right now

I’m nursing the baby and she is drifting off to peaceful sleep.
I’d like to keep holding her
she’s snuggling so sweetly
but I think she’ll actually lay down for this nap,

so I best take advantage of it.

Lily and Josiah are on the couch
her reading Henry and Mudge, while he reads Putter & Tabby.
A load of laundry - colors - waiting to be folded
separates them.
Lily is wearing fuchsia pants and shoes
one red, one pink, both for the right foot.
No shirt.

In mismatched jammies
Jeremiah sits opposite me in the heirloom rocker,
leaning against the quilt, also reading Putter and Tabby.

Brandon is out with Bernie.
He chewed through the rope holding the gate shut.
(Bernie, not Brandon)

Tony is at the church

helping to unload the chairs for the new building
which is almost ready.
He’ll need to stop at the co-op on the way home

to buy some chain for the gate.
~
It’s not picture perfect

but it’s wonderfully pleasant.
Soon we’ll be engulfed in the chaos
that comes with a houseful of children and dogs
but I am enjoying this moment.
Right now.
And

I am happy.

look who joined our farm

Monday
I called Tyler.
"Guess what the neighbors just got?!
A Great Pyrenees!"
"Cool," he said.
"Well, I'm glad you think it's cool;
it made me cry." I responded.
(lovingly - of course)
See
we have wanted a Pyr for a couple of years.
Tony and I especially,
but Tyler was completely on board also
after a visit to an Ozark farm where he saw a duo in action.
When I told Lana about it
she said,
"It's almost as if they read your private journal
and everything you want
they get."

They moved here a year and a half after we did
but they have managed to stay several steps ahead of us
farm-wise
the entire time.
Of course, their family unit
consists of 4 adults
(his parents live with them)
3 incomes
and 2 public-schooled children
whereas
we have added 2 babies
and lost two able-bodied adults
and
paid off the place
(on one income, while home-schooling)
in the time that we've lived here.

They are very nice people
and they've been quite generous with us,
but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit envious,
'cause I have been many times.
Tyler is quick to remind me of the above.
But I am not very patient....
~
Meet Bernie

it was raining, his fur will fluff out a ton when he's dry

~
Those same neighbors came over Tuesday evening
to ask if we wanted a Great Pyrenees.
Her parents raise them
(they are quite expensive!)
they also rescue Pyrs.
(not terribly expensive at all)
They had recently acquired Rick (the neighbor's) and Bernie.
Once Penny assured us that Bernie would be perfectly happy
in the goat field
but would easily adjust to guarding our whole property
once it is properly fenced (several years off....)
of course, we said, "yes!!"

When Penny told her folks, "They have eight kids....."

they waived the adoption fees and just gave us the dog!

Thank you, Lord, for giving us all of our needs
and so many of our wants

someday, Chacho... you will wear stretchy pants...

I

think

I'm going

to

die

!!

As I turned to nurse Lexi this morning,

I groaned, or maybe it was more of a moan,

"I feel like my muscles are completely shredded!"

That's when I figured out why my new exercise DVD

is called the

30 Day Shred.

oh

my

gosh!

OWWWW

~

I like my T-tapp, I really do

but

I have faithfully

- every single day -

either walked or 'tapped'

for five weeks

and I have not dropped a pound.

Now

I'm not exercising to lose weight.

I'm doing it because

first of all - I just need to. I'm not getting any younger...

Secondly

I want my little ones to grow up

thinking exercise is a normal part of life.

I messed up on that with my big kids,

because I wasn't there myself.

Tyler's little incentive program hasn't hurt any either.

But

I do have quite a bit of weight to lose,

so I sort of expected that that would be a benefit

of this new discipline of mine.

Since that wasn't happening

I decided it was time for a change.

~

Oh

I've changed alright;

I am going to die!

Maybe I'll just T-tapp instead, today...

my clever crew

Aren't they clever?!
I would've spent ten times as long
and a ton of energy
unloading by the shovelful

happy happy

It makes me so happy

to look out the window

and see freshly tilled dirt!

Although, this

is more accurately what I see.....

(we decided to keep the garden where we originally put it)

Of course,
I'll be even happier
to see
food
growing out there!

* * *

The tiller always make me think of Tony....

We were pretty broke when we moved out here;

the other house hadn't sold yet

so we were still making payments on both properties

and paying double utilities.

After researching tillers,

we really wanted to buy one with rear tines

but those are the expensive kind...

So,

Tony - 13 years old at the time - bought one for us!

