Family Life Celebration Day

The date January 21 will never be the same for us. It is the day we found out we were going to have a little girl and the day we began to mentally prepare to bury our daughter. As January approached I was already wondering what the 21st would be like this year. God was so good to us and He answered so many prayers, and we have our daughter here, full of life, but all of the feelings and emotion of that week will haunt me forever. It was actually Tim who brought it up and suggested that we celebrate that date. So after thinking about it for a while we decided that January 21st will be a day for our family to celebrate life. We are planning on doing something fun with the kids and treating it almost like a birthday celebration. 

Maelyn's life is truly a miracle and a blessing and a testimony to the power of prayer. She is alive and well and thriving, and you would not even know there is anything wrong with her if you met her. Yet she is missing a major part of her heart, it is out of place in her chest and she has been through open heart surgery. But when I think about it, isn't every life a miracle? a blessing? and a testimony to the power of our awesome God? I know each of my kids are. What a better day to celebrate that than the day we were face to face with death.

Update: Pictures from our family life celebration day are on my Instagram, kikistocker, with #familylifecelebrationday2016

"Chemical Free"

As a family we are attempting to become a chemical free home. Wow, that really seems weird for me to put out there publicly. Partially because I never thought I'd be one of 'those people' and also because it is a work in progress, we are not totally there yet. So I want to explain what this means to me and why we made this decision, because again, I never thought I'd be one of these people. Sorry, I tried to keep this brief, but ended up having a lot to say. 

Awhile ago I became curious about essential oils. And the one thing I realized while learning about them, the one thing that really got me thinking, is that everything we touch, not just what we actually put on our skin, but what we walk on, sit on or rub against, absorbs into our skin and into our blood stream. I mean I know I learned this back in high school but I guess it didn't matter then. And with the thought that whatever I put on my skin is going into my blood stream I am not sure I like the idea of using things that I can't even pronounce. But, when I was pregnant with Maelyn I stopped using oils and temporarily gave up on this thought process just because I was so sick and stressed. 

Then over the summer, while we were in that weird waiting for surgery phase I started to think about essential oils again and was really thinking about how to keep my family healthy and prepare for surgery. A really good friend, who is basically the same person as me, suggested that I watch a documentary on Netflix called The Human Experiment because she had watched it and it got her thinking and making changes. Knowing how similar she and I are, I knew I needed to watch it. I highly recommend watching it. It is one of those things that you have to take with a grain of salt, but some of the statistics and information presented in it terrified me and kicked my butt into gear. 

I ran out to Target that night to look for all new cleaning and personal care products that were "greener". However, on this quest, I got really discouraged. I realized that there are just a whole bunch of more expensive products out there that claim to be healthier but I still don't know what any of the things listed in the ingredients are. They claim to be natural, but I still can't pronounce them. I did start using some 'greener' products but wasn't really happy with them, I actually wasn't even happy with some of my chemically products. I was hating my granite counters because I could never get them really clean and you can only use 'granite cleaner'. And you can only use 'stainless cleaner' and you can only use 'laminate' cleaners, and windex and ect. and I just hated cleaning! I eventually gave up and started to make all of my own products. I have been making my own body lotion for awhile, but I tried making my own laundry detergent and my own granite spray and my own window cleaner and my own all purpose spray and my own toy cleaner, but again I just got so tired of that! I hate having a different cleaning product for every item in my house! It's just too much work for a busy mommy and half of the products I didn't even like.

I finally found a solution to all of this frustration. The week before Maelyn's surgery a friend had a girls night where she wanted to practice her Norwex presentation. I had never heard of Norwex before, she just said it was green cleaning products. I told Tim I would only buy something if it could get my granite clean. Ok, I know this is so corny, but that night, Norwex changed my life! Not only could this one cloth (with just water, no chemicals) get my granite clean, it could clean literally everything in my house. On top of that it could clean our skin, product free, and it great for cuts and scars. It is naturally antibacterial and chemical free, great for kids, especially kids who have compromised immunity and health issues. 

I started with the basics, an envirocloth, a polishing cloth, and the body pack (wash cloths). I threw out almost everything that was under my sink. Goodbye granite cleaner, stainless cleaner, laminate cleaner, tile cleaner, wood cleaner, stove cleaner, windex, lysol wipes, I even had rubbing alcohol to clean my micro-suede couch, everything, gone. The envirocloth cleans all of those. Since I surgery Maelyn has only been bathed with a Norwex body cloth and a little shampoo (most recently homemade shampoo), no soap. Her skin is so soft and smooth, her dry patches have disappeared (even though it's now winter).   

I do like making personal care products. I make my own lotion, body wash, hand soap, face lotion, and other little things using natural products and oils. (I would love to share my recipes if you would like them!) I use the Norwex washcloth for my face but use a homemade body wash. I like them, but honestly Tim and the boys don't use them, so I try to buy them the 'greener' products. I have started using my own stuff on Maelyn, we girls stick together. I have an oil roller ball for her scar and she only gets natural homemade lotion (mostly just on her cheeks!). 

I'm not saying that I believe that chemicals cause cancer and I am not saying that I believe chemicals have had any way affected my kids diagnosis, but I am saying that if I can, in any way, attempt to keep my family healthy, I'm going to try, because we already have enough medical issues, I can't handle any more. Plus, going chemical free has actually made cleaning more fun and my house feels cleaner because those chemically products leave a residue that you have to keep cleaning over and over again. I wanted my kids to be able to help with chores, but I was not going to give them a lysol wipe, or a spray bottle of windex. Now they can help as much as they want! 

Please consider shopping my Norwex store if you want to try this easy healthy cleaning. And please contact me if you have any questions or want any suggestions or recipes. I would love to talk about this with you!  

Word of the year

I remember writing about my word of the year, last year. It ended up being 'heart', ironically enough. This year was a little easier for me to figure out. My word this year is 'life'. I feel like I wrestled with God a lot about life and death this last year and now I have a new understanding of life. I've decided that, in light of this past year and the lack of living we did, and the new life we've been given, we need to make the most of every moment.

I have hopes and ambitions, but we'll see what actually gets accomplished. I want to give my children memories and that means getting out of the house and doing things (which is hard for us homebodies). We want to take vacations and take lots of local day trips and possibly go camping (I'm on the fence about doing this given our kids current ages). We want to do preschool and swim lessons and other classes. Tim and I want to make more time for ourselves, both together and individually. Tomorrow night we are going on our first real date in over a year. 'Real' meaning that we are not at the hospital or running errands, and we will not be taking time alone together to discuss serious issues. 'Real' means we will be going out to enjoy each others company and relax and have fun together. We are hoping to make this a monthly occurrence.

As for me, I have not worked (for money) in over 3 years. I mean, making and taking care of 3 babies is a lot of work! But I wanted something for me, something to get me out of the house a little bit and hopefully make me feel like I'm contributing. But at the same time I didn't want to 'go back to work' and be taken away from raising my kids. So, I am starting a new adventure and attempting to start my own Norwex biz. I go back and forth between being really excited and ambitious about it, to being super nervous and second guessing myself for starting this. I am so not a 'sales-y' person but I truly believe in the products and think they sell themselves, so here's hoping they do! I'm also hoping to soon get all 3 kids onto similar schedules and be able to fit some time into my day for myself for reading, exercising, showering... (or working if I can get enough business). Since Maelyn's been here I have not had much time for any of that, but she's growing fast!

What's your word this year?