These Days...

These days, my evenings are filled with laundry, hot tea, audiobooks, a stolen moment for knitting or sewing, and oh, such comforting and hysterical conversations with husband. I think maybe my favorite times with him are when we are up late together, evenings stretching long into the night, working and talking about this or that or nothing at all. That reminds me of a quote I read in a book once. I cannot quote it exactly, and I can't seem to find it again anywhere, but it goes something like this:

To love, to be understood, that is the thing.

Oh, yes. That is certainly the thing.

These days, my mornings are filled with precious moments with Pumpkin. He and I are the early risers, and I am relishing every moment with him, just the two of us. It has become our habit to rock together and read every issue of Your Big Backyard and Ranger Rick laid out on the coffee table (of which there are many) at least three times each before we move outside to water the flowers together. First, we water the flowerbeds in the front, and then the potted plants in the back. He always drenches himself completely when he tries to drink from the water hose.

These days, my crockpot is working overtime as I make tons of homemade stock from scraps.  As I pour up the rich broth into quart containers for the freezer, I say a prayer of thanks at the opportunity to feed my children so well. My hope is that this foundation of good nutrition (as difficult and inconvenient as it is sometimes) will bless them with a whole lifetime of good health.

These days, our weeks are filled with get-togethers with groups large and small, with friends old and new. Almost every week we have a play date or group get-together or church potluck to attend. I see my children beginning to forge friendships that I hope they will learn to nurture and care for. They are growing up so fast.

These days life is good, and I am happy.

Life Got In the Way

So, it probably doesn't matter if I say that I always intended to start blogging again. I have lots of post titles stored away in the back of my mind. I thought about it all the time. I missed it terribly.

No. None of that matters because it didn't actually get done. And the truth is, I just couldn't fit it in. And then I didn't feel like it. And then I did, but I couldn't fit it in again. In the past few months, so much has happened that it feels like I've been caught up in a big whirlwind. Why is life like that? My life goes through wonderful periods of peace. I'll be going along, have everything in a nice, comfy routine, and BAM! I get smacked upside the head with complete and total life change.

The big news is that I got re-married. I know, right? How did that happen? That came with moving into his house, getting the kids settled and adjusted, schedules changing, etc. Then we went through summer traveling and camps, and well, there just hasn't been a minute to breathe.

Oh, and I'm pregnant again. So if there was a minute, I slept through it.

But now I'm feeling good again. For a while, anyway. I've hit the second-trimester stride and feel back to my old self. Nausea and fatigue are gone, and there's nothing but blue skies. I know that the tiredness will return, and the bustle and go of having a new baby this winter will mean many times that the blog will go unfilled again. But right now, I'm just enjoying each moment.

Honestly, that's another reason I haven't blogged: I've just been living life instead of writing about it. As crazy and hectic and difficult as everything has been, it's been better than ever. I'm so excited about what this season of my life has in store.

So, I guess what happened is that life got in the way.

Hey, that was a song I used to listen to a lot in high school! Remember these guys?



Happy Wednesday!

In the Still of the Morning

It's been such a long time since I posted on my blog, but I'm trying to squeeze in a few moments for an update before the kids wake up. My life seems to get busier and busier, yet if you ask me what I'm up to, I'll just shrug and say, "Oh, you know! Same ol', same ol'." Why is that? I think it's because Pumpkin is walking (well, running) around like a champ, talking up a storm, and of course he needs to be supervised every single moment or else he's into something.  My life totally revolves around keeping him from hurting himself and keeping him and his sisters stimulated. While that can be summed up in a mere sentence (okay, a compound sentence), it requires every waking moment to actually accomplish. I'm trying to get up earlier in the day to get some time to myself, but it seems like I'm just getting up early to work before I start to work. Do you ever feel that way? I was hoping to get in some good knitting time this morning, but so far, it's a no-go.

Speaking of knitting, there is a store-wide sale going on over at Loop. Ten percent off! I went ahead and ordered some Spud and Chloe Outer yarn in preparation for the new free Outer Baby Blanket pattern that Susan Anderson will post soon. I know it will not be all the yarn I need, but it will be enough to get me started. I find Outer to be a stretch for my small budget, so I have to buy it in increments anyway.

