Cookies for Breakfast?

Yes, yes, that's right. I did. I gave my kids gigantic cookies for breakfast. Two of them each, in fact. Even saved two for dad. It seemed like a good idea at the time...still does, except when I hear them talking to someone about the cookies they had for breakfast. *Ahem*
But wait! They were good cookies! They had flour and oats and eggs and cinnamon and honey and homemade buttermilk! (And of course I didn't take ONE picture!- I thought about it...then wondered what people would think...) And the kids loved it so much. They sat there, eating those cookies that were bigger than their hands, with smiles that can only come with dessert. I'm mom of the year now and it was food that was actually GOOD for them. I love it!

Pizza will never be the same

For a few years now, I have been making homemade pizza, partially to save money and partially to prove that I could be THAT good. But lately...I think I may have achieved star status. Ramiah, my pickiest eater, not only loves to help MAKE the pizza, but has proclaimed that pizza is her FAVORITE. (I suppose it is of no consequence that she wants to put all the stuff on it but even as she is grinning about eating "piiiiiizzzzzaaaaaa" she is picking all of that stuff off!)
Until last week, Asher, my allergy boy, has always had to have a separate pizza that was only his. It was always made with less sauce, (tomatoes give him a rash), and some other kind of cheese, (soy-before I knew better, almond-just gross, goat-only kinda gross). His dairy allergy always made his pizza just different enough that nobody wanted to share...
Until this week.

I now buy only raw cheeses, obviously made from raw milk. So this week, we made pizza with a raw cheddar. It smelled divine, looked even better and the taste...ah well...let's just say that dear hubby proclaimed this one to be one of the best yet. And the best part? Asher ate from the same pizza as all of us! Not only that, he ate 4 slices before I cut him off! Oh, dawn has risen and the family is whole! (Okay, slightly melodramatic, but it was a good day, a very good day.)


Asher isn't pictured, but his twin sure enjoyed it too! By the way, this is also a great way to get the kids to eat their veggies. This pizza had peppers, tomatoes, onions, and spinach on it. Apart from Miah, nobody took anything off the top! If you want my recipe, leave me a comment. :)

Operation Organization

After the twins were born, many things in our household slowed to a crawl. Everything from making dinner to going to the store became a task of monumental effort. There was not a moment of regret, just the instinct of survival. In that time, we had many amazing and generous people involved in our lives. Some gave of their time, some gave financial support, and others gave stuff. Cool stuff, fun stuff, stuff for the kids, stuff for the grownups, stuff to feed us, stuff to entertain, loads and loads of stuff. Then there was all that stuff that comes naturally from having children in the house...lots of kids, lots of stuff.

Ordinarily, I would have been able to process the stuff and clear and edit as we used it up. However, with four very young kids, it was all I could do to keep the house looking decent, (just don't check for dust!), get food on the table and make sure they are healthy and happy. As a result, we ended up with a lot more stuff than we had space for and much of our space was a bit overwhelmed.

The garage was in serious trouble. Every time poor Tony had a fun woodworking project to do, it took him about an hour to clear the work space so he could use his saws. My sewing area, used somewhat sporadically during those first two years, was filled to the brim with fabrics, projects and mending.

By the time the twins were two and able to play independently for more than a couple minutes,

my major project, aside from homeschooling, became somehow getting control of the clutter. It was a goal, a frustration and a constant task. Each time I cleared one area, the sense of relief was overshadowed by the renewed awareness of how much it would take to get the next area done. Yet still, I struggled on, plugging away whenever a free hour came about. About 6 months into this process, I realized it would take me many many many months to really get everything done that needed to be done and the garage...well, let's just say that the enormity of the task gave me pause.

Fast forward to the aftermath of the amazing gift from my amazing family and friends. While Vanessa quietly coordinated monitary collections, Tony and I interviewed and discussed the merits of several organization companies. The first one we interviewed was my favorite by far, and of course, the most expensive. They listened to me, recognized my need and were willing to go the extra mile to accommodate our own brand of quirkiness. :) When they called back a couple weeks after submitting their estimate, we had already decided to go with free family garage organizers. However, they were totally willing to come back and submit another estimate for just the sewing and computer areas, and work with me on the time so we could actually afford it.

In the meantime, my brother Aaron and his lovely wife, Nadine, who have had a bit of experience in the garage organization process, agreed to come and spend a weekend with us to clear and reorganize the biggest task. They were phenomenal!












We spent two days, from morning to night, purging, cleaning and grouping. By the time we were done, we had "gotten rid of" several hundreds of dollars worth of school supplies that I no longer needed, as well as much baby stuff, games, etc. Most of it ended up being donated to a preschool that had just lost it's funding. That made me happy!

