Dan & Laura's Journey

a few of my favorite {baby} things

2009-11-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

I was thinking the other day about some of the baby/toddler "accessories" that we've found that have made life so much easier for us...and I thought I'd do a post about it! Here I am doing free advertising...I should get paid for this! Oh well. :) If I can help some of you out by letting you know about these things, that's pay enough for me.

Here's my list:

1. Mirrors for in the car! This is one of my FAVORITE favorites. It's SO nice to be able to see Jaxon in the back seat while I'm driving. I can tell if he's sleeping, getting into trouble, etc..and you can make faces at them :) I love it.

This one is for when the baby is rear facing.

The one below is for when they go forward facing - it attaches to your rear view mirror. We are using this one right now (I think ours might be a little bit different - I'm not sure if this one actually attaches to the rear view mirror). Jaxon often looks at me in the mirror and I'm always checking him out :)

2. Car Seat Bunting Bag - this is a MUST for the colder weather. I LOVED this thing. I didn't have to put a coat on Jaxon the entire winter because it. I just put a warm shirt on him, tuck a warm blanket inside, and zip up the cover. When you come inside and the baby is sleeping....all you have to do is unzip the cover and viola! the baby can stay asleep. And we all know how important it is to keep our babies sleeping as long as possible ;)

***if you look for one of these to buy - I would suggest that you get the kind that doesn't wrap around the bottom of the car seat. My friend had one of those and it wasn't as cozy and warm and as soon as the baby's legs got longer, it wouldn't fit anymore. The brand that I have is Gagou Tagou. ***

3. Nursing Cover! You can get these online....or I can possibly make & sell you one if you're interested. The top has boning in it so that it stays open for you to see the baby. It also has an adjustable strap to go around your neck.

4. Leather slippers. I'm sure most of you have used or at least heard of these before. They are AMAZING. They are seriously the only thing that would stay on Jaxon's feet. The most well-known brand is Robeez....but I recently found a company called Lil Jo's that makes them in Canada - and they are only $22.99. The ones pictured below are Lil Jo's.

5. Teething Tablets. These are tiny little homeopathic tablets that dissolve on the baby's tongue. They help take the edge off teething and they really seem to work well to calm Jaxon when his teeth are really bothering him. For us, they haven't necessarily replaced Motrin or Tylenol when teething is really bad, but they kick in fast and do the trick when he just needs to be distracted from the pain or to buy us time until the Motrin kicks in. You can get them at WalMart in the States (I haven't seen them in the Cdn WalMarts) or at a health food store. Jaxon loves taking them.

6. A wipeable, flexible, durable bib with a pocket that has snaps! (This brand is a Dex Dura-Bib). I didn't really use this until Jax started eating finger foods...and now it's the ONLY bib I use. And you only need 1. It's great. It catches everything, and all you have to do is wipe it off and it's ready for the next meal. And the snaps on the pocket make it very easy to get all the junk out of it - all you do is undo the snaps and the pocket unfolds, making it all flat. Thanks Amy for giving this to us!!!

...maybe this will give you an idea why I love it so much :)

It's helped me "let go" of the desire to feed Jaxon just so there would be less mess....now I don't really care (although he still gets food in his hair but oh well...) and he's actually feeding himself really well now, with way less mess.

Every time I take the tray off his highchair to clean him up, Jax loves to peek inside the pocket to see what kind of goodies are in there :o)

7. (Somewhat) Spillproof Snack Cup - This thing is one of my MAJOR favorites. It has been a life-saver for us numerous times. The lid has slits in it so that your toddler can stick his hand in, grab a few Cheerios, and pull it back out without dumping the whole cup of Cheerios everywhere. This is an essential in my purse whenever we go anywhere. Great for the car, shopping cart, church, and stroller (to name a few).

It took Jax a couple days to figure out how to get the Cheerios out, but he eventually got it and he quickly became a pro.

It IS still possible for Cheerios to go flying (like when Jax was trying to figure out how to use it and ended up holding one of the slit things open and shaking it upside-down) but really - it still gets 5 stars from me.

You can find these at WalMart for under $4.

And of course - some of the more normal things like:

Wireless baby monitor (so you can take it outside with you while baby is napping)
Car Seat/Stroller combo (where the car seat snaps into the stroller - very handy for transferring from the car to stroller, or for walks in the winter, or for taking a sleeping baby inside).
Double-sided flannel blankets for swaddling (Jax slept way better swaddled from the time he was born until he started standing up in his crib).

