The One with a Facebook Quiz

This is funny... it's a facebook quiz. Usually they are a hoot and the results are rarely ever 'me'... but this one has me pegged pretty well. There is nothing here I don't agree with... except I rarely buy organic because it's too spendy!!

Your Result: Kind Of Crunchy
You lean more toward Attachment Parenting, natural births, homepathic remedies, and living green! You tend to question modern medicine and mainstream parenting. You tend to delay vaccines or use an alternate schedule. You aren't bothered by the fact that people tend to question your parenting style. You feel strongly about the way you're raising your kids. You believe that it's our duty to make the earth a better place for our children by being more eco-friendly. You buy organic foods whenever you can and you use cloth diapers or seriously considered it. You've also considered homeschooling. When people see you with your baby you're usually wearing her in a sling or wrap. You tell new moms who complain about lack of sleep to try co-sleeping with baby and let them know how much you loved co-sleeping. You believe in breastfeeding and baby led weaning, but to a point. And you'll nurse in public but modesty is important to you. You aren't afraid to disagree with your Dr about delaying solids or vaccines. You don't like to let your baby cry and cry-it-out methods make you cringe. However, if nothing else is working you are willing to try it once the baby reaches a certain age. You read different books about parenting and take what you feel will work for you and your family. You tend to believe in trusting your instincts when it comes to raising your kids.

The Foggy One

I'm just going to put this out there and see if it helps me.

I feel the fog of PPD rolling in and I refuse to allow it. I thought I was safe this time. I have been feeling so good, so clear, so free. And lately I literally feel as tho a fog is rolling in over me. My brain is foggy, I'm mixing up words and burning things... I'm absentminded and seem to be thoughtless, tho I'm not meaning to be. I am a little bit angry about this. I was feeling so, so very good.

I know how to combat it. I've done this before. I know what needs to be done... I just don't want to have to think about it and make it happen.

The One With School, Housework & Life

Today is another rough day. What is up with this week? I'm exhausted... and spent. I'm not sure now if it's ME or the children. I'm just spent & desperately needing some air.

I'm attempting to keep up on the housework, but I'm amazed at how quickly it seems to be piling up these days. I get the dishes done and then cook lunch and do the dishes, then cook dinner and do the dishes, then eat dinner and do the dishes.... and then there's laundry, toy clean up, sweeping (2-3x/day!) and no time for vacuuming, dusting, window washing... eek! I love walking into the kitchen and have it sparkling... but it doesn't stay that way for long.

Levi finished his math for the year today!!!! I'm so proud of him. He saw that he "only" had 10 pages left, so he plugged away and got them all day. I'm shocked... he did great!

James is almost done math... and pretty soon all we'll have left is science & history. The easy stuff. I'm so excited about that.

Yesterday was a rough day for parenting. The kids were ALL argumentative, whiny, & disobedient, except for Alyssa... she was actually in a good mood all day.

It came to a head at dinner when James refused to do the dishes again. It was AWFUL. He just wouldn't stop and I was exhausted and yelling. Finally I sent him to bed w/ no dinner at 5:30. I have never ever ever done that.

Around 6 I went by his room and felt prompted to go in despite my still lingering anger. So I opened the door and saw him laying on the bed still. I went to him and sat down. He was really upset and said "I feel like Jesus isn't in my heart anymore because I said and did a lot of bad things." Talk about breaking a Mama's heart. So the fighting of the day turned into a lesson about how Jesus loves us no matter what we do and how He doesn't leave our hearts just because we sin. I explained to him that all those naughty things that he did that day were already punished because Jesus took his punishment by dying on the cross. We prayed together to ask Jesus to forgive BOTH of us (I know I was out of line w/ the yelling and frustration). I hugged him and let him get up for dinner and a movie.

It's amazing how that turned around so unexpectedly into a lesson about Jesus' love and forgiveness.

The One With the Meanings

So James came up to me and asked if I could find out what his name means. So we spent a little time this morning going over their names. We found out some neat things. (BTW... I use my children's middle names on this blog so if the meanings seem 'off' that's why....) I used this website: www.name-meanings.com The meanings were a little different than the ones I've seen in the past...

Here are the meanings for our family:
DH ~ God's Gift; United
Me ~ Servant of God; Pretty One; Lamb
DS1 ~ Who is like God?; United
DS2 ~ Gift of God; Supplanter
DD ~ Sweet Melody; Consecrated to God; Lamb
DS3 ~ Honorable Ruler; God's Word
DD2 ~ Pure Pretty One; Rational; Grace of God

I found it interesting and ca actually see how those things fit some of our personalities pretty well :)

The One Where I'm Forced to Go Green

I realized this morning that I'm being 'forced' to be more 'green'. I thought we had run out of paper towels about a month ago and being cheap, I didn't feel like wasting our $ on more. So I decided to see how long I could go without them... Apparently it's been a month and I haven't missed them! We use napkins for faces and rags for cleaning. I did find a half roll in the basement and used it as baby wipes in a pinch. So I guess I DID use it... but if it had been the baby and not the toddler I would have used a washcloth. The idea of wiping toddler poo w/ a washcloth made me squeamish.

Then on Wednesday our microwave quit working! I don't know what happened to it. Matt was home Tuesday night and said it was acting weird... and the next day it just quit working. So now I'm going to see how long I can go w/out a microwave. It's an adjustment tho. I wanted to make a cup of tea this evening and when I realized I'd need to find and wash the tea pot and boil the water on the stove I opted for a glass of water instead. And Friday nights are usually leftovers night because we're exhausted from Friday School... and I realized I had no microwave... so I heated up the leftover spaghetti on the stove. The kids thought it was fine.

So in a way I'm being forced to be more green... but it's ok with me. I was already heading that way anyway. It's more my poor hubby who is having a hard time adjusting....

The One Written Outside

I'm blogging from the beautiful outdoors. I was curious to see if my router would work out in the back yard and it does!! Yay. Not that I plan to use this outside much, but nice to know :)

We've had a busy day... and haven't even gotten to our schoolwork yet! Since everyone was sick over the past week or so we have gotten a little behind on the housework. So today we got to it and cleaned, decluttered and scrubbed. The house looks great now.. tho the kitchen still needs to be mopped. I'm thinking about taking today off from school... it's so beautiful outside that I think we need to just live out here today. Although the bees are also enjoying this beautiful day and Levi is having a rough time with that. I've never seen him so keyed up. He's bouncing and acting very nervous. We talked a little and I tried to show him one of the bees up close, but he was too freaked. And he's not even the kid who has been stung!! I wonder if getting stung would calm his fears or make them worse??

We had a wonderful Easter celebration at my Moms. I really enjoy it when the whole family gets together... especially when we are able to relax and play game and just enjoy each other's company. We didn't have time to color eggs though, so the kids & I added that to today's 'jobs'. It was a fun job.... and we did it outside in this beautiful weather. :)

Now it's lunchtime... and because of the bees we're going to head inside for lunch. I can only imagine how Levi would act if a bee got near his sandwich!!!