Finally, the birthday day has arrived! No balloons or pink plates. Just a giant cupcake and a cute little dress. Wow. One year since I pushed out the 11 pound 3 ounce genius. Once you've pushed out that much mass, you never seem to quite forget.

I have SO enjoyed Miley. She has a super cute personality, she's laid back, and really adds depth to our family. The kids love having her to play with as well.

The biggest adjustment, is just adjusting. But, beyond that, I'm loving how the family has grown, and loving experimenting with pushing motherhood to the max. Miley has not yet had sugar and this cake was a sugar free experiment. I made it with xylitol, and just the word xylitol, keeps us all eating just a little less of it than if it were a sugar explosion. The top is whipped cream with a little stevia and vanilla. The first batch of (xylitol) icing I made was horrible. You hate to throw it away, but I could not think of one use for my big butterball xylitol mess, so I threw it down the drain. Xylitol is poisonous to dogs, so they were locked out of this party. Our dogs get fat when we have a highchair baby and then they thin out again after the fact.

I liked this cake, but for some reason, the middle took a LONG time to get done??? Not sure what happened on that, but the first day it tasted fresher and better than the second day. Anyway, would love to remiss the year, but I have another party to plan. Megan turns 6 next week, and I'm deciding all of the options for cake/dress right now. Would rather spend time sewing, than baking. I get so much more satisfaction from sewing, because it can be worn and enjoyed for a couple of years. Baking, not so much. Work work work, back hurts, sweat, throw out the butterball xylitol, work work work. Done. Eat it. It's gone.  There is SOME therapy in baking, but, it's gone in seconds....so I might buy a cake at Country Mart for Megan. Keep ya' posted.

Miley's First Birthday

Well, it's Miley's first birthday this Friday and I was on the hunt for the perfect first birthday cake. You would think after four kids, I would have a highlighted plan in a file somewhere for "first birthdays", but alas, no, I don't. Every time, I think, Oh, this isn't that big of a deal. We will invite no one and put a little party hat on their head with a number one and take a cute picture. Then, when it gets down to the wire, I start furiously knitting a crown with a number one on it, or making some crazy fun cupcake material outfit or whatever other hairbrained idea I get. This usually happens within one week of the day.

For Miley's birthday, I want to make her a special outfit, and in my head I had the "vision" of a cupcake for her, but that's just not going to be good enough, so I googled birthday ideas and found this GIANT cupcake pan (it's really a full sized cake in the shape of a cupcake). So cool. Not only did I find this giant pan, but I found instructions for making the cupcake look like it has a bright pink cupcake liner. I will blog my progress on this special day and keep you updated.

Swim Season-Outside tips with Kids

Well, it's swim season again. I'm really too busy and too stuck at home to do many sports...but I really like swim team. The kids learn a valuable sport that they can use for the rest of their lives...plus a life skill should they ever need it. Mackenzie and Megan both did swim team last year. It was a pretty pathetic team...sort of like the bad news bears, but despite the patheticness of it all, they learned all the strokes and were EXCELLENT swimmers by the end of the swim season. We didn't care so much about winning, just about getting really good at swimming. We are in Branson this summer, and thank God for the pathetic team we were on last year, because this year, they hopped right onto the awesome team and feel right at home.

Living in Branson has had its' own learning curve as far as having several little kids. They have ticks here. Bad. So, I'm learning what to do with that. Max found one on his privates today and proceeded to show everyone around "his tick". Basically, I thought you burned them with a match and they would would fall off. Not so. These guys know a good deal when they see one and won't let go for anything short of a beating. So, after hours of research I found you just pull it out with tweezers. Actually, we just had houseguests leave and they found one that had spent a few days behind their babies' ear (they had been home a week) and lo and behold, that tick gave their baby rocky mountain fever which can paralyze you or kill you. (I'm learning more every day. It has to stay embedded for more than 24 hours to give you the ol fever.) Oh yeah, and we have brown recluse spiders here. If you would like a quick fear jolt, google those guys and look at images. Yikes. I saw three in one day at the house. Two inside and one out. I have to remind myself that the spider is little, I am big, it won't hurt me.... I killed one when we first got here and left the spatula in the sink. The next day, the end of the spatula was melted in the spot that I had squished the spider.

Well, so what do I do with this? I'm so against pest control. I can hardly stand it. ESPECIALLY with a crawling baby. But when you pick 14 ticks off of your dog in one day...something's gotta give. On dogs, I found out that Advantix works much better than frontline...I just ordered a case. On the kids...I like to find out the poisonous possibilities in the area, and then find some good scriptures. There are some good ones on poisonous insects that I can proclaim in our home. If the insects avoided the Israelites, but bugged the Egyptians, the same can happen today, right? I then read blogs on the subject, finding people who have been bitten or stung and then "arm" myself with a plan before any event ever occurs. My new first aid items include burn gel (this numbs the pain and heals the burn) (Water Jel Burn Jel, Pain Relief 25 ea) and then my other new item is called an "extractor". This little dude "pulls" the poison out of a bite or a sting. You pick the suction cup size and it will extract everything from mosquito bite poison to ant stings to poison from a spider bite. Nice to have on hand!