The list could go on and on but I think I'll leave it there.....anyone have any awesome kid stuff that I don't know about??? I'd love to hear about them!

H1N1 vaccine...update...

2009-10-30T20:18:00.006-04:00

First of all....thank you all for your comments on my last post. They DEFINITELY helped me make my decision about what I am going to do about the H1N1 vaccine.

Today, I realized I finally feel confident in not getting Jaxon & I the vaccine.

It's not easy making the decision. Of course - the media and most medical professionals are advising people to GET the vaccine, and there is a ton of anti-vaccine stuff on the internet - but of course there is so much junk on the internet it's hard to know what's true. I found myself VERY torn, confused, and paranoid about BOTH options.

I prayed about it and asked God to give us confidence about what we should do...and today I realized He did that!

We've decided NOT to get the vaccines. As scary as that is! Yikes.

My friend Ashton is 3 months pregnant and got very sick with the flu this past week. The doctors were treating it as if it was the Swine Flu. She said that from her visits to the hospital and talking to 4 different doctors she learned a lot about this flu....

the symptom that you have to be most worried about is shortness of breath. The other symptoms should be given attention - but they won't kill you. If you have shortness of breath you need to get to the hospital ASAP. And you will have time to get it under control if you get to the hospital right away.
3 out of the 4 doctors she talked to were under the belief that the anti-viral medications they give H1N1 patients (Relenza and Tamiflu) are ineffective, and a Pharmaceutical ploy. Also, that there are side-effects with those.
Those three doctors were also NOT in favor of the vaccine.

This made me feel more level-headed about the whole thing - YES, it's serious - but if you watch for the symptoms you will have time to get treated and you will be okay.

So....what I AM doing is this:

taking Probiotics (Jaxon is too - you can get it in a powder form and put it in yogurt or whatever you want)
Taking Vitamin D and mulitivitamins (for Jax we have liquid multivitamin with A,D and C in it)
I bought some Sambucol (black Elderberry extract) from the health food store to have on hand in case we start getting flu symptons. It's a super flu fighter and is supposed to reduce the length of a flu by 4 days, and it's safe for pregnant women and children (just make sure it's the Original kind with no Echinacea). Thanks to Andrea for this tip!!!!
staying home more
not hanging out with sick people :(

I'm relieved to have finally made a confident decision. And for those of you who have decided to get the vaccine - or plan to - I totally respect that. I know it is a really hard decision and there are pro's and con's to both.

to get it or not to get it (the H1N1 vaccine)

2009-10-26T10:39:00.004-04:00

I know this is yet another VERY controversial topic...but I'm very curious what you think about this.

As you all know, the H1N1 virus is something that a lot of people are talking about - and it is apparently very serious. I've heard on the Dr. Oz show and The Doctors that it's expected to get worse this winter, and that it's very important for especially pregnant women and children aged 6mo to 19 years to get the vaccine.

Before watching The Doctors this morning, I was convinced that I wasn't going to get the vaccine - as scary as that is - because I felt that it was too new of a vaccine and I couldn't trust that it has been researched and tested well enough, especially for long-term side-effects.

According to what was said on the show this morning, there are many people who are leery of getting the vaccine, for the same reasons I am. They went on to point out that the vaccine is not really a NEW vaccine - it's basically the same as the regular flu vaccine, just with a different strain of the flu in it. And of course - the line "the benefits outweigh the risk".

Now, being pregnant, I know it's not just about me anymore - and me getting the H1N1 flu could be very dangerous for the baby and me. The show also said this morning that the swine flu is very dangerous for children.

So here I am, once again, torn about what to do.

Let me know what you're planning on doing...I'm curious to hear. But please, be nice :)

ps. for those of you who remember me writing a similar post about getting Jaxon immunized - we have decided to go ahead and start getting Jaxon immunized - one at a time. We're not giving him ALL the vaccines...we're sticking with the tried and true ones that we got as kids. So far he's had his first does of the 5-in-1.

Hmmm....

