365 days ago with a newborn!

Wow, I haven't posted in a month??! It's been busy, but I didn't mean to neglect you, little bloggy.
Finn is one today! It's been an amazing year. It makes me think back to the very beginning...this day last year. I thoroughly enjoyed the newborn phase this time around because I think I was better supported and took better care of myself.  Things I did to not just survive- but thrive-in the newborn phase:

-I had a midwife…she was amazing during the birth and after for support.  No birth trauma thanks to expert care = healthier mom.
-Homeopathic Arnica taken just a couple minutes after birth and continued for a week for healing.
-Followed the advice of my midwives. It sounds simple in theory, but we all know as moms we put caring for ourselves last… She told me to have a sitz bath every day for two weeks- it healed things up nicely. If she told me to use calendula cream, I did it. If she told me to stay in bed for three days after the birth, I obeyed! All I did was nurse Finn and recover. This all added up to a great physical recovery.
-After issues with my digestion and elimination, nothing chocolate or sugary passed my lips. Just healthy home cooked meals and fruits and veggies.
-I ate my placenta. Seriously! I had it encapsulated and used it every day. I honestly had one afternoon only where I cried, but not because of baby blues, but because my milk came in and it hurt.
-I had 5 weeks of almost continuous help. I also swallowed my pride asked for help this time around. Kirk also took off more time for this postpartum period.
- Ellie went for two mornings a week to a nanny-share. I enjoyed just cuddling with Finley, or if he was content or sleeping I cleaned or had a shower.

These simple things added up to a huge difference in the postpartum stages with my first and second babies. I had depression and anxiety after Ellie and never wanted to go down that path again. I really worked hard at setting myself up for success this time around.( I do believe, however, that sometimes even with our best efforts, the hormone and chemical imbalances can be too much. The best thing to do is see the doctor about prescription medication for it,  and get better soon so you can enjoy life again and your baby!)

I think of all the friends of mine with newborns this month and pray they can get through the tough moments with their toddlers, take care of themselves, and really enjoy their wee little ones. A year goes by so fast: Just look at this little guy 365 days later!

Guest writer: Janice on her journey to vibrant health

Today Janice is going to share a bit of her journey for all of us who curious to know more about whole foods and the lifestyle…thank you so much for taking the time to write this, Janice!

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After what Liz has written about me I am feel quite shy to try and say something that will help a larger audience.  When I reached out last Fall I wanted to save an anxious mom from feeling overwhelmed.  I remember too well the feeling of not having known enough soon enough.  That is really where our faith comes in-to remember we find what we need as we become aware and pray for guidance not knowing how that will show up.  Unfortunately I did not have that kind of relationship with God back when I began my journey with WAPF(Weston A. Price Foundation) or I should qualify I was not as aware.  

My son was born in 1999 and I was eating low fat, drinking soy milk and even gave it to him as he weaned although thank goodness I felt strongly about nursing and was determined to continue for 2 years.  I also knew enough to keep organic butter in our diets and had been buying organic meat and produce for a few years.

I found the WAPF or actually Sally Fallon when my son was 3 ½ .  I had chronic insomnia and what later I found out to be malabsorption issues.  One night in October 2002 when I was up once again drinking a cup of tea at 2 a.m. I picked up a copy of the Wellness Journal.  I came across a small article by Sally Fallon about fat and the need for saturated fat.  Now I had studied nutrition and was trained to believe as the rest of the world that saturated fat was the cause of all kinds of evils, however as I read her article I felt the truth of it resonate deep within me.  I knew she had something valuable to teach.  The next day I started looking for a copy of her cookbook, “Nourishing Traditions”.  After calling the US I was given a number of a chapter leader here in Alberta that happened to have some copies to sell.  Calling this woman turned into what is now a 9 ½ year friendship and a source for grass fed meat as she and her husband own a farm in Castor, AB.  They are wonderful people and because of that one article the web has grown. 

I must say though that I have gone through much since this all began. Being who I am I wanted to do things perfectly so tried to make up for all I had not known earlier.  Since there was no one here to mentor me or to even bounce ideas off of I began to teach myself the basics.  I am somewhat of a traditionalist and a introvert so I now know.   I have always loved to cook so taking this on was exciting to me.  I learned to ferment my own sauerkraut and other veggies as well as some chutneys.  I eventually expanded into drinks like beet kvass and gingerale and making yogurt.  It really has been a journey as I reflect.  My cookbook is very worn, the signs of a good book I hear!

