My Running Shoes, if you can call them that!

Here are what I wear to run if for whatever reason I don't go barefoot.

In case you're curious, when I say I run barefoot, I really REALLY mean BAREfoot. As in, skin on pavement/dirt/gravel/whatever. However, sometimes, a situation comes up where I decide a little foot protection would be best.



click "more" below to read more. 

Pumpkin Pie-Butter Mochi

I took this recipe from All Recipes and tried to make it into an Autumnal Mochi. 

These are AWESOME! If you are looking for gooey, chewy pumpkin yumminess, this is it!  The pumpkin makes it a little creamier than regular butter mochi.  For brownies, I prefer middles. For Mochi, I seem to prefer the edges, so next time I intend to make these in an all-edges pan my sister got me.

Ingredients

• 1/2 can pumpkin (about 1 cup)
  • 5 eggs
  • • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • • 2 cups (1 can) lite coconut milk
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 
    
• 1 pound mochiko (glutinous rice flour)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus Spice Blend
• 1/2 tsp Ginger
• 1/4 tsp Cloves
• 1/8 tsp Allspice

• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, vanilla and coconut milk and whole milk. In a separate larger bowl, stir together the rice flour, sugarS, spices and baking powder. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir to blend. Mix in melted butter and coconut. Pour into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Cool completely, then cut into squares to serve.

Need Mochiko? 12 boxes for $27.55 on Amazon! 

Happy Birthday Wyatt! Our "Homebirth in a Hospital" Story.

In honor of my baby boy's First Birthday, here is his birth story. My 2nd VBAC, but my first all natural birth.  It was also the first time that labor started BEFORE my membranes ruptured, but I still let them rupture on their own.

I started having signs of prelabor on Tuesday, the 13th.  Around 3am on the 15th, contractions became more regular but still 15-20 minutes apart. They stayed rather irregular all day, getting closer and closer together.  Occasionally, I would sit down at the computer and time them using www.ContractionMaster.com.  I wondered if this was it, but kept telling myself this was only pre-labor, and might go on for a week or more.

Just before Matthew got home, I decided Wyatt was going to arrive some time this weekend, maybe even tonight.  I called Tabetha to make sure she could watch the kids, but she was about to leave for a football game. No big deal, it wouldn't be tonight anyway. She would be free all weekend.

When Matthew got home from work I told him we had to get ready to go, just in case, I took another chance to time the contractions they were down to 5 minutes apart.   I hadn't told Matthew about the regular contractions and spacing yet. He just thought it was another day of me trying to get him to do stuff-like put the 3rd carseat in the car. Finally I told him that I thought I was at the point where normal people go to the hospital. 

We called the hospital to see what spacing they like people to come in at. They said 3-5 minutes apart.  Mine were 5 minutes apart then. Still thinking we had plenty of time, and that it might not even be real labor for sure, we slowly finished getting ready to go.  Luckily our other neighbors could keep the kids until Tabetha got home.When we got in the car, Matthew took over the timing of contractions, with me just saying "now" to start and stop.  I told him I didn't want to know what the timing was.  I hadn't wanted to start using labor props too early, but finally turned on the iPod to Bellaruth Naparstek's "Music for Childbirth" as we pulled out of the driveway. 

I could tell the contractions were getting more serious when I was squirming all over the backseat of the car, and "now" was the only thing I could say.  When we arrived at the hospital, Matthew helped me out of the car at the door before he went to park. I asked him how far apart the contractions were and he said 2-3 minutes, lasting 2 minutes.  I went inside to get checked out. I had told Matthew we were only staying if I was over 7cm dilated. 

As we walked down the hallway, I heard a nurse counting like a drill sergeant for someone else's pushes. No way that would be me. I went into kill the nurse mode, defensive of my right to labor as I wanted. 

When we got to the room, the nurse started handing me a gown, said they'd monitor me on my back in bed for an hour, and start an IV.  I gave Matthew a look and he took care of it. Matthew told her to go read my birth plan and not come back until she had!!  She never came back. She sent another nurse who turned out to be the best nurse I could have hoped for. Danielle honored my entire birthplan, with the help of Dr. McCarty. When Danielle checked my cervix, I was already 8 centimeters and fully effaced!  Thank you to Huggies.com's Birthplan creator for making it SO EASY to make a birth plan!  I tried other Birth Plan creator websites, but liked theirs the best. Getting it signed off on by my midwife, early in the third trimester, and put into my record was key!

