Rhythm

I've been reading up on the Waldorf method and am surprised at how much it was just a natural thing for me, that has been strongly discouraged and stomped on by others. After doing some reading on it and realizing that I'm not alone in seeking a home that moves in such a way, I decided to focus on the rhythms and relationships in our home this summer.

This week, I've been working towards respecting Blessing #5's natural daily rhythms. In doing so, I've also started working on encouraging the rhythms of my other children. My main focus right now is creating a bedtime rhythm. Blessing #5 has been consistently falling asleep around the same time every night and waking here and there around the same times as well. The more respectful I've been the better it has been for him and the better he has slept. I'm finding that the more I focus on this time with each of my kids, the better they all are sleeping and the more peaceful our home has been. On top of that, it actually gives me some quiet time at night to do things, such as cleaning or hobbies, whatever. It is a very nice change.

Sometimes it is frustrating looking back and seeing all the advice I should've taken. Even more so all the advice that I took, that I shouldn't have. Especially when what I'd been doing had been good all along. I've often doubted myself, but I'm learning more and more through out the years how important my instincts and such really are.

Memorial Day

As a woman attached to many veterans, today I'm thankful for those who do, have, and will serve our country. For the survivors, who actively fight for all that America is supposed to stand for. For those who will not return home to all they've left behind.

For the families waiting on the edge of their seats for the return of their loved ones. For those who are missing the one(s) who they can only say good bye to. I pray for them all. I pray for love to fill their hearts and comfort to bring them peace. For a shoulder to cry on and arms to hold them. For them to be surrounded by strength so they can be allowed to be weak for a time.

I thank God today, that I haven't lost anyone close to me through war. All my closely connected veterans have survived their times of fighting and defending. I can't imagine the heartbreak and grief that comes with such a loss. As a former military child and wife, I know the feeling of knowing that the one who went away may never come back. The faith that tells you they will because everyone else I know has. And the fear that I may be wrong. I do not know the pain, brokenness, emptiness of truly losing the one I missed. I've never witnessed a friend losing their parent, spouse, or sibling. May the Lord be with those who have and hold their hearts in His hands.

Glad to be Where I Am.

As usual, I have no pictures to post. I've been so horrible about taking them. Don't worry, I do have some of the baby and even my other kids. But none from my activities for today.

We had a great time at church this morning, where I actually got to "mingle" with many other grown ups, while my kids played. Blessing #5 was passed around for the first time and I was able to line up one of the ladies to hold him on the days I sing. I also got to hold my friends little one who is a couple weeks younger than Blessing #5. Even though she was fussy, it was sweet. She is so much smaller than Blessing #5, but he was a "big" baby.

This afternoon I joined some other friends for a beach day. The kids all played for HOURS. They caught fish, a snapping turtle (actually the men caught that.) and a muck turtle. Today was about getting the beach cleaned up and ready for the summer time. We don't live close to family. In fact, we haven't since my husband graduated from basic training years ago. And though I've made a few friends here and there over the years, I know we are right where God wants us. Through my friends, God has built a family around mine that I haven't really had. There is no telling what will happen when we get together. There is just the knowledge that there will be plenty of love, laughter, and joy. These people are a great people. Always ready for an adventure, willing to help out, and always doing whatever they can to be a blessing to those around them. And to me they have been a great blessing. It's not just one group of people, but 2. My church family and my bible study family (I can't think of another name for them right now.)

I have been so blessed since we moved here. We have a wonderful property. I've made more friends than I've probably ever had at one time. I've found a great church. I teamed up with terrific midwives for a beautiful home birth experience. Our homeschooling choice has becoming quite the adventure. And so much more. I'm thankful for where we are, the people around us, and the things we have going on in our lives.

With all that is happening in the world around us, I've no doubt there is a God. I see His blessings in our lives every day and in the lives of others. I pray that I can be more of a blessing to those around me, especially those who need Him the most.

Busy Week on the Farm

We have a new addition to our farm. Our last lamb of the season was born on Saturday. His name is still to be determined. Some of the family is voting for the name Tiger, due to stripes on the lambs back. I think Zebra would work better since he is also black and white. There are a few other suggestions floating around as well. Our oldest is considering keeping this lamb for 4H. This lamb was our only single birth, which was a small surprise since all the others had been twins. We now have 5 ram lambs and 1 ewe lamb.