Admittedly, it took another week to actually get everything out of the driveway, but once the purging had happened, it was just a matter of time.

Inside the garage it was like a whole new world had opened up! Suddenly, there was so much space! There is a removable curtain for Tony’s shop, (to keep the sawdust off of everything else in the room!).

We could park all the kids’ bike type vehicles within their reach and still have room to set up paints and do projects!

While this took an amazing amount of time and effort, (and lots of familial support for kids and food!) financially, this was the smallest part of the process. The next step came with the professionals.

We decided, after much deliberation, to hire the first people we interviewed, Operation Organization. They have a stellar reputation in LA and agreed to work within our budget to get as much done as they could.

The areas they attacked were almost as bad as the garage, certainly in terms of neglect-the sewing area, which I wanted out of our bedroom, and the computer area which was underutilized and way over stuffed. (See following for embarrassing before pix)

I know, scary. Because these doors would close, this was the drop site for anything that

looked like paper or crafty stuff. The computer, old and full of viruses, was almost never used. We have laptops that are the daily work zones and they wouldn’t fit in here anyway.

The sewing area was just as bad. Though there were no doors, it was hidden away in the corner of our bedroom and so was allowed to be last on the list of priorities, even though it was an area I needed to use on more than one occasion. (Much like Tony’s work space in the garage, it took so much time to clear an area to work, much of the motivation was gone before I had a chance to begin.)

Katrina, the owner of the company, came in with a small work crew and lots of energy. They worked for 4 hours the first day and 4 hours the next.

She shopped for everything we needed to make the space usable. We donated several piles of things and threw out 4 bags of papers, shredding (burning) an additional 3 boxes. It was glorious! Here come the afters!

I LOVE the drawer! So much fits and it is all easily accessible!

This was where the sewing area was in my bedroom. Now that it is where the computer used to be, I have room for an elliptical machine with a built in shelf so I can watch shows on the computer while I work out!

The piano used to be here, but is now moved to near the front door where the shoes used to collect. (They now go into the kids' rooms; well, they are supposed to anyway.)

The computer and sewing table ended up in Adriel and Ramiah’s room, (with no internet), so they could learn how to use a computer without close supervision. Of course, this also is a great motivator to keep their room clean!

They even set up a new filing system that can go easily from the house to the garage and holds all the important and immediate paper needs.

All of the fabric is now hidden in the living room boxes and cabinets and all of the toys that once lived in those places are relegated to the appropriate bedrooms, hopefully rarely seen by us grownups!

So family and friends, I hope that you can see that your gift was well spent and has literally changed our lives. There is something of a peace that comes when the mess, even hidden, is gone from your life. I’m sure this is a great metaphor but for now, I’ll just leave it, knowing that whatever your motivation, you have been a part of a revitalizing and joyful renovation that would have otherwise taken me months to achieve. And we are so so grateful.

Real Food Wednesday Part 2 :donuts, (the good kind)

This blog is part of Real Food Wednesday.

Mmmmmmm! Those donuts were good! The recipe is on heavenly homemaker's blog. I used honey instead of rapadura and added a little flour at the end to make them rollable. I also used raw milk and 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinn. and nutmeg. Delicious!

I firmly believe that kids should be part of the process...they enjoy it more that way.


Ramiah was fabulous at the egg cracking process! No shells or anything!


Adriel really got into the shaping process.

Asher is always explaining to everyone exactly what he is doing. He actually only shaped 2 donuts. His talking slowed him down.

He couldn't wait for the frosting. He wanted one right now!

Finally eating! They all loved em. Had to con them into saving one for Dad. He never gets the good stuff.
I'd say this counts as math today, right?

Real Food Wednesday: donuts and bagels

Okay, this morning we are making donuts because I saw it on a blog here and remember how much I loved when my mom would make us donuts for breakfast. Of course, we only got them on weekends because we all had school on the weekdays. I'll post a picture after we are done, hopefully I'll remember to get the whole process because you KNOW the kids will be helping!

Also, I need a recipe for a basic sprouted grain bagel! I could make it up, and I am getting sorely tempted to do so, but if anyone has a recipe out there I could much more easily do adaptations. We love Trader Joe's sprouted wheat cinn. raisin bagels but I am tired of paying for 6 of them and having only 2 servings for my kids! Anyone?

Garden Co-op

We've been talking about community living, sustainability, organic produce, etc. Finally, a few of my friends and I are going to do a cooperative garden project this year. I am not completely sure how it will work, but this week I am supposed to be doing an inventory of garden spaces, seeds, sunlight availability and current needs. I'd better get on it. I'll post more info as it comes. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for the kids to learn a whole mess of stuff about gardening and how a community can work together.

