Coconut Oil In Coffee

Coconut Oil has many, many benefits. One of them is helping produce better breastmilk. Awhile back I saw a post in one of my Facebook groups where a mom put coconut oil in her morning coffee. I've also heard of people putting it in smoothies, or eating it right off the spoon. I tried the smoothies, and while that is great I usually don't eat many smoothies during the cold months and eating it off the spoon is too gross for me (I don't like the texture). So I decided coffee it is...

Fun Facts About Coconut Oil
Regular consumption of coconut oil can help boost metabolism, speed up weight loss, helps with mental alertness during the day, works as a sleep aid at night, helps allergy symptoms, helps absorption of calcium and magnesium. Take a tablespoon before each meal to aid digestion.

For further reading check out this post on Organic Facts about the health benefits of coconut oil.

Back to the coffee...

Start with a hot cup of coffee and spoon out about a tablespoon of coconut oil.

 

Add it to your coffee. It will begin to melt right away as you can see above.

Stir or let it sit a few minutes in the coffee. It will melt pretty fast on its own.

This is the coconut oil I like to use for eating (I have a different brand I use for baking). Carrington Farms. Pure, unfreined, cold Pressed Coconut Oil. 100% Organic Extra Virgin.

 

Stir in your favorite creamer and you're good to go!

I usually drink the first cup pretty quick so the coconut oil doesn't have time to return to is solid stage and then fix myself a cup of regular coffee with no CO in it.

Starting Baby on Solid Foods

Long before my baby was born I knew I wanted to breastfeed for as long as possible before introducing solids. I have food allergies, and hubby has a milk intolerance so I figured I would do my best to give our little one a shot at not having food allergies or not having as many as I have.

From what I was able to read before hand, and what Little C's doctor said after he was born I knew we would not be introducing solids before 6 months old. I was able to stick to this goal and solids were not introduced until a week shy of 7 months, due to hubby's urging (he has come a long way, but didn't fully understand that babies don't really need anything except breastmilk for the first year of their lives).

As it turned out, our son really wasn't interested in solids. We started with a jar of banana baby food (I know, not crunchy!). Little C took a few bites, like three, and was done. I mixed it up and offered him some peas (also jar food cuz I didn't know any better then), those didn't go over at ALL! I tried feeding him bites of the jar bananas at least once a day for about four days and finally told hubby that Little C just wasn't interested in foods yet.

Around 8 months hubby urged me to try foods again... so out came a jar of bananas. This round went a little better with Little C eating about half a jar after being nursed before hand (I always nursed first because I knew breastmilk was more important than solids at this age). So, for most days Little C ate about half a jar of baby food.

Between 8 and 9 months we also introduced the jar blend blueberries and apples. That quickly became Little C's favorite food. We tried peas again and they were a no go, just like before. Carrots were one of the next foods we tried. I waited a full week before introducing any new foods as I have an allergy to carrots and wanted to make sure Little C's eczema didn't flare up with the introduction of this new food. Sweet Potatoes were introduced during this time as well. The very next day my poor Little C had a rash on his butt where the sweet potato poop had been when I got him up in the morning, and he had splotches of eczema all over his chest, back and arms. That food, though it was well liked by Little C, was not given again for almost a month. (He was also teething at the time so I wanted to try them after the eczema had cleared to make sure that it was the food and not something else that had caused the outbreak.

Around 10 months I introduced sweet potatoes again. This time they seemed not to bother him. About a week later, after eating them several times through the week, I realized his eczema was coming back again. We stopped sweet potatoes completely and will try again when he is older.

One jar blend that we tried was banana, apple, strawberry. Since we had already introduced apples and bananas without an issue I figured a triple blend would be okay since I would easily know if the strawberries were a trigger food. And they were. Horrible red rash on his bum and eczema flared up right away. Strawberries are another food we have avoided all together.

At some point between 9 and 10 months I learned about making your own baby puree's. I had heard about Baby Led Weaning from moms in a crunchy Facebook group I follow, but after further reading, and discussing it with hubby we decided that was not for us at this time (hubby was especially worried about Little C choking on foods).

