goat milk soap

For weeks I have been checking out books from the library, watching youtube videos and gathering my supplies to turn my goat milk into goat soap. When I first set out I assumed making soap would be very simple. It couldn't actually be that complicated. But it is! Lye is dangerous to work with, proper temperatures need to be met, oils must be in perfect ratios and measured on a weigh scale, there needs to be good ventilation...just so many factors to consider! It actually reminded me a whole lot of a chemistry experiment. And Chemistry always overwhelmed me. `

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (Hattie just stopped by and was delighted to find "My H!")

But on Sunday night I tried my first batch. I was so nervous about it. I watched more youtube videos and realized I was flat out stalling. But it did feel really overwhelming. Just like chemistry. Finally I decided to just start and see what happened. And in the end, I made soap. There's a good lesson right there: just start. And then do it.

After pouring the "pudding" into the molds it has to be wrapped in towels and placed in a box for 24 hours to properly set up. There's all sorts of lingo I'm learning, but I'll just describe it how I understand it. And then last night I got to slice it into bars. It was so exciting! I kept yelling, "I made soap! I made soap!" And now it has to cure for 4-6 weeks before it can be used. I had no idea soap was such a procedure. But I am totally into this now. I may even make another batch this week. I really, really love the process. My first batch was lemon-cream. I may go for peppermint next. And then I can start adding things like color so I can make designs in the soap! And ground oatmeal for exfoliation, or flower petals!

I may end up liking chemistry after all of this...

And one final thought. Do you see that hand blender in the top picture? It was key to the success of this process. I've written about this before, but all throughout my childhood, my Grandma and Grandpa Bredberg gave all of the cousins $25 to spend before Christmas. We had to buy something, wrap it up in gift wrap and then at the family celebration, we would each have our turn to unwrap our own present and show Grandma and Grandpa what we picked out. I only remember two presents that I chose: a real stroller for my dolls that Ivar later used and my Braun Hand Blender. I think I was in 7th grade and of all things on planet earth, I wanted a hand blender. (I am beginning to realize that I have always been very practical.) So it was pretty awesome to STILL BE USING that great gift, twenty-five years later on something as fun and practical as Goat Milk Soap!

Also, look at those darling stained glass flowers my mom made for me! I love them. And don't look at my dirty window...

Monday Night Spaghetti

We are eating from a two week menu rotation and every Monday night is Spaghetti. My Mondays play out the same: I look at the menu on the fridge and think to myself, "Oh Awesome! Spaghetti! So Easy! Great." And then we sit down to eat this crowd favorite and as the meal unfolds I think, "Oh Right! Spaghetti! What a mess! Gross!"

But I just never seem to remember the mess before the meal.

eating from the garden

We planted our blueberry bushes four years ago. And the first two years you have to take all the flowers off of the bush so that the energy goes into the root system and making it healthy and strong. Last year was our first harvest, but we were at family Bible camp that week and missed our first harvest. We have weeded our bushes every year, mulched around them, and piled up pine needles to increase the acidity of the soil. So you can imagine the great joy we are feeling this year picking our blueberries! I have made blueberry jam and we are trying a batch of dehydrated blueberries at the moment. We have some in the freezer too. And most of them are in our bellies from fresh eating all day long. 

Does anyone have any favorite blueberry recipes to share with me? We would love to preserve as many as possible, but haven't done this before!

Also, last Sunday after church I made my first plate of Fried Green Tomatoes. And then I took my annual picture of my Fried Green Tomatoes. :) I treat this moment like a holiday. It brings me so much joy. Here's the recipe, if you're interested...

Celebrating Alden

We celebrated Alden on Friday night with cake, presents and a slip-n-slide. He did that whole fight-the-nap-when-mom-really-wants-me-to-nap-well thing that day. Such a phenomenon to me. He napped a total of an hour that morning, when usually he naps about 4 hours each day. So by 6pm, the birthday boy was starting to fall asleep. We quickly had to get the cake and presents so he would be awake for his own party! You can see his was a little zoned.

But it made for good snuggles all around! It was a super duper hot and muggy day. A heat advisory was even issued. So we spent half the party inside eating and then went outside for the cake and presents.

I love these two pics of Uncle Kyle and the girls finishing Alden's cake. Look at their faces...

My mom got him this soft tree stump full of woodland stuffed animals. The animals come out and you can put them back in the stump. Alden LOVES this thing and Ivar put it in his crib. So now every naptime and bedtime when I put Alden in his crib he sits up and gathers his stuffed friends telling everyone in a falsetto voice, "hiiiiii! hiiiiiii! hiiiiii!" I shut the door and he happily jib jabs with his friends until they all fall asleep.

And here you can see the very first picture of Ivar's new rabbit (bottom left). More on her later. But she is getting excellent care for Ivar. He is very diligent and is taking his rabbit responsibilities most seriously.

 I think my niece Sonna took this picture of Oma Zina, and I think it is so gorgeous of her! She and Lisa literally came from the airport, straight off a flight from Jersey right to the party. And she looks radiant.

 Mostly it was just good family time. I didn't have a theme. I didn't have a single decoration. We just ate and celebrated Alden. I made him a butter cake with cocoa-cream cheese frosting. It was delicious. And I made everyone else cream-cheese strawberry pie. That was important to me...that we have good desserts and that Alden have a little homemade cake.

We ended the night with a slip-n-slide and setting up the new pool Mimi and Papa got Alden. It was so steamy that night...perfect for getting out the garden hose.

So there you have it. Alden is One. What fun!

shopping with elsie

On Tuesday I took Elsie to Burnsville Center. I needed a new swimsuit and we both decided we could use a new summer dress. So we drove together on our mother-daughter date and Elsie talked a mile minute, thrilled that we were going to the mall together.

"Mom, don't you think the corn fields are just so pretty? I wish there weren't any houses at all and it was all just God's creation. What if that was all you could see? Just God's creation and nothing else?" And we talked about beautiful places all over the world where you can't tell that a person had ever been there. She tried to imagine it.

And then we got to the mall and Elsie was ecstatic. "Mom, would you like to live here? I would like to live here. Just think, then you could have your friends over for supper and everyone could eat Subway or Sbarro and then after you could ride the moving staircases together. Wouldn't you love to live in the mall?!!" And I commented that I still liked living back where there were cornfields and God's creation and just a few houses. But she assured me that we could live at both places and just choose each day where we wanted to sleep. After her big slice of Sbarro we went up and down the escalator six times in a row. She was delighted and so was I.

When we were in Old Navy she started to dance to the music. She saw that I was watching her and I said, "it's fine. It's fun to dance to the music." And then I started to dance a little. And then she froze and told me, "Mom, please don't do that." There was no one around (my childhood mall is so empty now...it made me sad!) but I still managed to embarrass my 5 year old.  In the dressing room she told me she would just close her eyes because, "it's kind of gross watching you try on swim suits." Oh my word, I laughed so hard.

We ended up finding the dresses above at H&M for $5 each. So we got two sets of matching dresses for the girls, and I love them so much. Wish they had it in my size. That would be my dream.

I came home and told Rory, "I just enjoyed a trip to the mall for the very first time in my life." I have never been a mall shopper, or a shopper of any kind. But shopping with my happy, chatty, delighted daughter was the best. And I found a swimsuit!

And it's not gross.