2009-10-25T15:16:00.002-04:00

I'll let you guess why Jax is looking at these books ;)

No-Knead English Muffin Bread

2009-10-20T18:17:00.010-04:00

If you like English muffins, and you are scared of the kneading part of making bread, this recipe is for you! :)

I've made this twice now and it's SO easy, and SO yummy. You eat it toasted. We love how it gets so crispy when you toast it, just like English Muffins. Try it out! Here's the recipe:

English Muffin Bread
cornmeal
6 cups flour (I used 2 cups brown and 4 cups all-purpose)
2 packages active dry yeast (or 4.5 tsp)
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1. Grease 2 loaf pans. Lightly sprinkle pans with enough cornmeal to coat bottom and sides; set pans aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine 3 cups of the flour, the yeast, and baking soda; set aside. In a microwavable bowl (I use my 4 cup glass measuring cup), combine milk, water, sugar and salt and microwave just until warm.

3. Using a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour.

4. Divide dough in half. Place dough in prepared pans. Sprinke tops with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 45 minutes).

5. Bake in a 400 C oven about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks. Serve toasted.

(recipe taken from my Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook)

oh fall....how we love you

2009-10-12T21:19:00.006-04:00

Fall....I love fall. I'm always a little sad when the trees START to turn color, because I'm never quite ready to say good-bye to summer, but it doesn't take long for me to love that cozy feeling that comes with the cooler, fresh air outside, wearing slippers in the morning, burning candles in the house, cooking soups and stews and lots of other warm comfort foods, and of COURSE, the bright beautiful colored leaves (to name a few).

Last week Dan, Jax & I started our 1st annual fall tradition of going to pick out a pumpkin at a pumpkin farm. These are some pictures from that little outing as well as some other fall pictures :)

great deal!

2009-09-23T09:03:00.003-04:00

Hey my Canadian friends! I just wanted to fill you in on a deal I found!

If you're like me and you don't print pictures for a year at a time....and then realize that it's going to cost you a fortune to print your pictures because there are so many.

A few weeks ago I sorted through all the pictures from the last year and decided which ones I wanted to print. I realized I had FIVE HUNDRED pictures to print.

So.....guess how much this box of pictures cost to print?

.......there's over 500 pictures in that box and it only cost me $39.95, including tax and shipping! I saw an ad on the internet for kwikpix.ca and thought I'd check it out....and they have a promo right now that you only pay $0.05 per picture for your first order! Yay for me. After your first order pictures are $0.10 per picture.

At Wal-Mart for $0.19 each, it would have cost me $95. Yikes.

So....check it out! Save yourself some money. :)

quite a scare!

2009-09-18T11:04:00.007-04:00

Jaxon has a peanut allergy!

About a month ago, he had a bite of the chocolate part of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and a few minutes after got red, puffy eyes, sneezing, and runny nose. It cleared up in about 2 hours. The same thing happened 2 weeks ago when he had 1 bite of my PB & Jam toast. So then we knew it was the peanut butter.

On Wednesday, Jaxon had 1/2 a piece of Chex cereal snack mix at youth group, and as soon as he ate it I realized it had PB in it! So I watched him carefully and he only got red splotches around his mouth, nothing else. I came home and put him to bed, and he woke up about 15 minutes later coughing. He has a cold so I went in and gave him a drink of water and for "some reason" decided to take him and let him lay with me on the couch. Then I realized he had the red puffy eyes and red face, and hives on his belly...and his breathing was a bit wheezy.

We headed for the hospital right away, and within 2o minutes we had 3 nurses and a doctor standing around us, giving him Epinephrine, Benedryl, Ventalin, and Prednisone. Crazy!!!!!!! Things cleared up pretty fast after all the drugs, but they wanted to keep him overnight incase of a rebound after the Epinephrine wore off.

Thanks to the Benedryl, Jaxon fell asleep as soon as we got to our room, and slept until 4am. He woke up chipper and chatty and curiously examining the wires attached to him. :)

So, we are now the parents of a child with a peanut allergy! We have to become quite familar with an Epi Pen....especially since his allergy seems to get worse each time he has PB.

Jaxon's room :(

Future doctor maybe?

Dr. Kristina....we found out while we were there that she was with us in Sudbury with Mya! She did CPR on Mya for 9 minutes and said she still thinks of Mya often.

It was such a blessing to meet her and talk about Mya with her.....and it was so ironic that she was taking care of Jaxon here in the Soo! Especially since she's only up North once & a while...she normally works at CHEO.

Obviously feeling better!

