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Family Adventures

We’re Building a Farmhouse!

January 3, 2019 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

I kept telling y’all we had some big news!! Remember back in 2017 when I was Seven months pregnant and we bough 13 acres of farmland? We decided that it’s time to make the big move and build out there. I suppose we’re doing it now because there’s no time like the present, right? But actually, it’s a combination of three main reasons:

  1. Our perk test on our land that runs out in early 2020 and we don’t want to have to re-perk the land.
  2. Sawyer starts Kindergarten next fall and we are hoping to avoid too many school switches. I’m that kid who lived in one spot my whole childhood. The friends I knew in Kindergarten are the same people I graduated high school with. I loved it and want something similar for my children.
  3. There’s that small garden we tilled last spring, planted, and watered at the farm. The one where I drove out to that farm at least once a week during the big drought in June and lugged 5 gallon jugs of water through chest-high grass to water the newly planted berries? Yeah. Almost all of it died. Things got CRAZY in our lives with swim team, summer plans, vacation, school starting (mid-July for us) and I gave up on watering. We decided that if we want anything to grow out there, we need to be present to tend to it.

HOW WE CHOSE A BUILDER

Back in August we started talking to builders. We thought we’d go with a modular build, which contrary to our initial thoughts is actually a cost-effective way to build with less waste. Apparently you can build just about any house as a modular home, but the companies we talked with seemed to have trouble turning plans on their own website into actual homes on our land. Hmmm…

We looked at custom builders, but at close to $200 a square foot they were definitely out of our price range.

We ended up settling somewhere in the middle, with a company called America’s Home Place. They offer quite a few plans, and after you choose your plan you can then customize pretty much everything about it. Even bumping out walls, adding rooms, changing layouts. They cost less than the custom builders, and as of right now I believe our home comes in at about $124 a sq. foot.

 

THE HOUSE

I don’t want to think about how many hours I spent pouring over plans this summer. Too many! Ha! We finally settled on the “Ugly House,” which despite its ugly exterior had an open-ish layout with the kitchen/dining/living areas at the front of the home. The way our house is positioned on our lot, it was important to us that we maximize views out the front (west) and right side (south) to see the pastures (maybe vineyards someday) and the pond. And that we had a long southern exposure for tons of natural light and for the possibility of solar in the future.

farmhouse rendering

You can head over to see the original plan HERE. We jokingly call it the ugly house because the upstairs windows are spaced much too far apart, and it’s generally off center. But no worries, we fixed those minor details by adding a garage, wrap around porch, and re-centering windows. Now it looks like a farmhouse!

There are LOTS more details to share about the new house plan itself, what we added, and what we wanted in a house, but I think they warrant a separate post so stay tuned.

OUR TIMELINE

When we mulled over this decision and when would be the right time, it was a no-brainer to try and time our move between school years. In order to finish the new house by late May/early June, we had to sign off on plans by November 1st. And THAT meant that the entire month of September and October I was consumed by house plans. I drew about 6 different plans on giant graph paper, changing things to meet our needs and aiming to meet our budget (I’ll post more on what we’re looking for in a functional farmhouse in a separate post).

September/October

I spent every evening after the kids were in bed drawing and re-drawing plans. Also meeting with the design consultant about twice a week (sometimes with small children hanging off my legs and spilling candy jars in the showroom) to nail down our plans.

Late October:

The week of Halloween was insane. We were working on a tight deadline to nail down ALL the house details (before the designer had a baby and went on maternity leave for 10 weeks). I lived in Pinterest for a week straight. I’ve never pinned so many photos. Then I compiled them in Photoshop and printed pages for each room: kitchen, bathroom, dining room, etc. with paint colors, floors I liked, fixtures. Nothing kills my soul faster than being buried in a computer or cell phone, and my soul was dying. BUT, these are important decisions! I don’t want to move into a new home and hate the paint colors and cabinets because I punked out of doing my research.

Staking the house site

November:

We’ve been working on getting our loan nailed down. Having never built before, we are in completely uncharted waters. We will end up with a construction loan for about 7 months, then close again on a permanent loan in early summer. And for this to happen, they needed our first born child. Joking! Just our entire financial existence. I scanned files for days. Also, I met the builder at the farm last week to stake out where our home will sit. With two toddlers in toe. In 40 degree weather. For a two hours. STICK A FORK IN ME.

