It's been a long time. We've been keeping busy - up north a few times, lots of play dates with friends. Today is Tuesday so we did our usual: Noodles and the library. Tomorrow starts the park days with our homeschooling group. We meet at different parks in the Milwaukee area through the summer.

Eric and I have been planting around here. We have an apple tree, raspberries, grapes and a small garden that's starting to come up. Yesterday the kids and I went out side to work on weeding. Kyle got a glove out to pull up the pokey weeds. He declared weeding more fun than video games!

Jack will be one next week. He's very determined to get what he wants, including being cute to get it! He's working on walking too. He's taken as many as 7 steps.

Summer sure improves my mood - not perfect but better. Jack still doesn't sleep well or much but I'm handling it better. Eric and I have been talking about changing things up so the winter so I don't make everyone so miserable. I like a few minutes to myself without kids each day. I need to take vitamins too. I might try some lights this winter, we'll see. Thankfully, we have lots of sun and beautiful weather to enjoy right now:)

painted

The kids woke up yesterday and they had turned into a butterfly and a pirate :) I wonder what they'll be today?

little things you didn't know about me

I don't wash my hair. Ok, well sometimes I do, about every 3 months just for kicks. I make my own hair rinse with apple cider vinegar but even that I only use about twice a week. Sometimes I'll use a little conditioner cause I still have some left over from this huge container I bought right before I went 'poo-less. I don't use products in my hair and I don't really like it when I get a hair cut and they put a lot of gunk in it. Think I might give up hair cuts, come to think of it.

I make my own lotion too. Have you read the ingredients on those things? No wonder there's so much cancer. I keep finding bottles of lotion around and the saver in me won't let me just throw it away so I keep trying to use it up.

I also make my own toothpaste. I read that store bought stuff leaves a coat on your teeth that doesn't allow for the normal remineralization of your teeth that leads to cavities, ironic huh? So we've been making our own. It's pretty good. No, I mean it's really good. I just made our second batch a couple days ago. This one was a little thicker but still not quite the consistency I want it to be. I'll keep tweaking it. It's baking soda free too which is better for your teeth too.

I've tried giving up coffee and I've tried giving up creamer. Neither of which seems even remotely possible in my life right now. I'm trying to make the best of it. I switched to organic, fair-trade coffee. Good stuff. I feel good about that. Can't seem to do anything about the creamer though. This morning I had a HUGE revelation!!!! Ok, so it wasn't that big. I said to myself, said I "You have real cream in the fridge why don't you make a nice creamer for your coffee?" So, that's my project for today. Real creamer that actually has cream and vanilla (or whatever flavor you think you're buying in the store but that is not actually IN the creamer) that tastes like the fake creamer from the store. This ties into the commercial I saw a while ago (yes, we finally have a tv with channels, I hate it). The commercial was for Reddi-Whip and it says that Cool Whip doesn't have real cream in it but Reddi-Whip does. UGH! Reddi Whip has a propellant to get it out of the can, do you really want to eat propellent? Today, I found an article about it here. Funny stuff.

p.s. their fonts are boring

I'm stuck... I want more than what I have. I have doubts about what I'm doing, is it really the right path after all? It doesn't feel right, but what other choice do I have? I've had what I want and lost it. Change happens. I'm tired. Everything about this makes me doubt my power, energy, intuition, ability, everything I believe in. I'm losing my faith in me and that's about as hard as losing Maggie. Speaking of her, I miss her too. I just want everything fixed. Is that too much to ask? Really? I want peace... my piece of peace and a little for my family too.

Maple Syrup time!

The trees have been tapped and sap collected twice now. I always love this time of year at my parents house. Everything is wet from melting snow and the promise of spring right around the corner. The slushy, muddy tracks through the woods give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Dad, Mom and Ethan tapped 70 trees on Friday. The kids and I helped collect Sunday and Monday. So far we have about 120 gallons of sap which would make around 4 gallons of syrup, give or take. The bulk tank is about full and ready to start cooking. The sap house is near the woods, set up with a nice evaporator, a 200 gallon bulk tank outside. Dad thinks we'll have to start cooking on Thursday, I think sooner. I love the smell of the sap cooking. There is nothing like it in the world, the sticky sweet smell hanging in the air. The sap house gets nice and humid as it's cooking off the water. Always the perfect way to start spring in my opinion!

I'll add some pictures later, my laptop is down right now.

new blogs

Check out these blogs!

http://simpleorganic.net

http://simplehomeschool.net

http://simplekids.net

http://simplemom.net

http://www.simplebites.net

Milwaukee Public Museum

We met up with our friends at the Milwaukee Public Museum today. It was a special cultural day at the Streets of Old Milwaukee. People dressed up in period clothes and they even had the nickelodeon open! I have been to the museum plenty of times before but this was my first time at the theater. The kids decorated yo-yo's and listened to a story about Teddy Roosevelt... well, some of them listened and the rest looked at the near-by exhibits :)

I was really crabby today so I was glad to be out with friends so the kids had it a little easier, sorry kiddo's! By tonight I got to feeling a lot better. We had a nice bedtime (best all week) with good conversation and our favorite white light/purple light meditation. Zoe managed to give me some insight into her silly little mind and I feel like I can make some good progress with her now. Just the fact that we could have a real conversation that made sense felt really good.

Daddy should be home in a few hours! Yeah!