I started buying, and mashing bananas myself to feed Little C. He loved it! (I had given him a few bites of mashed banana when he was around 8 months, but hadn't thought to feed him those instead of the jar foods). He eats almost a whole banana for breakfast most days of the week now. As he has started getting his top teeth in and learning to chew (he has had his bottom teeth since around 6 months) I haven't been mashing the banana quite so much so he can learn to mash the 'chunks' himself. He is doing beautifully with it!

Remember my Apples post? I made all that apple sauce to feed to Little C for some breakfasts so he didn't always eat bananas. As it turns out he isn't a fan of the chunkier texture of the homemade applesauce. I think I may need to run some through a food processor to make it more smooth. I think he just might eat it like that.

I have 'made' several other mashed, homemade foods for Little C and he has enjoyed most of them. At Thanksgiving I blended some potatoes with breastmilk and some grassfed butter... he was not a fan of their texture either (he was about 11 months then).

Our most recent food introduction was Plum Organics, Plum Baby & Tots Super Greens (Spinach & Apple) Organic Super Puffs. Little C loves them so much I have to keep them hidden in a cabinet or he won't eat his other foods! I like this particular flavor because of the spinach in it since that adds iron to his diet which I've read is important for this age.

With the new top teeth almost in I am looking forward to introducing other real foods to Little C. I imagine it won't be long before he is enjoying all the wonderful things I like to cook and bake! :)

Taking Meals to New Parents

Something I love to do is take meals to families who have just had a baby. After going though that experience myself I have made it my mission to take meals to any of my mama friends when they have had a baby cuz that is truly a difficult time to get anything done and food is SO important in the recovery process!

A few things to keep in mind:
-Always ask about food allergies! You don't want to fix something they won't be able to eat!

-Make sure the food you prepare is something they like (not everyone likes pasta I have come to find out!).

-Fix enough food for more than just the initial meal for the entire family. (So, in other words, make sure there are leftovers! Doesn't have to be a lot, just enough to help mama out for a midnight snack.)

-Include something with chocolate for dessert! That is always a great thing for a new mama.

-Make the sides easy to prepare! New mama's aren't up in the kitchen yet so usually its daddy who is 'fixing' dinner. Keep it easy for him!

 

Prepare a main dish. Always grease the pan so its easy to reheat. If you know the family wont be eating it right away then also include a piece of foil to make the reheating process easier.

 

Texas Toast is a great side to most pasta dishes and is a great filler too.

Include a piece of foil to put over a cookie sheet so no extra dishes have to be washed!

 

Include a vegetable.

Green beans are a pretty safe vegetable since people tend to hate them less than peas!

(While I wouldn't typically buy these, they are great for dads who aren't used to cooking.)

Salads are also versatile, but take more prep time for you.

 

Chocolate Chip Brownies! A favorite recipe of mine... and also of many of my friends!

 Cut the brownies before they are completely cool or it might be impossible to do later.

Meals can be anything you want to fix! Most of my friends aren't crunchy so I fix meals I know they will enjoy. You can take this one step further and include paper plates and disposable utensils, but I usually just take the meal.

4 Ways To Have a More Natural Christmas

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I have pulled out my Christmas scented candles and wax melts, our tree is up and decorated, most of the gifts are bought and wrapped, the wreath is on the door... This year I'm hoping to make some Christmas cloth napkins out of fabric I found last summer during garage sale season... Here are some ideas for celebrating Christmas a little more naturally:

1. buy a real tree.
Fake trees are pretty, but just wait til the smell of a real tree fills your house! It is the best smell of the season at our house. Since hubby & I have been married and on our own we have always bought a real tree. There are many places you can get one: Boy Scouts, a local tree farm, even some grocery stores sell them out front here in the mid-west! You can find trees for $20, sometimes even less.

2. make your own ornaments and decorations.
Get your kiddos involved decorating salt dough ornaments or enjoy cutting out shapes and baking in cinnamon dough. Cut out paper snowflakes to hang in front of the window or make outdoor decorations for the birds to enjoy too!

3. encourage your children to make homemade gifts.
From crocheting scarves, to making up brownie mixes in jars to give to extended family members, to DIY Gold Leaf Notebooks... if you are a Pinterest junkie, finding DIY gifts won't be hard!

