Warning:

"Do not leave loaded guns in an explosive room!"

Clothespins

I've been hanging laundry on the line for well over 7 years.  It might be close to ten years now, I can't really remember, but I do know that only in the past year or so have my problems with clothespins started.  Some how, some way they disappear on me

I don't know what it is, maybe it's some birds think they are a tasty looking item or maybe the squarels think that the clothespins will hold them over if they run out of acorns during the winter.  In all honesty I think that it might have something to do with Noah and his "drive by laundry snatching", which he does occasionally and has taught to his two younger brothers (who don't do it as often, but have been known to do it).  lol 

And what might this "drive by laundry snatching" be and how does it contribute to my losing clothespins? 

Well, Noah rides under one of my clothes lines on his bike, tractor, legs, or what ever other means of transportation he uses and right when he gets under the laundry he reaches up, grabs the laundry pulls and rides on, sending clothes one way, clothespins another and the line "singing like a bowstring as soon as the arrow leaves the bow".

What does he do with the clothes that he has pulled off the line?  If I am standing there he throws it at me, if there's a basket within the region of his running he drops it in there and if neither are aviable he drops it on the ground. 

Why does he do it?  Just for the fun of it, to see if he can grab the laundry, get it off the line, and not break stride.

Oh, to not have to worry about dirty laundry (as he would wear it dirty with no problems if he had to).  Oh, to not have to worry about work (as his jobs are completed within minutes of finishing a meal).  Oh, to be young again.  lol

At least I know I have a good chance of find the clothespins on the ground around the line, but it does call for extra work and I can't always guarantee that I will find them all.  Atleast I get a good laugh every time I see Noah's "drive by laundry snatching".

I have warned him though that the next time he does it he's hanging the laundry by himself and you now what?  It's worked so far, he's not taken any laundry off the line the last couple days and my pins have not gone missing.  If only the rain would stop and I could hang the laundry again.  lol

How Can?

How can someone who has posted on their blog within the last week be told that they have not posted in ages? 

Sara informed me earlier today that I have not posted on my blog in AGES!!  

But this is coming from the same girl who has been known to tell me that all I ever blog about is the weather, so I wounder if I should take her seriously.  lol 

"We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought"

"We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought"

We have not known Thee as we ought,
Nor learned Thy wisdom, grace and power;
The things of earth have filled our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light Thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing Thee.

We have not feared Thee as we ought,
Nor bowed beneath Thine awful eye,
Nor guarded deed and word and thought,
Remembering that God was nigh.
Lord, give us faith to know Thee near,
And grant the grace of holy fear.

We have not loved Thee as we ought,
Nor cared that we are loved by Thee;
Thy presence we have coldly sought,
And feebly longed Thy face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
To feel and know the love Thou art.

We have not served Thee as we ought,
Alas, the duties left undone,
The work with little fervor wrought,
The battles lost or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal, and give the might,
For Thee to toil, for Thee to fight.

When shall we know Thee as we ought,
And fear and love and serve aright?
When shall we, out of trial brought,
Be perfect in the land of light?
Lord, may we day by day prepare
To see Thy face and serve Thee there.

Should I Worry?

Do you think I should worry when my siblings go around singing "Yes! We Have No Bananas" as loud as they can?

"How Do You Survive?"

At seems like I get this question at least once at each market and even at church.  Be it from other farmers who can't believe that amount of goats we are milking, or from a mom with two children under the age of three, or the one that really gets me--Someone my age and who wants to know how I survive without shopping.

And my answer has come to be very simple and easy.  All truth, but also given to get a laugh or two...

On coffee and prayer!!

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Swede Farm Happenings

Well, it's that wonderful day of the week where the oldest children and adults of the Carlson family run around doing their best to have everything ready for market by 6, so that no one has to stay up late. :D

The cars are loaded, the cheese is done, the chocolate milk is ready to go, yogurt is ready and waiting to be sold (its plain this week), and all that needs to be done is the milk and looks like we will all be in bed at a decent time this week. :D

Now besides the dairy....

Both our main washer and dryer are still not working. We have had the repair men out to look at both of them--Washer yesterday and the dryer today. It looks like they are going to have to replace our dryer (what fun! Not!) and the washer will still be out of commission for the next week or two. At least I have the backup washer, even if it is a top loader and can only do half the load my front loader can do. And as long as the weather holds out in the glories fashion I will be good for hanging laundry on the line (Which I LOVE doing!!).

All thou, in the past week I have learned that there is a plus to a dryer in the house or a dryer at the laundry mat--There's no mud on the ground in either building!! I have also learned that when the washer AND dryer are broken at the same time you learn about all the things you have hidden in the back of your closet. :D Seeing as most of what I have found in the back of mine is pink I'm surprised that it is even there, but I am glad that for some weird reason I saved them. lol


Today is simply a beautiful day, I wish the hammock hadn't broken last year or I would be out there reading instead of typing up this post. (Let me tell you, it hurt when it broke!)


Our family is super busy right now, even though it's that time of year that's our "break". I started school with the younger three minus Seth. All three of them have decided that over the "school break" they have become oh so smart, thinking that they all know what they need to know. *rolls eyes* Now if I only taught history of crafts they would be oh, so happy. lol


Mom and dad have been in town a lot with my Grandfather, and Drs. Appointments to make sure baby girl #8 is good and healthy!


