Ack, I missed my three month posting point lol

Well, Winter has been interesting. Scott got laid off in January. We're doing well, he's looking, I'm looking...but there seem to be no jobs around here at the moment. Fortunately this happened when we got our tax return back and have money to put aside to get through this.

I'm not totally freaking out, which is unlike me. I think it's hunker down time. I think the economy is just going to tank even worse. I always used to joke about my tin foil hat when I'd talk about my thinking that our society was going to make a shift and things were going to, in many ways, revert to the past. Not saying I knew the economy was going to go apeshit, I totally did not. But right now, I'm really glad we have no mortgage, no car payments, no debt...and even glad we never got deep into 401(k)'s and such. We're in a pretty good place.

And yeah, I'm planning my garden this year lol I'm going to go total square foot because that was much easier to care for. I really want to have a good yield to put back this year.

The kids are doing great, healthy and happy. We finally took Mace for his ASD eval and the doctor said she doesn't feel he's on the spectrum. YAY!! But he does have some anxiety issues and a touch of OCD she thinks. We're watching it. Might go soon for a speech and OT eval because he does have issues in those areas, ASD or no.

Lily's doing well also, progressing and getting smarter and happier every day! Gage and Maddie are fab, playing basketball. No one's really been sick this year *knock on wood* lol

Course right now they're fighting lol but normally it's all good.

So, we're looking forward to a wonderful Spring and Summer. Should be interesting all around!

Apparently I only post here every three months or so lol

And it's also apparent I lost most of my blog links?? Weird...will have to figure that out.

We're still plugging along here! I got totally immersed in the election and was just freaking GIDDY with excitement when America proved to the world we do NOT in fact have our collective heads up our collective arses. I can't wait to see what the next EIGHT years bring!

I did my gardning thang, and once again I seemed to lose interest in the fall lol I got some good tomatoes and learned some lessons (no more broccoli). I'm going to go all square foot gardening next year, that sfg was so easy compared to the tomato garden. The raccoons got all my corn. ALL of it. Not kidding. But I'm still thinking next year will be better...each year is a learning experience.

I can't believe it's November already...another month and here's another year gone.

The kids are doing great, Lily is fast approaching three and as long as I can get through to her birthday I think we're done having babies. I'd LOVE one more, just one more...when I see families with five kids I just feel so wistful. But I think we have to be done. As I've said, my head has to win this one. It doesn't win often lol

I'm STILL fat! I try to think positive that it will change, but I don't know that it will. I can't seem to get serious about it, whether it's depression or stress I don't know, but I can't "go there" (to serious weight loss) for the time being.

Anyway...things are good! We're all happy and healthy and holding on!

Been awhile! We're still here, still working on the homesteading thing...

The garden has been doing well. Like last year, I suffered from mid summer lack of enthusiasm. Some of the patches got pretty weedy, but still producing so it's not all bad. My square foot garden did the best, and I think I'm going all sfg next year. I realized broccoli takes up too much space and is too finicky for my gardening ability. Plus, one per plant?! Not enough bang for my buck.

I've canned some green beans and tomato sauce so far. Am going to diced tomatoes for the rest of it. Way too much work for little result with the sauce; once it boils down to the right consistancy more than half is gone! I can use the diced to make sauce as needed and still use it for chili and such.

The kids are doing well...

Lily is running around, loving being outside! She's communicating more and seems to actually be more and more typical for her age all the time. She's 2.5 and really acts like a 2.5 yr old lol. Into everything, wants to do big girl things...even sorta, maybe thinking about potty training! She knows what it's for...and goes in that direction when she needs to go...but often doesn't make it lol She'll get there though...

Mace is doing well. I may have posted, but we didn't do the autism spectrum eval. He's still his quirky self :) but I think it's evening out. We're starting a yeast die off with him, and all of us really, to see if that helps him. He has many of the signs of it.

