Weaning = tears

I was SO excited and thrilled that I made it to a major milestone of breastfeeding Gracie thru her 1st birthday. Her 1st birthday has come and gone. She is now 14 months old! Now that she's started on whole milk she doesn't really nurse much except before bed, every time she wakes up at night which means she is nursing basically all night long (that is another whole subject), and then early in the morning before we get out of bed. She doesn't take a pacifier so I think part of her still nursing is because it's what calms her down or "pacifys" her. I don't mind. I am not in any rush to stop EXCEPT the fact that she still feels she needs to nurse at night every time she wakes up. She refuses to go back to sleep without nursing. It only take a few minutes then she drifts off to sleep BUT if I try to move her to her bed or move her at all she starts vigourously sucking or starts screaming. So either I let her scream and wake up the whole house or I lay there and nurse her where we all can just sleep. I vote for the latter. Sleep is not something I get lots of so the sleep I do get is precious. I also don't mind the bonding I have with my baby daughter. I do have to admit that when she does not wake up that much at night or sleeps in her own bed longer than normal I do miss her when I wake up. For information on our sleeping arrangment you can read this previous blog post. Click here I'm not really sure how or when to start the weaning process. It's not a real big issue EXCEPT I'd like to start having her sleep thru the night. I'm SO happy to have made it this far. I never imagined I've have issues on how to stop breastfeeding. It wasn't a big deal to stop the feedings during the day and replace those with bottles and sippy cups of whole milk. But it's just the night time nursing sessions that bring her to tears if I don't give in. Those tears are tears of her not understanding why I won't nurse her. It breaks my heart to hear her cries SO we are continuing our nighttime and early morning nursing sessions. I'm not saying I have to stop instantly, cold turkey...i'm just wondering when and how we will stop. I just can't see this taking place without tears. I'm guessing the tears will come from both of us! I don't think I will be able to handle seeing her cry because I won't nurse her.

Summer is coming to an end....

Bear with me. This blog may jump around a lot of subjects! I haven't blogged in awhile and got lots of thoughts on my brain.

It's August. Most schools have already started or are very close to starting. My kids are still in summer break mode. As you may have read in a previous post by me (click here for the post) I was spending my summer break planning for the next school year. Working hard on gathering curriculum. Then it was time for house hunting. We wanted to find a new house to move into (the one we were in was just temporary until we could find the exact location in TN that we wanted to live). After much searching we found it. We moved in on August 1st. So we've only been in it for a few weeks but can I say it feels SO MUCH like home already? It's GREAT! I was so missing that homey feeling in our other house. This is A LOT smaller than the 3000 sq ft house we were living in. This house is only 1500 sq foot 3 bedroom 2 bath home. BUT it's strange. I feel like we have MORE space in here. I think it's because this has the closet space we need so I'm able to organize things better. I have now learned that bigger isn't always better. The layout of our other house was kinda odd so we had lots of spaces that we didn't really use, they just ended up collecting the kids toys and ended up a cluttering mess. We do have too much stuff. So a garage sale in definetly something we need to have. But seriously, we have boxes of stuff that hasn't been unpacked in a few years so do we REALLY need that stuff? NO. We did have to spend a little money on shelves for the kids' rooms. We found some great shelving units at Target (blue for the boys room and pink for the girls room). Our 8th wedding anniversary was August 3rd (told you this blog would jump around) so we spent our anniversary with all 4 kids at Target picking out things to organize the kids' rooms. It was GREAT! Our gift to each other was organized kids' rooms!
So where was I?? Back to what I really was going to blog about. School. We will be starting school in a few weeks. (2-3 weeks or so). I have half of the curriculum needed. I just may have to purchase the rest of it new. I have been having trouble finding the rest used. We are going with Bob Jones curriculum this year. It's a christian based curriculum that is more like what is used in a classroom. The books I have purchased already seem to be just what my kids need. I'm excited to kick off this school year with fresh, new curriculum and have more of a "normal" school year. (last year was different because we started homeschooling in the middle of the year, click here to read my blog post about when we first started homeschooling)
Now the only problem I'm seeing with this upcoming school year is where we will homeschool. This house doesn't have an actual "homeschooling room". Our last house did (the temporary house had a basement with a room we used BUT we had to outside to go down there and really ended finding it easier to work upstairs). Some homeschooling blogs I follow have been showing pictures of their homeschooling rooms. Can I just say that I'm SO jealous? Their rooms look like REAL classrooms. I'm going to have to get REALLY creative as far as our homeschooling space. It's going to take place in our kitchen. Right now I have 4 big boxes filled with our school stuff. I have NO where to put them. We need to find some sort of cabinet, armoire, shelves, etc that look decent in our kitchen that are also big enough to have it basically be a "classroom". I want to be able to organize everything in there and have everything we need at our finger tips. I know it's going to take some money and some work to make it happen. I just wish I had lots of extra money right now to just go and buy exactly what we need rather than having to shop around for a good deal or being patient waiting to find something that is used. I'm sure there are LOTS of homeschooling families that do not have an actual "homeschool room". Luckily our living room and kitchen are completely open. I love this because when I'm in the kitchen I can see EVERYTHING going on in the living room. So it will feel like we have more "space".
Oh and can I just say that I LOVE shopping for new school supplies. I have ALWAYS loved doing this. But it's even more fun when I'm shopping for them knowing my kids will be using them right in our own home! I get such a thrill buying glue for 20cents and crayons for a quarter!
Yesterday we went to a carnival at a local park that our Homeschooling group put on. It was SO great seeing all the homeschooling families from this area here. It was an encouragement to me knowing there were that many families in this area that homeschooled. I'm not sure the exact number of homeschooling families that were there but they gave out 100 membership cards to those that became members of the homeschooling group but there were more than that there. At the carnival we were able to sign up for field trips so that will be exciting to get to go on field trips with other homeschoolers. I know my kids are excited about that.
Guess my blogging time is over for now. I am excited to get this school year started. I'll have a 2nd grader, a kindergartner (mya already started K in the middle of last year BUT the curriculum we were using ended up being more of Pre-k work so since she was only 4 anyway and now she is 5 we are going to start "real" kindergarten this year--she's excited to learn to read). Then Mason will be doing preschool work (colors, numbers, alphabet, etc) and Gracie will be along for the ride! What an exciting school year we will have! :)