Eventually the house sold and we paid him back.

But

when he bought it

it was a gift, he never expected to be paid back.

I can't use the tiller

without thinking of his love for us

and his generosity towards us.

~

I wanted to do some of the tilling yesterday.

I figured it'd be a twofer;

I could also count it as my exercise for the day.

Silly me

I was remembering my tilling with a front-tine tiller days.

Boy, you really have to manhandle those!

Tilling with this tiller

doesn't even qualify as a workout.

~

Thanks, Tony!

And thank-you, Tyler

for making this year

The Year of the Garden.

I love you

somebody stop me (and other stuff)

Really!
Somebody just needs to tell me; maybe I'll listen.
I
can not
sew
clothes!
grrr
I have precious little time for sewing
and I have spent
at least half of it
getting friendly with my seam ripper.
~
totally unrelated and much more joyful....
Lexi has been smiling all day!
She started off laughing in her sleep
right before Papa went to work this morning
and she's been a happy camper all day.
She had to get fussed at at nap time
'cause she was
disturbing the nap.
She had us all laughing!

I mean

could you just lay there all quiet like and ignore this??!

sooo fun!

~

this picture
is just 'cause
it
makes me smile, too

guess

who just rolled

from her back to her tummy!!!

Guess this explains her fussiness of the past several days;

my babies tend to get quite fussy

right before they aquire a new skill.
~
I know - the lighting is horrid
but I had to quickly document this momentous event

sign of spring

Nothing says springtime like diapers flapping in the breeze.

I do love cloth diapering my babies!

I love making one-of-a-kind diapers.

I love putting the soft fabric on scrumptious baby bottoms.

I love the surprise

of a coordinating diaper under a dress.

I love hanging them on the line

and

seeing them hanging on the line.

~
As I was hanging out the dypes today

and looking at all the fun colors

I thought,

"These ain't yer momma's diapers!"

Then I thought,

"HA - Lana can't say that - cuz they will be her momma's diapers!"

speaking of Lana....

we went fabric shopping today

and got all sorts of fun fabrics for a baby quilt.

I figure if I don't have time to quilt
the next best thing
is teaching my girl how to.

I hope it wasn't cheating

to buy a bit extra

so she can have scraps...

You know - for scrap quilts.

the weekend

We had a visit from Gramma & Grampa Saturday!

They brought Gramma Joyce

who'd been chomping at the bit

to see our new little Lexi.

~

TJ and Luke & Lana came for the afternoon, too;

it was nice

having all our kids under one roof for a few hours!

Tony was reading a Henry and Mudge to Lily.

(Who is finally enjoying being read to;

up to this point, she has preferred to 'read' to herself.)

I got tickled when TJ joined them on the couch

so he could look at the pictures, too!

Just goes to show you that

great literature can be enjoyed by all ages.

~

We had a bit of sadness yesterday.
Our food processor

bit the dust.

My mother in law bought it for me
at a yard sale
16 or 17 years ago.
It was ugly as all get out - but it worked great!
She bought me a new one to replace it about 12 years ago
but I returned it.
It was a wimp compared to this one.
It started breaking a few months ago
so we knew the end was near.
It's not all bad, though.
Now,
I can finally get a Cuisinart!
Wohoo!

what's better at bringing on smiles..

...than Saturday morning catoons?

Why
a big brother, of course!

and for a momma?

A little girl who sees work to be done

and does it. Unasked!

fishin' fun

The little boys just had to go fishing this past weekend!

The fish were hungry for those worms!

Tony joined us
after several fish had already been caught.
Didn't take him long to pull out a big bass.


Not to be outdone,
just a few minutes later,
Jeremiah reeled in an even bigger bass.

Poor Papa didn't even get to fish.
He spent the whole hour getting poles ready
with bobbers, hooks, and bait
and retrieving the hooks from those greedy fishy mouths.

Lily didn't do any fishing either

she was busy cutting 'flowers'
~

The boys just kept pulling out fish

(I don't even remember how many they caught)

and Tyler said,

"Looks like my priority will be cleaning fish this evening.

What's your's?"

I said,

"Guess my priority is cooking fish."

Josiah said,

"Well, I guess my priority is eatin' fish!"

a God thing?!

We are seriously considering

embarking on a journey

that it both exciting and terrifying.

We've talked about it

off and on

for years.

This morning

I found this:

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn the darkness into light before them

and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do;

I will not forsake them."

~

Isa. 42:16 "

at my favorite blog.

and the winner is....

I finally had time to do the drawing!

