Author Archives: katherine

About katherine

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Struggling.

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I’ve been struggling all day.

On more than one occasion, I’ve said I have no words. I’m still not sure I do, but I can’t just sit here.

I know there will always be things in life I won’t understand. But sometimes, that’s a hard pill to swallow.

I know of a number of friends that are battling infertility. I even have a couple of friends that I suspect are battling infertility, but haven’t shared it with me and I haven’t asked because it’s not my place.

All the friends that are struggling, would make amazing parents. Amazing. And what really pisses me off about it all, is that there are people that are in absolutely no position to be bringing small humans into this world, yet get pregnant by doing nothing more than sneezing.

HOW can these amazing people that would make amazing parents not be able to have babies?

Infertility is a dirty whore.

I am angry.

In my head, I can repeat “everything happens for a reason” and “we’ll never be given anything we can’t handle” over and over and over again, but right now, I can’t see past right now.

I am struggling to understand. As a woman, as a friend, as a christian.

And because I don’t know what else to do, I pray.

I pray for peace for the families struggling. I pray for their healing; physical, emotional and mental. I pray  for the right words to speak, when necessary. I pray for wisdom and foresight that I may be able to recognize need and step in to help, even in some small way.

I pray for understanding for all those struggling.

Struggling with the weight of it all.

Struggling in silence.

Struggling to make sense of it all.

Just struggling.

It’s happening again…

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first thing this morning I had been sitting in the rocking chair in the living room enjoying some alone time before anyone woke up when Ry came out and crawled up in my lap. Instead of the usual cartoons and breakfast, she just rested her head in the crook of my neck and we rocked. Not long after, I heard Reese from her bedroom. I snuck out from under Ry, leaving her curled up in the chair. After getting Reese, I brought her back out to the living room to feed her only to find Rylee passed out in the chair. I headed back to Reese’s room to feed her in there. While I was nursing her, Ry came in and proceeded to pass out on the floor.

The entire time I was getting ready for work she was acting whiney and sleepy. Then even cried a little when I left. That never happens.

Even Reese was acting tired as I was leaving…about 45 minutes to an hour earlier than her normal napping time.

I got off the phone with Andy earlier today and he said none of them were feeling particularly chipper. Rylee has hardly been hungry all day. Reese sleepier than normal. And his throat is soar. Once he was done feeding Reese, he was going to take Rylee’s temperature.

Then I started thinking…maybe this runny nose & sneezing I’ve been dealing with these last few days isn’t allergies like I’ve been thinking.

I came home from work to a puking kid and a fevered husband.

Uggggghhhh…I don’t want us to start this nasty sick cycle all over again!

But at least it’s the weekend and we won’t be missing any work/school, right? {spoken like a true working mom}

Ugh.

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Lets talk about milk sharing

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Milk-sharing was something I never in a million years thought I would do. But here I am, with an abundant milk supply and an over-flowing freezer getting ready to donate my freezer stash of breast milk for the fourth time.

Back before I made my first donation, I went back and forth on whether or not to do it. If I saved it all up, I could stop nursing Reese early and she could just use what’s in the freezer until her tummy could handle regular milk. But then I thought about it some more and realized I didn’t want to be done nursing Reese, even if I was projecting my thoughts and feelings on the matter months into the future. Not to mention, I just still wasn’t…sure. I may be a bit granola, but was I that granola?

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Quite a while back {like, years before I was pregnant with Reese, but after I was done nursing Rylee}, a friend from high school/facebook friend had mentioned something about Eats on Feets, a milk-sharing something or other. I liked their facebook page, then went about my business. Once I realized I had too much extra milk in my freezer, i started looking at their page. I figured I’d be a pretty good candidate for milk sharing…I don’t smoke. I rarely drink, and when I do it’s after I’m done feeding/pumping for the day. I’m dairy limited, due to the fact that Reese’s sensitive tummy can’t handle it when I drink milk. The page creeping continued For a couple of weeks. I’d read posts from moms requesting help for their little ones, but I was never “called” to reach out or make a connection.

Then one day I saw a post from a dad requesting milk for his son that was just a few weeks old. I took a closer look and realized that I knew the baby’s mom. That was apparently the push I needed. I sent her a message through Facebook.

Since then, I’ve donated to her twice, and getting ready for a third. When I traveled to SanFran a couple of months ago, I connected with a local mama via the Eats on Feets NoCal chapter and left my milk at the hotel’s front desk for her to pick up. And in just a few weeks I’m headed to Arizona and will be sending all my milk home with Brandy to help build a freezer stash for little Ollie.

