Homesteading

It all started with goats milk soap that I found at my local thrift store. I am all about natural items. So I picked them up.

I love goat's milk soap! Now the first week was rough. I used it in my hair as shampoo and my hair looked rough for about a week. My face broke out for a week too. If you can make it past that, you will be good to go.

And that is what started the "farm".


I started looking for milk goats. We ended up with three hogs.
Those three hogs brought on, lets get chickens. We are picking up chickens on Sunday.
Those chickens have brought on, lets get goats. (Finally) Which we might be picking up on Sunday as well.

Oh and we have a deposit down on two female hogs.

Yes, the fun is beginning.

Mom Wars

    I just don't get it. Why do we always seem to tear people down? Why do we always have to at like we are the prefect parent?

   I logged into Facebook and checked a page I rarely post to. I rarely post to this page because the moms, who are all twin moms, are horrid to each other. It is sad really because having multiples is hard enough. Having another multiple mom tear you down makes you feel even worse.
 
  The poor lady posted about her bad day and how she got upset with another mom with one kid at the grocery store because she took the double cart. She was just venting because she already had a hard day before the grocery store and she was hoping for just a little bit of peace. Well it didn't happen. The MoMs tore her apart on the site. Why? I can only guess they are perfect and have wonderful rainbow, unicorn and glitter days.  No one is perfect. Why can't we show compassion instead of mean nasty words towards someone?

  That wasn't the first time I have seen other moms tearing each other down. It is sad. Why can't we just look at each other and say, "Hey, I know you are doing the best that you can. We all are".


 So here's to you moms. I know you are doing what you think is best and right for your kids. I know that some days we lose some days we win. I know that some days are a heck of a lot harder than other days. We are all just doing the best we can.

Glitter, rainbows and unicorns to all!

So hard

I have no may ideas and things I need to do but I never seem to get them finished. Why? I am a procrastinator. Plus my kids are just too darn cute not to spend every minute with. Well almost every minute.

Organizing is not my strong suit. Meal planning has gone down the shoot. My house looks like a tornado hit is and then came back and hit it again.

I need to just do it.

I have got to get together a calender for the summer. This includes activities for all the kids and for the first time ever home school plans. I think that the home school planning is making me a bit nervous. I have no idea were to start, how to assess, etc... I have my seven yr olds cursive learning folder done, that is it. Next week is the first full week of summer vacation! YIKES! The younger kids I have no clue... Best get to work on that huh?



Meal planning... yea...

I did do it for awhile. It kind of slipped away from me. We are back to eating the same stuff over and over again. The reason: I know how to cook the stuff we eat over and over again. Reading recipes takes time. Time I usually don't have when cooking since I have screaming kids on my legs. I seriously need to do better though. We've eaten horribly the last few months.



The big one:

Cleaning out the house. I don't' seem to ever have time do it. I honestly have taken out about three trash bags full of just toys. It hasn't even scratched the surface of what needs to go. What is sad is that my kids don't play with over half of what they get for Christmas and birthdays.  We have over flow and it just looks bad in the play room. No matter how many times I organize it. (Yes, I do actually do that.) It looks like a huge mess.



Regular cleaning:


Oh yes. I really don't like to clean because it means I have to move the thousands of items on the floor.  I do dust what I can and I vacuum on average five times a day.  But dusting and folding laundry hahahaha. My couch is a clothing catcher and my entertainment center is a breeding place for dust mites.




So how to get it done... I have no clue. Keep chugging along.

Climbing high

I guess I saw it coming but just didn't let it sink in.

I have a climber. An 11 month old climber.

It started off small. She climbed into little kiddie chairs. Climbed up on me while we sat. Try to nurse upside down. Climbed up the porch steps. I really just did not think much about it. Until.....

She climbed up the rock wall on the big kids play equipment. Oh no we are in trouble.  I hung out clothing and I had just looked back to check were the kids were. (We are fenced in the back yard.)  I turned back around and hung two items of clothing on the line. Turned back around and BAM there was my sweet little baby girl half way up the rock wall. I promptly took her down and put in her in the swing.

Next item she climbed was the recliner. She didn't just stop at the seat. Oh no that would be too easy. She climbed onto the top back of the seat. Lesson learned not to leave the room with her in it.


My desk top isn't immune either. Let to go potty and she was on top of my lap top. She learned how to make the mouse disappear.... Was not fun rebooting and figuring out how to make it reappear. (I'm not computer savvy people.)


Finally scare mom moment was when she climbed up on the big people chairs onto the kitchen table. I will never go potty again without her.


The question is how in the world do you stop her?  I don't really think there is a way. She is going to have to learn on her own like all the other kiddos. I'm sure falling is in our future. It happens. We haven't had any broken bones yet!

Rain

Praise the Lord we finally got rain here in the south! I think the kids were stunned this morning when they looked out their windows! Plus the rain made for good sleeping weather since Brayden slept in a few more minutes than normal and the girls about half an hour. This is major since we are all usually up no later than 6:30 am!

