You Know You're In Trouble When...

...you come back from a weekend selling soap to find...


...sprouts growing out of the children's bathroom sink.

What the heck did they put in there???

Back to Soapmaking

Since we let our soap cure for six weeks, we finished making our holiday soap in November. That means we've been really busy bagging and selling soap, but not busy making it.

Unfortunately (ummm, actually fortunately) we've gone through most of our holiday soap supply, so it is time to get back to soapmaking.

This is what Jim made yesterday:



Those are 75 logs of soap that I turned into 750 bars of soap.

They are cider press, cranberry spice, cool citrus basil, coconut, and dessert tray.

I'm not sure if we'll keep the name dessert tray, that's just what Jim called it. I've got a cold so I can't smell it, but he says it smells really yummy. It's a limited edition soap, one we made by adding a bit of this and a tad of that.

I just finished cutting them all and Hewitt helped me stack them on the curing trays. I would have gotten a picture of Hewitt b/c he is really cute stacking soap, but my battery died. :(

Fortunately, cut and stacked soap is a very satisfying feeling. :)

Speed Bagging

The day after Christmas, my brother, Pete, came for a visit. He brought with him a wonderful Christmas present for the children - five new cousins!

Yep, my brother is getting married to a wonderful lady with five children, ages 9 - 15.

We had a great time meeting each of them, but I told everybody that they had to get the day's soap (about 800 bars) bagged before they could play.

They were on fire. They were a well-oiled, soap-bagging machine:









And then it was time for fun. :D

First chess:

Then candy land:

More chess:

Craft time:

Ummm, chess again:

Knitting lessons:

Still playing chess:

Lots of fun football:

The finished puzzle:

What an awesome visit! :D

Silly Hats

I suppose I should be happy that they played silly hats with their plates before dinner.

Instead of after. :D

I Miss The Green Stuff

No, not money.

I miss grass.

And leaves.

And even weeds.

So I went looking for some green pictures, and found these photos of Brett working in her herb garden. I hadn't seen these before, which means that I didn't take them. I think Jim must have, because the boys don't usually take pictures of their sister while she's working. And if they do take pictures of her, she's usually mad because they're getting in her way and irritating her.







And then I found this one:


I didn't know my camera could do that. Apparently it can and Jim had some free time on his hands if he found that functionality.

It's a nice picture.

But I still prefer the green ones. :D

I Hate it When...

... Daddy gets me dressed.

Future Blogger

One of the best parts about homeschooling is that the children are able to practice stuff now. Indigo recently decided she wanted to be a blogger so she could post pictures of herself wearing pretty dresses. Here she is practicing:


She was typing so fast her fingers were a blur:


Watch out blogging world -Indigo is getting ready! Now all she needs to do is learn to read. :D

Our First Taped Television Interview

We were so pleased with the job that Rachel and Pete did with our Channel 11 interview. Here it is if you haven't seen it yet.

Green Smoothie

I made myself a green smoothie one day. Jade had to have some:




Then she had to share it:



I'm pretty sure my face didn't look like that.

At least, I hope it didn't. :D

Operation No Fingers

Most of our pictures of Jade have her fingers in her mouth like this:


Even when we tell her to smile, she smiles around her fingers like this:


So, the objective of this photo shoot was to get Jade to willingly remove her fingers from her mouth and smile.

Daddy is coaxing and encouraging while Mom mans the camera:












I suppose I have to settle for this:


Oh well, we tried.

Jady Bug

Jade has gotten so big in the past six months. She's talking really well and expressing herself fully. She had me laughing really hard the other night with something she said.


But I need to give you a bit of background first.

We have six "House Rules" at the Jonas homestead. The sixth rule is "Mind Your Own Business". In other words, unless there is blood involved or the threat of blood, Mom doesn't want to hear what anyone else is doing from your lips.


So, the other night, Jade was late for bed. Indigo told Jim, "Daddy, it's past Jade's bed time." Jade started to pout, so Jim told her, "Jade it's time for you to get in bed."

Without missing a beat, Jade looked at the two of them and said in a very Mom-like tone, "Mind your own business Indigo and Daddy."


It was priceless. :)

So Glad It is 2010

I am so glad that 2009 is over. Don't get me wrong. It was an awesome year. But it was the craziest year I've ever lived through and there were times I wasn't sure we were going to make it. You can always tell how insane my life is by the number of blog posts I've made. And since my last post was in July... well, that speaks volumes.

I've got tons of photos and stories to update, and I'm sad because I know I missed lots of memories. But I'll try to get caught up.