Noah....

Contemplating God's creation

"Do You Get Paid?"

With living a different life style we get many different questions. These questions have changed over the years, as we have gotten older, moved from the city, started the dairy, or as we tackled other things God has handed us to do. With some of the questions we already have answers for them, while others might leave us thinking for a few minutes before I can answer them and sometimes feeling we didn't give the best answer for that question.

One question I personally get a lot, at markets, at church, from other goat people, friends, and even sometimes family--as far as I know I am the only child who gets this question is--Do I get paid for working with my family in the dairy?

The answer is yes.

I get my clothing and food paid for as long as I am reasonable and do not want the $50 shirt or steak every night for dinner, if I want those things I have to pay for them.

I also get rent for free, with rent comes a room of my own (as long as I don't mind sharing it with five bookcases and enough books to fill them), free use of the washer, dryer, kitchen, Internet, and cable. Oh and my own AC window unit.

I also have my car insurance paid for as well as any maintenance and gas paid for.

Not to mention the bonuses--Baseball games, almost weekly trips to the library, time alone when I need it, milk for my soaps, books bought, extra chocolate, extra coffee, time to play with my siblings, time for further education if I so desire, and many more.

And I get paid all this, for what? To help my family run the family business, both of which are blessings from God. Why should I complain or want to leave this? I think I have the best deal in the world. :D

Emma Says....

"You know, if each of us has 10 children, mom and dad will have 120 grandchildren!! That's crazy!!"

And she's right. lol

Still Searching

As y'all have probably gathered by now, my family loves coffee. But in truth there are only a few who live on coffee, while the others just enjoy it and can live without. Really it's only half my family that really likes coffee, I have to say that in all honesty I think that tea is the drink of our house; we just have more people who drink coffee then most households do.

I am the only one in my family who will not drink tea (unless it's iced). Everyone from dad all the way down to Seth enjoy it, I stick with my coffee and hot chocolate. For years now I have been getting more then my fair share of 'grief' for not liking tea. I am always being told "You’re crazy! Tea is REALLY good." and my come back has always been "As soon as you find me a good licorice tea I'll start drinking tea." honestly never expecting to find any.

Well, about three weeks ago while in Central Market one of my sisters came running up to me over the top happy "KATIE!! Look what we found!” They had found some Licorice Peppermint tea.

Not having any extra cash on me that day I had to wait to try it. That day came this past Tuesday, when I was able to buy some. I had my first cup last night.

The stuff is nasty!!! It taste and smells like Echinacea Tea, on top of being SUPER sweet! I do not like my drinks to be sweet, it tasted as if there were a quarter cup of sugar in it. This was worst then 'cups of coffee' (rather, cups of sugar coffee) my younger siblings bring to me and I had added NO sugar what so ever to it. On top of that, it didn't even taste like licorice or peppermint!!

Now, to get rid of some tea that I don't think I will be wanting. Hmmmmm.....I wonder if Noah or Judah would like it......

Updates....

Let's see I do believe that I have left a few loss ends with some of my posts. :D So, to update on those things and a few things that have happened in the past few days.

• Dad and GrandDavid got home safely last night. I vaguely remember someone coming to my room around 11:30 to tell me that they were here. But being Sunday night I was wiped out and really didn't remember then coming in until late this morning. :D Dad's beat, and GrandDavid is going all over to see the changes (This is his first time to see the dairy), and those things that haven't changed all that much

• Mom is feeling green. Not just morning sickness but all day sickness. She has told us that certain foods can not be cooked in the house. (Such as any meat....)

• Mom went to Collage Station in the blue van yesterday to pick up feed. This is the fist time in over a month that it's being used. :D We are all so happy! Maybe this Sunday we can ALL go to central market and then church.

• We all lived through drinking decaffeinated coffee. Esp. Thou, they threatened my family never did anything about except to mutter under their breath as they poured a cup and to point out that it is really hard to miss in the store that it was decaffeinated.

