Summary of our year 2014

So 2014 was full of crazy fun and some trauma and due to the unforeseen hard times, I stopped blogging. My last post was July 4th 2014 which now is over a year ago. Weeks after my July post, My oldest daughter and my oldest son and I headed to Columbus Ohio for the National AG Fine Arts Competition and Convention. (My daughter Shana had placed in the NC State AG Competition and won her "ticket" to the National competition for Female Solo Song Jr.  I was literally 3 weeks from my due date with Baby Boy Phoenix (#9) but I was determined that this bun was going to stay in the oven til I got back.  Luckily he did, but I had developed PGP (Pelvic Girdle Pain) and the 4 block walk back and forth sometimes 4 times a day to the convention center was taking it's toll on my alignment. My daughter did great but she didn't win her category and I can honestly say that the disorganization and mismanagement of funds by the leaders on this trip really left a bad taste in my mouth.
Upon our return, with 2 weeks left of my pregnancy, my hips and back were becoming increasingly out of line. My hips literally jutted out on my right side and I couldn't completely stand straight without excruciating pain. 2 weeks and 1 day later, my water broke at 8am in the morning. We rushed to the hospital 35 minutes away and I barely made it to the bed before the babies head was already pushing his way out. Total labor and delivery was 50 minutes and Baby Phoenix was a whopping 11lbs 4oz! HOLY MOLY!

Immediately after delivery I knew something was wrong with my right hip and back. I couldn't sit on my right butt cheek without excruciating pain and I also couldn't sit criss-cross style without my leg feeling like it was coming out of the socket. I spent the next 5 weeks hobbling around until I ruptured a disk in my back and had to have emergency surgery due to my right leg becoming paralyzed from an impinged nerve. After my discectomy, I spent a lot of time in bed and the rest of the time using a walker until feeling returned to my right leg and I could walk unassisted. During this trial in my life, I made a few good friends and reconnected with some old friends. I also wasn't able to continue breastfeeding Phoenix which was disappointing at first but I came to realize that although it would not have been my first choice, it was an alternative with an equal number of pros and cons. Phoenix although formula fed is now 14 months and has been just as healthy as my breastfed babies. The biggest difference I have seen is the bond between my husband and Phoenix. Most of my kids preferred me up until they were weened but Phoenix literally prefers Shane for everything. It's a huge contrast. Although that part was a little sad for me, I have experienced a different kind of freedom that having an infant attached to my boob at all time never allowed ;) So that was our year in a nutshell. Most of it, was not a joyride but we survived.

New Blogger app means quicker easier posts

So I haven't posted in over a year and a LOT has happened in our not so small family. I am hoping to use this new app to post more updates. I use this blog as sort of a running diary for myself but if you can find something useful please feel free to browse :)

A fun 4th!

My husband and I own an Inflatable Bounce House business here in the Triad NC called "Now It's Party Time!". Every 4th of July since 2007 my husband delivers any where between 4 and 6 Inflatables and almost never gets to have 4th of July with us. It wasn't until 2011, that we started doing a Pay-to-Play event in our hometown of Kernersville. It is the main town event so we set up 3 of our most popular Inflatable units and charge $3 for an unlimited ride bracelets that let's you ride during the entire Independence Day event from 5:30pm to 9pm. To save money, my husband and I actually work the event and only have to hire 2 teens (usually my own) to do the ticket booth and 1 other person. So every year my kids go to Grandma's house (my mom) for the night and we pick them up when the event is over.


This year, however, I decided I did not want to leave all 6 of our younger kids with my mom by herself especially since my 1 year old still doesn't walk good and would force her to either keep the kids indoors all night or she would be wrestling him around trying to keep him from crawling in the grass and eating everything in sight. I decided I would just have to hire someone to replace me at the event and I stayed home. 


I went out and bought Watermelon and grapes (their favorites) and lots of sparklers. And my mom came over to hang out too. Long before it got dark I really started wishing I had bought some other things for the kids to do out side. AND we were getting ate up by mosquitos outside. So I went to the garage to find our camping stuff which is where we keep the bug repellent and what should I find? a big bag of old fireworks and sparklers from I have no idea where. So I brought it out with a warning to the kids that they may be too old to even work. Surprisingly there was only one dud. The little kids 4-10 years of age screamed and squealed with delight with each pathetic little 2 ft high fire "Sprayer". While the 2 year old cried and hid herself from them. We ate watermelon and grapes and then did like 100 sparklers. Near the end of the night we actually got to see some big fireworks apparently from the ballpark not to far from our house. And little Devon shouted "THIS IS THE BEST FOURF OF JEW-LIE EVER!"

A Step in the Right Direction- A family Diet change! Part #2

After our decision to change our family's diet, my husband and I spent an entire day of homeschool devoted to teaching the kids about processed food and healthy eating. The 2 favorite meal items in this house are Mac-n-cheese (Kraft) and frozen chicken nuggets. So we had the kids "guess" what was in those 2 favorite things (you know, the obvious things like Macaroni, cheese, chicken, breading...) then we actually had them read the ingredients from the box and frozen bag. Most of the kids especially Alexia our 7 year old were pretty grossed out about the ingredients so we then decided to go to the grocery store and find all natural ingredients to make their favorite foods. (I know, not the healthiest meal but it got the point across that we can find healthier versions of our favorite things.) It worked like a charm. The kids said the chicken nuggets were the best they ever had and the mere joke about buying frozen again has been met with the look of disgust lol.


