My Recet Random Recommendations

I have reached a point in my life again where I have opinions about things and recommendations.  So here they are. . . the things that matter to me right now and thus what I have been researching and studying and making decisions about.

Books that help broach and explain difficult topics:

1) Wonderfully Made!  Babies: A Catholic Perspective on How and Why God Makes Babies

This is a wonderful book for an initial understanding of what Chris West so eloquently calls "the one-flesh-union."  It is beautifully written and easy to read (aka short with lots of pictures).  I sit down and read it to my kiddos when they are "of age" (which I feel is my discretion and changes depending on the child).

2) The Ultimate Girls' Body Book

This is a great book for your daughter to read independently and then come to you to clarify any questions she might have.  It covers almost everything I can think of from growing breasts to tattoos and although the authors are not Catholic, they are VERY CHRISTIAN and it shows in their great presentation of the body as being VERY GOOD.  They are also doctors so that adds some credibility to their advice and suggestions.

3) The Ultimate Boys' Body Book

I have a confession here. . . although this book is currently in possession, I have not read it yet.  But I read the one for girls and was incredibly impressed.  I am hoping to buzz through this one soon and pass it on to my oldest son.

4) Good Pictures Bad Pictures

This book covers pornography.  It is written so you can sit down and read it with your child.  It has a great message and plan of approach for the topic.  And I would venture to say this is an important topic to cover BEFORE your children stumble on it themselves and get all confused and other issues potentially develop.  If you are worried about "exposing them" to this too soon, I would not worry about this book doing that.  It is informative and precise, but not explicit.  I think it does a great job of conveying what the concern is and how to avoid it.

5) All Things Girl

This book does a great job of addressing topics for girls in a positive way.  It includes references to the catechism.  It emphasizes many girls' attraction and concern for fashion and social topics - addressing that these are common for women and girls to be concerned about, but then to encourage taking things a bit further - to be Christ to your friends, to focus on prayer, not get caught up in social details, etc.

Bras - for nursing or just regular wear

I am still on this restorative exercise kick.  And part of it deals with the clothing you wear as obviously you need to wear clothing that allows your body to move as it should.  In any case, to be blunt, Katy (my restorative exercise guru) says that your hanging bits are basically meant to hang!  This includes women's hanging bits.  And man has this been a game changer for me.  I kept trying to find the PERFECT bra - that was supportive but not oppressive.  I have since concluded it does not exist.  And instead I have found that bras with LESS support are working much better for me!!  I slowly cut down on my bra-wearing, often going without in the evenings and then lighter support during the day.  Now I still wear a bra basically all day, but it is simply an organic cotton slip-on and it is bliss - pure bliss :)

I buy from a company called "Decent Exposures" and they are awesome.   You order exactly what you want (each bra is custom made) and then if you have any problems, they adjust it for free within the first 60 days and then for a small fee, they will even adjust it after that - up to creating an entirely new bra for you!  (such as if you needed a bigger cup size)  They are so friendly and helpful.  I ordered my first bra, had it adjusted, liked it, and decided to order two more.  Since it was fairly close to the first order they went ahead and gave me a discount for buying three at a time!

The only downside is that since each bra is custom made, it takes a bit for your order to be processed (like several weeks to a month) but I feel it is worth the wait to get exactly what I want.

You CAN get nursing flaps on these, but honestly since they are simply pull-on bras, I just slip down to nurse, easy peasy - no cups to flip, no clasps to find, no boobs hanging out half of Mass because I could not get properly readjusted.  These are the most awesome bras ever.

Mid-Year Renew

Tonight I am feeling empowered.  I think it is time to get my life back in order again (funny that it seems like no matter how many times I "organize" anything it always falls back into some sort of disarray - must be an original sin defect :)  Think of this as a mid-year-renew of my New Year Resolutions (which I did not make this year - oops!)  So without further ado, here are five things I am planning to put back into my daily schedule.

1) Spending 5 minutes a day doing spiritual reading.

I have done spiritual reading in the past but lately it seems to have gotten put on the back burner and I know it is important (along with reading Scripture which I am still doing).

2) Read the kids at least 5 books a day.

I always read to my kids!!  At least I think I do. . . just in case I am not reading to them as much as I think, I'm going to start counting the books to make sure I'm not missing this important aspect of life - especially with the little ones, but I think the older ones appreciate it, too.

