Food For Thought...

     I have a four year old daughter who won't eat ice cream, Oreo's, candy, chocolate or even a bite of  birthday cake.  When I tell people that, their first comments are "Wow, I wish I could refuse to eat that stuff."  Yeah, me, too!  She also won't eat much of anything else.  For the longest time, her diet has consisted of Quaker Oatmeal packet with an extra handful of quick oats, mixed with hot water and a container of Gerber 2nd food apple/blueberry mix (Breakfast... every day...  Won't eat cereal, eggs or toast).  Lunch, if I keep reminding her to finish, usually is a plain peanut butter sandwich.  She will eat Chicken nuggets and french fries, cheese, crackers and ham.  Dinner, almost always, is Gerber 3rd foods Chicken Noodle.  Yes she is four and still eats baby food.  We hoped for 3 years that she would grow out of this...
     Now maybe this just sounds like your typical picky preschooler... Perhaps....  And maybe you think I have somehow created this monster (but I have raised 5 other children, all who went through picky stage and all who try new foods....) 
     But consider this:  We were at a restraunt one night and ordered Chicken strips and fries for her.  Because this was a nice restraunt, the waiter brought all of us appetizers and brought her a small bowl of mixed fruit (watermelon cubed, cantalope, grapes and strawberries).  Cami was petrified.  She threw herself at me and buried her head in my lap.  She sobbed (silently), her shoulders shaking.  I quickly realized that she was terrified that she would have to eat this fruit; I convinced her that it was not for her, but for sharing with her brothers and sisters.
     She calmed down; and after a bit, began giving the pieces of fruit to her brothers and sisters.  She then ate a Chicken strip and a few fries.
     For a long time, I thought perhaps she just couldn't eat certain foods  Even as a two year old, she would put crackers in her mouth and mull them around til they softened and she could swallow them.  It would take her 30 minutes to process a one inch slice of bacon.  By the way, she love love loves salty foods...  She currently weighs about 34 pounds and is of a normal height for her age.  She gets most of her nutrition from Pediasure and those type of drink products.  She refuses to drink juice.
     But here is the key:  She has severe GERD (reflux) and the effects of that have made her very afraid of food.  Many "Failure to thrive" children receive g-tubes...  Cami was a labeled "failure to thrive" when she was one and a half..  but she would eat SOMETHING and she would drink that pediasure...  What I am learning now is that she, like other severe GERD kids and g-tube kids, has a deep fear of food.  She needs to control what goes in her mouth so that she won't have pain and she won't gag.  You cannot convince her to eat anything...  She has to decide on her own.  In just the last few months, she has started telling me she is hungry... before that I wonder if she even felt hunger pains.  One professional health worker told me that most kids rate their favorite food as a 10 on a scale of 1-10.  Cami's favorite foods are just a 4... In other words, she doesn't have much interst in eating and taste isn't playing a huge part... texture is.
     So we are going to the Achieve center in Spokane, where, for the first time, I have found speech and occupational therapists that are familiar with this type of eating disorder (painful to call it that, but it is what it is) and are working with her to help broaden her horizons when it comes to food. 
     The first few times at the center, when an unfamiliar food was placed before her, Cami would turn away quickly.  She wouldn't even look at it.  The therapists would play with the food (ie: whip cream, jam) and encourage Cami  to draw in it.  As they've continued to work with her, we are implementing a kiss it or lick it strategy.  When Cami eats, she is given her familiar food along with something she hasn't tried before.  She immediately says, "I don't like that" or "I don't want that" and we say, "It's OK.  You don't have to eat it, you just have to kiss it or lick it."  If it's something salty, we encourage the lick.  But no other pressure...  She even kissed her first ice cream on Jordon's birthday!  It's baby steps, for sure.  But at least it is a step closer to eating her first bite...
     It's been painful, as her mother, to watch her and not understand why...  We were sent to every specialist in town, from gastro-intestinal ot genetics, but no real understanding until now.  I hope this is the answer, because sometimes I get tired of trying to explain why my four year old won't eat that sucker you just gave her, or why she is still eating babyfood, or why she has no interest in that candy bar that has been offered to her that most four year olds would be thrilled to have....

