Adventures in Lemurland

Flats and Handwashing Callenge Day 4: How's it going eh?

2013-05-23T13:52:00.001-07:00

Well it's Day 4 of the Flats challenge...I forgot to blog yesterday...I'm a bit terrible at this still.

Today is all about how hand washing is going for you. Let me start by telling you this...hand washing in a very busy household with 3 children under 5 is crazy and busy. I thought hooray less diapers to wash then when we do a load every 2 days, I can do this every night. I will win at all the cloth diaper washing....hahaha...yea...not so much.

We are taking the simple approach, no rigged up washing machines etc for us. Just the kitchen sink, some dish soap, my hands and a clothes line. Hand washing is pretty simple. My diapers look lovely soaking away in the sink. I let them soak for about 10 minutes and then go to town scrubbing and plunging and squishing them to cleanliness! It's relaxing and pretty easy, even with the poop stained ones. Those I take a scrub brush and more soap to, but I'm not the laundry queen and still end up with stains. (Someone tell me how to get stains outta ALL my diapers!)

Flats in the sink

Then we move on to the rinsing. This is where it gets tricky. I wring out all the soapy water, drain the sink, rinse it out and then fill it up again with clean water. Then in go the flats and I plunge the heck outta them. After that process I rinse them under running water (into my sink of now slightly soapy rinse water), wring them out and toss them in the basket.

Off we go outside to hang them to dry (unless of course it is raining...like today...) I love line drying, it makes everything smell so clean and fresh! Plus generally we have a ~~wind~~ breeze (Did you know Lethbridge gets hurricane force winds on a regular basis, the only difference is we don't get the destructive effect of the water along with the wind), breezes make things dry faster!

Just a bit of a breezy day and sunshine!

So all in all hand washing is going pretty decently, other then that I just don't have much time for it...seriously this week we have been home very little, my house is suffering. In fact we are taking advantage of the rainy day today to catch up on some laundry and general clean up. Maybe I should go wash this round of flats too while I'm at it.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge Day 1 and Day 2 combined!

2013-05-21T13:56:00.002-07:00

Wow it's been awhile since I've blogged anything...craaazzyy! life kind of got in the way. But I'm kicking off a new goal to actually keep up with blogging! To start off we have joined into the 3rd Annual Flats and Hand washing Challenge this year.

I missed posting yesterday (sorry it was the long weekend up here in Canada and we were off hanging out with family with little internet access :D) So today is a catch up of yesterday and today.

We started off smoothly yesterday, Little Bug (surprise to those of you who followed me before, we have baby #3 but I digress!) cooperated and didn't poop. He went easy on mommy to start with...not so much today haha! Anyways yesterday's topic was why did I take the challenge?

Little Bug in his first ever flat, and the first I've used in almost 6 years!

Well... because I'm crazy...at least that's what Lemur Daddy says ;) To put this in perspective I have been cloth diapering for almost 6 years straight now. When I started cloth diapering we didn't have a lot of money and my mom started me out with flats and plastic pants. Oh I hated flats and plastic pants with a passion and eventually found my way to easier options. But thinking back on it, flats were the easiest available and cheapest option for our situation. I am very passionate about all things birth and baby so I wanted to show people that you don't need to spend tons of money or necessarily have laundry facilities etc to do cloth. I have my diaper stash that I love, and will always love but a week of flats and hand washing I think will do me a world of good. I get to go back to basics, and all the while maybe make a difference and change someone's perspective of how "hard" cloth is. Also I'm hoping that I learn a thing or two along the way!

So Day 2 is all about Preparation and Supplies:

Like I said I have an amazing stash ;) seriously some day I will post pics of our stash but today is about my flats stash. I had absolutely NO flats at all when I decided to do this challenge. So instead of going online and ordering a bunch (shipping to Canada can sometimes be crazy!) I decided to try to show how you can do it in a pinch or if you don't have access to actual flats.

My stash consists of:

2 flannel receiving blankets
6 ikea burp cloths
6 tea towels
2 snappis (already in my stash)
2 wool wrap covers (already in my stash)
A few wool longies/soakers (already in my stash)
1 night time fitted from our stash as we can't part with our night time system that works so well for us!

I started by putting out a call on my local free cycle group for towels and old receiving blankets. I got a couple receiving blankets and a stack of kitchen towels- cost to me: price of gas to pick them up! essentially free in some cases as friends dropped them off.

Then I discovered the Ikea burp cloths and they were cute...I'm a sucker for cute diapers even if they aren't going to be seen much. So I HAD to have some. Now we don't have an Ikea here which is a bit Lame but that's ok. I got a wonderful friend in a city a couple hours from me to pick some up on her way down. Ikea "flats" come in packs of 2 for $4.99. I have 3 packs so cost was- approx $15.

The snappis were already in my stash but they are relatively inexpensive to order online. I think they probably cost me $2-$3 for the 2 of them from a really sweet Mama. Now I did also find pins at the dollar store (I don't get along with pins so no pins for me!)

