it's says "positive"!

we’re having another baby!  woohoo!

pray for us all, if you think of it!  this is a big blessing, but we have a lot of work to do before new baby gets here.

peace to you all!

about three weeks ago, darin and i were in harris teeter to buy some salad greens and saw 16 oz boxes of organic spring mix on sale for a really fabulous price.  we had a dinner with a friend that night that we were hosting and we’d been eating a salad every other night at dinner, so we felt certain we could eat the whole box before it went bad.  needless to say, we bought one.

and we ate and ate from that box and three days later we’d only barely made a dent.

even though i took measures to fluff the leaves every day, by the fourth day, the greens at the bottom of the box were browning and leaking ooky stuff (i know now that adding a paper towel to the bottom of the box would have been helpful in keeping moisture down, but hey, i’ve only been eating salads for a month.  i have a lot left to learn!).

so in an executive kitchen decision that fourth day, i decided to get creative.

i’ve learned that with a little love and some heat, you can make borderline rotten veggies look and taste pretty darn good.  stir fries are one good way to do this with cut-up-able veggies, especially asparagus, which just looks terrible when it gets dried out and wilty, but perks right up in proper conditions.  another good idea is to make a casserole of sorts.  i chose the second option.

an exact recipe would be impossible to type out since i tend to kind of wing it, but i thought i’d put whatever guidance i could here for anyone who might be in the same boat as i was.  here goes:

Kacie’s Casserole Thing

Ingredients…ish…:

8-12 eggs
some milk or cream or evaporated milk (or you can use water in a pinch)
nearly gone-over or frozen veggies (i used about five handfuls of salad greens, some frozen peas, frozen red and green peppers, and frozen onion slivers)
a cup or so of some sort of bread broken down into crouton-sized chunks (i make extra biscuits on breakfast-cooking days and just freeze them)
a cup or so of some sort of meat in manageable chunks (we had leftover T-day turkey; have used sausage, brats, chicken, beans, and steak)
generous spices according to your included flavors (use seasoning salt or nature’s season, or go italian like i did this time and use italian seasonings, ground pepper, and garlic salt)
cheese (go with your gut; mexi blends are nice with seasoning salt, i used fresh parmesan, mozzarella, and feta with mine, saved some mozz for a topping at the end of baking)

1. turn oven on to 350 degrees.  in a great big mixing bowl, put all your ingredients except for the eggs and milk (or other liquid).  mix them up nicely.  it’s okay if some things are frozen and some are not; i promise your oven won’t mind.

2. in a separate bowl, crack as many eggs as suits you (it takes a lot; the goal is to coat all the ingredeints well and have something left for them to float in while baking) and scramble them up with a whisk or fork.  whisk in some milk/liquid to give it body and texture.

3. pour wet stuff on the dry stuff and fold it all into itself until everything is coated.  if you need more goop, just mix it up and add it in.  i usually start with the low end on eggs and then add more as needed.

4. grease up a 9″x13″ pyrex (or whatever you use for casseroles) and dump that whole mess in there.  spread it around with a spatula and make sure all the solids aren’t in the middle.  put it in the oven and let it cook until all the eggs have set, usually takes a good 30 minutes or more.

5. when browned on top and all set, take it out and let the thing cool for about five minutes before you dig into it.  freeze leftovers in individual servings for a quick meal (i haven’t succeeded in flash-freezing with our freezer yet, so i just wrap each block twice around with waxed paper–twice because once ’round just makes a mess and everything freezes together–and stick ‘em in a freezer-safe bag or tupperware container).

and there you have it.  no more wasted greens!  i heated a square in the oven for breakfast the past two mornings and darin loves to take these to work for lunch–they’re great, even after being frozen!  and nutritious at that!  a wonderfully frugal way to stay on top of your purchases and make the most of your money.  enjoy!

so, after reading nina planck’s Real Food, i learned a lot.  a whole lot.  and now we’re taking it step by step to incorporate proper and real foods into our daily diets.

