Goat Milk Soapers

Our Favorite Time of the Year

2012-02-20T20:50:00.000-05:00

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

2012-02-18T21:00:00.003-05:00

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

2012-02-16T19:48:00.000-05:00

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

2012-02-11T22:57:00.001-05:00

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

2012-02-11T20:02:00.002-05:00

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?!?!?

2012-02-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

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

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

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

2012-02-08T14:57:00.000-05:00

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?

2012-01-22T17:57:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-11T12:04:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-05T19:39:00.000-05:00

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

I know the goats enjoyed it!

PJ

Homeschooling at its Best

2012-01-03T21:33:00.001-05:00

I think that one of the biggest strengths to homeschooling is that my children get to learn the things that interest them. Because it is self-directed, they often learn faster and retain the information longer. They make connections and learn how to think for themselves instead of just memorizing facts that they will later forget.

Brett has taken an interest lately in my camera. She's been taking the same photo on all different settings and then seeing how that affects the photograph.

Which is a great learning tool, but really annoying when I'm looking for photos on my camera disc and there are 356 pictures of a pumpkin sitting on our front porch.

Her latest experiment involves taking photos with no flash. These were some of the recent series of photos I found on my disc:

They're in black and white because she discovered that if you take a photo without the flash in a room with florescent lighting, the pictures come out very yellow.

BUT... if you turn them black and white, then you can't tell!

I've been encouraging her experimentation. I'm so thankful that we have digital cameras and can't imagine if it were still film! One of the reasons she's practicing is because she wants to start creating her own line of greeting cards based on her photographs. She's very excited about it, so we're supporting her as much as we can.

As I was going through her photos, most of them were plants with frost on them:

Then in the middle I found this one isolated photo:

I asked her why she took that. She said, "I did my hair and I wanted to see what it looked like."

What a creative solution! I was very impressed.

Just another example of homeschooling at its best!

PJ

Christmas Cookies

2012-01-03T07:45:00.002-05:00

One thing that I have discovered is that there is never enough time to get done everything that I want to get done. So if something "non-essential" is going to happen, I have to stop what I'm doing to make it happen.

Christmas cookies are definitely a "non-essential" thing that is essential to our family's Christmas memories.

So one night, we had a super quick dinner and I gathered everyone in the kitchen and told them to go upstairs and raid the play-doh bucket for all of our cookie cutters. They quickly found them and dumped them on the floor. They were each given the assignment to choose just one special cookie cutter. It took Jade a while to decide:

While the great cookie cutter hunt was on, I mixed together and rolled out some dough. Everyone got to cut out 2 (just two) cookies:

And then it was a free for all:

Jim and Jade worked on mixing together some icing:

Once the baking was complete, it was a decorating frenzy:

(do you like Greyden's flour lip):

And when they came up for air, we had dozens and dozens of the most over-decorated Christmas cookies you ever did see:

And they were so yummy!

PJ

A Winter Walk

2012-01-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

I am very thankful that we have been having an extremely mild winter here in SE Indiana.

It was so pretty out the other day, that the older children all asked if they could go running. The boys headed toward friends of ours. Brett didn't want to run with them, so she drafted Hewitt to run with her toward Farmer Frazier's house. (She took Hewitt because she can keep up with him - the other boys are pretty fast).

Indigo and Jade did NOT want to be left behind, so Jim and I finished some things and then headed out for a walk with them.

They were a bit excited to get started:

Jim and I caught up at the end of the driveway just as Brett and Hewitt returned:

Which was good, because Jade had her shoes on the wrong feet, so Brett helped switch them:

And then the girls ran ahead, again:

Once they got to the corner, they were apparently very excited (either that or they had too much Christmas candy) because they started dancing and singing:

There was a short stop to watch the twigs in the water...

... and to smile at the camera...

... and then they were off running again:

Time to take a break to dance some more:

And stare at the creek...

... before returning home. But apparently Indigo used up all her energy dancing:

We managed to get her back up on her feet to walk the rest of the way. We had a great time but it made me really antsy for Spring!

