Recently, I promised my husband that I would knit from my yarn stash. This came about after I asked him to help me move my yarn into plastic totes. I should have considered the ramifications of revealing my stash. The whole experience was like going to confession without getting absolution. My husband is quite encouraging of my knitting hobby but he couldn't quite understand why I was buying more yarn when I had bins of it already. I tried to explain, but I couldn't deny that my stash was getting a bit large.
So instead of picking up yarn for my next projects, I picked out projects to use up yarn in my stash. First I made a Seamless Kimono for the baby and now I've started on a Top-down Baby Yoke Jacket with some Cascade 220 off-white wool. It's a fun project and I really like the way the cabled yoke turned out.
While I knit away I'm waiting anxiously for baby to come. I've been getting plenty of contractions but nothing that sticks around long enough to get me into active labour. I've gone over my due date with my last two little ones so I'm hardly surprised to find myself four days over already. I was secretly hoping for a February baby but that's looking more and more unlikely as the day goes by.
Tomorrow I reach the 40 week mark. The last couple weeks of pregnancy always feel the longest. I'm finding this to be especially true with all the contractions that I've been getting. Everyone says to enjoy the last few days but its not that easy when you're feeling extremely uncomfortable and have no energy. At least I can be comforted by the fact that we will have some exciting news to share sometime in the next two weeks.
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The laundry room renovations are progressing well. The drywall is installed and we have a couple days of sanding and mudding left to endure. I've been so tempted to go down there and wash the stairs and floors but there really isn't any point until the work is done.
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Our house feels very small right now. With the basement in renovation and the huge birth tub sitting in our living room there isn't much room for play. Thankfully my dear sister and MIL have been coming by to take the little ones out cross-country skiing and sledding.
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I'm such a sucker for period dramas. Thanks to the suggestion of a couple people I started watching Downton Abbey a couple days ago. This TV series is right up my alley. A few other period dramas I've enjoyed are North and South, Pride and Prejudice and Wives and Daughters.
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Tomorrow (February 25th) is Seedy Saturday. Once a year people in our city are invited to come together and talk about plant biodiversity, heritage gardening, organic gardening and seeds. There are usually seeds to buy or trade too. This event happens across Canada. Check out Seeds of Diversity to see if there is a Seedy Saturday happening near you.
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German Pancakes are delicious and so easy to make. My friend introduced me to German pancakes a couple weeks ago. You can substitute 1 cup flour for 1/3 cup coconut flour. The pancake won't puff up as much with coconut flour but it makes for a healthy and high fiber substitute.
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Here a couple cute pictures of my little ones enjoying their bath.
Recently in the news there have been warnings against the dangers of raw milk: Raw milk illness rates in U.S. prompt CDC warning. According to the CDC, drinking raw milk had "great risks" that can lead to "severe illness". Most people drink pasteurized milk, but there seems to be an increasing trend, especially among the "real food" folk, to find sources of raw (un-pasteurized) milk. In Canada, you can't legally buy raw milk. You can, however, be part of a herd share, which allows you to get raw milk from a cow that you partially own. Here is a list of herd shares in Canada.
We used to be part of a herd share. The raw milk that we received was delicious and it didn't make any of us sick. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the herd share was ended and we're back to drinking pasteurized milk. I really miss having raw milk and it's my dream to one day own a family cow for milking.
There are many benefits to drinking raw milk. Of course, raw milk has to be expressed and stored scrupulously. In a healthy cow, the problem isn't the milk itself but the way it's handled which can cause it to be contaminated. Anyways, here is an interesting rebuttal to the recent CDC warnings: CDC cherry picks the data to make case against the safety of raw milk — WAPF.
This year Pope Benedict draws on Hebrews 10:24 for his Lenten message.
"Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works"
He points out that this one verse teaches us three important things about living a Christian life: responsibility towards each other, the gift or reciprocity and personal holiness. I highly recommend taking the time to read the Lent 2012 Message. It isn't long.
