Dragonfly camp

"Dragonfly" tree at "dragonfly" camp

Jessie and the kids made it back from camping yesterday safe and sound.  The kids were so excited to tell me all about their adventures, that they got in trouble for not helping to unload the truck. lol. One of the favorite stories was to tell me all about the dragonflies that were around.  So for us, this campground will be forever called "Dragonfly camp." I told them it was my way of making sure they knew that Mommy and Nana were with them in spirit. As everyone knows I love dragonflies.

Jessie told me of one part of their day, he was making a meal ( I can't remember what time of day it was) and there were tons of dragonflies in the tree, behind him, it got very loud all of a sudden when they all took off. I would have loved to have seen that.

Spencer got the biggest fish of the whole trip. He got a Northern. He was pretty excited. When considering that was the 2 or 3rd time that he's gone fishing, I would be too.  It sounds like everyone got some fish - which makes the trip even better.  Jessie was a little disappointed that they weren't able to go to his favorite spot on the lake whenever he goes there to fish. He said that spot isn't available anymore. So he'll have to find a new spot.

It was nice last night having the kids tell me all their stories.  Cyril was so excited to have the kids home, he wouldn't leave Spencer or Dawn alone.  He was wrestling Spencer everytime you turned around, to bad that Spencer didn't want to wrestle. It was equally nice to have all of my babies under 1 roof again, and under my wing.  To bad the sibling love and getting along between the older two didn't last long. (3hours and 15 minutes to be exact.)

Jessie had to go back to work today, but thankfully he'll be back Friday night. It's going to be a busy weekend this weekend. We have 3 birthday parties to go too, along with some friends coming up for the weekend.  I'm so excited for this weekend. I haven't seen my friend in forever, we've both added to our families since the last time we got together. It's going to be a blast. :)

God Bless~

Dance Your Ass Off

A couple of weeks ago, late one night while nursing Gordon, I started watching a dance show called "Dance Your Ass Off."  I'm not sure if you have seen it, but it's a combo between two shows currently on TV, I think.  The Biggest Losers and Dancing with the Stars.  The contestants are trying to lose large amounts of weight, but they do it dancing. Each week like Dancing with the Stars, there's a dance style that they need to do each week, but there's no famous people.

I've really gotten into the show, not sure if that's because Gordon chooses that time to eat, and it's the show is interesting or what.  One of the contestants made a comment on this week's show. Katie said "She doesn't just want to lose weight, she wants to turn people's heads."  That's exactly what I want to do.  I was on my weight loss journey before I got pregnant with Gordon.  Between January of '09 and the 1st 10 weeks of my pregnancy I had loss 30 pounds.  Even though it wasn't my intention to lose weight the 1st half of my pregnancy it happened.  Now that Gordon is going to be 8 weeks old on Thursday, I feel it's time to start kicking my weight loss back in gear.  Today I've lost 20lbs, which is really good, but I'm not anywhere near my goal weight.  I'll get there, nice and easy, I'll get there.
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God Bless~

GF spice cake.

I made a GF/DF spice cake from Full Circle - which turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. :)  The best part for me though was the frosting that I made from scratch! I always thought frosting where really hard, so I have avoided that part of the Betty Crocker cookbook.  But I was craving something sweet, and spice cake does not taste good without frosting or whip cream, in my opinion.  The frosting turned out great, but really sweet, so be careful.  I am posting the recipe as well too.  It sure won't help me in getting my girlish figure back since having Gordon, but I think a treat is always a good thing, especially for a new momma.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Butter Frosting by Betty Crocker
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter softened.
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Mix powdered sugar and margarine/butter.  Stir in vanilla and milk; beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency.     Fills & Frosts two 8 or 9 inch layers or frosts a 13x9 inch cake.

Trader Joe's

Mom, the little boys and I went to Trader Joe's today.  Mom and I have been meaning to go down there since sometime last year.  We've heard they have a great selection of gluten free foods, and that they aren't really that expensive.  Well - now that Dawn has been showing signs of being at least gluten sensitive if not gluten intolerant, I figured now was the time to go down and check it out. I'm going to be making the household 99% gluten free.  I don't want to make it 100% gluten free, and I'm not sure I'd be able to successfully be able to do it 100% all the time so why try to?

