Sleepy Time

Well, I think I've settled on a name. I've got a site published, but I've still got quite a bit of work to do on it. I kind of want a break from all of this blogging stuff. . .

In the meantime, I just want to share that since we visited my sister's family last weekend, bed times have in general been much easier. It was a very nice and sudden change. He doesn't even need me to sing to him most of the time.

Ethan went to bed well tonight, but then he was having a hard time falling asleep and after a while cried out for me. I finally went in to him (again) and rocked him into dreamland. It was a little frustrating at first to have to go in again when Terral was ready to help out, but Ethan just wanted me. Then as I rocked him I felt the peace of holding my child and I thought, "I am needed. I am wanted. I am loved."

I am so very blessed.

Homesteading

Terral and I have really been enjoying our homesteading lately. We have a lot of plans for things we want to incorporate into our life to become more self-sufficient, and we've started doing a few of them.

Getting chickens was one of those things. Terral was noting yesterday some of the things we had going. I fed and watered the chickens and mucked out part of their coop, then gathered eggs. We have couple jars of our own sourdough starter in process. We are drying some jalapenos.  I cooked a whole chicken yesterday (it turned out so yummy with a perfect tenderness!) and today I finished making my first bone broth. Terral cooked a pumpkin and used it to make muffins this morning, and he also roasted the seeds.

Anyway, it's just really exciting to us to actually be doing some of these things we've talked about for a long time. And I just love learning new things. I've been reading a lot lately on how to preserve with lacto-fermentation. It has lots of health benefits and is easier than doing a hot water bath. We're also learning how to utilise more of what we have. Like feeding kitchen scraps to the chickens and making mineral-rich bone broth. It's just cool!

And it's because it's cool that I felt like sharing. The end.

A Very Full Day

Good grief, I haven't stayed up this late for quite a long time. Thank goodness. Funny thing is I've been awake since about 5 or so. It's been a busy day, and tomorrow the stair project continues.

No time to tell all the exciting details of the day, but this evening Terral and I were able to go to and Elders Quorum activity. They had a yummy dinner and we exchanged white elephant gifts afterward. I decorated one of the tables for our contribution to the dinner.

I forgot about getting a baby sitter until about two hours before it started. Luckily, I was able to find one who did a really great job and seemed to have a lot of fun with Ethan. It was kind of a milestone for us because we've never paid anyone to babysit before. We've been very fortunate that way.

Well, I'm signing off for now. ZZzzzzzzzz

Not Quite as Short

I know I'm pushing it, but I feel like doing a quick post again tonight. Today was really great, but it took it out of mee too. Things went well with our talks and my singing. It's not often you get to see results from talking in church, but we went to choir afterward and they had a bigger turnout than they've had in years! At least three times as many people as sang with the choir last time. It was rather exciting. (In case I didn't mention it before, our talks were on singing and the role music can and should play in our lives.)

I also did my first real visiting teaching today, and my parents stopped by really quickly on their way home from Kanab. It's my mom's birthday today (Happy Birthday Mom!), so we made a card with Ethan for her. He was excited to paint some more, and Mom seemed pleased with the result.

We also spent some time outside today because it was such beautiful weather. We went on a walk, and Ethan ran nearly the whole way! He sure loves to run. He and Terral played outside while I was at my VT meeting, and he didn't get a nap today, so he should sleep well tonight!

This evening I did some catching up on the budget (really need to stop putting that off) and Terral and I watched an episode of Call the Midwife. Man, that show really takes you on a roller coaster of emotions. Birth is a beautiful, wonderful thing, but there are many circumstances that were/are just so sad. It certainly makes me grateful for my life and especially the gospel knowledge I have that protects me from dangerous situations and has the power to comfort in tragedy.

Speeding Time

I can't believe how fast this week has flown by. I've gotten a good amount of things done, but there are still a few things left on my To Do list. Like write a talk. Yup, lucky me—I get to sing and talk on Sunday. The singing has been scheduled for quite a while, but Terral and I were just asked to talk last Sunday. I really kind of wish it wasn't this week, since it's been so busy, and we have a lot more going on in the next couple days. So, wish me luck!

In the mean time, I'd best go to bed. We're tackling the stairs this weekend, and it's going to be a big project!

Progress in Three Areas

We made some good progress on the exterior of the house today. I finished caulking the lower windows, and Terral did some more power washing. He also did some painting on the garage. It's amazing how paint can make a building look so much more sound!