Covers were a doozy for me...they are probably the most expensive but that's because I love wool and we only use wool. I didn't buy any specifically for this challenge I have tons already in my stash. You don't need to use wool, PUL or fleece covers work well too. If you do choose to use wool, and can knit you can pick up just a cheap ball of 100% wool at any craft store, grab some knittng needles and a free pattern off of ravelry and make your own. Technically for this challenge the cost to me was $0 on my covers but for the tally of things I'll say we use 2 covers that cost $30 each as you really only need 2-3 covers to make it work. So total cost: $60

In total for the challenge I spent $15.00 since my stash already had lots of what I needed. If I had to buy everything my total cost would still be less then $100 ($78) not including soap and a clothes line that you could pick up at the dollar store.

Our Ikea "flats" and one of our Snappi's cute huh?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

How Does your Garden Grow?

2011-05-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well it's the Long Weekend up here in Canada! We were supposed to go camping but that got cancelled due to the possiblity of alot of rain where we were headed (me, Mr. Daddy, Lemur, Koala AND the grandparents all stuck in a teeny tiny Motorhome all weekend is not my idea of fun!) So Mr. Daddy headed off to Regina to help out a friend (Regina is about an 8 hour drive) so he's gone for the weekend leaving me in charge at home. And well as you can see we are all still here, the Raptur didn't happen and it gave me a chance to get started on my gardening. I grew up on an acreage and we always put our garden in on the Long Weekend in May. So I'm carrying on that tradition. Now I did cheat a little bit and the front "flower" beds were planted last week. But today before he left Mr. Daddy brought me a truck load of dirt (happiest girl in the world right now!).

I set up tonight to get started creating my gardens, we have to do container gardening because we rent and there is no place to put an actual garden in. After a quick adventure to Walmart (GASP!) to get some landscaping fabric...and a few plants...We were in business. Lemur, Koala and I got busy in the backyard. My containers are two semi beat up kiddie pools that we had laying around from last summer. I poked holes in the bottom to help with drainage, lined them with landscaping fabric and then filled them with dirt. Man you should've seen me, I was barefoot in the back of a truck scooping out dirt by the bucket full into the wheelbarrow while trying to convince Lemur that he should not Climb into the back of the truck with me. On my second trip with the wheelbarrow, the Neighbours across the street asked if I wanted a shovel because it looked like I needed one. Actually the bucket method was working pretty well for us and I had a shovel already but it was nice of them to offer. They commented on my adorable helpers (Lemur and Koala). So we busied ourselves filling the kiddie pools with dirt. The munchkins had fun scooping up dirt with their buckets and "helping". It was a grand time! Lemur and Koala also collected some earthworms and tossed them into our gardens.

Well we got the dirt in and started to plant. This was interesting, Koala helped put the seeds in, she was a little overzealous with the peas but hey, who doesn't like fresh peas? Anyways we got everything planted except our strawberry plants which we shall do tomorrow. Here's a list of whats in our garden this year:

Front Gardens:
East- Lettuce, Spinach, Dill, Chammomile, Basil, Lavendar, Rosemary, Chives, Garlic Chives, Parsely, Sorrel, Candy Mint, Cinnamon Basil, Italian Oregano.

West- Onions, Garlic, Sunflowers (at the very back), watermelons, and a cucumber plant.

Container Gardens:
Big pool- Peas (still have to add our fence for them to climb on), carrots, beets
Little Pool- Pumpkins, Spaghetti Squash, zucchini, cucumbers

Potted:
4 tomato plants

And there you have it, our gardens for the year, we have some strawberry plants as well that I need to build a box for still. What's in your garden?

Annnd....We're BACK!

2011-05-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Well we're back! Its been a few months but I kind of got out of the blogging phase for awhile (fell off the wagon so to speak!) But we're back, and still on a day to day adventure. Here's an update on our lives:

Lemur- He has been going to pre-school twice a week, somedays are great, somedays not so much...Pre-school is almost over for the year and he will be going back in the fall for 5 days a week. We will see how that goes but we might cut it back a little. His speech has improved considerably but it definately still needs some work, his behaviours are still so-so. Some days it is really hard to deal with him other days he's really good. Sensory wise we're still at the same spot, he bites himself, chews on random things, drools alot etc. We are working on getting him into a pediatrician to see if we can go forward with a diagnosis. On the other front, he's growing like crazy, happy and such a sweet little boy. He absolutely loves to do puzzles and he's started doing tons of imaginative play!!! He has such a wild imagination, you never know what we will be doing next, we might be digging for dinosaur bones or slaying dragons or baking a birthday cake!

Koala- She is growing like a weed and turning into such a little girl. Her speech is amazing for her age, her newest word is "Carbohydrate" She loves to play with her babies, she's quite the little mommy. She's also rough and tumble, loving dirt and bugs as much as picking flowers. She'll wear a pretty dress but at the end of the day you'll find her right in the dirt next to the Lemur. She is still breastfeeding (We made it past the 2 year mark!!!) although we have now started down the path of weaning. Mostly we nurse at nap time, bedtime and at night. I'm a bit sad that my baby is growing up but I look forward to our new adventures as a toddler and a big girl.

