Manna Milling Moms

FOR SALE: Sue Gregg Cookbook Lot

I have a 7 book lot for sale:

The Creative Recipe Organizer

Meals in Minutes

Main Dishes

Lunches and Snacks

Desserts

Soups and Muffins

Breakfasts: Blender Batter Baking...

All of these are the Deluxe Covered... except for Meals in Minutes.  All like-new condition.

55.00ppd.  media shipping with insurance.

FOR SALE: Wondermill Grain Mill, used less then 20 times

(stock photo- the one for sale is exactly the same, except the Wondermill Label is green)

STILL UP FOR GRABS!!! 6-30-09

Reduced to $175.00 plus UPS ground shipping.

I have a Wondermill Grain Mill for sale.  It has been used less then 20 times.

This was originally purchased from BreadBeckers in Woodstock, Ga.  Warranty sticker still in tact and valid- this was NOT a refurbished model.

This is a GREAT deal for someone who wants to save about $75.00+ bucks for a brand new one.

My price: $185.00. plus actual shipping. I would prefer shipping via UPS ground, which is very affordable, as well as safe.

Please send me your zip so I can figure shipping.

I would prefer paypal.

Chelsea, My Angel

Happy 16th Birthday

My Precious Little Angel

Chelsea Melissa

June 24, 1993 - June 26, 1993

I will hold you, again, in Heaven my beautiful baby girl.

I Love You!

*********************************************

I thought of you with love today

but that is nothing new

I thought about you yesterday

and days before that, too

I think of you in silence

I often speak your name

All I have are memories,

your picture in a frame

Your memory is my keepsake

with which I'll never part

God has you in His keep,

I have you in my heart

It broke my heart to lose you

but you didn't go alone

For a part of me went with you

the day God took you home.

(Author Unknown)

We cleaned out the garden

Pulled out the lettuces.  It's been so hot that they gave up producing anymore.  The salads were great!!!      

The cabbage heads were cut.  We ate some and put up the rest.

This first round was a learning experience, for sure, since it was our first SFG.  I know now how big the zucchini and yellow squash plants will get ... therefore, each will be in a box all by itself.  I had to pull my spinach, eggplant & cauliflower because they were smothered by those gi-normous plants. 

This week we will be able to taste the 1st ripe tomato.  OH!  We are so looking forward to that.  And there are an abundance more to come.

We've harvested greenbeans with more to come.

I am in the process of making squash pickles.  This is my first attempt and I do hope they turn out as an edible thing.  I also have some cucumbers that we picked that I will be making into pickles.  I hope they turn out, too.

Hope ya'll have a great day.

From my garden to yours~

Jill (the big sister)

I miss my little baby boy- 2nd trimester Miscarriage- in detail.

I want to share my experience with natural miscarriage:  My reasons for wanting to do it this way, my feelings, and the actual events.  When I was waiting to finally lose my baby, I searched for information, for others' experiences... most of what I found were DNC removals.... and very little detailed information of what to expect with a second trimester miscarriage.  I am sharing my account here, just in case there may be others in the future who search google.... needing to know what it might be like. 

"Noah Michael....  how can one so small, leave an impression so big?  My heart is forever in your tiny little hand."

When I went in for my 15 week appointment... my midwife couldnt find a heartbeat through the doppler.  So we walked over the the ultrasound room.  When the tech began the ultrasound.... I knew immediately that something wasnt right.  They were being too quiet, whispering....  I heard the term "fetal demise" and my heart began beating out of my chest.  I raised up half way on the table, looked so hard at my baby.... trying to see that familiar BLIP, BLIP, BLIP that I had always seen first thing.  But it wasnt there.  My little baby was laying in a little heap, not moving.  Just two weeks prior, he was literlly jumping around, flailing his little arms.... hating that ultrasound tech pressing on him to try to get him to move.  But now, he was silent and still.

