Kids, Chickens and Eggs!

Today most kids are very displaced from where their food comes from. It is very important to my husband and I that our kids understand their food from its beginning to end. Our quarter acer lot has provided enough space for us to do that. Two springs ago we started building garden beds and planting fruit trees which are really starting to produce fruits and vegetables this year and have been a blast for our toddler. I have wanted to raise chickens for sometime now and eggs have become a favorite with our two girls . If you have checked the price of organic eggs at your local grocery store lately its not cheap!

This winter we decided to finally get our chickens. In February I went down to Livingscape, our local feed store to check out what they had in the way of chicks. We had decided to get two chicks to start with since Portland has a limit of three hens chickens without a permit within city limits. When I got to the feed store there were only three chicks left. I couldn't just leave one there so of course I took all three. The man working that day was not a regular and was not exactly sure what breed they were. Lyra was so excited about the chicks she could hardly stand it. When we got home we set up a large cardboard box with a heat lamp in Etta's room since she was still co-sleeping with us. Lyra would drag every guest we had upstairs to meet the chicks. She proudly named the yellow chick Cinderella Chicken and the two black ones Tinkerbell and Fluffy.

Next we had to select a chicken co-op. With a four month old and two year old I was not really up for building one and my husband's handy skills are somewhat limited, so I purchased one from Chicken Gardener out of Eugene. We selected their small "Chicken Tractor" model with wheels that could be moved around the yard so they always had fresh grass and we could park the coop on our raised garden beds in the winter. They delivered the coop to our yard fully built for no extra charge.

From left to right: Tinkerbell, Fluffy and Cinderella Chicken

The chickens moved into their new coop in mid March. By May they were starting to look like identifiable adult breeds and we started to research what breeds we might have. We have identified Cinderella Chicken as a New Hampshire Red and Tinkerbell and Fluffy as Plymouth Rocks. Both known to be solid egg layers and good cold weather birds which is always a bonus for those cold snaps. As of yesterday Cinderella Chicken laid her first two eggs. The second one significantly smaller than the first which is fairly typical when they first start to lay eggs. It will be a few of weeks before she starts laying with consistency in size and numbers. The New Hampshire Reds are know to be early layers so it will be a few weeks before we see any eggs from Tinkerbell and Fluffy.

Daddy, Lyra and Aggie checking out the first egg!

"Is it worth it?" that is the big question that everyone asks. The cost of the coop, lamp and feeders are your big startup costs, which runs around $450 for 3-4 chickens, after that it is fairly inexpensive. We spend about $15 a month on organic feed and they consume a lot of our fruit and vegetable compostables. They will soon be laying around 60 eggs a month when they are all laying and that is about $0.25 an egg. If you buy organic eggs you are saving a little bit. Maintenance is fairly minimal as well. I spend a total of 5 minutes in the morning checking food, water and bedding and again at night. If I have to leave for the weekend they are usually fine on their own for couple of days with some extra food and a full tank of water. The excitement and knowledge Lyra has gained from the experience is worth every penny!   

First Time Running Mama I Salute You!

I am not a great motivational speaker, but I have some words for mamas that are getting out there and running for the first time after giving birth or for the first time ever. First of all, you are amazing! I will admit I have been a runner most my life, but now that I have two children I have been pregnant or nursing for 3 years and counting. When you are pregnant and/or nursing your body is not really yours anymore. For the half hour or so I am out running, walking or crawling (that's right crawling! Don't tell me your toddler always sleeps through the night) my body is mine for that time, just me and my thoughts. I see lots of first timers trying to do that same.

Hey mamas! It is okay to walk! The thing I notice most about new runners is a complete fear of what other people will think of them and their ability. I am here to tell you that this fear is irrational! What I love about distance running is most anyone can do it and no one is saying "oh look at how slow or fat she is." As the moms I run with will tell you "we all walked up the hill when we started." I have the same respect if not more for a mama walking her first 5k than a seasoned runner working on their 15th half marathon.

