10 Good Reasons I Haven't Been on Steemit in a Month - Big Announcement!

Life has been crazy lately with both good and bad stuff going on! Because of everything that has been going on, Steemit has taken a back seat for various reasons. Life happens and we make adjustments. Here are 10 things you may not know about me that have happened recently...in no particular order!

1 - My computer totally died. It made me recover it, but I lost a lot of stuff that was on it. Thankfully I had saved my password elsewhere for Steemit...it just took me a while to get things back on track. I've been sharing my husband's computer, so it's not always free when I find the time to get a post written. And I can't find my discord password at all, so I'll need to figure that out!

2 - We got a milk cow and her baby a few months back. If you've ever had a milk cow, you know that it takes a while to get a routine down. We finally got a milk machine, so milking her went from about 2 hours to about 15 minutes. My husband is doing all of the milking himself as the rest of us can't figure out how to do it efficiently! Mama's name is Buttercup and Baby's is Poinsettia (she was born 3 days before Christmas). We get about 2 gallons of milk from her a day and she's a Jersey cow.

3 - With the milk we get from Buttercup, I make yogurt, make butter, sell some of it, and I just learned to make cheese. We tried mozzarella cheese, but it turned out kind of funky. The ricotta cheese I made, though, is really yummy! I added some Italian seasoning to it. I wish a gallon made more than one cup from the leftover whey!

4 - We are keeping up with our homeschool co-op meet ups. We have about 5 families that come regularly to our house to do a day of learning. We did a lesson on recycling and then visited our local recycle center. We also have recently talked about Panama.

5 - I did something recently that I never thought I would do. I am desperate for my kids to learn Spanish and it's just not happening with the little bits they get every once in awhile...so we made the decision to enroll them in "public Spanish classes" as I like to call them. They will all (5) be attending a local public school for 5 hours every morning and I know this will help them get the language down! We cover Prek, Kindergarten, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Should be an interesting time for them and I just hope they do well with it! We plan to continue homeschool in the afternoon.

6 - My BABY boy turned 4 last month! I am pretty amazed that he is now four years old. He still acts like the baby of the family and gets his way most of the time. Ha. But, life is about to change for him...

7 - I am almost 30 weeks pregnant with Baby #6! I found out a while ago that we are expecting a baby and that has been pretty interesting. I turned 40 in June of last year and I really wasn't expecting this baby to come along. With all my other pregnancies, I was working out, lifting weights, and really active up until the day they delivered. With this baby, I've been taking it easy...and my back has been much happier!!

8 - We are trying to figure out how birth in Panama will work. My last three births were homebirths in Texas and I really wanted another homebirth here in Panama. We have found out that really the only way to do a non-hospital "home" birth is to drive 8 hours to Panama City. Logistically with 5 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 cows to take care of, that doesn't seem to be working out so far. I have found a good "naturalish" doctor about an hour from me who will deliver me in the private hospital. We aren't sure which direction we will go at this point, but it's a good thing I still have 10 weeks to decide.

9 - This pregnancy has had a few complications I've never had before! I found out at 23 weeks that the baby was lying sideways and the placenta was in the wrong spot. We prayed for weeks that the placenta would move, and we learned at 28 weeks that it had. Baby, however, still hasn't shifted into the correct position...so we wait! I have another appointment at 34 weeks to see how she is laying and make decisions from there!

10 - It's a girl! We're super excited to have our second daughter be added to the family! We have a name picked out, but we don't share names until the babies are born. I can't wait to make that announcement. Our pattern for gender goes: boy, boy, girl, boy, boy, girl. Many people have suggested we keep going so that the pattern keeps up, but I'm thinking that might not be the best idea. Ha!

So, there's all my latest news! It looks like I've got Steemit up and going on the computer, so now I just need to figure out my password to my old email so I can get my password for Discord figured out. Ha!!

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Are you interested in visiting Panama to learn more about moving here? Check out Panama Relocation Tours if so. This tour will take you to many cities in the area where expats have settled and introduce you to many helpful people. Each tour is 5 nights and 6 days across the entire country (and you get to meet me)!