I did something I didn't think I would ever really be doing...I offered to make some business calls for mom concerning selling some of our doelings. There are couple things kinds of funny about this...1) I HATE making phone calls, and 2) I'm making calls about selling goats. lol


And lastly, it's that time of year when we are quickly approaching "that wonderful month in which Houston is overrun with cows and cowboys and half our family looks forward to showing goats while the other half look forward to showing rabbits at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo". Again I am trying to figure out to be there even without showing any of our goats, because yet again we missed the deadline for entering. (I hate the livestock!! Their deadline timing boarders on ridiculous!!)

Well, that's all for today at Swede Farm, everyone out there have a wonderful weekend!! :D

Government

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
 

~Ronald Reagan~

Gettysburg, Apes, Lee, and Siblings (oh, my!)

(Now, there's a title!)

I have some very weird siblings.  :D  If you haven't already gathered that, well there you have it.  :D  Come on, when they talk about their pet flies or when the worst insult they can come up with is calling someone an Eco-terrorist, you know they are weird.  

But when they walk around quoting Pickett about apes and Lee, you really know they've gone off the deep end.  lol  For the past couple weeks my younger siblings favorite quote (rather quotes) has been...

Major General George E. Pickett: Sirs, perhaps there are those among you who believe you are descended from a ape.  I suppose there may even be those among you who believe that I am descended from a ape.  But I challenge the man to step forward who believes that General Robert E. Lee is descended from a ape.

James L. Kemper: Hear, hear!

Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett: Not likely.

Emma Says...

"When I get married I am going to get married in our living room and we are going to have ham sandwiches for dinner after wards." 

 (This came while watching the Duggar wedding)

And

"On Dr. G all she ever finds is that something is wrong with their internal organs!"

(My family loves to watch medical shows, Dr. G being one of those we don't watch very often, but they run enough adds for someone to be interested to watch at least one show and that's what happened here.)

"How Beautiful"

How Beautiful the hands that served
The Wine and the Bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty road and the hill to the cross
How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

How Beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sins and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

And as He lay down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
Willing to pay the price

How Beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes
How Beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure love so that others may live
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King
How Beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth
How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

~Twila Paris~

Confederate Heroes Day

Yesterday our country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, today our state celebrates Confederate Heroes Day.

There is no way I can compare with mom's ability to write (as you can probably tell by now).  So, with her permission I have copied her post from last year's Confederate Hero's Day.

Today as a nation we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day. We remember the sacrifices made so that our nation could become more fully what it was intended to be, a place where all men are equal, and are not ruled by others but are the determiners of their own future.

Unpopular tho the remembrance may be, today as a state we also celebrate Confederate Heroes Day. We remember the sacrifices made so that our nation could become more fully what it was intended to be, a place where all men are equal, and are not ruled by others but are the determiners of their own future.

There are some who find the thought of this war distasteful. The thread of slavery is undeniably wound throughout the cloth. The fact that our state was involved in what proved to be a lost cause stings. Almost 150 years have passed since the war, six generations or more have come and gone. Embarrassment and the threat of being called racist or redneck have served well to silence those who find pride in their heritage leaving only those who write the history books to determine how we view our past. I think this is unfortunate. When we deny our heritage it serves to ensure two facts. One, that we will not take pride in and learn from that which is good and noble in our history and two, that we will not sorrowfully learn from that which was ignoble so that it may never be repeated.

To many in the South, the War for American Independence was still fresh in their mind. They recalled the stories told by their grandfathers of the battles and sacrifices made. They knew well the principles upon which the war was fought, to achieve freedom and self determination from a despotic government. Now they felt themselves to be embroiled in the same kind of struggle. They saw the increasingly heavy demands and controls by the federal government as akin to the tyranny that they experienced under England. The pivotal question to be answered was whether according to the Constitution the individual states or the federation of states as a whole were the higher arbiter. This was actually not the first time that states had claimed the right to secede and it would not be the last (if you doubt this, simply google the words "secede" and "states" and you will even find current secession movements).

In this time of questioning many men of Godly character found themselves facing unimaginable decisions. Just as their forefathers had to decide to follow the path of security at the sacrifice of their conscience or to follow what they felt to be right at the risk of their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, a new generation was called upon to make a similar decision. One of the most notable and visible in that generation was Robert Edward Lee. Lee was the son of cavalry officer Light Horse Harry Lee who was decorated by Washington for his service during the War of Independence. Lee was also married to the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. The family history of the Lees was inextricable woven with that of the nation. Lee was honored to be offered the command of the union army against the seceding states. Lee himself did not support secession, indeed felt it to be folly, yet he felt his supreme loyalty lay not with the overarching union of states but with his home state of Virginia. It must have been with an impending sense of doom that he watched support for secession grow, yet he never shirked from what he felt to be his duty, saying “With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword..."

In a time when our society is struggling with many challenges from both within the nation and forces without, what we need are more men who have the moral integrity to stand and do the right thing even at great risk to themselves. Today we honor, in two separate holidays, men who did exactly that, stepped forward to serve in their own ways, forever changing the history of their nation. It would be a grave mistake to paint the sacrifices made with the brush of relativism. Instead I challenge the citizens of our nation to look to the needs of our time and consider the words of Lee when he said “Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.” It is by recognizing honor and duty in those who have gone before us that we will be inspired to serve honorably and dutifully ourselves.

Today's Did You Know?

Did you know that I do not like milk? Yes, you read that correctly! lol The oldest daughter of dairy goat farmers Tim and LeeAnne and the person who does 90% of the pasteurizing for Swede Farm Dairy does not like milk.

