No Poo: Week 2

Well, here it is. Week two and a couple of days, lol. My hair tends to feel kind of greasy on the second day, but I'm hoping that's just a phase. I'm thinking of doubling my baking soda and water. However, I'm also thinking of cutting my hair, again, lol. I've still got some damaged parts that need to go. I think I'll ask hubby his opinion. We shall see.

Here's another pic. My cat likes to lay like roadkill over my bump. I wonder what she'll think when she can't do that anymore, lol.

"Homeschooling" the Youngest

It amazes me that homeschooling is such a taboo topic, especially when we are supposed to be doing this if we don't put our children in preschools. Aren't we supposed to work on ABC's very young? Counting? Learning colors? Even beginning reading? These are things they are supposed to be able to do, or at least somewhat grasp, before entering kindergarten. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been subjected to kindergarten 'testing'; where they decide what class to put our kiddos into based on their abilities. I have been really getting into the idea of homeschooling my oldest for numerous reasons and wanted to start with my youngest. He is a sponge, after all, and easier to teach as he is only 3years old. I used to stay home with my oldest two boys when they were little. However, between the situation, work and never sleeping, I never really learned how to be a stay home mom and teach my kids. I'm learning that now, although it seems like it should be something that I would know by now. I am very greatful for my situation and that I'm able to stay home with the kiddos and try to give them the individual education that they need. That said..... Jay loves to learn. We got him this wonderful leapfrog 'scribble pad'. It is awesome!! lol Jay pushes the letters and then traces them on the pad and it erases as well. He enjoys it so much. It really makes me feel like there is hope for teaching the kids. I have to be honest; I have lost a lot of my gumshoe for homeschooling lately as it has been replaced with the anticipation of this baby being born. I'm sure I will pick it up again, very soon. This is just the beginning.

In other news, I am still pregnant. While I am not waiting to go into labor since we are having another section, I am seriously beginning to feel like I will always be pregnant. lol I know this phase will end, with a beautiful delight. I am knitting for her. I am working on a coming home outfit for her. She has a hat and socks now, and I am working on a dress for her to match. She is going to look adorable!! We contemplate what she might look like, you know hair, eyes and such. I can't wait to meet her. More news tomorrow as it will be the end of week 2 of No Poo. I'm going through the greasy part they warn you about. Two more weeks until it should subside, I hope. lol See ya tomorrow!!

A Brand New World!

It happened! My baby sister gave birth to her baby boy on January 20th at 8:30AM PST. Brennan was 8lbs 1oz and the most beautiful baby boy. It's all I can do to keep from plastering his face all over the internet. Thank goodness I believe in the privacy of others. lol The good news is that it finally got me off my rump to mail Brennan's goodies. I'd been putting it off because I wanted a pic for all you lovely folks. lol Here it is; a crocheted blanket, knitted wool hat, newborn size socks, and my very first baby sweater. I'm pretty impressed with myself and hope that the new mama understands how much time, dedication and love that went into those goodies. It's something I always worry about when I give a gift like this to anyone who does not craft. Although I'm sure she'll understand because our mom taught me to crochet and was quite the addict as well, lol.

I also finally got going on Miranda's goodies. Hubby's been teasing me for months about how if I keep knitting for everyone else that our little girl will be freezing when she gets here, lol. He's a silly man, but good point. I am working on her going home outfit. I finished her hat today and started her socks. I plan to make her a matching dress. I'm not sure if I'll have enough time or energy between the baby stuff, house stuff, family stuff and homework. I'm hoping to have the dryer fixed this weekend, please lord, so that I can get a better grip on the laundry situation. Not to mention washing baby clothes and prepping my diapers. We'll see what happens. I think that's all for now. Although my little girl went to her first sleep over tonight so I may have more to report soon. I have not gotten a call, yet. lol

