Long Time No Blogging

Hi Blog Friends....if there are any of you still out there. I have some blog worthy news. Sean and I are having a son! I would be excited about a boy or a girl, but I am quite excited about a little boy. Dogs and snails and puppy dog tails right? Sean says not right. :) We'll see.

Late Night Fun

After my sister sent me a few fun sewing blogs I was motivated to make a few fun things myself. My staple outfit is a plain shirt from the Gap Outlet and jeans, also from the Gap Outlet. Having an abundance of plain shirts I decided to practice on these.


This shirt was a bit too bit, so I cut it down. Then I took one of Judah's old t-shirts that had holes and stains in it and cut 1 in strips to sew on to the shirt. Mom suggested using a glue stick to place the strips. That worked MUCH better than pins.

This one only took a few minutes, but was really fun. Again, I took an old t-shirt of Judah's that was about to head to the trash. I'm looking at the Goodwill bag with new eyes. Oh the possibilities!

Lastly, here's a picture of Havah in her diaper - no ruffles. She's enjoying her morning smoothie. Havah is a lot of fun these days. She talks non-stop about anything that comes to mind. I can understand a lot of it, but most of it I just pretend. Her favorite person right now is Dad. Last night when I tucked her in bed she sang a song to me about her "dadeeee". So sweet.

I'm Still Learning

Havah is 17 months old now. After 17 months of having a daughter you would think that I know how to pack a diaper bag. For the last several months she's just needed a diaper and our nursing cover. She's not had a blow out since she was teeny tiny, she doesn't usually want food or a cup while we are out.

Last week we were at Walmart when I got the a big surprise. A wet baby! Her poor little pants were soaked because her diaper had failed her. I went to the car to change her, but was only able to change her diaper. :( Learning lesson #1.

Lesson #2 - We've been trying out nursery at church and at school (I volunteer at the kids school 2 hours a week). It has not been very successful. The other day one of the volunteers asked where Havah's cup was. I explained that I hadn't brought one. She looked at me like I was pretending to be a mom. Then she asked what I had for a snack. Again, I failed to bring one.

This week we were a little more prepared. Cup, snack and even the secret weapon...magic baby paci. Too bad it didn't work. One of the caregivers brought her to me 20 minutes after I dropped her off. She hadn't stopped crying the entire time.

Anything else that I should have in my diaper bag? Any suggestions about taking her to childcare?

M is for Milk

It is generally assumed that cow’s milk is a perfect food. This is not exactly true. I am not a fan of cow’s milk and that is an understatement. In past years I always had milk around. I was sure it was good for me. It has good stuff in it, right? Yes! Good stuff for a calf!

Years ago my friend Megan told me about a girl who was a vegan. I had never heard of such a thing. She explained to me that humans are the only animals to continue drinking milk after normal breastfeeding years. They refuse to be weaned. At the time I was very surprised, but later realized that humans were the only animals smart enough to continue to drink milk. Riiiiiiight….

Well here’s what I’ve come to learn:

Cow’s milk is mucus forming. Have you ever noticed that after drinking a glass of milk or (this one might hurt) after eating an ice cream cone you need to clear your throat? That is a friendly little deposit from your friend the cow in the back of your throat. Perfect for breeding bacteria.

Dairy products create an acidic environment in the body. When the body is acidic it then goes to work correcting its PH, as the body is at a slightly alkaline ph. In order to balance the PH of the body certain minerals are released to neutralize this acidic environment. The main one being…calcium. Calcium is released from the body in order to balance out PH and help digest the protein in the milk. Hmmm wonder where that calcium comes from.

Cow’s milk is the best source of casein protein. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? There is casein in Mother’s Milk, but there’s 300x more in cow’s milk The protein in cow’s milk is made up of 87% casein protein. Casein protein is known to be cancer promoting. Check out any research done by Dr T. Colin Campbell who conducted the largest research project on nutrition ever.

