Post by contributor, Marissa.

When we moved across the country to a tiny community in rural Nova Scotia, we bought our seven and a half acres with a big old duplex farm house without having seen it other than a video and pictures.

With grand – if slightly vague – dreams of our own cow and chickens, we packed up our girls and our dog Molly and headed off to our farming dream.

It’s been almost two years now and I’d like to say we are wiser and have successfully established our small family farm.

But, my friends, success and/or wisdom are still yet to be discovered in our ten year plan. Alright, so we don’t actually have a ten year plan but if we did that would be written in. We do have our chickens and our milk cow, along with an unexpected pony and we have certainly learned a few things along the way.

Beth has asked me if I could share a little about our “homesteading” life from time to time and so I thought I would start out what has been the most important and at times most challenging dynamic of this new life that we are carving out here; how we do all of this with our children.

We don’t ever plan to make our main living off of farming but we do intend to get to the place where we grow most of our own food with enough extra to trade with those who raise what we don’t. My husband also works full time with his own business and so it is a constant juggling act of using the time that we have in a day well. Our kids are still small (4,3 & 16 months) and need pretty constant attention so we are continually working on ways to make this all work.

Because this lifestyle takes so much time, we are intentional about including our kids in the work.

As most of us with small children know, everything takes a great deal longer when you have one, two, three or more keeping you company.

Sometimes it feels like my day would just go so much faster if I could just run out to care for the animals myself and while that does happen at times, I also know that we all benefit for the time that we spend together caring for our animals.

I hope that our kids will grow up with many memories of the hours they have spent fencing with their daddy or pulling weeds with their mama while sharing their thoughts, dreams and stories.

As the kids are out and about on the farm, it’s been really important to teach them how to interact safely with farm life.

It’s one thing to have a few cute little hens that lay your breakfast eggs; they are pretty harmless. But, once you begin including larger farm animals, it becomes very important that your children have some basic rules of conduct around animals. The point isn’t to instill fear but to ensure a healthy respect for the animals that are much larger than they.

At this point, our girls understand they may not enter any pens unless we are with them. Gradually as we work with our animals, they are learning appropriate handling and the importance of calm voices and movements.

There are also essential details such as always closing the gate, putting tools away (we need to work on this ourselves) and keeping the animal pens neat and the girls are learning as we go.

I love that our little farm offers endless opportunities for learning.

Because we will be homeschooling, I’m becoming more mindful of the education available through our daily activities. Eggs are counted as they are collected and placed in cartons for selling. Grain is measured for feeding (Always supervised at this point as too much can be dangerous). Planting the garden offers an entire Biology unit as we learn the relationship of the seeds to the produce that we eat.

I’ve been realizing too that it’s so important to explain things to your children. While I often tend to forget explanations, I find that it sparks interest if I explain why something is important or how something helps an animal. Also as the girls get older and take more responsibility of animals it will help them in their care of the animals.

Some days, when six a.m. comes far too soon, this little homesteading life that we have chosen seems like way too much work. There are times when the last thing that I feel like doing is trudging out into the rain and muck to milk a cow and I’ve been putting off the big chicken coop clean for a few weeks now.

However, when we actually stop and take a minute to think about our life here, we realize that while it is demanding, it is also a lot of fun.

We can and do have fun while farming together and with our children.

Sometimes we do have step back and make a choice to change our attitudes but truly, there are few things that I could think of that are as pleasure-filled as a beautifully sunny, crisp-aired morning spent feeding animals, collecting eggs, and tending the garden; together, with my family.

I love hearing my children laugh with delight. I love that my hands and feet have a constant stain of soil during the summer. I can honestly say that our decision to start this little farm was a good one and it has given me a deeper appreciation for my family, this world that we live in, and life as whole.

Have you ever dreamed of farming or is it something that you are getting into now? What are some things that you’d like to know or advice that you would share?

We love visitors so if you ever have a desire to have a farming vacation, we’d welcome you for a visit!

Marissa Froese

While learning to live a simple farming life in rural Nova Scotia, Marissa finds home wherever her beloved, Dan and three darling daughters are. She writes about her journey of life as a wife, mother, woman, novice farmer, homemaker, & Christ follower at Becoming Kindred.

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Hey friends! Have you heard the buzz? Two of my awesome blogging friends have teamed up to organize an absolutely amazing opportunity for us all. Remember the Natural Living ebook bundle sale from last fall? That sale was so crazy popular that Steph and Erin decided to put together an even bigger and better package, with even more freebies than before!

Starting on Monday, for 6 days only, more than 75 widely-known bloggers and authors in the homemaking sphere have joined together to offer 97 of their most popular eBooks and eCourses, valued at just over $600, for the incredibly low price of $29.97!

More than anything, our goal for this sale was for it to be, well… ultimate! We firmly believe that you will not find a more comprehensive collection of homemaking resources anywhere on the web, and particularly not in this price range. For this low price, you gain access to every single one of these resources, so that you can customize your own collection to contain exactly the ones you want and know you’ll use.

The amazing value of this package is truly incredible, and the wealth of knowledge available is beyond amazing. I personally own quite a few of these books already and am familiar with the majority of the authors. I feel completely confident in recommending this deal to absolutely all of you.

Annnnd, since I don’t recommend stuff to you unless it’s something I would actually spend my own hard-earned dollars on, I will be purchasing my own bundle first thing on Monday morning. To be honest, the freebies alone make it worthwhile!

This library of homemaking helps include topics such as mothering, organization and cleaning, recipes and kitchen helps, home education, spiritual growth for both moms and kids, home décor and DIY, pregnancy and baby care, frugal living, health and fitness, and even work-from-home and financial tools. There’s something for everyone! (Not just homemakers).

To sweeten the pot, we’ve also teamed up with 10 companies to bring you over $140 in bonus offers, giving you an affordable opportunity to get products you’ll use and love for only the cost of shipping, or in some cases, entirely for free!

I am also happy to report that I have the opportunity to be an affiliate of this awesome sale, which means that once the sale starts, if you buy your bundle through my link, I make a really great commission that will help support my family. Some of you long-time readers may remember my rant about the affordability of organic food and the attitudes of some middle-class people who just don’t understand what it’s like to live on a low income while also serving your family real, whole foods. Well, since then I’ve been working on growing this site into something that can be a small source of supplemental income for us, and sales like this are a great opportunity to help that along. I would be honestly so grateful if you’d consider buying a bundle through my link.

So. Two things are happening here:

1) You get a truly incredible deal that I have zero hesitation in recommending wholeheartedly.