Our garden is producing! We're enjoying plenty of tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and we've had one eggplant so far. There are watermelons and cantaloupes ripening on the vine. Those a I grew vertically on a trellis and am having good results so far! I already have plans for improvements next year. I've found that with gardening (well, with anything) that you really do learn by doing. I've learned more this year with a small Square-foot Garden than I did reading a dozen books on gardening. I think the problem is that you don't know what you need to know until you actually encounter a problem. And once you find the solution, you don't forget it. Or at least you don't forget what didn't work. Sometimes you can't find the solution before it's too late. But there's always next year! For me, I simply did not realize the sheer size the plants grow to. I know that sounds silly, but it's hard to visualize something that you've never seen before. Another thing I learned this year was the absolute importance of keeping cucumbers evenly watered. You don't realize how important it is until you taste a bitter 'cuke! Pest control, surprisingly, has not been a problem. I planted marigolds throughout and they are doing a good job of keeping all kinds of pest away.

I plan to start homeschooling Darling in just a few weeks. I'm just pulling together my last supplies. My girls are very crafty and I have  a few fun craft projects planned to get us going. I've chosen our curriculum. If you're interested, here it is:

Math- Singapore Math, Earlybird Math Standards Edition
Phonics- Phonics Pathways
Handwriting- Handwriting Without Tears
Science- Living Learning Books, Life Science
Language/Literature- Five in a Row

I plan on doing quite a bit of art through lapbooks and crafts that go along with Five in a Row. There are tons of ideas at Homeschool Share and there are new Fold n Learn downloads from FIAR. And I absolutely love the books by MaryAnn Kohl. Our library has quite a few of her books.

I suppose that's all for now. Can you believe it's already Thursday? The days fly by so quickly that I can barely keep track!

Spring Has Sprung!

Despite a thankfully mild cold snap, spring has definitely sprung around here. The daffodils have already come and gone, and the tulips are on their way out. I wish I had gotten more pictures. I managed to lose the memory card to the camera a while back. I finally went out and bought a new one so I could take pictures of the things that are making me smile today:

I love these decorative flags

My new shoes. Casual with just a touch of bling!

Red bud trees are everywhere!

Believe it or not, there are lots of tomatoes on my patio tomato plant!

A great wave of purple flowers

The last of the tulips in our front yard

The azaleas are warming up for their big show!

The last blossom on the tulip tree

The yarn from a big knitting project. But more on that later.

Ready to garden!

With our cute rubber boots, spring rains won't slow us down!

What has made you smile today?

A Post for February

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted? As always, the days are getting ahead of me! Is it as busy at your house as it is at mine?

It is starting to look like spring around here! There are daffodils and hyacinths popping up all over the place. While the breeze is still cold, we are experiencing warmer weather and springs rains!  We are also preparing for Easter, even though it is so late this year (April 24th). I love the little ceramic eggs that my girls colored for me:

 

I am knitting frantically for Easter now. I am making a Bunny Tail Hat from Itty-Bitty Hats for all three of my kids for their Easter pictures this year. Here is the first one:

Doodlebug models her new hat

My kids are in love with my knitting. On the Spud Says! Blog, Susan B. Anderson talked about how she  heard children were placing orders for toys from her book, Itty-Bitty Toys, as if it were a catalog. That is exactly what my kids do! They flip through all of my books and make requests. I will be a busy knitter for a very long time. Here is what I've made the last couple of weeks:

Here are the Happily-Ever-After mitts I made for myself

Here is a sweet hat I made for my little nephew. This was a pattern that I was given and I'm not sure where it came from

 

 

This Enora (named by Darling)

I love her spots!

Sleeping peacefully in a doll bed that was mine when I was a little girl

And, just for fun, here is a picture of Darling curled up in the blanket her Nana made when she was born:

 

Happy spring!

Blanket Update: It's Finished!

Do you remember me telling you about Pumpkin's blanket waaaaaayyyyy back when? After his birthday passed and it wasn't finished, I set it aside to start some other small projects that needed to get done, and well, kind of forgot. I saw it folded up last week and thought that there really was not much left to do, probably two more hours and it would be finished. Seven hours later, I wove in the last end. I way underestimated how long it would take me to make that cableknit border! I'm pleased with the way that it turned out. I hope that it will be a special blanket for him. It really is cute, but even more than that, it's the reason I learned to knit. It's been a very emotional project for me, and while I know that Pumpkin will not understand until he's much older, one day, if I can remember, I hope to tell him this:

Dear One,

Here is a blanket that I made with just you in mind. I hope it will keep you warm when you are cold, comfort you when you are sad, and protect you when you are scared. I left the mistakes to remind you that life, like this blanket, is imperfect. Sometimes we mess up, but if you can just keep going, you will make something really wonderful in the end.

