Super yummy, cultured squash!

My countertops are covered with the usual daily crumbs and sticky spots, things people get out and don't put away, and PILES AND PILES of impatiently waiting garden produce. This morning I woke up to an exploded green pepper. It ran out of patience. Oh, who planted so many green pepper plants this year? It took some doing to find some clear space in the kitchen to take the picture for this blog post!  I'll make some more salsa tomorrow, family, I promise!  Then we will have some clear space again.

It's quite a job keeping up with the produce coming in over the summer, and I am always feeling behind. But I've managed to keep a pretty steady flow of produce culturing. Our biggest successes this year have been green peppers (ugh, not my favorite), squash, zucchini, and tomatoes.  So, there's lots of salsa makin' goin' on!

To me, the benefits of cultured vegetables well outweigh the work and time investment in preparing and storing. They are loaded with vitamins, promote healthy gut flora, improve alkaline levels, balance thyroid, improve metabolism, and have amazing cleansing properties. They are full of vitamins B, C, and K2.  

Many healing diets recommend consuming some cultured vegetables with every meal for proper vitamin, mineral, and fat absorption.  The days that I do get my cultured veggies in me, are the days I feel superhuman! They are pretty awesome! 

One of my FAVORITE ferments is cultured squash! It is sweeter than most of the other fermented veggies, and so its savory flavor is a bit of a departure from the usual more sour ferments. I found the recipe for this squash  on Donna Schwenk's website, culturedfoodforlife.com. This is the one to make if you're easing into the flavors of cultured vegetables, since it isn't quite as pickled tasting.  

Now, I'd better go wipe the crumbs off my countertops.  

My long story, short

The ups and downs of the last several years:

I remember May of 2010 so distinctly.  I was on top of the world.  I had just completed my late return to college to finish my final year towards my bachelor's degree.  I was graduating with all A's from that last year, gave a speech during the ceremony, and could hardly believe I had just given birth to my sixth child the previous fall.  My husband and I were also wrapping up a huge undertaking that we had completely poured ourselves into for months.

I believe Jan-May of that year was the hardest work I had ever undertaken... nursing an infant who was having some major nursing challenges, giving over 100% in support and hard work to my husband's project, writing papers and completing assignments for school, and homeschooling and raising five other kiddos! I felt energetic, intelligent, and capable!

The moment I stood, presenting my graduation speech at college, still feeling the high of getting a perfect grade on my senior thesis, was a defining moment for me.

I had always been a good student, loved writing, reading, researching, and being a mom.  But at that moment, I remember taking a mental picture of the blessed life I had, and of the exciting potential of my future endeavors.  I just knew that God had big things in store for me and my family, and that He was giving me the skills necessary to accomplish the tasks he would entrust me with! I like to call this time of my life, the "full bloom phase."

The remainder of 2010 presented even harder challenges to give my energy to, and lots to accomplish, but the next distinct time that stands out in my memory is January 2011. That is when I finally had a chance to sit down for a moment after our big, crazy year.  I knew I didn't feel "right," but that it was probably just temporary exhaustion.

Things had finally calmed down, and I felt like my head was spinning. It was time to rest and recharge for a bit to recover from a huge year that had come to an end with the usual holiday craziness.  I figured that by the end of January, I would be back to my normal self.

Well, the inability to concentrate, read, or write a simple Facebook status update, along with an extremely fatigued feeling didn't go away by the end of the month.  Or by the end of the next month. I remained in a confused, perplexed zombie-like state for the rest of the year and on into the next year.  I like to call this time of my life, when I felt absent from everything going on around me, as "when my brain crashed and completely disappeared."