Breakfast in Bed

Happy Mother's day!  The tradition at my house is that I wake up first and then I have to stay in bed (which is very very hard for me), while my hubby rouses the children and herds them into the kitchen to prepare my "Breakfast in Bed".  Now you may find this very sweet and you may even like to have this yourself, but let me just say that it is a bit awkward.  I mean, 6 kids pile into the bedroom with sleepy smiles, wishing me a happy mother's day.  They deposit homemade gifts and cards on me, along with a large tray full of breakfast items.  They stand around staring at me while I take my first bite and then they disperse quickly to go eat their own breakfasts!  I am left alone in a bouncy bed with a tray full of food and water and juice, expected to balance it all on my legs and not slosh anything.  Then I have to call to them to come get my tray, because I am afraid to switch positions, for fear of spilling.  And, by the way, I don't like to eat breakfast first thing in the morning.  I usually wait until around 10....  So if I leave something untouched, I hear about it...  "Didn't you like the eggs?  Didn't you like the toast?"

All the same, I wouldn't change it.  I just find the "Breakfast in Bed" thing a bit over-rated.  Today, my cute girls asked my favorite question:  "When is it kids day?"  And Robbie told them my favorite answer:  "Everyday is kids day!"  "So," asked the girls, "Why don't we get breakfast in bed?"  So I will make them breakfast in bed....

I am so blessed to have 6 amazing children.  So blessed to be a mother to three wonderful boys and three beautiful girls. This is all I ever wanted.  Thank you to my wonderful husband who is my partner in all of this!

Cows.. Horses... Sheep EIEIO

We are building a little farm. About three years ago, we traded 3 lake view/access building lots for a beautiful 20 acre piece of Spokane County. One day, we'll build a house on it, but in the meantime, we're building the farm. It started with the horses, of course. Then it turned out that we could cut and bale over 130 bales of hay, so we decided to add to our animal collection. Last year we raised 5 pigs and 3 lambs for 4-H. Then Troy bought a steer and a heifer. The steer jumped the fence, the heifer was frightened to death, we placed 430 pounds of hamburger in our fridge and Troy swore he'd never have bovine's again.

That lasted less than 6 months. March 30th, he brought home a 5 day old Black Angus calf and a 2 week old Hereford Heifer. We named them Jaxie (after Rob's friend Jackson) and Isabella (after Cami's best friend from pre-school).

When calves get sick... Let me tell you... 2 inch boluses (pills), trying to shove those down a calf's thoat?? Not fun. Last Saturday. Troy brought home calf number 3. A beautiful Red Angus (possible Seminole cross?) we named Sammy. But we call her Red Bull. She was less than a day old when we got her and she is like a bull in a china shop. She wouldn't eat at first, so I straddled her and fed her between my legs. Now she won't be fed any other way. She bumps my legs and rear, like I'm her mother.

So on to the sheep... We have two ewes, a momma to twins and an auntie. The auntie is very very large and smart. She can open gates and apparantly can open the barn doors. The two of them, and the babies let themselves into the barn last Sunday and ate themselves sick on the grain. So try giving sheep 2 2-inch boluses two times a day... Just saying... You use a long plunger type stick that can hold the bolus and you jam the bolus down the throat more than 2/3's of the way, then press the trigger, then hope they swallow.

And then today, Troy planted 50 lbs of potatoes (Yukons and reds) and a long row of onions... That's my farmer husband... Just saying... I really like him. I always wanted to marry a farmer.

Churches

When I was a girl, growing up in Richmond, Kentucky... I lived on Tates Creek Ave, maybe a quarter mile from Main Street. We could walk to Main street and from there, we could walk anywhere. Tates Creek Market... Westover... Sunset... Downtown to JC Penney's, the Glyndon Hotel, Jett's (Men's shop), even the Town Cinema, with it's one movie screen. On the way to "town", you passed many many churches. St. Mark's Catholic church, a Lutheran Church, the First Presbyterean church, The First Methodist Church, the First Baptist Church ... It seem like there were at least 6, if not 8 beautiful church buildings. Every Sunday, the church bells rang, the parking lots were full. Many of these church buildings were older, but with beautiful stained glass and ornamental trim and of course, the church bells. When we went to church, we drove past all these beautiful buildings to 2nd Street or Water Street, I can't even remember now, but some dingy side street, across from the Richmond Register building to an old Pizza joint, where we held church every Sunday morning. The building was old, smelled bad, had raggedy carpet, but it had been loved into being a Mormon church building.

