The Lye-f Of A Soap Maker!!

Lye-f.....Get it....Life??!!!  I am wayyyy too funny!!!

The newest adventure we are taking on here at Bumpkin Farm is the art of soap making!!

Okay, so I decide that making goat milk soap is the way to go.  Of course the next step is learning how!  How better to learn than Google it??!!

So I find pictures of beautiful bars of soap, recipes galore but one thing they all have is a warning about using Lye.  No biggie...I took chemistry...I know how to handle chemicals.

Well, let me tell you, Lye is SCARY!!!  The first time we made soap I thought that I would probably end up burning all of my appendages off!!

I followed the directions and suited up in long sleeves, gloves and eye protections, then lo and behold I opened the Lye container and spilled the crystals on my bare foot! 

Of course this was followed by my jumping around the kitchen screaming to Farmer Willie that the end was coming and my foot was on fire.  I was sure that toes were falling off!

He calmed me down a bit and I realized that I really felt nothing, my feet, toes and all, were fine.  Ended up my only injury was a sore throat from screaming so much!  :)

Sure, it was a bit dumb to forget to wear shoes, but I learned my lesson!!

Then came the fumes!  When you mix the Lye with the milk it and oil it begins to put off strong fumes.  I became convinced that I had breathed in too much and my lungs were shriveling up into raisins. 

I might have overreacted a bit there too!!

You will be glad to know that each time I have made a batch of soap, I have become more comfortable with using Lye.  Now I don't take it lightly mind you, but after taking precautions I realize that it will all be okay!

It amazes me how the process works.  How for hundreds of years this process has been used and is still how we make soap today!!  You take a caustic substance, mix it with milk and luxurious oils and a reaction happens where they combine, the caustic substance disappears and wah-lah, you have safe to wipe all over you soap!!

Just another amazing example of processes that God set up in our world!!  Who woulda' thunk it??!!

Thankful Tree

Wow!  I guess we have been a bit busy, or I have been a bit lazy, but I have not posted in a while!!  Sorry about that! :)

So, we are well into November and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

This is my absolute favorite time of the year!!  I love the weather and I love the holiday season that, in our home, begins on November 1st. 

In our family, November is a time that we focus on our blessings and thankfulness and December is a time that we focus on others and how we can bless them.  Boy do we have a lot to be thankful for!

For the past, I don't remember how many, years, we have made a thankful tree. 

Each year we change up what the tree looks like.  Some years we have done something on the wall, some years we have used small Christmas trees, and this year we made a stick tree.  There are probably a thousand ideas on Pinterest so find what works for your family!!

Here is what ours looks like this year:

We gathered some sticks from the backwoods, placed them in a mason jar, tied on some pretty fall ribbons and...BAM!!  Thankful tree!!

 I wanted to fill the jar with acorns, but I have not got around to gathering them yet and at this point I find it highly unlikely that I will do so!!  :)

So every morning as we all sit down to breakfast, someone from the family will name something that they are thankful for.  We even call our daughter who is off to college and she gives us her thankful item as well.

The tags I use are from Target!  I was so excited to find these in their dollar section!!  The are gold and silver trimmed with little rope hangers.  The black front of the tag is chalkboard!!  Then they had a chalk pen in the dollar section so I snatched that up as well!!

I love all of the chalk things that Target has!!

So, after we write down on one tag a day what we are thankful for, we hang it on the tree.  And then we have a visual reminder of the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us.  We also talk about the responsibility that those blessings bring.

We have a wide variety of tags! 

Everywhere from roaring fires in the fireplace!!!  To thankfulness for our family!

The cool thing is that after the first couple of weeks and you get past all of the obvious things, this forces everyone to really pay attention to the day and focus on blessings that sometimes sneak by us!!

There is no right or wrong way to make a family thankful tree!  How can you go wrong when you are giving thanks??!!

Have a blessed Sunday y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!