They're here!!!!

It seems like every afternoon I am struggling to think of something interesting to post here and before the night is over.....boom!! Something interesting comes up. lol Today I was so excited when I went to go see my FIL. I was backing out of the drive and noticed that over in our cluster of mailboxes was a package sticking out of someone's box. Oh how I hoped it was mine!! I have been on pins and needles since I ordered my very first batch of prefolds and covers from Baby Cotton Bottoms. There it was!! My diapers are here! I cannot believe how excited I have been about this.


I'm also getting ready to embark on another wonderful journey....... homemade laundry detergent! Borax is a main ingredient and readily available at your local grocer or WallyWorld. I already have it on hand, although I cannot recall why, lol. Washing soda is another main ingredient. CANNOT FIND IT ANYWHERE! I was going to purchase it online but wasn't thrilled with the shipping costs. So, I tried Ace Hardware online. They had it for less with free shipping to my local store (yes my local store is 65miles away, but it is down the street from my Dr office which I am now going to every two weeks, so). Now there was the detergent bar. Also, could not be found anywhere near me. I know that some people use Ivory soap, but I worry that it won't get the job done and we all have such sensitive skin that we couldn't use it for anything else. Which leads to the thought that if we are all too sensitive to wash with Ivory, how will it affect our clothing? So, Ivory is out! Since it is overwhelming to try to figure out what needs to be in a bar of soap to have it effective, I am sticking with the recommended brand of Fels Naptha. I know that a lot of people just use whatever soap they have on hand, but I worry that it won't get the job done. I have boys, lots of boys. They are filthy, not that their sister is any cleaner. I worry about stains and grime and all the other nonsense. So, the decision has been made to stick with Fels Naptha. That was also spendy online (either you had to buy in bulk, major bulk, or they got you with the shipping). The whole point of this detergent experiment is to save money, so having to fork out a bunch of money for shipping just isn't an option. Also, I'm not interested in buying in huge quantities since this is an experiment and I must be prepared for the unfortunate event that it should not work out for our family. I called my 'local' Ace Hardware and explained my dilemma. The woman explained to me that they were a small store, but that she would be more than happy to call some of the larger stores to locate the Fels Naptha for me. She said that she could probably have a couple of bars sent to their store if she could locate some. She is going to call me by 10am tomorrow morning! I was so taken by her customer service skills. I am so happy that she is willing to go the extra mile. They really are my go-to for hard to find household and hardware needs, so here's a plug for them! lol So, hopefully next weekend I will be making my first batch of detergent. I'm going to go with the powder version since it is less work and I already use powder form store bought detergent. I'll let you know how it ends up. PS, I will also be using these on my cloth dipes so here is to hoping that it works out for us.

Babies really ARE delivered by storks!!

Today's drama has been an ongoing deal. There are no stores that carry maternity clothes within 1.5hrs of me (unless I speed, then it's more like an hour). This includes Walmart. Now, you can buy maternity clothes at Walmart.com, but I had significant changes in my weight within a year of becoming pregnant and am just never sure what size I wear. Plus, when you outgrow your pants, you sort of need some new ones......NOW (especially when it is in the single digits outside with a killer wind chill factor). So, we tried our fourth WallyWorld today. They told me that none of the Walmarts sell maternity clothes. I felt it pertinent to bring to their attention that they have a HUGE baby and kid section. Where do they think the babies come from? Is it more likely that they come from pregnant women (you know, the ones who are buying the massive diapers and baby products) or that they are falling from the sky? One of the associates there thought that was pretty funny. A woman at church told me it is because most pregnant women want to wear those tight shirts or let their bellies hang out. I thought, not if they are on their fifth kid and their bellies look like well worn road maps! C'est la vie, I suppose.

So, in utter defeat and desperation, I caved. I needed pants now!! Not in a week when I finally go to the larger town for my next Dr's appointment. I decided that comfy wasted sweats would work, thank you Hanes! Much to all of our surprise, I still fit into a medium!! I almost did a happy dance in the fitting room, but if you've ever seen a large pregnant woman dance you would know that I didn't to the benefit of those around me. They also had these soft, soft flannel shirts for women, um er girls I guess. I grabbed the biggest size I could find, XL, and brought her home. It is peasant fitting at the top and then ties at the bottom. I think I have a little room to grow, but not too much. The nice thing is that it feels wonderfully soft on my sensitive and stretched skin. Also, it has potential as a nursing top (you know, since no one sells those either).

