Hello, yes it has been months since I have written here, perhaps no one reads anymore, but alas I do have much to share.
Since my last post we have moved into a new to us house that was GIVEN to us, it is over twice the size of our old tiny shack and we are sooo blessed. I have so thoroughly enjoyed painting, putting in flooring and working at decorating this wonderful new space and making it all ours. It has also been such a blessing to be able to host guests in this house. We have had a few get togethers with friends and family and it has made my heart so glad to be able to open up my home and welcome others in.
Our other big change has been something I have hoped and prayed for since I was a teenager, and despite the fact that it is not me doing it but my hubby, we are still sharing in the adventure together. Les quit his full time job as a railroad engineer, and is now in full time ministry at a local Christian youth ranch as their year round full time Barn Manager/Head Wrangler. WOW. This has brought so many changes along with it. Most good, a few frustrating lol. It is a salaried position, which we had to do as we still have much small debt to repay after our house in BC was foreclosed due to our renter having a grow opp. The hours during the off season are great, but we are in full swing camp season right now and so we haven't seen him hardly at all. That has been hard on the kids especially. But we are adjusting to our new normal and I am sure two months out of the year won't kill us lol. Its amazing to see how God moved in my hubby's heart over the last year, and how open he was to follow and obey this calling. Its equally amazing how He wooed my heart to be open and tender to saying yes when Les first approached me about it. I could go on, but my writing time is very limited these days as I am basically a single mom for the summer and wow thats been trying. So I will leave you with this for now and hope to share some more farmyard adventures with you soon.
Blessings
Erin
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Nathaniel's Story
On January 3rd we welcomed our beautiful 5th baby, a son, into our arms and heart! Nathaniel John Moses weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 in long!! Our longest and heaviest baby! We are truly blessed!
First off, I know it has been many months since I have written on this blog, I apologize. I was sick for many months of his pregnancy, and then later on I developed gestational diabetes. I now have a great compassion for those who suffer from diabetes. Having to prick your fingers four times a day to check your sugar levels and then give yourself four shots of insulin a day is incredibly unpleasant and difficult to manage while trying to care for a family. I am so thankful that despite the possibility, I did not keep the diabetes after having him. But there is still an increased likelihood that I will develop it in the future, so I am transitioning myself into a low glycemic lifestyle. Enter the Trim Healthy Mama book and way of eating. I have been so thankful for the advice and knowledge found in the pages of this book! I am so proud to share that I have lost 45 lbs in less than three months, I am less than my pre-pregnancy weight and I feel amazing! I still have 50 lbs to go, but for the first time I feel so confident that I can reach that goal!
I have much more to share with you, such as how we came up with his name, how we are dealing with a very colicky baby, the new to us house we are getting in two weeks!! But the colicky baby is screaming right now and it is incredibly difficult to think clearly enough to write, so I will save those things for another post!
Blessings to you and yours
Erin
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Tips and tricks for surviving all day morning sickness
I am so pleased to announce that we are expecting our fifth baby due in January! I had wrote about trying for another baby in a previous post. I must tell you that I signed up with Fertility Friend and tracked my basal body temp, charted my fertility signs and recorded inter*course. We were able to conceive the second month of trying! As I mentioned before, we have never been able to get pregnant when we wanted, and we have always left our timing up to the Lord. A friend shared with me that God said to be fruitful and multiply-so go ahead and make the effort to get pregnant! So we did lol and the results are miraculous!
As we have also had several miscarriages, this same friend who has miscarried 8 times and just carried her baby to term, shared with me her use of a herbal supplement called Welcome Womb. Twice in the beginnings of this pregnancy I felt cramping, a slight bit of spotting and I started to run a mild fever. Both times I up my dose of Welcome Womb to hourly and I truly believe that and prayer saved our baby. I praise the Lord for directing my friend and later us to this amazing product!
Anyways, we are now working on our 14th week of pregnancy, and some of my sickness is starting to ebb, praise the Lord! I am always sick all the way through, but the intensity usually starts diminishing around now, and I start having good days more frequently.