Anyway...some of the other things I do in the summertime. I don't use sunscreen. I know, I know, it's really bad, but I figured out that the sun in the afternoon (after 3PM), does not burn you, so I usually like to swim with the kids after naptime. If they swim in the sun in the morning, I REALLY smooth on the sunscreen. Mackenzie is going to camp next week and they require bug spray and sunscreen in the packing list, and I found a bug spray/sunscreen combo from Avon of all places. It probably has as many chemicals as anything else out there, but because it's avon, I totally trust it. Also, you can get it in a pump spray (YAY). Has anyone else noticed that the aerosol sunscreen sprays only last 2 days when you have 5 kids? If you go to the beach for a week, you need at least 5 cans to make it to the end of the week. I'm thinkin' BULK product here, people! So, I was happy to find this little all in one item for camp. Speaking of camp. How exciting! She's going to Kamp Kanakuk, and I feel really good about it. We have a really close friend who was homeschooled all of his life, but his parents sent him to Kanakuk for one month every year starting at age 7. He thinks it is an excellent idea for homeschoolers. My little brother went to this camp when he was young and it was LIFE CHANGING for him. So, we are excited for her. Nothing like giving the little ones' wings while they still live in the nest. I want her to go on missions trips as soon as she turns 12 as well. But for now, a camp will do. This camp is located in Branson and they have 70 different sports available to the kids. I think the camp she's doing they sleep in tee-pees. There is a rigorous interview screening for the counselors, and basically, I just have a peace about it. So there you have it. The only other activity I have lined up for summer is a spelling bee coming up in two weeks. You know I can't stay away from spelling bees. Mackenzie  just watched Akeelah and the Bee and she's nervous about standing in front of "all those people", but we live in a little town and I think this "bee" will be more like little house on the prairie than the Scripps spelling Bee in Washington. The Bee is being held in Springfield Missouri at an old school house built in 1854. How totally cool is that?

Other items I'm working on this summer:

+ making my own kombucha (I have DETERMINATION in my soul...this WILL happen)
+lose my final 15 lbs. (baby is 10 months old, now)
+ Get my soap onto Amazon.com (should be up there in a week)
+ Learn how to do gel nails at home (they stay on for 2-3 weeks, would be great for doing girls' nails as well)
+ Read up on the Suzuki method for the violin. Mackenzie's been playing with a teacher, but I want to read Nurtured By Love as well
+ Get Max reading ready-
+ Get some really yummy kids pics at the pool and beach

Is the list too long? As long as I stay at home, anything is possible. I find the more I leave the house, the faster my time slips through my fingers. If I do an outside activity with the kids, it needs to be within 10 miles of the house. Right now, I'm getting my nails done and it takes 3 hours of my time. Drive-1 hour Nails-1 hour Drive-1 hour....it's things like that that PUSH me to learn yet another skill. (that's where the gel nail thing came from).

I'll give a full report as the summer progresses. We didn't quite finish school this year...so I'll have to fit it in here and there between everything else. Having a baby and moving to another place can put a monkey wrench in my plans...but God totally has graced me to do it all.

oh yeah, I've added Avon Skin So Soft to my first aid "armor". All the children get sprayed as they go out the door in the morning. Do you guys remember that stuff? It's really great for a body "pest" spray. Count your blessings if you don't need this.

Drive Through Carwash

The drive through car wash is the best idea of a monster that we can come up with . Especially a "day" type monster. It's loud. It's wild. You feel a little "stuck" and can't go anywhere while your car is stuck in its' mouth. And then, after many tears and sometimes hysteria, the monster calms down and spits you out, drying your hair a bit as you go, and all is well in the world.

All of my kids cry at the car monster. They stare at the windows and the loud SHUSSHING sounds and start getting more panicky by the minute. This time was Miley's first time. As you can see, she's not in the photo. She really could have cared less what was going on or even noticed any noise at all. Michael, on the other hand, who had reported BEFORE the experience that he was not going to cry...had to shed just a tear or two. He couldn't help it. And as all of his siblings looked on, his eyes and ears were intently focused on the windows of the car, the shaking and rattling noises, and the loud SHUSSHH sounds. Miley just tried to yell and giggle louder than the noises surrounding the car. Isn't it funny?? We are either focused on the SHUSSHING WHOOSSHING sounds, or we are relaxed in the car seat of God. Giggling, kicking, trusting, waiting for our car hair to get dried and spit out to the next errand. That's where I want to be spiritually....in Miley's carseat....knowing and trusting that God's got this thing, and whatever the wild noise is and the monster mouth idea surrounding me is about, it's just temporary. I'm safe, and the next season is just around the corner.

