This delivery was super easy.  My dad saw she was in labor, checked her and headed into the house to make a couple phone calls.  By the time he went back out this little guy was walking around!!  Literally almost no time at all.  He’s doing great.  Much smaller than his sister, but that was to be expected.  We picked the bull that we used for his semen and wanted smaller calves this time!

Check out the impregnating here.

Check out the last calf birth here.

Happy weekend!!

At about 6:30 I finally convince myself that I need to get my butt in gear. I decide “Hey, maybe it would be fun to document my day” and go looking for my camera.

I make our bed (I did away with any sort of decoration pillow when Luke was born) and then start getting ready.

At this point Jon is out and making his coffee.  I put my hair up, get dressed and brush my teeth.

I locate Jon’s strategically placed “I might wear them again” piles of clothes and start my daily load of laundry.

I say good bye to Jon as he heads off to work and check the monitor to find Luke’s still asleep!

I clean up the kitchen- putting away the dishes from last night’s dinner and pop in a bagel for breakfast.

I enjoy my breakfast while watching a video from my new favorite You Tube/Blogger, Mrs. Volfie.  I’m learning SO MUCH from her!  One bite into breakfast and I see that Luke is awake.

It’s about 7:30 now and this is the best picture this sleepyhead will let me take.

Luke plays in the playpen while I finish my breakfast.

We head in to change his diaper (he does not appreciate it if I do this as soon as he wakes up) and stop to play with his solar system mobile.

I hand him an empty wipe container to keep his hands OUT of his dirty diaper while I am changing him!

Luke does some jumping and I wash up the morning dishes.

I decide to check the electrical bill and nearly have a heart attack for the third time this year!

Luke nurses and goes down for his first nap and I decide that we’re going to start using the clothes line early.  I wanted to wait until we shut down the wood stove because the clothes will smell smoky, but I decide it will be worth it if it saves money.

Hanging laundry takes a lot longer than I remember and man are my hands frozen!  It may be spring, but the northeast isn’t quite warm yet!

I do a quick pick up of the house and then do a little research on NY homeschooling laws.

My little man is awake again so I head in to get him and am happy to find him smiley again.  Last week was rough and this week he’s been much happier.

I vacuum and steam mop the floors so Luke will be able to play on them.

After cleaning the floor I put together Luke’s breakfast of cinnamon pears and get him settled into his high chair.

He finishes the meal and has a few puffs while we work on the sign for “more”

Luke’s ready for a diaper change and to get dressed for the day.

I put Luke on the floor to play with some old Beanie Babies (he loves to take them out of and put them into the box) and I get to some sewing I’ve been wanting to do.  *Note- I HATE to sew but for some reason get an urge to try a couple times a year.  My last urge was in December…)

I make a quick skirt and alter my curtains that have been hanging out at three different lengths for far too long.

I screw up the curtains (notice the funny shadow on the middle window?) and decide that I’ve had enough sewing for at least 6 months.

I pop Luke back into the Jumper because he is getting fussy and refill his cloth wipe solution spray bottle.

It’s time to nurse and nap again and we do the normal routine.

It’s about 12:45 at this point and I am SO ready for lunch. I heat up left over potato soup, a roll and some cold ham.  Random but tasty.

I check the monitor to find a still very awake baby practicing his crawling.

I clean up Lunch, refill the water jug and start folding cloth diapers.

Next I head outside to check what’s growing.

Asparagus

Peas

And I check the laundry

It’s about 2:30 and Luke’s awake!  We do another quick nursing session and a crabby diaper change.

Luke sits down for an early dinner of greenbeans and chicken because we are going to go to my inlaws house tonight

I work on making Jon’s lunch for the next day while Luke eats and I have a snack myself.

We pack up the diaper bag.

Now I forgot my camera at home but to summarize…

Luke and I went to feed the cows. Which pretty much always looks like this. 

Then we stopped in to talk to my mom and brother for a moment and headed back home.  Once we were home Jon pulled in.  He was out of work a tiny bit early.  I took Luke in the house changed and nursed him again and pulled the clothes off of the line while Jon loaded up all the stuff we needed to take to his parent’s house.  They are having a garage sale and we had a ton of stuff we’d been saving.  On the way down to their house, Luke fell asleep.  While Jon unloaded the car I sat with Luke until he woke up.  We had pizza with Jon’s parents and sister and then headed back home.  Once we were home the normal bedtime routine of Jon shower, Luke shower and then my shower ensued.  Jon put Luke in his pjs and I took him to nurse one last time and then put him down for bed.  No story tonight…It is way too late.  Luke is in bed by about 8:20-almost an hour late.

I pop in another load of laundry and get the diapers ready so I can wash them first thing in the morning.  I try to only do laundry between 8pm and 8am because those are the off peak hours for the electric company.  Jon and I head to bed and after watching a couple youtube videos from Mrs. Volfie…We are asleep (at about 10pm)!!

Chickens Round 2!!  I finally submitted the order for our new chickens.  The week of May 6th, we should be receiving

10- Cornish Rock Broilers

5- Buff Orpingtons

5- Gold Laced Wyandottes

5- Silver Laced Wyandottes

We are planning to build a chicken tractor for the Broilers and based on what I’ve read we should be able to butcher them around 8 weeks.  It will certainly be an adventure.  Stay tuned!

We planted three rows of sugar snap peas on April 7.  It was great to some garden going.  Jon shoveled some manure out of our pile to fertilize this bed and then tilled everything together.

He also took some time to clean up our neglected flower beds from last year.  Having a baby kind of killed all motivation for fall clean up.  On the plus side, he was able to just weed whack all the dead plant leaves and stalks and then just rake them up.  Super easy clean up!

Solution:  I made cloth napkins out of kitchen towels that I didn’t like.  The towels I used were thin and they always irritated me as towels because they barely soak up any water, but cut in half and repurposed as cloth napkins, they are perfect!

I cut the towels in half.  No measuring here.  I wanted an easy project so I eyeballed everything.  I hemmed each cut piece and then labeled them with a “D” for dining room to make sure they wouldn’t make there way back to my kitchen towel cabinet.

My sewing abilities leave a  lot to be desired but they work and they didn’t cost a thing! 

This rag towel belongs over the washer (W).

This is a kitchen towel (K).

I also have towels that are specific to each bathroom.  Hopefully this helps keep things straight!

Look REALLY closely… see the green rows?  The garlic is up!  I planted it a few weeks after Luke was born last year.  It was the longest I had been away from him at the time.  I was outside for maybe an hour while Jon was inside with him.  Seems like a lifetime ago at this point!  We are so happy that it is springtime!

Here is my little planting helper.  I’m not sure if it is more of a work out to plant with a 20lb baby on my back or 20lbs of baby weight in my belly, like last year but it was really fun to get out and work in the garden with my little man!

Yummy steak!

Add all wipes and inserts to the washing machine.  On a hot wash, with an extra rinse add 1/4 cup of bleach.  I do NOT put my covers in at this time.

Once that cycle is complete, I add the diaper covers to the inserts and wipes and wash all of them on a hot cycle with 1 tablespoon of blue dawn dish soap (I have a top loader).  I then run 4-5 more hot washes to be sure all of the soap is removed from the diapers. 

After everything is washed and smelling good again I hang them all to dry.

I have needed to strip my diapers 3 times in the last 6 months.  We recently began using our water softener and I’m hoping this helps cut down on the need to strip diapers!