it occurred to me as i was reading those enlightening pages that the bulk of my health problems are likely a direct result of my really unhealthy childhood.  to fill you in if you haven’t ever heard, i didn’t really eat food until i was 18.  i pretty much ate nothing but french fries, hot dogs and breakfast pig meats, cheerios, junk food, candy, and packet rices from lipton (now knorr).  i didn’t eat pizza until i was in eighth grade (though i’d been eating cooked pepperonis for ages, i wouldn’t touch the total pizza package).  i didn’t touch beef or turkey or other poultry until i was a senior in high school.  i didn’t even eat bread, as in loaf bread–i ate biscuits like they were going out of style–, until the same time as i learned to eat turkey (at least i skipped white bread altogether).  i refused to eat spaghetti (unless it came from a can stamped with a make-believe chef’s face and name) until i went to college and didn’t have a lot of other choices available to me.  my first taste of mashed potatoes was two years ago at a thanksgiving dinner my friend’s grandmother invited me to.  i still can’t eat yogurt unless it’s frozen or ice cream unless you have to chip at it with a fork, nor did i touch a salad until about three weeks ago.

needless to say, i was very picky.  and increasingly unhealthy.  and fat.  and often sick.

now, at the ripe old age of 24, i have had a retinal detachment, a number of major dental surgeries resulting in zero wisdom teeth and a tooth implant that failed at first and had to be redone, and i have a serious medical condition, part of which leaves me incapable of producing enough breastmilk to support a baby’s life.

but i’m slowly, steadily changing everything for the better.  and i’m seeing results.

the newest addition to our daily regimen has been cod liver oil, favored by mothers and nannies for ages.  it smells like the atlantic ocean (and not the prettier parts… mostly the trash cans on the piers…) and it typically makes me gag, but it is outstandingly good for my body and well-being.

i never really ate fish growing up, and had only one little blackened piece of whitefish in college, which i didn’t really care for.  i took fish oil pills in college for a time because i wanted to fix my dry skin, but it didn’t work.  little did i know, i was going about my fish experience all wrong.  industrial fish oil is a waste of your money.  the processing those little gel caps go through renders them completely useless, in fact, they are often harmful to the body because the oils have been heat processed, leaving them rancid with all vitamins destroyed.  not too good.

the cod liver oil i’m talking about is cold-pressed to maintain all vitamins, comes in liquid form (you can get Vcaps if you prefer pills, but it seems that liquid is still the best way to do it), and is a crucial source of vitamins A and D (in their natural forms, not the synthetics they use in modern foods to make them seem better for you even though the body doesn’t recognize them) and omega-3’s, something my body has likely been bereft of since i was eating my own mother’s milk.

we don’t eat fish in this household because i have zero experience with it, but that is going to change.  the benefits of fish in the diet are worth it.  i could get into it, but you could google it just as fast and come up with far better information.  for now, until i get crackin’ on the fish-buying and cooking, which comes when money does, we’re taking our cod liver oil every day.

and it’s not that bad.

there are tricks to it, like using a dropper and bypassing the tongue, swilling juice afterward or eating bread or a muffin to soak up remnants, and they all work.  ransom pretty much just gets it straight.  he has no complaint so far.  we hope it stays that way.

tell you what, though.  i sure feel a difference.  vitamin D and omega-3’s directly affect your mood.  deficiency in either makes one very depressed.  i’ve honestly been way-depressed lately, probably due to my utter lack of omega-3’s and maximized due to the change in daylight availabiliy and to being kind of isolated as a stay at home mom, and just days into our cod liver oil experiment, i have been much happier and less mood-swingy.  the jury’s still out on ransom, but i think he’s teething, so he kind of has rights to be fussy.

anyhoo, that’s all i have to report for now.  our journey into eating real foods is really fun and exciting and i will probably be posting more about it here.  if it interests you, i’m making it a category, so you can just look for “real food” and there you go.

speaking of there you go, i’m going to go.  i’ve got chicken noodle soup to make and a workout yet to do before the hubby gets home.  love to you all and thanks for dropping by!

where to begin…?  whole lot of random things happening here in the damme life.  guess i’ll just get typing and see where it goes.

x. ransom is 19 pounds 11 ounces and 26 inches long.  he makes for a very big boy.  he’s wearing 12 month clothes at 7 months.  i’m not ready for my little to be so big… : (  but at least he’s really cute.  see:

doesn’t he look so tough in that last one? : )  my mom let us bring home her rubiks revolutions for a while and i think ransom likes it as much as daddy does!  in other ransom news, we’ve been getting more used to solid foods, including a pepperoni from donatos last week:

still no teeth, but that doesn’t stop him from gumming food to swallowable size!  he rather enjoyed his first taste of pizza toppings.  he also likes chunks of cheddar cheese, which makes mom and dad happy because we do, too and we eat some nearly everyday; it’s fun to share with the little man!

