American Family Now has moved!

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Almost There!

And thus ends my babymoon guest posts. Thank you so much to all those who shared their thoughts with us! I do hope you, our readers, found their stories thought-provoking, encouraging, and challenging. I know I have! If you missed out on any of them, here are quick links to their posts. You can also find them under “guest posts” in the Things We Do, Done, and Digg drop down list on the sidebar.

• Make Your Own Herbal Remedies ~ Nancy @ Nama’s Natural Remedies
• What is a catechism? ~ Chaz Reed
• How to create a backup plan for your family ~ Andrea @ Frugally Sustainable
• 4 important reasons to keep a pantry ~ Kim @ Homestead Acres
• Small space living, and lessons learned ~ Carolyn @ The Mobile Home Maker
• The freedom to make bad decisions ~ Ryan @ Total Survivalist Libertarian Rant Fest
• Why you should consider free-ranging your kids ~ Lenore @ Free Range Kids
• Banishing the stay-at-home blues ~ Sheila @ To Love, Honor, and Vacuum

Chickie is three weeks old tomorrow, and what a doll she is! I can’t wait to share about the last month and a half of our life, but at the same time I want to hold out a little longer because the space on this site for pictures is used up, and purchasing more doesn’t make sense when the new site will be open in just two weeks.

That’s right! The grand opening of our new website is scheduled for April 23^rd! On that date I will write a quick post here sharing the website link so you can find us. That will be the very last post on this blog.

Among the first posts at this new site, we will tell you (and show you!) all about our recent life on the homestead, including the recent addition to our family, our growing flock of hens, our more permanent solutions for grey water and humanure, the latest horseless carriage in our yard, and Papa’s greenhouse project, plus more!

It’s hard to believe that in less than one month we will have been living in our camper for a whole year. It has been a grand experience (one I intend to write more about this spring/summer), but we are ready to move forward and, as the previous paragraph suggested, take steps that will bring us yet closer to building a little off-grid cottage for our growing family.

With that said, please be patient with us for the next couple weeks while there are no new posts. The 23^rd will be a brand new start and I’m looking forward to sharing with you regularly again.

And a happy belated spring and Easter!

A freedom fighter needs our help!

An Indiana woman has been added to the number of midwives in her area being targeted, presumably by a local doctor attempting to weed them out, treating them as pests of the medical establishment.

Ireena Keeslar was arrested and given inhumane treatment until her $10,000 bail was posted. And I’ve heard she’s one of the “lucky” ones being offered a bail option.

What was the midwife’s crime? Did she neglect a client, provide inadequate or bad midwifery care? Did she make a mistake leading to the injury or death of a mother or baby? Far from it.

Sadly, this midwife is just one of many responsible, well-trained and experienced midwives, who have either the ill-luck or the courage to live in a state that has yet to develop with the rest of the civilized world, criminalizing those who help bring babies into the world by arresting them under the pretense of “practicing medicine without a license”. The horror. To think the AMA doesn’t have control over everyone who does something they consider “medical”.

On April 9th, this coming Monday, Ireena Keeslar will be in court facing her attackers, and doing her best to stand up for the rights of women everywhere to choose where and with whom they give birth.

This is where we come in! Papa and I will be donating what we can afford to Ireena Keeslar’s legal fund. She can use all the financial support she can get – a good lawyer isn’t cheap! If you can give $5, $10, or $20, every dollar will help! The paypal account donations are being sent to is lysanderdarkstar@gmail.com. Click on “personal”, then “gift”, to send your donation.

Thank you so much for your help everyone! No matter what part of the country (or world!) you are from, Ireena is your neighbor, and she needs other freedom fighters to back her up against the system in place that respects no one’s freedoms.

I speak in part from personal experience, both attending home births as a doula, and having three home births myself. We are so thankful for each of our midwives, and can’t imagine a place, in our own backyard, where families like us are not able to have a most common sense thing as a midwife.

Let’s show this witch-hunting doctor a thing or two and help Ireena get back to her all-important work of helping to bring babies into the world.

5 posts we’ve enjoyed and recommend

Looking for some good reading material? While you’re waiting for my return of course :::smile:::: Here are five posts I’ve enjoyed reading and recommend you check out. These ladies are among my fav bloggers and you’ll find other great reads on their sites too.

1. Agrarian Freedom, and the Price Thereof ~ Shannon@Nourishing Days

Shannon writes: “Every now and then I daydream of showers and washing machines and flushing toilets, but then I remember one of the many reasons we are here… Freedom.”

2. Government Doesn’t Work! ~ Patrice@RuralRevolution, writing for WND Commentary

Patrice writes: “Whoever wins [the 2012 election] will still continue to trample on the Constitution, further regulate my life and pretend that rights come from regulations rather than from God – so what does it matter if it’s a Democrat or a Republican? They’re both the same. In fact, the logic of some particularly despairing conservatives is to vote for Obama so he’ll ruin the country faster and spark a revolution. I can almost see their point.”