With a saline lock in place of an IV, I was free to move around as needed. I squatted next to the bed, leaned over the bed and did everything I could to stay OUT of the bed.  I knew getting on my back would stall things and make labor harder. Ideally, I wanted to give birth squatting, since it opens the pelvis 4 cm more than the "lithotomy position" lying on your back.  It wasn't up to me though, and luckily Dr. McCarty didn't force me into any unnatural position. I let nature tell me how to move and just listened to my body - and my iPod.

Most of the time, Danielle and Dr. McCarty weren't even in the room. It was just Matthew and me.  Every now and then, they would come in and I'd hold still as long as I could for them to monitor the baby with the doppler. In the 3 hours of hospital labor, they only monitored a few times, totally honoring my birth plan!

Eventually, the contractions got worse. I told Matthew that I couldn't relax anymore, and he knew I needed him. We found a position that worked, with me on my hands and knees on the bed, him squatting at the foot of the bed, and me sort of hugging his arms and pushing my head into his armpit. It was the closest possible thing to a hug.

 On one contraction I pushed and my water broke all over the place. I knew he needed to go tell the doc, but I didn't want him to leave my hug. They knew things would move fast once my water broke. Around this time, my squirming ripped out my saline lock. I was now laboring in a swamp of blood and amniotic fluid.  

Since my head was at the foot of the bed, they needed me to turn so the doctor could actually catch the baby.  I managed to turn 90 degrees between contractions, so I could still hug Matthew on one side of the bed and Dr. McCarty could catch the baby on the other side.  After a few pushes, still on my elbows and knees, with Matthew encouraging me in a soft voice, Wyatt was born. The cord had been wrapped around his neck 2 times, but the doctor slipped them off as he came out, and everything was fine.

Had I been laboring on my back or if labor had stalled due to interventions, those wraps of the cord could have had lasting complications for Wyatt, and all of us. 

Oh, and by the way, when we left the hospital (another story in itself), I carried Wyatt from the room to the door in my sling, NOT in a car seat. The nurses went to the car with us to make sure he was buckled safely into a convertible car seat. So, for all of you babywearers wanting to avoid a bucket car seat, it IS possible to leave a hospital without one. 

A Good Reminder.

Even though this is called "Song for a Fifth Child," I think it applies to everyone, whether you have one or 9. Babies really don't keep, and I'd rather hug my kids than have a sparkling house. Just wanted to share.

Song for a Fifth Child

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 a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, 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).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.


by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Cause and Effect People! I'm sad--and Mad!!

*Before I start ranting: If you are here because Google or something said to check out this post about low supply, please go to another reputable website for low supply answers. Here's one.*

Dear Pregnant People,

How long have you spent researching and shopping for cribs? bouncy seats? car seats? strollers?

What about Breastfeeding? Have you done any research on that? Read any books? Looked at any websites that AREN'T sponsored by formula companies?

If you plan to breastfeed, you need to PLAN to breastfeed. You should spend at least as much time learning about breastfeeding as you do on your nursery decorations!

Breastfeeding IS natural, but it doesn't come naturally to most American women these days without a little forethought. Our culture has pushed it into the back room (and often bathroom) for so long, that our mental image of how to feed a baby is skewed.

If you don't have friends who have breastfed successfully (i.e. at least for a year, and maybe one friend who has gone past a year), you need to find some new friends. As the old Girl Scout song goes, "Make new friends and keep the old."   Your old friends are sure to keep giving you great advice on whatever they always have, but would you ask someone with bad hair (me) for advice on hair care? Would you ask someone who doesn't wear makeup (me)about the best way to apply mascara? So then, why would you ask formula-feeding friends for advice on breastfeeding issues? For that matter, would you ask a friend who HASN'T had a boob job (me) to recommend a good plastic surgeon FOR   boob job?

I'm SO FRUSTRATED by moms I meet -more than weekly- who have stories of "I didn't have enough milk." or "I dried up after a few weeks" who think that their bodies failed them.  In reality, when you ask a few questions, it turns out that they had plenty of milk and listened to bad advice from people who had no business giving advice. This resulted in them telling their body to stop making milk. So, yep, they didn't have enough milk BECAUSE they told their bodies to quit making milk.  Every time you tell someone that you didn't have enough milk you are perpetuating the myth that lots of people have supply problems. In reality, biologically based supply problems are VERY RARE.  If you go to Wal-mart to buy something that is usually in stock, but they don't have it, someone messed up the supply system.  Their system is computerized, much like your body. If left alone it will work great but if you put bad info in, you'll get bad results.

