Building the Rabbitry

I am loving that my son Tristan is old enough to really help with the building process. Tristan and Shane went to our local hardware store and got all the wood they needed to build the frame and began working on it Saturday afternoon. By Sunday afternoon, they had the whole framing structure up.

 

We plan to expand on it as we begin to grow. We are looking into growing our own organic rabbit feed too. Stay tuned to see the completed Rabbitry.

 

Our first step into Homesteading- Raising Meat rabbits

We decided to take a leap into homesteading and give the kids a little hobby too. Raising and breeding rabbits! We started off taking in my sister-in-laws bunny that she no longer wanted to see if the kids could keep up with her care as my oldest 3 plan to raise rabbits for competition and for sale as a small first business. They did great so my husband has agreed to allow them to start this business venture under the stipulation that what they don't sell will be food for the family table. I am excited as eating organic meat is expensive and this will supply our family with an endless supply.

It wasn't long before we realized that the "indoor" cage was a real pain to clean and a little bit of an expense with all the bedding. It also didn't seem very sanitary so Shane and I searched the web high and low for rabbitry plans and found a a blog here on Blogger that we were impressed with. http://theweekendhomesteader.blogspot.com/  They had a very classy outdoor set-up so we took their design and tweeked it a bit to fit our not-so-flat backyard. I am so excited to get started. More to come.

Picture of our lone bunny Pebbles.

Low carb while pregnant? Part one

I was recently diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. I am supposed to change my diet to no more than 30 carbs for breakfast, 10-15 carbs for snacks, 30 carbs for lunch and 45-60 carbs for dinner. But even with the diet changing I am still having to take the diabetic drug Metformin and take a lot of insulin several times a day. So I thought I would try to restrict my carb intake even further to see if it helps. I heard that strict low carb diets can cause a person to go into ketosis and there is very little information out there about the effects of ketosis during pregnancy.

So this is my first day trying it and so far my blood sugar levels have been great today and I even cut out my meal insulin. I am still taking my long acting insulin in the morning and my metformin. So let's see how this goes.

Gods Little Christmas Helpers

It was a rough year for the Swinnings financially. We were blind-sided by so many surprise things this year.

The bounce house and party business took a hit this May when the County Attorneys office sent out a formal letter forbidding County schools to use inflatables at there end of year events in which the companies require a "Hold-Harmless" Clause. We lost nearly $2000 or more in school end-of-year events in May and June over that. (We were able to work it out with the County Attorney to all of our satisfaction just too late to remedy the situation for us)

Then my oldest son Tristan had brain surgery in June in which he was in the hospital for 11 days. My husband had to take a lot of time off of work (mostly unpaid) in order to help out with the other 6 kids including my 6 month old baby Dylana. Then in late July, Tristan had a severe allergic reaction to the intravenous antibiotics he was on at home from the brain surgery that landed him in the hospital again for another week. More unpaid leave for my husband.

Then my husbands truck had to have nearly $1000 worth of work done to it this year only for the transmission to fail in October. Leaving us with only one vehicle (a 12-passenger van that guzzles gas) for my husband to drive to and from his job in Clemmons (35 minutes away) and deliver bounce houses with in one of our most busy months of the year.

Needless to say, we are behind in all of our bills including our mortgage right now and we just couldn't afford to buy very many gifts for our children. But God heard our cries. I was out looking at fabric with this one "secret angel" who decided that they wanted to take me to this cool little store she found called Ollies. While there she tells me that she wanted to buy me $30 worth of presents for each of my kids and if I didn't help her pick them out she would shop without me. So that day I left the store with nearly $160 worth of toys for my 7 kids. She later bought my little kids a Little Tikes Kitchen for Christmas too.

So THEN I post about this awesome blessing on my FB page and another "secret angel" tells me that she put my kids on the Christmas Tree at her job and that her co-workers bought stuff for my kids too. She delivered 1-2 presents for each of my children a few days later.

Coupled with the little bit of money I had already spent on the kids myself, my kids had a Christmas they will never forget. We used it as an opportunity to share how God used these people to bless us. And my kids were so thankful for everything they got this year. I think not having money helped us prepare more special Christmas times with the kids that didn't cost much of anything like baking together and having candlelit dinners which they loved.

It was truly a Merry Christmas thanks to Gods Little Christmas Helpers.

Homesteading both intrigues me and frightens me!

Lately I have really been concerned about our grocery bill. On a good week if I still have some basic necessities in the fridge or cabinet at home, then I can get out of Walmart with only about $200 in groceries and personal hygene items like TP. But just about every 4th week the bill becomes a whopping $270. Now that may not sound like a whole lot when you have 9 mouths to feed but it is really taking a toll on our budget. So I started looking into gardening, couponing, buying bulk, ect and have come across the term homesteading. It is a term now used to describe a lifestyle of self-sufficiency.