I would have liked to work longer than I did, but we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, so I had to stop early to make sure everything was ready for that. It went really well, and I was glad that I felt up to doing it! Not long ago the thought would have overwhelmed me and I may not have felt well enough physically. Yay for the second trimester!

On a rather random note, I've been learning a lot about teeth the past couple days. I love to learn, and I try to be an informed healthcare consumer. We like our dentist as a person, but for some time we haven't been comfortable with the way he does things, so we end up just putting off our visits. I knew which things I disagreed with, but I didn't know what they could be replaced with. Yesterday while reading about a recent WHO report on amalgam, I came across some very interesting information, and I think that we are now on the path to finding a dentist who can help us in a way that we believe will encourage better health overall. It's rather exciting, because it's something that's bothered me for quite a while.

Why is it that someone who finds health such an important and interesting topic can have such a hard time finding/making the time to exercise? *sigh*

Busy as a. . .Fox?

I'm happy to say that today was extremely productive. We remembered it was garbage day, so right after breakfast we all went out to the chicken run to clear it of debris and some of the weeds. The previous owners kept their dog there, and it was full of garbage like stuffing from toy animals and chewed up everything. Terral got the big stuff out before we got the chickens, but there was still a bunch of garbage in the corners, and today we cleared most of it out. I think it will take years to get it all. We also got rid of a lot of the stuff left over from the roofing job. I found two black widows while I was removing garbage, and one of them was the biggest I'd ever seen! Luckily Terral was more than willing to kill them for me.

Let's see, what else did I do today? Watered the lawn for the first time, dug around the peach tree and mulched it so it can actually get water, took care of some more branches, folded laundry, cleaned the entire kitchen, washed out the garbage can, put books on the shelves (yay for a more permanent feeling!), went for a walk, read a bit, and did a myriad of other little things. I tell you, I'm beat. But it feels good!

Terral was equally busy. Thanks to his efforts, the volvo is this close to being ready for inspection! And he really warmed my heart when he cleaned the sink, mirror, and toilet while Ethan was taking his bath.

After our very full days, it is definitely time to catch some z's.

The Pit Started It

My big project for the day was breaking down twiggy branches so we can use them in our fire pit. While I was at the RS broadcast on Saturday, Terral built a fire pit because he's been wanting one for a long time. So we knew just what we wanted to do with the dead branches I've been trimming away, but   I needed to make them a little more useable first. I got all but the biggest branches done today. It was nice spending more time outside, and I think Ethan really enjoyed that too.

We're going to use the fire pit as part of our cub scout activity this week. Wish us luck! Honestly, I've had a really hard time accepting that this calling is where I'm supposed to be. I like being with the boys and feel fine when we're doing something with them, but in all the in-between times I have so many mixed emotions about it. I don't quite understand the church/scout relationship. So wish me luck!

In other news, the chickens continue to warm up to us, and we're really enjoying having them. Every time I walked by them today with branches, they gathered hopefully by the fence. Terral has told me that he likes them even more than he thought they would. They kind of fulfill the needs that pets do for him, which I think is great.

Here's a picture and video of Ethan playing with them last week.

PS How the heck is it October already?

Three Things

Terral's been very busy with a business competition the last few days, and we have stayed up later than I intended to as a result, so I'll make tonight's post brief.

1. I did quite a bit more tree trimming today and found that cherry wood is easier to saw through than peach.

2. We got our first eggs today! There weren't any when we looked this morning, but this afternoon when Ethan and I went to check on the chickens again, there were two pristine white eggs in the coop. The chickens seem to be warming up to us a bit.

3. I went over to help a friend move this evening, and I got there just as she was sending off one of her goats. The people who were buying it seemed to really love their animals, and they said they could provide a good tempered milk goat at a good price when we're ready for it. It might be a long while yet before that day comes because we have quite a bit to learn still, we need to prepare the area for them, save up for it all, and make sure we're ready for the commitment. But I really think we'll do it someday! It was fun to visualize the possibilities.

Some Randoms

I put off posting tonight because I didn't know what to write about. I got a little fired up over something, and posting just seemed kind of exhausting. So here are some little snippets I considered until I finally said to myself, "Just spew something out and get it over with!" I must say, this goal of mine has been very good in some ways, but I think it will be nice when the year's up. I think it's maybe a little overwhelming for some of my few readers too.

Anyway.

This afternoon Terral and I wrestled a metal shelf out of the shed, and then after I sprayed it off I brought it in to our "storage room". I'm super excited to have a little more organization in there. I needed to get boxes out of the way so that my dad and Terral can replace the window in there without bothering about stuff in the path. I just love making progress!

