Chickens Lay the Best Surprises

Do you think eggs are boring?  You know, identical white ovoids lined up by sixes in cardboard cartons.  Not so!  Our little backyard flock is always coming up with surprises; it really makes collecting eggs fun.  Our collection of seven is a mix of one- and two-year-old hens.  Last summer when the chicks finally started laying we got a few pee-wee eggs.  The pee-wees were so tiny compared to the eggs from our older hens, the kids (and parents) got a kick out of it.

Once all the girls were laying the same sized eggs we were amazed by the variety in their shapes.  Check these out.  The long skinny ones are the most grin-inducing, but they do make it hard to close the egg carton.

About a week ago one of our poor hens laid a honkin' huge egg.  Here is the shell compared with a normal egg.  The size discrepancy makes the normal egg look like a pee-wee!

Out of those two eggs came this deliciousness:

Yup, that's right.  That ginormous one housed two yolks, twice the best part (in my opinion).  When I was growing up we just called them "double yolkers".  The kids were very excited.  I cooked them sunny-side up and served them to the kiddos, the double yolker to BuggaBoo and the singleton to Doozer.  And, as usual, they both ate their favorite parts.

Doozer's egg.  Notice missing yolk.

BuggaBoo's egg.  Notice missing white.

They're always like this.  This morning I had a saute of bacon ends, mushrooms, onion, sweet potatoes, and chard for breakfast.  Like birds the kids picked from my plate;  BuggaBoo sticking to the veggies and Doozer consuming the bacon (the fattier the better).

How did that ditty go again?

Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His sister could eat no lean...

Anyways, get some chickens.  They always give you something to look forward to.

Everyone Deserves Fresh Flowers

What to do with this lovely explosion of flowers?

Why, cut a little bouquet, stick them in a baby food jar, and give them to your sister.

Here they are on her end table with my mommy in the background.

How do you accomplish such an amazing feat? Doozer has put together a simple tutorial. First select the perfect flower.

Find an appropriate place on the stem to cut.

Snip!

Plunk!  You're done!

Of course, filling jars for flowers creates spunky puddles to slash in. 

Aren't those the cutest little footprints ever? 

I hope you are all having a fabulous spring day.

Finally!

Cosleeping: Good for getting kids to share a bed with each other rather than with you all the time.

Since BuggaBoo and Doozer are quite accustomed, nay, adamant about sharing their bed with another body (BuggaBoo only in the mornings now, but he sleeps so well in the morning) I have started dumping Doozer into BuggaBoo's bed after she's "limp limb" asleep. It's been magical. She stays there until about 3am and then she wanders back to the parental bed. And seeing the two kids snuggle each other is priceless.

Redefining "Good"

Today is Doozer's second birthday.

No, no pictures. No in-depth remembrance of her birth. No party, no presents from her parents, and no cake. Yet.

The children and I are walking to the store later to remedy the cake situation. I was planning on buying a box mix and a can of frosting a la BuggaBoo's third birthday, but I looking at the kitchen with the... *sigh* ...week or two of dirty dishes put a full stop to those plans. I'm purchasing a ready-made cake and some ice cream for the festivities, which will consist of our little family gathering around to watch Doozer open presents from the rest of the family and a promise to try better next year.

So then the Guilt-O-Meter starts ringing bells and letting off steam and so that signaled to me that I needed to realign my perspective.

Is this the best birthday celebration in the world? No, not really, not by "mommy blogger" standards. But, really, what is best for my Doozer at this time? What's going on with me at this time? I'm in a deep part of my funk stage, and energy is just a memory. So I can expend what little energy I have cleaning the kitchen, then baking a cake, frosting it, and probably (certainly) losing it on my kids and myself and being a general horror to be around. Or I can ditch my "what should be" and redefine what good is.

Good is treating my children well. Good is recognizing my weakness and adapting to it. Good is thinking of myself with kindness. Good is buying the damn cake instead of making it, watching my daughter enjoy presents that aren't from me, and giving her a big hug afterwards because she's growing up so fast.

