Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving (a smidge early)! I hope everyone has all their preparations done and is able to have a wonderful day. We'll actually be busier than we used to be. We always spend holidays at hubbs parents since they have plenty of space (compared to our tiny 1000 sqft townhouse) and they only live 5 miles away so it's not too much of a pain to pack the kids up to travel there. We will be joined this year by hubbs sister and brother in law and their 2 boys and hubbs grandparents and uncle. Even with a big house it does feel a bit cramped with 9 adults, 5 kids, 3 dogs and a cat. But back to why we'll be busier - this year we've been asked to make all the veggies for our meal. Every year I make mashed potatoes (they are my father in laws favorite) but we're also gonna do mac and cheese, green beans and corn. I'll post the potato recipe soon (it's so very yummy). The in laws are doing the turkey and stuffing and everyone else is bringing bread and sweets. This is the first year they have delegated tasks out and I'm glad they did. Now they can enjoy more time with everyone (outside of the kitchen that is).

And now for a little update on Gideon. He had his fourth transfusion on Friday  He did well with it. The few tests they ran came back with nothing new. We did run an antibody titer on him and his Anti-D came back at 1:256. That explains why his transfusions aren't lasting very long. We're looking at doing some IVIG transfusions to try and dilute the concentration of antibodies in his blood so his transfusions last longer and we can give his bone marrow time to start working on it's own. His retic is up to 0.3 now. It's only a 10th of a point but I'll take any increase no matter how small.

On Monday we had to go back to the hematologist for a follow up CBC and while in the waiting room a sweet young girl asked to talk to Gideon and wanted to hold his hand. I was happy to say yes. While the kids were "talking" her mom and I shared with each other why we were there. Her sweet little girl was there for chemo. When we ended our brief conversation I had tears in my eyes. I feel very humbled. I had been feeling like Gideon's struggle was as bad as it gets. And while it is bad for the condition he has - it's nothing compared to what other children are faced with every day. I'm grateful to that little girl for sharing her joy with my little boy and thankful to her mom for showing me that even when faced with something devastating you can still have joy and peace and love in your heart.

I'm so very thankful for the love I have to share and the love that is shared with me every day.
I hope you all have something wonderful to be thankful for today.

Prayers for Gideon

So Gideon's hematocrit was down to 24 on Friday and his hemogloben was down to 7 but his reticulocyte is up to 0.2. It's still a far cry from the 3-5 he should be at but at this point I'll take any increase no matter how small. We go today to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital to meet with a pediatric hematologist. He wants to run some tests to make sure we're not dealing with any other illnesses that can slow or stop bone marrow production. He will also run his crit again and if it's down any more we'll be checking in to the hospital for another blood transfusion. He even said during our phone consult to pack our overnight bag because we probably wouldn't be leaving for a bit.

Please add Gideon to your prayers. We're praying that it is anemia that he is dealing with and not the C word. We're praying that this next transfusion is his last and that his bone marrow will start to function and work as it should and that our sweet baby boy can finally start to heal.

Thank you.

Making Whipped Shea Butter Lotion

This year has been a big year for my family. We added a new member (Gideon) into our little 2 bedroom,  1000 sq ft townhouse. To say were short on space is an understatement but while we're saving to buy a house it's what we've got and we can make it work.
We have long thought about living a simpler lifestyle and when we found out we would be adding to the family we decided it was time to put that idea into action. We've slowly been clearing the clutter from our lives, learning to make due with what we have and learning how to make for ourselves all the things we feel we can't live without.

So on that note, I saw last night I was close to out of lotion and decided it was time I learn to make it myself instead of making the choice between a cheap lotion that's full of things I really don't want to be putting on my families skin or an organic lotion that would cost more than what we spend on milk for a whole month! So I did some research and couldn't find a recipe that I had all the ingredients for and I really didn't want to make a trip to the store so I decided to just create my own. So here it is.

