With my husband’s job coming to an end soon, we decided to declutter some more and I had a big book sale yesterday at my home. As a certified book-addict, and a homeschooler for more than a decade, I certainly had a lot of books that I could get rid of. Of course, parting with them wasn’t easy. The day before the sale I spent a lot of time reminiscing about my homeschool journey. Most of the books, games and other resources were used when my boys were much younger. Now I find myself with only 4 (or 3 if my dear son has his way) years left on this journey! I’m so thrilled to see my boys grow into responsible young men of great character, yet sad thinking that something that is such as huge part of my life – my identity – will be coming to an end before I know it.
The sale was a huge success – I was blessed to have many friends (old and new) stop by to shop and to lend their encouragement during this season of our lives. Most of my shoppers brought their children with them, and it was fun to see them run to the patio door to watch the chickens 
Getting ready for the sale took most of my time and energy this week, so today I slowed down a bit. I’m still catching up on paper work and emails. Even though there is a lot of work to do at my desk, I longed to spend sometime at my loom, and in my garden. So, scattered throughout the day I managed to do some weaving, and tonight I transplanted some herbs.
I also finished a purse/bag I had started a couple weeks ago. After making one purse for my niece, I decided I liked the texture of the yarn so much, I just had to make a couple for me too
I was hoping to make a batch of soap today, but I couldn’t fit it in to my schedule. We’re getting ready to go out of town for the long weekend, so my “Citrus Fresh” soap will have to wait until next week. Some of my husband’s co-workers have asked to see my soap and other items I make, so he’s taking a basket to the office tomorrow. One of my readers was asking about the kind of soap mold I use. I like using a wood loaf mold for my cold-process soap. Covering the soap helps to reduce the amount of soda ash that sometimes forms on the top of the loaf during drying/curing. I either use a piece of wood, cardboard, or (when I first started) plastic wrap.
It is such a joy to make soap for my family! My oldest son has requested that I always keep Tea Tree soap on hand – it is the only thing that helps his acne. I’m happy that he’s not using harsh chemicals to deal with a skin condition. After reading Rhonda Jean’s post answering questions about her soapmaking, I tried using my bar soap to do dishes today. I still like liquid better, but I’m going to try to get used to using the bars until I can make my own liquid dish soap.
My busy-ness this week, has shown me more areas where I need to simplify, and driven home the fact that “life” still must go on, even if I’m ready to slow down. As we are purposeful, and choose to live more deliberately, we can slowly change the direction and “speed” of our lifestyle – but it all takes time. Although it was hard to part with those elementary books yesterday, I have wonderful memories of our homeschool years, and now I have more shelf space for yarns, jars, fabric, etc. My home will change as our family dynamics change with the boys growing up and moving on to work/college. I’m thankful to be learning new skills, discovering a part of myself that I really didn’t know existed. I’ve never thought of myself as especially creative, but I find the more things I attempt to create, the more creative I become. I’ll never be a Martha Stewart, but that’s okay, I’m happy being me….and that’s a good thing
Cindy – oh your book sale sounds like it went great. I understand the sadness and the happiness of it all wrapped up in one. But your are right, now there is room for more fun things too (yarn, jars, fabric) for it it would be beads, fabric and now MORE SOAP stuff. Thank you so much for posting a photo of your mold. It looks even easier to make than the one I was going to make. The second soap I made had Tea Tree EO in it, the next batch I ran out so it was a bit light on the Tea Tree oil. I really liked that one. would you think of posting your recipe? As an adult I still get some acne, but my soap doesn’t seem to be helping that, would like to see how your recipe differs from the one I made. I was excited to see Rhonda Jean’s post on soap again. She was the one that inspired me (and remove the fear) to make soap. I jumped right in. Thank you again – Oh, do you line the wood mold with something, or just pour straight into it? Have a great long weekend. Emily
I line my mold with freezer paper – shiny side touching the soap. I will post one of my recipes when I get home – I also have a helpful formula to figure how many ounces of soap will fill a container/mold.
I was just going to ask if you’d post your Tea Tree oil soap recipe. Emily beat me to it. I look forward to it. I think my son and I could benefit from it.