Mamas utilize milk sharing for various reasons. Sometimes a mama may be going through a medical procedure and her milk supply is low. Sometimes a mama just can’t produce enough and needs to supplement in order to feed her baby. Sometimes a mama had her baby prematurely and she’s struggling to produce milk for her baby. Sometimes a mama just isn’t able to produce milk at all, tries to give her baby formula and the baby has trouble digesting the formula.

You might think its totally weird. Or gross. If I’m being totally honest, if I think about it too much, I still kind of get weirded out by it. But something changed inside me along the way and the health and well being of babies is more important to me.

If you’re interested in learning more about milk sharing, I encourage you to check out Eats on Feets. There are chapters all over the world connecting moms with an abundance of milk to babies that need it.

Milk sharing isn’t for everyone. And that’s fine with me. To be honest, I don’t care what (formula vs. your own breastmilk vs. “borrowed” breastmilk) and/or how (bottle vs. breast vs. a combo) you feed your baby as long as you’re doing what’s right for you and your family and that sweet baby of yours is getting fed. Period.

This weekend rocked so hard.

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Oh man, last week drained me. I was ready for the weekend. And the weekend? Did not disappoint.

Saturday morning was pretty laid back…Andy worked outside for a bit while I hung out with the girls. While Reese napped Rylee & I had a tea part picnic then packed up a real picnic lunch. The whole family piled in the car and headed into town. While I got my hair cut, Andy took the girls to a nearby park where they played. After I was done, they picked me up and we ate lunch out of the back of the car.

After lunch, we headed down to the fairgrounds for the big home & garden show. It was packed! We strolled the aisles looking at ideas for a chicken coop and for our back patio we’ll be putting in this summer. {side note: Can I just point out that this will be the first year that we’re able to spend money on Our OWN house instead of dumping money into our rental! Holy crap we’re excited.}

Apparently the home show was just too much excitement for the girls because they both passed out while we were walking around. I had Reese in the ergo and Andy was carrying Ry. He got the short end of the stick on that deal!

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On our way home from the home & garden show, Rylee was chattering away, then out of the blue said, “I’m so glad we’ve had a family day today.”

Back at home Andy went back to work outside while Ry played in the SUN! I tried to pick up the house a bit. After Reese woke up from her afternoon nap, I fed her, then Ry and I loaded back up and hit the road. We picked up my dad then went up to Corvallis for the OSU women’s gymnastics meet. For the first 20 minutes or so, every time the gymnasts did something {anything} she’d stare in amazement and half-whiper “whoaaaa”.

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Ry did pretty well, only asking to go home just before the very end. It was about an hour past her bedtime and she was beat. But apparently on the walk out to the car she got a second wind because she was awake the entire 45 minute drive home asking my dad to tell her stories about when he was little. It was just as heart-warming as it sounds.

Yesterday was spent working around the house trying to catch up on everything that didn’t get done on Saturday. Andy worked outside all day {country living folks, the work never ends!} while I took the girls grocery shopping, then came home and busted out 6 loads of laundry, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned the kitchen, made some baby food for the week and a bunch of other random stuff.

We topped off the weekend with enchiladas for dinner and fresh brownies for dessert!

My soul needed the weekend is a serious way…sunshine, family fun mixed with just the right amount of work.

How was your weekend?

Recipe Review: Ranch Pork Chops

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I found this recipe originally on Budget Bytes. Some pretty good recipes on that site…I’ve got a couple more reviews from there coming up. Andy LOVES breaded pork chops and I don’t make them very often so when I saw this recipe, I decided to give it a try.

 


Level of Difficulty: Pretty easy. The “work” for this recipe is pretty front loaded. Very hands on the first 10 minutes or so, then the rest of the time can be spent prepping sides.

What I did Differently: The recipe calls for buttermilk. I never buy buttermilk, and if I did, I wouldn’t use it before it went bad. So, I used the milk & lemon juice trick to make my own. I also didn’t use as much oil for the frying. And speaking of frying, I used EVOO instead of vegetable oil.

Serving Suggestions: I served this with steamed veggies and some pasta. It’d also be good with rice or mashed potatoes. Or even just a big salad.

PROS: Well, first of all, it was super good. Second, I was able to pre-prep a lot of it the night before…I let the pork chops marinate in the buttermilk overnight and throughout the next day. I also mixed the panko & seasonings up the night before and had them all ready to go in the same dish I used for dredging.

CONS: It wasn’t as “ranchy” as I was expecting. The two-step process of pan-frying then finishing in the oven some people may find annoying.

Would I Make it Again?: Absolutely. The whole family loved them!

Any thoughts on what you’d like me to review next? I’ve got Chicken in Peanut Sauce, Chicken Enchilada Pasta or Southwest Chicken Wraps we’ve recently tried. Wow…I’m thinking I really need to find some new beef recipes to try out.