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Labor & Learn, Morgantown, WV (2026)

09/05/2025

A late summer, almost fall, wild foraged bouquet made of Queen Anne's lace, wild wheat, ribwort plantain, and grease grass shows off nature's beauty. This is my favorite time of year, cool enough to enjoy being outside for long stretches, but not yet to the nip of the autumn air. Earth is giving it's gifts; fruits, vegetables, seeds. God is giving us hope of another season, a chance for the next generation of plants, of people.

05/09/2022

Appreciation Post! So many thanks to my family for making Mother's Day great! This year I asked for one thing for Mother's Day. I wanted to get to mow the yard. I know that seems silly and not like a gift, but mowing and yard work are my best stress relievers and I truly enjoy doing it. For the past two years that has been hard and at times impossible to do after a miscarriage, d&c, surgery for my ovarian cyst, and then a VERY rough pregnancy (hyperemesis gravidarum, placenta previa that took forever to resolve, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia). My husband has been holding down the fort for all that time, working his regular long stressful hours and still making sure everyone was fed when I was unable to cook, making sure the kids did their chores and homework, and so much more. Between our schedules and the things that absolutely had to get done the yard took a back seat and needed a lot of love. I want to thank my older children and mother for helping watch the baby so I could get some yardwork done. I want to thank my father for coming down to try and jump the mower since the battery was dead. But most of all I want to thank my husband for rushing out to get a new battery for the riding mower and a spark plug for the push mower and then back out for a new push mower when we realized it was a lost cause. Thank you for taking care of lunch and dinner for everyone, so I could get work done. Thank you for doing all of this after working a long week and going out of town with me to a friend's wedding on Saturday and then giving up your only other day off to make my Mother's Day wish happen. Thank you! I love you so much and appreciate you far more than I often express. 🥰🥰🥰

03/24/2021

Apparently Nugget found a new place to lay under the deck stairs. 🙄

01/08/2021

Frost in 2021... well played.

#2021

12/11/2020

Getting started on wrapping gifts! Reusing brown paper bags from as wrapping paper. And adding cute ribbons to brighten them up! (Yes, we cheat and do Hello Fresh twice a week. 🤷🏼‍♀️)

12/02/2020

Picked up my pickled ramps today from and they are SOOO GOOD! They'll be awesome to snack on with some cheese and crackers! Plus, I saw some recipes on their website in which to use them! The kids don't like them (I don't think they gave them an honest try), but that means more for me! Maybe I can hide them from the hubby and keep them all to myself...

11/19/2020

Got some beautiful eggs yesterday and one I'd bet anything is a double yolker! Ouch! I'm super bummed that I dropped two of them. 😢 And one of the dropped eggs was from Julia who usually hides her beautiful green eggs. 😭

11/18/2020

I made a special hot mash for the girls today and they loved it! I aimed to add nutritious foods for them, including some ingredients that are high in protein and some that are high in nutrients and should help darken their yolks. The mash included oatmeal, quinoa, popcorn, tomatoes, zucchini, jalapeños, paprika, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, and black oil sunflower seeds. They still have access to their layer feed and free range so are able to forage for whatever else they may need to ensure they have a healthy balanced diet.

11/14/2020

**Google what you want from this post, but be warned some gross images will come up. Which is why I didn't include any.**

