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!

Changes....and they're mostly good!

It would be a huge understatement to say that the past 5-6 weeks have been a challenging and overwhelming at times. When John and I first decided to take Caleb to the neuropsychologist, we really had no idea what we were getting in to. In my simplistic (albeit delusional) mind, we were simply going to be formally told what we already knew, that Caleb has ADHD. Well, for starters, it's not even called ADHD anymore! He has attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity. Ok, whatever! Here we are 6 weeks later after hours of testing, 3 diagnoses and 2 medications in a completely different place.

We have managed to get Caleb's focus and attention into an "above average" range and have literally seen him take off at both at home and school. He's only a couple points away from a second grade reading level, he's excelling at math and science and his writing has improved dramatically. We've seen a whole new side of him that we always knew was there but only got glimpses of before. He will spend hours drawing, creating and coloring all kinds of little boy master pieces. He loves to build all kinds of things with his itty bitty legos that he never had the patience before. It is amazing to see him do things that he's always been capable of but didn't quite have the focus for! The look of sheer amazement and joy that I see in his eyes when he accomplishes something new is a beautiful thing!

Before I start to sound like my child is a poster child for medication, this has definitely all come at a cost. There have been side effects of the medication (almost a complete loss of appetite and difficulty sleeping, both of which we are dealing with for now) and the down-sides of having above-average focus (which in his case includes some moderate to severe sensory issues and OCD type behaviors). The sensory and OCD issues are the hardest to deal with and I am very thankful to have some non-medication pathways to explore in dealing with these.

As a feisty mama bear, I have wrestled with all of this immensely in the past few weeks. It has all weighed heavily on my heart at times. And yet, I know that right now, this is where we are supposed to be. I have two dear friends who are dealing with lifelong challenges with their children who have been an invaluable support to me. One has a 7 year old boy who was recently diagnosed with similar issues and they are exploring both medication and non-medication therapies for him. We've been able to bounce ideas off each other and encourage one another along the way. My other friend has a toddler with severe food intolerances and allergies who has gone down an incredibly difficult road of healing with a diet that is truly healing her entire family from the inside out. It is awe inspiring to hear the victories that have come from her passionate commitment. She has also been a source of support, encouragement and resources.  I have been compiling a TON of information on neurochemical imbalances and gut issues that I need to slowly process and pray about whether or not there is a better way to deal with Caleb's issues. For now, though, I am at peace with the choices we have made and know that the benefits are outweighing the unwanted challenges that come along the way. One small step at a time.....

My boy of few words

Aside from the crazy ups and downs on our journey with Caleb over the past month or so, we've entered into a really difficult phase with our little guy. A couple months ago, when he was first diagnosed with a speech delay, he had about a 12 month gap between his expressive speech and his receptive speech. He initially had about 6-8 words (as opposed to the 50-250 he should have). 3 months into speech therapy, he's up to about 10-12 words he uses consistently and 4-5 signs. He doesn't use any two word phrases. He will very rarely imitate words without being significantly coaxed. He's developed this not-so-cute little habit of "shooshing" anyone (including his speech therapist!) who asks him to repeat something. While I have continued to tell myself that he is going to catch up eventually and try really hard to not allow myself to compare him to other little boys, it's been a very slow and frustrating process. More than anything I want him to be able to tell me what he wants, what he's upset about, what he likes and on and on. 

The biggest battle we're dealing with right now is that since he has so few words to tell us when he's frustrated, he hits. And if you tell him not to hit, the smart little bugger kicks or throws, or pinches. I'll be honest, I'm really, really tired of it. It feels ridiculous to have to continually remind myself that HE'S the 2 year old and I'M the mom! It doesn't set a very good example for the mom to stomp her feet and throw a hissy along with the 2 year old!  We're pretty much at a loss as to how to handle him right now. Nothing that we've tried is making any difference. So, this weekend along with school projects and Christmas decorating, I'm going to be pulling out all of my parenting books and doing some research  for some new or creative ways to approach this little situation! And, in the meantime, I'll be enjoying as many glasses of mommy-juice as my diet allows!

Peeling back layers

The journey to get to the bottom of Caleb's attention and focus issues has become one of the most difficult paths we've gone down as a family. Although it's a completely different set of issues with very different daily implications, it's been every bit as difficult as the process we went through with Noah earlier this year. Needless to say, it's been painful....draining....exhausting....and quite frankly, it sucks. But, I have a very dear friend who has reminded me at critical points along the way that there is always HOPE. I am so very thankful for HOPE. Hope for healing, hope for balance, hope for a child who will know that no matter what obstacles, no matter how many ups and downs, his mama and papa love him fiercely and will always do anything in their power to help him.  And, in the meantime, we will continue to peel back the layers of everything that's going on with our big boy.