Weddings and Soap

The photo is of a soap I just finished for a wedding shower. It actually took a total of HOURS to do this soap. It wasn't the soap itself, but it was the darn tag. I wanted to print the tag myself and it just takes time getting the right fonts and the right colors and the right wording...but I enjoy a challenge, because on the other side of every challenge, when correctly and properly embraced, is a deeper knowledge of the subject and a tip or a change that could bring me to a higher level or have a deeper compassion for a friend or open a door that I normally would not have had opened if I was not ready for the challenge a second time. Now, when I do another wedding shower (or wedding favor), I have it in my hand within a few minutes to do. The hostess wanted it to be rough cut around the edges, but I COULD not get a rough cutter in Branson, and besides, the paper is so thick on this bugger that a rough cutter may not have done the job. Plus, the nature of the background already looks rough cut. So, I just cut the hang tags with a paper cutter and then corner cut the four corners with a romantic corner cutter. Oila! It turned out great. The one thing that has been a big blessing is since we have moved to Branson, the doors keep opening and opening for my soap. I've made the soap for five years, but never could see how to package it or how to produce it in too much bulk, so I didn't ever get that inspired to put it into a bunch of stores. When faced with a need for 1200 bars in January, it was just another one of those "challenges". It took a lot of extra time and dedication, but in the end, the challenge (being a larger challenge in the soap department than ever before), opened up all sorts of doors. They came off the hinges. Suddenly, I'm able to make lots of soap, which I have done, and boutique owners are requesting colors and flavors which has opened MORE doors. I was always concerned with producing hundreds of bars, and now, I see the need for testing fragrances, and for making up small batches in different fragrances for certain occasions, so I need different molds for this type of deal...but God is just working out every single detail along the way, with time to spare. He's so good. Today I made homemade sweet rolls for tomorrow's "Pink Friday". All ladies are invited! It's the first Friday of the month and I host a little ladies breakfast from 10AM to Noon and it's just food and fellowship. But, as I was making the sweet rolls, I could not get my mind or my eyes off of the soap and I realized that I have the grace to make soap, and make it every single day and make it in colors and fragrances....and it's definitely a grace. I didn't realize how big of a deal it was to me until the doors started opening and I realized how enjoyable the whole process is. Oh, and if you have a fat friend who LOVES sweets (she doesn't have to be fat...I am quite thin and would love this gift), check out soapcafe.com That girl makes soap cherry pie, doughnuts, chocolate bunnies, all in soap!!! What a cool and fun gift to get and give!!! I'm working on some chocolate soap myself and will produce photos when the final product is ready. Thanks everyone who likes my soap for liking it...it has so encouraged me to continue on this journey that has seemed like a strange "happenstance" along parts of the way, but has been a huge blessing in my life.

Swimming

I love this picture. The last time we were in San Antonio, we heated the pool and took a little "dip". Michael has on one of the girls' swim caps and he kept it on the whole swim. I love how happy all of the kids look in swimming pictures. There's something about swimming that melts away the gray and brings out the brightest most vibrant "colors" of life. I remember some of the happiest childhood moments were spent in the pool. The worst moment of those days was the one where mom said "it's time to get out!" and we all pretended we couldn't hear her anymore and suddenly lived on the bottom of the pool, emerging only for short breaths, trying to keep just our lips above as we savored the teeny tiny last moments of pool time. The next best thing to the pool was how darn hungry swimming makes you and the after pool snack. YUMMMMM. That was the best tasting food in the whole world....still is.

Teething....again....

Teething with all of the kids has been sort of a non-issue. Sometimes when I talk to moms I can tell they think their children are in some sort of immense pain and need drugs, but for the most part, it's a fleeting few hours and boom, they pop in. After five, I've finally begun to recognize the signs and not get too freaked out about the moodiness. With this one, she got six teeth in a period of 4 or 5 days...maybe more like two weeks, and then she got nothing for two months. Her mouth has been dry. no drooling. It's been really nice. All of a sudden, she started drooling and chewing a finger and I realized, here comes another tooth. The main thing teething seems to affect is sleep. It's hard for them to sleep sometimes because of the irritation and that's where I think moms find the comfort of Tylenol, well, comforting. This time around I approached it a little differently than in the past and had GREAT results. I just don't let her nap much at all. She can't really nap anyway, so I let her lie down about mid-day, but other than that, i just keep her really busy with food and toys and walks and more. She's not crying the whole time, just a little fussy, so I keep her up and as busy as possible. I did this last time and it worked well with the six teeth, and now, it worked just as well. Last night she was so tired she fell asleep at the breast. She hasn't done that in a couple of months it seems. I put her down, and the boys were wild and woke her up about an hour later, but I let her cry for 20 mins. or so and she slept through the night. This morning, her tooth was there...it had pushed all the way through and was cute and newly budded. Hurray! Her nap would have been perfect today, no fussiness, had I not smothered her with wool socks, wool blankets, and robeez shoes. I'm always over-blanketing my kids....