• Grace has been spending a lot of time training her colt and mare. Thou she has a REALLY bad case or friendship spoil, or something along those lines. Neither horse wants the other to leave the pen. But Grace has been hardening her heart and taking them out for training or crazy almost everyday. :D

• The Astros are eliminated, I am sure that that means a lot to everyone and everyone is very upset. lol Oh, well now I'm on to my other team--The Red Sox. Now, I KNOW they are going. :D

I do believe that is all for the updates. :D Now it's off to make sure we have enough milk for market tonight.

Timothy

I'm sitting in my room reading and I hear Timothy say--"My pet monkey has a brain tumor!". Righty oh, I didn't know you had a pet monkey, but O.K.. lol

A few minutes later as I am walking down the hallway to check something, Timothy holds out his finger to me and says in a ''saddened'' voice--"My pet fly just died". All righty then, I wonder if we need to check his sanity level. lol

I Did It!!!

What I did was really nothing much and every other Texan I have talked to, think I am crazy. But it was one of those crazy fears you just can never get rid of and are always thinking about or tying to avoid it some how, some way, for some reason or another.

So, what did I do that I have been saying for nigh onto three years that I would never do, but ended up doing this past Saturday? I drove down 290 between Hempstead and Brenham.

Every person I know who has heard of my fear of driving this 20 mile stretch of 290, has kind of given me the look of "What are you crazy?" and some have given me that question verbally as well. While others have kind of shaken their head and said "You and your driving phobia".

In truth it was a stupid fear (as most of mine are). I didn't want to drive that stretch because of all the accidents I had seen but not been in, they were all on this stretch of road. A year a part, but both were enough to make me feel certain that I would rather not go to Austin (which I love to visit) then to drive that stretch of road. (I was quite traumatized)

But, I have had to remind myself--no matter the reason--that no matter where I am if that is the time that God has planned for me to die I will, no matter where I am and I need to stop worrying about that stretch of road.

So how did it come about that I was driving this stretch of road? We were down to one car. We have been borrowing a truck each Saturday to drive to the market in Houston, and the station wagon has been going to Austin. And this week dad was flying out of Austin around 4 o'clock and they needed someone to drive the station wagon home as dad was driving home from Colorado.

Since we were borrowing the neighbor's truck, they didn't want me to drive it and they were not going to drive it to Austin, so that left us with only one option. An option that I was NOT looking forward to at all!! Dad drive him and myself up to Austin, I drop dad off at the airport and then drive back by myself.

I had to make the 2 to 2 & 1/2 hour drive home myself. Part of which was that 20 mile stretch that I had been trying to avoid until last week. (I didn't drive it last week, because I was afraid that I was falling asleep).

I made the drive, I didn't die (as you can tell), I didn't get lost (Which I rarely do) , I didn't fall asleep, it all went very well. :D Dad however, beat me. He got to his destination before I got to mine. Dad landed in Denver 45 minutes before I pulled into our driveway (I'm blaming it on the stop at the Wal-mart in Bastrop, which took me about an hour).

And yet again, I was proven that my fear was stupid. :D

My Mistake Of The Week

As I am "Practically perfect in every way" I only make one mistake a week. :D

Oh, O.K. So that's not entirely true, in fact that's about as far from the truth as saying the South won the war! Not only am I human and make many mistakes a weekly. I am also me and that just says it all right there. lol

Well, this past Sunday on the way into Sunday School I had to stop at HEB to grab a few things for lunch, some coffee (beans for home), something for breakfast, and coffee (a hot cup for while I was driving). So, I am going quickly about my tasks as 1) I don't want to be late for Sunday school and 2) Christin is waiting for me in the car.

First on the list was coffee beans. I go down the coffee isle and much to my great pleasure I find that my favorite coffee brand is on sale. So I grab my favorite blend (roasted beans with pecans and coconut--Houston blend) and run on to grab the other things I need.

It's not until later that night--around 8 o'clock--when someone asks "Who bought the decaffeinated coffee?!?!" when I find out that in my haste I grabbed decaffeinated coffee!

Now, I am getting teased like you wouldn't believe! Someone called me brainless, while someone else said I should be shot at dawn, and another family member suggested that I be tarred and feathered, and then there were the threats of no coffee.

Oh, well. Thankfully our friends brought us two whole bags of coffee beans, which we have been greatly enjoying. :D

My Weekend

This weekend was a little different from most of my other weekends.