3. Precocious Savi’s Plentifully Play-Packed & Painlessly Practical Preschool Plans ~ Beth@TheBrewCrewAdventure (with resources for preschool and kindergarten)

Beth writes: “Yet we’re taking our time enjoying the journey; for one thing I’ve learned is there’s no need for haste, and I don’t want to *rush* her.”

4. My Five Favorite Time Management Strategies ~ Renee@FunInMyBackYard

Renee writes: “I think it’s important to find a system that works for you and then be willing to tweak and change through each season.”

5. The Master Bedroom Tour…. Wait, is that a crib? ~ Carolyn @ TheMobileHomeMaker

Carolyn writes: “My bed. Where all the magic happened last September. If you’re ever really tired and want to close out the evening with company, just offer them to sleep in the bed you birthed your baby on. They’ll be in their car within seconds.”

3 places to get the real news

If you can’t trust the media to tell you what’s really going on in the world, but you want to know what’s going on so you can make decisions on how to live your life well in a reckless society, here are three places you can visit to get the real know-how on what’s up with the United States.

1. InfoWars ~ This has been our go-to spot for a few years now. You’ll find links to articles by CNN, Fox, and other mainstream news sources that get hidden in the fine lines of their web pages – news they really don’t want you to see, but is happening in your backyard nonetheless.

2. JudgeNap ~ Judge Andrew Napolitano has been a respected figure in our country, and is unfortunately one of the few political figures who will tell it like it is. Check out his site for the real deal on spun news.

3. Russia Today ~ Pretty sad when you have to listen to news about your own country from across the sea in order to hear what’s going on behind the politically correct crap you get from our “trusted” news sources, but at least someone is speaking up!

Do you have a trusted source that doesn’t put a spin on the news? Please share!

See you in April!

I can’t believe I’m already 38 weeks pregnant! But here we are, ready to meet our newest child anytime in the next 4 weeks or so. Our birth supplies are ready and our baby’s belongings are lovingly prepared. This weekend I will be celebrating with some women in my family at a Mother Blessing my mom is preparing for me, and then I’ll be ready to have this baby.

As I’m sure you can understand, I have absolutely no intention of blogging within the first few weeks of giving birth. So I have asked some friends to share on some very cool topics, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, until I return. Please visit and support my guest writers. I’m very excited about what they have to share and I know it will bless you!

Papa will probably continue to share his thoughts as he is inspired, and we will post an announcement with a picture of Chickie or Chap from Papa’s phone after the birth. When I return I will come bearing our birth story, and will probably have a bunch of other news to share, as often happens when I don’t post for any length of time. We are still hoping to have our new website up and running in April as well!

Thank you all for your support, I look forward to chatting with you again next month!

New website to open in April!

We announced earlier this year that Papa and I have decided to start our own website to replace this free blog, but I also told you that we had no idea what we were doing or when such a website would actually come into existence.

I am VERY pleased to tell you that our new website, by the same name, will be open to the public when I return from my babymoon. I’m comin’ back with a bang!

I don’t have a specific date for you because I don’t want to say for sure when I’ll be ready to start blogging again, but I do know it will be sometime late April. Until then I have surprises to keep you visiting here (you’ll find out about that on Friday), and when I’m ready I’ll return and tell you where you can find us!

I want to give a big thank you to all our readers, you have been such an encouragement to us and we are thrilled to be supporting a growing community of like-minded families.

Get ready!

Mothering Spirited Children

In a couple of recent posts I mentioned that we have been having some pretty intense parenting challenges. I have intentionally avoided expanding on the subject becuase I don’t want people, especially those who don’t personally know our family, to think I’m just complaining. All parents deal with “parenting issues”, so let’s just acknowledge it and move on already!

However, part of my mission here is to be honest about our family’s journey, and as I wrote about last year in my spirited child series, raising difficult children is part of our journey.

Sometimes I do wonder though if people think I’m crazy for saying my children are difficult. Somehow, despite their intense personalities, each of our children behaves well in public; being respectful to their elders and playing well with other children.

So last week, just for kicks, I went back to my posts on spirited children and completed the difficulty scale for each of my kids to see if their temperments have changed in the past 10 months. Please view this post to learn more about the scale. With 0 being a child that is not difficult and 30 being a “mother killer”, Pal stayed at about 7, Buddy dropped from 18 to 12 (his growing self-control is helping him to mangage his intensity), and Girlie rose from an 18 to a 23. So I’m not making it up!

And perhaps this is part of the reason why I have doubted my mothering skills as of late. What if I have another spirited child?