"My feet hurt when I run so I guess I am not a runner" is a phrase I hear far too often. If you are doing something you have never done before it is suppose to hurt a bit! Anything worth doing has a bit of pain. If you are a mama then you gave birth whether it was naturally or c-section and I think we would all agree that it was totally worth it and we would do it all over again. You are a sleep deprived warrior now and a 5k is nothing! To all mamas thinking about getting out there its time to grab that stroller and give it a shot. Whether you are doing it to lose weight, stay fit or keep you mental sanity you have more supporters out there than you know!

Me and Etta at the 2014 Rhody Run 12k in Port Townsend, WA

Toddler Crossfit

I recently got back into a running routine after having our second daughter. It isn't easy to find the time. Leave the house at 5:30AM before everyone is awake to get in a 3-4 mile run three times a week. My brother came over for dinner one night and I was telling him that I was getting back into running. "You need to join a gym and do crossfit" he tells me. Clearly my brother does not have young children at home. "Crossfit? I have a two year old! I am already doing crossfit!" I answered. You might think I am joking but I am here to tell that chasing a toddler all day is definitely a form of crossfit.

Crossfit routines incorporate high-intensity interval training, weightlifting, plyometrics, calisthenics, and other exercises. These are just a few elements of crossfit that are accomplished daily by parents everywhere.

• High-intensity interval training is alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. You can do this exercise by chasing a toddler running down the hallway with half a roll of toilet paper streaming behind them. When they see mama coming behind them they will start running faster as they hang a left into the living room. You then book it at high speed to prevent that toilet paper from being wrapped around the coffee table. When you finally get the toilet paper from your toddler you will begin picking up all the ripped pieces up and catching your breath. Before you finish you will look up to see the toddler throwing handfuls of dirt out of your favorite houseplant and you are up and running again.

• Weightlifting is where an athlete attempts a maximum-weight single lift of a barbell loaded with weight plates. This exercise is best executed with multiple children in a parking lot setting. Strap infant baby to chest and when your toddler refuses to hold your hand and wants to run into oncoming traffic you will quickly snatch them up and lift them over a shoulder in a clean and jerk motion to avoid hitting the infant.

• Plyometrics involves having muscles exert maximum force in as short a time as possible, with the goal of increasing both speed and power. This can be dubbed the super mom exercise. Toddler climbs on top of a bar stool to grab a bunch of grapes off the counter as their foot slips and your toddler starts to struggle for balance you spring into super mode lunging forward to grab your toddler's arm at the last second. This can be expected to occur 3-4 times daily leaving you with well toned calf muscles.

• Calisthenics are a form of exercise consisting of a variety of exercises, often rhythmical movements. They are intended to increase body strength and flexibility with movements such as bending, jumping, swinging, twisting or kicking. What better place for calisthenics then the playground? Toddlers generally obsess on one or two pieces of playground equipment, usually the slide or the swings. Which will require you to help your toddler up to the top of the slide climbing those steps over and over and over... The swings only requires you to push but your toddler will want up and down out of the swings many time causing you to twist and bend many times. The real workout happens when you tell them its time to go home. This will trigger screams and running. This will give you more weightlifting and plyometrics to get them into the car.

Lyra on the swing

The next time someone suggests an exercise routine you just gotta try you can suggest the toddler crossfit. Tell them you will even lend them a toddler for the day. Guaranteed to give you a workout you never knew existed. It even comes with a brain workout as the toddler will ask half a millions questions you never thought were worth asking throughout the day. For those in need of a more strenuous workout throw in an infant and/or puppy. I hear twin toddlers will double the workout as well. 

Help a Mama Out

My second daughter is now seven months old and I finally am feeling like my old self again. It has taken me a few months to write this blog because it is a difficult thing to write about. Hell asking for help is a difficult thing for me to do in general. I mean we all want to be super mom, right? When I had our first daughter everyone was coming by and asking how they could help out and were always visiting. It was stressful to try and look presentable all the time but it really did help me feel not cut off from the world. With the second one everyone assumed I knew the ropes so there was no need to check in. This assumption could not have been further from the truth. All our parents took off right after she was born and that was that. Here is where I admit I have never needed more help in my life and got so little.