he’s also very into crawling all over the house discovering things.  it’s kind of fun to watch him wander his way from object to object.  i’m not really into babyproofing my house and we’ve been working with ransom on “no” for weeks.  we’re finally seeing results and it’s wonderful, especially considering his growing curiousity for things above his reach like the christmas tree and outlets.  his fingers are too big to fit in the outlet holes, but we still want him to understand that they are dangerous for when we’re not paying attention and his curiousity gets to him.  he responds really well to our “no”’s, but occassionally we just have to grab him and move him, which is fine since that teaches consequence.  he’s learning and he’s very smart.  it’s fun to watch him grow up (i just wish it was slower!).

x. in other news, we’ve been reading a lot about food lately.  well, mostly i’ve been reading and repeating highlights to darin, who is totally riveted, plus we watched food, inc. together, which features a few of the authors whose books are in my hands often.  we’re trying our darndest to get back to what our great-grandmothers ate for a number of reasons, health being the main one, and we’re absolutely loving it.  the amount of misinformation out there about the components of our foods and the ridiculous amount of industrialized food products being marketed and consumed are literally killing this nation (and other peoples subscribing to our “western diet”).  everything down to the milk we drink is endangering our health today, and it’s a really sad reality.

x. along those lines, we started our food journey with acquiring raw milk.  there will likely be a handful of people out there reading this who’ve bought the idea that pastuerized and homogenized milk is better for you and will say our raw milk consumption is wrong, unhealthy, dangerous, whatever.  but the facts are there.  pastuerization and homogenization destroys everything in milk, so much so that they have to fill it full of synthetic chemicals and vitamins just to make it kind of seem nutritious again.  in fact, most low-fat milks are just reconstituted powdered milk, which can cause  heart disease, hypertension and hyperlipidemia because the fats have oxidized.  it’s sad.  raw milk is alive with good bacteria that fully take care of the bad bacteria, making it a completely safe food, provided that the farmers who draw the milk are using clean and healthful practices (pasturing the cows, ensuring cleanliness of equipment, etc.), and i don’t know of any raw milk farmers out there who aren’t trying to do their best, especially since they are some of the most scrutinized folks in the world (raw milk is the only food that is illegal to sell in certain states, NC included, and the law does everything they can to shut down raw milk farms, despite the truth that raw milk is in every way safe and beneficial).  we get our raw milk just across the border in SC, along with literally hundreds of other people, at a milk drop from a farmer who sends a truck up the I-85 corridor weekly with fresh raw milk, cream, and buttermilk.  it’s a lovely arrangement and we’re beyond blessed to live this close to a resource of pure milky deliciousness.

x. if you’re interested in changing your life, health, and food happiness, check out these books: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, Real Food by Nina Planck (my favorite so far!), Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price.  totally worth your time.  yes.  i didn’t get paid to type that out either, for the record.  i’ve just been changed by what i read and want to share!

x. in related news, my weight loss kicked into gear after making food changes these past few weeks.  it’s been lovely to eat real food and watch myself get and feel healthier.  all that mess about low-fat foods helping you lose weight is really a ruse to sell low-fat food industrial foods and it is killing scores of people slowly.  but not this people.  we like oil on our salads and we like to cook in butter.  and our hearts will be healthier for it.  really.  truly.  i made steaks for us earlier this week and cooked them to about mid-rare on the stovetop in my cast iron skillet.  they were drenched in garlic herb butter and they were scrumptious.  and a day later, i had lost weight, not gained it.  take that, modern advice.  anyhoo, here are my newest stats:

Weight: 190 lbs.
Waist: 32.5″
Hips: 43.5″
Progess: 4 more lbs. lost!  .5″ more each waist and hips!
Pounds to Ideal Weight: only 34 left!

