If your food budget would only allow one of these, which would you choose? The other being conventional beef or chicken. I'll admit I love boneless, skinless chicken breasts for the convenience but it's so cost prohibitive to buy organic free range. I can afford grass fed/grain finished beef. They don't use antibiotics ever and are local. I can also sometimes buy whole chickens from Trader Joes that are free range at 2.49 a lb. but otherwise, it's all too expensive. I do feel silly spending $8 a gallon on raw milk, and then turning around and buying conventional meat. I know that NT says our fats are most important to be organic and grass fed, etc but they are also the most expensive. I also have a larger family with boys that can out eat sumo wrestlers. An example, if I buy a 5lb roast chicken, it's gone in one meal. I do make stock from the bones, but still..it's expensive!

I think Trader Joes is Almond meal, not almond flour. It's not blanched and isn't as fine as the Honeyville.

Elise, You know with me having Peanut sick for weeks on end, I would be ever so grateful if a mama was thoughtful enough to keep her son home if she even had an inkling he was sick...so I'm for keeping him home (-: What kindof faces are you going to get from those scout mamas?

I agree. Walk after every meal(I would walk on the treadmill for15 minutes). Also, eat lots of protein and no pasta/bread/etc. I would eat Joseph's pitas or Wasa crackers if I wanted *bread* but it was always with peanut butter or cheese. If your going to eat some carbs, always pair it with a protein.

So, you wouldn't be concerned if he got sick, got better and then got sick again in a 2 week span? We are all so healthy usually, but this year everyone in my family keeps getting sick(except for me). I'm wondering if it's because of my husband. He travels with his job and is on a plane at least once a week. But, still it just seems crazy for little one to be sick again so soon, know what I mean?

Back again...I can't even believe I'm writing this, but now I don't know what to do. So, my toddler has been well for about a week, eating great, sleeping again,etc. One of my older son's gets what seems like a virus-low grade fever, stomach ache, etc. He gets over it in about 3 days and on the last day takes a bite of an apple and gives it to the toddler. So, now he is sick again! I don't know if he contracted it in the hospital(it's been almost 2 weeks since we were there) or it's from big brother. He has had a fever for 2 days, coughing, runny nose, etc. We have been treating with Motrin because I'm deathly afraid of another seizure. In fact, he jumped up last night to 102 and my we got it down quickly with Motrin and cool compresses on his head, but I was so scared that I was shaking. My husband cancelled his business trip today because he saw how it affected me. He has been acting great, playing, running around etc. but he won't eat anything. He will drink milk and water so we are keeping him hydrated. I'm just scared now to bring him to the doctor because some of you had said the doctor may feel like I'm making him sick or something. My husband feels we don't need to bring him if he's acting o.k. but how long should I let the fever go, before I should bring him in? Can you have a virus, get better and than less than 2 weeks later contract another virus? Oh, his WBC count came back great(6.4 one week after his last draw, so I breathed a sigh of relief there)....but literally, the night I got the test results back for the WBC(because I did worry about it all weekend) he got sick again. I just don't know if this is some sort of test of my patience or faith or something....I'm just really tired.

We have been doing Jr AG this winter with my 5th grade boys. At first, I wasn't sure if they would get it(and at times they didn't seem to get it) but now we are 1/2 way through and they totally get it! I also bought the dvd to teach with it. You don't need it, but I needed those couple of minutes to tend to the baby while they are being taught. Then we go over it together.

I'm sorry to post these...I know you people think I'm crazy. I think I'm crazy. I'm 30 weeks pregnant and have been suffering with this anxiety for over a year. I'm just tired of worrying....but it's like when I feel like everything is going o.k. something major happens. Like last week, he got sick, I tried to stay calm and wait it out..then bam...he has a seizure-which scared me half to death(along with my other two boys that were home with me) I thought i was going to pass out from the stress....

The reason I think it was roseola is because when we got home from the hospital, he broke out in a rash on his trunk for about 24 hrs(after fever had subsided)...so that would be typical for roseola, right? And low wbc would be as well, right?

Thank you for the book suggestion I'm off to see if my library has it. I've been doing research all afternoon and I think my son had Roseola. He had all the classic symptoms and one thing I noted today in the the textbook of peidatric infectious diseases was low wbc 3-6 days in which would coinside with it. They didn't diagnose him with Roseola in the hospital, but the rash didn't show up until we got home....I don't know I'm trying to cling to something positive.

They did check his spleen and liver several times(based on my request) and said they were fine. Would I see symptoms like this if it was something more serious or could just low wbc be an indicator?

I know it's not Kawasaki again(thank God) because his fever only lasted 3 days. I just asked for a repeat cbc in the hospital to confirm. That's when I found out his wbc was low.

From what I understand(which isn't much)...the only thing that was flagged was the count. Everything else was normal. I'm not sure even what that means as the doctors don't want to take the time to explain it to me and now the doctor's office is closed and I have 10 more questions )-:

As some of you know, I struggle with anxiety. Especially with regards to health. Well, last week my 20 month old developed a very high fever(106). . He was rushed to the hospital because he had a febrile seizure. After 3 days in the hospital and all the tests(meningistis,etc). He was diagnosed with a virus. His fever went down on the 3rd day and he was discharged. They ran a CBC in the hospital and all the results were normal except for his white blood cell count was low. They said this was indicative of a virus. I had them run another cbc on the 2nd day(because I was worried it was Kawasaki disease-which he had at 5 months of age and the numbers helped give the diagnoses). All his numbers were again normal, but his white blood cell count was even lower. They said it was due to him being pumped full of fluids and caused the blood to be diluted. Now, I know I should just accept what they said, but I'm still a nervous wreck. He had a follow up at a doctor today and another cbc ordered to see if his counts went up. The doctor said if they stayed low, they would send him to a hematologist. Well, of course, I ran home to google and now I'm petrified.... Should I just accept this was his body fighting an infection and caused his wbc to be low, or would you be worried it's something else? He doesn't have a fever at all now, it did go away 3 days after it began... Would there be other symptoms if he had something more serious?