And it's nothing new. It's been a battle since I was three years old to get me to drink my milk, mom would set my cup of milk down with my lunch and I would sit there for more time than it would have taken me to drink the milk plotting of ways to get rid of that awful cup with the white drink in it.

I remember sitting there thinking that there HAD to be a way to get rid of the stuff without wasting it or drinking it! And then came that wonderful day when mom said I didn't have to drink the milk anymore. By then she figured that if a girl could eat a pound of cheese in a day if given the choice (it was my favorite lunch for years--Cheese and mustard.) that I must be getting enough calcium without having to do a battle of the daily cup of milk.

Then we moved out to the country and got our goats. And people started asking how I liked drinking goat's milk instead of cow's milk. When I answered with "I don't like it." I got the all too common "Of course not! It's goat's milk and I hear it's gamey." Well, no not really it's just milk. lol

The real joke came when we opened the dairy and started selling milk at farmers markets. Me being there was almost a marketing disaster. Until I started telling the truth, but not really answering peoples questions (it's that part of me that makes some of my sisters think I would do O.K. in the political world).

You see one of the top ten most Frequently Asked Questions about the dairy (to me at least) is "Do you like it?" And what is my answer, oh me who doesn't like milk of any form unless it's got a good amount of chocolate or coffee in it? My answer is the truth of course!! "It's the only milk I will drink.".

And that's the truth, I promise! I would rather by my milk from mom and dad then drink that white stuff from the store that taste like 2%! But I would much rather get my calcium from eating cheese and drinking chocolate milk then drinking the milk straight up. lol

Seth Is Growing Up!!

I remember when Seth was born and well I should I was there!  :D  Being there when a baby is born is something always amazes me.  The very fact that this is a living thing and that if God so wills it will grow up and can do many great things, from being the parent of a large family to the president of the United States of America.  All is in God's hands, from the baby being born, to what will happen to the child as it is grows, and then what it will be as an adult in this world of ours and finally when the person leaves this world, it's all in God's hand. It never ceases to amaze me!

Among those things that amaze me are the changes that the child goes through it it’s first two years of like.  It goes from an infant who cannot even support its own head, who can only cry when it is hungry or needs its diaper changed, to within weeks smiling, cooing, and recognizing people (even to the point of knowing who feeds him).  And those smiles and coos they give out when they see a person that they like are priceless and something that I wish I could bottle up and have forever.  (Thanks to cameras and video recorders I do have that an extent.  :D  ) 

By the time the infant has reached six months he can scoot, maybe even crawl, and is even learning to throw a fit!  Don't even try and tell me that infants are perfect!  At so young as a few months you can tell that they are sinners in their attitudes.  Even with the fit throwing that is starting you are also seeing many other things, such as the smiles when he sees something he likes or the look in their eye when they spot something they want and the 'struggle' they put up just to get to that one object.  It's a miracle that I am always amazed and blessed to see (at this point in my house 8 times already!)

Now Seth is growing up, he's come to and passed the baby coos and smiles, he's all ready hit the scoot stage.  In fact he had it a lot longer than any of my other siblings, he was scooting for so long that we thought he would never crawl, (much to my mom's concern), he even got the nickname "Scooter" since that's all he did for a few months to get to anything he wanted. He's got the eating solid foods down; in fact he's also got the hot chocolate and coffee drinking from a mug down as well.  He's got the walking down pat, he's now running with the best of them (Noah and Judah) and is climbing on EVERYTHING!!   

But the thing that gets me these days?  Is not his ability to climb, nor his running ways.  No it's not the fact that he prefers coffee to water most mornings, or that he knows where his milk comes from and has on more than one occasion been seen caring his cup to the diary.  The thing is amazing me about Seth is his talking!  When he wants water he says so, when he wants coffee he lets you know.  If he wants outside, on the computer, to watch TV, or even take a nap he will let you know and I here I am still think of him a as a little baby who cries when his diaper needs changing, for me it seems like he was born last month and 21 months ago!

Oh, how I love watching them grow up!!  But I sure miss those baby days! :D

"What Did He Die For?"

He was 21 in a.d 44,
He was hope, and he was courage on a lonely shore.
Simply remind his mother, with love beyond her tears,
just a young american who chose to rise above his fears,
and as I watch him struggle up that hill,
Without a thought of turning back.
I can not help but wonder,
what did he die for, when he died for you and me,
made the sacrafise so that we could all be free.
I belive that we will the awnser reach to heaven, for the way
to spend a priceless liberty.
Look inside and awnser,
What did he die for, when he died for me.

To the darkest day in a.d 33, king of mercy and passion of eternity,
simply remind his father with love beyond his tears,
kingless one the only son to bear the guit of all these years,
and as I watch him struggle up that hill,
without a thought of turing back,
I can not help but wonder,
what did he die for, when he died for you and me,
made the sacrafise so that we could all be free.
I belive that we will the awnser reach to heaven, for the way
to spend a priceless liberty.
Look inside and ask the question,
What did he die for, when he died for me.

He died for freedom,
he died for love,
Of all the things we do to pay him back can
never be enough.
I can not help but wonder,
what did he die for, when he died for you and me,
made the sacrafise so that we could all be free.
I belive that we will the awnser reach to heaven, for the way
to spend a priceless liberty.
Look inside and awnser,
What did he die for, when he died for me.

~Twila Paris~

This song means a lot to me.

Do You Like Country Life?