4. bake cookies!
Here are some healthier options for the holidays: Organic Coconut Flour Cut Out Cookie Recipe. Here is a grain free, gluten free, paleo recipe Slice & Bake or Cut Out Cookies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS a little early!

Stockpiling Clothes for Littles

Clothes Little C is growing into are stored in boxes in the bottom of his closet.

I don't know about you, but I think little ones grow way too fast!

I have been picking up clothes for Little C every chance I get. I hit up a lot of garage sales over the summer and often am able to stuff Wal-Mart sacks full of clothes for $5 or less! I am always excited when I find these good deals and they have nice clothes to pick from.

I wash clothes I bring home, even if I buy them new at a store because I'm paranoid... but that's okay! I also like to know that when I get them out they are ready to go.

Once the clothes are washed I usually dump them in a pile on Little C's floor.

 

While folding, I sort into different piles for each size.

 

In some of the bigger sizes I only have a few things each so I put them in Wal-Mart sacks to keep them sorted before storing in a larger box.

 

Here is an example of a box with more than one size in it. I use regular masking tape and write all the sizes and then line them up like this. Once a size has enough for its own box I move it out of a mixed box. This usually happens when we get close the next size he will be in.

After Little C outgrows clothes I move them out of his closet and dresser and sort through them again. This time I take out anything I don't want to keep and the rest goes in a box and is stored in the basement. I have donated and sold Little C's old clothes to help pay for items we may not have been able to find in thriftier ways (B/S/T pages, thrift stores, yardsales, etc).

I love having bigger clothes on hand because it really helps save money and it's not stressful when I suddenly realize his shirts are really too small and we need bigger clothes!

Breastmilk Storage for Donating

I have been breastfeeding my son since he was born in January. I am fortunate to be blessed with oversupply. I didn't realize what a blessing it was until I joined a Facebook support group for breastfeeding mamas and saw how many were struggling with feeding their babies.

In July 2014 I heard about donating breastmilk. I really didn't know anything about it, but I started looking into it and decided that was something I needed to do. I have since donated over 1,000+ ounces to three different babies.

Pumping is a full time job. I do not pump through the night so I can focus on nursing my little one and getting plenty of sleep... which doesn't always happen anyway, but that's the goal! Sleep is important to milk production.

So... I wanted to share how I store breastmilk for donating. Its been a learning process since day one, but I finally have a system that works pretty well.

Here goes...

Milk storage starts in the fridge. After pumping I pour fresh milk into a large NUK 10oz bottle. If I already have a bottle going, I will pour fresh milk into a separate bottle and mix them once they are the same temperature.

Some days I store my pumps in a ziploc bag between pumping sessions because I know I won't have time to wash them right away before they need to be used again. (I typically pump every 3 hours.) If I store pumps in the fridge they are ALWAYS washed at the end of the day. Usually I wash them throughout the day as much as possible, but this is a quick time saver trick you might find handy. If you do this, make sure to get a new bag for storing the pumps the next day.

Here is a picture of how I label the bags. Date, number of ounces, and the time. If you aren't sure of the time you can do just 'AM' or 'PM'.

I use Lansinoh milk storage bags. I have filled them to the max (13oz. a bag), but that can cause leaking and really isn't practical. I have a full time donor baby so I usually put two bottles worth in one bag. Typically that would be 8oz. in a bag (since baby boy drinks 4oz. in a bottle at a time). I also make up 5oz. bags in the evening with 'night milk'.

why yes, that is some homemade baby food in there!

Once I have the amount of milk I need for a milk storage bag I pour the milk from the bottle in the fridge to the storage bag. I have found that they stack better once they are frozen when the bags are laid flat in the door of the freezer.

Once the milk is frozen, I move it into a freezer ziploc bag. I label the bag ahead of time with the month, year and what it is (breastmilk!). Once I have filled the bag I write the number of ounces total so it's easier to grab exactly what I need when taking a donation to a mama (usually I do 50oz in a ziplock, but they can hold more than that!)

When I am ready to start a new freezer bag I open them up like this. Since 8oz. isn't exactly completely flat I rotate the side the top of the bag is on so that the stack stays pretty even and isn't prone to flop over.

Here's the beginning of a freezer bag.