So to ward off the high prices of tomatos and the amount of money we spend on them in the summer, I planted a tomato garden. (My kids love to eat them as snacks or on a sandwich by itself with mayo.) We planted 9 plants in our raised bed of 4ft by 7ft and the garden just exploded into so many tomatos we couldn't eat enough. I began trying to incorporate them into recipes and sauces but alas a lot of tomatos were wasted or rotted on the vine before we could use them. Lesson learned about how many tomatos our family really needs.

Lately, we have been reading about raising your own rabbits for meat and doing some hunting. Everything about homesteading is new and exciting for me and I am looking forward to sharing this journey with you.

Have a Blessed Day,
Jennifer

I'm not judging you, I promise ;)

So most of you know OUR story and how I was told I probably wouldn't be able to get pregnant without medical help due to a condition called Anovulation. In other words, I don't have the typical monthly menstrual cycles that most women have. So long story short, my husband and I prayed for at least one child when we got together and we told God that we would take however many kids he wanted to give us. Well, needless to say God answered our prayers. You can read our entire testimony here.

Our oldest 2 children were in Kindergarten and 1st grade at a private school in our town in 2006, when we were blessed with our 4th miracle daughter. (2 miscarraiges between her and my 3rd) Then my husband got laid off from his high paying executive job and we had to re-evaluate our spending, The kids expensive private school was one of the first things we had to cut. One of the things I liked about the private school was that they encouraged the parents to volunteer in the classroom and be a real presence in their childs education. I didn't want to lose that and through much prayer and encouragement from other homeschool moms, We decided to homeschool our children. Now that we have such a large family and one child who is "exceptional", I know that we made the right choice.

So why am I titling this blog entry as "I'm not judging you, promise"? Well, let me go around my elbow to get to my thumb to explain lol. Recently my husband and I felt the Lord leading us to leave the small community church we were going to and join a larger church mostly for the youth program they offer. And I found myself in that awkward "getting to know you " phase of church again. And it has been difficult to really connect. I have introduced myself to numerous women and have great conversations. Then it seems as soon as they find out that I am a stay-at-home mom with 8 children who homeschools, women seem to shy away. I asked a close friend of mine recently if there is some sortof vibe I put off and she oh so nicely said "Maybe people are just waiting on you to get on your soap box." What do you mean, my soap box? And then I GOT IT!

When I tell people that we are just blessed by whatever number of kids God gives us, people assume that I have some regulation from God that I just can't wait to share and push on them. Or When I say I am a stay-at-home mom, mothers who work think I am judging them for working. Or when I say I homeschool, mothers think I am judging them for sending their children to school. I GET IT!

But all of that is NOT what I am thinking. I chose to have this many kids because at one time having even one child was just a dream. It was a vow I made to God and I am glad for it. It wasnt until way later on in our marraige that we began to look into what Gods word says about children being a blessing and decided that we don't believe in any form of birth control FOR US.  I chose to stay-at-home with my children because all I ever wanted to do was be a mother and wife. And well, for 13 years I have always had a toddler or infant to tote :) And I am not judging people who send their children to school. I was all for private school when mine were little and of course, now that our family is so large I don't think there is any other option but to homeschool. I mean between homework and school activities for this many children when would we have time for family time. Believe me if I could figure out a way to extend the hours of a day so I wouldn't have to teach my kids Science and History (two subjects I hate) I would!

SO rest assured, I'm not judging you, I promise!

Swinning Taco Chili (base for 3 meals)

Around here WE LOVE MEXICAN FOOD! My family could easily eat mexican 3-4 days a week which is great since it's a pretty cheap dinner. We make this Chili very thick and serve it 3 ways (Chili, Crunchy tacos, and soft tacos or burritos). 3 nights without cooking? Oh yeah! We easily go through an 8 cup bag of fiesta cheese with this meal.

Shopping list:
2 cans of black beans
4 cans pintos
2 cans light red kidney beans
3lbs hamburger or ground turkey
15oz can of petite diced tomatos
2 packs of taco seasoning
8 cup bag of fiesta cheese (cheddar, queso and jack)
2 packs of crunchy taco shells
2 packages of soft taco or burritos tortillas
1 medium onion
taco and burritos fixins

Directions:
Saute onion in the pan with the ground meat. Drain meat and add to pot add the tomatos, beans and taco seasoning. Let simmer for 20 minutes. It should be thick. Put in bowl for chili and top with cheese. Fill taco shells with half meat mixture and load with toppings like cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, black olives, green onions, avacado ect. For soft tacos or burritos spread meat/bean mixture on tortilla add cheese and desired burrito fixin's, Fold in sides and then roll it up.