It was a long drive down there today, I'm not sure if it was just because of Gordon having a fussier day today or what the deal was, but it seemed to take forever to get there, and equally long on the way back.  The car accident on the way home didn't help either.  At one point of our trip home - there's a certain stretch that takes 15 minutes to get from one exit to another - it took 40 minutes.  It seemed longer then that when Gordon picked that time to start screaming bloody murder. Yesterday I ate some cheese by accident and I think that helped contribute to his fussiness. Going Casein Free/Dairy Free is a lot harder then I thought it would be, more so then going Gluten Free originally.  Not sure why. :(

In some ways it was worth the time and drive to go down there to check out Trader Joe's.  It reminded mom of an old fashion grocery store. It doesn't have any or very little processed foods. The fresh produce was very yummy looking and low prices.  A thing of bananas was $0.19 and organic ones was $0.29.  Normally in our local grocery store regular ones are $0.59.  Their Brown rice pasta was almost 1.00 cheaper, and there were a few other things too. The Almond milk that I've been drinking was also a 1.00 cheaper here. So I bought a couple.

I was a little disappointed though. I was expecting for them to have a larger selection of GF flours and baked goods. Even more GF crackers and breads. They had only 1 kind of each.  They had a HUGE print out list of GF foods, but they aren't in one section of the store, you have to look for a G symbol on the packaging.  So we'll see. Mom and I are talking about coming back down to check it out again...but without Cyril with.  lol.  It's not that he was naughty, but he was everywhere trying to "help" us grocery shop. Every time I turned around he was putting stuff in his cart, that he thought we'd want. It wasn't junk food, just gluten food. lol.

 It was good for us to go down, because we've always heard about how people just LOVE to go to Trader Joe's, but I just wasn't so sure about it, and if the benefits out way the drive down there.  The jury is still out on that as far as mom and I are concerned.  But it was interesting getting people's opinions for or against Trader Joe's on my facebook account.  So far it's all been positive.

God Bless~

2 more days...

It's Monday morning: Jessie and the kids have been gone 3 days already. It's hard to believe.  I miss them terribly. It's been strange not having them here, when they should be here.  This has been a good test run too, on how things will run when they are in school everyday. 

I haven't done to much out of the normal, but I think Cyril has liked the fact that everytime Gordon has laid down, or if Nana is here holding Gordon, then that's more time I get to spend with him. My little mommy's helper has even returned. All last year, everytime I was cleaning something he wanted to help. Since sometime in April or May - he stopped wanting to do it as much, if at all. And I think we will have to go to the library this week, whether or not the older two are with. We've read thru all the books we checked out.  Cyril is loving that he gets story time, whenever he wants this week. lol.  We have had some interesting days too.  The 1st day they were gone, the  little boys were crabby, we missed a playdate, I lost my cell phone, we had severe weather that included 3 tornado warnings, 1 of which resulted in our seirns going off, or so I'm told. The little boys and I fell asleep, we slept thru the whole thing. Good thing, nothing touched down in town.

The quiet has been really strange for me to get used too. I thought I would love having all of that quiet, but to my surprise I've discovered that I don't.  I love the sound of children laughing. I miss the sound of the kids talking, pestering me with questions, tattling on each other, and etc.  Granted when I'm in the heart of it - it drives me insane on many, many days...but thru this trip I've realized how much those sounds mean to me.

Jessie has been checking in almost everyday. The kids are going to have some interesting stories to tell when they get back. Some are funny (even though Dawn will not think so right now.) and some are just interesting I guess you could say.  Who knew- they would enjoy playing with the walkie talkies so much.  They found a dead snake while they were biking around the campgrounds. Dawn lost a sandal in the lake because she freaked out thinking she had a leech on her. No wonder they didn't get any fish that time....wonder if anyone else did on the lake with how loud she screamed. lol.  Then they go back to the campsite, because she needed her tennis shoes, only to discover they were in the truck with them the whole time. Did I mention the camp site was 30 miles away??? Jessie didn't find it so humorous at the time that he told me, but I think it's funny.

Wonder what interesting adventures they will experience between now and the time they come home?

God Bless~

1st Camping trip

Well - it's 8am in the morning and I'm not sure what to do with myself. lol.  The little boys are sleeping. Jessie, the  older kids and my brother in law Kenny, left this morning for a 5 day/4 night camping trip.  This is the kids 1st big camping/fishing trip.  We decided that the little boys shouldn't go because Gordon is too small, and that the older kids need this trip with just dad. No younger siblings. 

