After calling it a hot topic yesterday, 2 blogs appeared in my reader about dental health/phytic acid this morning. Interested???
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/01/27/ho
And no, I don't plan on giving up seeds, oats or beans. Who eats raw beans anyway?
Never heard of phytic acid? Neither had I, but like a lot of things most people don't ever consider, it's a hot topic on nutritional blogs. In brief - it's in the hulls of things like legumes and nuts and grains and can block your body's absorption of minerals from those foods. To avoid it people go to great lengths to soak or sprout their flours, avoid soy foods, and limit grains in their diets. However phytic acid also has benefits to your health such as helping prevent colon cancer. For a chart showing how much is in what foods go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid
So, as our pantry continues to empty itself as things run out or I give them away (as in the case of serious corn offenders), some foods will remain. For example I'm keeping home made or Bread Shack bakery breads, some pastas, home made crackers and home made granola. As we already avoid most soy products I think we're OK.
What's your opinion?
http://www.gofrolic.org/gofrolic/food_bl
grain free cauliflower pizza crust - need I say more??
Looking for some quick entertainment during a cold winter? Make movies!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDhDGj48q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Da9kYQ9
Stay tuned for Maya's crochet tutorial...
giving the dishes a "bath" - the early shot
...about 4 bowls later!
Is this is a two-person model?
It's all such a blur!
Who is that?!!You might wonder how I can post about candied citrus peels and fermented foods in the same breath, how I can send my kids to public school without unsubscribing to the homeschool yahoo groups, how I can use cloth toilet paper and still forget to bring my reusable shopping bags to the store, how I can have 4 homebirths and then feed the children boxed mac and cheese. If none of you wonder, I do.
Sometimes I'm ignorant. For example, I had my first homebirth because I didn't want to be in a sick persons hospital, but I had no idea that homebirths go hand in hand with cloth diapers. When Abby (#3) had a diaper allergy that sent her to the hospital I asked my midwife if she had ever heard of that. She looked at me funny and said none of her other clients used disposable diapers! Considering I didn't have much of an internet connection, let alone a network of decent friends, when I had my first two children, I claim ignorance. Ever seen Fuzzi Bunz or Wonderwraps sold at the grocery store? Me neither. Now I know. Now I use cloth.
Sometimes it's hard. Candied citrus peels vs. fermented pancakes. That's a tough one! I know which is better for me, but I'd rather make my own candy than never eat any at all. At least I know how much sugar I'm eating if I make it myself (and I know it's not all corn syrup). Boxed mac and cheese? Dinner is ever a work in progress around here. I made an attempt at making homemade GF pasta tonight and, to put it nicely, that's not what we ate for supper :-) But I did mix up some pineapple chutney that will ferment on the counter next to my jar of candied orange peels. Like I said - a work in progress.
Sometimes I honestly just don't know what I'm doing. Do you have four children and a husband who works 24/7? Do you know what to do with all of them every minute? Please, write a blog or something because I don't!! I'm finally starting to find our new rhythm since having baby #4 and hernia surgery. It's been a long fall in some ways, but it has also flown by. With my head buried in the minutia of ingredient labels looking for corn and my butt planted in the big red chair in the living room recovering, countless special moments have passed me by. Now though, I'm up and around again, cooking up all sorts of messes in the kitchen every day, toting the girls to Lego animation group, girl scouts, grocery shopping, washing diapers, cooking play dough, doing floor puzzles while nursing - you know, being a mom. So although I don't always know if what I'm doing is exactly right for any of us, I do know that life is the journey not the destination.
So where am I headed? I don't exactly know, but I have a general direction in my sights. How do you find your way?
Happy belated 8th birthday Maya! Luckily for her we celebrated last week when her cousin was in town. I say luckily because she spent her actual birthday in bed, the next day on the bathroom floor, and today she spent the morning throwing up that yucky yellow stuff that lives in the very bottom of your stomach and is not supposed to see the light of day. By this morning she had already gone about 36 hours without being able to keep anything but a few sips down. We called the on-call doc Friday and said we knew where this was heading because Maya's been in the ER for dehydration at least twice. For some reason once that girls starts, her body just doesn't want to shut off.
