Boots are for muckin'

I made my very first batch of kimchi!! It turned out amazing. In this batch I used: kale, radishes, carrots, red cabbage, garlic, and a chili pepper. I think next time I'll follow an authentic korean recipe! 

Our black berries are now ready for pickin'!! Our first harvest I was able to fill a pint sized mason jar plus a few dozen eaten by a certain little boy ;) I'm saving a majority of them in the freezer for future use of fruit preserves that I plan on canning.

This past week we had the privilege of getting together with an old close friend who we haven't seen in many years. Natascha was our exchange student from Austria 10 years ago. 5 years later she came back to attend Steve and my's wedding. And 4 years later we meet up again! I love how it doesn't matter how much time has passed, we continue on right where we left off :)

Our apple trees are still doing great and they are loving all the rain we've been getting!

Our potato plants have really taken off. We've hilled them twice already!

Things have been slow growing this season in this garden but some catch up is happening.

We had a young bunny get in to the garden a few days back. He must have snuck under the fence and we caught him just in time before he ate anything. He was so sweet though!

Tomato plants have flowers!

Our first year growing broccoli! Looks incredibly tasty if you ask me!

Also our first year growing pumpkins!

And now I'll leave you with a few random snapshots from over the days:

Rain, rain go AWAY!

It's been so, so rainy here this month. I am terrified for our gardens. There has been so much flooding and not enough sunny days to dry things up. When we get down pouring rain our backyard fills up very quickly and we literally have a moving river that flows through.

You can see our new raised beds just on the other side of the river. Last year things were too dry and we lost every single apple on our 3 apple trees. But things are looking great for the trees this year! I am so excited to can a lot of applesauce for Owen!

Here is a comparison photo of our largest garden! It's growing...but very slowly due to all the rain!

From a different angle.

I took Owen and Ruth to the farm today. We made a few stops along the way so Owen could see the cows and horses out in the pastures.

We loaded up on free-range eggs, pastured chicken and pork, grass-fed beef, home-grown leaf lettuce, and some greek yogurt. On the way back I saw a sign for fresh strawberries. I'm so glad I stopped because they are sooo delicious! A young boy sold them to me and he was so sweet and polite. At least I know my money is going towards his family!

And here are some sweet moments I've caught of Owen over the last few days!

Napping on mommy's lap!

Blowing kisses!

Blessings

For afternoon picnics in the backyard

For a new great thrifty find for O.

For a delicious healthy home cooked dinner.

For finding a secret patio under all the weeds. 

For catching sweet little smiles.

 For a muddy little boy who is feeling well again.

Blessings

Grateful for the first harvest of our wild strawberries! I love to store them in the freezer until I have enough to make homemade jam! That's if I cane keep sneaky little fingers away from them ;)

                                    Grateful for extra helping hands in the gardens! Can never be too young!

Grateful for discovering new things together. God's beauty.

Updates

Too much time has passed since my last post!! Yikes!! Owen is now 2 years 2 months old! Such a sweet, smart, funny little boy! He literally makes me laugh every single day! He knows all of his ABC's, can count to 20, knows all of his colors and shapes, can read his own name, can finish the sentences of his favorite books,  gets along sooo well with other children. He loves bugs, being able to be free-range, loves to help out with tasks and chores, and has such a curiosity for learning new things. His memory and speech are incredible. And the love he has for his family/pets is heart warming! He is my everything!

My weight-loss has halted. I am finally at a healthy weight and I feel confident about myself. I am currently 119lbs, size 2. I've made the switch from a vegetarian/vegan diet to a paleo life style change. It was a struggle for me to go back to eating meat for animal rights reasons. But I found a local farm who treat their animals as humanely as possible and let them free-range/grass-feed. I feel 100% better consuming meat from the farm than I would from the grocery store. I made the switch to paleo because I figured out that I am very, very allergic to gluten. I break out in severe eczema on my arms, face, and palms of my hands. There have even been a few times where I've had hives all over my body. I've been paleo for roughly 3.5 months. I'm still not 100% back to normal because there have been times where I've consumed food with hidden gluten in them. Then it's like starting back over from square one. So I need to be really, really careful about what I'm putting in to my body. It's a struggle because I LOVE food and I LOVE to cook. So cutting out my  favorite carbs and watching other people eat it in front of me is pure torture! But reminding myself how awful I feel inside, how excruciating the eczema is, and detoxing the crap out of my system takes days...having a hang-over feeling for days is not my idea of fun!

We are still living in the same house. We have big plans and dreams of moving out of here in the next few years. We are currently in the process of buying some land in the country. We hope to one day sell our home now, build a new home in the country, and become more self-sufficient. We want fruit trees, bigger gardens, livestock, honey bees, and just enjoy the simple things in life. Steve and I are really interested and have done a lot of research on homesteading/living off the land. With the way our society/government is going we don't want to rely heavily on them. We like to know where our food comes from and what is/is not put in it. There is nothing better than the taste of home grown produce!

