Galen was chronicled on Natural Birth and Baby Care from start to finish (in fact, I started this blog because we were TTC him!) I thought I’d share some highlights:

We’re pregnant: a very faint positive at 10DPO (days post/past ovulation)!

My chart hits 18 days of high temps – a pretty certain sign of pregnancy! (Scroll to the bottom to see my chart)

We discover we’re expecting a son!

I do a marathon freezer cooking session to get ready for baby!  Talk about nesting.  This year I created a freezer meal plan for you based on that session

Scott and I use The Pink Kit to prepare for the birth (it’s excellent!) and I write down all the details for you.

Finally, finally, finally, our precious baby boy arrives – and Scott and I are the only ones to witness his debut!

And now today, one year later, our little man is growing strong.  He has been such an incredible joy and blessing to our family.  I’m delighted he decided to join us   I’ll leave with a parting shot of his first few minutes:

Now, my husband swears that things are probably never going to go wrong.  He says he’s been living here for decades and has never had much of a power outage, never had a bad blizzard, and that tornadoes and flooding aren’t going to come anywhere near here.

Me, well, I trust my hubby.  But I also like my own peace of mind.  Besides… my kids getting sick, me getting sick, him getting sick – and nobody being able to make it to the grocery store for a week… I can see that happening.

So whatever the “what-if” I like to have some supplies on hand.  I found an awesome website that has step-by-step “baby steps” that walk you through getting your supplies together.  It doesn’t matter what level of preparedness you’re looking for – a brief power outage, a week-long winter storm, or even a layoff where you need to draw on a few month’s reserves – these little “baby steps” will help you to accomplish those goals.

The 7 Day Challenge

The girls over at Food Storage Made Easy also just ran a “Seven Day Challenge” and I can proudly say my family survived it.  Ok.  With a long list of “to-do’s” at the end of 7 days, my family survived it.

The gals set up a different “situation” each day that we had to go along with and the kids and I had a blast.  It was challenging, to say the least.  But very fun.

Day 1 – Flood!

I was ready for this! I’d already gotten backpacks set up for the family with 72 hours worth of food in them.  I had a list of almost everything I needed to grab.  We had 1 hour to pack the van and “evacuate” and we got our stuff packed and ready to go in under that!  Yay us!

I did realize I needed to add several things to my “grab-list.”  And that I needed to figure out where we would evacuate to… I think my MIL’s house is most likely.  In which case I need to print some directions to her house because I never pay attention enough to remember it with my hubby driving

I think this was one of the best days.  You may not get caught in a flood situation, but there’s no way to tell when you’re going to lose electric service for awhile and need something to eat (or do… I had coloring books for the kiddos!)  It’s really very practical there’s something on the shelves (or in the bag) that can be grabbed and eaten quickly.

Day 2 – Pandemic!

Well, given the uncertain state of affairs in world health, we could be facing this issue very soon.  I felt pretty good about this one too – I’ve been working on our first aid kit quite a bit.  I changed out all the outdated things and restocked what needed to be restocked.  It’s a pretty comprehensive kit.  We made homemade chicken soup for our “sick” boys and Cassidy and I took good care of them.

If there were really a pandemic situation I’d set up an actual sick room and care for them a little differently.  There was also a link to an excellent “Home Care of the Flu” guide I found very helpful.  You can download it here.  Another gal doing the challenge posted that link – I’m very grateful for her!!

Day 3 – Dinner Guests!

This was an “every day” emergency and it was TONS of fun.  The situation was that my hubby called home to let me know that he and his boss would be there for dinner in an hour – his vegetarian boss!!  I had to have an appetizer, main course, two sides, and a dessert made… and I could not go to the store!

Well I managed to pull it off, though I lucked out because we had a box of fresh veggies from our CSA farm.

