Past years Costumes (couldn't find James Taylor and Biggest fan pics) 80's joggers, plumber and toilet. Years before 2007 I didn't have a digital so the pics are in shoeboxes!
Happy Halloween!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween! Blast from the Past...
Past years Costumes (couldn't find James Taylor and Biggest fan pics) 80's joggers, plumber and toilet. Years before 2007 I didn't have a digital so the pics are in shoeboxes!
Happy Halloween!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
A Halloween Shindig
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Christmas Shopping-Paying it forward
Most years we enjoy shopping online, as well as shopping throughout the year. I tend to find goodies for friends and family and stockpile them throughout the year in my gift closet (which is also the seed closet, coat closet, and game closet..). If we are on a road trip, or I just see something that reminds me of someone, I buy it when I see it regardless of when their birthday or Christmas is. This has been very helpful, as I tend to have the perfect gift that I may or may not have forgotten about.
We have been chatting about our strategy this year. We have discussed purchasing only items from stores on main street, but I think we may do a combination of things. Trying to support USA and Local does have it's challenges, but it is worth it, and always worth the extra dollar (or 50 cents sometimes!). Chris watched an enlightening Diane Sawyer special on construction companies using only products made in the USA.Turns out it is possible to only purchase items made here, but it requires searching out the plants of these items. The next morning I found the printed out list of sources on our desk. Not that we are going to build a house or anything, but we do our fair share of projects. I love that about Chris, he is always striving to practice what he preaches.
This isn't the website he used, but it is pretty thorough...
http://www.madeinusa.org/nav.cgi?info/whybuy
Here are some other awesome websites that we will shop from, and have shopped from in the past...
Uncommon goods http://www.uncommongoods.com/
Usually hand made or recycled gifts to support artisans in other countries
The Hunger Site https://www.thehungersite.com/store/
Similar items as uncommon goods, but from every purchase some amount of food is donated to a third world organization
Solace International www.solaceinternational.org
A non-profit organization near and dear to my heart (Aunt Jac works for them) who go to other struggling countries and villages and purchase hand made amazing goods, increase the prices, sell them here, and put the money straight back into projects in those same villages. Education centers, orphanages, crafting supplies and rooms, more! There isn't a way to shop online for products, but there is a way to donate online. If you are interested in any products, there is an amazing selection, and I would be happy to send you pictures and complete the transaction. There may also be a local black friday solace event, so if this interests you, comment or email me and I will get you the details.
One last thing... Another do-good experience!!
The Festival of Trees!
A dear friend is hosting a HUGE event featuring a taste of Northern California. It is going to be on November 20th, at the California Automobile Museum, from 4-8ish. It is a benefit for The Birth Connection, where my friend has adopted 4 children from. This non-profit organization performs adoptions for a very affordable fee, and therefore is needing our help to continue to keep kids out of the foster system. This kid-friendly event is going to feature many restaurants, from Bibas to Whole Foods to Rubios (just to name a few!), a live and silent auction (with AMAZING prizes from trips to the east coast to gift baskets). I am going to be there to support, taste, bid, and hopefully win some items for Christmas presents as well. Why purchase presents anymore that just go to the man? Or china? Seriously!!
To purchase tickets, donate, or check out the full list of vendors and auction items, check out:
http://TheBirthConnection.org/Festival-of-Trees
Photos from our Solace photoshoot a few months back....
Owen sporting a solace beanie and booties, me a gorgeous necklace.
Charlene and Alaina modelling beanies and booties.
Handwarmers and necklace.
Recycled rice and grain bag bags.
Ok, Hope this list has provided you with some ways to spend some cash that pay it forward. I know there are many more out there, and would love to hear about any that you have utilized in the past.
We have been chatting about our strategy this year. We have discussed purchasing only items from stores on main street, but I think we may do a combination of things. Trying to support USA and Local does have it's challenges, but it is worth it, and always worth the extra dollar (or 50 cents sometimes!). Chris watched an enlightening Diane Sawyer special on construction companies using only products made in the USA.Turns out it is possible to only purchase items made here, but it requires searching out the plants of these items. The next morning I found the printed out list of sources on our desk. Not that we are going to build a house or anything, but we do our fair share of projects. I love that about Chris, he is always striving to practice what he preaches.