December:

I’m exhausted. Hoping to get some rest and relaxation! The builder should be pulling permits. We closed on our construction loan before Christmas. We debate daily about whether to sell or rent our current home. And we are working daily to get it re-painted, clean, and all the tiny broken things fixed so that we can do either. And in all the hustle to start cleaning up our current home and the mess that four children have brought, we broke the all time record for annual rain. Durham, NC got more rain last year than Seattle. And our backyard is a mud pit. SO… being the crazies that we are, we decided to remedy that problem by digging a new walkway over Christmas break. Yeah…

January-May:

Building. Not sure yet what will happens when, but you get the idea. Hoping to move in late June!

 

 

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A Perpetual Mischief Maker Sleeps in our Room

December 13, 2018 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

My older two started sleeping in big beds around age two. They were great! A few nights setting a gate up at the door to the room and they caught onto the rules. But #3? My wild child and perpetual mischief maker? Noooooooo. She has been sleeping in our room in a pack n play for nearly a year. She needs to go. And by go, I mean move in with the big kids. I fear if she moves in with Bodhi she will bother him all night long and that kid will never sleep again.

Problem number one is she’s a terrible roommate and a night owl. Larkin will stay up in the dark, reading books in that pack n play until 9pm every night. We can’t go upstairs to sleep until then, because heaven help us if we walk into that room and she begins the endless cycle of “I’m thirsty, I have to go potty, etc.” This is probably part of the reason we have such trouble moving her to the big kids bedroom.

The offender

Nevertheless, we tried again over the Thanksgiving break. She was so excited to sleep in a big kid bed with the big kids. It all started well… and then we had to go up there because she’s using the potty and the older ones are trying to wipe her. I’m ok with that. Then she wants to drink more water. Then she’s getting in bed with the big kids. We tried to ignore it and let them work it out on their own until SHE DECIDED TO SIT IN THE CAT LITTER BOX. The box that happens to live in the hall bathroom. That girl sat right in the cat litter because “that’s what the cats do.” GROSS. Covered in poo at 9pm.

And at that point we moved her back to the pack n  play. She won’t still be in that thing as a teenager, right?!?!?

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Fall Break Roadtrip

December 4, 2018 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

You say fall break started the first week of October? Hmm, so it goes with our crazy life, but I want to make sure I write down the details of this fall break roadtrip before I forget them. This was the first road trip we’ve taken with four kids. Years ago when Pippa was three and Sawyer was an infant we dared to drive to Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland to stay in a lakehouse with my inlaws for a week, and then we took the mountain roads down to the NC mountains for a vacation with my family. At the time we didn’t realize the reason Pippa screamed in the car since she was a baby was because she was getting carsick. BUT… all it took was ten hours on winding roads and several stops to clean up puke to realize why that girl hated car rides. Man, that was a BAD road trip.

Maryland

Cunningham Falls park

We have since taken much shorter vacations (to the beach, anyone?) but finally decided to make a longer trek this fall. Remember that we are in year round school, so our fall break is three weeks long. It makes for amazing travel opportunities when the rest of the world is in school! First we headed north to Maryland to stay with my inlaws for six days. We took the kids hiking at Cunningham Falls state park — a place John and I both went to a lot growing up (we’re both MD born and raised).

Then we did something I never thought I’d get to do: visit John’s grandparents house one last time. We went down there to pick up a box of his dad’s things. I have such great memories of his grandparents, because they became my grandparents at a time when all my grandparents were already gone. I lost my last one when I was in college. So all those beautiful moments when we were engaged and we would sit on the couch for hours listening to stories about the war, and how they lived in military housing in Europe, and how they worked in the factories outside of DC. Grandparents have the best stories and I wish my own had been alive when I was just a bit older.

I never thought I’d get to see that house again. And then, we were there. The place was completely unchanged! The walls were still mint green, the original kitchen appliances from the 1940s still in place. I admired how small it was compared to today’s homes and how three kids grew up there, and I felt a little silly for thinking I need a bigger kitchen.

I think of all the places I would love to visit just one last time.

We took the kids to the Enchanted Forest (another place from my childhood – ha!) although it’s been relocated to a farm. The kids rode ponies, played with goats, got foam swords. We went to the local farm – Larriland – to do an awesome hayride and pick out apples. Man do I wish we had stayed just a bit longer to pick pumpkins and apples from the fields. Sometimes being a slave to nap times makes me a grouch.

Pippa and Sawyer spent countless hours riding skateboard scooters down my inlaws’ driveway, and honestly I’m surprised it didn’t end with a trip to the ER with how fast those wild things went! Wish I had a video of that.

Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns…pre screaming toddler

We left Maryland and drove the mountain road through Shenandoah, and guess who didn’t get sick! Three cheers for a car trip without puke!!!! We stopped in Luray at the cutest deli for lunch, then took the kids on a tour of the caves. When you have four kids, you worry that the oldest will miss out on fun things if you always wait for the youngest to be age appropriate for something. So the heck with it, we thought. Pippa and Sawyer will love to see a cave! So we signed up for the tour. And then there we were… stuck with a group of 60 year olds on a one hour tour where we couldn’t leave the group behind for fear we’d get left in the dark in a cave. Larkin was laughing hysterically. So much so that we couldn’t hear the tour guide. We faded to the back of the group when Bodhi started fussing, because EVERYTHING ECHOES. It was bad. Then they went to play this underground organ that echoes over three miles of caves, and THAT is when Larkin decides to scream and run away down a side cave. It was super embarrassing, but we were stuck. Those poor people. We won’t be touring anymore caves for a few years!

Watauga Lake, TN

After Luray, we drove south and stopped approximately every 20 minutes so that Larkin could use the bathroom. PS: don’t take a long road trip with a potty training toddler. YOu’d think we’d have learned that by kid #3! At dinner time we decided to stop and grocery shop, because the cabin we rented was in the middle of nowhere. We grabbed a rotisserie chicken, chips, and veg tray and headed to a park for a picnic. Then after two more hours in the car (and a total of 12.5 hours from Maryland where we started our trip) we arrived at this super cute cabin.

The cordwood cabin in TN

The owners lived down the lane, and their four sons had built this cordwood cabin from scratch. How cool is that? It was beautiful and rustic and the kids loved climbing up to the loft and playing in all the secret nooks. We were there while Hurricane Michael was coming up the east coast, and of the four days we spent here it rained three of them. We lost power the first day and those sweet owners invited us down to their home to play with toys. They had chickens, peacocks, miniature horses (which we spent the better part of three days feeding), and a dog named Lollipop (which Larkin talked about non-stop for the rest of our trip). We cooked dinner on the charcoal grill in the rain until the power came back on.

Pippa loved those mini ponies!

Larkin and Lollipop

Roan Mountain views

Watauga Lake after the storm

Trying not to blow away

Day two we drove to Johnson City to a children’s museum. Finally the rain stopped enough for us to have a campfire, so the rest of the nights we ate s’mores for dessert looking up at the mountain. The kids played nonstop in the mud puddles and we took lots of baths! The last day here we were supposed to go to Tweetsie Railroad, but the weather was going to be super cold and windy! So instead we drove to Roan Mountain and hiked up to the grassy bald. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve been on in the Smokies, but it was about 35 degrees with constant wind. It was so gusty that Larkin kept getting blown over. We didn’t have winter coats with us so we were bundled in 3 pairs of pants and blankets to make the half mile hike up there. The kids were such good sports! And afterwards they agreed that it was a really cool hike. We hit up the state park playground after and warmed up.

Carowinds

Then, because we are crazy, we decided to make up our trip to Tweetsie (that the kids had been bummed to miss) by stopping at Carowinds amusement park on our way home… which really was 2.5 hours out of our way. The day was beautiful, but it was so dang crowded! I think everyone was there for the fall festival stuff they had going on. And watching three kids (wearing Bodhi in a carrier) was super stressful. We waited about 40 minutes per ride, which we thought was long and torturous. Is Disney this bad? Hmm….

The highlight of the day for the big kids was definitely riding on the wooden “kiddie” roller coaster. I had fun on it, so it wasn’t so little 🙂 We didn’t realize how early the park closed for their scary nighttime event, so this mama was bummed to not get to hop on just one big roller coaster. Next time, right? Ha! We drove 2.5 hours home and got home well after bedtime, which brings me to the worst greeting ever upon returning from a road trip….

Mold in our House

Yep. We had lost power for 48 hours because of the Hurricane, and before that I had set our AC to come on at a higher temp THAT OUR HOUSE NEVER REACHED. Then we got all the rain and no power for two days. Anyway, everything felt damp. We went right to bed, and the next morning as I was sitting on the couch nursing Bodhi I noticed that everything was GREEN. Mold was everywhere. We spent a crazy two days cleaning everything in sight and renting the upholstery cleaner… the whole nine yards. It was terrible. As if gobs of laundry isn’t enough to handle after two weeks away!

Wow, that was a long post. I’m trying to be better about documenting things like this, because it is so fun to look back on all the details. Thanks for joining the journey!