I made a platter of fresh veggie slices with a homemade veggie dip (fresh sour cream base) for our appetizer.  I made Jamaican Beans and Rice (from Nourishing Traditions) as our main dish, though I did use canned beans instead of dried, and canned chilies.  We had a big salad full of fresh veggies as one side and steamed broccoli as the other side.  Our dessert was an oatmeal/pumpkin bar thing I found online because I knew I had canned pumpkin!  I had to substitute canned coconut milk for milk (we were totally out of milk, even if the veggie boss would have been ok with it).  Anyways, the dessert came out very tasty, so I’ll actually make that again!

The kids helped me clean the house up while the food cooked, and we all got changed into fresh clothes and I had time to teach them a little bit about how to answer the door politely!  Needless to say when my hubby actually walked in the door the house looked pretty nice.  I was proud of myself and I’d like to think I could deal with real last-minute guests as gracefully.

Day 4 – Money is Tight!

I can say that this day wasn’t terribly challenging because I lived this for a long time – never being able to do anything and having to watch every penny because it was a choice between buying food or losing power.  (life is very different now, read my story for more on that!)

This day involved no cable (which we don’t have anyways), no internet (oh no!!), no cell phones…. and water service got cut off!!

Now the “no internet” is hard.  I’ll admit that, well, I do a lot online.  I do, after all, run a website.  Scott and I also play a game together online.

The one big surprise for me on this day, though, was just how hard “no water” was.  I have quite a few gallons of water stored, but it takes an amazingly large amount of water to wash dishes when you have no running water!!  Scott said if we ever actually didn’t have water due to disaster that he would go to the bay and bring back water in buckets for us to boil and use for cleaning dishes.  We had plenty to drink, but washing wasn’t easy.

Day 5 – Earthquake!

Uh oh.  No water again today.  And no power…  I decided I should add some paper plates to my “pantry essentials” list!!  We raided the 72 hour kits again.

The foods in our freezer were supposed to be good still (they hadn’t spoiled yet since power went off).  So we were able to have a cooked meal on the grill outside.  I’m glad the weather was nice, and I’m glad we had the grill.  Especially since my hubby did the cooking

Another thing about the earthquake day – a beam fell onto the computer.  This could be a huge issue for many families because it could virtually destroy all their data (think about all your pictures!!)  Luckily there are quite a few solutions to data storage.  I personally back my computer up to a remote server as well as an external hard drive that stays here at the house.  The peace of mind I get from this is incredible.  I was all set for this aspect of the earthquake

Day 6 – Healthy Lifestyle

Well this emergency wasn’t an emergency at all for us!  A family member gets very ill from having a bad diet.  We already eat very healthy food because of many food sensitivities and intolerance in our family.  I did differ a bit from the challenge because I don’t believe that eating “low fat” is really very healthy for us.  I was able to share some links and thoughts so maybe someone else in the challenge benefited from some new information.  (Read my nutrition info for more about good eating)

The one “healthy lifestyle” thing I do think I at least need to do more of is getting outside.  The kids tend to spend a lot more time outside than I do.  I need to join them more.

Day 7 – You Need What?!

By Day 7 everyone, including the gals at Food Storage Made Easy, were very tired.  It really was a big challenge!!  So this day was “easier” in that we just had to make a dessert with what we had at home – and no milk, eggs, or butter.

This worked out perfectly for me.  I just picked our oatmeal/pumpkin bar recipe again

Summing it Up

Perhaps what made me the most proud about the Challenge was the part of it that went all 7 days – we couldn’t spend any money for 7 days!  Since the first day of the challenge landed squarely on the day I was supposed to go to the co-op for milk, cheese, and butter it truly was a challenge.

But we made it.  I spent no money at all for 7 days.  It’s amazing to think about just how many small opportunities to spend money come up, or how much I take for granted a run to the market on a given day.  Lots of food for thought.

I came away from the challenge with a long to-do list and a great appreciation for what we have.  I feel good because I’m sure that we could handle it if anything does knock our power out for a few days.  I really like that peace of mind   And I’m so grateful for blessings we have now.