So our "NO PROCESSED FOODS" journey began. and BOY, am I in over my head. I had no idea the kind of TIME involved in this lifestyle of eating. EVERYDAY is consumed with food preparation thoughts, ideas, looking up recipes and cooking. We can't just have a bowl of cereal around here or a Pop Tart for breakfast. I have to either bake some bread or muffins at night for the kids in the morning or wake up early to make fruit smoothies.  Dinner sometimes takes 2 hours to prepare when you can't just make mashed potatoes from a box of flakes. I am now having to peel, cut, boil then mash them if we want mashed potatoes. But LUNCH!! What in the world do people make for lunch lol. I bought a bread machine and started buying the "all natural" lunch meat but most of the kids don't like sandwiches. I started making soup BUT lately it is like 92 degrees out so who in the world wants a hot bowl of soup. AND what about those evenings like dance days and Wednesday night church? I need something fast and frankly something that I don't have to think too much about. We have done the crock-pot thing but I am still having a hard time finding anything other than "Roast and vegetables" for the crockpot and who wants that more than once a week. So the search for quick and easy "non-processed" meals is ON!!!

A Step in the Right Direction- A family Diet change! Part #1

My husband and I recently decided that for our health and for the health of our kids we would change our diet around here. A typical weeks dinners used to look like this:


Monday- Spaghetti and meatballs (frozen from freezer section), garlic bread (frozen from the freezer section) Salad (from a bag) with Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.
Tuesday (Dance Class Day need something fast)- Chicken Nuggets (from freezer section) and tater tots (also frozen)
Wednesday- Deli pizza from walmart (We get the all meats pre-made refrigerated Large Pizzas)
Thursday- Chili made with 3lbs hamburger, 6 cans of mixed beans, 2 packets of taco seasoning, can of diced tomatoes
Friday- Leftover Chili turned into burritos
Saturday- Nachos with leftover chili
Sunday- Fish sticks and Fries (frozen from the freezer section)


As you can see quite a lot of convenience foods. Breakfast was always either Poptarts or Cinnamon Toast Crunch or other sugary cereal. And Lunch was 3 choices (Ramen noodles, Hotdogs, or Sandwich with either meat or PB+J)


To top it off, my husband and I have an addiction to Soda (Diet for me and Mountain Dew for him) and since we make party favors for our Party Business we also sit around late after the kids go to bed at night watching Netflix, eating chips (his favorite Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar) and making favors. I actually have Type 2 Diabetes so eating chips is terrible for me.


One night after we polished off an entire bag of chips I felt my pinky toe had gone numb and painful. It was the first time I had really experienced the effects of high carbs on a part of my body and I immediately panicked. I told my husband and told him about the horror stories I had heard about people with Type 2 Diabetes who lost toes, fingers and other limbs as well as eye sight just from not watching their carb intake. We also talked about all of his parents health problems and mine and came to the conclusion that we should just overhaul the entire families diet.


We decided instead of cutting out a certain food group or putting everyone on a "diet" we would just cut out everything processed and eat more clean. No more microwave meals, ramen noodles, frozen nuggets, chef boy R D and Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar chips.

Rabbit Poo EVERYWHERE!

We have 3 full grown New Zealand Rabbits and every 2 to 3  weeks we have anywhere from 6-8 kits. So there is a lot of poo. And flies can become a problem. We usually remove  the rabbit poo and put in the gardens and plants as it is great fertilizer BUT we have too much! We have been reading on blogs about worm farms and Chickens and are seriously considering getting a few chickens to help with the flies and larvae as well as the excess feed that gets dropped by the rabbits. I also like the idea of fresh eggs SOOOOOO it would seem that we need to build a chicken coop here soon. But first the concrete patio the kids having been dying for needs to be put in! More to come!

Adventures in Meat Rabbits

So we decided to keep one of Speckles girl babies after she died from heat stroke (explanation in another Rabbit post).  The kids named Sparkles and then renamed her over and over finally settling on Marshmallow.


Oreo in the meantime, is doing great. (She is our friendliest bunny too. She will rush the cage door and rub all over your arm while you are changing her food, water etc.) She has had a healthy litter of 6 with one who was stillborn. She also had a set of 10 but 4 were dead when we counted which left her with 6 again. She turned out to be a good momma after all.(Below: A few of Oreo's babies playing and eating the grass in our mobile bunny lawn tractor)

)

Once Marshmallow was of age we mated her and then waited. After 31 days she has her first litter of babies but like an clueless first time mom she doesn't actually make her nest box til after they are born. They then freeze to death before we can get to them in the morning. (She had 8)  So we mated her again and the kids started feeding her some extra feed for the next 31 days for pregnancy and she gets real fat BUT never has babies! At day 42 we are like What!!! UGh! (Turns out she isn't pregnant just the extra food has made her a fatty). SO we mate Big Fatty (Marshmallow) again.  Finally Big Fatty has her first living litter of 9 this morning. (Below: Picture#1- Here is Marshmallow in her cage. Picture #2 and #3 are pics of the naked little babies inside a nest momma's fur.)

This rabbit adventure has been a lot of headache but the rewards of fresh meat without toxins or chemicals makes it worth every bit of time and money. And the kids LOVE having an endless supply of furry things to cuddle :)