Now I have to confess it has not been an uphill climb.  There have been MANY valleys along the way.  Good health takes more than food as most people already know.  I  became the Calgary chapter leader in hopes of meeting others and I did eventually but alas food is not the only common ground that makes for good relationships as I was to learn.  Since I had studied nutrition professionally and had a few letters behind my name, feeling this was the path I wanted to lead others to, I was intent on starting a consulting business as I was unemployed and recently a single parent.  If I could go back and do something over I would spend more time just being with my young child and less time worried about a career or as much food peparation.  When I say worried that is exactly what I did.  Although I did help a few people along the way one being my sister when she had to undergo surgery in her early 40’s I was not cut out for telling people what to eat.  I have since realized that the best teacher leads by example and experience.  

I must back up a bit though, as I said I wanted to do things perfectly and  that meant taking all the “right” supplements and finding the “right” food as the foundation deemed fit.   At some point I wrote to Sally Fallon after I had become a chapter leader to clear up some things I did not understand and when she wrote me back it gave me perspective.  She said her intention was not to have people make a fetish of their food but to prepare and enjoy good food in the company of others.  That is what food is meant to be- nourishment and enjoyment taken in by the body in sharing with the people we care about, eating in an environment that feels nourishing to our other senses and taking time to prepare whole food that has hopefully been raised or grown with care for the environment. 

Now that I have come through 10 years of all of this I can honestly say that it has taken time to open my eyes to what Sally meant.  There are so many “diets” on the market and so many “experts” selling their ideas on what constitutes the “perfect”  or “healthiest” diet.  I am here to say there is not one.  What we need or crave is a culture around our food and connection.  Some people still have it if they stayed close to family and were raised with a culture of food say Ukrainian or German or Italian. Alas, many of us are the product of a world where mothers went out to work and were led to believe by food manufacturers that TV dinners were just as nutritious as homemade.  Unfortunately the number of health related problems would prove otherwise although as I said before it is not just food.  Many of us moved away from family and have no support.  Also when families stop sitting down together for meals something happens to the relationships.  They don’t converse as much and soon evolve into strangers who may share the same home but no longer have the deep connections that family meal times can nourish.  Then comes the pressure to have our kids in all the activities their friends are in so they don’t get left behind so next we are eating fast food in the vehicle on the way to some activity, simply filling the gap instead of the need for intimacy and love.  Please let me say I am not judging anyone here.  Many of us do not have the time to question or if we do it is difficult when we are swimming against the norm.

There are no easy answers either as I face the need to go to work and I have no idea how this will impact my values.  I do know that my food culture is Nourishing Traditions and it runs deep within me just as though I was raised this way(in some ways I was at a very early age from my paternal Ukrainian grandmother) so I will make the adjustments to be able to keep preparing food this way.  It is deeply nourishing on many levels and I have met many wonderful people through belonging to the foundation and made some lasting connections.

This really is a journey and for whatever reason people look here for support or guidance I hope something I have said will inspire.  There is so much more that happened along the way for me but I would have to write a book to fit it all in.  I already feel as if I have written too much and maybe not said enough! 

I wish you good health and good memories made in the enjoyment of the food you lovingly prepare for your families and friends.  Thank you Liz for inviting me to write a post on your Blog.  I have read over your posts and enjoyed them very much, you have a lovely way with words!

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If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask away. She is the perfect person to ask all sort of "where-to-find-it" or "how-to-make-it" questions.

I am hoping we can get Janice on here once a month so that we can continue the discussion. Just as she mentioned in her post, it's not all about the food- it's the preparation and love and together-ness surrounding food. Along those lines, she also has great resources on parenting, and we love discussing Gordon Neufeld's great book, Hold on to Your Kids, together.

Just what I needed

Is anyone else in amazement at the incredible blessing of a new friendship found? It's becoming more and more unique to actually meet someone at this age and just "click" on many levels, and want to nurture that friendship amidst the demands of marriage, work, babies, parents and siblings, while not forgetting the precious old, time-tested  friendships that need the weekly/monthy input to flourish. 

I have recently been blessed to have met an incredible woman who has become a friend and an important mentor in my life. She reached out to me in October last year, when I was very overwhelmed with wanting to do better nutritionally for my family. It started for me when I joined a Weston Price chat group on yahoo for Calgary  to reach out to others on the same journey. 