Mama- My life has been extremely busy, I've been busy doing work for our local Doula association (check out http://www.lethbridgedoulas.com/), knitting, crocheting and sewing up a storm all while balancing life with the Lemur and the Koala. Right now I'm working on a colour swap package going out to a very special crafty person in the US. It's a surprise swap so SHHHH! I'm crocheting a nicey lacey cowl made out of Alpaca and have some gorgeous buttons from Tessa Ann Designs (custom made!) to put on it. I'll share a pic when its finished. I'm also trying to finish off a little red riding hood cape for Koala. I have a lovely stash of other yarn sitting here waiting for projects. There is some lovely stuff waiting to be knit up into a present for a wonderful Mama Friend and her brand new baby boy! and some more waiting for another Mama Friend who has yet to have her sweet little baby.

Mr. Daddy- He has been busy working...working and more working...Snow season was rough on us all this year, Lethbridge got a crazy amount of snow and he was gone alot but we made it through. I think the best parts of our day is when Mr. Daddy gets home from work and takes some time to play with the munchkins. He is teach Lemur how to ride a bike! Lemur has figured it out pretty quickly and I'm very proud of both of them.

Well that's our update! stay tuned for more of our adventures in Lemurland!

An update on the adventures with the Lemur

2010-10-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged yet again, life just keeps exploding and spiraling out of control on me. AHHHHHHH!!!! Anyways I'm going to give a quick update on the Lemur. He has had his first in home therapy session with his behavioural therapist and he sees her again tomorrow. He is learning how to play again. We're starting to experience more behavioural issues again, not sure if its because he's refusing to nap during the day so he's tired or if something else is going on. Its getting frustrating to deal with the screaming, throwing himself onto the floor tantrums over simple communication. He knows his words but he's back sliding with everything. He is seeing his speech path once a week at pre-school and the pre-school also asked us to get his eyes checked. So we have to make an appointment with an eye doctor. All his assessments are in, I have to book him in with the Doc and push for a referral to the Pediatrician. We may push to go to Calgary to see a Ped instead of seeing one down here. We've received a great reccomendation for Calgary. So we'll see what his doctor is willing to do. We're waiting on his first OT session which will be later this month hopefully. So its all coming together I guess, its just all very overwhelming and still feels like its spiraling out of control :S

Doula? Huh what?

2010-09-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

Doula...It's a word that we have started to hear more and more related to having babies. You see advertisements sometimes plastered everywhere, You Deserve a Doula! You might have even heard of someone who had a doula for their birth. So what is a doula? There's alot of article out there about what doulas are and how they affect birth etc etc. So for some of you this might just be a repeat of what you already know.

What is a Doula? A doula is generally a woman (sometimes a man) who assists and supports a woman (as well as her birth partner and family) through labour and birth. Some doulas provide support afterwards as well but we will get to that. The doula does this through non-medical means. She provides emotional and physical support as well as giving the mother and her family information to help them make an informed decision about their birth choices. There are some different types of Doulas. There are labour/birth doulas who support mothers through the birth and post-partum doulas who support the mom and her family afterwards when they come home. There are also ante-natal doulas who offer support mainly to high risk mothers through their pregnancies.

What do Doulas do? Doulas meet their clients, maybe do some pre-natal meetings, discuss birth plans, assist their clients in making informed choices about their birth, provide them with information and access to community resources. They are there for labour and birth offering emotional and physical support. Some doulas also do extra things like helping plan a blessingway (mother blessing), belly casting, henna, massage etc. Doulas also provide access to resources within the community. Post-Partum Doulas also provide support for the mom and family when they come home. They do a range of things from providing breastfeeding support, to cooking, light cleaning, helping with older children etc. Ante-natal doulas provide support and information through pregnancy and typically do a range of things like light housekeeping etc if a mother is put onto bedrest. No matter what type of doula they are the doula provides a level of emotional support to their clients as well as the physical support.

What are the benefits? There are alot of studies on the benefits of doulas. Most of the studies conclude fairly similar results.

Having a doula present:
Reduced the overall cesarean rate by 50%

Reduced the length of labor by 25%

Reduced oxytocin use by 40%

Reduced the use of pain medication by 30%

Reduced forceps deliveries by 40%

Reduced requests for epidural pain medication by 60%

Reduced incidences of maternal fever

Reduced the number of days newborns spent in NICU (neo-natal infant care unit)

Reduced the amount of septic workups performed on newborns

Resulted in higher rates of breastfeeding

Resulted in more positive maternal assessments of maternal confidence

Resulted in more positive maternal assessments of maternal and newborn health

Resulted in decreased rates of postpartum depression
(from Mothering The Mother: How a Doula Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, and Healthier Birth, Marshall Klaus, John Kennell and Phyllis Klaus)

Doulas are a great asset to your birth team, if you are looking for more information on doulas check out http://www.dona.org/ or contact your local doula association.

I did it...