When people find out that I was 16 when we moved to the country I get a bunch more questions, and here they are with the answers. :D

How do I like living in the country? I love it! How do I like living in the country vs. living in the city? Country life is much more quite, a lot more work, and better family living!

Is there anything I don't like about living in the country that I liked about living in the city? Yes there are three things (and yes my parents do know about these three things)...We do less things at church, we only make it to one service, sometimes Sunday School, and parts of the missions and bible conferences, never Wednesday night prayer, or VBS.

The second thing is lack of baseball games. My dad told me when we moved out here that he didn't think the change in address would make a difference in the amount of games that we went to. Well, it has. I've gotten over the fact that I don't to near as many games, but I still go through my "I want to go to a game" push. Come on, when you used to going to 20-30 games a year and that drops to less than half a dozen games it takes some getting used to!

And the third thing? We don't have a fireplace in this house. Forget that my bedroom went from huge to tiny and tons of books sharing the space, forget the fact that my closet went from walk in to barely large enough for me to stand in, forget the fact that we went to enough rooms for no more than three people per room, forget all that! We don't have a fireplace!! Sure we can burn a fire outside but that's not the same as a fire place in the house. During the thanksgiving week with our friends we were doing a lot of "I remember you doing ___" for me the one thing that surprised me was when one of the kids from the other family said "I remember you always did you school sitting on the fire place.".

As I looked back I realized he was right when ever we had a get together or when I had to be in the living room (of either our house or theirs) I was always sitting on the fireplace or right in front of it, I loved curling up right in front of the fire place with a good book, hot chocolate, school, or sitting there with good friends. It was the hardest thing for me about moving out of that house, (not necessarily about moving out to the county) losing the fireplace.

So there you have it the three things that I didn't like about moving out into the country. In all honesty those were my three problems with moving out and my parents knew it before we moved out and I knew that my life would change with the move, what I wasn't expecting was how big the change besides less church things, less games, and no fire place would be. But I wouldn't change the past five years for all the games or fireplaces in the world!!

Did You Know?

That I was NOT born in the country? That I spent the first 16 years of my life living in the city, living a city life?

I realized Tuesday night after getting asked not once, but twice how I liked growing up in the country or if I ever remember living in the city, that there were people out there who do not know that I grew up in the city.

Before we moved out here I was a city girl! During the baseball season I went to 20-30 Astros games, and 2-6 Rice games. We went to the art museum weekly, the zoo once or twice a month, Library bi-weekly, Wal-Mart almost daily, and for church we did Sunday school, morning and evening service, Wednesday night prayer, VBS, we did dance, visited the pool daily during the summer, etc. Yes, I was a city girl!

Yes, I do know that some of y'all already knew that I lived in the city, I'm sure that those of you who have known us since pre-country life sometimes laugh at the things that come out of our mouths or that show up on our blogs. Hey, you not the only one!! I can't believe the things that we now talk about or do!

Now? Now, when it's my AOR I milk the goats twice a day, I make yogurt, flavored milk, cheese, and pasteurize milk weekly. I go to market at least once a week if not twice a week. I help deliver goats, feed them, trim hooves, pre for showing, I butcher the animals, care for them when they are sick, and love on them when they are babies or giving us milk, etc... Five and a half years later, I am a country girl and loving every minute of it.

Was it hard for me to move out?  No, not really.  For me moving to the country was a new adventure that I loved. I enjoyed being able to do school outside on the deck or the hammock. I enjoy being able to go out and run or nap outside whenever I wanted without having to have someone else out with me. It's so much fun to be able to run over next door to see how the neighbor's baby has grown and not worry about being gone for too long, I enjoy being able to shot guns whenever I want and not having to worry about the other people around (like I even shot when I lived in the city!), It's so much fun shooting fireworks for the 4th, Christmas, New Year's Eve and day, each family member's birthday, or any other time we wish to shot them.

Is there a change in me?  Yes, I do think there is a change in me. Could I move back to the city? Yes, if God would have me to I could move back to the city, thou it would take a bit getting used to (I have spent the night in the city more than once in the past five years and took a while falling asleep. lol) but, if that is where God had me I could do it. As for right now he has me in the country and I am loving every minute of it!

"Chicken Run"

Yesterday I borrowed "Chicken Run" from the Segers. Yes, we do own a copy of it but we don't own a functioning VHS player anymore, so I borrowed their DVD for the youngers in the family. (Olders were going to watch Gettysburg but that's another post.)

"The story revolves around an English egg farm designed a lot like a WWII-era prison camp, with overtones of the Nazi concentration camps as well, in that chickens that don't produce end up as dinner. While most of the chickens are resigned to their fate, one plucky hen named Ginger keeps leading escape attempts and keeps getting locked in "solitary" for her pains. Her task takes on new urgency when the Tweedys (the couple who run the farm) prepare to convert their operation into a chicken-pie factory. Hope arrives in the form of an American known (amusingly, in view of the recent "Rocky & Bullwinkle" film) as "Rocky the Flying Rooster", whom Ginger thinks can teach the chickens how to fly. Naturally, Rocky isn't really what he seems to be, and the revelation of his secret threatens to dash all hope of escape, because everyone knows chickens can't fly-or can they?"

Chicken Run has long been a favorite of mine; it's one of those that I will watch more than once. A friend invited me out to watch it the day it came out in the theaters. My dad and mom not knowing what it was about decided it would be best to wait until they had watched (nothing new, they are still doing it. :D ).  When it came out on VHS (yes VHS) my parents watched it and then allowed us to watch it. Mind you that was when we lived in the city, it was a funny movie and we all loved it, we were also known to use lines from the movie often (lose our heads?)

