Our Favorite Time of the Year

We really enjoy the holidays, but to us, the "most wonderful time of the year" is...

kidding season!

Especially on nice sunny  days when we can run around and play with the kids outside.

So far we have 9 kids out of 4 does with 14 does left to kid.  We're going to be really outnumbered!

Height Challenges

A couple of weeks ago I had a television interview in Indianapolis.  I had two segments on the show.  After my first interview, the hosts interviewed ex-Celtic's basketball player, Walter McCarty.

He was REALLY tall...

OK - and I'm REALLY short! (And very glad that Jim isn't 6'11"!)

Spelling in Code

Sometimes I want to ask Mom for something, and I know if she says no, the little kids will be upset.  So I just spell it out to her so they don't understand.

But now there is a problem... Fletcher, Greyden, and Indigo can all spell now! And even though Hewitt and Jade can't spell, all they have to do is ask, and they will have three very proud translators. :D

I've had to start spelling in code.

So if I want to know if we can watch a movie, I have to spell out "M-O-V-I-N-G-P-I-C-T-U-R-E".

If I want to know if it's bed time, I have to spell out "S-L-U-M-B-E-R".

We have really good friends, the Vessels. The Vessels just adopted two girls my age from China, and I go and visit them every once in a while. Indigo likes to visit Lydia (who is her age) when I go visit Faith and Anna. But I like to go by myself sometimes.

One day when we were passing the road that leads to their house, and the conversation went like this:

Me: "Mom, I would like to go to the J-A-R-S" house soon. (I thought that was really clever).

Indigo: "I would really like to go to the Vessels' house too."

Me: "How did you know that I meant the Vessels?!?"

Indigo: "We just passed the road to their house, so that's how I knew."

Wow, she's smart.

Since then, Mom and I have taken to calling them the U-R-N-S and she has not figured that out yet. :)

Normally Mom and I spell in code and always understand each other.  But not always...

Me: "Mom, can we make the "K-I-T-T-E-N-B-R-E-A-D?".

Mom: "Huh?"

Me (slower): "Mom, can we make the "K-I-T-T-E-N-B-R-E-A-D?".

Mom: "Kittenbread?!?"

I mouthed Ginger, while pointing at Ginger.

She still did not get it.

By that point, everyone was staring at us, trying to figure out what in the heck I was trying to get across. I gave up and said, "Can we make the Gingerbread cookies that are in the fridge?"

Mom finally realized what I was trying to say, and started cracking up. I think she must have been really tired.

Brett

Goat Family

We bottle raise our baby goats because it works best for us. Doing it this way produces the healthiest and friendliest goats. But once the babies are big enough, all the goats live together. Here is a photo of Victoria, Veanna, and Valley. Victoria (in the back) is the "Grandma", Veanna (on the left) is the "Daughter", and Valley (in front) is the "Granddaughter".

Alpines can keep growing til they're around 3 years old, so you can see the size difference.  Can you see the family resemblance?

It's a happy goat family!

It's Not All About ME

Sometimes I am so tempted to make myself the center of everything.

When my children are less than perfect... I blame myself.

If they bicker... it's my fault.

If I ask a child to do something and they don't... it's a personal affront.

But, when I take the time to take a deep breathe, and think about things, I know that it isn't all about me.

My children are sinners. They are not perfect. And they're not going to act like they are. They're not out to get me, and it's not all my fault.

Even if I were the perfect parent (which I could never be), they would still not be perfect children.

I do the best that I can and I pray for God to fix what I mess up.

I was looking for the website to leave feedback for the Oprah magazine a couple of weeks ago. While I was looking I came across an article written by the mother of one of the Colombine killers. It was heartbreaking. I remember when that massacre happened how everyone blamed the parents.

But she sounded like a normal mother who made normal mistakes. She tried to teach her son right and wrong.

But by the grace of God, any one of us mothers could find ourselves in her shoes. I will never be so self-righteous as to say that could never happen in my family. It could. And it really made me think.

The bottom line - I need to be the best mother I can be to my children.  And I need to pray. More.

Guess What?!?!?

We were on the Today Show this summer! You know, the NBC show that airs every morning? (That is the something big that I hinted about in this post.)

Yeah!

Mike Leonard came out to film on the 3rd of May, on a nice a hot day. :D

Mike was supposed to get here at around 8:30. So, we set the alarm for 7, thinking that would give us plenty of time to get the kids ready, have everybody eat, etc.

But, when Dad woke up and opened the curtains, guess what he saw?

Yep! He saw Mike filming something in the driveway.

So, we ate breakfast as fast as we could, got everybody ready, and then went out to meet him.

Mike was awesome! :D

He got about 10 hours of film. He got here around 7ish, (from what we know) and left right before 7 at night. He let us watch some of his videos that he had done, on his IPad:

He interviewed Mom:

And he interviewed Dad:

And this is all the gear he brought! He got approx 10 hours of film, with this much equipment. (Well, and a tripod, but you cant really see that in the picture).

See, he has the "NBC News" address tag on his stuff:

Here is the final video:




We had a great time, Mike! Thanks for doing such a great job!

Brett

Playing in the Rain

We've had an amazingly mild winter so far. It has only gotten below freezing a few times. The problem of course has been that it has also been an amazingly wet winter.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised because we had a fairly wet fall as well.  It's a good thing that wet weather doesn't stop the children from playing outside:



Don't you love Indigo whining at the end because, "[She] got too dirty!"