One day, I asked my mom, why don't we go to one of these other churches, with their pretty buildings and bells and windows? She replied, "Because our Church is called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church we go to has Jesus' name in the title because it is His church. None of these other churches bears the name of Jesus Christ."

That made sense, I guess, to a seven year old. But one day, wonder of wonders, a new building was started right across from the end of Tates Creek on Main Street. A sign was placed in front of the building. My friend Sabena and I had walked up to the Tates Creek Market and could read the sign. It said, "Future home of The Church of Christ". We were so excited! Sabena wasn't Mormon, but she knew I could only go to a church with the name of Christ in it. "You can go to church right here, now," she said.

We raced all the way home to tell my mom that a church with Jesus Christ's name in was being built at the end of our street. That's when I learned that there was more to our church than just the name (no offense to my Church of Christ friends). The church I belonged to was literally the gospel of Jesus Christ, restored to the earth in these latter-days by the boy prophet Joseph Smith. It was organized the same way Jesus Christ organized the Church when he was on the earth, with prophets, apostles, teachers, evangelists. My church taught charity and love, service and kindness, just as Jesus Christ had taught in the New Testament. My church taught that there was an additional record of scripture, called the Book of Mormon, that was another testament of Jesus Christ and his dealings with the people here in the America's. Of course, much of this I didn't really understand as a child. I had to take my Mother's word for it.

But as I grew, my testimony grew. I learned more about the gospel, which in turn increased by knowledge of the truthfulness of the things my mother taught. I have had my own witness that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Jesus Christ's church restored, through fervent prayer and study of these things.

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Yesterday I was grumbly. Mostly because I had to take the LAST of our money and deposit it into another bank to pay our October bills... And then there is no more. How could this happen? Why couldn't that client pay us the large sum of money he owes. Now we have no money left in the account and can only pay ourselves half of the regular salary we typically pay ourselves. I was gripey... Didn't Heavenly Father know that we needed some help here? Couldn't he see that we could use a placement or two?
As I drove to the bank downtown, I realized I would need money for a parking meter. We had used the last of the car change to buy Dallin a water after practice last week. I have no money, I thought grumpily. Kind of out of habit, I said a quick, half-felt prayer. "Heavenly Father, bless that I can find a space where the meter is already paid, cuz I can't afford a parking ticket." Then I went back to thinking grumbling, griping thoughts of how we might lose the house (OK, so I was looking down the road...), what we could sell, etc. I pulled in front of the bank and started digging around the car for any loose change. Eventually I came up with a dime and a nickel and hoped they would be enough to get me in the bank and back.
Without looking at the meter, I deposited the dime, then glanced up to see how much time that would allot me. The meter read 19:00. Heavenly Father had heard my grumbly prayer.
I can't believe how much He loves me, I thought as I crossed the street and started up the ramp to the bank. As that thought went through my head, I felt His love come over me. The spirit was so strong. The next thought that went through my head (and it was not my own thought) was "And He is aware of your financial situation." Again, I felt washed by the Spirit and His love. Such a blessing that was for me that day. A strong and overwhelming witness that I am a child of Heavenly Father, who loves me individually and knows what is going on in my life. He is aware... so I don't need to spend useless time worrying about it. He knows... He will help when the time is right.
I love the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Lessons for parents from the Trek