Once we moved to the country and had as our first country animals chickens the movie started making more sense and being a common joke in our family, when the chickens would try to run out the door or fly into the chicken wire one of us was bound to say ”They're *chickens*, you dolt...they're the most stupid creatures on this planet. They don't plot, they don't scheme, and they are *not* organized"


It's a great movie, one in which the entire family can enjoy together. Just be careful or you might start hearing lines like...

Rocky: Oh, just a little place I call the land of the free and the home of the brave...

Mac: Scotland!

Rocky: No! America.

______

Chickens go in; pies come out. Chicken pies. Not apple pies, chicken.

______

Babs: Morning, Ginger. Back from holiday?

Ginger: I wasn't on holiday, Babs. I was in solitary confinement.

Babs: Oh, it's nice to get a bit of time to yourself, isn't it?

_____

Mr. Tweedy: [being attacked by chickens] Mrs Tweedy! The chickens are revolting!
Mrs. Tweedy: [not paying attention] Finally something we agree on. 

Uggg!

Have I ever mentioned what it does to our family when the washer or dryer go out? Have I ever mentioned that my family almost always has at least one back-up if not two of each appliance?

Yes, we always have at least one back-up washer and a back-up dryer--The clothes line.  And when the washer or dryer go out, the back up is amazing.  It never ceases to amaze me how the laundry can pile up with in 24-48 hours of either appliances being broken!

Well it's the laundry comedy going on here! Last Saturday the front loader decided it was time for it not to work. Great the last thing we needed right then, but hey we have a back up washer so no biggie right? Well, the back-up washer is a top loader in which it uses at least double the water that our front loader uses and it drains a lot faster than our front loader, meaning there is not enough time for all the water to drain and we had the outlet pip overflowing. So what did we do? Well, I spent my days sitting on the washer waiting for it to drain and when it gets to the drain I stop it every few minutes to give it time for all the water to drain out. It works great, except I do nothing all day but sit on the washer, rotating laundry, folding laundry, and reading my bible. :D

Now for the dryer, Monday the dryer decided not only to not dry my clothes within three hours, but to eat the laundry as well. No I am not joking. Somehow, some way 95% of the laundry that goes into the dryer is coming out with holes in it. It took us an entire day to figure it out, there is a little catch at the top that the laundry was getting caught on and every time it came lose it would ripe a hole in it. Great, now I have clothes that resemble Swiss cheese!

To solve both problems of the dryer not drying and it eating our laundry we decided to go with the back up--The clothesline. In the weather that we were having it was great the clothes we drying faster than then those in the dryer and they were still intact, until today--It's raining!!

I guess it's time to go to back up number two or three. #2 No laundry for the day or option #3 hang it in the bathroom. Hmmm.....I think I will just pray it stops raining! lol

My Job...

At market we always get questions about our family and our farm. The questions that we get about our family are the same that we get no matter where we go or what we are doing. :D The farm questions range from "How many animals are on your farm?" to "Are you organic?" or "Do you live on the farm and milk the goats?”

Everyone gets those questions at every market. Then each person gets a few questions that are just for them. Mine seems to be "Do you help in the dairy?" and "Do you get you get paid?” I have already talked about the getting paid question. So today I am going to address if I help or not...

Last night I woke up and asked Seth (yes, the 18 month old) if he wanted his milk raw or pasteurized? Grace (who was just climbing into bed after watching a movie with the rest f the older girls) looked at me with a shocked look on her face and said "Did you really just now wake up and ask Seth if he wanted his milk Raw or pasteurized?"

Yup, I did. As I was planning the processing schedule for the rest of the week right before I went to fell asleep with the toddlers.

Yes, help a great deal in the dairy (not trying to brag here!). Other then mom I am really the only one who does the processing, Grace helps with the pasteurizing when I need her to (like yesterday when mom and dad were in Houston and I had to get feed in Bryan) or hanging the cheese when mom or I can't get to it and Sara will help bottle, while the rest of the family (all the way down to Noah) will help label.

But, most of the time it's me who does the planning on what we are going to do with that weeks milk and then does the pasteurizing. I spend more hours planning, processing, labeling, etc. then I do reading and that's saying something since I am always have a book I am reading.

So, there you have it. Yes I do help in the dairy, so much so that I have had dreams about working in the dairy, milk, cheese, and yogurt. It's almost kind of pitiful!

The Lord Is My Life

"The Lord is my life. My salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength in my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine

enemies and my foes...

...came upon me to eat up my flesh,

they stumbled and fell.

Though unhost should encamp against

me, my heart shall not fear.

Though war should rise up against me.

In this will I be comforted."

From "Gods and Generals"

I Have Finally Come To Grips

With the fact that I am an adult. No, I don't feel like one, (esp. those times when I getting a lecture), no I do not look like one (in fact I had someone tell me they thought I was 12 last week!  I am praying that he was joking!), nor is it the fact that I have been told that I can start calling adults (people closer to my parents age) by their given name.

No it's not how I look, act, or feel that makes me realize I've hit the adult mark. Rather it's how the younger people in my life or their parents view, call, or treat me, such as...

When our next door neighbor calls me Miss Katie when talking to her 7 month old baby and his sister walks in and says "Hi, Miss K K!"

Or when I hear stories from church members where their 5 year old says that I am not a Carlson child because I am an adult.

