Where has the time gone? ...Sick ...Fall Cleaning ...Daycare ...Hunting ...'Stuff Happens' ...Organic

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last entry.

We've all been sick on/off this week plus Connor's teething. Lots of sleepless nights. Today I didn't go to church because Connor was just settling down and nursing and falling asleep around 10am (which he desperately needed!) and he slept a solid 2 hours - which is very unusual for him - he usually only takes a 45 minute nap.

I have a long list of things I've been trying to accomplish at the house - fall cleaning of sorts, and trying to get everything lined up to be licensed for daycare and ready for a home visit - making sure everything is just so. Although I thought I've been careful with my kids, there are several more things I've been made aware of during this licensing process. One of which I'm trying to fulfill - CPR and First Aid - which the class keeps being canceled on me! There are several benefits to being licensed - grants for food, education, arts and crafts, etc. I'm only going to start with one child for daycare, just to see how things go before I take on any more, I only just started staying home with my kids since June 16th, so I'm still trying to adjust to some things and keep up on other things that I used to do on my breaks at work like balancing the checkbook and paying bills and making phone calls - of which I can do hardly any at home because the kids take naps at different times and if I do try doing anything with the kids around, they both want my attention immediately, although they've been playing just fine on their own for the past 15 minutes.

Plus Mike's getting ready to head over to Admiralty with my dad to go deer hunting and I need to do the grocery shopping and get Mike's things ready before Thursday. We are counting on deer this year, last year there was such a bad winter kill that he didn't get one deer, which he usually takes home 3. I'd like to avoid having to buy any red meat!

I'm watching a new show called 'Stuff Happens' by Bill Nye, The Science Guy, on Planet Green, it's very informative! I have decided to re-use my tin foil and to quit using pans with non-stick Teflon coating. It has opened my eyes to how aluminum is mined - it's a very ugly process - one good thing is that all aluminum is recyclable, so now I'm washing my tin foil and re-using it. It's also cost-effective! So, as for the pans, I've switched to cast-iron (I only bought one - they're expensive!). It's not as difficult as I've made it out to be as far as cooking and cleaning. It's rather easy - unless you're the kind of person who doesn't like to clean up after a meal!

Many of you may already know that I've gone Organic - now that I'm aware of all the pesticides and chemicals is 'regular' food, I can't go back. I have this guilt of feeding non-organic foods to my children, knowing that they contain harmful chemicals. I am gearing up for next summer to grow some of our own vegetables, hopefully next summer won't be as rainy! Going Organic is not really that much more expensive, in fact, some Organics are cheaper than 'regular' foods - you just have to look before you buy and compare. Also, take note of food waste in your home and make sure you only buy as much as you need so you're not preparing too much and throwing it out or not letting it rot in the fridge because you can't eat it in time. I have found this to be a problem for us in the past, but am improving my system so we have less food waste. I also compost all of our scraps and hope to have some good soil for next year's garden! I recently had a good chat with a gentleman at Rainbow Foods who was telling me about a step up from Organic (if you didn't think it could get any better) called Bio Dynamic. This system takes everything into consideration - the whole farm - everything interconnected to keep the farm work in harmony with itself as a 'closed circuit' of sorts. Very interesting, I'm going to be looking more at this 'Bio Dynamic' system and see what it's all about.