Thank you all for your prayers – please keep praying for the precious Birthmother who chose life for this precious little boy and who gave us the extreme privilege to call him ‘son’.

Feel free to post any questions or comments you may have & don’t forget to subscribe here or at YouTube so you’ll know when I have a new video up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Next update coming soon, so stay tuned!

Feel free to post any questions or comments you may have & don’t forget to subscribe here or at YouTube so you’ll know when I have a new video up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our next meeting may not be until October… but I’ll keep you posted!

Don’t forget to subscribe here or over at YouTube so you’ll know when my next video is posted… Thanks & God Bless!

Don’t forget to subscribe here or on YouTube so you’ll know when my next video is posted… Thanks!

Almost everything I’ve done up til now has been food related.  But I’ve been getting so many questions about Our Family & Adoption, that I wanted to warn my regular ‘Food’ subscribers that I’m going to be posting some videos that aren’t food related. But don’t worry, I’ve got several new Raw & Whole Food Recipes coming out very soon too!

I’ll do my best to categorize my YouTube channel and my website so you can find what you’re most interested in quickly.

Don’t forget to subscribe here or over at YouTube so you’ll know when my next video is posted…

Thanks!

~ Erika

Anyone Have a Comb?

New babies come at a high cost.  No, I’m not just talking about money or those sleepless nights - but there’s something else that these precious little ones cost us mothers… and that’s the toll on our personal hygiene.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the full length mirror on the way out the door yesterday and I barely recognized myself.  My hair was carelessly pulled up in a bun-tail (you know, one of those half pony-tail, half bun thingies);  My black shirt had a very large smear of white dried spit-up on it; and my Capri’s looked like they had just come out of the hamper (it was actually the dryer – but hey, at least they were clean!).  

Raise Your Hand If You're Sure!

After seeing my legs, it dawned on me that perhaps I had also neglected to ‘groom’ my pits…  I pulled up a arm and gasped!   Yikes… I was officially a hippie!  We live in an area where tank tops and shorts are normal attire year round.  I have gone into public several times like this – to the store, to visit friends, and have even attended church!

Even though I’ve been able to shower on a semi-regular basis, shaving hasn’t exactly been high on my priority list.   Our newborn son has a bad case of Acid Reflux and as a result must remain upright all of the time.  My arms are always full and most of my time spent caring for his special needs.  I suppose one should be able to rationalize this and not let it bother them, but yesterday it really got to me.  

I started to descend into a little pity party, when a small voice from behind me said ‘Mommy, you’re the most beautiful girl in the whole world and you’re a wonderful maker!’ (I’m assuming he meant food).  My oldest son (4) had poked his head around the corner and in two seconds set me straight.  He reminded me why I had let everything go in the first place…  there are more important things in life than looking well groomed.  Who cares what anyone else thinks? Besides, I know that this ‘season’ of my life will pass all too quickly and my hairy-legged days will be over.

With a renewed spring in my step, I proudly grabed my hairbrush and neatly combed those lucious locks… on my legs!

God Bless!

~ Erika

I Want My Mommy!

I’m pretty obsessive about making sure that hands get washed regularly; I try to minimize our exposure to other sick people; and of course the #1 defense is to eat a healthy diet full of ‘whole’ and ‘raw’ foods… but inevitably, everybody gets sick sometimes. Especially children who lack the judgment not to put their hands in their mouth… Or in my son’s case; lick the counter at the post office. Eeewww! It must be a boy thing?

In my opinion, the biggest thing that taxes a mother’s emotions, energy, sanity, and just about everything else is: sick kids.

Well, it was our turn last week. We had just brought home our newborn son from the ICU – where they drilled into us the importance of not exposing him to ANYTHING for the next 6 weeks (is that even possible without a bubble?) – and especially a fever! We weren’t home three days when my oldest son woke up from his nap with a 105.5 degree fever! He was so sick that he kept saying to my mom ‘I see two of you Grandma!’ Then the throwing up started.

At this point, I’m already running on fumes from the lack of sleep – but now I’m torn between caring for my oldest son and comforting him – while being gravely concerned for our newborn who has now been exposed to this flu. I knew there would be days like this, but didn’t expect to jump two feet in my first week as a mommy of 2!

Immediately we bowed our heads and prayed, sincerely asking the Lord to heal our son and supernaturally protect the baby. With a strength that comes only from the Lord (and from an amazing family), we kicked into high gear and began to clean, wash, launder, and sanitize everything in the house. We quarantined the baby in an entirely different area of the house and nobody could enter it without changing their clothes and scrubbing up to their armpits!

It lasted 48 hours, generated 31 loads of laundry, used up 2 bottles of Purell, filled 4 full garbage cans, cost $84 in supplies/medicine, and I’m not sure I ate or slept the entire time. Yet somehow, by the grace of God, he completely protected us from it – especially the baby. And we survived to talk about it… Nothing short of a miracle in my book!

And although we’re over the flu for now, we’ve moved on to an infected belly button (the umbilical cord fell off too early), two eye infections, a sensitive circumcision, angry diaper rash, and a switch in formula (since the last one was too gassy).

Yet one look into my children’s eyes, and I’d do it all over again if I had to… which will probably come sooner than later.

God Bless!
~ Erika

A Precious Gift from God

Three nights ago, we received a call from our adoption agency… They had a baby for us!  Even more exciting is that ‘he’ (yes it’s a boy!) was already born and waiting for us to pick up!  (That’s the short story – I’ll tell you the long one another day).  However, he was in the NICU until today when the doctors decided he was good to come home!

