Just a Little Update

Thanks for all the sweet comments on the new puppy ladies! You really are one of the greatest parts of my day I hope you all know! I enjoy your friendship and comments and am tickled that people actually read all of my ramblings:)) Just a little update on what's been going on around here. Between the farm, work, the husband, the kiddos, the new dog and life in general, besides a growing conviction that I don't want my children to remember their childhood with their mom always sitting in front of a little plastic box of blinking lights all day long, I haven't indulged myself in too much computer time lately. The new pup is doing great! What a little (fat) sweetie! She is thriving (praise the Lord!) with all the good goats milk and loving care. Grace wakes up everyday and asks "Is the puppy dead?"~ yes she has seen the tragedies of farm life one too many times. I think I am believing a little bit that she will be just fine and grow up to be a great big dog.

We celebrated Blaze Orange Holiday here over the weekend. The biggest holiday of the year up in these neck of the woods where nobody ever has a conflicting schedule to get together with the relatives. We have hosted lunch for my soap-opera side of the family for the last three years and usually have a house full of my big half brothers and a smattering of cousins, nieces, nephews and extras. I love it! Hosting is one of my favorite things to do anyway, so a great big group of hungry guys (and one lone gal) in my kitchen couldn't make me happier. Grandma Lee came over this year too to help me get set up. She and the kids decorated blaze orange deer sugar cookies to go on the dessert table, along with the pumpkin bars and brownies. We had a much smaller group this year, and didn't even get one blaze orange picture. We'll just have to enjoy the ones from last year.

Only 3 deer were tagged but lots of memories were made. There are usually some young hunters with that get first chance at tagging their deer. Uncle Steve and Uncle Dave watch out for those young ones pretty good. Oh, and somewhere along the line (about 2 weeks ago) Trent got his first doe with a bow. Yay Trent! This kid was born to hunt and has taken it very seriously. He was so excited (and Dad was just a smidgen proud.)

Alexis helped me host another soap class with 3 more ladies here at the farm. We had another group scheduled for the weekend (deer hunter widows), but had to cancel due to the icy roads. Hopefully we can have a girls soap day in January after the holiday festivities have settled down. Some of my new soaps are ready to come off the drying rack so I set up a little photo shoot and am still (pulling my hair out) trying to figure out how to set up the sales page. Marketing is not my area of expertise, or comfort. I can stand in front of a group and mix explosive chemicals and talk about saponification and trace and seizing, but when it comes time to handing over the money I freeze up. I have been accused of being too generous before and my CEO tells me I have to quit giving everything away if I want to be in the soap business. Do I want to be in the soap business? Oh yes, those goats keep eating, that's why I want to be in the soap business. One of the ladies who came over for a lesson a couple of weeks ago called with some soap questions as she was embarking on making 4 batches of soap all by herself. Her excitement was contagious! That's why I want to be in the soap business.

Thanksgiving festivities are in the works. Alexis will be going with the youth group to pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas child this week, we're hoping to have some young friends spend the night, the lame, the blind and the crippled (anybody we know of with nowhere else to go on Thursday) are coming over for brunch and a lazy day of eating and celebrating, looking forward to visiting with some old friends and meeting some new friends, a birthday to celebrate, and if I ever make up my mind maybe a little Black Friday shopping. I don't know. Getting up at 3:30 a.m. to part with a lot of money doesn't exactly thrill me, but the kids are begging. Our immediate families are all so large now that we haven't attempted to try to get everybody together for Thanksgiving in years but rather celebrate Christmas and Easter with our couple dozen children, grandchildren, and adult siblings.

The tea's all gone, so I'm off to find some young child to torture with a spelling lesson. Happy Monday!