This isn't the website he used, but it is pretty thorough...
http://www.madeinusa.org/nav.cgi?info/whybuy
Here are some other awesome websites that we will shop from, and have shopped from in the past...
Uncommon goods http://www.uncommongoods.com/
Usually hand made or recycled gifts to support artisans in other countries
The Hunger Site https://www.thehungersite.com/store/
Similar items as uncommon goods, but from every purchase some amount of food is donated to a third world organization
Solace International www.solaceinternational.org
A non-profit organization near and dear to my heart (Aunt Jac works for them) who go to other struggling countries and villages and purchase hand made amazing goods, increase the prices, sell them here, and put the money straight back into projects in those same villages. Education centers, orphanages, crafting supplies and rooms, more! There isn't a way to shop online for products, but there is a way to donate online. If you are interested in any products, there is an amazing selection, and I would be happy to send you pictures and complete the transaction. There may also be a local black friday solace event, so if this interests you, comment or email me and I will get you the details.
One last thing... Another do-good experience!!
The Festival of Trees!
A dear friend is hosting a HUGE event featuring a taste of Northern California. It is going to be on November 20th, at the California Automobile Museum, from 4-8ish. It is a benefit for The Birth Connection, where my friend has adopted 4 children from. This non-profit organization performs adoptions for a very affordable fee, and therefore is needing our help to continue to keep kids out of the foster system. This kid-friendly event is going to feature many restaurants, from Bibas to Whole Foods to Rubios (just to name a few!), a live and silent auction (with AMAZING prizes from trips to the east coast to gift baskets). I am going to be there to support, taste, bid, and hopefully win some items for Christmas presents as well. Why purchase presents anymore that just go to the man? Or china? Seriously!!
To purchase tickets, donate, or check out the full list of vendors and auction items, check out:
http://TheBirthConnection.org/Festival-of-Trees
Photos from our Solace photoshoot a few months back....
Variety of shawls
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Fallish update
Owen took a two hour nap today. That is HUGE in the stay at home mommy world. Usually I "clock out" now around 830-1030, and then go to bed, but today I was able to do all sorts of things that normally can't happen! And all while he rest and repaired his little body and soul!
I unloaded the veggies from the nursery from our morning escapade, planted some seeds up by the house (monitor within earshot of course...No garden trips during naptime, too far!), ate lunch, took a 30minute asleep nap myself, caught up with a girlfriend, and my mom, dug through the present closet, found, and wrapped 3 birthday presents, and sat down to type this. I so so so enjoy my days with Owen (admittedly even MORE so now that I feel rested!) but this little treat of "extra time" has been kinda nice.
When Chris had his stretch off this past weekend his parents were in town and Chris and his dad worked on making us a new entertainment stand. It looks absolutely professional and I can't wait to put it to use! It is Owen proof as well.
I taught the diabetes class I love teaching so much last week. I hadn't taught with Kaiser since July so it was great to get out and exercise my nutrition brain. It was the biggest class, as well as the most interesting. We shared a wall with the flu clinic's kid station, so every 10 minutes a unsuspecting victim would scream out in pain....
The garden is still producing cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, tomatiilos, parsley, jalapenos, and green beans. Got some loot today to get the winter stuff a going.
Chris's parents also watched Owen twice last week. The first time was so Chris and I could go on a dentist date (Scandalous I know!!) and the second was to attend a friends birthday party. It was so nice of them and so great for us to spend some time together.
Owen continues to eat more and more. We have backed off the volume of his tube feeds just slightly to attempt to motivate him a little more, and also not to fluid overload him. He took 7 ounces of water throughout the day the other day!! The next day I mixed half strength milk and he took 5 and today is full strength and he has taken about 1.
He is babbling up a storm now, and enjoys pushing cars all over the place. He says: Ball, Hat, Hot, Mom, BOMB, bottom (thanks grandma for teaching him that one!), Sometimes Pop or Pa, and now makes some sort of uh oh noise. He says these all with perfect pronunciation of course, just kiddin! Better go, he's a calling!