When storing milk I usually put the oldest milk on the bottom and work my way up as I have more milk available to freeze.

This is what 50oz. of breastmilk looks like. To get exactly 50oz. I usually do 5 8oz. bags of milk, and 2 5oz. bags. This is the easiest way for me to do that since the baby I currently donate to usually drinks 4oz. at a time. Of course you could do all 5oz. bags too. Just play around with it and see what works for you!

 

You saw what the bag label looked like at the beginning of the process... well here it is at the end. Once I've filled a bag I double check the number of ounces that is in it and then I write the number of ounces on the bag and circle it. This makes it easy to count up how much milk I have in the freezer.

This is what a full freezer bag looks like. You can see how the bags are opposite on every level to help them stack better.

Those blueberries were picked from a farm up the road earlier this summer!

And finally, what my deep freezer looks like! The oldest milk is in the front and the newer milk is in the back. As I take milk out to donate, I move everything forward so it stays fairly organized.


That's all I have for ya! Hopefully some of these tips help you out in storing breastmilk, whether its for yourself or to donate!

Apples!

For three years in a row now I have done something with a large amount of apples.

The first year I lived in town and a neighbor had an apple tree in their back yard. I noticed they were not using the apples and asked if I could pick them up... I got my 5 gallon buckets out and filled them up several times over. After much peeling of apples with a potato peeler, chopping out the cores with a knife, and finally cooking down the good parts of the apples I was able to make applesauce and apple butter in a crockpot. I boiled the peels and cores and had my very first attempt at making jelly... and it was a COMPLETE FAIL! I also made up apple pie filling which was TO DIE FOR! Everything (except the 'jelly', which was thrown out) went in the freezer.

The second year I picked up one of those fancy Pampered Chef apple peeler & core things (for $5 at an estate sale) that takes the skins off and cores out in a matter of seconds per apple!!! Another great thing I picked up at a yard sale was a canning pot! We were on our own property then which has two apple trees... and last year we had an abundant crop... but being 5 months pregnant and low on energy, I didn't do more than a few batches of apple pie filling. These were canned and stored on my shelves in my nice size pantry.

This is my third year doing apples... and I'd love to say that the apples we did came from our own yard but we got NOTHING this year! I'm not really sure what happened, but obviously something wasn't right with our trees. We are hoping to fix this problem and get them producing again next year. This year's "Apple Factory" (as I've come to call it) came from the local Aldi when they had Gala apples on sale for $1.29 per 3lbs. and I bought 30lbs. In about an hour I had them all peeled, the good parts thrown in a large cooker I bought earlier this year specifically for making large batches of applesauce or cooking down peaches, etc. I sorted the cores and peels and cooked them in separate pots to make juice which I later used to make 3 batches of Apple jelly... and this year they it was amazing jelly!!! (Of course I had practice making different flavors of jelly last year and earlier this year under my belt, but still.) I canned the remaining juice.

This year, of of 30lbs of apples, I ended up with: 3 quarts of apple juice,11 pints of apple jelly, 7 quarts + 1 pint of apple sauce, and about 1 quart of apple butter. I am QUITE pleased with the turn out!

Here are some pictures from this years Apple Factory:

I had almost a bushel of apples (bought 30 pounds).

This is my big cooker. Not sure how much it holds, it its a lot!

Once the apples were cooked I used a potato masher and made the apples into applesauce.

I am looking forward to the 2015 Apple Factory so I can do this again!

How My Crunchy Journey Began

Hey. I'm "Mama J".

I started this blog because I wanted a place to journal my journey into the world of "crunchy". What is "crunchy"? You can Google the term "crunchy mama" and get a few ideas, but I like to translate "crunchy mama" as this:

"someone who believes in doing things naturally whether it be childbirth, raising children, raising animals, growing or buying local foods, avoiding chemicals, etc. and loving the results so much that you just can't stop."

Generally mama's in a "crunchy group" (such as ones on Facebook) are at all sorts of different levels of "crunchiness". Everyone has to start somewhere and we don't all starting being crunchy for the same reason. So, for starters...I'll tell you what led me to my crunchy journey.

