We're moving!

We finally found a house!

We're moving in this weekend! So the girls and I have been busy all day getting everything ready to go.

We're excited to finally have our own place again!

The downside of the move is that I will no longer be blogging. For one, I rarely have the time to sit and type a post. In fact, I'm on hold on the phone right now so I managed to sneak this one in.

For two, we don't plan to have internet installed at our new house and I can't blog from my phone.

 

While I will no longer be blogging I do plan to still read and comment.....the few rare moments I get to do that!

 

In the meantime don't forget to study the Lord's word!

 

Much love in Christ Jesus <3

 

Cloth diapers

When it comes to cloth diapers I'm not a pro. There are numerous other moms out there who are, by far, more experienced than I am. All that aside I'd like to share with you some things I've learnt along our journey.

 

OUR STASH

When we started cloth diapering I was using Babies R Us prefold and flatfold diapers. These were what I was given at Elizabeth's baby shower. I wasn't given diaper covers so I exchanged a pack of prefolds for a pack of plastic covers from Toys R Us. While I'm grateful that people were kind enough to gift us with what we asked for I have to be honest and say that I would never recommend this brand of diapers or covers. With Elizabeth, I used some bamboo prefolds that a friend blessed me with and a plastic cover from Toys R Us. That worked fine with her. However, with Bridget I used the Babies R Us prefold brand and the plastic covers from Toys R Us and that was a mess! She leaked...like crazy! I got tired of the leaking so switched back to disposables. The covers were really cheap too. Ours eventually got holes in them. I eventually threw the covers away but I still have the prefolds and flatfolds *Scratch that. Our flatfolds are no longer used as diapers (actually they have rarely been used. They just sat in the box.) Half of these flatfolds now serve as blankets/diapers/towels for my girl's baby dolls and the other half serves as dust rags.

 

 

At the beginning of this year I switched back to cloth. I figured out a way to get the prefold Babies R Us diapers to work. I was gifted with about 4 dozen prefold diapers so with my system I ended up with about two dozen. What I do is take one prefold and lay it flat and then put another prefold (folded up) in the middle and use it as a "soaker" or "extra padding." It works with Elizabeth but not Bridget. Bridget is a heavy wetter so if I use the Babies R Us brand on her we end up with a mess. I also purchased some flatfold diapers off of Amazon. They're these Osocozy unbleached flatfolds. These are my favorite diapers!!! I love them and will continue using this brand. They're also cheap. Because the plastic covers were useless for Bridget and also because they had holes in them I threw them away and replaced them with these one size fits all covers off of Amazon. We purchased 7 of them and were given an 8th one free! That's a blessing! I love these covers! They're truly one size fits all since I got a 4 yr old (at night), a 2yr old, and a 10month old in them. They're also cheap!  But like I said, I'm no pro and I haven't compared these to anything but the Babies R Us cheap brand of diapers and covers. Anything, is better than those!

 

I use diaper pins on our diapers. I purchased these from Toys R Us too. It's about the only thing I'd recommend buying from them. We do have a snappi but it's somewhere in the storage shed so I haven't got to use it yet :(

 

 

So our inventory consists of diaper pins, two dozen Babies R Us prefolds (using my system), one dozen Babies R Us flatfolds (which just take up space. They're never used *they have a new purpose now), one dozen bamboo prefolds that a friend blessed me with (love these but I'm not sure where they came from so there's no link to them. Sorry), two dozen Osocozy flatfolds, 8 diaper covers, and a load of cloth wipes that we made from receiving blankets.

 

NIGHT TIME

I have two babies that are still in diapers and for both babies I use the same night time system. I take one ozocozy flatfold and place a bamboo prefold in it to use as a "soaker," pin it, and then put a cover on top. This works well. We rarely have a leak. My 4yr old wears a cover over her big girl undies in case she has an accident. Like I said, our covers are definitely one size fits all.