2) I get a bit of a commission that helps support my family.

I think that’s what we call a win-win

Check back on Monday for full details including the titles of all 97 ebooks, the e-courses, and the freebies, and a big ol’ button to clickety-click and make your purchase!

Thanks for being part of the Red & Honey family. xoxo!

Beth

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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It’s no surprise that when you commit to preparing healthier food for your family, you also commit to spending at least a little more time in the kitchen. And if you’re following this series on Raising Healthy Families, you’re probably doing it with kids.

Stephani from The Cheapskate Cook is no stranger to making dinner with a toddler clinging to her shin. However, over the years she’s learned a few simple but intentional ways to take the fight out of kids versus kitchens, and she tells all in her post, Peace on Purpose: Managing Kids & Cooking. Click on over to check it out!

This is part of the Raising Healthy Families Series; for more info, click here.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Written by Hilary Kimes Bernstein of Accidentally Green

Welcome back to the Raising Healthy Families series!

Unfortunately, many commercial cleaning products are toxic. But the great news is that you can make your own effective, safe cleaners. Before you start your spring cleaning routine this year, choose your supplies carefully.

Please check out Accidentally Green’s Detoxing Your Cleaning Supplies to learn more about toxic cleaning supplies and non-toxic, homemade options.

Pssst! Also be sure to check out an article here at Red & Honey called How to Clean Your Whole House Without Nasty Chemicals.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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We all have *those* days, right?

Please tell me I’m not the only one tempted to order in at least once a week! The thing about that though is that the availability of real, nourishing food is pretty well non-existent on a take-out menu.

Click over to Modern Alternative Mama to read the rest. This is my second contributor post over there, and I’d love for you to share your thoughts over there! What are your favourite last-minute dinner ideas?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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This is a guest post from my dear and lovely friend Dea’ Daniels.

Coffee filters, egg shells, banana peels, cardboard! Dryer lint, apple cores, dog hair, tea bags!
Grimy bits and peels and scraps…

Garbage, right? Nope! Not at all! These grubby morsels are actually food for food!

Much of the waste found in the home, particularly in the kitchen, holds a wealth of nourishment for our gardens and, in turn, our families! It’s likely that 50% (or more!) of your household ‘garbage’ can be redirected towards a much more nourishing and fruitful end.

Less waste and more food? Yes please!

With the gardening season sprouting over the horizon, now is the time to begin thinking of a composting system that will work for your family.

First, a bit of a disclaimer: There is a wealth of information, ideas, and opinions on composting. Soak it up! Read and research and experiment and discover what works for your household. Until then, use this post as a summary and starting point as you dig into your own home ecosystem. 

The Basics:

A balanced and thriving compost system is much more than a pile of rotting produce. Instead, it’s a living micro-system filled with teeny living organisms, busily breaking down all that ‘garbage’ into easily accessible minerals and nutrients for your plants to take back up and prepare for your food use.

A well-composted garden is going to grow more vigorously while producing food with much higher levels of nutrients for your family.

The Key Ingredients:

Dry and wet matter (green/brown organic waste)
Oxygen (cuz the little microbes need to breathe, otherwise things get stinky)
Moisture (from water you add as well as natural humidity of the material)
Heat (from the sun as well as the energy of the decomposition)
Space (in the home and yard)

The Inside Setup

Choose an interior container and location.

Much of your composting material originates in the home. Choose a location near your main food prep’ area to encourage regular use.

In our home, we have a simple bucket with a lid. It’s kept under the kitchen sink, next to the trash can. Some families with a smaller volume of organic waste keep their container on the counter. Old clay crocks or pots are often an aesthetically pleasing option. Be sure that your container can be easily transported to your exterior site and rinsed out to avoid odours.

What do you put into it?

All plant and simple-paper waste, including: vegetable/fruit peels, eggs shells, coffee grounds/filters, hair, lint, newspaper, and on and on and…

What should you NOT put into it?

Meat and fat (fish bones/innards are alright!)

The Outside Setup

Choose an exterior dumping/decomposing site.

The primary work of composting occurs outside of your home when the microorganisms present in your local ecosystem interact with (ie. eating and breaking down) the products you provide.

While there are several models of composters you can purchase, save the cash and use something around your yard! Your home composting systems (HCS) is as simple as tying four old wooden pallets together, or making a circular ‘cage’ out of large mesh wire, or adding some vents to an old garbage can, or even just designating a certain corner of the garden.

Points to remember when choosing your exterior site:

• Ease of access. Keep it convenient enough to use; even during inclement weather or busy days when you might feel it’s easier to just ‘trash’ it. 
• Also, be sure you can get to it with a wheelbarrow if you want to add a load of grass or leaves, or if you’re ready to shovel it out for garden application.
• Give it some sunshine and air. While that damp spot behind the garage might be out of sight, it’s not going to give you as much zesty decomposition.

This is the site of your chosen bin. Set it up and you’re ready!

How to Build Your Pile

You have your indoor bucket, your outdoor zone/bin, now begin!

First, layer it!

The simplest approach is to start off with layers of dry and wet {ie. green and brown}. Find as many bags of dry materials (dry leaves, straw, newspaper, brown grass, small branches) and as many bags of green materials (green grass, manure, peels, your indoor bucket contents) and layer them in with each layer about 4 inches deep, soaking each layer with water before adding the next one.

{Note: Nature is far more forgiving then we give her credit for, so work with what you have and retain the principle: green and brown make composting go ‘round!

And don’t be scared to ask the neighbors for their old leaves or grass—they’ll be surprisingly thankful! Just avoid materials which have had chemicals applied as they could harm the living system of decomposition}.

A Tip: One of the best kick-off meals you can give your compost pile (exterior) is a good dose of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium (NPK). 

While there are some great commercial brands out there, mixing some good ol’ blackstrap molasses into a liter of warm water and pouring it deep into the center of your pile works great! For those who are a bit more adventuresome in their composting, human urine (particularly of males) provides the perfect ratio of NPK…just don’t tell the neighbours!

How to Maintain Your Pile

Finally, maintain.

As your indoor bucket fills, dump it on until it looks like a layer, then add some dry materials. If the season is particularly dry, add some water on occasion.

Once a week (give or take), use a garden fork to do some lifting or turning to add some air for  those busy microbes. Depending on the amount of materials, the weather, and the health of your local microbes, you could have beautifully balanced compost within eight weeks!

Note: Depending on space, begin a second pile once the first is about four feet square. By the time the second pile is filled, the first will be ready to apply to your garden!