One evening I was reading about bone structure, jaw development and many other things that I didn't know were in correlation with nutrition.  It was about 1 am when I came to the conclusion that I had ruined my beautiful sleeping children forever because of my ignorance of how to nourish them. I basically wrote an anxious entry on the yahoo chat group asking how to start, and stated how very overwhelmed I felt. Most people wrote back with a short answer about where to find a specific product to get going with, but those replies just left me with more questions. I prayed and asked God to forgive my previous flippant nature towards feeding my family, and asked Him to take care of my anxiety. He answered my prayer in the form of an email that I woke up to in the morning:

HI Liz,

I hope you don’t mind that I have emailed you offline.  I read your email on the WAPF Calgary group.   In 2002 I found the WAPF and got my copy of NT.  I had been studying nutrition for many years and have 2 diplomas, one from SAIT and the other as Registered Holistic Nutritionist from Canadian School of Natural Nutrition but the best nutrition education I found was and still is in reading the pages of Nourishing Traditions.  You are NOT alone.  I was drinking soy milk and involved in a study with a Dietician to see how my baby would fair with calcium fortified soy.  Needless to say if you have read any of the WAPF info my thyroid went crazy and my son ended up with lots of food sensitivities but it took a few years to find it all.  I taught myself to ferment, soak grains and bake sourdough all from the cookbook but it did not happen overnight.  IF you need advice or even someone to taste your end product and say it is wonderful then I will help however I can.  I would love to give workshops on all that I have learned but the putting together of these is my weakness.  I am a doer and have the knowledge and experience.  If you have friends who would come to your home and want me to come show you then I could figure out a fee and do an informal group thing.  I live in the NW quadrant of the city.  Let me know if so or just contact me if you need support.  We are all walking the path and you are where you are, so try not to panic. 

Best,

Janice

I was so amazed! A real live person was willing to guide us through the tough beginning stages…this was worth so much to my family. She was like a live version of the cookbook I'd been trying to understand for the last year, "Nourishing Traditions". I knew that her experience was invaluable, but even more so was her empathy andwillingness to share her journey and early beginner mistakes (best advice yet: leave the kitchen and PLAY with your children. Nutrition is important but cooking is not to replace time spent with your family. Don't let it become a god). 


Since reaching out to me 6 months ago, we've had many emails back and forth, hour long phone conversations (me with pen and paper in hand, often scribbling down notes as she is a natural health encyclopedia!!), and one meal shared between our families that has confirmed God's answer to my prayers…He had done way better than simply rid me of my anxiety; he replaced it with a beautiful new friend.

I am so pleased to share her with you (my huge audience two family members that read this) as she will be guest blogging on here for all of us newbies, until I can convince her to start her own blog… I hope we will glean from her the lessons she has learned over the years as she continues to nourish her family. 

Stay tuned for Thursday!

buzzing

Maybe it's because the temperature is 12 above and the Calgary region is fooling us all into thinking it's Spring. Or maybe I am inspired by my amazing friends and family around me doing crafty things in their lives…whatever the reason; my mind is buzzing….so many things that could be pursued, but what to spend my little amount of spare time on? When I'm feeling healthy, that's what it feels like to be me. It's like all of these interests and passions take up so much of my thinking, that I start on one idea or project, only to fall down into a deep rabbit hole of another interest (pinterest, anyone?)- mostly on things I have no idea about and then spend a week trying to learn it. Or I go the other way and don't do anything other than dreaming it up. Because I wouldn't do the project justice, right?

There is so much in this life that is amazing. If I could be given more time, it would definitely be to learn.  Learn/Do what? Oh…cooking, fermenting(lacto! fruits and veggies), snowshoeing, x- country skiing, woodworking, refinishing, working with wool, using my sewing machine, explore Calgary, explore parks,  using essential oils, more cake decorating, find out more about adoption, learn more about birthing, biodynamic farming, how to have backyard chickens, how to build a cold frame, how to seed in the cold frames for the garden, how to plant the garden, how-to, how-to, how- to. I always feel like I'm playing catch up. There are no areas where I am an expert it. I know an itty bitty about lots of things and that frustrates me. I am so happy to be a stay at home mom of two darlings right now, but they need so much of my energy.  I don't want to rob them of more as I study, stay up late and find out about MORE things I want to do in life. I am so frustrated in my attempts to learn a little here, a little there; yet feel so exuberant and full about the future and it's so many possibilities. I am so blown away by how much enjoyment God has put on this earth for us. Enjoyment in the learning process … 

exuberant me, four years ago.

If there is one word that can sum up how I feel about everything in life right now, it would be this: Abundance. 

What are you itching to try?

Without her

Having Ellington at her grandparent's house for the last couple of days has been really weird. Not at all the joyous freedom of having one child like I expected it to be. I had this vision that Finley and I would be galavanting all around town, me revelling in how easy it is to be out without dear girl and all of her toddler time-consuming ways.

