Why We Try to Steer Clear of Hospitals

My husband and I have a growing distrust of the general medical field.  We, in particular, do not trust hospitals.

When our daughter was 3.5 years old she had a hernia repair (which lasted all of a few months!) at one of the local hospitals.  She came home with a terrible rash in the area of her surgery.  What did the outstanding medical field label it?  Scarlet fever!  Yes, they told my husband that she must have had strep without us knowing (or any of our other children getting!) and thereby contracted Scarlet Fever.  And, oddly enough, the rash began in the area of the hernia repair and spread from there.  Though we protested this clinical diagnosis, they prescribed penicilin and refused to even entertain the idea that she contracted this rash from the surgery!

We didn't know what else we could do.  That was the end of that story.  Until the next year.

The following year my husband needed a hernia repair.  Dealing with a different hospital and doctor this time, we had the same exact rash appear on him that our daughter experienced.  This time we were smart enough to not ask the hospital for help!  We nursed him back to health (though it took longer) with simple coconut oil!

Well, we read this article earlier today and just knew we could've been the couple focused on.  We are so thankful we did not give birth to our newest baby in the hospital!  In fact, I'm sure she'd still be in the hospital and I'd be in a position of asking permission to hold my baby.

Our advice to anyone going to the hospital?  Go the other way!

Could I Be the First Black Amish Person?

Pops and I watched a documentary last night.  We had been on a kick of watching weird-o documentaries and other things on Netflix that I can't quite describe easily.  But, gardening seemed to take us away from that.

Anyway, the video we *saw* last night was about the Amish.  (Note:  SAW does not mean that I actually saw and heard everything.  I fell asleep countless times as is my family trait from the Tomlinson side.)  My take away... can I be the first black Amish person?

Seriously, laugh all you want, we really have this growing desire to live more like them.  Of course, most of this started from our day trip to that IN Amish farm to pick up our 36 (butchered that morning, raised the right way) Amish chicken.  The family we purchased them from were so incredibly welcoming and generous!  Watching the older 2 girls help their mother sort and bag our chickens was amazing!  They worked efficiently, together, and without grumbling though it was messy work... but oddly not smelly!

Anyway, the video was very interesting.  What most attracts me to their lifestyle is their deliberateness in what they do and (what I view as) their seemingly one track mind.

Though we may not "get" why they live like they do, they are deliberate in why they live like they do.  There is a clear purpose.  And it seems they desire to live how they do to bring God glory.  I so respect that.  It seems like they've gone to ultra extremes to not be conformed to the world but to be closer to the Lord.

The Amish are often thought to be legalistic but I find their lifestyle so freeing!  Probably because sometime between living on Hermitage Avenue in the city and on Stratford Way in Frederick, I Iost any fashion-sense I had.  And I got tired of all the expensive chemicals I had to put in my hair to make my hair seem like it's not Black hair!  Ridiculous!  But, so the norm.  Trust me, since I went au naturale, I walk into a room and it seems my hair proceeds me.  I find eyes drawn to my hair because it's so big and different.  If only I could wear one of those Amish white hats or bonnet thing!

People think the clothes of the Amish are boring, I find them low maintenance and reasonable.  How cool that the dresses the girls wear are pretty much all the same and modest.  No worry about wearing a extra shirt underneath or will someone see something if I bend over.  Urgh.  Give me an Amish dress anytime!  (My birthday is in October!!!)

William's been talking about "getting off the electric grid" for a while.  And, honestly, I'm not sure he's joking!  He has been inquiring about an interracial Amish community.  Not online, obviously.  He seems ready to join.

Last weekend, instead of using our Weber charcoal grill, he got some stones and bricks and made a fire pit!  But, then he gerry-rigged this set-up so that we could grill on the grate of the Weber grill and could still put a big cast iron pot right in the wood underneath!

I made homemade spaghetti sauce (using tomatoes from our garden for the sauce) in the pot and he grilled the best hamburgers on top along with another cast iron pot filled with grilled "fried" potatoes.  We just may be one step closer to getting off the grid after all!

But, he does keep asking me, "So, do you think the Amish use toilet paper?"

I keep assuring him that Cloth Family Wipes are totally easy to use and clean.  If only he'd try...

The Adventure Continues... (LONG!)

I've been absent from the blog world.  Not really checking my normal circuit of blogs either.  Been absorbed in... real life right here on the corner.

