We Moved!

It took a while but we moved!

Back at the end of December we moved onto our farm.

Since then we have been trying to get everything up and running, which is fun with a toddler.

Not only have we been busy getting the farm running, we have been working on our new website.

We are no longer The Someday Farmer, but we are now officially The Classical Farmer!

So this will be the last update to this blog, but head on over to theclassicalfarmer.com for more about our new journey!

Goodbye 2016 and Hello 2017

Since its still January, I feel like it is ok to still reflect on the past year and look ahead to the future. 

Some would say 2016 was a terrible year, but for us it will probably be remembered as one of the most amazing. 

Welcoming Isaac into the world was the best day of our lives and that alone give 2016 the title of Best Year. I cant imagine what our lives would be like without him. He has recently started walking and getting into more trouble than ever, but to make up for it he says “mama” and “dada” and gives hugs. There is nothing like baby hugs! 

No one can ever truly prepare you for a baby. No one prepares you for the feelings you will have when you have a baby. We were discussing this in our Bible study today and our leader says “until you see that sweet face you can never believe it when people warn you about how you will feel.” No one prepares you for how your life will change. No one prepares you for how your ideas on parenting will change. There are so many things that change. 

There are areas we have had to loosen up on and others that we have held firm to. Since people find it hard to believe, yes, we are still cloth diapering, yes, we still say no to plastic toys, yes, he still doesn't watch tv at home (we did have to allow dads in the car to combat the screaming), and yes, he still nurses. The areas we have loosened up in are the areas that push us farther into the realm of natural/attachment parenting, but that is a whole other discussion. 

This year we set goals for ourselves to become healthier and more conscious about our choices. I am proud to say we have done very well. It seems that every time we reach a goal, we push that goal farther, so I see that as a success. 

Possibly the second best thing to happen this year was we bought a farm! I set my secret goal of purchasing land and then hoping one day to build, but we were blessed to be able to buy our land with a house and move in on December 23. It was the best Christmas gift we could have given ourselves. 

I am still debating this year’s goals, but if 2017 is a quarter as good as 2016 it will be a great year!

Cysts and Doctors and Surgery, Oh My!

I mentioned surgery, didn't I?

Spoiler alert: it turned out to be a very easy quick surgery with quick recovery! 

Remember that February morning when my sweet little man graced us with his presence, after 52 hours of labor? Well he had this odd little bump on the bridge of his nose, hence the nick name Little man. Side note, that plus his hairline made him look like a little old man. We assumed it was a side affect from birth, but it didn't go away. His pediatrician said to watch it and not to worry. 

Then it grew. 

We were referred to an ENT who side it needed to be looked at by a specialist at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. What we thought was a little bump/cyst, could have possibly been part of his brain that was trapped outside his nose when his nose formed. The doctor said this very calmly and that left me confused on how to feel, do I remain calm or freak out? I wavered between the two for weeks. 

Then we saw the specialist. 

He took one look at it and assured me it was not Isaac’s brain, it was simply a Dermoid Cyst. Oh what a relief! Then the specialist went on to explain that it would need to be removed and Isaac would need a MRI to determine if the cyst extended into brain and therefore required a neurosurgeon…Didn't he just tell me is was a simple cyst?! 

So home we went to wait for surgery. 

After almost three months, we headed back to Little Rock for the surgery. I am a huge control freak and an obsessive planner/packer, so that fact that there were so many unknowns stressed me out. Everything depended on what the MRI said. Would there be a neurosurgeon? Would we have to stay over night? Would we have to stay multiple nights? Then there was the mommy worry of how he would handle the hotel and the MRI and the surgery and the pain and the hospital and not getting to nurse for hours? FYI He was great… I not so much. 

Monday was the MRI. They told me I had to stop nursing him at 2:45am and he didn't go under till almost 8:30am. I repeatedly asked them when he would be put under since they gave me a much earlier cut off than the surgery people, and I stressed them he nurses every 1.5-2 hours, they assured me he would be put under at 6:45am, even though the “appointment” was for 8:45am… Thankfully he is such a sweet little guy and is so excited for new things that he was distracted most of the time. 

However I want to take a moment to rant, there is part of me that gets super annoyed when I think about that situation. I did my homework and the cut off time for breastmilk is closer to the time the child goes under than the time for formula. Formula takes longer to digest so must be stopped sooner to ensure its out of their system, similar to adults and solid food. Breastmilk digests faster which is also why breastfed babies eat ALL THE TIME. Now the surgery nurses understood this so they are excluded from this rant. The nurses staffing the MRI were not as understanding. They ask you the same questions over and over, and every nurse asked what formula he was on and then looked confused when I said he was exclusively breastfed. They seemed peeved that I kept asking when he would be taken back because he hadn't eaten in so long and I was worried he'd get too hungry or worse get low blood sugar. If they can ask the same questions over and over, why can’t I? Then you add in the fact that Mama is getting uncomfortable, and ask to nurse him as soon as he wakes up, and that gets a “look,” this Mama gets a bit grumpy. I don’t mean to sound rude, but breastfeeding a baby isn't as easy as it looks and having someone attached to you 24/7 is hard, so when medical personal aren't understanding it kinda grates on your nerves. And lets be real, watching your five month old be hooked up to tubes and put to sleep is terrifying! Don’t worry, it all worked out and both Little Man and I were so happy when it was all over! 

