this blog is going to be taking a LONG break...
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INDIANA ADVENTURE

passionate homemaking giveaway!

Over at Passionate Homemaking (one of my favorite natural living blogs) Lindsay is having a giveaway for SOAP NUTS! We're really into alternative anything and I have always wanted to try these out!!

Hop on over to passionatehomemaking.com to enter her contest and read about this amazing alternative to laundry soap!! :)

our prayers are answered!!!!! :)

Well, I probably had a couple of people (if anyone reads this blog) wondering what in the world had happened to us with the previous post of "please pray for us!". Yesterday we finally got our answer and all is well!!!

When our first goat had her c-section, we had her blood drawn to test and see if she had CAE (CAPRINE ARTHRITIS ENCEPHALITIS - a goat disease they can die from). We took the other goats in later to have them tested as well, and a couple of days later we got a call from the vet... He didn't tell us if they had CAE, but he told us that all of their results had come back positive for BRUCELLOSIS, and a USDA person was coming to our house to give them all another test. Our state is free from this disease (commonly referred to as BANG'S disease) and we certainly didn't want to be the ones that brought it here.

What happens with Bang's disease is that you have to slaughter your entire herd of animals, and the really horrible thing is that it can be transmitted to humans and it is an incurable disease!!!!! We have a lot of money put into our 11 goats, and we are certainly attached to them, we were all heartbroken when we heard the news, and started praying super hard!!!

I really didn't want to end up killing them, and I REALLY didn't want to end up with a incurable disease right before I left on my mission... like I said before... I don't that I've ever prayed harder in my life!! Well, we just got our test results back yesterday, and they were all negative!!!!! I learned a very valuable lesson through this: when we doubt, faith leaves... but when we push doubt out and allow faith to rule our actions... MIRACLES CAN HAPPEN!!!

the life of an (absent minded) chef

today I experimented making cheddar cheese muffins. The recipe sounded divine with ingredients of yogurt, cheese, honey, whole grains... yum... I just had to make them. I thought they turned out pretty good, a little on the blah side, but of course... no recipe is really ever complete. The next batch is going to have more yogurt, a little less honey, more cheese, some fresh chives and a dash or our favorite seasoning SPIKE. I'm excited to try it!

That's the good side in the life of a chef...

but the other is sad indeed.

I had typed up this recipe for my cookbook that is going to be printed soon (i'm praying!), and I was doing a test run and ended up with muffin dough the consistency of cookies... not usual at all!! So I got the original recipe and found out that I had added an extra cup of flour and missed an entire teaspoon of baking powder, and to make a long story short I ended up making a double batch. The first batch turned out nice and golden brown. BUT... this absent minded chef turned off the stove and put the second batch in. 15 minutes later I was thinking they looked a little doughy and realized much to my chagrin that I had turned the oven off! I turned it back on and set the timer for 10 minutes only to come in and realize that I had totally and completely burned them!! SO... they went to the garbage disposal (aka CHICKENS - who LOVED them).

the saddest part is yet to come... the first person to try them was my youngest sister who informed me that they were GROSS. my dad said that they were really blah (with a disgusted face) and another sister (who shall remain nameless) said the following "the apple muffins you made weren't that good, and these are worse".... ohhh, pierced to the soul!

we've got 7-10 days...

...to pray for a miracle!
I can't give you particulars now, but I certainly will once it's all over. The past couple of days I've prayed harder than I think I ever have in the past. And I'm learning so much about what a faulty person I am! Just when I think my faith is super strong, it gets tested... and I learn how weak it is, and how much room I have for improvement.

So, please, if you could... please pray a few prayers in our behalf and pray for a miracle!!!

i've been poisoned

where it all started...
(be sure to read to the end, that's when it gets interesting! ;)

Whew, what a weekend! One of our goats, Padme, went into labor on Friday, but after 24 hours of it, we decided that something wasn't right, and we took her to the vet. After 2-3 intense hours of pulling and pushing and 1 c-section later... we ended up with 2 adorable babies who we've named Luke and Leia. The reason that Padme was having such a hard time is because there was an extremely deformed baby that was stuck in the birth canal, and there was no way that he could have gotten out since he was the size of a medium dog (no wonder Padme was so huge!). He was born dead, and had one eye, a cleft palate, bumps all over his body and no hair on his belly... and... well, I'll spare you the gruesome details. :) Watching the birth was amazing and reminded of my lifelong passion to become a midwife... birth is the most awesome thing ever!!!

well, now on to the explanation of how I got poisoned... it really does tie into the above story, I promise you.

Since Padme had a C-section, we have to bottle feed the babies which has been SO much fun, yet tiring... they choose the most inconvenient times to eat (like 1 in the morning!). SO anyway, Padme's milk isn't fit for human consumption, but we have to feed the babies it and they are perfectly fine to eat it. WELL... someone forgot to label the bottle of Padme's milk in the crazy morning we had with everyone going 3 different directions... AND well, that when this story get's interesting...

I was eating some cookies today, and the only way to eat newman-o's (organic oreos) is dipped in milk of course! So I searched all over the fridge and found a partially filled bottle of milk in the back. I thoroughly enjoyed my cookies and when my younger sister asked where the cow's milk was, I assured her that it was on the top shelf, right where I had left it. About an hour later another sister came in and asked who had used the goat's milk (contaminated, might I remind you). I ran into tell my sister (who was sleeping) that we had better reserve our plots at our local cemetery... because we'd been poisoned!!! My mom hurried and called the vet to see if we were near to death. She was sitting there on the couch, and Mac. and I (partners in crime) were sitting awaiting our fate. She sat there and said "oh dear" and then went into another room to speak in private. Come to find out, the milk was full of tranquilizers from Padme's C-section. Since I lived to tell this tale, you can tell that my drink wasn't fatal... BUT the funny thing is that the tranquilizers still had effect, and my right arm, cheek and tongue went to sleep and I felt like I had just been to the dentist for a root canal (not that I've ever had one though).

It certainly made for a day full of laughs... I'm pretty sure that my family will never let me live this down. Hope that this story made you smile, and maybe even laugh out loud... it still makes me giggle!

i have a bad case of...

...SPEAKING DYSLEXIA!!!

You know when you get your words mixed up and they come out all wrong? Well, that happens to me all the time! Yesterday I was talking to my mom on the phone and I was trying to say that I would get it all done in one fell swoop, but it came out backwards as "ONE SWELL FOOP!" Then today I was looking at my sister's books and she was telling me about her Shakespeare book, and I said that I had a complete works of "SPAKESPEARE" book! The funniest one yet is one time I was trying to tell the above mentioned sister something about tall, dark and handsome people (I REALLY don't remember what in the world we were talking about!), and tall, dark, and handsome came out as "CHARK DAHL". It's rather frustrating to have the aforementioned disease, but at least it makes us laugh!!

BTW, did you know that people who have dyslexia (and have sort of overcome it) are really fast readers? I have a slight case of it and can read books really fast... BUT, my brother (who had a little more severe case) is the fastest reader in the world! He swallows books whole! Alas, the only downfall is that when you're reading out loud (or trying to speak sensibly) it comes out all screwy and backwards!! Have a terrific Tuesday!!! :)