Wrestling Mania

It's that time of year again... wrestling season is here.

My boys are good wrestlers. I think it's because they're genetically wired for it. And fortunately for us, it's one of the few sports where being short, can be beneficial. LOL

With all the hard work they do around the homestead, they're really strong for their age. Plus there are five of them, so they're used to wrestling. As Jim says, "They're going to fight each other, we might as well give them rules to fight by."

But I still think the funniest part to the boys' wrestling is listening to Indigo yell, "Get your head up, Hewitt! Get your head UUUPPPPP!"

PJ

Pause, Grandma

Grandma was reading a story to Fletcher and Greyden. I asked Fletcher to run upstairs and do something for me. I was pleasantly surprised to see him jump up and run up the stairs. As he disappeared, he yelled back to his Grandma, "Can you pause that a minute?"

Hmmm..... are they watching too many DVDs do you think??

PJ

She's Getting So Witty

During one night of Grandma's visit, the following conversation took place:

Grandma: “What’s for dinner?”

Me: “Pancakes.”

Grandma: “Pancakes?!?!”

Me: “Yep.”

(Now, I must point out that my children and my husband are THRILLED when I make pancakes for dinner. But I'm afraid my mother was horrified).

Grandma: “I could really go for pizza.”

(Me rolling eyes)

But, I initiated the drill: Dress children (this of course involves locating 8 sets of shoes), load children into the sprinter, buckle children (yes, all 8 are still in car seats or boosters, but at least most of them can buckle themselves).

As Jim starts driving, Grandma is still fumbling with her seatbelt. Apparently it is stuck and she can’t get it working.

Grandma: “That’s ok, I’ll just be careful.”

Brett: “How are you going to be careful if we get into a car accident?”

Me: “She’ll just crash into the windshield very carefully.” (I know, sarcasm is not very attractive, but sometimes it is just so fitting).

At our destination, Daddy fixes Grandma’s seat belt (so she doesn’t have to be careful any more – oops, more sarcasm).

After Grandma expresses her thanks to Jim, Brett announces, “That’s why we keep him around.”

Wow, I don’t know what’s scarier, that my baby girl is becoming witty, or that she sounds just like me! :D

PJ

Disney's Animal Kingdom

One of our favorite shows at Animal Kingdom is the Birds of Wonder (or Flights of Wonder) show - I can never remember exactly what they call it.

I just think it's awesome to see a Bald Eagle this close. And Jade was completely enthralled by the whole thing. :)

Emery wanted me to share this next photo with everyone. It's a picture of the headless, one-legged bird that he found. :)

PJ

The BEST Bathroom EVER

Jim was so impressed with this bathroom that he had to take a picture of it.

He also declared it, "The BEST Bathroom EVER."

Now, those of you with only one or two children may not be so impressed. But when you've been taking young children to the bathroom as long as we have been, you may find a sink, soap dispenser, AND towel dispenser at a 4 year old's level to be pretty awe inspiring and blog worthy. :)

PJ

Why I'm Still Awake After Midnight...

It's getting below freezing tonight. So why should that keep me awake when I have a nice fire going and the house is plenty warm?

My goats.

You see, we took advantage of the warm weather last week to clean out the goat stall. (I say we, I mean Cole.) We usually allow the bedding to accumulate during the winter, and just add fresh bedding on top daily. This provides a thick insulating base to help keep the goats warm.

But we cleaned it out. And it's freezing. And concrete is cold. And my girls are pregnant.

Of course, I didn't start thinking about any of this until 11:00 tonight, when I was snuggled into bed. Colter was already asleep, so I couldn't ask him if he had taken care of it. So after much internal struggle, I got myself out of bed, put on my barn coat, boots, and a Jim hat, then headed out to the barn.

I was right. There wasn't enough bedding to keep them warm. Do you know what that meant? That meant climbing into the hay loft. Normally that's not a problem. But it was night time. And dark. And there are lots of mice around.

But what's a good goat momma gonna do?

Throw a bunch of stuff around to scare off any potential mice, of course. :)

Now, I have to tell you, by this point the goats are looking at me like I'm crazy. They're wondering why I woke them up and why I'm making so much noise!

But they appreciated the fresh bedding. :)

So, now that I'm back inside, I'm sitting by the fire, drinking a mug of tea and trying to get back to being sleepy. But it's not working...

Did I mention I had a nap today? I knew it was a stupid idea, but I couldn't help it. I was REALLY tired. And now I'm paying for it.