Here are some things we've been spending time doing here on our corner...

~ Working the Garden - This year's garden was greatly expanded since we're such experts on how to grow things (!).  Our yield has been enough to get us lately to keep us from our weekly walk to the Farmer's Market.  That means we've saved ~$20 a week on having our own  organic veggies.  We planted broccoli, green beans, butternut squash, cantaloupe, pumpkin, tomatoes (2 kinds), bell peppers, banana peppers, cascablanca peppers, potatoes, basil, zucchini, cucumber, carrots, kale, and peas.  Hmmm, wonder if I missed something.  We also made our own compost area to throw all our scraps and WOW!  That is so nice!  Seriously, used coffee grinds, eggs shells, veggie ends and peels really do decrease trash.  But now it's building up our soil!  Oh- for the record, I don't do much labor outside. I did in the beginning, prior to the mosquitoes coming out in full force!  I'm the brains and Papa-son is the brawn in our gardening efforts.

~ Continuing our No Processed Foods Stretch - We have been eating pretty healthful, though admittedly boring foods.  Oddly, the kids don't EVER ask for a snack and if they do get a snack of carrots or apple slices they gobble it up joyfully!  Because we don't have junk in the house, those late night craving we get end up being a slice of homemade bread with butter or peanut butter.  For treats, the kids get homemade ice cream since we got one of these off of Ebay recently.  (SOOOO delicious!  Especially with homemade vanilla!!!!)  We are marveling and praising God that both boys have had NO reactions to organic peanut butter and farm fresh eggs!  What a blessing!  Oh- and William and I both slimmed down (without trying, we don't believe in dieting!) considerably.  Yay for health!

~ Forging Ahead in our Wisdom 356 - Since attending the ICHE Convention back in June, William and I are PUMPED and ever so committed to train up our kiddos in the Lord.  (Ever heard Voddie Baucham??!!!)  We were freshly reminded that homeschooling for the Christian parent is mainly (or should mainly be) about discipleship.  I found a curriculum/program really fits us well.  We like basic, no bells and whistles, We're doing Spell to Write and Read which addresses so many of the holes I had in "regular" phonics programs I used as a teacher.  We're also using Cursive First along with it and I'm amazed at how Joshua has been improving at his reversal of b and d since making the switch.  We still have a long way to go though!  But, for me, having all the kids (minus Autumn!) on the carpet going over our phonograms is so nice!

~ Battling Skunks and Fighting for Joy - So, we've got skunk issues.  In fact, last night one sprayed right outside our bedroom windows and I had to fight vomitting.  William has become psycho about "killing the beasts."  One night Kadin spied one from his window (though he should've been sleeping) and Joshua ran downstairs to tell us.  We saw it outside the schoolroom window and in no time flat Pops was out after it trying to kill it!  Another time he saw it next to our garden and got a big stone and tagged it!  Of course, the skunk lifted it's tail as Pops ran to the garage and thankfully it didn't catch him.  William did catch one in a squirrel trap though.  Of course, I didn't realize where the trap was set up and I decide to check on the garden only to see a black and white tail moving side to side.  I high-tailed it out of there.  I don't mess around with wildlife like that.  All the skunk business and our heavily trafficked corner make us anxious to move at times.  But, we must remember, God has been so good to us and given us WAY more than we deserve!

~ A Possible Final Run - For those of you who didn't hear, we are expecting another Whitney Kiddos to join the gang in mid-April 2011!  We are thrilled!  And the kiddos are too!  They are already talking about what the "boy" will be named.  When I told my mother she excitedly said, "Maybe you'll have twins and end up with 7 like my mother!?"  Maybe.  We'll keep everyone posted.  William and I (William even more so than I!) would prefer to have a homebirth this round.  We meet with a potential midwife next week to check her out and see if it would be a good move for us.

Ever-so-much to be in prayer for, eh?  But, thankfully, our Great God isn't surprised by any of these things.  And He so delights when we trust Him by actively petitioning him.

Spring 2010

For the 2 people who may see this, the Whitney Adventure is still in progress.  I know.  I am the worst blogger out there.  I'm a crummy writer that is inconsistent and can't even find a decent picture to post every now and then.

Oooo, the truth feels good!  Very freeing indeed.

