About

I explain why this blog is called “The Pantry Book” here

I’m Nicole. I write about our family from my perspective as a professional mother. This is my dream job and I take it seriously. And,  I’ve done a lot of research in my areas of interest. This blog is a brain dump for that research as well as, hopefully, a gathering place for other moms. When I decided to start a blog, I knew I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. There are so many wonderful blogs already that provide excellent content with reliable sources. I have assembled a list of the specific posts I recommend most frequently; you can find that list here. You can see pictures of our home HERE.

Here is a sampling of the many ways that we are weird: we have babies at home, educate our children at home, sew/knit/quilt/paint/bake/ferment/grind/grow as much as possible at home rather than buying things from the store, buy the things we do get from the store in mega-bulk, reuse cloth rather than buy disposable things (napkins, paper towels, diapers, etc.), drink raw milk, consciously avoid “busy” schedules by not signing up for kid activities . . .

So, let’s be clear. I am not writing this blog because I have it all together and I want to help others get it together too! No way! I am writing this blog primarily to help myself. People frequently ask me for advice or where did I read such and such or how do I do x (and can I take pictures, please?); so I thought I’d just put it online so I can direct people here instead of retyping it =) Also, I like to share pics of my kiddos, sort of like an online journal. So, there you have it. The unique combination of topics represented on this blog is probably not interesting to anyone but me, but I do hope others like it here, because I love company!

A list of that “unique combination of topics” on this blog appears as categories over on the right hand side of any page on this blog. The size of the font refers to the number of posts in that category (larger font means more posts in that category).


Derm Dad is Kent. He’s the glue that keeps our family together. You can find all of his guest posts here. He’s an excellent storyteller and I hope to have him continue to share here as often as he’s able. You can see pics from our Old Hollywood Glamour Wedding here. You can see pics of us and our family every year or so in my Happy 7th Anniversary post here.

Adele is six. She likes anything sparkly, ruffled, red, pink, or purple. She loves to play outside with her friends and make bracelets and charms on the Rainbow Loom! Adele is even more extroverted than her Momma, which her Daddy didn’t think was even possible. She is so loving to her baby brother and sister and rarely complains when she has to sacrifice something she wants. You can see her room HERE.

Everett is three years old. He suffered from a Grade IV (huge!) Intracranial Hemorrhage when he was one month old. He has Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) and Cerebral Palsy. His most recent MRI showed that more than half of his brain is gone as a result of the stroke which resulted from the hemorrhage. We use Anat Baniel Method therapy and Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration therapy to help his brain rewire itself (neuroplasticity) to perform the functions of the missing parts. As of July 2014, Everett has reached some developmental milestones — he can roll, Army crawl, and he can sit. He is improving every single day! We are hopeful that he will be “Crawling by Christmas” – up on hands and knees – that’s our family’s prayer right now. Will you join us?

Eleanor is our newest family member. She joined our clan of crazy in April 2014 — a little over one month after we moved into a new house. She was so eager be born, she just jumped right out —  before the midwives got here. So far, she’s an angel baby. She really only cries in the car – when she wails at the top of her ample lungs.

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We are Christians
We know that we were put on this planet to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This year, as a family, we are focusing on the theme of eucharisteo (radical gratitude).

We are also “Real Foodies”
First of all, our priorities are: soul first, body second. So, we certainly put fellowship ahead of our definition of “nourishing” food, but when we are choosing what to consume, we prefer to eat “real food.” There is such a problem with labels meaning different things to different people. I love the definition used by cheeseslave in her awesome Real Foodie Kitchen Tour Series (her definition follows) – she featured our kitchen HERE! We also highly regard the work of Weston A. Price and Joel Salatin.

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

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No-swag Policy

Just FYI, this is not a super-popular blog, but even if it was and I had the opportunity to accept freebies (or any other compensation) in exchange for sharing my opinion on my blog I wouldn’t do it! If I mention something on the blog, I paid full price for it. Just to be clear, I have absolutely no conflict of interest for any of the opinions on this blog. Thanks!

19 thoughts on “About

  1. Pingback: Hi there! « The Pantry Book

  2. I just stopped by after reading your Ktichen Tour, which I enjoyed. :) I love your Eucharisteo theme, it’s what I’ve been trying to teach mine, but I didn’t know to call it that til now! ;)

  3. Sounds like you are doing a lot of wonderful things — especially for your son. Best wishes for the therapies to make an improvement. I know from personal experience (different therapies, different problems) that the sacrifice is worth it. May you be blessed in all your efforts.

  4. Hi Nicole,
    I am about to install 2 bee packages in my new Perone hive, my question is. How did you acclimate the two packages, assuming you use only one queen? Because a separate queen comes with each package.

    • Hi Javier!
      Thanks for commenting! I asked the same question when I got my two packages of bees (both with their own queens inside). The man who sold them to me removed one of the queen cages, so that one package was queenless. He told me that the bees would notice that their queen was gone and be looking for her frantically. He said that they would be more than happy to adopt the other queen rather than have no queen. So, I just dumped them both in the hive together and it seems like it all worked out fine. Best of luck to you! Please keep in touch with your Perone hive updates =)
      Nicole @ ThePantryBook

  5. Hi there- I saw your post in the homeschool library yahoo group then visited your blog. I was just wondering where you live? I saw you went to CM conference. I am in St. Paul. My oldest is turning 5 soon and going to be doing some CM.

    • Hi Anna! I attended a CM conference in VA. I think you are thinking of the CM Retreat/Conference hosted by Nancy Kelly in Minneapolis. I do hope to attend that one next year. I love the living library group!

  6. Hey Nicole, I heard your interview on The Survival Podcast and was intrigued by your views on healthy eating. I am just getting started with homesteading and will be following your blog to hopefully soak up some of your knowledge and wisdom that is so hard to find these days!

    I was also elated to read that you are a Christian. Please know that my husband and I will be praying for Everett and the rest of your family. Hopefully one day I will be as strong and as beautiful of a mother as you are!

    • Hi Jamie! Thank you for your sweet words! And I especially thank you for your prayers! We are taking my son across the country for some intensive therapy at a specialty clinic soon – we’d covet your prayers for healing and/or some breakthrough. Hope to hear from you again!!

  7. I am enjoying reading your blog this morning. We are at an intense weekend of ABM therapy and in between sessions. I have been reading and trying to find other therapies that would work with the body in the same way. Then I came across your blog through another parent whose child was receiving ABM before us. She is going to have the tendon lengthening done in NJ and she gave me your website. This weekend has been full of surprises and great strides on our grand daughter’s behalf. She is trying to crawl even and finding the brain pathways to sitting up on her own.
    She was born HIE and not breathing at birth. She has a diagnosis of CP and Epilepsy. We just found ABM and I was reading about your MNRI therapy at home. We have two people who are involved with
    Brain Gym in our area. I was just wondering if you have heard of this.
    WE live in Florida. Sure wish we had begun a lot earlier but God has a way of putting things in your path at just the right time. So….we shall proceed from here.

  8. Hi Nicole! I just found your blog and would love to connect with you about your son. We have an 18 month old little girl who has CP and we are just researching the Dr. Nuzzo alcohol block. It seems like you did a lot of research on it. Also, we’ve just started to use the Anat Baniel Method so would love to connect with you about that too. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you’d like to connect. Thanks, Love your blog!

    Anne Hoffer

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