I had gone from writing beautiful, 10 page academic papers to not being able to read a complete sentence and typing my words with the letters all out of order.  After a lifetime of feeling like I was an analytic, academic type person, I was mentally paralyzed and completely wiped out.  Everything that made me, me... All the inside parts that make you more than just a shell, seemed to have vanished, and I was literally a shell of myself.  Mind and spirit had vanished. My body was on autopilot to get through the basic daily tasks of caring for my family, and that activity was very minimal.  You can see by looking back through my blog, that I did have a few thoughtful moments here and there.  Those moments usually meant I had done very little else that day or that week.  My good moments were few, and they were like a tiny allowance I was given that would be quickly spent on one task or another, and then there was nothing left, mentally or emotionally. If a day came that I was able to think fairly well, I had to decide what I would spend my meager allowance of thoughts and energy on, because I knew I would crash into zombie mode at any moment and wouldn't be back for days.

Distinct memory number three- August of 2012.  I was returning from date day with the hubby, and walking up the four stairs into the main part of our house, I felt my calf muscles seize up.  It wasn't pain. They just turned as hard as rocks and didn't relax again.  I became puzzled and sat down, and as I tried to figure out what this strange sensation was, my arms and legs began to feel numb with pins and needles.  By the next day, I couldn't get up off my couch all day, because my arms and legs felt like they each weighed 1,000 thousand pounds.  In fact, I felt like a huge invisible weight was pushing my whole body down.  I ended up lying down on my bedroom floor, because the sensations of weight pushing on me, pins and needles, and fire all over my skin made me feel like I needed to sink lower to the ground for some kind of relief.  It was like the dream where you can't move when the boogie man starts coming after you.  My body felt stuck, heavy, and covered in roaming prickly pains.

From August 2012, until March 2014 I spent much, much time in and out of those symptoms.  The bad times meant being bedridden, the good times meant living like a zombie with the addition now of muscles that were weighted with fatigue and painful inflammation and terrible all encompassing exhaustion.  I like to call this time of my life the "the time I was very, very sick."

 After some initial high dose Vitamin D therapy, I saw slight improvement by the end of 2012.  I started special methylated B Vitamins in 2013, after finding a gene mutation that was contributing to my crash.  Baby steps of improvement followed throughout the remainder of 2013.  There were some good times, then bad times again on my roller coaster ride of crashing, recovering, and crashing again.

By 2014, I felt that the baby steps I had taken through supplements were doing as much good as they were ever going to do. I was no longer bedridden or completely helpless, but I was so very limited in what I could actually accomplish in the down times, and the good times were tainted with muscle pain and severe brain fog.  I was happy with the progress, but knew that if I wanted to feel like my full bloom self ever again, I would have to discover additional steps to take toward healing.

God was so present in this sick period, and led me so faithfully through each baby step to take. But I will post the spiritual side of the story in a future entry.  

The next distinct memory I have is of a phone conversation with my mom in February of this year.  I told her I had been researching and praying, and that I was going to try an extreme diet to see if it just might help me. I was considering the GAPS diet or The Maker's Diet. I eventually settled on eliminating all refined sugars, processed foods, and grains. I concentrated on real foods, traditionally prepared, with lots of probiotic foods and nourishing bone broths.

Now, here's my FAVORITE distinct memory...

The first week of April in this year, I organically, miraculously, amazingly, and completely returned. I was back. My body felt like it should. My brain worked like it should. I felt like I had been gone somewhere for a couple years, and had just returned. I saw my precious family right there in front of me. I had intelligent thoughts. I felt my spirit soar with love, peace, and joy, instead of just feeling like I was clinging tightly to hope alone.

I am so very, very grateful to be healthy. I like to call this time of my life "the return of ME."

New Year update

It's a new year, and so much is different at our house!  The children are growing and changing so quickly!  So, here is an update on all that is new with us... 

First of all, Kurt has moved his office to our small home town.  He can walk to the office from home, eats lunch home most days, and sometimes has one or two kids hang out at the office for a little while.  

I have been on the road to discovery and health, rebounding from some health setbacks I've experienced the last couple years.  I am looking forward to continuing recovery and making an even healthier lifestyle for my family one of my highest priorities.  (I will expand on this in future posts, as time allows.)  I am busy homeschooling, keeping things organized, preparing our food/meals more traditionally.  I am hopeful that being healthier will mean that this year I will be able to read the books on my list and blog again!