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Nine things that summarize this season of life – 2018

May 29, 2018 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

I came across a great idea in the blog 71 Toes. Every year the author creates a post on a summary of life for that year, what her kids are up to, etc. She’s done it for awhile, so I can imagine how cool it is to look back and see what their life was like ten years ago. Sometimes I look back on photos from one year ago and I am just amazed at how different our life looks! And how different my kids look. It is miraculous to see them grow into such amazing little humans, yet I’d be lying if I didn’t also mention how sad it makes me that those sweet days of last year will never be here again. My babies will never be that little again!

summary of life popsicles

Oh, time! The one thing that we often try to wish away when the days are tough, yet it marches on through the good as well. The only thing we cannot gain more of. I am going to try my darnedest to remember to write a similar post every spring when the world is fresh and new, so that I, too, can look back at this family of ours in ten years and reminisce on what has changed (and try not to forget the important little details along the way!)

Nine Moments that Summarize our Life in 2018

  1. Pippa is in Kindergarten and loves her teacher, Ms. LaRue. She can’t wait for first grade and is reading everything. That girl wants to start a business selling things every time I turn around. First it was painted rocks. Lemonade. Seashells. Most recently its been plants she dug up from our yard and re-potted. Anything to make money! But then she turns around and wants to buy approximately 1,000,000 stuffed animals with it, which is super frustrating for us. I created online kids savings accounts for the two big kids where half of their allowance now goes (all 25 cents a week, lol) so they can see what happens when they save it. Pippa has lost 4 bottom teeth and her top two front teeth and I finally snapped a photo of that toothless girl! She also loves soccer swimming and I think her favorite part of school recently was making the little clay bowl in art class that she talked about for a month straight!
  2. Sawyer is in preschool one day a week. He colors in the lines better than many kindergartners I’ve seen and truly loves to draw – it is beautiful to watch! He wants to play soccer with me every afternoon after the littles are down for their naps, in the cool shade of our little backyard. And darn it – he is getting really good! I can no longer beat him while holding a baby, ha! He can walk to his best friend Jay’s house by himself and is really good at crossing the road. He antagonizes Larkin constantly and also loves guns, dinosaurs, and blowing things up. He hates getting his face wet, but swim team starts next week and he promised me he would put his head in if I signed him up.

    Easter 2018

  3. Larkin is still difficult. Remember back HERE when I lamented how difficult this girl was as an infant? She’s changing… ever so S-L-O-W-L-Y. She will squawk all day long with such intensity it nearly drives me mad. I just keep telling myself she won’t be this way forever! She does love books, and would rather have Napping House and Little Nutbrown Hair in her bed than a stuffed animal. Lately she’s been “reading” Fancy Nancy, which just cracks me up. She loves to swing and out of all our kiddos is just the most obsessed with water!
  4. Bodhi is my little blessing. I was scared to death to have 4 kids, and he is the happiest little thing! Just giggles and smiles constantly. He is 7 months old, sits by himself and is getting ready to crawl. He loves bananas and carrots but won’t touch egg yolk yet (we feed our babies a whole foods diet, no cereal or rice) 
  5. The moment I’ve been dreading with four kids happened – the STOMACH  BUG. In mid-April, Pippa woke up puking and it continued for 10 hours. Three days later Larkin had diarrhea all over the floor. As soon as John got her scrubbed in the tub, she started projectile vomiting (exorcist style) and running scared all over the dining room. Did I mention we have WHITE CARPET in our dining room from the previous owners? She’s running after John, who is running away from her yelling “you’re contagious!!!”  and I am chasing her with a towel trying to contain the vomit. He of course came to his senses and grabbed her, but it was the most disgusting/comical scene looking back on it. Sawyer and John and I eventually got it, but not before our TV broke and the van battery died and upon replacing the battery, the stereo wouldn’t work because we were never given our magic anti-theft passcode. Riding in a car with kids and no music is awful. I don’t know how people used to do it. It’s been a month I tell you!
  6. I’m trying so hard to start this little art business of mine on Etsy (well, re-start but in all honesty I’m creating and selling watercolor prints and cards, which is completely different from the surfboards I used to make). I spend my evenings after 8pm painting and nap times sketching and sort of got burned out last week. I haven’t sold a thing and it’s been discouraging (but I promised myself I would stick it out. It may take awhile to get a sale, and that’s ok). Finding balance between my creative side and being a good mom is a big challenge for me.
  7. I have an ongoing mental battle with technology. On one hand, it’s integral in this time if I want to sell anything artistic. And it’s not enough just to occasionally post something to Instagram. I have to commit to several posts a week to promote myself and my art. On the other hand, I hate phones. We don’t own a tablet and out kids’ access to screens is very limited. Yet they see me on my phone posting things “for my business” and I struggle with what example I’m setting. Lots of thinking to be had on this one, and it probably deserves a post of it’s own.
  8. Vacation dreaming, folks. Right now the idea of a road trip with a baby and 2 year old sounds like a night mare. But my heart can’t wait to show these kids more of the world and I think the older two are ready. (flying is too expensive for us, so car trips it is!). Maybe next year will be the year we venture outside the NC/VA/MD area we’ve stuck to for the past 6 years? I daydream often of Texas and the northeast and even Florida.
  9. Farm days are the best! We head out to our 13.5 acres (more on our crazy farm purchase HERE) about every other weekend to plant raspberries and blackberries and hunt for tadpoles. John sprayed a ton of poison ivy. Last weekend we went, we took a push mower and tiller and dug up a tiny bit of a garden inside one of the pastures. Hoping to get some bigger vines (watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin) to grow in the abundant sunshine. Also daydreaming a lot about if and when we should build a home out there, and how that would affect our lives. Love this photo with the dark clouds over the trees – wind blowing their hair!

