Thrify & Nifty Thursday

Today was our monthly Le Leche League meeting here in Muskegon and as usual, it was very fun and informative. We talked today about the benefits of breastfeeding. This is the first session in the four part series that LLL revolves around. Sometimes they focus on benefits to mom, sometimes benefits to babies, but today we talked about the benefits to the world around us and how breastfeeding impacts our governments, families, and the Earth.

There were some startling facts thrown out that shocked many of the moms there today, here are a few. Now I have never bought formula so I'm not really sure how much it cost but after discussing all these number and facts, most of us were wondering how many people afford it and one mom brought up, how much of our tax dollars are going toward paying for formula for babies.

• It cost on average $1000.00 in formula to feed ONE baby from birth to 12 months (that doesn't include bottles and other supplies you need for a formula fed baby)
• It cost the government $33,000,000 each MONTH to provide formula for babies on the WIC program
• By breastfeeding for 6 months a family can save $400.00 in doctor/insurance cost (all those wonderful immune boosting, bacteria killing enzymes!)
• Formula containers, bottles, scoops, and all the things that go with formula feeding cause more trash that has to go into landfills (also think about the cost to create, pack, and store)
• Breast milk is ALWAYS available (When Katrina happened many moms were without clean water to mix bottles so LLL worked with many families to re-lactate mothers during this terrible crisis) I think that is super exciting!

These are just a few of the highlights from our meeting today and the overall costs to families, the government and the impact that breastfeeding has on the world around us is astounding....I was shocked. So I'm grateful to the Lord that I have been able to breastfeed my baby boys, not to mention the money we have saved, the healthy start it has giving them, and the fact that I know no matter where we are, I will always be able to top off their little tanks!

How Thrifty!

Fall is on it's way!

I feel fall closing in on us. I am so not ready for the cold weather. There were frost warnings on two day this past week and Tom has started wearing some layers for his ride to the hospital at 5am. We all headed to the park last night after Tom got off work and we had to put on our coats. I invested in winter coats for Grant and myself this past week, so I'm getting prepared. I love love love the summer so I'm sad to see it slipping away. We didn't have much of a summer this year, it was beautifully hot when we left Oklahoma but we had to put on the heater the first week we arrived here and there has only been one day over about 80....we went to the beach!!!

I'm so excited that it's time for the school year to start back because I get to start working with Grant on his lessons, not that we don't learn every day together, but it just signals to me that I can get back out the schedules, have a plan for each day, and not spend all my time working on silly things. I thrive on lists and structure so this gets me excited. (Man I'm lame!)

Morgan seems to be a little happier, so I'm hoping this means I will get more accomplished each day besides getting basic meals cooked, enough underwear clean to get through the week, and getting a movie popped in for Grant before I wrestle the beast the rest of the day. Please pray that Morgan stays happier this week, it's still overwhelming.

The house is coming along but there is still so much left to do. The upstairs is almost finished being drywalled and we are almost ready to paint, I cannot wait!! Then its down to the basement to work on the playroom. I'm so ready to get that spray painted graffiti of male genitalia off my wall!!! I know!!! I was hoping we would be a lot further along on everything but with Tom's schedule, Morgan being a hand full right now, and my symptoms flaring up do to lack of rest, it's about all we can do to make it through the day and working on the room for an hour to an hour and a half before bed.

We are really enjoying Michigan, despite the cold, but really miss our family being close. I am very excited about Thanksgiving because Tom will be off, my parents will be coming up and hopefully the house will be in better shape for them to see. Even though I hate the cold, I love snow, so I'm looking forward to a REAL snow this year and seeing Grant enjoy playing in it! I so want to post some after pictures of the house and especially of our front garden, it is beautiful, but I've yet to find the camera cord and now the camera is dead because that is how it charges too....so you will just have to wait and deal with the suspense, sorry!

To Poop or Not To Poop......

Well, at the Howard House, bowel movements seem to be the hot topic. Don't feel like you have to read this entire post, most of it is just for my personal documentation, but you can join me if you like!

