Deep Breath, I did it.

I finally cut my baby boy's hair. His hair was getting so long that it would constantly get in his little eyes. So I took him up to Wild Child to get it cut, everyone kept calling him a little girl so we thought the haircut would make him look like a little boy. Well he kinda looks more girly being he has so many curls but he is still so precious looking he could get a way with anything.

Easter Egging, and Chicks First day of Freedom

Easter Sunday was a blast, Jeremy and I got to stay home with the kiddos all day and not worry about a thing. Wait, I guess Jeremy had to run 12 miles that evening in prep for his Marathon in June. So let me rephrase, I had a wonderful Easter Sunday and got to stay home with my kiddos and enjoy the day. In the morning we colored Easter Eggs together and then mom suddenly got a caffeine headache so Jeremy and the kids went to the store to get mom a cold coffee. While they were out a sneaky bunny hid all the eggs and left behind some Easter baskets. What a sneaky rabbit. The kids came home and hunted for there baskets and luckily found all the eggs. Later that day Jeremy started Raking in the back yard in our garden which was covered with leaves for the winter. Sure enough he found a sure sign of spring, Our strawberry plants were already coming up. I am so exceited for spring!! What a wonderful way to celebrate Jesus, being home with the family no worries or hurries, and we were able to enjoy each other and the lovely Earth God gave us.

Yesterday Jeremy made the chicks a portable coop. They spent the day outside scratching the ground and fertilizing it. They have a much prettier coop waiting for them when they get a few weeks older but this is a nice inbetween. They still need to come inside when the temp gets below 61 degrees but during the day they are lovin the sun.

Finally pics of the chicks

The Chicks arrived last friday and were hatched on April 1, 2009. They are 10 days old today. Wednesday I had the wonderful joy of bringing all 11 chicks to Norahs class room and then to Rollans Class room. The kids enjoyed the chicks so much and had wonderful questions to ask. The last picture is a today picture, the chicks have almost doubled in size. The cute chick is named Black Betty and is my favorite. If I put my hand in the cage she runs up and jumps on my hand to be held. She is always looking up out of the playpen for me when I leave. I will post a new pic each Friday so you can see how they have grown. The Brown Birds are the Rhode Island Red and they have already gotten in there Footbal shoulder pad feathers and there tail feathers, these birds will lay brown eggs. The yellow birds are the meat birds, they will be harvested after a short 6 weeks. These birds will turn white and are called Jumbo Cornish If they are not harvested there heavy weight will put them into cardiac arrest and they will pass from that. Lastely is the Barred Rock which is a beautifly black and white striped bird. They will lay brown eggs after 6 months of age.

But Don't I cloth Diaper???

Yes I do cloth diaper Garet. But Garet will be three next month and he has started to wet a ton. Unfortunatly when we go to the gym and overnight his diapers just can't hold up to his power 3 year old bladder so we opt for sposies (AKA paper diapers). This was a hard thing to do and I know if I was a little more dedicated I could put a woolie or fleece cover over his diapers but there have been such great deals on diapers and I know I only have about a month left of the diapers that it is tough for me to purchase a 15-20.00 woolie or fleece cover. So If your wondering what should you do with your child to be thrifty I say CLoth diaper all the way. Cloth diaper until they are at that 2.5-3 years of age and then if you can't keep up with the wetting through switch. You will save so much money, your child will love how much they stay dry and they will have little no diaper rash with cloth diapers. Unlike sposies which cost .20+ cents a piece, cause diaper rash, smell way worse than I cloth diaper could ever smell, hang down to there knees in the morning, and fill your garbage and the landfill. (no I don't believe in global warming, but I do believe in the diseases spread through bugs hanging out on dirty diapers in landfills and the uglyness of diapers that will NEVER break down)plus your garbage bill will be smaller since you are not throwing 6-10 diapers away a day. Water costs for Cloth diapering are equivilant to a toddler that is potty trained. They say as much as a toddler flushes the toilet after going is the same amount of water you use to wash the diapers. I spray my diapers off with a toilet sprayer and then add the close to clean diapers into my whites load so I see no difference in my water bill. Please note the average child is usually potty trained before 3. All my kids Cloth diapered or not have not trained until 3 years of age. So your chances of them wetting through like my little guy is rare. Cloth diapers can be spendy at 15-18.00 a piece but remember you only need 10-12 diapers, you can find cheaper more inconvient ones out there for 2-5.00 a piece or you can sew your own with all the free patterns out there for about 4.00 a piece. I loved Fuzzi Bunz and so I sewed my own diapers that were close to the Fuzzi Bunz syle.Tthere will be a few new ones at Essence of Flowers in Litchfield by Monday. If you like them I can sew you some at 15.00 a piece. I have a ton of colors otherwise I can show you how to sew your own. If I know you well enough I will lend you my snap press to get that professional and convient diaper. If you don't know me and still want to make diapers you can make great ones like Thirsties or BumGenius with velcro. I think there diaper patterns are out there also. I found them on the sewyourowndiapers yahoo group which posts a few free diaper patterns. There are also used diapers on Craigslist. I would suggest this but I am a little leary. If I child has a yeast infection or any other type of infection it can stay in the diapers and travel to the next child. Yuck, buy or make new ones. Covers are fine to buy used if you go that route. I prefer pocket diapers which don't need a cover and are very slim fitting. My old store that I sold is www.mysweetpickles.com The new owner is very nice and has some good info on her site. IF you have questions please call me or email me. I did own a store and I have made my own diapers so I do think of my self as very experienced in this area.

Above are some pics of some diapers I made this year. The sesame street and Muppet ones Had to be discontinued. I actually received a ceist and desist letter from Sesame street for making them. Anyways you can see how fashionable your babies bum can be. The character faces are put on the bum and I used to make them for 30.00 a piece.

