Are You Enjoying Parenting?

As I bathed my toddler, I gently wrestled him to keep his head back while I rinsed the soap from his hair. 

"Look at the bugs in the light"

(This is how I get him to look up... yes there really are bugs in the light...)

Bathtime is over and I wrap him up in a towel. Since he was little I always purposed to snuggle with him a few minutes after a bath instead of hurrying to get his clothes on and move onto the next endeavor. Part because I wanted to spend time holding him, part because he won't let me NOT take this time with him. 

Piece by piece I put his clothes on as we count "two feetsies" "one head" "two arms" and of course, because he's a boy, "one booty!".

Then I end our routine with two kisses and one hug. 

He puts his little hands on my shoulder, kisses each cheek and gives me a hug. With his hands still placed on me he looks me in the eye and says,

"I love you mom"

"I love you too Aryeh"

"I love you so much!"

"I love you so much!"

"Mom, you're home!"

"Yes I'm always home."

"I'm home too!"

Wow! I can't believe this moment just happened!

It was so precious, so deep, and had so much meaning behind it that his little mind didn't even grasp. It caused a series of thoughts to train their way through my head.

What a responsibility, what a joy, what an opportunity, of great importance, of great wealth, of such fulfillment to stay at home and raise my children!

Responsibility in training them to become adults in every aspect. Emotionally, financially, disciplined, productive, intelligent, wise, kind, patient, helpful individuals.

Joy in the moments when your toddler understands how to read, when your 5-year-old understands place value, when your 6-year old applies God's Word in such a personal and powerful way, when your 8-year-old is passionate about somthing and applies all those character traits you've built in her to gain a new skill. 

Opportunity in being the one who lays the entire foundation for their long, long (prayerfully) life outside of your home. 

Am I Enjoying it?

Am I laughing?

Am I mulling over the little things they say?

Am I laughing with my husband at the ridiculous situations we find ourselves in?

Am I brushing back the hair off my little one's face and singing them their favorite song while I nurse them back to sleep in the wee hours of the morning?

Am I sitting on my girls floor having a fun conversation with them before bed?

I would challenge you to look over the moments of your day and aim to increase the moments of enjoyment. 

There will be frustrating ones and challenging ones, but how many enjoyable ones will there be? 

The enjoyable moments we have are all by our choice. 

We choose enjoyment.

We choose joy.

I want to enjoy more moments like I did after bath time today. 

Baby Food: First Foods - A Focus on Fat

We feed our family based mostly off of the Weston A Price way of thinking. 
We focus on a lot of animal fats and nutrient dense foods.

Unlike the Keto or Paleo diets, we eat grains and legumes, but are careful to ferment or sprout them and cook them in home made bone broth. 

We also eat a tremendous amount of raw dairy and lots of fermented foods. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How We USED To Feed Our Babies

When my twins were born I followed the traditional American advice and fed them white (or brown) processed rice cereals first, then implemented purred fruit and veggies that came in a jar from the store. 

I did this with my following kids, but mostly made homemade baby food such as purred rice, homemade applesauce and steamed purred veggies, until Aryeh (my 5th). 

While nursing him I was not able to eat any gluten or dairy. He had horrendous colic. I mean he'd just scream for 5-8 hours like he was in pain every single day! He broke out in rashes all the time.

When he started eating baby food, he had reactions to everything he ate, especially fruits. I thought for sure he had a long list of allergies. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Change

When we started to really focus on healing our daughters teeth (surprise, surprise... they are horrible), and we knuckled down on a different way of eating, we read many books and began studying traditional ways of cooking. Alex (my husband) was a great help since in Africa they eat a more traditional diet... at least for the most part (The Western way of eating is everywhere now).

Anyway, Evelyn (baby #6) has had spit up problems her whole baby life. Her acid reflux had a direct link between my eating of commercial dairy. When I ate all raw milk, she was fine. When I ate commercially processed cheese, she'd vomit after every feeding.

With her we introduced bone broths as her first food. 
She moved on to avocados and egg yokes, progressing to whole eggs.
Then we moved to meats, include liver (which we try to eat once a week as a family). 
She progressed into eating curries, soups, and stir fries  with some properly fermented and cooked brown rice. 
After a while of those things we introduced bananas and some fruits such as applesauce.

Now she is 6 months and eats literally whatever we eat with absolutely no problem. I don't puree food for her at all, unless its applesauce or squash that I've already canned for her. She eats rice and steal cut oats, stir fry and soup with sourdough bread and raw butter.

