I am sooooo excited!!!

Do you want to know why I am so excited? That picture above shows why I am excited. I am started a soap making business and yesterday I applied for my very own name!!!! I cannot wait for the big reveal that is coming up to the name of my business but you will just have to wait until it gets approved. Are you excited? I know I am excited!!

Short post today but I wanted to let everyone in on my good news. Now I need to go get ready for a meeting at church. Have a blessed day everyone!!

~April

Braden's Hill

 This is a picture of my husband and our grandson at the bottom of what is lovingly called and named Braden's Hill. They remind me so much of what the relationship between my son and my own grandfather was like. I do not know whose idea it was to name the hill but our grandson thinks it is awesome. I love how close they have become. Braden spends every other weekend with us and gets to experience the country life.

 Doug always makes time to take him for rides on the tractor and other fun stuff for him. He has even ridden on a camel with him!! Mimi was a chicken!

This year we were blessed that Braden was with us on Mother's Day morning and he got to help Doug make my annual Mother's Day breakfast which was really nice because this was the first year that neither of my children live at home and they were unable to be here to help make it. Having our grandson here helped make it just as special.

I hope you enjoyed hearing a little about a couple of my favorite guys. Pretty soon our youngest grandson will be old enough to spend the weekends and we will be making lots of special memories with him also. You just dont understand how much you can love a child that you did not give birth to until you are a grandparent. There is something special about the love you have for your child's child. It is a wonderful and amazing blessing from God.

Have a blessed day!!

~April

I am back!!!

      You will be happy to know (or at least I hope it will make you happy) that I am back!! Hopefully with a new and improved more interesting to read blog. *insert lots of cheering here*
      This sure has been the summer of surgeries for me. In April I had to have a hysterectomy and if that wasn't bad enough somehow I tore my bicep and had to get shoulder surgery in June. While they were in there they decided to remove some bursitis and bone spurs. I am finally healing up nicely and I am feeling back to my old self. My sister decided not to let me have all of the attention so she decided to have a couple places in her spine fused and her gall bladder removed. She always did hate when I got all of the attention. *snickers* Just kidding Val I pray that you are feeling lots better and we can attend vendor shows together again.

Speaking of vendor shows. Last weekend I tried to sell some of my crocheted items at a vendor table during the Italian festival in Weirton. Sadly my sister was not able to attend with me and I did not sell anything but the experience was nice. I have thought of a few things I need to do that might help me sell more. I will update you all on them after I see how well they work out.
                             

  I of course have some updates on the farm! The goats have been supplying us with plenty of milk. The picture on the left is milk I am freezing so that I can make some more goat milk soap (right). The picture below is of yogurt that I made from some of our fresh goat milk. It is delicous with berries and honey. I also sell my goat milk soap for $5 per bar. It is fantastic. We love using it.

      Zucchini season seems to be about over here on the farm but we did get plenty. We sold some and I made zucchini relish. I love zucchini relish. My husband on the other hand is not to crazy about it but he does love fried zucchini so I have been making that for him. This is the first year that I felt we had the amount of zucchini under control and was not to overrun with it. At least not too bad.

Last for today but definitely not least, our bees did not do as well as we had hoped they would. We lost a hive over the winter and we still have a weak hive but we did catch a swarm this summer so we are back up to three hives. We are praying that the weak hive makes a queen and the hive gets strong enough to make it through the winter. Here is a little bit of the honey we got this year.

      Because I was laid up so much from surgeries my husband had to do the beekeeping over this summer. Here is a picture of his awesomeness that I took since I could not be up at the hives. He is a great guy and I feel so blessed that he is mine.

I have plenty more to update you on from my time away but I will save that for another post. Have a blessed day everyone!!