WOW! Time has flown by!

I got super busy, and after posting a World Breastfeeding Week entry--didn't blog at all for the month of August! I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things with this blog.

Now obviously, today is not a wordless day, because I've already posted some words ;-) But, beginning next week, I'm hoping to start with an idea that I've seen on several of my friends' and others blogs that I think is a fun idea: Wordless Wednesday. So look for that, starting next week. For now, I hope to return to the regularly, unscheduled program LOL.......

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

WOW! It's only 2 days until August!! I can't believe the summer is almost over already--then again, my girls are already looking forward to getting back to school.

This coming week (August 1-8) is techinically World Breastfeeding Week, although many people all around the world celebrate World Breastfeeding "Week" throught the entire month of August.

I am so glad that I made the decision to give my girls the *best* start in life by nursing them! I wish I knew how to help more people to know how perfect breastmilk is for their babies--it seems that because of the hype from formula companies, some naive, albeit well-intentioned moms have been lead to believe that formula is 'just as good' or 'just like breastmilk'. How could it be?

• Breastmilk is constantly changing to suit the specific needs of the nursling -- the composition of mother's milk changes as the baby gets older and his/her needs change.
  
• The exact composition of human milk can NOT be replicated or synthesized -- you've probably heard about how the formula companies have added the long chain fatty acids DHA and AA (or ARA) to formula? Well, in human milk, DHA and AA is natural and is essential for baby's visual health and brain growth; but in formula, DHA and AA are CREATED or synthesized from algae and soil fungus! Are you okay with putting that in your baby's system?? See http://www.cornucopia.org/DHA/DHA_QuestionsAnswers.pdf
  
• When mom or baby is exposed to something, mom's body begins making antibodies and passing that to her baby through her milk within approx. 24 hrs! You can't do that with any other form of infant nutrition!!
  
• Mother's milk matches more than 50% of her baby's genetic material! Of course baby can digest it easily!
  
• Human milk is species specific! It is the perfect food for human babies!! There is no other way around it, it is medical/scientific fact, and just as God & nature intended.
  
• There is even a fabulous component of breastmilk (alpha-lactalbumin) that kills tumor cells!!! See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9925761
  
• The nutrients in human milk are also more bioavailable to baby -- meaning: the iron in breastmilk is easily absorbed and used by baby's system whereas most of the iron added to artificial baby milks does not even get into the baby's system!
  

And how about Mom:

• Studies have shown that mother's who don't breastfeed are more likely to be at risk of several female cancers.
  
• Mothers who breastfeed can have approximately 10-12 days of postpartum bleeding (lochia) but mothers who don't breastfeed have their bleeding continue for up to 24 days! This can put formula feeding mothers at higher risks of anemia, hemorrhage, and other serious conditions.
  
• Mothers who breatfeed also have a quicker time losing their pregnancy weight than mothers who don't.
  
• and insulin-dependant diabetic moms who breastfeed have found that their body regulated blood-sugars better while they were nursing than when they weren't. Some times their need for insulin is decreased!
  

Babies are Born to Breastfeed!

"Formula feeding is the longest-lasting, uncontrolled experiment lacking informed consent in the history of medicine." ~~Frank Oski, M.D. retired editor, Journal of Pediatrics

Mommy's Naptime

Tuesday was a royally yucky day! I was cranky/moody and tired. Thinking perhaps, that my staying up late to study after the kids have gone to bed is really catching up with me!

I was SO excited on Monday night because my parents invited me and my oldest to join them for the Drums Across Kansas performance! My mom has always enjoyed drum/bugle corps and used to take us to see them when we were kids....I have fond memories of watching the Sky Ryders perform Somewhere Over the Rainbow and other fabulous songs and loved it when the drumline would bounc tennis balls off their drums. So to get the chance for the first time in YEARS to go see the drum corps again, I was so greatful and delighted to share the experience with my oldest daughter! I justified it thinking that she was the oldest, so she would be the only one old enough to stay up 2 hrs past bedtime.....and she's in band so she might especially enjoy it and appreciate what she was seeing these musicians perform.