But the doc didn't prescribe any anti-nausea medicine because that would mean taking responsibility for the situation, and since she's not our regular doc and it was Friday, that wasn't going to happen. She recommended we keep an eye on Maya and go to the ER if necessary (so they could give her the medicine - like I said, we've done this before). We begged some off a friend instead. :-) I looked on the internet for a homemade rehydration drink recipe and saw that they are not recommended beause of the potential for measuring errors!! Seriously? A doctor is not supposed to recommend that I mix some molasses and salt in water because I might screw it up? Don't get me started!! Anyway, while on the medicine we were able to at least partially rehydrate her with my ever-so-accurately measured oral rehydration solution. Finally she stopped vomiting and fell asleep. She woke up a bit better and slowly started eating. By bedtime she and Sadie were wrestling and laughing. Phew! Glad she didn't have to start her 9th year in the hospital. Here's to a year of good health and increasing our good inestinal flora with fermented foods.
"...but I like rice now beause I'm already three!" -Abby, still age TWO
Fermented lentil pancakes aren't exactly mainstream diner fare, but if you're looking for a better way to start your day than white flour and sugar, here you go. (Don't tell anyone I'm eating a cookie while posting this!)
based on the recipe in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
1 C lentils (the big greenish ones)
2 C brown rice
warm water
2 T lemon juice
1 t sea salt
oil for frying
Wash lentils and rice. Place in separate bowls and cover with warm water. Add 1 T lemon juice to each bowl. Let sit overnight in a warm place. Drain and process in a blender/processor until smooth adding water if necessary. Mix them together in a large bowl adding enough water to make the batter the consistency of cream. Cover and let sit 24 hours in a warm place. DON'T INHALE when you take the cover off the next morning (Sally forgot to mention that tip!!). Fry them in oil like pancakes but it takes a bit longer per side.
I highly recommend adding cinnamon to this brew and having some maple syrup nearby, although I did eat some totally plain. Len, Maya and I gobbled them up but the younger girls wouldn't touch them (then again, they turn their noses up at plenty of "regular" foods too).
Have you guys got any fermented recipes?
"Momma, why does Daniel smell like cheese?" -Sadie (yes, I gave him a bath after that!)
When to call the fridge repairman and other basic things your brilliant husband really doesn't know
trash to treasure: candied citrus peels as a foodgroup
101 uses for "goodrags" from Goodwill
Fermented brown rice and lentil pancake (dosa) recipe - delicious, just don't inhale until they've cooked!
Len's surprise 50th birthday party photos with Tim Sample!!
The laundry wars
You might also get the outline of my upcoming Valentine's Day talk at Bates on love and faith. The title might be something like "What not to do" (can I just combine this with "what not to wear" and get a new wardrobe out of the deal?!!) or maybe "Marriage in 3 acts." I'll keep you posted on this one!!
4 kids in one place and no one is crying - it's taken me 4 months to get this shot!!
My two boys :-)
Please don't tell me again - I know I look like my mamma!
After dinner bean bag festival!
Awww, happy little drummer boy loves his sister, even if she dresses him in pink!
Yes, even Abby got a Snuggie from Uncle Jack this Christmas (no buttons!)Wow. I've left the house two days in a row without my baby and with only an (amost) 8 year old in tow. How refreshing! Len, we're happy to report, has landed a "real job". The exact terms will be determined Monday when he flies to VA to meet with the people in charge, but we know it involves health insurance and a regular paycheck all while still mostly working from home. What a change that will be! The result for me (because he can write his own blog, right?!) is that I have the security to know that money will come in at a regular pace and therefore I can let some out at a regular pace too. So what do I want to spend this money on sooo badly? I now have a mother's helper/sitter that has regular hours here. Hurray!
I was thinking today that I was pretty much caught up on things and did I really need her to come over today or not. Then I laughed at myself because, of course, the dishes are piled up, the laundry is ever calling my name, Daniel is teething and grumpy, Abby is painfully two years old, and the other 2 do deserve some attention even if they're not crying to get it. Everyone is fed and clothed, but lately I often forget life can go further than that! Phew - yes, I need help today!
While she was here I took Maya out for a quick birthday shopping trip. I've been promising that poor girl for months that one day she and I would go out together and, finally, it happened! We crossed the bridge into the next town over and immersed ourselves in a different world, albiet it only a block long. We browsed clothes in the African stores (one of them is actually called The African Store, so I'm not just being ignorant here!). She finally chose a lime green and white tunic with lacey flowers on it. It has a scarf and pants to match. Actually it looks more "1960s polyester" than ethnic to me, but hey, she loves it! She was amazed at the difference she felt being in that block of stores. She experienced different smells, different languages, different dress, different feelings about herself... "How would you feel to be the only person with a white face in your whole school and not even be able to talk to your teacher," she wondered aloud. She also agreed that not all pirates are bad guys, but maybe they're just trying to feed their families. So for $20 (no, he didn't charge sales tax, hmmm), she got a new outfit and a first-hand lesson on different cultures. And I got out of the house.
