Corn chowder

This post will kill two birds with one stone.  First I can show you the awesome soup bowls my in-law's gave me for my birthday.  I also realized I haven't posted a recipe in quite a while.  Since what I have in the picture below is a corn chowder, I'll share the recipe for it.  This is one of my all-time favorite soups and it's super easy!

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound bacon, diced finely
• 1 large onion - chopped
• 7 oz can of green chilies
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups chicken broth or stock
• 4 cups peeled, finely diced all-purpose potato
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (pretty spicy… add less if you like less heat)
• 2 tablespoons Italian parsley
• 2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup half-and-half

Directions

Cook bacon until super, super crispy!  Scoop out the bacon and drain on paper towels. Save for later--don't nibble too much.

Pour off all but 1/4 cup of fat from the pot. Toss in the onions and green chilies, seasoning them with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook till soft and then throw in the garlic, cooking it all for 1 minute more. Sprinkle on the flour and mix into the veggies. Dump in the broth, potatoes, thyme, cayenne and parsley. Cover the pot and bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for about 1 hour, or till the potatoes are tender. Add the corn. Cover and simmer everything 5 to 6 minutes longer.  Stir in the half-and-half and crispy bacon. Check seasonings… add more salt if needed, and lots of freshly ground black pepper to taste. Give it one last stir, and ladle it up piping hot.

Evie's first trip

At 7-weeks old, we took Evie on her first extended car trip.  We drove 5 hours to Arkansas to visit Dan's parents.  Samuel doesn't sleep in the car (he's not bad, he just doesn't sleep) so we weren't sure how Evie would do; the furthest she'd been was a 1 hour trip.  I'm happy to say she slept the entire way!

We had a great time visiting and happy that Grammy and Grandpa finally had a chance to meet Evie.  Here's Grammy and Evie snuggling...




After 5 days, we packed up and headed back home.  We figured Evie sleeping the whole way down was a fluke, but much to our relief, she slept the entire trip home too.  It seems we have two great travelers, even though they're completely opposite.

Sleeping beauty

We never fail to get a good laugh when we watch Samuel sleep.  When he was about 6-months old, he started this odd habit of crawling into the corner of his bed to sleep.  This continued, and every time he sleeps he crams his head into one particular corner of the crib.  We can't even get him to try a new corner.

You can see here how much of his crib is never used...

And when we say he crams his head into the corner, he really crams it in there!...




And then he wakes up with some crazy bed head...

Puppies

A while back  you may remember me telling you about our Great Pyrenees - Shy and Tim.  We bought them to guard our sheep, but they've turned into mooches.  They disappear all day, hang out with our neighbor's cattle and then sneak back over at night to eat food we put out for them.  (Yeah, we know... stop feeding them and they'll find a new home, but we don't have the heart to stop putting food out.)

A few weeks ago, our neighbor called (the one whose cattle they so proudly protect) to tell us he saw Shy and thought she was pregnant or perhaps just gave birth.  Sure enough, she started hanging around during the day and it was obvious that she, umm,  had a large quantity of milk production going on.  We started following her to see if we could find out where she hid the pups.  After a couple of days of recon, Dan found that she stashed them in a hollowed out brush pile to keep them safe and warm.  We left them with Shy, in the brush pile, for another two weeks or so.  By that time, we figured they would be old enough to be moved and start to be weaned.  We didn't want to try sooner in case Shy wanted nothing to do with them after the move.

Dan built a new pen and a shelter big enough for Shy and her pups.  Turns out she had a 7 pups - rather large for her first litter.  Unfortunately one died.  Looks like Tim fathered 3 of them, so we have 3 white, full-blooded Great Pyrenees. One black pup that we think is from a black lab we see running around and 2 brown pups that look like a boxer we see around some times.  We're going to keep the 3 Pyrenees for ourselves (hopefully we can train them to guard the sheep since their parents failed to do this) and we'll give the rest away.  In fact, we've already given the black pup to our neighbors - the same neighbor with the cattle.  (Perhaps if they train the pup to guard the cattle Shy and Tim will come back to us???)  Now we just need to find homes for the brown pups.

Here's a pic of the Pyrenees and the brown Pyrenees/Boxer mix:



These brown pups are ADORABLE!  We'd really like to find a home for them soon.  If you're in the St. Louis/Potosi area and are interested, leave a comment with a way to contact you!