Homemade Cleaners--An Update

As I posted awhile back in some blog posts (click here and here for the posts)I decided to start making homemade laundry detergent and other homemade cleaners. I have been using them for some time now so I thought I'd give you an update.
HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT
First of all, I must say the laundry soap has been SUPER easy to make and is working no differnet than expensive store bought brands. I kinda played around with different recipes and came up with one of my own. I've read lots of information about making laundry detergent and many say that you just have to "play" around with it. That it's not an exact science. The first few batches of mine were made according to a recipe I had. It did come out rather watery. (the liquid homemade detergent should thicken up and be kind goopy--that is what I've read online). I used Irish Spring bar soap and I think they may have been the problem. Then I started using Yardley all natural soap. And I added more borax and washing soda to my recipe. That 3rd batch I made seemed to turn out better. (at least it was thicker and had the consistancy of store boughten laundry soap). I don't know if it was my imagination but my clothes seemed "cleaner". Maybe just "fresher"??? Not sure but I liked the result so I'm sticking to the recipe I came up with.

Here is MY recipe:
1 bar of Yardley soap (you can find this at Dollar tree for $1 but if you watch the Walgreens ad they have it occassionally for 69cents). You can also buy this in a variety of scents. I've used the Oatmeal & Almond (this was my fav) & lavender. I don't use the whole bar of soap. I grate 2/3 of the bar. Once grated mix it with 4 cups of water and put it on the stove until the soap is all disolved.

In my 5 gallon bucket I put 3 gallons of water and mix in my soap mixture (from above).

Next stir in 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda.

I keep stiring until it thickens up a bit. Then put the lid on and let it sit over night. The next day it will seem real thick. I just stir it and there you have it. Laundry detergent.