The issue is not, however, that Galen refuses food.  In fact, Galen seems to greatly enjoy some things.  My milk is the primary highlight to his diet, of course.  But Galen also really likes chicken stock and water.  If you’re giving Galen chicken stock or water from a spoon he looks like the baby in the photograph.

But the reason you haven’t seen many updates on “feeding Galen” since my first post is that feeding him has really not gone anywhere.  When we try and feed him anything with any sort of texture, Galen cannot swallow it.  There have been a few meals here and there where we’ve gotten tiny amounts into him.  When I say tiny I’m talking around 1/16th of a teaspoon.  TINY.  But mostly Galen just gags when solid foods get to his tongue.  And that means that anything that was in his belly comes back up.  Even his mama milk.

Initially I didn’t worry too much about his disinterest in solid foods.  And at this point I’m still trying not to worry.  Cassidy was also late starting solid foods.  The difference is that when Cassidy started she was already ready to go with finger foods.  She was happy feeding herself and she could get almost anything down.

Galen doesn’t put much in his mouth.  If we give him bits of finger foods he just moves them around on his tray.  He doesn’t put them in his mouth.  He chews on his fingers (and my hair, eww).  And that’s about it.

He can’t eat even pureed food.  So for right now his nutrition is coming 100% from nursing.  I’m working hard to make sure I’m eating well for him so he’s getting good, rich milk.  And we try with solids every few days to see if what seems to be a texture aversion is lessening.  I’ve gotten a lot of suggestions for things, and I’m researching around.  I’ve also talked it over with his doctor.  For a couple of weeks at least we’re in a “wait and see” mode.  But this is very different from what I experienced with the other kids.  There’s always so much to learn, and children always have such different needs.  Parenting is definitely the most challenging job out there

This week I’m planning to get Tiger Lily out – a little late, but still out. And over the course of the next month I’m hoping to get a few articles and reviews up on the site… and get ready to begin work on a new website (don’t worry… I’m not abandoning NBBC – I love this site too much!) I’m also working on catching up on emails.

I did want to let you know what’s going on with me, and that even though summer is typically a little slower on the updates, I am thinking about you and improving the site. Feel free to contact me now as always with any questions!

(and yep, the new site will be a SBI! site, too… read my story to find out why!)

I use a lot of canned tomato products and I use a lot of canned coconut milk as well.  I also use canned chicken or tuna if I need a quick meal and I like keeping canned beans on hand to throw together a meal in a pinch, or add some protein to a meal.

And I like having a decent supply of food on hand so I won’t have to run to the store if someone is sick, or if something were to happen like a big storm.  It’s a little security feature for me to have a full cupboard

So what I’d really love is to have a great way to organize my canned goods.  Preferably something that will keep my Brennan happy too… and amazingly, I’m not alone.  I’ve found something that would be 100% perfect.  On Friday I have a chance to win one – and so do you.  I thought I’d share the wonder that is the Shelf Reliance Harvest unit.

You know those marble toys you played with as a kid (or jealously watched your brother play with as you got yet another pair of plastic high heels)? You dropped the marble in at the top and watched it roll down the levels.  Well the Shelf Reliance shelves do that for your cans – keeping them neat, and automatically rotating them so you’re using them in a “first in, first out” order.  It’s very nice!

Go to the Shelf Reliance Blog and enter to win this wonder of human ingenuity for yourself.

And in the meantime, you can see what the kids and I have been rigging up for a summer project – homemade can rotating racks   Scott got inspired and built us a wooden one too, which will probably last long after our cardboard ones.  But it’s fun and the kids are loving it.  If only they were front-loading like the Shelf Reliance System :p

In the early part of my postpartum time I didn’t really worry much about my own fitness level. I just took things easy and got into a nice routine with Galen and the big kids. Now, however, I’m really desiring to feel my own strength come back… and yes, I’d like a bit of tone back in my belly! I got Helene Byrne’s Exercise After Pregnancy: How to Look and Feel Your Best
during my pregnancy with Galen. I was really impressed by her straightforward information, and I loved that she had things you could begin to work on right away.

