Easter 2013

We had lots of big plans for Easter, some which didn't go as planned.  We made it to our Easter Journey at church Saturday morning.  The kids had LOTS of fun, played with their cousins & friends & made some pretty cool crafts.  After a while of playing on the playground & tantrums in refusal to go home, we finally dropped papa off and made our way back home.  And that's when it happened.  I got Kyleigh out of the car, blazing hot with a fever.  After coming inside she got weaker by the minute.  We dosed her with Motrin, threw her in the tub & she got some rest.  While sissy got some rest, i ran to the store & got some McCormick Neon Food Coloring, Vinegar, Paas Color Cups & Eggs.  I usually use Paas Dye kits with the tablets, but i wanted more vibrant eggs this year as opposed to more dull colors.  Also this year, we got a chance to dye eggs without a horrible mess & everybody else got a nap.  To avoid Kade spending the whole weekend inside, we let him spend the night with Mimi & Papa.  He had a blast, got new toys & candy & got to goof off all night.  We spent the remainder of our Saturday with a weak, feverish baby.  She woke up sick in the middle of the night & that's when i noticed she had blisters on her feet.  It appears Kyleigh picked up Hand, Foot & Mouth from nursery.  Not quite the Easter weekend i had planned when i laid their clothes & shoes out and had gotten so excited about our sermon at church (which we all missed).  Luckily, our church's website has the sermons available for listening.  

Later Sunday afternoon, Ky was back up and being her silly, sassy self.  We decided to load up & go to Mimi's house for Easter dinner and to get their baskets.  The kids played in their inflatable, played in the woods with the goats & loved on their grandparents.  Not a bad weekend by the end of it.  And of course, I read to Kade & explained to him the real reason behind celebrating Easter isn't about a big, goofy looking bunny rabbit and candy and toys.  He understands that Jesus died and suffered for our sins on the cross and was risen three days later.  I love my children and want them to never to forget what real love is.  

Hopefully, next Easter my kids can dodge sickness & we can make it to church as planned. 
Below are some of the highlights of our weekend.  Enjoy!

Catch-Up

Soooo, it's been a while since i've had the chance (or the amount of sleep to stay awake) to blog.  Chasing around my one & three year old are quite time-consuming but more rewarding than anything in this world.  I'm still at home full-time, with intentions of homeschooling.  I re-dedicated my life to God last June and SO much has fallen into place for my family.  We are absolutely blessed to be part of such an amazing & supportive church.  My babies have made so many friends & I have been able to reconnect with my church family.  I spend my Sunday mornings in worship & my Wednesday nights helping with the preteens in Awanas.  Kade has earned so many badges in Cubbies it's insane.  Kyleigh has made a few friends and learned that mommy isn't abandoning her.  

My parents built a barn & fenced in their woods to start a little farm.  Keeping woods cut down so they won't become a forest was too much work.  Plus we've all learned that goats are pretty awesome creatures.  Most of our time spent at the grandparents on the weekend is spent chasing goats, doodling with sidewalk chalk on their horns & "fishing" for crawfish.  More critters to come soon!

Kade continued to have speech trouble due to his frequent ear infections.  He could show how smart he was from his sight word, number, letter, color & shape DVDs.  He just lacked the ability to form good sentences & communicate like some children his age.  We got a speech referral last June & by October he had his first appointment for therapy.  Within the first month he was communicating his wants/needs and carrying on normal conversation.  He is still working on making choices & asking and answering complex questions.  The first time he told me he loved me was July 30th 2012.  Never forget that day.  He now says his prayers alone at bedtime.  He has made so many friends at church.  His progress has been a true blessing. 

Also, Kade continued to have ear infections after the first set of tubes.  The first one was within a month of the surgery.  Then they continued over the summer.  By September, his ENT had come to the decision that his tonsils were obstructive.  He snored in his sleep, continued to have ear infections (which may lead to chronic ear infections, sleep apnea & speech troubles), and had frequent night wakings.  In October, we scheduled a second set of tubes along with a tonsillectomy.  This required an overnight stay due to his age & weight.  Everytime somebody entered our room after his surgery he screamed.  He was absolutely terrified.  We were visited by Mimi & Papa, Sissy & our friends from church.  We had many prayers over him.  He wouldn't eat in the hospital until his IV "cast" was removed and were warned he would be prone to bleeding from the lack of fluids.  NOT ONE BIT.  The only complication we ran into was the fever a week later from the scabs falling off his throat.  And I've become quite the fan of the surgery.  No more night wakings unless he's throwing up, no snoring & only one ear infection since the surgery.  

Next month we will be listing our house and hopefully selling ASAP.  We hope to be building our new home on our land by the end of the year.  Many more things to come in 2013, just playing catch-up!!

Motherhood

Yesterday I saw an image on Facebook that made me feel a lot better about myself. It read "being a beautiful mother isn't about how you look, but how you live." The image showed a mother reading to her two young children in a robe, with her wet head wrapped up in a towel & glasses on.

I immediately sent this to my best friend Brittany. We always talk about how we have to strategize to take baths somedays, how we only care for makeup on special occasions, and our children are our #1 priority.