PJ

A Helping Machine

2012-01-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

December was a pretty hectic month for Goat Milk Stuff. We were shipping lots and lots of orders while keeping up with bagging soap and making 'Other Stuff'.

My sister-in-law, Heather, kindly offered to come down one weekend to help.

It was great.

That was actually the weekend that we were selling soap at the Stewart Christmas Show at the Louisville Fairgrounds. So having an extra adult was huge!

Heather helped cook. She helped clean (I saw a mop out at one point). She helped bag soap. She helped label lip balms and lotion sticks. She helped pour candles. She helped make sugar scrubs. She helped bathe little children.

She was a machine.

With all the work she did over the entire weekend, we only got one photo of her:

Yep, she worked hard and she deserved her rest! (And Indigo is such a great snuggler)!

Thanks, Heather!!

PJ

Don't Underestimate Them!

2011-12-31T11:18:00.000-05:00

People are often really surprised at how much we accomplish. I'm always getting asked how I manage to do it all. My standard reply is...

"I don't do it all."

Sometimes, I'm tempted to reply...

"My kids do it all."

But that's not exactly true either. Jim does a lot. And I do a lot. And there's a lot I would like to do that doesn't get done.

But the truth is that one of my main jobs is to train my children. I want each of my children (whether they are a boy or a girl) to be able to manage a household and their life. So they each need to be taught everything.

I start them really early. Because, when they're young, working with (and for) Mommy is great fun. Most of the time they don't realize they're working.

Although sometimes they do LOL.

You need to remember that your children are not going to do things as well as you could. And they're definitely not going to do them as fast as you could. While you're training them, you may get frustrated and want to do the job yourself.

But don't do it!

Spend the time training them (despite the delays and frustrations) and you will reap the rewards later.

The other night, Fletcher made sweet potatoes for dinner. (Yes, my children cook too!) He made one too many sweet potatoes and there were left-overs.

So Jade was called in to put the sweet potatoes into tupperware.

Notice the sweet potoatoes on the table. Notice the extra sweet potatoes in the bowl. Notice the fact that she chose a tupperware that was bigger than it needed to be.

Now, notice the fact that the sweet potatoes are in a tupperware and I didn't have to do it!

Fletcher will wipe the extra sweet potatoes off the table (and not onto the floor).

Greyden will wash out the bowl.

And if there isn't much room in the fridge, Jim will manage to fit it in somehow.

So no worries! As she gets older, she'll do a better job.

Perhaps when people ask me how they can get more accomplished, I should answer...

"Don't underestimate your children!"

PJ

Magic Elephant Ride

2011-12-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

Emery really enjoys playing with the girls. I'd like to say it's completely because of them, and mostly it is. But there is a small piece of him that just enjoys avoiding work. And since he's so good at keeping the girls entertained and occupied, well... he tends to get away with it.

The other day, I went looking for him because I needed his help with something.

When I found him he was like this:

Yes, that is a laundry basket strapped to his back.

Why did he have a laundry basket strapped to his back?

So he could give Magic Elephant Rides, of course!

Emery is homeschooled (and a good big brother)!

PJ

A Little Levitation

2011-12-27T18:10:00.001-05:00

Jim and I ran errands right before Christmas (including getting the boys' Christmas present).

When we came home, I wanted to know where everyone was so we could get the present inside. I called out, "Where is everyone?"

I heard Emery's voice yell from the boys' room, "We're levitating!"

To which I replied, "You're what????"

The response (more clearly this time): "We're MEDITATING!"

Me: "Oh."

I went into the boys' room to see this:

I later got the story of why my boys were meditating.

Apparently, they were told that there is electricity that runs through your body. When your body is tense, it keeps your thumb and point finger from closing. But if you relax completely through meditating, the electricity running in your body will pull your thumb and pointer finger together. So the boys were trying to meditate to see if their fingers would close.

So far it hasn't happened.

But they're still trying.