2010-09-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not the most confident person, nor do I think I have the greatest body. Let's face it, during my pregnancy with the Lemur I gained over 90lbs...yes over 90lbs!! And really didn't loose alot of it before I got pregnant with the Koala. Fortunately with her I only gained about 30lbs after loosing 10lbs during the first part of the pregnancy due to awful horrible morning sickness. Since then I'm frequently dropping off the pounds without doing much. Hooray for the breastfeeding insta-weight loss program! Sure I go walking with the Koala in a carrier and the Lemur in the stroller (its a great work out) and I try to eat healthy but most of it is from the breastfeeding. I put on clothes this morning that fit me perfectly pre-Lemur pregnancy and well the shirt I'm wearing is way to big now and my jeans I can slip off over my hips without unbutonning them....I've lost alot...how much exactly? I don't know, I actually haven't stepped on a scale since I was in labour with the Koala. I've been meaning to weigh myself and see but haven't yet. Although I've lost alot of weight, there's still parts of me that I'm not particularily comfortable with...my tummy...I have that perpetual mommy tummy flab from having two children....all the stretch marks...I have stretch marks on stretchmarks and although to me they are badges of motherhood, I still wouldn't show them to anyone else (ok well except the Hubby).

Anyways...awhile ago a photographer friend approached me about doing a boudoir shoot so she could practice her boudoir photography. I was a little unsure about it because I am a very self concious person and well after having two babies in less then 3 years my body isn't exactly model material and I was feeling really down at that point. So I thought it over and thought it over and finally took a risk and said yes. Unfortunately things got in the way and we didn't get it done until recently...

She finally had time in her schedual and approached myself and a couple friends. Yesterday I was part of a boudoir photo shoot/boudoir party with a couple other mommy friends of mine. We all got together at our one friend's house to get ready and hang out while each one of us got to do a photoshoot. It was soooo much fun. I was a bit nervous at first but our photographer from Indi*claire Photography was awesome, she made me feel really comfortable and beautiful. I bared most of it and felt awesome! So yep I did it! I'm overcoming my negative body image just a little bit. I can still feel sexy and beautiful as a woman and mother. As much as I told myself that this shoot was for my hubby it was really just as much for me.I can't wait to get my pictures back....will I ask her to edit out a few strtch marks still...lol...well maybe...but I think I will keep a few just theway they are to remind myself of this moment on those days I feel really down about myself.

It's been awhile...

2010-09-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well its been awhile since I updated the blog. Life got away on us and went crazy. So here we are in September and we've found ourselves in new uncharted territories. Over the summer we took the Lemur for a speech assesment because we were noticing some delays in his speech and language. Well one thing has led to another and we've exploded into assesments and appointments for everything. AHHHHHH!

It turns out that Lemur has a severe delay in his speech and language and ranges from 12-36 months on most things. We've been working with him at home and he's showing some improvement which is great. He is also going to Pre-school at a wonderful school and we've heard from his Teacher that he will have an aide fairly soon and he gets to do his speech therapy through the pre-school.

Our wonderful speech path at the CARE center suggested we get him some other assesments as well and we've proceeded to do an OT asessment where our OT has said he has a Sensory Processing Disorder and also that he has some low muscle tone which could be attributing to some of the other things we've noticed.

We also met with our behavioural therapist as well today and she said that he has a mixture of speech, sensory and behavioural things going on and that he's a bigger puzzle. That being said we have our first home visit with her in two weeks.

It's been a really crazy ride since June when we took him for his first speech assesment. There's always been things that we thought weren't "right" but we just thought that they were just his little quirks. Its overwhelming right now and I feel like everything is spinning out of control but also I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel. As crazy and overwhelming as it all seems I'm reassured in some small way because we are finally getting the help and support we need to learn how to deal with the day to day challenges of raising Mr Lemur. I'm really excited to be working with our "Team" his therapists are wonderful ladies and have been really nice and really helpful the couple times we've met with them. The next step on our adventure is to consult with a Pediatrician to rule out any chronic conditions that might be causing issues.

Boba Giveaway!

2010-04-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love my Boba Carrier, I have the 1st generation, and I would love to try the 2G which brings me to this awesome contest :D NAP Inc. Is giving away a Boba 2G!!!! To enter go to: http://www.bobababycarrier.com/index.php?page=celebrate-earth-day

Totally awesome give away!!!

2010-04-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

So I follow a totally awesome blog called Recycle your Day (seriously she's one of my heros!!) And she's doing a super awesome give away of what look to be really yummy Coco-zen truffles! yes you hear me...FREE CHOCOLATE!!!! you should check it out ;)

http://recycleyourday.com/giveaway-organic-truffles-from-coco-zen/comment-page-1/#comment-14907

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter (kind of late!) Part 1

2010-04-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well today we are recovering from the madenss that is called Easter weekend...it started with a foray into the wilds outside of town as we headed out to the Farm for Good Friday dinner...which was really great! Lemur's Grandma made a delicious ham and we played shanghai rummy (a deadly game when it involves my inlaws!!) Then we came home and Saturday was egg dyeing day! We decided to take an all natural approach this year to easter egg dyeing! and well it was lots of fun. We used beets, red cabbage and tumeric to dye our eggs! And thats kind of what this blog post is about!

Our "recipe" came to us online, I spotted it on a newsfeed on my facebook account (oh facebook how I love you so!)

Step one:
Collect your dye stuffs: you can use any natural items for dyeing the most popular are:
Beets: pink
Red Cabbage: blue
Tumeric: orange yellow
Onion skins: Golden brown
Tea/Coffee: dark brown/black
Spinach: green

Step 2: Add dye stuffs and water into pots and boil for 30 minutes

Step 3: Hardboil eggs

Step 4: put a tired koala bear to bed....