Second children are twice as hard when they arrive because suddenly there are two children to care for. Not only are you completely energy drained and taking care of a newborn and in my case there was also an energy bound needy toddler. My husband took the first two months off of work to help out which was great. It really did help and I really was doing great. When he went back to work things were still pretty good for awhile and then at about four months it became obvious I had developed postpartum thyroidtis.

I felt like I was on a roller coaster with whiplash. I started gaining back some of the weight I had lost. I was tired and cold all the time. I had trouble functioning with simple tasks and memory. To make matters worse my hair was coming out by the handfuls. My milk supply dropped so the baby was eating twice as often and getting frustrated. My husband would come home and I would be rocking two crying children while I too was crying too from complete exhaustion. At one point I got sick and I knew I needed help and my family lives up on the Olympic Peninsula so that was out. I begged my husband to take one day off to help me until the fever and body aches went away. After taking two months off already he could not afford to take off anymore. He was reluctant to ask his folks in fear of them thinking we couldn't handle our own children. My mother suggested I hire someone to help with the cleaning. Great in theory until you factor in the the size of the hospital bills we were paying off. I finally got my husband to ask his mother to help and she could only help one day a week once in awhile during the toddler's nap time or sometimes after my husband got home from work. Not ideal but it was better than nothing.

Finally at about six months my energy came back my hair started growing back! I felt like I was back in the world of the living. It was probably two of the longest darkest months of my life. The first six months with any newborn whether it is your first or fifth is always the hardest. My advice to friends and family who are close to those with newborns is to check in frequently during those first six months. Take the toddler out and let mom get a nap! Things may appear fine and dandy on the outside but chances are there is a lot going on just below the surface. A female body just made a whole new human! It takes some time to truly recover from something like that. I write about this because even though I felt completely alone at the time, I know that I was not alone. There are mothers out there having similar experiences.  

Lyra (24m) and Etta (3m)

No Gender Disappointment Here

People always ask when you first get pregnant "Do you want a boy or a girl?" Its like they are asking if you like cats or dogs. Before we got pregnant with our first child my husband wanted a boy. The conversation came up with some friends at a dinner party and I asked him why. "So, I can play catch with him and things like that." I have been an athlete most of my life, playing soccer and basketball all through high school and running cross country and track through college. So, I took this comment as somewhat of a slap in the face. One of my long time friends seemed to be reading my mind. "You think a daughter of Liesl's is going to have any problem catching and throwing?" she asked him. "It's just always what I envisioned in my head." he answered.

A few months later we were pregnant. We decided not to find out the sex and for it to be a surprise. For me it was because I didn't want my husband to find out we were having a girl and be disappointed for the next 20 weeks. I knew once he was holding that baby he would be in love no matter what it was, that's just how he is. So for 34 weeks I listened to my mother in law tell everyone how she just knew it was going to be a boy. People at work tell me how they thought it was a boy too. This actually started to make me very upset (hormones did not help anything). I told my dad how everyone thought it was a boy and what was so wrong with a girl! "Well, I think its a girl, but then I thought your brother was going to be a girl too." he said. I laughed and this somehow put me at ease. Whatever it was it simply didn't matter. 

January 2012 our little girl was born. Just as I expected my husband didn't even care that it was a girl. He was so excited to be a dad. She is now two and puts on her Seahawk shirt and grabs her football every Sunday and watches football with her dad and papa. 

When we got pregnant with our second my mother in law started in with the "this one is going to be a boy." My husband was a whole different guy this time around "I don't care either way but I sort of hope its another girl so Lyra can have a sister. Also, we won't have to buy more clothes!" I decided to find out the sex at 20 weeks this time just so people would just stop telling me what they thought. I wasn't worried about the sex at all with this one after I saw how the whole family had feel in love with Lyra.