When I first found out I was pregant, I really wanted a girl, prayed for a girl.  How foolish I was to think that it really mattered.  Now, I feel guilty and hope and pray my little boy didnt leave me because he didnt feel he would be wanted.  The love I feel for him is so deep, I would never have thought I would have fallen so desperately in love, so fast.  He was absolutely precious.

It took a while to sink in.  I walked around in a numb daze, in a state of disbelief for days.  Not sure if God would do a miracle.... maybe they just didnt have a good angle.  But the next ultrasound, and the next... revealed a dead baby.  My little tiny baby died inside of his momma.

I carried my little boy for a couple of weeks after he died.  I knew, if I would have went in for a DNC, that since he was below 20 weeks, they would just do away with him... this was the driving force behind my willingness to carry my dead baby.  Hard as it was on my mental health....This baby had a soul, this baby was ours, and no doctor would take him from us and throw him in a medical waste bin.  He was our responsibility... and we wanted to care for him, even in death.

I was blessed by the fact that the midwife in the practice said it would be ok to wait, weeks if neccessary, but to watch for fever/illness.... this could mean the pregnancy has gone septic... meaning.... I would need to have it removed immediately, or else I could endanger my life.  Still, I was willing to wait.

Two weeks went by.... then on a Saturday morning, I woke up very sick.  Honestly, I hadnt been "sick" in many years, hadnt run a fever in many years... so this frightened me.  ALthough by Sunday I realized it was more "upper respiratory", like pnumonia, or bronchitis.  We avoided the ER at all costs, and I went to the doctor on Monday morning.  He checked me, did some blood work, and cautiously agreed that it was probably not related to the pregnancy.  He sent me home on strong antibiotics.  This sickness continued all the way through the week, till Thursday.  I could not ever remember being so sick... by Thursday, I felt like a dishrag.  All I could do was cry.... my baby was dead....I was so weak,  and I needed to get it over with.  I still had a fear that I would never go into labor, and have to have him taken out.

The doctor had already scared me so much.... mostly about over bleeding.  I was warned that if I began to lose too much blood in attempting a "natural" second trimester miscarriage, that I could actually die.  These thoughts haunted me.  I have two kids that still need me... a husband that needs me.  I didnt want to jeapardize my life needlessly.  Still, we kept telling ourselves, that doctors often get to a point in time, where doing anything "natural" is unheard of.  So, with this, we decided to wait it out.  This little baby was still so important to us.... even though he was already in heaven.

I stayed on the couch all day Thursday.... was so glad the relentless fever didnt come back.  I was still very heavily congested.... still needing the albuterol treatments for my difficulty breathing... but at least no fever!  Thank God!

At about 3pm though, I started having weird pains every 15 minutes.  Uncomfortable, but not so awfully painful.  Then, as the day went on, they got worse and worse, till it was almost a constant pain.  I didnt bother telling anyone in my family, because I had had cramping a few times weeks past, but it didnt lead to anything, so I just thought I would wait it out.

I went to bed with hubby, but laid there for only about 5 minutes, and knew I couldnt lay there anymore. I got up and walked around for a while.... started to worry, because I felt like something would burst inside... but I wasnt showing any signs of bleeding or anything.  I started to pray that God would allow things to move, and that there wasnt anything, like the placenta, blocking my cervvix.  I decided to just lay on the couch for a minute, becuase I was sooo weak and tired, and immediatly I dozed for a moment.  Suddenly, I felt a POP!!  My water broke at 11pm.  With that, my daughter woke up Mike, and I sat on the toilet bleeding profusely.  We called my step mom who is a nurse, because the whole time I have been waiting for this, my biggest fears were=- over bleeding, and having to wind up with a DNC.  I wanted to have this baby at home, and see and hold it, and bury it.