I got up at the normal Saturday morning time, (which is way too early to even talk about) and headed out to pack for our markets. This week I had to hurry because I was leaving at 5:30 instead of the normal 6:30 leaving time--I was going to Austin with dad and had to have all the product packed before I left.

Once it was all packed and ready to go dad and I left for our 2 & 1/2 hour drive to Austin. While I thought I would get some sleep on the drive up I was wrong, I was kept awake because I had to watch where we were going in case I had to go up there without a parent. (I honestly can't see that happening anywhere in the near future!!) Even though I've driven to Austin once and been going there at least once a year for about ten years now it was a different route, plus dad wanted to make doubly sure there was no way I could get lost. lol

Once we got there I was introduced to all our regular costumers and the other vendors. As I am the last Carlson for them to meet, they already knew about me, I just didn't know about them. (It's always daunting to be the last person in our family for everyone to meet!) lol I did have one person ask if there were any more of us, lol I had the pleasure of telling her that there were no more for her to meet until May. lol

As it turns out because of the rain (and I heard from one man who goes every week that last Saturday was the first time in a year and half that it had rained on a Saturday in Austin) and not only did it rain on and off the whole time, it was either sprinkling or pouring the whole time. For me it was 'fast', because of the markets that I am used to going to tend to be very slow markets, but for dad and the other vendors at this market it was super sloooooow.

Once we got home, mom had Emma, Sara, and Linnea unload the car so that dad and I could watch the rest of the Cougars game. It was the first time that they had beat a team ranked over 25 since 1988, and I am told that I was at that game. (My parents went to UH and both helped with the cougar that UH had. Supposedly I went to more football games in my first ten years then baseball games. lol)

Then on Sunday Christin and I went to Sunday school. There were a couple of reasons it was just the two of us. 1) We had some friends from East Texas coming over and my younger sisters had to stay home to make sure the house got cleaned and they didn't miss one minute of our friends visit. 2) Someone had to go into town to drop off the three cheese orders that we had (or was it four? I can't remember) and lastly--3) I really didn't want to miss this Sunday School lesson. I have enjoyed the book and due to the last time we did the class I knew that it was going to be a good class. :D

Once I gave the cheese orders to those that had ordered it, Chris and I left. We got home by noon to be met by an overwhelming amount of kids. But then what did I expect when I was coming home to a house with 16 children!?!

The two moms and the oldest girls went to the croc outlet store, as they wanted to and I tagged along. :D Me and my shoes, I had to go get another pair!! No, in truth I could live without shoes and I sometimes feel that they came along with the fall I much rather run around with no shoes what so ever. But then that is a whole different subject.

I try to find comfortable shoes that last me a good long while (meaning longer than two months) and crocs are the only ones to live up to those standards. :D My friends very kindly bought me a pair of shoes. When I got home they were pegged as cute. Cute--Oh, wait that’s a whole 'nother post.

When we got home the two moms and oldest girls went through candle and soap scents. I thought the oldest how to make candles last year and we have been combining orders ever since. I have been wanting to expand my soap and candle scents and I had order a sample pack and we spent at least an hour deciding which scents we did and didn't like. (You have to be careful with the scent as your house will smell like it for days after you soap or make candles.)

Then we spent two hours going through books. Every time we visit we spend a good long while picking which books we want to borrow (or bring books in we are the family visiting) as both families love to learn and do a lot of reading both in school and out of school.

In the end it was a long, enjoyable, but very full weekend. Off to get evening chores started. :D

If You Could Please

Pray for Grace today. She lost Seabiscuit, her first horse.

Much as I would love to talk about Biscuit, and how he was the horse that dad was riding when dad broke his collar bone, how Biscuit loved to try my horsemanship, and how Grace enjoyed him the three years that we had him.

I really can't because not only did we just lose a horse, but we lost on Friday which is already our busiest days, adding in dealing with the vet and an ailing horses didn't help any!!

But, please pray for Grace!!

Just To Let You Know

There is very little in the world that is cuter then a 17 month old child running!! Their little toddle as they try to stay up every other step is one of the blessings God has given us, and it amazes me to no end that there are people in this world who don't want that blessing or who don't see it as a blessing!!