Another easy cure...Castor Oil...Eczema and More

I just wanted to blog on castor oil for a minute because I've recently researched a tiny bit and it's worth mentioning. It's cheap. Get it and have it on hand. It's for insomnia, eczema, and more....you can use it on pets or humans and you make a pack out of it and apply it externally. You just take a piece of fabric, soak it in the oil, cover the area affected (extreme bruising, swollen joints, varicose veins, moles, upset stomach, constipation, pink eye, just google it to find out more), cover the cloth with plastic wrap, and then put a hot water bottle on top of the plastic wrap. This will heat up the pad and make the castor oil go in through the skin. I have not tried this remedy myself yet...but after reading all of the testimonies on both vitacost.com and amazon and a site called earthclinic.com, I realized it was worth looking at. I stumbled on it accidentally as I am working on some shaving soap and castor oil is highly recommended.

Soap Nuts Update and Cloth Diapering Revisited

Well, I've washed some diapers with the new soap nuts and I have to say. They are fresh, clean, and soft. YES! Tide is about .20 per load, soap nuts are about .07 per load. This sounds little until you are doing 4 loads per day. Now, we are talking .80 cents versus .28 cents per day.

The instructions say to let the bag dry out between washes, but I'm washing so often that I don't think I fall into that "group". I did buy extra muslin bags in case I need them or something. If you did not read the last article, my midwife recommended soap nuts for washing your clothes as opposed to detergent. I ordered a bag from naturoli and they really work! I know they really work, because my diaper load smells like a funky skunk on a bad day, and even on the 2 hour front loader wash, I often have to wash them twice to get them clean. Today, with a single wash and some soap nuts, they smelled fresh.

On another note, I have to revisit cloth diapering. For those of you who may not know, I used to have a cloth diapering company. Therefore, I am very fond of cloth diapering and actually prefer it over disposables. I have fallen to the wayside a couple of times and used disposables, but, I always come back. When Miley was first born, we moved to Branson, and I was so overwhelmed with everything, that I immediately cut the cloth out and started both Michael and Miley in disposables. (actually, Michael was already in them), to help with laundry. This was nice for about 6 weeks, and then I had some real leakage issues at night with Miley. Disposables seem easier until you are washing sheets daily...hence, the time savings reverses.

In the meantime, I got a new assistant who has been really diligent with the laundry and helping me get it put away every day. I realized that I was o.k. plopping down tens and twenties for diapers....for about 6 weeks, and then it started eating on me. I just don't like spending money on trash. The main issue was not Miley, the main issue was Michael. When babies get to be toddlers, their poops get HORRIBLE and sometimes they will poop five times a day. When they hit that point, I switch to disposables, and I think it's worth every penny. But all of my babies potty trained between 1.5 years and 2 years old.

Michael (now 2 and 1/2 years old) proudly airs his bum full of poop and acts as if this is a lifetime habit. He (of all my children) never really liked the idea of "Infant potty training" AT ALL, so it looks as if it might be a few more months of laying down the tens and twenties. Alas, I had to come up with a backup plan....I'm not cheap, but I'm not dumb, either. I'd rather have dark chocolate goji berries in my grocery cart than huggies....so with determination in my soul, and my face set like flint, I have darkened the shadowy, grim corridor of cloth diapering a toddler once again. And, actually, it hasn't been too bad. Aside from secretly wanting a fireman's garb and mask as I rinse out the poopy cloth diaper, I have actually enjoyed cloth diapering him. I don't know what it is about cloth diapers...for me, the whole thing is sort of baby therapy. The clean cotton, the tight wrap that I do, and the pretty perfect capability of my diapers to hold everything just makes me feel good. Like, I'm doing the right thing.

Anyway, the way I deal with Michael is as follows. I have a great big countertop in the laundry room with a sprayer. I keep a changing pad in there and when it's poopy, I march him straight to the laundry room, lay him down on the counter, and start taking off the layers. His poops are so nasty that even top layers of clothing will retain the smell for days...so all of it goes in the washer. I toss the pajama bottoms and tops in the washer and carefully pull down his pull-up pants (these are on sale by the way at www.Bumkins.com...look in the clearance section...normally they are $14.99 and they are on sale for $9.50 or so....my favorite covers by far). THEN, I examine the situation. If his bottom needs no less than 50 wipes, he needs to be hosed off before I take care of the diaper. I turn the water faucet on the very coldest it can possibly be (which, in Branson in the wintertime is FRIGID). I then put him in the laundry sink and use a rag to help me while I hose him down. If the diaper has raised my blood pressure, I just hose extra body parts to get even. I hose him in the front, in the back, in the front, in the back, in the front, in the back, with sufficient LOUD screaming all in between, as the water is VERY frigid. Then, I use the rag to make sure he's all clean. Finally, he gets to lay back down on the changing pad and I don the extra thick blue gloves from Lowe's. I now turn my attention to the diaper that one would be tempted to burn in the fireplace, and I rinse it as well as I can. I use my gloved fingers to sort of push everything down the drain, and then take the wet soppy diaper ball and throw it in the washer. I let it hang out in there for hours sometimes as I gather more whites from around the house.