The whole meditating thing definitely works for me. It keeps them nice and quiet, and is definitely better than levitating.

PJ

Small Biz Dream

2011-12-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

There are lots of contests out there on the web that we could enter. Some of them are silly. Some of them are fun. Some I'd like to enter. Some I don't.

Regardless of the desire, we don't usually have the time to enter contests. I still like to keep my eye open to see what is available, however. The other day I saw a small business contest and forwarded it Jim.

Why forward it to Jim? Because the entry requested creativity.

And Jim is definitely the creative one in the family.

To enter, we needed to submit a photo that had the words "My Dream in 2012" in it. The contest winner gets a bunch of small biz stuff including free consulting with marketing expert John Jantsch.

Since Jantsch wrote a book called, "Duct Tape Marketing", Jim decided that duct tape was definitely called for in our photo.

Taking a photo may seem like a simple thing to some of you.

But not for us.

Ten people needed to be bathed and the girls needed their hair done.

For this photo, eleven shirts needed to be duct taped. Why eleven? Because Thalia needed one too!

The tripod had to be set up (it was on one side of the fence and we were on the other).

22 goats needed to be moved out of the pasture:

We didn't actually get all of them out, you can see several standing behind us if you look carefully.

Then 9 people needed to climb the fence and pose into the sunlight while they waited with a smile on their faces for Jim to set the camera timer, hop over the fence and get into position for the first photo:

Wait while Jim climbs back over the fence, repositions Emery so he's not in shadow, PJ drags Ivy the goat out of the picture, Jim presses the timer, climbs back over the fence and poses for this photo:

Reject that photo because Pegasus walked into Jim's behind and made him jump toward Colter.

Repeat that performance a few more times until we got the final photo we submitted for the contest:

I wanted to crop it like this (with Ivy checking us all out from the left):

But Jim vetoed that and since he did all the hard work I let him have his way. ;)

So, we are entered into the contest and we'd love for you to vote for us! Just click to Vote for Goat Milk Stuff!! (The vote now button is right below the photo).

Thanks for your help and support!

PJ

Making Use of the Space Update

2011-12-18T21:14:00.000-05:00

I want to update everyone on a post that I wrote several months ago. I'm reposting it here for you to read it first:

I've been re-reading a book that I haven't read in a decade. It's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey. I read something that struck me this time that I don't remember striking me the last time I read the book.

Maybe it's because I'm older and wiser?? Either that or it's because I have so much more time to think now than I did a decade ago. ;)

Stephen Covey didn't write the quote either. He stumbled upon it in a book and it meant a lot to him. So he shared it:

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our happiness.

Here is my paraphrase:

When something irritates/worries/angers/frustrates me, I have a certain amount of time before I yell/cry/worry/argue. In that amount of time I have a chance to choose my reaction. The decision that I make in that amount of time will influence my relationships if I replace my natural negative response with a positive, loving response.

As I've been thinking about this quote, the thing that struck me most forcefully is that I make the space way too small. That is, I often respond too quickly. The times when I pause to take a deep breath before reacting, are the times when I usually choose the right response. But if I ignore the space, that is the time that I let my fatigue speak.

I loved the phrase "freedom and power". What a great phrase. We have the freedom to react the way we want to. Nobody can force me to react a certain way. And it is definitely a power to choose my reaction. What a great word. I have the power to respond in a positive way if I will grasp it.

I then turned my attention to the children and how this quote applied to them. What an amazing thing for me to teach them. To be able to take a space, a pause, a rest, before choosing their response. We have one child in particular that would see his life change if he could grasp that. If he would react in a godly way to the stimulus all around him, he would see his joy increase by leaps and bounds.

What about you? Are you making use of the space you've been given? Do you take hold of the power to respond in a positive way?

I hope that you do. Your growth and happiness will benefit from it

So, that was the post. What I wanted to share with you was a way I found to help the child I was referring to deal with this issue of not making use of the space. This child's gut reaction was to instantly respond to stimuli, often in a negative way that caused him much grief. No matter how often we talked with him and tried to help him, he couldn't take the time to take that deep breath and react (or not react) more positively.