Growing up my mom was pretty natural minded. I'm sure in today's terms she would've been considered pretty crunchy. I was a homebirth baby who was exclusively breastfed through a year old and was allowed to nurse til almost 2 years old. When I was being introduced to foods my mom was a vegetarian so I wasn't introduced to meat until several years later (to this day I still don't like meat though I do eat it now, mostly thanks to my redneck hubby). My mom was very health conscious and chose healthy meals which she often prepared herself, from scratch. My mom also cloth diapered me, and though I received some vaccines in the beginning, after doing much research, she stopped vaccinations all together for me (which I am eternally grateful to her for!).

I was also homeschooled from the beginning... as a young child all the way though high school. Writing, social activities, and a Christian version of Girl Scouts (Keepers at Home) were my favorite subjects. A big part of the education she gave me was how to clean a house, cook meals for my family, and take care of children. Even when I was little I knew that one day I wanted to be a mama.

After high school I attended college while working part-time jobs in retail. I studied music, math and... health & wellness! I never finished college, but the classes I took, especially in health & wellness, have really helped me make better choices in my life now.

I met my hubby, "Mr A", through my co-worker/best friend. We started dating, and just over 2 years later we got married out at the river. It was a small wedding with extended family members and close friends. We have been married almost 2 years now and still going strong!

Last year (2013) we were on vacation visiting hubby's family when we found out we were pregnant with our first. I was already 8 weeks along when we found out! Pregnancy and I are not friends. It wasn't a horrible experience, but lets just say it will be a LONG time before I want to be pregnant again!! After a little juggling through a few different doctors, I ended up with a midwife. I am SO glad that she was able to be part of my pregnancy. Through her "Centering Pregnancy" group I met other mama's who were expecting babies around the same time as me. We talked about many things in that class including breastfeeding and cloth diapering! I have to give my crunchy parenting start to that class.

We found out we were going to have a boy! Even though I was desperately hoping for a girl I was honestly relieved that we were having a boy. "Little C" is such a precious baby! We have been on an amazing, though somewhat of a trial-and-error, journey and I am loving it! Breastfeeding was always apart of the picture from the moment I found out I was pregnant. We are blessed that it hasn't been a terribly difficult journey. About a month before Little C was born, and after much research, the cloth diapers I ordered came in. We knew it was very likely that Little C would have sensitive skin like both of his parents and wanted to be prepared ahead of time in case disposable diapers did not go well with his skin (and they didn't...but that's a story for another time). Homebirth was never part of our plan due to a heartbreaking experience hubby went though with a friend of his. We did a hospital birth and I am pleased with our choices because I did the best I could with what I knew at the time. In the beginning we did co-sleeping, which turned into bedsharing. I was misled into thinking Little C would be happier sleeping in his own bed, and went down that road, but even now at almost a year old, he will still sleep part of the night in his own bed and part of the night in bed with us so I guess it turned out alright.

Introducing foods to Little C has been a learning experience all in itself! We have gone through quite a bit with him having bad reactions to different foods (breaking out with eczema rash when things irritate him). This was also expected as I have a list of food allergies as long as my arm. We have taken it slow though and he is doing well with foods. I looked into Baby Led Weaning (BLW), but hubby & I were not comfortable with that since Little C only had two bottom teeth in the beginning so we have been doing purees. At first I used store bought baby foods, but in recent weeks I've been making my own 'purees' with organic foods and really love knowing exactly what I am feeding my child.

Food for the adult side of our family (hubby and myself) has been making a slow change over the past 4 months as well. I have been reading about the GMO's that are in food and am honestly quite horrified!!! Since I discovered that I have been putting a big effort into buying Non-GMO foods and many times they also happen to be Organic too so that's a double bonus! This is an expensive switch tho, so as things run out I have been purchasing their Non-GMO/Organic versions. This is something I am REALLY looking forward to sharing because finding these items is not exactly easy out here where I live.

When Little C was about 8 months old I started hearing about BABYWEARING. I really didn't know much about it, but I started looking into it... and then I started looking into the different style carriers... then I found one I liked (ring sling!)... and then I figured out how to make it myself... and I made it... and I used it... and both Little C and myself LOVED it!!! We have since added another carrier to our 'collection' (if two carriers can be a collection that is!)... an Infantino SwiftTM. Ive discovered that forward-facing babywearing isn't really recommended, and that my great score (I picked up the carrier for $1.50 at a local thrift store) really wasn't such a great carrier. BUT I still like it and we use it too because it works great for other situations where I don't want to use my ringsling.