My very scientific method of choosing a winner...

and whose name did I pull out??

Lana!

for real!!

Lana, I'm going to order you the Peppermint Tea Tree

(although, I would've thought you'd pick the Chocolate Ice :-)

and we'll make some Lavender Salve together

how does that sound?

Then
just for fun
I drew a few more names
but
I won't be revealing them :-)
~
Start watching your mailbox in a week or so
to find out if it was you
~
"Oh, this is just too good."

just 2 days left....

to get your name in the drawing

for free homemade soap!

kid stuff

Yesterday

Tony was going to run to Walmart and take Josiah with him.
Earlier in the day, Josiah had put on ‘fancy clothes’
(which simply means the shirt had buttons)
As Josiah was putting on his shoes
(his Spiderman winter gators -aka crocs- which did not go with the outfit)
Jeremiah asked, “why are you going?”
To which Josiah replied,
“I’m the handsome one. I have to go.”

Jeremiah came in the house with the first dandelion of the season.
“You know, you can eat these.” he said.

And then he grabbed the honey.

“I figure it’ll be good with honey on it.”

~
Lily saw I had something in the oven.
She dug out some oven mitts and hollered out,
“Move back, move back everyone!”

Then a few seconds later I heard,
“I can’t open it, Mom.”
~

Not to be left out….

Lexi and Dad were thinking
maybe...
Monkey Girl
for her nickname?
Umm
I don’t think so!

self-sufficiency, soap, and a GIVEAWAY!

In my little fairy-tale world
we grow pretty much all of our food
and make
all of our medicines
cleaning supplies
shampoos
and bath & body soaps, scrubs & moisturizers.
~
In reality
we haven’t managed to grow much of anything
but we did finally find a source for manure.

*
Doing pretty good in the herbal remedy department.
Of course
I still have so much to learn!

*
Cleaning supplies.
Well
doing okay, there, too
but I have lots of room to improve.

*
I make my own moisturizer.
Just a blend of good -for your-skin oils

and
yummy smelling essential oils
(think orange chocolate)

I
made a batch of
Baby Bottom Grease
(which also happens to be an excellent lip balm!
I should probably rename it)
right before Lexi was born.

It works great.

*
The closest I’ve come to soaps & shampoo, though
is buying a few books
and doing internet searches.
I’ve tried some of the soaps from one of the downtown shops
but I was less than impressed!
And ‘natural’ soaps from the store
turn out to not be quite as natural as I’d prefer….
Then
I got birthday money from my mom and gramma

(thanks!!)
and decided I’d use some of it

to order homemade soap from Cheri.

I couldn’t wait for it to come in the mail!
At first
I was a tad disappointed.
It cleaned just fine
but I was hoping to step out of the shower
smelling

as if I’d bathed in a bottle of Victoria’s Secret’s Lovespell lotion.
After using it for awhile
(and it lasts a long while, I still have a sliver of my shampoo bar left!)
I’ve come to really love it!
Soap scented naturally just isn’t going to be as strong-smelling
as artificially scented soap.
I am okay with that now.

*

My gang prefers body wash to bar soap.

I felt kinda bad, being the only one to use good-for-me soap

while washing the rest of my family with soap

laden with cancer-causing ingredients

But just yesterday

I found a recipe to make liquid soap from homemade bar soap,

so I am excited to finally be able share the goodness!

~
I still want to make my own soaps someday
(Cheri is working on a soap-making book.
Needless to say, I’ll be ordering one
as soon as it’s available and I have some $$ to spare)
but until I do
we’ll be lathering up with
Sweet Hollow Farm’s
Citrus Sensation Shampoo
and
Tangerine Moisturizing soap.

~
Since I already sound like a commercial….
How about I throw in a giveaway?!
Go visit Cheri’s store
and buy some of her good-for you soaps
(may I recommend trying the shampoo?
And, if you have any poison ivy on your property,
or think there may be a chance of your getting into any poison ivy
you really ought to buy a bar of ‘Sweet Relief’ )
Then

come back and tell me how many bars you bought
(you can tell me what kinds you bought, too if ya want to :-)

~
Up for grabs is 1 free bar of soap, your choice.

*
You’ll get 1 chance for visiting her site
(leave me a comment & tell me what you wish you could buy)

*
And 1 chance each, for every item that you purchase.
(again, leave a comment)
If you don’t know how to leave a comment
(you know who you are :-)
e-mail me.
I’ll choose a winner Sunday afternoon,

so hurry!

oh

and tell yer friends!