Little Okie Homestead

Have you ever noticed that parenting can sometimes feel like you are on a see-saw with your little one? It's something I thought about a few days ago as I was struggling through some behavior with Monkey.  There aren't too many times that I have really struggled with Monkey and behavior. He's really a good kid that doesn't test the boundary lines too often. But when he does it comes from all sides and for several days at least. Most of the time I can get him back to normal pretty quickly. I started to think about 'Nice Mommy' vs. 'Mean Mommy' and how I seem to go back and forth between the two depending on how my boys are behaving. Now I'm not saying I'm screaming one second and smiling and happy the next. I'm talking about how we can go weeks having fun with a few talks here and there about behavior but overall I can trust Monkey do choose to do the right thing and follow the rules I have put in place. But then we will have times l...

So we have been living in limbo for the past couple months. We weren't sure where the hubby was going to be working or what state we were going to be living in and I was hating the feeling of uncertainty. Finally I had enough and we made the tough decision that we have been putting off for close to 5 years now. We will be moving...out of Colorado...probably forever :( It's a sad feeling mixed with some excitement. We've put this move off for years because I didn't want to move our boys away from my parents. I loved having a very close relationship with my grandparents and I want the same for my boys however God just seems to have other plans for us. So it's time to move from the city to the country! I think the most exciting aspect of this move is that our boys will go from living in an apartment in the city to having 2 acres to play on! What boy wouldn't love that? Not to mention that these 2 acres will be shared with their cousins who also happen to be bo...

Its official! We have a new 'he' in our house and his name is Binky. Goose is attached to Binky and no matter what I do we haven't been able to break him of it. I have decided that I will give him until his 2nd birthday in July until I hit the habit breaking hard. Until then I will continue my consistent reminders of putting Binky away in his bed. Any tips on how to break him of Binky? He just doesn't want to leave Goose's mouth. He just sticks around and the only thing that comforts Goose when he's sad. I've never had this problem before so please help!

We've gone through different times where Monkey helps me more around the house than other times. It normally depends on the season of life we are in. Being pregnant and exhausted all the time with Goose made my rely on Monkey to do more himself even though he was young. Well now he's 5 years old and I think it's time that he has his everyday responsibilities to help out around the house. We had a good system a few months back with a morning, lunch and evening routine but it fizzled out because our routine changed and I never got the booklets updated. I headed over to pinterest to look up some ideas and as always there were plenty to chose from. Of course some won't work because of age and reading level. Others won't work because I'm not going to put that much effort into making something for chores, at least not until I know it works for our family. First some of the contenders if I ever feel like I want to be an overachiever. I love this char...

It's Monday and I don't know about other mom's but these are my cleaning days! Over the weekend we enjoy every moment we can with Daddy since he's home which normally means that the cleaning gets put off. By Monday morning my kitchen looks like this! Awful! Now imagine the rest of the house! Yep Monday's are a big day of cleaning for the kids and I. Of course a full day of cleaning sounds like no fun to myself or to the kids so I have been battling with them to get the house cleaned and it normally is an all day battle. So here is my new strategy getting help with all the work without the constant arguing. Setting a time with a 10 minute power clean and then a 20 minute play break . During our power clean we all have to have a happy heart about cleaning and clean with a purpose. For myself that means not getting angry with the boys as they play as they clean. I need to set an example and remain calm and enjoy cleaning. It also means that I clean for t...

I don't really believe in making New Year's Resolutions because it seems more often than not they end up being lost shortly after making them. This year I am setting some goals and changing things up a bit. I feel this year is a little different because I have been slowly working on changing my daily habits for a few months now. I want to make some big changes in my life! I want to lose weight! I want to eat more healthy! And I want to keep my house clean and organized which I think will be my biggest struggle.  I slowly started working out several months ago and just before Christmas I started eating more healthy and making sure I was getting enough fruits and veggies into my diet. Making these small changes has helped me gain energy and it going to help me lose weight now that all the holiday food is out of the house. Now it's time to jump in with both feet! So here's what is changing...           ● I'm changing my wor...