 

WASH ROUTINE

I don't have a fancy pail for our diapers. Actually, we don't really have a fancy cloth system at all. Anyways, I use a 5 gallon bucket that I found. I store the bucket under the bathroom sink. After I change a diaper I just throw it in the bucket. If it's poopy, I of course, dump the poo in the toilet and rinse it a little bit in the sink. It then goes in the pail. I wash our diapers every night. It keeps the smell down and eliminates the chance of bacteria growing.  While my diapers are washing I put the pail outside to dry out. If I remember to I sprinkle baking soda on the bottom of the pail before I throw my first used diaper in it. This also helps with the odor. Really though I don't have a problem with any foul odors because our diapers are washed constantly. When I wash my diapers I do a hot rinse first and then a hot rinse on the regular cycle. Make sure to use detergent free of dyes. All our diapers dry in the dryer (we use to handwash and hang dry but things are really busy now) and our covers are hung to dry. The covers are dry within two hours or so. Which is another bonus.

 

DIAPER BAG/PUBLIC CHANGING

Like I said, we do not have a fancy system. I use a doubled Wal-Mart sack as our "dirty diaper bag" while out in public. Our diaper bag consists of two spare outfits (one for each of my younger girls), two spare diaper covers, depending on how long we'll be out somewhere between 4-8 flatfolds, about 4 bamboo prefold diapers, a recycled honey bear full of water (this is what we use to get our wipes wet), doubled Wal-Mart sack, and some cloth wipes (both for faces and bottoms. They're stored in separate areas and are different colors that way I don't accidentally use a face wipe for a bottom wipe.)
We live about an hour from town, at least the town we travel too, so for our car ride I use our night time diapering system on Bridget and just a flatfold on Elizabeth.
 My way of changing the girls depends on where we go. If we go somewhere like Wal-Mart that has buggies, I'll place the girls in the buggy and use it to help me change. For example: We walk into Wal-Mart. I put Elizabeth in the front, Bridget in the big part, and Kayelee walks. We go to the restroom. I wheel the buggy in with me so that I'm not having to put a baby on the nasty floor in order to change my toddler's diaper. I get our changing table set up and change Elizabeth. I put her back in and buckle her up and then reset the table. Once the changing table is reset I change Bridget. If the changing table is in the handicap stall, Kayelee will be using the restroom while I'm changing diapers. Otherwise, we wheel to the handicap stall and she has her turn. We then wheel to the sink and wash our hands and wheel out to start or finish shopping.
If the place I'm going to doesn't have buggies and my mom or husband is with me, they'll help me by watching/holding the baby I'm not currently changing.
If the place has no buggies and I have no extra hands I go to a public place but to an empty part of the parking lot and change there. I have everything set up so that I can pull the dirty diaper off and put the clean one on without showing the girl's private areas. Oh and the passenger seat, with a changing pad laid down, serves as my changing table. This system isn't foul proof but it works for us. This is one area in cloth diapering that I'm strongly desiring advice about. Do you have any?

Much love in Christ Jesus <3 

 

Deer in our pepper plants!

I meant to have this post up a couple of days ago but, honestly, I didn't feel like getting on here to type. Between dirty dishes, sweeping the floor for the millionth time, poopy diapers, planning birthdays ( my Kayelee will be 4 tomorrow!!!), gardening, taking care of animals, studying the Lord's word, etc I find little time for anything else. By the time my children are asleep I'm ready to crash! Of course, I deny my flesh and use that time to study the Lord's word......and because of being a wife and mommy and above all that, striving to be obedient to the Lord and study His word, my blog gets....sometimes......neglected. Bare with me.

 

 

Anyways, I wanted to share with you how life is on the temporary homestead.

 

Rabbits:

The rabbits have been interesting. About two or three weeks ago they ate through the particle board on the back of their cage. Never having rabbits before I didn't realize this would be a problem. None the less, we spent about an hour chasing rabbits through the yard. We had to poke them out from under the shed with a rake, only to scare them under the truck where they then took off like a bullet for the woods. I did not realize how fast rabbits are!!! Thankfully, we caught both Flopsy Bunny and Peter Rabbit and were able to fix their cage so that they couldn't get out.