Thankfully the MRI showed that the cyst was just in the nose and it would be a quick simple surgery. The doctor would go in and remove the cyst and “squish” the bones of his nose back together. Yes, he said “squish.”  The nice thing about babies is they are so new you can squish things together and they fix themselves. 

Last picture with the cyst!

The surgery was scheduled for the next day and was much less nerve wrecking than the MRI. It helped that now we knew he didn't react badly to the sedation and that the cyst was simple. It was also much quicker than we thought it would be. Vince had wandered off thinking it would be about another hour and poof the doctor appeared to say he was in recovery! Isaac actually got discharged from the recovery room instead of the discharge room because he woke up so quickly and was ready to go. He was very upset that he was tethered to the IV still, its hard to play when you can’t move much. 

I wish I recovered from surgery as fast as he did. He took a nice long nap when he got back to the hotel and then played and played and played. All they gave him for pain was tylenol and by the next day he didn't even act like he needed it and by day 3 we stopped giving it to him. By his two week check up the bone was completely healed and the incision was mostly healed. We had some problems with the dissolvable stitches not dissolving, a month and a half later his pediatrician told us to pull it out with tweezers and even now 3 months later I can feel one still under the skin, but other than that it was a super fast recovery. 

I am so thankful Isaac has such a sweet temperament it helped ease my stress. I’m not really sure how he got such a sweet temperament, his dad has one, but I was a terrible child so my terribleness should have canceled out Vince’s sweetness. I sit here and wonder about it sometimes, but then I quickly tell myself to just be happy and go with it, what crazy person questions why their child is sweet? Normal people just praise God for that!

So I sit here and praise God that I have such a sweet little man and that he is healthy and happy and that I am so blessed to be his mama. 

I'm Still Here!

It's amazing how quickly time flies! 

I’m still not sure where the last few months have gone, but I know where to start, the Week of Chaos. 

Flash back to the Monday the 4th of July. 

We had a lovely holiday with my family, Isaac had so much fun!

Tuesday: 

It was time to head back home to prepare for our trip to Little Rock for Isaac’s surgery, I’ll get to that in a minute. 

We get home and I walk outside to the chicken coop to find it flooded (the automatic waterer broke) and one of the three remaining baby chicks eaten by a predator. Needless to say we spend the rest of the afternoon fixing the coop and we slept very well that night. 

Wednesday:

The plan was to pack, since I like to be prepared. Isaac and Vince woke up and watched some tv while I got to sleep in a bit.

After I had been awake a bit, I noticed Isis was still asleep in our room. I call her to eat and go outside and she doesn't come. I notice she is still a bit stiff and having trouble walking. I didn't think much about it since she always got sore after visiting my parents because she plays so much. This was different though, she wasn't walking at all. After rushing her to our vet and realizing she had no feeling in her back legs, we had to rush her down to Mississippi State. Long story short, she had slipped a few disks cutting off the nerves and she needed surgery. 

Isis had surgery Thursday and recovered great and we were able to get ready for Little Rock. 

Friday: I smashed my toe and broke it, at least I think I did. It took a month for it to stop hurting when I walked, and it still cramps up funny...

Sunday: We drove to Little Rock, thankfully we missed the protest that shut down the bridge for hours. That was the first lucky thing that week. 

Isaac playing at the hotel after surgery.

The surgery itself deserves a separate post, but once we got back from Little Rock it has been non-stop. Isaac recovered great and learned to crawl and climb, so that has meant constant vigilance. Isis came home and needed tons of therapy right as Vince started back to school. That was a huge adjustment! I got used to Vince being home all day. Throw into the mix, helping one best friend move away, then the other getting married and moving, and it has been a long emotional few months. 

But now things have finally settled down and gotten back to a new routine. Did I ever mention how much I like routines!? 

Well hopefully this routine sticks around for a while. 

2016 Goals Update!

I have to brag a bit, mainly because I am so proud of ourselves. 

We paid off three of our student loans! 

When I first set my 2016 goals I was hoping to pay off some of our debt by end of year. Mainly pay off our two credit cards and half of one student loan (we had four student loans of various amounts).  

Then we paid off the credit cards so quickly I changed the goal to paying off one of the four student loans. 

Through serious budgeting and gift money we managed to pay off three of the four student loans! 

Sadly the remaining loan was the most expensive and was more than all the credit cards and other loans combined, but the excitement of paying those off makes it more bearable. 

We are following Dave Ramsey who says to snowball your debt so the little wins give you motivation, and he is so very right about that! 

It will take longer to pay off this last loan, but we are so happy with the progress we have made that its not as daunting as it used to be. 

Being debt free seems to be achievable and not just a crazy dream! 