More pics of Evie

Here's Evie (a.k.a. Sweet Pea or Bean) at 1 month old...

Very awake for some tummy time.  She's getting pretty good at holding her head up (although she's not in this picture)...





For those of you that have high speed internet, here's a short 35 second video of Evie during tummy time.  She's not always happy about tummy time, but she has one of the cutest cries I've ever heard, so I had to capture it on video...

Mr. Ham

Samuel was on a hat kick for a couple of days, dragging it around with him all over the house.  We encourage it hoping he'll get used to it before summer to keep the sun off his face.  Otherwise, he just likes wearing it and hamming it up in front of the camera...

First hog of the year

The first hog we processed this year was for ourselves.  We don't generally name our hogs, but this one received the name, Oreo, due to it's coloring...




We decided to have Swiss Meats process it for us, but Dan field dressed the hog himself, which is to gut and skin it.  It's much easier to transport this way.  We had Swiss process it so we could have hams and bacon cured and smoked for us.  As much as Dan likes processing the hog ourselves, not to mention a lot less expensive, we miss having bacon.  And best of all, Swiss Meats can cure without using nitrates (reason being, there is pretty conclusive evidence that nitrates cause cancer, for those that don't follow this topic).

We can't wait to get the call letting us know our meat is ready to pick up!

Mmm... pork!

Mmm... coffee

Last Saturday was my first day home alone with both kids.  Dan had to drive up to the meat processor to pick up pork and deliver it to St. Louis - he was gone from 8am-7pm.  The morning started out pretty well and I was doing an okay job juggling Samuel and Evie.  However, after lunch you could tell Samuel was getting a little tired of sharing me with Evie and started looking for the wrong kind of attention. He was opening cabinets, pulling books off the bookshelf, etc.  He finally settled down a little so I went down the hall for a minute to do something while he was playing in the kitchen area.  When I came back into the room, he was holding a spent coffee filter that he dug out of the trash can.  This is what a 15-month old looks like when he gets his hands on a wet coffee filter...

 

It took all I had not to start laughing.  Of course, that was before I saw the rest of what he did.  After getting him cleaned up, I followed the coffee ground trail from the kitchen, through the breakfast room and into the family room.  I got that all vacuumed up before seeing the final present he left for me...




Fortunately, the coffee grounds were a couple of hours old and dried out a little bit, so the couch and the See 'n Say vacuumed up pretty easily.  Needless to say, the kitchen trash can is now behind a cabinet with child proof latches!

Random pics of Evie

Evie's first bath...

First nap in Mama and Dada's bed...

Showing off her long legs...

             


Showing us her cute pink outfit and bow...

Bright eyed and bushy tailed...

Christmas 2011

Here are a few snapshots of Christmas morning at the Thayer house.

Samuel opening presents from Grammy and Grandpa and our neighbor...

 

Samuel and Brian after opening stocking stuffers.  Samuel shows us the meaning of "bed head"...

Mama helping Evie with her stocking...

Dada showing us one of Evie's presents...

Evie crashed about half way through opening presents.  That's hard work for a 2-week old...

Dan showing us one of the many books he got for Christmas...

Danny's helping Samuel with the toy he got him...

Baby tanning bed

When Samuel got dangerously high jaundice, the doctor explained it was because his and my blood type were incompatible - in short our red blood cells were fighting.  So one of the first things we asked when Evie was born was for her blood type to be checked ASAP.  Sure enough she and I are incompatible also, so hospital staff were on alert from the get-go to be on the lookout for jaundice. 

By the end of day one she was already showing signs of it, so we got her into a bili-bed right away.  Her levels kept going up, although not as bad as Samuel's since she was under photo therapy lights a full day sooner.  We were released from the hospital on Wednesday with a home bili-bed and instructions to have blood work done Thursday.  Sure enough, her levels continued to increase. Friday she had a checkup with her pediatrician and we had blood work done again.  Her doctor called us a few hours later telling us it had gotten too high and she need to be admitted to the hospital for stronger photo therapy.  I packed a bag knowing we'd be in the hospital for at least a few days and Evie and I got checked into the hospital Friday night around 7pm.  Here's Evie in her baby tanning bed...