At 2:30, my little baby come out.  It was a little boy, fully developed, just like a full term baby, only in miniature.  He was so little, and fit right in my hands.  Somehow, even though he had passed away weeks prior, you would never know it.  His color was normal,  his skin... normal.  He only looked like he was sleeping.  We could see his BOO BOO on his tummy.  His Omphalocele was very large, and it held his intestines, and other organs.  I felt so sorry for him.. He was so tiny, and my mommy horomones helplessly drove me to want to take care of him, and try to make him warm again.  I told him I was so sorry about his boo boo, and sorry that I couldnt feed him and take care of him.  It was so hard to let my hubby take him away.  Mike and our son had built a box, and wrapped the baby in a soft baby blanket.  Mike told me, that as he dug his grave, he cried.  He said it was so amazing, how in just an instant of laying your eyes on your baby, you instantly love him.  He was our son.  We named him Noah Michael.

I did bleed too much.  By 8:30am, I was cold and clammy, still bleeding badly, and started to black out.  Mike wanted to call an abulance, but I cried and said no.  We got ready to go right to the dr's office.  I had felt something large coming out of me, and it was finally the placenta.  The dr. wanted to take me into the ER right away, telling me in no uncertain terms, that I was still full of "tissue" and that I would bleed to death if I didint.  I was still sick though, and my lungs were still so full, and I couldnt breath well... I was too scared to be put under anestesia, so Mike declined, and said we would wait it out, and pray.

I was soo weak on the way home, and was scared i would die, as I felt blood still pouring out of me.  But, on the way home, I had one last severe painful feeling in my uterus.  When we got home, I went to the bathroom, and the blood was no longer pouring out of me.. .it slowed to more like a period.  I really feel the Dr (a Dr. I had never seen before in the practice)  was not being totally open with me.  He didnt seem concerned about my horrible breathing, more though, he wanted to fill his afternoon surgery schedule, which was empty (I saw his schedule on the wall).  I was NOT still full of tissue.  I passed the main tissue, and had a few clots, but the bleeding slowed about an hour after the placenta was delivered.  It just took a little while longer.  I am glad I waited.  WIth my lungs in the condition they were in, I fear what could have happenned under anestesia.

Mike bought me a liquid iron suppliment and got me taking it right away... this helped greatly.  By the following morning, I could walk to the kitchen without feeling like passing out.

It is taking a couple of days to get my strength back.  Mike says my color still isnt right, but I am  feeling so much better.  I am recouping from the pregnancy, and the bronchitis, and had some of the closure I needed. 

However, the heartbreak, and the regrets are haunting me now, especially at night when I am laying in bed, and all is quiet.  No amount of crying or begging can change things.  My little baby is in the ground, and I cant go back and do what I feel I need to do.  I wished I would have held him longer.  I wished I would have had my wits about me enough to just hold him.... for an hour, or two or three.... so he could know for sure that I loved him and wanted him.  I was weak, traumatized, and still hemmoraging..... and I only had a few minutes with my little boy..... and now, days later, I realize it was NOT enough!  I am so sorry my little baby Noah,  You should have had more time with your mamma. 

Now, in hindsite, carrying him even knowing he was dead, wasnt all that bad... in fact.... he was warm and safe and still with me, still mine... as long as he was still inside of me, but now he's gone. 

I cant wait to hold you in heaven.  You are our son, even though you were only with us for just a little while. 

Kim, the little sister.

Yellow Squash, Greenbeans & Zucchini

In the past few days I have picked 7 yellow squash, 3 dozen greenbeans and 2 zucchini. 

N's Banana Pepper plant has 3 good sized and lots of little ones.

The tomato plants are doing great ... just waiting for ripening so we can sink our teeth into a wonderful Beefstake Tomato Sandwich.

There are a few little cucumbers, so far.  Onions.  Carrots.

The lettuces are just about done til cooler temps come again.

That's it for now.

From my garden to yours ~

Jill (the big sister)

*Lema-laide*

When my daughter was 3 years old, she told me how to make Lemonade ... And I quote:

"First you put da lemon in da lemon cracker and you sqeeeeeze out da juice.  Den you put da juice in da laide ... and dat makes a lemalaide."

Have a great day!

Jill (the big sister)