 

About 2 or 3 nights ago (I seem to forget how long ago things were...hhhmmmm....) my mother came into our room telling us the coyotes were after the animals. My husband got his gun (see!!!! Guns are needed!) and went out! He was determined to protect our livestock! When he got out there he saw a ferocious dog biting at our rabbit cage! He shot at the dog with our 22lr Marlin! The dog ran off and we have yet to have another encounter with him. Because it was dark and because my husband had the safety on he didn't hit the dog but he definitely scared him away. Our rabbits had ripped the nails out of their paws while trying to get away. My mother and I doctored them up and they're recovering fine. Poor things :(

 

Chickens:

We have 21 chickens now! We have two Rhode Island Reds that are about 5 weeks old. They were the first two we got. About two weeks after them (about 1 week ago) we got a Rhode Island Rooster that we put in the cage with them. And yesterday we went back and picked up 18 chickens that are about 2 weeks old. So we have chickens at various stages. It's interesting to watch them grow. Can you say hands on preschool science?! Free education! Boya!

 

A lot of times I'll catch crickets or grasshoppers and take it to our two biggest hens and feed it to them. They'll chase each other around the cage trying to get it from the other. Well because of this, when I went to get the rooster out the other day the two big hens met me at the door and refused to get out of the way. They were really wanting some grasshoppers or crickets. Sigh, the hard headed hens blocked my path of getting the rooster. I'm sure he was grateful for that.

 

I now understand why people call you "chicken" if you're a scardey cat. I had read that chickens love veggies, fruit, etc. so I decided I'd throw a potato peel into the pen of the two big hens and the rooster. One of the hens pecked at the potato peel and then took off squawking which of course caused the other hen and the rooster to take off running and squawking. It was a funny sight to see them all running around and squawking.......

 

Garden:

Our garden is doing great! Everything is sprouting. Unfortunately, the deer have discovered our garden and have been in the pepper plants. One deer ate our holy mole peppers! I found a half eaten one laying beside the plant. I'm guessing it was to hot for him. Picturing a deer eating a hot pepper makes me laugh. Apparently, my grandma pictures the same thing I do because when I told her the story she couldn't stop laughing!

 

Dogs:

Ggggrrr......the puppies won't quit popping on the porch! That's all I have to say about them. :/

 

Much love in Christ Jesus <3

 

Swimming

I wanted to share with you an experience that God allowed my husband, children, and I to well, obviously, experience :)

 

Normally we avoid public beaches! Public beaches are usually packed full of harlots (both genders) and we just can't find any good reason to take our children to a place full of naked people (let alone ourselves). Yes, you read that right. I called them naked people. By God's definition they are naked. Did you know in Isaiah 47:2, 3 that God defines a revealed thigh (from your pelvis to your knees) as nakedness? So yep to all you Christian women out there that refuse to wear a bikini but will put a tankini on without batting in eye....you're in sin too! Repent and put some clothes on!

Anyways, normally we don't go to public beaches. The funny thing is, is that we live on the lake and haven't been swimming in years! I take that back, we went swimming last year but were on a boat in the middle of the lake. Well a couple of weekends ago we were invited to our nieces birthday party which was at a beach. At first we weren't aware it was a swim party so we made promises that we'd be there. Then we found out it was a swim party...... :/ We debated on going. We decided since we already made a promise we'd go but wouldn't stay long. Of course, we were not prepared for swimming! I haven't owned a swimsuit in so long. I threw all mine in the thrash when I learned God's standard of modesty. So my daugthers put on an old dress and a pair of shorts and they were good to go. I put on a pair of gym shorts and a tshirt and felt so unlady like, lol. We were modest and good to go! When we got to the party there was no one else on the beach so we decided we'd actually stay and swim. It was nice to be able to swim and not worry about if my children were being defiled or not and to not worry about causing someone to stumble- there was no one there and I was covered from neckbone to knees :).

