Changes!!

I obviously have not posted anything in a long time, it has been very busy around here! Anyway, I've been at a loss as to what direction I should take this blog. Should I have it be about my home life, or about my kids or about decorating or about how our family of 5 fits in a 1200 sq ft. house or about gluten free cooking & Celiac Disease (more about that later). After careful consideration I will write about it all!! About my life. My ups and downs, my struggles and joys. I am not a master of domestic endeavors but I make it work and I think I may need to give myself more credit. Through this blog I hope to connect with other women and moms and it be a place for me to talk about the things that I want to talk about. If I help someone along the way, then that is fantastic!

My goal is to write 1 blog post per week and one favorites post per month. I think that's doable. 

I also think my blog needs a new name.....hmmmm.....

What's coming up!

I will be starting to work on some new thing for my blog coming up next week. This week we all have the stomach flu so things are kinda on hold right now. I really want to start posting about the main reason I started the blog. My quest to become an reasonably awesome homemaker. I'm not aiming to be Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker rolled into one but I want to do a better job. I will be posting my triumphs and failures, as I navigate this crazy world as a wife, mom and zoo keeper of my home.

Some things that are in the works:

- 20+ Freezer meals in one day
- My cloth diaper stash and washing routine
- Making our master bedroom over for free or close to free
- Laundry stain tips 

Stay tuned!! :)

Our new addition!

Mommy and baby in the NICU

Hi there!! A lot has happened since my first and last pregnancy update. I'll get right to it! First off, I previously stated that I had 2 1/2 months left, however, I ended up only having a month and nine days left. Baby #3 was born via emergency c-section on May 12th (original due date was June 18th). I was visiting my parents 3 hours away to "relax" a bit before the baby came. Sweet Pea had other plans it seems. The night before we planned to go back home I started to have contractions. They were more painful than braxton hicks but I was only 34 weeks so I wrote it off. Over the next hour or so they did not die down and were lasting a minute at about 4 minutes apart. I went to my parents' local L&D to get checked out just in case. I was totally closed but having regular painful contractions. They did various tests & an ultrasound and had no idea why I was contracting on a regular basis but not dilating. I kept waiting and begging them to send me home, thinking it was just false labor. They tried several drugs to stop my contractions with no luck. My nurse was just about to start me on Magnesium when I had a contraction, and felt a pop and a gush. I knew my water had broke. I immediately started bawling and called my nurse. I was not ready for her. I still had 5 weeks to go and I wasn't at home! I felt the pad under me to see if it was wet and it was but I was not prepared for what was on my finger. Bright red blood. I knew something was very wrong. The resident doctor came in and check me and I went from 0 to a finger tip dilated in about 15 minutes and my contractions were on top of each other...literally. They were overlapping and you couldn't even see the peaks on the monitor. It was the most painful labor I had ever experienced. The on-call doctor came in, took one look at my contraction pattern and bleeding, and diagnosed me with possible placental abruption and informed me that I would be having a c-section right now. What? What? Wait! I'm alone! My husband is at home 3 hours away! I can't be having my baby right now! I had sent my mom home a few hours earlier thinking I would be discharged after the attending doctor came on shift, so I was really alone. My sister drove like the wind to be there with me during the delivery while my husband headed there too. Everything is a blur. Papers to sign, giving blood samples, and being prepped for my delivery. Mind you, before this I had only had normal uncomplicated and easy vaginal deliveries. I was taken into the OR and about 10 minutes later my precious baby girl Abigail was born screaming her little head off. Such a wonderful sound. My sister described how she looks and what the NICU staff was doing to her. She was having some problems breathing so off to the NICU she went. I did get to see her and kiss her and she looked just like her daddy. She was perfect. My head was spinning with what had happened. I finally got to see my hubby in the recovery room, he brought me my mother's day cards and let me cry. She's here, healthy and absolutely beautiful. If the hospital would have discharged me when I want to I could have been on the freeway heading home when all of this went down. I know for a fact God had his hand over us keeping us safe. Sweet Pea is truly a gift from Him.

I am also working on a story of Sweet Pea's time in NICU. Thank you for reading!  

Going home!!!

I have an 18 month old!

I started this earlier this year right after my son Little Dude turned a year but I never posted it. I changed it up a bit for him turning 18 months.