For Lent, our family focuses on three things: Fasting, Praying and Almsgiving. Last year we chose a variety of activities to help prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter. This year we've decided to keep things simple because we'll have a newborn to care for soon. Here a few things we've decided to do.
Fasting
Friday Lenten Meals. Our family will eat simple vegetarian meals each Friday during Lent.
My husband will go to daily mass twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Almsgiving
We will use the Development and Peace 2012 Solidarity Calendar. I really like this year's calendar. There's a bean growing activity, which will be fun for the little ones, and a focus on the environment and cultivating justice.
Today is Mardi Gras; the last day before Lent begins. It's the culmination of a week (or weeks) of celebration that have been going on all over the world. Many French Canadian communities have been enjoying their winter festival in the last couple weeks. We had the opportunity to eat some delicious tire d'érable a couple weekends ago at our own local festival d'hiver. Tonight, we'll finish the celebrations with a traditional French Canadian Mardi Gras feast of crepes and some handmade felt masks.
That would be the bechamel sauce for the crepes and my large belly.
Last night while I was browsing the internet I was inspired to make felt masks. In previous years I bought plastic masks from the craft store to decorate. They were fun to make but didn't last long and had to be thrown away. This year I used these basic templates and these masks as an inspiration to make some felt masks for my little ones. I'm hoping to add to the collection over time. I think they'll make for some great dress up props.
Either my son's head is too big or I made the strap a bit tight. Either way he loves his new frog mask.
I am restless. I have been getting mild contractions for most of the day but things haven't moved beyond that. At times I feel like I might switch into active labour, but then I don't. It's tiring, both physically and mentally, and I've been doing a lot of resting to keep up my energy for when the time comes.
I let Sweetpea put some icing on cookies for the first time.
As soon as the cookie was iced she ate it.
At 39 weeks, I'm feeling ready to deliver this baby. More ready than I did at this time with my previous two. I don't know why I feel so much more impatient this time around, but I think these last few days are going to feel very long.
I do dress my son , if you are wondering,
but he prefers to run around in his underwear.
Everything at home is prepared and we have hospital bag packed just in case. Now I just need to find some good distractions for the next little bit. Any suggestions?
If you've been reading my blog for a while, then it should be no surprise that our family is a huge fan of the public library. On average we visit the library once a week and have fifty books on loan. We borrow a wide variety of books. Sometimes we discover new favorites, other times there are some real duds. It's always fun to see which books interest my little ones and which don't.
Right now my son (4) is interested in dinosaurs, pirates and frogs. There are always a few books on that topic in our library stack. We borrow both fiction and non-fiction but he shows a preference for fiction at this point. A few favorite dinosaur books have been Dinosaurumpus!, Tyrannosaurus Drip, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones, and Dinosnores. As for pirates, he's hooked on Pirate Cruncher and I can't wait to get him a copy of The Pirates Next Door when it's released later this month. We also read him books like Hansel and Gretel, The Eleventh Hour and Wynken, Blyken and Nod. It has taken him a while to develop an interest in books, other than ripping them of course, but he seems to thoroughly enjoy reading these days which makes me thrilled.
My little Sweetpea (2) enjoys reading books too. Her first sentence was "read a book" and I often catch her sitting somewhere quietly flipping through a book. Right now she enjoys The Going to Bed Book (and others by Sandra Boynton), The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Usborne "That's Not My..." Puppy, Monkey etc. books and just recently Miffy books (like Miffy in the Tent).
What do your children enjoy reading? Which books are family favorites?
Over the last week I've been experiencing clusters of mild contractions. These are not Braxton Hicks contractions, I get plenty of those already. No, these mild contraction are definitely a step closer to labour. Things are looking promising, even my midwife agrees, but I'm not allowing myself to get too hopeful. My last two pregnancies went to 42 weeks and I'm 38 weeks pregnant right now.