***

So there you have it: a summary and start for you own personal composting adventure!

Try it out and see what happens! In the end, you’ll have less waste, a richer garden, and greater bounty on the table (not to mention some great science lessons for the kids!)

Do you have a backyard compost at your house?

Dea’ Daniels is a mom, wife, student, freelancer, and Seeker way out in Three Hills Alberta. Her days are filled with the color and energy of her three wildling boys, her pre-midwifery studies, and her paramedic husband. Dea’ writes weekly  Life reflections at wholedei.com, as well as sharing research and information on natural living at speronaturals.wordpress.com. 

DeaDaniels

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It’s been over five years since I got pregnant with my first. I’ve birthed three babies now and I have the mom-bod to prove it, and that, my friends, is precisely where this post comes in…

I have spent many a rushed ten minutes before leaving the house, frantically trying on eight different outfits before finding one that actually fits and doesn’t make me look 6 months pregnant. I do, you know. Look six months pregnant, that is. Oh yes, I do. You don’t believe me, do you? That’s because I am the suck-it-in expert. It’s true, and it’s exhausting. Allow me to (gulp) prove it to you. Introducing my 7-months-postpartum-for-the-third-time body:

That is my belly at exactly 7 months postpartum after my third child. Standing straight with muscles relaxed, not sucking it in at all. 38 squishy inches around my navel.

Until a few months ago, I believed that this was a relatively normal thing. The postpartum poochy belly that you’ve gotta tuck into your pants. The belly that still looks pregnant. Ugh. It’s embarrassing and shameful, and I am tired of the struggle to love myself and feel sexy and beautiful while also waiting for someone to mistakenly congratulate me on being preggers again.

Don’t get me wrong, I am profoundly grateful to my body. This body has brought forth three brand new sparkling humans with all of the grit and glorious transcendence of birthing and groaning. A body that bears witness to the spiritual event of creation and has been sagged and stretched and marked with silver lines. That is no small thing you know.

All three of them grew in my belly. No wonder it’s a bit worn out.

At the same time I know that I need to be fair to this body of mine. I want to be proud of my marks and lines that give whisper to my role in the co-creation of life, but I also want a flatter tummy and a little less jiggle in my behind. Are you pickin’ up what I’m layin’ down, my friends? I want both, and for the first time ever, I think I can actually have it.

A few months ago I learned about something called diastasis recti: an abdominal injury that causes several symptoms including a poochy belly that won’t go away, lower back pain, and slight urinary incontinence (we all know the pee-a-little-when-you-laugh-or-sneeze jokes among women who have given birth!). This is an actual injury where your abdominal muscles are separated and do not come back together on their own, and it can lead to much more serious health complications including bowel displacement, herniation, and prolapse. Bethany at Fit2B Studio has a video to show you how to check your belly for a diastasis. I checked mine a couple of months ago and found a separation of 3 finger-widths!

photo source

My first two births were attended by doctors, and my third was by a midwife. My doctors didn’t mention a single thing about this issue, my midwife at least checked my abs at my 6-week-postpartum appointment, but it wasn’t until a friend happened to mention diastastis that I googled it and gulped down the information like a thirsty person in the desert. My still-pregnant-looking belly is a medical condition? One that’s not my fault? One that can be healed?! My jaw hung open as I drank in the information I read at Fit2B.

What a lot of people don’t understand about this injury is that the traditional advice to do crunches actually makes things worse! Bethany explains it all on her site. Thankfully there is a way to heal from this injury. There are specific, gentle exercises that you can do to heal a diastastis recti, and I am embarking on a healing journey for myself, beginning today.

I am going to be blogging about my journey over the next few months as I do the exercises and try to heal and flatten my tummy. We’ll find out together if it really is possible!

I’m calling it The Postpartum Body Project, and this is Week One.

(Also, Bethany doesn’t list “de-jigglify your bum” on her list of benefits of using her exercises, but I’m definitely hoping it’ll be a bonus byproduct…)

This is my mission. To love myself, first, no holds barred, no jiggle left behind. Then, to do all that I can to heal my diastasis recti and get in shape (a shape other than round).

I’m going to love myself either way, that’s the non-negotiable here.

I’m inviting you along for the ride, as I blog my way through it. I have no idea what will happen. Maybe my belly will stay just as pregnant-looking as it does now. Maybe I’ll never shed my mom-butt. Maybe I’ll get a hot bod back just in time for beach weather. Maybe.

Either way it’ll be quite the adventure.

Do you think you may have a diastasis? Or are you just interested in gentle exercise that gets you in shape while also being kind to your body? Fit2B offers monthly memberships. It’s completely online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection! It’s just $9.99/month or $99/annually but for today’s giveaway you can win a 3-month membership FREE.

Enter using the form below!

I hope you’ll join me on this journey over the next few months as I blog my way through it! For more encouragement and information on healing diastasis, check out two of my blogging mama friends who are also embarking on this journey of diastasis healing. Emily at Live Renewed started hers a few weeks ago, and Erin at The Humbled Homemaker is starting hers today as well.

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Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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It’s holiday party-time! Whether you have plans to attend a posh event with eleven pieces of cutlery per place setting, or you’re getting together with the cousins at Grandma’s, there’s usually a festive sort of feeling at gatherings in the month of December.

I love this time of year so very much, but if you’ve been hanging around here for any length of time at all, you know that I’ve abandoned most attempts at fitting in with the in-crowd, and knowing the latest and greatest trends. I am more likely to be browsing homemade toothpaste recipes than this season’s fashions, and I unfortunately have not yet acquired the taste for wine, the quintessential cliche hostess gift.

We are also on a very tight budget without any extras at all, which means that my gift-giving heart has to get creative.

So, what’s a natural-minded mama to do with a tight budget and a gift-giving opportunity in front of her? DIY, of course!

The Apartment Guide blog is actually full of great tips and posts for celebrating the holidays. Check out these posts:

• How to Host a Holiday Dinner for Eight People Under $50
• How to Host a Holiday Cocktail Party
• How to Make Your Guests Feel at Home

I really love hosting parties – making everything fancy and special, creating an ambiance, baking delicious treats. All of it. But, it can be overwhelming, especially with little people underfoot and a small budget to work with. I’m grateful for the reminder that I can still host friends and family with a fancy party without breaking the bank.

Here are five of my favourite DIY ideas that would be totally perfect for a hostess gift or any other small-gift-giving occasion (gift swaps, teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, etc). I know that I would personally love to be on the receiving end of any of these!