It has been another 7 days with nothing from Morgan. The doctor wanted us to give a teaspoon of prune juice with a teaspoon of rice cereal three times a day in the hope that this would bulk up his stool so it would really feel like he had something in there to push out but hopefully prune juice would make it easier to go. Well no go! So Monday I have to call and report and we are on to the next step and more tests. Hopefully they can figure something out.

Then in happy pooping news, Grant went on the big boy potty this evening and went big boy poopy all by himself!!! Hoorrray! He finally got it! We went to the store last week and got some big boy underwear, of course he picked Car undies!

So first he would go in his diaper, then say "Potty Mommy." And then he would ask for his big boy underwear. Then later in the week he would ask for his undies, then put them on and then go in them and then take them off and hand them to me. I tried to explain that they weren't for going in, but that we wore them until we had to go and then would go on the big potty. He looked at me like, huh?

So finally tonight, he was kinda grunting, crying, and his face was all red so I said lets go on the potty. I guess it was really uncomfy tonight but after about 10 minutes on the potty, I ran into the living room to stick the paci back in the scream baby's mouth and told Grant, "Sit down and wait for Mommy". Much to my surprise, when I got back he had gone in the potty!!!!! (well some was in the potty, some on the seat, and some on his step stool, but HOOOORAY he did it!!!

So we had a brownie and some M&M's to celebrate and even called Daddy who's on call tonight! He was very proud of himself but was ready for bed, so he kissed me goodnight, said " Night night Mommy" and shut the door in my face. He's getting so big. Big boy bed, going to the potty, and no whining at bedtime, he puts himself to bed now. I miss my baby but am sooo proud of him!

POOP!!

I just have to say that we are ecstatic over here at the Howard House! After weeks of suppositories and 5 days with no unassisted bowel movements.....we have poop!!!! Hooray for Morgan! Hopefully now his bowels will kick in on their own. This is a step in the right direction but we aren't out of the woods yet. They are still concerned that he might have Hirschspung's Disease, so hopefully that isn't the case, but at least it is something that can be fixed with surgery if it does come down to it. I'm praying we never have to take the little guy to surgery, so hopefully all our prayers have been answered and he is on his way to being a normal little booger bear!

Sorry for the potty mouth, hehe!

The Beauty of God's Creations

Hot Topic: Health Care Reform

Well Joy got me all fired up again about the healthcare bill. I've been encouraging people to sign the petition to remove the abortion mandate from this crazy bill, but it would be great if we could totally get the bill scrapped. As a medical family, we did not spend all this time and money to be regulated by the government in how much we charge and how we treat our patients. The doctor knows best not some money hogging politician. Just ask people in Canada how they feel about waiting weeks, months, and sometimes years for procedures that could have saved their lives if performed more quickly. Not to mention that the bill will be telling my husband (OB/GYN) to kill unborn babies whether he wants to or not, and OUR tax dollars will be going to murder these innocent lives. The overall goal of socialized healthcare is to regulate the population by regulating who lives and dies, who gets treatment and who doesn't, why pay for treatment for someone who is just going to be a burden on society when we can just let them die and keep the population under control, same for those tiny precious lives that they will be taking, fewer mouths to feed.

Sorry to preach, but human lives are too important to allow Washington to sneak this bill in quickly. If you would like to help, please check out this site and sign the petition to at least take the abortion mandate out of this crazy plan.

http://www.aclj.org/

Also, it's so important to call your representatives in Washington and let them know that you want them to vote to not pass this healthcare bill, Obama is trying to get it rushed through before people figure out what is going on and realizing how it will affect them. Please pray that God will turn the hearts of America back to Him. With HIS help we can accomplish anything!

Overwhelmed

I wrote this on my other blog today, I know a lot of us are settling in to a new life and having some difficulties in the process. I hope that these scriptures and what was on my heart today will help some of you get through these trying days easier. You are all in my prayers and I hope you will keep our family in your prayers.

http://devotioninmotion.blogspot.com/2009/07/leaning-on-everlasting-arms.html

Alive and Kicking!

