Tea Party or bust

We wanted to attend the last Tea Party on tax day but unfortunately Rooster started coughing the day before so we decided to skip it. We get another chance in July for Independence Day. What a great way to celebrate the Fourth of July!

Visit the site asap if you don't quite know what the Tea Party is about. Please look up where an event in your state is being held (chances are numerous places) and attend one on July 4. Bring your kids, a picnic lunch, create a neat sign and make a day of it.

Ready, Set, Sleep!

When do you wake a sleeping baby? Ideally, never, but in the real world it is bound to happen out of scheduling necessity or accident (or nutrition if they are newborn).

This week we are doing a mommy and baby swim class that begins at 10:05. Monday and Tuesday our schedule was perfect. Rooster woke from an hour nap at 0915, we pottied, nursed, and arrived several minutes ahead of time. Yesterday was different. He did not want to fall asleep with rocking and nursing for our usual routine (possibly distracted by the dishwasher - note to self, do not run until after morning nap!), so we headed outside for a walk in the stroller. 20 minutes later, at 0845, he fell asleep. I tried to rouse Rooster after a 30 minute nap but he would not awaken. This is not the first time I've tried to wake him up because we have needed to go somewhere, but this is the first time I was not able to gently do so by calling his name. Really?!

So what does a mama do in this situation? I could have been more forceful with my technique, louder voice, picking him up, etc. Quickly I weighed the con and pro: missing a class that is already paid for or letting the little man sleep? Hmmm...2 seconds later I was walking away hoping he would stay asleep a long time. And he did. He awoke from his nap at 10:15.

Sure we missed a day of class (which I was really, really looking forward to because he enjoyed himself so much on Tuesday) but two good things came out if it: a long nap for a tired little boy and another lesson to mama about babies and schedules - follow his cues and go with the flow.

Success in baking

I'm not an expert like my good friend V but I do really, really enjoy baking. After seeing the ingredients (wheat!) and price (really?!) for commercial teething biscuits I decided to bake Rooster some from scratch. I found a basic recipe from several different sites:

3 TBSP oil (I used olive oil)

1 cup rice cereal (can be flavored, IE banana)

1 cup flour (I used brown rice flour)

1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I added this to the recipe for flavor and to mask the taste of olive oil)

ice cold water

Mix dry ingredients, add oil, and start with 1/4 cup water. Add more water until dough is sticky (very sticky!) and pulls away from the sides. Roll out (or press with fingers like I did) to 1/4" thickness, cut into desired shapes, place on cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes (I kept adding more time, probably about 20 minutes total - keep checking on them because you definitely want them cooked through so they don't break easily).

After they completely cooled I gave one to Rooster. He kinda looked at it and then looked at me, looked at it again and did nothing. So I grabbed one myself and starting mouthing it. He's a smart cookie and did the same thing. And continued slobbering all over it for the next 25 minutes. A success!

I do have to say that despite the simple ingredients these biscuits are quite tasty. But then I do love, love, love cinnamon!

Oh, and a warning: these are very, very messy. I would suggest having baby wear only a diaper and definitely have him/her in a high chair (or whatever you use). The goop will be everywhere!

Here is the door

Bye, bye vegetarianism, hello omnivorism.

I prepared some bison meat for Roscoe's birthday dinner the other night. My husband proceeded to imitate the scene from Dances with Wolves for Rooster's benefit. Tatanka, tatanka? Tatanka! Very amusing.

The bison was quite delicious I must admit. It didn't take very long at all to prepare. I sauteed a few patties in some olive oil on the stove top, plus additional time in the microwave (ahem, a wee bit bloody on the inside still). I didn't want to over cook them because I guess it's easy to do that with bison meat.

I also made some chicken a couple of nights last week. Pretty simple when you have a silicone steam cooker from Curves (thanks to my mother in law!) that can be popped into the microwave and done within 10 min. Look for something similar at Amazon, Wal-Mart or William Sonoma. A must have for moms who need to make a very quick dinner. It came with recipes and cooking instructions for chicken, salmon, shrimp and white fish. I'm wondering if red meat can be prepared too...?

This is how I prepared the chicken on night one:

Olive oil to coat bottom

8 oz raw chicken brushed with olive oil and topped with cilantro, black pepper & ginger powder

2 cups frozen veggies

1 TBSP lime juice

Cook in steamer on high for ~8 minutes or until chicken is at 165-170 degrees

And to wrap up a week of new experiences I prepared some salmon on Saturday for an early father's day celebration. It turned out perfect! Quite an achievement for cooking it for the first time . I put the salmon in tin foil with olive oil, parsley and cilantro and baked it at 375 for 20 minutes and then broiled it for 1 minute. Easy. I also made some tabbouleh salad for a side dish, which was much more time consuming with all the mincing and chopping, but worth it.

