Getting Into a Funk

The time is drawing near.......

Hello everyone!  Hope your summer is going well so far.  Ours has been spent working in the garden, sitting in the pool in the backyard, tending our new chickens and playing:  Legos, drawing superheros, Tinkertoys and Star Wars. 

I have about two weeks until my due date, and all the signs of the impending labor are already here.  Lots of cleaning (can't smell enough tea tree or peppermint oil right now!), washing, organizing and throwing away taking place.  Taking my evening primrose oil and drinking my red raspberry leaf tea.  Listening to my hypnobirthing CD and meeting with the doula.  And just generally trying to soak in this time where it's "just the three of us" before the baby gets here.  In the last few days the Braxton Hicks have started and the baby has dropped, so it shouldn't be long!

This pregnancy has been hard.  The morning sickness never quite went away (although it got much, much better) and after complaining about some really bad restless leg/restless body symptoms to the midwives I found out I've been anemic for the last several months and didn't know it!  Thank goodness for Floradix!  I haven't really had a day since I got pregnant almost 9 months ago that I didn't feel bad in some form or fashion, and now that this phase is drawing to a close and my hormones are in overdrive, I've been mourning over that "lost time" with Ian.  So many days of laying in bed sick or not having the energy to go out and play with him, or even focus on inside activities.  I hope that he doesn't look back on this time with any sense of loss.

While I've been feeling bad, I've also kept in mind the mamas out there that I know that aren't able to conceive (either for physical reasons or logistical reasons) and I have thanked my lucky stars every single day that I've had a healthy pregnancy and that the baby has developed normally.  I've also thought about mamas out there that might be dealing with nausea and exhaustion because of chemotherapy or terminal/chronic illness.  No doubt I've felt sorry for myself along the way but these things have helped keep it in perspective for me.

I can't say I'll be that sad to not be pregnant anymore, although I'll miss feeling him move around inside me and I'll miss all the preparations and excitement.  I'm sure parts of it will be bittersweet.  But I am ready to move on to the next chapter of my family's life together!

OK, back to mopping the floors and scrubbing the cabinets.  I can't remember the last time my house has been this clean but I still can't seem to stop!

Cloth Diaper Giveaway on Simple Mom!

We used cloth diapers with Ian very successfully, and plan to use them this time around as well.  I have quite a stash assembled:  infant and premium sized prefolds, Super Whisper Wrap covers in multiple sizes, some wool covers (longies from a WAHM  and some hand me down Aristocrats), Fuzzi Bunz and some other random diapers I bought from ebay! 

Simple Mom has a great cloth diaper guide up right now, she has written way more than I could about the pros/cons/tricks and tips to cloth diapering.  And she's also hosting a giveaway!  Check it out!

Do you use or have you used cloth?  What are your favorite brands and types?

Quick post:

I recently found out that Merck has stopped producing the separate vaccinations for the MMR vaccine.  I am not looking for a debate about vaccinations but wanted to share a link for an online petition that concerned people can sign:

Moms want separate MMR Vaccinations

I'll be back some time this week with some baby sewing and knitting I've been doing!  Only six weeks until my due date, I can't believe it.

Birthday fun!

My baby turned 4 over the weekend!  I can't believe it.  And he quite literally seemed to change overnight.  It may just be all the birthday excitement, but he slept the whole night in his own bed the last two nights (usually he creeps into the "big bed" around 1 am every night) and he is saying things like "Daddy, we shouldn't argue" (when Lee disagreed with him about something).  He might also seem so unbelievably big and old to me because the new baby's arrival is approaching with lightning speed......only 9 weeks until my due date!  Looking at all the tiny cloth diapers, onesies and sleepers and then folding a 4 year old's shorts and tshirts makes for quite a contrast.

We had a lovely, small birthday party for Ian on Friday with our playgroup friends that we've known since he was just 2 months old.  The goal was a "Sid the Science Kid" party, but my interpretation of that loosened up considerably as the date got closer.

Here's Ian scooping cupcake batter from the mixer the night before the party.  He was so proud of himself and I was proud of myself for letting him make a mess and make mistakes along the way.  Why is that so hard?

Here we are decorating the cupcakes the next morning, and there's my huge belly.  I think it's grown at least a few more inches in just the last few days.  Anyone have a belly girdle I can borrow?  (I'm kind of serious, I can't believe how sore the top of my abdomen is!)

Here's one of the worm cupcakes, chocolate with chocolate icing.  I got the recipes from Martha Stewart's site, but honestly next time around I'll probably buy a few boxes of cake mix from Whole Foods and call it a day.

We also made butterfly cupcakes, using pretzels for the wings and a sour gummy worm for the body.

The big activity for the day was Lee getting suited up in his beekeeper's gear and opening up the hive for the kids.  We have a large picture window right next to where the hives are, so it was easy for him to lift out frames and hold them up to the window for the kids to see.  It was super cute to see them all lined up at the window (of course I didn't take any photos, unfortunately) and I had some bee books from the library and a piece of honeycomb for them to look at as well.  I found some ladybug shaped magnifying glasses at the $1 spot at Target (evile, evile area but they were so dang cute I couldn't pass them up) and those were part of the favors the kids took home.

We bottled up some honey from another hive we have at Lee's parent's house, and each family took a jar of that home too along with some really simple "observation notebooks" I made that each kid personalized with letter stamps and stickers.

All the kids had fun, and I got to see my friends in the bargain.  Another Dad was here so he and Lee spent most of the party pushing the kids on the swing in the backyard and kicking soccer balls with them.  And the moms got to sit down for a few minutes and talk. 

I love planning parties and making stuff, and what better excuse to do both than a kid's birthday? 

