Ka-BOOM!

...word explosion....that's what we call it around here when a toddler all of a sudden says everything. All of our kids have done it, sure they say 'Mama' or 'Daddee' and a few other random words, but then all of a sudden in the span of a couple of days, they say everything...all at once. Happens every time. Well we're there now with Thatch and it's way fun. Here's yesterdays schpeal:

Thatch, can you say daddy?
Daddee.
Can you say mommy?
Momma.
Can you say Quinn?
Din.
Can you say Gabe?
Dayb.
Can you say Eli?
Lie.
Can you say Cherish?
Tersh.
Can you say Thatch?
Tash.
Can you say Zev?
Vev.
Can you say Banjo?
Dog.

-----No that is not a typo, he really said dog. I laughed so hard...I thought I was gonna blow snot. He is so hankin' funny. So I asked again...

Can you say Banjo?
Dog.....O.
BANjo?
Dog.
Can you say Bill?
ill
Can you say Maine?
May
Can you say Topaz?
Passsz
Can you say chickens?
kinz
Can you say Banjo?
Dog.

Is he workin' us over?

ps Banjo is our dog.

T-Hatch-a-mania

I jumped off my soapbox to give you a little kid antics. You may remember my previous post about this toddler of ours (T-Hatch, Tatcha, Tatch, Leeda, Leedalee...) not talking much, well, we knew it was there all the time and we told our kids, "He can talk, he just chooses not to." or "You guys already talk so much, he figures he'll let you do it." or "He's like dad." Whatever the case, he was 2 in February and talks the least of any of them at this age. Well, this morning he was scavenging the pulpy bits off of a grapefruit wedge John and I were sharing last night(Hello, I'm the one with water retention issues, can you not be eatin' all the grapefruits??). So in his scavenge-madness, I said, "Tatch, you eatin' a grapefruit?"

"Aahnge."
"No, they're grapefruits."
"Gaayfoots."
"GOOD!! Can you say orange?"
"Aahnge."
"Can you say apple?"
"Aa-el."
Can you say oatmeal?
Hesitation, blank stare, mouthed words...no sound, then "aaameee"
"Good, can you say Thatch?"
"Tash."
"Can you say Cherish?"
"Tersh"
"Can you say grapefruit?"
"Gaaaayfoot."
--Enter Gabe...."Gabe, come listen to Thatch, he's talkin' away. Thatch, say grapefruit." He gets this I-am-not-a-circus-animal-and-I-will-no-longer-perform-for-you look on his face, grins and runs away. Bummer. "Gabe, he was sayin' all kinds of stuff, I'm tellin' ya."

So that was Thatch, and a few minutes later I hear Cherish say, "Oh! Bill(our male goat) is chasing Maine (our doe) and that's why she's screamin'." Hmmm, could she be a girl with many brothers or what? Wonder why Bill was chasin' Maine.?.

A little Thatchedness...


























...and a little Zev action...

Beefed

A little venting...a little soapbox...whatever you wanna call it, I have something to say. Watch out. Hmmm, my husband might interject here--when does she not have something to say?--So girls talk alot, yeah so, well, anyway...I have a little beef to brood about. Can anyone tell me when we as a people started trusting man more than God to meet our health needs? Uh oh, what's she sayin'? I'm sayin' this...do you know that the prescription medications our society so puts their faith in to "heal" them are just chemical mimics of a God given herb (see Psalm 104:4 & Ezekiel 42:12)? And as my husband so wisely put it, "Yep, you can't patent an herb." In other words (for those of you who can't decipher that dry Syrian humor...), these meds we put our faith in were made in an attempt to make money....and they do just that. Huge pharmaceutical companies pay your doctor to....stop the clock, I readily admit scientific advancements have given us great gains in the medical field and we to some degree are better for it. Yaddie yaddie...BUT when we depend on the makings of man and forsake God's design (see Psalm 104:14 & Ezekiel 42:12) we are asking for trouble. And I believe we as a nation are seeing that in the overall health of the population. I am in no way denouncing doctors or their medical help, but I want to know (and think all believers should also) everything I can about herbs to better serve my family. In what little herbal experience I have in using several different ones over the last year making various skin concoctions, I have found them to be HIGHLY effective. It's so cool I made a "Cure All Tincture" a few weeks ago using some immune boosting herbs and cayenne(WHHHATCHOUT!) and when John was trying to get sick, it licked it. Licked it good. Yep. So cool. And all I can say about that is, what do we expect? How can man one up God? Exactly.