1. DIY Body Care

My friend Adrienne at Whole New Mom has an awesome recipe for a Sugar Scrub that looks divine. Package it up in a little 4 oz mason jar, wrap a ribbon around it, and it’s a perfect little way to say thank-you!

2. Cookies & Other Sweet Treats

My Chocolate Coconut Macaroons recipe is a constant hit, no matter who tries them. These disappear in record time at my house.

The best part is that they are actually really good for you! There isn’t a single ingredient that is unhealthy. Of course, I just love that they taste so ridiculously decadent, it’s almost unfair to their cheap sugar-laden processed counterparts.

Box up a batch in a cute reusable tin, and try not to eat them all before you hand them to your gracious hostess!

3. Hand-Dipped Beeswax Candles

My friend Marissa blogged about her adventures in making these little beauties. There’s just something so rustic and peaceful about making your own candles, don’t you think? It seems so basic, but would be a perfectly luxurious treat in my mind since candles made from natural materials (beeswax or soy) are pretty pricey in stores.

I imagine once you had all the supplies your cost would be quite small, which would make this a great fancy-yet-frugal DIY gift!

I picture two of these lovely tapers tied together with a piece of raffia or twine, and a sweet little note. Love it!

4. Handmade Christmas Tree Ornament

Aren’t these yarn-wrapped star ornaments from Live. Laugh. Rowe just adorable? I love them. Like I said above – I’m not the most trendy and chic kind of girl. I just know if that if someone brought me one of these as a hostess gift, I’d totally  be swooning.

I guess this wouldn’t work well for someone with a matchy-match fancy-pants kind of tree (I don’t actually know anyone that doesn’t have any homemade ornaments at all), but a person could always hang it up in a window, or even on a doorknob as cute winter-themed decor.

5. Initials Cork Coasters

I stumbled on these simple but beautiful DIY coasters on Pinterest one day, and there’s just something about their simplicity and personalization that really appeals to me. Diane from In My Own Style was kind enough to share a tutorial for how to make them.

They also seem easy enough that even the non-crafty types among us could probably pull it off. These are unique and kind of funky, and I think they’d be a total hit.

• Whether you’re living, looking or moving, Apartment Guide offers tips on how to decorate and host a holiday partyto make your guests feel at home on the Apartment Guide blog.
• If you’re ready for a whole new space or looking to move, ApartmentGuide has the photos, floor plans, features and tips to help you search for the perfect apartment community.
• Apartment Guide provides a list of the 10 best housewarming gifts to ensure you are always on the party invite list.

• “Like” Apartment Guide on Facebook, tweet at  them @AptGuide on Twitter, “circle” them on Google+ and follow them on Pinterest for real-time tips and updates on how to make the most of your small space.

Apartment Guide and owner Consumer Source, Inc. partner with bloggers such as me to participate in blogger programs. As part of that program, I received compensation. They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about any products and believe that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Consumer Source’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Four years ago I was a newly minted mama.

I had a 2-month-old baby, and a stack of soft, never-pooped-on cloth diapers arranged neatly in my change table drawer. I had done all the research while I was pregnant – hours upon hours of reading and searching for every last cloth diapering article I could find. I was armed and loaded with my top three reasons for cloth diapering (health, frugality, and eco-consciousness).

And also? I was terrified.

Of what, I’m not entirely sure. But for whatever reason it took me until my baby was about 3 months old before I snapped that first diaper onto his cute little bottom. Of course, it was way easier than I expected, and I quickly fell in love with the fluffy diaper bum look.

Fast forward to present-day, and I’ve birthed three babies in four years. That first little babe potty trained the day after his third birthday, but the second and third are both currently in diapers.

Now, for anyone who has ever had a breastfed baby (or maybe this applies to a formula-fed baby too, though I can’t say for sure), this is fairly obvious:

Babies poop a lot.

It’s their spiritual gift, I think. No word of a lie: a significant portion of my day is spent dealing with diapers – changing them, lugging them down to the laundry room, washing them, stuffing/folding them, repeat, repeat, repeat…

(Thanks to my smart mom, I no longer fold my cloth wipes – I throw ‘em in a basket on the back of the toilet. Yes, I used to fold them… yes, it was a big waste of time!)

So, here’s where I have a confession for you. Because sometimes? A mama’s gotta do what a mama’s gotta do. In these last few months of adjusting to three kids (including a cross-country move and living out of suitcases for 2 months), we’ve been a part-time cloth diaper family at best.

We’ve used disposables far more often than I care to admit to myself, let alone the world. We’ve often done them for nighttime, because our babies are heavy wetters and poor sleepers, and we just didn’t need one.more.thing to steal precious sleep at night. But lately cloth has just been hit or miss in general.

- Dirty diaper bag getting too full and I didn’t make time to wash them today? Disposables tomorrow.

- Sitting on the floor to change a diaper and don’t feel  like getting up, walking upstairs to get a cloth diaper, and coming back down? Grab a disposable.

- Want to change diapers less often today due to feeling lazy, overwhelmed, tired, etc? Slap a disposable on that cute bum and pray a prayer of protection from the nasty chemicals and yuckyness in them.

- Going out for the day and don’t have enough clean diapers to take along, or feel like lugging a huge extra bag with the necessary fluff plus accessories? (wet bag, wipes, wipe solution, etc). Just bring disposables.

Yup. Chalk it up to laziness. And overwhelm-ed-ness. And more laziness. And a tiny little bit of Totally Justified. (I mean, I’m the woman who went camping at 38 weeks pregnant and cloth-diapered the toddler for two days in the woods while tenting. Anytime I need to feel better about myself I just remember that story.)

But the thing is I still feel guilty.

It seems that anytime we veer from our mommy-ideals, it is generally accompanied with a generous side-helping of mommy-guilt.

It makes me wonder what I’m striving for here – a perfect execution of my ideals and plans? Or a minute-by-minute conceding to the grace that is woven throughout our days like a thread?

This grace-thread is whispering to me that I’m still an amazing mama even if I don’t meet all of my mothering goals and aspirations. It sounds a bit trite, but you know what? I struggle with letting that really sink down deep into my bones.

Right now, as my kiddos are asleep in their beds in disposable diapers (and one in big-boy underoos – hooray!), I know that I am ok with it. I am loved, life will go on, and tomorrow I have a load of dirty diaper laundry to do.

I am a part-time cloth diaper slacker, and these are my confessions. 

{What are yours?}

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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If you follow any of the same blogs as I do you’ve likely already heard about the Healthy Living eBook Bundle.

This is the first time that such an amazing bundle of incredible resources has been put together, and it is an incredible value!