...And just for fun...a classic spaghetti face picture :)

ps. THANK YOU to everyone who gave me advice for weaning! It was so helpful to read your ideas. As of now, we're still having 3 feedings a day but I think we're getting ready to drop 1 more. I bought a straw sippy cup and he's starting to get used to that, but is still not drinking tons of milk out of a cup. I've decided to go to the women's retreat....Dan is set to brave the weekend by himself! :)

weaning tips, anyone?

2009-09-12T16:07:00.003-04:00

So....Jaxon is 1 year old now and I'm thinking it's time to get him off the breast. There's 2 weekends in October that I have the opportunity to go away without Jaxon (Wonderland with the youth and a Women's retreat) but I really don't see Jaxon being done with me by then.

In those first days of breastfeeding, I never thought I'd get to 6 months, let alone 1 year! Well here we are and I love it and Jaxon loves it. But I didn't think it would be this hard to wean him! He has shown no signs of wanting to be done with it, in fact...he's starting to come to me signing "please, milk!" which is so cute and so hard to say no to! However......it's TIME! I told myself that when my kid starts to be able to pull up my shirt and ask for it, it's time to say bye-bye to breastfeeding. And I'm afraid that time has come.

We've successfully gone from 4 feedings a day to 3 in the last five days, but I've had to distract him quite a few times this week after he signed "please milk" to make him forget....so I don't see dropping 3 more feedings in under a month to be possible.

The biggest issue for me is that Jaxon doesn't really drink enough milk from a sippy cup (and he won't take a bottle at all..never has!) to replace his milk feedings. Since getting rid of the 12pm feeding, I've been offering him Homo milk in a sippy cup. He'll take sips but definitely not enough (or so I think). He's also not eating a ton of solid food right now so I worry that he's not getting enough. What are the milk requirements for a 1 yr old?

Any advice?? Should I just prepare for a tough 2 weeks and eliminate the feedings one-by-one, hoping that he'll eventually drink the homo milk or should I give up on the idea of going away in October????????

Thanks for your advice!

ps. any moms out there have any tips for picky eaters? It seems like we have to pretty much force feed Jaxon his meat & veggie meals. He's pretty picky with his finger foods too.

visiting the cemetery

2009-09-07T13:58:00.005-04:00

We were glad to be able to visit the cemetery where Mya is buried while we were in Goderich. Especially since her 2nd birthday, we were really wanting to go and visit her grave site. We always go there hoping to get some feeling of comfort or feel close to Mya, but we usually get there and just see the stone in the ground and realize that it's really just her body there. We know that she is far from here...rejoicing and having a grand time in Heaven with Jesus.

This time though - I think because it was the same time of year as her funeral - memories of her funeral and the time surrounding her death flooded back. I looked over to the tree that we set her tiny white casket under and remembered the feelings of numbness and disbelief combined with the feelings of torture.

There is a picture that I will always have in my head - the picture of Dan carrying her casket from under that tree to the place that she would be buried. We had a ton of people walking behind us, supporting us and crying with us. Whew. What a dark time that was.

On a lighter note...our visit this time was somewhat of a blessing. It was a beautiful day...the sun was shining and the big leafy trees were shading us and blowing in the breeze...we were looking forward to taking Jaxon and sitting by Mya's grave. Dan and Jax went ahead and I took a couple pictures.

This one blew us away:

Just one ray of sun shining on Mya's grave. We're not the kind of people that say "oh...it's Mya looking down on us"......but we do feel that it was a little blessing from God saying "it's going to be okay, she's safe here with Me".

The entrance to "babyland". I wish I had a "before" picture. It has come so far. Dan's parents really took ownership here and got things into shape. Before there was no flowers or plants, there were tree stumps sticking out of the ground, there were ugly white pillars, sparse grass (or should I say WEEDS!), and it was just not a pretty place. But now, there are beautiful flower beds, trimmed trees to let the sun in, and green lush grass. It's a much nicer place to visit, and it feels like a better more tranquil place to be.

a visit to Goderich

2009-09-07T12:02:00.003-04:00

Last week we packed up and headed to Goderich for a quick visit with our families. It was so nice to see everyone again - we had a really nice visit. We brought our bikes which was great....the weather was PERFECT so we were able to take advantage of it. Here's some pictures from our visit!

We had a birthday party for Jaxon so our families could celebrate with him too!

A new favorite picture!

I love my sister!

We visited my Grandma on the way back! We brought her KFC which she was thrilled about, and played Skip-Bo. :)

The zoo with Ange

Jaxon is 1!!