It's very therapeutic. You save money. You help the environment. You make your child pay for every slimy outgassing poop that you've had to change. And best of all, you secretly know that if your child has the smarts of a donkey, he will one day very soon wake up and realize that the potty is the most attractive appliance in the home, and he will want to make friends and share moments of intimacy with the porcelain throne.

Soap Nuts

O.K. So, this is a new one for me, but after researching, it looks like it's for real. My midwife, Holly, is SUPER sensitive to every chemical on the earth. She gets skin rash from all sorts of things (EXCEPT FOR MY SOAP, LOL). Anyway, we were talking about cloth diapering as it sounds like she will sell cloth diapers in her new birthing clinic and her new website. We talked about what to wash the diapers in, and she said she had been using soap nuts and really liked them (not for cloth diapers, just for all her clothes.) Long story short, they are some sort of fruit with saponins in them and they get the clothes really clean. I use Tide which is super expensive...but I kind of scratch my head every time I'm looking at the detergent section. I just haven't found anything that I really liked that much and I'm always distrusting a brand that advertises during the super bowl. I don't want to pay for that...I really just want good product. Anyway, I just ordered the soapnuts on Amazon and we shall see. Holly said they last her about 7 washes and then she tosses them. Her clothes get really clean and they are super soft.

To use them, you just put 5 nuts in a little muslin bag and toss the bag in the wash. When the nuts get squishy and gray (??), you toss them (into your garden if you have one-not me). I'll have to review the soapnuts when I get them. Also, Miley went off of her nursing strike exactly 7 days after she started. Every day I tried introducing my breast again and she cried about it. Finally, the morning of the seventh day, I woke up a little late and she was already hungry and crying. I didn't have time to pump before she ate, so I squirted some milk into her mouth from my breast....she cried for one second and then decided the boob was good enough for her. Babies can be so funny, sometimes.

CHicken Broth...the Liquid Gold of my Home

I'm sure you're wondering why there's a photo of my dirty 24 quart pot...but pictures help when you're trying to explain something. At a recent ladies' luncheon, the subject of chicken broth came up, and I think I've never gotten so many blank stares as I have with chicken broth (not just at the luncheon...). If you like my cooking....chicken broth is the secret ingredient. If you like my baking...coconut oil is the secret ingredient. But for now, I"m discussing chicken broth, a natural wonder that should make its' appearance in every woman's kitchen.

We live in a more rural area right now, but upon request, the grocery store gets me 6 whole organic chickens at a time for $65. (country mart...all you branson-ites), and these wonder-birds are used to make lots and lots of delicious dishes around here. If you cook the bird with the bone, you're going to get a FABULOUS flavor...so for anything "chicken", with shredded or cubed chicken, I like to throw a bird (or four) into the oven on a cookie sheet. I salt and pepper the birds and roast them for 30-45 minutes on 350. I then set them on the counter to cool and then de-bone the chicken. By de-bone, I mean, just pull all of the meat you can find and plop it in a bowl. Now you have chicken for soups, chicken enchiladas, chicken salad, chicken tacos, ...you get the idea. Not just ANY chicken. SUPER FLAVORFUL, yummy chicken. One idea is to roast your chickens on one day of the week (in preparation for the week's menus), and then store enough chicken per meal in ziploc bags. Then, you can freeze the bones for later, or make your broth. The above mentioned method is recent for me. Up until a few months ago, I ALWAYS made my broth by making Jordin Rubin's chicken broth recipe. After I feel it's "done", I pour the soup out of the large pot, through a strainer, into another large bowl. This gives me jars and jars of chicken broth (store your broth in 1 quart mason jars from walmart-they are about $1 a jar. Pour hot broth in the jar, but leave an inch of headroom so they won't break while freezing). After separating everything into three parts...chicken bowl, broth bowl, and vegetable bowl, I then put everyone's "soup" together for dinner. Each person gets a bowl of broth and then I'll scoop veggies in and chicken on top. Sometimes, I'll do pasta for a chicken noodle soup. This takes some work, but it's worth it. I use leftover chicken for the next day or two in dishes, the veggies get chopped into a meatloaf or something, and the broth goes into the freezer in jars. The night before I need broth, I put it on the counter to thaw, or I just keep rotating broth into the fridge as I use up the thawed out jar. I use the broth for rice, beans, soups, gravy, or just by itself as a delicious hot drink. The flavor is outstanding~

BELOW IS MY RECIPE FROM JORDAN RUBIN:

1 medium whole chicken

3-4 quarts of water

5 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

4 chicken feet (optional)

8 organic carrots

6 stalks of celery

4 zucchini

4 medium white onions

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 inches grated ginger

5 cloves garlic

1 large bunch parsely

5 tbsp. moist high-mineral celtic sea salt

fill the largest stainless steel pot you can find with purified water

add 1 tbspoon of apple cider vinegar

let stand 10 minutes

fill the pot with chicken, vegetables, sea salt, and other ingredients

boil

let boil for 60 seconds and lower heat

simmer soup for 12-14 hours add parsely 30 minutes beofe the soup is finished (i've never done this part). remove chicken from the bones and place the chicken meat back in the soup

remove and discard feet

This is actually from Jordin Rubin’s book: Patient Heal Thyself. He recommends eating this soup once a week for its’ healing powers. I make a huge batch of it, we eat it, and then I save the “broth” in quart jars for future chicken broth needs. When eating it, I like to add a dash of tabasco as well as an extra dash of salt.