So far, so good with adding meat to our diet. I am going to be very picky with the type and quality of my meat consumption though. It's not going to be a on the daily menu for sure but I do like the idea (and Roscoe digs it too!) of additional options. Especially additional options with high nutritional value.

Best part: campfires and hiking

We love camping and will eventually take Rooster (maybe this summer - fingers crossed and Roscoe-willing).

Until then I will post pictures from past trips in fond remembrance.

This is the view from our tent at the Great Sand Dunes National Park back in 2005.

We are better

A fantastic piece by Stephen Green today.

Already, the government runs our children’s education and our parents’ retirement. Now we’re allowing it to usurp our banks and nationalize what remains of our auto industries. Within weeks, Washington promises a plan to dictate our health care. To do all this, we’ve let Washington run up enough red ink to impoverish our grandchildren. As if all that weren’t enough, the president still found the time to kick our friends in London and Tel Aviv while courting a genocidal, election-stealing maniac in Tehran. He even gave a speech in Cairo — that oppressed, impoverished Old World megalopolis — in which he assured the world that America really is no better than anywhere else.

bold emphasis is mine

We live in a time were it is uncouth to proclaim one idea/thing/action/outcome/etc. is better than another. Baloney. Not everything is gray, there is black and white. America is better than every other country.

A short non-comprehensive list of why America is superior:

freedom
U.S. Constitution (or what is left of it)
military
history
access to education (or what is left of it)
healthcare
families
states
religion
guns
corporations
small businesses
responsibility (ditto)
self-reliance
innovation
economy (ditto)
individual ownership

Please add to my very, very short list in the comments.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

Real Dairy

I never thought I would regularly drink cow's milk again. I was wrong. Milk delivery service from Royal Crest Dairy began last week and I am so impressed! There is no after-taste, it doesn't taste scorched, and it has a texture to it that is absent from not-so-fresh milk.

I am hooked. Not only for the taste, but also the fact that it's packed with nutrition.

Now, my hunt for raw milk has been less successful. Here in Colorado I am unable to just walk into a store and purchase a 1/2 gallon and be done. There is a share program requirement. So, I got to thinking about our travel plans to Nebraska and Iowa this summer. Could I possibly try some there? My hunt continues...

Rooster has tried various new food items recently, one being yogurt. He's loving it! I bought Brown Cow plain yogurt with the cream still on top. Wow! Very yummy.

UPDATE:

I realized Rooster has access to unlimited raw milk on a daily basis, the lucky little guy!

Summer Treats

I like to garden, both flowers and vegetables. I am not a pro at either! But I love learning new things each year - what works and what doesn't work for our home.

Last year I planted way too many veggies in our garden (tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, basil, and rosemary). The broccoli and brussel sprouts were a bust - everything else was yummy!

This year I stuck with just the tomatoes and peppers. Something from last year came back, though. I left it to grow. So far it looks like nothing I planted last year. Weird.

As for flowers, I have an assortment of annuals (snapdragons, zinnias, pansies, lobelia) and perennials (roses, phlox, tulips, etc.), some of which were here at the house when we bought it. Such as this lovely flower:

There are also raspberries and grapes from previous owners. Oh, I can't wait for the raspberries to ripen. They are the best right after picking or on some yogurt and oats in the morning.

Something new for this year is an herb garden. A few small sprouts are emerging from the seeds I planted 3 weeks ago. It's a smaller garden so I stuck to horehound, oregano, and thyme. All should be hardy perennials here in Colorado unlike the rosemary and basil. Eventually I will expand it, maybe by an herb or two a year. Suggestions appreciated!

Pink!

Now the new color of Rooster's cloth diapers (at least the size he currently wears). Silly me - I washed my moby wrap with the diapers. What was I thinking? I wasn't.

A positive thing came out of it though. The few stains on the diapers are now barely noticeable thanks to the new color.

Flag Day

Our flag on display with pride!

Breastfeeding, fathers, and the benefits to mothers

My husband follows this blog because he is a type 1 diabetic. I will write about that soon but for now I will stick with her post.

I love that there is more research being done about the benefits of breastfeeding to both mom and baby. Yes, I see it as superior to formula in every way. Yes, I know there are some reasons why a woman cannot breastfeed and formula is a miracle in these cases. That doesn't change the facts.

I do disagree with this though:

OK Gentlemen, you are excused for today. No hard feelings.

The role a husband plays in breastfeeding is crucial. The more informed men are about breastfeeding and all of it's wonderful benefits and rewards the better it will be for the mom and baby. Roscoe has been so supportive of my breastfeeding relationship with Rooster. He is quite knowledgeable of why I wanted to do it so he has always been there cheering us on. At times I did get very frustrated, and with the emotions and hormones present in my system, it was very refreshing to have his unadulterated encouragement. I'm afraid there are moms out there who do not have supportive husbands that either never try to breastfeed or cut the relationship way short (I've heard sad stories of such at LLL meetings I attend). Support comes in positive words, encouragement, offering assistance, bringing her water/food/anything she needs, etc. With Roscoe's support our breastfeeding relationship has been successful.

