Newborn Diapers!!!

The newborn diaper covers I ordered have come in!!!  A little surreal :) 

I am very excited to begin with cloth - I'm sure we'll still use disposables from time to time, but hopefully these diapers will fit the baby.  My girls also really love the diapers and had so much fun putting them on their baby's (Kara needed a little help of course :).  Benjamin didn't seem to excited about them, but that's just the way it is.  Girls just love babies :)  And my girls are no exception. 

 

Kara's doll is wearing the new diaper cover and Chloe's doll is wearing the Baby's new sleeper,

with a diaper underneath of course :)

In other news I have finished Baby's blanket!  Hurray!  And with lots of time to spare - it is still cold and miserable outside.  So now I am thinking about doing a few other sewing projects before Spring hits.  I'm dreaming of making the baby some new fitted diapers and using some old wool sweaters I found at a yard sale last Fall to make some covers or pants.  I did actually make 1 new fitted diaper a few days ago and am itching to get it out again and make some more! 

I must admit that I love how the blanket turned out.  I really wasn't sure when I picked out the scraps - but it turned out so great!  Never mind that the elephant somehow moved while I was stitching it on (I guess he wants to walk downhill?) or that the quilting of the three layers caused some bunching.  It is perfect and it feels so cozy, not stiff, but soft and perfect for wrapping our sweet babe in!   Now it just needs a few times through the wash to get that awful stinky laundry soap out (whatever these scraps were laundered in before was obviously chemically scented, yuck!) and hung out to air for a few days and it will be ready :) :)

Overdoing It

I have a bad habit of forgetting that I am no longer able to do as much as before!  While my overall well being is so much better this pregnancy - there is one thing that hasn't changed - I bite off more than I can chew.  For example, yesterday I decided that the toys had gotten out of control and so they all got sorted and put away.  It took all morning and it was lots of up and down, lots of sitting on the floor.  You know, normal stuff that shouldn't bother me (when I'm not pregnant that is :).  On top of that we ended up running errands for over 2 hours in the afternoon coming home to quickly make supper and getting the kids to bed.  By the time it was evening I was beyond beat.  Not only tired, but also extremely sore with every step reminding me that I just can't work like I used to.

I find it very frustrating!  I have a whole pile of things I want to do, but I just don't have the endurance and stamina when I'm pregnant.  It's so much better for everyone in our family if I just remember to slow down a little and take breaks in between big projects where I can sit and put my feet up.  I haven't been so tired that I need naps every day, but I still need time to rest.

Of course once I start something it's very difficult to finish.  Do you know the effects of leaving all the toys piled and ready to be sorted only to walk away from it for the day?  Absolute mess.  Worse mess than before.  You may as well have had a tornado blow through because the amount of work leaving something like that half done is worse than not doing it at all!  So what I really need to do is remember before I start something :)

So today I'm planning on taking it a little easier.  A little slower.  And it's cloudy out again today - a good day for sitting in front of the fire anyway :)

(one of my kids took this picture - they love the fire as much as I do :)

Adding Sleeves to Gloves/Mittens

I know it is almost Spring and we're all waiting ever so anxiously for the snow to melt - but I've been wanting to post this for a while and if I wait until next Fall to post this  . . . well, you know how life with a new baby is!  It will probably never get posted :) So here it is!

How to Add Sleeves or extensions onto your childs (or yours if you want them) gloves or mitts:

1. Find some old socks.  I used some of my wool socks that had holes in the toes but the rest of the sock was still in great condition.  I'm sure that any sock will do, but warmer is probably better.  Also it's good if it will be big enough to fit over your child's jacket sleeve. (I ended up just using the two pairs on the right).

2. Cut the foot off of the sock.  For Benjamin's I cut off a lot more and left Chloe's longer, although in hindsight I left Chloe's too long.  The length of Ben's is pretty much perfect. (pictured here are the ones I cut for Chloe - they could've been shorter)

3. Fold the sock piece inside out and stuff it inside the glove.  Make sure that the finished side of the sock is on the inside so that you are sewing on the raw (cut) side of the sock. 

4. Using needle and thread sew the sock and glove together. 

Chloe helped me sew them together. 

5. Repeat for remaining socks/gloves.  It hardly took any time at all!  I am actually a little surprised at how quickly I was able to finish them. 

