Welcome back

So, it's been almost a year since my last post and there's definitely a lot to share. I didn't realize how therapeutic it could be to just get it all out until I stopped my blog. New goal for the year is to be more faithful in my blogging.
Since July...
Baby girl and I made it to one year and two weeks nursing! She weaned like a champ. She never did take a bottle once I started back to work in August, so I would pump and freeze and my freezer was slammed full of nothing but milk. I found a few local ladies who had newborns and they were unable to nurse or to fully meet the demands of the baby and donated about 6 gallons of milk over the course of four months. Baby girl is now 18 months old and is thriving!

The middle two are doing amazing in school! They will finish up 3rd and 4th grade this year. They started piano lessons in November and I couldn't be more impressed with how quickly they have picked it up! They both recently competed in a piano guild and were awarded with excellence in piano awards for their amazing playing.

The oldest bit has just finished her first year of college and did so with an awesome academic record. I truly hate that she is so far away and that we've only had her home three times in the past year. I miss her!!

And for the biggest bit of news, we are expecting again! Baby Davis is due to arrive on December 12, 2014 (very same due date as previous baby girl). I'm currently 12 weeks along and still dealing with all day nausea from the "morning" sickness. Must have been a man who developed that term. 

Ah well. I hope that you are all doing well and I look forward to sharing more crafts, sewing projects, cooking, and all around fun stuff with you very soon!

You do what you have to do

My sweet baby girl is now 8 months old and I am very proud to say that I am still breastfeeding!! Of the three kids that I delivered, she has now breastfed longer than any of them. I feel so fortunate that God saw fit to allow me to provide nourishment for my children in this manner.
I know that I haven't gotten to this point in our lives without making some serious sacrifices, but when it is 3:00AM and baby girl is up for the fourth time because she's needing some comfort nursing, those sacrifices seem so silly and I get to have some special mommy time with her. Now, I'm not saying I'm always happy about being up just to comfort nurse, however, in the grand scheme of things, if my baby needs me to be there so she can feel safe and comforted, then by golly I will be there.
I thought about my desire to continue nursing once school starts again today. Do I really want to rearrange the lunch schedule so my third block will go to lunch earlier so that I can pump? Do enjoy the stares in the morning when I come into school looking like a serious bag lady carrying in my pocketbook, laptop bag, and pump everyday? Looking at my supply of  frozen milk, I think I can probably make it her first birthday without pumping again. Then she could start on cow's milk and we can say that this child never had any formula. All of this came to mind as I was sitting at a stoplight on Laurens Road on the way to my AP Chemistry training today. Yep, I was pumping as I was driving down the road. The man in the truck next to me got to see a little more scenery on the way to work than he had ever planned on! Safe? Not particularly. Necessary? Not totally. Worth it? Absolutely!
Once I got home, the feeling of "why am I doing this" hit again as I realized that there was no way that I would make it in to the house in one trip. I had to get baby girl, my pocketbook (which was holding 3 AP chemistry books), diaper bag, pump bag, and the mail and newspaper from today into the house. Looking at the pile of stuff in my car and then all the stairs, I just started to cry. Baby girl looked at me like I was crazy and then she started to cry also. So there we sat. In the garage, both crying and neither really knowing why.
After a few minutes, we got up and I straightened out my big girl panties and got on with my day. I read a great quote about crying the other day and found it most appropriate at this point. It said something along the lines of "I don't cry because I'm weak but because I've been too strong for too long."
What was the point of this post? I'm still working on that one. I'm sure that it will come to me, but for right now, I've got some homework to do for my AP Chemistry certification course, bottles to wash, milk to freeze, pump parts to sterilize and likely 2-3 comfort nursing sessions and one more good cry session.

Etsy shop open

I posted an entry earlier with a tutorial on making travel highchairs for the little ones. After much debate, and lots of support from my family, I decided to open an Etsy shop selling the highchairs. I wouldn't sell them if I didn't use them. I have used Parker's highchair just about daily since I made it. It made a week long trip to Missouri so much easier knowing that I always had somewhere to securely sit her.
Please take a moment to stop by the shop and if you'd share it with friends, I would greatly appreciate it!
Next week, I'd love to do a giveaway, so stay tuned for more information on that one!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TravelingBaby

Suds and Duds

School starts back again in about a month so I thought I would dedicate this post to all parents sending their little angels back to school for us to teach! In the last 12 years of teaching, I've grown accustomed to children having no structure for the summer and then coming back to school with some issues when it comes to school rules and socialization within the confines of a small classroom. The two biggest issues I've seen are these:
1. Not taking their meds on a regular basis and
2. Not bathing as often as they should.

Regarding medication, as with every medication, please consult your doctor for ALL questions. I did not go to medical school and I don't claim to know specifics about medications. What I will tell you is based purely on observation and some common sense. Children with ADD/ADHD who require medication, require medication! You must treat the medication as you would, say, your eyeglasses. Your glasses help you function more normally just as the medication for your child helps him/her function more normally. Stopping medication at any point must be done so with the advice and counsel of your physician. Let's talk hypothetically:
Your child doesn't take medication on the weekend for whatever reason. You start the medicine back on Monday as they are heading out the door to school. It will be Wednesday before there is enough medicine in your child's system to have any effect. That's two days every week that your child is going through withdrawal during the weekend and then two more days getting in trouble at school because they can't focus. If the kid needs to be off the medicine to be more "normal" this may be a dosing issue and you should speak with your doctor about this.
Bottom line on this issue: consistent communication with your doctor and monitoring your child on a regular basis.

