Flats Challenge- Day 4

It's day 4 of the Flats & Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

"This event aims to bring awareness and educate cloth diapering families and beyond about the benefits and feasibility of using flat cloth diapers, the most basic of all diapers, and handwashing. Why? Because there are families who struggle everyday with diaper need. There are no federal or state funded assistance programs to help families buy diapers. This can result in babies being left in diapers too long or families reusing disposable diapers; both options pose serious health risks for the baby. My goal has always been to prove that, when necessary, a small number of flat cloth diapers, covers, and a simple bucket washer or tub can be all a family needs to provide clean and sanitary diapers."

--Kim Rosas of Dirty Diaper Laundry

Today we're talking about hand washing. I honestly don't mind it. I have a really bad habit of waiting to wash (in the machine) until I'm almost out of clean diapers. Life is busy and laundry sucks. With handwashing I'm "forced" to go outside in the sunshine for at least 20 minutes and wash while my kiddos play in the backyard, chase chickens, water plants & "help" me. It's actually really good for all of us. Sitting on the porch with me camp washer is easy for me (it also makes me want freshly churned butter) and dealing with the poop is the same as when I machine wash but my machine takes 4 hours. I'm seriously considering switching to flats and handwashing permanently.


These are just a few of the moments I get to watch while washing.

Chick cuddling

 Dump truck riding

 

Chick catching

 Chicken napping

Wind blowing

 

I'm linking up over at Dirty Diaper Laundry.

Happiness is...(Week 12)

 

My stick collector.

  

  My SIL's face. 

Oh and our cute boys, who are 4 months apart in age and have the most epic (unplanned) names, 

Easton & Weston.

 

I finished the superhero sweetheart dress.

 

Bacon wrapped asparagus!!!!

 

"Fancy"muffin tin lunch. 

Find more happy moments over at Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

Happiness is...(week 10)

A new book that I don't mind reading over & over & over.

A sweet big sister.

Taco salad with lots of hot sauce.

Watching this little guy watch his beloved chickens.

Singing Happy Birthday to my baby!

My happy birthday boy enjoying his little party.

Stache cookies!

Proud mama moment. This girl enjoyed her stache cookie.

A smash cake!

Smashed cake.

__________________♥__________________

 See what makes other people happy or link up what makes you happy over at Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

11 months (& 5 days)

Dude what happened to my baby!?

I'm pretty sure he was tiny 5 minutes ago.

It crazy how quickly time has gone by. My (not so) tiny baby has been walking for about a month & has become quite the little climber. 

 He says adada (Dada) & bog-bog (bock-bock/chickens). He also squeals, giggles, hums & ahhs. He knows a few signs like milk, up, all done, diaper change, play & more. He loves music and will start shaking his little booty and arms when he hears it. 

 He loves to be naked and wear his shoes.

 He has 8 teeth & 2 more seem to be working their way through. He is still my little buddy and loves to be worn but is getting a little braver and exploring the world a little further from my side. 

He is a big fan of food. His favorites are rice, quinoa, chicken, broccoli, asparagus & peanut butter.

As much as he loves food he is still a champ nurser & I don't think we'll be weaning anytime soon.

 And I'm a total sucker for his baby blues.

Just Biding My Time

Lately, I've been drained. My depression has been sucking every last bit of energy out of me. But you know what? It's okay. This isn't going to last forever and when it's over the sun will be that much brighter. It's not as bad as it use to be a year ago. I have many moments throughout the day that I enjoy. Cuddling my boy, watching Caet jump like a frog, Mina concocting elaborate princess games, making pizza. But I just have no energy or patience for things like dishes, laundry, crafting, moving (physical activity not houses) & bickering. I would be completely content to sit on the sofa all day, in fact I have on a few days. My house looks like a bunch of tornadoes yet through it but my house will be waiting for me to clean up when I'm feeling better. All the energy I have now I'm trying to focus on my kids. Hopefully I'll be ready to craft soon because this poor blog is seriously in need of some project updating. But until I get something done, I'll just share a few pics of the happy moments I've snapped lately.

Mina and her Maran chick named Fluffy Cheeks. 

 

 

 

 

 

We have another chick named Fuzzibunz too, plus our 3 adult birds.