Whipped Shea Butter Lotion

3oz Shea Butter
3oz Coconut Oil
2oz Avocado Oil
1oz Olive Oil
1oz beeswax
(Note I did the oils and wax buy weight)
Then I added the following but these are all optional
1 tsp Vitamin E
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
20 drops GSE (grapefruit seed extract - used as a preservative)
20 drops tangerine essential oil

I put all ingredients in my George Forman Multi-cooker (boy do I love that thing for making beauty products) and turned it on low till it melted. You could also use a double boiler or a Crockpot. Then I put  the crock into the fridge until well cooled (about 10 minutes) You'll know it's cooled cause it will look like beeswax (but it's very soft) Then I scooped it all out into the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer and used the whisk attachment. I whisked for 5 minutes on medium speed and 5 minutes on high speed. It will start out the color of beeswax and will slowly lighten until it's a soft white and will almost double in size.

I then spooned it into 4 (4oz) jelly jars that I sterilized in boiling water. I didn't decorate them or anything since they are all for me. :) If you didn't use GSE I would recommend keeping your extra stored in the fridge. I plan on keeping 1 on my nightstand, 1 in each of our 2 bathrooms and the last one I'm gonna give to my BFF Jacque.

Making Pumpkin Spice Sugar Scrub

Last night me and my BFF Jacque made soap. It was a lot of fun. But while we where waiting for the oils and lye to cool we decided to make use of the time to make some sugar scrub. It was easy to decide on the scent as Jacque's favorite scent/flavor for anything and everything is pumpkin spice. Since fall is the most perfect time for pumpkin spice we got right on it.

We took 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, 2 tbs cinnamon, 1 tbs powdered ginger, 1 tbs ground cloves and 1 (heaping) tbs nutmeg.

We mixed it all together and made sure to get rid of all the clumps. Then we added 1 cup veggie oil.

We mixed it up really well with a rubber spatula and then spooned it into 2 pint size mason jars. Once in the jars we added 1.5tsp of olive oil to each jar and mixed it in well with a fork.
To make opening the jar easier we glued the top and the ring together to make it one piece. It's cheaper than buying those plastic reusable tops and much prettier.
If you notice your mix looks oilier at the bottom just invert the jar after the next use and keep flipping it back and forth after each use.

It took us all of about 5 minutes and cost us nothing to make because we had everything on hand.
We didn't decorate the jars since they are just for us and won't last long but we've decided it smells so good we'll be making them in 4oz jelly jars to put in our Christmas baskets we give out.
I should add that I'm going for an all handmade Christmas (with the exception of 1 toy each for the girls, we got them Boogie Boards.) But that's a post for later.

Making Cold Process Soap

Last night my BFF Jacque came over to do crafty stuff, as we try and do at least twice a month. I'm sure those of you with kids understand how precious girlfriend time is. :) So my girls went to Nana and Pawpaw's house for the night. (They LOVE going there and they usually spend a few nights a month with them.) We had been wanting to try our hands at soap making but only recently got the nerve. I was hesitant due to the use of lye since me and both the girls are asthmatic, (I could only imagine the stress the fumes could put on our lungs) but with them out for the night and with my fearless hubbs offering to help  we decided it was game time. I have been collecting the items needed for about a month now and we finally had everything we needed. Yay!

So here is what we did to make our very first batch of soap...
First I read every blog I could find that talked about making cold process soap. While everyone had different recipes, the one recurring theme was how careful to be with your lye. Also most mentioned getting your lye wholesale or from Lowe's. Well since I march to a different drummer I went to Home Depot and got mine. I'm not sure that was a good idea. It had purple tinted crystals in it and once made it was a dark blue hue. I know this is not right from looking at everyones nice clear lye mix. But it was late and Lowe's is about 15 minutes away so we decided to just go with it. We used the recipe from Soap Deli News as it seemed the easiest for newbies. I used a George Forman Smart Kitchen 30 cup Multicooker that I picked up at Essex for 20$. Think crock pot meets electric skillet. (It worked fabulous by the way)

I'm not going to post the recipe here as the woman from Soap Deli News is awesome and I want you to go there and take the time to read all the wonderful information she has for soap newbies.