Step 5: add dye stuff to glass bowls (use glass not plastic or the dyes will dye your plastics) and add some vinegar to set the dye (anywhere from 1 tsp to 2 tbsp, the vinegar will change the dye colour a bit so add as much as you want, we used 1 Tbsp for each dye bath)

Step 6: Dye your eggs!! You have to imerse them in the dye and let them sit for are least half an hour up to overnight (no longer then overnight or the vinegar will breakdown the shells) We left ours in for 3 hours

(note the totally awesome woolies on the Lemur :D)

Finished products (these were delegated to becoming deviled eggs for our crazy family dinner for 20 people on Monday)

Gluten Free Cornmeal Pancakes

2010-03-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were in the mood for pancakes and we had run out of GF mix so we looked up some recipes and found this one We were very excited because we had all the ingredients for it! but not enough for a full batch lol!

Well we improvised and this is the recipe we came up with:

1 C cornmeal
1/4 C rice flour
1 Tbsp sugar (we tried this and they weren't sweet enough so we added 2 tbsp brown sugar yummm! perfect!)
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C buttermilk
1/4 C water
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients together, mix buttermilk and water together. Add egg and oil to dry ingredients and add milk/water mixture mixing until the right consistancy for pancakes. Cook on the griddle until done :)

These were really yummy, they SMELLED like REAL pancakes! They were a bit dry if you ate them too hot or too cold, they have to be the perfect temperature but with a bit of butter and syrup you wouldn't notice. We are going to try making them with maple syrup as the sweetener or doing them with fruit in them.

Here's some pics!

The Koala enjoying her pancakes

Gluten Free Chicken Strips :)

2010-03-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

So again I'm slacking on the blog front! I went crazy with sewing projects and doula stuff and getting ready for events last week and didn't find the time, this week the excuse was I was on vacation! well part of it lol! some of it was doula stuff. Ahhh business...takes away so much blogging time. But anyways I decided that tonight I had to share the recipe for my husband's super awesome chicken strips (gluten free of course!!!) I don't have a picture of them though...The lemur and koala and Mommy & Daddy scarfed them down rather quickly....yep thats right they're all gone! But here's the sort of recipe:

Coating:
Oat flour
White rice flour
Corn meal
curry powder to taste
cumin seeds to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Other ingredients:
Chicken Breasts
Eggs
Milk

Instructions: cut chicken into strips. Beat eggs and milk together in a bowl to form the "bath" for the chicken. Place the chicken strips into the "bath" and let them sit for a couple minutes while you mix up the coating. Dredge bathed chicken strips in the coating and deep fry until done. (You could probably bake them or fry them too if you were trying to be healthier but we really weren't tonight!)

Thought provoking question....working...breastfeeding...oh my!

2010-03-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

A friend had this posted as her facebook status this morning asking for help from her mommy friends for a class she is taking: hey, question for the mommies (for class, lol): women have been traditionally told they're the ones who get to be stuck at home with the babies, one of the reasons being that they are the one with the food. supposedly, the availability of formula, breast pumps, etc, is supposed to help free women from this constraint. ...As women who believe in the importance of breastfeeding, what do you have to say about the matter?

Well I happen to be ver opinionated on the matter and probably went on a couple tangents lol! :D

First off I am a breastfeeding mom, I have been in the work force as well as staying home with my children so I've experienced both worlds. I feel that breastfeeding is very important, its one of the fundamentals in my opinion. Breastfeeding is the natural and normal way of feeding your child. I feel that if you are in the position where you can make the choice to stay home with your children you should do it. As a breastfeeding mom I can say without a doubt that it can be detrimental to your breastfeeding relationship to be going to work every day and leaving your child. Sure there is formula out there on the market, but formula makes it too "easy" for a mother to go to work every day. Once you have a baby on formula it dramatically decreases the amount you breastfeed and eventually most women give up breastfeeding all together because this is "easier" then pumping for an hour or more every day to ensure there is enough milk for your child. Some women feel "stuck" so to speak by the confines of pumping and breastfeeding, formula gives them the freedom to do what they want, when they want.

That being said, it IS possible to continue a healthy breastfeeding relationship as a working mom. You have to have the comitment and determination, because let's face it, pumping isn't "easy". But it can be done, for some women who don't have the choice (ie single moms, low-income etc) pumping might be their only way to keep that breastfeeding relationship with their child. There can be other options for some moms such as working from home, bringing your baby to work with you etc.

We happen to live in a country that allows moms to stay at home for the first year with our maternity leave benefits, although for some moms that's not a great option as mat leave payments are only 55% of your gross income, which may not be enough for them to live off of. Or maybe they didn't qualify for maternity leave for whatever reason.