There are some days, like the one I'm having today, that makes having faith a hard thing to trust in. I have shared before that my hubby doesn't want any more kids and that I do. I have always felt that we would have four kids and I have been counting on God to provide us the kids He wants us to have. Today I took Goose to the hematologist to get his blood checked to find out if he has the same blood disorder as Monkey. With Monkey we knew when he was just a few months old what he had but didn't get the actual diagnosis until he was a year old. With Goose they tested him after birth and everything was fine. He has been developing on track and showing no signs of HS. At Goose's last check up they did a blood draw to test for everything again as a final make sure everything is OK  blood test. Well it came back with some abnormalities. I figured everything was fine that they were just being over cautious and made an appointment with our hematologist. Well that was to...

So I planned Monkey's birthday party for this Saturday because his actually birthday is Easter which we will spend with family. Once again I tried to plan his birthday party at the park which is always a toss up with a March birthday. I have plenty of experience with birthday's at this time of year as mine is only 3 days after Monkey's and the weather here in Colorado can change quickly! So we have had to move his party to inside our house which means that I have to find things for the kiddos to do instead of spending time burning energy on the playground. Well as I have been getting everything together for his new party everyone started canceling on me. We were down to one child and 2 babies coming as of Wednesday and then it dropped again to only the one family with the child and baby. I feel horrible for Monkey. I completely understand everyone has things going on and that came up so I'm not upset I'm just feeling like a failure because his 4th birthday is lo...

I was sent this cute cartoon to share with you all and I just had to do it because it is so cute! Enjoy the fun facts and remember don't attempt to try any of these at home :) Click to Enlarge Image The FamilyCord Super Baby Facts - Brought To You By FamilyCord

We have maybe finally figured out a bedtime routine with both boys. They share a room so there are some difficulties because they are both pretty light sleeps but I'm hoping this schedule will continue because it is just awesome! 7:30pm: Cleaning up toys (Time depends on how many toys are out). Goose nurses.   8:00pm: PJ's, potty and brush teeth for Monkey. PJ's and diaper for Goose    8:15pm: Story time. This includes several books. A fun library book, a learning library book, a book of Monkey's choice, a Goose board book, a chapter from The Magic Treehouse book series and a Bible story.   8:45pm: Prayers. Monkey doesn't like to pray so we all sit together and hold hands (Goose too until he gets to antsy. I try to pray for each member of our family, for good rest for the night and prayers over whatever our plans are for the next day, and then for anyone else that might need prayers that relate to the boys such as their...

Yep! That's right! Goose has discover that he can roll around the floor to get to places he wants. The first time he did it I was folding laundry in the other room and when I came back out to the living room he was about 3 feet from where he was when I left and facing the other direction! It shocked me and made me excited too! Now he rolls and pushes himself all around in circles and gets to the toys he wants most of the time. It's fun to watch except my to do list is so long with baby proofing the house it's ridiculous  And we don't even baby proof that much. Do you want to know the newest thing I've seen him do? Knees! Yes...on all fours and rocking! Goose will be crawling before I'm ready that's for sure! I really have to conquer some to do list items fast!

As I lay here on the floor watching my almost six month wiggle and babble as he reaches for his toys and is starting to do the beginning movements to start crawling I'm reminded of how fast time flies by! I feel like it wasn't that long ago when I was nine months pregnant and feeling tired and ready to meet our new little addition to our family. Now that sweet little baby boy that joined us in July is wanting to crawl, eat and developing quite a different personality than his brother! It reminds me of the advice I received so many times when I was expecting our first baby... "Enjoy every moment! It will go by so fast!" They all were right! That first baby of ours is now almost four years old and I have no idea where the time went. Today and everyday enjoy special time with each baby of yours!

You know that scene in Big Daddy where Frankenstien is playing the game I win?  Well that is our house now! Monkey has invented his own 'I Win' game and loves to play.  He finally has made the rules more even where we can actually win too! Want to know what it is? Here is how the game goes... Monkey: "Mom, what are you doin'?" Mom: "Typing on the computer." Monkey: "You win. Now say 'What I'm doin'?" Mom: "Monkey, what are you doing?" Monkey: "I'm doing up and back down on the couch. See? I win!" Now if you answer with a funny answer like "Flying an airplane" you lose but it is funny.  We have times where we play funny answers and he just cracks up! Then we have times where we play both and he never knows what I'm going to say & he thinks that's funny to. In other words my life consists of always being asked what I'm doing because he thinks it...