3) Spend 5 minutes writing Scripture verses.

This is a silly thing that makes me happy.  When I read Scripture, I often mark in my bible or write down in a notebook verses that I like or find helpful.  I am planning to have my kids write these bible verses as handwriting for next year, so I'm going to spend 5 minutes each day writing the verses on notecards.  Then next school year I'll have the older kids each grab a notecard and copy it into their handwriting notebook.  I'll probably have Rebekah do hers in cursive.

4) Do 5 stretches each day.

I have learned a ton of stretches as part of the restorative exercise I have been studying and practicing, but I've kind-of put stretching on the back burner lately and it is important to keep up my flexibility and work toward more, so I'm going to start with my favorite five and then maybe branch out as the month goes on - sticking with those that seem to help the most.

5) Set a timer for 5 minutes each time I open up facebook and SHUTTING FACEBOOK when the timer goes off.

I am not planning to restrict my facebook to a set amount of time.  I know I spend too much time there but I cannot simply go cold turkey from it as it is my social center (especially since I do not have a cell phone to text with) and my constant garage sale (I have several open swap ads at the moment).  However, I CAN limit the amount of time I spend checking it in a sitting.  And I think this might be especially helpful as I often get on facebook with a specific purpose and then get distracted and pull myself out a half hour later - if I'm lucky!  By setting a timer I am hopeful that I will be able to stay on track better.

And with all that time I manage to keep myself off of facebook I can spend doing these other things I listed above.  Win win!!

If you made it this far, you deserve some pictures.  So enjoy:

Visiting the museum.

Museum CRAZY!!

Daddy with Zipporah

Caught Off Guard

A while back I started making some changes in my home to reflect what I was learning about alignment and restorative exercise.  One of these such changes is our low table.

This is a photo from a couple months ago, but it shows the table well.  It does not reflect our current state (which is sans pillows at meals and with Zipporah not off on her own in the Bumbo), though, as I describe further on.

Now, let me begin by defending it from a non-alignment-nerd perspective.  This table is the largest we have owned thus far in our lives and it is really almost too big for our space.  Although it is PERFECT for our family (as we have plenty of room to all sit and have our food on it as well - bonus!) if we had to put chairs around it, it would clutter up the main part of our house and we would constantly be walking around it (or into it) and I am sure I would feel as though I were constantly butting up against it.  As it is, having it low to the ground makes it much less intimidating to the overall feel of the room - it is much more open.  Likewise, the lack of chairs simplifies things and allows it to be placed quite close to the wall (especially considering it is mostly just the children that sit on the far side by the wall).

I must add here that I did not anticipate these benefits when asking for the table to be prepared and placed as such (with shortened legs).  And only recently have I truly "cleaned up" the space by outlawing pillows at the table during meals.  Let's be honest, the children do not require pillows to sit comfortably on the floor - even on hard wood.  Even I can manage to sit on the hard wood floor for that amount of time with little distress.  So the pillows were really just getting in the way (and getting soiled covers - repeatedly).  Thus, although I still have pillows "floating about" we do not use them for meals (unless I am nursing the baby during - I usually sit on a pillow so I can relax more while nursing).  Now we do (or at least I do) use the pillows at the table during the day for our school work or other activities, but the kids often just forgo them altogether.

I should also note that we did not transition from pillows to no pillows cold-turkey.  I picked up some cheap little foam mats that can easily be wiped clean.  They are a little sparse for adult use, but the kids appear to find them acceptable.  And they stack nicely in a pile (or can be put under the table) when not in use!

So back to the topic at hand (and heading toward what has caught me off guard).  Zipporah has been sitting in her Bumbo chair for meals (as we got her a little tray that attaches and since she is so small she still fits quite well).  Now she sits up well on her own (though she still does not get there on her own - that is a post for another day) so I have started simply setting her on the floor by the table for meals.  I can feed her (for those messy, difficult-to-eat foods) or she can feed herself in this position.

What caught me off guard was the feeling of having her at the table with us.  She is truly part of the family.  Normally "baby" would be near the family during meals, contained in a high chair - often pushed somewhat away from the table, simply because there would be no room.  Now, perhaps because of the table, or perhaps because Zipporah is so special (as she is not crawling all over yet - so she actually sits by us for meals and does not go around being a general nuisance - as I imagine a "typical" one-year-old would do, stealing from his/her siblings plates or running off).