I unloaded the veggies from the nursery from our morning escapade, planted some seeds up by the house (monitor within earshot of course...No garden trips during naptime, too far!), ate lunch, took a 30minute asleep nap myself, caught up with a girlfriend, and my mom, dug through the present closet, found, and wrapped 3 birthday presents, and sat down to type this. I so so so enjoy my days with Owen (admittedly even MORE so now that I feel rested!) but this little treat of "extra time" has been kinda nice.
When Chris had his stretch off this past weekend his parents were in town and Chris and his dad worked on making us a new entertainment stand. It looks absolutely professional and I can't wait to put it to use! It is Owen proof as well.
I taught the diabetes class I love teaching so much last week. I hadn't taught with Kaiser since July so it was great to get out and exercise my nutrition brain. It was the biggest class, as well as the most interesting. We shared a wall with the flu clinic's kid station, so every 10 minutes a unsuspecting victim would scream out in pain....
The garden is still producing cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, tomatiilos, parsley, jalapenos, and green beans. Got some loot today to get the winter stuff a going.
Chris's parents also watched Owen twice last week. The first time was so Chris and I could go on a dentist date (Scandalous I know!!) and the second was to attend a friends birthday party. It was so nice of them and so great for us to spend some time together.
Owen continues to eat more and more. We have backed off the volume of his tube feeds just slightly to attempt to motivate him a little more, and also not to fluid overload him. He took 7 ounces of water throughout the day the other day!! The next day I mixed half strength milk and he took 5 and today is full strength and he has taken about 1.
He is babbling up a storm now, and enjoys pushing cars all over the place. He says: Ball, Hat, Hot, Mom, BOMB, bottom (thanks grandma for teaching him that one!), Sometimes Pop or Pa, and now makes some sort of uh oh noise. He says these all with perfect pronunciation of course, just kiddin! Better go, he's a calling!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Photo blast!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Mixing it up! in the VITAMIX
Since Owen had his g-tube placed, he has been on a blenderized diet. This means that everything in his tube is real food, liquefied, and given via a syringe. Being an RD I knew of these diets, but most people don't want to take the time to blend foods, and tube feedings are covered by most insurances, and therefore are free. So, you can see why people choose to pop open a can. The cans are also stable at room temperature, when unopened, so they are EASY!
All that being said, I couldn't bring myself to use them for Owen 100% of the time. After putting so much time, energy, and effort into pumping, something that takes about 10 minutes seemed effortless! Also, I would not want to live on pediasure/ensure. Owen did have a transition period where he was getting a blend of fortified breastmilk and pediasure, and he was so backed up it was ridiculous. His bowels have much improved, and require much less energy than before! I did some investigating, and found out that with an industrial strength blender, and bolus feeds with a syringe, we could successfully feed our 1 year old real food.
I didn't think that this would be possible with using a feeding pump. It really wasn't. I tried. Before Owen's surgery, I would try to use a blenderized diet, and sometimes it would clog the pump, and othertimes not... Very inconsistent... Which isn't a good thing when you have a hungry baby. What was do-able with the pump was very small amounts of baby food, yogurt or rice cereal added to the liquid mixture. I had been doing this for months to make sure his gut would handle different foods. But if I increased the volume of foods or added peas, it would clog the mechanism in the pump and stop feeding. It would continue to run, however, so if you weren't paying attention to the volume in the bag, a half hour would go by and Owen wouldn't have gotten any food. This sadly happened more than once in this trial period. I went through many, many tube feeding bags, tears (Owen and I), and serious talks with Chris on this topic.
I tried for hours with our insurance to get a different feeding pump that has a bigger mechanism that could handle the thicker food. The feeding pump that was recommended by the enteral feeding department at Apria was not covered by insurance, as "No feeding pump is meant to handle anything other than liquids or formulas". REQUEST DENIED. Hmmm. After a year of renting a different pump, I was all pumped out... This would have been an option, to pay out of pocket for the other pump, but there were no guarantees that it would even work. Plus I had already made a wee stink out there so they knew that I was wanting it for a home-made diet, which didn't make anyone (but us) happy. I wanted it as a back up anyway, since we had been successful with bolus feeds via syringe. So we were to transition to 100% bolus feeds. And 100% food. YAY!
