learning and growing @mistyhollowcottage - Tumblr Blog

no one told me how amazing it would be listening to the little people you created sing happy birthday to YOU

#personal #could hardly keep it together #I love them so much #it was such a beautiful day #I would turn 27 everyday if I could

nesting is in full swing. I have become insane. my house is spotless. does the baby care about dirty exterior window sills? probably not. but I must clean them. we're switching from a queen to a full sized bed to make room in our room for a bassinet. the girls are getting bunk beds. D's big girl quilt is almost done. it feels like it hasn't stopped raining for days. big loud thunderstorms that the girls find exhilarating. I can't believe we will be a family of five soon. a son. a little boy giggling and cooing and being dotted on by his sisters.

I turn 27 tomorrow. I really never thought I'd make it here.

#personal #I'm so grateful

you are a decent and rare person. She should have been on her knees to be blessed by having someone like you in her life and in her corner fighting for her. I have been in dark places on my own and nobody fought for me. I would have been so grateful to have someone look out for me like you did for her. I am so sorry you experienced this. I do not like saying this but you may have to reserve your kindness and dial it back from now on so you do not get abused again. But you are a pure soul and I hope life blesses you for you are a rarity.

I appreciate that, anon. I know what it's like to have little kiddos and need a place to go and so I really thought I was doing the right thing. But yeah... would not do that again.

#personal #anon

It really is so disheartening trying to be generous in today's day and age. A friend of mine ended up needing a place to stay due to string of robberies in her apartment. I still have a lease on an apartment so I offered for her and her daughter to move in while they look for something else. (we have a terrible rental market in my area) She said that was a plan and told me to send her a list of the bills/utilities so she could pay them/me. I cleaned the place top to bottom and left her a key under the mat. Shortly after she was unable to work due to some health stuff, but her partner had moved in with them since they are expecting a child. She told me how much she was struggling and about her hospital stays and whatnot and I told her to just not worry about the rent, I'd have to pay it anyway until my lease is up so just focus on getting better. I barely heard a word from her after this. I'd message/call her every few weeks to see if she was still alive but it would be days between replies. I didn't want to be up her butt just because she was staying at my place so I kinda let it go. She ended up having a gender reveal party for her baby and I wasn't invited (despite being told previously that she wanted me to be the gender keeper).

She stayed in the apartment for two months and never told me that I had received any mail. I had apparently received a medical bill and since it wasn't handled it got sold to collections (have literally never seen a hospital sell medical debt so fast). She told me they had found a place to rent and were planning on moving out. A week went by and I asked if they had gotten moved in and if they liked it, that was a whole thing but yes they were out of my apartment. I stopped by with my mother who was interested in taking over the lease and the place was trashed. We just walked through real quick because we had somewhere else to be but I was so heartbroken by the state of it. I messaged my friend and asked if they had gotten everything out/if they needed to clean/if I could get the key back from her (REALLY trying to give her the benefit of the doubt) and she said she would leave the key under the mat next time they were out. We ended up going by this morning to see once and for all what was left and the state of things (aka if she had maybe cleaned even a little). There were ostomy bags from her daughter all over the front stoop. There was trash and candy wrappers all over the floor. Crusty towels that were not mine scattered randomly throughout. My bed had what I can only describe as a mix of dirt and cigarette (??) ash on the very dirty sheets. Vape cartridges on the floor. There was a box of random trash in the second bedroom, another random bag of trash in the bathroom. My youngest daughter came up to be and asked me if she could have some candy she found. She was holding 4 prescription pills from god knows where. She had left dirty clothes, towels, shoes, toys, food, etc. everywhere. I could go on and on about the state of it. I just sat on the couch so sad and heartbroken. My husband ended up going around and picking up the trash and vacuuming the floor. I wiped down the stove, different surfaces, the bathroom (which had urine all over), stripped the beds and threw in a load of laundry. I'll need to go back later today to finish the laundry and I guess clean out all of her things. But all of this and not even a thank you. We paid her rent, water, electric, wifi for 2 months, cleaned up her gigantic mess, ended up with debt in collections, and not even a thank you. Seriously no wonder the world is getting more cruel when this is how someone who is supposed to be your friend treats you. I feel so taken advantage of and hurt.