Now, of to grab that toddler so he doesn't wake up mom who needs all the rest she can get so that in 26 months we will have another 17 month old running up and down the hallways laughing! :D

Whew!!

Today was a long day, it seemed longer then it really was. I want to say that it started at about 12 am the night before with toddlers being crumpy, but that was last night and really doesn't count as today, does it? :D All righty then, it started at six this morning up with the toddlers and watching them as one of the girls started breakfast. Then as they eat, I cleaned my room. I had rearranged it the day before, so I had the after furniture moving clean up to do.

Then at 10:30 I headed next door to 'help' Grace baby sit the neighbor's toddler and baby. In truth I went over to get my baby fix. :D They have a two month old that I haven't seen in a couple weeks and he's the only baby I've been able to hold in the past two weeks, because there are no other babies that I can hold. So, I head over when ever mom can spare me and my neighbor doesn't mind me. :D

As I walked up our driveway a friend was driving in the other driveway for a day of butchering. To save those with less then strong stomachs I won't go into full detail. All I will say is that Grace has one less buck to feed and there are eight less rosters crowing on our place. It is very quite out right now. :D

Two of the rosters made some of the best chicken and rice soup that I have had and hopefully in the next couple days we will be having the best chili in town!! :D

Now, I am off to clean up, hopefully clean my room a wee bit more and then hit the sack or mattress, or whatever you want to call it. :D

Five Years, One Month, Two Weeks, and Two Days

That is our front door; at least it is ours now. When we took the picture it was not ours, this is the picture that mom took to show dad what the house looked like (Dad was home watching the kids so mom and I could have some time out, even if it was house searching. :D ).

When we moved into the house on July 23, 2004 dad looked at the door, then looked around at us girls and Timothy and asked "I wonder how long this glass will remain here?" And someone who was helping us asked "Are you going to replace the door now or wait until the window is broken?”

Both statements mom, I and some of the older girls found slightly funny considering that up to that point us children had only broken 1 window and that was with the porch swing at the house we were moving out of.

Yes I did play baseball, but out in the street. And yes we did tend to slam the doors, but they never broke. The only broken window we had besides the afore mentioned window was broken by our dogs and we didn't have those dogs anymore!! So, we figured that the window in the door (and not) would last a while.

So, we all laughed and said something along the lines of replace the door if we ever broke the glass. :D What we weren't counting on were boys and farm life.

Thankfully the door was double paned. :D The first glass broke a little over a year ago when Timothy ran the wheel barrel into it, trying to get it as close as he could to the carpet that we were ditching.

The second window broke yesterday when Judah threw a dog leash at it. Something about trying to get Noah and Noah shut the door in Judah's face, I really don't know all the details. All I know is that it is broken and we now have the answer to both questions.....

We will replace the door when both windows break, five years, one month, two weeks, and two days after we moved into the house. :D

Thanks to two things that at one time we thought we would never have...Boys and farm life. lol

New Baby!!!

Well the kids are bouncing off the walls way to excited. Telling everyone they know that number twelve is on the way. Well, truthfully it's everyone they meet even if they don't know that person; they are just too excited to hold in the news.

When at markets people will ask how we are able to handle all the work of living on a dairy, do we every get a break from milk or feeding the animals. And we normally reply with "Well in a family of thirteen there are lots of helpers around when you need them and we get jobs by the month and switch them around every month or so" or "with 11 children there are enough workers for the work to be done". That normally answers their original question, but brings on another dozen, which is fine with us.

This past Saturday I had Liberty with me at my market, and every time I would give that answer she would turn to me and say "14 people!!" or "That's not true KK there's 12 children!”

I also realized this past Saturday that I need to get a shirt that says "I'm the big sister!!" (And I might add, "Not the mother!"), and not just for when the baby is born but for now whenever I go out with any of my siblings under the age of ten.

So, now number twelve is on the way and I can't wait, though some people think I might have lost it because I am praying for mom to have twins. :D

Before anyone comments on it--Yes, I have heard that it's cheaper by the dozen. :D

Siblings

I love my siblings dearly! I am very grateful that God has blessed me with them, but there are times when I wonder if there was any way I could curb their tongues! :D

My biggest issue lately when dealing with my siblings is all the things that they tend to talk to me about or share about with other people.