I love you,
Mommy 

Knitting Love

Well, I did not meet my deadline for Pumpkin's blanket, although I came pretty close. After chatting with a more experienced knitter, I have come to think that I was a bit too ambitious about my time-line for my skill level...but I'm still disappointed. I am roughly 2/3 finished with the cable-knit border. Then there are just a few details to add and I'm done. I'm sewing the border on as I go, so when I weave in the last strand, that will be it. Hurray! It is even cuter than I hoped it would be.

I did take a two-hour break from the blanket to knit up these fingerless mitts for Pumpkin last week. This was out of necessity, as we have had a cold-snap, but not playing outside simply isn't an option for us. One of Pumpkin's favorite things to do is sit in the grass and play with pine straw. He has mittens, but he was frustrated that he couldn't pick anything up, so I decided he needed fingerless mitts. They keep his little hands so warm! I was really, really surprised, to tell the truth. I thought the tips of his fingers would still get ice cold, but they were nice and toasty every time I checked. I think I am going to knit up several pairs of these in coordinating colors so that I can mix and match them together. That way, it won't be a big deal when we lose one (because I know we will).

I already have the yarn for my next few projects. I'm planning on making these adorable fingerless mitts for myself, and then making convertible mittens for the girls in the same stripe pattern.  Then, it's on to Christmas toys! I have so many ideas, I don't even know where to begin, BUT I do know that a little knitted 'Ponyo' is going in Doodlebug's Christmas stocking! That is her current favorite movie (we are big Miyazaki fans), and she carries around this plastic bucket and talks to her pretend Ponyo. It is so darn cute! I was planning on making them some playfood and a teaset from Itty-Bitty Nursery, but if I am being honest, I think that I really want the teaset. I think they would like it, but there are other things they would enjoy more. Like a pink and purple dinosaur, and a pink and purple-striped shark (yes, those are two very real requests by Darling). It's going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Life: 10-1 (and 2)-10

Wow, can if possibly be July since I've posted anything? I thought that was like last week! Okay, so that's an exaggeration, but it has been crazy around here!

First of all: WE MOVED! This is my 7th move in 5 years---certainly not as many times as an army wife, but a fair amount just the same. Hopefully, this will be my last move for a long time, as I hate to move! I am craving some stability after all the drama of the last few years. However, we are in a really great place, and we're all excited to be here, so that makes it a better move than some of the others.

Then, Pumpkin is crawling everywhere! He cannot be left alone for a second, especially now as there are boxes everywhere. Also, at ten months old, he has finally decided that he likes solid food. First, he hated it and cried and cried whenever we went near the high chair. Then when he was old enough for finger foods, he thought meal time was fun, but he didn't care about eating the food as much as he liked squishing it between his fingers and throwing it on the floor. But now, he has decided that he really does like food, and could he have more, please? He is still nursing, and I am convinced that he will be a long-term nurser. My mom disagrees. She says he's not going to want to sit still to nurse as he gets older, but he is Mama's boy and I think that as independent as he is becoming, he is not ready to give up his special time with me.


Darling and Doodlebug continue to blossom every day. It is truly a joy to watch. I'm always amazed at how imaginative they are. We really had the best week this week!

*yawn* too tired to write more, but I have ideas for lots of posts, so hopefully there will be more updates soon.

Updates

After browsing some excellent home school blogs, I got the idea to use nicknames for my kids rather than their initials. They don't really have "nicknames" but all mothers have little pet names for their babies that we use when we are rocking or comforting, so that's what I'll be using to refer to my kids from now on.

Various Parenting Issues

It's been a while since my last post, and that's because 3 kids keep me jumpin'!
First of all, we are having sleep issues. M has entered the terrible twos and is now throwing fits at bedtime, just because. She is also up frequently in the night now, and I'm suspecting nightmares because she will scream violently, but when I go in there she is often not actually awake. I have been told that nightmares are a sign that she has reached a certain level of awareness now, and that it is a sign of maturity. That's great, but couldn't we have a different sign, please? These things are awful. R had them, too.

M doesn't speak well and we are encountering massive frustration (on her part even more than on mine) because she now wants to communicate and doesn't have the vocabulary. She adds new words every day and makes cute little verb-less sentences, but she doesn't use any ending consonants and is difficult to understand. I've pulled out my baby signs book and am hoping to give her some relief by teaching her a few basic signs. I think she's a good candidate for signs because she was never a chatty baby. She never cooed, and never giggled (she could, there was just nothing she felt like giggling about), and never did that baby "babble".  R, on the other hand, started cooing at 5 1/2 weeks old, and has not quit using her voice since. At almost four years old, she speaks like an adult.