He's now 4.5 months but hey I'm still getting around to sharing all the details! So with no more procrastination here they are... I can't believe that he's so big already! I have moments where I can't wait until he's mobile and playing with his brother but then I have moments where I want him to stop getting bigger. I'm sure it's normal mom thing to do. I just want to make sure that I'm enjoying him growing as much as I can! Have to add in the brotherly love picture too!

We all have our secrets but homemakers, housewives, whatever you want to call us are sometimes in a league of our own! We have the perception that we sit around and eat bonbons all day, (man I wish that was true)  but we are normally very busy raising our little ones and sometimes secrets just come with that terriorty. But today on  Growing Up Geeky 's Toddle Along Tuesday we are sharing some of those secrets with you. Come along and share with us what you keep from everyone about your daily life ;) Showers have become a luxury and not a routine of everyday! The times that I get to shower when Hubby is home I take loooong showers whether I hear the baby crying or not. I think I deserve it after a long day and I think he deserves to care for a crying baby once in a while. I love that my boys are on the same schedule for nap time! Why is that a confession? Because I don't mind staying up until 11 or 12 with him until he goes to bed at night. I don't ...

Well here we go again! Starting cloth diapering with baby #2! We started cloth diapers the day before Goose's first 5K . My mom was completely against me starting it before such a big event but I couldn't help it! I was so excited to get started! I had plenty of diapers to keep going for another week with disposable ones but I just didn't want to wait! We didn't start right away because we didn't have enough cloth diapers to do it full time and I knew that I wouldn't be good at doing cloth only part time. Thankfully a good friend of mine called me up and said that there were some cloth diapers at a garage sale. I'm pretty picky about used cloth diapers but I figured I'd stop and see if they were good. Well they were almost brand new bumGenius  diapers! There were 6 of them which is exactly what I needed to start even though I would love to have a few more! I checked them all out, bought them for $5 (totally would have spent $15), brought them home and ...

Couldn't this be a better picture? We have one rule about jumping in our house: it must be done on Mommy and Daddy's bed or on his mattress on the floor. This time Goose loved watching him jump. He was laughing and having a good ol' time!

I LOVE the  JBF Sale ! I get great stuff every time I go there and I normally only go on 1/2 price day which makes it even better. The problem? I tend to over buy :/ I only need a few things for both boys and here is what I got... A whole bunch of clothes (that barely fit in the kids dressers) A warm carseat snugly for Goose so he won't get cold this winter A great color wheel puzzle for Monkey so he can learn more about how different colors mix together! Some new movies! Just got a VHS again because I got a whole bunch of movies for free. A food grinder and feeder for Goose. We have a knockoff the bullet but it is in storage plus you have to make a bunch when you use it. Plus another mom there has one and told me that they take it when the eat out and just grind up whatever they are eating for there little one. Great idea right?!?! All this was about $100 bucks! Seriously couldn't have gotten all this in a store for that price! We are set u...

7 weeks old! This was after she cut his ear! (Totally kidding! He was just super sleepy!) She cut off an inch of hair! Crazy huh? (Told you he was sleepy!)

I got a great idea from a friend but the problem is that it doesn't work for my family so I'm hoping that you all might be able to give me some ideas.  A friend of mine said that she takes a loaf a bread and makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of the whole loaf. Then she freezes them so she can take them with her when her and the kids are heading out for a day at the zoo or whatever. She said it's perfect because they are defrosted by the time they are ready to eat lunch and it helps keep the rest of lunch cold like fruits or cheese. So here is my dilemma...Monkey is allergic to peanut butter! Yep this idea is great for me because I love peanut butter and jelly but I can't feed it to Monkey or Hubby and most likely Goose. I'm thinking of trying a regular ham and cheese sandwich and see how it goes. I'm just not quite sure it will work.  Does anyone else do this? Anyone have suggestions on what I can use instead of peanut ...