Just use the ingredients that you have on hand or can get, but when possible, get the exact ingredients in the recipe. This is the tried and true recipe that Jordin Rubin used when healing from Crohn's disease. Chicken broth making is a "habit". I have the "habit" of keeping the whole birds in my refrigerator and I have a "habit" of making more when I'm down to only one or two jars. It keeps us in the good "habit" of eating chicken soup every two or three weeks. The ONE habit of making my own broth took my cooking up a whole new level. AND, it's better for you than store bought AND you have a substance on hand that heals the body while tasting delicious. The kids drink this warm out of a little cup if I give it to them. Miley drinks it out of a bottle. Yum Yum!

Now, the recipe calls for chicken feet...there ARE ways to get these...but most Americans are repulsed by parts....so let me know if you need help with that. The deal is, the marrow of the chicken has healing properties for the human's body. The feet of the chicken have an especially high amount of the gelatin????? or whatever the substance is that is so good for you. Chicken broth is known by the jews as their "penicillin" and has God given healing properties. Don't worry, you can still be spiritual and not eat the feet.

Birthday Hike

There's something wonderful, even magical, about exploring the "area" in which you live. The only time it wouldn't be magical (in my opinion) is if you lived in the desert. Maybe there's something exciting about the desert, maybe I've watched too many movies, but it seems like the sand and cactus get to ya' after awhile.

Yesterday was my birthday and I wanted some hiking shoes and to go on a hike for my birthday. My husband's so good! He gave me exactly what I wanted and Mackenzie came with us. We hiked at a local conservation area and it was a teeny tiny one, only 1/2 mile with an observation deck to climb at the top. The view was GORGEOUS and hiking always preserves a memory in my brain. I started hiking when I was very very young on the ranch in Texas and then I hiked in college (Pike's peak, girls' wasn't that fun!), and then I hiked in California when I lived there. Now, we're in Branson, MO and whenever I see the little brown signs on the side of the highway for state parks or conservation areas....I want to go see and explore. Right now, it's snowy on the ground, but the temperature gets up to 39 degrees, so it melts a lot during the day. The hike yesterday was paved, which is nice for strollers...and the like. There were two hikes at this park. One was the 1/2 mile and one was three miles. The three miler said it takes 3 hours to complete. I'm hoping it's paved as well so that the kids could maybe bring bikes or something. My favorite hikes are those that are just a little worn dirt path winding through rockes and caverns and trees. You're not sure what's around the next corner...then they open up into a vista view....but how to carry three of the 5 kids??? Maybe we'll stick to the 1/2 milers for now, and work our way up to the 6 mile vista views. I like sharing my life with our kids. Nothing has been more rewarding or more fulfilling than teaching, exploring, and living life with and through the eyes of our children. What a blessing. What a great birthday.

Bottles, Pumps, Breastmilk.....and a Nursing Strike

SO sorry the photo is that large. I copied and pasted and moved and grooved...and this is the best I could do.

Basically, one night I was nursing and all seemed fine, and the next morning, Miley WOULD NOT nurse. I did what I do best and after 1.5 hours of "persuasion", she sleepily nursed. She took a nap, then when she woke up, no nursing AGAIN. And profuse loud crying when she saw my breast. This was and is, definitely a "first" for me. All of the children so far have had the following things in common; they hated bottles, pacifiers, and the like and the breast was best. Thankfully, a few things were lined up and ready for me. One, Miley had shown an interest in bottles, so I had gone to Babies R us this last time and purchased a few (WOW! THOSE DUDES ARE EXPENSIVE), and then, I had been feeding chicken broth to her in a bottle just to curb her appetite, water, and silver water...so the stage was sort of set for her to drink milk out of a bottle. Also, I had JUST talked to a friend a couple of days prior about pumping, because, I was thinking I needed to leave at least a bottle or two for sitters in case I did not make it home or she woke up prematurely from a nap or something. We were JUST in Texas, and my pump was there. Every morning I woke up, I felt in my heart to go get my pump out of the closet (my in-laws live in my room right now), and I shook it off.

The stage has been set, but no pump, and I am majorly engorged right about now. SO, now what's a girl to do? I called the local hospital to see if they rented pumps. They stopped renting two weeks ago. Target had electric pumps for $250 (at least the kind that I had back in Texas), and we're on a strict budget right now. So, I went online and looked at the other pumps Target carried. They had a handheld pump by Medela on sale for $33. Not too bad. The thing that interested me about it was all of the positive reviews. I have to admit...I HATE my electric pump. You have to be "plugged" in to a wall, and it's loud, and I never could get the suction "just right", but I have always assumed that was the best way to go. Needless to say, I drove to Target as fast as my car would go, and I bought the handheld Medela pump for $33. On the way home, I jerked up my sweater and started pumping as fast as I could go. By the time I careened into the garage I had four ounces and was in love with a new best friend....the harmony pump by Medela. It says "for occasional use" on the package, but don't let that fool ya'...it's an all time best friend. I stuck it in my purse and pumped in the church bathroom that night, proudly presenting a "warm" bottle to the church ladies in the nursery.

