Many Paths, One Journey to Health

So, I can not believe that I haven't flipped through this book sooner. The Holistic Moms Network has had a cookbook out for a few years and just recently published a second one. Well, on Wednesday Mary brought both with her to our leaders meeting to help give me some ideas for my topic of "Living Green on a Budget" at the next meeting. So once nap time finally rolled around that afternoon I sat down and flipped through both of the books and all I have to say is WOW!!! I think these books are going to be the most useful of all of my cookbooks (and trust me there are many). First of all they aren't just about one way of cooking, the are almost all inclusive with vegan and vegetarian, raw, macrobiotic and even an awesome section on fermented foods. Not only does this book contain many, many yummy looking recipes (even many that I think my kids would even eat) but there is also an entire section for remedies and other recipes.

Seriously, I had never even thought to make my own Elderberry Syrup. If you have never heard of this, it is a great immune boosting syrup that I give to my entire family religiously through the fall and winter. Well, at about $13 per 4oz. bottle of Sambucol passed out to a family 6 (well, only 5 take it) equals not lasting long and costing A LOT of money. The money that is going to be saved this fall/winter will be great.

Well anyway, I have been watching "Julie & Julia" a lot on one of the movie channels the past few weeks and this has given me an idea...I am going to work my way through the second HMN cookbook "Many Paths, One Journey to Health" and write about how it tasted or worked for my family.

The first item on the list was window cleaner. I was out of my natural brand of cleaner and was just thinking about googling a homemade batch when this book fell into my hands.

The ingredients are water, vinegar and a drop of dish soap (or Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap), I mixed it up in a spray bottle (I just rinsed out the empty one I had from the natural brand) and went about spraying the windows. This window cleaner gets an A+ in my book!!!! I sprayed and wiped down the windows with a micro fiber cloth and my windows have never been cleaner. I have sliding glass doors by my kitchen table that seem to always have toddler hand prints all over them. This stuff cut right through those nasty prints and left my windows clearer than ever. They might have even been perfectly crystal clear if I had some old crumpled news paper to wipe them with, but oh well we do not get one.

All I can say is that "window cleaner" will never be on my grocery list ever again.

Please Stop Comparing

Yes, my little 8 month old Peylyn looks like she is starving, right. What is it about people comparing the weight of babies? I am so sick of hearing how much some ones baby weighs!!!

Seriously, this makes no sense to me since we don't sit around as adults comparing our weights. What is it that has people thinking that "bigger is better" when it comes to babies?

I was at a picnic over the weekend and people were asking me how much Peylyn weighs now. To which my answer is always "I have no idea, I have more important things to worry about." Then they start telling me how much some little formula fed baby weighs. I just want to tell them, "Well if I was force feeding my child every few hours maybe she would have a weight problem too."

My beautiful little girl is 8 months old, still exclusively breastfed and is doing amazingly well. To each his own when it comes to how and when you start feeding your child, but just because something is the "norm" in this country, it doesn't make it the best option.

While we are on the subject, yes my son Taj nurses more than 10 times a day!! Look at him, he looks like he is starving too. This little boy barely eats breakfast, naps through lunch and picks at his dinner but has an adorably round breastfed toddler face. And you know what, some days I do feel like a super hero knowing that it is my body that is nurishing my two fantastic babies! I am sending out high fives to all nursing moms, tandem nursing moms, moms nursing toddlers and older. You are all awesome!!!!!

REALLY!?!?!?!

OK, so don't get me started on Dr. Michael Smith who said that natural repellents don't work and how to safely use DEET products. Really!?!? Yes, as if washing the stuff off at the end of the day is going to make a difference. How will that help after your skin has soaked up all of these toxins shortly after you apply it to your child. If you do use DEET products, please educate yourself on how strong of a toxin it is.

Anyway, there it is, the "Need-To-Know News" #1 Yes, keeping your detergent and all chemicals out of reach from your children is a good idea.

#2 Holy cow we really should be looking into what is going on with a child before stabbing them with not just 1 but 2 Epi-Pens. WOW, that is frightening!!!

#3...this is where I got really annoyed. "Engineers in Japan are developing a baby monitor that will interpret cries and let you know if your tot is tired or hungry. By measuring sound frequencies and using parents' interpretations of whines, researchers have already created one that distingueshes cries of pain from other causes."

Seriously, have we become that lazy as parents that now we can't even get up out of bed to go and see why it is that our child is crying? What parents would hear their child over the monitor, look at it and say "Oh just go back to sleep dear, the baby is not hungry he is just crying because he is tired."

