Now that Isaiah has been eating solids for a while now I think it’s time to start making him his own food. He’s our fourth baby – I think it’s time I started pureeing veggies. And now that we’ll be starting the GAPS diet (another post), it’s even more crucial. And I’ve finally gotten rid of my last excuse not to.
He’s mostly been eating Earth’s Best organic baby food. I’ve been using some of the excess jars as containers for my ointment recipe. (More on that another time). However, I’d really like to start making my own baby food. For one, I’m overflowing with jars even with all the ointment and two, I make everyone else’s food from scratch at home, why not Isaiah’s?
The problem is I’ve been intimidated by baby food. Don’t laugh. Ok, laugh a little – it’s silly. But I just don’t know why I can’t wrap my head around chop, boil, puree, freeze. Not exactly rocket science.
I used to be really intimidated by soups, too. The whole chopping and boiling thing just tripped me up. Really, stop laughing at me. I finally went for it though and started making soups. Now I’m a soup master. Not really, but I make a pretty good chicken noodle.
But there’s still the freezing part. I had no ice cube trays. I bought one at a thrift store once when Ella was a baby and never used it so I got rid of it. But they were too small anyway. I needed something bigger. But not as big as a canning jar.
Hmmm…
Amazon.com to the rescue. I found Tovolo King Cube Extra Large Silicone Ice Cube Trays
that work perfectly for freezing baby food portions. At least portions that feed older babies like my Z-bug. That kid can eat! Once they’re frozen I can just pop out the cubes and stick them in a freezer bag. Ta da!
So there goes my last excuse. I know I can cook a vegetable. I’m pretty sure I can handle the puree part and now I’ve got a way to freeze it. Now I just need to remember to do it before the sweet potatoes go bad.
One of my favorite things about the internet is the ability to interact with so many different people. It also makes finding people with lots in common a snap through online forums; something that’s much harder to do when you live in a tiny town like I do. But what do you do when your friend is pregnant and you want to throw her a baby shower but can’t because of different geographical locations? Simple – do it online!
Donielle at Naturally Knocked Up is hosting a virtual baby shower for her friend Amy at The Finer Things in Life. Several businesses (including mine) have donated gifts for Amy. They’ve also donated an additional gift that you can win too! I wish all baby showers were like that!
There are so many nice gifts – natural wooden toys, nursing tanks, belly bands, herbs, lotion and so much more – all for a very deserving mama.
If you want a chance to win, head on over to Donielle’s blog and enter. There are no hoops to jump through, so entering is easy as pie. She even has some ideas for baby shower food that look delicious.
Head on over today and enter for a chance to win my Mama’s Herbal Kit!
Last weekend we went to a family church camp. We slept in a tiny cabin (which got really, really hot), ate lunch in a big dining hall and had a lot of fun.
One great thing we got to do together was float down a creek on inner-tubes with some friends. I was so looking forward to time in the water because of the sweltering heat. I’ll admit, though, that as much as I wanted to float the creek, I wasn’t sure about having all the kids with us. And then I reminded myself of how I’ve really been wanting to involve the kids in our activities rather than just using them as an excuse not to do things.
We knew that it would be more difficult to float while holding the kids but we did it anyway. And it was a lot of fun.
Isaac was a big boy with his own tube (he could stand up in the creek). Ian held both Eva and Ella and I floated the creek with Isaiah, who decided he wasn’t happy and that the only thing that would calm him was a snack. Trying to steer a tube while nursing a baby wearing a bulky life jacket is tricky! I suggest trying this when there is no chance of running into a bank lined with hanging thorn bushes. Ouch.
So here’s a suggestion if you don’t do this already. Yes, that scraping noise is the sound of my soap box being dragged out of the closet.
Involve your kids. It may surprise you how fun and easy it is.
Yes, it may take some getting used to.
No, they don’t need to go on date night.
And no excuses.
I have 4 kids – the oldest is five and the other three are three and younger. If I can do it, you can do it – I’m definitely not superwoman. They’re part of the family. Involve them.