Needless to say, the emotions run high when your baby won't suck your boob. They just do. Especially if you think it's your last. Well, anytime, I think it would be emotional. But, God has awesomely gotten me through this one. I woke up and praised and praised for two mornings in a row and prayed over Miley, and God is SO good. He's just helped me with the whole thing.

My review of the pump is as follows. Easy, comfortable, and the pump/handle part swivels, so you can change hands or positions or whatever you need to do to pump faster or in a different position. I like it better than the electric pump because it's portable, it's small, requires no batteries or electricity, gives my forearm a little workout, is more discreet, is quieter, and is easy to clean.

The next part I need to review are bottles. I have a tendency towards "organic". I will automatically skip playtex or any of those type that you can "smell" the plastic wafting out of the bottle. Read for yourself on plastics, pthalates...hormones going into your baby...anyway, my review is coming from that consumer "position". When I had purchased bottles in Texas, I purchased two different kinds to try. Avent and Born Free. Avent, I had always heard was the "best" bottle. Babies liken it to breastfeeding...yada yada yada....and born free had the cool glass bottle. PLUS, all bottles come with a newborn nipple (what a waste), and I needed the older baby nipple. What to get? Size 2, size 3, size 4???One of each? Then, I had gotten two different brands which took different nipple sizes. Oh brother. This is getting to be a big deal. So, I got the Avent bottle and size 3 or 4 nipple and the Born Free bottle and a size 2 nipple. (I don't even know if she will LIKE a bottle at this point). She DID end up liking the bottle, but the bigger girl nipple seemed to make her feel like she was choking on the flow, so I backed it down and gave her the Born Free glass bottle with a stage 2 nipple. Ahh, she liked that. But, the bottle is a little heavy and I don't want the kids TOUCHING it or feeding her with it.

After ALL of this, I come back to Branson from Texas, and Miley goes on a nursing strike, and thankfully, I already have some bottles, but I bought little 4 ounce bottles, and she is now six months old and she sort of "despairs" at the end of the bottle....like it's not enough food. But, but the time I pour more milk in and warm it up, she feels a little full. THen gets hungry again in 20 minutes or so. SO, I wanted to order one more bottle (to add to my collection, right?) and I found the coddlelife bottle on Amazon.com which came in record time and free shipping. It is AWESOME. I can't say enough about this bottle. I think it's totally new to the market and so you can't find any reviews on it, but it's a super lightweight space-age glass that is harder to break and you can submerge in boiling water without it cracking. The bottle itself is smaller around, so easier for baby to hold. For $4.99 you can buy the silicone cover that is also food grade. The nipple isn't smooth, it has tiny "bumps" on it like your breast has and it's stretchy and more shaped like the breast. The stage 3 nipple (I got that one), has an "air release" system that is super cool....it's silicone. REALLY, these bottles are the bomb! And, they are the same price as an avent or a Born Free. I like the glass on these so much better than the Born Free because it's lighter weight. (the Born Free are kind of cool because they remind me of the old fashioned glass bottles-think gerber baby jar or something), but it's worth it to look into the Coddlelife.

I'm out of words. It's been an interesting few days, but the adjustment happened very quickly. I pump, she drinks, she sleeps longer in the morning. I think it's her teeth. I pinch her when she bites and she got four teeth at once on the top and it's almost as if she doesn't know what to do with them and doesn't want to get pinched. Me either.

Earrings and when to do them....

You can't even see them, but Miley's ears are pierced in this photo. I picked the cute little pearls and I pray that they stay in tact for at least five years.

When to get ears pierced was an enigma for me. Why do some moms wait and others do it at birth?I wanted to interview moms on my first girl, because what I WANTED to do was to get her ears pierced at the beginning. But.......I waited. Not sure why. I guess I thought beginning piercing was a cultural thing and maybe white moms weren't supposed to do it. Well...I've changed my tune. The thing is, if you only have the all American one boy and one girl family...well, you have time to dab their ears morning and night and rotate them and all of the to-do items one has "to-do" with newly pierced ears (for six weeks OR MORE). But after waiting for six years, Mackenzie FINALLY got hers pierced, and the piercing was just the beginning of a long ear "treatment" session that involved me treating them at first, then she couldn't wait for me to get everyone to bed before swabbing her ears, so she did it, then she spilled the ear treatment stuff, then we went on vacation and I forgot the leftover of the spilled stuff and had to come up with my own idea (you don't use alchohol anymore), then I decided on butt wipes because they come in a convenient can of 50 and are already doused with witch hazel (which is a nice astringent), but she forgot to wipe her ears and then they got infected, then I had to get involved again...do you get the drift????????? I think the whole ordeal went on at least 6 months, I'm not kidding. We were travelling so much and that's what would put a ringer in the healing process.....with Miley, I'm changing her diaper, I'm swabbing her ears, that's it.

