Number One

I don't know how long this will last, so I had to document it:

Can you see what that is? That's Goat Milk Stuff in FIRST place when you do a google search on "goat milk soap". Isn't that exciting?

OK, you may not think that's exciting, but I've put in hundreds of hours on this website, and I'm thrilled!

So thank you to all of our awesome friends, fans, and customers. We wouldn't be here without you! :D

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The Youngest Person Rule

One question I'm asked ALL the time is, "How do you do it all?"

The answer is simple - I don't.

But I do get quite a bit accomplished.

One of the secrets to our success are our house rules. There are 6 that the children follow and then there are a couple that I follow. One of my most effective ones is:

The youngest person capable of doing the job does it.

All the children are encouraged to teach their younger siblings how to do things so that the older children can pass their jobs to the younger children, thereby freeing up their time so that Jim and I can pass our jobs to the older children. :)

Here's an example of this principle in action. I haven't regularly folded laundry in years.

And if you do it right, it's something they enjoy:



Of course, you do have to get over things being perfectly creased and folded.  I am a firm believer in the fact that a few wrinkles never killed anybody.  And you do have to inspect periodically. The way I handle that with laundry is to have Greyden (who is responsible for washing all the laundry) put the clean clothes in my bedroom.  Then it is really easy to tell when they're falling behind on the laundry.  LOL

Plus, this is homeschooling at it's best.  The young ones early on learn:
 - colors
 - teamwork
 - sorting
 - organization
 - how to tackle a large project one step at a time and not get overwhelmed

And the older ones learn how to teach.

Yep, I'd be getting a lot less sleep if I didn't have the youngest person rule. I definitely recommend it. :D



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Substitute Blanket

We've been having trouble lately with Indigo and Jade losing their blankets around the house/soap room/yard. It's not a pretty picture when it's bed time and the blankets are nowhere to be found.

So Jim told them they had to leave their blankets in their room. Today I discovered Jade curled up on the couch. Normally she'd be sucking her fingers on her right hand and running her left hand through the fringe on her blanket. But today she had to come up with a substitute:

It worked for her, but I'm not sure she can drag Ginger around like she drags her blanket. :D

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Charlestown State Park Balloon Glow

Yesterday, Jim was pushing us to finish our work early so we could have a family surprise.

What was our surprise? The Charlestown Hot Air Balloon Glow.

It was a hot, muggy evening with no breeze. (On a side note, we used our bug off lotion stick b/c the bugs were awful and they worked great. I wasn't bothered by any bugs at all!)

Anyway, since it was so hot, we had to get some ice cream:

The ice cream was quite a hit:



And then we got to have fun with the fire truck and hats:



They had so much fun:

The balloon glow was awesome (beware, Brett was taking the video and she moves pretty quickly to try to get all the balloons):



We got to see friends and hang out and relax. It was a very fun evening - and all Jim's idea. :)

Of course, after we left, the stopping at McDonalds and getting milkshakes and french fries, well... that was all mom's idea. :D

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Sugar and Spice

We had a craft show a couple of weekends ago. It was a pretty day and we had a family date after the show, so we brought everyone.

After a while, Indigo got bored of coloring and asked if she could give out samples. Emery set her up:

She was really sweet and talked to the customers and gave them their samples and business cards:



After about ten minutes, she got bored and decided to stop.

Jade then decided that SHE wanted to hand out samples too. Since she's too little to sit on the stool by herself, Brett stood with her:

She wasn't quite as sweet as Indigo:



In fact, this was the face she gave most of the people:

It was hysterical. Jim calls Indigo and Jade "Sugar and Spice". Indigo being Sugar and Jade being Spice. This is just a perfect example of Sugar and Spice in action. :D


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