    Windy Farm Day in March

That’s it, my friends! Can’t wait to see what’s changed when I revisit this post in 2019!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: stomach bug, summary of life

That time I was Seven Months Pregnant and We Bought a Farm

March 21, 2018 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

I think we might look back on 2017 as “the crazy year in my mid-30s that we said to hell with doing it by the book.”

Go big or go home, right? Sure we had a FOURTH baby on the way (umm… still not entirely used to that one!) but last summer we took the plunge for something we’ve been saving towards for years. Years my friends!  WE BOUGHT A FARM. And we didn’t buy just a little bit of countryside (although it is undoubtedly small compared to a true farm!), but 13.5 ACRES.

At the moment I can’t manage my .5 acres of suburbia. The weeds overtake the veggies every summer in the only garden that gets full sun. It’s about 7×17 feet. How on earth do I plan to take care of 4 kids and farm/homestead/manage 13.5 acres? I haven’t the slightest idea. My mom once bought me a drink coaster that said “jump and the net will appear” and told me that was me in a nutshell. Funny, right? Because it’s true. And here I am waiting for my net … the one that can save my sanity from four kids age six and under … the one that can magically reveal a method for managing this dream farm.

When we bought the land last summer it was unimproved. It has a 1.5 acre pond and .5 acres of woods down by the road, but the rest is pasture. And I mean ZERO trees or big shrubs except for the big Cedar tree that marks the corner of the property, and that Cedar tree is pretty stoic out there between our fields and our neighbor’s tobacco. In November we planted three Maple trees on top of the hill, and last weekend we loaded up the kids and planted about 20 raspberry canes and the six blackberries that made it through winter. We’ve been out to the farm several times since Bodhi arrived for picnics and camping and because running through an open field is so amazing! Someday we will probably build a home there, but for now we are going to try and plan the property’s future and tend it when we can. That said…

I have big dreams!

We’ve tossed so many ideas around for years and years, based on “what if” we ever buy some land. There’s wine grapes and a small winery since we’ve been making wine here at home for about six years. I’ve always wanted some farm animals, but then again I love to travel and want my kids to see the world and don’t want to be tied down to the demands of livestock. We do eat 5 dozen eggs a week, so chickens are probably a definite. Maybe some sheep? Because hot dang, that is a large amount of pasture to keep mowed without large livestock. Lately I’ve been falling for the idea of pick your own berries. There are two PYO blueberry farms a mile up the road. Blackberries? Raspberries? A permaculture orchard? Or maybe lavender. For cutting/selling and for photography, because who can resist taking photos of their kids in a field of lavender.

Do you want to take a tour? Of course you do! Here are some photos from right here in the beginning. Follow along as we decide what on earth to do next!

PS: Below is a Mimosa tree in one of two fenced pastures. We were SO excited they had something to climb on!

A two month old Bodhi. The only thing between us and the distant road.