If you're poppin' out babies like a river rat, you have to have a better plan than that. I have to strategize every move I make, every turn, every groove, every prayer, so that it maximizes my time and minimizes my efforts and ear piercing later....is....for the birds. I'll never do that again. If I have six more girls, the closer it happens to birth, the better, as far as I'm concerned. Miley cried for 45 seconds per ear. It would have been 45 seconds total, but the second lady wasn't at my favorite ear-piercing place to do the second ear at the same time (that was AWESOME last time, plus, Danette was with me, that was fun), but I didn't care. We were getting Miley's ears pierced today and I took all five kids with me and some cheetos and Mackenzie got a couple of photos and Miley got her certificate of bravery and we left Merle Norman on 1604 without breaking anything in the store. Whew! What a relief. And, she looks so feminine and pretty with her little pearls in. I love it. It makes me want to comb her hair and do the bow thing (i'm sort of a tomboy).

I know I'm not the typical mom. I know I need to stop and smell the roses and enjoy the moment a lot more than I do, but really, ear piercing is just not one of those sentimental moments for me. My memories of ear piercing were that I wanted my ears pierced SO BADLY all of my life and the answer was always no...until my parents got divorced and then I ran to the mall within 24 hours and did what I always had wanted to do anyway. Then, I wore the biggest earrings I physically could find for at least four years. Well, maybe I'm still doing that. ANYWAY, I guess that's why ear piercing is an enigma to me. Why the white mom waits....still not sure. Trying to find a good reason for it, but I've decided to let some of the hispanic out and just do it. And it feels good.

Feeding Time

For anyone new to the blog, I am a mom of five kids. The oldest child is now seven, the youngest is 6 months old. I was originally just going to blog my pregnancy and birth on the fifth baby, which I did, but now I am blogging "after the birth". If you are pregnant, you can go through some of the older blogs for "what to do's and how to's"

The above photo is of Miley, my six month old. Last time I weighed her she was 19 lbs. and she is a "hunk" of a baby. She started getting hungry around 4 months of age. Some of the first signs are-not sleeping through the night (my first biggie), and staring lovingly at your food and becoming very interested with your chewing habits. Also, they will try to take food out of your mouth. I was going to be "very good" on this one and only feed her bland food for the first year, but I can't help it, if I'm eating sushi, I give some to her. So, she's had: mashed potatoes, green beans, cooked carrots, beef stroganoff, some seaweed fishy soup they serve at the sushi place, bananas, mashed avocados, and mashed soft boiled egg yolk. Oh, plus, some squashed pinto beans, chicken tortilla soup, and a chip. Is that bad? At least I've just given her water to drink, oh, and a little emergen c, and some sweet green tea. Oh well. She ate blandly for one week at least. I keep thinking I need to do some rice cereal, I just haven't gotten around to that one. She's just SO hungry at mealtimes, that if I have forgotten to bring the avocado "container", I give her what we are eating.

I have an awesome baby food maker on my kitchenaid mixer. It's just and attachment that makes the food super soft and baby foodish, but with five kids in tow, I'm just trying to remember the diapers when we leave the house. I will say, her lunch today was flavorful, but dinner tonight was salt free and bland and she still ate it all up. Praise God.

I'm sure there is something particular you are supposed to do when you start feeding the baby, but I did that with my first child and probably the second, and then lost all "reading control". All of the books I had read on feeding time just slipped out of my mind and I began to wing it. My third and fourth children eat very very well. There's very little they won't eat, including olives and super garlicky caesar salad.

There's one tempting item at the buffet or out to eat that I REALLY try to NOT give. And it's the EASIEST one TO give. Rolls. Lots and lots of rolls. I have had real candida issues in the past and yeasty rolls, bread, is always the culprit. Signs of yeast or candida include: skin issues (eczema, spotty skin on the face, cradle cap, and itchy skin) and sometimes thrush when they are younger. I have written on this twice before, so look in the archives for what to do on this, but I'm finding some children are SUPER sensitive to white flour or to too much wheat too quickly, so this is my one feeding line I dance around quite lightly.

The little silicone bowl behine Miley is the bowl I use. She eats about 1.5 tablespoons now, but started with one bite on the first time in her seat. She really choked the first two times and I just slapped her back a couple of times but kept at it. I have skipped one day of feeding in the last three or four weeks and she woke up in the night that night, so I'm doing it more out of wanting to sleep through the night than anything else.

She REALLY opposed it the first week or two. She choked, she spit, she blew bubbles and then suddenly, she chewed. I prayed over her, spoke over her, put on my ipod, whatever I could do to get through the feeding sessions and then when she actually chewed, I wanted to take some video. It has been the highlight of 2010 so far. Now, if Michael would potty train, that would take the highlights of my life to a whole new level.