What I've learned about the way we live....

It's a lot of work.  Before, I was pregnant with the 3rd LivingOurWay, I didn't really notice too much.  I think I really began to notice when I came down with bronchitis at the end of the first trimester.  My midwife said, "We can totally do this without antibiotics.  You can just take echinacea." 

Now, I would usually go for that but I knew that if I got behind, it'd be tough to catch up with everything I had to do.  I told her "I need something stronger than that this time.  I have way too much to do!" 

Her response was to let me know my housework would wait.  I don't think she realized exactly how much is involved when you are homeschooling two kids and working a full time job from home.  That doesn't include all of things that needed done around the house or the things we wanted to do around the house. Add to that, I completely check out when pregnant making everything take twice as long.

This past year there were lots of things that didn't get done.  Our clothes are still dried in the dryer.  The kids were terribly disappointed that we didn't go blueberry picking.  Chicks have not been hatched so we are buying our chickens from Walmart for awhile.

Now that we have a third child, I can add feedings, three extra loads of laundry per week, etc to the list.  However, he is an absolute joy, so I'm sure we don't have nearly as much work as most new again parents.

I wouldn't change anything for the world unless we are just get ting by as I have been for the last year or so.  My energy levels are finally coming back though. Last week ,we started school again for the year, my household organization is recovering (at a slow pace, but recovering), and I'm starting to realize that although we seem busy from the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night, I really prefer things that way.

A friend asked if we had planted a garden this year since we'd just had a baby.  I realized that when I could say "Yes, it's just not as organized as usual," we were doing better than I thought.  I want to end this post with all the good things that we have done this year.  Mr. LivingOurWay accomplished quite a bit in the time when I was checked out.

• He is now selling his eggs online through Our local Farmers Fresh Market web site
• We all went strawberry picking
• He canned our strawberry jam this year.
• He made pickles out of cucumbers he grew
• He has a lot of peppers in the garden that also need to be pickled soon.

I am also pretty proud that we have been exercising for almost 6 weeks now!  With a 10 week old, that's not too bad!

Stay tuned for more posts and forgive me if a lot of them involve babies since that's what my life revolves around for now.