Tuesday, April 17, 2012

It's been a really busy month what with Easter and Confirmations at the church.  I've been frantically trying to get inventory ready for the Maple Syrup Festival and I think I just may have it under control.  I am also trying to get the 700 soaps done for the race bags.  I have 519 made and have been packaging them at odd moments.  And of course there were the farm taxes - which I hate, but we actually got them filed without having to get an extension.

Yesterday I was looking forward to a session of soapmaking and after mixing the lyewater, I went to get the bucket batch to separate out some soap for color.  Grrrrrr, I was out of pre-measured batches.  So I didn't make soap last night.  But I did make it tonight!!  I made Geranio Rosa.  This fragrance oil has seized on me the last couple of times I've made it.  I have switched over to making soap with the lye solution and the oils at room temperature and the soap doesn't seem to set up so quickly.  That has made things a lot easier.  This batch turned out beautiful so far.  I did an "in the pot swirl."  I can't wait to cut it tomorrow so I can see how the swirls turned out. 

Word of the day:
Tuesday of the Second week of Easter
Saint(s) of the day : St Anicetus, Pope and Martyr (+ 173)
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3:7b-15.

 Do not be amazed that I told you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered and said to him, "How can this happen?" Jesus answered and said to him, "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Ahhhh, I love Thursdays. Most Thursdays I don't have to be anywhere. I am way behind on laundry so I will be finishing that up. I also need to get started on the farm taxes. Not fun, but definitely better than when Harold and I were first married and had no computer spreadsheets to work with. Back then we had an adding machine and a farm record book in which to figure expenses. It had columns and columns on each page. The columns had to gibe vertically and horizontally. I dreaded tax time. At the end of January I knew there would come a morning when Harold would ceremoniously dump boxes of receipts on the kitchen table and announce that it was time to get the taxes ready. He would sort the receipts into piles corresponding to the columns in the book. When that was done it was my job to enter them in the book. Then the columns had to be added . . . and reconciled . . . and added again. Complete and total nightmare. We finally ended up just entering any total that came up twice.

These days when couples get married in the church they meet with the priest several times. There are high falootin' Meyer's Briggs tests, compatibility tests, psychological tests - all designed to see if this couple can make it in a world where 50% of marriages end in divorce - that is if people even bother to get married any more. Phoooey! I say stick that couple in a room with a zillion farm receipts, an adding machine, and a farm record book. Let them figure out farm taxes. Then, if they survive that, have them wallpaper a room together. If they emerge without injury or death they are good to go.
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I finally listed the cold process soap I made a few weeks ago. Things are slow on the website. They alway are this time of year. This soap is scented with Honeysuckle which a lot of people like. I'm not much for the floral scents but people are asking for them so . . .



My favs are the bakery scents. I made some Country Cinnamon Bun candles the other day and those smell great!
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I'm headed over to the other blog. Have a great day.

Word of the day:
Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel
Mk 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

Thoughts from the cornfield:
Throughout the Gospels there are warnings from Jesus not to tell anyone of his miracles. And those warnings are always stern. And they always seem to have the opposite effect. I often wonder if that was the point.


God bless our troops!