Home Again, Home Again

So........you know you've hit a turning point when you cannot wait to return home to get your sweet baby back into cloth diapers. That's a totally new one for me. The trip before this I kept him in cloth but with having to change him more frequently and being on the go as much as we were this time around I just bought some diapers for the 4 days we were there. And, my gosh...diapers cost a fortune!!! It's funny how fast you forget how much you were forking out only a few short months ago. Garrett goes much longer between changes so I don't notice it as much with him. But with Gavin going through disposables like he does it is like flushing money down the toilet. All I could think of was that it could be the poop and not the cash going down the toilet. I have gotten so used to our little routine of changing him, dumping his messes in the toilet and then washing that I have come to love it. Sounds strange and quite off I know...but it's true. And I love having him in cloth. I love the feeling that it gives me and I love how cozy and comfy and gentle they are on his little baby butt. Something came with cloth diapering that I never expected to. Now there's just a love for it and never going back. Not to mention being in awe of just how much we are saving. It really is phenominal in every aspect. It's safe to say I am in love.

And on the homegrown baby note....produce came in on Friday while we were gone. I was able to get sweet potatoes, pears, apples, bananas, a pineapple, nectarines, cherries, plums, a cantaloupe, strawberries and all sorts of other stuff. Garrett and the children have done nothing but eat fruit all day everyday. We cut out all the other snacks except for pretzels and have transitioned to fruit and veggies instead of even Nutrigrain bars. I'm working on our own homemade granola now, the next up in line to conquer. So far I've loved making the chewy granola bars but so far need to master the hard crunchy kind for their cereal in the mornings and to offer as snacks. I tried a new bread recipe today and had great success with it, after going through 4 other ones I didn't like and ended up throwing out midway through the process due to them not responding at all. The recipe tried today can be made into hamburger buns, hot dog buns and even pizza dough as well as traditional bread. I got it from one of the fellow homeschooling moms out here. THe loaf was still a little more dense than I would've liked but I think with work it'll shape up and do great. I'm eagerly wanting a Bosch and Vitamix for my birthday. I think the Bosch would greatly aid my bread efforts and the Vitamix has been a LONG time in coming. The Bosch will probably come off of Ebay but after really looking and studying for quite some time I think I want a new Vitamix and it is worth saving up for and asking for money for my birthday instead of anything else in order to aid the process and speed up the purchase of it. But despite the lack of the Vitamix we made a TON of baby food today. I boiled some of the pears from produce, some of the apples, and some of the nectarines and then pureed them in the mixer. They all did great. I did all kinds of concoctions with the apples and some pureed chicken, plums mixed with yogurt, nectarines mixed with bananas and oatmeal and anything else I could think of to come up with. I did pears and apples together and then just some pears by themselves to flavor his yogurt with. Oh...we got blueberries too so I did apples and blueberries and then just some diluted blueberries with their juice to flavor oatmeal and yogurt with. Oh...I also combined the nectarines with the plums. It made for some interesting combos but even the older ones were having fun taste testing and didn't have a problem trying out his foods when watching them being made with the real stuff and not mashed up old stuff bought in jars. They won't touch that stuff with a 10 foot pole. We even made pearsauce instead of applesauce for the little ones today. Of course, everyone ended up eating it. And...after it all, Gavin LOVED everything. We taste tested on him and after some strange and funny looks at some of the combos that differed greatly from the usual stuff I do he had a ton of fun with it all and ate everything we tried on him.

Evye and Grayson made more wet wipes today on their own. I've been hesitant to let them do it due to not wanting to put too much tea tree oil in it because of the cloth diapers. But after telling them only to add 3 drops they followed instructions well and did it all. And did you know that putting in a tsp of lemon juice in the fabric softener dispenser to be released in the rinse cycle will whiten your towels and make them smell lemony fresh??? I just figured that one out after reading some stuff on it. I was thoroughly impressed and now we are loving the lemon juice in our towels. And after cutting back our Snuggle use to 3 tsp per load instead of the cup full they recommend they still come out smelling wonderful and feeling soft but with 1/16 of the called for measurement. We have not bought Snuggle in months. Those are some of the many things we have done to not only improve life health wise but cut down drastically on our budget. I love figuring all of this stuff out and really implementing it all. I think my favorite still has to be the way the children are eating and having so much fun creating so many new baby food concoctions today. We have been making his food for a long while now but to have so many things to mash up, mix up and combine was just fun...not to mention feeling like I am giving him the world health wise.