There are 34 eBooks included, as well as bonuses that are worth more than the entire price of the whole bundle! You will also be entered to win an Excalibur dehydrator, an Omega juicer, or a Berkey water filter! 

I have quite a few of these ebooks already, but I’m going to purchase the bundle so that I can get the free bonuses (listed below) and be entered to win the grand prizes! Having read many of these books already, and knowing most of the authors listed, I feel confident in recommending this package to everyone. There is such a diverse array of topics covered and I know that there will be something for everyone.

If you are interested in natural living, real food, natural skincare, homemade/DIY’s, and natural pregnancy & birthing… or if you just simply want to broaden your healthy recipe repertoire – this is the best value for your money by far!

Now, I’m not normally a very good salesperson… but this deal is honestly the best for its kind that I’ve ever seen. I really think that so many of you will love it! I am so thankful to be an affiliate of this sale and will make a small commission on each bundle that is sold through my link here. I’d be so grateful if you’d consider purchasing this bundle here! The price is the same, but if you buy it through my link I’ll get a bit of the sale. Thanks friends!

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW

******

Need more convincing? Check out the gigantic list of what all is included! 

Real Food Meals for the Whole Family

Have Your Fruits… and Veggies, Too! by Laura Coppinger @ Heavenly Homemakers ($5.95)

Real {Fast} Food by Trina Holden @ Trina Holden ($6)

20 Minute Meals by Leigh Ann Dutton @ Intentional by Grace ($4.99)

Real Food… Real Easy by various bloggers @ The Humbled Homemaker ($9.95)

Baking, Snacks and Desserts

Smart Sweets by Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship ($8.95)

Healthy Snacks To Go by Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship ($8.95)

Sourdough A to Z by Wardee Harmon @ GNOWFGLINS ($20)

Homemade “Everything” (Condiments, Pantry Basics, etc.)

Restocking the Pantry by Kresha Faber @ Nourishing Joy ($7.99)

Easy. Homemade. by Mandi Ehman @ Life Your Way ($3.99)

Grain Free and Paleo/Primal Eating

Grain Free Meal Plan Cookbook by Cara Faus @ Health, Home & Happiness ($18)

Toadally Primal Smoothies by Todd @ Primal Toad ($9.95)

Simple Food {for spring} by Shannon @ Nourishing Days ($10)

Simple Food {for winter} by Shannon @ Nourishing Days ($10)

Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan @ The Clothes Make The Girl ($14.95)

Saving Money on Real Food

Real Food on a Real Budget by Stephanie Langford @ Keeper of the Home($18.99)

Plan It, Don’t Panic by Stephanie Langford @ Keeper of the Home ($4.99)

Don’t Compost It, Cook It by April Patel @ An Apple a Day Wisdom ($2.99)

Skincare and Beauty

My Buttered Life (Baby edition) by Renee Harris @ Hard Lotion ($5)

My Buttered Life (Gift edition) by Renee Harris @ Hard Lotion ($5)

My Buttered Life (Summer edition) by Renee Harris @ Hard Lotion ($5)

Simple Scrubs to Make and Give by Stacy Karen @ A Delightful Home ($3.99)

Food on Your Face for Acne and Oily Skin by Leslie @ Crunchy Betty ($7.99)

Holistic Mama’s Guide to Homemade Skincare by Roxanne King @ The Holistic Mama ($19)

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Your Custom Homestead by Jill Winger @ The Prairie Homestead ($4.99)

Guide to Gardening and Preserving by Laura Coppinger @ Heavenly Homemakers($7.95)

Apartment Gardening by Jami Leigh @ Young Wife’s Guide ($2.99)

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Simple Living by Lorilee Lippincott @ Loving Simple Living ($2.99)

Herbal Nurturing by Michele Augur @ Frugal Granola ($8.95)

Simple Natural Health by Nina Nelson @ Shalom Mama ($17)

Healthy Homemaking by Stephanie Langford @ Keeper of the Home ($12.95)

Music: An Essential Ingredient for Life by Resound School of Music ($6.99)

Pregnancy and Babies

Breast to Bib by Kate Tietje @ Modern Alternative Pregnancy ($8.95)

Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods by Kate Tietje @ Modern Alternative Pregnancy($8.95)

Unbound Birth by Jenny Yarborough @ The Southern Institute ($4.99)

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Happy Reading!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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I can barely hear it sometimes. The noise of living drowns it out and I forget.

I have a voice.

The little people that surround me with their lively exuberance and clanging of pots and chattering of distractions take me from it, but my voice sings and hopes and beats with a heart-cry for the genuine. The real, gritty, and true.

I can see it; it is found here. In the midst of dirty dishes, dirty diapers, dirty most-things-in-my-house… it is here. My voice and my heart and my soul.

I now know.

I have a voice.

*

Linked up with Lisa-Jo (who I met tonight at Allume!) at Gypsy Mama, for a live version of Five Minute Friday, on the word-prompt voice”.

(Edited to Add: This was featured the next week as Lisa-Jo’s Featured FMF post on her blog! A great honour!)

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Sorry about all the silence. You may have noticed that I totally flaked out on my 31 day series. In some ways, it’s totally killing me that I’ve let myself down by failing to meet my goal. In other ways it’s a total relief. I wanted to write and explain why I stopped posting, but I seem to have melted into a puddle of quiet, the words won’t come, they can’t come, they aren’t there.

(deep sigh. pause. a sip of water.)

My kids are creeping around the living room roaring with blankets on their heads calling themselves monsters. They have bed-head, they’ve eaten their breakfast already (I cooked eggs without getting grumpy: small victories, people), and they take my breath away with their cuteness, right here in the flesh, how lucky am I?? I can hardly believe I have a “good sleeper” (currently napping), even when he’s not sleeping well for him it’s better than the older two’s best nights as babies. And praise Jesus for coffee. I like it and the feeling’s mutual. I’m a happier person when coffee starts my day, and that just can’t not be a blessing straight from heaven.

I guess, what I’m trying to say, is that I’ve been busy living. I’ve been reading my Bible every morning and journalling my thoughts and prayers with it and easing into a habit gingerly and with trepidation and trembling. The scent of failure is fresh in my nose as I recall the bajillion times before that I’ve attempted to acquire this habit and failed miserably, but I feel like it’s different this time somehow. Why? Because I want it to be.

