I love Matt because he's outdoorsy...that he smells like the woods...that he's big and strong and manly....and because he's not afraid of cinnamon and sugar coated apples tucked nicely beneath a leaf-embellished pie crust:

look what he made for his work party.  Isn't it pretty? (i forgot to take one after it was baked.  oooops!)

We had a rough night last night.  The Little Man is sick with a fever, stuffy nose, etc.  He was up a lot, but thankfully he's not a whiny sick kid.  Just one who gets uncomfortable with snot dripping out of his nose, but who can blame him?   So...today...E1 is capitalizing on our, "when-someone-is-sick-you-can-watch-extra-t.v. rule."   Special perk of sick days.  I always loved that when I was a kid, didn't you?

Happy Tuesday!

...that in my blogging slow-down, that a lot of people are in the dark.  i didn't realize until i stopped a little bit, how many people still hung out here hanging on my every word.  that was tongue in cheek. :)  BUT, there has been a handful of people that currently don't know the most important details of my life, thanks to the fact that i've been an undevoted blogger as of late.   so...you want the juice? here we go.  and i'm going to try to strike a nice, pretty balance between blogging and not-blogging.  somewhere in the middle.  Tall Blogging.  As opposed to Grande Blogging.  (you know, like starbucks coffee sizes.  Tall means small or whatever...)

okay...the juice:

Miss C can crawl.  AND, two weeks ago tomorrow, she started pulling herself up to a standing position.  We don't have any standing alone, but her m.o. is to do things and do them fast! (she didn't sit up until 6/7 mos. and now she's standing at 10.  And thanks be to God, she learned to sit down, too.  So we dont' have to race into her room at night to sit her down.  The other too would stand up and not know how to sit down in the middle of the night.  The poor kids would be stuck standing and screaming heads off!))

She talks, too.  I think she knows what she's saying sometimes.  She followed me around the other day saying Mamamamamamamamamamamamama.  And then she crawled up my legs and chewed on my knees. (i think she's teething).  The other day, she climbed up and stood behind me and, you know how you can put your mouth over fabric and blow on it and it makes it warm and steamy?  like, how you warm your hands up in winter time?  Well, she did that to the back of my legs.  It was reeeeaaaally tickly and felt really weird.

She likes to sit on the other children when their playing.  Not next to them.  ON them.  or ON the toys they're playing with.

She has fire in her eyes.

OH, and I got distracted on my point about talking.  She mimics stuff really well.  For example, you know the clicking sound computers make when you click a link?  She hears it and starts clicking (she started that months ago.).  If I shush her in the middle of the night, she makes this shushing sound that sounds like the Tazmainian Devil.  Anyway, she mimics, and she's been saying bye-bye, mama, dada, up, uh oh.

Matt got a deer!  A doe.  Two weeks ago tomorrow (i remember this because it's the same day C stood up.  I sent him a text picture to show him.)  We now have, hmm....75 lbs. of meat in the freezer.  pressure's off (we were running out), and now matt can stop feeling so antsy and urgent about getting one.  I love eating venison.  It took a while to get used to it, but now that we do; i wouldn't go back.  I love knowing that it's pure and fresh and that it comes from real-live nature and not some pack-em-into-tight-quarters animal factory. 

So.  Let's talk about something gross, want to?  Last week was stressful. (not these past 4 days, but the actual M-S of last week).  Matt was gone Monday-Thursday.  He hunted Friday-Saturday.  I made 2 cakes Friday night and attended 3 parties on Saturday (thank you, God, for my mom and her help!).  The cakes went to 2 of the events we were attending.  I left the house at noon on Saturday and didn't get home until 9:00ish.  The kids were absolute GEMS.  I might have had a minor melt down on Sunday, but I'm good now. :)  That's not my point.  My point is gross, remember?  EVERY SINGLE TIME since college that I have been REALLY BUSY/FRANTIC/STRESSED (these parties and cakes weren't stressful, it was the organization and preparation and combination of cakes/parties/children/no husband for a week that was the stress).  Anyway...ever since...stressful times...I get the BIGGEST, most PAINFUL pimple right smack dab between the eyes.  HUGE.  RED.  PAINFUL.  It's really, really awful.  Why can't it be somewhere else?  I told matt, "Let it be a sign unto you.  If you see these things (this time it's 2!) pop up, what they're saying is,'GIVE THE WOMAN A BACK RUB before she completely FLIPS!'" 

I really hope they make their exit before Thanksgiving. 

We went on a date last night, and did some christmas shopping.  it was glorious.  more on that next week, maybe.

Well, I think you're all caught up now.   This should hold you through the weekend, right? :)

happy, happy, happy FRIDAY!

...welp,  it took all of 45 minutes to make my laundry soap.  i was tickled to my toes to have done it.  and I couldn't wait to try my first load.  i had to wait all night because that's what the directions said to do.  here's what i used:

4  Cups - hot tap water
1  Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

Found it at the duggar's website.

Overall, I'm sad.  Because the first load was matt's white t-shirts and my white tank tops.  And, they smelled 85% clean, but still had some lingering stinkies in that armpits (ew. gross.). 

I tried adding essential oils (i sniffed a whole bunch of stuff at the health food store and almost passed out! boy, some of that stuff is disgusting.  I was looking for one called Tide Laundry Detergent, but I couldn't find it.) to add a little scent.  Did a few load of kids' clothes, and they were perfectly fine (though i didn't smell the armpits on E2's clothes.  he's pretty stinky...so i imagine his might not have come clean).  Towels were perfectly fine.

Last night, I washed a load of pee-soiled sheets and jammies (leaky diapers!).  I just opened the washer to switch them to the dryer and was overwhelmed by the smell of.....soiled sheets and jammies.  so, i'm currently rewashing them with a fabulous-smelling sample size of Gain detergent.

and I have 4.75 gallons of liquid laundry soap left.  ugh.

I don't understand what i'm missing...I must have done something wrong because i've seen so many people raving about this recipe.  AND, I don't see how the duggars can really keep the stink out of the clothes of at least a dozen teenagers.  

I'm going to up the concentration and see what happens.  After that, I might try the powder version.  I have the supplies left, so it can't hurt! 

That's my liquid laundry soap testimonial.

I can smell the Gain all the way over here at the computer.  Mmmmmmmmm.

Happy Wednesday!