Here's a few things worth mentioning about the detergent:
--the soap will need to be stirred before each use. I have been actually pouring some from the 5 gallon bucket into an old laundry detergent bottle. I just shake before I pour.
--I use one cup of detergent for a large load of laundry. If they are more soiled clothes I add a little more.
--the soap will NOT suds up when added to the water in the wash machine. THAT IS OKAY! it's not suppose to have lots of suds. It's still working, it's just low sudsing soap.
--I've made 5 batches of laundry soap already (each batch fills my old laundry soap bottle about 3 times). I haven't kept track of how many loads i've done. but I have went thru roughly 15 judges of laundry soap for a total cost of about $10!!!! even buying the cheapest brands out there would have cost more than that!


HOMEMADE DISHWASHER DETERGENT:
I've also started making homemade detergent for my dish washer. WOW, I'm shocked at how wonderful it works. You do need a rinse agent or else your dishes are kinda dull looking BUT the dishes are at least clean. Seriously, when I use the powdered detergent (I use the store brand) my dishes never seemed to get completely clean and my dishwasher itself seemed dirty. WELL, after using this recipe even my dishwasher looks clean! Here is what I used:

1 cup borax
1 cup baking soda (use BAKING SODA not washing soda)
2 cups Casacade (this is optional but it helps give the dishes a shine)

For a rinse agent you can buy it or use vinegar. I used vinegar and that seems to work well. So for a fraction of the cost I can make it homemade with better results!


HOMEMADE FURNITURE POLISH:
I used a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. So far so good. Works great!

HOMEMADE ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER:
I used vinegar and water. Decided to not use this. The smell was just not that pleasent. I missed the "clean" smell. Especially when cleaning the bathroom. Yes, this worked but decided to buy my own bathroom cleaner.

HOMEMADE GLASS CLEANER:
I use this recipe:
1 cup rubbing alcohol
1 cup water
2 tblspoons vinegar

This works great! I even use my old newspapers when cleaning the windows! No streaks and the windows are clean!

So there you have it. A "homemade cleaner" update! Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Independence Day with a touch of Color

Independence Day

Seven Years Ago....

Seven years ago yesterday (july 1, 2003) my life changed forever. It was a defining moment. It was a moment that changed who I was. I was no longer Shawna. It was at that moment that I became a Mother for the first time. When I look back now it seems SO long ago. Happy Birthday (yesterday)to my preciou baby boy, Jordan Lee. You have grown up into such a special young man. You are so sweet, smart and adventureous. Even though you are growing up you will always be my baby boy. The one that made me who I am today. A mother. I love you Jordan Lee!

From this:

To this in 7 years:

Summer Break??!?!

It's summer. Normally that meant not having to think about school at all. Enjoying every day without a routine. I'm finding myself thinking about "school" more than any other summer. First of all, we haven't technically finished school yet. We took a break. It was not intentional. It just kinda happened. I was in need of a break. I was burnt out. The summer sun was making school seem like a chore. The summer sun was also making the kids not want to be bogged down by a routine and schedule. So we just took a hiatus. A break. A much needed re-grouping period. Next week we are going to resume with only a little math left and some language arts and of course reading. But the reading will be for fun mostly. But even on this break I am constantly thinking about school. I'm making curriculum choices for the Jordan's 2nd grade school year and for Mya's kindergarten. I wanted to go with something different than what we had. I went back and forth between piecing together all different types of curriculum or just going with a complete set. Ryan and I have researched all types of curriculum choices. I ended up finding what I think will work good for my kids this next school year. We have decided to go with Bob Jones Curriculum. It's a christian based curriculum that is used in lots of christian schools. I love the information and I think it's what we were looking for. I went to a used curriculum sale and to my surprise I found the phonics and reading teacher's guides for Mya's kindergarten. I paid $30. To buy the same thing new would be more than that for ONE book. I got 3 for that price. I just need to buy the student workbook that goes with that. I also just bought Jordan's social studies off of ebay for $12.99 for the student text and teacher's guide! SCORE! The teacher book alone was $57 new! So now I"m just piecing together the whole curriculum set for a fraction of the cost. The only new books we will have to purchase will most likely be the workbooks that they will write in. Then once I get all the books in my hands then comes the REAL work. Going thru it and planning for the school year. I want to have a definete plan in place. It didn't go as smoothly as I wanted by just preparing the night before. So even though this is summer. I have NO break in mind. I can't get school off the brain! I am excited for the new school year and to have more of a routine and be involved in a local homeschool group as well. It's going to be a good 2010/2011 school year!