Cow’s milk is intended to double a calf’s body weight in 6 – 8 weeks (human’s usually require 6 – 8 months). God being the genius He is, put in the milk what is necessary to get that cute little calf to pack on the pounds as fast as possible. Strange enough he didn’t put the same thing in human milk…

Now let’s look at Insulin Like Growth Factor. Insulin has properties in it to help your body to grow, but IGF-1’s specific role is to cause the body to grow. IGF-1 tells everything in the body to grow, normal tissue (bones) and foreign tissue (cancers). In cancer research IGF-1 is a VERY hot topic. We make our own IGF-1, but cow’s milk has far more in it than our bodies can appropriately handle. I don’t fully grasp this one, but Dr McDougal does. You can check out his video here. The dairy industry says, “Drink milk it will make you big and strong” and they’re right! In a study published in 2003 participants were given 40 grams of milk protein. Their IGF-1 was increased by 39%. That’s 39% more growth hormones than God put in our bodies. Maybe you’re thinking about switching to soy protein and soy milk options. In this same study participants who got Isolated Soy Protein increased the IGF-1 by 69%! (please note that Isolated Soy Protein is not the same as regular soy products)

Contrary to popular believe, dairy products do not prevent osteoporosis, in fact the countries that have the highest incidence of osteoporosis, have the highest intakes of dairy.

In an article published in the American Journal of clinical Nutrition (1990 vol. 52 pg142-6), they indicate that dairy products may in fact contribute to osteoporosis. “ ……the protein content of milk might have a negative effect on calcium balance by increasing urinary calcium excretion….”

But what about raw milk? Isn’t raw milk supposed to be good for you? All facts listed above are true of both raw and pasteurized cow’s milk. While there are far more live enzymes in raw milk which help you digest the milk, I would still exclude it from the “good for you” category. Now I could go into what actually happens when milk is pasteurized, but that would be A LOT more writing. There are several health, humanitarian and environmental issues closely connected to pasteurizing milk. If you are interested you can search for it yourself. I will say this, my husband tells me if you feed pasteurized milk to a cow it will die.

Now onto my last and favorite objection to cow’s milk. Prepare yourself…this is going to be a big statement. Consumption of cow’s milk is more closely related to Type 1 Diabetes than smoking is to Cancer. Take a moment and read that again. For this very reason the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that children not drink cow’s milk for the first two years of life. I get a bit overwhelmed with this one and could provide you with a lot of information, so if anyone is actually interested in hearing the science and research behind this one I’ll do a separate post on it.

Now when you go out there and begin searching this topic out for yourself please keep something in mind. The dairy industry is BIG and they have lots of MONEY. Check your sources! Make sure you’re getting good info that’s not being funded by the dairy industry or someone who profits from you buying milk.

Word to the Mothers

I loved this video. Whether you are a part of the House of Prayer or it is encouraging to know that the work you are doing at home with your children is intercession! Prayer becomes not just what you do in your down time, but becomes who you are.

She Walks

Well if you have Facebook then you know that my little Havah can finally walk around by herself. If you don't have Facebook then you're missing out on some cute videos and photos of the Henry's. Havah is still a bit tentative and defaults to scooting. In the past few weeks she has accidentally taken a step to get from the couch to the coffee table or from one toy to the next. She didn't even know that she had done it. I've known for weeks that she is completely capable of walking, but she just doesn't. She doesn't have to! She's a hiphiker. She just puts up her arms and bats her eyes at whoever walks by.

We went to visit my friend Kelly last week. She has a sweet new baby and a very fun 2 year old. While we were there we saw her walking toy. You know what I mean right? Havah was interested in it, Kelly didn't need it, so we borrowed it. That evening Havah used the walking toy to go from the living room - to the kitchen - to the dining room - to the living room...about 5 times. When I put her to bed she was exhausted but still quite upset that I was putting her in bed without her new toy.

The next day she got up and found her toy and made her rounds a few times before Judah woke up. Judah is so sneaky, she make a lap or two with Havah.... then would put the toy just out of her reach. Havah would take a step or two and then keep going.

Later that afternoon I caught Havah walking on her own. She walked from the living room all the way into the kitchen completely unassisted! The first day that the kids walks and she walks from one room to the next. Well, she was holding the phone, so maybe that counts as assisted. She thought she was talking to Laura.

Cute Video #2

Cute Video #1