Well, life came along and took my “right away” with it – but I’ve decided that since schooling is done for the year I have enough time to work some conditioning routines into my day. I also have quite a bit of persistent muscle soreness and I’m hoping getting myself more fit and active each day will help minimize or even eliminate that.

I’m going to work through Helene’s “Bounce Back Fast” routines and I’ll keep making updates on the blog. I think it’s important for mothers – you and me included – to find the time to nurture ourselves and our self perception by being sure we feel comfortable in our bodies. And building core strength and stamina helps you to be able to stand up to the rigors of motherhood – day in and day out.

I used free patterns found online and I am really very impressed with the patterns and the instructions.  The patterns work well and were easy to follow.

I did two different types – one a completely waterproof trainer and one with a little water-proofing right in between the legs but nowhere else (basically they protect from the initial stream but moisture will wick onto the non-waterproofed area.

The waterproof trainers have a brown PUL outer layer (called an “outer” in cloth diapering lingo).

I just sewed the sides of our waterproof trainers because I don’t have a snap press and wasn’t motivated enough to do Velcro (Aplix, hook-and-loop).  If you do want to do Velcro I would add some length around the waist (girth) of the area… I think most babies have a pretty chubby tummy like Galen does and if I’d needed to overlap the edges to close with Velcro I don’t think they would have gone around his belly.

I used the flannel sheet for the inner padded area (the “soaker”) on both styles of trainer.  The inside of the waterproof trainer is also fully lined in the flannel.  The few layers of flannel give a little absorption (enough to hold one miss) but they’re not bulky or hot for the baby.  Flannel is also very soft

For the outer of the non-waterproof trainer I used a white interlock I had left from making pajamas for my boys.  I used red ribbing for both the waist and the leg-bands.  So far that seems to be working well for both.  The pattern instructions recommend doing elastic inside the waistband if using interlock – I can see  where that might be helpful with the ribbing as well, but they are working just fine without it.

So now that both types of trainer are done, which were easier?  Well, I don’t think I can say.  The waterproof trainers had a lot of elastic and I find elastic to be a pain.  The non-waterproof ones require more pinning and piecing together, but I find ribbing easier to deal with than elastic.  Both types took me about the same amount of time, though from start to finish the waterproof ones were probably a little quicker.

And I’m not helpful with which type I prefer – just like with the trainers I bought through another work-at-home-mom, I like each type of trainer for different reasons.  The waterproof ones are really nice for when I want to put Galen in the carrier and he hasn’t pottied in awhile, or when he’s in his Amby or something else I don’t care to possibly get wet.  The non-waterproof trainers are nice because I notice a miss much more quickly.  I also think they’re a little cooler for Galen and they’re easier to slip on and off for pottying.

The most conclusive thing I can say is I greatly prefer trainers to diapers!  Galen now has a dozen trainers in circulation – plenty to get through a few days (because yep, we still have misses! )

Here’s where you can get the patterns – many thanks to this generous mama!!! Waterproof and Non-Waterproof.

So I often find myself learning new things and teaching myself how to do things.  I’ve developed a way to help myself learn things more quickly and thoroughly, and I thought I’d share with you.

I pick up new skills and knowledge through periods of intense focus.  I actually got this idea from a male blogger.  He takes the strategy to the extreme – spending time focusing on what he’s learning and ignoring everything else for whatever his period of time to learn is (days or weeks).  It works well for him.  That strategy just does not work for mothers.  We have too much that needs to be done every day.

If you’re a work at home mom like I am, you have even more that needs to be done each day.  But you can’t just dump parenting to take time to work on a project.  You can’t forget that your children need three meals a day while you spend hours devoted to your sewing project.  Your meals just won’t get planned and your grocery list won’t get made if you’re devoting weeks to a project and decide to chuck everything else.  I think this strategy could work very well for a single person, or for someone who is not the primary caretaker of children and home.  It could probably work if your children are in school during the day, too.  But for me homeschooling my older children and caring for preschoolers the “pure focus on one project/area of study” just won’t work.

