Single parent

Ok, so the reason I haven't posted until now...

Single parent this week.

All I can say is yikes! I was good except the addition of teaching. That was the straw that tipped this camel's back.

With all the grading, test making, and lecture prep most all of my free time is taken up by class. And it never stops! College kids are needy, and request a lot of stuff...

I mean a lot.

I now understand why some professors seem so strict.

But I digress. I called in reinforcements one night. Thank goodness for my parents! I am blessed to have them!

Now I'm playing catch up and trying to get far ahead on my classes. That way when single parenting strikes again...and it will sooner than I think...I'll be prepared.

Granola...yeah, I guess so.

So it's happened.

I'm a completely granola mom.

I never thought it would happen, but the evidence is all there. Though I must warn you I sound pretentious, but I swear I'm not. I just do what is best for my family and if you do something different no bigs, this is just me...being a big ole hippie. ;)

1) I exclusively breastfeed. Apparently, this is now associated with being a hippie, which boggles my mind.

2) I also plan to allow Evie to self wean. I did the same for Elizabeth, only she wanted to quit at a year...I'm hoping Evie will do more than a year, but we'll see.

3) I sometimes co-sleep. I don't do it much anymore, but it is nice. Plus up to three months Evie was sleeping in the bassinet by our bed.

4) I cloth diaper. I love this, as Evie's skin looks great, we're not throwing anything away, and it saves us a TON of money!! But I did use disposables with Elizabeth.  I was full time then and she went to daycare.  Daycare = no cloth.

5) I make my own baby food. Even my own cereal...

6) I use cloth wipes, see #4.

7) I garden and try to stay organic. Again I love this, because there is a huge satisfaction growing your own food.

8) I make my own jams, jellies, freeze produce, and I'm learning to can and pickle. Big thanks to my mom, who is helping learn on my hippie journeying, by teaching me all this stuff.

9) I crochet most of our hats and scarfs. I try to make clothes for the girls. Though I've not been successful on the clothes.

10) I shop at a locally owned grocery store, keeping profits here in the USA. Ummm, this is more of a convenience thing as I hate the other grocery store in our area.

11) I shop as much as I can at the Farmer's market. This includes buying our beef and pork from there.

Which is why I wrote this post. There is something about buying local produce and meats that is so wonderful!

When you buy directly from the farmer, he/she gets all of the money. No feeding the corporate beast.

**Side note- Everything I buy at the farmer's market is CHEAPER than the grocery store- with the exception of our sausage, that is about a quarter more expensive (but totally worth it on taste)**

You also get local produce that was pick at freshness, only hours from reaching you. Unlike all the big grocers who pick unripe and transport all over to reach you days or weeks later.

You get grass fed, hormone free beef. Safer due to the lower amounts of E.coli and no additives (usually to kill E.coli) or dyeing meat to look fresh.

Best of all, tasty treats like this...

The blueberry bread I made just this week.  New recipe and it was GREAT!

which, I wouldn't have discovered without a good trip to the Farmer's market, where Mark found the tastiest blueberries ever!!!

So call me a hippie,

Or a granola mom,

I'm happy that way.

Though when you see my baby-wearing-liberal-minded self walking around don't forget to say hello.

I don't think it's catching...

Ha. Ha. ;)

Father's Day

A little belated, but the girls were prepared on Father's day-

First they woke him up nice and early, just like every father would want on their day.

Elizabeth wanted to make sure he got her homemade frog picture holder for his desk.

Then came the all important card.

We did a nice picture one, and as you can see Evie was not impressed by the events of the morning.

Then the gifts!

More photos of his girls!!

And the all so important- Small batch, hand roasted, select coffee from his favorite coffee place in Durham- perfect for those early mornings. 

Only because they hand roast it, in small batches, it hasn't arrived yet. Whoops.

Happy Father's Day!!

Tada Tuesday- Embroidery!!

So I'm putting off, it's ok, tuesday, for another week.  Instead I want to show off all the wonderful things my new sewing machine can do...it's terribly exciting, at least to me and blue haired old ladies.

I got started yesterday and once I started it was hard to stop.

All the stuff I did together.

Burp cloth for Evie and blanket for a friend's soon to be little girl.

Another blanket and burp cloth- again for a friend whose baby shower is Saturday.

Handkerchiefs for Mark- embroidered with a C in white- because he's "classy like that". 

Blanket that I'll be crocheting edges around for a friend.

What can I say, except I LOVE MY SEWING MACHINE!!

Though I do need to work on my construction of items (please do not look too closely at Evie's burp cloth- I did the top stitching wrong and didn't get my edges perfectly round) and placement in regards to fabric color (again do not look closely at Evie's burp cloth), I'm pretty happy with it.

Oh and I hope my friend doesn't read my blog anonymously...if she does she better act surprised on Saturday anyway. ;)

More to come soon!!

Mom Monday- Repetition

Most moms will tell you that repetition is the key to helping your kids learn.