I've been going through a lot of personal struggles lately and I find myself wasting too much time on negative thoughts and holding on to negative people. It just down right ruins my entire day. That's not the type of person that I want to be and that is not the type of example I want to show my son. I came across another blog and every so often so posts what she is grateful for. I am going to start doing this as well and when I start feeling so negative it will give me a great reminder to look back at all that I have to be thankful/grateful for!

Update! Major slacker over here!!

So much has happened since my last post!! For starters...Owen will be 1 year old in just 2 more days! *cry* how fast time goes...let me tell you! A year ago today I was begging for my OB to induce me! She agreed and I was admitted to Nathan Littauer Hospital. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. But if I had known what I know now...I would have never in a million years chose an induction! I would have suffered from "being too pregnant" than to suffer from the pain of a c-section and PTSD! I can not change the past but I definitely learned from my experiences! The next time around, I assure you will be much better! These few days leading up to Owen's 1st birthday are very bittersweet! I am excited for the future, I am excited to watch him learn and grow and develope into a little boy. But I am so so sooooo sad that he is losing his baby-ness! He is learning to become independent and explore his world. He has 8 teeth (with more in the way), he can crawl, he can take steps, he can run to me, he can sign "milk", he says momma, dada, hey, doggy, kitty, no. He loves being outdoors and getting dirty. He will eat everything I put in front of him. He loves animals and Yo Gabba Gabba. Loves to play with toy cars! Loves to swim, and play rough, and be tickled. He is just the apple of my eye! I'm so grateful for the close relationship that we have!
Most recently we have converted his crib into a toddler bed. He loves it! He can climb up and down off of it! But most importantly, he'll even sleep in his own bed for nap time. He has always taken naps in my arms. I know most people would look down upon that but it was the only way he would sleep and I enjoyed the snuggles! But he's a big boy now and is getting too big and heavy to sleep in momma's arms. The free time is a little overwhelming right now haha I just don't know what to do with myself! But Owen sleep co-sleeps with us at night. It makes me feel better that I can keep an eye on him, I can snuggle him, and nurse him the second he makes a peep. But now that he is bigger he thinks he can dominate the entire bed :) I wake up to his feet or his butt in my face. He takes over my pillow and blankets. But when he sleeps...he is the sweetest thing! Nothing more precious than a sleeping baby!
His birthday party is in 7 more days! I am just so excited for it! I've been working hard on planning it all out and making things and buying things. I want him to look back and think "how cool is my mom for making me the awesomest party?" I want it to be super special! He deserves it! It's a construction theme...I know...not typical for a 1st birthday...but we don't do things normally in this house lol The food is themed, the decorations, the cake(s), the party attire! I even put together a surprise to show the guests! Something that took 2 months to create! But it will last a lifetime!
Since its almost been a year since having Owen...I guess I should update you on my weight loss and health journey! As of today I have lost a total of 98 pounds. I can't tell you for sure how many inches I have lost though :( I had to update my iPad and all my measurements got deleted *cry*! I know it's a lot though!! I was 215 lbs (holy crow) the day I gave birth and wore a size 12 in maternity clothes. Today I am down to 117 pounds and wear a size 3 or 4 depending on brand! Super exciting! I'd like to contribute my weight loss to excercising and healthy eating but that isn't entirely the case. Back in September I went to see my doctor for some health issues. They ran some blood tests and it came back very abnormal. My thyroid was very overly active. I had an ultrasound done which came back showing a mass. In November I was sent to an Endocrinologist down at Albany Medical Center. More blood tests were drawn. Numbers stayed about the same. Another month goes by and more blood gets drawn. This time my numbers were almost back to the low end of normal. Just a few days ago I had the ultrasound repeated and the mass is unchanged. It will be checked again in a year to see of there are any other changes. I've been feeling back to myself since the end of December thanks to God's good grace! The doctors are just calling it Post Partum Thyroiditis. The autoimmune disorder lab work came back negative, thankfully!

22 Weeks Post Partum

I've only started measuring inches on my body since the middle of June. But since then, I have lost 18 total inches off of my body. 10 of the inches were lost this month! And I have lost 19.6lbs since mid June as well. I still have another 19 lbs that I want to lose before I start working on toning up my muscles. I've never had muscles before so I'm really excited to see some definition! My highest weight during my pregnancy (at the end) was 215 lbs. Since I gave birth to Owen I have lost 76 lbs (less than 5 months). I am so thrilled that I have accomplished this much so far! I'm so much healthier and confident in myself than I was pre-pregnancy! And I am currently 19 lbs lighter than before I got pregnant! I have been taking photos along with measuring myself every month! It's so exciting to see the progress that I am making. Some days it doesn't feel like I am any smaller but the photos are proof and they give me so much more motivation!

This is a photo of me 5 weeks post partum! Not horrible but I still look pregnant! Within the first 12 days after I gave birth, I dropped 33 lbs. Most of it was water weight but I was excited that much "fell" off of me so fast!

This is a photo of me 11 weeks post partum (please disregard my dirty mirror lol). I was probably 40 lbs heavier than I am now.

And this is me now! I look better now then before I got pregnant! I have even better photos of my progress but I'll keep it PG for now ;)

And this is me now with my little chunker, Owen! I lose the weight and he gains it :) This is us 5 months after birth!