Happy Birthday, Doozer. I'm giving you the best I have right now. I'm giving you good.

Saving Stained Clothing, One Dye Bath at a Time

Little children stain their clothes.


It's just a fact of life. They don't have great self-feeding skills, they relish all things dirty, and I don't want to strip them down and pre-treat every time they drop something on themselves.

Usually extremely stained clothing is relegated to the category "play clothes". But I was noticing the other day that Doozer has way more play clothes than nice things. Several of her play clothes were shirts that I love and want to be worn in a more publicly acceptable way.






The idea I had was to dye her shirts a color that was dark enough to cover the stains. I love all things brown so that's what I went with. Cocoa Brown by Rit fit the bill perfectly.



I used the bucket method but used nearly boiling water for part of the bath. After throwing in the three shirts of Doozer I noticed that I had a lot more dye I could use. I scrounged in my own closet and came up with a light blue shirt that had a yellow stain on the front.

The clothes took the dye beautifully. The brown is a bit purple, but that could be because the initial color of the shirts were blue or pink. Right after rinsing I was a bit worried that the appliques were too dark, but washing a drying fixed the problem nicely. Here are the results:


I love how the ric-rac didn't take the dye. The buttons also stayed blue. On the other shirts the buttons became brown.





This one is still a bit stained, but it's a huge difference from before.



Here's my shirt. Sorry, there's no before. Just imagine a light blue shirt. The Hubby says the brown suits me better than the blue. I like how the stitching didn't take the dye.



And now for the last shirt. IN ACTION!

"Show me your shirt. No, not like that!"

In my humble opinion this was a great success. Doozer has gained three more outfits, we have some matchy-matchy clothes, and we got to play mad scientist in the backyard with the dye bath.

Have any of you guys dyed clothes you thought to be without redemption? Have you considered it? Any qualms or fears holding you back? Jump in! The dye bath's fine.

Trust

What do you do when your toddler insists on carrying the eggs back from the hen house at the tender age of 15 months?



Let her show you she can do it.



She's broken only one egg so far. Doozer's been handling eggs for about three months now. Not bad for someone who still regularly stumbles.




This is the face she makes whenever we pull out the camera. I think she thinks she's smiling.

Sarting the GAPS Diet--In Which I Still Try to Fix Everything With Food

Scatter-brained post ahead!

Ever heard of GAPS? The acronym stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Basically it's the understanding that gut health can affect the rest of your body, including stuff that's "just in your head." ADD? Probably gut related. Autism? Probably gut related. Depression? Gut.

The GAPS Diet is a program you can follow to heal your gut, thereby healing food sensitivities, allergies, mental, and behavioral problems. Many things can damage your digestive tract. The most common are antibiotics, hormonal birth control, chlorinated water, artificial flavors and colors, preservatives, lack of probiotic foods, not being breastfed, and eating improperly prepared foods that contain phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. Whew!

How does this apply to our family? I can't speak for The Hubby because I'm not him and therefore I don't want to air everything of his on the internet, but he's had several courses of antibiotics as a child, ate tons of processed foods and artificial sweeteners, and is diabetic. He's also working nights, which takes such a huge toll on his body and health.

For myself I've also have taken many courses of antibiotics. Looking at the list above I've done everything on it except two things: I was breastfed for a year and I've never taken The Pill.

My kidlets have had it better. They're still both breastfed, BuggaBoo had only one dose of antibiotics in his life (his fever broke right after the dose so we knew it wasn't due to the antibiotics and stopped administering them), they're not vaccinated (thereby decreasing the toxic load on their bodies) and we eat some probiotic containing foods. But I haven't been sprouting and soaking my grains, they eat too much sugar and such, and they are both exhibiting symptoms of food sensitivities.

What are our symptoms? Read on, they're in handy list form!

