horrendous is that). Most of all, I wish that we could communicate to mothers that they are good mothers, whichever choice they make but that there is quality help out there for them when they have breastfeeding challenges, whatever decisions they make. Our babies deserve better.

Long Weekend Day 1 - Murphy Arrives

On one hand, I love, love, love the May long weekend - for Canadians, at least in this part of the country, it heralds the arrival of summer. Regardless of the weather, people:

-go to the cottage

-spent horrific amounts of time on highways

-stay up late and sit outside

-go to garden centres and buy plants

It's an institution and regardless of whether it is warm or cold, rainy or sunny, all these things get done because what we call "May 2-4" weekend means that summer is here.

Another aspect of May 2-4 that is not so much fun is that we have a long history of Murphy's Law arriving. Usually, it's either in the form of a sick child (meaning a visit to the hospital since everything is closed) or a sick dog (and emergency vets cost triple what the regular vet would cost). I don't like to think negatively, but there does always seem to be something. This year is no exception.

The weather forecast is for sun today (Saturday) and rain the rest of the weekend so when I got up, I decided that we needed to get out table and chairs out on one of our decks to eat outside. It ended up being a bigger hassle that I imagined. The deck faces west so the umbrella is a must later in the day. It didn't want to fit at all. We did eventually get it set up and had a lovely breakfast outside.


That's when things got a big strange. When I was making breakfast, I noticed that the fridge was making a rather odd noise. I didn't think too much of it until I went to get out my frozen strawberries for my smoothie and realised that, while they were cold, they were starting to melt. I got dh to look at the fridge and it didn't take us long to determine that we had a big problem. Luckily, we have a super repair man who works all the time, including long weekends. Sadly, the news was not good so, after taking the kids to the library for music, it was off to the furniture place to buy a new refridgerator. Not an expense that we needed right now.

Of course, being that it is a long weekend, nobody would deliver. It was 1:45 by the time we got home and, given that there had not been lunch yet, the kids weren't exactly feeling chipper. We had our lunch outside (as much as anything to avoid the mess in the kitchen - take my advice, it really is worth it to pull out the fridge and clean once-in-a-while and spare yourself the embarassment of what we got to see today).
Pk requested a peanut butter and jam sandwich and I decided I would let Baby Bean have a few bites (he has had pb before). We have discovered the one thing that he does not like. I wish I had been taking photos with his first bite - the face was wonderful. He stared at it in wonder that anyone would want to eat such a thing. He got to have chicken instead.

Then, there was the issue of getting the fridge into the house. We had managed to get it into our van (nobody would deliver before Tuesday and we needed a fridge) but getting it up into the house was another story. Dh was sure that he and I could do it - fortunately, our wonderful next-door neighbour saw what we were trying to do and came over to help.
Eventually, Pk and Baby Bean and I went to visit friends who had invited us for a visit. They have a perfect yard with great climbing equipment for kids so we had a nice time. It's great because both their kids are about 3 months older than Pk and Baby Bean so they both have a friend. Watching the two littler guys together is quite a lot of fun.




Our final destination today was the garden centre. We decided that we weren't up to getting everything today but we would get our veg bought for our veg bed. We got our tomatoes, peppers and some herbs - lettuce will have to be bought soon. It's an annual tradition to to all garden buying this weekend - every garden centre has extended hours and it seems like everyone who is not at a cottage is buying plants.

Sadly, the clouds appear to be moving in. I don't imagine we will enjoy so much outdoor time tomorrow.

Sorry these posts are kind of boring and news-y. I'll try to find something to rant about one of these days. I'm just really enjoying my weekends with my family and it's what I feel like talking about.

Have a super May 2-4!

Our Big Day

I don't know whether this is done everywhere but in the school district we live in, sometime in May, all of the students who have registered for J.K. (I may be wrong but I think it might be called Pre-K in the U.S.) go to the school for some kind of initial assessment. Today was Pk's day and we were told that we needed to be there at 10:30 to meet with a teacher who would do the assessment. One of us would have to take the day off so we decided that I would take the day and make it a special mother-daughter day. We were both really looking forward to it.

The day started out like a normal day, with our usual breakfast routine. As always, Baby Bean stuffed his face with cheerios and muffins (this is our current favourite recipe).