Austin is 18 now!  He is finishing up his senior year, by taking some classes at our local community college, and studying to take some CLEP tests for further college credit.  If all goes as planned, he will graduate in the spring with 15 college credit hours under his belt.  The ACT test is now just a memory.  He's been accepted by the college he wishes to attend, and has already been awarded an academic scholarship.  We are working on additional scholarships, and are planning senior pictures, and graduation details.  He is staying very busy working with 5th grade boys at church, attending youth cell group, and spending time with wonderful mentoring pastors.  The only remaining "homeschool" assignments he has left this year are my ever-growing and always continuing list of books I would like for him to read.  Of course, he has fun with a busy social life with some great friends, and enjoys time on the computer, and working out.

Sydney is 16 now, and has her official driver's license!  She is such an animal lover, and has been enjoying training our puppies.  She asked for a puppy of her own for her 16th birthday, a female maltipoo.  And our family also now has a female goldendoodle puppy.  She is excellent at training and caring for the dogs!  She is working on finding a male puppy to add to the mix, and studying and trying to breed some of them in the future.  Sydney is still studying piano, taking Theater and Sign Language classes, and an ACT prep class at Prep.  And besides her homeschooling assignments, she is going to attend the community college with her brother, and take a stab at some of those CLEP classes.  In her free time, we find Sydney studying her Bible and journaling.  (AND texting her friends, AND watching movies!)  She has some really wonderful friends!  Sydney also attends a girls' Bible study, and our church youth cell group each week.  She is going to be a very busy young lady this semester!  And she always manages to find plenty of time for her little sisters!

Andrew is 12, and in the major transition from little boy to young man!  He is learning to become more disciplined in his schoolwork, as this is the age that I usually start piling on a lot more "schooly" work than in the younger years.  He is doing so very well in this transition!  Last year he completed an 18 week program with Learning Rx, and is reaping the benefits of intense brain training in his schoolwork this year!  He continues to study piano, and can play for hours writing his own compositions and playing some of his favorite songs by ear.  He is also taking Theater, Choir, and Sign Language classes at Prep.  Andrew just got his first pair of invisiline braces, which will be a two year program.  He was anxious to get into braces, so he is so excited that the time has finally arrived!  For fun, Andrew loves to play Minecraft on the computer, building and creating his own little cyber-world.    

Macy is 7 now, and in 2nd grade.  She is ecstatic, because she is finally old enough to join the big kids at piano lessons.  She has her cute little piano lesson book, and LOVES practicing her songs!  She is also doing the Prep thing, with Theater, Sign Language, and Choir, along with her homeschooling.  She is a joy to teach, because she is studious, and just can't get enough learning in each day!  She is blessing her mommy so much, as she always wants to help me cook, decorate, and organize!  She is a great big sister to the littlest ones, always offering to help tuck them in, take them snacks, teach them preschool lessons, and watch over them.  For fun, she has been playing JumpStart.com and talking to her cousins on the phone.

Our sweet little Tessa recently turned 5!  And when she did, she just knew that she was suddenly very, very big and very, very smart!  She is learning her letter sounds and "doing math", starting Kindergarten a bit earlier than she officially needed to.  She insisted!  She is always busy coloring, drawing, playing dolls, dressing like a princess, or playing learning games on the computer.  She has been playing on the piano and singing like her brothers and sisters for fun.  Everything is all about princesses in Tessa's world, and she is especially excited about Disney's new princess, Sofia the First.  

Baby Janie is 3 now.  She is super close to her big sister, Tessa.   They are such close friends!  They are constantly playing together, but when Janie is by herself, she has such a big imagination!  She is always singing, like her big sister Sydney used to do when she was 3.  She keeps a running musical narrative of the day's activities.  So cute!  She's learning right along with Tessa at the little schoolwork table in the schoolroom.  And she would be happy to be read to all day long!  She has always communicated so well for her age, so most times, she sounds like she's 3 going on 23.  
                                      Happy New Year!!! 