Personally I feel that women SHOULD stay home with their babies for at least the first year if they can. It gives you time to establish a healthy breastfeeding relationship and bond with your child. You don't miss out on all the fun things like first steps, first words etc. Would I enter the workforce full time, if I had a choice? No, I wouldn't. I love being at home. I have currently re-entered the work force as a work at home mom because I feel that it is more important to me to be with my children. Financially we can make it work on one income, and a little extra from my various work at home ventures helps. I don't feel "stuck" at home. I feel that this is the right place for me so I can give my children the best start that I can offer. That means breastfeeding (currently on 13 months of breastfeeding my youngest), spending time with my children (stopping my work to play dragons with my son, or look out the window at the most fascinating things to a toddler or watching my daughter's first steps). These make my days worth it, and I don't regret my decision to stay home with my babies.

Co-sleeping Essay

2010-03-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

We never intended on bedsharing with our daughter, we didn't with our son, part of me regrets it but parenting is a learning experince.

I fell asleep nursing my daughter on the couch and woke up thinking this is silly, I can do this in bed. We went to bed and that's where she's been ever since. She's able to nurse when she wants, cuddle when she wants and move away to be independant when she wants. It has definately benefited our breastfeeding relationship, we're going on 13 months now with no signs of slowing down. We nurse on demand and bedsharing has definately assisted with that. We have a great sleeper who has acess to her mommy. We have experienced alot of differing opinions towards our bedsharing, my mother expressed concerns about the saftey, to which we respond with stats and facts that it is safe, and we've shown her our bed set up. While she is quietly still not as in favour of it, at least she accepts that this is what we are going to do and leaves it at that.

Either way, we are doing what we thinks works best for us, its saved us alot of sleep, worry and stress, we were able to catch two severe fevers/illnesses right away. We love her snuggles. She sleeps amazingly most of the time. Is it a conicidence? Maybe, but I'll take what I can get and I will definately bedshare with my next baby as well!

I submitted this post as an entry into the Co-Sleeping Essay Contest. You have a few more days to enter – entries must be received by March 23, 2010 (the deadline has been extended 3 days from the original!). If you submit an entry, please be sure to tell them you heard about the contest here. Here are details:

In 2008, the Great Co-Sleeping Survey was initiated and in just a few months over 9000 parents from all over the world logged on to http://www.co-sleepingsurvey.com/. These parents relayed powerful statements and stories about their bed-sharing experience. The result is a new book titled, “Are You Co-Sleeping? Me Too!” With more than 30 chapters of specific bed-sharing topics, it will provide relief to parents who have been affected by the negativity that often surrounds the issue.

ESSAY CONTEST:

You have the opportunity to be included in the book by producing some short “feel good” essays to head 7 of the chapters. These essays should be written by parents who love or have loved bed-sharing with their babies or children. This opportunity will take the form of a contest/giveaway program. The 7 prospective winners will have their story included in the book. The top essayist will win the Dr. approved bed-sharing aid, The Humanity Family Sleeper, a $200.00 value!

RULES & ESSAY GUIDELINES:

Essays (250 words or less) should focus on the writer’s personal experience with one of the following topics. Bloggers are also invited to enter their own essays. There are no international boundaries, all countries are invited to enter. Prizes will be shipped for free (essays need to be in English).

1. Oppression or negativity they received (Mother-in-law, parents, media, doctors, general society).

2. How bed-sharing enriched their parenting experience.

3. How bed-sharing helped breastfeeding (extended duration, adverse physical limitations, etc.).

4. How they got better sleep.

5. A Dad’s perspective, written by a Dad.

6. How it saved their child’s life.

7. How they intended to use a crib, and chose not to.

Entries need to be received by March 23rd, 2010. Winners will be chosen and announced by April 1st. The grand prize will be delivered to the winning entrant before April 20th. Contestants need to log their entries at http://cosleepingsurvey.com/cosleepingsurveyessay.html.

*I heard about the contest from Authentic Parenting. Thanks for spreading the word!

Woolies Galore!

2010-03-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't been very inspired lately to blog about anything but yesterday I was washing most of our wool stash and decided that I would blog about our woolies :)

For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about, woolies are all of our wool cloth diaper covers (skirties, longies, shorties etc). Now I have to say this...I LOVE WOOL! Right now the Koala (Miss A) is adventuring around our house in a goodmama (I also love my goodmamas!) with the cutest little black and multi-coloured knit wool skirtie on. I'm going to preach a little bit about the benefits of wool before I get into my stash lol!

Why Do We Choose Wool?

Wool is a natural fiber, which of course we love, its also a greener alternative to synthetic fibers. Wool also is very good at absorbing and drawing moisture away from the skin (if you do alot of camping or hiking thats why you get wool socks to wear :D) and is commonly used in soakers/diaper covers for fitted diapers. It has antibacterial properites which make it great as a diaper cover! I love my wool, some people wonder if it soaks through the wool, well yes sometimes a diaper will soak through, but most wool covers absorb alot before they are completely soaked. I'm so addicted to wool covers, I find that sometimes the Lemur gets a fairly nasty rash from his night time diapers with a PUL cover on, but after a day of frequent bum changes, a little earth mama angel baby bottom balm and a wool cover to allow for breathability the rash has dissipated. Which I love! and plus they look sooooo darn cute! We have soakers, shorties, skirties and longies galore! Right now I have enlsited my mom into making me a felted wool soaker for night times for the Lemur and if it works I'll get her to make me one for the Koala too! Anyways now onto my stash :D :D (This is TOTALLY the best part!!!)