I have always wanted to be a pioneer. As a child I was Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I wore my bonnet, not on my head, but hanging off my back. My bike was my horse and my dad built me a little cabin out by the garden. I loved pioneer stories. I was awed by their strength and endurance and their amazing faith in Heavenly Father. Pioneers became my heros, my role models. As I grew up, I gained physical strength, endurance, long suffering and until I knew that I would have made a great pioneer. Then, several years ago, Bishop Jamison burst my bubble. “How do you think you would like being a pioneer,” he asked. “You don’t even like to camp.” OK, OK. That is true. I don’t like to sleep on the ground, outside. I don’t like to be dirty and have bugs crawling around me. I don’t like my bedding to be wet with dew and I don’t really even care to cook outside. But, really… who does? I bet that a lot of the pioneers didn’t like to camp either.
When Bishop Squires called and asked Troy if we could go on the trek, my sweet husband told him that he would prefer not to, but that if his wife (that’s me) heard that we’d been asked and he had turned it down, he would be in big trouble! I was so excited. To push a handcart, to try my strength and see if I was as strong as a pioneer! As we were making preparations to go, someone asked if I had tarps that we could take. “Sure,” I said. “What are they for?” “Well, your sleeping on the ground, under the stars.” What? Outside? Not even a tent? Wait a minute…
I have to tell you that the thing I gained the most appreciation for on the trek was my husband. It was amazing to watch him with our “family” of 7 kids, bringing them together, getting to know them and loving them. It was fun to work together with him, talking about the needs of the kids, the spiritual concepts and experiences that he shared. He is truly an amazing guy.
The theme of this years trek was “Walk with me”, taken from Moses 6:34. The scripture reads, “Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.” Our purpose was to live worthy of his spirit and to walk with Him daily.
The second thing that impressed me about being a “Ma and Pa” couple on the trek was how my family of seven kids that barely knew each other came together in unity so quickly. In Mosiah 18, Alma has established the Church. He then teaches his priests in verse 21 “…there should be no contention… and hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.”
So I thought that for the remainder of my talk, I would share with you some of the direction we received as Ma’s and Pa’s to help pave the way for that unity in our families. My thought is that because some of these things helped me as a parent, they may also apply to you and your families to help develop more unity.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 gives a pattern for developing family togetherness in our homes. It teaches us to “establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of order, a house of God.”
In establishing a house of prayer, we were asked to have family prayer with our trekkers at least every morning and evening. We began the trek with a family prayer. Prayer brings unity because you are gathered together, asking help and blessings to extend to all family members. You are pleading for the spirit to guide you and abide in you. Along with family prayer, we had family hugs. After demonstrating the “Cinnamon Roll” hug, Morgan, who was our “big brother” of our group said, “It was a little awkward, I’m not going to lie to you.” But by the end of the trek, we had kids coming from all over, asking about the Cinnamon Roll. The thing about family hugs is that it’s an opportunity for children to express love to each other and to feel love from parents and brothers and sisters. The other thing we were asked to do was to gather in a tight circle so that eye contact could be made with everyone and that no one would be left out.
In establishing a house of faith, we were asked to hold morning and evening family time. During that time, we again would be in a close circle. Troy asked different kids to share favorite scriptures and why they liked them, the kids shared their feeling of why they were on the trek and each kid shared a story of a pioneer ancestor. Now, we don’t all have Mormon pioneer ancestors, but regardless, we gain a lot from our ancestors. We learn of their hardships, their joys, and their day to day lives and we gain understanding of knowledge and appreciation for how we should live our lives. We also threw in “trials” for our kids. For instance, Morgan, who was the strongest in our family, got a snake bite and wasn’t able to pull the handcart for 15 minutes. The other kids had to believe that they could pull the handcart without him. After a very short time, Morgan said, “I think I should be done with this snake bit now.”
In our own lives, we face trials as a family and as individuals. We can establish faith by not grumbling, by understanding that these things make us stronger and by praying for individuals who are struggling.
For a house of learning, we were asked as Ma & Pa to do something they called processing. That is to look at experiences that have happened throughout the day, ponder what is going on both spiritually and physically and how those experiences affect every day life. In other words, learn from our life experiences. For example, our company of 4 handcart families were always at the end of the line of 25 handcarts. Whenever we climbed a very steep hill, the first handcart would stop a short distance from the top of the hill to rest. Which left our company in the middle of the hill, having to start our momentum all over again to make it to the top. What can we learn from this experience? How can we apply it to our everyday lives?
As your own family has experiences, learn to talk about them and find life lessons in those experiences. (This process also helps in sharing experiences when you give talks.) We were also asked to have personal study for about 20-30 minutes per day. Again, we developed a house of learning.
To develop a house of order, I found these things interesting. First was the dress code. We were to all be in pioneer clothes, no exceptions. This put us all in a position of equality with all external barriers, images, cliques and popularity removed. What remained were equal and potentially humble families ready to be taught. The kids were asked not to bring any electronics. I did bring my cell phone and every time I brought it out, I couldn’t believe how fast I was drawn back into the world. One of the girls in our family said of all the things she missed, she missed her cell phone the most. Sister Bischoff told me that Bishop Squires had told her that he had attended a multi-stake priest-laurel dance. He noticed that as the kids were dancing with each other, 75% of them were also texting. One of his purposes in removing the electronics was to get the kids to socialize, play and talk with each other. We had huge fun in the games we played and Ninja rolled through the entire group very quickly.
In our own home, we apply this rule on Sunday. No TV, no computer, no I-pods. It is one of my favorite days of the week because we are all truly together. We talk, play and interact for a whole day. It’s also one of the things I enjoy about camping as a family. We have minimal distractions and we are together.
Two other trek rules that apply to a house of order were that Ma’s and Pa’s don’t pull the handcart, rather we were to support and encourage the kids in their pulling. Sometimes it is best to leave the children to figure out problems and situations together without interference from Mom and Dad. This lets them come together in unity. Secondly, Ma and Pa should never do any work by themselves. This rule pierced my heart. It is definitely something I should work on at home. I prefer to assign chores and then do my own work in solitude. But I see the benefit of having children work beside you. Besides learning the correct way to load a dishwasher or weed a garden or can peaches, you are building unity with your child and building memories.
“Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of order, a house of God.” By following this pattern of unity in building our homes, our homes become a house of God.
President Howard W. Hunter, in the April, 1990 General Conference said, “a child has the right to feel that in his home he is safe, that there he has a place of protection from the dangers and evils of the outside world. Family unity and integrity are necessary to supply this need. A child needs parents who are happy in their relationship to each other, who are working happily toward the fulfillment of ideal family living, who love their children with a sincere and unselfish love and who are committed to the family’s success.”
I know that as we work to build family unity, we strengthen testimonies, draw closer to Heavenly Father and learn to depend more on Him for our happiness and our eternal life. I know that Jesus Christ is our big brother and that he lives. He gives us a perfect example to follow and teaches us how to have our “hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.” In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Oh Where, Oh Where did summertime go?