Oh and she has NO teeth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Belief Now

It's humorous to me now, looking back, that doctors recommend processed rice cereal and fruits as first foods. 

Babies need so much fat to develop their growing brains, muscles, bones, teeth... all their crucial development in the first few months and years. The very last thing they need is processed "cereal" and only God knows what's actually in that jar of baby food.

In Liberia (where Alex is from) babies eat rice and "soup" (some sort of oil and meat based sauce) from a very early age. African dishes are very high in minerals from the bones of animals and usually Palm Oil which is very high in vitamins A & D. Meat is, of course, always with the bones in and cooked over an open fire for a very long time. This is the focus on their diet, as is many people groups all over the world. Fresh vegetables are sometimes picked and included in meals. Fruits are not a focus, but enjoyed as a treat now and again. 

Evelyn eats twice a day now and is the happiest baby I think I've ever had! 

Here is a quick tip to making applesauce fattier and easier for baby to digest:

We firmly believe in this system of feeding babies:

Start with bone broths in a bottle

Add avocados and egg yokes (it's the whites that people are allergic to)

Progress to meats (chew them up for your baby)

Add root veggies (carrots, potatoes, beets ect) with fat added (coconut oil, tallow, broth, butter)

Add fruits low in pectin (berries, bananas ect)

Add grains properly fermented and cooked in broth with fat added

Add high pectin fruits but mix with fats

Like I said, our baby at 6 months now eats whatever we eat. 

And since we eat in the way listed above...

It's easy peasy.

The Purge

The Purge.

I'm SO Not talking about the movie... sick...

I'm talking about what happens in our home every spring and fall.

I had my checklists, charts, graphs, pictures, bullet points, schedule... haha just kidding... kinda...

You're thinking What the heck is she talking about?!?

I'M SO TIERED OKAY!

The Purge.

We start with everyone's clothes. I tally up how many pieces everyone has then I make my lists of what items are needed. Usually spring and summer things are on sale at the end of summer such as well as swim wear and summer shoes. 

It's a great time to get things for next season!

I scored a new suit for Alex for $9 at Walmart.

We're going to try some shoe places for summer shoes for next year.

Wha happens when you let the kids label their own bins without supervision... 

Next day we go through winter clothes and the closet that we store things in. I, again, tally what everyone has and needs and re consider how things are organized. I usually rearrange furniture, purchase some new organizing pieces, or install some new hooks and shelves. With a large family you continually need to do this year after year. People move in, people move out, new babies enter stage left, family flow and function changes.

The final day is tallying school supplies and re organizing any bins or baskets that store things. Decoration changes usually happens this day! Here's some pics of the final products :)

Entry Way

For our shoes. So tired of piles of shoes everywhere.
Hoping to get those hanging dividers to place in here.

Backpacks, vests, and sweatshirts.
We're building a separate place for jackets and snow pants.

Dining Room

Added a buffet table. We can't seem to fit food and everyones plates and cups on the table anymore. 

Kitchen

Still trying to find a new place for my bulk bins so I can place plants on that shelf. 

Yes we eat that many eggs...

As you can see we eat mostly canned food and bulk goods.

My new chalkboards my girls gave me and our medicine cabinet. 

Office/Guest Room

Games, Gift Wrap, and family library or reference books.

School supplies, school books and craft supplies

I have a few more things left to clean and organize before I'm done (is it ever really done?), but I'm in a good place to start our school year this coming Tuesday.

This guy is ready to go to the gun range...  or maybe a nap?

I had a very sweet moment with the Lord this morning. Exhausted, running on coffee and pure "mission mode" mentality and sleepless adrenalin (if that's a thing? - I guess it is in mom world), I have been up until 1:00am and up at 5:45am, I had my quiet time with Jesus and my Bible and coffee. Then I was reading some article on feminism. After this I made an egg bake and jumped in the shower. With 30 minutes left until my egg bake was done, I woke up one of my girls to get her in the shower.

I was brushing her hair - the one that has a LOT OF THICK CURLY HAIR - and I tapped into "mission mode". Hurry, get this done, quickly, let's go!

Then the Lord stopped me. He reminded me of when I make Challah bread for our Shabbat and how I spend that time kneading my bread and praying for my family. I pray over our food, over my husband, over my kids, over my home, over my church family, all while I knead those loaves of Challah. It takes a while, and it's strenuous work, but I turned it into a time I look forward to each week.

