Something tangible

Although Noah has been sick quite a bit this winter, it has been much, much better than last year. This year we are dealing with more of the fall out of him having been so sick in terms of his speech and behavior issues. He has been in speech therapy now for about 7 months and while he has made some progress, the gap between his chronological age and his expressive speech continues to grow, as does his level of frustration. When I met with his case worker from the regional center and a speech therapist from the school district a couple weeks ago, the speech therapist asked a lot of questions about his ears and hearing. His hearing was tested a year ago and we happened to catch him during a very small window of time that he had no fluid in his ears and his middle ear function was fine and there was no indication of neurological hearing loss. While that was all good news, I was warned that when he does have an ear infection, he does not hear well because of the fluid behind his ear drum and that was most likely the cause of his speech delay. Because we were in the midst of so many other appointments for him and trying to get answers on many fronts, I did not spend a lot of time thinking or worrying about his ears specifically.

This winter rolled around and our main problem has been ear infection after ear infection.....and a growing gap in his speech. So, we decided to go and see our ENT to have him evaluated again and discuss options. We have been blessed with a really good ENT who is very thorough and explains things thoroughly enough to satisfy this inquisitive mama. He explained that Noah has not had a series of ear infections, rather he has had one long one that has not cleared up in six months. During the last six months, he estimated that he has only been hearing 60-70% of normal. His middle ear function is VERY poor and he has a lot of fluid behind both ear drums. He went on to explain the purpose for tubes, most of which I already knew except for ONE key thing. For the general population, that does not have and immune system deficiency, tubes have been shown to reduce ear infections by 90%.  It most likely won't be that high for Noah because of his illness. However, (and here is the key thing I never realized), when he does get an infection, because there is a tube keeping things open, antibiotic drops can be delivered directly to the infection bypassing he need for them to run through the whole body AND they are 400-500% more potent that system meds. I have no idea why that never occurred to me before, but I'm really glad to know that.  The doctor was also very encouraging in that he seems to think that within a year, his speech should catch up to normal as long as the tubes work properly! The even better news is that the ENT's office has their own surgery center which will bypass the need to have the surgery at the hospital, which is one place you really, really don't want to take a kid with an immune deficiency.

Even though it will require minor surgery that is not without risk, John and I both feel like the potential benefits far outweigh the risks. I can't really explain how good it makes me feel to know there is something tangible, something very clear cut  that we can try to help our little guy overcome one of his many obstacles. And in the meantime, I am having to show myself grace because the mommy-guilt is wanting to set in and remind me that I "should" have moved forward with this last year and maybe we could have avoided some of this mess. But, I am choosing to focus on the fact that we honestly do the best we can do with the information we have at any given time and now there IS something in reach that we can do to help him! And it's as simple as ear tubes!

Finally conquered ranch dressing!

Ok, I realize that sounds like a really silly title, but ranch dressing is something I have tried many times over the years to make from scratch and just never found a recipe that I like. It was always too tangy, too sweet, too runny or too thick. I decided to give it another shot today and tweaked a recipe I found online, added a few things and voi-la! Ranch dressing from scratch the whole family loves!

Ranch Dressing

1/3 c. mayo

1/4 c. buttermilk

1/4 c. plain yogurt

1/2 tsp dried dill

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp (or a little less) salt

1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder

fresh cracked pepper to taste

Whisk all the ingredients together and store in the fridge in a sealed glass jar.

The next thing I am going to look into making from scratch is mayonaise. I'm not a big mayo person, but all my boys like it. I read the ingredients on Kraft mayo today and.....ick!!! The first ingredient in every mayo I looked at is soybean oil. Since we are moving towards being a completely soy-free house (I'm becoming rather anti-GMO foods and soy is a huge one), I'm looking into alternatives. I found a safflower oil mayo today that I decided to buy, but it still has some soybean oil in it. So, if anyone out there has any pointers on homemade mayo, send 'em my way!

A boy and his daddy

In Caleb's class, one of their daily writing exercises is a journal. The teacher starts them off with a few words and then they write two pages. When I read through his February journal, one entry absolutely. melted. my. heart. I just had to share it....in his original spelling.

February 9, 2012

I want to be like my dad. He is smart. I help him make stuf out of would (wood). We make boes (bows) and erose (arrows) together and sleinge shotes (sling shots) and we go camping together.

Of course, in ginormous first grade writing, that took up both sides of his journal page for the day. I absolutely love reading his journal and seeing how his work has progressed over the past year.  I look forward to looking back at some of his work in a few years. And I think I might just pull the sweet things like this out if (or maybe I should say when) he goes through an ugly teenager phase. 