Since we caught her jaundice quickly and it never got dangerously high, we opted to have her admitted to Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Festus, which is only 50 minutes from home, versus a hospital in St. Louis that is an hour and a half away.  Her pediatrician's office is also right across the street so they came in to check up on her each day.  Initially her jaundice went up a little, but by Saturday night it started going down and continually did.  By Tuesday morning, she was well below the danger zone and we were discharged.  Thank goodness for modern technology!

This little piggie went to the market...

Our hogs have been a challenge this year.  Not really the hogs themselves, but rather transporting them.  Back in April, when Dan was hooking up the trailer to go to auction, the truck got stuck in the mud and took us a week to get it out.

Fast forward to the beginning of this month when it was time to take the hogs to the meat processor, the same truck blew it's transmission.  So we were scrambling to find a truck to haul them in.  Good 'ole U-haul to the rescue!

Next, we had to find a larger trailer.  Six hogs-worth of customers replied that they were ready for their orders, which is how many hogs we can haul in our trailer.  The day before Dan was to leave, we had 3 more hogs-worth of customers say they were ready.  Dan went to talk to our neighbor who raises cattle and he was gracious enough to let us borrow his larger stock trailer.

Our hogs pasture a little ways from the house, and it hadn't rained in a while, so Dan hooked the trailer to the U-haul and backed it down to the hogs.  Of course, it was wet enough and got stuck.  So in the pitch dark, Dan hooked our tractor up to the U-haul and got it unstuck and finished backing it up to the hog loading area.  Unfortunately, right as he did this, it starting pouring rain, so loading of the hogs would have to wait for morning and we'd have to hope for the best to get the U-haul and trailer out of the soggy pasture.

Early the next morning, with it still raining, Dan went out to assess the damage.  Sure enough we had a soggy, muddy pasture.  Dan called our awesome neighbor, Sam, and asked if he could help us, since me being 9-months pregnant was of little help.  Sam came to the rescue.  With Dan pulling with the tractor and Sam driving the U-haul, they got out of the pasture with no issues.  Here's what the caravan looked like:

Fortunately, the 2-hour drive to the meat processor was uneventful and he made it home without incident.  With that said, we now need to replace our truck since we've decided we don't want to put $2500 into the truck to fix the transmission.  So, if anyone out there is looking for a parts truck, let us know! :)

Evelyn Elizabeth Thayer

I was scheduled to be induced on 12/12/11 because 1) it was easier to plan for Samuel's care since he's diabetic and 2) the last ultrasound at 38 weeks showed Evie was getting pretty big.  The weekend prior to being induced was pretty miserable.  I had severe cramping and spent most of the weekend on the couch, although I had cramping through much of my pregnancy, so I wasn't too concerned.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am.  After a quick exam, they asked if I'd had any contractions over the weekend.  I told them 'no', only cramping.  Turns out the cramping were contractions because I was already dilated 4cm.  They decided to go ahead and induce since there was no telling how long it had taken to get to 4cm.  At 11am, they broke my water to speed things along.  I was dilated to 10cm around 3pm, but they wanted to wait to see if the baby would drop more on her own.  After a long, slow day (even the nurses and my doc though my labor would progress much quicker), they had me start pushing around 5:45pm.  After just one push, Evie decided it was time to make her appearance - a little too quickly though because my doctor wasn't there yet.  They called my doc (who is in a medical building attached to the hospital) and the nurses were doing everything they could to get Evie to stay put.  My doctor came running into the room, huffing and puffing from taking the stairs so he didn't have to wait for the elevator.  It was a pretty funny sight.  They had him in his delivery gear in no time, had me push once or twice more and Evie came into the world at 6pm sharp.  She was 8lb,12oz and measured 22 inches long (although her first checkup at 5 days old showed she was only 20 1/2 inches).

I'll spare you the pictures of her right after she was born, because, well... babies right after they're born are kind of gross.  So here is a pic of Evie at 17 hours old...



The cute little Santa hats are made by hospital volunteers for babies born near Christmas time.

First ice storm

We had our first ice storm back at the end of November.  It was really weird because St. Louis (1 hour north of us) didn't get any at all.  And South of us, didn't either.  It was just a narrow strip of a storm that came through our county.  Here are a couple of icy pics...