No Poo: Week 1

So, today I embarked on yet another new idea. I think that perhaps I'm the kind of person who is open to new ideas, but more so if they are not mainstream thinking. I figure in my 31yrs on this planet I have tried pretty much most conventional means of most things, within my financial abilities of course. If they aren't within my financial abilities, then what is the point since I certainly would not be able to continue them. Anyhow, back to my original train of thought. I've been looking into this No Shampoo idea for about a year now. The last time I bought shampoo and conditioner, and of course they were pretty much industrial sized, I decided that when they ran out I would give this new idea a try. My hair has become fried over the years. It feels like straw and is frizzy whether I blow dry it or not. Although, it does look better when I don't blow dry. So, I am using the information off http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html#why ,a blog with lots of No Poo info. Anyhow the idea is to use baking soda and apple cider vinegar to clean your hair. I have heard many great things about this like how manageable, untangley, soft and natural your hair ends of being. I know that pregnancy hormones is not necessarily the best time to give this a go, but I figure if I start now that I can figure out what method and all that jazz that works for me instead of trying to figure it all out sleep deprived (or more sleep deprived than normal, lol). So that's the new thing. I'll keep track of my trials and results here. This is day one, week one. I used the method of mixing 1.5Tbsp baking soda with 1.5C warm water. It seemed to go ok. They have another method, which is to mix 1Tbsp of bs with just a smidgen of water to make a paste and rub it in. I thought I would try that next time. They recommend only washing your hair 2-3x a week as that is all you should need. That's pretty much all I do anyhow, even though hubby thinks it's weird and all, because otherwise I dry my hair out even more and who needs that.

And here I am, day one, air dried. LOTS of curls. More than normal. When I blow dry it, it is straight and looks dry and straw like. When I let it air dry, it usually has a bit of body but not much curl. Excuse the look on my face; I just woke up from a too short nap, lol. When I went in the bathroom I had tons of curls. I've got lots of hope for this experiment. I combed my hair when I got out of the shower and before I put it up in a towel. I think it looks cute, although a little haywire, lol. Keep in mind, though, that I slept on it out of the towel before taking this pic. Also, it's a little fuzzy because the batteries in my camera are dying. I'll have to get hubby to grab me some more tonight. That's all for now, folks!!

Getting bigger!!

...and bigger and bigger, lol. Here's me at 35wks, today. I keep thinking that I can't get much bigger, but I'm pretty sure I always feel that way at the end. The good news is that she dropped and I can eat again!! I was beginning to think that Rolaids had become a new food group and no one had told me. The heartburn isn't gone completely, but it has dissipated quite a bit. Although now I am waddling much, much more. We have a Dr's appointment tomorrow and I'm kind of excited to see what will happen. Not that I haven't been here before, but I also have not had any baby other than this one and Matt drop. It's funny. My mom used to always tell me that every woman and every pregnancy is different. Boy!! Did she ever hit that one on the head. I also carry this one and Logan very high and all three of the others very low. To each their own, I suppose. lol Well, I'm beat and can't justify being here when I am SO behind on my homework, lol. I'll have crafty pics and what not tomorrow.

Living in a postcard

We are finally expecting to warm up in the next week or so. It will be greatly appreciated but the pretty winterland we've been living in will be gone (probably not for too long though).

I have decided to put my foot down with myself; no more knitting for anyone else until my daughter has some fibery wonderfulness too! LOL I have been getting out of control with knitting for other people and I have not made one single thing for our baby. Ugh. Well, I have four weeks left and I intend to get my butt in gear! Other than that, the only other thing to report is how tired and burnt out I am on school. I also have four weeks of that left and cannot bring myself to be very productive at all. Oh well, tomorrow's another day....

Life in Isolation

We continued to be snowed in. It's not so bad, really, except that the kids have cabin fever and are starting to drive me a wee bit crazy. lol Hubby says he's going to go dig out the van so he can go to work tonight......we SHALL see. lol I know how thrilled he is in going out into negative temperatures with a snow shovel. Oh well, we know too well that I am not able to do it. We'll be wishing for some of this cold weather in August, I am sure. Human nature, we always want what we don't have.