E and I are having our own troubles with sleep and feedings. I suspect that the sleep troubles stem from the feeding troubles. E has slept six hours exactly once in his five months of life, occasionally four hours, but he's still waking up about every two hours. I think this is because he has a poor latch when he's nursing. E has been a terrible challenge to breastfeed. For one thing, he is so long and heavy. When I'm trying to feed him in the cradle hold, over half of his torso and all of his legs hang off my lap, and it is difficult for me to keep his head in the right place. For another thing, he is short tempered. If he gets very hungry, he gets so mad that he cannot latch on well. When the milk doesn't come out easily, he gets even angrier. I have a good milk supply and a strong let-down reflex, so he generally gets the fore-milk easily, despite his poor latch. Then when he isn't sucking correctly, he doesn't get a lot out, so he lets go and cries. Then he tries to re-latch and does it incorrectly, doesn't get much, lets go and cries. Then he starts to panic that he's going to starve to death. When he gets this way, I generally have to let him get the foremilk, stop and burp him (he always throws up after this kind of feeding), wait until his is calm (about 30 minutes), then try again. This has worked for us pretty well. I can usually get him to latch well if he is calm, and then he can go about three-four hours between feedings. But at night he hasn't been going that long.

His poor latch may be due to the fact that, in my ignorance, I gave him a pacifier as a newborn. Honestly, until this baby, I never believed that nipple confusion was real, because both of my girls never had any problems with it. They rarely took a pacifier, and both could go from bottle to breast easily. In fact, I gave R formula for the first week of her life because I was taking antibiotics that upset her stomach, so I pumped and dumped (I would have done things differently if faced with the same situation now). And yet when I started nursing, she took right to it without the slightest trouble. Not so with E. Because I don't want any formula going in E's body, I express milk for visitation with their dad, and I've discovered that E is terrible with the bottle. He chokes and spits up and a lot of the milk dribbles out the side of his mouth. He wants the pacifier all the time and is quite dependent on it to sleep. He just needs to suck all the time, more than either of the girls did. I think we would have done better if I had never given him the pacifier, though. Although, I must say that part of the reason he got the pacifier in the first place is the assumption by ever modern US adult that all babies need a paci, and someone was always giving him one without asking me. Then when E took it, I started giving it to him all the time, too. I wonder why people in the US think nothing of giving formula or pacifiers, which are both breast imitations, but get squeamish about the real thing. * Since when is an man-made imitation EVER as good as what God made? But I digress....I guess nipple confusion is not a blanket problem for all: some babies adjust easily, and some do not. Oh, well. I can't go back and change it now. He'll be starting solids soon and then he should start sleeping longer. Of course, solids will start a whole other set of issues!

*This reminds me, I saw a commercial for an infant formula, filled with fanfare that this latest formula contained probiotics, the good bacteria, "like those found in breastmilk". All that I can think of is the millions of babies before the creation of this formula who missed out on these beneficial bacteria, but whose mothers were still told at the time that formula was "just as good" as breastmilk, or that they "contained all the nutrients" of breastmilk. The very addition of these probiotics is itself an admition that every formula previously was inferior to breastmilk and did NOT contain all the nutrients of breastmilk. Hhhhmmm, I have a lot to say on this subject. Look for a post on this soon!

Changes

Just want to draw your attention to the new set of links on the sidebar: great places to buy your heirloom seeds or seedlings! Many of them I have purchased seeds from myself, other just have a great selection, or great prices, or were recommended by other gardening blogs that I read.

Also, I've added to links to several website that I consult frequently:
kellymom.com-- A WONDERFUL resource for new moms, particularly about breastfeeding.
AskDrSears.com-- The famous pediatrician, his famous pediatrician sons, and his famous RN wife. Great resource. I've read lots of his books. The Baby Sleep Book was particularly helpful!
Breastfeeding Basics-- A new site I recently found with great info on breastfeeding. There are a few typos here and there in the articles, but the info is rock solid.
Dr. Jay Gordon-- Another pediatrician website I go to with great articles.

Cloth Diaper Update!

