Just Another Day in Paradise

This would be the song that repeatedly came to mind yesterday as the gale force winds blew in wafts of wonderfully perfumed skunk stink. I noticed from my bathroom that Athena would not stop barking. She usually barks as Brad comes home or at Fletch as she plays but never for more than a few minutes and never incessantly. Tigger, on the other hand, was strangely quiet....something that should've sent up red flags but failed to. In my ingenious head I briefly gave a skunk and some other varieties of varmits some thought but quickly dismissed it. I mean.........what skunk would ever venture forth in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon? Ummmmm..........apparently the one that expertly sprayed both dogs. When the stink came it seeped through every open crevice....and unopened crevice.....the entire house has. It came through the bathroom window and it didn't take but 2 seconds to conclude that Athena had been sprayed. Brad did arrive home about that time and confirmed that not only had Athena been on the receiving end but Tigger had been sprayed too. To make the stinch worse....if it could get any worse......the dogs lay right beneath the dryer vent. Yes....the open hole that has a tube feeding directly into the house....and more specifically, the open hole to the clean dry clothes. To say that the clean clothes stunk was not even coming close to doing that justice. After awhile of Brad sniffing dogs and me discovering clothes we heard our dear pastor neighbor's shotgun go off. THe notorious skunk had found his way over to his trap and stupidly fallen for it. Of course, Chad saw it his duty to just kill if off right there in the trap. I just thought the stink was bad before that! It was awful. So, I went through the house humming "Just another day in paradise".

And I am lagging behind miserably in my blogging. There is so much that I cannot keep up with it all. Due to my days being so full and me falling into bed exhausted every night the desire to even sit and write is kind of waning. I have worked my butt off for the past few weeks and the end is not really showing any signs of drawing nearer. I did make my 1st sell on Ebay for a whopping .99 cents. But it was 2 less things in the house and it gave me some experience doing it. I called to get details on consigning at the JBF sale and found that I have to tag with printed out barcodes absolutely everything that I put it in the sale. I am working hard at not being, or feeling, overwhelmed in this process. I look at the growing mounds of piles headed towards the sale direction and my heart starts to beat a little faster and I feel myself finghting off the panic. So, I step back and let my thoughts turn towards the Ergo, Bosch, VitaMix and cloth diapers and I know that every bit of this journey will be worth it all.

And, comically, I have found some very strange things to be therapeutic in keeping my sanity in this process. Somewhere within me I have found the inner courage to take on every project I always felt so inept at. So, as I have tackled the attic and continued adding to our growing piles of material things headed in the outbound direction of our abode I have therapied myself by taking on even more new tasks. After researching for many months now, talking with many different families and reading both Nourishing Traditions by Sally Clarkson and The Maker's Diet by Jordin Reubin I have been entirely convicted about our eating habits, health and overall lifestyle. Those 2 books are must reads for everyone!!! So, in my quest of bettering everything about our lives I felt now was the time to take on this aspect of life also.

I went and picked up our 1st batch of unpastuerized milk at the beginning of this week. And true to everything I have read, it's healing, intact proteins started their work on our family. For the 1st time ever Garrett is now completely on milk without having to modify or constantly juggle or worry who has who's cup of milk. For a year now we have had to carefully monitor cups due to the fact that sweet Garrett cannot have regular milk. Since the time he was drinking formula he could not tolerate the lactose of milk. After reading and researching for just as many months I began to see how God created and designed this all to work and our bodies to function and what exactly man has done to it all. It's been an amazing journey and this past week has been incredibly inspiring to see the changes in everyone. Grayson's and Garrison's allergies are beginning to no longer hold the severity that they did and not once have we had to deal with Garrett's lactose intolerance issue. It's absolutely amazing to me.

With our milk I was able to make our own butter and buttermilk and I have my 1st batch of homemade yogurt and cream cheese going right now that should be ready come morning. It is the most wonderful feeling in the world and I could easily become addicted to doing everything right here at home. I never in my life would have ever thought I would be the home making butter/buttermilk/yogurt/cream chesse type of person. I mean....who in the world does that now in this day and age?????But after reading what all I have read and seeing the changes in my children I am absolutely hooked. And the feeling of doing it is just downright addictive. There is something that God just naturally put in a woman to do these things. I smell our little homemade wet wipes and the minty smell of the tea tree oil that fills the room and I know that Gavin has the best of all worlds. It's taken 7 children to finally get to this point in life but he by far has the best of so many years of parenting in the making. His little bottom is protected by everything natural and due to the no alcohol content of the wipes his butt has not had one diaper rash. The wipes are so gentle I use them on the children's faces and at the retreat I sponge bathed him with them due to the shampoo and baby oil they contain. This truly is just an ever evolving journey. I look at our lives and think of how much people miss when they have stopped at only 2 or 3 children. It's taken me 7 to get to this point and I know there is still so far to go. If I had stopped at 3 I would've missed so much of what God had in store for the transformation of my life. Cause at 3 kids I laughed at people who made their own butter, cloth diapered their babies, made their own wet wipes and made all of their own bread every day. But here I am doing these things and have never been so content, fulfilled and happy in all of my life. "My cup runneth over".

After returning home from the retreat this past weekend...in which Evye cried all the way home for having had to leave her beloved friends......we had Aubery's birthday party and then tried to settle back into the decluttering. Tuesday we went and picked up our milk and spent the afternoon there letting the children play and just visiting. The week stayed full with all of the activities. Then today to finish it all off the homeschoolers had a Laundry Soap Making Day. We all got together and made our own laundry soap and I can now add homemade laundry soap to my ever lengthening list of things I have now completely made myself. It's enough to last around 3 months and about 3 months from now we'll again all get together and have another huge soap making day. It was one of the most fun things I've done in awhile as far as social gatherings go. Tons of children ran and played and a huge buffet style lunch was laid out. We just sat around and talked after the soap making was done and discussed anything and everything. I love what we have been give here. I have come to cherish and embrace the support God has blessed us with at this time in our lives. I love the friends He has surrounded us with and I love that He has given me the boldness to finally step beyond my comfort zone and my inner shyness to reach out and embrace this gift of endearing people He has poured out on us. I am so thankful for the lessons He has brought over the course of the last 17 years of my life to force me to overcome myself in order to accomplish more of His purposes and enjoy life to such a greater depth. A depth that would be impossible to experience if I continued on locked away in my cage of timidity. I am so greatful that He has molded me into this person that can step out and enjoy every aspect of life without living in fear and self consciousness of what others may be thinking. Once again...........this theme of breaking free in every area continues. I am just overwhelmed.

Well.........I have TONS of pictures to load on here. Due to my exhaustion I don't even want to mess with it tonight. So, tomorrow I'll get on here and do a picture post of everything recent.