So I wanted to share some of the ways I have learned to cope with morning sickness over the years.
1. Prayer! Of course this doesn`t alleviate the symptoms, but having a daily running commentary with my Lord helps me focus on what is really happening, I am growing a miracle in my belly! And by sharing my burdens with Christ, I keep from over complaining to my husband lol!
2. Get up slowly! This can be tricky when you have Little's at home to care for, but waking up and slowly getting out of bed, vs jumping out and rushing make a big difference for me.
3. Eating small amounts all day. My first two pregnancy`s I couldn't eat anything, I lived on Popsicle's and iced tea. However I have learned that by eating a little bit all day I never feel hungry-which makes me super nauseous, and I never feel full -which also makes me super nauseous!
4. Suck on a candy or preggi pop. I am drastically affected by smells when pregnant and I dry heave over 30 times a day, usually because I caught a whiff of something unpleasant (to me). Things that set me off include laundry soap and body wash smells, the smell of my blankets lol, dirty diapers! It really can be anything actually! I have found that sucking on a candy or mint makes me not smell things to the same degree and has helped me not dry heave as often!
5. This pregnancy I finally figured out a huge key in helping me survive-I hired the 15 year old neighbor girl to come and clean for me one day a week! She does all my dishes, sweeps and mops the floors, vacuums and picks up laundry and toys that the kids missed etc.. Because she is only 15 I am paying half what I would for a professional housekeeper, and she has seriously helped me maintain my sanity! This week is the first week I have been able to do much cleaning, but she is still scheduled to come tomorrow to help in the areas I haven`t quite managed yet. I must also say that my daughters are so much older this time and have been able to help with many things, including dishes, bathroom and laundry. As well as helping take care of our youngest, playing with her outside etc... It has made a world of difference! I now understand how large families can make things work, all the responsibilities do not fall on just the mother-many hands make light work!
Well I hope this post encourages a struggling mother out there to just keep hanging on. This to shall pass, and one day very soon all our struggles will be replaced with a tiny bundle of joy to snuggle and these trials will be but a distant memory!
May our Lord bless you in every season of life you may be in,
In Him
Erin
As we have also had several miscarriages, this same friend who has miscarried 8 times and just carried her baby to term, shared with me her use of a herbal supplement called Welcome Womb. Twice in the beginnings of this pregnancy I felt cramping, a slight bit of spotting and I started to run a mild fever. Both times I up my dose of Welcome Womb to hourly and I truly believe that and prayer saved our baby. I praise the Lord for directing my friend and later us to this amazing product!
Anyways, we are now working on our 14th week of pregnancy, and some of my sickness is starting to ebb, praise the Lord! I am always sick all the way through, but the intensity usually starts diminishing around now, and I start having good days more frequently.
So I wanted to share some of the ways I have learned to cope with morning sickness over the years.
1. Prayer! Of course this doesn`t alleviate the symptoms, but having a daily running commentary with my Lord helps me focus on what is really happening, I am growing a miracle in my belly! And by sharing my burdens with Christ, I keep from over complaining to my husband lol!
2. Get up slowly! This can be tricky when you have Little's at home to care for, but waking up and slowly getting out of bed, vs jumping out and rushing make a big difference for me.
3. Eating small amounts all day. My first two pregnancy`s I couldn't eat anything, I lived on Popsicle's and iced tea. However I have learned that by eating a little bit all day I never feel hungry-which makes me super nauseous, and I never feel full -which also makes me super nauseous!
4. Suck on a candy or preggi pop. I am drastically affected by smells when pregnant and I dry heave over 30 times a day, usually because I caught a whiff of something unpleasant (to me). Things that set me off include laundry soap and body wash smells, the smell of my blankets lol, dirty diapers! It really can be anything actually! I have found that sucking on a candy or mint makes me not smell things to the same degree and has helped me not dry heave as often!