In addition, she has started showing interest in MY breakfast and I have started making more (I usually have scrambled eggs with mushrooms, onions, avocado, tomatoes, and salsa) and simply feeding her from my plate.  It creates a bonding between us that I did not expect.  She sits beside me.  She eats with me.  It is really sweet.  I am so thankful for God having her develop as she has or I would have missed this.  Likewise, I am thankful for these crazy new habits I have been forming that led me to the low table which has been such a blessing for us.

Zipporah munching a "breakfast cookie" while she waits for me to bring the main course to the table and join her.

Slow Transformation to Restorative Exercise and a More Alignment-Friendly Living Space

In case you missed it earlier, I have fallen in love with a newish (to the world of exercise and medicine) understanding of the body, often referred to as Whole-Body Alignment and/or Restorative Exercise.  In a nutshell it says that a lot of our troubles (aches and pains, etc) are caused by lack of movement and lack of moving the "correct way" (but don't get caught up on "the correct way" as really all movement is good - but some ways of moving can do better things for your body - especially ways of holding your core or ribs, etc that affect large chunks of muscles and bones and such, over large amounts of time. . . like your whole life up to now).

Anyhow, if you want to read up on it I recommend this book called Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman.  It is a good introduction and includes some basic exercises.  She has written a few other books and has some more in the works.  Her latest books is Whole Body Barefoot and I have not finished it (or really gotten further than the introduction) but it also seems like a good place to start.

*Side Note: Katy's earlier books (such as The First Five Years) are really just her blog posts put together for accessibility, but they are still very helpful I think.  She also has TONS of information at her blog, KatySays.com and lots of other resources like DVDs, online courses, etc.

Now that I have set the stage I would like to share a few ways we I have attempted to make our home "more alignment-friendly."

First I sold one of our couches, as sitting, especially in the position you would on a couch is an over-used position that does not promote proper length in your muscles.  (In other words, your hamstrings shorten when you sit - and over time and repeated sitting your body will adapt and you will not be able to lengthen them to their proper length and that will affect how you walk and how you hold your organs and everything else.)  I would like to scrap the other two couches, as well, but the hubby wants me to keep one and the other one is apparently not tempting enough to sell at this time.  Although I have mixed feelings about it not selling as it is by far the most comfortable and durable couch we own and if I had to pick one to keep I would keep it.  But hubby wants to keep the "nice looking one" so right now we have both.  Whatever.

Paul, in need of a haircut, preparing to show his skills on the rings.  (Side Note: One of the rules is nothing can be under you while you are on the rings, the pillow moved before he began, in case you were concerned.)

Ditching one of the couches has freed up some space in the living room so I could hang some rings!!  Hanging and playing on rings or monkey bars is VERY GOOD for your upper body - and especially good for developing kids to play on as they need that motion to help with brain development.  Seriously, I remember reading it a couple of times from different sites and I would link it now, but I'm too lazy to go look it up (and I have been linking stuff like crazy in this post already).

Paul showing off on the rings.

Even if you do not get what this "Alignment/Restorative Exercise" bit is all about, anyone home with your kids all day can appreciate some indoor play equipment, right?  Now, it is not perfect all the time.  Sometimes the kids fail to follow the rules and the rings come down for a time, but generally, they LOVE THEM and take turns and what-not.  And the kids have all gone from just swinging on them in the beginning to flipping.  And then not just flipping one way, but flipping the other way.  And then inverting with feet straight up and then hooking their feet and pushing their chests out.  And. . . well, let's just say it has been pretty awesome to see them all progress.  

Samuel showing off on the rings.

Perhaps the most notable change in our home atmosphere has been our table.  Although my husband is not in quite as deep as me in this new way of living, I think he has secretly wanted to be Japanese all his life, so when I asked for a short table we could sit on the floor at, he did not even flinch.  Since our current table was not suitable for adapting (and we have really outgrown it anyhow) we decided to adapt an old table we picked up second-hand.  It has proven to be exactly what we wanted. . . other than hubby making it just a touch lower than I would really like (but that was mostly a miscommunication and I am over it now. . . although maybe some day he could figure a way to make it just a few inches higher so I could put my legs under it!  But I digress. . . ).