Sadly, though, I learned the following morning that even at 11 yrs old, she is NOT ready to stay up later! She was definitely showing all kinds of signs of being OVER OVER tired! So add that to my already cranky mood......and my youngest who stayed up late waiting for mommy because she missed me, thereby making her overtired on Tuesday, too and those are some prime fixin's for a rotten day! We came to work, there was so much drama and noise! I was dealing with extra stress from some work 'issues' and we had record-high heat yesterday, so Nathan was also miserable! At lunch time, I decided that we were done! The good thing about a family business, is the flexibility to say, I'm sorry, the kids aren't handling things well today, so we've gotta take off and head home. I implemented 'Mandatory Nap Time' for everyone when we arrived home.

Well, perhaps it was the 64 ozs of Diet Pepsi, perhaps it was the foul mood I was in, I don't know, but I simply couldn't sleep! I was tired, don't understand why, but I couldn't get to sleep. So, I decided to do the next best thing--one of my de-stressing activities: Sewing.

I had a project that I started months ago, and after reading my friend, Amy's blog Raising Arrows where she did the same project; I was inspired to finish it. I was re-purposing/recycling a man's button-down dress shirt into a dress for my youngest. Here's the finished project:

Change and Control

"You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you." ~~Brian Tracy


I am a daughter, a sister, a mother, and a wife. There comes a time when at least one of those roles gets me to wishing for control &/or change. It has been quite the growing curve for me to get to the place where I am finally able to say to myself, "I can't change him/her, I can't control him/her, now it's time to give it to God!" I think it is a human-natural instinct to think "if I just show him/her the error of their ways, they'll have to realize that I'm right and change!" or to think, "I can handle this one, I'm a big girl, I don't need your help!" How many times have I heard that one, as a mom??

But the thing is, God's not there as *just* a paramedic to revive us and carry us when we can no longer walk on our own. He's also a "primary care physician", if you will, who can help us STAY healthy if we'd just allow Him to.

I'm still human, imperfect and fallible, but it is amazing the changes that can happen when we allow God to shoulder our burdens and accept that we can not change the person or the situation that is irritating us! We may not always be able to solve the problem, but He can. Try it! You might be surprised by the way you can sleep better if you're not worrying about things you can't change and I'm sure you'll be pleased with the closer relationship you'll have with your Savior if you'll lean on Him in all things rather than just running to Him when there's trouble.

Thinking of fathers.....

*Somehow, this post that was supposed to have published on Sunday, ended up at the tail end of my post for today. So, I'm trying to fix it and rearrange things.....*

I gave my dad a book several years ago called "Why a Daughter Needs A Dad". It is a great book for those fathers out there. I love reading through it and thinking about my dad and the dad that my girls have. Two points from the book that keep coming back to me....

• A Daughter needs a dad.... to teach her that family is more important than work.
• A Daughter needs a dad....who teaches her she is important by stopping what he is doing to watch her.

That is why my husband is such a good dad.

We knew that having a family and with me being a mom first, would require sacrifices. No, we don't have a lot of money to do all the great special things we'd love to show/do with our children. We would SO love to show them things like the Natural History Museum, the Capital, Disney, etc, etc,

But..... we have each other. I got to see my children's first steps, hear their first words, hold their hands while they learned to walk, and sometimes I take for granted that I have had this time.

Sometimes, just stopping and watching them is the most heartfelt and important thing we can do.

Babies Don't Keep.......

My oldest is going to be attending the babysitter's course tomorrow. She will be in 6th grade this coming fall. We have already had 'the talk'. When did I get old enough to need to have that talk with MY children? When did I become old enough to have a daughter who could start caretaking for other people's children.....it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was doing that myself! I have Facebook friends who I babysat or whose siblings I babysat! Where did the time go?

My 'baby' is 4 yrs old and will go to preschool in the fall with her siblings. All 5 will be in the same school building next year . As I was looking at our littlest, it suddenly dawned on me how much bigger she is, she has a beautiful face, but its not a baby-face anymore! She is tall, hasn't nursed for two years, has a great vocabulary, even corrects people when they don't use proper grammar--even though she, herself, still uses the word "mine" for "my"......