BuggaBoo's Symptoms

-Major reflux as a baby, will still sometimes spit up food or breast milk at 3.5 years old

All this in 5 minutes, plus more

-Ongoing cradle cap
-Lives for sugars, which negatively impact his behavior and cause extreme mood swings
-Has started to hit himself on the head when frustrated (not sure if this is normal toddler behavior or what)
-"Allergy shiners", dark or red circles around the eyes
-Starting to show sensitivity to noise
-Ongoing vomiting issues with no concrete reason (He started throwing up again Sunday morning, while nursing all over me. Delightful.)
-Often complains of "feeling sick" (our code for nauseous)
-Suspected thrush, but no classical symptoms
-Rotting teeth and malformed jaw


Doozer's Symptoms

-Until recently she wheezed
-Eczema behind and in her ears
-Suspected thrush, but, once again, no classical symptoms
-Yeast diaper rashes when younger

My Symptoms

-Ongoing yeast issues, including skin rashes, slow-to-heal lip splits (taking about 6 weeks), coated tongue, and, erm, the usual for the last 4+ years.
-Depression
-Intense cravings for sugar and other refined carbohydrates
-Bloating and stomach pain
-Incomplete bowel movements
-Acid reflux
-Extreme fatigue
-99.9999% sure I have hypothyroidism
-Weak teeth despite fluoride treatments
-Anxiety
-Sinus issues for, oh, I dunno, since I was about 12. So 15 years. Going dairy free didn't help.
-Brain fog. It cleared up for a bit after I first added fish back into our diet, but now it's back.
-Cradle cap, for as long as I can remember. I've even tried medicated shampoos. Nada.

Due to all of this I decided to try the GAPS Diet. On the 16th of this month I started Phase 1 of the Introduction Diet. It is extremely restrictive. At this stage I am eating:

-Meat and bone broths
-Boiled meat
-The "ooky" stuff left over from making broth, like marrow, chicken skins, cartilage, connective tissue, etc. Eating this stuff is a very important part of the diet.
-Well boiled onions, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.
-Winter and summer squash
-Garlic
-Ginger, chamomile, or mint tea with a small amount of honey
-Sea salt
-Sauerkraut juice (to repopulate my intestinal flora)

The children are eating a less restrictive diet because, well, they're a bit picky. In addition to what they'll eat from the above they're also having:

-Eggs, mostly just the raw yolks
-"Ice cream" from frozen bananas, raw egg yolks, and a bit of honey. Sometimes I add frozen cherries or blackberries.
-Whole milk plain yogurt
-Coconut flour pancakes

The first few days were no fun. I think BuggaBoo was vomiting from a die-off reaction. He also took two long naps on Sunday and was very irritable. I was not a happy camper and felt exhausted. I also had pretty bad headaches, lots of sweating, back and face acne, and a nasty mouth. Doozer was sleepy and cranky. On day three we all seemed to be doing a lot better and I had more energy. Today, Day 5, I'm sleepy again and feel the starts of another headache. My face and back are still breaking out badly.

But I see progress. And that's encouraging. I'm excited to see where this goes and such. I have found for me to feel satisfied on this food I have to eat a lot of fat. My most favorite thing to eat is the "ooky" stuff, but I've been that way since I was a kid. And since all my meat is grassfed the fat tastes so good. Yum! The meat itself is not settling too well for me, but that's okay. I'm perfectly happy to drink broth, snack on veggies, and chow down on "ooky" stuff all day long.

And I've noticed I don't have too many cravings for breads and sweets unless I"m looking at them. This does mean that I have to lay off looking at food blogs (boo!), and it's hard because my dear friend just dropped off some sourdough bread for my family (double boo!). And the kiddos don't quite understand why we're not eating that stuff.

Okay, that about does it for today. Hopefully I'll be a bit more coherent about this later. For now please read these thoughtful posts by Cara at Home, Health, and Happiness, and Jenny at The Nourishing Kitchen. These wonderful ladies wrote about GAPS much better than I did. May I blame it on the detoxing?

