Cleaning: the never-ending quest!

I spend a decent amount of my time cleaning.

Well, okay, maybe a lot of time.

With 3 kids under 4, and two of them still "toddlers," there's a lot of messes. I used to be okay with using store-bought cleaning products. One day, however, that changed.

A Day in the Life of 3 Under 4

As some of you may have noticed, yes, I did update my blog layout last night! I was looking for something a bit more fresh and tidy, and I'm really liking this design one so far.

The main reason I'm starting this blog back up into full activity is that I've had so many people asking me about how we do things and I've decided to go ahead and share it!

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a series of pages on different aspects of daily life in our house; from cooking to cleaning to being a student mom to cloth diapering and more. I know that my house, lifestyle, and parenting aren't perfect, but there's no perfect solution for everything. All we really can do is share what we know.


For now, however, I'll give a general idea of what my days look like. 

Our days start off really early.

Rosemary's Birth Story

First of all, the obligatory baby tax. 2 weeks old and freshly bathed.

I suppose I should start off with some background information for this birth story. I have a history of having macrosomic babies (over 8 lbs 13 oz) and quick deliveries. The active labour for Edgar was only 3 hours long, and the active labour for Arthur was 3 hours and 42 minutes. Because I had set a "trend" of big babies and short labours, we operated under the assumption that this would be the case again for this pregnancy and I mentally prepared myself for such.

By some miracle, I had obtained the same midwife who caught both Edgar and Arthur. As before, we'll call her "N" for privacy and simplicity's sake. Because she was present for both prior courses of care, she knew my history well. Because both large babies and fast (or, precipitous) labours carry risks for hemorrhage, in addition to a few risks new to this pregnancy (very low ferritin for me and a marginal cord insertion on baby's placenta) we discussed and decided that I would deliver in hospital this time, and that I would not be allowed to carry into 40 weeks. If we got to that point, we'd induce...