#personal

minotauri

[louder than everyone] MAN I THINK IT DEPENDS!

I forgot to share my quilt!! Here she is <3

#personal #homemaker #slow living #cottagecore #cottage #home #cottageblr #homemaking

museumticket

me on an average day: i need a treat

me on a bad day: i need a deluxe treat

#just told M I needed some store bought dopamine bc I wasn't gonna make it today

from our walk the other day <3

#personal #homemaker #slow living #cottagecore #cottage #cottageblr #forest #mushrooms #moss

mushroom foraging is truly humbling. I hunted and hunted for morels this spring and couldn't find a dang one, in the past two days on my own property I've stumbled upon chanterelles and HUGE boletes.. I was going on a creek walk and then cutting the grass lol

#personal #homemaker #slow living #cottagecore #cottage #cottageblr #homemaking

came back from a family trip to all of our cucumber plants but one being completely dead! The one that is alive has been fully engulfed in weeds and is thriving, so idk what her deal is but we're gonna leave her alone with her weed friends. Our tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and green beans are doing great, meanwhile, our zucchini is growing taller but no fruit? Also don't know what the deal is there. We've learned a lot gardening this year. Last year we did no-till and decided to try out tilling this year. Do NOT recommend. Everything has required so much more work and been much more finnicky.

We also plan to move the location of the garden next year because this year it has rained a ton and has completely drowned our plants. I had no onions or garlic survive. So I'm hoping putting it at a higher elevation will help. Overall really bummed with the garden. I've never had so many issues but I also have never changed so many variables, so you live and you learn I guess. Compost + cardboard + woodchips for me from here on out.

#personal #slow living #cottagecore #cottage #cottageblr #homemaking #gardening

y'all. I woke up at 3am to our dogs barking like crazy near our chicken coop. I contemplated waking up my husband and sending him out but decided against it since our dogs were clearly handling it. I go back to sleep. Well, this morning we wake up and the dogs are still barking, not as much but still much more than usual, I feed everyone breakfast and tell my husband about last night and he says he thinks he might grab a gun and go see what's going on. Well, he and my oldest daughter look out the window before he goes out to try to see if there's an animal visible or what. Husband says he doesn't see anything. My four year old daughter then asks "what's that black thing? that black thing up in the tree?" This girl spotted a full sized black bear up in a tree AT DAWN all on her own!! So we call the dogs over to let this poor bear have an opportunity to flee since it had probably been pinned up that tree since 3 am and I tell M that he better take F hunting with him this year because clearly gf knows what she's doing

#personal #this kid is an expert forager and spots berries and mushrooms all the time that we would otherwise miss #but a whole dang bear!!!#we were so impressed with her and she was so excited to tell her friends at day camp this am

we're trying out a new discipline style with my oldest (our energetic wild child) and so far we're seeing a lot of success. She's as sweet as can be and so so smart, but struggles a lot with controlling her 4 year old impulses. She's very talkative, struggles to keep her hands to herself, and plays too rough for the other members of our family. Before, I would try talking to her and explaining why we don't interrupt, why we only touch our own bodies, etc. or put her in time out to remove her from the situation. Well it never worked, her little body was just bursting with energy that she had no where to put. So I have started doing something a little controversial... and I'm having her run laps to and from the chicken coop and then we talk about what happened, after she got some of that energy out. Since doing this I don't feel like I'm on her butt all day about interrupting or bothering her sister, she listens better, and has greater success at keeping her hands to herself. One of my biggest fears as a mom is my children growing up feeling like I didn't like them or that I favored a sibling. And, truthfully, if my oldest thought I favored her sister I wouldn't blame her. D is a very calm, "low energy" kid, who just needs pretty standard toddler correction (reminders to take deep breaths, pick up her toys, or share). For every 1 time I correct D I probably have to correct F 5 times. They just have very different personalities and D is just the "easier" kid. But obviously I love them both sooooo very much, so I am grateful that we're finally starting to work out a way for F to learn without everyone feeling so frustrated with each other.

#personal #random parenting ramblings