Thankful Thursdays Vol. 2

Thankful Thursdays  Week 2:

This week, I am thankful for...

1) A two-month old who sleeps well! With three little ones this is a huge blessing. She sleeps about 5 hours straight at night.

2) A garden, finally! Yep, you read that right - it's the end of June... I know. But I also just bad a baby so this hasn't been a banner year for getting crops in. Also I'm not a good gardener. Also I loathe gardening. But I went over to my next door neighbor's farm and she gave me all these plants for free!
Sheila is in her late 60's and tough as nails. She works her fields dawn to dusk and has a heart of gold.  I walked over wearing the baby with my boys following and we chatted while she smoked. This woman amazes me. She sells her truckloads of jams, salsas, handmade crafts and fresh fruits and veggies at the farmer's markets all over the metro area. she had tons of stuff for me: veggies, flowers, herbs, hanging plants, the whole shebang. Got those puppies in over the weekend.

3) My relationship with my little sister. She and I are 7 years apart but you wouldn't know it. We share a similar sense of humor and even look alike. We were raised in a pretty volatile household and always stuck together and looked out for each other - the bond is strong. 

She is the one on the right.

Well my baby sis moved to Colorado 2 years ago at the tender age of 22 and is doing quite well out there. I go for walks in the evenings sometimes on the dirt roads out here and we talk on the phone forever. Dang I miss her! But so thankful for the awesome depth in our relationship.

4) The fact that my husband doesn't have a shot-gun.

Funny story...So last night as I was leaving to go teach piano and telling my hubby what to feed the kids for dinner, I heard what sounded like one of our chickens possibly in distress. I came back inside to tell him he might want to check on them, then I drove away.

When I got home, my husband ran up to me and said "Emily! I have to tell you why I NEED a shotgun now! with your permission of course - There was a turkey on our property! That's what was making all that noise!  We could be eating turkey tomorrow if I had a shotgun. Think about it. "

I asked why he couldn't just shoot it with a regular gun if he has to shoot it, and he said you have to use a shotgun. (I have no clue about guns and don't really care).

Then he posted a video on FB of the alleged turkey walkin around our yard like he owned the place. His coworker commented that it was in fact a guinea hen, but a turkey. Turns out it's actually the neighbor's guinea hen, lost and looking for her brood. So no, in case you are wondering, my husband does not get to have a shotgun. 

Thankful Thursdays Vol. 1

Around here, Thankful Thursday's is something I do for my own benefit. To get myself to take a minute and put a positive spin on life. And just maybe I can spread around some positivity while I'm at it.

This week, I am thankful for:

1) Cloth diapers.
I'm on my third baby but this our first time using them. We bought them for when money is tight. Money is now tight.

2) The new YMCA that opened up. It's actually been here six months but I didn't know about it and thought that the nearest one was a half hour away. We checked it out two days ago. It was glorious!

3) An entire field of peonies! The farmers next to us happen to have these gorgeous red and pink flowers going on for an entire huge field right next to our yard! It's so picturesque with our barn there in sight.

4) A new piano student. So there I was yesterday, breastfeeding openly in our front yard in a chair by the fire pit. Because we live in the middle of no-where so who's gonna see me right? Wrong. An SUV pulls up to my horror and it was not a mirage. My neighbor from a mile down the road came with her ten year old daughter to introduce us and ask if she can start lessons with me next week. "Haha... Hiiiiiiii" with my boob out. Akwaaaard. We start next week.

5) It bears mentioning:  my two yr old just went all half a day wearing big boy underwear and not wetting his pants once.  Then he randomly said "okey-dokey" and I have no idea where he got that. So proud!

Post-partum body, well well... we meet again...

I'm two months out from having my third kid, so I've been down this road before. The squish. The wider hips, flatter butt. Extra poundage on the scale.
I know I know. I am a beautiful goddess that can bear my children and carry life. Real women have curves. More of me to love. I am woman hear me roar. And all that. I wish I felt that way. I really do!

IM gonna be real honest here. I can't stand the fat that I have to lose and seeing my body like this.  All three times after going home from the hospital I look down at me new shape, or lack Therof, like...

I tend to have a bit of a split personality with my body image during my roller coasterish post-partums.

On one one hand my feelings are: I hate this.
After reading other people's posts that praise/ find reasons to like the post partum body, I gotta say - I don't care that it's been home to my sweet new baby for months and that's why it looks that way. That is not a sentimental thing for me. That is just science.