Unless it’s pretty dangerous. Common sense, people.
There we go. Soap box can go back in the closet for a little while 
What are some fun things you do together as a family?
I hope you’re having a fun summer! I’ve been trying to put up a post every Monday at the least, but this week has been pretty busy. August usually seems to go that way for us.
 Isaiah tried to get the Boba on by himself. He's crawling up a storm now. So here it is, Wednesday, and I have no “pearls of wisdom” to share, nor do I have any exciting new tips on how to get your kids to do everything you say in five days.
Instead I’ll just share an update with what’s been going on around here. My favorite blogs are those that not only share valuable content but allow me to get to know the blogger better. Life, after all, is all about relationships and I love to feel connected with others.
Last week we started our home school curriculum. This week we haven’t done any of it. And here I was planning to whiz through Kindergarten. Ha!
On Sunday we packed up the kids and took a very short drive to the Tumalo State Park and stayed one night in a yurt. So much fun. I highly recommend yurt camping. Or as Ian likes to call it, fake camping. We’re now planning to take many more yurt-camping trips.
Why didn’t I take any pictures? Oh yeah, the camera needs to charge. Better do that before we go camping tomorrow.
Tomorrow we’re leaving for a four-day church family camp. I am so excited. We’ve heard great things from those who went last year and I hope we have a great time, too. We’ll be staying in a little A-frame cabin (no tent camping for me, thank you) and I won’t have to cook for four days. Hallelujah!
Poor Duke doesn’t get to go with us, but my sister will be staying at the house to keep him company. Maybe she’ll let him sleep inside…
And there you have it. Now it’s time for me to do laundry, pack and clean the house. I love coming home to a clean house.
Oh, I also wanted to share this short blog post, Americans Living Like Spartans, from Lukas Coaching with you. What do you think about it?
What have you been up to this summer?
I never really thought about myself as a passionate person until recently. Sure there were things I was interested in, but I didn’t really feel that burning desire that I’ve heard others talk about.
I picked up Dan Miller’s book, 48 Days to the Work You Love because I knew that I wanted to do something, but not sure what it was. It didn’t really do much for me – I didn’t want a job (I really can’t stand them). Then I read his book, No More Mondays which is geared more toward starting your own business. Wow. Loved it.
So I became involved in his community and was referred to others with the same passions as Dan – Justin Lukasavige and Derek Sisterhen at Lukas coaching and Kevin Miller at Free Agent Underground. If you have any inkling of wanting to be your own boss, check them out. They have weekly podcasts that are great to listen to while you fold laundry.
 Babies are my favorite passion A common theme that all of these guys talk about is doing what you’re passionate about, what you were uniquely created to do. It was only after asking myself the annoying question, “What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about money?” ten times that I realized that there isn’t just one thing I would do. There are several.
I’m passionate about babies, birth, herbalism, nutrition, midwifery, “green living”, marriage, business, home schooling, adoption, debt-freedom. It’s a lot, I know. My soap box rarely gets put away. Hence, this blog.
Whether you’re like me and have been blessed with passion for several different things or you’re just not sure what you’re really called to do in life, I encourage you to explore it more.
If you know what you’re called to and are doing it – great! Make sure you’re in community with others who share a common passion.
If you know and are far from living your passion, see above. Surrounding yourself with people who are pursuing meaning in their lives can provide inspiration for you to do the same and will help uplift you when you feel discouraged.
If you have no idea what you were created to do, guess what? Get in community. Join the 48 Days community, where there are lots of people pursuing their passions and others who don’t know what that looks like.
Building relationships with others is hugely important in every aspect of life and this is no exception.
Discovering your passion and sharing that enthusiasm with people who will encourage you and hold you accountable is absolutely essential in finding success in anything.
Join a community of people today that you can connect with and gain inspiration, accountability and encouragement from. Go ahead, take the first step.
What are your dreams and passions? How do you pursue them? What’s your favorite community?