We are so happy to say that Owen has tolerated the quicker bolus feeds very well. The first week after surgery, he didn't gag or vomit once! That was AWESOME! It felt so foreign to not even use a bib or burpcloth. The laundry was lighter, it was pretty good! That was a little of a tease, but he will usually go 2-3days in between an episode. This time, when he does lose his lunch, he really does, probably the whole thing. It's quite a show, but thankfully it has only happened once in public, and none in the car. (He ALWAYS used to lose his lunch the second he was strapped into his seatbelt even an hour after his meal.) The prius is quite happy, and much cleaner now.
Owen has also tolerated his blenderized diet pretty well also. At first I was mixing everything up all together but it seemed a little too much for him. He seemed to have a tummy ache, gas, etc... So We changed some things up. Here is his food recipe ~1200 calories. Owen requires slightly higher calories than the average year old (er, almost 15months...) due to his heart physiology. Most kiddos can gain on 800-1000calories.
I do this MOST days, but other days he gets a mixture of milk-yogurt-chicken
3 Cups goat milk (here is where I will cut out 1 cup for 1 cup of yogurt, or 1/2 cup for 3 oz chicken
3/4 cup lundberg brown rice
3/4 cup bob's red mill steel cut oats
3/4 cup green beans, steamed (from the garden)
3/4 cup kale, raw or steamed (from the garden)
~2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 ml liquid multivitamins with Iron
1 ml additional vitamin D (400IU) *He was slightly deficient a month ago
*these veggies are a garden staple right now, but I will also throw in tomatoes, any squash, really any veg. These just freeze easy and steam quick.
I blend fruits separately. There is NO scientific evidence behind this, although you may have heard that fruit should be eaten on its own. There is a mass email that has gone around for years. None of that is true, and if you do not believe me, check it out on Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/fruit.asp
We have found that this small "fruit snack" works better on days when Owen sleeps in, appointment days, and it just seems a little more normal, to have something on its own. It is usually 4 ounces of liquefied fruit- watermelon, plums, pears, etc. He doesn't have a fruit snack every day... Probably every other. But that one fruit snack has about 2 plums in it, or 1 cup of watermelon cubes. So it all evens out in the wash...Er, blender?
We still feed Owen 5 times a day (roughly every 3 hours). Sometimes it is a challenge to fit in 5 full feeds so we will just add in the fruit snack. He gets about 200ml of the big mixture every 3 hours. If he has been drinking more water in his sippy cup around the mealtime, we cut back on the feed so as not to over fill him. Any of his oral intake (of foods) has not been enough to decrease the volume of the mix. He has taken to goldfish crackers this past week. He probably ate about 20 the first day, and has continued to dabble in them here or there. He really prefers the crunchy stuff, but will now touch softer/mushier foods without making the "EW GROSS" face. PROGRESS! I give him cooked chunks of apples, potatoes, any veggie we are eating, and any finger food really. It is usually just a matter of time before it hits the ground. Hopefully the new high chair will quell Owen's need for shotputting his food.
While I am on the topic, (long blog turning loooonnnger!) We/I opted for the plain wood restaurant style high chair. I like wood vs. plastic, and we needed something wipeable, and hose-downable. This has worked for that purpose, but it doesn't contain Owen very well. We push it up to our table, but it doesn't fit underneath it, so he can touch his gtube, his connector, and also watch everything under the sun drop to the ground. I was really resisting getting a new one, but at some point we will have another child, and I found one that was worth it. Plus Owen won't be able to turn all the way around even when strapped in. DANGER! OXO Sprout chair, hopefully you also bring more stability to feeding times!
Hehe, this longer blog has taken 3-4 times to write it, hope it makes sense. Below are some photos to assist you with my rambling.
Glass Bottles-we love them!
Today was a brown rice, potato, chicken kinda day... The yellow is 2 TBSP of olive oil. Garden fresh green beans, rosie's pre-cooked organic chicken from costco, baby! Small bottles are Vitamin D on it's own and the other is a regular old liquid multi-vitamin for kids. Just an FYI- Goats milk isn't nutritionally equal to cow's milk. Calories and Protein, it's pretty similar, but it isn't as high in folate as cows milk. Since we are really engineering Owen's nutrition, it all balances out:)/
Add it all together, and what do you get?