Old Iron Days

Every fall a craft festival is held about an hour from us called Old Iron Days.  It's an old-timey festival held at Maramac Springs State Park showcasing how things were done centuries ago... blacksmithing, glass blowing, basket making, corn brooms, sorghum, etc. It's a fun event to just browse around and talk to the craftsman.   The weather was perfect for the event this year!


Here's Samuel getting a ride on Dada's shoulders...

We also watched sorghum stalks being crushed by a mule to extract the cane juice and then boiled down into molasses…

I also picked up this cute handmade corn broom that a craftsman was making at the festival...





It's a small event, but we have a lot of fun.  It's also at one of the prettiest State Parks we've been to, so we'll definitely keep going back.

How time flies...

Well, I've gone and done it again.  Two weeks have passed and I've not done a single blog post.  I've had the best intentions.  Really, I have.  I've even started a post a time or two, but then something comes up.  It's been a crazy couple of weeks...

We had to get 9 hogs to the meat processor last week when our hauling truck's transmission decided to blow.  We had to scramble to get a rental truck to haul the hogs, which wasn't fun at the last minute. Not to mention borrow a bigger trailer the evening before because several people didn't tell us until last minute that they were ready for their orders.  I'll be sure to do a seperate post on this!

And then there's the fact that I'm 9-months pregnant, so I'm trying to get a bunch of loose ends tied up - food made and froze, Samuel's gear packed and ready to go, house clean, Christmas tree up, blah, blah, blah.

Last but not least, I work all day.  Thankfully, yesterday was my last day before starting maternity leave.  I have a few days to finish up before I'm induced on Monday, assuming little girl doesn't decide to come before then.  Thank goodness for 3-months of paid maternity leave.  What a huge blessing!

This is where a lot of people would say "I'm not trying to make excuses, but...".  But I really am so I'll just fess up to it and tell you that I'll get on the ball and gets some posts done soon.

Family Outing

Pig 'n Grapes

This past summer we made an arrangement with a local vineyard that helps us both.  After they harvest grapes for their wine, they're left with spent grape skins.  They used to throw these into their compost pile, but they decompose very slow and it was more trouble than it was worth.

Here's where our farm comes in.

We met the folks that own the vineyard at a dinner at the end of August.  They found out we have pigs at our farm and immediately a light bulb went on.  The owner, Steve, grabbed Dan and took him to their processing area and showed him giant tubs of grape skins.  He asked if we thought our pigs would like to eat them.  Not only would the pigs enjoy the grape skins, we've read that if you feed pigs fruit shortly before processing their meat will take on the sweetness from the fruit.  To say we were excited is an understatement.

For the last 3 months, our pigs have been dining on vineyard quality grapes every couple of weeks.  Here's a picture of them chowing down...



Our pigs will be going to butcher in about two weeks... we're really excited to taste the results!

Family pictures

About a month ago a friend of mine announced that she wanted to pursue her love of photography and start a business.  We're not typically the "staged photograph" kind of family, but she asked if we'd be willing to allow her to take photographs of us to build her portfolio.  Seemed like a win-win situation for everyone.

She came out to our house on a beautiful October morning and took pictures around the farm so it would be a natural setting.  We started the day with family pictures...

Then we moved onto maternity pictures.  These are so hard to do.  I  looked at some online and they ranged anywhere from elegant and tasteful to umm...not so tasteful.  I sent my friend a link to some that I really liked to show her what I was comfortable with. I'm 30-weeks along in these pictures.

We're hoping to also have her take baby pictures after Baby Girl Thayer gets here.  I'll be sure to post them if we do!

Sick little boy

We've had a pretty crazy week and the reason my posts are so far behind.  Let me fill you in...

  

·        Other than jaundice at birth and a summer cold, Samuel hasn't been sick at all.  However, he started not feeling well on Wednesday morning (10/26). His lips were blue and he seemed a little "off".  At lunch he threw up and was definitely not himself.  I took him to his doctor that afternoon and we all thought it was a stomach flu.  He threw up once more Wednesday night and by Thursday morning his breathing was very labored. We called his doctor back and he told us to take him to the ER.  At this point, he thought the heavy breathing was possibly from being dehydrated. We could also tell that Samuel was becoming weaker and having a hard time staying awake as the morning went on.