I've killed three big scary spiders in the past two days (plus a few little ones), one of which was a black widow in our bathroom. *shudder*

Although Ethan is still having accidents (not unexpected), we are definitely making progress. Tonight he even asked to go potty in spite of the fact that he already had his night time diaper on! We make a big deal out of it, and it's so cute to hear his little voice say, "Yay! Potty!"

Speaking of him speaking, he is now stringing words together to make semi-sentences. I really need to record him talking. He's doing so well!

Baseball and Other Things

I struggled this morning. The little boy I watch just didn't want to be here (again) and cried and cried. He had some good times eventually, but it just wears on me. And then Ethan had several accidents on the carpet. Yes, we're potty training again. And I could just feel my patience wearing more and more thin. The boys wouldn't share. M cried every time Ethan got near him, even when he was being nice.

I needed a nap.

Well, I did get some rest, but not really a good nap. But then somehow my attitude changed (I'll have to tell you about this neat little book I have that helped) and my afternoon went much better. I got two loads of laundry done, and even if I do say so myself, I made an awesome dinner. Which is a pretty huge accomplishment these days with the way I feel about food.

While I was finishing up dinner, Terral came home from work and went outside with Ethan. Ethan found this water squirter thing and out of nowhere asked for a ball. We're kind of unsure where he learned about baseball, but I think he's addicted now! He and Terral had so much fun, and Terral loved that he can play ball in our own back yard. It just made me smile so much. :)

PS It wasn't quite as fun when he threw a major fit because we made him stop to come eat dinner.
PPS Yes, he's got a naked bum because of the aforementioned potty training.

And then this evening I convinced Terral to let me help him get the swamp cooler down. It's a beast of a thing, and he was going to call some of his friends over to help. Well, it was a bit of an adventure, but we did it! And without a moment to spare, too. We barely beat nightfall. But now that eyesore that let in air and smells and bugs and water is no longer hanging in our window, and I'm so happy! Man, it feels good!

Tired

I'm feeling a little drained today. Ethan's not been feeling well, I've been sleeping horribly (like a couple hours a night, if that, and not being able to nap), and today Terral is sick as well. So we tried to take it a little easier today, but I still feel rather blah.

I'm a bit nervous because tomorrow I start babysitting every Friday morning. It's in the morning, and I start at a time when I'm not usually awake. So hopefully everything goes better tonight.

Wish us luck!

Ponies at the Park

My big accomplishment for the day was getting started dehydrating the apples that came from our tree. It feels really good to have that going finally.

I also weeded some of the jungle out of our lawn, and while I was doing that our neighbor came over to the fence and offered to mow our lawn for us. Since we don't yet have a mower, I accepted his kind offer.

This evening, Terral offered to make dinner, so I took Ethan on a little walk to keep him occupied. There is a little park within walking distance, but we hadn't visited it yet, so I decided to take him there. There is a field that surrounds it, and when we got there we saw seven little ponies near the fence. When we walked up to look at them, some of them came to see what we were all about. It was really fun. We let them sniff our hands and fed them bits of grass. They were only about as tall as Ethan!

 Then we went over to the little play set. It is much more suited to Ethan's size and age than the elementary playgrounds, which is where we have been going, so I think we will come back to this one often. He had a blast since he could pretty much do everything himself.

He found a little bar to hang from.

 And he loved climbing up this thing. Wouldn't even touch the stairs.
(He got a wood chip in his sandal and was asking me to fix it.)

 He tried the red slide first, and then the blue. But once he went down the yellow slide, nothing else would do.

 On the way home, he got to walk the last part. Sometimes we don't even bother taking the stroller out on walks anymore because he just loves to walk and run so much. I sure love my happy little boy!

Settling In

We are becoming more and more a part of this ward. I've already led the music on two different occasions, subbed in nursery, and am on the line-up for a sacrament meeting musical number. And today the bishop asked Terral and I to come in after church and we both received callings.

Last week the relief society president asked us if we would have dinner with them this Sunday. I looked forward to it all week. We had a really nice evening with them and hope to do a game night sometime.

There's another lady in my ward that I met during a weeknight meeting, and we just hit it off right away. I think she's about forty years old, but that doesn't seem to matter. We stopped by their house last Sunday while we were out on a walk, and she showed us all their animals: cats, rats, goats, and chickens. Ethan loved it all, but he seemed particularly enthralled by the chickens. I'm really grateful to have made a friend so quickly that I feel comfortable enough with to just stop by unannounced.

