The Frugal Farm Living life deliberately

Sometime after the birth of my fourth child I decided that I wanted to have my next birth without an epidural or other pain meds. I had had an epidural for each of those four births. While I realize that having an epidural doesn't make me less of a mother, or diminish the birth in any way, I wanted to do it “the real way.” I'd read a lot about how babies can be more alert after a non-medicated birth, and how recoveries can be easier for the mother. I'd also read about how having less interventions overall actually leads to less problems. And while I was also open to an out-of-hospital birth like a birth center, that was not an option for us for a few reasons.  read more »

This kid just barely turned three and she is quite a good helper around the kitchen already. She can help grind cucumbers for relish, or apples for applesauce, help put dirty dishes in the sink when I wash, set the table all on her own, and sort laundry by color.

Why do people think that a pregnant lady's belly is public property? I have complete strangers and/or people whom I don't know very well touching my belly all the time. I am seriously making a t-shirt or two discouraging this behavior. I just saw a cute one on Etsy that said "I am not a genie bottle" but that's a little too subtle for me.

My shirts are going to say things like

"Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean you can touch my belly"

or

"If you touch my belly, I'll touch yours"

or the big red circle with a slash through it (is there a name for that?) with the word "TOUCHING" under it.

Seriously, strangers, it really bugs me!

I was washing the dishes the other night and had a thought--where do you draw the line between catering to picky children and doing nice things for them?  read more »