However, I’ve found a variation of it that’s very effective, even while you’re a busy mother and/or work-at-home mom.

My strategy is as follows: first decide what you want to focus on.  Then devote your time to learning just about that focus.  Where you may have read a novel or two, a book on gardening, a book on parenting, and a book on having a well behaved cat all in one month, you’ll now choose just one focus.  I did this right after Christmas and through the first several weeks of January with our nutrition.  I got a stack of books on nutrition I wanted to read.  Then I devoted my free time to reading about nutrition or working in the kitchen to implement what I’d learned.

This may sound like a really simple concept but I’ve found it works tremendously well.  Most of the focus of my free time to read was on nutrition.  Since the books I was reading were similar in subject I found I could move through my reading more quickly.  I could skim over bits that I was already familiar with from another book because the information was so fresh.  I could quickly compare what I’d read in the different books.  And I could try out many different things in the kitchen throughout the course of those few weeks, refining my time in the kitchen and my family’s good nutrition.

The strategy of focusing intensely on one subject of interest worked really well for me.  I’m doing it again right now as I go through several books on parenting and family rhythm.  Reading all the books one after the other is allowing me compare the ideas and thoughts each author presents.  It’s helping me to look at our day-to-day life and my day-to-day outlook and figure out where to make changes to be more effective.  It’s also allowing me to work out a plan for changes that I want to make in our daily routine and my parenting.  I can work out my plan now and revise that as I work through all the books.  Then I’ll be able to work through the plan and see how things go for us – rather than continuously changing things around as a read a new book on family issues here, and then another one there, and so forth.

As with the nutrition study, I feel like my mind is focused on what I’m reading now and I can quickly increase my knowledge and work through things in my own mind.  It’s very nice.  During my focus on parenting I’m also keeping a notebook of things I glean from each book – my hope is that when I’m done reading I’ll have my own “parenting book” full of the wisdom I gleaned during my time of focus.

I plan to use this approach throughout the rest of the year with each area that I decided to work on this year (mostly issues having to do with home management and family life, as is evidenced by nutrition and parenting in my examples!)

If I have novels I want to read I’m planning to do so between my times of focus.  Scott says I don’t read enough novels or books just “for fun” but alas – I have a lot I want to teach myself and I really want to continuously improve my mothering and my household management.  That just doesn’t leave much time for fiction!

I’ve also found that picking focuses that are highly relevant to my life currently helps me to spend more time working with what I’m learning.  Since I’m in the kitchen at least five times a day anyways, experimenting with what I learned during the nutrition study was pretty easy to do.  And parenting and family life issues… well I get the chance to work on that every day – day in and day out (isn’t one of the joys of mothering that no matter how bad you mess up one day, there’s still the next day, and the next day, and the next day to try again)!

If you’d like to read the article that inspired this one, it’s Steve Pavlina’s article on rapid improvement – I think it’s a good article.  I do, however, disagree with a lot of what Steve Pavlina writes and I want to say that I’m not endorsing him in any way, shape, or form.  I do find some of his articles to be thought provoking, this being one of them.  And I’m sure he’ll appreciate the link. :p

It is possible to “go green” for your kids on a budget – first off, by shopping used. Used clothing may not be “organic,” but it’s already here. It has been manufactured (or lovingly sewn by somebody!) and chances are, it hasn’t been worn out. By buying used clothing (and dressing your kiddos in hand-me-downs) you’re choosing green.

Does this mean your kid is going to look scruffy and unkempt? Not at all! Like I said, I like my children to look nice. I have an idea of what I want when I go into a second-hand store. I look over clothing carefully. You can usually find great clothes. I can almost always find knit golf shirts for the boys in great condition. I usually choose name brands because the quality is (usually) better. These shirts cost around a dollar each!