My life is slowly rounding out and becoming more 3-dimensional than ever before and I am on holy ground here, shoes off, this meeting of God and housewife. Bed-headed woman with morning coffee breath and my spirit caught in my throat as I read words like “my times are in your hands”, “the Lord blesses his people with peace”, “The Lord is my shepherd, I LACK NOTHING”, “my eyes are ever on the Lord”…

These words hit me down low and deep and I catch myself marvelling and the laughter bubbles up as I realize: I believe it. I really do. I believe those words beyond a cerebral understanding, I feel them in my guts and I love them, I love Him. I can’t tell you how much because I haven’t yet reached the extent of it.

It’s beautiful, this life and those words and these image-bearers of Christ, imago dei, that surround me in these four walls along with the messy evidence of a life lived in a gritty and technicoloured world. The dirty dishes and sibling fights, learning forgiveness and the aching bones and warm hurried showers and the prayers and grumblings and clamourings and all of it, all of it cries out in praise.

It’s all joy, the real kind, and it’s all here and now and straight-up in my face and I can’t turn away at all and what I’m learning right now is that I don’t want to.

***

(31 Days Series on hold indefinitely… thanks for understanding)

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”
Spanish Proverb

Leo Babuata says that the best procrastination tip ever is to just get started now, and he describes what will happen next:

Pay attention to your mind, as it starts to have urges to switch to another task. You will have urges to check email or Facebook or Twitter or your favorite website. You will want to play a game or make a call or do another task. Notice these urges.

But don’t move. Notice the urges, but sit still, and let them pass. Urges build up in intensity, then pass, like a wave. Let each one pass.

Now I’m gonna get personal here. I mean, um, embarrassingly honest.

In between that quotation and the above sentence… I went on facebook for longer than I care to admit, checked and responded to emails, and clicked around on Leo’s site at a few things that caught my eye. Then at the exact second that I was typing two lines above here, my husband came by and asked if I was done yet. Clearly, I have a problem with procrastination!

I’ve known about it long enough, and I’ve always made excuses (some more valid than others). Now it’s time to make a real effort.

Here are my favorite tips to avoid procrastination:

1. Just Start.

When you take the first step, you change your mindset from “This is so overwhelming” to “Heck yeah, I’m doing it!”, and taking the next step after that is infinitely easier. Then celebrate the small successes, as Jo-Ann wisely added in the comments yesterday.

2. Eat the Frog.

Tsh from Simple Mom wrote several years ago about eating your frog first thing in the morning, and it has stuck with me ever since.

3. Stay Accountable.

It’s always a good idea to find someone who can keep you accountable in your goals (someone who will actually challenge you and ask you about them).

4. Write it Down.

Whether it’s on a whiteboard, in a notebook, on an iphone. Writing it down helps solidify your intentions. Doodle it, make a list, whatever works. Plus? You get the satisfaction of checking/crossing something off, which is immensely rewarding for some people.

5. Make a Conscious Choice.

Kristen at She Who Delights reminded me that we all make choices every day. The key is to make decisions purposefully. So many of our procrastination habits are done on auto-drive. If we  find ourselves procrastinating on facebook, for example, then have a little self narrative: “Hey self! I see you’re on Facebook at the moment. Is social networking one of your goals for the day? Would you rather be doing something else?”

I can tell you right now – my answer, 95% of the time, will be “what the heck am I doing here… I’d far rather be ____ right now”.

6. Trick yourself.

I am giddy at the thought of implementing Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret, because I really believe it will actually work.

7. Reward yourself.

A classic tool for conditioning behaviour. Marissa shares that it really works for her, and I tend to think I should try it. The question is how to make a large enough cupcake supply to last through the whole day…

8. Be prepared.

If I want to make sure I get my blog post done first thing after the kids are in bed, then I should have my blank screen open and ready, other tabs closed down and saved, and an outline and/or title all ready (on paper or in my head).

If I want to take up running, I should have my running clothes and shoes laid out, my ipod ready and loaded, and a (healthy) reward snack waiting in the fridge for when I get back. And so on…

I’m planning to make some fresh goals for my days, and putting these tips to the test… I’ll keep you posted!

Which of these tips do you think would be most helpful to you? Are there any you haven’t tried before?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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10:40pm. Slightly better than yesterday. Perhaps I should get up early to write? <cue maniacal laughter from the most non-morning-person you’ve ever met>. Never mind.

***

Writer’s block. Perfectionism. Fear. Laziness. 

Whatever the root issue, procrastination is like the rude and annoying slightly drunk guest at a wedding reception. You get your best intentions and your creative juices and your cursor blinking, and yet somehow procrastination manages to gate-crash, threatening to ruin everything as you fall pell-mell into a black hole of never-ending-links and top-ten lists and recipes-that-you’ll-probably-never-make.

It doesn’t really make sense. It’s not logical (you need to get it done so why not just do it?), but there it is.

You might be wondering what led to talking about procrastination in the middle of a series on Un-Blogging…

As I wrote in my opening post, “this is 31 Days of Un-Blogging, and I am spending this next month trying to make sure my in-the-skin life is healthy and vibrant before I pour any of my energy into tutorials and recipes and researched posts on natural living and parenting and all the other bits and pieces that you normally see around here.”

The thing is, I have three kids. A baby, a toddler, and a preschooler. If you are thinking I might be a tad busy, you are correct. The problem is that time management and self-motivation do not come easily to me.

I’d rather treat every day like family vacation until the laundry pile threatens to take over, then force us all to go naked for a few days while I catch up. Unfortunately that’s neither practical nor socially acceptable. Harrrumph.

So, if I want to be a mama of three, a wifey of one, a blogger, and all the other titles I possess, I’d better spend my days wisely. I can’t spend hours a day flaking out on the interwebz (not that I’ve ever done that…). I can’t procrastinate on blog-post-writing with a marathon pinterest session. I mean, ok, I can, but it’s only gonna come back to bite me later.

We all need down-time, but relaxing at the expense of your own goals is not ultimately very relaxing.

How do highly productive people do it? How do people stay focused and on track with the task at hand? There is a never-ending supply of ideas out there for beating procrastination, and I’ve been doing some homework. I want to share with you some of my personal favourite articles and strategies for beating procrastination, but first I want to hear from you.

Do you struggle with procrastination, or have you mastered the art of self-discipline? What are your best tips to avoid procrastination?

(I plan to compile the best answers into my next post (I’ll link to your blog if I use your tip!)…)

And GO!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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So, it’s late, again. It’s 11:17pm, and the really ironic thing is that this whole series was intended to relieve some of the blogging pressure that I’ve felt as of late, especially with the crazy past few months in our family from our big move across the country. Furthermore, this is a post about managing screen-time, which is clearly not my strong point, since here I sit late at night. Now, to be fair we were out doing errands all day, then came home and put the kids to bed, and finally flopped on the couch at 8:30pm. Now, I could have chosen to tackle this post right away – I knew it needed to be done, but let’s be perfectly honest here: I spent a good chunk of time on Facebook and diving into the dark hole known as blog-surfing. Now I’m starting this post, and I wish I were in bed.