We have even come so far in this journey that while the children and I were gone we stayed away from the fast food world of instant food that breaks down their immune systems. Knowing they would more than likely be in the nursery on Sunday night I was devoted to keeping them well. So, we ate Subway the few times we ate out..along with a trip to Rosa's thrown in there. In which all of that food may not be the best choice but is certainly healthier than the white breads and processed cheeses that are available at Sonic and such. Speaking of Mexican food and enchiladas...I made homemade corn tortilla enchiladas the other night before we left and they were sooo good. They were a bit bland so the children loved them but with some spice thrown in next time I think they should be incredible and still edible for the children. Brad loved them.

But we got to FW on Thurs and headed to Bible study that night. Friday was spent on the go doing my prenatal and then running errands of stuff I needed to get up there that can only be found up there for much cheaper prices. The boys broke their bedrail....they all took turns jumping off of it one too many times.....and new ones are just simply not worth paying full price for when used ones can be purchased for a fraction of the cost. So, we headed to Kid to Kid and Once Upon A Child and found one that suited the need perfectly. Friday night we were back over at Jackie and Curtis' for Curtis Wade's 13th birthday. Grayson, Evye and Aubrey all stayed for a slumber party that night. It was absolutely funny having only the 4 little boys all day Saturday. Mother and I spent the day out on the town and the comments were hysterical. Comments of "Poor you.....only boys, huh?" "They're so close in age!!!" and then the all time comment of the trip "Oh honey...why'd you keep going? Hoping for that girl, huh?" I was amazed that people so easily think that 4 is a large family now. But I was pleased by everyone's astounding stares while we ate and the comments that followed over how entirely well behaved 4 little boys can be. It's like when people see that many boys that age they just expect them to be an absolute walking demolition crew....not to say that they aren't at home. But when they all sat and ate and talked to each other good naturedly and then talked to everyone that addressed them people just stared. Gavin was all smiles and squeals to anyone and everyone that looked his way so he had his own fan club going, away from the attention they all drew together. I thought it was interesting too that some people now think that Garrison, Grant, Garrett and Gavin are 4, 3, 2 and 1 and some...most...still think the older 3 are triplets. It depends on how you look at them, I suppose.

So, Sat we all met back up at church to see Mercy baptised and I picked up the older 3 then. Sunday Thomas, Mother, the children and I all set out for church Sunday night at First Euless to hear Voddie Baucham. I was ecstatic he was there the very weekend we were. Talk about unplanned! Being as entirely formal as it is I went ahead and tried Garrett and Gavin out in the nursery, though I kept everybody else with us in the service. We met Jackie and Curtis and their crew there too and they kept their entire crew in with them. All of them did incredible...especially given the fact they had all of their dearly loved cousins by their sides that were ever so tempting to talk to and play with. They all sat and listened...as we have worked so hard at for a long while now. It was the first time Gavin had ever been left with anyone besides us. The nursery workers were in love and could not sing his praises enough. The 3 of them still could not believe he had never been left. I loved knowing that though our crew is so very close they are still as independent as ever and are secure enough to venture forth elsewhere. No one came home sick...which was a huge first for being in a nursery environment and not getting anything and the germies that go around. It was that reason alone I seriously contemplated keeping even the 2 of them in the service with me, as I always do here.

The service ended and we met up with Granny who happened to be there too. We all hung out at the ice cream social after it was over and then our entire clan of Granny, Mother and Thomas, Jackie and Curtis and their crew and the children and I all went to Rosa's for dinner. We closed them up at 11pm. It was so much fun just to sit and visit while the children played and ran around on the outside patio after the meal had ended. It was the perfect end to a fun trip. With plans to come back home on Monday morning I decided just to drive on back Sunday night. With the children fed and me loving the fact that we would not have to go through the breakfast routine and then do lunch on the road I packed everybody up and left the FW area at midnight. With full tummies and content little hearts having spent an entire weekend with cousins they slept all the way home. We got in about 3:15 in the morning. Brad was on the medic and was up all night anyway so we talked in between his calls the majority of the way home. And, of course, Evye cried her way to sleep over having to part with Milly and Mercy, which lasted at least 30 minutes into the beginning of the journey westward.

That pretty much sums up our weekend though. We returned home to find that 3 laminate floor installers wreak much more havoc on a bathroom that even 2 three years olds and a 2 year old. I think I seriously scrubbed laminate adhesive off of toilets for an hour per toilet. Then they went and freakin stood in one of the bathtubs! Who does that...and why???? There was a perfect dirty boot imprint in one of the tubs. I suppose if you have to get in there to maneuver around in the small space it might could be understood but at least clean up your mess. Good grief. To say that the house had been turned upside down is an understatement. I had gone so far as to scrub every bathroom squeaky clean before we left in order to give them fresh clean bathrooms to not only work in but use. Apparently it didn't really occur to them to return the favor. And I seriously think they were worse at hitting the commode then all of our boys combined. In fact...I think they were actually laying floors while they peed. At least that is what appeared to have happened based on what the commodes looked like. Sick, dude. I can manage cleaning up my own kids' pee and don't even think twice about it but cleaning up some strange foreign dudes' pee is just nasty in a whole new way. Ugh!