I'm Crossing My Fingers!

I really shouldn't be posting this all over the internetz, I know I'm jinxing myself, but I just couldn't stop myself!

For the last four days I've been dosing my family with cod liver oil. We're using Nordic Naturals Arctic-D Cod Liver Oil, which I've since learned isn't the best you can buy. A better pick would be a high-vitamin cod liver oil, or even better better, a fermented cod liver oil.

Anyways, so we've been taking this stuff. It's not too bad, it's been stripped of all it's fishy flavor, so to me it's like swallowing a teaspoon of oil. Which I am, but it's not a pleasant sensation. BuggaBoo and Doozer take half a teaspoon and love it. BuggaBoo says it tastes like lemonade and Doozer cries when I put the bottle back in the fridge.

ANYWAYS, to the important part. Today the Hubby and I were running around town with the kids, having fun (since he turned 30 today, Happy Birthday!), when I noticed that something very familiar wasn't with us.

Doozer wasn't wheezing.

She hasn't wheezed all day.

So, yes, I may be jinxing the whole thing, I may need to knock on wood. But I hope this stays. She needs this to work.

It would be so wonderful. I'm so very excited.

------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not being paid to endorse any of these products. I am not a doctor, so you will need to consult an actual doctor to get official health advice. You may also notice that cod liver oil is not vegetarian, but that is for another day.

Neverending Fun!

Doozer is now sick. At least I was able to grab a nap today with the kiddos. *sigh*

Please, Train, Please Slow Down

Did I say I was going to do a give-a-way in my last post. Bwa-ha! I'm just hanging on for the ride right now.

We're moving in a few weeks. Guys, this new place is divine. It's just down the street from where we live now, but it's an actual house. The lot is a third on an acre and there are an apple tree, plum tree, pear tree, and grapes in the backyard, which is totally fenced. The landlords and encouraging us to garden as much as we want to and are letting us keep chickens. With my research I'm finding we can keep six hens, so I'm so super excited to be eating pastured eggs again.

In other news, I've had some preliminary muscle testing on the kids to identify food allergens. Doozer came up positive to wheat and milk, and they cause her respiratory issues. BuggaBoo came up positive to milk, peanuts, sugar, and xylitol, and they give him behavioral issues.

So I've been trying to avoid those things for the kids' food as well as my own. See, since I'm still breastfeeding both chilluns I need to stay away from their allergens or they'll just be getting them through me. I haven't been 100% with the wheat, but I've been perfect for milk, xylitol, and peanuts and pretty okay with sugar.

Oh, boy, the sugar. The first few days I took BuggaBoo off the sweet stuff he was having major withdrawal symptoms. The only sugar he was getting was a tiny bit in some of Dave's Killer Bread and some in organic tomato sauce we were using to replace his ketchup. The poor boy would ignore whatever needed dipping and was DRINKING the tomato sauce from the little cup it was in. He then would ask for more, which I would decline. Many tantrums during this time.

BUT! Yesterday BuggaBoo was playing some computer games. After I while I decided it was time for him to get off, and braced for the expected screaming-meemie meltdown. Instead he said, "Okay!", hopped off, and played with real toys. I tell you, not having the constant screaming is worth this detoxing headache I have right now.

I'm feeling very positive about all the changes going on in our lives right now. I'll keep you updated on my cleanse, which at this point is just cutting out sugar, peanuts, and all gluten. I want to avoid gluten until I can get Doozer more thoroughly tested. It would be lovely to have my little girl go longer than a week without wheezing and hacking.

Have a wonderful day!

Six

Seis. VI. The number after five. What does this have to do with my life? At this point, nearly everything.

Six is the number of teeth Doozer is trying to cut all at once. Three molars, two canines, and an incisor. Never mind that she already has seven of those little buggers, she decided that she needs six more stat. And they are causing her a world of hurt, let me tell you.