By the time we arrived at the ER in St. Louis at 10:30am, he was like a rag doll.  His eyes were sunken in and was very pale.  He never lost consciousness, but was pretty close.  The combination of his lifeless body, labored breathing, flu-like symptoms, yet minus a fever, almost immediately made the ER doctor think it was a blood sugar issue.  After preliminary blood work was done, the ER doctor came in to tell me that he was waiting for one final test, but that he thought Samuel was diabetic.  After my shock and some preliminary discussion, we decided to wait for the final test before going into more detail.  Thirty minutes later diabetes was confirmed.  Normal blood glucose levels for a non-diabetic is 70-110… Samuel’s was 981.  When glucose levels are extremely high, as Samuel's was, the body can't use sugar (glucose) as a fuel source because there is no insulin or not enough.  Fat is used for fuel instead.  As fats are broken down, acids called ketones build up in the blood and urine. In high levels, ketones are poisonous and can cause coma and death. This condition is known as ketoacidosis. 

      Within minutes I was informed that Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center had been called and a transport team was on their way to transfer Samuel.  They said he would likely be there for 3-5 days and that his first 24 hours there would be crucial.  When ketones and glucose levels are this high, it has to be dropped very slowly to avoid brain swelling.  When the transport team arrived, it reminded me of US Marshals coming in and taking over from local authorities.  The team consisted of 6 people all having specific tasks.  The ER team backed off only to provide assistance and the transport team took over and started prepping Samuel for his move.  They got an insulin drip going, swapped out tubes and hoses and transferred him to a transport bed.  Within 10 minutes they were walking out the door telling me where to meet them at Cardinal Glennon's.

      Here is a picture of Samuel in the ER...

      We spent 27 hours in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).  They checked his blood glucose levels every hour to ensure they were dropping, but not too fast to avoid brain swelling.  Poor Samuel got so tired of being pricked and having blood drawn that when someone just entered the room and started to go near him, he started crying.  By Friday morning, he was past the critical stage.  Friday afternoon they took him off the insulin drip and switched him to shots.  He was also allowed to eat so they could see how his blood glucose levels were reacting to eating and shots.  Although he was still dropping and spiking, he was stable enough to be moved to a regular room Friday evening.

      While he was being stabilized, Cardinal Glennon requires parents to go through 3 days of training to learn how to care for a child with diabetes.  We met with several Endocrinologist (diabetes doctors), diabetic nurses and dietitians.  We received all the necessary equipment and were taught how to use it.  Our training taught us that all carbs aren’t equal and affect the body differently in a diabetic’s world (ex: milk is a carb, but cheese isn’t.  Peas are, but carrots aren’t). 

      Over the weekend, we continued to receive training, started calculating his carbs at each meal and giving him his shots.  As soon as he stopped getting pricked each hour and after Mama and Dada started doing it, he didn't mind them.  (Now he actually laughs when we prick his finger.)  All weekend his doses continued to be adjusted to keep his levels more steady.  On Monday morning, it was decided that he was stable enough and we were well trained enough to go home.

Samuel gets finger pricks 4-6 times per day so we can check his glucose levels and will get 1-4 insulin shots per day depending on what he eats.  His diet doesn't really change though.  We have to account for everything he eats and have a very systematic eating schedule.  We calculate the number of carbs he eats and determine his insulin dose based on that number.  His glucose levels are still dropping and spiking some, so we are still tweaking insulin doses.  We have to call Cardinal Glennon every day to report his glucose levels and chat with a diabetic nurse to fine tune things.  Other than his daily eating/insulin routine, we have to get some special precautions setup.  He wears a diabetic wrist band now, we have to get an emergency bag setup to go in his diaper bag and keep fast acting sugars handy in case his glucose level drops.  Once these types of things are setup, hopefully we won’t need them often.

After coming home, his schedule was off from being in the hospital and was a little more clingy than he used to.  You could tell he was still a little weak too - he was having a hard time walking without his little legs giving out.  As of this morning, he is much stronger and played well on his own without getting fussy.

Dan and I still have a lot of adjusting to do... keeping track of his doses, glucose levels, measure and weighing his food, calculating carbs, doctor appointments, etc.  But, if this had to happen, I'd much rather it happen to him at 13 months versus 13 years old.  As he grows up, this will just be part of his life... his norm.  I think this will be much easier on him in the long run.

I'll be sure to keep you updated with any changes!