Speaking of monitoring, let's address the bathing issue. Your kid has to bathe. Period. You would never go to work without a shower, so why on earth would you send your kid to school without one? Once kids hit puberty, they stink, both in body odor and sometimes attitude. If kids are playing outside during recess or gym class, they stink. Before puberty, every other day showers may be acceptable, but after puberty, nope. They need a shower everyday. My little ones have taken a shower every day of their lives since they were about 2 or 3. The way I see it, my kids are about 1000 times more active than I am, and I shower everyday. They should likely be showering twice a day to be honest. The amount of dirt and grime that shows up on my floors is a giant indicator that someone in the house is dirty and needs a shower.

I'll step down from my soap box now and proceed with getting the kids ready for their showers.
Please remember that everything you just read is purely based on 12 years of classroom experience, common sense, and well, more common sense.

Bread, bread and bread

As a serious bread lover, I have found myself getting bored with garlic bread at dinner and toast for breakfast. This recipe is FABULOUS and a great way to have yummy bread with a meal. This recipe is also very diet friendly, added bonus!

Ingredients:
7.5 ounce can of refrigerated biscuit dough
1/2 cup fat free Italian dressing
1/2 cup fat free Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fat free shredded cheese (there is an Italian shredded cheese from Kraft that is awesome)

Preheat oven to 350.
Spray a 9 inch round pie pan with nonstick cooking spray
Cut each biscuit into half and dip into the Italian dressing and then into the Parmesan cheese.
Place the coated halves into the pie pan and sprinkle with the shredded cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

This creates a pull-apart type bread, so everyone can just pull the section they want and can eat that.

Weight loss woes...

I'm overweight. There, I said it. I wish that the weight I gained from having the baby and the weight I gained before I had the baby would go away. At my smallest ever, I was regularly weighing in between 135 and 140. Though I will admit that I looked very sick during that time period. However, I felt really good at 145! I would love to see 145 again, and not just as my scale quickly goes past it every time that I step on it.
Problem is, I'm one of the unfortunate ones who just doesn't lose weight while breastfeeding.
With my first two babies, I didn't lose a pound until I quit breastfeeding. Problem one, that there were only 2 months between the end of breastfeeding the first before I was a pregnant with the second. On my second child's first birthday and six months after he quit breastfeeding, I had lost all the baby weight from the first baby, and the second, and then 30 extra pounds.
My sweet one is now 7 1/2 months old and I weigh nearly the same as when I delivered her. The only thing that has changed is that my stomach is flatter and my boobs are ginormous. I do have hypothyroidism, but am controlling that with medication and regular blood test monitoring. I don't over-eat, I drink enough water to make fish feel at home in my bladder, and I get as much sleep as is possible with an infant and three other children. I have injuries to both feet/ankles that prevent me from exercising at this point, so I'm left to only be able to monitor what I eat. IT'S NOT WORKING. I can't lose weight.
In doing a little Internet surfing, I've learned that this is actually very normal and the old adage that "breastfeeding lets you lose weight very quickly" is not always true. True, my uterus went back to regular size in no time flat, however the rest of me...not so much!
But, I have to balance out my desire to be thin with my baby's nutritional requirements. I haven't found that balance yet. It's all baby needs for now.
I guess the point of this post is to hopefully help other moms going through this same thing realize that it's okay to not have a bikini body again after having a baby. It takes time, and some people take longer than others. For the time being, just worry about your sweet angel and making sure that he or she gets the nutrition that they deserve.

Pop, pop, pop, grin

If you've ever canned anything before, you know the title of this post is so true. There aren't many better sounds in the world than the can sealing and the little pop it makes after a you've canned something. I get a little too excited about that sound and if I miss one can popping because I'm out of the room, I will often contemplate re-sealing it just so I can hear it.
With a new baby in the house, I knew that I was going to get to hear that sound quite a bit as I can my own baby food for my little princess. Today, we made homemade butternut squash for baby girl, her favorite!

I start with 2 good sized butternut squash. Cut each one in half and scoop out the seeds. Then I place them cut side down in a shallow baking dish with about a half inch of water in the bottom. In to a 350 degree oven for about 35-40 minutes order until squishy (that's the technical term for the degree of softness you are looking for).

When they come out, they will have some brown dimpling on the bulb part and that's okay. Scoop out all the yummy meat and straight into the blender it goes.


Left over shells. Get out all that yummy meat!





Puree until desired smoothness. Occasionally, you will have to add some water to soften this up a bit or thin it out. Use any water that was left over in the baking dish, that way you aren't losing any of those yummy nutrients that may have baked out of the squash into the water.

Look at the amazing color in there!

While this is cooling down a bit, go ahead and soak your canning jars in some very hot water. I use the small jelly jars for baby food. They hold 4 ounces and the stage 2 foods that you can buy pre-made are 3.5 ounces, so the size is very similar.

Make sure that you also soak the lids to the jars to soften up the glue a bit so that they will be more apt to seal. One very important thing to remember when canning, NEVER reuse a lid. The replacements are cheap and I'd rather pay the little bit to ensure that baby girl doesn't get sick because the lid doesn't seal all the way and bacteria grows in her food. EWWW....

Fill the jars leaving half to one inch at the top. Place the lid on and then the screw top (but don't screw it as tight as it will go). Place the jars into a large pot of boiling water and then leave them in there for about 10 minutes.
Carefully remove the jars and leave them on your counter. Now, get ready...here comes that super great sound  you've been waiting for. Sit back and giggle with each pop!!
I can generally get 12 jars of squash from the 2 that I cooked.

Applesauce, squash, pears, sweet potatoes

I love making baby girl's food. I'm very fortunate that we have been able to breastfeed her for seven months now and that she has never received anything other than breast milk and the super yummy foods that we are making for her now.