So, what did I do?

After much prayer and thought, I did what any sane Mother would do...

I bribed him.

I came up with a point system that this child was completely in control of. Anytime that he was going to react and he managed to stop himself and not get upset, he got 1 point. If he did get upset about something, he had 5 minutes to get happy again. If he got happy, he got 1 point. If he was still mad and upset after 5 minutes, he lost 1 point. When he reached 100 points, I would buy him a $30 something that he had been wanting for a very long time.

I have to tell you, it was brilliant and worked perfectly. The change in him was miraculous. Seriously, miraculous. He has since earned (and received) the object of his desire and more than a week later, he is still mastering his emotions and reactions even without the points. I'll probably have a point thing periodically, to reinforce the positive behavior, but I have been so impressed with the changes in him, I had to share.

I will point out one stumbling block we had to deal with. Apparently, this child was so excited about gathering points, that one evening he was purposely angering his other siblings so they would get angry with him. Then he could react positively and earn a point.

Diabolical, I know.

Normally I hate point systems - too much for me to keep track of. But this child took full responsibility. He really stepped up to the plate and is a much happier person now. I'm so proud of him!

PJ

Homeschooled

2011-12-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

The children wanted to do something special a while ago. I told them the only way we'd be able to go was if we got all the soap unmolded and cut before we had to leave.

They were so motivated, they decided to get up early and get it done.

Children: "Mom, do we have any extra alarm clocks?"

Me: "Nope."

Children: "Can we use your alarm clock?"

Me: "Nope."

I thought that was the end of it. But the next morning, before our alarm went off, I heard the back door slam. Apparently the children had woken up without an alarm clock and headed out to unmold the soap.

I was partly right.

And I was partly wrong.

The children had woken up. But they did not wake up without an alarm clock.

It turns out they made their own alarm clock.

How did they do that? I'll tell you.

First, they used a computer to record 5 minutes of silence. After that they recorded 3 minutes of them screaming and hollering.

Then Brett repeated the 5 minutes of silence 12 times to make an hour of silence. She created a playlist that would play that hour of silence 9 times before it played the 3 minutes of screaming.

They set one of the computers to a mode where it would not hibernate, then at 9:00 at night they set the playlist to begin.

And at exactly 6:00 am they heard lots and lots of screaming and they all woke up!

Brett (the mastermind) is homeschooled!

PJ

Stirring the Soup (I Mean Sauce)

2011-12-13T16:23:00.000-05:00

I've talked many times about my Youngest Person Rule. It basically says that the youngest person capable of doing a job does it. The corollary is that when you've taught one of your younger siblings how to do your job, they can take it over and you can get a new job.

One of the follow-up questions I'm often asked is, "What are age appropriate jobs for my children?"

There is no right or wrong answer to that. It varies from child to child and depends upon their aptitudes and temperaments. One thing it does not depend upon is their desire. It doesn't matter if they want to do a job, if the job needs to be done and they are capable of doing it, they do it. That's just a part of life. If that makes me a mean mom, I'm ok with that.

One of the things that is really important around here is food. The Jonas family may not be very tall, but we eat a LOT of food. People are often amazed at the quantities we consume. So around here, children learn very early to cook.

The older 5 children each have a day that they are responsible for making dinner. (I'm hoping that in a couple of more years, I'll have all the days of the week covered and I won't have to cook dinner for a few years!)

I teach the children to make individual meals that they particularly enjoy. So each child has at least 3 meals that they can completely prepare by themselves. Hewitt is starting to be taught with lessons on making scrambled eggs and omelettes.

On a side note, Jim (who gets bored by too much repetition) recently instituted a policy that each child has to make one new meal a month. This has produced some really good (and really bad) results. The children have learned that just because something sounds good in a magazine does not mean that people will actually eat it. LOL

Anyway, back to the youngest person rule.