Our usual go to, Hyland's teething tablets, have been voluntarily recalled by the company due to FDA pressure. Our next faithful companion, calcarea phosphorica, is not working well enough on it's own. So I am borrowing an amber teething necklace from my good friend and that seems to be taking a lot of the pain away.

If it gets much worse I'm gonna break down and buy some baby Tylenol, but I really don't want to. But I'm pretty happy right now, because between the amber, the calcerea phosphorica, and munching on frozen blueberries (THAT'S going to be a fun diaper tomorrow) the pain seem to be dulled enough to save Doozer's and my sanity. I know it seems a bit wacky, how does a rock help teething pain? Well, I didn't know either, so I looked it up and ran across some great info on it. Basically when the amber lays on the skin it releases an oil that boosts healing in the body. How cool is that?

But the necklace does make her look like an Amazon baby.

What Shall I Sew?

We are so fortunate to have many friends that have given us hand-me-downs for the kiddos. We have boxes of kid clothes from newborn to ~3T for boys and girls. This is even after donating what we could not use.

However, we've discovered that Doozer's wardrobe, though not lacking in quantity, is lacking in diversity. The size she is now is basically all summer weight, and a very hot summer at that.

So the other night while BuggaBoo was painting I decided to do a little craft project of my own and stamp some deep brown knit:



Innit key-ute? Sorry for the horrible picture, is IS supposed to be pink diamonds with white "stitching". I forgot to take a picture in natural light, so this is with the flash, yuck.

The design was super easy to stamp. I have some lame dollar store sponges that are foam instead of cellulose (ugh). Since I prefer the cellulose sponges for my dishes, so I decided to use the foam ones for craft use. I cut a diamond shape and stamped out the pink diamonds. After they were dry I came back and "stitched" in the white. I mixed my pink acrylic paint with fabric medium, but I didn't want to go to the trouble with my white. I've noticed that, for my needs, fabric medium isn't necessary. It may fade after a few washing but then the design will just have that coveted vintage feeling.

I was sure to stamp this far enough from the bottom of the fabric I can use it for anything. I am going to have the argyle going across her chest. Any article of clothing I make will be winter appropriate with long sleeves. So, what shall I sew with it? Below is a poll, please use liberally. And if you want to comment, do so! I love hearing from my minions, I mean, readers.

What Type of Clothing Does Doozer Need?

A Sunday Update on Life

So, where to begin?

We recently started EC'ing with Doozer again. We promptly stopped after starting because life became hectic. However, she is now big enough to use a toilet seat insert and she loves it. As evidenced by this picture of her loving it:


And how about another one? This time, cute, chubby, nakey baby:


She still wets diapers at night but always pees and poos in the morning. She is, ah, demanding to use the potty about 60% of the time. It's been a lot easier using the seat insert rather than holding her over the sink.

A while ago The Hubby purchased a wagon and the kids love playing with it.









You may notice our kids are starkers a lot. Well, a lot of that is due to having to change or potty Doozer often, and BuggaBoo has been potty training all summer. He has a nearly perfect track record if he's naked from the waist down. This has apparently caused distress among some of the neighbors, since BuggaBoo will play in the front yard while in an undressed state. We live in a somewhat cul-de-sac produced by the apartment parking lot, so it's not like he's running around town like this. And last time I checked he was, uh, two. I don't know maybe I'm missing something. Dear Readers, what is your opinion on this? At what age does public nudity become a cultural sin? I'm feeling around 3.5 to 4 years old throw some clothes on the kid for normal play, and I'm okay with a 5 year old being naked for water play. What do you think?

Anyways, back to the cute happenings of my family.

Oh, this happened several weeks ago. Broke my heart.


I mean, how pathetic. I assure you I swiftly swept her into bed.

Buggaboo was so proud yesterday for reaching this screen in his game he made me take a picture of it.



Twice.


And, I think that's it. So enjoy your Sunday, I hope it's a great one.

