Earth Day

Some days it feels really overwhelming, I feel like I am on information overload especially after watching all the Earth Day shows yesterday.
Our family is making some progress in our quest to be Au natural. We have tried to educate our children on the importance of recycling, using all natural products when we can and making good choices regarding our food. Do I feel like we have arrived, not even close, but we have made some little discoveries along the way which have brought us closer to our goal. Here are a few of the things we have incorporated:

1)Castile Soap


Castile soap. This stuff is awesome! My friend Nikki told me about it and all the stuff you can do with it. I have diluted it and made organic hand soap. It takes getting used to because it feels like your just squirting water out of the soap dispenser, but once you start rubbing your hands together it bubbles up and does the job well.
I have made an all purpose cleaning solution by adding a few squirts of castile soap, 2 teaspoon of rubbing alcohol and a spray bottle full of water. It cleans windows and mirrors great as well.
We have washed our kids hair with a few squirts of this castile soap, it smells wonderful and again, no harsh, cancer causing chemicals.
I have even made baby wipes with castile soap,water, organic olive oil, and a few drops of tea tree oil. Nikki gave me this recipe and it works great! You just add it to a wipes container, fold in some paper towel, and swish it around.
I guess you could say we really love our castile soap!

2)Bio Life

Phosphate-free. Biodegradable. Infused with essential oils. Made with plant-derived renewable ingredients (such as coconut oil, palm oil and corn oil), instead of synthetic and petroleum based chemicals. Readily biodegradable based on OECD standard 301D.
This dish soap is great! It actually gives gives you a lot of bubbles and smells really good. In Canada you can buy this at Shoppers Drug Mart and it's only about $3.00

3)Giovanni Organic Skin/Hair Care


This again can be purchased at Shoppers Drug Mart, it may be available at your local pharmacy as well. These skin care and hair care products are wonderful. They come in great scents like winter raspberry, Lilac and grapefruit. I have yet to try their hair care products like the gel and hairspray, but they are next on my list. We use the body wash and it is really nice and completely organic.

4)Earth Safe

This is another product we purchased from a health food store, we bought it for our baby girl because they feature an organic baby line. It doesn't smell as good as the Giovanni skin care products but again it has a baby line so this is what we went with for her. Completely organic, mostly derived from different tree bark, no harsh cancer causing chemicals.

5)Method

I LOVE the Method line. This furniture polish is non toxic, works wonderfully and smells divine!!


This is a great laundry detergent. This biodegradable, plant-based formula is tough on stains, easy on clothes and gentle on the planet. it's phosphate-, dye- and fragrance-free, and it's hypo-allergenic so it's perfect for people with allergies or fragrance sensitivities.
Method also has a baby laundry detergent made from Rice Milk so it has a great scent to it. I have found it works great on our clothes!


So these are some of the changes we are trying to incorporate in our family. It's not perfect and we still have so much more to do but it's a start. Our kids are really on board, my oldest will tell me he had to wash his hands in formaldehyde at school because there wasn't any organic soap available. FYI- when we started changing everything over we explained how there were dangerous chemicals, like formaldehyde are in soaps and that is wasn't good for his skin or the earth. So of course being a seven year old he's held onto the whole formaldehyde thing and that's why he informs us he's had to wash his hands in it.
I would love to hear your ideas about being green, any homemade recipes for cleaning products etc.
Earth Day is Everyday!

April 8th, 2009 - A Look Back

The events of this day as I remember them....
I awoke around 6am with slight contractions, nothing that really hurt just enough to make me uncomfortable. I puttered around for the morning and it seemed if I sat still all contractions stopped yet the minute I walked around I would feel one come on. This is how the day went on until around 5pm when things picked up.
I was feeling so torn because my boys had an award ceremony at their kids club this night. My kids were being given awards and there was a little tea for all the parents, both my husband and I really wanted to go. Considering that whenever I sat still I felt ok we decided to try. We took two vehicles, my mother in-law was down so she drove the kids in one car and we took another. I told my husband to pack my suitcase in the van just in case we had to leave early to go to the hospital.
We arrived at the kids banquet and as I was stepping out of the vehicle to go in I was hit with another strong contraction. I decided then and there to head straight for the hospital.
I could barely walk the hall to the women's ward when I was hit with another, a paramedic came with a wheelchair and I was brought into be examed.
I was told I was in early labour and that I could either stay or go. I decided to stay because I wanted to ensure I would get an epidural.
Little FYI- in my town there is only 2 epidural pumps, it's first come first serve and I didn't want to miss out. I found out later that only 1 pump was working and a lady next to me had it. I was FREAKING out!!! I kept telling the nurse I was promised by my doctor to get an epidural, I specifically told my doc that I would travel to another city to get an epidural if need be, she knew how important it was to me. My doc came into the room and assured me that the anesthetist would work something out. He came in and said he was trying to rig something up with another pump. All that being said I got my epidural and felt so relieved.
Unfortunately the epidural on numbed half of my body. The doc kept uping the dose, he gave me so much meds my blood pressure dropped severly and I almost passed out. Consequently I felt almost all contractions which really sucked but he could'n't give me anything else. Knowing that, I asked for laughing gas to take the edge off.
During all this I needed to go to the bathroom. I couldn't walk so they gave me a bedpan, now tell me who can pee laying down with people all in the room chatting, not me. So they decided to give me a catheder which I HATE, it always hurts and this time was no exception. I had had enough at this point and started to get emotional, she quickly broke my water after and then things really progressed, quick!
Within minutes I felt the need to push, I told them that, and they told me to wait until the doc comes. Yeah, RIGHT! I wasn't waiting so I told them I was pushing and the nurse better get ready.
After about 3 pushes she was out laying on my chest. RELIEF!!
We spent one night in the hospital and then booked it home. So here we are all better, healing up and moving on with life.
Our little girl is perfect, sweet and beautiful! Her brother's love, love, love her and are spoiling her already.