Then there are the times when Noah or Libby want to know about when I was a kid. (When I was a kid? Oh, you mean when you were born?)

But the biggest thing was when one of my sisters (Sara or Linnea) asked me a couple days ago..."So, Katie what do want to do with your life now that you’re grown up?"

Yup, now that I'm "grown up" I'm getting asked many a question, some questions are of the type that I never thought I would be asked until I was much older than my current age, while there are others that I never thought I would be asked, then there are those that I knew I would get asked, but there are always those that are curve balls, being an adult is not as easy as it looked when I was younger.

I Promise

That if I get one more comment, joke, tease, hint, raised eyebrow, nod of a head, pointed look, or any other indications from anyone on who I should marry, when I should marry, where I should marry, or any other thing on marriage. I just might scream.

O.K. so I won't scream. Though I might do something equally as astonishing for me. And that would be....I would do...I would say...Oh, forget it. So there's really nothing I can do or say to stop people from giving hints or advice, except for the answer I already give--"I am waiting for God's timing".

Is it that rare for someone to want to wait for God's timing and not to date? Apparently so, since no one can understand "I'm waiting for God's timing.".

Is it honestly that rare of a thing for a female to be 21 and never have dated? It must be since people's surprise at finding out that I am 21 and I don't have a guy yet or that I've never dated comes close to equaling those people that are surprised that I am at least 4 years older than they thought I was.

I guess the hardest part about getting all the hints is how to deal with them. Most people don't understand the "I'm waiting for God's timing." answer and to give the more in depth answer of--"I am waiting on God's timing as I know that he can and will bring the man that he wants me to marry into my life at the time when both that man and I are ready for marriage. Honestly for all I know God might not have marriage planned for me or he might have it planned for me at a far later date. Not to mention I am already doing all that God would have me do right now, with the dairy, my soap business, doing my best (and not always succeeding) at being the best sister my siblings can have and respecting and obeying my parents." would cause more crossed eyes then we have Dr.s for.

So, I guess at this point getting all the comments, jokes, teasing, hints, raised eyebrows, nods of a heads, pointed looks, or any other indications from anyone on who I should marry, when I should marry, where I should marry, or any other thing on marriage. Is all God's plan for teaching me patience and how to be a good witness for him.

Not like I do very good, since more often than not when people ask me if I am ever going to get married or tell me who I should "Grab up real quick before he gets away" I kind of look at that person with my mouth hanging open trying my best and failing at coming up with an answer that doesn't make me look like I'm pining away for marriage but am honoring God. Never really works, even with those pre-thought answers.

So, what is wrong with waiting until God brings along the man that he has chosen for me at the time that he has chosen for me without having everyone trying to pair me up? What is wrong with waiting and not dating?

I Sometimes Wonder About My Siblings

I think I've used that title already.  :D

Last night while making yogurt, Liberty was out there wiping walls for me.  :D  Spending time with my siblings is almost always enjoyable.  (That would all depend on their mood.  :D  Trust me you don't ever want to spend time alone with Liberty when she's in a bad mood!!)  So as she's scrubbing the wall she's bouncing from one subject to another.  "Katie, how does the wall get dirty?" before I can answer "Katie, why does the yogurt take so long?" before she's even given me time to answer she's off on another question.  :D

The question that really threw me off and had me searching for an answer (and never coming up with one) was toward the end of our working time in the dairy..."Katie, why don't you have a boyfriend?"

Me: "Uhhh...Wellll....Uh.....Why do I need a boyfriend?"
Libby: "Because...."
Me: "Libby, because is the start of an answer, where's the rest of the answer?"
Libby: "You want to get married right?  Well, you need a boyfriend before you can get married.  So, why don't you have a boyfriend yet?"
Me: "Well, first off you don't NEED a boyfriend to get married, you just need God to send someone to you and your parents, no boyfriend.  Anyways who said I need a boyfriend?"
Libby:  "God!"

Uhhhh.....I think I'll let mom talk to her about boyfriends and here I thought the only people who would be grilling me about a boyfriends would be friends and not my seven year old sister.

You know it's cold when...

It's WAY To Cold!!!  The next time I post in the summer about how hot is, please remind me of this post!! 

You know it's cold when you have to send someone out every couple hours to break the ice of the animal's waters.

It's WAY to cold when your pond has ice around it and your 7 year old sister says "The pond is half frozen!!".

You know it's cold when at noon you can see your breath.

You know it's cold when your siblings under the age of 7 don't want to get out of bed, even to watch a movie.

It's WAY to cold when you look at the weather and it's 30 with a windchill of 20 at 2!!

(And yes Sara I do know that this is yet another post about the weather. lol ) 

2009

I meant to do this last year but like normal, life took over and I wasn't able to do this post when I had hoped to.  Oh, well at least it's not life and death!  lol Let’s see if I can recap my family's last year in a paragraph or two per month. :D

January

Our year started with our Uncle, his family, and our Aunt coming out for a late Christmas. Christin and Grace left with our Uncle's family for the trip of a lifetime--Two months in Europe! That left Sara to get more then her fill of baby sitting and myself more than my fill of milking and babysitting. But we managed, and got some pictures and great stories from the girls.

February

Our goats started kidding the first week of February, not only giving us more milk for me to process, but Sara wonderful chances at learning the ins and outs of kiddings since I was busy watching children and couldn't help her. (Thankfully she had mom to help her most of the time.)

We lost not one, but two cameras, one roster, and a goat. The laundry, kids, and school piled up a mile high! While mom, dad, and I lost more sleep then we were able to find and Linnea turned 13!