The Twins' birth: Warning: graphic details included

So many people ask, so I thought I would just tell it here, while I was in the blogging mood. When my second child was 16 months old, we found out we were expecting again. While we were quite happy about it-we had been trying for a few months-I was a bit nervous as I tend to get very sick during the first part of my pregnancies. Sure enough, at just about 3 weeks, the nasty sickness started. Oh well...at some point, I remember telling my husband that if we wanted to have our four kids we would have to adopt, because I couldn't imagine being that sick with THREE little ones running around! I went to the same midwife i had had with both of my other kids and things were going fine until I started getting chastised for the amount of weight gain...I gained 14 lbs in a two week period with no change in appetite or activity. I couldn't figure it out! Finally, at 18 weeks, it was time for the ultrasound. I went alone, since we didn't expect it to be anything unusual, and thought I had plenty of time to finish up and go pick up my youngest from preschool. I was lying on the table, the technician smiling and asking random questions to make me comfortable. Then I noticed that the questions had stopped and her face was looking a bit confused. She stopped and said, I'll be right back. My stomach dropped. What could be wrong with my baby!!!!??? Pretty soon, she comes back in with the main tech guy, who introduces himself and says that he will be doing the rest of my ultrasound. sheesh! I was scared. I wanted my husband to be there so badly! Then he smiles as he moves the thing over my belly. "Yes, it looks like twins.", he says....Shock...joy...shock...when can I call my husband?? Before I called him, I had to call the preschool to let them know I would be late. Apparently, it takes twice as long to check out twins!

This picture is me at 19 and 1/2 weeks, about a week after I found out it was twins.

Eventually, the sickness subsided and we continued to try to prepare for the two babies that would be coming. My midwife couldn't legally deliver them, due to strict laws in CA. (stupid!) So I had to start seeing some regular OBs. In my town, covered by my insurance, there wasn't much to choose from. All the OBs in the practice I landed at were only willing to offer me the natural option if both babies were in the head down position but they would prefer to just schedule my C-section for sometime after 36 weeks, assuming I made it that far. I prayed a lot. I didn't feel like that was what I needed to do so I found another option. We hired a midwife from 100 miles away to come and do a home birth, if things were all good. We live 5 minutes from the hospital so we figured that it would be easy to use that as a back up plan. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this unless you really have a peace about it from God!This is me at 24 and 1/2 weeks. I already looked 9 months and I was only about half way there! Yikes!This is right before the twins were born. Actually, I think I may have had a couple more weeks after this. It was insane! By 36 weeks, I was using a walker to get myself out of my bed. The only place I could sleep was on this antigravity chair with my feet propped on pillows on a dining room chair. My poor kids knew that mommy wasn't going to get up to break up their fighting or pick them up if they fell. So sad! When we went to the store, I had to park in the handicap spot just so I could make it in! Then I would use one of the in store wheelchairs so I wouldn't have to stop every 3 feet to rest. I was heavy! Though, I only gained a total of 63 pounds. Not too bad for two full term babies. My mom, bless her heart, took a sabbatical from work to come stay with me and help with the kids for 3 months. She was there for the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy and for a month after they were born. She was amazing.