Where has the time gone?

It reminds me of this poem I've had saved.....I don't remember where I got it from, or why, specifically, I saved it. But it is tugging at my heartstrings again:

Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth!
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up the bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's in the nursery, blissfully rocking!

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy blue
(Lullabay, rockaby, lullaby loo)
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo)
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo)

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait until tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned from my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby. Babies don't keep.

1958....Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

(emphasis mine)

Happy Birthday, Amallia Dawn!

On this date 7 yrs ago, my third born daughter was born after an interestingly long labor induction. During my pregnancy with her I craved Chinese food like crazy! Nathan would drive into Hutch from our home in Buhler to satisfy those cravings whenever possible. :-) This was also the pregnancy that I became obsessed with family names. I wanted a family name for this baby and I also really wanted something that I could shorten to Molli. I didn't want to 'just' name her Molli because I felt it was too common a name. So, we named her Amallia Dawn -- Amalia (we added an L because I like to spell our children's names differently) was Nathan's grandma's middle name (his dad's mom) and Dawn is the middle name that both my sister and Nathan's sister have.

My favorite memory from Molli's birth was that as I was pushing her out, Dr found that her cord was wrapped around her neck. As doc reached in to move it, baby Molli's hand came out holding her cord and unwrapped it HERSELF!! It was a pretty amazing sight to see in the mirror and she wasn't even completely born yet! What miraculous creatures God has created and blessed me with!

Family reunion

A couple weeks ago we had a 'tri-annual' family reunion. Every three years the descendants of the late Henry & Anna Wulf get together on Memorial Weekend in Cheney, KS. The kick-off activity is a golf tourney on Saturday AM, then there is a catered meal and program on Saturday evening. Sunday AM there is 'church on the hill' -- a family-led service out at the original homestead outside of Cheney. This time around, Nathan volunteered to help on the committee and of course asked me to help because of my experience with event planning.

We needed to be in Cheney on Friday night, the night before the festivities to help set-up and then on Saturday we were there early again but didn't want the kids playing on the playground and getting stinky and dirty for the nice meal, so they got a little restless. To be realistic, that was a long time for the kiddos to be quiet and relatively behaved, given the fact that they had also ridden in the car for 45 minutes to get there. So when some of the other families (on Saturday evening) were letting their kids play in one corner of the gym, we let ours go over there too. The kids were having a grand time playing on the gym mats and with scooters and balls and other things.....it got a little rambunctuous a couple of times, but they were quieted and obeyed. They were having so much fun and Channdler, our little hyperactive guy who doesn't stop moving - EVER - really enjoyed the chance to get his wiggles out.

But the most impressive thing ever was when the band started playing:

Our little spirited Channdler heard the music start and immediatley came over to the stage, pulled up a chair and SAT directly in front of the stage, for the entire 30 mins or so that they played!
vv Look at the lower left corner of this picture. Chann is in a red shirt. vv

Because Kids Live Here....

I'm joining a friend and her blog Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground with an idea "Because Kids Live Here". She is encouraging us to post pictures of things that show children live in our house.

Apparently I wasn't keeping CLOSE enough tabs on the kids.....or they have already learned that when I'm on the phone I can't come in the playroom and check on them:



They GLUED their crayons to the WALL!!

and right under THIS Sign:

Our Summer Schedule......or How JoLyn stays sane while taking 5 kids to work....

Since I mentioned it in an earlier post, ie-Math Monday, here's a little sneak peek into our plan for this summer:

Please forgive the (ish) after every time, it IS Summer after all :-)

8:30 (ish) -- Arrive at the office, chat with Grandma/pa, get settled, eat breakfast or AM snack (whichever applies)
9:30 (ish) -- Work on Summer Bridge Homeschool books

• Erikka (11 yrs old)-- Math Monday; Reading Tuesday; Writing Wednesday; English Thursday; & Reading Comprehension Friday
• Morgyn (9yrs) --Math Monday; Social Studies Tuesday; Writing Wednesday; Science Thursday; Language Arts Friday
• Molli & Chann (6 yrs) -- Math Monday; Lang. Arts Tuesday; Writing Wednesday; Science Thursday; Social Studies Friday
• NataleaAnna (4yrs) -- Matching Monday; Vocabulary Tuesday; Letters & Numbers Wednesday; My World Thursday; Phonics Friday

When they're done with 2 full pages (or more) in their workbooks, then they may have free choice time, either working on FreeRice.com or playing in the playroom.