So... now I have grieved. But if you think back to the post about the miscarriage you'll remember that on that first ultrasound they had found a large ovarian cyst. And that cyst was found on every ultrasound thereafter. It was believed to be a dermoid cyst, also known as a teratoma (which roughly translates to "monster tumor"). Since it was a "monster" tumor, I named it Grover in hopes that it would be a nice monster. Dermoid cysts are cysts that originate from a germ cell and are capable of growing any type of human tissue. Most are no big deal. Mine however was HUGE! It was 12 cm. That's about the size of a grapefruit. I needed to have an exploratory laparotomy surgery to remove it. A laproscopic procedure really wasn't an option, because of the size of my cyst and the nature of those type of cysts' contents. A cyst that large could result in ovarian torsion, which would mean emergency surgery. So an exploratory laparotomy was scheduled. September 9th, just two days after I was released from lifting restrictions from the D&C, I went in for surgery. The cyst was removed without complications. The pathology report showed it was not cancerous. Now, you may be wondering as I did, "What was in this cyst?!?!" Grover was found to have sebaceous material (oil/fat like goo), adipose tissue (fat), hair, and bone! GROSS! I'm glad it is out! Although, the nurse in me wishes I'd gotten to see it. 😂 I was once again on lifting restrictions and off of work, for 6 weeks this time. Obviously, with all of these restrictions my farm and garden work took a hit. Yes, we did get a small harvest, but it was hard enough to do everything, let alone take pictures and document it for social media. I am now back to work and mostly caught up on necessary things around the homestead. I feel better than I have in at least 4 years. Who knew an ovarian cyst could reek as much havoc as it did on me? And I didn't even realize it until it was gone! I'm glad to get back to sharing my homestead journey with you all!

11/14/2020

With everything that had happened in the last post being so long and drawn out, it hadn't really hit me. I hadn't cried. I hadn't grieved. Not until we were burying sweet Geraldine. The evening of August 26th I went down to put the hens to bed and found Geraldine on the floor of the coop, clearly ill. I brought her into the house and tried to nurse her back to health. I made mash for her to eat (I suspect her crooked beak was causing malnutrition after I switched the hens to pellets instead of crumble, but hadn't noticed with everything going on.) I used a dropper to get fluids in her (water and homemade electrolytes). She perked up for a little while and I thought she might make it. The next morning she was once again lethargic and ill looking. I tried again to nurse her back to health. We sat on the couch and she perched on my chest. Unfortunately, her condition continued to decline and she passed in my arms. Having just had a miscarriage and a D&C three days prior, I was not allowed to lift more than 10 lbs and figured digging her grave was probably not wise. My amazing father who is 70-some years young came down and dug her grave for me. It wasn't until my father, sons, and I were burying her that everything hit me. All the emotion finally found it's way out. I'd like to believe that my sweet Geraldine is watching over my lost baby. And so that is what I will choose to believe.

11/14/2020

You may have noticed we have been absent since July. It's been a roller coaster for us these past few months.
July 6th we were ecstatic to find out that we were expecting. July 24th was our first ultrasound & they were able to see that there was something in the uterus, but they were unable to identify a gestational sac yet. They did find that I had a huge ovarian dermoid cyst, also known as a teratoma though. I had a repeat ultrasound on July 31st. The sac was identified & I was given a due date of March 23rd, my late grandmother's birthday. Had this baby been a girl she would have been named after her regardless of the due/birth date. A heartbeat was seen at a rate of 129 bpm. We were so thrilled!
August 14th I started spotting very lightly. With the cyst & it's potential complications I decided to head to the ED. During the ultrasound they identified the sac, however were unable to find a heartbeat. They suspected I lost the baby, but said since it was early in the pregnancy it could always be ultrasound tech error and to follow up with my doctor's office. August 17th we went in hoping and praying that it was just a mistake. I had no further spotting and no other symptoms of a miscarriage. Unfortunately, another ultrasound confirmed our fears. The baby had passed. It, however, was still in the uterus. We opted to use misoprostol to pass the "products of conception" as it is referred to in the medical world. The advantage to this being that it would most likely cause passage within a few days which would prevent me from actively miscarrying at work. It gave me mild cramps and very light bleeding that evening, but nothing after that and I knew it had not passed. August 21st it still had not passed and I spiked a fever of 100.3 while at work. Back to the ED I went. Another ultrasound confirmed that it had not passed, but my fever did resolve. The OB team saw me and we scheduled a D&C for 24th. In honor of our lost baby we decided to plant a memorial tree. We chose a Chinese Wisteria from which blooms change color from spring(blue) to fall(purple), since we do not know the gender of our baby. Mommy and Daddy love you, little one! 💙💜

Labor & Learn

09/05/2025

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03/24/2021

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