5. This pregnancy I finally figured out a huge key in helping me survive-I hired the 15 year old neighbor girl to come and clean for me one day a week! She does all my dishes, sweeps and mops the floors, vacuums and picks up laundry and toys that the kids missed etc.. Because she is only 15 I am paying half what I would for a professional housekeeper, and she has seriously helped me maintain my sanity! This week is the first week I have been able to do much cleaning, but she is still scheduled to come tomorrow to help in the areas I haven`t quite managed yet. I must also say that my daughters are so much older this time and have been able to help with many things, including dishes, bathroom and laundry. As well as helping take care of our youngest, playing with her outside etc... It has made a world of difference! I now understand how large families can make things work, all the responsibilities do not fall on just the mother-many hands make light work!
Well I hope this post encourages a struggling mother out there to just keep hanging on. This to shall pass, and one day very soon all our struggles will be replaced with a tiny bundle of joy to snuggle and these trials will be but a distant memory!
May our Lord bless you in every season of life you may be in,
In Him
Erin
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Yarn along!
So its only been forever since I've posted for yarn along, however I have been doing some knitting!
I finished the milo turned dress for Olivia a month ago or so, and so that is the lavender one you see, I also finished the little pair of yellow longies I started for her last summer, they are a little short so I figure she can where them as capri leggings. And last but not least I made another little milo (all these were knit with cascade superwash yarn) for a very special little newborn. My sweet friend miscarried 8 times before she carried this little guy to term. We just praise God for his precious little life! So I knit the xo's cable pattern for him because I knew he would be getting lots of them! I am quite proud of how fast I knit this little guy up, 4 evenings and one afternoon and the size is 6 months. I put it together with a little button up shirt and slacks to complete the outfit. His mommies favorite color is lime green so that is what we went with. Anyways I am so pleased with how it turned out, and his mommy loves it!
As for reading, I haven't done a lot, but I am hoping to really get into this book this week. I LOVE this author, her historical fiction is incredibly engrossing, so accurate and well just fabulous!
If you can head over to Ginny's to see all the lovely ladies linking up for Yarn Along
I finished the milo turned dress for Olivia a month ago or so, and so that is the lavender one you see, I also finished the little pair of yellow longies I started for her last summer, they are a little short so I figure she can where them as capri leggings. And last but not least I made another little milo (all these were knit with cascade superwash yarn) for a very special little newborn. My sweet friend miscarried 8 times before she carried this little guy to term. We just praise God for his precious little life! So I knit the xo's cable pattern for him because I knew he would be getting lots of them! I am quite proud of how fast I knit this little guy up, 4 evenings and one afternoon and the size is 6 months. I put it together with a little button up shirt and slacks to complete the outfit. His mommies favorite color is lime green so that is what we went with. Anyways I am so pleased with how it turned out, and his mommy loves it!
As for reading, I haven't done a lot, but I am hoping to really get into this book this week. I LOVE this author, her historical fiction is incredibly engrossing, so accurate and well just fabulous!
If you can head over to Ginny's to see all the lovely ladies linking up for Yarn Along
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| Not blocked yet |
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| This is the most accurate picture color wise, the little button up shirt has green and grey stripes too! |
Sunday, March 17, 2013
What have we been up to? Another time warp update!
Hey all, sorry its been awhile again, life just gets so busy some times! So what have we been up to?
1. The month of February was beautiful here, warm temps, melting snow! We took the kids skiing three times, not to the mountains mind you as who can justify 6oo$ for a day when we can get a family seasons pass for 500$ for the nearby hill! The girls picked it up quite quickly and our little guy well, he likes to point them straight down and goes as fast as he can! We are still working on snow plowing with him and his s curves, but he definitely caught on quicker than I thought he would. Julianna is a little more cautious by nature than her sister, so she isn't quite as confident, but she still does really well and can navigate both green and blue runs now as well as both the quad chair lift and the t-bar and the tow rope. Hailey is a little fire ball and likes to zip down as fast as she can! Our third trip she had a good spill however and she seemed a lot more hesitant and cautious after that! She too can do both green and blue runs, and all three lifts. Down hill skiing has always been something my husband and I have enjoyed, we even skied together when we were teenagers as our 4-H club would go a couple times a year. We have really wanted to take the kids for several years now, but with all our moving and living on a really tight budget we couldn't make it work. So I feel truly blessed that this year we made it a priority and got up three times! I have very very fond memories of skiing with my dad and my cousins every winter and I hope we can share those memories with our own children. We took a few extras with us the last two times we went. Some little girls that I used to watch when we were renting the apartment above the shop at their farm. Our motto is the more the merrier!