Oh well, at least my goats are warm. :)

PJ

My Princesses

One of the best memories of our vacation was our Princess Breakfast. It was a special treat for the girls. Brett and Jade really enjoyed it, but it was the most magical for Indigo.

Here is a photo of Indigo getting ready:

And here are all the girls with Belle:

The other princesses that visited that morning were Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, and Jasmine. (We were really hoping for Cinderella, but oh well!)

Jim and the boys got to explore Epcot without us and found a friend themselves:

Another great memory!

PJ

New Blog Domain

Did you notice the new blog domain? Instead of http://manychildrenmanyhugs.blogspot.com, now my blog is at www.goatmilksoapers.com. Isn't that easier?

You can still get to the blog by typing http://manychildrenmanyhugs.blogspot.com, or by using your old link. It will redirect you automatically.

The blog will also be getting a new look, but that won't happen for at least another month.

Why the change? Well, I wanted to put the blog address on my business cards, and http://manychildrenmanyhugs.blogspot.com was just waaaaayyyy too long. So I simplified it.

Do you like it?

PJ

Goat Chores

I had the pleasure of drawing blood on all of our dairy goats this evening. Normally Jim is the "vet" around here, but for some reason, I'm good at finding the vein, and well, Jim isn't.

I must point out that there are very few things that Jim isn't good at, but finding a goat vein is just not one of his gifts. :)

So - he holds the goat, and I pull the blood.

The first time he "made me do it", I admit to being a bit squeamish. But it really was very simple and not a big deal. Plus the goats are really good - they don't cry or carry on, or anything like that.

I did have to stick Victoria about 6 times before I got it, but I gave her a few extra oats and some extra loving, and I think she's forgiven me. :)

I'll send the blood to a laboratory to have it tested for CAE, which is a goat disease. Our herd is currently CAE negative, but we still test annually to make sure it stays that way.

Colter and Emery got to put the blood in the red top tube. They think it is so cool because when you put the needle in, it sucks the blood into the tube all by itself. Last year Jim had a nice little science discussion with them on why that worked. When I asked them if they remembered what caused it, they both responded, "Air pressure."

See - they do learn! :D

PJ

Happy Birthday, Poppy!

Just had to wish Poppy a HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY!!!

You look good for such an old man.

We love you!

PJ & Crew

Back to Soap

Today was the first day we got back to soapmaking. It wasn't until I got out to the soap room that I was reminded of how much I really do enjoy soapmaking. :)

Today we made:

90 purity bars
60 organic castile bars (olive oil only)
60 pink grapefruit bars
60 laundry stain sticks
64 pink grapefruit luffas.

This was the first time I had worked with organic extra virgin olive oil. I was surprised by just how green it was.

The funniest part was watching Jim get the olive oil out of it's container. We had left it in the barn, and it was too cool, so the olive oil "congealed". Jim had to sit on it and squirt it out in small increments into a pot. It took him 20 minutes to do, and his backside was quite chilled by the end of it. :)

Can't wait to unmold them tomorrow!

PJ

Freedom

Jade had an awesome vacation. She was at that age where everything was magical and unexpected. But I have to admit that probably her favorite part was enjoying her freedom. We used Disney transportation for everything which meant... NO CAR SEATS!

She just thought that was the greatest. :D

PJ

Disney All Star Sports

We had a lot of fun staying at the All Star Sports resort at Disney. There were lots of fun characters for the kids to climb on:

There was also a fun playground on sand:

There was a great pool that the kids loved (but apparently I forgot to get a picture of it).

There was also room to play football:

This was the first year that we've visited Florida that we haven't stayed with Mom and John. We loved it and I'm pretty sure Mom and John much preferred us trashing the hotel rooms instead of their house. ;)

Thanks for the gift, Grandma! And definitely keep working at Disney. :D

PJ

Indy Garage Sale

A couple of days before we left for Florida, we traveled to Indianapolis to sell soap at the Indy Garage Sale. One of the other vendors gave Indigo this "princess crown". It was also the first time Indigo went to work handing out our free soap samples. Isn't she cute?

We always meet some great people when we sell soap. Jim found this woman from Ghana who was selling shea butter directly from the nut. Of course, I had to try some. :)

At one point, Jade and I went for a walk. Jade had some soap samples in her hand. A woman stopped her and asked Jade if she could have a bite (she thought it was fudge). Jade immediately handed the sample to the lady, as I explained to the woman that it was soap and she probably didn't want to take a bite out of it. Half an hour later, she showed up at our booth and bought soap. I guess Jade earned her first official sale. :)

PJ