 

 

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Top 5 Baby Names for Fourth Baby

July 31, 2017 by wildsunshine 2 Comments

If you missed the news, we are about to embrace a full house over here in late September with the addition of baby #4 – a boy! Like most moms, I have a love/hate relationship with selecting a name for my kids. One one hand, there is something so fun about researching name meanings and history and saying it aloud along with a middle and last name and imagining what this baby will look like. What he’ll love. Whether his hair will be curly or straight. But dang, choosing something the kid will grow into and will identify him for the rest of his life is a lot of pressure! Top five baby names for a fourth child

Growing up there were two Allison Fords in my class (one was always known as “Allison  Ford with two L’s). I don’t want my kids to be the equivalent, so we always opt for a more unique first name to go with Clark. Right now we have two girls (Pippa and Larkin) and one boy (Sawyer). We struggled mightily with both girls’ names (you can read about our top choices for baby #3 HERE), but had Sawyer picked out from the beginning. All of our kids have middle names from family, so we will do the same with this little guy. Right now we only have two options for middles that we like, but without further ado here our top 5 baby boy names:

First Name Baby Name Options

Griffin: One of my favorite sites for baby names is Appellatian Mountain. She highlights Griffin as “red,” “prince,” and of course mythical beast. I also love that it has the nickname Finn (one of my favorites).

Bodhi: This unique name translates from Sanskrit as awakening. It’s the name of the tree under which the Budda supposedly found enlightenment. I love that it ends with an “i” as it goes really well with our last name (I don’t want anything with a hard ending). On the downside, this name ranks in the 300s in popularity in the US and at 30-something on Nameberry, which I’m not super keen about. Bodhi (also spelled Bode and Bodie) is known as a surfer name and has been used for babies of the famous in the past few years, which is probably responsible for it’s boost in popularity.

Kingston: This gem means “King’s Town” and what I love is that it evokes a laid back sense of place. Ever heard that song Jamaican Farewell? That’s what I hear of, and it makes me think of tropical breezes. Yet this is also a strong name AND it has the alliteration (Kingston Clark)! Don’t love that it was number 130-something on the popularity list in 2016.

Apollo: Again I like that this ends in a vowel that is different from my other children’s names. Probably best known (recently) for Apolo Ohno, the Olympic speed skater, this name Apollo hails from mythology, God of the Sun in Latin and God of Medicine in Greek myths. There is also an Apollo of Arthurian legend, adding to the adventurous history. Bonus for this name: it hasn’t yet risen up the charts the way Bodhi and Kingston have, falling at around #500.

Canyon: I also love the alliteration with this – he would be Canyon Clark. It’s outdoorsy, and feels like and adventure (sort of like his big brother Sawyer). It’s not very popular, another bonus! Nameberry has it down around #2300 in popularity, so there likely won’t be another in his class.

 

Middle Baby Name Options

We are down to two! Both middle names honor family members in some respect, as this is what we did with all of our current children.

Arthur: After my maternal grandfather’s middle name. This name appears to be coming back into vogue, and I love that it has that King Arthur legend quality about it. Arthur means bear and is Celtic in origin according to Nameberry.

Monroe: After my dad (his middle name). Did you know this name actually translates roughly to “red marsh?” Neither did I. If this last baby of ours were a girl, I would definitely be vying to use Monroe as her middle name. Yet I think that it fits equally well on a boy or girl, especially in our case as it’s a family name.

 

Ten short weeks to go! Any name combo suggestions?

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Mother’s Day 2017 and some BIG News

May 19, 2017 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

I think this may be the best Mother’s Day yet. I debated for some time whether to take John’s offer to whisk the kids away for a big part of the day so that I could actually accomplish things at the house. I honestly don’t know how work-at-home moms do it– all the cooking and cleaning and entertaining while finding time to sit down at a computer for more than five minutes in order to get something done. I keep encouraging myself to stick with it. Maybe someday I’ll be able to form coherent sentences in my mind and get them down on the computer before the baby cries or the big kids are starting World War three.

But then I started thinking about something I miss dearly. And that’s spending time with my big kids, who at 5 and 3 are not very big, yet they have sacrificed a lot of mommy time in the last year while I tended to the youngest (and by far crankiest in case you’re new to my cranky baby saga). I miss spending time with kids who can talk to me and enjoy some of the things I do. Who don’t need to be held 99% of the time and cry 99% of the time.

So I opted for a big date with the bigs. I’ve been wanting to see Beauty and the Beast for awhile, and although I didn’t really think they would handle the intensity well I took them anyway. Because darn it, it’s PG and I’m allowed to be selfish on Mother’s Day. And sure enough my emotional child spent most of the movie on my lap hiding her face, but loved the songs. My little super hero spent the last battle scene yelling at the screen that he was going to bring his sword and fight Gaston. Gotta love boys!