Now I just need to start going to the Thursday morning play group so I can get to know some other young moms. It just takes me so long to get going in the mornings that I haven't made it yet, so I've been kind of a hermit. In the mean time, we are still getting to know people and feeling more at home in this area. It's a nice feeling. :)

Saturday Work

We spent our Saturday working on the house.  Terral took down the satellite dish and the millions of cables, and he also replaced the outside faucet that was broken. It will be so nice to use the hose whenever we need it! And I finally tackled the upper kitchen cabinets. Those have been hanging over my head for way too long. It was not fun to clean off 20 years of greasy grime. Yuck! But now they are clean enough to use, and that will alleviate the box situation a bit. Every little bit of progress helps! I also worked some more in the garage doing some organizing. Yesterday I cleaned out the shelves that are in there so we could put them to use.

After a long day of various tasks, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather this evening and we all went for a walk together. Ethan is going to bed rather late tonight as a result, but maybe he'll sleep in tomorrow and church will be a little easier. Our ward meets at 11:00, so the meetings go right into his regular nap time. In any case, we had a very good time together, and it was worth it.

All in all it was a productive and pleasant day!

Some Randoms

Here's some recent pictures from my phone.

I just had to include this one because I thought it was cute and funny. This was taken when we still lived at the apartment and Ethan and I took a walk to the nearby park. He likes to peek between bars, and often gives me kisses. Such a sweetie.

 We went to CAL ranch to look at rope for the railing. (More on that later!) We stopped and looked at the chicks. Ethan loved it, and he started saying "chicken", only it sounds like "dicken". (Speaking of his mad word skills, he has started saying some Russian words! So exciting! He says balodet, which is supposed to be молодец.)

 Another thing Ethan is very into right now is fixing things. He loves tools, especially now that he's seen daddy and his grandpas using them fairly often. He just had to help while they were working on the dishwasher. He still will get down with a screwdriver and stick it into the screws under the washer.

He has his own little workbench that we got from some friends when they were getting rid of it. He loves to play at it. I thought it was hilarious when we got home from church, and there he was with my high heels on working with his tools. 

 And these were taken just yesterday. I was out working in the garage, and he was entertaining himself in the yard. I thought it was pretty cute when I found him riding this log like a horse. He even calls it "horsey". 

 Yesterday was one of those magical times where I didn't even have to sit and sing Ethan to sleep for his nap. He just said "Nigh' nigh'!" and I left. And he didn't cry at all. I came in to find him like this. We got that bear last week (?) at a yard sale some of our friends were having, and he has really taken to it. I don't think he's ever actually snuggled with a stuffed animal in his sleep, although he gives them hugs when he's awake.

 Here you can see him sucking on his bottom lip. He never took to binkies or his thumb, but he developed this little comfort measure just a few weeks ago when all those molars were coming in.

 And here's a lovely shot from today. I'd been craving something cold, so I finally found the blender and made a green smoothie. Ethan enjoyed it as much as we did, as evidenced by his funny mustache. :) He was about to follow daddy upstairs, but I asked him to wait so I could take a picture. He stopped, turned around, and gave me this smile. And then he came and looked at it on the phone. 

 You can see it a little better in this one. We have some mirrors down where he can see himself, and he likes to play in front of them and dance and jump and spin. And he sure thinks it's interesting whenever he has a messy face.

Clean Machines

This evening Terral's parents came out to visit us for a bit. Terral's dad took at look at both our washing machine and the dishwasher, and now—hallelujah—both are running! It's so nice to have so many skilled and willing to help family members. Thank you, Doug!

Reconnecting

I hardly know where to start. We were without internet for a few days because of the move. In some ways it was inconvenient (esp. for Terral's work), but in other ways it was just nice to take a break from it all.

Monday we finished the majority of our move. It poured all afternoon long, which certainly complicated things. We were very glad that so much was done on Saturday. Two people showed up to help, which was just about right, and we eventually got the necessary things done. The next day was spent in packing far more little things than we thought we had left and cleaning the apartment.

