From a friend- love it!

Just as I thought...

Saying no to soy. The part about soy formula blew me away!

Thanks, Steph!

Thrifty Thursday

Today's shopping trip was, umm, different. Not only was Kaedmon is a funk, but I attempted to break out of my "If-I-don't-have-a-coupon-and-it's-not-on-sale, I'm-not-buying-it" frame of mind. Why, you ask? The Kings need to be healthier Kings, that's why.

For the longest time, I have had the mentality that says: "God knows I can't afford healthy food. I'll just pray that he protects me from the horrible stuff that's in it." To an extent, that's how I remain. We are very limited as a family when it comes to our grocery budget. We have seven mouths to feed and we feel the pressure of that every single week. A typical week goes like this: "I must stick to the budget. I must stick to the budget. I must stick to the budget." So I do and what happens? We are out of food by Monday (I grocery shop on Thursday). Something had to give. Our grocery budget had to increase. But how? In four words: Bye bye, DISH Network. Sad, but true.

So now that I have a slightly larger grocery budget, I am attempting the slightly impossible: feed our family of seven on food that is minimally processed, chock full of whole grains, free of trans fats, hydrogenated (partially AND fully) oils, and high fructose corn syrup. I want to buy as organic as possible (but let's just be honest- that's hardly going to happen) and I want to avoid soy. 

Soy? Yeah- I'm not really sure why. I just have a bad feeling about soy. I have read up on it a bit and I worry for the females in my family mostly. I do NOT want Clara to have the same hormonal issues that I do and I believe soy has been linked to all sorts of junk like that.

First stop? Whole Foods. I hear they have a brand called 365 that is reasonably priced and I want to investigate. I want to start by saying that I remember why I don't shop at Whole Foods: it's depressing. Of course I want to buy everything in the store, but I can't. It's extremely expensive and we'd have to have a few of our utilities disconnected for me to spend as much as I desired. 

So I picked up a few things. And I feel good about it.

1. Carrots
2. Celery
3. Creamy and chunky peanut butter
4. Cereal
5. Fruit bars
6. Baby banana puffs (soy free!)
7. Sweet potato chips

The total was almost $17. I am okay with that. I wish I could have bought more (especially the Dogfish Head 90 minute- but I abstained). The only purchase that pained me a bit were the puffs- at $3.00! They are better than what I was feeding her at $1.59 a piece, however, and nearly twice the size. My heart rate has returned to normal and I am doing well. 

A thought that came to mind: I am planning on emailing some of the popular brands at Whole Foods (Earthbound, Happy Baby, Annie's, etc.) and tell them that I love their products and would appreciate coupons. I have heard this works almost 100% of the time!

And I have one happy baby enjoying her puffs:

I also hit Meijer this morning. I am finding the Meijer Naturals brand to be somewhat satisfying. They are GMO-free (is that right?) and contain no artificial dyes, flavors, or preservatives. I found some cookies and pita chips that I like. 

It was a bit more of a realistic shopping trip and not as coupon-crazy. My average Meijer trip would be in the ballpark of spend $50, save $40. Trying to make better choices, I spent $85 and saved $40.

I also had a great trip at Target this week. 

The floss and the Maalox were free. The cereals were .83 each. Not too bad! All-in-all, I spent $11 and saved $31! 

Some last thoughts:

1. I wonder: if you could recommend 5 of the most important changes that a person could make to become healthier (in regard to foods, drink, vitamins, supplements, etc.), what would they be? For example, I keep hearing about Agave nectar. What's with all the hype? Another example? I keep hearing we should make the switch to coconut oil. I would love to hear thoughts on this.
2. Does it concern anyone else that this is shelf-stable and, yet, called yogurt? Should that be a sign that I shouldn't feed it to my daughter?

Kaedmon

Kaedmon had to be admitted to UK Children's Hospital late last night. He was having a very difficult time breathing and actually wasn't moving air through his left lung for an hour or two. After 3 breathing treatments and a few doses of steroids, he responded and was sent home. He is using a rescue inhaler now and we are monitoring him to see if he has another episode. It was very frightening.

We are very thankful that he is doing better today. For those of you who were aware of the situation, thank you so much for praying. Please continue to pray!

You name it, we've got it...

The King home is now occupied by strep throat as well as the swine flu. It's so hard to know who has what but here's what it comes down to as of today: Kaedmon and I were tested for flu because we are at a high-risk for it. Sammy and Simon were tested for strep. Noah and David were sick last week. We have no idea what they had because it passed rather quickly. Test results:

• I have tested positive for the flu.
• Sammy has tested positive for strep.
• Simon seems sicker than anyone. He tested negative for strep but they treated him with antibiotics anyhow.
• Kaedmon tested negative for the flu but UK pediatrics asked he be treated as through he had H1N1 since he is at high-risk for it.

My Mommy predications are that everyone in the house has the flu except David and Noah. Sammy is a sad sight and Simon looks like he may fall over at any moment. Since he is not in the high-risk category, however, they wouldn't treat him were he to test positive but rather they would suggest we flush him with fluids and he rest, rest, rest as much as possible. My frustration as a Mommy lies in whether Simon, then, should be on antibiotics since he tested negative for strep.

This is very stressful and we are trying to make good decisions on how to treat the boys and ourselves. Please pray for us over the next week. Please pray that Kaedmon, baby girl, and I would tolerate the Tamiflu well and not have any side effects.