Twilight: The Nursing Years

So it's official, I live with two vampires of the milky variety. Between the two of my chilluns I've been sucked dry, mostly of my emotional sanity. Don't worry about my milk supply, I honestly think I could support triplets.

Doozer is teething/growth-spurting/mastering the new skill of pulling herself up. This leads to nursing and holding marathons. She usually sleeps long stretches at night, but because of the aforementioned reasons she is staying latched on nearly the whole night with a 1-2 hour break in the early morning.

BuggaBoo is driving me crazy with the nursing. I'm torn about this, because when I dig down deeply I know that I love our nursing relationship, but his lack of patience is wearing me thin, thin, thin. He had been eating a lot of solids a few days ago, horking down as much food as we, the parents, do, but now he is back to mostly nursing. I'm afraid to cut him off, however, because his vomiting episodes usually follow a nursing marathon.

To show you how stressed I am, here this is: Although I am a strong believer in child-led weaning I have thought about weaning BuggaBoo completely. But it's not time, his nursing need hasn't been fulfilled yet. Nursing is the most important thing to him, he'll will choose it over almost anything. He will choose it over cookies, ice cream, and frosting, which are his favorite desserts.

As more evidence I'm going to relate our night-weaning experience. When I was 3 months pregnant with Doozer BuggaBoo was about 20 months old. He was still nursing every hour or two at night and staying latched for 15-45 minutes at a time. I was exhausted from growing a new baby and decided to night-wean the boy. Our agreement was he could nurse to sleep and nurse in the morning (loosely, after 6am) but that was it. Well, it was a month of screaming and crying and holding my breasts and touching a mole on my chest (he always touches it while we nurse) and going crazy. But after the month he was night-weaned and would ask to nurse at night about once a week, which I declined.

So by the time Doozer was born he had been night-weaned for six months. He still sleeps with us on a twin bed next to our queen. Well, it started when she was born and still continues to this day: BuggaBoo hears Doozer nursing and asks to nurse. He cries when I say no. Still. It's not every night, but it's often enough to be annoying.

So, to sum up the whole story, even if I were to wean BuggaBoo right now it would be absolute hell for the both of us because I'm still nursing Doozer and he would feel (rightfully) hurt every time he saw her nurse.

So we plug along. I don't do much in the way of housework. I'm feeling pressure from some about that because doncha know that a clean house is the good mark of a mother? I feel all touched out by the end of the day, and being touched by anyone else *coughTheHubbycough* gives me the skeevies. Oh, heck, even the kids touching me gives me the all-overs. I usually can't take a bath without one or the other in there with me, nursing away and splashing water all over the book I happen to be reading at the time (I try not to take library books in with me).

But the worst part of it all is I often feel like I've cheated BuggaBoo, that we had Doozer too soon for his needs. If it was just him then we could nurse whenever, without having to share or wait or scream. Nursing wouldn't be a battle of the wills, it would be me and my baby. Sometimes I feel Doozer could have waited.

Which then makes me feel guilty, because I LOVE this little girl, and I'm so happy she's here so then I think if BuggaBoo wasn't around so much then I could just have a relationship with her, and she's being shafted because BuggaBoo can't leave me alone.

We mothers are great about bringing on the guilt trips.

Pass the Chalk

BuggaBoo has become quite the artist. He is loving his chalk, both outdoors and in.Because of the best daddy in the world BuggaBoo has a huge chalkboard in our kitchen, created with some blackboard paint. Very cool stuff, we'll need to take pictures sometime.

Anyway, back to the budding artist. All of this kinda started with his obsession of adding eyes to everything. Here's his first gallery. Surface, asphalt; medium, washable chalk.

"Circles and Triangle and Cute Little Toes"




"Fish"




"Three Fish"




"Whale"




"Ring Around the Chalk Pile"




"Concentric Circles with Foot for Scale"




The artist himself, age 2.5 years




The hand that created it all




The little sister, who burbles,




and laughs,




and who can't




quite




sit still.




And the Mom.




And a sighting of Bigfoot.




Right?