Well, everybody, today is the big day: at 10 PM tonight, Daddy will disembark from a plane, grab a taxi, and come home.
It's incredible to think that we've made it this far! There were a lot of things I had to do after he left: improved housing for the grower hogs and the sow, a bedding bin in the barn for the sawdust (so we didn't have to spend $5/day on bagged bedding), new gravel in the high traffic areas of the barnyard. The cow had a calf the very day he left; the sow had her lovely litter of pigs, whose birth had to be supervised and whose medical and surgical needs had to be attended to, and who ultimately had to be caught and sold; and baby geese had to be acquired and tended (fortunately Tea is 100% on board with that and has been accepted as the goslings' mother figure). I've butchered chickens, made an awful lot of bone broth, baked bread at least twice a week (in addition to sourdough doughnuts, pizza and cinnamon rolls, milked the cow every day despite carpal tunnel syndrome, and completed nearly all the kids' homeschooling requirements for the year (we're still tying up a loose end here or there but we're very close!) We've experienced an emergency room visit and a major automotive breakdown (both of which were made infinitely more bearable by outside help--from my mom in one case and from Daddy's civilian employer in the other--even this lonely homesteader is not an island! Thank you!)
If you've been a reader of this blog and/or my facebook page, you've been privy to most of these goings-on! There is something, however, that you may not know, but it's actually a pretty important detail. That's right, I have a plot twist for you:
I'm expecting a baby in mid-October! |
OK, now you're counting backwards on your fingers, so let me simplify this for you: I got pregnant the weekend before Ben left, right in mid-January! We are so happy to welcome this new baby... and that I've made it through that first trimester of exhaustion! Now that I'm almost 17 weeks, I have much more energy, even as my pelvis starts to want to disintegrate into 3 separate pieces... anyway. It is really good that Daddy's going to be home soon. And, another of my favorite reasons for homesteading: even though I haven't been to the Y since the virus shut it down, I've only gained about 7 pounds so far! That's what daily chores and delicious homegrown food will do for you. There's more to this baby story and maybe I'll share it at some point, but I honestly can't write too long today--I'm trying to get the house all nice before Daddy gets home so he'll feel welcome and comfortable when he comes in the door! Then, in the morning, I'll start chores early so we don't have swine shrieking the song of their people while the kids all hang on their daddy; then he can go out and clean stalls and milk the cow at his leisure while I make my delicious Mothers' Day breakfast! (hint--there will be sausage. And bacon. And duck eggs and whole wheat pancakes and berries and berries and kiwi fruit and berries...) After that, my only goal for the day is for the kids to have wonderful quality time with daddy while momma gets a long, perfectly quiet nap. haha. We'll see.
It's incredible to think that we've made it this far! There were a lot of things I had to do after he left: improved housing for the grower hogs and the sow, a bedding bin in the barn for the sawdust (so we didn't have to spend $5/day on bagged bedding), new gravel in the high traffic areas of the barnyard. The cow had a calf the very day he left; the sow had her lovely litter of pigs, whose birth had to be supervised and whose medical and surgical needs had to be attended to, and who ultimately had to be caught and sold; and baby geese had to be acquired and tended (fortunately Tea is 100% on board with that and has been accepted as the goslings' mother figure). I've butchered chickens, made an awful lot of bone broth, baked bread at least twice a week (in addition to sourdough doughnuts, pizza and cinnamon rolls, milked the cow every day despite carpal tunnel syndrome, and completed nearly all the kids' homeschooling requirements for the year (we're still tying up a loose end here or there but we're very close!) We've experienced an emergency room visit and a major automotive breakdown (both of which were made infinitely more bearable by outside help--from my mom in one case and from Daddy's civilian employer in the other--even this lonely homesteader is not an island! Thank you!)
If you've been a reader of this blog and/or my facebook page, you've been privy to most of these goings-on! There is something, however, that you may not know, but it's actually a pretty important detail. That's right, I have a plot twist for you:
I'm expecting a baby in mid-October! |
OK, now you're counting backwards on your fingers, so let me simplify this for you: I got pregnant the weekend before Ben left, right in mid-January! We are so happy to welcome this new baby... and that I've made it through that first trimester of exhaustion! Now that I'm almost 17 weeks, I have much more energy, even as my pelvis starts to want to disintegrate into 3 separate pieces... anyway. It is really good that Daddy's going to be home soon. And, another of my favorite reasons for homesteading: even though I haven't been to the Y since the virus shut it down, I've only gained about 7 pounds so far! That's what daily chores and delicious homegrown food will do for you. There's more to this baby story and maybe I'll share it at some point, but I honestly can't write too long today--I'm trying to get the house all nice before Daddy gets home so he'll feel welcome and comfortable when he comes in the door! Then, in the morning, I'll start chores early so we don't have swine shrieking the song of their people while the kids all hang on their daddy; then he can go out and clean stalls and milk the cow at his leisure while I make my delicious Mothers' Day breakfast! (hint--there will be sausage. And bacon. And duck eggs and whole wheat pancakes and berries and berries and kiwi fruit and berries...) After that, my only goal for the day is for the kids to have wonderful quality time with daddy while momma gets a long, perfectly quiet nap. haha. We'll see.
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| A bright, new day.... now if only the snow would stop... |
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