Delivery Day:
At 40 weeks plus 1 day, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom, not an uncommon event. It happened to be a weekend that my dad and sister were visiting, and it was a Sunday. On my way to the bathroom, all of 10 feet, my water broke. It felt like I peed all over myself, but without the actual action of the bladder involvement. I was shocked. I hadn't had that happen before. I told my husband, "Uh, I think my water broke. I didn't know that happened in real life! I thought it was just a movies thing! Well...I guess we should call the midwife, huh?" At that point I still hadn't had any contractions but I figured they would be starting soon enough. So we called her. She got right up and was on the road within 1/2 hour. Good thing too since it was an hour and half drive to get here. We started setting up the bed with the plastic and the old sheet and woke Mom up at around 5 or 5:30am to let her know that we would need Dad on kid duty that morning.
The contractions finally started around 5:15 or 5:30a, going from 5 minutes to 4 minutes apart pretty quickly. By the time the midwife arrived at 7am they were about 3-4 min apart but not too bad. Once she had gotten set up, she checked me and told me that whenever I was ready I could start pushing. What?! I wasn't ready. The one thing I remembered very clearly from my first two births was that the time right before the pushing was the hardest because the urge to push was overwhelming. This time, I wasn't overwhelmed yet. So I waited. Then waited a little longer. At around 8:10a, she suggested I go ahead and start pushing. So I did. My daughter Eden was born at 8:23am. She came out so fast that the midwife almost dropped her. The contractions mercifully stopped for a few minutes, and Eden's twin slipped into place as she worked her way out. My husband cut her cord while she lay on my stomach. I think I might have said, "I don't want to do that again!"
Pretty soon, though, the contractions started again and I had to start pushing again. I was so tired! To make matters worse, he was in the breach position! I felt like I pushed out his head but heard the midwife say that only his bottom was out and that we had just a few seconds before he would start losing oxygen. She sounded a little scared so I grabbed everything that I had in me and pushed til I couldn't anymore. Finally, he was out. Asher was born just 35 minutes after his sister, at 8:53am. Of course, with him, came such a gush of blood that everyone knew something was wrong. As we would find out a bit later, their cords were very short, only about 12 inches each, and they were both attached to a fused placenta that was in a good high position. When Eden came out, she tore a bit of the placenta away from the uterine wall, leaving a gush of fresh blood flowing. Since Asher immediately moved into place in the birth canal, he effectively plugged the hole so that no one knew I was losing blood. By the time he came out I was so weak from blood lose that I passed out twice while they were trying to change the sheets on the bed. I was plied with this green drink and gaterade, and the midwife tested my blood about once an hour. There was point when I knew that if I went to sleep I wouldn't wake up so I told whoever was there to make sure to wake me up if I stopped breathing. My sister told me later that there was a moment when she saw me "leave". I was there, then I wasn't. It really freaked her out. I knew that I didn't want to die, that I didn't want to leave my husband with four little kids to raise on his own, that I wanted to raise them myself. I thought all of that while I was just minutes postpartum. I guess it was enough, cuz here I still am.Day one, we finally got them weighed, after all the drama subsided. Eden weighed in at 8 lbs 1 oz. Asher was a whopping 8 lbs 8 oz. The placenta was another three pounds. When I was able to get up to get on the scale the next day, I found I had lost 25 lbs in a day. What a lovely feeling!
It took me three weeks before I was allowed up and around. I basically lived in my room with my babies. Food was brought, visitors came, my girls came in a few times a day to hang out with me, but it was a long three weeks. It was 5 weeks before I could walk without great pain, and 5 months before I could walk on a treadmill. I think I may have fractured my pelvis while they were in there, and it took me that long to recover. Now, they are 3. Beautiful, amazing, full of personality and life. I wouldn't have changed anything.

Eating the way God intended

Well...that's what we tell ourselves we are doing. Recently, we started getting a CSA (community sustained agriculture) box. It is basically a bunch of organic farms that work together to provide people with fresh and seasonal produce. Fortunately for us, we live in CA where the growing season goes on all year. It has been an interesting challenge to come up with recipes that will appeal to all 6 of us with some of the things that have been showing up in the box. This week we had kale, mustard greens, turnips, and arugala among others. Tonight I made turnip fries, that tasted remarkably like zucchini and greens with bacon and onions. Yum! It was so good that I am going to use the leftovers as a soup base for tomorrow's dinner...of course, I'll have to blend up the wilted greens since two of the kids made a point to gag on them tonight...sigh. They do so well normally! Well, most of them do. Right now, we are just working on teaching Ramiah to stop complaining about the food before she has even tasted it.

Blog By Adriel

up here what we have is me on a pier.

(ummm..............)

the other picture is my Little cousins: in order it is Avarie Josh Rian and Jayda.

Mission Organization

Okay, so I'm not that organized. Before I had kids I never needed to be. Once I actually had a couple of kids I realized that I couldn't just know where everything was, I actually needed to have some systems in place that gave the things somewhere to be. The problem was that I never really knew how to create those systems. When I was growing up in a family with six kids we just never had enough "stuff" to be categorized into systems. Books went on the shelf, crayons went into the boxes my dad made for us, and toys...well, I think we had maybe a total of two boxes worth of toys and they lived in a closet somewhere.
After the twins were born, well, after I could breathe again, I realized that the systemless state of my house was actually causing me stress. Have I changed that much? My sister Ness and I have had loads of discussions about this as I have processed through kids clothes and have begun to figure out what our daily and monthly needs are in terms of stuff. After listening to me and supporting me for the past year of slowly going through my house decluttering as I went, she organized an organization gift for me for Christmas from friends and family. What it is going to turn out to be is a weekend with a professional organization company, cleaning out and setting up systems. I'm both excited and terrified.
Today I had the first consultation meeting with one of the four companies on the list. It was very interesting. I really liked the owner and the employee she brought with her. I was showing them the garage and my problem sewing area and realized for perhaps the first time how my house must look to those who have a knack for this organization thing. At some point in the conversation I came to another realization; no matter how hard I try to get myself and my house organized, without the knowledge of "systems" I can only make so much headway. There will always be an element of dissarray, of scrambling to clean, of fighting the clutter and the mess...unless I can somehow grab hold of this stuff that they seem to know intrinsically. How do people get that? Are they born with it? Is it drilled into them in childhood? I'm sure there are classes on it now somewhere!