 

The party ended and we were headed to the changing rooms to change. My husband, children, and I all walked over there as a family. We walked by a car that had some people sitting in it (this is important). We changed and were headed back to our car. Once again we walked by the car that had some people sitting in it. To our surprise, a lady stepped out of the vehicle and said, "I just want to commend you on your modesty. It's so nice to see you and your daughters dressed in skirts." Wow! Talk about God's timing! There are times I get discouraged and want to give up on modesty but at those times the Lord sends something, like that lady or an article or video or something, to encourage me and give me the ump I need to stay in the fight for His glory! We left the lake that day praising God for the message He delievered via a stranger. Oh and we'll still avoid the public beach. Though, we have found a place to go swimming (at the lake we live on) and not have to worry about naked people.

 

And so I don't have to feel unlady like in a pair of gym shorts my husband has agreed to let me buy a pattern from Simply Modest Swimwear (check them out!)! The girls and I are searching for some material that we like and are excited to get busy sewing modest swimsuits! :)

 

Much love in Christ Jesus,

Supersize me!

We're going healthy! Wooo!!!!

 

We discarded 90% of our plastic dish containers. Eventually it'll be 100% but until we restock the kitchen with containers the 10% will stay. However, we'll wash those by hands and not in the dishwasher.

 

We're going organic in our diet but are not taking meat out. Meat is an important part of our diet. We need the protein that we get from animals. Read 1 Timothy 4:1-3 (KJV)

 However, we're trying to stick to only the clean animals listed in Leviticus- not because we're bound by the dietary laws but because we believe there's wisdom in following the Creators diet.

Next weeked will be my first shopping trip to the farmer's market! As well as my first shopping trip to our local orchard who also sells honey! And then in mid June my Azure order will arrive. Know what that means? It means I just took care of a months worth of grocery without going to Walmart!!! Woooo!

 

Of course when it comes to medicine I'm quick to make something for the girls. So we'll continue using herbs but I'll be more knowledgeable and prepared. At the moment I have no herbs on hand except for the few I have in the garden so at some point, before winter, I'm hoping to have our medicine cabinet stocked up.Oh I forgot that I do have some organic tea for the girls that I picked up on clearance. It's suppose to help them with tummy aches. We haven't had to use this yet. Praise the Lord! At the moment, I have the girls take a spoonful of pure honey daily.

We have some cayenne peppers that are just about ready to be picked. I'm going to use them in a tincture that I'll have my family take daily in the winter.

 

I'm  not sure if I ever updated on the chickens or not? Well, none the less, we got them. They're so cute! And are growing fast! It'll be awhile before we can expect eggs from them so we're ordering fresh farm eggs from Azure and will be freezing them.

 

I found a local source for raw milk but we'll have to crunch some numbers to see if we can afford this source. When I think about the laws on raw milk it really gets my blood boiling! The goverment has no place telling me what I can and can't drink! Ugh! They are so stepping over the lines! God has a system set up. The government is to judge- righteously. To punish the wicked. It's not the governments place to feed the poor (food stamps/WIC) or to provide medical assistance to the poor (medicaid/medicare) or to indoctrinate, I mean educate, children (public school). It's the churches place to take care of the poor (read Acts). It's the parents place to educate the children (read Deut. 6). The system is out of whack!

 

Moving on, let's see......

 

We're aiming to go natural in all our products (except toilet paper) so we've switched to cloth diapers (as you know) and will be switching to natural deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc. These things are on my list of things to learn to make.

 

Some good sources for you to check out

 

Sermons:

The Bible and Health Introduction by Brother Jessie Delewski

This is actually a 4 part series so make sure to listen to all of it.