So, in the spirit of Un-Blogging, I’m gonna make it short and sweet. Today I want your advice.

How do you manage your screen time? Is your computer off-limits while the kids are awake? Are you a very disciplined person and able to get things done before 11:17pm?

(Tomorrow, I hope to chat a bit about procrastination, that is, of course, unless I suddenly find a pressing need to do anything and everything else first…)

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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it's a good thing little miss "i'm not tie-uhd, mama" is cute. she who was awake 2 hours past bedtime..

So, again, at the end of a very long day, I am exhausted. Life is just kicking my butt lately, with all of the changes and living out of suitcases and whatnot. I am doing a lot of deep soul sighs and gift-counting to see the joy in it all.

To be perfectly honest, this Un-Blogging stuff is kind of hard work, it’s emotionally draining, and I am already sucked a bit dry. I feel like I am detoxing a bit from all the rushing and high expectations and intensity of the usual blogging grind.

So, today instead of speaking, I want to remember that it is also important to sit quietly and listen. I don’t always have an answer or a bright idea or brilliant advice. Sometimes, I just need to step back and listen, and so that is exactly what I will do. And, here is what I will be “listening to” this month…

I want to just share a few of the blogs from Nester’s 31 Days link-up that caught my eye. Perhaps you might enjoy them too?

31 Days of Watercolor :: Cakey and Bubs

31 Days of Playlists :: All Manner of Inspiration

31 Days of Busy Bags and Quiet Time Activities :: All Our Days

31 Days of Jokes :: Annie Blogs

31 Days of Intention With a Measure of Grace :: Always, Amanda

31 Days of Activities Based on Children’s Books :: Creating Our Home

31 Days of Small-Space-Living :: December Skye

31 Days of Slow-Cooker Recipes :: Hello Little House

31 Days to Unleashing Your Creativity :: Lovely Messes

31 Day to Why Church :: Narrow Paths to Higher Places

What are you reading lately online? Any 31 Dayers? Share some links below, and feel free to share a post you wrote as well!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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a little extra time spent arranging cheese around apple pieces. isaac declared that it looked just like a lion...

Welcome! This is 31 Days of Un-Blogging, and I am spending this next month trying to make sure my in-the-skin life is healthy and vibrant before I pour any of my energy into tutorials and recipes and researched posts on natural living and parenting and all the other bits and pieces that you normally see around here.

Today I’m talking about a daily routine/schedule. Do I have one? Should I have one? What should it be like?

Normally our days consist in organized chaos. OK, that’s a lie. It’s more just chaos. I mean, we have our rhythm and flow of peaceful moments and quiet bits interspersed with the crazy, but in general we are pretty loose and unscheduled.

OK, that’s a lie. We have no schedule.

I know that some people get a wee bit bothered by the idea of an at-home schedule. Too constricting, too rigid, too Type-A. I get that, I really do. My introverted creative spirit wants to just float the days away on a cloud of hazy instagram photos, slobbery baby smiles, and pinterest-inspired snack-time art. And besides – what happens if I have “clean the bathroom” on the schedule for this morning, but I have a burning desire to go for a walk instead? Should I rebel against the machine and go for a walk anyway? And what if I am supposed to do laundry, but my baby won’t let me put him down all day and I have a hard time getting it all done? I don’t need any more feelings of inadequacy to battle, thankyouverymuch.

What’s the point of a schedule, then? (Perhaps we could schedule in time for way-overthinking-things as well.)

I really do think though that an established routine of sorts would be good for us. A healthy addition to our days.

The bottom line is: I am easing into implementing a loose schedule of sorts in our daily life. I think it will help keep me on track in my goals, in my housework, and in my staying-present with the people I love. I also think it will help remove some of the mom-guilt that plagues. If I schedule “work on blog”, then I don’t have to feel guilty when I actually do it.

Now I just need to figure out exactly how strict I want to be. I have some ideas (I’ve been thinking this over for a long time now), but I’ll flesh them out in another post.

For now, in keeping with the spirit of un-blogging, I am definitely not staying up late to blog. I’m gonna head downstairs and snuggle with my man in bed and dream of the cappuccino he’ll make me in the morning (his first day in over a week that he doesn’t have to leave the house at 5:45am).

Do you have a written schedule for your days? If so, what is on it? If not, what are your days like?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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I hemmed and hawed and I agonized over whether or not to participate in the 31 Days Challenge this year. Let’s go through the list, shall we?

I’ve got three kids (4, 2, and 3 months). My husband, kids, and I are living with my parents temporarily because we moved across the country a month ago. Honey just started a new job last week after being unemployed for a month (praise the Lord, he got a job in his field as a flight instructor!). We are still essentially living out of suitcases, and are moving to a new place next week for six months.

Oh, and, I think I’m having a mid-motherhood crisis. It’s not exactly a midlife crisis. At least I hope not – I do plan to live well past 58 but I digress. I just mean that I’m doing lots of deep thinking lately about what kind of mother I want to be and what kind of mother I actually am… and how I can make the gap a little smaller.

So here’s what this next month will look like…

Each day (or thereabouts…) I plan to post some reflections on things like keeping priorities straight as a mother of littles and a blogger, and why it’s so difficult, and how I’m making some slow changes in our days to make that happen.

I shall be “un-blogging”, if you will. Blogging about not obsessing about blogging… make sense?

This blog is one of the great passions of my life. Expressing myself through the written word is a rich satisfaction for me, whether it’s a cerebral discussion of the ethics of breastfeeding, a post about upcycled baby sweater pants, or a emotive middle-of-the-night musing on motherhood. I love it all.

It’s no secret that I desire to grow my blog. And it’s actually slowly growing (glory to God), and I am constantly amazed…

But it’s not the number one priority in my life. It never will be.

Other than God (proper evangelical disclaimer for ya’ll), my number one priority is my family.

But, I’m sorry to confess to you that I don’t always keep those priorities very straight. In fact, truth be told I muddle them all around quite a bit. I need to take a minute (or 31 days…) and get my head in order. 