2. Les has been working quite a bit, but he has also had some time off, so we have been busy on the around the homestead, doing a few projects, working with the cows. We butchered all 76 of our roosters, and thankfully were able to sell all the ones we wanted to for a good price. The hens are much happier with more space and less boys! I am now getting over four dozen eggs a day!
Thankfully I have some great regular customers who take most of them off my hands! We have a new batch of bunnies, and yesterday Benjamin got into the hutch and was playing with them! Thankfully they are almost old enough to be out, they have lots of fur but their eyes aren't open yet. We checked them this morning to make sure the mother hadn't eaten them as this is her third batch and the first that have made it this far!
3. We are waiting on God for a huge change in our family. There is quite a background story to this, but I can't share everything yet. I will just say that we are perhaps, if everything works out, going to be going on a mission trip to Zambia Africa! My sweet cousin and her family are there right now for a year working in a baby home, and this fall Les felt God telling him to go! This is very significant because my husband has never wanted to go, he has always felt that he should send money, but not go himself. I on the other hand have always wanted to go, but have been waiting for his leading. Then a few weeks ago, we went to Missions Fest in the city and we really felt God moving in our hearts and reaffirming His call to go. So we have started the process to go for a 3 week trip to get our feet wet and to see where or what else He is calling us to. I am beyond excited, and also nervous! I have felt that our trials with our house in BC, moving into this house and becoming mortgage free have been God's way of setting us up for something. Right now we could pack up and leave and have basically nothing tying us here (other than family/friends) but I mean financially. Anyways I am just so curious to see what God has planned for us!
4. I have been busy as a bee painting and getting ready to put up trim and the tongue and grove on the ceiling in our living room. I was informed by my busy husband this past summer that all the above was a winter project. Well winter is almost over! Despite the two feet of fresh snow we just got, it is almost over-really! And I want all these house things finished up before spring for a couple reasons a: so that I can work outside on all the busy spring projects-like gardening, planting and tending the fruit trees I want to get, yard work and landscaping that needs to get done etc. b: if we are going to Africa for the month of May-that is a huge chunk of time out of our very very short non snowing season! So we will have even less time to get all the outside things done than before! And c: this is well maybe to much info-but I would like to be pregnant again by then sooo, I will be to sick to do anything (grrrrrrr) so I have to get it done NOW! Ahem, don't share that info with just anyone please lol! We miscarried in February again, this is our third one, thankfully we hadn't really told anyone, and it was early, but still painful.
Hopefully today I will get another wall washed and painted. The middle two went with daddy to his moms house today for a sleigh riding party that she is hosting. So I may actually be able to accomplish something!
5. I bought some lovely fabric and patterns at Fabricland Friday. I have been wanting to buy some to make a few skirts for myself as I am a funny shape these days and can't find anything to fit me properly. So I thought I would make my own! I got some amazing deals, my patterns were all 50% off, and my cotton twill was 70%! It was quite a successful trip! Now if only I could find the time to work on it all! I am still behind on my pre christmas sewing *sigh*
Well I could go on and on, but for now that will have to do for an update!
Hope you are all well and that spring is just around the corner (for some of you)!
Blessings
Erin
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| A family ski trip, these pics are our second trip up and we brought our little neighbor girl (in the blue on the right) |
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| Rocking my new ski suit my sweet hubby got me for my birthday! |
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| We found a lady selling three pairs of ski's/boots/poles on kijiji for 100$, so the kids tried them out on the hill at home! |
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| Daddy the tow rope!! |
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| My eggs, I get at least four double yokers a day! |
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| Her hair is long enough for pigtails!! Love this girl!! |
2. Les has been working quite a bit, but he has also had some time off, so we have been busy on the around the homestead, doing a few projects, working with the cows. We butchered all 76 of our roosters, and thankfully were able to sell all the ones we wanted to for a good price. The hens are much happier with more space and less boys! I am now getting over four dozen eggs a day!
