Yeah, I'm sitting here playing

I have been sitting here playing around with my blog.  My abandoned blog.  Turkey is in the oven.  Our turkey is farm-raised, free-range from my neighbor across the alley. I watched her grow.  The neighbor did the dirty work and traded me 3 loaves of soap for this beauty of a turkey. 

Of course, my tried and true method of buying a frozen turkey with that automatic pop-up thermometer that takes the guess work out of when the turkey's done is out.  And it's not just the blog style or the turkey that's new this year.  I soaked the turkey in a brine this year for the first time.   I sure hope it turns out O.K. 

I've taken a break from soaping for today... although I may just make some avocado soap today... I can't help myself! Today I'm enjoying my family, rest, the farm, the cool weather, the food and meditating on the wonders of the truth that I am a daughter of God through Christ.  That's a billion universe statement.  

I'm thinking of my mom and dad and brother and sister and grandma and mother-in-law and brother-in-law and sister-in-law and nieces and nephews and their families... I'm missing them.  I'm praying for them.  I'm so thankful for them.

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever! - Psalm 30:11

Happy Thanksgiving!
Sheila

Summer Vacation: Day 14

I have three blogs. Well, really 2. The third, which will be on our Goats Make Soap Co. website soon, isn't officially up and running yet. 

I have 10 goats now. Danny and Champ are my wethers. Buster, Champ's brother, is staying with us for awhile, but will eventually go back to his home with his dam. Darla, Daylight, Daisy and Esmeralda are all in milk. Hand milking 4 does every morning is quite the chore. So I've worked a system where I milk Darla and Daylight one day and Daisy and Esmeralda the next. This works for now because I still have Daylights twins, Luna and Star, Daisy's daughter Lily and Esmeralda's daughter Mulan. But soon (I hope) the buyer for Star and Lily will be taking them to their new home and I'll have a doe with no kids to keep her milk emptied out. This will work out OK because Daisy and Daylight will (hopefully) be going to their new home also sometime the middle of this month. This will leave me with 6 goats. Two dams in milk, two doelings and two wethers. And that's just the goat part of my life. 

I have a very entrepreneurial husband who is quite the dreamer. He's always dreaming up ways to invent the next great thing or start a successful small business that would free him up to work autonomously. Being a police officer fits his analytic, driven personality. But the para-military style work-life of policing doesn't. He's a very creative, talented, driven guy and when he caught wind of my goat milk soap making hobby his eyes lit up with an entrepreneur glow. By the end of two weeks he had a website started and a logo designed. The man is a machine!! In the mean time I'm making soap, honing in on my base soap recipe and what essential oils and "flavors" I want to use in my soap. I'm giving soaps away to everyone (which makes me happy) and I'm very surprised at the feedback: When can I buy some more? 

I'm not a business person. I have a hard enough time keeping a personal budget and balancing my own checkbook so its a good thing I have this driven guy doing all the tasks that need to be done to put a business together. If it was up to me I'd probably just make soap, give it away and maybe sell some on Etsy. Who knows, maybe my dreamer will get his dream and I'll be the happy soap maker.

Besides blogs, goats and soap (I won't even get started on the chickens, going back to full-time work schedule, looking for a church and trying to get back to the gym after a broken wrist), I have these two boys sprouting into men in my house. They, by far and away, are my dream and drive. Yes I enjoy writing (blogging inconsistently). And Lord knows I just love those goats! And the soap... it's just plain old fun and rewarding. But my boys. Mom to men I am. That overwhelms and weighs on me, and gets me thinking and praying all day long! 

In a few short weeks I'll have a 7th grader and a 6th grader in my house. Two sons in middle school. Someone tell me what happened to the time warp between that day in 8th grade when I looked in the mirror in the bathroom of my childhood home and wondered what I'd look like when I was 30 and now! 30 is 11 years ago already! What?!! 

I so I wish I could put my life on pause and regroup and get a few steps ahead. I can't. But I lift up my eyes to the One who rules over time. My times are in his hand. He knows that life feels like waves sweeping over me and I can barely catch my breath. 

But I trust in you, O Lord;

    I say, “You are my God.”

15 

My times are in your hand; -Psalm 31:14-15

Ok. Now to GoatsMakeSoap.Com to get that driven husband of mine some hope that I'm not gonna squelch his dream and give away all my soap. A few paragraphs of effort on his really nice site (you should check it out- it is still in progress thanks to his contemplative wife) should help. 

 Quieted,

Sheila