 

 

 

 

Weston & his cousin Easton. I love that they are 4 months apart and will get to grow up together. And that they both have the cutest fluffy butts.

My kidlets

Oh Craft.

I am having difficulty finding more than 5 minutes at a time to sit down and work on a project. So on Mother's Day I told the family I was going to finish a project so Daddy was on duty! I'd been wanting to start this cute little sunhat by Jessica from Running With Scissors that she guest posted on Living with Punks for over 2 weeks.

 The tutorial was super easy to follow and she provides a printable pattern in 3 sizes also. I choose to leave off the little ruffle and ribbon since I was making it for my boy. The Marvel comic book fabric begged me to buy it last time I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics & it has been sitting & waiting for me to figure out what to do with it.

 

 I'm really happy with the hat. It's perfect for keeping the sun out of my little man's eyes. & now my girl each want one too. But pink ones. With no superheros.

 

 

On a completely separate note, this is my new favorite pic of my boy. He always makes the cutest little noise & smiles a lot in his sleep. Daddy & I have a theory about what he's dreaming of.

 This little man is 2 months old.

It seems like last week I was pushing. Time is just going by too quickly. I'm wiping tears from my eyes as I type. This is most likely my last baby. I want him to grow up healthy & strong, just not yet. I want him to stay little for a long time. 

But since that's not going to happen, I'm focused on enjoying every second of his sweet babyhood. Which is why I've spent so little time in front of my sewing machine or with a crochet hook in hand. We spend most of our day nursing, cuddling & watching private ballet shows produced by & starring his big sisters.
We are really enjoying cloth diapering. It is so much easier than I thought it would be and less messy, believe it or not! Even daddy doesn't mind as long as there are pre-stuffed pockets or AIOs when it's his turn to change a diaper. I'm pretty sure Wes likes having fluffy buns since he always kicks and coos like crazy when I change him. He also likes to help with the chores. His job is to sleep in the Moby Wrap, he takes it very seriously.
I feel truly blessed because Wes is such a good baby. He doesn't cry much, nurses like a champ, enjoys showers and doesn't mind hanging out on a blanket on the floor for a while. But most of the time he just sleeps. And since he smiles in his sleep a lot, I assume he's having sweet dreams.

I love you sweet Little Man.

Sucky Awesome Sunday

Too bad I have zero social skills & a big fat mouth. I think I just scared away one of my very few friends. I suck. Cue, depression snacking, moodiness & insomnia.
Anyways, I hit the pavement this morning for the first time in months. I only did a mile. It felt good. I took it easy and walked .3 mile to warm up, then ran .3, then walked .6 and ran the last .6. It was a bit of a challenge since I have found my rhythm yet but I hope to be running a full mile by mid-May.

I worked on my serger for a while earlier. It's closer to fixed. The lower looper is still getting tangled because it's out of sync. I ran out of patience and had a hungry baby so I put it aside until tomorrow, which I am totally ready for. I love my hubby, a lot, but having him home on the weekends throws off my regular routine which makes me cranky. He did a lot of yard work and the back yard looks so much better. The garden fence is almost finished which is exciting because I really want to replant beets, chard, spinach and tomatoes and NOT have chickens eat all the seeds and/or little sprouts.


On a happier note, my big Little Man is now 7 weeks old, 26.5 inches & 12 1/2 pounds. That's up 6.5 inches & 4 pounds from birth. And he's hecka awesome.

Rockin the Stache.

Wordless Wednesday: Awesomeness

 

No More Interruptions, Let’s Take Back the Respect at CrazyAdventuresinParenting.com

Home, 1 year later

One year ago marks the first night we spent in our house.
Crazy to think 366 days have gone by.
And I'm still unpacking.

