The title of my blog is The Evolution of Me.  One way in which I have definitely evolved/changed over the past year or two is that I’ve become decidedly more “granola”.

Granola.  What does that mean?   When I hear it, two things come to mind.  The first is cereal.  Granola with milk… ever tried chocolate granola?  Yum.  Second thing that comes to mind is a lifestyle.  That’s what I’m talking about here.  To be “granola” is to be more organically inclined, more environmentally inclined, and in general, be more discerning of consumer choices. (my definition… cut some slack…)

Areas in which many people are “granola-ized”. 

Clothing choices.  This (as far as I know) ranges from choosing to wear all/mostly cotton or natural fibers, to the vegan no-animal-product-whatsoever option.  With clothing, I’m not so granola.  I do prefer cotton just because of the breathability and feel, BUT, I also have some super cute tops that are synthetics, and it doesn’t bother me.

Food.  This is a biggie.  Again, there’s a wide variety of options in the path to granola-izing yourself.  There’s the vegan no-animal-product option, there’s the vegetarian no-meat-but-will-eat-stuff-like-eggs option, there’s the vegetarian no-red-meat-eaters, there the organic-food-only eaters, and the choosy-organic eaters.  Maybe there’s more categories… that’s what I can think of.  I fall into the choosy-organic category.  Some things gross me out… dairy products being number one, if they are not organic.  Blech.  All of the hormones they pump into those poor cows???  I don’t want me, or my children to be drinking hormones with their Cheerios in the morning, ya know?  So, I do organic milk, cheese as much as possible, sour cream, butter, eggs, yogurt, etc…  I also prefer to buy the kids snack-type foods organic.   It’s definitely more expensive, but I find that if I cut out the junk we don’t need anyways, that the grocery bill ends up about the same.

Cleaning.  I’ll admit that this is an area that I long to be more organic/granola in, but am only making slow progress.  We are a no-shoe house to cut down on allergens (poor baby boy has ‘em bad), and I’ve found an all-purpose kitchen surface cleaner that is “green” that I like.  I’d like my floors to be cleaned more “greenly”, but the products I’ve tried leave a residue on the tile floors.  Any suggestions???  Another thing I’m about to granola-ize is our laundry detergent.  I’m patiently waiting for my sister to email me her recipe, in the meanwhile, I look forward to spending about 2 cents per load, vs. 20 cents or more.

Baby stuff.  This is a more new area for me.  The first baby we had, we used disposable diapers, wipes, regular everything.  I also supplemented her with formula as she was not the world’s greatest breast-feeder.  Towards the end of her “baby” phase, I started to look into more organic foods/products, and so she got some organic baby foods after about 9 months or so.  The second baby was completely breast-fed; he refused to take bottles.  He also struggled A LOT with diaper rash problems.  Don’t EVEN ask me to add up the cost associated with the number of doctor visits, prescriptions etc…  it’s astronomical.  Found out later that he is just a sensitive human.  He has a lot of allergies, and very sensitive skin.  So, with the forthcoming baby due in March, I’ve decided to go with cloth diapers.  I added everything up last night, and the cost to cloth diaper a baby for 2+ years is around $550, depending of course on the brands and styles of diapers you choose.  It will be about $550 for us.  BUT, the cost to disposable diaper for on average 3 years???  $1800.  YES, it’s true.  We’ll be saving a massive amount of money, and will be providing a happier environment for our little one’s tushie.  In fact, the cloth diapers is why I’m going to start making laundry soap.  Conventional soaps are more abrasive than you think, and will ruin the absorbancy of the diapers, therefore, a need to either buy expensive specialty soap, or make your own!

So, granola ain’t such a bad thing after all.  It definitely is a lifestyle choice, and one that comes with a price tag.  But, if you’re interested in being healthier overall, it’s worth looking into.  It’s easy to start small, and then increase when you can, or feel comfortable.  I started with milk and yogurt, and have slowing added other items as well.  Be selective. We may not have the pantry or refridgerator/freezer that is always overflowing with junk, but the stuff that we do have in our house I feel good about.                                   Quality vs. Quantity. 

 

We’re full swing into the letter F this week.  Letter E got no love from me… I mean, I know it’s an important letter and all, but it was not super-easy to find preschool appropriate activites that weren’t Easter related.  Since it was October, Easter stuff wasn’t really workin’ for me.

Letter F, though, much easier for me to plan for.

We started of the official “school time” with math.  I’ve decided to try to work in basic math practices at least 2 times a week.  For Rachel, it’s a bit more… example, today she had to look at a page with different groups of items, and circle the groups that contained only one item.  Basic, but good practice.  Got that book at Tar.get for less than $4.  Eli is working on coloring giant numbers, and then finding a sticker that matches the number.  I think I got that book out of a $.99 basket at some point

After math time, we read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss, and also Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister.  Both are classic, but in two completely different veins. 

After reading, we made our own rainbow fishes as our activity for the day.  I had purchased a while back some cardstock fish that I actually used as potty training aids. (we’d make it a necklace, and put stickers on for every time we made peepee in the potty!)   I had a bunch left over from that.  Yesterday, I cut out “scales” from construction paper in a variety of colors.  Today, Rachel glued hers on by herself, and with Eli, I put the glue on, and then he placed the scale on the fish.  When they were finished, I let them choose three scales from their fish, and I put glitter glue (the kind that comes in a non-messy tube!) on those three, to make them rainbow-ish.