At the same time, there are qualities about my children that I admire simply because they are spirited. Temperments that are appreciated in adults are often expressed in very frustrating ways as children. I have the oppportunity to help them shape their temperments to benefit themselves and those around them, but it will take God’s grace to help me do that!

What is it like living with spirited children? The downsides include uncontrollable tantrums, self-imposed fasting, thoughtless aggression toward siblings, changing a 3.5 year old’s diapers, deafness to anything I say for lack of concentration, dressing the same child several times a day because they’re “too hot”, “too cold”… and none of it for the lack of training and discipline!

Then there are the upsides, which I am told tend to be stronger in some ways among spirited children than among “easy” kids. I speak collectively here, but the following examples do express themselves differently with each of my kids.

Extreme mood swings mean we often have VERY happy children, their sensitivity means they are receptive to other’s emotions, their persistence means they are learning to defend their opinions and not let others tell them what they need to do to fit in, their energy ensures adaquate exercise, their impulsivity and distractibility means they are able to change plans quickly without a fuss, their irregularity means I have more freedom to schedule appointments at various times of the day without messing up their rhythms. I have also found their mental capacities are increased, being able to solve problems and create all sorts of things others would consider beyond their age.

Papa asked me recently if having kids was harder than I expected it to be. The answer is absolutely yes, but I have also been inspired by them to see the wonder of a spirited child’s mental and physical abilities, and I’m quite sure that looking back on these days I will have some incredible memories, have learned some valuable things, and be proud of who our children will have become.

In the meantime, I have to remind myself of that to get through the difficult parts, one moment at a time. Breathe in, breathe out. This too shall pass. It’s true what they say, that birth is simple preparation for the work to come!

Do you have spirited children who are grown? Did you find that they learned to direct their temperments in useful ways as they matured? What helped you through the most challenging times?

answering my question

Am I a good mom? Can I be a good mom to four kids? I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about this lately, pondering that one question I needed an answer to before I can give birth. Sharing my thoughts with you feels awkward but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only woman who has questioned her ability to parent.

In fact, in my search for answers, I’ve become more curious about the lives of other moms of more than three kids. What can I learn from them to encourage me to take this leap with courage, even though I know I won’t have it all figured out?

People say that after child number three it’s all about the same. That numbers four, five, and six do not drastically change your lifestyle or make life more chaotic. Because, let’s face it, having three kids can make life a bit crazy some days! And yet, despite this reassurance, and despite the fact that I have God to support me, and that I love my children dearly, I still doubt myself.

I’ve been having difficulty disciplining my kids, because it seems that no method works effectively and many days of late have put me in survival mode. How am I supposed to mother another child well? Will God really give me enough peace of mind, patience, and wisdom to raise them?

Okay, so I’m definitely making myself vulnerable here. I do hope you know that I am very proud of each of my children, I love them desperately, and I’m so glad God has chosen me to be their mother. But parenting… motherhood… is hard, and I don’t always feel adequate for the job.

So I have asked myself, what is it that I’m really afraid of? Life is messy, but we love each other, so what is the big deal about this baby? While reading about the transition to parenthood in Birthing From Within by Pam England, it hit me – I’m afraid of losing control – of being outnumbered four to one, and feeling like I’m not in charge – of being overwhelmed by multiple developing characters and personalities, and not being able to maintain order.

Your successful evolution to parenthood depends largely on your accommodation to the vast changes which are unfolding beyond your control. Learning to accept loss of control is an integral part of both birth and motherhood/fatherhood. ~ Pam England

(She is of course talking about losing control over things that are okay not to have control over) But that is what new parents are supposed to be afraid of, not mothers of three, right? Perhaps, I’ve thought, my firm grasp of what that loss of control is like is why I have had a harder time coming to terms with my motherhood now.

In my more rational moments, I set aside my fears and look at the basic facts – I am human, I am not perfect, I love my kids, I do the best I know how for today, and I am still growing as a woman and mom which means tomorrow is a new day and I can use the hard lessons of today to be a better mom tomorrow.

I’ve also decided to look at the things I love about myself as mother. What makes me feel confident in my role? What do I do that makes me proud of myself? I don’t want to compare myself to other “good” or “bad” moms, but admitting the good things about myself does give perspective and hope.

One of the activities Pam England encourages is facing your fears – looking your tiger right in the eye and asking, what if it happens? What happens if I do lose control of my home and my kids are beating each other up or disobeying me again? How will I respond? Will the world end? What if I yell or cry in frustration – will I ruin my kids? Being truly honest about what I’m afraid of is helping me to see that I can step outside the situation and not be overwhelmed by it. I can find solutions, and most importantly, it is okay to express my frustrations appropriately. In fact, it’s healthy to do so.