Never say never

I remember the day I said "I'm not a cloth diaper person."

Look what's hanging to dry in my laundry room......



And look at this sweet diaper! If you could only feel how soft it is. It's made of cotton fleece.

And diaper cover...

I was talking with one of my sweet friends the other day. She is a mom of four little ones. We decided that she could be described as a "homeschooling, home-churching, home-birthing, breastfeeding, baby-wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping mommy". After discussing her description, she asked me how I could be described. My first reaction was just to say I was very 90's.

I had my first baby in the 90's. I was young, inexperienced with babies, and armed with my faithful, What to Expect books. Everyone in my circle of friends at the time was doing the same thing as I was. I had never heard of homeschooling, or home birthing or churching for that matter. I had never seen anyone wearing their baby in a sling. Cloth diapering seemed old-fashioned and unnecessary. And I was warned not to put my baby in bed with me or I might smother it.

Well, the things that seemed old fashioned then are in vogue again now. OK, they have been for some time now, but I'm slow to change. Yep, that's me! I started mothering my babies a certain way, and just stuck with what had worked for me. I had switched to Seventh Generation disposable diapers on my last few babies. So, I felt good enough about that. I really don't like thinking of bleached diapers on my sweet little newborns.

But after seeing some of my new friends using cloth, I asked them some questions about how much work it is. They assured me it was as easy as using the sanitary cycle on my washing machine. So, I got on youtube, watched some videos about cloth diapering, and decided to go for it! The cuteness of these little diapers alone was hard to resist. And here I am now, with Bum Genius and Kissa's hanging in my laundry room.

I'm not a die hard. I use my chlorine-free disposables when I leave the house and overnight. But I am having a blast! Who would have thought that I would love cloth diapers!

Flu season

Here is a great link to a Shonda Parker's blog, which has a great article about flu prevention and treatment. She is a very knowledgeable lady, who's advice can be trusted...

Shonda Pedia: Swine Flu Update

In addition to this great article, I'll mention a few things we are doing at our house:

Since it takes a day or two for the virus to make a home in our bodies, we do these things after we have been out around other people ...
1.) Swab out our noses with salt water on a cotton swab, or do a nasal wash with Xlear or our netti pot.
2.) Gargle with salt water or Listerine.
3.) Rinse our eyes with saline drops.

I have also heard that colloidal silver (be careful what you use is made by a reputable company and taken in proper doses) is knocking the swine flu out successfully and is also being used as a preventative treatment.

Favorite Green Household Products

I've tried just about all of the more environmentally safe automatic dishwasher liquids, and this is my favorite. Mrs. Meyers gets my dishes the cleanest and has the best fragrances. It is important to me to go green in the dishwasher because a soap residue stays on the dishes, so I'd rather the soap that I use not contain harmful toxins. I order mine from amazon.com.

I like Seventh Generation laundry detergent. We always have clothes on, so we tend to wear the laundry soap we choose. Besides the old reasons for avoiding the wrong surfactants and detergents, I just heard a report about the ingredients in typical laundry detergents bringing on puberty prematurely.

I love Dr. Bronner's soap! Our favorite fragrance is the almond. It's great to feel good about using this soap on the little ones, besides the rest of us.

I was ordering other brands of dish washing liquid on amazon.com until Walmart started carrying this. I read a consumer report on the different green brands and whether or not they really were green. They gave the Clorox products a thumbs' up. I also use the glass cleaner and bathroom cleaner pictured below.

Reality Check: We do not use ALL green products at our house. We just try our best. The healthy alternatives are not as easy to find at the store and are generally more expensive. I just treat each good choice as a victory. It's easier to stay positive and encouraged when I allow myself to fall short of perfection and just do the best that I can.