I'm so nervous about it, because it is their 1st big camping trip, not sure how the kids will handle not having any modern day technology. lol. No TV, no video games, and no computer. lol.  Plus the last time Jessie took Spencer fishing, he didn't have a good experience. It was ice fishing and his foot fell in the hole. He swore off all fishing forever. lol.  But this week, he had been getting more and more excited about going so we'll see. I just hope he has really good days, and none of his bad days like he's been having lately.  Dawn has been like a typical teenager. One moment she wants to go, and the next she's too "cool" to be going.  Plus lately she has been having gluten attacks.  At least a couple times a week she's been sick, so I'm starting to wonder what's triggering the gluten attacks.  I just hope she doesn't have any while she is up there. That would make for a miserable trip. I packed a bunch of gluten free foods, but we'll see. You know how kids can be when you restrict them from foods they love.

They've only been gone 2 hours but I miss them terribly. lol.  It will be a nice break for me, especially with the challenges Spencer has been giving me lately, I guess in a way it's respite care for me. Cyril was just sad at the though this week of not being able to go on the camping trip with Daddy and his siblings. But so far this morning he's handling it okay.  He got sad at 1st, but I told him that we needed to do something fun for just the 3 of us. I asked if he'll help me think of some fun stuff, but secretly I've already got some stuff planned. We will go to the splash pad or the wading pool, go to the library, maybe even go to the local fast food place that has a kids play area.  I think he'll have some fun.  Plus it will do him good, to spend some time with just momma, when Gordon is sleeping. It's been tough for him having to share his mommy.

This is going to be an interesting day I think, I wonder how it will go and the rest of the week will go without all of my family here.

God Bless~

7 weeks already!

Times sure seems to fly during summer break, and when you add a newborn it seems to fly even faster.  Gordon was 7 weeks on Thursday. I can't believe it!!! Where has the time gone. He's getting bigger every day, and it's been neat seeing the changes in the kids in regards to Gordon.  Last Wednesday, he was weighed for an appointment and came in 13lbs  5 oz. He measured in at  23 inches.  So, I guess momma's milk is working well for him.

Nursing is getting better, but it's still a challenge at times. I'm really glad that I made the decision not to take on any new children under the age of 2 this summer because I wasn't sure how things would go with him. It would have been really hard to nurse him, and take care of a young toddler or infant.  One of my daycare families had to stop coming, because their dad last his job (damn economy), and I was really sad.  Mr. E was just on the verge of taking his 1st steps and I've missed that big milestone.  It's turning out to be a blessing though that he and his sister is not here, considering the challenges that I've had with nursing Gordon. 

Plus Gordon is turning out to be a fussier baby then Cyril was. He's more like his sister Dawn at this age. So that's been a tough on all of us.  Mom has been a HUGE and I mean huge blessing with him, especially during the work week when Jessie is gone.  I'm not sure what the kids and I would have done with her.  She says that Gordon looks so much like me when I was a baby at that age, only he's a lot bigger then I was ( I was only 7lbs when I was born. lol.)  So that in a way is a blessing, because she's really bonded with him, I wasn't sure if she would.

I discovered something very interesting in the last couple of weeks.  Since Gordon has been so fussy almost colic like (Dawn has colic. Ugh, that was hard), I've been on the hunt to find out if there was a cause.  He also has eczema really bad.  I read an interesting article about fussy babies/colic babies and milk sensitivities.  These babies also tend to have the acid reflux eczema, and, are also the spitters too when fed formula. (Breastfed babies spit, but not as often and most certainly not as bad.)So at this point I was ready to try anything. So I cut out the cow's milk and dairy products I was consuming, in hopes that it would help.  And that has seemed to really help things, and his eczema has disappeared almost. Why did no one tell me!! So as of now I'm GFDF or GFCF depending on who you talk too. (DF=Dairy free or CF = casein free) I'm getting used to almond milk in my coffee. I haven't been brave enough to try it in my cereal. I will not do soy milk, because of what Soy does to the male body.  I figure Gordon's already getting enough soy products from the foods that I eat, and he's getting enough synthetic estrogen already from the environment...why the hec would I add more? He's also proving to be sensitive to gluten products.  Up until recently I thought that I had been able to eat gluten products without having any attacks on my body the 2years I nursed Cyril. I know, I know - dummy me. Recently that was proven wrong to me, and to top it off, the same days that I had gluten products, Gordon was fussy and had extremely messy diapers, worse then what a normal breastfed baby has.