We now have two beautiful daughters and people still ask us "Are you going to try for a boy?" And our answer "Nope." We have decided our two girls is all we need to feel complete and content with our family and my husband went ahead with a vasectomy last week. "I thought we were going to get a boy" my grandmother said when she found out. "Sorry, talk to my brother about that one." I answered.      

Lyra, Etta and Daddy watching the Superbowl

Going Plastic Free for Safety!

In light of new studies going BPA free just isn't enough anymore. Mother Jones just released an article uncovering that many replacements for plastic containing BPA are more toxic than the plastics they are replacing. Instead of sifting through all the different plastic formulas to figure out what is currently considered safe we are getting rid of plastic all together. Before you write me off for being completely crazy I will just say I know too may people under the age of thirty to battle cancer not to be concerned. The task of eliminating plastic is easier said then done in today's world. There are many non plastic options out there, however they can be pricey.

Baby bottles are the easiest. Most all bottle manufactures carry a glass product line. You may have to get on Amazon.com to find them but they can be found in almost any brand for a very reasonable price. However, the nipples and lids are still made of plastic. Luckily the liquid is spending its time sitting in the glass portion of the bottle and to limit the leaching of plastic chemicals hand wash in warm water and soap and never expose plastic to high heat.

Same rule for sippy cups. However, non plastic sippy cups are harder to find and usually are pricey. Stainless steal and glass are the most common replacements. For my toddler I chose stainless steal for all the dropping and knocking over it is going to have to take. I purchased a Safe Sippy 2 and my toddler adores that cup! I highly recommend purchasing an extra parts kit too! I have heard good things from folks that have taken the glass route. A popular glass option for baby bottles and sippy cups is LifeFactory.

Lyra with her stylish Safe Sippy 2

For utensils there is always the good old fashion stainless steal which never really ever goes out of style. Stainless steal toddler utensils can be found anywhere and cheaply at your nearest Target or Ikea. If you are just introducing food for the first time you may want to use something softer that the baby can gum on while learning to eat like bamboo. Bambu makes a bamboo organic baby spoon. The down side of bamboo is that you don't want to put it in the dishwasher. I have seen corn starch baby spoons and plates on the market as well, however unless they are made from organic corn I would avoid them. Non organic corn is grown with very high levels of pesticides, atrazine in particular. Atrazine is a known carcinogenic.

While your child is in the throw the whole bowl on the floor stage it is good to have some non breakable plates and bowls. For this there is bamboo, stainless, potato starch, glass with silicon and much more! A simple google and amazon search will blow your mind what's out there. We chose to go with bamboo wear from Green Sprout. These can be found through many local Co Ops and Amazon.com.

For food storage there are many glass tupperwares and cloth zipper snack bags out there. I purchased my glass tupperware at Costco and I love it. For baby food I turn to a good old reliable mason jar. There are many options out there. Happy hunting!

Orange and Ginger Sauce (vegan)

Tonight my husband took a recipe from "Joy of Cooking" full of dairy and vinegar and put his own twist on it. It was so tasty I decided it was blog worthy. This sauce can be used in any stir fry of veggies with meat or tofu. Tonight he made a fried brown rice with asparagus with sliced chicken breast which he poured this sauce on. The ginger is not over powering making this a kid friendly dish, our toddler loved it.

Orange and Ginger Sauce

1 tbs Earth Balance
3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup shallots/onions
1 cup apple juice
2 tbs chopped ginger
3 cups vegetable stock (or chicken)
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
3/4 cup coconut cream (can find at Trader Joes)
1 tbs orange zest
Lemon juice to taste
salt/pepper to taste

Saute earth balance, mushrooms and onions until brown. Then add apple juice and ginger and cook until reduced by half. Add vegetable stock and orange juice and cook until reduced by half. Add coconut cream and cook until it coats the spoon. Strain sauce into bowl and add orange zest, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Stores in the fridge up to 7 days and can be frozen for longer storage.