Needless to say, I’ll be taking longer breaks in between my posts while I tend to my newest addition… but I am working on putting together a video of our adoption experience to share with you soon!

Thank you to all of those who prayed for us, our son, and for all your encouraging notes! And a special thanks to the Birthmom who Chose Life for this child and who gave me the extreme privilege of loving him as my own.  Once again, I am in awe at how awesome God is!

Rejoicing from home with my new son sleeping on my chest,
~ Erika

Squishy Fun for Less!

I’ve caught my son sneaking little bites of play-dough every now and then and it got me wondering ‘what the heck is in that anyway?’   The container says ‘non-toxic’, but if you’re a conspiracy theorist mom like me, you’re not entirely convinced it’s safe.

Plus, if you haven’t noticed, name brand playdough isn’t cheap… and I was tired of buying container after container every time ours dried up. 

Here’s a cheap and easy recipe along with a ’how-to video’ for safe Homemade Playdough that costs only about $1 to make! 

Now if I could just find a way to keep my son from mixing all those pretty colors into one big ‘poo-colored’ ball. 

Here is the ingredient list… or if you have the Living Cookbook software, you can download the free .fdx recipe file and import it:

Living Cookbook .fdx Recipe File:
Homemade Playdough (To Download: Right mouse click on the recipe and select ’save file as’ – Save to your computer and then you can import it into your Living Cookbook program.

Homemade Play-Dough

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Salt
2 Tbs Cream of Tartar

Wet Ingredients:
2 Tbs Canola Oil
2 cup Water

Add Last Ingredients:
40 drops Food Coloring (10 drops of each color)

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients (except food coloring) into a non-stick sauce pan and mix well.
2. Heat on Medium until mixture thickens and begins to stick to sides of pan.  Be sure to continuously stir the mixture as it cooks.
3. Continue stirring until it is no longer sticky and forms a firm ball in the center of the pan. (approximately 2-3 minute from start to finish)
4. Remove mixture from heat and let cool until it is just warm to the touch.
5. Knead and divide into 4 balls.  Push your finger into the center of the ball to make a well for the food coloring.
6. Add 10 drops of food coloring to each ball  in order to make the four colors (red, yellow, green, blue).
7. Knead well and let cool before giving to child to play.
8. Store in a Ziplock bag for up to 2 weeks or more (preferably in the refrigerator).

Servings
Yield: 4 (1 Cup) Balls

Preparation Time: 2 minutes
Cooking Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Tips
If mixture is too dry, add a little oil and/or water… OR, if mixture is too wet, add a little flour – until the consistency is ‘playdough-like’

To preserve you or your child’s creations, you can bake it for 1/2 to 1 hour at 300 degrees until thoroughly dry.  If you have a dehydrator, you can also follow the manufacturers instructions to dry your pieces.

Feel free to send me any questions or comments you may have! 

You'd Be Proud of Us Jo-Jo!

The Super Nanny would be sooooo proud!  My husband and I sat down one night and hammered out a list of General House Rules we felt best suited our faith, personal convictions, as well as our family. 

One of the criteria for our list was that we wanted them to be Biblically accurate, realistic and something were willing to hold ourselves accountable to as well (Titus 2:7-8).  If we don’t model this for our children, then how can we possibly expect them to follow suit? 

I will admit, I’ve broken more than a few of the rules myself… like ‘Interupting’ (I’m the Queen of Interrupting and it’s a nasty habit I hope doesn’t get passed on).  I’ve also been known to eat breakfast standing up while checking my email AND talking on my cell phone at the same time!  And since I’m being honest here… I do grumble and complain far more than I’d care to admit.

So without further ado…here they are!  Feel free to copy and use them for your family – most of ours are just copied right out of the Bible anyway. 

GENERAL HOUSE RULES

JOY! = Jesus First, Others Second, Yourself Last

Order of Authority = Jesus & the Bible > Daddy > Mommy > Respected Elders > The Law (Ephesians 6:1-4 & Colossians 3:18-21)

• Love & Forgive Each Other (Colossians 3:13)
• Treat Everyone with Gentleness & Kindness (Galatians 5:22-23)
• No Interrupting – Use Interrupt Rule (Child and/or adult place hand gently on person’s arm they’d like to say something to – waiting for the person to signal their turn to speak.  This is a ‘Baby Wise/Growing Kids God’s Way’  idea that we love!)
• No Back Talking, Sassing or Disrespectful Tones – Respond Respectfully
• No Bad / Naughty Words (Ephesians 4:29 & Ephesians 5:4)
• No Lying, Cheating, Stealing (See all 10 Commandments – Exodus 20)
• No Hitting, Pinching, Biting or Hurtful Physical Contact (Matthew 5:38-45 & Luke 6:27-31)
• Even if You’re Just Playing, If Someone Asks You To Stop – Stop!
• No Whining, Grumbling or Complaining (Philippians 2:14-15)
• No Yelling, Screaming or Angry Loud Talking (Colossians 3:8 & Proverbs 14:29)
• No Ball Throwing or Rough Play Inside House
• All Food is to be Eaten at the Kitchen Table or Sitting Down
• No Toys, Computers, Phones, Games, Etc… While Eating as a Family (Deuteronomy 11:19)
• Always Clean-Up After Yourself and Return Things Where They Belong, In as Good or Better Condition than You Found It (Matthew 7:12)

I’m sure we’ve forgotten a couple of important rules… What kind of house rules to you use?  Where do you post them (ours is on the fridge)?  I’d love to hear your wisdom on this.

~ Erika