Maddie is getting ready to turn TEN! Yikes! She's still working on some of her fears, but she's doing well. She's starting fall soccer again

Gage is 12, getting near those teen years. I'm enjoying this time with him, and Maddie as well, as we're starting to have more in depth discussions and talking about bigger kid issues and dilemmas. It's challenging, but lots of fun and very enlightening!

Homeschooling getting underway again...we sort of take a little summer break though we still hope and believe that they're learning all the time. We'll work with Mace on reading more this year; he knows his alphabet but isn't very proficient at writing letters. We need work on some fine motor skills. I don't want to push reading, yet I want to make sure we're encouraging it.

Dh and I are doing well...I still haven't managed to lose weight to any appreciable degree. It's frustrating, yet I know it's in my power to change it. I just haven't yet. I'm hopeful I will get to "that point" where I'm ready to make a commitment to it; just not there yet. Still want another baby, dh doesn't. Don't know really how that will all play out. I'm getting older, but as long as my ovaries are throwing eggs down the chute I'll likely want more babies. And probably even when they don't.

Better stop while I'm ahead, my fingers are not cooperating and it's making me crazy how much I've had to go back and fix just in this short post. Dyslexic fingers, I keep typing turned around letters lol

Been feeling yucky lately. Not physically, just everything else lol. Not sure why and that bugs me.

Well, to be honest, there has been some physical stuff (extreme fatigue, heart palps, etc..) and putting it all together...it looks like it could be something like a potassium deficiency. I'm trying t work on that, hoping that's all it is. My mom has this, and when she was first talking about it I thought big whoop, it's just potassium lol. But apparently, it IS a rather big whoop as it does a lot of different things like regulating blood pressure and the heart. A friend of my mom's had gone to the ER thinking she was having a heart attack; it was her potassium and she had to have an IV to get it back to proper levels. So I guess it's pretty important. Can't hurt to eat a bit better and get my vites. Supposedly it also can make you irritable, depressed, etc.. if it's caused by something like adrenal fatigue. Yeah, I fit the description for that too. Fun fun.

And what's the rx? The usual, less stress, more exercise, less junk foods. I always feel like I need to add, I don't really eat "junk food" but I like to bake...and while brownies made from scratch aren't as bad for you as a Twinkie, they're not health food either lol. I dunno. How many more signs from God, the Universe and Everything do I need to get off my butt and DO SOMETHING?! Hopefully, this one is the one. I'm trying...

Really. This is getting old.

This weekend I was in the vicinity of a 3 week old baby girl...okay, I was holding her and ooohing and ahhhing over her constantly. And I had a couple conversations about my baby love. Of course, it's right near ovulation time again and I'm in BABY FEVAH mode. I suppose I'm going to have to ride this out until menopause. That'll be fun every month. Yeahhhh. So maybe another 10 years or so lol

Though I have been feeling quite perimenopausal these past few months, so who knows. Both my mom and eldest sister started having girl problems in their early 40's and both have had hysterectomies, so I'm assuming here in the next five years things will start winding down. I admit to have hopes of one of them there menopause babies I hear so much about. Actually, back that truck up, I don't really want a baby in my mid forties. That would be much older than I'd feel comfortable with. But I seem to know more than a few women who ended up unexpectedly pregnant during that crazy pre menopausal period when things are all wonky. My preferred timing would be SOON, as in next year, next fall. Next Spring, whatever :) I'm not picky lol

So I'm going to ride out this week...here's hoping I can shut my ovaries up with an offering of chocolate and a re-reading of Harry Potter.

So gardening season has seen it's first casualties.

My cukes, cabbages and cauliflower have officially not made it. I'll have to buy the plants at the local nursery or diy store. They looked so good inside, but small, like everything else I've got. But the temps were right so I transplanted. Something "got" the cauliflower, I think the cukes and cabbages were still a bit small for whatever it was to get them. The cukes, I think, just blew their stack inside. When I had them inside, they looked fabulous, but by the time the weather cooperated enough for me to get them outside, they were pretty limp.