I want to establish a predictable rhythm to our days at home. I want to get in shape by dripping sweat while I work out, and spend hours in the kitchen creating nourishing art. I want to brainstorm with my husband some ideas for intentionally discipling our children. I want to sit, quiet and still, sipping coffee and watching them play. Seeing them with eyes wide open and being present in a full and real way.

I want to look at the whites of their eyes and see their souls.

Not that I don’t already do that… but I want to do it more. I want to breathe and organize and return order to this wild season of transition for our little family.

I want to remove some of the pressure of constantly being “on” for blogging. I was going to do 31 Days of Living Naturally on a Budget. I have the posts all brainstormed and the first half a dozen all outlined. But it would have been too much – on me, on my family. And it would have been not enough – for you. It would not have been my best writing, and I finally concluded that I can’t do it.

Hence, un-blogging.

Do you have distractions in your life (blogging or otherwise) that keep you from being the best mother (or whatever your job is) you can be?

Want to embark with me on a journey of focusing on the right things?

Let’s do it.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Going out in public these days is officially a circus.

Not because my children knock over $700 10-feet-tall stuffed giraffes in the toy store, narrowly missing the cashier’s head amidst her proclamation of seeing her life flash before her eyes (true story). Not because my children are little and cute, sporting things like pint-sized polo shirts and bouncy pigtails and little pink flip-flops, and strangers can’t help but smile at them (also true). And not because my children act like, well, children… at times when I wish they’d just stay still and quiet for two seconds (definitely true).

No, going out in public is officially a circus because I happen to have three children. They could be running around Starbucks like little tasmanian devils shooting nerf guns at the baristas’ heads (hasn’t happened yet, fingers crossed that it stays that way…) or they could be sitting angelically and adorably in the double stroller + ergo (which they did today). It wouldn’t matter – I’d get the eyes bugging out of heads and lots of wow/yikes/oh my! every time.

In the last two days I’ve been told no less than four times that “Wow! You have your hands full!” and have been referred to as a “group” (so we qualify for a group rate, then? excellent…). It usually starts with someone asking how old the baby is, then it spirals downward into how old the others are (especially when I phrase it as 3 kids 3 and under), how busy I must be (pshh, not at all…), and how brave I am (I have a feeling this may be code for crazy, yes?).

I just wanna know one thing: since when is three kids “a lot of kids“? 

Answer: Since the 1960′s, I guess.

The fertility rate in our country fell below replacement in the mid-1970′s. That’s 2.1 kids per woman. We’ve been having less than 2.1 babies per woman for over four decades now. Having 7+ children hasn’t been in fashion since the 1870′s and prior, so sometimes I breezily tack on a “yup, and we’re hoping to have more!” just for the sheer fun of seeing people’s faces contort in awkward ways.

I also sometimes cheerily chirp something along the lines of “But I can’t imagine anything more fulfilling to do with my days!” in the hopes of perhaps redeeming a tiny bit of society’s stereotype of the harried, stressed, and burdened mother who sludges through her days with desperation and nothing even close to resembling satisfaction and happiness. It’s true - I can’t imagine anything more fulfilling. This, however, usually only serves to gain me more crazy-eyes and incredulous looks.

Having “lots” of kids and being truly happy in the midst of it is just not a common thing anymore. I get that. It just makes me kinda sad.

My days may be busy and my hands may be full, but let me tell you something…

It’s the best circus I’ve ever seen.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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It all started with carrots.

Before I had children, I hated cooked carrots. Then, there was a pregnancy craving somewhere along the way. Now I LOVE them. They love me. Steamed carrots, butter, sea salt, and me… we’re a happy bunch. Strange, yes? I thought so, too. But it got me thinking about our taste buds, and acquiring a taste for things we think we dislike, and whether it’s possible.

And now, the coffee affair.

I’ve never been a coffee drinker.

(Unless you count that half a year in high school in which I often had a cup of crappy donut-shop coffee with loads of cream and sugar in order to stay awake during a particularly boring first-period class. I don’t, especially because I actually hated every single cup.)

Anyhow, for some odd reason I recently got the notion in my head that I should acquire the taste of coffee.

People seem to really enjoy it.

I mean, REALLY enjoy it.

It’s like a whole culture unto itself. There are different methods, types, and preparations. There are code words and things that confuse the heck out of me. There are professions of undying love, with passion and obsessive certainty. It made me wonder what exactly I was missing out on!

(Side note: I was at the airport the other day waiting for my flight with Canaan, and since I don’t really know how to order coffee without sounding like a total dork, I just got the one that sounded pretty: Peruvian Sunrise. I have no idea what it was, but it was yummy, thank goodness).

Coffee is loved all over the world, and it is very much a social drink. There’s also a lot of history behind it. I found this quote on my google travels tonight:

As more and more coffeehouses sprung up in the Arab Empire, an association of coffee with social interaction began to form. Arabs began to view coffee as a social drink. But more than that they saw it is an intellectual drink. In fact, Arabs referred to coffee as “the milk of thinkers and chess players.”

And that was my biggest reason for wanting to acquire the taste: because it is a social drink with centuries of history that many people count as one of life’s finest pleasures.

Then, of course, since I am a natural-minded mama, I wondered, “Is it healthy?”. In all of my reading and researching thus far I’ve come to the conclusion that it is sorta neutral on the natural living scale. There are many claims of it having super health benefits. Contrasted with that, however, are the purported evils of caffeine, and the loads of cream and sugar that often go along with the coffee culture.

Of the most stringent and dedicated health nuts I know – pretty well all of them still indulge in a cup or two a day (but probably without the sugar).

So after having thought about it for a few months, made a few spreadsheets and held a few committee meetings (what can I say? I was raised Baptist!), when my in-laws were visiting us in Tiny Town last month, and brewing coffee everyday, I made myself a cup. With a touch of cream and sugar (I planned to wean myself off these when I’d acquired the taste of coffee itself).

Lo and behold…

I liked it! Really!

Fast forward a month and a few cups of joe later, I arrive at my in-laws’ house and my Italian father-in-law makes me a cappuccino on his new fancy espresso machine.

Lo and behold…

I LOVED it!

Since I love to figure out ways to make healthy versions of not-so-healthy treats, I began to scour the internet for some options. I have developed a taste for good coffee already, and do not enjoy the cheap stuff. Today Chris and I made an organic cappuccino sweetened with a touch of real maple syrup, made with homemade almond milk. It was heavenly. A new favourite for both of us.

I’m looking forward to trying a latte, maybe an americano, and as many fair-trade, organic blends as I can find.

A love affair has officially begun.

Do you drink coffee? Was it love at first sip, or did you have to acquire the taste? Any recommendations for me?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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