 

The Danger of Convenience by Brother Bryan Denlinger

 

Documentaries:

Supersize Me

I'm going off memory here but when you see a young girl about 16 yrs of age named Caitlyn, at least I think her name is Caitlyn, then you'll want to skip ahead about 3 minutes. The reason you'll want to skip ahead is because she'll start talking about how bad the magazines and what not make her feel about herself and as she's talking the editor of the documentary makes a million low grade porn pictures pop up. By that I mean the typical magazine pictures- a woman posing in her undergarments.

 

Genetically Modified Food, Panacea or Poison

 

Much love in Christ Jesus <3

 

Our little homestead......

We've been pretty busy here!

We got our rabbits!!! :) We decided to get a male and female so that we not only have them as fertilizer but also for breeding. We can sale their babies for 10 bucks a rabbit! Their names are Flopsy Bunny (the female) and Peter Rabbit (the male). Why no we haven't been reading Beatrix Potter, why do you ask? ;) So far they love the hay we made ourselves- I'll tell you how we did it later on. They also love dandelions! We have those in abundance around here! I've read that they love sow thistles too but have yet to pick one and throw it in their pen. I did pick them some basil leaves and they loved it. Between all the organic stuff we're picking out of the yard and the pellets we bought at the food store, they choose, hands down, the yard stuff first. In the summer time, I plan to do mostly organic and in the winter a majority of pellets with hay mixed in. We have some sunflower seeds and carrot seeds that we're going to plant for them and some lettuce that we have seeding right now. Once those start blooming, well, our rabbits will be in for a treat! I'm planning on picking up some radishes to seed and possibly some beets too.

 

Our puppies are doing great! The girls have them so spoilt! I kid you not they want to be held all the time! They're just as bad as Elizabeth. I don't mind Elizabeth, I LOVE holding her, but I don't care to hold a puppy all the time! No matter how cute the little critter is!

 

We're getting chickens sometime before next Friday. The girls and I are so excited about that!

 

We also have a worm bed in the making! I'm going to buy some fishing worms to add to the ones we already got from when I cleaned my mamas stairs. My 2yr old LOVES worms! I think it's because they remind her of caterpillars. I'll hand her one and she'll walk around holding it. Then put and down and forget where she placed it and we'll find the poor thing lying somewhere dead because the sun fried it. My 3yr old will sit and observe them but she won't hold them. Snails are more her thing. My 9 month old doesn't get the chance to mess with any of it. It would just be a snack to her! YUCK!

 

 We have some vegetables seeding right now. Tomorrow I plan to get out there and till the ground with a hoe. It has to be done soon. Actually it should have been done but my mother kept telling me to just wait because a man from down the street was going to do it but he decided he's allergic to work. :( That's alright I'll just praise the Lord for giving me a chance to get muscles :)

 

I have some herbs planted too! I have two types of Basil (which we use  to keep bugs off us while working in the yard), some Coriander, some Thyme, some Peppermint, and some Chocolate Mint. There's many more I want to buy and add to my herb garden. This serves as our healthy tea (the mints), our fresh herbs to cook with, and our medicine. The thing about herbs is that you can do it no matter where you live- in an apartment, out on a farm, etc.

 

We found a local orchard! That's exciting! Last year we went out of our way to go to an orchard. We'll get our fruit from the orchard and will can it. When my husband and I finally get a place (an update on that to come) we plan to plant our own fruit trees and bushes. The great thing about the orchard is that they also sell honey! Wwwwoooo! Local, fresh honey! Oh and we'll be buying from the farmers market too and canning from there. It'll just add to what we'll be harvesting from our own garden. See what comes from our garden will be eaten by us as well as my grandma and her family. So we'll be feeding quite a few off our garden.  I'd like to get away from buying from Walmart completely! If anything, just buying my staples (flour, sugar, etc) from there.