*This is a picture of Isaiah taken by Becky at Rematta Photography. I will be doing a review of her work soon. Please check out her website.
“Give me the youth, and Germany will rule the World” - Adolf Hitler
(I love how right-on this quote is. We can imprint ANYTHING on a child’s mind.)
I home school for many reasons. One is because, believe it or not, I not only love my children but I really like them as well. I enjoy being around them and take great pleasure in seeing them learn new things.
Another reason is that I want them to get a good biblically-based education. As a Christian, the Bible is my source for truth and I want to incorporate that into my kids’ daily lives as much as possible. I also want to give them a “real life” education.
What does that mean? Well, for starters, real life doesn’t mean only hanging out with people of your own age. I don’t do it, you don’t do it, it’s just weird. We learn from those older than us who have more life experience. We gain leadership skills by imparting knowledge on those younger than we are. It’s just the way life works.
I also want them to learn things that I wish I could have learned to do in school (thank you budget cuts for). Like sewing, for one. I don’t know why I’m so fixated on that one, but it’s a useful skill, dang it! Cooking, taking care of baby, developing a budget and living within your means, speaking more than two languages are all important skills I want my kids to have – without having to tack additional school time onto the 7 or so hours they would go through in public or private school.
This isn’t a comprehensive list. I will add, though, that my desire to home school was greatly influenced by my public school experience. (HATED it). But it was also a desire that I believe was placed on my heart by God. I believed that so much in fact, that I told Ian that if he really wanted to send the kids to school that I supported his decision (he though home schoolers were weird and was pretty opposed to it) and then prayed like crazy that if God wanted me to do it that he would direct Ian that way, too. One week later Ian said, “Honey, I think we should home school.” Thank you Lord!
After a lot of research, we decided on My Father’s World curriculum. It’s extremely affordable, doesn’t take much time to teach and integrates the Bible into every day learning. I’ve also heard some really great things about the curriculum from friends. It’s also very flexible and I can add things in that I think are important, sewing for one. I also love that they start a foreign language in early elementary school.
David Hazell, who owns the company, also has some workshops on CD that have some awesome, awesome information on teaching kids to be mission-minded, occupying pre-readers and becoming a family of eternal purpose. I highly recommend getting those.
Lessons are only 60-90 minutes so I’m going to start off doing “school” Monday through Thursday with Fridays being a day for service. This Friday we’ll be making cards for a widowed friend and maybe do a little science and math in the kitchen while we bake her some cookies.
I want to get Isaac through Kindergarten quickly and start first grade by January. Mainly because he knows a lot of what’s in the package already and because the only reason we didn’t start last year was because his birthday is in December and he wouldn’t have started public school until this year anyway (does that make sense?). However, if we don’t get through it that quickly, it’ll be okay.
My hope is to graduate all of the kids early so that they can go on a mission trip, work, volunteer or whatever before they go away to college (if that’s something that fits into what they’re passionate about doing).
I know this seems weird to some people. Maybe lots. But I’m used to it. It’s inherent in being a follower of Christ. It’s my responsibility to disciple my kids to be followers of Christ; to love God above all else and to love and serve others. It’s not something I take lightly and not something that I expect anyone else to do for me (and my husband). But it can also be fun and I’m really excited to have the opportunity to learn and grow in Christ with my kids.
As promised, I’m going to be sharing some information on herbs. Specifically, the ones included in my herbal kits. This is great for me, too, as I really want to become more familiar with herbs that I don’t know much about.
Astragalus Root – some good things to know
Astragalus is a Chinese herb that is often used as an immune system booster and to combat cancer. Research has shown that astragalus reduces the intensity and frequency of the common cold. It also increases white blood cells and stimulates T-cells, helping to return the immune systems or cancer patients to a healthy state. I didn’t know that! I am so glad to learn along with you. This is a great herb to take prior to any big outings – say a trip to Disneyland – to help prevent the illnesses that often occur after being around lots of people.