In addition the the Multicooker we bought Chemical resistant gloves and Eye protectors, as modeled by my wonderful hubbs below...

We picked up a wooden spoon (to stir the lye) and plastic soup server (to pour the soap from the pot into little soap forms) at Goodwill. We got soap molds at Hobby Lobby (this recipe will make 16 bars). We got a stick blender at Essex but we blew the motor on it half way threw the night, even though we used it as directed, so I'll be returning it and looking around for a better quality one for next time. We got an empty cardboard box to put all of our soap molds in so we could get them out of our very small kitchen easily. We got our Olive Oil and Coconut Oil at Whole Foods and our Palm Oil at Bramble Berry. 

***I wanna talk about Palm Oil for a moment so nobody freaks out on me. When I purchased it I was unaware of the huge conflict of using it. I've looked into it a little and while I'm not going to voice my opinion as to how I feel about it, I will say that I plan on looking into sustainably harvested oil next time I need to purchase some.***

Back to it now. We also got some peppermint oil to use as our scent but we actually had to change plans. Since the lye was a deep blue color when we mixed it with our golden oils it turned into a mossy green color. While I actually really like the color, you don't see it and then expect to smell peppermint. So instead we used Indian Sandlewood (before you jump on me - it's not endangered - I promise) since it's a much more earthy smell. I already had an old food scale that comes with a little dish on top and we used that to measure out the weight of all the oils. We measured out the weight of the lye in a disposable cup. 

Even without the girls home we didn't wanna chance making me or the baby sick with lye fumes so we mixed it outside. And boy was I glad we did! The fumes where horrible and seems to take forever to dissipate. Jacque held an open bottle of vinegar just in case while I snapped a shot of hubbs getting to work.

We got so excited once we got started mixing the lye mix into the oil that we forgot to take pictures. Not that I take the best pictures. Me and my camera are just getting to know each other, LOL. We followed all the directions to a tee and finally after about 45 minutes of hand mixing with a few minutes of stick blending thrown in (before the stupid thing died) we had soap! 

Now I was expecting cleanup to suck and since it was late I decided to leave it until this morning. Boy was I glad I did. It was a breeze. I just rubbed off all the left over soap with paper towels and then gave everything a quick wash. :)

Then after cleaning up, I took a knife and cut across the top of the molds to take all the lumps and overflow off and now they look really nice. I'm not going to jump up and down and yell "I can make soap!" until it's cured and I can give it a test run. But I'm super excited and it was so much easier than I expected.

Pizza Night!

So around here we usually have homemade pizza every Thursday but last night we had to go out to get new fish for Izzy's tank and decided to treat ourselves to Steak N Shake. Boy was it yummy and it was a nice change to eat out somewhere. That's something we don't normally do as our budget just doesn't have room for too much frivolous stuff.

That being said I wanted to share our dough recipe. I double it and make it 3 times over (for a total of 6 pizzas) so I only have to make dough every 6 weeks. I freeze each pizza dough in a quart freezer bag and flatten it out (it thaws quicker this way) and take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the night before we want pizza and then put it on the counter a few hours before we wanna cook. Just open the bag so it can get air to proof.

Garlic Pizza Dough
3/4 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast (or about .25oz if using bulk)
2 cups all purpose flour (plus possible extra)
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 & 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder (optional)

Pour water into small bowl and stir in yeast. Let stand until dissolved (about 5 minutes)

Using stand mixer - mix flour, sugar, salt and garlic. add yeast mixture and olive oil slowly on low speed. should quickly make a ball. if still sticky add more flour by the tablespoon until ball is smooth (should take a minute or 2)
Transfer to lightly oiled bowl, turn dough to coat with oil. cover bowl and let rise till doubled (about 1 hour). Punch down dough and roll out how you want. Cook @ 450 for 12 - 20 minutes (less for thin crust, more for thick crust) or until cheese is golden.