Vitamix 5200 is AWESOME! I am an affiliate, so if you are interested you can purchase one using my affiliate code. You will get FREE SHIPPING, and I will get a percentage of the sale. I am going to use that percentage to purchase toys for the kids in cardiac ICU at UCSF, and/or contribute to the scrapbook hour @ UCSF that was pure therapy for me for a month.
It blends it all! I really don't even need to cook the potato, as it will blend it all up regardless. But I wouldn't just eat a raw potato, so there you go.
MMMMM. Owen's food for the day.
I have tried other professional grade blenders, but they really do need to be of the vitamix caliber. I am MORE than happy with our purchase, and if you are using it primarily for a medical reason, they offer a hefty discount for a refurbished blender (ours), still with the 7 year warranty. I have to say I have used it to make soups, ice cream, smoothies, and salsa. It actually cooks the soup from the friction of the blades, taking about 5 minutes from chopped veggies to steamy-ready-to- eat soup!!
If you want to check it out, you can click on this link. I plan on using a portion of my commissions to purchase toys for the Cardiac ICU kids at UCSF and/or support the parent scrapbooking hour also at UCSF. Just be sure to enter in my affiliate code if you want me to get credit:). #06-006563.
https://secure.vitamix.com/redirect.aspx?COUPON=06-006563
As you know, the purpose of this family blog isn't to sell things, but this has changed our lives (and Owen's well being) for the better, so I wanted to share it with you.
If you have any more questions about this fine piece of machinery, blenderized diets, etc. you can email me at: chelsea.britton@yahoo.com.
All that being said, I couldn't bring myself to use them for Owen 100% of the time. After putting so much time, energy, and effort into pumping, something that takes about 10 minutes seemed effortless! Also, I would not want to live on pediasure/ensure. Owen did have a transition period where he was getting a blend of fortified breastmilk and pediasure, and he was so backed up it was ridiculous. His bowels have much improved, and require much less energy than before! I did some investigating, and found out that with an industrial strength blender, and bolus feeds with a syringe, we could successfully feed our 1 year old real food.
I didn't think that this would be possible with using a feeding pump. It really wasn't. I tried. Before Owen's surgery, I would try to use a blenderized diet, and sometimes it would clog the pump, and othertimes not... Very inconsistent... Which isn't a good thing when you have a hungry baby. What was do-able with the pump was very small amounts of baby food, yogurt or rice cereal added to the liquid mixture. I had been doing this for months to make sure his gut would handle different foods. But if I increased the volume of foods or added peas, it would clog the mechanism in the pump and stop feeding. It would continue to run, however, so if you weren't paying attention to the volume in the bag, a half hour would go by and Owen wouldn't have gotten any food. This sadly happened more than once in this trial period. I went through many, many tube feeding bags, tears (Owen and I), and serious talks with Chris on this topic.
I tried for hours with our insurance to get a different feeding pump that has a bigger mechanism that could handle the thicker food. The feeding pump that was recommended by the enteral feeding department at Apria was not covered by insurance, as "No feeding pump is meant to handle anything other than liquids or formulas". REQUEST DENIED. Hmmm. After a year of renting a different pump, I was all pumped out... This would have been an option, to pay out of pocket for the other pump, but there were no guarantees that it would even work. Plus I had already made a wee stink out there so they knew that I was wanting it for a home-made diet, which didn't make anyone (but us) happy. I wanted it as a back up anyway, since we had been successful with bolus feeds via syringe. So we were to transition to 100% bolus feeds. And 100% food. YAY!
We are so happy to say that Owen has tolerated the quicker bolus feeds very well. The first week after surgery, he didn't gag or vomit once! That was AWESOME! It felt so foreign to not even use a bib or burpcloth. The laundry was lighter, it was pretty good! That was a little of a tease, but he will usually go 2-3days in between an episode. This time, when he does lose his lunch, he really does, probably the whole thing. It's quite a show, but thankfully it has only happened once in public, and none in the car. (He ALWAYS used to lose his lunch the second he was strapped into his seatbelt even an hour after his meal.) The prius is quite happy, and much cleaner now.