2009-08-26T05:20:00.003-04:00

On Sunday our little baby boy turned 1!!! We had beautiful weather - perfect for our pool party at the Loberts. We had such a fun party - Jaxon had a 2 hour nap right before the party started so he was in a fantastic mood. He loves being amidst chaos so he had a great time. I think Dan & I were having as much (or maybe even more) fun as Jaxon was :) I am constantly amazed at how much fun the simplest things can be when it's your kid.

Jaxon got incredibly spoiled with love & gifts from the special people in his life here. He'll get more of that next week as we make the trek to see our family and have another party there!

Thank you Grace & Carol for taking such wonderful pictures! To see more pictures, click here to see my album on Facebook (you don't need FB to look at them).

enjoying his FIRST piece of cake!

blowing kisses! (he does that now when you say "I love you" or "bye bye")

happy birthday Mya

2009-08-15T11:45:00.009-04:00

August 16th, 2007 our sweet baby girl arrived. She was 8lbs, 5oz of pure cuteness. The fact that she was a girl surprised us both - we were SURE we were having a boy. :)

We never dreamed we would only get to hold the baby we instantly loved and adored for a short 30 hours. To read the rest of Mya's story, click here.

We still miss our sweet Mya...most days it feels very unrealistic that Mya was taken from us and once and a while it feels painfully real. God has blessed us with His grace & healing, and has given us a new little miracle in our 2nd child, Jaxon (who already knows lots about his big sister!).

If Mya were alive today, we would definitely be partying....there would probably be a lot of pink involved...a pretty cake in some kind of neat shape with lots of icing....dolls...cute hair clips....all that fun girl stuff. But I guess none of that can beat the party she's having in Heaven. I'm so thankful we have the hope that we DO get to see her again someday! Thank you Jesus.

taking in everything about her!

daddy lovin' on his girl

cuddling with Jesus
Our friend Bethany Davidson drew this for us...beautiful.

baby cookies

2009-08-09T13:30:00.005-04:00

I found this recipe for homemade baby cookies on a website and thought I'd share it...Jaxon loves them! I don't feel quite as guilty giving him a cookie knowing that they're healthy. There's no sugar or butter in them so I think they're pretty good. Enjoy!

Oats & 'Naner Drops
1 c quick oats
1 c ground oats (grind oats and make a coarse oat flour)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon or ginger or cardamom (we'd try it with all 4 spices.)
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t baking powder
1 c (~2) overripe bananas, mashed
1 t vanilla extract
3 T oil of choice (I used Olive Oil)

Mix dry, mix wet, add wet to dry. Drop by the spoonful onto parchment paper or greased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 min at 350.

And I had to throw this picture in here too....it's one of my new favorites.

"teethifier"

2009-08-01T11:08:00.004-04:00

A couple weeks ago I found this interesting looking teether. It's supposed to be able to reach their molars so I thought I'd give it a try. Jax seems to like it so far! It's called the "teethifier". I bought mine at Once Upon a Child if you're interested in buying one.

a great holiday

2009-08-01T10:53:00.005-04:00

It actually happened! Since we left NBC we talked about how in the future we would have to meet up for holidays with our good friends Lindsay & Amanda and Kyle & Kassy - since we are now so far from them (they live in Alberta & Saskatchewan!)...and you know how it goes - you have big ideas and dreams but realistically...it usually never happens. Well this summer we actually did it! We planned a vacation together at a half-way point (Falcon Lake, MB) and rented a cottage together last week.

It was such a great time for all of us. The guys are all in ministry positions so it was a really good chance for them to air out their ideas, ideals, dreams, visions, frustrations, etc. to each other and of course play some Playstation and drink coffee. And us girls enjoyed relaxing together and chatting about life and kids and God and a bunch of other random things.

We're so thankful that God has given us such amazing friends and we miss them so much already!

To see more pictures of our time, you can see my Facebook album.

Jax playing with Liam & Libby. He LOVED having other kids to play with.

the guys

the girls!

it's been a while!

2009-07-15T15:27:00.004-04:00

Today I realized it's been a while since I've posted anything!

We have been thoroughly enjoying our summer. It is by far our favorite season. How come it's the shortest one? :)

Here are some highlights of the last month:

We had a heat wave that lasted a couple days so Jax was happy to spend time cooling off in his little pool. He seemed more interested in the grass though :)

Dan was away for my birthday so my parents came for a quick visit!

