Preparations!

It's good to be back into the swing of things!



I've been pretty busy lately. Tossing most of the kids toys due to lead meant only that there would be very few things for them to play with. I'm all for simple living and minimal toys, but this is seriously the bare minimum. I had to figure out what they'd be getting for their birthdays, and for Christmas (which all fall in the same week!). Since we're flat broke, I was only able to get a couple of things. The rest is up to me to make.



Right now, on the agenda for "creating", are playsilks, felted wool balls (though the cats keep stealing them, I'll get to that later), and a doll for M. I'm doing surprisingly well. I think that the doll, when finished, will end up being about 12-14". I'm not totally sure yet. I need to get some brown embroidery floss for her eyes, and I need to figure out something for the hair (I can't crochet so that's out of the question!). I also obviously need to make the body, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I'm using things around the house, and doing it all by hand. For the skin, I used a cotton knit crib sheet that I had laying around. The stuffing in the head is a lambswool sweater that I thrifted. The only synthetic material in the doll is the nylon stocking that I used for her head, but that's not too bad seeing that she's being created using only found materials!

Also in the works are preparations for N's 3rd birthday. I'm going to hold a very small party on her actual birthday, which falls on a Monday. We plan to dye playsilks with the kids, so I've got all that ready. I also need to come up with a "game plan" so that I can figure out how to make it short and sweet but still special for N. More importantly, I need to start trying out cake recipes for the big day. I might just do cupcakes, I have better luck with those! We shall see. Invitations need to go out in under a month, and I don't want to be thinking too hard about this during the weeks before Christmas because we have the Solstice, Moo's birthday (Which falls on the solstice!), Advent, and a ton of other things to worry about! I need to get everything set -now-.

Oh, and I need to make their birthday crowns.... eep!!!



Current nature table setup,not so many nature goodies as our cats have been rather mischevious!

M Has Lead Poisoning!

Last Friday, the kids went to the doctor for a checkup. I'm not one to do well-child visits, since we don't vaccinate, but I'm glad I followed my insticnts. M, who I call Moo alot now, is 10 months, so the decided to prick her finger and draw blood to check her hemoglobin and lead levels. No biggie. After about 20 minutes (the test only takes a few minutes) our wonderful doctor came back in to give us the news- her lead count was elevated, at 11. It's borderline, but not normal. They then sent us for bloodwork to be drawn from both girls via their veins, and I get the results tomorrow (eep!).

In the meantime, I've been stressing about where it's coming from. We've since found two sources- there is a lead water pipe that comes into our house- it's the first pipe that the water hits, and all of our water passes through it. We also found lead pain in one of the support posts in our basement apartment. We're hoping that these issues can be fixed quickly and effectively, but in the meantime, we've been taking alot of precautionary measures.

Bathing- Tonight, we started filtering our bath water. We each have to bathe out of a bucket, at let me tell you it is not fun. M is especially not fond of it. N didn't seem to notice a difference, but was glad she wasn't being bathed with "blood (lead) water".
Ingesting- We've also been filtering our drinking and cooking water.
Toys- I went with my instincts and bagged up all of our questionable wooden (Melissa & Doug and cheap Target brand) toys, and our plastic toys that I've been meaning to weed out.

There's just so much going on... I've been meaning to blog, but I really haven't gotten the chance! Anyhow, that's where things stand as of now and I'll be sure to update as we go.

In addition- if anyone has any Pur water filters that they want to get rid of, I'll take them off of your hands! I'm so so broke and we really need them. Thank you.

Megan

Ergo Giveaway!!

5 Vinez Monkeys is holding an Ergo giveaway! Check it out!

http://www.5vinezmonkeys.com/2010/09/ergobaby-carrier-review-giveaway-108.html
http://www.5vinezmonkeys.com/
http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/

We LOVEEE our Ergo but it has seen a little too much love!

Apple Picking

We took the girls apple picking at a wonderful apple orchard about an hour and a half away. I couldn't find an organic one, but I didn't want to deprive N of the experience (she really wanted to go!). We finished up the day with some local honey sticks and all was good.

We have teeth :)

Well, maybe not teeth, but one single tooth. That's right, M is working on her chompers :) Also, she has started playing "peekaboo". It's adorable and I'm very excited.

Poor N is very sick. She has a terrible cold and gunky eyes. I'm likely taking her to the doctor in the morning so we'll see how that goes.

On a side note, I need to find some patterns for wool slippers (for Madelyn) and for a winter hat (also for Madelyn). Her winter hat from last year isn't going to fit her this year. I might make a fall hat for her also- I'll have to see.

I'm back!

Phew! After an extremely long hiatus, I am back. It feels good. I have a new background in place and a lot to blog about. Get the eye drops ready, you may be reading for quite a bit!

I've been doing just peachy. Speaking of peaches... I ordered from a new company called Organics Delivered. Bad experience. I had the impression that they were a CSA and all produce would be local. For ~$40 something/box I was pretty happy. I got my first order on Wednesday. Everything was stuffed into a rubbermaid container. The guy wasn't in a delivery truck, he got the box out of his car or whatever and dropped it off. Strange. I got in the house, opened up my box, and found that my apples were bruised, bananas bruised, and tomatoes MOLDY! I also found that several items were those that were found at my local grocery store, and though they were organic, they were from big chain farms. I also found that many items weren't local- some as far as the Dominican Republic. I knew that when I opened the box full of apples, bananas, and mangos that it wouldn't be all local produce. Insert sigh HERE. :( SO I called the company and spoke to a customer service rep... She apologized and gave me $10 credit which will be refunded at the end of my trial. So that was a big flop. I'm likely going to see about finding an actual CSA around here (many have fall sign ups) that will also give me pastured eggs and maybe raw milk.

M is doing great, she's just about crawling now! She's still quite the boobie baby, she nurses all the time and we both love it.

Big sister N is also great, though we just hit the terrible twos (we thought they'd missed us!). She is also almost all the way potty learned, so that's great as well.

I kind of fell off with Waldorf- so we're jumping back on that wagon. I've been re-reading heaven on Earth and You are Your Child's First Teacher for inspiration.

Current projects? Coasters =P But other than that, nothing. Oh, I took the fram off of our bed so that I could lower the crib mattress.... who knows when miss M will start standing up! Our crib is sidecarred so this was very necessary! I kind of forgot about N's quilt- but we have plenty of time for that. It's still July, after all!

Busy as a Bee

I have been incredibly busy!

It has been so nice outside and I've been enjoying the weather with the family. Here's some of what's been going on...

We have made a new discovery! Twice last week we have gone on nature walks at a fabulous nature trail. This is at the same park where N goes to gymnastics. What a treasure! N could just spend hours gazing into the water looking for frogs, collecting pine cones or picking wild flowers. Daddy and N decided to chase butterflies and N enjoyed it so much! I just love having a place where we can get away from hectic city life and enjoy nature!

I'm still working on our quilt..

My garden is making progress. No harvests yet, but I'm growing cucumbers, strawberries, squash, eggplant, bell peppers, lettuce, green onions, and radishes. Today I have to pick up some dirt for the raised garden bed so I can finally transplant everything.

Today we're also going to take a trip to Hanna Andersson because N really needs a bucket hat for summer... She's the size of a 3yo so it's pretty hard to find hats in her size! I already checked the thrift store, and nothing.. though I did find a few hats for M as well as a bunch of treasures.... I'll post about those sometime soon!