After that I brought her to her first pottery lesson at The Mudroom http://www.themudroompotterystudio.com/. She declared it was a 10 out of 10 and can't wait to go back. She tried the wheel at the end of her lesson and is eager to get on it again. The pot she shaped wasn't all that bad for a first try either (at least I thought so!!). I'm so excited to see her blooming out in the real world again instead of withering in school. (Please, guys, don't let me do that to her again, okay?)
So, ramble, ramble... Sadie has finally joined girl scouts too - beware of my two cookie sellers this year!
Pics next time, I promise!
School vacation is over and tomorrow the alarm clock rings for me as much as for them - and maybe moreso. Our 2 weeks together started crazy with Christmas coming right away. It was a frenzy of family and places to go and new presents to enjoy. Then it slowed into just time at home, together with no place to go. That's old familiar territory for us, comfortable ground that we've all been missing. Some moms can't wait for vacation to end to get the kids out of the house again, but I'm sad tonight knowing that tomorrow Sadie and Maya have to leave. The 4 children have a rhythm that works for us and is pretty calm. At any given time of the day you probably wouldn't guess we had 4 kids based on noise in the house (just don't look at the laundry room or the piles of endless dishes!). We've all enjoyed our down time.
Today, for example, the three girls played in the snow for a long time this morning, but then a red-cheeked Abby gave in early because it was too deep - way past her knees! This afternoon Daniel napped while Abby, Sadie, and Maya did perler beads for about an hour. Then Sadie took her collection of perler critters from days past and Maya helped her make a mobile. Abby was content to have her perler turtle hung from a single stick in the end, although originally she said she needed 100 sticks! The older girls put away their laundry while Abby drew yet more "spiders" and wrote Mom on each page. She tried to write Dan for her brother, but it came out Nad because she wrote the D, then made the A upside down and turned the paper over to fix it, then made the N in front of the A. Success is in the eye of the beholder and I couldn't rob her of that! "You did it!"
Later on, Maya unhooked Sadie's potholder loop weaving from the new-for-Christmas loom. Then Sadie wove a string all around the edges and pulled it tight to make the potholder into a birdsnest for her stuffed cardinal. Maya warped the loom with regular yarn tonight and said she plans to make a regular weaving on it. I doubt I'll be getting any potholders. Daniel sucked on my silicone spatula and drooled while he watched Maya. Abby and Sadie were watching a Sesame Street music video "...I'm fuzzy and blue, all over, fuzzy and blue..." Gotta love Grover!
After supper (leftover homemade pizza for the cheese eaters and a homemade black olive, rosemary calzone for me, mmmm) I taught Maya and Sadie a duet of Alouette in F major while dancing with Abigail. Explaining B flat on the cello while dancing is no easy feat. But they got through it and it sounded like the song we all know. That was followed by some serious queen/maid role playing involving much bed making, wearing of aprons, and folding of laundry. There was some intermittent Lego play too: Maya started to build a huge house and Abby did lots of digging through the box looking for cowboy hats for the Lego guys to wear. Sadie colored.
Len shoveled the back roof while they brushed their teeth and, after realizing Daniel wasn't a great prince to go to a ball with, Sadie played librarian instead. She said she lived at the library with her adopted children. She proceeded to read us a story, but it mostly sounded like gibberish because she forgets she's reading outloud and gets quieter and quieter! After that we talked about the fact that we had missed the first day with a palindromic date in about 700 years. 01-02-2010. We're looking forward to 10-10-10 because, thought it's not a palindrome, it is pretty neat. Then Len read several chapters of a Nancy Drew book while I negotiated bedtime with Abby. She ended up with about 8 covers on her bed, but Len said we have bigger fish to fry and not to fight about covers. Sigh. At least she's wearing her Pooh jammies now that I cut the buttons off and sewed the front shut. Those cute new owl jammies are next!
Maya went to sleep listening to Taylor Swift (did you buy that, Mom?), Sadie to Edgar Meyer playing the Bach cello suites, and Abby to her CD of animal songs. And yes Abby, it's on repeat. What about Daniel? He's still watching and drooling. I think there are teeth on the horizon.
