Month: August 2012

Makings of a Proper Root Cellar

Marie HaighLeave a comment

When I was growing up, I remember our basement having a small room off of the main area. The room was lined with shelves. By the end of summer, those shelves held what looked like thousands of Mason jars. All of the jars held pickles.

I thought it was silly for several reasons.
1. I don’t like pickles.
2. You could buy pickles at the grocery store.
3. We didn’t have a vegetable garden. So, the cucumbers had to be bought and then pickled.
4. It looked like a lot of work, especially when you take into account #2.

And here I am many years later stocking my shelves in the basement with the very same Mason jars.

But, I have a an excuse or two.

I do have a garden.
This has been my best year ever for tomatoes. I can’t possibly eat them all. Although my intention was to freeze all the spaghetti sauce and tomato soup, my freezer is pretty full. Boy, do I regret buying the smaller size now. It seemed like a good idea 5 years ago, but 5 years ago I didn’t have a garden or a reason to stock pike my freezer with ready-made meals.

Thus, my shelves got a good wash down this past weekend. I wasn’t about to put my pretty Mason jars down on dusty shelves. And since it’s only early August, I expect my shelves to be full by the time Fall rolls in.

I suppose the apple never does fall far from the tree.

No More Withholding

Marie HaighLeave a comment

For the past month, Dan and I have talked about and worried about Elly’s bowel movements. She went from a child who excused herself from playtime to go poop in her diaper while rummaging through our bookcases to a child who was scared to go poop and would try with all her might to withhold it.

Her normal pattern was interrupted by a bout of constipation and annals fissures. It was painful. She cried. I cried.

Physically, she was fine in less than 48 hours.

It took a lot longer for Elly to heal emotionally. She was terrified to go poop. She started to withhold her bowel movements. When she could no longer hold it in, she cried.

We tried everything.

Our pediatrician advised us to increase the fiber in her diet. Thankfully, popcorn is high in fiber and is also one of Elly’s favorite snacks. However, getting Elly to eat fruit has always been difficult, since most fruit is squishy. Elly won’t eat squishy food. She just plays with it. So, I increased the amount of smoothies we drank and even added ground flax seed to it. This worked a bit too well. It had me popping Pepto Bismo pills one night.

We also tried talking to Elly. We explained that she should go when she had to go. We promised her that she would feel better if she did go. We told her that everybody had to go, even Santa Claus. This had the biggest impact on her. She seemed to understand this concept and would often tell us that certain people pooped. But, it didn’t translate into her wanting to go poop.

We even had my best friend, who just happens to be a doctor, talk to Elly and draw her a picture of her tummy and her maze (colon).

We also tried reward bags filled with candy, cards and crayons. Though Elly was happy to eat the candy, pigs were going to fly before she was going to go poop just for a few pieces of candy. Despite loving chocolate more, Elly saw no reason to perform for a piece of chocolate either especially when all she had to do was ask Rene, our beloved next door neighbor, for a Hershey kiss. Rene loves to give Elly chocolate.

So what did work?

1. Removal of the iron drops she had been taking because of slightly low iron levels.
2. Minor diet changes.
3. Swimming.  (odd, yes. Elly would withhold for days. I would take her swimming for 2 hours and without fail she would have to go poop.)
4. Patience.
5. Constant reassurance.
6. Breastfeeding. (It sure is nice to still have this trump card in my pocket. It will go away soon as some days she only nurses a handful of times, but until it does it gets used to cure what ails her).

Of course, we still have to tackle the small issue of where Elly goes poop, but right now I’m just so happy that she is going poop.

The Finishing Touches

Marie HaighLeave a comment

The knitting part is complete.

All that is left to be done is to insert the elastic and to tack down the top and bottom hems with a simple running stitch.

It’s remarkable how quickly this skirt knit up. In previous summers, I avoided knitting like the plague. I hated how the wool made me feel hotter in the dog days of summer. But this summer, I’ve enjoyed knitting. Perhaps it’s because I’m just grateful to be able to squeeze in time for my hobby while running after a toddler. Maybe it’s because while chasing after a toddler, I can only devote a few minutes here and there to knitting so my hands don’t have time to get hot from the wool. Maybe it’s because I’m happier. Elly is pretty amazing. It’s hard not to be happy around her.