Ethan has transitioned well. He had trouble going to sleep the first night, but he'd been doing similar things back at the apartment. He's had about four molars come in at once. The little man is now nineteen months, and we sure have a lot of fun with him. I have trouble counting, but I'm certain he knows at least fifty words, not counting the ones he signs only. He's become quite adept at jumping with both feet. He is super sweet and will sometime cuddle for long periods at a time.  Ever since he saw his cousin Lucas hang on a bar, hanging on things is a favorite. At our new house he has a bannister and a seat he can hang from pretty much any time he wants. Jumping off things is also a favorite. He can be very helpful, and for some time has done things like throw garbage away when we ask him to. He's added some two word phrases to his speech. "Did it!" and "Hem me" (help me) are heard quite frequently around here.

As far as how things are going with the house, well, it feels good to only have to worry about one place now. :) Slowly but surely we are making headway with little projects and finding homes for the contents of the myriad of boxes one finds in every room. I've been so tired lately, though, that I haven't done as much as I would have liked. For example, the upper kitchen cabinets have still not be cleaned yet. Which means that there are more boxes of kitchen things on the floor than there needs to be. Oh well. It will get done. I don't feel as pressured any more since we made it through the big time crunch.

Today is our fifth anniversary. Seventh from the day we started dating. Sometimes it seems that life before Terral was a completely different life. I definitely like the one I'm currently living. :) I feel extremely blessed to have a man so well suited to me, one who loves me, whom I love, and who shares a love with me of all that is most important.

To celebrate our anniversary, we went to the movies. There is a discount theater on Main Street that just  reopened this week. It was a dollar theater before my mission, and it was there that we first held hands. The building was later condemned and the theater shut down. We went a few days before our anniversary because entrance was free on the grand opening. Terral's parents watched Ethan for us, and we had a really good time.

Today, the three of us went for a walk together, and we saw pretty much all the friends that we know out here. We also scored some good yardsale finds. (Two nice tennis rackets, a cute stuffed bear, and several toy cars/trucks for Ethan—all for $6) After lunch and a nap, we headed into town for a few errands. Man, we're exciting, aren't we? That's okay, we still enjoyed it. We checked out an antique store we had never been in. Ethan loved it as much as we did. And we bought some cool coat hooks we will soon put to use. We also met up with a few more friends along the way. And when we came home, Terral cooked some yummy venison fajitas.

And now, I'm going to go spend some more snuggle time with my honey and watch a show if we still feel like it.

I found that I can go to sleep easier if I'm not on the computer at night. (Ethan has been sleeping through the night quite frequently, but I slept through the night for the first time this week in I don't know how many years.) So I will attempt to write my future posts during the day. Not that it makes much difference to you, but now that it's written down, I'm more accountable, right? ;)

Busy Awesome Day

Today was a very busy day, but it was pretty awesome. For one, we got some awesome news. The house deal should close by the end of this week! Mind blowing, I tell ya.

One of my students told me that he was sad I was moving away. He said, "I wish you could stay until. . . 500 months!" I thought that was very sweet. No way I'm staying in that apartment 41 more years though. Although I do very much wish I could keep all my students.

This evening I spent some quality time with my mom and my sister Diane. We played quirkle and talked. That's one reason I like that game so much. It's a good talkin' game.

I feel like I'm about to fall asleep at the computer, so I think I'll stop there. There really was so much to this day! But I'll be satisfied with those highlights for now.

Weaned

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should write tonight. I was planning on hammering out the last May event as I said before, but when I opened the picture folder, I saw that there were about a gajillion of them, and I hadn't gone through them yet to pick which ones would make it to the blog. Soooo that's out.

I guess I'll do what I usually do in these situations and talk about Ethan. ;) He's been a bit of a Daddy's boy lately. I'm assuming his extra attachment to dad has to do with weaning. I think it's safe to say he is officially weaned. Honestly, it still kind of hurts my heart a little bit that I can't give him that kind of comfort anymore, but I do know that it was time. I think it's been nearly a week and a half since he last nursed. We had some very not fun days, but he seems to have come to grips. His sleeping habits have gotten much better, which is pretty awesome. I don't regret nursing him as long as I did, but I will definitely try with the next baby to get them to fall asleep without nursing.

I got the beginnings of a breast infection during the weaning process. Apparently I put my pump in storage a while ago. It was kind of painful, but I fought it off with rosemary and lavender essential oils before it got too bad.

In other news, things are moving along well with the house. It appraised for more than the purchase price, which we were very happy about. The deal should be closed by this time next week! Craziness. Everything is happening so fast, and the days are just jam packed. We are going to miss so many people when we move, but we are very excited to start this new phase.

I decided that this move will be a good time to simplify our lives in many ways. I think it may be a little difficult to realize the goal I have in my head, but it is certainly worth a try!