Our Family

Hi there and welcome to my little piece of the 'net!  The Farmhouse Adventures Blog was formed in 2012 shortly after our family purchased a local farmhouse, built in the early 1900's, with big plans to gut it, fix it up and slap it back on the market as a gem.  We loved everything about the house, the dark wood trim, the fieldstone walls, and we even appreciated the period layout (tiny though it was). Pregnant with my 4th at the time, we got a slow start, and then, my husband's business completely took off, leaving us with little time to tinker at the Farmhouse.  It's still a work in progress, and we do actually update this blog about the actual farmhouse at times.  

In the meantime, it became a place to post family goings-on.  I realized that I could never quite keep up with what kid-story or family event I had told to whom, and so I decided to stick it all in one place and family could check in as they saw fit.  The concept was not new to me, I actually had a "blog" back before there were blogs!  When pregnant with my first, in 2002, I created and hosted a geocities site (ancient!) where I talked about each midwife appointment, posted pictures, and even had baby name polls.  I had to write some of my own code, it wasn't just click and type back then.  My family all loved it, and everyone who heard about it thought it was the neatest thing ever.  Apparently so, look how popular blogging is now.  And I don't even get any credit.... sheesh!

The general "About Me" is that I have 5 kiddos, ranging from toddler to teen.  We began our homeschooling journey in the fall of 2014 for many, many reasons including lack of advanced opportunities for the kids and the need to have more family cohesiveness.  All 5 of my babies were born at a freestanding birth center and you may find those experiences mentioned in here somewhere.  I love gardening, but this does not necessarily mean I am good at it!  I love to read, but rarely have time for that.  I will always choose function over aesthetics.  I think "screen time" is overabundant in today's children's lives and I do something about it at my house.  I like to write but again there's no time to nurture that one.  I was frugal before I met my husband but he is downright cheap so he and I together are pretty darn good about not spending money where it doesn't need to be spent.  I prioritize time with my children over anything - I'm not a frequent flyer at the gym, I don't get my nails done regularly, shopping for myself is a rare occasion, and pretty much everything else can wait, until my kids are older. I'm a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers kinda gal because, well, we're always doing something that works better with jeans and sneakers. As a child, the only thing I was ever sure about was that I was going to be a Mom when I grew up, so, Mission Accomplished!

Thanks for stopping by, take a look around, and please try not to mind my opinionated opinions!  At times, I sometimes blog about decisions we have made regarding our family and our health.  We, as a family, have made several health-based changes, primarily involving our food choices in the last few years, and we feel strongly that there have been positive effects from it.  We also have educated ourselves about medical issues, and have challenged medical professionals in regards to our children's health.  It's very difficult at times to feel as if you are always "going against the grain" and I guess this blog perhaps catches some of my frustrations regarding that.  We believe that parents who educate themselves, and are willing to make environmental, nutritional, and behavioral changes can, in the appropriate circumstances, improve their children's general health greatly, and, like in our case, may no longer need certain specialists and pharmaceutical drugs to address symptoms which disappeared when the root of the issue was eliminated. This certainly does not apply to everyone or every situation.  In no way, shape, or form do we recommend that parents do anything that would put their child in danger, and that includes failing to see a medical professional for a medical concern.  If you read my posts concerning these matters, you will clearly see that the kids had all been seen and evaluated by doctors for their issues.  

You will also see that I have some posts about kids and food allergies, the good news for us, is that currently NONE of our kids actually have food allergies at this time.  But at one point, because of what I saw as a major domino-effect failure in the medical system, we were made to believe our toddler had a serious (anaphylactic-type) allergy and instead of helping us to find answers, we were told to go about our lives preparing for the worst, and avoiding much more than was necessary.  So when I write about "traveling with food allergies" and other related topics, it was during that time when we were living with the same precautions, actions, and real, true fear as parents of real food-allergic kids.  In the years since I've written those posts, it seems that the Allergy-Fearing world is turning an important corner, with many medical professionals and parents (finally) realizing that a food challenge is the only clear-cut way to know for sure if someone has a true food allergy, and that avoiding foods with infants is only causing more of a problem.  Food Allergy kids DO exist, but fortunately, they are considerably more rare than the media will let you believe.  I myself fail 77 food items on the skin prick test, and more than 20 with the blood test.  Yes, you heard me right, 77!  And, I admit, some of those particular foods make me snotty and head-cloggy and feeling downright yucky, but NONE of them provide me with anything close to an anaphylactic emergency, nor does my allergist believe I am risk of developing into that category.  It doesn't mean I need to live in fear and carry an epi-pen everywhere I go, because I don't have those kinds of problematic reactions, and I greatly suspect a good portion of children who are reportedly "allergic" in today's world are similar to me.  Having lived just that short period of time with that real fear, I can't imagine any person or parent would want to continue like that without demanding a food challenge and confirming these allergies, rather than living with avoidance.  

I hate to have a disclaimer, but the world is full of all types.  My apologies for the longest "About" page EVER...