Another very cool thing about astragalus is that it is an antitumor agent. In a lab study, it prevented cancer metastasis in 80 percent of the mice it was tested on. I love it when traditional herbal medicine that has been practiced for thousands of years gets scientific backing.
Lastly, astragalus helps to protect the liver from toxins. Since the liver stays so busy filtering toxins that we encounter through the foods we eat and environmental exposure, it’s nice to give it a boost so that it keeps working well.
How to get it in your body
Astragalus root can be taken in a number of ways. It is often administered via extract. You can learn how to do that here. A simple astragalus tea or infusion is an easy way to take it or the herb can be encapsulated. It can also be used in a soup, like the one mentioned here. This recipe is taken from a book I have - Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria (Storey Medicinal Herb Guide)
What to be cautious about
I found that astragalus is very safe to take and no toxicity has ever been shown by the herb. However, I always think it’s important to double-check before taking anything while pregnant or breastfeeding. And like many pharmaceutical drugs, herbs can interact negatively with other herbs or drugs.
Because it does such a good job at boosting immune system function, astragalus should not be taken with drugs that are intended to decrease immune-system function (like a person with a transplant trying to keep their body from rejecting that transplant).
It’s also a good idea to avoid taking astragalus during a fever, because it will make a fever last longer or grow stronger, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. This makes sense because it’s an immune system booster and fever is one immune system defense against illness.
Resources
University of Maryland Medical Center.http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/astragalus-000223.htm.
Hawkins, Jessie. The Handbook of Vintage Remedies.
Buhner, Harrod. Herbal Antibiotics.
The winner is entry #5! Kelli gets a free Herbal Starter kit. Thanks for the entries!
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now and I’m finally getting around to it. A few months ago I got the Vibram FiveFingers from REI. I love them! They are so comfortable that I don’t want to wear anything else. I don’t care how weird they look with my nice skirt.
I saw a blog post about them and thought they looked so cool and that I had to have some. Of course, I then realized that I couldn’t afford them so I forgot about them. Thankfully, I got some gift money and was at Fred Meyer’s looking for a few different pairs of shoes – some new flip flops, sandals and water socks – and then I had a flash of genius. I should get those funky toe shoes! Then I’d only have one new pair of shoes instead of 3. Sold!
I headed on over to REI as soon as I could and bought some. The last pair in my size. And they had a defect. Bummer. REI has incredible customer service, though, and they ordered me another pair right away and I received them 5 days before I was supposed to. Thanks REI!
Thankfully while I was there I got a membership. It’s $20 and lasts a lifetime, and you get cash back on purchases. I signed up because they told me that I would get a year to return my shoes. One whole year to try them and if I hated them, I could bring them back. Sweet deal if you ask me, especially since I did end up wearing them and bringing them back. And REI Members get free shipping on orders $75 or more. Bonus!
Since they are so different from other shoes, I had to train my toes to go in the shoes. Sounds weird, but if you get some, you’ll know what I mean. They suggest wearing them about 15 minutes a day or so for a week and gradually increasing your wear so you can get used to them.
I’m impatient so I wore them a bit more. The toe pain went away after a week and a half. And now I am in love.
Vibram’s FiveFinger shoes have some other great features, other than being cool to look at. (As a side note, it’s nice to have people comment on something other than all my kids). Here’s a list of the benefits, taken from Vibram’s website. If you do buy these shoes, make sure they’re the real deal. Apparently there are some not-so-good fakes out there.
“6 Reasons to Wear Vibram FiveFingers:
1. Strengthens Muscles in the Feet and Lower Legs – wearing FiveFingers will stimulate and strengthen muscles in the feet and lower legs, improving general foot health and reducing the risk of injury.
2. Improves Range of Motion in Ankles, Feet and Toes – no longer ‘cast’ in a shoe, the foot and toes move more naturally.
3.Stimulates Neural Function Important to Balance and Agility – when wearing Vibram FiveFingers, thousands of neurological receptors in the feet send valuable information to the brain, improving balance and agility.