One thing that these mild contractions have done is throw me into a nesting frenzy. The type that results in wall washing and cupboard re-organizing. By the afternoon I'm exhausted, but there seems to be so much to do still. It's at a time like this that I'm grateful we live in a small house.
While I'm cleaning away upstairs we have a contractor renovating our laundry room downstairs. Mess doesn't even describe how things are in my basement right now. And tomorrow we'll be without water for a good part of the day. There will be no home water birth if I go into labour tomorrow, but if that did happen I would have to laugh.
We treated ourselves to some delicious chocolates on Valentine's Day.
For months now I've been wanting to link up to Ginny's yarn along. There has been no shortage of knitting around here, but for some reason getting a picture of my current project has been a challenge. Right now I'm working on a blue Milo vest. This is the only boy coloured item that I've knit for the baby. Everything else has been pink, purple (I'm convinced it's a girl) or neutral coloured. My husband think that it'll be a boy, simply based on the fact that I've knitted the baby a pink Cassia Easter dress.
Most of my spare time and energy has been put towards preparing for the new baby. Compared to my last two pregnancies I haven't spent as much time preparing frozen dinners and muffins. There seems to be less time and less space in my freezers these days. Instead I've been focusing on cleaning and organizing one room each day. I was tempted to pick up Having a Martha House the Mary Way but I think it'll have to wait until this spring. If I have any spare energy I run an errand in the early afternoon or sit and flip through Orgasmic Birth. Most afternoons you can find me napping (or attempting to nap) on the couch. These last few weeks have been exhausting and I'm getting eager to meet our little one.
We had a popcorn machine, but I gave it away. It worked perfectly fine. The problem was that it was made of plastic and Teflon, two things we stay away from when food and heat are involved. After I gave away the popcorn machine our popcorn consumption decreased drastically. This made me sad because I really enjoy a big bowl of popcorn on a regular basis.
Then I realized that people made popcorn before popcorn machines were invented (imagine that!). If you do a Google search for "stove top popcorn", up pops up a ton of results (pun intended). And to make things even better, stove top popcorn is easy to make and tastes delicious.
To make stove top popcorn you need:
- a large pot with a lid
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
- oil (safflower, sunflower, peanut, canola) *I wouldn't recommend using olive oil because of it's low smoking point
- seasoning (melted butter, salt)
The directions are straight-forward:
Put the pot on the stop top and add a couple Tablespoons of oil. Heat on medium high and throw in a few kernels. When the kernels begin popping add the rest of the popcorn kernels and put the lid on the pot. Keep a crack in the lid to allow the steam to escape and shake the pot every couple few seconds to prevent the popcorn from burning on the bottom. When the popping slows down take the pot of the stove and pour popcorn into a bowl. Season and serve.
With Valentine's Day this coming Tuesday, there is no shortage of love inspired crafts, recipes and activities in the blogosphere. This year we will be keeping our Valentine's Day celebration simple, eco-friendly and filled with delicious "real food" treats. I want to share a few of my favorite ideas in this Valentine's Day round-up.
Valentine's Day cards are fun to give out whether you are a little or big person. I have come across four card ideas that are unique and can be made with recycled (or recyclable) materials.
I've been following Joel's bog for some time. He has some really neat craft and colouring activities and recently published a book called Made to Play. Here are some Valentine's Card Creatures from Made by Joel.
Celebrating special occasions with food is a must around here. The are plenty of simple foods that you could prepare for Valentine's Day. Make a berry smoothie or cook some pink pancakes using beet puree or natural food colouring. Cute Food for Kids has a list of 50 Treat Ideas for Valentine's Day. I like the idea of making Homemade Valentine's Day Mints or heart sugar cookies.
The word suffering brings vivid images to my mind: tragic deaths, natural disasters, terminal and/or chronic illnesses, severe injuries, crimes. But sometimes suffering doesn't make headlines.