And so our holiday ends. Neither girl is too eager to go back to school, and I'm not too eager to send them. However, after a while Maya goes stir crazy and Sadie enjoys the excitement of school. But, I know what will happen. They'll be too tired to put any effort into their life at home. By the time they get off the bus it will be nearly dark and there is homework to do, so no playing outside. Abby will want to play with them and they will refuse because they have been with other loud, pesty kids all day. Their tolerance will be used up. It will take time to readjust. Most days I question if it's worth it, and I usually come up with the same negative answer - but we'll save those musings for another day.
I know, I know, I haven't posted pics since last year! Sorry - it has been a while :-)
Pillsbury doughbaby!
My first free-form loaves
Abby, making pizza crust 
Qwirkle in the kitchen in new plaid jammies
Beet cake batter. So disappointing that it cooks up brown instead of red!
Sister act!First, the silly stuff. Having 4 kids and a messy house provides for plenty of calorie burning opportunities: scrubbing heads, picking up toys, doing laundry, shoving feet into winter boots, etc. One extra thing I do on purpose is to keep the baby's changing table upstairs so I have to go up and down the stairs to change him. So, you want to lose weight? Have 4 kids. In case that's just not practical...
Stop eating so much corn. As simple as that sounds, of course, it's not at all. Why? Because corn isn't just c o r n. It's about 100, uh maybe 1000, other things too. Everything from your Vitamin C supplement to the cellulose in your parmesean cheese, from your table salt to your gourmet phyllo dough contains corn. Corn fattens up livestock and raises the body temperature of chickens - imagine what overdosing on it might be doing to us, hmmm. And the tiniest amount, even after my body metabolizes it and turns it into milk, bothers my new baby. So corn is out, all the way out, of my diet. And the pounds are flying off before my eyes. I weigh what I did before getting pregnant with my first baby, and I just had my 4th a few months ago.
If you're like I was at first, you can't imagine life without corn. No popcorn? No tortilla chips? No baking powder? No vanilla extract? Nearly no packaged foods? In spite of the initial shock, here are some of the great discoveries I've made and why I can't wait until the next meal.
Breakfast: homemade granola, Ezekiel English muffins (Food for Life brand) with raw goat cheese, fruit, oatmeal, eggs from our chickens, bacon from a local pig
Lunch: corn free bread from a local bakery or home made, nut butters, home made jelly, sourdough Wasa crackers with roasted red peppers and yet more goat cheese, sprouted almonds, steamed cauliflower, soup glorious soup
Snacks: chick peas, raw green beans, home made granola bars, vegetable cakes (like carrot cake, but use whatever you have - okay maybe nor brocolli!), Carr's table water crackers, nuts, veggie straws (like potato chips but with other veggies too), lots of homemade wheat/flax bread, apple and pumpkin butters
Drinks: coffee, teas (read ingredients to avoid corn here too), preservative free cider, water, almond milk, horchata, wine
Supper: basically anything home made, but I'm especially singing the praises of the local pig in our deep freezer
Here's to a year of new food discoveries, staying skinny without trying, and not having any more food-allergic babies!! Gotta go preheat the oven; my bread is rising.
Happy New Year!
But let's just linger for a little longer. The baby's only one day old and I still have a few questions about the birth story.
The low temp in Bethlehem this time of year is about 45 F, and it's likely raining. Wasn't there anyone in the inn who would give up their room for the new baby and the first time mom? Had a midwife come in the night to help Mary give birth? What did Joseph use to cut the cord? People freak out about germs when mom's talk about homebirths, how about an unplanned, unassisted birth in an animal barn? The baby may have been in the manger last night, but the animals were hungry this morning. And, I have to ask, didn't anyone realize before they departed that a long donkey ride with a very pregnant woman probably wasn't a good plan?
The miracle is that Jesus (not to mention poor Mary) survived at all. In spite of miserable conditions that none of us can even imagine, the birth went well, Mary was able to breastfeed without incidence, Jesus survived without his newborn Hep B vaccine, and they were apparently still staying in the barn by the time the wise men showed up. Um, thanks for the myrrh, but how about a ride home in that snazzy camel car?
People complain about holiday stress. All those gifts to think of, buy, and wrap. All those cookies to bake, lights to hang up, cards to send. Well, breathe easy sister! Be glad you're not the one sitting on a blood soaked bail of hay holding the day-old Savior of the world in your arms. Christmas joy isn't about presents and cozy fireplaces, and Christmas stress shouldn't be about that either. The joy is from Mary's successful birth, and the stress is about the anticipation of that. What if it didn't happen? What if it hadn't gone so smoothly? What if Mary needed a C section?!