6. Wear them outside and have fun in the snow!  You can either wear them over the jacket sleeve or underneath. 

I am so very pleased with how they turned out! My kids have been wearing them for the last 3 months and they are holding up very well.  I used to have to readjust their mitts all the time while they were playing outside.  They used to complain that their hands were cold.  Now they play outside for a long time and say they are warm.  Their mitts never have to be readjusted and I didn't have to spend any more money on different gloves!

p.s. The inspiration for these sleeve additions came from a lady in Church who had bought gloves for her girls that looked like they had baby warmers attached to them.  I'm sure that reusing your own baby warmers would also work really well.

Putting the Toys Out of Reach

 I can recall a time I wanted more toys.  Not for me - but for my delightful little sweetheart who was always clinging to my legs.  Without any siblings to play with I was her only companion.  I had hopes that if we had enough toys I might once again be able to wash the dishes.

 A great way to keep Chloe entertained :)

Things have changed since that day. 

I now have three children who play with each other and keep each other occupied.  And I've discovered to my dismay . . .

WE HAVE TOO MANY TOYS!!!!!

Way too many.  Like piles and piles too many.  Over the last year and a half or so I have been trying to downsize our toys but find that it is like trying to ride a bike uphill.  They have birthdays.  They receive gifts at Christmas.  We find great deals at yard sales.  And some toys are really great to keep.  They do serve a purpose and I just can't quite get rid of them.  It doesn't help that we are now homeschooling and there are so many wonderful educational toys I have my eyes on.

But really, when I think about it and try to not let my mother's heart be swayed with "my kids would have so much fun with this", I realize that the less toys they have, the happier they play.  The happier we all are.  There is less to clean up.  Less to organize.  More room for imagination and creative play.  I once saw a blog that had pictures of a beautifully set up toy room.  This room had it ALL.  Toys and crafts lined the walls in a very organized and orderly way.   It was like a dream.  For a few seconds I thought how wonderful that might be.  But I am also realistic enough to remember that I struggle greatly with maintaining order and organization.  Keeping on top of messes is beyond my natural abilities.  I have to make an effort and am learning more all the time about what it takes to keep a house from complete chaos.  I have a feeling that a room like that in my house would be a constant source of frustration and despair.  And I also believe that while it might be fun for the parent and the child to have access to so many wonderful toys and crafts and ways of creative playing, it is no substitute for having less.  I think that having too much can be a crutch for a child.  Less means they have to be more creative.  More imaginative.  They learn to share.  I have been tempted at times to purchase three of something just so we don't have fighting - and while this is fine for some things like the hockey sticks they all got last Christmas, it isn't necessary for a lot of things and gives them great opportunities to learn compromise and wait their turn.

I love the creative ways they come up with to entertain themselves! They thought

of adding rubber bands to the puzzle for a guitar - and anything can 

become a mik :)

So while I have gotten rid of a lot of their toys there are others that I still want to keep.  But the amount of toys we had was driving me to extreme distraction.  Mess all the time.  Everywhere!  Trying to stay on top of the cleanup was just too much for me.  My children are still small and while they are getting better at cleaning up it is still mostly me who does it.  And if I'm not actually doing it, I'm standing there directing and ensuring that they are doing it.   And then I decided.  NO MORE!

We have a closet downstairs that now probably has over half of the kids toys.  They have some in their room and some downstairs to play with - but the toys in the closet are off limits.  They have to ask if they want something and lots of times the answer is "no".  It is a special treat to get those toys.  Most of the time they actually forget that they're there and don't ask.  Often if they clean everything else up they are allowed to get something out.  And then on those days when we're a little stir crazy we pull something out of the closet and it's like the toy is brand new!  It's wonderful!  It has saved my sanity, I am sure of it! Sometimes we'll trade things around and put toys that they're not as interested in in the cupboard and take something else out that they can have for a while.  I've noticed that they play so much better.  Before they would just take a toy out and not really play with it, they would just scatter them all over the house.  Now when we take toys out they play with them and it's fun for them and easier to clean up.  


My house still gets messy.  There are moments when I'm sure we're in complete chaos.  It's still hard to get the kids to clean up.  But it's way better than it used to be and I'm so thankful!

Besides . . . who needs tons of toys to play with when there's socks to put on?

Chokecherries & Prenatal Vitamins

You may be a little shocked to find that I have not been taking multi-vitamins this pregnancy.  I hope that you will not judge me, as I don't do this lightly.

With my first two pregnancies I bought the leading brand of prenatal vitamins.  The ones you find on the grocery store shelves.  I took them as faithfully as is typical of me.  Forgetting sometimes, but doing my best to take them.  After Benjamin was born I learned that when you take the vitamin is important and taking it in the morning on an empty stomach can lead to nausea and vomiting.  Which is exactly what happened to me with him only I didn't realize it at the time.  The mornings I forgot to take the vitamin I felt better.

