Rodan and Fields

 First of all, let me say I did not go looking for anything else to add to my already full plate. But a couple months back one of my closest friends, Britney Harper, got involved with this business. She is a stay-at-home mom of 6 (with 8 mth old twins) and homeschools. So I knew when she got started it had to be something that was worth it (and for her it was a specific answer to prayer). But I didn't immediately hop on board. One reason being, I am the world's worst sales person. Seriously. The only thing I can do is yard sales where I give something away for 50 cents. Add to that, I just couldn't see where any time would come from to give to any new venture. But.... a week or so ago Ed mentioned to me that he wanted me to find out more about Rodan and Fields and see if it was worth getting involved in. So that led me to believe this is a direction the Lord wanted me to take and I called her to find out more info....and that was the beginning of the end.
   Anyway...so I went to my first R&F meeting Thursday evening (Ed went with me) and we were both very impressed with the reputation of the business as well as the products they offer.  Which is.... a prescription-grade line of skin care from the creators of Proactiv, Drs Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields.  To find out their whole story go here and here.
 Almost everyone I know of, including some of my own family, has skin issues of some kind and could benefit from a trip to the dermatologist, but who can afford it?   As many of you  know, I do try to treat any health issues naturally or with alternative medicine, but sometimes it just doesn't work and you need something more effective. This is a great solution.
  Long story short I am now an independent consultant with Rodan and Fields. You can visit my website here to learn more:   https://jessicablakeman.myrandf.com/    and       https://jessicablakeman.myrandf.biz/
  I'm excited to see where this is going to go. The Lord is already blessing my endeavors more than I would have imagined. If any of you want to know more, please feel free to contact me here or on facebook.

P.S. For the record, I have zero ambition to be the next millionaire(ess) or own a Lexus (hello...where would I put 8 kids ), but I would love to be able to see my husband more than 2  or 3 days in 10.( And by days I mean 24 hour periods not 9-to-5s. =))))And financially everyone can use some extra income...  right?! =)
                            

Updates and a new business venture

 Yes, life continues to be a blur of activity most days. Even when I'm not "getting anything done" I still feel like I dont' know where the time went.
  Wyatt is 7 months now and has started on baby food besides still nursing. I think this kid is going to be the Jolly Green Giant. He eats ALL the time. He is almost crawling....he can scoot everywhere he just doesn't have his "form" down yet. =) He's also practicing being heard above the crowd. Not mad or upset just reallllllyyy loud! He especially loves doing it when we are sitting in church. So my days of sitting through a service are few and far between.
  Asher is about as rascally and bad as an almost 3yr old little boy can be. Problem is, he's just so stinking charming about it. He has been needing lots of intervention lately. Kyla is his innocent-looking partner-in-crime. She begs to do school work but I don't often have an activity ready for her to do so I'll send them to play together. I still not sure if that's a good thing or a a bad thing. It has mixed results.
  Levi is in 1st grade now and learning to read. He loves to do school and would be happy if I had stuff for him to do from morning to night. Isaac is the same way as far as school goes. I've been having to really work on the responsibility side of things though. These two would be happy to leave all chores to the oldest 3. BUT that doesn't work so well around here so I have had to come up with some creative solutions for dealing with that.
  Aaron, Lela, and Alyssa are my biggest helpers. They help with cooking, cleaning and laundry (as do the younger ones, but less so). You would think with all that we would have smooth sailing and things would go like clockwork. Ummm, nah! not really. Cause I still have a hard time keeping it all organized and if Mom's not together...well, you know.
  I would say schooling is my biggest hurdle, but really, as I was sharing with Ed, any one thing on it's own is doable. It's just trying to juggle everything and make it all fit in a small house that makes for hair pulling frustration at times. (And on that note...I did have to cut my hair recently. It was falling out really bad and was just one more thing to try to deal with. Maybe one of these days I can grow it long again, but for now. Easy is best.)

   Add to all of that a new business venture and you probably think I've lost mind. But I prayed long and hard before making any decision.....
  Stay tuned and I'll share more in the next post. =)

Flowers for Mama

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

Laundry Soap Revisited

I posted back in May about making my own laundry soap, but haven't had a chance to write any reviews until now.
  I'm thinking about it today because I am halfway through my batch. I had stored it in two ice cream buckets and it had started to harden before I was completely done with my first bucket. Not really a big deal as it dissolved easily in the water, but not quite as convenient for measuring accurately. So I got the brilliant idea to try to convert the rest of it to liquid. Hmmm. I have hit some snags with that, but long story short, if you want to make it into a liquid you need to follow a different process. I can fix it but it's taking a while.
 Anyway...back to actual review of the soap:
   1. I love the way it smells, so fresh!
   2. It cleans super good (even for my little mud monsters =). No odor and pretty effective at stain removal.
  3. It is super cost effective. To be honest, the usage is a little off as I have had some liquid detergent that I already had on hand and wanted to finish up. So it has not been used exclusively...BUT, from what I can tell, using it exclusively, an entire batch should last me about 9 months. That's for a family of 10.

 So, to sum it all up. Yes, I would totally do this again. I'm hoping to order more ingredients in about a week or so and try storing it in glass jars this time. And I'll be using all the same ingredients I did last time. I really do love how this stuff smells and cleans! (You can see my original post here including the recipe.)

13 Things I Didn't Know 13 Years Ago

1. that I would learn to love seafood and sushi

2. that we would move 7 times and 2 states

3. that we would have gone through 10 pregnancies, 5 miscarriages, and 8 live births together

4. that parenting would be so hard, and yet so rewarding

5. that I would never get used to having you gone

6. that you could make everything better just by being there

7. that our children would be completely amazing

8. that I would learn the ins and outs of raising chickens (and it wouldn't be as easy as I thought)

9. that the things I thought I would do, I wouldn't... and the things I thought I would never do, I would (like eating raw oysters and making deer sausage)

10. that every day would be an adventure

11. that we would be entrepreneurs

12. that I would learn to handle a gun, and

13. that I could possibly love you more than I did then. But I do!


  Happy Anniversary, Baby! It's been a wonderful 13 years and I look forward to a lifetime of more!