Sometimes I am guilty of blaming the parents for being so disconnected from their children, but I am starting to wonder if it is their fault at all. They keep coming out with this stuff saying that it is for the benefit of your child and convincing you that to be a good mom you have to have it. They have done a wonderful job of selling you on the fact that your baby wants to swing, sit in a seat, hang out in a play pen, bounce in a contraption and stair at cold plastic toys all day long. Why on earth would you wake a child after being in the car when you could just put that car seat into a stroller and go on with your day or hook that seat onto a special swing so the baby can just go on sleeping. While the baby is sleeping in his car seat swinging you don't even have to go into his room to check on him since you have a monitor with a video camera. UGH!!!!

We just need to get back to basics. Peylyn's crib is attatched to my bed and when she starts to wake I hear and feel her. I think that being so close and in tune with our baby actually helps us to get a better nights sleep. When she starts to wake I pull her close and nurse her and she is right back to sleep. Since I am able to be in tune with her cues she does not get upset and does not need to settle down.

Here's a thought, instead of trying to create more useless baby crap, why don't they just work on making the stuff on the market a little safer. Call me crazy but I think it is more important for my childs' crib to not injure him than to have a monitor that gives me someone elses interpretation of what my child's cry means!

My Little Tree Hugger (literally)

The other day when I picked up the kids from school I noticed that Ajay was holding a sad little branch in a bag. I soon discovered that he was given a tree from big, bad Wal-Mart in celebration of earth day, to take home and plant. OK, I guess I can cut them a little slack for one day, because I did find it to be a nice gesture to give all of the kindergarten and first grade students at our school a tree to plant.

He was so excited to plant it as soon as we got home. Well, those plans were put on hold since we are renting and I told him to go next door and ask the landlords if and where we could plant his new tree (yes, that is the landlords dog in the background).

It was fun how this little tree quickly became a bit of a community event. Our entire family came out to watch Ajay plant his tree as did our neighbors and their two dogs. Ajay was beaming from ear to ear as he placed it in the ground and Perry covered it with dirt.

One of the things that I really admire about my son is how in touch with nature he is. He loves to rescue the toads that get stuck in our window wells, put the worms on our driveway after a rain back in the dirt and will talk about how sad it is that a plant dies once it has been picked. Last summer was the first time that we had the space to have a vegetable garden and Ajay couldn't get enough of it. He was right there with me all summer pulling weeds, watering and harvesting the fruits (or veggies) of our labor.

He has been so connected to this little tree, watering and talking to it each day. He even started a tree journal where he writes about any changes in the tree and has taped photos of the tree in it. He told me the other day that we are going to take a picture of him and the tree every year on his birthday so that we can watch Ajay and the tree grow. I just hope that for his sake this poor little tree does take root and grows to be a big strong tree. My little boy will be devastated if something were to happen to it.

Of all of my passions that I had hoped to share with my children, one of the things I am the most proud of is that they get how important nature is to our well being. My kids amaze me every day!

Fond Memories of Mother's Day

Well, first let me wish every mom a very happy Mother's Day! This day is so special to me and not just for all of the celebrating that I am a mom kind of reasons. On Mother's Day 6 years ago I gave birth to my first son, Ajay. His is probably the most dramatic of all of my birth stories with lots of humorous moments. First of all it was bad enough since I was still living in PA and Perry was working and staying with his sister in VA preparing for our move down there.

So on May 8th when I thought I was going into labor after calling my Dr. my next call was to Perry. He had taken on a job at Bonefish Grill for health insurance (since he was moving to VA to work in real estate) and it was his first night. I called and asked to speak with him, the owner got on the phone to tell me that he was working to which I replied "Fine, when he gets a moment why don't you tell him that his wife is in labor." His boss put him on the phone pretty quick after that.

So, Perry raced up to Lewistown only to find that I really wasn't progressing. The Dr. decided to head home for the evening and said he would be back early in the morning so Perry and I snuggled up for a long night of no sleep. Yes, it was our own bed as Ajay was baby number 2 to be born on S. Main St. The next morning Nelly (the nurse) and Kim (nurse and doula) showed up and Dr. Custer was soon to follow. He checked me and I really hadn't progressed at all over night so we discussed some options. Since Perry was living in VA I really wasn't up for risking the chance of him not making it back in time if he left. So I decided to go ahead and allow him to induce me.

So at about 9 am Dr. Custer inserted a pill vaginally (sorry it was 6 years ago, I can't remember the name) and told me to get a good breakfast and to call when I felt the contractions were getting stronger. Since this was Mother's Day, Perry asked where I wanted to go for my Mother's Day breakfast. Of course if you know anything about breakfast in Lewistown, PA you head to the Honey Creek Inn (french toast is there best item on the menu!). So off we went and funny enough there was Kim (nurse and doula) also enjoying a Mother's Day breakfast with her family. We also ran into a few other people we knew that could not believe it when the asked "when are you due" and I replied "well, I was induced this morning so hopefully I will meet him in a few hours." Geesh, if I was induced in a hospital I don't know if I would have a shot in hell at heading out to a restaurant for breakfast!