I also learned that most vitamins don't actually do your body any good but can actually harm the body.  Most vitamins have fillers and binders that your body certainly doesn't have any use for.  They also don't come in forms that our bodies recognize, so they just pass on through.

With Kara I took a prenatal vitamin from "Garden of Life".  It is considered a "raw whole food" vitamin.  It comes in a gel capsule and has no binders or fillers.

When I discovered I was pregnant this time I didn't exactly plan on not taking the vitamins, but I was concerned about the benefits of taking them.  They are quite expensive and I was worried about the negative effects that taking so many vitamins in a non-food form - even if they are raw and "whole food".

So, what am I doing instead?

I am trying to eat really well.  The foods I am eating now, I would consider to be leaps and bounds healthier than my first two pregnancies, and slightly more healthy than Kara's.  I eat a lot less of the foods I would consider unhealthy.  I also take stinging nettle, alfafa, red raspberry leaf in a gel capsule.  I take raw whole food vitamin D in a gel capsule.  I swallow a spoonful of cod liver oil. I eat farm raised eggs everyday.  I consume broth made from chicken and beef bones that I've made myself several times a week (I'd love to say everyday, but alas . . . )  I have also recently begun to take evening primrose.  (you'll notice I take everything in capsules.  This is because they are in their truest form, in an easy to swallow vehicle.  No binders or fillers.)  I also try to drink herbal teas that are good for you.

And yesterday I added something else that I'm very excited about!

Chokecherries :) :) :)

Last fall I dehydrated some chokecherries from off my Mom's Mayday tree.  I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to use them but I read this great article that had a ton of suggestions and was sure I could use them somehow.  I also made chokecherry jelly and took the leaves and branches and made some chokecherry syrup to ease coughs.  Chokecherry's are full of vitamins and are so very healthy.  Their pits are poisonous until heated - dehydrating makes them safe to eat.

Yesterday I put some through my flour mill (with a little fear as I wasn't sure you were supposed to, but it worked great :) and ground it as finely as I could.  The powder smells like almond extract (very much like the almond cookies my brother in law Tim's mother makes :).  I mixed a little with some milk and drank it.  I wouldn't say that I would drink it just for the taste but it didn't taste bad and was very easy to drink.  It's not terribly finely ground so it didn't mix in completely.

There are so many opinions out there as to what a pregnant woman should take.  For now, with this baby, this is what I'm doing.   And so far I feel great!  Honestly this has been the easiest pregnancy for me so far.  I have more energy, way less nausea, less heartburn, less body aches, less stomach aches, more emotional stability.

Now if only I could regularly consume enough liquids.  That is a huge struggle for me.  I have begun keeping track of how much I'm drinking and that definitely helps me to drink more.  

 Well, on to my day.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend full of sunshine! 

1st Bread

I made my first loaf of gluten free bread yesterday!  Technically it is actually my second loaf because I did make one for my mom-in-law - although I didn't eat that so that doesn't count :) It also had a lot of starches in it and I want to make bread without so much starch.

I was aiming at a loaf that would work for toast and sandwiches but didn't contain too many additional starches.  I based the loaf on some pizza dough that we I made last week.  The pizza dough turned out really well and the so did the bread!

The original recipe I found here.

When I made it I changed it to this:
(I doubled the recipe from the one given in the article)

2/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup almond flour (sift it first to remove any large clumps if you ground it yourself)
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup potato starch
4 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup warm water
2 tbsp yogurt
1 full spoon honey
1 1/2 tbsp yeast

Mix altogether in a food processor.  Pour into a bread pan (grease only the bottom as it will cling to the sides and rise better in the pan if you don't grease the sides).  Let it rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.  Bake at 350 about 40 minutes.  Let cool completely before removing from pan.  Use a knife to loosen the sides.  I found that it came out of the pan really well.

I was hoping to make two loaves of bread with this but it actually only made 1!  So I'm going to have to make some changes 'cause 1 1/2 tbsp of yeast for one loaf of bread seems a bit much!  The bread turned out to be a little eggy.  It was dense and moist, and while I found it didn't taste all that amazing toasted and eaten with eggs, it was very good with some jam.  TR took it to work as a sandwich and it held together very well.  He also said that it tasted very good and he would not mind eating that over the wheat bread!  The loaf rose very well, but did sink once it cooled.  So although I would like to tweak the recipe a bit to see if I could get the yeast, xanthum gum and potato starch and salt lower I would consider it a huge success!!!!  It is actually way easier to make than the wheat bread I used to make :)

Getting Ready for Baby

I have some very fond memories of my first pregnancy.  We were living near a city then and would often go in on weekends.  I would go into the Babies R Us and just walk around.  I hardly bought anything, but I just looked at all the baby things and dreamed.  I sat in the rockers, I felt the soft sleepers.  I felt the baby within me and wondered what it would be like to be a Mom.  I've been in that store since and those wonderful dreamy feelings all came rushing.  It was a wonderful time. . .