It always amazes me how quickly a year can go by. It seems like yesterday the doctor place my sweet son on my chest for the first time. He was (and still is) so beautiful & precious and I knew we would always have a special bond. That was not my first thought however...just being honest. My first thought was, 'where are his eyebrows??'.  After cleaning him off the nurse told me that they were there but very blonde. Ok, ok I could now breathe and enjoy my baby. It's funny what things come to mind soon after giving birth ha ha! I totally thought I had made a baby without eyebrows and was scared that we would have to tattoo them on. Moving on, now that you know I'm a complete weirdo.

This past year with my son has been magical. I just love everything about him.
I wrote ^^that^^ six months ago. A lot has changed..oh yes...a lot has changed. Little Dude is cute, funny, silly and CRAZY! I never knew a child could be so nuts. He gets in to everything, climbs everything, screams about everything. He has this blood curdling scream that makes you feel like you're going insane, like I wish I lived in a 2 story house insane. I hope to get it on camera soon to show him one day down the road when he doesn't appreciate me. He can break through any and all baby proofing products. He's so smart it's scary and he is talking a lot which is fun. I will add that most of the time he is this fun little guy toddling around the house laughing and playing with his older sister. Little Dude loves his baby Sweet Pea so much and covers her his sweet kisses. He's a blast...so glad I had a boy.

Summer is over :(

Well, summer for us is not over considering it's 106 degrees today but school starts up later this week. My hubby is a high school math teacher.

I should have know that my husband's first day back at work would go like this. First, Wild Girl (almost 4) watched a YouTube video of 2 animated cats while I thought she was playing her ABC game on my iPhone. There was a pink cat and a purple cat and the purple cat was killed by a meteor hitting it and sending it to the sun. She kept saying "mommy, they were having so much fun, they were best friends and then the purple one died!" between sobs. I have never seen my little girl so heartbroken, especially over a 3 minute cartoon. So I held her and we both cried and grieved for the little purple cat together. It was so sad but cute at the same time. We shared a bowl of popcorn and watched an episode of Doc McStuffins and all was well...for a couple of hours. Then Little Dude our 18 month old decided to fly of the couch and hit his mouth on our wood floors. As most parents know, the mouth bleeds a lot. About an hour after that, Savannah had her first accident in a year and Little Dude decided to play in it, splash around and put it in his hair. Yuck.

What have you done today?

Glorious pink powder that cleans your clothes!

I tried making my own detergent a couple years ago and it did not turn out well. It was this goopy snot like mess that did not work at all. I finally found a recipe that is pure awesomeness! The recipe can be found at a blog called One Acre Homestead. Now this is a powdered formula and is super concentrated since you don't add water like many homemade detergent recipes and will only need 1-2 tablespoons per load. It took a little extra time to blitz the mixture in the blender or food processor but it's totally worth it. This will help your powdered detergent dissolve properly in cold water.

I have an HE washer and use 1 tablespoon with great results!! I will use a little more or throw in some Sun Oxygen Cleaner if a load is rather large or dirty.

I keep mine in a little flip top cookie jar I found at the dollar store, it doesn't all fit in there so I keep the remainder in a ziploc bag to keep it from drying out.

Happy washing!! :)

Pregnancy Ramblings: 29 Weeks

As of yesterday I am 29 weeks pregnant. It's amazing how quickly I've gone from, "Wow, I can't believe I have only 2 1/2 months left!" to "Wow, I can't believe I STILL have 2 1/2 months left". As of a few days ago I am starting to really feel pregnant. I'm enjoying this pregnancy immensely but keeping up with 2 little ones is starting to get rough, and I'm not sleeping well and my 1 year old isn't sleeping well. So that means I am REALLY not sleeping well lol. We thankfully don't have much to do to get ready for the new baby, I already had most things out already considering my youngest will only be 16 months when the new baby joins us (which is a girl by the way). I've already brought out our newborn girl clothes and moved my sons clothes into my oldest daughters room. We just haven't moved him into her room yet. Kinda been putting in off because I have no idea how well this will go over but I have decided that this weekend is when it's going to happen. My husband has next weekend off for spring break, so if we are all sleep deprived it won't really matter. Besides that, we are basically ready for our new addition. Can't wait for her to be here and for our family to be complete.