Snapshots from the garden:

Potatoes and beans

First raspberry of the season

Picking strawberries 

Peas

Parsnips

Chicken coop (half finished)

A visit to Spikenard Farm

Last weekend my husband was lucky enough to attend a beekeeping workshop at Spikenard Farm in Illinois.  It is a biodynamic farm and apiary, and the home of Gunther Hauk, one of the premiere educators on holistic beekeeping.   Here are some photos!

He had a wonderful time, and learned so many new things!  Being exposed to so much Steiner philosophy and so many natural beekeeping methods is exactly what he needed, there's only so much you can learn from the internet and books!  The day after he got home, one of our hives swarmed and he had the opportunity to put some of those things to work!  I'll have a post about bee swarms and our beehives soon.

Ladybugs!

One of the most fun things we've observed in the garden this spring (so far) is the metamorphosis of ladybug larvae into adult ladybugs.  They start out super small after they hatch, and after a period of eating and growing they look like this:

The next phase they go through is something I had not seen for myself until this year:  they form a cocoon of sorts that looks like this:

See how it's started turning red?  And then, when it hatches, it looks like this:

I wasn't lucky enough to catch one of the larvae hatching from its cocoon, but maybe next time!  I haven't seen so many ladybug larvae in the garden as I've seen this spring, and I think a big reason there have been so many is a combination of lots and lots of rain and mild weather, and also the plants that overwintered in the garden have provided a perfect environment for both aphids and ladybugs. 

They seem to be done laying eggs for now, but it has been so fun to wake up every morning and go outside with Ian to check on the status of the larvae and cocoons.  One day he even picked a bit of fennel to put next to one of the cocoons to feed it.

Here are some books we've read about ladybugs:

I found all these at our local library, or you can click on the picture of the book cover and buy from Amazon!  I also love to buy books on half.com and have been trying to slowly build up our non-fiction book collection. 

And here's a whole issue of Kid's Craft Weekly devoted to ladybugs!  Do a search for "ladybug" on the site and there are other ladybug crafts mixed in with other issues.

Have you seen any ladybugs in your part of the world  yet?

Left wanting.........

Ever have one of those days where you just wish you were more?  More beautiful, more focused, more organized, more productive........just better somehow?  Days like this I find myself comparing who I am to others, wishing I had that person's looks, another person's creativity, someone else's sense of humor or wisdom or a million other things.

The internet and especially the blogging world is not kind to me on these days.  Most of the blogs I read are full of amazingly well written, impeccably photographed, stylish and innovative posts.  The beauty I see in someone elses life is not inspiring when I find myself "lacking", it's a source of envy. 

After reflecting on this today, I realized that I've not really been taking the time to create anything new myself.  A person can only be a passive reader and observer for so long without it taking a toll!  What a relief to gain some insight into why I'm feeling this way and what I can do about it.

I hope to be back soon with some new projects I've completed, there are plenty of ideas in my head right now, I just have to make the time to see them through!

Blog posts I pinned this week:

Oh how I would love to make this quilt!  from the purl bee

I think this mobile studio might work well for me.  via whip up

These wooden toys from David Palhegyi are so incredible.  from Quiet Hours Toys

How to make a sticker book.  via Shiso Mama

Baby kimono from Martha. via honeyflake

Hope y'all have a great weekend!  We've got gardening, coop building, celebrating a cousin's birthday, an early Easter egg hunt, and lots of organizing and cleaning planned!

Wild Kingdom

We have all manner of critters living in our backyard.  Even though we're in an urban area that's highly developed it is amazing what creatures can be found in our small backyard.  There is a quote that I can't quite remember that says to truly appreciate nature you have to start with your own surroundings, instead of always looking to grander, more remote locales.  In the past year I've taken that to heart and really pay attention to all that our space has to offer.  I still dream of a piece of land in the country, but for now I plan to live with what we've got (which is a lot, if you ask me).

Some of the most fleeting living things we've got in the yard currently are salamanders.  I live in the South, and although spring comes early to these parts summer can be unbearably dry and hot.  If we're not in full drought conditions by July or August the threat will be close at hand for sure.  So at this time of year, when we're getting lots of rain and the temperatures are moderate, I start looking for the salamanders in our yard.  They won't be visible for long, the heat will dry out their hiding spots and they'll have to burrow deep into the earth until next year.

I find them under rocks, under newspaper I've covered with straw (to kill the weeds underneath) and most recently I found one under a bale of hay that's been in the same spot since Fall last year.

Ian was so excited to hold the little guy, just for one minute. 

For a fleeting moment I considered building a little terrarium for him, so we could observe him inside for awhile.  But I'm no expert on that type of thing, and the thought that we might accidentally kill him or injure him in the process was a risk I didn't want to take.  So we put him back under the hay, where we found him. 

I believe he was a red backed salamander, pretty common to find in forests under rocks and pieces of wood.  And since all the specimens I've found the past few years have appeared healthy I'm taking it as a good sign that we're providing a healthy and somewhat balanced habitat for all the small living things we've got in our yard.

In other news, you'll notice some wood structures in the background of the first photo, those are pieces of our soon to be completed chicken coop!  We found plans at The Garden Coop, and we plan to have three or four hens living in there by the end of the month.  Some good friends have their own chickens and they've kindly offered to give us one or two grown hens to start with, so we can start collecting eggs right away!  We just have to get the house built.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend and we'll have it done. 

And finally, on the baby front:  we're having another boy!  Ian is ecstatic that he's having a brother. He should be here some time in July, just in time for a good old Tennessee summer!  I'm feeling a lot better than I was, but the nausea seems to be hanging in for the long haul.  There's lots of sweet things too, though.  The kicks I've been feeling for the last month.  Pulling the newborn clothes down from the attic, buying fabric and yarn to make some things just for him, that type of thing.  This will likely be my last pregnancy so I want to enjoy it!