This past week we also took our daddy ram and our ewe who'd prolapsed, to be processed. It was sad, but that's one reason we have them. We got there meat today and tried a little of each. They did taste good and it wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. Now if I had to do the processing myself, I don't know if I could handle that. My husband is the one who has processed our chickens and turkeys. We have a good amount of meat from just those 2 and, now that the daddy ram is gone, the kids and I can confidently go into the pasture again. He was a challenging guy.

We did have baby turkeys born recently. Only two. One was blind. Neither of them survived sadly. I'm not totally sure what happened to them. Originally we thought about bringing them in until they were big enough to go out to the barn, but the mothers seemed to be doing such a good job with them, that we figured we should let nature be natural.

We have ordered an incubator, which should be here soon. We've had chickens sitting on different eggs for long periods of time with nothing happening. I'm pretty sure it's a ratio thing. Too many hens for our 1 rooster. My husband has decided to get a couple more roosters soon. And the turkey hens had also been sitting on eggs, but only hatched 2. We're hoping to hatch some turkey eggs to start with. We have a dozen set aside right now.

Today a friend of mine tried having our first baking day. She made corn and flour tortillas, which I'll be using ours for tacos this week. I made flax seed bread, cracked wheat bread, and challah. We learned some lessons today. For me, it was to make my bread dough the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I think there were plenty of steps I messed up as I'm not used to baking with friends. It's ok, though, because I had a great time and look forward to doing it again. The challah came out wonderfully though!

I have no pictures for today, though. Giving birth and recovering from it has really thrown me off my groove on a lot of things. I haven't posted much lately, because I'm usually busy with my blessings and/or trying desperately to get caught up on the projects in and around the house.

I'll admit, most days, I do forget that I'm still post partum and it is OK. That really we're pregnant for around 10 months and should allow ourselves at least that long to wholly re-balance after all the changes that happen during pregnancy, labor/delivery, and the baby's 1st year. Of course, that is usually easier said than done, but I'm getting better at just accepting the state that I'm in each day and allowing myself to just be.

Making Friends

I've never had an easy time making friends. I pretty much wait for other people to talk to me before I talk to them, 98% of the time. Today was no different and yet I talked with 4 or 5 strangers that actually led to real conversations. Oh yeah, I should mention normally when strangers talk to me it usually doesn't go very far. They might ask me a question or something and I reply with a short answer and feel awkward. Today, I was sociable. I even braved up and shared my info with one of the women I met. I hadn't found a smooth way to do that with the others without it feeling somewhat awkward for me and yet, if I see them again, I'm sure they'd say hello. They were all very friendly. I know, I sound like a teenage boy looking for a date, hahaha. The truth is, I don't often reach out to others like that or give people much opportunity to reach out to me. Not because I don't want people to reach out to me, but because many times I just don't have anything to say back. I don't really talk to parents at soccer, t-ball, softball, or other places like that. Once a month, for the whole school year, I've been in the same place as some of these women and never spoken to any of them! I'm really glad I did and plan to do it more often. It's nice making new friends.

Been a Good Day

My babymooning has been going well. Taking the time to really appreciate how short this time with my newborn is and to listen to my own body and rest, has been wonderful. Not always easy. In fact it is much easier to let it all slip by and become frustrated by all the stuff on my to do lists. There have been moments when I feel the pressure of it all weighing down and I have to remind myself of how richly blessed I am and how thankful I should be. Thankfully, my husband has been pretty fantastic about it all. I've never allowed myself this sort of freedom to just take things one day at a time. I usually am worrying about something and stressing out. He has been very supportive of my resting, even though the house is a disaster zone and he is back to work.

Being mainly "off duty" lately, I haven't been out in the barn since I had Blessing #5. Today, my husband discovered our broody turkey hens were not sitting in vain! We currently have 2 baby turkeys and possibly more coming soon. On top of that, it turns out the one ewe we had who hadn't had lambs a couple months ago, and we thought hadn't gotten pregnant, has her milk bag. We should be lambing one more time this year, in about a month or so!

What made the day even better, was being able to take my younger 4 blessings to the grocery store and having it actually be fun. They were so good and Blessing #2 was such a great help. I love days like these.
Days when I get a glimpse of what a wonderful and blessed life we live. We have our rough edges, but really, when we boil it all down, we have so much to be thankful for.

Oh and blessing #5 already has the cutest, biggest grin I've ever seen on a baby. He looks like he is laughing and even squealed with delight yesterday. It was music to my ears.