This winter our family has been sick with the influenza, colds and stomach bugs. It feels like we've been in survival mode since the end of November. I don't know why we've been so sick. We're careful about hand washing and eating well. And now that I'm getting uncomfortably pregnant we rarely go out in public. Yet, this very morning my little Sweetpea was sick to her stomach.
I want stomp my feet, cry and tell God that we've had enough already! We're sick of sickness. Having sick children is emotionally and physically exhausting and being a mom feels very difficult at times like this. Just a couple weeks ago when Monkey was sick at night, I turned to my husband and said "parenting is hard work!". Of course, I knew this already but it's during times of suffering that you really beging to understand the great responsibility of being a parent.
As I care for my sick little ones, I try to keep my heart open to what God is trying to show me through all this. Patience. Trust. Surrendering control. Accepting the reality of our human frailty and looking beyond that to our calling in life to receive God's love, love Him in return and love one another. I guess that's we're my blog title comes from. I'm trying to make the journey through the thorns of life to the stars of heaven. Sometimes the path is treacherous.
When we go visit my parents, we have a habit of checking their snack cupboard for a bag of chips. Our eager anticipation of checking "the chip" cupboard steams from the fact that I don't buy chips. They're unhealthy and I'd eat them all. Two significant problems. So, I was surprised when my husband bought a couple bags of chips for our recent outing.
I ripped open the chips right away, feeling deprived and knowing that I would probably regret eating them. Chips are good, but usually in that "ugg I can't believe I ate those" kind of way. But these chips were different. On first contact I noticed that they were thick and rustic. When you put them in your mouth they're crunchy and have a well balanced flavour. Of the two flavours I've tried, Onion and Yogurt and Salt and Vinegar, I can say that they tasted natural and not overbearing. Generally, my favorite chip flavour is salt and vinegar but most salt and vinegar chips start to burn your mouth after a while. These don't, which is a nice change. These chips are in fact so amazingly delicious (says the pregnant lady = me) they put all other chips I've tried to shame. And, instead of eating them all at once I feel like the need to ration myself so they don't disappear too quickly. These, my friends, are real chips and they're called Hard Bites.
FYI Hard Bites are a Canadian kettle cooked potato chip made with British Columbian potatoes, cooked in non-hydrogenated canola and sunflower oils and seasoned with natural flavours. More facts here. If you come across Hard Bites give them a try and tell me what you think! Is this the raving of a chip-deprived pregnant lady or am I onto something here. My husband thinks there pretty darn good too so I'm banking that it's not just me.
Oh yes, this chip post is solely my own opinion and not influence by anyone or anything other than my thorough enjoyment of Hard Bite chips. Of course, boxes of Hard Chips donated to yours truly would never be a bad thing. And finally, I'd like to thank Christina, who made the bag of chips sitting beside me as I type.
If you want to try making your own bath and beauty products lip balm is an easy place to start. Today I whipped up a batch of Peppermint Lip Balm. I substituted avocado oil with jojoba oil because that's what I had. The beauty of lip balm is that you can experiment with it and if it doesn't work you can simply rewarm it and add a few ingredients to fix it.
Mountain Rose Herbs gives a general rule of using 3 parts carrier oils (sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, jojoba oil etc.) and 1 part beeswax for making lip balm. Butters (cocoa butter, shea butter) which are a nice addition are usually left out of the above equation because they are solid at room temperature.
The most difficult part of making lip balm is finding the ingredients. I collected my ingredients from a variety of sources. I purchase the beeswax from a local beekeeper. The carrier oils and cocoa butter came from soapcraft.ca. Mountain Rose Herbs also sells good quality oils and butters. I purchased shea butter from Serf to Surf Products and the rest of the supplies, like essential oils and vitamin E oil, were picked up at the local health food store.
Once you've gather your ingredients the options are endless and it takes very little time to make. The batch I made today took me no more than ten minutes from measuring the ingredients to pouring them into the tins.