So even if you've already pulled the wreath off your front door and you didn't plug in your Christmas tree today, go light a candle tonight and remember Mary and Jesus a little longer. Christmas isn't over yet.
I ignored the pain as best I could and did all the things a mother of 4 little ones does at night. When it was finally time for me to sleep, I just couldn't drift off. I also couldn't take any tylenol or anything because of Daniel's corn issue. Relieve my pain it might, but then I'd be up with a screaming baby all night. No, I'll just grit my teeth. Around 5 AM I knew something was seriously wrong with me. There was a noticable lump in my lower right abdomen, and I hurt badly. I waited for Daniel to nurse one more time, then Len woke up, so I took my opportunity and drove myself to the ER.
I was the only patient there when I arrived - such a blessing! The doc said he suspected a hernia. I could either sit there for 2 hours and wait for the on-call surgeon to confirm, or I could go home and see her in her office at 9. I refused all pain medication again and went home. Nursed again, pumped as much as I could, and went back to see the surgeon. After a bit of excruciating poking on the lumpy area and around my belly, she said it was indeed a hernia and had to be operated on - today. Ahh!
OK, so surgery is bad anyway, but when you have a nursing baby with multiple food intolerances that would absolutely suffer from regular formula, it's really bad. And there was no time to pump nearly enough milk for the overnight hospital stay to come. After a quick internet check, a phone call to a friend to confirm the presence of corn syrup solids in prescription "hypoallergenic" formula, and a peek in the fridge, we decided what to do. In addition to the pumped milk I had saved, he would be fed raw goats milk mixed with sugar. Ideal? Not quite, but pretty good in a pinch and it was only for a day. And the best part? It worked - he drank it and suffered no reactions to it either. It pays to know your farmers, let me tell you!!!
I went in to get prepped for surgery, nursing right up until the last minute. The doc came in and said, so we're taking out your gall bladder today? NO, please don't! Oh, that's right - a left femoral hernia. NO, it's over here (on the right). Ugh. Sedation? Yes, please, because I'm already freaking out!
All went well with the surgery. (As far as I know I still even have my gall bladder.) Daniel, Len, and the girls all survived too. So, now I'm resting, taking all the help I can get from my sister who was kind enough to come stay with us to help out, and wondering how I will ever get out of the house again. I'm not supposed to drive until next Wednesday, and now there is snow on the ground to make it even more difficult. I feel like I just delivered the baby all over again. Sore, achy, useless, restless...
A side note here for those of you who read this blog for allergy information: Daniel reacted to the supposedly corn free ibuprofen I was prescribed. I called the pharmacy and the compounder insisted it was just a gelatin capsule and ibuprofen. After a bit of brief internet research we discovered gelatin can contain 3-5 corn products, and can even contain corn starch. We called the pharmacy back and he said we were probably right about it containing corn and he was sorry it had caused a reaction. Every day I thank God Daniel doesn't anaphylax to corn or he'd surely have died by now. He is ok if I open the capsule and dump the powder into a glass of water. It doesn't exactly dissolve, but it goes down well enough. Ah, relief.
Here's what we're doing for advent this year. Maya made a red and green paper chain, I printed out the words to Once in Royal David's City, and we glued each line of the song, in order, to the inside of one link in the chain. (OK, we glued the words in before she made the chain, but you understand, right?) You could use any song with 24 lines. Each night we will open one link and post that line on a poster board on the wall. The story will unfold bit by bit, and we will learn the hymn together as we go.
What are you doing for advent? I'd love to hear your ideas.
Good morning Cori,
Thank you for your support of Bluebonnet products.
Vitamin D3 derived from lanolin which is used in this product is contains a small amount of corn starch in the processing, a new label update should reflect that it is not corn free. That would be the only issue with corn, the lanolin from shorn sheep’s wool contains oil and the corn starch is used essentially “dry up” the oil. The lecithin in the product is soy derived.
You can return this product to the retailer and trade it out for a calcium, magnesium standalone product and add a vitamin D3 fish oil, that would be a better option for you, so sorry for the inconvenience.
Best regards,
Marilyn Ivins
Technical Specialist
Customer Service Manager
Bluebonnet Nutrition
So, see? It's not me. He really is sensitive to anything that has ever been corn, whether or not the manufacturer thinks it is still corn, protein or not, small amount or large. Once corn, always corn.
Oh, and the vodka (I used it to make my first batch of vanilla extract) that doesn't contain corn? It is corn too.
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
coriandthegirls- coriandthegirlsplus2
Syndicate