I figured the cost for the above shopping list to be close to $30. Cheaper if you get the ground beef or turkey on sale. This sometimes last us 4 meals. If there are leftovers I will sometimes add beef broth and a bag of frozen soup vegetables and turn the leftovers into a sortof mexican soup :)

You can't out give God!

So Shane has been taking a class at church based on "The Blessed Life" book. Of course, some of it is based on the old testament rules of tithing. Shane and I do not believe in the old testament rule of giving a tithe ( a tenth) but we do believe in listening to what God wants us to do with ALL of his money since afterall it is ALL HIS. If we actually took the time to do the math, we probably give anywhere between 5% and 100% depending on what God lays on our heart.

As you know Shane and I own our own business www.nowitspartytime.com And as you know owning your own business means you NEVER know exactly what your month is going to look like so trusting God is sortof all you can really do. So when God requires us to give it ALL, it is a huge leap of faith for us. 2 weeks ago we had a really good weekend and we REALLY needed that money to catch up on bills and to buy nearly all the children some shoes and cold weather clothing like jackets and socks etc. Well, God had really been hitting Shane and I with conviction about really seeking Him about EVERY bit of money he gives us. And this particular Sunday He spoke clearly to my husband to give an exact amount of $865 which was nearly all of that weeks earnings. So we wrote the check. The rest of the day, one child after another complained about something not fitting or needing something clothing-wise that they had outgrown etc. And then the girls needed dance clothes for the new dance class they started. Well, Shane and I have been walking with the Lord long enough to know that this was an attack of Satan. He wanted us to regret or begrudge the offering that we so willingly and cheerfully gave earlier that morning. We immediately called it out and with a positive attitude we said "Devil, you can't make us regret following Gods leading on our lives".

Needless to say, We recieved a phone call soon after from someone who said God had laid it on their heart to purchase all our childrens winter wardrobe. (mind you that this person had NO KNOWLEDGE of what we were going through financially)

I will say it again WE CAN'T OUTGIVE GOD!

Discovering Hiccups

I just thought this was cute and had to share. My 2 and a half year old Devon discovered Hiccups the other day and he was so proud of himself. He says "Mommy watch me!" Then he would stand really still looking up in the air like he was concentrating and hiccup. I would pretend to be surprised and say "What in the world!" Then he would bust out laughing. Sometimes he would hold his belly and double over in laughter. He started going room to room telling any one of the children or Shane to look what he could do. Ahhhh, 2 year olds are the cutest :)

It Could Only Mean One Thing.

For those who know my story, you know that me actually having a full blown period this July was a complete shock to me and my husband. I had all the normal mood swings, exhaustion and cramps that other women complain about. Honestly, I must be a really big baby cause I don't know HOW you woman go through this EVERY MONTH! I felt like sleeping all day and eating every second I wasn't asleep. I felt bloated, irritable and a little bit on the crazy side to be honest for 7 whole days. My patience level was nearly non-existant. I knew I was losing it one day when I shouted at my children at the pool in front of my sisters 6 year old and TEENAGE SON,  "Listen here! I AM ON MY PERIOD! So that means I have the patience level of ZERO. (motioning a big fat zero with my two hands) Anymore arguing and we will pack up our stuff and go home. You understand me?" Ok, not one of my finer moments admittedly but not my worst either. (Oh the stories I could tell you about me and insulin for Gestational Diabetes. lol)

Anyways, The next month I started having a period again but it lasted for like half a day. That got me wondering and testing. I tested myself just about once a week in the month of August and always it was a negative but ALAS, yesterday on September 15th 2012, I got a positive! We are having Baby #8! I am so excited to see this little bundle of joy.

Sinus infection GONE WRONG, PART 2

This is the continuation of "Sinus Infection GONE WRONG, PART 1".

Nearly 3 weeks after we were sent home with iv antibiotics and 3 days before we were to stop his antibiotics, Tristan started to run a fever of up to 101F. And he started breaking out in a red itchy rash all over his body. That night he started vomiting and his temperature reached 103F and we took him back to the ED at Brenners. They determined that it was a possible allergic reaction to the antibiotics (red man syndrome) or something viral and sent us home. For the next 2 days the rash got even worse and he would continue to have a fever. After a few days off the antibiotics and he still had the rash, we took him to his pediatrician and she prescribed rest as she believed it was still the antibiotics working its way out of his system.