The Lord reminded me of the article I read about feminism. He was pouring into my heart a renewed love and passion for my children, my husband, my home, and my church family. I was overwhelmed with patience and joy and excitement to provide a safe, organized, comfortable place for these growing characters, these souls that will spend their lives on a tiresome journey called life, these precious children of God who are bombarded by the world, their flesh and the enemy day in and day out.

Then the Lord whispered into my heart to spend the time showering and brushing, praying over my daughter. I prayed that the Lord would make her a beautiful, chaste, meek, faithful daughter of Him. We had great conversation in the steamy bathroom on this cool morning in the quiet before anyone else's little feet came pit pattering across the floors. 

As I did my bi-annual purge, I took this renewed perspective and prayed over my home. I prayed that our school year would be fruitful. I prayed I wouldn't hold my home to dear to myself, but that the Lord would have His way with it. I prayed it would be a clean, comfortable, welcoming place, fully functional for all that the Lord wants to use it for. 

I guess the Lord had more then just a physical purge for our home this season. It was a spiritual one ridding me of my poor perspective and cultivating that joy that I blog about so often.

There really is No Greater Joy then to serve the Lord and to see my children walk in truth.

Here's some ideas for the checklists I use for this during season. 

I add onto them and change them every year to better fit our needs. 

This has a page 2 that includes:

Tape (scotch)

Tape (masking)

Tape (duct)

Tempera Paint

Water Colors

Print Brushes

Hot Glue

If you would like these emailed to you, please shoot me an email.

Getting Your Milk Supply Off To A Great Start

Here are some tips and tricks (as a mama of 6) that I've used to get a LARGE milk storage in my freezer as well as get my milk supply off to a great start.

This is an average pump after a feeding.

• Once Milk Comes In, PUMP! Right when that milk comes in, start pumping after every feeding- even through the night. Yes, it seems like a daunting task, but you should be in bed (or at least at home) resting from your labor and delivery anyway. I pump after every single feeding for about 2 weeks or so, then I start tapering it down to 1-2 times a day during the 3rd and 4th week.
• Water and Food: Please drink LOTS of water and eat LOTS of food high in calories, fat, protein, nutrients.
• Organic Raw Milk: If you can get raw milk, drinking 2-4 large glasses of this a day really boosts your milk supply.
• Sleep: Taking naps (I know it can be hard, I have 6 kids!!) makes a big difference in your nursing and milk supply levels. 
• Dont Stress: Enjoy the chaos, cancel most of your plans and tasks, enjoy nursing, pumping and building up your storage and milk supply. It's going to save you stress and time in the long run mama!
• Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Tincture: Not only do the herbs selected for this tincture increase and support a LARGE milk supply, but they also help with colic babies! I can tell when I have forgotten to take this tincture since Evelyn will be a bit more gassy then normal. My sister has said the same thing with her newborn. (You can get 10% off using to code: NOGREATERJOY2018)

Now take a look at my stash now that Evelyn is 1 month old! 

2 drawers and the whole fridge door full... soon this freezer may be exclusively for breast milk!

It's INSANE RIGHT?!

What do I do with all this milk?

• Babysitters: I never have to worry about needing to be apart from Evelyn in the next year.
• Sicknesses: Ear infections or really any sickness that comes I can warm up a bottle of this nutrient, antibody rich milk for any of my children in a flash
• Other Moms: I have used my milk supply to help other moms who need some supplemental feedings for their infants

I suppose there are many other creative things you can do with this liquid gold.

I love being able to provide my baby with the healthiest (cheapest) options that I can and starting my child off to a great start with breast milk is one of the ways I can do that! YAY!!

Insanity of Life with Newborn #6

The baby is changed, fed, burped and laid down... success!

SHHH!! Don't move or talk to loud. She's finally asleep! 

Waaaaaaaa!

Another 2 hours pass and again, baby is changed, fed, burped, asleep. 
My husband is snoring next to me, and I can hear a couple kids breathing loudly and some beds squeaking as they toss and turn in their slumber - these old hand-me-down bunk beds have really run their course.  Even when the house rests it's never fully silent. The deep breathing, the fan humming, the darkness comforting. I finally rest my head and fall asleep.

Several hours later I hear the grunting and squeaking of my newborn at the foot of my bed. I know I have a few minutes before she starts crying to be nursed. I lean over and glance at my phone. 2:30am. I got a good 2 hours of sleep. Waddling to the bathroom I hear my 4th born begin to talk in his sleep. He's woken up with nightmares almost every night since he was about 9-months old. I tiptoe back to my room hoping not to exasperate him in his dreaming state.