Goodnight, Mother, it’s o.k. You didn’t win a prize for motherhood today, but it’s o.k. You haven’t ruined my development by one bad day. You sure were angry at the world! I learned a few new words (I won’t repeat!) Don’t worry, Mother – I felt your kiss. There’s always a tomorrow – Forgiving and forgetting are easy when I know that I am loved. ~ Ruth Reardon, Listening to the Littlest

What is a good mom anyway? Maybe we all have a different definition. It is good to have high goals, but at the same time, maybe having high expectations is more of a detriment to our self-esteem?

A good mom in my mind is one who is patient, kind, cheerful, and firm. She expects good behavior from her kids and knows how to form it in them. She plays with them, teaches them, but provides quiet time for reflective play and thought. Her home is neat, although not spotless, and she cares for her own needs so she has energy and enthusiasm for her family and life.

Some days I feel like I can see this happening in our family, and other days I feel like crap. I supposed that happens to the best of us! In the end, on the days when I need to restart, several times, I know that the most important thing I can do is love my children, because that is the foundation of motherhood. The rest will fall into place over time.

Do you worry if you’re doing right? So much advice, so many books – I grow so fast! Are you sometimes scared? Things balance out… Too much of this, too little of that. You try too hard, don’t try enough. Too far this way, too far the other. Of course you’ll make mistakes… but love is a great eraser! And things will always balance out because you car. ~ Ruth Reardon, Listening to the Littlest

Am I a good mom? Can I be a good mom to four kids? The answer is yes, but not because I have achieved the title of “perfect mom”, but because I love my kids and I want to keep growing as a mom, working out my motherhood one trial and triumph at a time. I do care how I train my children, and how my life influences them. I want the best for them, and I’ve made sacrifices and lost control over some issues to help them figure themselves out. I’ve dedicated all of my days to them, and I want to learn more about perfecting my role as mom. And those are the reasons I am a good mom, and will be no matter how many kids I am blessed with.

Now, please tell me I’m not the only one whose been here, because this may be the most transparent I’ve been about myself on this blog, and that’s not easy!

Ron Paul comes to town

Mutual friends connected me with a woman in the area who had an unassisted birth last year. I have been looking for women willing to share their birth stories on my other blog during my babymoon, and S’s story offered encouragement and inspiration that I just had to share with my readers! So after meeting her briefly we scheduled a visit at her place to chat, and while I assumed we would have a few things in common, I was in for a big surprise.

I drove down her street looking for the one that would fit the right description, and low and behold, the one that matched had a huge Ron Paul banner on the fence! Oh please let that be her house! I silently hoped, and it was!

Long story short, thanks to the lack of media attention, it was only through this meeting with S that Papa and I learned the exciting news that Ron Paul was coming to town. The kids just happened to have a scheduled sleepover that night, and while it would have been a great homeschool opportunity it worked out well to attend the town hall-style event on our date night.

I’ve been telling everyone who cares to listen who refreshing it was to hear him speak for more than 20 seconds at a time, the equivalent of what he gets at the presidential debates. He is a wise man with mission, not just to spread a message of liberty but to win the presidency, and we are behind him 100%.

Papa and I love freedom. And Ron Paul is a true freedom fighter. Hearing him speak of bringing the troops home from all over the world, defending our borders, supporting the middle class, giving property rights back to the people, and ending the federal reserve, the internal revenue service, and the patriot act… you could just feel the energy of the people in that over-crowded room saying a big hell-yes! to overhauling the federal government, starting with a president who doesn’t bow to special interests and the party line.

Chants of “President Paul!” and “End the Fed!” greeted Ron Paul as he entered the room, and those of the crowd backing out into the parking lot who wished to stay longer were able to shake hands with the icon of liberty and have their pictures taken with him. We had other plans so weren’t able to, but it looked like most of the crowd was trying to line up as we were squeezing our way out!

Another really cool thing that happened, bringing attention to my discomfort with getting attention and at the same time pointing out the values and character of the people who attended the event, involved my blossoming belly. Who knew that a 7 (or 8?) month pregnant woman could attract so much attention?!

First, you have to understand, there were a lot of people standing in the room as there were not enough seats, or places to put them. Despite the fact we arrived an hour early we were plumb out of luck and ended up standing. After turning down a seat from a male friend in attendance, and a woman passing by saying she would grab a seat for me if she could, the man who would proceed to introduce Ron Paul came down off the stage and began looking for someone to offer me a seat! I wish I could remember his name… I told him I was okay, that there were a lot of people standing, and so on, but before I knew it, Scott D’Ambois, the man running against our anti-liberty U.S. Senator, had given me his seat! I figured I ought to sit down before I garnered more attention, but it did make me wonder – in what other audience I would be blessed with this attention?

Okay, enough of our experience, here’s a clip of the man himself speaking. Keep in mind, this was taken with Papa’s cell phone, so the sound isn’t that great. My appologies.