Noon-1pm -- Lunch time & Wednesday's only-Erikka's band lesson

1pm-2:30pm -- Free Choice, taking turns on computer games; working on sewing; or playing in the playroom

2:30pm-3pm -- Snack time

3pm-4pm -- Quiet carpet time: reading or being read to or resting

Its Not Fair!!!!

Wow, what a fun phrase! "AGHHHHH, IT'S NOT FAIR!!" "You're MEAN!"

I love my kids. Sometimes I feel so apathetic about the 'fairness' issue. As a parent, is it our job to make things F-A-I-R or is it our job to raise our children to understand the concept of "LIFE's NOT FAIR!" Even as an adult, I've used that phrase myself....so the question remains, IS Life supposed to be fair or are we just supposed to deal with it?

Real estate offers are based on FAIR market value. If my neighbor sells their house for $182,000, then its probably not gonna fly for me to sell my house for $275,000.

I don't let my kids stay up as late as I do, because I can't handle how crabby they'll be the next day because they require more sleep than I do -- but that's the difference between adults and children. My 11 yr old has to go to bed at the same time as the 4 yr old.....is THAT fair? SHOULD it be?? Can an 11 yr old handle a later bedtime than a 4 yr old?? What if the 4 yr old naps??

If one of my children has a snack, they all want a snack. I can't ALWAYS tell if they are truly hungry or just bored (and thinking they wanna eat) so is it fair to give one a snack and not the others? I can tell you THEY don't think so! I don't want any of my children to go hungry, but I also don't want any of them dealing with the same weight problem I am..... What's a mom to do?

I think that the answer is individual for each family, each person: if decisions such as who gets to do this or that, who gets to stay up later than someone else, etc. is based on how well THAT person can handle it, then I suppose it is only fair ;-) to say that the decision is individual and not based on fairness......

Is that FAIR to say? :-)

Its Monday! Happy June!

Wow, I can't believe it is already June 2009! Where does the time go? I hope that the summer flies by as quickly as the school year does, but that doesn't usually seem to happen. Bringing 5 kids to work with me is trying (at best) and can get interesting. We have home-school books for the summer and Mondays are "Math Mondays" so they were already excited about this morning ! Then E sits down with her book and discovers, "Hey, this isn't so hard after all." Uh, yeah, its not like I'm trying to get them to work out college statistics or something....just a review of things they should have learned this past year to keep them from forgetting so much when August rolls around.

So the great thing that happened already this AM -- my laptop mouse has quit working. I broke it a long time ago and tried a tape fix, but now it is just done. Oh well, I guess I got my $6 out of it.

The kids have been SO cranky today (yes, already). M stood over her book telling me she couldn't write out "4 hundreds, 5 tens, 2 ones" on her number notations (that she'd already done 2 pages of) and just sat on the floor and cried like a pre-menstrual teenager....problem is, she's only 6! Not to mention the fact that she's a really good speller! and was reading two years ago when others in her class were still learning phonics......

I have not gotten enough studying done for the exam I'm taking next month! I can't believe I'm already saying "next month"! I keep trying to tell myself, "'ll have time to study as soon as the quarterly reports are done" or the kids are out of school, or the laundry's all caught up, etc. etc. Thing is: with a family of seven, the laundry is NEVER all caught up; studying is more difficult with 5 kids around (duh) and once the 1st quarter reports are done, there are second quarter reports to do.....blah blah blah, life goes on. It never stops, does it? I guess I'll just have to remember:

"I'll have time to sleep when I die!"

Parents – those pesky people that get in the way of the State…..

I love it that so many of the great moms I know are home-schooling their children. I think that home-schooled children seem so bright, seem to truly excel when they become adults and the added bonus would be that those parents who home-school get to ACTUALLY raise their children themselves! What a concept!!