I nurse Evelyn, lay her down, pray she stays asleep and start to pump. As I pump I drink the remainder of my water, take my Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Tincture and PMS tincture and browse Pinterest just to stay awake. This cycle repeats 1-2 more times before her 8am feeding at which time both my toddler and 4-year-old are already awake and "dying of starvation."

I quick go downstairs, grab some bananas, use the bathroom, grab some cold coffee out of the pot (hey, I'm desperate...), and hurry back upstairs to nurse the baby. I feed the boys bananas while I begin my nursing/pumping routine. Thankfully one of my older 3 kids wakes up and can start getting the boys ready for the day. Also, thankfully, I put some steel cut oats in the crock pot the night before and they're all set to get dished up.

Half asleep I make my way downstairs, baby in one arm, two containers full of breast milk in the other, and the other two girls carrying everything else I need but don't have enough arms to haul downstairs.  Then I blink. Sometime between waking up, wiping my toddlers butt, changing the baby from spitting up and blowing out, brewing some hot coffee, nursing again, feeding myself some breakfast, and getting the girls settled in to do their reading with me, I look at my phone and its 12pm - noon! 

No wonder the toddler is so crabby... it's lunch time and we just finished breakfast.

I brushed my hair at 6pm.

I changed my bra for the first time in 3 days at 8pm.

Here it is 11pm and what am I doing?

Listening to the quiet sounds of snoring children... and blogging...

not sleeping... blogging... 

Motherhood is strange.

Insanity sometimes.

I don't think I'll ever think straight or be able to truly focus on anything... ever again.

But I can't tell you how much JOY I have being able to proclaim that I am a PROUD mother of 6 beautiful children. 

I love them, my husband, and most of all my Jesus who gives me the strength, patience, endurance, peace, joy, and selflessness to do this insane thing called motherhood. 

Evelyn Michele Deputie

Of course, the day I posted my last update was the day I finally had my baby girl! 

I had been in Early Labor for weeks. Lost my mucus plug, had a bloody show, been contracting every 5-10 minutes every day. I always felt like I was just about to turn that corner, but never did. 

This is me one of those nights I was SURE I was going to turn the corner and hit active labor. I packed food, a bag, everything. Yeah... I ate all that food long before I went into labor... *sigh*

Tuesday the 6th I had this feeling to stay home. My contractions were as they normally were: strong and every 10-20 minutes. I had been in contact with my midwives over the weekend and they were sure I was going into labor over the weekend, but never did. 

My little sister came over and brought me some castor oil and OJ in exchange for a gallon of raw cows milk. My husband has been begging me to take some since I just needed that extra push to get things going. So with both my sister and my husband coaxing me on, I downed 2 tbsp of castor oil in 4oz of Orange Juice.

I nestled up with 1 liter of coconut water and a bottle full of water and a book. I drank as much liquids as I could just in case I got diahrehia or stomach cramps.

A photo I sent to my sisters telling them I was scared I was going to have mad poops. They kept mocking me and sending me funny photos of poop emojis and such. 

However, nothing. 

--> I took castor oil with my twins and Hayven and it put me right into labor within 6-8 hours of taking it with absolutely no side effects. Beautiful, fast, smooth labor. I took some with Elias and it did NOTHING but cause some Braxton Hicks.

Around 11:30pm my normal Early Labor contractions seemed to focus more on my lower pelvis then a tightening across my stomach. 

I laid in bed and tried to sleep but couldn't get comfortable through the contractions. I was still laying down and breathing through them in bed. 

I prayed, "Lord, You know me. I don't know when these are "real" labor pains and I will end up staying home too long and have this baby right in my bed. I really need You to tell me when to make the decision that it's time to go in."

At the birth center giving Alex the thumbs up as we get settled and I walk and sway. You can see the tub filling up!

Just then, a little after 1am I had a contraction that caused my muscles in my upper body (arms) to shake a little bit. I got up and walked to the bathroom. Again one that caused my body to shake more. 
Walked back to my bed room. I braced against the wall and shook again.

This is finally it!

I woke Alex up and told him it was gonna be fast so we needed to move!

I called Mariah and told her to come. 
Called my midwife and left a message. 
Called my mom and told her to get ready to go.

Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE labor! 

I love the contractions.

I love the swaying of my hips through the pain.

I love challenging myself to be soft and gentle and peaceful in between the contractions.

I LOVE IT!

