Woot!

Things are looking up Y'all! The garden is in full swing, Button did #2 for the first time on his toilet, the family is coming to visit this weekend, a road trip is in the makes, and I finally check a major project off the list. I can't wait to share it all with you guys this coming week but right now my plate if full on overflowing with a little baby with a cold and guest abounding.

Lots of fun stuff, projects, recipes, updates, and tidbits to come ;) Happy Friday.. now go out and do something fun and awesome for yourself! <3

Bathroom Talk

We are starting a new journey in our house. Things are getting a little crazy and a lot of interesting around here! We are taking the big leap of faith toward a diaper free home as this adventure called elimination communication unfolds.

So what is elimination communication you ask? Oh, you didn't? Well, I'm going to tell you anyways; elimination communication is the process of associating the toilet with going to the bathroom. Sounds simple enough right? The idea is to communicate in ways that your little one can understand whenever they have a bowel movement and to make that relatable to sitting on the toilet and going. It is NOT potty training. It is a sort of precursor to that. So if it’s not potty training, why do it right? well, in part, it’s cheaper, less water use on our cloth diapers and less detergent use also but for the most part, families that successful use elimination communication are able to actually potty train their buttons by 6 months to a year old! Basically, the age a child can get him or herself to the potty (depending on when they start to craw and walk). Button is five month now so obviously, we are not expecting him to start actual potty training for some time. So why do it at all? because we want to instill a concept that seems to have been lost to the western hemisphere, that children don't like, nor want to crap themselves or have urine sitting on their butts for, well, at all. The whole idea of diapering is really flawed to me. 50% of the world does not even use any form of diapers at all; and while it would be near impossible for two working parents to really do this, I am blessed enough to be a stay at home mom. Therefore, I feel there is really no reason Button should have to sit in his own stool or urine at all. Though I understand it is a truly controversial idea.

The gist of this all is, we are starting to teach Button the phases "go pee" and "go poop" whenever he starts making the movements and sounds of having to go and doing our best to provide the means to go somewhere sanitary (i.e. his little toilet) so that he does not lose his natural instinct to not want fecal matter on his poor little bottom and so that he will learn to associate the toilet with going to the bathroom. We do NOT expect him to hold himself  (because children this age simply do not have that kind of control over there bowels yet) but we do expect him to start learning that the phrase "go pee" and "go poop" are related to actually doing those things and that the toilet is associated with going to the bathroom.

I know many of you already think I'm crazy, that's why you keep reading right? I am also aware that this is a very touchy and debatable way of nurturing but it is my hope that you all will read this with an open mind and caring heart ( I won’t judge you if you don't judge me). That it might spark something in someone and if nothing else, teach you something new about the world. So, here we are, lots of days spent sitting on the baby toilet, listening for little grunts, saying pee a thousand times, and trying not to fall off toilets. Oh, the life of being a mom!

Growing

Things are moving a little slower around here these days. Most of my time is taken up playing with Button, cleaning the house, and making dinner before starting it all over again the next day. It’s nice to have a routine all worked out but in a way, I miss having adventures, exploring our area, crafting, and working on my garden. Button is teething now and that is a whole different kind of adventure all on its own I guess. It’s such a blessing to see his little budding personality coming out more and more each day. He is almost five months now and I can't wait to share with you all his five-month photo session!  The garden is growing good now and I even have about nine little tomato growing on my three tomato plants. My lettuce is flourishing immensely; to the point that Hubby and I have already harvested three salads worth from it. Because we are 'pruning' it instead of cutting off the whole stock from each plant we are able to re-harvest them about every week or so. Isn't that awesome! I love having homegrown salads. I have been working on some products to add to my Etsy shop, and hopefully bring it back to life, there is a lot that is going into that and I think most of these things deserve their own posts. I will have to get some photos together and share with you all, in depth, what is going on with each thing. Being a mother is so rewarding and it is becoming harder and hard to step away from my darling boy and get a little time to myself. Time to pull my thoughts together. Time to share with you all. I need to prioritize my life. I'm not saying that this is the end of our relationship... not even near it my friend. Just, in a way, different. I pray that it will be beneficial to us all and that I will find a balance to this new and exciting phase of my life. I pray that you all will continue to be able to and long to share it with me. After all, this is what Growing the Home is all about. If I do not learn to adjust to my new life as a mother, a housewife, a blogger, and a friend, I will become stagnant. A stagnant person is not one that is changing and without changer there is not growth or bettering one’s self. So, it is my most sincere wish that you all with bare with me as I go through these changes and growth. It might be a bumpy, not very pretty road ahead of us but it will be ours. Then again, aren't the best views down the less traveled, more adventurous paths? Let’s go on an adventure together, and adventure to find beauty in every day, to change, to share, and to grow the home that grows us.