*I do know a couple people with ACTUAL supply problems. Yes. I know they exist*

When my own mom got bad advice in 1979, it wasn't her fault, or anyone else's that her milk dried up and I wound up on real grocery store cow milk. There just wasn't access to information like there is today.  Too many people today act like it's still 1979 and their only sources of info are whatever random people they happen to know, regardless of those people's levels of expertise on the subject. We live in the information age.  There are very few subjects you can't get good info on by either Googling or reading a book. Even my small town's teeny weeny library has a fairly recent copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding along with a few other books on the matter. If your library doesn't have the book you want, and your town doesn't have a Barnes and Noble, you've got Amazon.com at your fingertips. If you read an entire book on breastfeeding, you're almost guaranteed to know more about breastfeeding than your pediatrician, unless you have a darn good physician.

*Disclaimer: Don't get pissed at ME if you got bad advice and had your breastfeeding experience ruined by a breastfeeding booby trap. Maybe you really are in the less than 5% of women have TRUE BREASTFEEDING PROBLEMS. Before you decide that I'm a lucky judgmental devil who has never been in the situation of NEEDING formula, check this.  If you did research and contacted well-trained people for help and still had trouble, please know that this post is not aimed at you. In fact, you probably know exactly who I am talking to.*

And the winner of first Freebie is.......#2, Wendy!!!!!!

Congratulation++s Wendy! Please pick your prize and send me your current address!!!

I don't know if I like freebies. I was all anxious all week wondering how many would enter. Thank you to everyone who entered!! 

I want the next freebie prize to be better, so if you have any requests, leave them in the comments!!

I've been making jewelery!

College football season is upon us, for better or worse. My favorite part of football season is seeing what the trendy clothes and accessories are for the games.  Despite having season tickets for Oklahoma State, I won't be going to a game until Bedlam, on Thanksgiving weekend.

I was inspired by this on Etsy and decided to have a go at one for my Hokie Mom for her birthday.  Then as my hubby was preparing to go down to an Oklahoma State game, he won 2 extra tickets and was going to give them to his mom and sister, so I whipped up a necklace for her, using a custom bottle cap from Jess Boutique who lives down the street from me.

Inspiration: 

My versions:

MIL wound up not going to the game and evidently wasn't in love with the necklace. I plan to steal it back from her when we go to the Bedlam game on Thanksgiving.

I made my little Lava Girl a pink bracelet this ribbon/bead style but haven't taken a  picture. 

IF YOU WANT A TUTORIAL ON THIS BEAD/RIBBON NECKLACE, LEAVE A COMMENT ASKING FOR IT!

Since I was sending something to MIL I felt the need to send something to SIL so I whipped up this bracelet. It's a good thing I had ordered these bottle caps from Jess Boutique before, for these projects, but then once the bracelet was made, I decided I needed an image on BOTH sides of the bottle cap, so Super Jess took it back and added the 2nd image. Evidently MIL and SIL both really liked this, so I doubt I'll be able to steal it but with any luck they'll let me borrow it for the game...

I bought all these beads LAST YEAR to make jewelry with for this football season, so now when we are down there again in the land of everything orange, I'll buy more. There just isn't enough orange stuff up here in the land of limited craft supplies.  

Outerspace Birthday Party

Sharkboy's Birthday was back in May, and I never got around to blogging it. I'm about to give away one of the leftover aliens, so I guess I'd better actually post this:

Sharkboy decided on an outerspace theme for his party.  I got decorations from PartyCity.com and set about figuring out the rest. I went back and forth between baking a cake in a bowl to make a half-a-moon cake idea like this:

Then, the day before the party, I was in a kitchen gadget store and a cupcake plan practically jumped into my hands all by itself. I got this: 

Review of Wilton Puzzle Cake silicone bake molds: 

A. Most importantly: It made a rocket cake. Mission Accomplished.

B: Hubby got the job of pouring cake batter into them. He did not spray them first. Cupcakes did not want to release. at all. 

C: Wilton should think about how people have parties and that cakes have to be transported. That rocket was LONG once it was put together. I had to use the lid of a rubbermaid tote as the "tray." 

I did not like the themed party favors available from the various party stores online. They are all just cheap junk that will wind up in the landfill the week after the party. So I set about making aliens.  Then, at the party, the kids "fished" for aliens.  For the babies I made texture cubes and their big siblings got to fish for those.

This Eyeball was my favorite

Texture Cubes

I got my inspiration for these aliens from an Etsy seller who does it much better.

Here's a view of the fishing hole.

For the actual party set-up, it was supposed to be outdoors, in a pavilion, in a park. Then the weather was supposed to be nasty, so we rented the local museum's theater room. On the large projection screen we showed a Youtube video of outer space stuff.

One more element was the "Pin-the-nosecone-on-the-spaceship" game.