4. Improves Proprioception and Body Awareness – those same neurological receptors heighten body awareness, sending messages about body mechanics, form, and movement.
5. Eliminates Heel Lift to Align the Spine and Improve Posture – By lowering the heel, our bodyweight becomes evenly distributed across the footbed, promoting proper posture and spine alignment.
6. Allows the Foot and Body to Move Naturally, Which Just FEELS GOOD.”
I’ve had pain in the back of my heels for years and it went away after wearing these shoes for a week. One week! I wish I had known about them years ago.
So far I’ve used them for walking, jogging and going to the lake. I didn’t take them on our hike in June but will definitely take them next time. I love, love, love these shoes!
*If you use my link to purchase your very own sweet Vibram FiveFinger shoes, I’ll get a commission. Just thought you should know.
A few months ago Ian and I were driving around and I was jabbering on about my online store. Sales were bad. I was thinking of closing it. And then I thought, well, what if I were to just change my focus? Instead of trying to be everything for every mom like me, I would offer things I was passionate about. So the brainstorming began and I narrowed it down to baby shower gifts and herbal kits. Well, guess which one I’m more passionate about.
If you guessed herbs then ding, ding, ding, you are the winner! But sorry, I’m not giving anything away right now. Not yet anyway.
I am in the unique position where my dad is the manager of a very larger herb supplier and has been for years. Growing up I heard about herbs like peppermint, coriander, echinacea, chamomile, alfalfa, shavegrass and many, many more. And then I grew up and turned into a hippy and well, my interest in herbs blossomed into a love of all things natural with herbal remedies being one of my favorite subjects.
And so I thought and thought and thought about what I could offer to people out there. Specifically other moms like me – ones who were interested in herbal remedies, had some excellent herbal resource books and believed that God provided us these wonderful plants to keep us healthy and heal us when we were sick.
My solution? Herbal kits. When I first started reading herbal books I thought that it would be great if they sold small amounts of each herb that I could try out. I looked for them, but all I found were websites that sold herbs by the pound or half pound. And I didn’t really want pounds of herbs that I might only ever use a few ounces of.
I know! I’ll make them myself! Yes!
And so I have. Thanks to my parents’ business I’ve got herbs packaged and ready to go. The largest kit is the Herbal Starter Kit. It has 28 one-ounce packages of different herbs – general herbs like peppermint, plaintain and calendula and more specialized herbs like Lady’s Mantle to help ease menstrual cramps. These herbs were the ones I found referenced most in the different herbal books and websites I read and are a great way to start out your herbal medicine chest.
I’ve also put together a kit for babies and one for children. They come with an insert with dosage information and instructions for preparing the herbs as well as some muslin bags for steeping. And because I’ve been pregnant so much in the last 5 years and was pretty familiar with different pregnancy and postpartum herbs, I also put together some herbs for the childbearing year. Some of them are not meant for pregnancy or lactation, so please check with your healthcare provider and your herbal references.
I know I said I wasn’t doing a giveaway yet, but now I think I should  . The giveaway is now closed.
One lucky reader will win a complete herbal starter kit! I will draw the winner on July 19th (my brother’s birthday) at noon pacific time.
Leave a comment with your favorite herbal remedy or something you’d really like to learn about herbs.
You can also earn more entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you’ve done the following:
Twitter – update your account with something like this: I’ve just entered a giveaway for an herbal kit from @shalommama. Enter now at http://shalommama.com/read.
Facebook – Post a link to this giveaway and let your friends know that you’ve entered.
Blog – Blog about the giveaway and leave me a comment with the link to your blog.
Subscribe – Subscribe to my blog and let me know.
If you’re having problems entering, just send me an e-mail at shalombeginnings@gmail.com. I’ll make sure and get you entered.
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I'm Nina. Follower of Jesus. Wife to Ian. Mama to Isaac, Eva, Ella and Isaiah. Hippy. Conservative. Lover of simplicity. And babies. ![]()
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