Pk was very excited. She argues each and every morning about getting dressed and this morning, I let her hang out in her p.j.'s until almost 9 o'clock. She also started with what she calls "a white milk tea party" using her favourite tea set. She also snacked on muffins and both children enjoyed some very ripe pears, another household favourite.
Once Daddy and Baby Bean went off for their day, Pk and I started our fun. She insisted she wanted to wear "a princess dress" and she wore her green dress that was a gift and is now the current fave of both of us. Our first stop was to the church sale. It's an annual event and they hold it in a parking lot out on the highway. We live in a pretty town just off a highway on the road to cottage country. The May long weekend is a huge weekend for traffic and the church sets up everything right there and lots of people stop. The stuff tends to smell like it came from someone's barn but you can find the odd treasure and since Pk wants a tea party theme for her birthday this year, I have started collecting teapots (I have ideas!) and it seemed like a good destination. We walked there hand in hand, chatting in a way we haven't done in a long time. I will treasure every moment. We bought one somewhat ugly tea pot and then made our way up to the school.
She was very excited but I could tell she was feeling pretty scared, too. We went in, had to wait for a bit and then it was our turn. I realised that I was a bit nervous, too. Let me say, I don't put much stock in this at all. With a three-and-a-half year old, so much can change, even between now and September, that the data they get is not especially accurate and given that we were talking a three year old working with a stranger, it's not exactly an accurate picture of what they know. Even so, it's my first experience of how she will handle the pressures of school and testing so I was a bit concerned about what I might see. I needn't have worried.
At first, Pk was really shy and was reluctant to answer. We started with her name (she had to identify it and print it), she did her colours, counted a collection of teddy bears, identified her numbers, did upper and lower case letters with their sounds and then finished with a basic speech assessment. I have to admit, I was pretty happy when, at the end, the teacher, who is kind of a friend, said, "Well, mom, I'm sure you know that she is very h-i-g-h..." I replied that I thought she was doing o.k. but that I struggle a bit, since she is a September baby and seems younger to me than many of her friends. Her reply was, "Well, that just means she's even higher than I thought if she's that young." The nicest part was that when we were leaving the room, Pk spotted the next child waiting, one of her best friends from the library and they had a big hug and were really excited that they might be at school together.
Pk thought it would be a good idea to take a photo right below the school sign (for privacy's sake, I've cut the name of it out). It's a nice momento of the start of a very special time in her life!
The rest of the day was just as fun. We came home so I could pump for Baby Bean and then we ran down to Dh's school. We treated Pk to her favourite lunch - "Old McDonald's" (yes, healthy-eating conscious me does give in on that every so often) which we took back to eat at dh's school and then we went on to get my hair done. Pk loves going to my hairdresser and it's a nice thing for us to do together.
I didn't get any photos of the rest of the day but it was all great. We went to pick up Baby Bean from daycare and our sitter was getting ready to take the kids to the park and so we joined her and Pk's friends for about an hour. We went on a visit to the garden centre and wound up by having a great "start of summer meal" for dinner - grilled steak, shrimp, nice bread, asparagus and salad. I love the May long weekend and the joys of summer that it brings.

It's hard to imagine a nicer day. I just hope the rest of the weekend is as wonderful. I feel so lucky right now!

An Evening in the Life

We've hit that stage in life when lessons are a love/hate thing for me. I love seeing my kids get a chance to get out and learn and, I hope, develop passions that will be part of their lives forever. On the other hand, life is just so busy and especially as the evenings get hotter, I'd love to be able to throw meat on the grill and have leisurely evenings together. It will ease up - music class (Tuesday night) has only one more week, swimming ends next week (Wednesday night) but highland dance (Monday night) and library bedtime stories (alternating Wednesdays) will continue.

Last night was an especially crazy night. I got VERY sick on Tuesday morning. It was strange, I felt a bit cold-y on Monday night and then I woke up Tuesday morning feeling like I was dying. I have NEVER felt as achy or tired and my throat was killing me. Strep and I have a long history of badness (a double case that turned into 3-and-a-half months of extreme rash and endless medical tests being one example) and I was terrified I was going down that road again. I ran in to the doctor and was promptly given antibiotics and by yesterday noon hour, I was slowly starting to feel human again and by late yesterday afternoon, I was ready for the swimming/library tour. I didn't feel well enough to swim so I got the chance to take photos while dh swam with Baby Bean. Enjoy.

A girl in Baby Bean's class threw up in the pool and all the kids from both the beach pool and the therapy pool (where the "Salamander" and "Starfish" classes take place) had to move into the very cool lane pool). It was her second week throwing up - the teachers and some of the students were pretty ticked off. Pk didn't seem to mind, though - she loves the independence of swimming in a life jacket.



As always, the bedtime stories at the library was lots of fun with singing, games and stories (we arrived a bit late for the craft). The families who go are becoming quite a little community, which makes me very happy. I just wish I didn't look quite so hit-by-a-train-recently in these pics.