God & Toof Bits

Okay the lowdown is this....several months ago while doin' some research for a new product (can't remember which one) I came across Dr. Gerard F. Judd's research concerning our teeth. He was researching why American's get so many cavities compared to other countries yet we go to the dentist all the time. Soooo, what I found surprised me. He says the best thing to brush our teeth with is soap! Why? Because the glycerin that's in all toothpastes (even the natural ones) coats our teeth with a film that Dr. Judd says takes 27 rinses to rinse off, whereas soap takes 2. Wow. And he says reenamelization is the key to strong teeth and our teeth can only do that when they're clean AND they aren't clean if they're coated with glycerin. Cool, huh? So I tried it, brushing with soap...and WHOA MAN, it was so way different. But when you really think about it, isn't this probably how people used to brush their teeth before everything got all civilized and chemical laden and "better" ?? So anyway, from this was born Toof Bits, our all natural soap for teeth. They have, to our surprise, really taken off. We sell quite a bit of it. And John in his wisdom, did some google ads for it and (and this brings me to the reason for this blog) today I got a call from a lady who did a search, found da Bits and wanted to put us on her ezine (internet magazine). I said, "SSShyeah." No really I was way more professional...but it's a deal where we send her samples which she distributes in a "Go Natural" sample box she's promoting in exchange for getting a permanent link with her ezine and exposure to whomever tries the Bits. I was silently thanking God for this yet another open door to our skincare business. I sometimes get a little wowed thinking, "Wow, I made this, and people like it." Sweet. (So for those of you who read this, if you know of other places where we can link please let me know.)

A Little Gooey

I like gooey. Gooey as Chasity's unabridged dictionary defines it is...adj. Melty moments, love and sweetness. I always used to define those sweet husband/wife love moments as melty or gooey. So I like gooey. Now my kids know that term and I'll try to grab up my oldest and squeeze him and he'll pull away until I say, "Aww c'mon, be gooey with me." To which he'll grin and say "Muuuuzzer." Don't know how I attracted that word as my name, could be akin to it's owner saying things like 'hankin'? This all started when I described my feelings toward my husband as 'melt all over each other lovin' goodness' So I really dig my man, can you tell? And, I really dig my kids which brings me to my reason for posting. This one's for my mom, I love you mom!!! One cannot fully imagine the depth of love a mother has until she is one herself, I hold my 5 month old Zevulun (Zev, Bebalun, Bugas, Budgis, Tevvy, Tev, Bebalin Kade, Ungu---see I'm not the only one around here that makes up words) and am completely and utterly gooey, every time. Can't help it, the goo just flows, what can I say? I'm addicted. He's a complete little miracle, a whole new person and I could just smooch him all day. I once read that being a mother was like having your heart walking outside of your body (ya with me here?), well, I can relate, I love my six blessings so much that 1/6th of me walks around in each of them, pulling at my soul and causing me to cry out for wisdom daily. One look in a pair of eyes and I'm hopelessly lost in the goo.















Our friend Tom gettin' a little gooey with Zev.