Horrible picture of the kiddos, but notice the table.  And all of the cushions now have covers, except for the extra-large one under Samuel.  I'm not sure how to cover that one yet.

We had some old couch cushions that the kids would use to build forts and such and I found some outdoor cushions on a local swap meet that work well.  I have since covered them with pillow protectors (to absorb spills) and am working on getting zippered pillow covers, but in the mean time we just use pillow cases and I rotate them as they get dirty and need to be laundered.  It is not glamorous, but it works well for us and makes me happy.

Rebekah happily modeling our standing desk.

Our schoolwork is mostly done in the front room of our house because I like to have the whole family together and this is really the only room that can fit us all comfortably, at the same time.  Although we all "could" just sit at the table, it is nice to have another desk to plug in the laptops and hold books and such.  Plus, sitting at a traditional desk with a chair is not all bad, it is doing only that ALL THE TIME that can cause problems.  So we do still have a traditional-height desk.  However, I modified it slightly to make it a standing desk, as some standing is good for you.  I also moved up a tall chair we have for when the student using said desk gets tired of standing and wants to sit.  In a perfect world I make sure to check that the children are moving and changing their positions and such throughout the day.  Since our world is far from perfect I simply provide the best environment I can to enable my children to move and wiggle and such as they go about their day, even when not outside for recess or playing upstairs in our indoor gym.

This is an accidental picture of our futon on the floor.  I was washing the sheets and the girls decided it was a good place to play.

One final area we are going more minimal is our sleeping arrangements.  My dear husband slept on a futon before we were married and I often slept (by my own choice) on the ground growing up.  My parents had to buy me a brand-new fancy bed to get me to sleep in one when I was in high school.  Anyhow, futons are great, but the bars of my husband's frame were poking through the thin mat, so we simply moved the mat to the floor for our first bed as a married couple.  It worked wonderfully.  Although we did use my "fancy" new bed for a brief time (a couple of years) after moving into our first house, we soon returned to a futon on the floor, mostly for the sake of comfort while co-sleeping.  With a king-sized-futon on the floor I had plenty of room to nurse the baby to sleep and leave said baby safely in his/her area as I wiggled back over to snuggle with my husband.  There was no fear of baby falling out of bed and we could actually fit most of our family comfortably!  (Although, oddly enough, now days the kids all stay in their own beds and the baby, too!  Who knew that would happen?!? )

Here is Rebekah's "bed."

Rebekah had recently taken to sleeping on the floor as she complained her bed was not comfortable.  (But she had the most comfortable bed in the house really - a pillow-topped fancy mattress a friend had given us!!)  In any case, I sold her bed and bought her a little futon mat and she has been so happy with it.  It is nice to have less furniture in the girls room and to be able to move Rebekah's bed so easily - she potentially could sleep anywhere in the house at any given moment and she could probably take her little mat camping, too, if she wanted.  I am considering doing the same for the boys and Miriam, but our bunk beds would need to be modified with OSB or some other support so the mats would fit.  Another hindrance at this time is my young children that occasionally wet out of their nighttime diapers.  A crib mattress is considerably more waterproof than a futon mat.  We do have a cover on Rebekah's mat, but I am still hesitant to lose the security of a plastic-covered mattress for the little ones.

This concludes my "update" of changes I have implemented to make our living space more alignment-friendly.  I have seen some serious improvement in my personal health by implementing some restorative exercises and changing our house this way.

P.S. A special thanks goes out to all my friends and family that still come to visit despite all these changes.  As I often say, I know I am crazy, but I'm in too deep now! 

An old picture (for the changes anyhow - as the couch in the background is the one we have since sold!) but I could not resist sharing Miriam's smile.  She loves the rings.

Journal #25

Out My Window:

It is overcast today and a little chilly (maybe thirty degrees) but not a "bad" day.  Feels a little more like winter I suppose.  The seasons have certainly been crazy lately.

Clothing Myself In:

Black stretch pants, black MS walk t-shirt, camo long-sleeve shirt on top, bare feet.

