Friday, April 27, 2012

Being a mom of two

The kids are finally both down for a nap. Deep sigh...

Something major happened today: Levi climbed out of his crib. Our use of the bed as a cage has now officially come to an end. That actually sounds so terrible. We've been thinking about getting him into a big boy bed in the next couple of weeks anyways, so maybe this will just speed along the process. I was thinking about how crazy it is to watch your child grow and change. It's weird because you know conceptually that they will change, you know that they will grow, but then when they do it still surprises you. It's unexpected when you hear them say something so clearly or when they learn to put something away or when they learn a new book and know exactly where something is on the page... It's like a parental mental roadblock. I don't know.

Lord, help me to accept the changes in my children. Let me not always see them as little babies, I mean, they are my babies, but at the same time let me not keep them in this rigid idea of who they are. Help me to accept the changes in them. Help me to delight in the growth before my eyes.

Some cute things Levi has been doing lately:
- He calls oatmeal "eemeel" normally he's pretty good at pronouncing things but the other day he said "I want some eemeal" and I was like, what? It took a good five minutes to figure out what he was saying. Then I took another 10 minutes trying to get him to say it right only succeeding in him butchering the word further and me laughing really hard. (I laugh at my kids all the time, it's not good.) I think some other pronunciations were: "eebeal" and "oambeal"
- He's been playing outside a TON with this beautiful weather we've been having. He's obsessed with this little blue water pistol he got from his grandma. Ben looked out the window and said "I love this kid." He was walking around the back yard with a stick and his water pistol shooting trees, rocks, anything that he could aim at. He is all boy.
- He has these bandaids with cars on them that he loves. Every time he gets a remote owie he cries for a "ban-aid" and it's up to me to decipher the wound and tell him if it qualities. Well, got a band aid the other day and when it fell off he went and put it on his "potty chart" where he puts stickers for when he goes poop in the potty.

I've noticed that Levi is a very passionate little boy. If he is going to do something he will do it with all of his might. If he is going to dance to a song (he calls any upbeat song "Elmo dancin!" because his grandma DeeDee lets him listen to Sesame Street Pandora) he dances with his whole body. If someone is at the door he runs as fast as he can to get it, he pushes his dump truck with all of his might.

Lord, I have so much love for this passionate, interesting, funny little boy. Help me to be wise as I mother him. Help me to lead him toward You and not push him away. Thank You for this sweet little blessing.

And I forgot to mention Aria! Wow, that's terrible. Maybe it's because she is so low key that she just kind of flies under the radar. She sleeps, eats and smiles. We like to jokingly call her our PC (perfect child). Now that she is past her hip issues and acid reflux she has been pretty easy. I think it's because she sucks her thumb so she is able to self-soothe very easily. She's sleeping about 10-12 hours at night (she sleeps later than Levi) and is just super chill in general.

My friend just gave me the pictures from her birth the other day. Thankfully I can hardly remember the pain, even though it was a long process, and I have to say that she was totally worth it. Maybe I can post some of my favs on here. :)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Losing Weight part 3

Wow, I have had so many intentions of blogging recently. Of course every time I get a chance to sit down and write, whatever I was thinking about somehow magically blows out of my mind and I am consumed with whatever nonsense is happening on my FB feed. Deep sigh.

Some movies I have been watching that I would recommend are:
Forks Over Knives - very good motivation for eating more whole foods, the dietary reasons why we should eat more vegetables and fruit. It promotes vegan, which I don't think we would do all the way, but I am definitely planning on fixing more non-meat, vegetable and plant based meals.
Hungry For Change - I liked how they talked about why high fructose corn syrup and MSG's are bad for you. They talk about how great juicing is and how diets don't work. Towards the end though, it got a little too ... I don't know, weird? Just talking about visualizing what kind of body you want to have and all that kind of junk. I guess so a little bit, but really, it got to where it was a little silly. Very encouraging meal for going back to the basics
Fresh - I have only gotten halfway through this film but it is definitely encouraging in regards to why we should eat organic/sustainable foods. Very informative and I LOVE the organic farmer in there. He's the same guy who was in Food Inc which I was a few years ago.

I like watching these kinds of movies because I strongly believe that ignorance is NOT bliss. The reason why I feel crappy is because of all the crap I put into my body. I need to know what is being done to my food before I consume it.

I have started to cut out a lot of meat and dairy since seeing FOK and I have noticed I've been feeling much better. I need to find good recipes though because it seems that my milk supply has been waning a bit with the change. I need to figure out a balance in all of this.

The main thing I've been keeping in the back of my mind is that this is not meant to be an obsession. Food is not the point. Food is not to be worshiped, it is God who is to be worshiped. Lord, help me to glorify You and see people as being important, not myself, not what I'm consuming, but You. Teach me to view others as more important than myself.

I need to go to bed now. That is all. 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

A word about breastfeeding as well as a plea :)

I was reading in my new favorite book this morning and thought of my friend Teyerra and how I was going to email her this list about how to get your milk supply good. Then I thought, why not post it?