Here are few more recipes that I've come across recently. I haven't tried them (yet) so I can't say how they turn out but they look promising.
When I was little my father would take us on outdoors adventures almost every weekend. In the summer we might go camping, hiking, rock climbing, biking or swimming in a chilly lake. In the winter we'd go sledding, ice fishing or stomping through the snow somewheres. The highlight of our snowy adventures was building a fire and eating Habitant pea soup from cups and wieners off sticks.
Today was a nice mild day. A perfect day relive some of those memories with our little ones. We met family and friends at a local lake and ate some delicious homemade tomato soup, wieners, marshmallows and cheese (no meal is complete without cheese).
The little ones played on the sleds and some of the adults skied on the frozen lake. I sat by the cozy fire and ate cheese... and chocolate.
We knew it was time to leave when the little ones all started crying. So we packed our things and started to drive away... but then we got stuck in the un-plowed parking lot. Eventually we got out and made our way home.
A very distressed Monkey. He wanted to keep up to his grandfather skate skiing, but there was no chance of that.
Should the US impose a sugar tax? Denmark already taxes foods high in saturated fats (butter, milk, cheese, fat and oils). Will taxing these types of foods really make people healthier? I'm not so sure. There are so many problems with our food system. Just look at your local grocery store. There are endless aisles of convenience foods, produce imported from halfway across the world, bland meat, ice cream that should be called "air"cream... I could go on. At heart, there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way we view and experience food. I am a fan of real foods, especially those that are local and organic. That includes things like butter, milk, cheese...mmm cheese.
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I take part in a group of mothers that gather about once a week to share and study books and scripture. Today the lovely lady leading the group ended the study by asking us to join her in singing some worship songs. I really enjoy music and there is the saying that goes "the one who sings prays twice" (St. Augustine). When I returned home I picked out one of my favorite church songs. This song was also sung at our wedding by a group of our friends. The lyrics are very powerful.
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It would be nice to get a hair cut before the baby is born. It's been at least six month, probably more, since my last hair cut. Something a little shorter, perhaps shoulder length, might be nice. I think I'll aim to get it done this week.
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This weekend we'll be busy getting things together for the upcoming birth of our little one. I am 37 weeks pregnant now and can "officially" have a home birth. Of course, there are many factors that could result in a hospital birth but I'm fine with whatever happens.
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I believe all women should have some basic knowledge of how their reproductive system works in order to protect their reproductive health. Over the last few years of teaching Natural Fertility Regulation I've noticed that some women disregard natural methods of fertility regulation because they believe that they would no longer be in control of their fertility. This couldn't be more further from the truth. I think that so many women have put their trust in the experts that design and produce family planning options that they are often unaware of the effects these have on their bodies and the environment. And sometimes they don't even work at all (contraceptive pill recalled in US)!
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I have a package waiting for me at the post office. What could it be? I'm excited to find out!
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I can't believe that we'll be starting Lent in a few weeks. We'll be keeping things simple this year but I'll share a few of our past traditions in the next weeks.
I am surprised by how much a warm sunny day can lift my mood. Our daily rhythm seems to flow more smoothly and even the little ones are more at ease. Part of the reason could because we spend more time outdoors when the weather is nice.
The Children & Nature Network is also trying to build a movement to reconnect children and nature. The website has lots of interesting information and resources.
One idea I liked was starting a parent and child nature club. We are surrounded by nature here in the North but as a mother of two (soon to be three) taking the little ones into nature can be daunting. Ideally, I'd like to spend at least half-an-hour outdoors with my little ones each day, no matter the weather... rain, snow, hail or shine. Of course, we're far from that goal these days. I blame the recent spell of freezing temperatures, the illnesses running through our home and the increasing largeness of my belly. Putting those things aside, I think that a group of nature exploring parents and children would help me out of my comfort zone of our yard-nearby park and into the vast forests that surround us.