My body isn't just home for the baby, it's my home too. And it's been my home for a few plus decades. And I despise change and having to move to unfamiliar territory. I want my old home back.  Yes, part of my identity is a little wrapped up in what I look like. But really I think being out of your familiar "home" would mess with anyone.

While I was pregnant with this little one recently, I think I thought it would actually be different for me this time because I was on my third baby. Surely since this was my third pregnancy I will have the baby and reach nirvana and my post-partum body image will be totally different this time around.

Not so much. Turns out I still can't stand it.

My male cousin couldn't understand why being in this new and strange version of my normal body was so insecure and awkward to me until I told him,
 

"I feel like I'm living in different skin. If your weight and even your actual bones moved around and shifted noticeably, you'd be mentally/emotionally uncomfortable - as if you were in a foreign body. Now imagine having that happen several times over a short period of years (having children). I'm talking up/down, bones and feet morphing every which-way. Even a guy would get a little insecure".

 

And he nodded his head in sudden understanding.

So don't mind me while I just stand over here in my fat suit and think/scream "get this weight off me! This is not me! I am a strong sinewy gazelle with no semblance of a muffin-top!" In sheer frustration.

Then comes my split personality of a body-image...

Because on the other hand, my feelings are also: Wait, what if I like my post-partum body? I'm not actually fat in any technical way. While I'm not my normally slender self, there is something appealing about this different body.

My legs are more shapely in a pretty way. I have boobs. My butt is all - I don't think you're ready for this jelly. I'm actually proportionate but in a 40's pin-up way. If society weren't so hung-up, I might like me some curve.

Buuuuut I also have a whole wardrobe tailored to my old body. And really, I think I have a right to long for my old body back.

In the end, a wise woman once told me, "you have three bodies really...your regular body, your pregnant body, and your post-partum body. All have valid and healthy reasons for being the way they are, and you need to learn to love and accept each of them."

Working on it. :)

The Pro's and Con's of Having Kids Close Together

I've been asked more than once if I recommend having kids close together or would I have preferred to space them out. Well what's done is done. I will always try to look on the bright side about our kids' spacing though even when I am having a rough day. Some days I am thanking my lucky stars that they are close in age. Other days I am thinking, "was I crazy???" 
My sister has just two kids spaced 5 years apart. the older one can watch the younger, so they get out more often than we do. However, the kids don't really enjoy the same activities (at least for now).
But truthfully there is good and bad, any way you slice it.
I say with love that our firstborn is a total maniac. He is like a wild jungle man that was raised by animals. Even though I am the one raising him....(not really sure how that works but somehow it makes sense).
My point is that if your first is a wild child, maybe do think about spacing them out a bit if you don't have much of a support system.

If you have a great network of family and friends willing to help you out, go for it!

We conceived Skipper 11 months after having Buckwheat. He was born when Buckwheat was 20 months old. We thought a playmate would be good and super fun for them to have each other. It's been a lot of fun, and a ton of work. We do not have family to help us and that I think has made a huge difference on stress level. Because of their personalities, my boys are very intense.

Observe some pictures below to get an ideal of their normal activity level:

My boys are happy and energetic. They are wildly curious and into everything. They fight way too much but this stage is also passing way too fast. That said...

Want the good news first?  Here are some Pro's:

Clothes - It used to be that Buckwheat was this huge 2-year old and Skipper was a small 4 month old baby, and there was a cavernous difference between their sizes. I was saving the older boy's clothes in bags marked by size for the younger one.  Now I kinda like how I can sometimes just throw Buckwheat's outgrown clothes right across the room into Skipper's drawer. As they've gotten older they have become shockingly close in size.

Activities - I don't have to entertain them in two different ways. They're into the same stuff.  Obsessed with the same show ("Blaze"). Able to understand and enjoy the same book that I'm reading them. The alphabet is being learned in our house two at a time. They mow the lawn together with their toy lawn mowers and ride bikes with training wheels up and down the driveway. It's so much fun to see my boys really enjoy each other as peers.

Socialization - I love that my boys have a built-in best friend. Nobody is ever suffers from loneliness around here. They are constantly learning to share and be in relationship.

Food - They eat mostly the same stuff. I don't have to serve up baby purees while giving a toddler mac-an 'cheese. I did at one point, but only for a few months. And if we go out somewhere I can just pack the same snacks to give them.