No hairy way

Yes it's my hair again. Most people don't post about weird stuff like their hair, you say, well, it's my blog and today we're talkin' hair, so grab your popcorn and read along. So...funny how we take for granted the little things in life, like not having split ends. So when I noticed them, I thought, 'Oh, my good gravy what am I going to do about this???' Yes a bit of paranoia struck, because I make an awesome shampoo bar, I mean I loaded that thing with every good hair ingredient I could find, except eggs and beer, but I'm thinking of making a sister bar with these ingredients. Hold your socks! Anyway, my hair made me scairt. So I decided to get a trim and talk with my hair lady. Turns out, I was being way to rough on my hair in combing it wet and was causing it to break and split...kinda sense does that make? urgh. So I went home made my new hair conditioning oil..(not sure what I'm gonna call it yet...any ideas?) and applied just a dab to my fingers and ran them through my hair, washed it, combed more gently and sweet molasses if it didn't look great!!!!! I was giddy. So here's my hair tips....don't overcomb when your hair is wet, start at the bottom, working in sections and holding it midway...and don't tug, for goodness sakes, what are you thinkin'? Secondly, let your final rinse be the coolest water you can stand, this lays down the hair cuticle giving you comb-easy-shiny hair. Cool, hmm? So I'm loving my hair adventures and my hair creations....happy combing.

We are a-cobbin'

Ahhh...finally we are cobbing again. Man I've missed it. Co...what? I know I know, most people think we're weirdos wanting a house of mud and such but hey...we're...um...different. So anyway, we have grand plans and grand dreams, but it begins with an outhouse, no ordinary outhouse, a cobesque outhouse. We have style. I will post the finished privvy when it's done, but for now, here's the kids muddin' up. (Special thanks to John and Will Lindsey for their supportive role in the cobmania!)

Never stop

Well Canton was good, and what's even better is that we got several online orders recently. Thank you Jesus!!! John's got some landscaping work lined up this month and we are going to book some additional festivals. We're doing it!! This is what I wanted and it is way fun. So now that I'm home I decided I want to make myself a purse before I jump back on the formulating wagon. I'm ready to formulate my new stuff brewing in my head, but first...my purse. I'm a one-strap-across-the-body kinda purse girl, and I used to carry those type always, but they are small and now that I have *many* kids, I like to be able to carry a diaper, few wipes, pair of skivs if I need to, oh, and I'm an organizer, compulsive-throw-things kind of organizer. So I wanted this bag with pockets here and there, and the messenger style, I guess, what is messenger style anyway? So I got all crafty and did it. Now mind you it's my first attempt and if you looked close you'd see and error or three. BUT overall, it turned out okay. Especially my applique...oh, and check out the flower stem...it goes just over the corner of the pocket right? Why you think it does that, eh? Yep, I messed up that corner and was covering it up...it was originally just going to be the flower, no stem...clever, eh?

Quinn workin' the crowd

I have to say that if I were a Canton shopper and passed by a booth like ours I would be drawn in by all it's colorful grooviness and neatness of product. Funkatabulous! That's my style...obviously, we designed it. But alas, not everyone is like me...some people need a little encouragement...coercing if you will....enter Quinn...lovingly dubbed as Q (when he lets me). I suggested he ask people if they'd like to try a handmade lotion or body butter and he was all for it. But it's rather intimidating to strike up chat with someone you don't know. So he was nervous. I told him he'd get paid a small commission on sales he brings in and that he could do it when he was ready...no pressure. It didn't take long to hear the cha-CHING in his thoughts and he was out there bringin' 'em in.
It was great...he brought in almost all of our sells. It really is a family business and our kids were a valuable asset. Gabe and Eli tried their hand at it, but didn't get much time in. More next month.
So here's Quinn at work....













...and our booth....we learned alot, like we need bigger signs!

Canton Madness

Well we came...we sold...we conquered...sort of. Things were slow and our sells were not as high as we wanted. BUT, this was our first time, and as Quinn reminded me, "Mom this is just the first time. You said you talked to a lady that didn't sell anything her first month, and we're doing WAY better than that." --"You're right, babe, we're doing fine." And really we were, he was a star salesman and we got to meet some real nice people. We will give it until Dec and if it seems not worth the expense we'll stop. Our goal is for our business to mostly come from the web, so we can really be home. We don't mind doing shows, in fact, Canton was pretty fun, but we want mostly to do festivals and the net....and you know it really doesn't matter, if Canton's what it takes to keep us going, then Canton here we come, I guess I just say that because renting the both costa some moolah and that's a drag, but it's exposure and John had the brilliant idea of giving away 15% off coupons...encouraging online sales. What a thinker he is, eh? So that will hopefully bring in more for us this month.