Right now, I've got tomatoes and peppers...and beans (green, black and pinto) still inside. The beans are huge and ready to plant. The peppers..aren't huge but they are pretty hearty I think, so they'll go out soon too. The tomatoes, my dear darling indeterminate heirloom tomatoes, the ones I want to work most of all...still look green and healthy, but they're so small. Only a few have their second leaves. They're getting enough water, light, they have adequate space...I don't know what's wrong. And I DON'T want to buy replacements because there's no way I'll find ones like these (most places just have hybrid determinates). I guess I'll just keep babying them and see what happens.

Potatoes are out and popping up like crazy. But I think we'll need to re-till the rest of that garden to plant the corn and tomatoes when they're ready. It's weed central. Since a lot of it was grass just a couple months ago, and with all the rain, the grass is trying to take over again. And succeeding I might add lol

Everything else is going well. Waiting on the roto rooter guys this morning because our second bath has overflowed...again. This will be, what, the fourth time in the last year? Whoever set up the drain pipes underneath (and hell, we can't remember who did what at this point...it was one of the two plumbers we had out last Spring) set them up oddly, and there's a point at which they keep getting clogged. Yeah, we need to have someone come out and fix that. Scott's got too much on his plate already. I think he's feeling overwhelmed at the "stuff" yet to do. I'm trying not to nag, but I don't always succeed lol

The kids are doing well. We've been discussing our different ideas about homeschooling around here. My heart wants to unschool, but honestly I just don't feel I do enough to help them cultivate their interests for it to be worthwhile. I have to admit that much as I just adore my kids, I'm not a "get down on the floor and play" kind of mom. And I do tend to let them do their own thing, especially the older kids. That sounds worse than it is lol what I mean is, I don't, and don't want to, hover over them all the time. Scott likes the unschooling idea too, but he wants to make sure the bases are covered and that they do workbooks and such. I just hate doing them myself, and the kids hate them, which makes it hard. I don't know which way to go with it. I know they're learning stuff, but my "public schooled brain" keeps feeling inadequate, like we're not "doing enough". I need to get past that I think. To be honest, I don't need to worry about whether or not they know the state capitals. I think things are going to change drastically in the way that we all live (hello peak oil) and when that happens, I think things that are important are things like gardening, living sustainably, knowing how to take care of yourself. But that's just me and my tin foil hat talking lol.

Well, coffee pot is telling me it's ready...really need some this morning.

We've been busy, busy, busy this week!

The weather finally got nice enough to get outside and get started on our yard work. I planted, covered and mulched about 500 sq ft of flower beds out front. Scott and Gage used the brush hog to clean off a huge area of brush and such out back of our house, adding almost another full size yard to our existing yard. We laid out the square foot raised bed, I'm only doing one which is 4' by 25' instead of a bunch of individual boxes. As well as two regular garden plots behind that for the potatoes, corn and tomatoes. I've started a lot of my seeds, onions, broccoli and tomatoes are all sprouted. I need to go out today and get more planters to start everything else.

So we're really making progress!! It's rained the last two days though, so I'm trying to catch up with indoor chores. I've been working so hard this week, and been so terribly sore, I've lost 5 lbs lol.

The kids are helping a lot and it's just been a really, really good week. I feel productive!

I've also been working on our eating habits. I hate saying "diet" because of the connotations. But I'm trying to cut out artificial flavorings and colorings, mainly "excitotoxins". Thus far, I've been baking all our bread; haven't bought commercial bread in about a month! It's been a lot of fun, making a daily loaf. Even made bagels which turned out really good - the only drawback is that they're not as easy to store as commercially made bagels. Homemade ones have about a one day shelf life. We're trying to cut out the "fake meats" we've been using too. I'm making more veggie burgers from scratch now.

Anyway...feeling good. Still can't fully shake the baby fever though. Staying busy is helping, and it has dwindled a bit. But it's still there, underneath.