I, however, do not believe that this is a gift that the Lord has bestowed upon me. I know that He has given many of his children many talents – I do not think, though, that I am one of those people to whom He has gifted the talent of being able to adequately school their children. Yes, I was in the gifted education class, yes, I love being an attached and involved parent to my littles; however, I don’t know that my mental state of mind would survive ALL DAY, EVERY DAY with them AND stay disciplined enough for them to excel in the way that they have so far. I feel completely blessed and thank-the-Lord-lucky that we have the option of the grade school that my littles currently attend. It is in a very small, very conservative community and is truly a group of people who believe in FAMILY. IF I didn’t have this option, I would have to figure something else out, indeed. I may have to learn a way to acquire the skills to try homeschooling. BUT, since I had the option of this school, I’ve been taking it one year at a time.

Sadly, this summer is going to be one of research and reconsiderations! We were just told at the end of this year that the state of Kansas is getting even more strict in their vaccination rules for public schools. I am SO frustrated and angry over this!! WHY does the state get to tell me that I HAVE to inject dangerous chemicals into my child’s bloodstream??? WHY do they get to tell me that if I don’t make my children guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical companies that my children can not attend the school that MY tax dollars go to help support??? IF I choose to home-school because I don’t agree with the State making decisions for me and my children, do I then get to NOT pay my taxes for the school that I’m not using?? I think not, of course NOT! Isn’t there a bit of a paradox here???

Oh my goodness, can you imagine if parents were actually ALLOWED to determine what was the best thing for their OWN CHILDREN!?!? Peace on Earth would be sure to follow, right???

Judgement

I'm kinda tired of judgement.

The Holy Book says, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." (Matt. 7:1) So why do I feel like I'm under scrutiny every day? Sure, its because we're all human, imperfect, and we fall short every day, but that doesn't make judgements any less hurtful.

My husband and I have always wanted 4 children. Always, always. That was our choice. I have people in my life who think that we shouldn’t have made that choice--hat we should only have had 2 or maybe three. Why would it be anyone’s choice but our own?? We are fairly capable adults, we try our best to be productive members of society, so WHY, I ask you, WHY is it ANYone’s business how many children we have? I feel like if you tell me how many children you think I should have, you are judging me based on how capable you think I am to care for said children.

Now, we are trying our best to be good parents to our children, we are educating ourselves and we strive to make INFORMED choices for our children, and again – JUDGEMENT! We don’t keep the house clean enough, we don’t feed them early enough in the day or we feed them too late in the morning; we don’t feed them the RIGHT things; we shouldn’t have so-and-so sleeping here or there…….the list goes on. I feel like the people closest to me are the ones who are, at times, the heaviest hands of judgement. Apparently, as a mom, I suck! Even though I’ve done more than some parents – I’ve read more books on parenting than some of the people I know who’ve been so quick to judge me; I’ve actually RESEARCHED vaccines, circumcision, feeding choices for infants, discipline methods, chemicals in shampoos/body washes/soaps; the list could go on. I’ve researched more things than I can even recall and have made decisions based on this research, and yet I’m judged because my choices don’t match someone elses?!?! I’ve never presumed to tell someone they are a bad mom for not doing something I disagree with or for doing something I think is questionable – it is up to each parent to raise their child in the way they feel is best and in the way they feel God leading them. I do, admittedly have an opinion on breastmilk vs. artificial baby milk feeding; circumcision vs. au`naturale; vaccines vs. no-vax or delayed vax or selective vax; etc. and I have friends who have made choices that are completely opposite from the one I would have made – but the thing is: I’m still their friend. I still love and respect them because they made the choice that was right for THEIR family at the time that it needed to be made. They did the best they could with the information they had at the time. Isn’t that what life is about???


Psalm 43:5
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”

Wow! The time has flown!

Nearly half a year has gone by already since I decided to start writing my own blog -- and I haven't posted a darn thing!! Well, I kinda half expected it would be like that until I really got into the habit of posting. I've been writing things and saving them....just not posting them. So, I'm going to post a few of them....the few that I feel comfortable 'putting out there'.