I am missing alot of the dairy products, but it's not forever.  I figure I'll try in back in my diet in 4-6months and see what happens. If' he's still the same, then I will continue to avoid till after he is done nursing. After I started doing this, my mom reminded me that my cousin Jess was lactose intolerant or had a milk sensitivity as a child.  Plus Cyril is sensitive to milk too.  We haven't taken him off dairy though, and I'm starting to wonder if we should.  So we'll see what happens for Gordon.

God Bless~

Rule 25

I used a phrase by the cartoon character "Olivia" from the cartoon Olivia (If you aren't a parent of a young preschooler - you may not get that.) in the title because, this past week, Jessie and I have experienced one of the sucky parts of parenting: animals dying part.

For as long as Jessie and I have been together, my in- laws have had cats on their property. Whether house cats or strays. For the last 3 years I believe, they've had a bunch of them.  One of the strays has had 2 or 3 litters of kittens since she came in our lives. Of that 1st batch only 2 of her babies are really friendly. One of them - has become a beloved pet of Dawn's.  He is her best animal friend as she puts it.  Well sadly - what so often happens to pets whether beloved family or strays when you live in the country, happened to her buddy.

My brother in law Kenny, told Jessie yesterday, that Buddy, the cat was hit by a car about a week or two ago.  When we went up there on 4th of July weekend, we didn't see Buddy, and it wasn't from a lack of trying.  If Dawn finds out, she will be devastated.  When we went up there about a month ago, she was devastated that she couldn't find him, fearing the worst.  But my mother in law Gail, God bless her,  told her, he visits all the neighbors too, so not to worry.

So Jessie and I are taking the cowards way out right now, and not going to tell her for now.  I don't want to tell her the truth about Buddy, so my mother said to say that he probably found a really good home, and that's why he's not around. Which in a around about way is true...he has found a better home, in kitty heaven.  No home is better then Heaven...human or animal. :)

Between last Saturday with the local bunny that they call "Flash" dying and now Buddy, it's been a rough week...so for now we are taking the cowards' way out and not telling the kids the truth...this is one of life's lessons' that I do NOT like about being a parent.

God Bless~

Bunnies

On Thursday - I had a couple of my daycare boys. Two of my favorites, okay, I'll be honest they are all my favorites, and I love them all to death. lol. Anyways - I had MR. J and Mr. C over for the day, we were all outside in the backyard. When Mr. C goes over to one of the playground equipment, and starts yelling "Bunnies! Bunnies!" I couldn't figure out what on earth he was talking about. He comes running over to me as fast as his little legs would carry him to me, and begins pulling my hand. He's yelling and pointing. So we go back over there, sure enough, there are 6 baby cotton tail bunnies in it. Momma Rabbit was sure smart making her den in that particular piece. Safe from predators (since our yard is fenced) and the kids haven't been drawn to that part of the yard at all so far this summer.

Since all the kids knew about them - of course they needed to peak at them...constantly. lol. Thankfully none of them touched the bunnies who were about 3 weeks old I imagine, (They looked ready to leave the den) we did make the momma nervous, because the next morning they were gone. I had assumed that they left the den the night before, but this afternoon/evening we would find all 6 babies back in our yard. Jessie and the kids found two earlier this afternoon, but caught one of them. Jessie and I would later find the remaining 5 and their momma tonight. Boy was THAT an adventure.  Those little buggers are fast! lol.

 Sadly, my friends - Momma Rabbit aka "Flash" to those of you that have heard my older kids and some of the other neighborhood kids talk about a local rabbit, is no longer with us. Something,we believed scared her, because she got stuck in the fence and died. Jessie discovered how easily it is to frighten a rabbit to death, from our research on the internet (Once we got the one- we didn't know what to do).  With how often this bunny has been in and out of our back yard, she knew about the fence, so that's the only conculsion that we came too.  We have not told the kids, because we know they would be just heart -broken. All the kids love that rabbit. 

Jessie and Dawn will release the other 5 babies down at the park with it's sibling in the morning. They picked a safe spot, and Jessie dug another den for the 1 baby, he'll put the others there.  I'm being a nervous adopted momma for these babies. I took a bunch of lettuce and water to them in the box that we have them in. I'm so scared that they weren't quite ready to leave the den yet, but all the research says that they are ready to be on their own. A really good sign is that they are pooping on their own, so that gives me courage...but still.  Hopefully with our prayers and God's blessing they will survive.

Dawn and I got to each hold a couple...I can't tell you how hard it was NOT to keep at least one of them. They were so cute and cuddly. No bigger then my hand...but Jessie does not like animals of the rodent variety. lol. Not to mention our landlord won't allow us to have pets.

God Bless~