I do love living in podunk, but there are definite some disadvantages. I had to include a pic of me and the youngest because he was having a really sweet moment. He came to have a pic with me for hubby and told me that I look perfect. Sometimes kids know just what to say.

Over Doing It

I would say not much to report today, but the 'to report' is that I seriously over did it yesterday and had the worst pain in my back today. I did ignore it and clean house this morning to prepare to Jay's teacher. He had a great time, as usual. They did lots of Christmas crafts and read 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear'. He just loves learning and having all of that individual attention lavished on him. She said he is a teacher's dream because he seems to just soak up everything that he learns. I agree, but I am totally biased. lol

We went out today for lunch and did some shopping. Which made my back even worse and brought on the wonderful contractions. Oh, how I won't miss this. I wish it was all bliss, but pregnancy is rarely this beautiful thing that they display it as in Hollywood. I'm still very grateful for the kids and that they are healthy although not too often happy with me. I'm just saying that I think my body is more than telling me this is enough (and my dad would be the first one jumping up and down in agreeance, lol).

So, what have I done today? Well, it is currently 11 degrees and we are all hunkered down - although hubby has to go get Jay from Dad's house here in a minute; poor guy. We bought a new book for each one of the kiddos for Christmas today at Pamida. It was cool because we decided to do this after we found a wonderful book about Medieval battles that we thought would be perfect for Matt (and a great book to start our home school stash). He digs history which is super nice because Kevin does too and I'm not so into it. This means that I can give them time together and Kevin can teach that subject, giving me a little break. We are also discussing getting Matt an acoustic guitar and having Dad give him guitar lessons as part of his music studies. Ok, enough about homeschooling...... for now.

I have also sat around and knit and relaxed. Mainly because we are going to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow and I really needed to rest up for it. Kevin is trying to talk me into getting one of those buggies that you ride in while at the WallyWorld tomorrow. I know I should, but I just feel so silly. You know, like I am mocking someone who is really disabled (although I can't handle walking around for more than 15minutes before the pain starts). Thanks Dad! Now I'm overly respectful, lol. Anyhow, about the knitting. I am making myself a Rayne Wrap Sweater to use during maternity and nursing time, and well beyond I hope. I made it bigger than the pattern calls for to cover my ever expanding belly. I would say that I am roughly almost 2/5 of the way done. It knits up quick, but I feel like my time is limited. I'm using Vanna's Choice in a beautiful Sage Green. That's all for today. I leave you with this goodie!!

Chicken Coup and Other Nonsense

Well, I finally got out there and started the winterizing of the coup. Took me long enough, I know, but we are expecting temps in the negative numbers with the wind chill tonight and a high of 19 degrees tomorrow; so really it's just in time. I have a few things to finish up on tomorrow. I did get it cleaned out really well and sealed with foam sealer. I also purchased a bale of straw and put that down and added a nesting box (here's to hoping they actually use it). I also put a heat lamp in there and am getting ready to plug it in here in a few. They seemed pretty happy with it. I also tried to nail some wood slats down so that they would have a harder time dumping their feed at every meal! lol I do love my girls and am hoping I did enough to protect them. The oldest kiddo recently broke one of the doors, but I haven't fixed it yet (it's on tomorrow's list). Here they are in their comfy new accommodations! It must be love because my pregnant body is making me pay dearly. lol

On another happy note, at least for me, I ordered two Thirstie's Duo Diaper Covers and 24 Prefolds today from Baby Cotton Bottoms!! I have never cloth diapered before so I am so very excited to give it a whirl with this kiddo. It's silly, but I dream about diapers. It's been an interesting day on the home front! Now, I must be off. The house looks like a tornado hit it and Jay's teacher will be here at 10:30am to play with him. It's going to be an extra long night!

Days Out

Why is it that every time I have to go out for the day it requires hours of out time making me feel like I've wasted my day? Oh well, I guess it's a question for the ages. It's probably something I'll never understand; you know a time space continuum problem. lol Anyhow, I planned to tend to the coup today, but was out with dad for roughly 3.5hrs. I did get a heat bulb and straw for the coup. I plan to go out there nice and early tomorrow morning to get this done. Plan is the appropriate word. However, I did manage to get the dog bathed and her bedding washed. She loves being in with the kids. That's sort of a lot when you consider that I still managed to do quite a bit of homework, dinner and a few other chores. Nothing creative to report today, other than a little bit of knitting. There's always tomorrow, lol.