Missing Ellie's Triathlon training this week….

...As well as opera practice.

What are those time-consuming ways, you should ask? Biggest time waster: Ellie taking her socks and boots off as soon as the van door closes, only for me having to shove her sweaty little feet back in said socks and boots at the next errand. And the cycle continues about five times while we are out. Until I have a brilliant idea to make her stop- I threaten that if she takes her boots off again, she'll have to walk from the van to the house in bare feet. "Ok, deal, mommy!", she squeals as she rips them off one last time, excited about the prospect of being able to run barefoot on the snowy sidewalk…

Breakfast-time hilarity with Sister

No, it hasn't even been easier to leave the house with one. I think it's because it's just him and I, and he still naps up to 3 times a day, I tell myself his nap is important and we'll leave after it. I don't have a girl who's itching to get out and see a friend, go to The Fish Store, or get a "cake-cup" from down the road.  Finn get's up and feeding him takes a little longer, because I now have the time to sit and smile at him (without the usual rushing around, cooking Ellie her third egg for breakfast) and it's at this point I am wondering why it's so quiet in the house. I mean, I'm trying to make conversation with Finn, but the poor guy has three tricks he's mastered so it goes like this; " Finn, where's the liiighhht?" And he'll raise his folded hands and smile big at the pendant lamp above our island. "Diii", he says, and we're on to the next heavy topic. "Head. can you touch you're head?" And he does so, but silently…and then we have a rousing song of  If You're Happy And You Know It, with my little genius claps loudly as I sing. I have totally forgotten how utterly boring it is with just a baby! I know I was back with Ellie too, because the day seemed to go on forever ... It wasn't the fussiness of a baby that made me want Daddy home so bad, it was the loneliness of not talking to anyone for hours! (especially if mom, Heidi, Faye, Melissa, Shauna, Jeremy, Sam, Becky,  Joris, Tanya, Jen, Sarah, Alissia, Stephanie or Talia wouldn't pick up the phone that day- and believe me- some days I tried ALL of their numbers!)

Finn's mini mommy

I think I've noticed over the course of three days that guilt is slowly seeping away. The guilt that comes from knowing my second born will never have my time and attention the way my firstborn did. Guilt of his milestones not yet reached at the 10 month mark… guilt that my daughter's daily demands overshadow Finn's.  Instead, having my toddler away has made me realize how much Ellington enriches our lives, and how much better off Finley is for having her around.(Now I  have guilt for when   Ellie was a baby- I should have adopted a 3 year old so she could have had the same entertainment and love as Finn experiences!)

No one is here to make both Finn and I laugh at bare-bum antics. She's not here making sure Finn is kept safe from the perils of living in a yet-to-be-baby-proofed home (swiped some delicious newspaper and lint in his mouth during playtime). There's lots of cuddles for Finley this week, but none for mommy in Ellie's absence. I've even got a new perspective on the most tiring things we deal with our toddlers: reasoning, arguing and negotiating! The debates and arguments over what kinds of foods we'll eat, where we'll go (new thing: she just wants to stay home) and if we'll write out our alphabets on paper or the forbidden walls, are God's way of keeping our brains fresh and resistant to manipulative pressures in our lives…Toddlers do wonders for all of us.

                                                                              
I can't wait to have you enriching our home again, Ellington! See you in an hour. XO

Best Video For Raw Milk Debate

Here is a great video from the Harvard Raw Milk Debate a couple of weeks ago.
Makes you think about who the food inspection agencies are really protecting….the public or the industrial dairy farmers...

If you don't have time for the full clip,  from about 13 min- 18 mins they talk about benefits of raw milk.

we're not sick, we're transforming into butterflies.

 We've been sick with this terrible strain of the flu where your whole body aches, you're feverish, and then you get the head cold that makes you feel like you're under water. The back ache I got from this was unreal. But what's worse than being ill as an adult, is seeing your children sick and in pain.