it’s become kind of fun to eat again.  right now, i’m working on a lovely lunch of herb salad coated in homemade asian salad dressing and a dash or two of crushed red pepper flakes.  delish.  and we’re having breakfast for dinner with real milk from grass-fed cows, real eggs from pastured chickens, pork sausage, biscuits, and country gravy.  i’m excited.

x. in non-food related news, God is good!  in addition to the awakening happening at IHOP, we’ve been blessed by God this month with some surprise finances.  two days ago, we were more than broke.  we got hit with over $170 of extra bills this past month due to end of the year property taxes in two states and a half of a phone bill we are not accustomed to paying.  it just wiped us out.  we went in the red in our bank account and there was no money coming in from anywhere.  we paid some bills with my credit card and stopped paying on my college loan just so we could funnel that money elsewhere.  it was a fairly bleak situation.  all of a sudden, eight dollars unexpectedly came in from rewards on our debit card and some more money came in from family who learned of our situation.  we came out of the red, were able to pay our bills, buy some groceries, and even got on top of what we will owe for this month’s round of medical bills.  bless God!  and thanks to family with giving hearts to help us in our need!

x. in other news, darin has taken up disc golf.  thankfully it is free to play because he plays nearly every day provided it is not raining.  ran and i go to watch him sometimes to get out in the sun and enjoy the beautiful parks, which is good because days are shorter now and sun is hard to come by out here.  perhaps someday i’ll play, too, and then darin will be happy to have a wife with mad disc golf skills.  yes.

x. my friends dan and bethany cox are landing in key west tomorrow!  they will have successfully kayaked the entire east coast tomorrow upon landing–how cool is that?  i mean, seriously!  what an adventure!  check out their site and leave them some congratulations for making it all the way!  woohoo!

well, i reckon that’s enough news for now.  blessings on your head and, as always, thanks for dropping by!

not a whole lot of excitement this week.  in fact, there’s been none at all.  i kind of had a rough emotional week for a number of reasons and so i didn’t really do much of anything at all, in general.  i hate weeks like that.  i attribute it to the weather.  it was dreary all week.  put me in a bad mood.  yuck.

so stats:

Weight: 194 lbs.
Waist: 33″
Hips: 44″
Progress: none this week, but 50 lbs. gone since Ran was born!
Pounds to Ideal Weight: 38 to go!

i cheered myself up mid-week after my breakdown by remembering that little fact posted in the “Progress” line–50 lbs since Ran was born–that’s a lot of weight gone.  granted 10-15 of that was the baby and the goop he swam in for months, but still.  it’s gone.  it’s a pleasant remembrance.

well, that’s all for now.  i’ve got stuff to do around this house.  later, taters.

sneaky little young’un…  i found him like this after leaving the room for just a moment.

maybe he’ll give that 114 second solving asian kid a run for her money someday. : )

yayay!  i’m a day late, but i still remembered!

anyhoo, so, not a lot to tell.  i learned to eat salad this past week: a big accomplishment for me in my life.  i’ve never eaten salad before.  it’s not so bad this time.  i made my own salad dressing, which was tastier the second time around (yay for crushed red pepper adding zest!), and then discovered that i can only eat a little of it before i get heartburn, so next week i intend to find a different something to make.  it’s a shame that apple cider vinegar makes my stomach too acidy; it tastes really good.

i also started adding push-ups and crunches to my regimen, at least 3 times a week.  it’s not much, but i’m finding that ransom naps much less these days and so my cardio/toning workouts are getting somewhat shorter (basically becoming whatever-i-can-do-between-feeding-entertaining-and-changing workouts, generally 2-3 miles with intervals).  when ran is in a good mood and enjoying playing on his mat with his toys, i can sometimes squeeze in an extra mile or set of crunches, and look forward to those times because i honestly feel better when i’m active and so should be as active as i can.  yes. 

and now for stats:

Weight: 194 lbs.
Waist: 33″
Hips: 44″
Progress: 1 more lb. down and 1″ more each waist and hips!
Pounds to Ideal Weight: 38 to go!

i’m one pound away from losing ten since starting to report nearly two months ago, which is right on schedule with what i can and should be losing as a lactating mom (1-2 pounds/per week).  it feels good to be getting healthier, even without weight loss included in that factor.  i enjoy eating better foods and thinking through my choices every day.