Owen has also tolerated his blenderized diet pretty well also. At first I was mixing everything up all together but it seemed a little too much for him. He seemed to have a tummy ache, gas, etc... So We changed some things up. Here is his food recipe ~1200 calories. Owen requires slightly higher calories than the average year old (er, almost 15months...) due to his heart physiology. Most kiddos can gain on 800-1000calories.
I do this MOST days, but other days he gets a mixture of milk-yogurt-chicken
3 Cups goat milk (here is where I will cut out 1 cup for 1 cup of yogurt, or 1/2 cup for 3 oz chicken
3/4 cup lundberg brown rice
3/4 cup bob's red mill steel cut oats
3/4 cup green beans, steamed (from the garden)
3/4 cup kale, raw or steamed (from the garden)
~2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 ml liquid multivitamins with Iron
1 ml additional vitamin D (400IU) *He was slightly deficient a month ago
*these veggies are a garden staple right now, but I will also throw in tomatoes, any squash, really any veg. These just freeze easy and steam quick.
I blend fruits separately. There is NO scientific evidence behind this, although you may have heard that fruit should be eaten on its own. There is a mass email that has gone around for years. None of that is true, and if you do not believe me, check it out on Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/fruit.asp
We have found that this small "fruit snack" works better on days when Owen sleeps in, appointment days, and it just seems a little more normal, to have something on its own. It is usually 4 ounces of liquefied fruit- watermelon, plums, pears, etc. He doesn't have a fruit snack every day... Probably every other. But that one fruit snack has about 2 plums in it, or 1 cup of watermelon cubes. So it all evens out in the wash...Er, blender?
We still feed Owen 5 times a day (roughly every 3 hours). Sometimes it is a challenge to fit in 5 full feeds so we will just add in the fruit snack. He gets about 200ml of the big mixture every 3 hours. If he has been drinking more water in his sippy cup around the mealtime, we cut back on the feed so as not to over fill him. Any of his oral intake (of foods) has not been enough to decrease the volume of the mix. He has taken to goldfish crackers this past week. He probably ate about 20 the first day, and has continued to dabble in them here or there. He really prefers the crunchy stuff, but will now touch softer/mushier foods without making the "EW GROSS" face. PROGRESS! I give him cooked chunks of apples, potatoes, any veggie we are eating, and any finger food really. It is usually just a matter of time before it hits the ground. Hopefully the new high chair will quell Owen's need for shotputting his food.
While I am on the topic, (long blog turning loooonnnger!) We/I opted for the plain wood restaurant style high chair. I like wood vs. plastic, and we needed something wipeable, and hose-downable. This has worked for that purpose, but it doesn't contain Owen very well. We push it up to our table, but it doesn't fit underneath it, so he can touch his gtube, his connector, and also watch everything under the sun drop to the ground. I was really resisting getting a new one, but at some point we will have another child, and I found one that was worth it. Plus Owen won't be able to turn all the way around even when strapped in. DANGER! OXO Sprout chair, hopefully you also bring more stability to feeding times!
Hehe, this longer blog has taken 3-4 times to write it, hope it makes sense. Below are some photos to assist you with my rambling.
I have tried other professional grade blenders, but they really do need to be of the vitamix caliber. I am MORE than happy with our purchase, and if you are using it primarily for a medical reason, they offer a hefty discount for a refurbished blender (ours), still with the 7 year warranty. I have to say I have used it to make soups, ice cream, smoothies, and salsa. It actually cooks the soup from the friction of the blades, taking about 5 minutes from chopped veggies to steamy-ready-to- eat soup!!
If you want to check it out, you can click on this link. I plan on using a portion of my commissions to purchase toys for the Cardiac ICU kids at UCSF and/or support the parent scrapbooking hour also at UCSF. Just be sure to enter in my affiliate code if you want me to get credit:). #06-006563.
https://secure.vitamix.com/redirect.aspx?COUPON=06-006563
As you know, the purpose of this family blog isn't to sell things, but this has changed our lives (and Owen's well being) for the better, so I wanted to share it with you.
If you have any more questions about this fine piece of machinery, blenderized diets, etc. you can email me at: chelsea.britton@yahoo.com.
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