We then had a picnic up on Lake Michie in northern Durham county and rented a canoe to explore the lake. They were wiped out (and maybe I was, too), but it was a great reminder for this often overwhelmed mama that although I feel buried in the baby shit right now (I’m not a baby person), soon enough all of them will be old enough to enjoy a day like that and I will be a much happier person for it!

Which brings me to the BIG NEWS. I’m going to have to find a way to love the “baby shit” one more time because…

The Big News

Baby #4 announcement

I say it lovingly, and I am SO very excited (and possibly terrified that this one will be as hard as #3). PS: anyone have a trick to getting the goofball child of the family to just smile? I was laughing so hard I was crying while sorting through all my photos, because he is making a face in every. single. one. And how I love him!

Get the Look

Want to duplicate the chalkboard baby announcement? Snag some cute mini boards here on Amazon or at Michaels. 

I looked up some of my favorite chalk artists and duplicated some of the writing styles as best I could. I was going to have the big kids hold the “Partners in Crime” sign, but of course Larkin wouldn’t hold her Sidekick sign. Shoot, all that kid wanted to do was cry and run away. Good thing she’s cute!

Stay tuned for the gender reveal BBQ photos, because this will be the last baby Clark and we’re going out with a bang!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: baby #4, baby announcement, mothers day activity

One of THOSE days

April 27, 2017 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

Tuesday was one of those days. THOSE days. We were in the middle of day 3 of torrential rains in NC. I avoided schlepping three kids into the rain and through the grocery store yesterday, yet today I have no choice. Because we are out of food. This morning, my oldest looked at the baby (who is only 12 months) and said “my gosh, Larkin is going to be bigger than the sun!” After the child ate two eggs, an orange, and half a banana. AT 12 MONTHS!

And the child who said it had just consumed three eggs, two oranges, and an entire banana. This is it, folks. The beginning of our financial downfall. How on earth can we feed them as teenagers, if among all three they eat 8 eggs, 4 oranges, and 2.5 bananas for breakfast? That’s not counting the request for a snack that followed an hour later. And they eat like this all day. So it was Tuesday and we were out of food. And our local Kroger was out of at least 7 items on my list (which is the worst, because you know you are not going to make it out to the store again for another week and you’ll have to improvise all kinds of things. Really? Out of 7 items of my list of maybe 25?).

Larkin fussed almost the whole time and couldn’t be consoled by the bag of pretzels we grabbed off the shelf. And once we put everything in the car and attempted to walk to the pet store, I realized she had a poop blow out alllllll down her pants. So I changed the screaming baby’s diaper in the back of the van, her screaming while I was getting poured on. And we drove home because the kid had no pants.

Then at rest time my 5 year old comes downstairs with a new haircut. Business in front, party in the rear. Greeeeeeeat. The kid had no hair until she was 18 months old, and it took 4 years to get to her shoulders. So I cried. Hormones. And felt bad about it later as I told her that we had to trim up the rest and that she was beautiful no matter what her hair looked like. Then we cut it into a short bob. Cute, but SHORT.

And the baby took a 10 minute nap. What’s with my babies and refusing to sleep?

This mama needs a glass (bottle?) of wine. So I have some chocolate and pretend it’s wine. Tell me I’m not the only one who has these days!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: baby poop, bad day

Beach Bums

April 20, 2017 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

For almost ten years we have been so fortunate to have family at the beach. We get to see the barren sand of January bundled beneath hats and jackets. The first warm breezes near Easter when the water is too chilly for anyone. And the special Thanksgivings we get to spend there, playing football on the wide open, empty expanse of sand while our kids strip down to their undies and get in the water.dsc_0882-copy

But the week-long vacation is still my favorite. In recent years we’ve been taking our week at the beach in the fall, when the tourists are gone and the days are just warm enough for a bathing suit, yet the water is still warm enough to enjoy. This past trip we were chased out two days early by Hurricane Matthew (PS: can you believe I am just now posting this trip from OCTOBER 2016??? Goes to show how crazy life is with three kiddos! I dearly love photographing the adventures of their childhood). Pippa finally decided she was not afraid of waves, and that kid went out to the breakers with a boogie board (and a parent close by) for HOURS each day. She is going to be my little surfer girl, and I can’t get enough. dsc_0872-copy

This big girl of mine, covered in bug bites from camping the weekend before and bruises from being knocked down again and again by the waves. She would tumble beneath the water and pop back up smiling.