So, this Spring is quickly coming to an end and I have done miserably at keeping up-to-date with any of my blogs but... I'm making time for a quick rundown of our adventure tales.  Enjoy.

~ Planted our garden.  We're growing (or killing, depending on how you look at it) spinach, tomatoes, cantaloupe, butternut squash, pumpkin, basil, potatoes, green beans, and broccoli.  Will be planting radish and peas in the next month or so.  And for the record, this garden is kicking our behinds!

~ Massive ant problem in garden.  Dilemma.  Don't want to use chemicals.  Decide to use an orange cocktail of sorts.  Looks crazy (but what doesn't around here?) but it works.

~ Pile kids up and drive 45 minutes west to pick up 1/2 a cow (1/4 beef for us and a 1/4 beef for a friend).  THAT was a crazy day.

~ Take over the food co-op as a friend moved out of state.  Unloaded over $600 worth of grain, oil, dried fruit, beans and the like when the truck dropped off the goods from our 1st order.  (And no, this was not $600 worth of food for us alone - it was ~7 people!)

~ Freezer breaks.

~ Get new-used freezer off Craiglist for $50.  But, just big enough to hold our beef and a bit more.  Need another one.

~ Weekly trips to a friend's farm for our weekly supply of milk and eggs.  Pops won't drink anything else and the eggs are AMAZING!

~ Find new freezer.  Gigantic freezer.  So large I can lay down in it!  Papa-son had to saw a bit of the wood shelf off in the garage to get it to fit.  Story has it that the previous owner had 3 ice cream trucks and used this to hold his goods.

~ Autumn slept through the night... once.  But, hey.  THAT is progress.  That was my first time sleeping through the night in 8 months.

~ This weekend our whole crew is taking the drive to experience an Amish farm in IN.  No, we're not looking for a black and white Amish community.  We're buying 36 free-range Amish chicken.

So.... that's it for us.

Food, Inc.

Have you seen the documentary Food Inc.?  Well, we did.  Back in January... and it (along with other things) had us change quite a bit about how we eat around here.

Anyway, in case you're wanting to watch it FREE, PBS has it streaming til Wednesday, April 28th at midnight.  And if you do see it, please tell me what you thought!

When Did We Change So Much?

In this moment, this is how I feel my life is summed up:

~got saved
~got married
~got a van load of kiddos
~gave up couponing
~gave up fast food
~gave up processed foods
~buying grain by 25 and 50 lb loads
~buying coconut oil, sucanat, tea tree oil
~buying farm fresh eggs and milk weekly
~making my own bread
~making my own buttermilk
~making my own deodorant

What is going on and how did I/we change so quickly????

I remember my Papa-son came home one day and said, "Yeah, I decided to stop drinking soda."  WHAT???  How does THAT happen?

Well, who cares.  That's our reality right now... and we love it!

Leftover Oatmeal is the BEST!

I hate throwing things away. It's kinda sick. I'm sure it has a little to do with living with my grandmother, GG, when I was teaching back in the day.

Well, it is doubly horrible, in my mind, to discard edible food... for any reason. Especially food that is good for you!

Can you imagine how excited I was to find out you can make OATMEAL CAKES using leftover oatmeal!? Aw, yeah, baby! And it's easy, good for you (depending on how much sweetner you use) and good to eat!

Here's what I do:

OATMEAL CAKES by Mama-cita

What you need:

cold, cooked oatmeal (Tastes great with banana or apples or cinnamon in the oatmeal too!)

butter

maple syrup or powdered sugar for serving

What you do:

1. Put some butter in a skillet and get it hot and all melted. (I LOVE butter!)

2. Take glops of oatmeal, form them into a patties, and cook them in the butter. Let them get good and browned Before you flip. Repeat on the other side. Add more butter if nec'y.

3. Add your topping preference and enjoy!

Keifer Anyone?

We've consistently been making changes in our diet. Our latest addition has been keifer.

Anyone out there in to keifer?

Today I made another keifer smoothie. Basically, my "recipe" was ~2 cups of keifer (made from keifer grains), some frozen strawberries, a good squirt of chocolate syrup (or honey!) and blend away. Papa-son is a bit weirded out by it but he did try some as did the J-man. Our Big Sissy drank TWO glasses. I think it tastes even better with a ripe banana or two but we were all out of bananas.

Ah, life is never dull! What will we be up to next???