 

How we made the hay, if you can even call it that, is really quite simple. When my husband got through mowing the yard the girls and I went out there and just kind of kicked/spread the grass clippings around. We then let the sun do the rest of the work-drying it out. It took about 3 days or so. When it was good and dry I went out there and raked it up into a pile. I placed it in a hole in my mother's flower garden. The dogs had dug a huge hole there so we placed it there. It holds it for now and I just get out, daily, the little bit I need. It'll also help the flowers so it's kind of liking "killing two birds with one stone."

 

House update: As of now we're still at my mothers. We're still looking for a place to rent/buy but are having a hard time finding something that will fit our need and is in our price range. We're weighing our options and praying for wisdom. We'll see where the Lord directs us.

 

That about sums up our little homestead. Between studying the Lord's word (via reading the word, books on various Christian topics, and listening to sermons), taking care of my family, helping my mother, and homesteading I stay pretty busy. Thanks for reading! :)

 

Much love in Christ Jesus <3

Hands on Science and updates

I'm not sure if I ever told yall about the baby birds?

Well, none-the-less, this year we had two sets of birds make a nest around our porch area. One was in an abandoned light at the top of the house. Obviously, we couldn't see these babies but we could hear them. It was a precious sound. The girls and I sat out there every evening whistling at the birds, listening to the babies chirp, and watching mama bird fly off only to bring a worm or some other little critter back. This nest has been quite for some time so I'm assuming the baby birds have already flew off.

The other set made the nest in one of my mamas porch decorations. When mama bird would fly off we'd peek in to see what was going on. The first time we saw the eggs and we left it alone until we heard the chirps of baby birds which is the obvious sign that they hatched. The second time we saw the baby bird's beak and the third time we saw his full body as he was messing with his feathers.

Two days ago we were able to watch these baby birds fly. Turned out there was five of them. I took some pictures but haven't had the time to upload them. Maybe I'll get around to it or maybe I won't?

 

 

I love how God provides us with hands on science. We've watched caterpillars, discovered the baby bird cycle (from egg to bird) and watched how hard mama bird worked to feed her babies.

 

The girls and I have been reading a lot together as well. They can tell you all kinds of things. For ex: veins run everywhere in your body.

To us, adults, this is a no brainer but to a 3yr old and a 2yr old it's pretty amazing.

 

We have more hands on science activities coming up as well as lessons in responsibility.

The girls both got a puppy - not my choice. Memaw surprised all of us with em'. The puppies will teach the girls responsibility as they are in charge (under mama's supervision) to take the puppies out to potty and to feed and water them.

 

We're getting two rabbits today or tomorrow. The rabbits will also be a lesson in responsibility. The rabbits are our start in our homestead. We'll use their poo for fertilizer :) It's an excellent fertilizer that you can just put right on the plant. It won't burn it like others will. Of course, we're getting a male and female so they can mate which will in turn provide us with a few more rabbits (more fertilizer) and a few bucks in the pocket as well sell their babies. Will we eat them? Are they meat rabbits? No. I can't eat a rabbit. They're to cute. Hahaha they're our pets.

 

We'll aslo have our worm bed today if my husband has the time to get out there and flip the old fridge over. I have the best stuff to throw in it. I cleaned my mother's outside stairs yesterday. All the old, moist leaves, were full of great creepy crawlies! From worms to spiders (eek!) to snails to those white things that curl up. I guess it wouldn't really be a pure worm bed so I'll call it a creepy crawlie bed! This of course will make great soil for the garden as well and free food for the chickens we'll be getting soon.

 

Hopefully, I'm also able to pick up some seeds for the garden today. We'll see.

 

Next comes chickens and sometime following goats.

I'm really excited that our homestead is coming through. Though it is a temporary set up.

 

 

Other life updates:

 

 

We have a few busy weekends coming up as we prepare for the wedding of my brother. Yay!

 

We're also hurting as two of our family members have suffered the loss of babies :( Pray for our family, specifically the anonymous two

 

Much love in Christ Jesus <3

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