Canada Day party!

We were blessed to be able to spend a few days at our friends' camp with my sister and her family. We spent LOTS of time in the hammock. Jaxon even enjoyed sitting still and rocking back and forth in it.

We woke up one morning and the lake was as smooth as glass. So incredible.

Soaking up some sun on the dock!

Karen, Steve, and the boys!

homemade chemical-free cleaning recipes

2009-06-25T14:25:00.005-04:00

Last week my mom sent me an email with these recipes for homemade cleaning products. I thought they looked interesting. I'm making up a batch of the de-gunker today.

ALL DUTY DE-GUNKER

In a spray bottle, combine 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. borax, 1/2 tsp. liquid dish soap and 2 cups hot water for chemical free clean! Make sure you label the bottle. I put the ingred. on it and they suggest you put the purpose of it too, but for this stuff it is self explanitory.

SLICK-FREE FURNITURE POLISH

Mix together 1/4 cup vinegar and a few drops of olive oil for a homemade polish that gets furniture gleaming.

BREATHE-EASY OVEN CLEANER

Combine 1/4 cup baking soda, 2tbsp salt and enough hot water to make a paste. Rub the paste inside the oven, keeping of wires and heating elements; let sit for 5 minutes, then wipe to reveal a shining oven.

I used this in a ladies oven and it did a good job, but didn't get everything off. Some of the black marks wouldn't come off. But she was very happy with the results. It is sort of hard to make the paste stay on the sides, but you can figure it out.

NO SCRUB TOILET SPARKLER

Sprinkle 1/2 cup baking soda into the bowl, then pour in 1 cup vinegar. When the fizzing stops, just swirl around with a toilet brush to leave the bowl shiny.

pneumonia and visit from grandma & grandpa

2009-06-23T10:42:00.004-04:00

What a weekend we had! We were looking forward to a nice visit with Dan's parents - they came on Friday and stayed until Monday. But on Friday night Jaxon had a terrible night followed by a terrible day on Saturday. He was feverish, had a hard time breathing, and was very sleepy all day, along with all the regular cold symptoms. Because of the breathing, I was worried that it could be pneumonia.

We ended up taking him in to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. That doctor said he thought it was bronchilitis, but told us that if the breathing got any worse to come back in. They did a Ventalin treatment there (I've never seen Jaxon cry so hard in my life!). Saturday night was even worse than Friday night. He was waking up every 15ish minutes so I ended up sleeping with him on the couch. I noticed that his breathing was getting even worse so at 4:30am Dan's mom & I went back to the hospital. They decided to do a chest x-ray. I hope none of you ever have to experience your babies having one of these! Thankfully it was quick, because my poor baby was panicking and screaming like you wouldn't believe.

This is a picture of what the contraption looks like that they strapped Jaxon into for the x-ray (that's not Jaxon in the picture....I found it online):

The x-ray showed that it was indeed pneumonia....so they sent us home with some ventalin and an aero chamber and some antibiotics.

He hates getting his ventalin treatments too but they really help. We're trying to get him to make friends with his aero chamber (you can tell he just had a treatment here by the redness of his eyes! :)

Our sad little sicky boy :(

Having a bottle with Grandma

Trying to cool him down in the sink!

By the time Grandma & Grandpa left he was feeling much better. He's still not 100% but he's doing way better than he was on the weekend!!

food combining

2009-06-05T09:45:00.006-04:00

Have any of you heard of food combining? I first read about it a few years ago, and have tucked away tidbits of it in my mind over the years, but just recently started being interested in learning more about it. To me it makes sense, explained as it is below. It's actually quite interesting.

I don't know that I would be willing to switch my diet to obey the proper food combining 100% (you know...I can't give up eggs & toast, sandwiches, dessert, etc.........), but I do try to eat fruit on it's own when I can.

Here's an article that I found online that I felt explained it well.

Nine Rules for Proper Food Combining

By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
Reprinted from Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review

There are sound physiological reasons for eating foods in compatible combinations. In other words, some foods, if mixed in the digestive system, will cause distress!

The principles of food combining are dictated by digestive chemistry. Different foods are digested differently...

Starchy foods require an alkaline digestive medium which is supplied initially in the mouth by the enzyme ptyalin;
Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion- hydrochloric acid.

