I don't wanna know, wait - yeah I do..

So I was innocently reading a yummy sounding healthy hamburger cheese dip and read one tiny little line......

Oh dear, so many (most?) crock pots; have lead in the ceramic???  I'm in the process of checking into this and seeing what are the options.  Argh.  Right this very minute I have a yummy local chicken slow cooking in my crock pot on my counter.

Really?  Sometimes I wish I didn't pursue things.  But I want to do all I can to provide a safe home for me and my family.  So, what about my crock pot?  I'll let you know.

Love, Carra

I (heart) green juice 3.0

So on Wednesday, our little guy will turn ONE! I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown by. For his birthday week, two things are happening...

1. He will be receiving a more masculine/gender-neutral room color. We went ahead and put the girls back together to share a room, and Zade has moved into Faith's old room. The color of her room is called "queen anne's lace." Not a bright pink, a subtle, gentle pink, ...but pink. So Pete can no longer stand it, I'm finding it inhibiting for decorating, and we have a smidgen of space between the encounter winter conference (beginning tues) and the beginning of the spring semester. Colors? Green (leftover from the kitchen) and possibly one cream wall. All his furniture is black (see previous crazy furniture painting post).

2. He got introduced to "green juice." Dr. Ben Kim's Greens, mixed with vitamin C and diatomeceous earth (that's a whole other post). No juice, just gritty thick vitaminy water....and you can see... he loved it!!!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
Love, Carra

Looking for some time to relax!

This should probably subtitled - essential oils are welcome everywhere in our house. I recently read this book called "Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be" by Donna Partow. It's a "normal" book but she surprisingly seems to have some granola leanings. I like it.

One of the assignments (it's a 90 day journey) was to incorporate a cleansing bath at least once a week. I am not a "bather." I like my shower -its quick and doesn't make the bathroom messy. Both my girls get baths (usually together) but those involve soap and scrubbing off the layers of earth built up from their dirt cake endeavors. Zade is kind of bathed on an as needed poopy-directed basis.

But now we are trying to add a weekly cleansing bath for each of us. I call it a "soak bath" for the girls. I don't use soap for them on that one. I add baking soda (cupish) and some lavender and eucalyptus essential oils (3 +/- drops of each). They sit in the bath and play with their cups and washcloths until the water gets cool. I use about the same amounts but add a cup of Epsom salts for me.

If you do this - drink lots of water because this definitely has a detox effect. I'm just ready to go straight to sleep after this bath - lovely!

Love,

Making Baby Food, sort of

I suppose I have a philosophy of feeding babies. You probably know I am pretty fond of many of the "old ways." I remember my great aunt saying, "well, the old people used to..."

One of the things the "old people" used to do was to wait until a baby began growing teeth before adding solid foods. Not an arbitrary 4 months (wow that seems young), 6 months or whatever.

So Zade grew some teeth about a month ago. His fourth tooth just came through. And he was happily nursing, now he nurses just as much and *loves* food-food.

With the older girls we did arbitrarily wait until 9 months, then added grains in the form of organic cheerio type cereal. Then I read two books in the meantime...

Real Food for Mother and Baby by Plank (sp?)
Nourishing Traditions by Sally --(?)

There is a wealth of info there & will challenge you a lot. My takeaways for feeding the little man??

Basically I am avoiding all breads that have been processed. He only eats soaked sourdough my friend SE makes for me each week. Zade eats meat (roast beef, chicken, turkey and fish). I haven't given him any fruits or pastas.

He loves meat, SE's bread, sweet potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, eggs, oatmeal and brown rice. He eats so much that the idea of cooking something, putting it into ice cube trays etc is useless. I cooked a ton of sweet potatoes, cooked then, packed them into jars & froze them. I just keep a jar in the fridge at all times. It's easy just to scoop some in a bowl.

For traveling, I like the "happy baby" brand food. His favorite is super salmon. It's hard to find in stores - amazon carries it. It's more than I would pay for his everyday meals, but super handy to have on hand for "on the go."

So when you see me and there's a little orange handprint...just ignore it...it's my mommy badge these days.

Love,
Carra