I'm Weird and You Can Be Too!

Right now our pastor, Craig Groeschel, at LifeChurch.tv is doing a series called "Weird". He also wrote a book on it called "Weird, Because normal isn't working". David and I are LOVING this series and we bought the book and love the book too.

Basically you have to act/be like weird people to have a better life. Most people do what everyone else does, normal people, so they get the same results that normal people get. It's like peer pressure to fit in: live in debt and be broke, only have 2.5 kids, make sure your kids are involved in tons of classes/teams, birth in a hospital... The list could go on but the point is it's easy to do what every one else is doing cause they say you are weird if you aren't doing what they are doing.

Now, I'm no stranger to weird. In fact I embrace it most of the time. I've never liked being like everyone else. In my family growing up, my dad was self-employed and so we had times of plenty and times of not so much. I have 3 sisters. These are a couple of things that made my family "weird" to those looking in.

Over the last 4 years or so I've been getting weirder and weirder. After researching birth info I decided a hospital birth wasn't for me. I wanted to do a home birth. Now, when you go around saying you want to home birth you get a lot of looks that say "weirdo". But I didn't care, I wanted to be different and wanted better for my baby and me.

I've been more and more interested in natural ways of doing things. Everyone buys their expensive toxic cleaning products, not everyone makes safe cheaper versions at home. And looking at ways to use safer health care and body care products. Recycling, gardening and composting.

It makes me sad to see people who are so concerned with what "everyone" else says you should do or shouldn't do. The fact is most of the time everyone else just does what the next person does, without using their own brain to research or think about their choices. They think that since everyone else does it that it's safe to do (inductions, epidurals, living on credit, eating processed foods), when that isn't the case. They just go along with the crowd and letting others make their decisions.

Like I said I embrace being weird because I've researched my decisions and thought about them a lot. I know the choices I make label me "weird", but I also know I'm doing what's best for me and my family.

So here's a list of some ways that I'm "weird".

I make my own laundry soap.
I was home schooled for a couple of years (middle school).
I breastfed my baby longer than 6 weeks and plan to bf the next ones up to 2yrs
I practice selective vaccinating.
I don't wash my face (more on that in a future post).
I'm left handed (living in a right handed world)
I labored for 3 days without pain meds (it wasn't painful, just exhausting)
I didn't lay down in a bed to labor (I don't know how anyone can do that!)
I was a virgin when I got married (& so was David)
I use cloth diapers
I don't buy pre-packaged meals or processed foods
I have been off sugar (95%, it's hidden in some stuff) for about 6 weeks
I want to do a HBAC in the future
I got my belly button pierced a few years ago and let it grow back before getting prego
We bed share with Trey and have since he was born (we LOVE it, no plans to change this either)
My parents are still married (going on 40yrs)
One set of grandparents were married for 59 years, the other set 61 years
I'm looking at alternative options for my menstrual care products (also a future post)
I want to labor and deliver in water in the future
I was called to jury duty as a senior in high school (I was 18, and let off due to semester tests)
Only dated David about 6 months before we got married (8months of actually knowing him, been married 12yrs)
I plan on homeschooling our children (probably will look more like unschooling)
David and I haven't spent more than 24 hours apart in almost 13 years (we got married to be together!)


If you'd like to get a copy of "Weird, Because normal isn't working" check out Amazon. (All proceeds are donated)
If you'd like to hear the last 2 weeks of talks on this series check out LifeChurch.tv


I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about any of this, or if you want to share some of your weird things too!
Comments make me happy!

Our Story of Co-Sleeping

Before getting pregnant I had definite opinions about babies sleeping in our bed, I was against it. I couldn’t imagine letting our children come between David and I. We had been married for 9 years before getting prego, so it’d just been the 2 of us for a long time. We had no idea what it was like to have a child of our own, so we thought they would need their own space and not in our intimate space. After finally getting prego we talked about where the baby would sleep for the first couple of months. You see David had a sister who died of SIDS, so this left a fear in him. He didn’t like the idea of the baby being so far away in its own room and bed. So we agreed to a bassinette at the end of our bed and for about 3 months, then to his own bed after that.


So then I’m in labor expecting to have a home birth and after 2 ½ days of labor we transfer to the hospital for an emergency c-section. When I was finally awake again (I was under a general) and in my room after a very long labor, I was finally holding my long awaited baby boy Trey. That night when I was ready to go to sleep I knew I wasn’t going to put him in that plastic box to sleep. He was going to sleep in my arms, I wasn’t about to let him be away from me.

When we got home I didn’t like the idea of him sleeping by himself where I couldn’t touch him. So we put him in bed with us and we liked it. It gave us peace of mind to have him near. I also realized that having him in bed with us made it easier to breastfeed. And because I didn’t have to get out of bed to nurse, I could go back to sleep really easily.

We told our pediatrician we were co-sleeping, while she didn’t say anything against it she did tell us that we should aim to have him in his own bed by 6months because after that it would be harder to get him to sleep in his own bed. So from about 3-6 months I stressed about the day we’d have to put him in his own bed. I was doing what felt right and comfortable and was working for our family but this expert was saying to move him out by 6mo. So around 5mo we tried to put him in his own bed. He fell asleep in my arms and then I put him down. He slept for a few hours till he woke up wanting to eat but he didn’t want to go to sleep in his bed. So I put him back in our bed because we both needed to go to sleep.

I talked to David about it and he said that if this worked for us and we all loved it then it was ok for him to sleep with us past 6 mos. It made me feel better because he was saying exactly how I felt. (I’ve since learned to listen to my intuition more.) So, here we are at over 2 years old and still co-sleeping and we absolutely love it! It’s one of our favorite things to do as a family. It’s great on days we don’t feel like we’ve seen Trey enough, or on those days when I want to cuddle him more. We don’t have any plans on moving him out; I think we’ve just figured that when he’s ready to have a bed of his own we’ll move him out. We are working on baby #2 and we plan to not only co-sleep with the baby but keep sleeping with Trey as well. Our time with our children, while they are little, goes by so fast and this is just one way we fully enjoy them.