I'm even less inspired to blog today than before Homestead ate my first post. Grrrr!

Here are a few pictures from Elijah's birthday:

Yes, it's a decent cake. Not spectacular, but fair for icing piped out of the end of a plasic baggie. I still can't find my cake decorating things!

I can't believe how BIG Samuel is. He's so . . . so grown up!

And, here is me. At 25 weeks.

And now, I hope this posts. Because I'm definatly not inspired enough to blog it again a third time!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

~Ashley~

First of all, I don’t really feel like I do keep order! We are a family of individuals, and each does what they can. Right now, I have to handle many of the tasks necessary to run the house, so when Samuel can help me with something I’m grateful and appreciative. I'm mainly a co-ordinator of different skills, temperaments, abilities, and I try to help each of us help the other.

I'm a Helpmate - which is not a Do-It-All'er!

That means the family is primarily Jonathan's burden. As he works 50+ hours a week, he needs help. But when I need help occasionally, I don't feel like a "failure" as much as I could/would in the past.

I do have a sort of a method for our madness, and it works for me. I beat myself up for years for not “keeping house” with my mama’s method, so if this doesn’t work for you, skip it. If you find something that helps, I’m happy for you!

Here are a few standards or precepts by which I run our home:

• I don’t compete with media. We watch 0% TV during the day, unless, say, Samuel is sick and I’m trying to get him to relax, or I’m sick - both rare. I turn on the radio when I have a task that requires that I’m going to be standing for a long time in one place, say cutting up green peppers and freezing them, or canning. Because we rarely watch movies, Jonathan and I talk a lot and if there is something he needs to get done, he has the time to do it. If you watch two programs a day, then I average 7 hours more to my week. I use that, even if it’s to “do nothing” with my family.
• Without the media, when the boys are napping, I get a lot of “silence”. I enjoy it! Even half an hour of quiet can really let my mind unwind and regroup.
• I (try) to keep things simple. Samuel has one pair of shoes and a pair of sandals. I keep my main kitchen utensils in a wire basket on the counter so they drip dry after I’ve washed them. All Jonathan’s socks match, so I toss them in a drawer together and don’t fold them. If I find a corner I’m comfortable cutting, I cut it. It makes my life easier, and gives me more time to unfold other corners, like making tortillas by hand or soap.
• The boys have toys. They just don’t have a million-bazillion. If they leave them all out, I don’t want to spend more than a few minutes picking them all up. If it takes me forever to pick them up, I certainly can’t expect them to accomplish such a task! I go through them every few weeks and weed out some to keep the number manageable.

As long as they are playing nicely, the boys are free to play. Unless they want to help; in which case I (try) to always welcome their “help”. If they are grumpy or irritating each other, I might put Elijah on the countertop while I cook, or have Samuel look at a book in the kitchen or have one boy stay in the living room and another in the kitchen.

I am not quite as focused on having my boys' help in the kitchen as I would be with a little girl. It is more important that Samuel helps his Daddy mow the lawn and change the oil in the vehicles and work with wood than it is that they help me with dishes every night, etc.

 I think the lack of media keeps their attention spans a bit longer. I also hardly ever “entertain” them. When we’re in fun moods, folding socks can be goofy and great. If we are in grumpy moods, someone has to sit on the sofa, or stand in a corner, or sit right smack-dabby next to me until the mood is improved. If the grumpy person is me, hopefully I pray and repent of it and move on when I realize it!

 Needless to say we don’t handle bad moods around here with much tolerance! Even Mommy gets scolded for having pity-parties by Daddy and reminded too get her heart right.

 We can be really noisy when happy, but quiet and reflective as well. Often I curl up with a book on the sofa and the boys quietly play around me. Books, for me, are easier to put down and I don’t resent it (unlike being on the computer!), possibly because I grew up in a family of 6 and constantly had to put my book down in the middle of something – it’s habit and I expect to be interrupted!  

·        Assumptions = irritable mommy. I try, as much as possible, not to make assumptions. You just can’t plan to wake up to a telephone crammed into the VHS or dried cheese stick crumbled strategically so that you have to vacuum at 7am or jump over it in the hallway. I do not “assume” both boys will nap at the same time, though they often do, because it sets me up to be a grump when it doesn’t happen. Usually the only awake boy is subdued without his companion and we enjoy our one-on-one time greatly, but not if I’m mentally “caught off guard” and battling resentment of the loss of something I feel “I deserve”.

My list of Must Do’s:

·        Make my bed

·        Eat, dress, take vitamins

·        Fed my boys and dress them as time allows/necessary

·        Read the Bible

My list of Would Like to Accomplish’s:

• Vacuum before Jonathan comes home (we’re messy folk)
• Make dinner
• Clean up kitchen
• Clean up dining room, living room

My list of As Needed’s:

• Laundry
• Dusting
• Cleaning bathrooms
• Sweeping & Mopping tile (often sweeping is daily needed)

Often I get the first two lists done as well as something off of list #3, BUT if it’s a really interesting day and I spend more time teaching the boys to get along, or I'm super tired, or I just don't feel like doing anything, I don’t beat myself up about it. Tomorrow is another day.

I plan, plan, plan for the future. If I allow the boys to be selfish now, I expect them to be selfish in another year. With increased vocal capacities they might have more excuses or be more polite about it, but selfish is selfish . . . .