I skip the rising steps and put mine straight into quart zip-locks and plop them in the freezer.

I forgot something important

I forgot to tell you all about my wonderful hubbs Kyle. He is amazing! We've been together over 7 years and last week we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We met on Myspace (remember when Myspace was cool? LOL) and decided to meet due to our mutual love of zombies. Our first date was to a zombie movie! He has taught me so much and has helped me create a beautiful family. He even moved us out to Arizona a few years ago just because I wanted to move there.
We moved back to Middle Tennessee when our younger daughter Elouise was born. She was a few weeks early and suffered from hemolytic anemia. Kyle's parents flew out to Phoenix and kept our older daughter Isabelle while we dealt with blood transfusions and the NICU and the initial uncertainty of what was going on with Elle. We decided right then that we should move home to be near family - as you can never get lost time back.
I grew up with only my adopted mom and dad. I had no family connections outside of them and was an only child - It was pretty lonely. I decided I didn't want that for my kids. They have an AMAZING Nana and Pawpaw and I want them to grow up with them actively in their lives. There is no such thing as having too much love. :)

Like I don't have enough to do...

So last night I got a call from our pediatrician that the lab didn't have enough of Gideon's blood to run his reticulocyte count so we have to go in today for another blood draw. We've already gone in twice this week for blood work and his RSV shot. Grrrr.

I guess I should explain that Gideon has hemolytic anemia. It's the main side affect from a condition I have called antibody isoimmunization. It pretty much is only a problem if I'm pregnant or need a blood transfusion. I had it with all 3 pregnancies but it tends to get worse with each one. It was bad with Giddy's. We started intrauterine blood transfusions at 22 weeks gestation to keep him alive and we did 5 over the coarse of 10 weeks. He was born at 32 weeks and 5 days from a complication of the transfusions. Since birth he has had 1 IVIG transfusion and 3 blood transfusion. He spent 5 weeks in the NICU and we have to check into the PICU when he needs another transfusion as it takes about 24 to 36 hours to get it all done.  We go weekly to the doctor to check his CBC, which is done on site, but his retic is outsourced to a big lab.
His current hematocrit is 28 and his retic from 2 weeks ago was 0.1. His crit should be over 35 and his retic should be over 0.5. We're currently looking into Epogen injections. It would be an off label use but I've found other moms who have used it with success. I'm sure I'll be in for quite a fight with insurance as it's very expensive but it's much cheaper than a bone marrow transplant which is where we're headed if his retic doesn't start increasing and his crit doesn't stop dropping.

If you happen to find this post by search engine and want to know more about my experiences with being sensitized or with dealing with prolonged hemolytic anemia please feel free to email me. There is also a great board on Baby Center dedicated to the topic and you can find a wealth of information there.

Who I am and why am I starting a blog.

Welcome to 24 Hours In Mommyville! I'm Heather. I'm a 34 year old stay at home mom of 3 littles, Isabelle, who's 5, Elouise, who's 2 and Gideon, who's 2 months old. Izzy and Elle go to day school 2 days a week so I have time to get things done around the house and spend some one on one time with little Giddy. I home school Izzy the rest of the week. She's in kindergarten and seems to be loving the idea of being at home. It's been crazy since the baby got here 2 months ago and school has been pushed aside a bit but we're finally finding our groove.

I'm hoping to make this blog about all the things going on in my life. Home schooling, crafting, food and a host of other things. The main reason I'm starting this blog is to have a place to let it all out. The good, the bad and the ugly and hopefully connect with others in the same life space as me and my little family.

Thanks for reading and I hope you keep coming back!

Heather