Milky goodness.

Lovelies, I have milk baby.  Yes I do.  He is adorable.  I have only seen a picture of him, and maybe I will meet him in person one day, maybe not- but either way, I am satisfied.  My milk helped save his life. You see, I was called to donate some of my milk to this precious being because of some issues that his mama was having with breastfeeding.  I was thrilled to help.  As of today, my milk baby is doing fine and his mama is doing better and better every day.  I can't tell you how proud I am of her to sticking with breastfeeding.

Have you heard of  Eats on Feets Community Breast Milk Sharing? well that was all started by my poop-stirring midwife!!! To me, Shell is nothing short of amazing and I cherish every time we get to hang out. Google her and check out all of the wonderful, informative and controversial stuff she has started with her 'audacity' to match milk donors with milk recipients without any money being exchanged anywhere! ;)    ANYWAY, milksharing and wet-nursing has been around since the beginning of time but because of the fear of human contact that society has put on us, both entities have all but disappeared.  Milk banks are charging up to $5 per ounce of breast milk.  Can you imagine? This makes banked-milk more expensive than formula! I couldn't charge for something that I know can help sustain a life. There are so, so many benefits to breastmilk.  I am thrilled that there are so many mamas who are not buckling to the formula companies. (I have had the honor or helping two such mamas).  I should say that I did supplement with S1 and S2 and they turned out just fine. However, S3 got no formula at all, and S4 has had no formula either.  When you know better, you do better, IMO.  If for any reason I need milk for S4, I will be checking Eats on Feets before even thinking about heading to the grocery store.
I will always advocate for breastfeeding! What say you, lovelies? Would you donate your milk? Would you accept another woman's milk for your baby?

wordless wednesday

My PSA for the week.

Spring is here lovelies, which means summer is around the corner.  Now is the time to get your feet in order. Please make sure to use adequate lotion and appropriate nail polish (if you wear polish).  Also, if your toes go over the front of your sandals, it's time for a bigger pair of shoes.  :p
I will tell you that as a mother of 4, it is sometimes difficult to carve out time to care for your feet but trust me, they (your feet) will thank you.  A nice little pedicure can go a long way and can help you feel rested and feeling sassy! I found a cool DIY pumpkin foot scrub, which I will be trying this week.  I love anything that has pumpkin involved!
Looking forward to the summer (not the heat though!) with my at least my feet looking decent! ;)

made by moi!

Lovelies, I make things because I am thrifty.  So today, I made my own lactation tea! I picked up the ingredients at my grocery store, shook them all together, brewed a tablespoon in one cup of water for 20 minutes and am waiting the results. 
Ingredients: 1 pack of fennel
                  1 pack of anise seeds
                  1 pack of chamomile
                  1 pack of star anise (I only used one per cup, for decoration)
If it helps boost my milk supply, YAY me! If not, then I guess I will go back to ye-old faithful, homemade oatmeal/cranberry chocolate chip cookies. ;)

update 3/27- lovelies, this combo works wonderfully! I am so happy with it that I think that I will go get these herbs in bulk so that I can have a nice supply on hand. 

This weekend!

This weekend was decent, lovelies! Hubby and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary, we took the kids to a festival for the sister cities to Phoenix (which included my hometown of Calgary!), I did laundry and made a most divine wild rice salad, we went to a birthday party, ate cotton candy and to top it off, hubby grilled.  Yum. Really don't want to go to work tomorrow!

This is my take on a recipe I got from Ani Phyo.  I didn't have any corn, but I put a splash of agave nectar in for a bit of sweetness and it was delightful.  Of course, S1 was the only one who tried it.  S2 and S3 are cornballs and respectfully declined the invitation to taste.  S2 looked at the salad and said 'my grandma would eat that!' LOL. Yes honey, grandma would absolutely eat this salad!

Had there been a Christmas card/letter,

You would have gotten to see these pics I took!  I did a mini photo shoot of the kids and had planned to put the pictures on a postcard-like card because I had an awesome coupon.  It didn't happen because of 'the computer crash that we won't talk about or bring up anymore.' ;)
So for your viewing pleasure, my Christmas card pics from December! 

back in business!

Lovelies, I think we're back in business- I am coming to you from MY COMPUTER!!!! I can't tell you how happy this makes me.  I am cautiously optimistic because the big test will be getting my pictures loaded.  All the pictures I have taken since December are on my cameras! LOL.  Wish me luck.  You and I will all know how everything turns out by next week.  ;)

I normally wouldn't even ask....

Lovelies, I need to win a contest.  lol.  Yes. I need to win a contest sponsored by Wean Green.  Wean Green is an eco-friendly company that makes glass containers for baby food, snacks, or whatever you want to put in them using glass as an alternative to plastic.
Sooooo, I entered this picture of S4, as part of their 'Most Dramatic Baby and Child Awards' contest.  The grand prize is a bag full of swag from the swag at the pre-Oscar show! Sounds great right?

What do you think? Here's where you come in- head over to Wean Green's Facebook page, 'like' them, then scroll down (or go to 'older posts' at the bottom of their page), find this pic of S4 and 'like' it! Easy Peasy.  Get out there and excercise your right to 'like'!!! (S4 and I thank you!)