What did she expect from running in the rain and jumping in puddles? LOL  Silly girl.

I actually didn't see the girls playing in the rain at all. Colter saw them playing outside and got the video camera and video'd the whole thing.

Then he edited the video and uploaded it. Isn't that awesome?!?

I'm so proud of him! Not just because he was capable of doing it. But because he knew it would make me happy, and that is why he did it!

What a good kid!

Stress Reliever

Right now the Jonas Family is even busier than usual.  We're entering kidding season (which means less sleep for everyone), we're building at the new property (which means more traveling to check on progress), and we're losing our employee (which means more work for all).

This can cause everyone to be more stressed and less patient than normal.  When I don't get enough sleep, I can get pretty cranky.  I have to be very careful not to take my fatigue out on the rest of the family.  When I pass my personal tipping point, I stop speaking kindly and start yelling.

Fortunately, I know when my personal tipping point is coming and I've found a pretty effective way of avoiding it.

Want to know my secret?

It's very simple actually.  It's dancing.

We love music at the Jonas household.  All kinds of music.  We love our show tunes and our country songs and our gospel hymns and our Christian contemporary and our classic rock and even some pop songs.

Jim recently downloaded a bunch of Frank Sinatra songs for me (love Frank - grew up listening to him with my Dad).  But you know what?  Frank isn't very good dancing music.  At least not "get down in the living room" music.

For that, we put on much more upbeat songs.  Some of our favorites are "Life is a Highway" and "I'm a Believer".  Recently we've been listening to "Dynamite" - the acapella version that Mike Tompkins performs.

So, if we're all melting down (but especially if I'm the one melting down), I put on a song and we start to dance.  Really dance.  I make everybody get involved.  The grumpy ones usually resist, but we all have to dance anyway.  And we go for it.

If the song ends and we're still grumpy and out of sorts...

We put the song on again!

It's really difficult to dance to a fun upbeat song and stay grumpy.  I'm sure some people out there could do it, but not me.  I always end in a much better frame of mind.  Plus it's a really great cardio workout.

Double bonus!!

I started dancing with my children when they were really little and have continued it.  It's lots of fun and a great stress reliever.

Here is a video.  The older boys were out milking (which is why they're not in the video), and Jim came inside half way during the song,  which is why I joined.  So yes, you get to see me dancing (don't expect much LOL).



So the next time you're not having a very good day - put on a song and rock out to it!!  Trust me it really works!

Anybody have any songs they'd like to recommend?

PJ

Where's the Hot Air?

Every year, we need to "dry off" our goats two months before they are due to kid.  This allows them to put their energy into growing their kids rather than making milk.  While it is a very sad time for most of us because we don't have any fresh milk to drink, the boys really enjoy taking a break from their milking duties.

We use this dry time to take a vacation and visit my Mom in Florida.  Grandma and Poppy, moved to Florida several years ago and promptly got jobs at Disney World.  As you might expect, we take full advantage of the great discounts that they are able to get.

I'll be sharing more of our vacation with you, but what I really wanted to share was what happened to us when we returned home.

As you can imagine, we generate a LOT of laundry around here.  And even though Jim did the laundry twice during our vacation, we still returned home with many suitcases full of nothing but dirty clothes.

It is Hewitt's job to do the laundry and he tackled it like a champ.

But I noticed he wasn't getting very far.  When I asked him why, he told me that the clothes in the dryer were always wet when he checked on them.

Uh oh.

Sure enough, when I checked on it, the dryer was not generating any heat at all.

Now, I have to tell you that we've had the same dryer for 7.5 years.  And it was clearly not going to last much longer.

So about a month ago, we got a new one.

And it only lasted for 2 weeks!

Fortunately, it is under warranty.

Unfortunately, the repair man can't come out until Wednesday.

So this is what are we doing until then...

... hanging our clothes to dry.  Fortunately, we heat the house with wood, and the living room is always toasty warm and perfect for drying clothes.

But it is a pain, and I'll be happy when the dryer is back!

Growing Up

I know that it's my job as a parent to help my children grow up and reach their full potential.

But sometimes it makes me so sad to see it!

Don't get me wrong.

I don't miss 3 am feedings.

And I don't miss changing diapers.

And I definitely don't miss potty training.

But I can't believe that my little boy is already driving.

Ok, he's not exactly driving cars yet.

But on our vacation, he is old enough (and tall enough) to rent and drive this:



And he sure is loving the new things he can do because he is growing up!

PJ

Babe

Many of you know that the Jonas Family likes to sing. I mean we really, really like to sing.

Jim has a pretty good voice.

Me - I'm terrible.

But it doesn't stop me from singing. And singing loudly. LOL

Indigo really likes to sing too. Now that she is reading, she's been asking me to print out the lyrics to some of her favorite songs.

She recently asked for the Sonny and Cher classic, "I've Got You, Babe" (I don't know if that's the actual title or not, it's just what I call it).

Indigo first heard the song when we were singing karaoke last year. She fell in love with it.

She's pretty funny singing it and Jade really enjoys dancing and punctuating her favorite parts.

So enjoy the show:



PJ

Rapid Deforestation

I thought everyone would get a kick out of this video:



I know the goats enjoyed it!

PJ