Goals 

1. Landscape Back Yard
2. Pay off Student loan #1  YAY!!!
3. Reduce Plastic Use/ Created Less Waste 
4. Walk 10,000 steps a day, 3 days a week. 
5. Special Secret Goal

We Got Baby Chicks!

We got baby chicks!

Its been a while since we had baby chicks, and we really had no intention of getting baby chicks this year. Human babies are a lot of work and we thought that'd be too much. However, Penguin decided that we needed chicks and went broody. Really, really broody, so broody I couldn't break her of it, so we found fertile eggs and let her give it a try. I kinda thought she’d give up, which is why Vince was hesitant to give her eggs, since he didn't want her to sit on them for a while and then abandon them and the chicks die. 

On a whim I called a woman about eggs and she gave us six and told us to bring back any chicks we couldn't keep. I was expecting a low hatch rate, so after I dropped and broke an egg I was only expecting two of the five to hatch. Honestly, I told Vince if we got one chick I’d call this a success. It was both Penguin and mine’s first try at hatching eggs (I’ve always bought baby chicks). 

So I gave her the eggs, marked my calendar for three weeks later and left her to do her thing. 

Fast forward to hatch week and I am “preparing” for baby chicks. I got the brooder ready incase she didn't want to care for the chicks and I frantically tried to schedule our Father’s Day Visits around chicks. Based on my math they were due to hatch Thursday or Friday before Father’s day. I invited my grandparents to come visit the Amish with us that Thursday so my Grandfather could be here when they were supposed to hatch. It was like a thousand years ago but his grandfather raised chickens when he was a boy and I thought he’d enjoy it.  

Wednesday evening I go to get eggs and check on Penguin. I decided to candle the eggs and the first two have little wiggling shadows, the next two have tiny holes and cheeping chicks, the last one is half hatched! I was not prepared at all and I didn't sleep at all that night. I was more nervous than I was when I was in labor! I’m not even kidding. I had experienced midwives and doulas around me so I knew I was in the best hands possible, poor Penguin was all alone and it was our first hatching. 

I was so relieved when I saw the first two chicks staring at me the next morning. I had been worried what the other hens would do, but they didn't seem to even mind the chicks. I found Daisy and CoCo in the nesting boxes with Penguin and the chicks like nothing happened. 

All five chicks hatched, but one sadly didn't make it long, and before they were a week old we had lost another. Thankfully the other three seem to be very healthy and happy and Penguin has turned out to be a wonderful mother. She is a natural and she makes it look so easy! I seriously don't know how she does it. 

When I got the eggs the woman had Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Sex-linked, Leghorn and silver and gold Wyandottes. I really wanted a Wyandotte and I really didn't want a Leghorn (I didn't want white eggs). Well since Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Sex-linked, and silver and gold Wyandottes all lay similar eggs it was a toss up on which eggs had which chicks, and none of them were pure bred so that made it harder. Let me tell you, Mother Nature and I have an odd relationship. Well its hard to tell but it seems that we got a Barred Rock chick and two LEGHORNS… and the two that passed away were probably Wyandottes. 

My mother laughed and said thats what I get for trying to control Mother Nature. Oh well as long as they are healthy and good layers I can’t complain. 

Now we just have to hope they are girls so we can keep them :) 

Going Plastic Free

I recently finished reading Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too by Beth Terry. And let me tell you, it was both extremely enlightening and a bit horrifying! 

I had already been trying to lessen the amount of plastic we used simply to reduce waste and we had decided not to allow Isaac to have plastic toys, but plastic sneaks into your life easily and in ways I didn't even think about. 

Baby bottles were the first things to sneak in. I registered for glass baby bottles but we didn't receive any and since I am a stay at home mom and breast feeding we didn't bother buying any. Then I got a free bottle in a sample pack from the maternity store, then one from a sample in the mail, and a third one came with the pump. Three bottles was perfect for the few times I have had to leave Isaac with Daddy or my mom. I didn't think anymore about the bottle besides filling them when we needed them and washing them. 

After finishing the book I went straight to the kitchen to stake stock of what plastic was left in there. At first I was so proud of myself, there wasn't that much and most of what was left was not needed and could go away. Then I opened the freezer and saw the bottles. Plastic! What was I thinking, I had been saying for months no plastic for Isaac but I was allowing him to be fed from plastic. So I sat down at the computer and ordered him glass bottles and packed up all the plastic from the kitchen to be donated. 

Confession: I couldn't bring myself to throw out the three bottles of frozen milk, those were a lot of work for this mama to make. I just finished feeding him the second to last bottle as we drive to visit my parents. 

So since finishing the book I’ve been making a mental note of everything plastic in the house and as they wear out Ill be replacing them with non-plastic options. 

The book opened my eyes to the way landfills and recycling plants work, how plastic is made and the waste associated with it, as well as discussing the toxins in plastics. My favorite part was it idiot proofed the science so I could not only understand but also explain to others when they stare at me like I'm crazy (I get that stare a lot so I'm used to it). 

The other nice thing was Terry gave realistic ways to change and repeatedly told the reader that it took her years to get to the point that she was. And that was very encouraging to read.

 This is a journey where each step matters as much as the final destination.