Wednesday, October 17, 2012

New Adventures

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."
Erma Bombeck


     I have been making soap for a few years now. I love it. It's the first creative sort of thing I found that I was good at. However, I am burned out. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of soap makers, and more learning every day. It's a great skill to know in that "end of the world" sort of situation. I mean, everyone will still want to be clean right? 

     So, I recently decided to take a break from making soap for a while, and while talking to a friend about what sort of craft I should take up to occupy some of the time soaping usually takes up, she mentioned polymer clay. I went to our local-ish Hobby Lobby the next day, and, like some sort of divine sign, they had a boat load of polymer clay on clearance. So of course, I bought about half of it. I absolutely love this stuff! It is so much fun! And my favorite part? If I don't like it, I can just squish it and start all over again! How great is that?! I have been spending hours making things like this: 





and these:  



And my newest favorite: 


Did I mention how much fun clay is?! I will be having a giveaway soon for a gift certificate to my new shop over at Craft Cafe. I will still be making (and selling!) soap, and some other bath n body products, along with my new clay creations, with more fun stuff being added every day, so keep checking back!


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Public School Dropouts...Again....

     Part of my parenting philosophy is that my kids should be able to make their own choices about some things. They are, after all, 8 and 12, and bright enough to realize that there are consequences to choices. So right before Labor Day, they decided they wanted to go back to public school. They had been homeschooled (mostly unschooled) the last 2 years. I think I was as shocked as they were when I agreed to let them go back. 
     That Tuesday, Mr Farmer loaded them up in the van and registered them for public school. The first 4 days were great, the farmer kids were happy and seemed to be doing well. Monday came and Mr Farmer went to school to help the little girl farmer work on her locker, since she was having problems with it. Tuesday came and little girl farmer wasn't feeling well, and didn't want to go, but she went anyway. She came home and told us the teacher wouldn't let her call home to get allergy meds brought to her. Wednesday night her teacher called, and said that she was behind in math and they were working on getting her caught up, and she needed to be better organized at writing down homework and bringing her assignments home and back to school. I mentioned that her attention span still isn't really great, but we would work with her here at home. After I hung up the phone, I said to Mr. Farmer, "You did mention to this teacher that little girl farmer has ADHD right?" He assured me he had.  By Thursday, little boy farmer wasn't feeling well either, but off to school he went anyway. Thursday he comes home and said the teacher wouldn't let him call home for Tylenol, but sent him to the nurse for a cough drop. He brought home an assignment that had a note on it saying he had to stay in from recess to finish it. Then, I checked my email. Apparently little girl farmer had forgotten to bring home a science assignment, and got a ZAP (Zeroes aren't permitted) and was assigned to lunch detention the next day. The teacher had not mentioned this to little girl farmer. 
     So now our kids are public school dropouts, once again. On Monday, Mr Farmer will deliver a letter to both principals stating they will be homeschooled, again. It's not all bad, we have learned a few things from all this. I am fairly certain they will never mention public school again, at least not in the "we might like to try to go back" kind of way. 
     My kids are gonna grow up and do amazing things, and it's all gonna happen in the blink of an eye. I don't want to miss out on one second of it.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Waiting Game....

Every morning, we wonder, have they had their babies yet? We have 2 doe rabbits, both were sold to us as bred, but neither have delivered yet. Starting to think they weren't really bred. But I guess we will wait till after this weekend to find a buck. That would (should) be the latest they would deliver, if my math is right. 
I suppose I should find a tom turkey, as I have 3 hens now and at least 1 of them is laying eggs. Would love to finally have some turkeys hatch out here. 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Back in the Goat Business

Just like that, we are goat farmers again. Several months ago, we sold all of our goats. We recently decided it was too quiet outside, so today we purchased 2  Saanen does and a young Alpine buck. They seem very sweet so far, and I will get to know them better tomorrow. It was late when they got here today, and we had to do some quick work on the fencing in the almost dark. The chickens are not happy about sharing the barn again, but I expect they will get used to it. Looking forward to sharing more goat adventures!