I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone for keeping us in their thoughts and prayers over the last couple of weeks!

We are trying to get the first level of our new home livable and still are living out of boxes and eating picnic style on our beautiful wood floors that my sexy hubby just finished installing! Hehe I'm so happy to be back online to pay some bills and see how everyone is doing, but I have to admit, I really enjoyed the cyber break. It's amazing how much time this sucks out of our days.

Morgan is getting big, I can't believe he is now over a month old, where has the time gone. He has been very colic-y but we just got some new medicine yesterday and I am already seeing a huge change in his attitude and pain level, so hopefully my possessed child will get his voice back soon and will stop screaming. JK, but it really does hurt me to see him in so much pain, I'm hoping this phase will be ending and he can rest.

Grant is loving his park down the block, likes his new yard, big boy bed, and helping daddy paint, mud, and fix things. So many adjustments at once, but he has been a big boy and we haven't had any big problems, (thank goodness for living on the road for so long......this craziness just seems normal to him).

Tom is getting settleind in with residency and tonight is his first night on call, we will see how I do. The residents are great and all the husbands are very friendly. I am the only wife besides a much older couple than all the rest of us, so it's kinda weird that it's me and some stay at home (can't find employment) husbands. Only one other resident has a little boy so we are the only ones with kids besides them too, guess we are weird! That's OK.

I am really looking forward to getting to know more people around the city and get involved in some clubs and organizations, but that will come in time. After the house is put together more it will just be nice to sit and enjoy each other. I am slowing down on painting and other things on the house as I really want to enjoy this season with Morgan and Grant and don't want to look back and have no memories of our new little guy....materialistic things can wait for some other day.

I will be reading up on your blogs to see what I've missed lately, can't wait to hear from all of you! Take care!

Beware the Big Fish

As I write this, I am almost in tears. It has finally hit me that we are leaving this coming Tuesday to PERMANENTLY move to Michigan. I knew it was coming, but I don't think the reality of it really set in until today when our buyer's agent called and asked "Thursday or Friday?" for our closing day and I started running around packing last minute things, making a reservation for a moving truck and making lists of things that had to be completed before we blast off. I was so relieved and refreshed when I looked over at my daily devotional on my blog and it had this wonderful scripture for me.

Jonah 1:1-3 NIV: "The word of the LORD came to Jonah´Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.´ But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish."
Jonah learned the hard way what happens when a child of God does not yield to the will of God. In our lives as believers, it is probable that God is going to lead us in a direction we did not expect, or lead us to do a work we would never have chosen to do. And within that moment, we (like Jonah) have a choice: we can be obedient to God´s will, thus allowing God to work through us as He wishes; or we can run from God´s will and, essentially, be miserable. It is not God´s intention to make you miserable. But rest assured that since we are His, and since we have a purpose of God´s desire, we must function accordingly if we are to have peace. The benefits far outweigh the costs. Letting go of what we think or want is difficult, but necessary, if God is to complete His perfect work in us. Anything else is like kicking "against the goads." The best thing we can do is simply follow His way, and stop trying to force our will above His.

I am still always amazed at how God always has just the right message for me at the right time. I know that God has great plans for our family there and that these next four years are going to be a wonderful adventure as long as we remember to rely on Him. I'm sure post-pregnancy hormones are playing a big part of this too, but all the unknown is sometimes overwhelming. Please keep our family in your prayers during this next week with our closing, new car, traveling, remodeling, and settling in all comes to fruition! I hope you all have a great week!

Car Trouble Anyone?

As I mentioned in my previous post, Tom was in a bad wreck not 2 days after our new baby was born and less than 1 week before we are supposed to move to Michigan. Now we have to go and buy a new car and deal with all the red tape of the insurance company. AHHHH! We already found a newer version of our car for a good price but we have to wait for the insurance to say whether or not our car is totaled. As you can see from the pictures, we are pretty sure that it is. We are so thankful that no one was hurt (especially Tom!) but could more things happen at once? I doubt it!