Today I have been knitting. My little angel has either a knee or elbow poking out and causing a horrid bruising/stabbing type feeling. Yuck. It really makes me not want to do anything (although I need to get up and make lunch soon). The nice thing about feeling ucky All. The. Time. is that I am getting some knitting done. I did my very first rounded hat with dpn's and it only took two days, not constant for two days but ya know. I'm working on another set of newborn socks to match the hat. It's for a swap. I then have to finish the goodies I've been working on for Brennan (my sister's baby that should be here this month) and get those off. I have not made one single thing for my little one. I want to be done with everyone else's baby stuff by next week. That gives me four weeks to finish Miranda's goodies before she gets here. I really, really wish I had more time sometimes. Others I wish I was done. Soon enough. We have the cradle now, although it needs a sheet for the mattress, and we are going to pick up the car seat this weekend. I also went ahead and ordered a few maternity shirts. I know, I know, I said I wouldn't but even hubby's long shirts don't cover the belly anymore. Besides, I paid six bucks for one and seven bucks for the other and they will work for nursing as well. Besides, they are beautiful, lol. Anyhow, here's my finished baby hat.

Snowed In!!

So I know that the whole world is having crazy winter weather and we are no exception. Hubby was supposed to work tonight, but I could not be more thankful that the schools are closed tomorrow. How did I make that jump? Well, hubby's employer is a big box company and the employees are supposed to be able to call in for weather that is unsafe to drive in, ie. tornadoes, blizzards and the such. Well, apparently his store does not honor this policy as we have learned in the past. However, if the schools are closed then their absence can be excused for weather. I have been looking outside all night since the snow started coming down really hard at around two ish. It's hard to tell if it's still snowing or if the wind is blowing so hard that it looks like it's snowing. Yikes.

The kids had a good time playing in it when they got home today.

I started on my first hat knitted in the round. I'm pretty excited about it as it's going well and fast. I am prepping for another swap and this hat goes in the box (along with a pair of socks, if I can squeeze them out of the skein. That's the limitations for the round: one skein.). I've been feeling especially yucky and out of control today, so I've mostly knitted. It makes me feel calm, or more calm than the crazy that seems to be my norm lately. Here's the work in progress.

The Goings On

It has been crazy lately. I am trying to buy a cradle off of craigslist.com that I think is just beautiful at a reasonable price. We have been trying to hook up since Thursday. It's been crazy. We keep missing each other and what not. We are going to try again. Here's a link http://kansascity.craigslist.org/bab/1527239843.html , isn't it beautiful? Anyhow, I'll post some pics after I get it set up and adorned.
It's been snowing here lately, A LOT. I don't have any new pics, but it's happening every couple of days, at least an inch or two. It's keeping us busy. We are also having negative temps. It's not so bad as long as you don't have to, oh I don't know, stand outside with the world's dimmest dog who is chasing the cat across the street even though she's on a leash and not going pottty. lol So there's that.
We came home from an outing the other day to find that the dryer had gone ca put. Yikes! Seriously, we have six people and a baby on the way to do laundry for and I do not foresee it being fixed anytime really soon. Hopefully my FIL will be coming over to look at it for us soon (I'm going to try to talk him into it tomorrow). He says it sounds like a belt. How nice would that be?!? If it's not, it won't be getting fixed/replaced until the end of January/beginning of February. I guess it's not too bad, but I have infant clothes to wash and cloth diapers to prep. We hung a clothesline in the basement this evening. It should be warm down there because it's where the furnace is, but there's two broken windows down there and it's freezing down there!! lol We are going to look into a dry rack or two tomorrow. I know that if I set it up in the shower and close the bathroom door that things will get dry pretty quick. I've never had a bathroom heat up so nicely before...... it makes me smile. lol Anyhow, that is what we are up to these days. Hopefully I'll have some knitting progress to report on soon.