Thankfully I have some great regular customers who take most of them off my hands! We have a new batch of bunnies, and yesterday Benjamin got into the hutch and was playing with them! Thankfully they are almost old enough to be out, they have lots of fur but their eyes aren't open yet. We checked them this morning to make sure the mother hadn't eaten them as this is her third batch and the first that have made it this far!
3. We are waiting on God for a huge change in our family. There is quite a background story to this, but I can't share everything yet. I will just say that we are perhaps, if everything works out, going to be going on a mission trip to Zambia Africa! My sweet cousin and her family are there right now for a year working in a baby home, and this fall Les felt God telling him to go! This is very significant because my husband has never wanted to go, he has always felt that he should send money, but not go himself. I on the other hand have always wanted to go, but have been waiting for his leading. Then a few weeks ago, we went to Missions Fest in the city and we really felt God moving in our hearts and reaffirming His call to go. So we have started the process to go for a 3 week trip to get our feet wet and to see where or what else He is calling us to. I am beyond excited, and also nervous! I have felt that our trials with our house in BC, moving into this house and becoming mortgage free have been God's way of setting us up for something. Right now we could pack up and leave and have basically nothing tying us here (other than family/friends) but I mean financially. Anyways I am just so curious to see what God has planned for us!
4. I have been busy as a bee painting and getting ready to put up trim and the tongue and grove on the ceiling in our living room. I was informed by my busy husband this past summer that all the above was a winter project. Well winter is almost over! Despite the two feet of fresh snow we just got, it is almost over-really! And I want all these house things finished up before spring for a couple reasons a: so that I can work outside on all the busy spring projects-like gardening, planting and tending the fruit trees I want to get, yard work and landscaping that needs to get done etc. b: if we are going to Africa for the month of May-that is a huge chunk of time out of our very very short non snowing season! So we will have even less time to get all the outside things done than before! And c: this is well maybe to much info-but I would like to be pregnant again by then sooo, I will be to sick to do anything (grrrrrrr) so I have to get it done NOW! Ahem, don't share that info with just anyone please lol! We miscarried in February again, this is our third one, thankfully we hadn't really told anyone, and it was early, but still painful.
Hopefully today I will get another wall washed and painted. The middle two went with daddy to his moms house today for a sleigh riding party that she is hosting. So I may actually be able to accomplish something!
5. I bought some lovely fabric and patterns at Fabricland Friday. I have been wanting to buy some to make a few skirts for myself as I am a funny shape these days and can't find anything to fit me properly. So I thought I would make my own! I got some amazing deals, my patterns were all 50% off, and my cotton twill was 70%! It was quite a successful trip! Now if only I could find the time to work on it all! I am still behind on my pre christmas sewing *sigh*
Well I could go on and on, but for now that will have to do for an update!
Hope you are all well and that spring is just around the corner (for some of you)!
Blessings
Erin
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Yarn along!
Monday, January 28, 2013
After a long hiatus, more homesteading adventures!
I apologize for the lack of activity going on over here, its been a wee bit busy since the holidays and I am just finally getting back into the groove of things. I always find it difficult to get back on track after a holiday, the kids fight doing their school and practicing, I fight getting back to the everyday after so much interesting activity. But alas I think we have gotten back into routine-and with that comes some adventures to share with you!
We have had some new member join the homestead and sadly lost a few as well... Both of the older girls horses foaled two weeks ago! Ohh the excitement of getting up early to go see if there is a new baby in the barn lol! Sadly Julianna's filly was born in the snow and got its one leg caught in the new wind fence. Its mama is so protective she hides as far away as she can and then has her babies in really terrible places-two years ago she had one right by a pond and the baby drowned *GRRR* So this new little filly didn't get found for a few hours, and it later showed evidence of frozen legs...I WILL NOT go into how this looks as it will make you cry, so my poor dear hubby had to put it down lastnight. We have not told our girl yet-was waiting for daddy to be home too. Seriously dreading the task.