We hosted a family reunion in July, with all my brothers, sister and their spouses and kids, along with Mom. It went much too quickly, but we had a wonderful time, riding the Hiawatha Trail, watching the talent of the kids, eating really good food and visiting.





We re-sided our 1935 home and added larger windows this summer. We discovered that we had absolutely no insulation in the 6 inches between the outer wall and the lathe and plaster. Troy had Dennis double the size of our bedroom window, which greatly suprised me! The home looks amazing now!






My son Robbie has a band,called 3 Years Later. In his band are Merril, Jackson and Mark. Rob sings and plays guitar, Jackson is lead guitar and Merril is the bassist. Mark plays drums. They have been playing together since 7th grade and now are seniors in High School. They have been working to record an album (all original songs) before they finish H.S.

Troy and I also served as Ma & Pa of our Stake Youth pioneer trek. It was so much fun and so rewarding. I've always wanted to be a pioneer; stems from my childhood-- I think I was Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie from age 7 to 10. The kids pushed and pulled handcarts over sand dunes and hills for 3 days. We slept under the stars and worked together to build family unity. Dallin was in our company (of four handcarts -- with a different Ma & Pa) Robbie was in another company toward the front of the line (about 25 handcarts, 6 companies) Rob chose to wear a sombrero (along with a few friends) because it made him happy!




Next up: The Kootenai County fair. Jordon, Charli and Cadie are showing lambs and then selling them. School will start September 2. What a great summer!