They're right and want to know when you've repeated yourself enough for your child to learn the lesson?

When your child tells her father, "Daddy, you're not listening" and he in fact, isn't listening...

Welcome to the world of men sweetie, they take almost as much repetition to learn as the three year old does. ;)

Tada Tuesday

Ok, so I usually write an it's okay Tuesday post...and given the day I had yesterday I could use an it's okay day.

But too much has gone on lately.  I need to tell you all about the other stuff going on.  So I'm taking an it's okay break this week.

Instead it's Tada Tuesday!!  What am I all excited about you ask?  Well, as some of you all know I cloth diaper Baby Evie.  I've been loving it, but I had one complaint- Rinsing.

Now I know we all cloth diaper a little differently.  But I'm a firm believer in lots of rinses.  I rinse before the diaper goes in the pail.  I do a soak and rinse before I wash them.  Then I rinse them twice to make sure all the soap is out. 

Overkill, well maybe.  But I get a lot of the solid and liquids out before they hit the washer, then I get the rest out before I even add detergent. I want to make sure they stay nice without buildup (which can trap odor), so I add extra rinses after the washing.  All in all, it works great.  I don't have stains or worry that they aren't clean.

So I've know I've just confused you.  You're wondering if she's so happy with rinses, why is that her complaint?? Well, you know that rinse before it goes into the pail?  That was my dunk rinse.  What's that you ask? It's where you dunk the soiled diaper in the toilet to rinse out the solids.  Sound gross?  It's really not, but it gets old fast. 

How to you get around it? Two words- Diaper Sprayer!!  Now they sell them online for 50-60 bucks.  But I didn't want to spend on something I technically didn't need.  So my handy hubby made a trip to Lowe's. 

He bought a kitchen sprayer and hooked it up to the water line coming into the toilet.  It's awesome.  It sprays everything away, keeping my hands clean and out of the toilet, plus all Evie's waste goes where it belongs- the commode and not my washer.  Yay! 

The really nice part.  It has a water shut off valve. The ones online don't have this option. They just spray when you push the button.  Can anyone understand what is wrong with that?  I'll give you a hint...

She gets a vet set and the cat is the patient.

Just imagine what little Miss Elizabeth could do with her own sprayer.  It boggles the mind.  But the good news, mine has a shut off valve.  So unless the valve is engaged it won't spray and although my three year old is very clever, she hasn't figured that out yet.

By the way, I love it. It works super well, and was about 30 bucks cheaper than buying online, plus I have the all important shut off valve. 

Way to go, Handy Hubby!

Mom Monday- Mother's Day Edition

Mark, my hubby, tried to convince Elizabeth that it was Mommy's special day.

She didn't buy it.

Mark- "It's Mommy's special day, tell Mommy Happy Mother's Day".

Elizabeth- "It's not Mommy's special day, it's MY special day".

Mark- "Your special day is Saturday, when we have your pirate party.  Today is Mommy's day".

Elizabeth- "NO.  It's MY day, it's not Mommy's day".

Mark- "At least tell Mommy you love her".

Elizabeth- "It's MY day, I love you".

Where was Mommy?

Blissfully staring at my NEW SEWING/EMBROIDERY machine.  Happy Mommy Elizabeth Day to me!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Want to know what my wonderful husband and kids got me for Mother's day?

BEST MOTHER'S DAY GIFT, EVER!

I confess I should totally apologize to my hubby.

It's that time of the week, time to confess all those things that make life fun, annoying, and everything in between.  So after enjoying my lovely confessions, head on over to Mamrazzi  to read everyone's confessions or to join in and confess yourself.




I confess,

That two weeks ago, I didn't want to clean the bathrooms, so I bargained with my husband so that he would do them. Even worse, I didn't come through on my end of the bargain. But I figure it's good to remind him what I do every now and again. ;)

I confess,

I always have cold hands and feet.  I warm them up on my hubby, which isn't fair as I really do have the hands and feet of the dead.  Sometimes he yelps when I put them on him.  Oops.


I confess,


That sometimes when my oldest daughter gets up in the middle of the night, I make my hubby go instead.  I figure I birthed her, so I should get a break, right?


I confess,


I have a fierce temper.  I don't take things well...but I pride myself that I haven't dumped a table of food items on him yet like my great grandmother did to my great grandfather.  Did I mention we're redheads?

I confess,

I hate when my hubby snores through a movie or tv show.  I'm not that interesting and have to have fodder to talk to him about...if he isn't awake then it just becomes one of those boring stories of me telling him what happened.  Or, I have to rely on my wits and as I said, I'm just not that interesting.

I confess,

I hate when he leaves clothes in the dryer to wrinkle.  I should appreciate that he does laundry and that he will usually fold and put it away too...but still it's so wrinkly!!

Well, hopefully he reads this and forgives me...in fact, he'd better or I'll start to rely on my wits and no one wants that.