Its Pouring over here

My crazy thoughts took over today and I talked my dear husband into driving to two different Fleet Farms and a Menards to find Maple tree taps. After going to Blain MN we found 6 Maple taps and 6 1 gallon Buckets. Little research I did I felt comfortable drilling into our 2 beautiful Maple trees for sugar water A.K.A. Syrup. My husband is so wonderful he just goes along with my thoughts. This time he thought there is no way I am going to get syrup. He told me the season is almost done and you need at least 10 gallons to make a quart of syrup. I somehow still talked him into it and said it would be a great experience for the kids even if we were only able to get enough syrup for a quart.
When we bought the stuff I was expecting this slow drip that would maybe give me a quarter to half a gallon a day. I thought I would be lucky if I got 10 gallons by the end of the week and then the season would be done. Well as it turns out the season can go on until the later part of April as long as it is over 40 degrees during the day and under 30 degrees at night. So I do wish for this miserable weather to stay for at least 2 more weeks.
Moving on with the story, Jeremy tapped our trees around 6:30 tonight. About 7:30 I started getting nervous because they were filling so fast, Jeremy told me to get a large pot and we would dump them in there. For sure all the bucket would fit in this pot. WRONGO! We had only made it to two buckets and the pot was full. So he ran to back to fleetfarm and got two 5 gallon buckets, while he was gone I filled 2 milk jugs and then when he came home we emptied the rest of the buckets and got another 5 gallons. So in 2 hours we have over 6 gallons of syrup. We could have had more but we had nothing to put them into so they overflowed and spilled all over the ground. We will empty them before bed again about 11 pm and then early morning. After that I am out of 5 gallon pails. I plan on sending the kids out to the neighbors tommorow to gather milk jugs. I have attached some fun pics.

The last pics are of CAITLYNN, Yep she is driving legally almost. She passes her permit test and so she is behind the wheel with mom and dad until Aug when she can take her behind the wheel with an instructor. Please, Please, Please pray for the saftey of our family. Caitlynn has never driven before and Thursday night was her first night behind the wheel. You can see from the pics everyone is scared. Good news is she passed her written with an almost perfect score!

Madison Big Moment!

New Glasses

I never post pic of myself but I would to show off my new glasses so her are the only pics you'll see of me.

Woodburning Furnace

Sitting around today waiting for the new Woodburning Furnace. I will posts pics later, I am so excited. We are on our path to off grid. I started another blog that goes into our off grid plan for the next 5 years.
Also this last week I have planted 140 plants for the garden and started to prepare for spring which will be busy. We are looking for wood so if you have a tree that needs to be cut down please let us know. I will also be moving the wood Cook Stove to the garage or Shed to work on it before we can bring it into the home. There are two small cracks in the oven but Im thinking a little screen and stove cement and it will be good as new for a few years. Check back for pics.
First 2 Pics are Our Wood Cook Stove, pic 3 is the date of the Wood Cook Stove. Amazing it still works beautifully, date is Sept 20, 1906.

Rollie and his 20/20 on the world

Rollan had an eye dr. apt this morning so on our way I was listening to Chris Baker Ktlk. Chris was upset that the Attorney General had given a speech saying America was full of Cowards. We were raciest, and we should be out engaging our lives with illegal aliens. Chris Baker was fired up because out of all the stuff going on in America this is what the Attorney General had to say. He went into how this is the one year anniversary for Columbin (killer was an illegal alien) and how Phonix was the 2nd highest place for child abduction but all the Attorney General had to say was we should be having Barbeques in our back yard with illegal aliens and we should go ice fishing more with illegal aliens.
All of a sudden Rollan burst out laughing in the back seat, I ask him why he is laughing and he says Aliens on Earth. At first I had no idea what he was talking about so I said " why would there be aliens here Rollie" He said, "Well that is what the news guy said, He said we should go ice fishing more with Aliens and we should have them in our back yard. Is that guy Nuts Aliens aren't on Earth".
I had to tell this story because this is one I just don't want to forget.



Rollie has 20/20 vision and doesn't need glasses. YEA!

Bacon

Never blog while making bacon. Yep, its burnt. Well for all you bread makers out there I found something out today, you can use a little button on your stove called proofing to have your bread rise. Its so cool. Talking with Sara I was telling her my trick to get my bread to rise. I used to turn my microwave on for 45 seconds then turn it off and put my dough in the microwave so it would stay warm. Sara asked why I just didn't put it in the oven and use the proofing button. Wow, my bread looks awesome and so much poofier. So there is the tip of the day, see if you have a proofing button.
Second tip, If you are a huge couponer like me and have not set yourself up for paper delivery on Sunday mornings this tip will help. First buy your paper on Saturday the early edition, same coupons. Also buy it from one of those paper machines. We have one in front of McDonalds and its .25 cents cheaper. This way you can look through the ads a day earlier and see which day you should do your grocery shopping. Last week milk was 3.75 per gallon this week 1.64 per gallon. Last week bacon .68cents this week over 3.00. This simple thing can save you a ton. Also some websites like hot coupon world will actually post the ads a few weeks ahead of time so you can plan your whole month of grocery shopping.
Lastly, please pray this goes through. I had a lady on a cast iron stove Yahoo group contact me about wholesaling my homemade soaps in her store. If this happens it will be some extra cash for the family. Also on Saturday Jeremy will be skiing with experts Sara, Virgil and I, please pray his legs and head stay attached. He has only skied once with me. Ok just pray we have some good laughs and some fun with old friends. I attached a pic of Bono playing the guitar and Norah singing. Also Cait took a pic at Grandma Diane's of her smiling goat. He was happy to see the kids, wishes they would come around more.