So I'm waking my twins up asking them if they still wanted to go see Evelyn be born. 

I can't get Ahavah out of bed. 

I grip the wall and sway and breathe through a very strong and long contraction.

Finally the girls get up, get dressed, grab their bags and head downstairs. 

My midwife calls and I told her, "It's gonna be a fast one!"

Mariah shows up and we talk like everything's normal. Jedi (my nephew) greets me with a big smile and he's ready to play. I grip the wall, have a long contraction, then jokingly say, "Alright! Gotta run to the car before the next one!"

The car ride always sucks with all the bumps and turns and stops. 

We arrive at the center. I jumped out of the car right when it stopped so I could brace myself on the door while breathing through another contraction. I think I had 3-4 before I even made it into the birth center. 

The tub was filling. My midwife, a training midwife and a nurse all arrived. 

I was smiling, greeting them, telling them how excited I was, then bracing myself against the bed or counter for a minute or two to contract. 

Once I had a second I ripped my clothes off and climbed into that tub.

Oh My Gosh!! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE WATER BIRTHS!

The contracts felt totally tolerable, still painful, but that warm water wrapping around your whole body is amazing! I was so comfortable I was beginning to question my assessment that Evelyn's labor was going to be a quick one!

In between contractions I was explaining to the girls when to come over and watch me push out Evelyn, greeting my mom, asking my midwife in training about her kids, smiling, laughing, drinking coconut water.

I then felt my body begin to want to push, which was strange since I normally would get a good 5-10 minute break from contractions during my transition into the pushing part of labor. I didn't get that break this time.

I told my family that it was close, but I don't think they believed me... :)

I had a second contraction that had me bracing myself on the side of the tub and wanting to push, but I held back for the following contraction. My thought process at this point was, I'm gonna wait one more then give it all I've got and be done with all this pain. 

With a deep breath and not a sound, I rode the next contraction with all my might and pushed Evelyn out. 

There was silence. My whole body turned red (which was the only indication that I was pushing) and I said, 

"Okay, her head's out!" Everyone was surprised and ran over.

In the same push came the rest of her body.

As I looked down I saw the bag of waters still in tact over her face and as her bottom came through my birth canal, it ruptured and retracted away allowing me to lay eyes on the form of my precious baby girl for the first time!

I pulled her out of the water, held her against my chest; she cried, I panted.

"Wow!" was what everyone in the room kept saying.

"That was fast!"
"Wow!"

It was beautiful!

My twins cut her cord. 
I sat in the tub and birthed my placenta. 
I sat in there a good 20-30 minutes just cooing over my baby with my family surrounding me. 

She was born at 3:35am.
March 7th.

Weighed 7lbs 11oz.

Was 19" long. 

Active, hard labor was less then 2 hours. 

Early labor 2-3 weeks.

We handed her to Alex to do some skin to skin as I shuffled to the bed.

She nursed immediately. 
I hardly bled any more after the initial few gushes and clots. 

The midwife asked me, 

"So her middle name is Michele, is that right?"

My mom looked up in surprise!

We hadn't told anyone we were naming her after my mom.

"Yes, that's Michele with one "l". We named her after you mama!"

My moms eyes filled with tears. She game over and game me a big hug. :)

We ate breakfast and were home by 9:30am.

Here's more photos from the birth center:

The kids were all at home and got to meet Evelyn right away.
In fact, this time around they've been home the entire time. Usually we'll send them away for at least a day to sleep and just spend time with Evelyn, but we couldn't find anyone to take the kids this time. No sweat! We have been enjoying our chaos :)

I feel amazing!

Pretty much no bleeding. 

I feel energized, strong, joyful, peaceful.

I think a lot of this has to do with how healthy I've eaten and how physically active I've been.

I also feel like my stomach is shrinking much faster then it ever has (not sure if that's actually true... I feel like it is).

Alex has 2 weeks off (which is the shortest amount of time he's ever taken off).


My next post (hopefully) will about about my postpartum plans this time around and things I used this pregnancy to bounce back, get healthy, and how life looks adding the 8th member of the Deputie family :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What will homeschooling look like during this season?

House life?

Ministry?

It's always a new adventure with new challenges, new joys, new memories, and new opportunities to get to know my Jesus in a deeper way. They'll be stretching (less so physically and more so spiritually now) and growth. It'll be hard and challenging, but I tulle believe our perspective makes all the difference. 

I want to choose to walk through this time in peace, patience, joy, and in contentment.