As any student of chemistry will assure you, acids and bases (alkalis) neutralize each other. If you eat a starch with a protein, digestion is impaired or completely arrested!

The undigested food mass can cause various kinds of digestive disorders. Undigested food becomes soil for bacteria which ferment and decompose it. Its by products are poisonous, one of which, alcohol, is a narcotic that destroys or inhibits nerve function.

It plays havoc with nerves of the digestive tract, suspending their vital action such that constipation may well be a result! As set forth in Dr. Herbert Shelton's FOOD COMBINING MADE EASY these are the salient rules for proper food combining.

The Nine Basic Rules of Proper Food Combining:

1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion.
2. Eat protein foods and carbohydrate foods at separate meals. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion.
3. Eat but one kind of protein food at a meal.
4. Eat proteins and acid foods at separate meals. The acids of acid foods inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies in bacterial decomposition and produces some potent poisons.
5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. Some foods, especially nuts, are over 50% fat and require hours for digestion.
6. Eat sugars (fruits) and proteins at separate meals.
7. Eat sugars (fruits) and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach and are held up if eaten with foods that require digestion in the stomach.
8. Eat melons alone. They combine with almost no other food.
9. Desert the desserts. Eaten on top of meals they lie heavy on the stomach, requiring no digestion there, and ferment. Bacteria turn them into alcohols and vinegars and acetic acids.

Here's a handy chart I found here that helps us understand what goes together and what doesn't

All foods in touching boxes combine well. Foods in boxes not touching do not combine well.

first bike ride & chicago deep dish pizza

2009-06-01T12:57:00.006-04:00

Last weekend (the one before this past weekend) was such nice weather so I was very eager to get out on our bikes...and try out Jaxon's bike seat for the first time. We were a little nervous about the whole helmet thing...it's almost impossible to find any helmets for kids under the age of 3. But thankfully my sister Karen had a helmet from Sam that she gave us. It fits Jaxon perfectly. We thought he might hate it and try to take it off but he really doesn't mind it.

He LOVED our bike ride. We were gone for about an hour (Dan came too!) and even braved the Pine street hill (yikes!). For the first little bit we didn't hear a peep out of Jaxon and then he started singing and talking. We've been out a couple times since and he is very content to get his helmet on cause he knows what that means! I love biking.

Once & a while Dan will get inspired and decide to create something in the kitchen. He spent the week before in Chicago (for the Moody Pastor's Conference!) and got a taste of the REAL Chicago-Double-Crust-Deep-Dish-Pizza. He came home and decided to try and make it for me and viola! Here it is. He did an amazing job. I must say, I was a little skeptical about the "double crust" idea. I thought for sure it would be too doughy....but it was DELICIOUS. Way to go, honey.

oh yeah.

our new fun thing to do. Jaxon loves being chased down the hall on his daddy's shoulders.

jaxon's first camping trip & a visit with grace

2009-05-22T14:46:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we went camping with the youth group. Jaxon & I stayed in a trailer which was wonderful....since it POURED early in the morning (and all the next day!). Jax & I slept in this bed which was super comfy. We both slept really well!

Dish duty :)

Since Dan's been gone all week....I tried to keep busy. On Wednesday it was SUPER nice outside...I think it was 25c which was amazing. Jax & I went to visit Grace & Marissa.

Jax loving the swing with Marissa :) He loves outside, just like his mamma & dad!

He would have LOVEd to go all the way in. He wasn't timid about the water at all.

a lesson on appearances

2009-05-15T12:25:00.004-04:00

I admit it, I am the kind of person who judges a book by it's cover. I know that's a bad thing, but it's so true! I somehow believe that a book with a pretty cover and nice artwork, and a good font means that what's inside is better than a book with a boring cover with bad artwork and a lame font.

This also applies to restaurants. To me, it seems like the food tastes way better in a restaurant with a nice atmosphere. Part of the whole experience of eating out for me is enjoying the surroundings.

Where am I going with this? Last weekend when we were away for our anniversary we stayed a night in Mackinaw City in a hotel. We all know that websites make the hotels look way better than they really are. We were surprised to find that the "hotel" was set up more like a "motel" with all the entrances to the rooms on the outside of the building. When we went into the lobby to register, the employees were wearing jeans & hoodies. The decor was 70's with a twist of "antique".