Make-my-own recipes

This past year, I have started making almost all of my household cleaners. I've been doing it in part to save money but also to have chemical and toxin free cleaners in my home. There are many great "green" and "safe" products out there, but they are much more expensive that making my own!  I wrote a previous post on my laundry detergent and baby wipes so but I really wanted to put my picture on here so I can pin these ideas on Pintrest! I know, I know, total geek!

Laundry Detergent

1 c. Borax

1 c. Super Washing Soda

1 bar Ivory soap, grated

I have been using this for all of my laundry and love it!

Here's another recipe I've been using and LOVING. It's an all purpose spray cleaner that I use on counters, tables, for a quick spill on the tile, etc.

All-Purpose Spray

2 tsp Borax

1 tsp Dr. Bronner's castille soap

Dissolve and gently shake in a 32 ounce spray bottle. 

6 months ago, I bought a 32 ounce bottle of Dr. Bronner's lavender castille soap for about $15.  It's super concentrated and you only need tiny amounts for cleaners. I also use it diluted way down to refill my foaming hand soap dispensers (about 1 ounce of soap to 6-8 ounces of water). Each bottle of the Method  foaming hand soap I was using costs $2.70 (on sale), so getting 25 refills and a whole gaggle of other cleaners out of a $15 bottle of soap saves a LOT of money and a LOT of plastic! 

By way of a disclaimer, I was turned onto Bronner's soap from perusing over on younghouselove.com. Check it out sometime...it's a GREAT site for household projects, decor, cleaning, organizing, etc.

Banana bread

I posted on FB this evening about a healthy, real food, homemade snack both of my boys love so I thought I'd share the recipe with ya'll. Plus, I've become such a Pintrest geek that I wanted to put a picture of something on my blog that I could pin! :)

Banana Oat Bread

(recipe from Karen Selph, my mama)

Ingredients: 

1/2 c. butter, softened 

1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. flour (I use stone ground whole wheat and it works great)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 c. mashed ripe banana

1/4 c. milk

1 cup rolled oats

Cream the butter and sugar together. (Side note: if you want a lower fat version, I have also replaced 1/4 cup of butter with 1/4 cup applesauce and it turns out good too). Beat in the eggs. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients except for the oats. In another bowl, combine the banana and milk. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk mixture to the butter, sugar and eggs. Stir in rolled oats.

Pour mixture into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Enjoy!!

When normal feels beautiful

Tonight, as we got the boys in bed after coming home from some friends house, I found myself wondering why this weekend felt so wonderful. There was nothing spectacular about this weekend, nothing at all. And yet, it felt amazing. A sunny Saturday morning jog by myself, picking out my new kitchen sink with my grandma-in-law, hanging out at home with my boys all afternoon then church on Sunday morning that I got to sit quietly through, followed by a restful afternoon and then hanging out with friends. Nothing fancy. Just normal. It was the first weekend in months that we were all home, no one was sick, the weather was fantastic and the only downer was the kids melting down about not wanting to eat what I made for dinner on Saturday night.  If there's one thing I learned after a very trying year for our little family, it is to enjoy the normal stuff.  The run-of-the-mill weekends at home, the nights where I don't have to get out of bed to tend to a sick child or the days I'm not running from doctor appointment to doctor appointment and can spend time doing things I want to do at home. This weekend was one of those times that reminded me that sometimes normal feels beautiful. And, I am so thankful for normal.

2011 in a nutshell

2011 was quite the year for our family! The winter started us off with a very sick baby and house hunting. Spring brought dozens of doctor appointments that eventually led to a diagnosis for the aforementioned sick baby as well as finding a house. Late spring and early summer brought moving after 10 years of being in the same place...no small task, I might add. Most of the summer was focused on adopting 2 little girls we had fallen deeply in love with, only to have that dream crushed in early August. Fall brought all kinds of challenges with starting our oldest in a regular school, dealing with a terrible school, switching schools and then wading through the testing and adjustments of new diagnoses for him. Along with all that, work has kept us both busy and on our toes and settling into a new rhythm in our new home has been a tad challenging.

As overwhelming as it was to deal with both of our boys being diagnosed with life-changing diagnoses this year, I feel like we are in a far better place today than 1 year ago. Noah's immune system seems to be getting stronger, Caleb is adjusting well to meds and thriving in school and we are empowered with a whole lot more information and can continue to move forward towards healing. I'm encouraged with the hope of being able to spend a bit more time here and there working on me, just Julie, and letting the little things go.

I saw a quote either on Facebook or Pintrest a couple days ago that said something along the lines of "the new year is a blank book...what are you going to do with it?". While I believe that my choices and day to day living have a definite impact on my future, I am glad to know that my Creator has already written the pages of my book of life and already has things laid out for me. My job and hope this year is to continually look to Him and to seek to serve Him as I discover His writing in my book of 2012!

Welcome, 2012....bring it on!