my body is changing, too–i feel stronger and more fit.  i can still hardly do the stairs (upwards, at least–we live on the third floor) while carrying ransom and my massive pocketbook(that’s a purse, for all you non-southerners out there)/diaperbag without getting all huffy and worn slap out, but i still do it and live to tell about it, so no big.

speaking of big, or biggest, loser that is, i hope danny wins the biggest loser this season.  he’s a super guy and a musician and a dad.  what’s not to love?  and he has maintained his integrity the entire game.  that deserves something rewarding in my book.  yes siree bob, it do.  go danny!

alright.  i got working out to do.  i’m out.  peace to your souls.

so, somehow miraculously i made it 24 and a third years without ever eating more than one single leaf of lettuce in regards to salad.  two of those years were even spent as a vegetarian, and i never ate a salad.  not even one.

how did i do it?  i have no clue.  but i did.

and then…

last night i ate a salad.

and it was delicious.

i just wanted everyone to know.

thank you.

hey friends!  i haven’t posted in a couple weeks for various reasons (most of which you’ll see here later in the post), but i’m here now and ready to write!

so on to updating:

x. stinker alert!  pictures of ransom coming up!  just look at that stinker:

x. we went to durham last weekend for the onething regional at kings park international church (which is a way cool church, for what it’s worth) and got to see some old friends (and make some new ones!) from KC.  it was a fun and spiritually refreshing time for us, though we didn’t get to make vacation of the trip as much as we wanted to because darin wound up volunteering for the on-site bookstore and that meant i had full-time baby care on my hands.  i tried to help out with the conference at first in a number of ways, but ransom decided he didn’t much care for mom doing anything but dealing with his growth-spurty-whining self (growth spurts are the worst…).  but we still had a blast.

x. we did, however, manage to visit the famous barbecue restaurant The Pit in raleigh and it was everything it was supposed to be–delicious pit barbecue with savory sauces and old-fashioned sides.  darin got pulled pork and brisket with sweet potato fries and i got barbecue tofu and veggies (because we ate so poorly the whole trip so far and my body wa screaming “give me something good to eat!”) and everything was so flipping tasty!  we also got a scoop of homemade cinnamon ice cream with a maple-bacon gingersnap cookie for dessert; i tell you, i never thought bacon would be good in a cookie, but this one sure was tops! we definitely recommend!

x. in ransom news, there’s not a whole lot to tell–he’s just big and getting bigger.  he’s scooting around and we sit him up a lot, and sometimes he’ll stay sitting up for a while, but eventually he kind of forgets to hold himself up and falls over.  it’s kind of cute.  and he will stand up tall for decent spurts of time if we support him under the arms when he gets shaky.  this kid is so strong… it blows my mind.

x. he’s also been getting random foods to munch on when they’re available.  he doesn’t really eat them, but he’s getting closer to doing so.  he will now gnaw on apple slices and we’ve been working on steamed veggies, but those seem to be more satisfying his curiosity than his palate for now, which is fine by me.  we’re really enjoying baby-led weaning (see a great article here), not rushing ransom at all into solids and encouraging him to explore foods as they should be enjoyed.  he seems to like it, too!  there was terrible lighting and all i had was my camera phone, but see him here at buca di beppo with an apple from aunt b’s salad:

he’s so cute… we had him out at IKEA the day prior and got him to fiddle with steamed veggies for a while, much to all of our delight.  he was holding a broccoli floret like a flower bouquet for while, just studying it.  that part was pretty much my favorite…  broccoli is a fun food.

x. also to be ransomly noted: the NoJo Secure-Me is just about the most brilliant thing they’ve come up with for babies.  i love it.  i works in shopping carts, high chairs, regular chairs, whatever and it’s just so darn cute (or is that my kid who’s so cute?).  check it out:

x. in other news, i just finished reading michael pollan’s In Defense of Food and man, it was worth the two days overdue fees i racked up from the library to finish it.  i can’t even tell you how valuable pollan’s words are to this country and generation.  we’ve forgotten how to eat, and it’s making us all (our livestock and produce included) sick and dead.  i know personally, i am going to buck up and learn to eat a salad in the next couple of weeks.  i hate salad.  something about eating grass always bothered me, and no matter what i added to it, that bowl of leaves still didn’t ever appeal to my tastes (and on that note, most of us add so many things that it kind of brings the nutrition of said-salad back to nil if not beyond-in-the-bad…).  i can do better.  i was a vegetarian for years in college and after.  i like plants.  i just need to learn to eat the leaves…

x. in related news, find the book and read it.  your american life pretty much depends on it.