His scheduled MRI was 2 days later. Tristan was still having fevers and the rash got so bad sometimes that he would just sit and cry. The pediatrician recommended Benadryl for the itching which we later found out was making it worse cause he is actually allergic to it. (Another rare set of circumstances, poor kid) Finally the MRI was here and Dr. Couture the Neurosurgeon who performed his Surgery took a look at it and said that he wasn't very happy about what he saw. He said that he had expected the MRI to look better than it did after all the antibiotics. So after seeing the rash and the new "bruising" symptom along with the fever and vomiting, Dr. Couture decided that they would re-admit him at Brenners for observation.

He was admitted to General PEDs and they immediately started treating him with antibiotics for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Meningitis since those are apparently protocol in NC if a patient presents with fever, rash and vomiting. Little did we all know, Tristan had developed a dangerous allergy to 2 of the antibiotic drugs we had been administering to him intravenously at home and now they were giving him small doses of the same antibiotics in a combo type treatment to treat Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Meningitis. He continued to run a fever and the rash got worse. The doctors at this point ruled out those 2 conditions and stopped those antibiotics. But the fever and rash persisted for a few more days and the "bruising" had gotten worse as well. Because he was vomiting and having a fever of up to 103F at times and in combination of what the neurosurgeon said about the MRI, they decided to treat him as if the original infection had not fully been killed off and just treat the rash with a different allergy medication (since we found out he was allergic to the Benadryl). And they started him back on the iv antibiotic Vancomycin.

Immediately Tristan took a turn for the worse. His fever spiked to 104.8 and the rash became unbearable. Then his skin stopped "blanching" and he convulsed uncontrollably. Soon his blood pressure dropped and they rushed him to the ICU again where they eventually determined that he was severely allergic to the antibiotics and quickly took him off of it.  DUH!! I will still never understand why it took them so long to figure out something that was so in their face.

A few days later, Tristan's rash was almost completely healed and he returned home with no further incident. 2 weeks later he went to see the neurosurgeon who removed the pic line. He is back to his normal happy pre-teen self. God is so good!

Sinus Infection gone WRONG, PART 1

"I'm not gonna lie, this is serious. We need to transfer your son immediately to Brenner's Childrens Hospital." Those were the words that put all the other distractions in my life into perspective.

It started with a simple headache. My preteen son started complaining that he was having this random headache. It seemed that the headache would come late in the afternoon while playing video games. I did not chalk it up to just growing pains as some would later suggest. My son never had a headache before requiring pain reliever and this was new for him. It was summer and I thought that maybe it was caused by sitting close to the tv playing video games more frequently or perhaps with the heat and poor air quality maybe it was an allergy/sinus headache. The headache would come randomly for the next few weeks and each time I would search for answers from friends and family. Sinus headache, dehydration, too much caffiene were some of the common suggestions and some even suggested that maybe he needed glasses.

One Wednesday night, my son came out of church complaining that something was wrong with his eye. All evening it was watering and it looked a little puffy and red. The next 2 days, he would wake up with nothing wrong with his eye and by the end of the evening his eye would become puffy, red and watery. And the headache was not going away. Saturday night before bed the headache was so bad that he wanted me to take him to the hospital. So I took him to the ER and they treated him for conjunctivitis (pink eye) since they couldn't see anything in his eye. The cream for the conjunctivitis didn't help his eye and for the next few days, my son became exceedingly tired and complained of a constant headache. He was also having pain above his left eye to the touch. We looked it up and found out that it was a symptom of a sinus infection. Finally some answers! The next day was Thursday and we took him to his pediatrician. She diagnosed him with a sinus infection. We began the Amoxicillin immediately.

It seemed that my son took a turn for the worse once we started the antibiotics. He barely woke up all day Friday and began having fevers and vomiting. Friday night his fever hit 102.1 and he was having a hard time communicating with us. We assumed this was due to the fever. The next morning, he woke up feeling a whole lot better. He actually came downstairs in the morning and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. At some point he said he was going back upstairs to sleep and I noticed that he was kindof stumbling around. I asked him what was wrong and why he was stumbling and he said that his foot was asleep. I asked him if it felt like it was waking up and he said yes. Then he headed upstairs. Several hours later he came down and said that his foot was still asleep and now up to his knee was really painful. He described it like when your leg falls asleep for too long and it hurts when it starts to wake up. I then asked him where his head was hurting and he said in the back of his head. I immediately called my husband and told him I would be taking the kids with me to the ER. I had assumed that they would give us stronger antibiotics and send us home. But by the time I got the other 6 kids ready to go Tristan could barely walk on his right leg anymore. Once at the hospital, he couldn't willfully move his toes, foot or knee. It was all happening so rapidly.