Most of our wool stash drying

close up of some of our stash

The skirtie of the day on the Koala

another of the Koala's skirties (yes it is Invader Zim sheets you see :D they are on the Lemur's bed)

the very first skirtie I ever crocheted for the Koala

Enough said.....

2010-03-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Sunday

Wednesday

Meal Planning

2010-03-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm back after a little hiatus, February was an incredibly insane month for us and I didn't really have any inclination to blog. So now I'm feeling more alive and I think we'll give it a go again! I'm going to start out with a bit about our latest attempt at orginization...Meal Planning!

So last month the hubby and I decided to cut our costs more and stay within a strictly laid out cash budget for groceries. We decided to partially meal plan the month and well we did pretty good, we came in under our $300 semi-gluten free family of 4 budget. This month I decided to take it a step further and I've meal planned most of our month, some of it is specifically planned and others are just the bare "bones" so to speak so that we can still get creative when we want to. We've also planned one Meatless meal per week in an attempt to cut down the amount of meat that our household (ahem...husband) consumes. We did our grocery shop (we do a big shop once a month to get most of the household ingredients and then 1-2 little shops to restock our fresh fruits, veggies etc later in the month) and we came in under $250 for groceries this month with a bit of wiggle room to be able to again restock our fresh produce later. (Wooohooo! look at us go!) The key was to stick to our list! We went through all the flyers and compared prices and made a list accordingly and we stuck to it. We varied off of it for a couple things (like chick peas for hummus) but most of it was spot on. We've also made it a goal to not eat out this month (except for our one possible date night). Which means the hubby has to take lunch from home or come home for lunch, no more fastfood! Anyways thats our attempt at being healthier and cutting our costs. Here's what our meal plan for this month looks like :)Most of our meals are all made completely from scratch :)

March 8th to 13th:

Monday: Shortribs in sauerkraut (crock pot) with veggies and mashed potatoes (extra mashed for tomorrow's meal)

Tuesday: Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie (with NO meat or meat substitute, the recipe called for fake meat but not only is it more expensive, its chock full of GLUTEN...Nasty Nasty! We are doing lots of veggies and mushrooms in it)

Wednesday: Beef Stirfry with noodles

Thursday: Pasta of some sort

Friday: Meatloaf with Broccoli and potatoes

Saturday: Pork chops

Sunday: Roast lamb with mashed potatoes and veggies

March 14th to 21st

Monday: Crock pot Chili (with dried beans)

Tuesday: Pork stirfry with rice

Wednesday: Hamburgers and home made sweet potato fries

Thursday: Pasta

Friday: Veggie Risotto

Sat: BBQ steak and potatoes

Sun: Crock pot chicken

March 22-29

Monday: Beans and rice

Tues: Pasta

Wed: Stir fry

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner! (our favorite thing to do!!)

Friday: Pork chops with rice

Saturday: Pizzas!

Sun: Roast Beef dinner

March 30th to April 5th

Mon: Mexican meal

Tuesday Pork chops with scalloped potatoes

Wed: Corny Pasta (Veggie)

Thursday: Steak

Friday: Pasta

Saturday: Hamburgers

Sunday: Ham

Wordless Wednesdays (Go Canada Go!)

2010-01-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

In search of the elusive awesome nighttime diaper

2010-01-26T07:40:00.000-08:00

I have heard rumours that this magical amazing night time diaper does exist...but what diaper is it? Well for every baby its a different diaper. For Little A we have found that awesome night time diaper! We have discovered that the happy hempy stuffable pocket diaper works really well on her. I stuff it...and I mean stuff it! Last night she had 4 soakers in that thing and she could barley move because it was so stuffed. But we really like it,hemp is very absorbant and with 4 layers of microfleece doublers in it...well lets just say that sucker holds everything! That being said someday I'd love to try the goodmama goodnights, maybe next month I can convince my hubby to let me buy one to test out on L as we have yet to find a night time diaper that can last for him.

The Spirited Child Experience

2010-01-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

I'm a day behind since I was supposed to post yesterday but it was a very loooong tiring weekend of single parenting two little ones. (We had snow...boo...)

I started reading the Raising your Spirited Child book last week, and I read Chapters 1 and 2 because Chapter 1 was basically about defining your spirited child. I'm thinking about doing two chapters a week since there are 20 chapters to go through and let's face it...I really just wanted to keep reading!

Chapter 1 starts out by talking about spirited children and how to recognize your spirited child. It also gives us the parents of spirited children a "credo". The author reccomends posting this on your fridge or somewhere you can see it every day and remind yourself:

1. You are not alone

2. You did not make your child spirited

3. You are not powerless

4. You have permission to take care of yourself

5. You may celebrate and enjoy the delights of your spirited child

So what is a spirited child? A spirited child has many of the following characteristics (I will label each one that relates to L as we go along)

1. Intensity: L is very intense, he's noisy when he plays, overly energetic and his tantrums...well let's just say that his tantrums are quite epic. As the author puts it in the book "their tantrums are raw and enduring" that describes L very well.