So after breakfast we headed back home and relaxed as much as we could. I believe that it was somewhere around noon that I called the Dr. to come back over since the contractions were starting to come more regularly. I remember spending most of my labor in the bathroom alone, conentrating and trying to deal with the pain while Perry, Nelly, Kim and Dr. Custer sat in our bedroom watching a movie. I could not believe how much worse the pain was from my labor with Zola. At some point I finally came out, crying to Perry that I just couldn't deal with the pain any longer and I did allow the Dr. to give me a shot for the pain. I still knew when I was contracting but it just took the edge off. Obviously not a decision that sits well with me, but I did what I felt I needed to do to get through it. About an hour after that I felt that it was time to push, and it did not take very long to deliver my beautiful 6 lb. 9 oz. baby boy into the world.

Ajay Micheal Lee Meinnert was the most amazinge Mother's Day gift I could ever wish to receive. To this day the boy amazes me! He is funny, smart and has such a beautiful soul. I see so much of myself when I look at him. Most importantly, he is such a compassionate person. He makes me proud every day that I was blessed to be his mom.

I hope that every mom out there has a fantastic Mother's Day!!!

Dear Corn, it is scary what they have done to you.

I am still trying to figure out why my husband bought these last week. I don't like them, the kids said they looked gross and Perry said he doesn't like them.
Would it be weird to put Corn Flakes on Freecycle?

Well, at least they stand true to their name! Milled Corn, Malt Flavoring (which can be derived from barley or corn and my guess is it is corn here), High Fructose Corn Syrup (corn) Also noticed that it says BHT has been added to the packaging. I had to google BHT and that is certainly an interesting read, YUCK!!!

I finally got around to seeing the film "Food, Inc." this week when they had it on PBS. I was already aware of how frightening things have become when it comes to meat, thus I do not eat it. But the entire corn issue really blew me away...

When they posted a list of all of the food additives that were once corn I was completely shocked! Call me crazy, but I had actually thought that when a list of ingredients said citric acid I thought that it came from a citrus fruit. Oh no, it comes from corn because that makes sense. Right?

So after being completely disgusted that even the vitamin E that is added to my food comes from corn I had to get on the computer and start reading. It is unbelievable the number of ways that they have discovered how to manipulate this grain into some seriously terrible stuff for our bodies. Even more unbelievable are the lists of non food things that are some how related to corn that you can check out HERE.

We have been avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup like the plague for a long time (OK minus this box of cereal, when I pointed it out to him after he brought it home he said "Really, they even put it in cereal?" I guess I need to do the shopping from now on.) but now I am on a new mission. I am going to the store with my list of corn additives and unless it should be in the food (ie corn or corn chips) I am passing on it. The scariest part of all of the corn products in our food is that you know it is not organic and is probably genetically modified to grow bigger and faster. UGH!!!!!

If you have yet to see the movie "Food, Inc." I highly recommend it, it will change the way you look at everything on your plate.

No Organic for WIC Mamas!

Yes, since having Peylyn (our 4th baby) we have been bumped into the WIC and reduced lunch category. It is rare that I allow the kids to buy but if they ask to buy on a special day I allow it and if I only have to pay 40 cents for a not so great meal, so be it.

Anyway, I have to laugh because whenever I send Perry to get the food with the checks he comes back moning and whining about how rediculous it is that they will not allow you to purchase any organic food. Well, this evening we all went to the store and Perry had picked out organic cheese which was rejected when we got to the check out line. Ajay asked why we weren't allowed to get the organic cheese. I replied that if the government allowed us to get the organic cheese than they would be admitting that something was wrong with the other cheese. Yes, forgive me I was in a bad mood from the way the lady at the check out line was talking to us. I use the term "lady" loosely as she was a snotty teenager! Anyway, Ajay said "well it is better, right?" I said "yes, but the government doesn't want you to think that." To which my bright 5 year old said "Oh, so they think they know it all and we are stupid." Man, I love that child!!!

While yes, I do appreciate the help because some weeks we really need it. I don't see why they would object to a healthier choice. We are fortunate to have fairly descent insurance through Perry's work, but considering that a lot of people that are receiving WIC are probably also receiving some sort of government paid insurance I don't understand why they wouldn't want to offer up the healthiest choice of food. Don't they understand that by allowing women to purchase a higher quality food that they could be saving money when it comes to healthcare? Not to mention giving the money back to US farmers! No, they want to pay for the food that is lower quality, shipped from China and Argentina and spend more on healthcare.

Sadly, I know that most families don't look at WIC the way we do. We use our checks and receive a locally farmed rBGH free milk, cereal that is free of HFCS, preservatives and artificial colors and flavors, dried beans and juice so that we have the money to buy organic produce and meats.

I can't wait to walk into the office next month and return the checks for the jars of baby food and rice cereal. I will be proclaiming loudly in the office that my 6 month old is doing just fine on mommies milk and does not need anything that comes from a grocery store shelf!