A Boy and His Dog

Just had to share this with you all. I can see many fun days to come with these two and their love for each other grows strong each moment they are together. <3

Button's Four Month Photo Shoot

Happy four months old my Little Darling!

He is growing just way to fast but I love watching him learn and change each and every day. I can't wait to see what he does with this great big world and the planes God has for him. 

Dwindling

So, my poor vegetable garden is becoming smaller and smaller as summer goes on. I sadly didn't get any photos of my poor squash to show how bad it got before Hubby throw it out but, in a way, I guess that's not such a bad thing.

You see, my sweet, beautiful squash got infested with stink bugs. It turns out that most organic pesticides don't work on the nasty buggers and to make things worse, they have few natural predators. We tried for a good month at controlling the spread of eggs and baby stink bugs but in the end, there was just no hope for the sad plant. We tried spraying the eggs with organic pesticide every day, scrapping the ones we saw off and putting them in soapy water along with any adults and baby stink bugs but in the end, more just kept coming and eventually got down to the root of my squash where they began to kill it from the base. The plant itself seemed healthy for the most part but by the root, it was black and decaying. It was only a matter of time for the rest to start showing the effects, so we cut off the vines from the trellis, and tossed the whole plant. So, I'm thinking about planting another squash vine in hopes that it blooms before fall so that we get at least a small crop of them this fall.

Now we are being extra diligent at checking the cucumber and tomato plants for eggs and such. They seem to have decided that because the squash was gone, the next best thing was the cucumber. *sigh* I'm not giving up though and neither is Hubby. He is really starting to have quite a green thumb these days and even invested in some gardening gloves to remove the gross colonization (mostly because I can't stand the idea of touching a stink bug... even with gardening gloves on).

Over the past two days, Hubby has already removed close to 60 stink bugs (not including the eggs) from the cucumbers and tomatoes. I just pray this time around that we can keep up with it and that no more of my crops get hindered. We are also looking into getting marigolds to plant all around my produce. I was told that they don't like those and it would help limit the amount of pests that come in.

If there is an upside to all of this it’s that I have grown a little as an organic gardener and learned something new and how to care for my plants better. In a way, it has brought me and my husband closer and has given us something to do together and that is, I suppose, more valuable than a few dead plants. And though my garden may be dwindling my relationship and knowledge grows.

A Cooler Box

Yep... I know... a bad pun >.< forgive me? I couldn't help myself. Ha. aaaaaany ways....

A couple of weeks ago Hubby and I were invited to stay at my parents’ house for a visit and before our trip to the amusement park.

While we were there my mother mentioned to me about my fridge organization post and how she had wanted to do something about her own refrigerator.

So, looked at what she had around the house to use, cleaned out old food and expired jars, and made a list of what we needed to go out and buy.

She is not a fan of chalk labels like I am so be snagged some draw erase labels for $5 each (we used two packs of 10) to make things more cohesive.

Once all the old stuff was gone we had plenty of room for all the jars and such to fit in the door like she wanted.

My parents tend to always have left overs in the fridge. I guess it’s from years of feeding a family of five and now only having three mouths to feed but whatever it is, there was a general lack of organization when it came to what was in what container and how old things were so for quick fix we used the same labels on a large set of matching plastic wear (that she already had on hand), to create "left over containers". That way, all the left overs are easily stack-able, movable, and easy to know what’s in it and how old it is.

While we were out picking up the labels we also snagged the bread box, meat container, and cheese and egg baskets all for around $8! the egg and cheese baskets help make things more visible then when they are in a carton or drawer so that they don't end up buying something they already have enough of (because I hate when I used to buy eggs just to find out I still had half a carton left).

My parents like to keep their bread in the refrigerator so she got the box to put them in so it’s easy to just toss the bagels, bread and such in the bin after making a sandwich or what not instead of having it in a heap in the fridge or having to make them look pretty. After all, like I always say, organizing should make life easier and clean not harder and clean. The meat container we grabbed because she didn't have one and like me, likes to thaw out her meat the day before; and no one like meat dripping on things and contaminating it!

So there you have it. Another fridge organization post, but a little different.

It just goes to show that you take a good idea and always makes it your own and find out what works for you with the same basic principles.

So happy organizing! :D