2. Persistence: L exhibits some of the persistence characteristics. He is very focused, he fixates on things and convincing him to play with something else or do something else is very difficult.

3. Sensitivity: L isn't as sensitive towards alot of the listed items like clothes, food, smells etc but he does get easily overwhelmed by crowds, he is also keenly aware of other peoples' moods. He is very empathic.

4. Perceptivness: L has a very short attention span, something always catches his eye along the way and he gets distracted from what he is doing. Its always a joy to go for walks because he notices things that I wouldn't normally take the time to look at.

5. Adaptability: L isn't too uncomfortable with change, he's quick to adapt in most situations, but not all spirited children are the same.

Bonus Characteristics...oh yes there are bonus ones!

6. Regularity: L has no schedual, he eats when he wants, sleeps when he feels like it, we can put him to bed at the same time every night and some nights he'll go to sleep, other nights he'll be awake for two more hours.

7. Energy: L has LOTS of energy. He is often referred to as "wild" but we prefer to say he's very busy (labels...I'll get into that soon).

8. First Reaction: L doesn't really do this, he doesn't hide away, sometimes he hesitates at something new but it doesn't take much to get him involved.

9. Mood: L is almost always a happy child, unless he's having a tantrum. We always get smiles which we enjoy imensely.

Chapter 2 talks about labels and how they effect the way we see our children. It goes on to teach us how to change our negative labels into positive ones. Which is easier said then done. So here are our labels:

Destructive
Agressive
Wild
Argumentative
Moody
Picky
difficult
Doesn't listen
frustrating
easily bored
stubborn
fixated
Sounds bad doesn't it? These are just some of the negative labels we've used to describe L. I'm sure there are more and always will be more but finding a positive label to use instead really forces you to take a step back from the situation and reflect. Here are our alternative positive labels:

Creative
Intense
busy
Knows what he wants
dramatic
particular
bright
easily distracted
imaginative
inventive
attached

I've found even changing the labels changes how I look at L. Hubby looked at me yesterday and said "Creative...I like that!" and its true, he is a very creative little boy...yes things get destroyed in the process but he's creative about it.

This week...Chapters 3 and 4 I can't wait! I'll upadte you again in a week!

Eye Openers

2010-01-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Today my BFF and I decided that we needed a "break" from our toddlers...so we stuck her poor husband with our two 2 yr olds and her 9 year old and literally RAN AWAY! We took the baby of course, it would be mean of us to leave her too lol! So we decided to go walk around walmart (of all places we chose walmart). Oh how I wish we were in an economic position where we didn't really have to shop at walmart for things, but let's face it we're poor enough that some of those deals at walmart really do save us money. But as we were walking around we started to REALLY take a look at things...from the cheap plastic tupperware like containers to the expensive for walmart "organic, green and holistic" things. We got chatting about what we wanted to do to help our households become even greener. We're already making an impact by reducing, reusing, recycling, buying organics and whole foods, making alot of our own foods etc. We do have to commend walmart though on their ever growing selection of gluten free healthy alternatives. Their organic section is getting fairly large and there is quite a bit to choose from. (AND it is cheaper then at some of the natural food stores here). But we came up with a couple of ideas of more things we can do to reduce our impact and make our homes greener. My BFF has a goal to remove all the plastics from her home this year. With all the concerns about BPA, pthalates etc she decided that she would go towards the glass and metal storage containers. Another idea that we came up with was to investigate doing the 100 mile challenge...We really think it would be interesting to do it, especially on a gluten free and low-dairy diet. It would be harder for us but we think that later this year (if our husbands agree) We want to give it two months and see how it goes.

Cloth Diapering Tuesdays

2010-01-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Well its tuesday...Good Morning everyone! (anyone?) I've come to the conclusion that not many people might read my blog but I'm still going to plug away at it :) Today is Cloth Diapering Tuesday! wella ctually is cloth diaper laundry day at our house lol! But I thought I would do a post about cloth diapers and laundry. What the heck do we do with all that poop? Well in our house we scrape or shake the poop into the toilet before tossing the diaper in the wetbag for laundry...if its a bad poop diaper then we rinse it (oh how I would LOVE a diaper sprayer...seriously its on my wishlist!)

We don't do a wet pail method for our diapers, I found it too much of a pain in the butt to carry a heavy pail full of diapers and water to the laundry so we use a dry pail method. We run our diapers through on a cold wash/cold rinse cycle with no soap to rinse out most of the excess stuff. The more water you use on the rinse cycle the better!! Then we toss them back in on a hot wash/cold rinse cycle with some soap (we have been using Castille soap but we just discovered Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Detergent!!! AMAZING STUFF) then in the winter they go in the dryer and in the summer I hang them up outside (winter line drying isn't an option here when 98% of winter days are -40 with a windchill and/or snowing) I can't wait for spring so I can sun some of the stains outta my dipes!

Soooo what about woolies? Well we have a huge collection of woolies and I don't put those through the laundry! I fill my tub with hot water and wool wash (Eucalan) and then I gently squish my woolies into the water and let them soak for awhile. Then I gently agitate (very very gently!) then squish the water out of them, do a clean water rinse at approx the same temperature and then squish out the water again and I lay them all flat to dry. Simple as that!