Potty-training - My 2 and 4 year olds are basically learning the toilet stuff together. and Skipper is doing it way earlier because he wants to be like his big brother. It's double the mess but hey at least I wont be wiping butts for years and years on end.  I'm all for double-time.

Some of the Pro's to having kids close together are also cons....

Not so easy to go out - It's much harder when the hubs and I want a date-night to find someone who is willing to watch 3 small children than it was to find someone when we had just one kid. And back then there was the other option of just being like "hey, can we drop him off while we go out?"

Those days are over. You just can do that with 3. Because that would be like unloading the circus at said friends' doorstep. Now when your kids are watched, it will have to be at your house. And your list of available sitters will have dwindled down to those people who "have it in them" to deal with that kind of kid-volume.

You wanna go to target with 3 kids under 4 by yourself? hahahahaha - No. You will end up regretting it. Only make a target trip as the sole adult if some urgent medication is needed. Its a really stressful event that requires lots of planning. Bring an I-pad for the oldest. Snacks galore. An extra change of clothes for each - stuff always happens.

 Have a plan for when both toddlers run away from you in a different direction. And do wear the baby.

When I was childless, I used to see kids in stores misbehaving and think. "ha! Not mine. It's all about the training and discipline. My future toddlers will be well-behaved because I will have raised and trained them to be." Now I know it just doesn't work like that. Mine are the ones running wildly down the chip isle. It's just the personalities they were given and no amount of "good-raising" can control two years old. 

Noise - It is so loud here. Often I have a screaming baby while two little boys are trying to talk to me simultaneously. It's loud in the car. It's loud in the kitchen. It's loud during meals and baths. It's just loud.

Clothes - I just don't have the time to dress them super cute like I used to. When it was just Buckwheat, I used to have him lookin pretty fly in his cute little outfits. Now rarely does the bottom match the top for both boys and the baby.  

Mountainous Laundry - With the constant changes of clothes from potty-training, infant blow-outs, and just getting dirty... omg is it a lot. sometimes I feel I am drowning in clothing piles.

Trouble - They do this together. And it can be pretty ugly. It wasn't as bad with just one getting into mischief. You may think to yourself, "how can they break a weight-set?" or, " surely they cant dismantle the chandelier". Or, "That thing is on top of the fridge so it's safe. I know that as fact." (I could go on).  But you need to know that when they team up, they will find a way.

In the end. It's what works for your family as far as budget and personality. What do you really want? You might not actually know what you want until you start having children. I personally want more the more I have. Funny how that works.

 



Coconut Sweet Bread (GF, DF)

Sometimes I just crave the taste of warm buttery coconut. In comfort food form. So I created an amazing bread the other day. 
So. Good.
I think I will be making this high fiber / high protein bread very often to eat for breakfast. I can see it becoming a staple around here.

 Made with coconut flour and coconut flakes, it is moist and spongey with the perfect density. The coconut flakes gave it great texture too. Yum!

 

It calls for two Tablespoons of butter, but for dairy-free - Earth Balance works well.
I used sucanat to sweeten it, but if you'd like to use regular sugar, that will work too, the bread will just be a lighter color.  Flax seed gives it more of a caramel color and added texture.

 

Because of the nature of the batter, these would also be amazing as muffins.

Ingredients:
1/4 C.  Garbanzo bean flour
1/4 C.  Spelt flour
1/3 C.  Coconut Flour
2 C.  Coconut Flakes (reduced fat, unsweetened)
1/4 C.  Sucanat
1/4 tsp.  salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbs.  Butter
1/3  C.  Truvia Baking Blend Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 Dairy-free milk of choice (I used almond milk)
1/2 Cup Applesauce
1 tsp.  Coconut  extract
1/2 tsp.  Vanilla Extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your bread pan.
Make two flax eggs, set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the flours, coconut flakes, salt, baking soda, and sucanat.
In a larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the flavor extracts and eggs. Then the applesauce and flax eggs. Next add the almond milk and mix well.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix in the bigger bowl.
Pour the batter into the bread pan and spread it around evenly using a spatula. This bread will not really rise at all, at this stage, what you see is kinda what you'll get, due to the coconut flour. So be sure to spread it evenly.
Bake for 34 minutes. Let cool for two hours.