So, I came home and rearranged furniture back to restore order within and then cleaned and scrubbed and swept and mopped. Then wash took over. The children folded as the wash came out in an effort to get caught back up and back into our routine. I suppose nesting has kicked in earlier and earlier with each baby as I have moved from cleaning once we returned home to cooking today to dragging out all of the patterns and sewing projects I have to get to work on. I got my little sewing corner set up awhile back and all I lack is the fabric. I have pj's for the boys to make for their birthday and am making a matching full fitted sheet to go on their bed. Then I got some John Deere fleece to make them each a blanket out of. So, their pj's, sheets and blankets will all coordinate. Then I found an 1800's girls' gown pattern and still need some white cotton and lace to get started on those for the girls. I found some hot pink and green polka dot fabric for the girls to make pillow case dresses out of. One is hot pink dots on black with the reverse fabric for the capris of black dots on hot pink and then the other is neon green dots on black with the reverse for the capris of black dots on neon green. It is soo cute. I can hardly wait to get started on it. I need to make the pillowcases first before I can get started on the dresses. They're so entirely easy to do. But I still have to go get the fabric for that stuff. Not like I don't have anything else to do at this point.

And since arriving home we have added to our family greatly. Our 20 chicks are set to arrive on the 16th so we are almost prepared for them. And yesterday we were made aware that one of the other fellow council members have free kittens. The children were ecstatic and have been to their house more times than I can count since finding out this important piece of info. They finally were able to catch the owner's at home and asked if they might could buy 2. I had to laugh but thought it was great they didn't just go up to their door and say "Hey..may I have a free kitten?" They were each given a kitten and then told of the water guy and his wife that have even smaller kittens they are trying to find homes for. So...off they went in that direction. And of course, she and her grandkids rejoiced and made a huge deal over the fact that the last 2 had found a great home. So....somehow in 1 day we went from 1 cat to 5. We have our big black one we inherited with the house that is madly in love with our crew and now these 4 little kittens. Hopefully kittens and chicks get along. I guess we'll find out here in a few weeks. With Garrison and Grant well rehearsed on how to treat...or more importantly, how NOT to treat a kitten.....I think we are ready to attempt this feat once again. Upon being asked today if they will throw the kittens Garrison eagerly replied with a "No" with Grant grinning mischievously and saying in a heartfelt way the now well known fact that when he throws a kitten it goes to heaven. So, we shall see. Hopefully these kittens are given a chance to outlive the last one. The children pick up the bigger 2 tomorrow and the smaller ones will not be ready to retrieve until a week from Sat, given their still very young age. So far we have Cheeto, Poco (short for Pocahontas), Mercury and Zinc for names. We'll see if those are still their names tomorrow.

Alright...I think that gets me caught up on the latest. Our new camera now has battery issues since neither of us realized it only came with normal batteries and not a rechargeable one to put on the base. Kind of stupid. Anyway...now the batteries are more than dead and we have to get the dock friendly rechargeable kind tomorrow while in town.

Oh today...I caught Garrison killing the milled flour. While making bread and growing pretty frustrated with the failing recipes I looked over just in time to see him gleefully stabbing the bag with one of Brad's left out screw drivers. It was hard not to laugh. With each new forceful punch a wee bit of flour puffed through before just seeping out. I don't think I realized just how long he'd been at it. By the end of it I counted no less than 11 stab wounds to the flour bag. Needless to say, we had to find a new Ziploc for it. He thought it was quite the source of entertainment though. The sweet funny little grins just do me in. When I looked up he said enthusiastically with absolutely no remorse, "Mom! Watch this!" as he continued to pierce it as hard as humanly possible given a 3 year olds strength. He giggled everytime he retracted his weapon and a brown flour puff came through. And in the midst of my time spent in the kitchen Garrett managed to squirt out 1/4 of the Charlie's Soap concentrate surface cleaner on the very same floor Aubrey so expertly dumped the Pine Sol on not so terribly long ago. Why does soap make a floor sticky???? I still have to get to that. I just closed the door and saved that mess for tomorrow. But, he did get spanked for that one, as it is a well known fact that you do not mess with the cleaners.....no matter just how tempting the massive pump on the top of it is. But suffice it to say that the towels will be more than clean in the next towel load.