March

Ah, that wonderful month in which Houston is overrun with cows and cowboys and half our family looks forward to showing goats while the other half look forward to showing rabbits at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

The girls came back from there run around Europe, Grace turned 17, it rained, and we had more babies born, and I started this blog.

April

As I look back April was busier then I remember...Seth turned one, Emma turned 11 (and I remember when she turned one!). Our goats started kidding for the second batch of 2009, as well as puppies, bunnies, turkeys, and chickens were being born or hatched. :D

We got a new buckling from Colorado, learned that for any child under the age of 15 a truck load of sand is the bet toy in the world. I sold my soaps and stuff at a conference, bought yet some more books (both for myself and for birthday presents) we started two new markets, we took more than one trip to see the bluebonnets, and the baseball season started.

May

To start off May I went and got my driver’s license. Something that I am sure many a people thought would never happen. I got more teasing and questioning about not driving then about not dating! What prodded me to finally go and get my license?  Well, the fact that my parents needed another driver for a third market on Saturday! Why else?  I passed with flying colors, the first test for me to pass in MONTHS!  Now I love driving and which car is my favorite to drive?  The standard, of course!

Tim turned nine and then accidently shot the inspecter with his Red Ryder!  We had more kiddings and lost a doe, Grace's horse tore off his eyelid, our goat club had its annual show where we helped put it on, we started another Saturday market, Seth said his first words, and our washer broke TWICE!

June

We lost the camera, again. We got a new washer (it's amazing how things like a washer affect your life!), Grace's horse cowboy survived the surgery to put his eyelid back on, and Seth started walking.  Some good friends brought us a goat from Idaho, I got my first taste of farm sitting, and we started making and selling cheese at the Austin farmers market.

We threw a surprise birthday party for Mom, Liberty turned 7 and I had the pleasure of turning 21 on a Saturday!

July

We had our annual 4th of July party where the oldest 7 of us children got to have a dream come true--We got to load and shot a black powder rifle!

We finally got some rain, I flipped a 4-wheeler and lived to tell about it, mom and dad went on a mini wedding anniversary trip and at the same time gave a talk on goats and how to run a dairy, dad went to a cheese making class, we had a movie filmed here, and we had our five year anniversary for living out in the country.

August

Dad had a birthday, Judah turned two, Christin turned 20, and Sara turned 16 (Yikes!! She's legally old enough to drive now!)

Our van broke, we bought my dream car (a station wagon), I got in a little bit of trouble for posting about some of my sibling's habits, we took in our first baseball game of the year, and we started school.

September

This was a slow month.  :D  We found out that nine goats were pregnant and all due on the same day, I decided that never again am I going to butcher our chickens, I will more than gladly send them away for that task!  Grace had to make the very tough decision to put her first horse down, we got more rain, and I faced my fears and drove a stretch of road that has worried me for years.

Our grandfather came down for a visit, (No, we do not know how long he will be staying with us. Like many things in life we are taking this one day at a time and as of right now that one day at a time is for him to be down here with us.) For the first time (and hopefully the last time!) I bought decaffeinated coffee and am still getting teased about it.

And lastly for this month, we found out that mom was pregnant with baby number twelve!!  And this coming only days after two different people told me "You do know that the chances are very high that the next baby in your family could be yours, don't you?"  Ummm....Right, O.K. aren't we forgetting something here?

October

Noah lived to be five, we started two farmers markets (making it a grand total of five a week and four of those being on Saturday), we found a cat that likes me, the postseason started, we got more sand, and I decided that throwing large parties or organizing church events just might not be my sort of thing, the dratted Yankees won the world series, the baseball season ended and I had to pull up 75% of our flooring due to a water leak.

November

The first week of November mom, Sara, GrandDavid, and I headed out Monday for Iowa and got back Friday afternoon, with 10 goats. We saw some very pretty land, nice goats, and good friends.

We started our last batch of kidding for 2009;  We went to the circus, which for over half the family was a first.  I found out that dad reads my blog, and we had some good friends spend a few days with us dyring the Thanksgiving week.

December

We finished our last batch of 2009 kiddings, the whole world got an earful on Carlson family traditions, I lost a goat and gained two others in the process, I finished putting the flooring back in, I made a Christmas wish list (and got it), we broke three water pipes in 9 days, and dad had two weeks off from driving a bus.

One of the biggest things that happened last month?  We found out that baby number twelve will make eight girls in our family!!

So there you have it, our year in a wrap.

(Man that took longer then I thought it would!)

We'er Doing What!?

First off, just to let you know, I am not an NFL fan, I enjoy watching college football, but only a few teams, such as UH (Where my parents met) and A&M (We are in Aggie land, plus my mom almost went there).  With that out of the way I will now tell you that I do not like UT or OU (All you UT and OU fans, please do not get angrey you already knew I didn't like these two teams, didn't you?)

And the reasons I like and dislike the teams is not because I just sat down one day and picked the two teams I did like and the two I didn't like.  The likes and dislikes have been instilled in me since a VERY young age (as in I was going to UH games at the age of two months).  Long before I liked baseball I enjoyed watching football with dad, we really watched NFL, in fact the only time I can remember watching it is during the Super Bowl  with friends from church.  Other then that we always watched collage.

So my question is--Why are die-hard UT haters doing hosting a "party" to watch UT play in the Championship game?