Another option is a children’s consignment shop. We have a Children’s Orchard in my city and I love it.  They have a “playclothes” room where tops and bottoms are usually just $1-2 per garment.  Again, I can often find knits or button-down shirts for the boys that are in great condition and name brand for a great price.  I also like the consignment shop because I can find nicer looking girl’s clothing there.  I’ve had better luck with appropriate girl’s clothing at the consignment shop than I do at the thrift store – but both places can be good.

My favorite option for cute playclothes for a litle girl, however, is one I just recently came upon.  It’s an idea for making a little girl’s dress with a cute top and a woman’s skirt – or even a large bit of scrap fabric.  I was able to use a knit turtleneck top I found at the thrift store for an early spring playdress for Cassidy.  I took an old pink women’s skirt, cut a wide strip of it, and sewed it to the bottom of the knit top.  I used gathers to give a cute look and match size.  It took almost no time at all, and Cassidy has a really nice looking little play dress (it took so little time that I won’t be devastated when it gets all muddy :p)  I really liked this idea – I’m going to use several of my skirts that are worn out around the hemline to make Cassidy some summer playdresses.

Fabric scraps and old adult clothing can be used to make a lot of children’s clothing.  Old adult shirts and sweaters can easily make baby and toddler pants – or diapers.  Those ugly knee-high socks you’ll never wear can make cute legwarmers for baby.  I made Asher and Brennan pajamas and was able to use the small amount of fabric left over to make Galen a matching set.  A set of worn-out flannel sheets has gone to make absorbent trainers for Galen.

An idea from my mother, which is not really clothing, but I like anyways, is to take old shirts your child outgrows but still likes to make a “quilt” for your child to keep.

Not only does shopping thrift stores and consignment shops (and yard sales) help your budget – it also helps to reuse clothing, and re-using is a very good way to go green.  And remaking something old into something new is not only a good idea, it’s fun and creative too.  You might just make something your child will treasure!

Get more ideas at Thrifty Green Thursday!

So I’m not going into the office during the day to work anymore (I used to go in the office for an hour or so in the afternoon while they played in the next room).

This is good for the family and definitely good for me to be able to teach the children to be civil ;p  But it means I don’t get as much “work” done because it’s just hard to focus on programming and writing with the kids asking me questions every 30 seconds.

What I can do while I’m with them, however, is “domestic stuff” :p  They adore anytime my bare feet hit the kitchen floor and mob me as if I’m going to be taking Christmas presents out of the oven.  They also really enjoy helping me around the house, most of the time.

I can sew while I keep an eye on them playing around me.  Of course I’m beginning to think that being handed a few scraps from my sewing project is as good as Christmas to them…(not that I can complain about that!)

So I’ve been cooking, cleaning, and sewing.  And I really like it.  A lot.  I’m sure I’d shame all those gals who worked hard to make sure I didn’t have to cook, clean, and sew   But in reality I am first and foremost a wife and mother, and a homemaker.

I’m proud of my business – but my business enables me to be here for my family and that’s what’s important to me.  Anyways, enough soap-box for me

I decided I’d make some little robes for the kids to wear to and from the bathtub, and for them to put on at night if they needed to go to the bathroom (KwikSew 2705).  Scott also wanted a lightweight robe for the warmer weather, when he finds a terrycloth robe too hot (McCall’s 8524).  I didn’t make myself a lightweight robe with everyone else’s but I probably will at some point.  It’ll be a reason to buy pretty fabric

I’m working on a nursing dress for myself right now and I’m very excited about that.  I need to get it finished this coming week (because I have an event to wear it to in less than 10 days!!)

This is the first thing I’ve made for myself (at least since I was a little girl learning to sew) because I spend most of my time making kiddo things.  But I’m really excited to make myself a pretty nursing dress, and for a fraction of the cost that I could buy a nursing dress.

Besides that I made some lacto-fermented salsa last week that Scott is really enjoying so I’m proud of myself.  The kids helped me a lot on that.  They’re really great kitchen helpers.  I may do a blog post on the salsa because it was fun and since it’s fermented it’s very nutritious!!

Alright, enough for now… on to more domestic goodness!