I've been doing a lot of my own research in books and online (read here and this  great post  )and have recently had many conversations with friends about the terrifying fevers we see in our children. So when this cold came along,  it was time to put into practice what I've been learning. We're trying hard this year to wean ourselves off of Tylenol and Advil and trying the old fashioned remedies to work their magic and allow our bodies to heal on their own. But first we have to change our perspective...Looking at illness in a different light, as Dr. Thomas Cowan writes about, is the best thing we can do for our kids:

Another way to put this is that when a child encounters an impediment, say a foreign protein or an organ that is not being formed quite right, he goes into “remodeling mode.” The remodeling is done by tearing down the old, misshapen matter, taking it out to the dumpster, and then rebuilding a more suitable house to inhabit. This is exactly what is done through illness. Take measles: the temperature goes up to 104, the eyes water, the nose runs, the lungs cough up mucus, the kidneys excrete extra broken down proteins, the bowels are loose and the child aches all over. These symptoms herald the construction of a newer, healthier body, one that is more individualized to the dynamics of the child. This is a profoundly healing and spiritual process, and like everything of such gravity, it has its risks and dangers. The risk of a snake shedding its skin, of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, of striving to do something that has never been done before, is that you can fail and fall into the abyss. Not trying, however, is even worse. Our job as parents and doctors is to help the child cross the bridge of illness with our loving, caring, intelligent guidance as we experience the natural processes that are at work as our children struggle with their illnesses."

Understanding the Process
When you start to understand what the body's doing and not fight the symptoms, say for example, extra mucous- you realize that it's actually a good thing to see and then you get super excited…I mean, Finn's got mucous running down his face today, and because my perspective has changed, I'm praising it:"Oh yay, the gross germs are leaving his body via the constant stream of mucous! Keep that gorgeous slime coming." And Fever? She's a playmate welcome here anytime. "Oh good to see, Ellie, you're cheeks are red and you're hot to touch! You're little internal heater is burning off those foreign invaders!"Ok, not really. It's still not easy. I was jumpy the entire four days that Ellie had a fever, and had to continually go back to reading about fever and when to start worrying, and when to leave her be. But we're working on our roles, from being former Advil administrator's to gentle homeopathic mediators. We wanna be parents that  help our children "cross the bridge of illness", as Dr. Cowen so eloquently puts. 


So The Other Day
On the way home from seeing our family doctor ( who prescribed antibiotics for both, not even bothering to look into Finn's ears or throat!) I was pretty disheartened. I know there are amazing GP's who don't hand out prescriptions like candy, who care to figure out their patients and spend more than two minutes with them…the problem is we don't have that here ( and the shortage of family physicians are for another post; I'm not picky, very grateful we have one at all). I don't have an issue with antibiotics- they are truly a miracle but they work less and less when we use them more frequently. 


I had a sudden brain wave to just quickly check and see if this new naturopathic doctor was available that day to take a look at Ellie.  We got in, and Dr. Mountain  looked at her ear and said there was definitely redness and inflammation, but not to the point where she needed antibiotics yet. He said we could try to clear it with a few easy remedies. If there was no change, antibiotics would be necessary. Wonderful news that we had bought some time... but what was even better was how handsome he was  the length of time he spent with us, encouraging us in our efforts and stressing the importance of fevers (up to a certain point. There are fevers that are damaging and we need to be careful they don't get dangerously high, but what's more important is to watch their demeanour for  change). He was also asking us questions to try sleuth out why Ellie has been  getting ear infections in the first place, not just focusing on the event of the inflammation.


What We Did That Helped
***Bought this little wonder oil for the ear infections: warm bottle in hot water, give 5 drops per ear, 3x daily  and try to get the child to lay on a pillow to let it sink in deep.

St. Francis Ear Oil. $12 online, or if you want to spend $7 extra, hit up Nutters. 


(Also bought by the same brand, Deep Immunity tincture to boost their little bodies)

***Homemade cough syrup. Getting Ellie's cough under control was easy with this…and no complaints of taste. But then again she's my little trouper who'll take fermented cod liver 

oil without blinking. 

The recipe is really hard though…Are you ready with a pen? Ok, chop an onion up, put it in a mason jar, cover onions with honey, screw on top and put jar in fridge overnight. Drain syrup out in the morning, and voila! The liquid is ready to soothe.


***Next, Wet Sock Treatment. Equipment: two pairs of cotton tube socks, two pairs of wool socks, warm and cold water.  Here is how you do it! We only did it two nights and seriously, Ellie is totally over her cold.  My friend Jen can also vouch for this method. 
-If you know her, you'd be quite aware she don't mess around with no sickness. Her own husband has been sent to the leprosy camps, I mean quarantine, when he's caught the bug.


***Lots of tea with Elderberry and Echinacea, plus our own ginger honey and lemon mixture.




So now that our medicine cabinet- rather, sock drawer and pantry, is all stocked up thanks to this flu, we are set for the next one…I hope I won't be as worried about getting rid of all of their symptoms and fevers when I now know what the body's up to when it goes into repair mode. 




Is there anything that your family does when they are hit with the bug? Would love if you could start/ add to the discussion!