Wisconsin Pride

I am a good dairy cow! 

With each baby I have had a surplus of milk.

When Erik was about 6 weeks old I saw a news clip 

featuring the International Breast Milk Project.

Since then I have pumped once a day (when nursing my own babies of course)

with the intent to donate my extra milk. 

The first and third times I have donated to IBMP.  

The second time I donated to a milk bank in North Carolina.

From the first two babies I was able to donate 1600 ounces each time (3200 total). 

This time I will probably top that as 3 months post-delivery I have 

about 800 ounces waiting to be shipped.

I know this is an odd topic but I really think it is a valuable gift

that is easy to give and hopefully benefits not only the orphans in

Africa but also the tiny preemies in our NICU! 

I challenge any of my friends who are currently nursing or will be 

sometime in the future to consider donating your extra milk. 

It's free to you, easy to set up, and only adds about 10 minutes to your day.

If you have any questions let me know!  

The kids and I are off to the dairy state this afternoon! 

Hopefully, they will let us past the border even if the 3 kids 

go crazy on the flight!  

Wish me luck!  

P.S.  I know not everyone is "lucky" enough to have an abundant supply of milk so this is not possible for all nursing moms to consider!

Garden Mystery Solved

I mentioned in this POST that our garden was a little sketchy this year due to planting it 2 weeks post-partum in the dusk with a 3 year old helper.  At that time it seemed as though I had tons of tomato plants growing throughout the garden.  I weeded out most of these "tomatoes" leaving behind a row of 5-6 plants.

Well, as these plants got bigger it became clear that my tomato plants were actually....

Now, you may like sunflowers and I will agree that they are very pretty.  That being said in a small raised bed they are overwhelming and their large roots choke out other plants (my peas didn't grow at all this year)!

So, this year I specifically did NOT plant a single sunflower.  I didn't even take the sunflower packet out of the bag.  Plus, sunflower seeds are big so I knew I didn't accidentally plant them.

I couldn't figure out how they got in my garden until my neighbor Lauren mentioned that wild grass grows under their bird feeder.  Well, for about a week after building the garden we hung the birdfeeder on a pole that was adjacent to the raised bed.

Mystery solved!

I still managed to harvest some broccoli, lettuce, peppers (1), green beans, and carrots but hope to have a higher seed to produce ratio next year.  For now I'll stick to growing these....

Videos of the Kids

Lainey sliding

Erik the Spider Fighter

-I have hit the 3 month post partum fatigue (not sleeping for more than 4 hours in a row gets old after a while) so I have been taking naps some days.  Erik didn't sleep this afternoon and got out of his room while I was asleep (he isn't supposed to do this). 

Lainey's sweet little voice

Lainey has a sweet little voice that I don't want to forget.  This video is just trying to capture her talking on the camera. 

A little of Carson too


Enjoy!