Monday's Munchies!

My daughter has a love affair with crackers. If she is eating and asks for more, she doesn't want more of what she is eating, she just wants crackers!!! After reading the ingredients on the popular commercial crackers out there, I decided to make my own. I feel much more comfortable giving her my homemade crackers than the commercial ones, especially with as much as she eats them!

I have 2 recipes that I've tried so far, but this one is her favorite. And it is easy! We just got a pizza stone for Christmas too, so I cooked them on the stone, and I found it to be easier than my cookie sheets because I could just roll out the dough onto the stone and cut it into shapes there vs. cutting first and placing on the sheet. I use a recipe from Ruth Yaron's book, "Super Baby Food."

1 cup of Super Flour: Super flour is flour that has added nutrients. I place 1 Tbsp. of soy flour, 1 Tbsp. of instant dry milk, and 1 tsp. of wheat germ in a 1 cup measuring cup. I then top it off with 50/50 flour.
1/4 tsp. of salt
4 Tbsp. of Canola oil

Mix all ingredients together. Add 3-4 Tbsp. of COLD water until the mixture is the consistency of pie crust. Refrigerate for an hour. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roll dough to about an 1/8 thick. Make sure the dough is evenly rolled out. Cut into shapes. Prick with a fork throughout. Bake on an oiled cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned and crisp. If using a pizza stone, preheat the stone with the oven and bake until lightly browned and crisp.

Enjoy!

Sunday Inspirations

Welcome to the first edition of Sunday Inspirations! My goal is to inspire you, give you hope, make you think, and bring encouragement.

My inspiration today comes from so many people who, despite facing adversity, are taking huge risks to better their situations and others around them. The following people are true accounts of how God is truly working in their lives:

• Frances: A recently divorced mother who has struggled to keep her home, pay off debtors and lawyer fees has decided to put all hope in God and go back to school. She got a full scholarship, quit her job, and should have her degree as a Physician's Assistant within the year.
• Francis Chan: The author of Crazy Love, and Forgotten God, after coming back from a trip to Africa, sold his house to live in one half the size of the first one just to be able to have more money to give away, not to keep.
• Abby and Nate: A married couple who tried for years to have a child finally decided to adopt. Years after that, they finally were able to adopt Noah internationally. Before picking Noah up, Abby became pregnant and lost the baby and almost lost her life. A couple of weeks after finally meeting Noah and taking him home, Abby found out that she was 14 weeks pregnant. Surprise! Abby gave birth to Eli in December. When Noah's social worker came to meet Eli, she told the couple that Noah has a brother, born 3 days away from Eli and asked them to adopt his brother as well. Talk about a roller coaster!

Praise God today!!! He is GOOD!

Go Colts!

Cloth Diaper Questions?

Before you decide that cloth is too difficult or overwhelming, contact me! I also do home visits for anyone that lives in the Tri-State area. For Free! No, I am not going to run off with your jewerly, but I will help you get organized and do demonstrations if you have any questions. I am hoping to start going to organizations in the Cincinnati area to help at-risk or underprivileged parents, so I really need the practice and experience. Email me if you are interested! Don't live in the Cincy area? Email me anyway, and I would love to chat! Or better yet, leave a question or comment on this blog so others that may have the same question may be helped!

crazyforcloth AT gmail DOT com

IT CAN BE DONE! Happy Wiping!

Love,
Christie

Breastfeeding

This message is for all of my friends who have had or are having babies in the next month or so.

Tired much? Ha! You just pushed a watermelon out of an orange. Epidural or not, you pushed, and your body is exhausted. On top of that, you are determined to breastfeed (YAY!), which means you do not recover from labor until your baby sleeps through the night. I'm not sure if anyone told you, but breastfeeding is EXHAUSTING! Although, there is nothing like losing weight and eating all the time without working out.

If you are struggling with the breastfeeding thing, take heart! You are doing the best you can, and you will be rewarded in full! All throughout my pregnancy, people kept telling me that breastfeeding was painful, awful, and that I wouldn't last because it was just too difficult (I'm not one that deals with pain well). I think all that horrible advice made me even more stubborn to continue, and I'm so glad I did.

Alaina and I had almost every problem known to breastfeeding. We got to visit lactation consultant after lactation consultant. After about 2 weeks, I decided that I was just going to pump for the next year because I was determined to feed Alaina breast milk for health and financial reasons. Thankfully, we did not have to do that because I HATED pumping, with a passion! Even after she figured out how to latch on, we continued to have problems up until she was about 6 or 7 months. In fact, I think the only thing we didn't deal with was thrush (thank you Lord!).

So, if you feel like quitting, contact me for encouragement! We managed to make it to about 14-15 months before completely weaning, so I consider it a success! She has never had an ear infection, and the only times she got sick was when she was exposed to something that I was not.

Ok, new mama, if you are still reading this, here's my advice...know that you are a doing a wonderful job and, GO TAKE A NAP!

Love,
Christie