Overall:  good day.  The math went well, the storytime was good, and the activity was fun.  It does involve a little prep work by the adult, but it’s really not that much.  It also helps to have a wealth of crafting stuff to pull from; going out and buying everything for just this one activity, it would be a little expensive.   It is possible to cut down on price… you can print fish pictures off of the internet, use markers to differentiate the “rainbow scales”, etc…

Here are some pictures of the finished products:

Eli's rainbow fish

 

Rachel's rainbow fish

I grew up in a non-Halloween house.  Meaning, I don’t recall a time I ever went trick-or-treating (although when I was younger we would pass out candy/trinkets.  The “Jesus Loves You pencils???  Those were from us. )

So, no trick-or-treating, but the occasional church sponsored “fall festival” was okay.   Those (at the South.ern Bap.tist churches we were at) had an optional dress-up code, which we did not usually do, or better yet, you could dress up like a Bible character. 

As I got older, my mother decided that Halloween in any shape or form was just bad.  No more fall festivals, no more Jesus Loves You pencil handouts.  Instead, we started a new family tradition of going out to a nicer restaurant for dinner that evening. 

Gotta admit, it didn’t really bother me much growing up.  I was one of those who easily and painlessly took on the convictions of my parents without question, and actually enjoyed the dinner-out night.  In retrospect, I do wish that a little more emphasis had been placed on the fact that convictions come from the Lord, not from a person, or from a book, or from a TV show.  Ahh… but that’s another topic too.

As I grew into adulthood, got married, moved across the country, and eventually had children, I started to think more about traditions, convictions, and what we wanted to pass on to our children.  Did everything that we did when I was growing up need to be transfered to my new family unit???  It was a debate (not literally… well, maybe sometimes…   )  I came to the realization that just because it “was the way it was” growing up, did not mean that’s how it had to be now.  My parents convictions were not necessarily my convictions.  God needed to be the one to convict me of things in my life… not my mother.

I have been convicted of many things since that realization.  Most have nothing to do with holidays, or celebrations… and therefore I won’t discuss.  One thing I have not been convicted about is the “fall festival”.  Yes, we plan to take our children to a fall festival tomorrow evening to play games and win candy.  Yes, we took our children to our own church’s fall festival last weekend where they got temporary tattoos and bowled with pumpkins.  My sweet Rachel dressed up like Cinderella, and Eli was the cutest little army-man you’ve ever seen. 

Do I think that my mother would be unhappy with our decision and/or lack of conviction?  Probably.  I also know that my family’s traditions may change over time.  Once the kiddies outgrow the fall festival games, will we let them actually go trick-or-treating???  Not sure.  Seems a little sketchy to me to get candy from a complete stranger…  but, we’ll see. 

So, that’s my Halloween contribution for the year.  I know in the Christian community in general it’s always a great debate… to Halloween or not to Halloween.  Anybody care to share your convictions about the spooky season???

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My sister is in the hospital.  She is a bit over 35 weeks pregnant with her second child, and unfortunately, experiencing  the same pre-eclampsia that she did with the first baby.

What is pre-eclampsia?  I wouldn’t have known before I entered the world of baby-having and all the worries/concerns that go with it.  Basically it’s a high blood pressure related problem.  Blood pressure goes up, protein count in the urine goes way up, headaches, seeing flashing lights, fatigue… all part and parcel.  The real danger is if the PRE-eclampsia turns into just eclampsia.  In that situation, the mother generally is having a seizure.  It’s bad.  Really bad.  I’ve actually known one person who developed full blown eclampsia.  Doctors these days tend to catch the symptoms of pre-eclampsia long before that happens, but it’s a stealthy progession at times.  Like my sister put it, you can be well in the morning, and needing emergency surgery in the evening.  It’s just like that.

So, she had this condition with the first baby, and he was delivered at 31.5 weeks.  Needless to say, he had a long stay in the NICU, but is now doing really well.  This time around, since the doctors knew her history, they were extra careful with her, did a lot of extra monitoring, and once things started to go the tiniest bit downhill, admitted her to the hospital for strict bedrest and 24-hour care.  That was on Saturday.  Things basically stabilized for a bit, but now seem to be doing poorly again.  Last time she was admitted, it was a week before they did the c-section to deliver the baby.  I’m hoping she can make it a bit further than that… but again, pre-eclampsia is not a really predictable disease.  It can progress rapidly, and she’ll deliver tonight, or she could be on bedrest another two weeks.  The waiting game is the worst. 

All of this has helped give me a new respect for life.  Even after getting pregnant (which is difficult for so very many people), and carrying a baby past the first trimester into the “safe stage”, it’s still so very possible to have complications. 

This is not the only one I’ve heard of.  A friend of a  friend recently lost their baby at around 34 weeks when he pressed his elbow against the umbilical cord and cut off his own blood supply.  I can’t even imagine it.  I’ve always thought that once I make it to “such and such” point, it’s basically home-free, other than the labor part!  But I now have a new respect for life, and how it gets here.  It’s a journey, and a miracle… and every baby that is born needs to be treasured for the miracle that they are.