I am totally in love with cloth diapering. Is that silly? Perhaps, but I'm shamefully silly about nearly everything I do, so nothing new there. I've gotten my youngest daughter back into cloth, and I absolutely love it. In fact, since I've gotten my routine down, I'm finding that the whole, "disposable are so convenient" line to be total hogwash for my situation. For me, they are no more convenient than cloth. In fact, I find them to be less convenient. (Ironically, that was my same conclusion for formula vs. breastmilk: who EVER said that constantly washing, sterilizing, and measuring bottles was convenient when you can just whip out your boob and have the perfect meal at the perfect temp with no clean-up? And need I mention that it's FREE? okay, rant over). Constantly dealing with the smell, hauling out the trash, going to the diaper box to discover that I am COMPLETELY out of diapers and need to run to the store for more, my daughters inevitably outgrowing a size when I have just purchased a $45 bulk box and I have tons leftover....None of those things spell convenience for me. Of course, they are preventable with extra planning. But any inconvenience with cloth is preventable with extra planning, too. Here's what I've learned to streamline my current cloth-diaper routine:


Get a diaper pail liner: If your washing machine has an agitator, you can just dump the whole bag into the wash and the diapers will agitate out of the bag during the cycle. Since I have a front-loader, I just turn the bag inside out in the washer and wash the bag with the diapers. No more sticking my hands in a dirty-diaper pail! Genius!

For cloth wipes, get a regular wipe-warmer and fill it with your pre-soaked cloth wipes. That way they are already damp and warm and ready to use. I cannot tell you how much of my life I wasted at the sink with the baby in a dirty diaper on my hip, waiting for the tap water to warm up so I could get the wipe wet.  I didn't hear this tip soon enough! I had heard of the 'spray bottle at the changing table' idea, but that didn't solve my dilemma of wanting the wipes to be warm (I certainly don't want my bottom wiped with a cold rag!).  The wipe-warmer has been the perfect solution!

Make sure the diaper pail gets some airflow. If it is sealed airtight, it will smell. I always sealed it before because I thought that would keep it from smelling, but the opposite turned out to be true! I just set the lid on top of the pail without sealing it, and there is no smell. I don't mean it doesn't smell much, I mean there is no smell. My experience is that disposables in the diaper genie are far more offensive to the nose. While my diapers are washing, I do a quick rinse of the diaper pail with water and vinegar, then put in a fresh liner (I have two).  It takes me about five minutes to start the diapers in the wash, rinse the diaper pail, and put in the fresh liner-- about the same time that it takes me to take the garbage out.

Be willing to experiment. This was the advice that I got from Green Mountain Diapers, and it is just about the best advice I've ever heard. There are SO many different ways to cloth diaper, and so much of it is subjective, based on your own taste and your own, unique child. Really, it is over-whelming. When I first started, I was convinced that it would be easier with expensive diaper covers. Now that I bought three to try, I found that the cheap Dappi Nylon Covers were easier for me and fit my daughter better. It took a lot of experimentation, too, to find the routine that worked for me and my daughter. Here's what we have so far:

I have two diaper pails: one for poopy diapers and wipes next to the toilet in the bathroom, and one next to the changing table in my daughter's room for wet diapers and covers that do not need to be rinsed. Since not every diaper needs to be rinsed, I don't have to walk to the bathroom at EVERY diaper change like I did for two years.  Every night, I pick up the diaper pail as I leave my daughter's room and immediately throw everything from both pails in the wash. I rinse the pails and change the liners. It takes me five minutes.  At some point before I go to bed, I hang everything up to air-dry over night. This takes about 5 minutes. When I wake up in the morning, I toss the diapers only (not wipes or covers) into the dryer for 15 minutes to get soft. It takes me two minutes. Then I put everything away whenever I put away the other laundry.

Maybe that does take me a few more minutes total (I believe I'm at 12 minutes of my actually time being used) than it takes to take the trash outside and put a new plastic bag in the trash can or diaper genie, but it's not nearly as big a difference as disposable diaper companies would have me believe. You also have to rinse out diaper genies occasionally to keep them from getting nasty. You are also supposed to take disposables to the bathroom and dump the poop into the toilet before throwing it away. Let's face it: diapering children is not convenient no matter which method you use. And for me personally and my situation, what little difference in convenience there is, it is not enough to convince me that it is worth the astronomical price tag, or exposure to harmful chemicals.

New "Recipe Box"

Just wanted to draw your attention to my new "Recipe Box" on the left-hand side of the screen. There is a direct link to the recipes that I post, so you don't have to search. Bon Appetit!