Imagine 6 kids besides my son (3 of which are 3 and under) at the hospital in a tiny little room in the ER, the amount of chaos was really distracting. At one point the Dr. came in to talk to me after  the CAT Scan and I just couldnt focus because of the 2 preschoolers hiding behind the curtain and laughing and screaming at eachother. He says to me in a really firm voice "MOM, I'M GOING TO NEED YOU TO FOCUS ON WHAT I AM SAYING TO YOU". The tone in his voice snapped me out of my distracted state. He spent the next few minutes telling me what they found on the CAT Scan. And then he says that they are transferring him and I really should consider calling someone to come and get the other children.

Tristan's sinus infection had seemed through the bone above his left eye and had caused pus to build up in his brain cavity between his brain and skull. The fluid was putting pressure on parts of the brain that controlled cognitive speech and his right leg function. They quickly transferred him by ambulance to Brenner's Childrens hospital and by 4am he was having brain surgery to remove the excessive amount of fluid that was building up. After the surgery, he was put on extensive antibiotics and we remained in the ICU  for 5 days until he was well enough to be admitted to the regular adolescent floor. We remained in the hospital for another 6 days before they sent him home with a pic line (longterm iv) and 3 different antibiotics which I had to administer every 6-8 hours intravenously. (pic is of the 41 staples in his head 11 days after surgery)

God Story #2- The Unlikely Mother

Sitting there in the 8^th grade girls locker room, I remember thinking that I was the luckiest girl in the world. Everyone else was complaining about “cramps, bloating and periods” that lasted for entire weeks of their lives. I loved to chime in with “My period only lasted 2 or 3 days at most”. They would all sit in envy.

Years later that 2 to 3 day “period” dwindled down to once a year and then to nothing. When I was 19, I decided to go to the Doctor to find out what was going on. The Doctor said I had little to no ovulation and that it would be difficult if not impossible for me to get pregnant without assistance. I was devastated because all I ever really wanted was to be a mother and wife. In 1998 when I met my husband Shane,we really wanted children together and so we decided then that we would hand it over to God. We declared over and over that “We will take as many little blessings as YOU will give us.”

Well, It wasn’t long before we had our first child, then our second. I am now the proud mother of 7 healthy children with the 8th on the way. Each addition has added more joy to our family and I feel truly blessed that God has entrusted us with His precious little ones.  

God story #1- Angel on the Paper Route

In 1999 the early years of our marraige, God gave me a newspaper route to supplement our small family income after I had my first child. It was the perfect arrangement. My route started at 2:30am and ended at 6:30am in time for my husband to go to work. I was finally a stay-at-home mom. The only set-back was the pay was nothing compared to my previous bank job. Shane and I struggled financially in those years and at times I even traded babysitting for food.

One wintery night in the middle of my route, I realized that I was running out of gas in my car. It was nearly Christmas and we were in the worst financial crisis of our lives. I barely had enough gas to get home nevertheless to finish the paper route. And I had no money. I drove for another 15-20 minutes of my route crying out to God and reminding him of the promises he had made to us about providing our needs. I knew that he wanted me to stay home with my son but everything around us was falling apart. After I had spent that 15-20 minutes driving around, it became clear I no longer had a choice. I wasn't going to make it home!

 All I could think about was sitting out in the dark in the middle of the night with no way to call someone to help me. I didn’t own a cell phone back then. Just as the fear set in, I began praying in tongues. Within minutes, I felt this peaceful calm come over me. "I'm going to be ok." I thought to myself. And I continued the paper route. I pulled up to the next dark driveway, rolled down the window to throw out a newspaper and a man suddenly stepped out of the darkness. My heart nearly stopped. He noticed my shock and apologized for scaring me. Then he reached out his hand and handed me an envelope. "Merry Christmas." He said. Assuming it was a Christmas card, I said “Thank You.” and drove away. I wondered out loud what in the world was a man doing standing outside in the middle of this freezing night. As I rounded the corner, deep inside I heard God say "Open it." So I opened the envelope and to my surprise inside the envelope was a Christmas card and $50 cash. God had provided EXACTLY what I needed. I still often wonder if I had met a real angel that cold wintery night.

Change of plans

I started this blog to talk about our small business and encourage other small business owners. Although I love our business NOW IT'S PARTY TIME, It's so much easier to write about what you are passionate about. And I am passionate about my JESUS and my family of 9. SO I decided to change the name of this blog and actually talk about Gods provisions in our lives as a large family. I will also throw in a few cute kid stories as well. Enjoy!