Truth Tuesday 2

Today I want to talk about me & my battle with depression. I feel a little bad calling it a battle because a lot of people have it way worse that I do but it is something I struggle with almost daily. It took me a long time to admit it and even longer to get help. I'm doing better now that I'm on Zoloft and cutting myself some slack. I had it in my head that as a stay at home mom my house should be spotless like on TV, something that is impossible to do if you live in a house with kids. I could literally spend 8 hours straight cleaning and work through every room in my house but as soon as I leave a child comes through and dumps out all the Barbies. Or uses every color in the rainbow to decor my walls, carpet and sofa. Or spills her entire bowl of cereal on the kitchen floor. And the more time I spend cleaning the bigger mess they make because they are bored & want my attention. Which I totally don't get because I think I'm kind of boring and dumb. I totally don't know how to play anymore. My Barbie always says the wrong things (like "Sorry, I can't go camping. I'm busy doing all this laundry." or "I'm making broccoli!") & I want to play Candyland by the rules not just make my little man cartwheel across the board and pretend to eat the candy castle. But despite my shortcomings they still want to play with me. Which I'm starting to figure out is a blessing. I'm slowly learning how to let go of my idea of "perfect" and just enjoy what I have. My kids are teaching me what perfect really is. Yes it can be a clean house and nutritious dinner but it's also grubby hands from finding "nature" and giggling until you cry because apparently the word fart is the funniest thing ever. It's those sweaty, sleepy snuggles from an tired 2 year old and private dance recitals by a budding ballerina.

 

 It's every second of everyday. And some days I will forget that fact but I hope those days will be few and far between. This is what I've been reminding myself with.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.


Thanks again Lisa for sharing your awesomeness with me.

My Little Man

Weston Gregory Alexander 

March 11, 2012

10:00 pm

8 pounds 7 ounces

20 inches

perfection

The nesting has begun

 Despite being bone tired 90% of the time, things are slowly getting done around here. Mostly a lot of little things, like cleaning out & organizing.

Like the center drawer of my craft desk

Before nesting

After nesting

And under my bathroom sink

There isn't a before pic but let's just say this is a HUGE improvement.

 If you want to imagine the before think a bunch of gallon ZipLoc bags filled with random stuff tossed under there. Yeah it was bad.

Fresh squeezed oj & orange vinegar.

The first of every month is my super cleaning day. The coffee pot is one of the things that gets super clean. I brew 10 cups of vinegar (followed by two 10 cup pots of water) to keep my coffee tasting fresh. And I just can't justify dumping out 10 cups of vinegar so, I end up making more orange vinegar, which I use for everything from wiping counters to mopping the floor to cleaning the potty chairs. But making orange vinegar means I need the peels from about 15 oranges. So we pick and juice and peel oranges for what seems like hours. Did I mention I don't have a fancy juicer? Or any official juicer for that matter? No I'm kind of ghetto and use the bottom of a cup over a big bowl. Fun. But the end results are pretty satisfying. A clean coffee maker, a little over 3 pints of fresh orange juice and 10 cups of orange vinegar.

And finally I'm motivated to work on the nursery! 

Here are some before shots when it was my craft room/guest room.

Crap piled on my desk, ghetto blanket curtain, guest bed without a mattress because it we used it for Caetlin's big girl bed.

Unorganized fabric, extra blankets, the hubby's guitars, random crap up on the shelf.

 And now

A crib, a mattress, real curtains.

 I love the curtains. They took me about 5 months to finish and I'm kind of pissed off about it because they are so pretty I wish I'd just buckled down back in September and finished them then!

Ruffle-y deliciousness.

This morning I hung some Ikea curtains for the closet doors.

 I've still got a little more cleaning to do but most of the junk has been moved out.
Baby's dresser, which is a work in progress, is tucked in the closet and will double as the changing table.

 And last but definitely not least, our new brick walkway!

 

This is what the area looked like when we moved in back in April.

 

Here it is in October after baby girl tripped on the uneven broken cement chunks and busted her lip open twice in under an hour. I got a little crazy and decided it was coming out, NOW!

Day 2 of me ripping up the cement.

After I marked off the new walkway and started digging.

And today.

 I love it. The hubby did all of the brick work by himself. I supervised from a patio chair with my feet up. ; ) The entire project cost us under $200. I think it adds so much more to the backyard than the old "path" ever did and the girls can run and ride their bikes and scooter over it without breaking their faces.

 We also moved over a garden bed so we can have our herbs closer to the back door and kitchen & I can't wait until spring so I can plant some pretty flowers down the right side next to the house.

Oh, yeah.
 

It's now the home to my fabulous little compost bin.

 I built it at the beginning of December out of a bunch of scrap wood. The hubby was surprised and so was I! Because he actually liked it!

 And just a little update of how I'm looking now-a-days.

Yeah, there's a lot of baby packed in there now.