dangermom-I would never assume or not assume someone is a Christian or not. To be honest, that drives me nuts when people say-oh, she's a Christian or he's not. My neighbor does this and it makes me batty. How does he know someone's heart or relationship with God? I never, ever say that about someone. Living in the South, you get that alot. He's a good Christian or she's not a believer and so on....

justamouse...never thought of it that way....makes sense :thumbup1:

I've been pondering this a bit lately. I guess what made me really think about it today was I was reading Sally Clarkson's book Ministry of Motherhood and she as such a solid grasp on her faith and her ministry. Along those same lines, Ann Voskamp...same thing. They both just seem so rooted in their faith. Neither of these women belong to my denomination. I just love the simplicity of it with them. I don't know if I'm describing this right. I guess I feel like I get caught up in the *rules* of everything. I just want to chuck it all out the window and just believe, read the Bible, and love others. I wonder though if it matters. If God thinks you must be Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, etc. Do you need to follow a specific set of rules to live out what God wants or are the denominations for our benefit and God doesn't give a hoot. I know there are denominations that believe there way is the only way, does that mean they believe everyone else is going to hell? Or not a Christian? I'll give an example that made me ponder. I was at my church many months ago. This church has very specific rules on confession and communion. Sometimes it bothers me because I know they believe that Jesus is present at the service and I asked the priest would Jesus deny someone that just walked off of the street communion? What if this person instantly believed and wanted to be a follower, would Jesus deny him the bread and body? He said he didn't know but he was responsible for it and he would deny them. I asked him then if Mother Teresa walked in, would she be denied communion and he said yes because he doesn't personally know Mother Teresa. She isn't the same denomination and would have to attend confession before communion. I guess that just blew me away...I mean we are talking Mother Teresa here. She would be denied the body and blood? Since then, I've just felt disenchanted with church and all it's rules. But, in the same token, I don't feel comfortable going somewhere that church is a big production. It feels fake to me. What are your thoughts?

I hate my Kenmore cannister vaccuum with a passion. It always bumps into walls and is cumbersome. I've been looking at a couple of backpack type vaccuums online. It has to have a bag, I get grossed out by bagless. It needs a long cord and needs to be really good on wood floors. Do you have one you recommend?

My first was a set of twins and I had a csection as well(babyB was breech). If you have help, you can use a nursing pillow. Get one baby on by yourself and then have the other person hand you the other baby. It's so much easier that way because then your done when they are done feeding. IF you have no help, I put one baby in a bouncy chair and nursed the other and then switched..all..day..long... My last csection(not twins) I used a compression type belt(like the belly bandit) and it helped so much with the soreness of everything. I will buy one again for this pregnancy. Medical supply stores sell one for csections and abdominal surgeries.

No, my friend moved across the country :( . She has 5 children and can't come.

Thank you Parrot, no I'm in NC. No, we aren't members of a church either. I must sound like a broken record, but that hasn't worked out great for us either. We went to a church for about a year and have just stopped going because they don't have a childwatch(it was an Orthodox church) and they were very, very unwelcoming to children. (Not all Orthodox churches are like this-this was a small Russian church with barely any children).

I've been posting alot about a repeat csection vs a vbac2 because while the doctor recommended me get the csection I really don't know what I"m going to do about my other kids. My last csection was about 20 months ago and we had great friends that watched our two boys for 5 days. They were wonderful and very close to us, but have since moved away. This sounds so bad, but we *invested* all of our friendship time with this family, so consequently we don't have any close friends now. I was willing to try for the vbac because if successful, I could be out of the hospital in 4 hours and I wouldn't have to worry about what to do with my other children. But, if not, obviously I'll be in for much longer(and could be in for a very long time if there were complications). My husband is scared to death of me trying for a vbac and really I'm a little scared too, but feel like I should for my other kids sake. I'm not worried about my older kids(I have twin 11 yr old boys) I feel like I could find someone to watch them, but my 20 month old...I'm so worried about what to do with him. If I schedule the csection and make it until that date, I would love for my husband to be there at least the first night with me, but I don't know who to ask to watch him. He's so young and he's never been without us for more that 2 hours. My dad just moved here and he could *maybe* help a little bit, but he's not very kid friendly and he does work full time. Have you ever been in this situation? No family around and having a baby? Our extended family isn't any help. My father in law passed away. My mother in law lives in another state and is in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, my mother no longer speaks to me so she can't help(and wouldn't help even if I begged). What do I do?

Thank you all for sharing your experiences with me so far. It has helped to calm my fears.

How many c-sections would you consider *safe* before you felt like you didn't want to take any more chances? I've had 2 csections and will probably have another one with this baby, but I don't want to close the door on having more children. My doctor says he's performed up to 6 on one woman....I would just like to hear your experience..good and bad. I'm also considering a vbac2 but am concerned about the risks there as well.

I found a doctor that would do it(they are over an hour away from where I live). I had my first csection 11 yrs ago(twins-baby b was breech) and my second csection was 19 months ago. With the second, we tried for a vbac, but my water broke at 36weeks and I sat in the hospital for 3 days trying to go into labor. Nothing happened and then they decided(after 3 days) to do an ultrasound. Turned out the baby was breech and had no fluid left so I had another csection. I'm just scared if I have another csection, I won't be able to have any more children.