First Snow!!

We had our first snow of the season tonight! The kids are pretty excited about it although, much to their dismay, I have explained that there will not be enough snow to cancel school tomorrow. It wasn't supposed to snow until Tuesday, which is how I could reason that the coup could be sealed tomorrow. Oh well, I guess we know what I will be doing in the morning. lol

I had another very tired day and wasn't able to do as much as I wanted. I really need to find a way to get more sleep. It's not the kids that keep me up, it's the anxiety. It's very unexplained as I'm not upset about anything in particular. Actually, things are moving a long pretty nicely. I have a lot to do, but it's been that way for most of my adult life! I also have this restless leg deal going on. Hubby says I watch too many commercials, lol, but it's true. I get this almost pain in my legs where I have to stretch them or move them and sometimes I have to get up and move around the house to feel better. Oh well, only ten more weeks to go!

In other news, I have been sewing, well sort of. I

am working on Christmas quilts for kiddos and hubby and a maternity jean skirt for me. I had taken the needle off of my sewing machine because it had broken. Stupidly I had put it in a jar with the package of needles until I figured out which size needle I needed to put on the machine. I went to reneedle it last night and low and behold, the deal to hold the needle on was gone!! And the kids strike again! We are working on personal space, but so far no one is grasping it. Here is a pick of my feeble attempt to hand sew the sides of the skirt. I guess it could be worse and I never really learned the proper way to hand sew so I'm a little impressed with myself. lol I'll keep working on it and let you know how it goes. Other than that, we had a fairly lazy Sunday with lots of TV, lol. I cut fabric, sewed and knitted. I also managed to squeeze in a load of dishes!! That's ok, tomorrow is Monday and I have plenty to do then. If only my life understood that I'm pregnant and I don't have the energy for everything. I'm just hoping to get everything organized and ready for winter and the baby in the next month or so. This way I can just sew and knit!! See ya tomorrow!!

On the Re Path to Frugality

You know, I used to be very frugal and very good at it, well sort of. I have decided that our life needs to be on this route again. On the horizon: handmade christmas quilts for our family, handmade curtains for all the windows, cloth diapers that it looks like I will be making the majority of the stash, homemade baby food and embarking on the journey that is homemade laundry soap and hanging laundry to dry (again). We are also starting our long road into homeschooling. We will be starting with the youngest, 3yo, and next year will be doing the oldest as well, 11yo. We are waiting until next year to start on the oldest because we want plenty of time to research and plan and because with our impending surgery and birth, we want time to adjust.
Blogging is something I am trying to get. I wanted to be ambitious and do it every day, but it looks like that is just NEVER going to happen. Besides, I don't think I have enough positive things to say every day, lol. Instead, I would like to try this once a week. I'm going to be learning to do lots of new things and would like to share them, or at least document them for my own prosperity.
On to productivity!! OK, I wanted to have a good day with the kids but seeing how they only allowed me 4hrs of sleep and my very pregnant self needs more than that to feel human, it's off to a very rocky start. Other than regular chores, which don't even need to be mentioned, lol, we are going outside! Yes, I realize that it is 27 degrees out there, but I am hoping that it warms up just a bit. Then I figure if we do two spurts of 30-45minutes today that we can accomplish quite a bit. We are going to weed at least one of the garden boxes and clean and seal the coup. I've been talking about winterizing the coup for weeks now, but it's getting VERY cold now and it cannot be put off any longer. I do love my girls, after all. We will use the whatnot from the cleaning of the coup as fertilizer for the garden boxes (which is why we will be weeding). I also need to learn how to store chicken poo for fertilizer as we are wanting to put in at least four more small garden boxes this year; one for each kiddo. Other than that, it's homework for me and Matt, some knitting and more cutting of the fabric for quilts. I also want to make a maternity skirt out of a pair of Kevin's old jeans, but that's because I am getting SO big that none of the maternity clothes I just bought fit anymore. Ugh.
I think that's more than ambitious for today. Heck that's ambitious for the weekend. I'll check back later in the week.