x. hey, christmas is almost here–get excited!  and take a break every once in a while from thinking about buying gifts.  just enjoy the season of preparing for Jesus’ birthday.  it’s actually a lovely time of the year if you let it be.  yes.  i love christmas…  and christmas music!  woohoo!  i turned some christmas music on last month when i was having a bad day simply because christmas music (of the good kind, not your radio station variety.  no saint nick and frosty songs for me!) elevates my happies.  don’t know why, it just does.  and i’m perfectly fine with it.  selah.

x. i made bread and granola bars and bulk black beans yesterday.  it felt so good to be in the kitchen all that time.  i think i’d really like to be one of those cook-once-a-month moms and just spend a day or two doing nothing but cooking and freezing meals.  they save so much money doing that…  we need a deep freeze.  we really do.

x.  speaking of food and related things, i haven’t reported my weigh-in for two weeks.  i apologize for that.  i’ve actually done it personally and kept up in my head, but neither friday or the days following of the last two weeks were all that conducive to posting, so i just haven’t.  but i can tell you this: i’m still losing!  here are stats, for old time’s sakes (i’ll pickup again next friday with proper weekly weigh-ins):

Weight: 195 lbs.
Waist: 34″
Hips: 45″
Progress: 3 more lbs. lost (8 total since reporting!)
Pounds to Ideal Weight: 39 to go!

i didn’t get to work out the past two weeks as much as i would like because i was suffering from being half sick on top of having a really late visit from my headachy crampy friend aunt flo (which was also a bit of a bummer…  and if all that was TMI, well, too bad), but i’m getting back on my game now and feeling much better, so hopefully things will continue to progress.

x. pending i apply wisdom with this bit of glory: i found a buca di beppo coupon for $10 off $20 this past week.  we have a buca less than a mile from the house and we simply love to go.  we had one in KC but we only went once and though we had a great time, we just never went again.  it has now become a family favorite (my extended family included).  love the buca.

x. our friends shane and emily had their baby a couple of days ago–a little girl named stella–and we’re so thrilled for them!  they’re going to make great parents!  congrats, friends!  can’t wait to meet your little star!

okay, so my child is having a moment.  i better go…  love to you all and thanks for dropping by!

i’m one month into this thing and so glad i did it…

it’s honestly been the most challenging to not go nuts with this.  we watch the biggest loser every week and i see folks on there losing 5-15 lbs a week (which isn’t really safe, and certainly not safe for a nursing-possibly-baby-making mom), and i use the show for motivation to keep at my regimen, but for me in my position, i am supposed to be losing an average of 1-2 lbs per week.  sometimes i pull 3, but that’s why 1-2 is an average, and usually i’ll lose nothing the week following (however unintentional) when that happens.  much more weight loss than the recommended level sends too many toxins into the breastmilk (because as fat cells are burned, they let go of everything they’d been holding on to, and fat cells are notorious for hanging onto toxins), which goes straight into baby.  no bueno.

and as far as calorie cutting/counting goes, i can only do so much.  i’ve got a baby to deal with every day, and i live in the reality that God is in control of my womb, so if he sees fit to bless us with another child and i’m not eating a decent amount of food to support its life, i’m going to wind up doing harm.

in any event, i’m doing this wisely as i can.  i have support and encouragement from family and friends.  i am getting healthier no matter what pounds and inches i have to show for it.  and i feel so much better.  it’s a great exchange.

so without further ado, here are this week’s stats:

Weight: 198 lbs.
Waist: 34″
Hips: 45″
Progress: weight and hips stayed the same, but i lost .5″ of waist!
Pounds to go: 42

i stayed basically the same, yes.  i’m okay with that.  this is a journey; it’s going to take some time.

the good part is that i feel confident enough in all these changes that whenever i do wind up pregnant again, i will hopefully keep exercising and eating better.  i was really lax while pregnant with ran.  i don’t want to do that again.  it was terrible.  no repeats.

alright, well, i’ve got a hungry boy in need of some attention, so i’m out of here.  peace.