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Sawyer is still in love with pushing a truck around the sand and running away from the waves. And Larkin, well, she just observed and got her toes wet with Meme.
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The three Clarks

Until next time, beloved beach!

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Filed Under: Family Adventures Tagged With: beach, family, photography

Camping with babies

October 14, 2016 by wildsunshine Leave a Comment

Call us crazy, but we took our 5 month old camping. I often feel like being the third kid has a lot of downsides: not as much mommy time, nothing but hand-me-downs, etc. But among the positives are all the cool things this baby gets to do. In her first five months, Larkin has been to the beach twice, spent hours out on a motorboat on a lake, had bonfires, and gone camping. Lucky girl!

Pippa and Sawyer are really into camping. We took them for the first time last year when Sawyer was almost 2 and Pippa was 3.5. For them it was great fun. For us it was a disaster. Sawyer thought it was hysterical to run towards the road and throw his toys towards the fire. Lil’ stinker 😉 But now that he’s a year wiser and Larkin is too small to crawl, we had a blast. And good thing, because before kids John and I were avid backpackers. We camped all the time to avoid pricey hotels. We camped on our honeymoon (ha! look at us, all young and 20-something and covered in sweat as we climbed peaks in Kauai).

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Backpacking in Kauai

We camped most nights of a cross country road trip. And someday we hope to take some amazing trips with our kids that involve lots of nights in a tent. You know what that means…

START ‘EM YOUNG.

This fall we went to Mayo Lake in northern NC for two nights. The kids had a blast. We were the only ones there because we went on a Sunday/Monday night and they spent the entire time running around the large camping area, throwing rocks in the lake, and just being kids. The first night we set up camp and cooked hot dogs over the fire – obviously a win for everyone. They were so excited to get into the tent that the big kids asked to go to bed when the sun disappeared. Not that they went to bed, but hey.

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Larkin and I shared the second tent with our battery powered noise maker to drown out the squealing, but otherwise it was so quiet! The second day we spent hiking to various playgrounds, playing soccer on the huge grass field, and even a sunset kayak trip as rain clouds rolled in. I spent the day before we left chopping and wrapping some bbq chicken packets that we grilled on the fire, followed by a dessert I learned a loooooong time ago in girl scouts. Banana Boats! These were a huge hit with the kids, they even said they were better than s’mores. I’ll post more on how to make them soon, but they are so dang easy.

dsc_0603Night number two was not so nice. The tent Larkin and I shared had a hole in the rainfly, so we had to cover it with a tarp (hey, it is almost 15 years old). And boy did that tarp sound like being inside a popcorn kettle when it poured all night long. She couldn’t sleep. It was ridiculously loud. I spend the night awake nursing her so that she could (sort of) sleep. And in the morning everything was covered in mud. The other tent had leaked and all the pillows were wet. At least it was memorable and the kids can’t wait to go again (hence the whole point of camping with young-ins). Because this mama spent the entire next day guzzling coffee and doing laundry and drying out camping gear. That is a chore I do not enjoy.camping-tips

While we are by no means experts at camping with kids, I figured I’d share some of my tips:

  1. Age matters. We found that babies up to crawling are easy, but that from about age 7months – 2.5 years old is a nightmare. They are into everything and are constantly trying to kill themselves. This is a no fly zone for us, lol.
  2. Go for at least two nights. Y’all. I spent at least four hours prepping food, packing bins and bags, etc. Then it took us a solid 1.5 hours to haul it all from the car to the campsite and set up two tents with approximately 421 interruptions along the way. And then another 4 hours to clean it all and put it away. We’ve done a single night, and it’s just not worth the effort.
  3. Take a noisemaker, especially if sleeping with a baby. It helps drown out noises of other kids/campsites.
  4. Slow down your mornings with cocoa or tea. Our kids are up at the crack of dawn. They want to scarf down some food and get going on a hike, to the playground, etc. Which is great! Except that one of the camping luxuries for us adults is lounging around a hot fire drinking a hot beverage in the morning. Next time we will come prepared with cocoa – a good bribe to get them to chill out for an extra 30 minutes.
  5. A flashlight for each kid. We made the mistake of bringing one for each tent. The older two fought over who got to play with theirs for HOURS. The dollar store sells them, so next time we will have plenty.

Have you been camping with young kids? Please share!

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I'm Amanda, a mama of four wild things and a growing herd of animals. We just built a farmhouse on our 13 acres of countryside in North Carolina, and are on our way to transform worn out tobacco pasture into a diverse landscape of animals, veggies, orchards, and grapevines. Join me on the farming journey! Read More…

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