Copy Cat, again.

I admit I am low on brain power at the moment due to lack of sleep so I happened upon this post by a lovely fellow blogger Cocotte. I enjoy these little ditty's so here is my attempt at it.

1) Did you date someone from your high school?
Aside from many crushes, and WANTING to date certain guys from my high school, I only dated one. His name was Mike and he was in grade 11 when I was in grade 9. He had somewhat of a reputation as a player but I think I was just so flattered that he was interested in me, a lowly 9th grader, that I ignored the rumours. Needless to say he succumbed to temptation and kissed another girl while I was a youth group on Friday night. We were doomed from the start LOL

2)Did you marry someone from your high school?
No.

3) Did you carpool to school?
I did for a while with my friend who lived one house down, I even paid for gas, but I got the hint she didn't want to do it anymore when she wouldn't answer the phone in the morning to arrange our ride and then I'd see her drive right past me pretending not to see me.

4) What kind of car did you have?
I never owned a car in high school, but my first car was a 1980 something two tone brown Topaz. This car was horrid and I was embarrassed to be seen in it.

5) What kind of car do you have now?
I have a 1996 charcoal Ford Freestar. I am thinking of going to a SUV, but once you have a van I think it's hard to really consider anything else, especially with kids. My husband always says a van is like a living room on wheels. You have so much more room.

6)It's Friday night, where were you then?
I could be found at our church youth group. I went for years and loved every minute of it.

7) It's Friday night, where are you now?
Friday night is Shabbat so we are together as a family, having a nice meal and then usually a movie/treat party night with the kids. They get into their pj's, blankets and stuffed animals are strewn all over the living room and we have trays of treats and fruit that we allow the kids to eat in the living room. It's a lot of fun.

8) What kind of job did you have in high school?
I worked in the market gardens in our town, and a grocery store while in high school.

9) What kind of job do you have now?
I think this pretty much sums it up....


10) Were you a party animal?
I never hung with the party animals at high school, but I had a great group of friends from our youth group. We had get togethers every weekend. Bonfires, eating out, movies, going out to our friends cabin for the weekend. Good, clean fun.

11)Were you considered a flirt?
Sadly yes. I loved to flirt, and so did all my girlfriends. When my now husband expressed interest in me he was warned about me...of course once we starters dating I stopped all flirting. :O)

12) Were you in band?
Oh yeah! The main reason I joined was because it was an easy credit and all the band trips. I played clarinet.

13)When did you graduate?
1993

14)Do you still talk to friends from high school?
I Have been able to re-connect with some over facebook, but most I don't talk to anymore. Kind of sad because I have fond memories of these friends.

A Little Girl !!

April, 8th, 2009 our little girl was born at 10:56pm. She weighed 7lbs 8 oz, 19 inches long and very beautiful. We names her Samara which means protected by God. I left the hospital yesterday because who really rests at the hospital, you ladies know what I mean, right? This is just a quick post to thank you all again for your kind words and to let you know we are doing really good. She is nursing great and sleeping pretty darn good for a 3 day old. I will post more pictures soon and go through all the gory details of labour, which I KNOW you all want to hear, right? :O)

Passover-Messianic Style

Passover is just around the corner again, a few days to be exact, and I am scrambling trying to get everything needed for our Seder supper. Living in the small village that I live in these supplies are short in demand. I can't find lamb anywhere and you know I was at the local grocery store a few weeks ago and I saw some pre-packaged lamb kabobs, I knew I should have picked them up, but thinking that more will be available closer to our time I waited....BIG MISTAKE!!
Since my family has only recently started to participate in the Biblical Feasts, I still feel so new to all this and I am constantly referencing the Bible and online resources on how to observe correctly and what each symbol means in relation to Yeshua (Jesus). It has been a steep learning curve to say the least and when we teach our children regarding these feasts I simplify as much as I can so it makes sense to them, and me as well. :O)
This year will be a little different because we will be celebrating alone as a family. In previous years we have either been with my folks and extended family or with good friends who have been observing Passover for years, so we could just sit back, relax and enjoy the meal. This year it's all on us plus we have my mother in law here who has never participated in Passover so it should be interesting. I am sure she will have a lot of questions.
Regardless of all these challenges I am looking forward to a quiet time with our family. A time of reflection and giving thanks to God. Yeshua (Jesus) is our passover lamb and that is what we will be reflecting on and being thankful for.

Well I am sitting here with my feet up still pregnant. The day my plug popped I ended up calling the doctor because I was having such bad back pain. This isn't the regular back pain that I have been having for a few months, it was different and more intense. The doctor's assistant told me to head to the hospital and that my doctor was on her way.
Upon arriving I was hooked up to the fetal monitor and then given an internal, which is mighty uncomfortable, the nurse told me the baby was still high up and my cervix wasn't doing much of anything. They asked me to leave a urine sample and to get some blood work done to rule out kidney infection. I was released and left for home.
Later that night my doc called telling me to go get some injections to help with the pain and give me a good nights rest. So there is nothing new to report, unfortunately, so I am trying to be patient and wait this out.
Thanks for all the well wishes and kind words!!!

I think I've Arrived...

I won't say today is the day, but I think I can say within the next few days we will be welcoming out little girl to our family. Today my "plug" unplugged itself and I've had a dull back ache for the past 2 days. I don't know what this all means because my other two pregnancies have been SO different from this one. With the other 2 my water broke, contractions started. I had no real symptoms with my other pregnancies, this one has been different from the get go.
Needless to say I am waiting for a call back from my doc to see what I am supposed to do. This is new ground for me as I am guessing most pregnancies are. It could be anyday now folks... Thank God!