I am not sure if it is just me or if everyone with siblings feels this way about their own siblings at one time or another or if this might just be something that comes with being the oldest in the family, but then it might just be the size of my family, who knows.

What I'm talking about are those times when I am holding a discussion with friends at church and one of my sisters starts talking about something that I did ten years ago, which might or might not have something to do with what we were talking about, but what we are talking about happened to remind them of what I did (for the first time in that ten years of course) and they just had to share it--No matter how much I did not want it talked about!

Then there are the times when they have to share with me what they think I should be doing, be it school, reading, toddler teaching, babysitting, or when to get married!! (As if they knew anything about that! lol) The advice never seems to stop coming my way.

Or the times when I am talking with mom and when there's a lull in the conversation she asks about the discussion that went on during Sunday school the day before and wants to know about why I was close to yelling and wasn't I over reacting just a wee bit? (I wonder, was I yelling and did I over react or did my sister add a little to that story?) But, then that didn't just happen once, I have questions out of the blue like that and I not knowing what she is talking about, all because a sisters passed something on and stretched it a wee bit.

I have come to a few conclusions in the past few years (esp. more so, as I have gotten more sisters old enough to give me 'advice' or 'tattle'' on me)--1) My siblings were definitely given to me as blessings. 2) My siblings were definitely given to me for my sanctification and 3) My sisters were given to my given to my parents as an easy way to find about all that I do.

And all of this has made me think that I might have to really start thinking all more carefully about what I do and how it will look, but not how it will look to any onlookers, but how it would look to my ever present, always watching, and sometimes over cautions sisters. :D

It Rained!! No, Rather It Poured! :)

We got rain last night; boy did we get rain last night!! We had some in the early afternoon, just enough to make everything take cover and for us Carlson children to play in it. :D

Last night around seven, a friend from church, dad, mom, and myself were sitting on the deck watching the storm come in. Right when we decided to go into the house, because the lightening was getting a wee bit close and the wind was really going we saw the sheet of rain, some of us made it inside in time while a few who stopped to make sure a couple things were covered did not.

In the end it got so bad we had to move some animals out of their flooded pen, lightening struck way to close for comfort (as in I thought it was in the horse pen), one time when running towards the dairy the rain was coming down so hard that I couldn't see the dairy from the house.

We ended up with a tree on our garage (now have a hole in our garage roof and we all know what my family will be doing this holiday weekend), Someone got stranded on the street in front of our house, and their trailer ended up partly in the woods.

And all of this while we had company sitting in the living room, he was great about it, held a rabbit while we moved its flooded pen, and calmly waited for dinner.

But, we are not complaining!! We count ourselves blessed that the tree didn't fall on the house or the dairy, that none of the animals were hit by the lightening, that it was not a hurricane or tornado (both of which have hit our place in some way), we didn't lose power once, and that we are all safe and sound--Playing in the puddles. :D

September

And so has started my second favorite month of the year!! :D

The month when pennant races heat up, the weather cools down, leaves fall, we turn off the AC, hot chocolate becomes a staple, and the smell of wood and leaves burning fills the air.

It's the month when you realize that a team that is ten games behind first, really has no chance at all to go to the play-offs. It's this month when you realize that this year just might not be the "next year" for the Cubs, it's that time of year when you have to face it--the money grubbing Yankees are going to be play in October yet again. It's that time when you more surprises then you can count happen, some teams will fall while the unexpected will win and it's all fun until the last out of the World Series!!

September is the month when it's wonderful outside, you never want to come in because the 70 degree weather with a slight wind is the best thing since March's cool days. When the AC gets turned off and the windows and doors are flung open to let all the wonderful coolness (as well as brave chickens and annoying dogs) in.

It's that time of year when burning 'bonfires' is an everyday happening and having a cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows goes hand in hand with the 'bonfires'.

It's when school gets done on the deck and mom rarely sees me as I am either out on the deck, hammock, or hanging laundry on the line.

It's the second best month of the year and I am SOOO happy that it's here!