I am not the perfect mother by any means. I get easily overwhelmed, frustrated, and sometimes feel like I'm running an insane asylum. My house is never perfectly cleaned. I never wear makeup at home because my husband is amazing and actually prefers when I don't wear it! My hubby also works two jobs to support me being a SAHM, while saving for our future home to be built on our land. I watch Yo Gabba Gabba with my son on a daily basis while dancing & singing along (even in the car sometimes). I talk to my cat like she is my child (I love my cat more than some people love their children, and yes, she is my furbaby!). That is my life in a nutshell.

I haven't placed anything else before my children. Too often I've seen kids shuffled around because their parents don't have time for them because they won't MAKE time for them. I'm not knocking people with jobs because I know you have to support your family. However going out to bars EVERY weekend and getting plastered to the walls isn't a valid excuse for ditching your children in my book. My weekends mainly consist of spending time with my husband and children at my parents to cookout and swim. Every other Saturday I do my grocery shopping and occasionally me and my husband go out to eat and to a movie.

Another pet peeve of mine is that I hear too many people say they need "me time". My husband about has to break my arm for me to even go pick up food from a drive-thru without one or both of the kids. My purse is always packed with a diaper, a pull-up, big boy undies & a bag of Cheerios or Goldfish depending on my son's current favorite snack food. My husband and I are even seriously thinking of homeschooling our son & daughter. I consider myself lucky to not have this so-called "me time" be a part of my routine.

So for anyone who has seen me at home or out in public without makeup and rocking some pajamas I apologize for my appearance. However, I won't apologize for making sure that my children look good, are clean & happy. My kids won't care when they look back at all of the pictures that mommy wasn't wearing makeup. They will care that they had a mommy who raised them herself and had fun with them!

One Month of Cloth Diapering

About a month ago I went ahead and switched Kyleigh to her Charlie Banana diapers and cloth wipes for both kids. I have been anxious for a long time to dwindle down our disposable stash to get started. Also I'd been nervous about not having a fancy sprayer to connect to my toilet like many other CD mommies I'd seen. So I figured out a way that works out for me, saving me oodles of money as well. I bought a cheap spray bottle from Walmart, filled it with water & a little bit of Dreft.

I started about a month ago while I still had a decent supply of disposables as a backup just incase I didn't like the whole concept of cleaning the poo off of the inserts or incase she didn't like them for whatever reason.

Now that I'm typing this post up, I can tell you I put entirely too much thought into what my experience would be and nearly talked myself out of something I truly LOVE now. I won't lie, my first few days I went through the shuffling of the baby & the covers and inserts to avoid a completely stinky mess. By day 3 I'd gotten my routine down pat! And now it's like clockwork. We use 2 inserts at a time. Since Ky is rolling but isn't such a squirmed that she knocks inserts out, I lay them on top to avoid going through a cover for each diaper change. I wash diapers every night when the kids are asleep and I've never run out of diapers or inserts between washes =)

I wish I'd known about all of the options cloth diapering has now when my son was born! I assumed I'd be stuck with flat diapers that require safety pins and leak pee and poo everywhere!! Despite the fact that I won a free year of diapers with Huggies when he was 6 months old we still spent SO much money on disposables. Our house fund would be much more hefty if I'd known then what I know now!! However, you live and you learn. And cloth has definitely made life a little less rashy and more comfy in this house!!

Pinterest Project

Food Coloring & Little Cups with vinegar

Paper towel-lined casserole dish with baking soda & my dropper from Easter eggs

5-6 drops of food coloring per cup

Set up our little station with towels to protect from clumsiness (myself that is!!)

My child informing me that he wanted me to do it.  He wanted to see the reaction,  not cause it himself.

Covering up his cold little legs & watching the fizzing.

All Done!!

Preparations For Switching To An All Cloth Household

Recently, I've been following many fellow mommy bloggers who are pretty hardcore about cloth diapering (wipes, wet bags, etc as well). I did some more research into it myself. I looked through dozens of different diapering brands, learned all of the acronyms along the way, and decided I wanted in on this! Thanks to my amazing parents for helping us along the way by buying our diapering needs for both children!!

I chose Charlie Banana one size diapers to start Ky off with. We bought 12 of the Tutti Fruitti one size diapers, 12 extra Medium/Large inserts, Planet Wise hanging diaper pail, 90 Tender Bottoms (on Etsy) cloth wipes (for both kids), PW cloth wipe case & a PW Medium wet bag. We have already started using our wipes and they are amazing. I highly recommend checking out Tender Bottoms on Etsy!!

I spent about 4 hours washing all of my stash up and hanging them in various places to dry. I've discovered we now need a folding drying rack as a result.

I haven't run out of disposable diapers yet but I wanted to be completely set up for our first day =)

Look for updates coming soon!!


Here are some pictures of my stash as well!!

This is only the first set of 30 we bought. The two new sets are washing as I type this.

Happy Cow Creamery

Since 2009, Happy Cow has been part of our grocery routine & a source of entertainment for my son who is now in LOVE with cows. Every turn on the way there, he yells out cow and gets more excited. Not to mention that the Pametto Bakery Cinnamon Swirl bread is a necessity at our house, thanks to a certain particular eater. The ladies there receive a call from me once a week and hold several loaves of bread for us. Not to mention we usually find all sorts of neat food & knick knacks there. If you haven't been there and live near or in Pelzer, SC, its definitely worth the trip!!
Here's our birdhouse for our future home & our bread stash from our last trip.