Harvest Sunshine For These Rainy Days

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We've had a cold snap, we've had a warm spell, and now we're solidly in a set of rainy autumn days.

While we go outside every day, rainy days have less outdoor time. What better way to spend some of our time inside than putting up the harvest and basking in the captured sunshine.

Love for the Milo

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A is now a month old. (A month? Already?) The postpartum fog has lifted, we're getting a little more sleep. C has stopped asking us to put "baby back in" and started getting upset if her sister isn't with us at times when she usually is.

I've also gotten to do a little knitting. Finally.

Dearest A

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A week ago, our second daughter was born, September 4th at 2:03pm. 

She was born happy and healthy at home with no complications.

Four day old A

She stayed in a few more weeks and came a little more slowly than her older sister. We are so happy to have her here and out. She seems to be more laid back and content than her sister was at this point. We'll see if it's just who they are!

We having some fun playing "C or A" with photos. Even though there are distinct differences already, our first clues in photos are often not the girls themselves!

We are enjoying time at home all together, and are so grateful for all the care and support. 

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(Not) Putting Life On Hold While Pregnant

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Until about a month ago, I was stuck. I didn't even realize I was stuck. I've been pregnant for more months than not over the past couple years and had only started to feel like I was getting back to being (the new) me before getting pregnant again.

Exciting News - Another Addition to Our Family

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While a few of you already know, we have exciting news!

We're having another girl!

She'll mostly likely arrive sometime in September. I'm so excited to meet her. If her older sister is any indication, we're in for wonderful ride.

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Welcome to Myrrhmalade!

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Whether you've been reading my posts for years or are just finding me for the first time,

Welcome!

Posts prior to this were originally published at sillyhappythoughts.blogspot.com, my prior blogging home.

While the shift may be subtle enough to be silly, I've felt the need for a change. I found that my own ideas and expectations of the former blog were holding me back from contributing and enjoying contributing to this space.

So here I am, 32 years and a day old, with a fresh start to blogging.

Thanks for stopping by.

And then there were ten...

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A little more than a month ago, we noticed a burst of chicken feathers in our yard, a careful count of our birds revealed we were down to eleven. This scattering of feathers is a common reaction of chickens to a predator.

About a week later, (and amidst the first bout of the "arctic vortex") I noticed a second burst of different colored feathers - and we were down to ten. Without knowing what kind of predator we were dealing with we felt hard pressed to know how to protect our flock.

Two days later, I noticed Jake sitting at the end of his line watching the woods intently and I ran to look. I saw a fox trotting from the neighbor's field heading straight toward our coop.

I ran to the bathroom and managed to hastily snap the following photo before running to the backyard to scare it off before it reached the girls.

They were all a flutter and made quite the racket before the fox heard me and turned tail.

We've since shored up a few loose spots on the chicken yard and sent our resident large predator out to the yard nightly to mark the territory. We've held steady since that sighting, and I keep singing to myself "A fox went out on a chilly night..." 

Occurrences like this make me grateful for the reminder of the awesomeness of the wild, how we are never really far from it, and how, in our little mutterings about our property, we contribute to the greater world.

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Dyeing gDiapers

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Before we had our daughter, I did a lot of research into the types of cloth and eco diapering options that are currently available. Eventually I settled on gDiapers, as I wanted to have one kind that would work well in the many different situations we find ourself in at home, while traveling, and while she is in the care of others. I love the flexibility of the different types of inserts (the absorbent part). After about the first month, we settled into using organic pre-folds as inserts and occasionally the biodegradable inserts when on the go. 

While pregnant, I kept an eye online for people selling used bundles of the covers and ended up getting her first couple sizes worth of covers for only a few dollars each - new gDiaper covers retail for as much as $25 each. 

Once she was with us and growing quickly, I found my interest in spending my valuable personal time scouring the internet for deals on used covers completely absent. After a couple of attempts I found that I could get a starter pack more cheaply than I was finding the larger sizes used - the only issue: The colors.

While I like orange and green as much as the next person (perhaps more so in the case of orange), I missed the variety of colors! 

Enter fabric dye! 

First I used Rit Color Remover on all the covers. Several of them ended up looking as though they had been subtly tie-dyed and I left them without further color. You can see the original green and orange on the elastic band at the top of the top two in the picture above. 

I then dyed two crimson and two burgundy again using Rit Dye. In both pairs of red liners the (originally) green is on the left. For both the color remover and the dyes I followed the directions on the package so I won't transcribe them here.

I had intended to over-dye one of each red with a deep brown and end up with six different colors, but... well... she grew out of this size before I ever got around to it. All in all I am quite pleased with how well they turned out and have since dyed some of her next size up with similar wonderful results.

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