That is not to say that I make my children hand over toys every time someone else wants them!

But we work on things now, to the best of our limited capacities, so that one day they might be easier for us. Which means on my part, practicing selflessness as an example. Oh, yeah. Like I don’t need to work on that!!!!

I guess because the focus is on where our hearts are, the whole house is rather secondary. I don’t mind loud, happy children, or Daddy playing noisy games with them. The whole house shining like it’s out of Better Homes & Gardens wouldn’t matter if I was grumpy and irritable when my honey gets home! We might have dust in areas, but Lord willing not on the covers of our Bibles . . . it’s all perspective!

Pick your priorities and taylor them to your family. Each has different needs!

~Ashley~

My youngest is snarfing it down as I type.

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE to sit at the feet of women who have bunches of children? Because for one thing, they wouldn't think I was crazy to be day-dreaming about a *gasp* 4th child, and they have so much wisdom that they have collected over the years. Frugal ideas, too. And I love frugal!

I have this theory, see, that if you take care of what God has already given you, it shows graditude and appreciation. While we are all recipents of undeserved blessings at times, I feel like it would be really inappropriate to mis-use what I've been given now and expect more.

So, I try to take care of the money God has blessed us with, and to make my household budget go as far as possible, even as we add people to the family.

I got my baked oatmeal recipe from a mom of fourteen. Who can't use a money saving menu idea?

Baked Oatmeal

1 & 1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter or cooking oil
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

I put this in a greased 8x8 pan, but if you want it thinner you can cook it in a 9x13. Place in a oven heated to 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Now, I know my Jonathan would like this in milk, but I ate it "strait" and so did Elijah. I might mix up Samuel's with a bit of milk so he can eat it with a spoon. It also tastes like it would go great with yogurt, if you're into that kind of thing. It resembles, in a chewier form, the packaged granolas that my second mama buys at the store.

Samuel is awake now and has given his stamp of approval as well.

I know what I'm making Saturday morning!

~Ashley~

Anyone with cats or dogs knows that there are ocassionally times when you run short on pet food.  Of course, if you live in the city it is easy to stop at a store to buy more.  Living in a rural area can make a simple trip to the store out of the question.  What do you do if you run out of pet food just before a payday?  What about winter storms or other situation when making a trip to the store is not possible?

If you are planning your pantry for winter, you should always try to plan ahead for your animals also.  Just as a winter storm can cause a hardship on us if our pantry is not well stocked, it can be devastating to pets. 

Our cats are all outdoor barn cats.  We never keep cats in our home.  For food, they hunt rodents which helps to keep the rodents from getting into the livestock feed and hay.  The added benefit being that because the cats hunt rodents, we have no large rodent-eating snakes around the house, barn or outbuildings.  Even though we only put out a small amount of food for the cats, mainly kitchen scraps that the sheep cannot eat, we still need to think ahead for winter.  During winter months, the rodent population is lower and there is much less for the cats to hunt.  This is where planning ahead can be a blessing.

Recently, I came across a couple of websites that have recipes for making homemade pet food.  The first is Pet Food Cookbook.  This site has many recipes for dogs, cats, and birds.  The second site is Healthy Recipes for Pets. Healthy Recipes for Pets has recipes for cats and dogs.  A special section for each also contains recipes for pets on special diets due to health issues.

I now have in my notebook a couple of recipes for cats.  I chose recipes that use items found in our pantry on a regular basis.  This will allow me to easily have the necessary ingredients on hand if the situation should ever arise that we need to make the homemade pet food.  We are planning to get dogs in the spring to start working with the sheep.  For that reason, I also have a couple of recipes for dogs. 

Here is a very simple basic recipe for cats that will work in a pinch.  Cook up some rice and lentils.  To this add some leftover vegetables and a can of tuna.  For cat food, you may want to have some tuna packed in oil.  The oil is good for them.  Mix this all together and let cool before feeding to your cats.  You can feed the same thing to dogs.  My husband remembers often feeding rice with leftovers mixed in to their dogs when he was growing up.

I was 35 weeks and 2 days pregnant.

Elijah Zane was born in God's timing at 11:39pm after less than 2 hours of intense labor, pre-term but fully mature. He was 4 lbs, 4 oz, and 17 inches long. Because we couldn’t know how mature his lungs were, his daddy bundled the tiny, blue-eyed boy up in a towel and took him to the NICU.

Our time with our second born son was painfully rationed and the division of our family battered our spirits . . . .

We would bring him home 12 days later after a round of antibiotics for an infection they could never culture, on a rigid feeding schedule that made my life easier but at the same time saddened me – my little boy had been taught that I would be there for him every 4 hours . . . not when he cried for me.

But we were together at last, and Samuel met his little brother for the first time.

Elijah quickly began to gain weight, eating about twice his NICU ration "for his size".

 From the very begining, a special bond began to develope between the brown eyed and the blue eyed little boys . . . .

We love you, Elijah!

Your Daddy loves you . . .

Your Mommy wouldn't have missed knowing you for anything . . . she loves you so much! 

Your Big Brother loves you . . .

Have a wonderful, blessed first birthday Elijah Zane! May the prophet of fire who's name you share encourage you to do brave and unpopular things for the Lord God Almighty as you grow . . . . only He is worthy of glory and honor, my son!

Your Mommy,

~Ashley~