Something that we are just getting to in our stage of baby life is Extended Rear Facing (ERF) in the car. I have been doing research and Little C is about ready to upgrade out of his baby seat so I've also been looking into which seat will give us the longest run for ERF. Not an easy task!

Hubby & I are undecided about whether or not we will homeschool our little one. There are a few private factors involved, but until we decide for sure I am all for working with Little C to learn things (as we have been doing since the beginning) at his pace. I am honestly very much looking forward to the toddler years since I am a creative person and am looking forward to having little hands helping me create new projects and do new things!

On to a few other topics!

I am ALL for homesteading...but really that's a project where I would be in way over my head. Hubby really helps balance me out in this area cuz I'm all "lets go buy a milk cow" and he will say, "but babe, are you going to milk the cow every morning and every night?" and I'll be like, "oh crap, I didn't think about that..." so yeah, it's a good thing I have him! Plus we live on just under an acre so really... homesteading is not practical for us right now. That being said... I totally have plans to get my own chickens and *hopefully* one day hubby will let me get a few goats too (since they will totally be ok on our small piece of land)... right now he said no to goats... still working on that with him... but our thought is one project at a time!

Gardening! Though I have GREAT intentions before the season begins, the last two years have NOT gone as planned. As it turns out, I'm a horrible gardener, BUT to be fair I was over 6 months pregnant when I started my first garden attempt, and this past year (2014) I have been trying to adjust to having someone completely dependent on me and just managing housework (and I haven't even been doing great at that, but its a work in progress!). There's always NEXT YEAR!!! Hubby helps me with the garden, but he also has to work a lot so the little maintenance of pulling weeds and watering it is stuff I do and I don't really love those chores either. This year the weeds just got away from me. Hubby is going to help me do wider rows so we can just run the tiller through it next year. I think that sounds like a FANTASTIC plan!

Oh! Also, sort of on the gardening topic...we have fruit trees and bushes too! Cherry trees, Apple trees, grape vines, blackberry bushes...I would eventually like to put in some blueberry bushes as well...but there is a huge blueberry farm up the road so even if I don't have my own they have good berries (which I've bought several years in a row now) so I won't be completely heartbroken if I don't add them. I LOVE making my own jellies out of the fruit from our yard. I would also like to put in a bed (or something) to grow strawberries.

One of my latest things of interest in the food department is RAW MILK. I am looking into buying raw milk from a local farmer and making my own butter and stuff like that. I'm actually pretty excited about this prospect. From what I'm finding, though its more expensive per gallon (the lady I'm looking at buying from sells for $5 a gallon) than store-bought milk, it also doesn't have hormones (well, for this particular person I'm buying from that is!) AND I will be getting milk + butter so its actually saving money cuz milk is what, $4 a gallon and butter is like $3 a pound? So already that's $7 on store-bought... so yeah, we're saving money AND eating better! Double score!!!

In the past few months I've also really gotten into herbal/homeopathic remedies. I grew up with a fair amount of knowledge in this area, but never really 'used' it myself until recently. I am LOVING the results of being more natural in the healing department. Less weird ingredient names to read off a bottle, and since many things are foods there are Non-GMO options which I am totally thrilled about. Essential oils are my new favorite part of this journey as I have researched uses of different oils and am finding that they actually help!

On the topic of natural... I prefer natural cleaning products. I like not having to worry about my child possibly getting into cleaning chemicals. I also save money and am happy with the many, many things baking soda and white vinegar can clean! I've been transferring personal care products over to more natural options as well. Its a little slower since there has been some trial and error involved, but we are gonna find what works for us and it will be wonderful not having to worry about what is in these things and how they are negatively affecting us in our daily lives.

As a completely random finishing note... I haven't cut my hair in like four years. It is finally almost to my waist and I am really happy that it is getting long. I LOVE long hair, so does hubby! So, again, double score! :)

I am sure I could go on and on, but really... this is a journal and meant to have many entries over time. Hopefully this gave you a good start and now you know a bit about me and how my journey to being crunchy began.