Here is a video about Emery and one of his recent dinner nights. Emery's special meal is chicken alfredo and he decided to do some training of his own:

As I was filming him, I was really pleased to discover that he actually listened and retained what I've been teaching. He taught his younger sisters how to help with cooking. For now I'll ignore the fact that his motivation was so that he could escape and read his book.

PJ

What a Charmer

2011-12-10T21:33:00.001-05:00

We've spent the weekend selling soap at the Stewart Christmas Show here in Louisville. The children all take shifts working at the booth selling soap.

If you've never seen my children in action, I have to admit that they are natural born salesmen.

People tell us all the time that we've done a great job training the children to sell, but the truth is that we did very little, and they picked most of it up on their own.

Here's the perfect example.

Today an older woman walked up to Emery and was talking to him about the soap. After a few minutes, the conversation went like this:

Customer: "Do you have anything for old lady skin?"

Emery: "Why do you ask?"

The customer was ecstatic about Emery's response and laughingly called Jim and I over to share Emery's comment. She told us that we were going to have to keep our eye on this one.

We agreed. He's a charmer, that one.

PJ

The Importance of Free Wi-Fi

2011-12-06T19:39:00.001-05:00

We love living in the country. There is only one problem...

... the lack of high speed internet.

Right now we have satellite internet, which is better than dial-up.

Most of the time.

The biggest problem is when we have several days of stormy weather, like we've had.

So what's an entrepreneurial family with a thriving business that requires printing postage to do?...

...Find the nearest wi-fi hotspot of course!

Normally, I pack up my home office (two laptops and the postage printer) and head to McDonalds. It's about 6 miles from the house, so it's pretty convenient.

But two nights ago, we decided to take the whole family and head into town to get our Christmas tree and dinner.

After picking out the tree and loading it into the Hulk, Jim made an announcement.

Jim: "We're going to have a poetry contest. I'm going to say the first line, and someone has to come up with a second line that rhymes."

Jim: "Next stop..."

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

Colter: "I know!!! IHOP!"

(To which there was much cheering).

So we arrived at IHOP and took over four tables. We set up the home office on one and proceeded to order dinner. What does a family of ten order?

Jim: eggnog pancake special
PJ: omelette with cheese, spinach, peppers, & onions, with a stack of pancakes
Colter: 3 eggs, 3 pancakes, 4 pieces of bacon, hashbrowns
Brett: cinna-stack
Emery: 3 eggs, 3 pancakes, 4 pieces of bacon, hashbrowns
Fletcher: omelette with cheese, bacon, and green peppers, side of pancakes
Greyden: blueberry pancake stack with sausage and bacon
Hewitt: smiley face chocolate pancakes
Indigo: stack of pancakes and macaroni and cheese (I know, she's strange)
Jade: eggs, pancakes, bacon

Since that wasn't enough food, I ordered 3 cinna-stacks to split for "dessert".

Even then, Colter and Greyden were still hungry and Hewitt wanted an order of broccoli. (Yes, my children are bottomless pits when it comes to food - but they work hard, so I figure they've earned it).

After we finished eating, the children all headed to the Hulk. Brett has been reading "The Red Pyramid" out loud to them, and they wanted to do that while Jim and I finished printing postage for the next day's orders.

While we were working on our computers, our waitress, Misty (who was so helpful and wonderful) shyly asked us a question.

Misty: "So, ummm..., this may sound a little strange, but we can all smell you... in a GOOD way... and we were wondering what scent we were smelling?"

Jim and I started laughing. The children had shared with Misty about Goat Milk Stuff, so she knew we made soap.

Apparently some of the IHOP workers were having an animated discussion trying to figure out what scent we smelled like.

We told Misty that we had all been working in the soap room, so it was probably a mix of scents. Someone thought that they were smelling spearmint, and we confirmed that was likely because the boys had unmolded a batch of rosemary spearmint before we headed to IHOP.

So, not only did we get to answer customer emails, print postage for orders, and eat lots of super pancakes, we also got to enhance the fragrance of IHOP.

A definite win-win!

PJ