But first I want to give credit to the book. It's called Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman. It's only 16.32 on Amazon with the super shipping. So I would recommend buying TWO and giving one to a friend :) If you are a home maker, stay at home mom, thinking about homeschooling, have one or more kids, this book is for YOU. If you have ever struggled with keeping your house clean, felt disorganized, struggled with when and how to get things done and still be able to spend time with your little ones, this book is for YOU.

I want to plead with you to get this book. It has changed the way my house is run in so many ways. She speaks in an easy to read, straight forward manner. She walks you through step by step how to run a household. It's beautiful.

Okay, in her chapter Baby Balance (she talks about how she nursed/weaned each of her nine kids and the different approaches she used) she has a list of ways to increase your milk supply. So I'm just going to put them here.

- Herbal teas such as More Milk Plus and Mother's Milk (find in the organic section at Kroger).
- Fenugreek- two capsules three times a day.
- Alfalfa tablets or liquid.
- Brewers Yeast tablets.
- Oats and/or rice in the diet.
- A tall glass of water or herbal tea each time you sit down with the baby.
- Nutrients that you might be low on include protein, zinc, essential fatty acids (primrose oil, flax oil, cod liver oil, borage oil, walnut oil.)
- Nurse/pump every two house; nurse and then pump.
- "Power Pumping" --- pump for ten minutes, rest for ten minutes, on and off for one hour once a day.
- Going longer than three hours between nursings or pumping is detrimental to milk production -- even affecting how much milk you will produce in the future for an older baby.
- Babies need to eat more frequently in the very early morning hours and again in the late afternoon

I thought all of these were very interesting.

The one about going longer between feedings worries me because Aria is sleeping 10-12 hours at night. I'm praying that won't affect my milk supply too badly. I'm also pumping first thing in the morning to avoid drying up as well as drinking Mother's Milk about once a day. Since it's summer time I am icing it. I brew it with a little bit of honey and then put a bit of lemon in it and then ice it. It's delicious.

Monday, April 2, 2012

It doesn't matter what they think.

This doesn't happen very often, but I was reading my Bible and just felt the need to blog. I don't know if the Lord was prompting me or what, but I just can't ignore it any more. I have been feeling like He wants me to write about the fear of man for a while and this seems to be my only quiet hour in the day when I'm not exhausted. All I really want to do is worship Him in this... so here goes.

Lord, I want to know You more. I want more intimacy with You because that is where life and breath is. When I am close to You my life is good. When I am far, my life is empty.

I want to know You.

Okay, I have been thinking a lot about the fear of man. This is sort of a Christian term for caring about what other people think of you and being affected by it. We are fearful of what they will think and how they will react and how they will judge us.

I wish I could say I was fearless. The goal of this blog is to be fearless. Fearless in my honesty and in complete vulnerability. My little sister asked me the other day if I kept a journal and yes, I do have a prayer/thought journal that I write in with my Bible time each morning, but I really thought, I think I use this blog as a sort of journal as well. When God gives me an epiphany or just to write about my struggles, I guess I do that here. But in some ways, being able to post online is a little easier than confessing directly to people, face to face, eye to eye. I want to be fearless.

A friend, whom I love because she is so bold and honest in her words, was talking to me the other day and she just blurted out about being afraid that others would judge her because of her kids and the way they act (I'm learning that children can be quite humbling some days, especially when they throw a fit in the grocery store and you have to leave hoping that no one you know saw you... you can feel the stares). 

But those stares, those judging stares, what can they do to me? What do they matter? The opinion of my friends, the opinion of my relatives, what do they matter? Even when someone praises me for something, what does it matter?

We are all dust.

I was reading in Job the other day (I often skip to the part where God speaks, I'm really bad about that). Chapter 38 is when the Lord FINALLY speaks. After all this arguing and condemning and trying to figure out what the heck God is doing, the Lord finally sets it straight. He is God and we are not. We are like tiny little ants trying to speculate what this huge, amazing, powerful being is thinking and doing. We are like little specks of dust as we point fingers at each other or tell each other that we are great or beautiful or weird. We are like clay pots who compliment each other or criticize each other, when really, it is the one who MADE the pots that deserves the glory.

God says out of the storm:

"Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone -
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"

And it goes on and on about the things that the Lord knows that we have NO CLUE about. It's beautiful and majestic and it makes me want to weep because of the awesomeness of God. And then to weep further because he sent His Son to die the most brutal of deaths and take my punishment on himself so that I could have a relationship with Him.

Lord, teach me to worship You. I don't want to be afraid of what dust thinks of me. I want to be afraid of what You think of me. The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Help me to live in that. Let me not forget that I am dust, I am small. You are great and I am small.

What can man do to me? He can kill me, but to live is Christ and to die is gain. All flesh is grass and their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.

Father, teach me about eternity and what it means in my day to day life. I want to be living for purposes higher than what others think of me, I want to be living for You.

Okay, I think I'm done now.