We have been a bit lazy today since we can't go outside and play. That is okay though. Sometimes we need the nice lazy days to just recoup from out wild crazy busy lives.

Learned a valuable lesson

So today  learned a valuable life lesson that honestly I should have already figured out.

Never vent about anything online.

Never do it.

I don't have much time for adult conversation considering I have four under three years of age. They are in the stage of getting into everything no matter what and I never get a break. I am Mom 24/7 even when Dad is at home.

I know I am stretched very line. I also know that this will not last.

I also complain about the dumb things hubby says and does and yes he does alot of things. He has a short temper.  This doesn't make him a bad person.  It upsets me greatly but does not make him a bad person. Nor does it make me a bad parent.

We don't agree on our parenting at all. I'm more laid back go with the flow because I am here all the time. If I were more strict I'd go CRAZY.  He is more strict and he is a spanker, I am not. I grew up having parents like that but reversed. My Mom was the spanker, my Dad... I can't remember my Dad ever disciplining me.  Now I do discipline my kids. They get time alone. My tornado three year old Brayden can't stand time alone. It works for him. The others I have never really had to give them time alone. Usually talking to the others works.  Different kids, different disciplines.

I admit we are extremely stressed out. Money wise we are screwed.  I keep the attitude of God provides what we need and when we need it. Hubby makes the income. He feels that he has all this responsibility on it and it makes his short temper even shorter. And yes he yells at me infront of the kids. (I never remember my parents doing that at all which could be why this shocks me so much. I can't even remember my parents having a conversation in front of us. Though my Mom reassures me that they did but I can't recall one at all).
People fight, they get mad, they get over it. No one is perfect at all.

I used to share in a group on facebook. I loved these woman. But I guess I over shared due to no adult contact. I shared what I would consider good news and bad news and the things my kids were doing that drove me crazy.  I won't say what I was told because I feel a bit violated. Especially coming from someone who has had problems of their own.

I guess the whole point is don't judge people. They don't know everything. They don't know how hard my hubby does work to support us. They don't know he tries to find side work when he can. They don't know our struggles or our joys. They don't know now he cooks supper when I am too tired or gets up to go put a child back to bed for the third time that night. Yes he can be a complete jerk but he can be sweet. May be just may be I am the issue, not him. They just don't know.

Maybe they don't understand that I have highly active children. They get into everything. It really is their age and it will pass. They don't know that I took my four kids out shopping alone and they were perfect angels. I even had two of the walking instead of in the stroller.

Whole point is don't judge.

The hardest post (Miscarriage post with details please be warned)

We only told a few people. I wanted to wait till I absolutely had to tell people due to the enlarged belly.  I was pregnant. I had morning sickness and sleepless nights. I started wearing maternity clothing due to my expanding middle. The appointment with my OB was made so that I would be nine week along. We went in. I measured only six weeks. I convinced myself that maybe I was off somehow. I mean we were preventing, not trying and I could have ovulated later, implanted later. Who knows right.  I made an appointment to come back the next week. The baby only measured around five weeks at that point with no heart beat.  Heart break.

I think the hardest part of having a natural m/c is the waiting. You know you had/have this baby inside of you and you know it is no longer really with you. You still have pregnancy symptoms. I craved things. I looked pregnant. I felt pregnant but really I no longer was.  I never knew when I'd start losing the baby. I went around wearing pads just in case. Two weeks went by with nothing and finally I started to spot. I spotted lightly four days, bleed medium for two and then one night all heck let lose.

I woke up while nursing my ten month old with cramping. I couldn't' move because she was nursing back to sleep and if I moved it would have kept her up with me. Finally she fell back to sleep and I got out of bed. I laid in bed cramping badly for about three hours. My husbands alarm clock went off at 5:45 and I got up. I ended up in the bathroom. I took a nice hot shower and started having contractions. Yes, I went into full blown labor. I've never experienced full blown labor.

Never in my life have I experienced so much pain. I couldn't move, contractions were every minute or so and got closer and closer. I had no pain medication and my husband started insisting I go to the ER. I kept telling him no. I was in no shape to even try to walk to the car. Three hours into it I finally passed my baby and placenta all at once.  Then there was calm.



I must say that the woman who go through this once, twice, three times, etc.. Ya'll are extremely brave and strong woman. I don't know if my heart could do that. I know it is something a lot of people don't talk about. No one wants to talk about death. Especially when it is a baby. So most live in silence. We have. Only a few people knew I was pregnant. A lot of the people weren't related to us.


Now a few weeks later I still have a tummy that I am trying to get rid of. I feel mad/sad/okay all at the same time. I see people announcing births and pregnancy and I'm happy for them and sad at the same time. We didn't plan to get pregnant. We always try to prevent but God had other plans and I'm sure there is a reason for this. I wish I knew it.