We have also had two more litters of baby rabbits, and we don't know what is going on, but both batches have been eaten by the mothers gahh!!!! We are having a very heartbreaking year on our farm this winter! Please pray for my children as they are learning a few of life's heartbreaks all at once.
On to some more positive news-I am getting almost three dozen eggs a day now lol!! My barred rocks have started laying-the first egg we found from them was sooo tiny! It was the size of a small gum ball lol! They lay much darker eggs than my buffs, they are very pretty! Only a few are laying I think, so it won't be long before we will be having more eggs than I can sell! The barred rocks were supposed to be butchered by now, but they are not quite big enough, the weather hasn't been cooperating and my hubby has been working like crazy! He has next week off though so hopefully we will be taking care of at least all the big roosters.
I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but a neighbor had some square bales for sale, we bought 100 of them to put around our house as we are still awaiting insulation and skirting. Well he was only charging 1.00$ / bale which is incredible for good hay. So we ended up buying all 800 bales. Well my dad and hubby decided it would be great fun to haul all the bales with the team and sleigh, as they only live two miles up the road. So they did! In - 20/25 below lol! The following pictures were taken just as he was getting in with his last load for the day around 4 ish so the light is not great. The first load the took straight out to the field and fed to the cows. They can get on about 75 bales/ load. The kids and I made a few trips, and I drove the team a couple times while he hand bombed them off to the cows. It was lots of fun-if not a little cold! I of course didn't get picks of the kids and I *grrr*.
So I will leave you with that! I have a few more post coming up so stayed tuned-and enjoy the pics lol!
We have had some new member join the homestead and sadly lost a few as well... Both of the older girls horses foaled two weeks ago! Ohh the excitement of getting up early to go see if there is a new baby in the barn lol! Sadly Julianna's filly was born in the snow and got its one leg caught in the new wind fence. Its mama is so protective she hides as far away as she can and then has her babies in really terrible places-two years ago she had one right by a pond and the baby drowned *GRRR* So this new little filly didn't get found for a few hours, and it later showed evidence of frozen legs...I WILL NOT go into how this looks as it will make you cry, so my poor dear hubby had to put it down lastnight. We have not told our girl yet-was waiting for daddy to be home too. Seriously dreading the task.
We have also had two more litters of baby rabbits, and we don't know what is going on, but both batches have been eaten by the mothers gahh!!!! We are having a very heartbreaking year on our farm this winter! Please pray for my children as they are learning a few of life's heartbreaks all at once.
On to some more positive news-I am getting almost three dozen eggs a day now lol!! My barred rocks have started laying-the first egg we found from them was sooo tiny! It was the size of a small gum ball lol! They lay much darker eggs than my buffs, they are very pretty! Only a few are laying I think, so it won't be long before we will be having more eggs than I can sell! The barred rocks were supposed to be butchered by now, but they are not quite big enough, the weather hasn't been cooperating and my hubby has been working like crazy! He has next week off though so hopefully we will be taking care of at least all the big roosters.
I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but a neighbor had some square bales for sale, we bought 100 of them to put around our house as we are still awaiting insulation and skirting. Well he was only charging 1.00$ / bale which is incredible for good hay. So we ended up buying all 800 bales. Well my dad and hubby decided it would be great fun to haul all the bales with the team and sleigh, as they only live two miles up the road. So they did! In - 20/25 below lol! The following pictures were taken just as he was getting in with his last load for the day around 4 ish so the light is not great. The first load the took straight out to the field and fed to the cows. They can get on about 75 bales/ load. The kids and I made a few trips, and I drove the team a couple times while he hand bombed them off to the cows. It was lots of fun-if not a little cold! I of course didn't get picks of the kids and I *grrr*.
So I will leave you with that! I have a few more post coming up so stayed tuned-and enjoy the pics lol!
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