Living In My Large Family--"Opening Remarks"

No, this should not have been the first post in this series.  lol  It was the best thing I could come up with and not use 'Introduction', since I had already used it in this series.  :D  Yes, I do know it's been a while since posted anything about "Living In My Large Family", but I couldn't come up with anything else to post about and no one (namely my sisters) weren't helping me and giving me ideas on what to post about.  :D  (Yes, always blame the siblings!!)

It is always interesting to hear how people introduce me to their friends. Rarely is it just "This is my friend Katie" it is always tagged along with to tell about my family or farm, these are some of the most common comments that people use when introducing me...

"She's the oldest of eleven children (or is it 12 or 13?)."

"She has A LOT of siblings!"

"She comes from a large family."

"She lives on a dairy."

"She has a ton of goats."

"Her family sells goat milk."

Thanks Tim!

Not really.  lol

Do you ever sometimes wonder what your siblings think about you?  Well I did, until a few minutes ago while milk when time told me...

"Your an ooooodddd woman Katie!!"

Oh, thanks! 

"It Is Well With MY Soul"

"It Is Well With MY Soul"

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

Milk Production Again!

I believe that is was last week when I was talking about the goats and how I love it when their production goes up, well I'm going to say it again...

I LOVE it when the goat's production goes up!!

In an hour I am headed out to Rice for the Houston Farmers Market.  :D  Where I have the pleasure of bringing not only milk, but Chocolate Milk (with a pound of ground up chocolate bar per gallon of milk), Capra-Cino (Our coffee flavored milk drink), Plain Yogurt (Goes great with strawberries) , Vanilla Bean Yogurt (It taste like melted ice cream), AND Kefir. 

This is the first time in months that we will be bringing our complete line of liquid products!!  So, those in the Houston area stop by the Houston Farmers Market at Rice today.  :D

Weather (again)

When it comes to blogging there have been two things that some of my family members have accused me of doing...

1) I blog entirely way to much about the weather (Hey, I'm the daughter of a farmer what else can you expect?) and

2) I blog way too much. (Which one of my sisters followed up with "Well, she talks a lot, so what should you expect?").

So, here I go again--Blogging yet another post on the weather. :D Just what Sara and dad want to see. lol

My motto in the winter is "I was not raised in the South to be used to this weather!!" This weather being anything under 45 degrees. Well, this week I am going to be getting my full of that bitter northern weather that I HATE!!

It's currently 45 with a wind chill of 39! Our highs will be in the 50s with lows in the 30s during the day. At night we are looking for it to be in the lower 30s to upper 20s. Way to cold if you ask me!! And my dad is crazy enough to think that he will get me out of bed way too early to go to market on Saturday where it's projected to be in the 40s!! He's crazy, but then he's right so what am I talking about? :lol:

New Year Resolutions?

Nope, not me!  How about you?

O.K. so I have done it once--last year--other then that I was never one of those people who made a list of goals and things they wanted to complete by the end of the year. For me if I ever did make a list along those lines it was on my birthday, with the thought that I am starting a new year in my life and what did I want to accomplish this year of my life?

Only once on January first did I make a list.  Like I said it was last year and I was able to do two of the three goals on my list. The third goal? Well, instead of getting better and concurring the problem it only got worse (I have way too many papers in my life!)

This year did I make any goals?  Well, maybe, I think.   :D  These are things that I've been trying to either get better at or start for a while now.  Of course the first two on the list is to get better at my daily bible reading, and to read the entire bible this year.  That shouldn't be hard for me, I've been known to read a 1,000+ in less than two weeks.  The only thing is I don't want to fly through reading it just to be able to say I read the bible in less than a year, I want to be able to learn from it. If only my MP3 player was still working, :-S

Those are my first two goals of the year.  The other three?  I would love to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew (yes in that order).  But from previous experience I know I am not the best at learning other languages, esp. Since a number of my family members and friends will tell you I have yet to  conquer my native language of English. :D

So, there you have for the second time in my 21 1/2 years I have set New Year Resolutions, now to see if I can accomplish any of them. :D

New Year's Eve & New Years Day

You didn't really think my family would pass up a chance to make a tradition did you?

Our family's traditions for New Year's Eve and day aren't as set as most of our Christmas' traditions are, but they are still there and we do tend do them more often than not, they are after all traditions and our family is all for tradition. :D

We always do snack food, never a set dinner New Year’s Eve, always 7-layer dip (6-layer for those of us who do not like olives. Rather, for that all important me! :D ) Caso, chips, cheese sticks, and poppers about rounds out our meal. It sits out all evening and we snack on it while we all watch TV, play games, shoot fireworks, talk, and have family time.

New Year day we sleep in a little later then the norm and then we all gather as a family and watch the Rose Parade. Chores and more relaxing (The week between Christmas day and New Years is our laziest week of the entire year. :D ) Black eye peas and corn bread for lunch as all good southerns have. (Before anyone says anything it's all about tradition not luck!) Garnished with a tomato and pepper vinaigrette. Something we've been eating from my earliest memories. :D

I can't believe its New Year's Eve!! I have the feeling that the year has flown by and I was barely able to glimpse it. It amazes me!! I remember when the years used to drag by and it seemed to take forever for the next year to come, I also remember being told to be patient and enjoy those days, because there would be a day in my life when I would want to have those slow days back. Well, that time has come and I wish I could go back to the good ole slow days. :D

Now another year is on us and I can't wait to see what God has planned for us this year. The one I am most eagerly waiting for and can't wait until the time is here, is to see my newest littlest sister that will be joining our family in early May. :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!