Readaholic

I'm afraid that Brett has an incurable disease.


It's called readaholism.


Yes, she's a readaholic.


I've tried to stage several interventions.


But they just don't work.


I think there must be a genetic component to this disease.


And yes, it is inherited. :)

Famous People

Guess who we met at one of our recent shows?


I have to share the story that Mary Todd Lincoln told me. It seems she and her husband were visiting an elementary school. They were walking down a hallway toward a group of students, when they heard one young boy exclaim, "Hey look! It's Abraham Lincoln... and a witch!"

It seems the black dress got him a little confused. LOL

Fortunately my boys honored their homeschool education by not putting their feet in their mouths. :)

Charlestown Founders' Day

We spent the weekend selling soap at our hometown Founders' Day.

We actually moved into our home 5 years ago on the day of the Founders' Day parade. I remember because instead of unpacking the moving van, I got to take all the children to the parade. :)

Here is a photo of everybody at this weekend's parade:


Jade isn't paying any attention to the camera, because she discovered the magic of collecting candy from the streets after it has been thrown by parade people.

She's looking to see if anymore is about to be thrown:


Still checking for more candy:


Apparently she decided she had time to check out what everyone else put in the candy bag:


Jim and I decided she'd had enough candy, so up she went (of course, she's still looking for candy):


Jade decided she'd have more luck getting candy with Mommy, so down she came:


And lest you think it was only Jade into the candy, here is a shot of Hewitt hoarding his in his shirt:


It was a fun parade. :)

An Email from Brett

Last night we left the children with sitters while Jim and I took a 6 hour shopping date. I had given Brett instructions on making dinner for everyone. When we got home, the house was peaceful and looked better than when I had left it, despite the fact that they'd eaten dinner, milked goats, and done laundry.

I was really pleased and thanked everyone, particularly Brett.

This morning, I checked my email and discovered this note from Brett:

i love you!

we got 4 orders.

i invioced them and printed them.

did not send email.

the 10 $ on the computer is our nieghbour Dave -

he got 2 oceans.

i put that in quiqbooks too.

Love You!!!

Brett

(B,12)

Isn't she amazing? And nope, I don't rent her out... :)

Shopping Spree

Jim and I went shopping last night. Just the two of us.

It was very strange.

And very quiet.

We got to hold hands with each other - instead of chaperoning little hands across the parking lot.

We got to buckle just our own seat belts.

It was very quiet.

We got to look at what we were shopping for instead of constantly turning around to make sure all the children were still present and accounted for.

We got to hold an uninterrupted conversation.

And did I mention it was very quiet? :)

Our shopping included Aldi, Lowes, Best Buy, Target, and Sam's Club. We spent waaaayyyy too much money, but it was all necessities.

Well... ok, I didn't exactly NEED the GPS system. But it was on sale for $100, and we've been traveling to all these craft shows, and I don't have a clue as to where I'm going half the time, and I'm driving this huge vehicle (more on that later) which makes it difficult to switch lanes quickly if you're in the wrong lane, and gas prices are going back up so extra driving because I got lost actually costs money, and... OK - I didn't need the GPS. But Jim said to go ahead and buy it. :) Maybe that's because he was in a good mood because it was so quiet? LOL

And then we finished the evening with a wonderful dinner at Red Lobster. Why Red Lobster? Because wonderful friends of ours got us a gift certificate there (and then watched all the children while we did our shopping spree and had dinner).

I think I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE seafood - and Jim hates it. So I never cook it for our family. But every once in a while, I get to go to Red Lobster - and I pig out. Tonight I had shrimp scampi, and scallops, and flounder, and mashed potatoes with a lobster cream sauce - that was the best. Oh yes, and broccoli - but I ate that first so I could get it out of the way and savor my seafood.

The children and their security guards babysitters had a venison roast and vegetables. Then they topped it off with homemade egg nog (from our goat milk and own eggs).

What did I have for dessert? Nothing. I was too full from all that yummy seafood. And even though it is 6:30 in the morning, my mouth is watering just remembering it.

But I do have to admit that as much as I enjoyed the seafood, the best part of the evening was spending time alone with Jim. He and I very, very rarely get to spend time together - just the two of us. But it makes me so happy that after being together for 19 years (almost 14 of it married), we still enjoy it. :)

Disappearing Act

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since my last blog post.

Where did I disappear to?

Well, in the past 2 months, we've soaped thousands of bars of soap, fed 8 hungry children daily, cared for 12 goats and shoveled all their manure, visited the Emergency Room, washed over 100 loads of laundry, sent soap to countries such as Singapore, Germany, Australia, and Panama, bought a new (to us) vehicle, built a new soap room, kept Jade from killing herself, painted the interior of the house, prepped for a newspaper interview, laughed and tickled the children, and slept a couple of hours.

And that's just the short list.

People ask me all the time how I manage to find time to do everything, including write on my blog. The truth is - sometimes I don't. But that makes me sad, because I really enjoy writing on my blog. It makes me smile.

So, in addition to being more faithful to walking on the treadmill, I'm going to try to be more faithful to writing on my blog.

And since I've been awake since 3:00 am due to massive thunderstorms that won't let me sleep despite being exhausted, I figured now is as good a time as any!

So - hopefully I won't pull another disappearing act anytime soon! :)