Around the House:

Nana has been helping out all week because of my little "accident" and that has certainly been a blessing.  She is a great teacher and really gets the kids to stay-on-task and get it done!  It has felt busier than usual, but my nephew (who happens to be Paul's age) has been here most of the week, as well, and we babysat for a friend one day, too.  It has been nice to be out and go to the park a couple times since the weather was so nice, but it is strange how the warm season being "out of place" makes me feel all confused - if that makes any sense.

The Baby:

Zipporah finally made it in for her "six-months-check" but she is already seven-months-old!  (This was not my fault - the doctor rescheduled the visit.)  In any case, she has only gained one pound since her last check (at four-months-old I believe) but she has grown two inches (up to 27 inches long!).   I'm not overly concerned about her lack of weight gain, but I am definitely watching her like a hawk.  Fortunately she has been amazingly healthy and happy, eating well and filling her diapers, so I have no worries at the moment.  She still is not a fan of sitting up or tummy time, but she LOVES to stand and lean against me or be carried around or sit in her bumbo (assuming it is close to the action).  Today she was intently watching me drink so I gave her her first few swigs from my water.  She seemed to enjoy that.

The Kids:

My amazing pitcher that the kids loved has broken already (sad face).  I guess I was cleaning it a little too vigorously as the handle snapped off.  I thought maybe Daddy could fix it, but he looked skeptical and gushed about how it would not look the same and be a lot of work, so it looks like I will be finding another pitcher soon.

Daily Mass (which we try to attend at least once a week) has been going smoother in some ways and more challenging in others.  Paul is quite well-behaved now, as long as I'm ok with him sitting and looking at our religious books we bring with us, but Miriam has trouble with volume control (or really just talking in general) and finds being still for forty to fifty minutes (we go with the school kids, so they have music and Mass is a little longer than the typical daily Mass) quite a challenge!  She often has to go potty (even if she just went at home) but fortunately Rebekah does not mind taking her out for that.  God bless big sisters!!  Jacob is also giving me a little struggle as he is old enough (in my opinion) to be standing correctly and kneeling and generally sitting as he should (at least LOOKING like he is paying attention).  I think we need to do a little more talking about this BEFORE Mass, though (and I keep forgetting) and maybe some practice for all the kids so things keep going as smooth as possible.

In the Kitchen:

I just cooked up some beef for another batch of taco meat (going to cook the beans tomorrow and mix it all together).  I was also brave enough to make homemade pizza!  (Which is crazy here - two breadmakers for the dough, four pizzas for our clan!)  And I made some teething biscuits for the baby, but so far she is not impressed with food in general.

Watching:

We stumbled upon an old tv series (on Netflix) called Chuck and it has been quite entertaining for the hubby and myself.  It was definitely written for the male crowd, but the plot is not too bad and most of the characters are well-done.

Crafting:

Since my hubby rarely reads my blog, I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there.  I have not been crafting in the traditional sense, but I am always looking for ways for the kids to get more movement in their day - especially while inside.  As it is good to go outside and play or to go to the upstairs of the garage (the indoor gym) and play, I feel they need to be moving more than we can get to either of those places.  Thus I finally got a couple more large hooks for our exposed beam in hopes of hanging a set of rings in our living room.  However, I tried to put one of said hooks in yesterday and it did not go so well.  How in the world do you get those big screw eye-hooks in??  I am afraid to ask the hubby for help as he already thinks I'm crazy and has a honey-do list about a mile long - on top of all his other plans and projects.  But stay tuned as I just might figure it out myself.

Thinking About:

Restorative Exercise.  Seriously, it is a lifestyle change I feel I am beginning.  And I think it is for the better.  In a nutshell, restorative exercise is all about moving more throughout the day.  Regular "exercise" is not necessarily bad (although sometimes it might be considered so, but it gets a little confusing), but it is not enough.  We should be moving most of the day, not just for an hour or two.  So I'm trying to put more standing, squatting, sitting on the floor, stretching, and walking into my day - and of course that of the children as well.  I will definitely have more to blog about this soon.  And you can read up some more on a previous post of mine - here.

Bringing Me Joy:

Zipporah.  It is great to see her personality start to show and her smiles are simply amazing.  Well worth the wait for them to show up.

Pictures To Share:

Samuel loves his baby sister, Zipporah.

Pizza and a Kansas sunset.  What could be better?