Then we get into our rooms and see that nothing's been updated for about 30 years. Oh boy. Did I mention that I also have a bit of an issue with hotel rooms? The first thing I do is rip the comforter off the bed (you know, since they only get washed about once a year and who knows who has done what on it!) but thankfully I decided from the start that I was going to have a good attitude about it and just make the most of it. One cool thing about the room was that there was a GIANT jet tub. It was the biggest bathtub I've ever seen. So we skipped the pool and just had a "swim" in our tub. :) Jaxon thought that was great.

It was close to supper time so we decided we'd check out the "buffet" restaurant that was right across the street from our hotel. We were excited about the thought of a buffet....we've been to some amazing buffets in Michigan that have just about every kind of food you can imagine and leave you extrememly full. Well as soon as we walked in I had to chuckle to myself. It pretty much matched the theme of our hotel room. Very dated and retro. Hickish would be a good way to describe it.

I was leary as I walked up to the buffet counter to get my food...as it was the most retro buffet counter I've ever seen....and it seemed as though the standards for cleanliness weren't quite as high as I was used to. At this point I was still disappointed about our choice of restaurants but I bravely scooped some stuff onto my plate. When I got back to our table Dan and I kinda laughed about it...how it was nothing like what we expected and how we were kinda scared to eat the food. Thankfully we both had good attitudes about it and just decided to have fun with it.

Throughout the meal we realized how surface we are, and how bad it is how much we base on appearance. The food was actually REALLY good. It was home country cooking and was delicious, it just wasn't presented the way we expected it to be. The host and waitress were SOOOO friendly and kind, and that made us feel a little guilty for the attitude we had coming in. We left the place satisfied and realizing that we need to work on not letting appearance affect us (especially me!) so much.

I pretended I was taking this picture of Jaxon but really I was taking a picture of the fancy buffet table behind him. :)

5 year anniversary!

2009-05-13T16:26:00.005-04:00

On May 8th Dan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! In some ways it's hard to believe it's already been 5 years, but in other ways it does feel like 5 years have gone by. When I think back to what our first 5 years of marriage has held for us, it makes me wonder what God has for us for the next 5 years. And the next 5 after that.

We decided to take the weekend and get away somewhere. We have friends (Scott & Amy) that live in Michigan that we're really close to so we decided to go visit them. On the way back we stayed in a hotel in Mackinac City....which I'll post about later ;)

We had a great time visiting with them. They are great friends and it's neat that Amy & I are friends and Dan & Scott are friends....so it usually ended up being Scott & Dan off doing their thing and chatting and Amy & I doing our own thing and chatting. They have a little boy Taden and it was neat watching him & Jaxon interact.

While we were driving we were talking about ways we can stay connected during these parenting years. You hear of a lot of couples who's kids grow up and leave home and then the mom & dad realize they don't know each other anymore. I can totally understand how easy it would be to let that happen with the busyness of everything and the attention and focus that kids take...and that scares me! I really don't want to be one of those couples. At this point Dan & I are best friends and I really hope to be able to say that in 20 years.

One thing we decided to do is to go on a date after Jaxon goes to bed once or twice a month. Even if it's just for an hour or two.

Another thing we want to try is have "couch time". I found this in a book. The idea is to commit the first 15 minutes that Dan gets home from work together on the couch, to talk about our day...free from interruptions and distractions. Once the kids are old enough to understand, we'll explain to them that that time is our time and they can play with Daddy when we're done. I think this will be hard to get into the habit of, since I'm usually making supper and/or feeding Jaxon when Dan gets home, but we really like the idea and we're going to give it a try. I don't know about you, but habits (good ones) are really hard for us to implement so we'll see how it goes :)

havin a little nap in the car

Jax chillin' out with Dad. He was so content to just lay on the couch (watching sports of course).

they're special.

little buddies :)

Jaxon's first bath with a friend!

visit with the Otts

2009-05-13T16:20:00.003-04:00

Last week we were so blessed to have my sister Karen and her family come visit us. Even though Karen & I are 9 years apart in age, we have grown very close as friends. I miss seeing her regularly and just hanging out. We're the type of friends that can just be ourselves around each other and be honest and even chat about just about anything. I'm so thankful that we're sisters! Here's some pictures from our visit:

the boys playing together. They were so good with Jaxon, and Jaxon LOVED them. He enjoyed having constant entertainment.

We stopped by our friends' cabin that we'll all be staying at this July!