I'm very thankful for those memories, but have to admit that those feelings just can't be replicated.  I already know what it is to be a Mom.  New sleepers and crib sheets just don't make me as excited anymore.  Now I'm a lot more concerned about toxins and would much rather have some organic clothing or used clothing that's been through the wash dozens of times.  I think about my rocker and shudder at the thought of all the toxins it emits into the air while I snuggle my baby.  I've learned that there are more important things than "new" when it comes to baby.   I've discovered that there are great ways to make wonderful and useful things from other things.  And that is also a wonderful thing!

Lately I have begun to do a few things to get ready for baby.  I've been working on a quilt.  It's not very babyish or typical of a baby blanket, but I love it!  It is made from scraps of fabric my Mom gave me and some that I had around.  It is lots of greens, blues, orange, tan with some of the pieces floral.  It is very summery, which I thought was fitting considering that Baby will be born in August.  The back is a piece of blue plaid flannel from my Mom and the batting in the middle is two layers of an old cotton bed sheet.

I have also ordered the baby new diapers!  I tried having Kara in cloth right from the start but failed to remember that my babies have always been small :)  So I thought I could get away with the diapers that were size "small".  What I really needed were "newborn".  So this time I am ordering newborn cloth diapers!  I am so very excited about this, especially considering that I got them at a very good price, thanks to a good friend who recommended them.  I'm just getting some wraps (the covers) and will use some fitted diapers I made for Kara and prefolds that I already own, inside.  (If you're curious what I'm getting, here is the link to them - yes Leanne I did get them in colours!  Not the design ones, but the solid colours that were gender neutral) I am so very excited that I should be able to start right from cloth this time. 

I've been thinking of trying to make the baby some clothes - but if you know me, you know that sewing clothes is not my specialty!  But I've really been wanting to learn.  I find clothes on cloth bottomed babies just doesn't fit the same as they do on disposable bottomed babies.  It'd really be great to have some clothes that were made to fit over larger bottoms.  We'll see.  I've been telling myself I first need to finish the baby's blanket.  No need to have several unfinished projects hanging around.

What I'm NOT doing to get ready for baby and have absolutely no intention of doing:

• I won't be painting baby's room.  Not that it couldn't use a fresh coat of paint.  But I feel very strongly that paint is toxic, and what I breath the baby breathes.  And filling my baby's room with even more toxins just doesn't sound like a good time to me.  Besides, I am fairly certain that my baby won't notice :)  Even if someone else painted the baby's room it would still add more toxins to our home that I just would rather leave in the store.  
• I won't be dyeing my hair :)  Not that I've ever dyed my hair, but I also feel that the dye is just much too toxic to be anywhere near my baby.
• I won't be adding rug or new furniture to baby's room.  I'd love to tear the carpet that is already in there out and replace it with something less toxic, but as we're hoping to sell our home soon we've decided to just leave it be.  If I was so be adding new furniture I would be making sure that it was not OSB or filled with tons of toxic glue.  

I'm sure that as time goes on I will be continuing to do things to get ready for our baby.  But I've started and it does help it to feel a little more real.  I've begun to notice the baby moving around some and sleeping has become more uncomfortable as my belly expands.  I've even noticed some wonderful braxton hicks!  One of the many perks of having been pregnant before :)  I dug out the maternity clothes the other day and have begun to wear some of them - not so much because I need to, but because sometimes it's nice :)  Here's a photo that I took around 16 weeks. (I'm 17 now)  I look quite pregnant in this photo thanks to the shirt I'm wearing.  In regular clothing, I don't look quite so pregnant. 

It still seems a little odd to me that I am pregnant for the fourth time.  I look at my three blessings and wonder what it will be like with four.  Yesterday as we were getting out of the van to go into Church I wondered how I would manage to get all four inside on those Sundays TR is not there.  I still buckle all three in and out (although hopefully Chloe will be going into a booster soon and able to manage her buckles even in all her winter gear).

So far this pregnancy has been wonderful and I seriously could not ask for more.  I have been very blessed and I am very thankful!  Some of the things I dealt with in previous pregnancies just haven't been an issue this time - even my emotions haven't been quite as overrun :)  And for that one I'm sure TR is very thankful :)