Update: more research

Really, this makes me sick

Life is precious. Even a staunch pro-lifer like me did not realize the extent of it until I held my son in my arms for the first time.

"There is no such thing as a 'free abortion,'" said Newman. "It costs the life of an
innocent baby and puts the women at risk for increased problems in their lives.
The loss of each innocent life diminishes us all."

I couldn't say it better myself.

h/t La Shawn Barber

Meat as food?

We love food in our household. Roscoe loves a salad for dinner every night (me too!). Little Rooster has always loved breastfeeding (with such frequency I sometimes wondered if I was producing enough milk - bad thought!) and now digs most foods I've introduced (avocado, banana, sweet potato and prunes are favorites of his).

I have been limiting my meat intake for 11 years now, eating tuna, salmon, and, every couple of years, some chicken. Don't worry, I'm not some hyper-vegetarian who is going to lecture you about the dangers of eating meat. I became a "vegetarian" because meat is rather yucky tasting and I couldn't stand the way most of it is raised. Roscoe does eat meat, just very little at home. It's not that I ban meat in our home (maybe pork...), we just don't buy it or desire to prepare it. Well, things will be changing as we both want Rooster to be a thriving little boy by eating meat.

So now I need to figure out the best way to introduce meat into our household. It's been years since I have cooked anything other than chicken and even then I had to check the Internet and call my mom to make sure I was doing it right. The first major question is should I begin to eat meat again to set a good example for my son? Probably. Others are what type of meats, how should I cook them, do I only buy organic, how often do we eat them, etc.

I happened across the book Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck at the library. Excellent timing! I think I glanced through her first book, Real Food, awhile back and liked the basic idea: purge processed foods from your diet* and stick to foods nature intended. We basically already do this with some exceptions (soy milk {or juice as she refers to it}, cereals, granola bars, popsicles).

The ideas I've gathered from her that we will implement is to drink cow milk not soy/almond/rice "juices" (I may even try raw milk -this freaks my husband out) and meats from animals fed according to their natural diets plus hormone-free and antibiotic-free. She mentions that organic doesn't necessarily mean any of the above and to read all labels closely. I learned that my aversion to the taste of meat may be because of the quality of meat I was consuming, so by sticking with "real" meat it should be quite tasty. Hmmm, sounds tempting especially combined with all the nutrition packed in meat that she discusses.

I have much more to learn, of course, but I have a good place to start. Updates to come. Until then I will be perusing my recipe box to see what I can make with meat.

*diet will always refer to overall normal food intake during the day, not to a calorie-restricted food intake like it is often referred to. I don't believe in "dieting" - eat right, eat in moderation, and exercise .

My inspiration

To preserve some level of privacy and anonymity (especially for my son) I will be using fake names for my husband and son. Plus it seems like so much fun!

My husband, Roscoe, and I met in 2004*. We married in 2006, bought a house in 2007, and had our first child in 2008. Hmmm, what will this year bring? He is an amazing man and husband who provides a wonderful home (and much more) for the three of us. We think alike so often it's sometimes scary, although very refreshing when it comes to parenting and politics.

Our only son, Rooster, is a lively little boy who brightens our day (and night for that matter). That's a strange name, you say...well when he wakes up consistently at the first sign of daylight it's very, very fitting. He turns 7 months in a couple days. What an incredibly fascinating stage of life he is in. It was just a few months ago that he could barely hold his head up and now he's sitting alone and inching toward crawling every day.

I never thought I would be blessed enough to have the above. But I am and I thank God for it every day.

*Update/Correction: Oops. Roscoe reminded me that we actually met in 2003. Sorry, dear.

Well, here I am...

...beginning a new journey of writing a blog. Why does this sound intimidating to someone who has made the choice to go through with it? Well, I'm a very private person, that's why. Alas, sometimes aspects of our personality need to be overcome.

It all started years ago when, after 9/11 occurred, I became a full-blown conservative. I'd like to say I've been this way my whole life. Not so. I didn't use to care about the national deficit (by the way it's currently $11,381,003,533,303.50), I assumed the government always had the interest of the people at it's heart (right?...), and I figured taxes were a necessary evil (yes and no). Fast forward to today. Thanks to reading tons of books, listening to hours upon hours of talk radio, and getting to know sites on the Internet that actually provide accurate info, I am now a very well-informed and opinionated American.

I will not only sound off about politics though. Yes, it's the major driving force behind this blogs creation, but I have come to be strong-willed in many other areas of life too (an effect of becoming a wife and mother). In addition to being conservative, I'm an attachment parenting, running, cloth-diapering, ECing, health-conscious, happy, freedom-loving wife and mother who seeks joy in life through all of the above plus reading, gardening, sewing, cooking, etc.

As the title suggests there are many interests I will touch on. My time with each may be limited but by no means does it lesson the passion.