Farewell, September...

It has truly been lovely. You have brought us so many wonderful things and allowed the perfect transition into fall. Your thirty day atmosphere of change has allowed for us...

• a return to more schedule and structure to allow for learning and productivity
• a slow gravitation indoors
• an abundance of new colors decorating our world
• warm days in which to play and explore
• cool nights to rest our body & souls
• bountiful harvests of fruit to grace our table
• opportunities to share meals, laughs, and experiences with family & friends

As always, your stay has passed all too quickly. But we thank you for beautifully paving the way for another cherished month.

Down with the Sickness...

Rayne has off of school all week this week. You see, we live in a pretty small town {technically the only "town" in Pennsylvania}. All of our local schools close for the week that "The Fair" comes to town. {I know, it's a little crazy...} So, I was planning all sorts of fun, fall welcoming activities for all of us to do this week. But after a super fun weekend with my brother and his family in town, my little Maya has her very first case of the sickies! It's very heartbreaking hearing her little raspy cough and her stuffy nose, not to mention the big tears coming out of her eyes. So, needless to say, our first day-o-fall-fun was spent inside doing everything we could to help make our Maya more comfortable.

The day did inspire my first ever Bench Monday photo. {see above} If you haven't yet heard of the phenomenon that is Bench Monday, it's a photo group on Flickr where every Monday you're to submit a photo of you/your friends/your family on a bench or some other improvisation. Let me just tell you that I have seen some massive creativity {and a whole lot of fun} coming out of this group. Like this, and this, and this, oh and this I just had to join in. You should, for sure, go check it out. And join in, too!!!

So, other than the Bench Monday thing, and the rocking Maya thing, and the loving that Rayne & Layla are best friends and play so well together thing, it wasn't a real productive day. But that's okay. I actually got some time to gather some ideas today for future endeavors...always exciting!

But really. Bench Monday. Go check it out!!!!

Opening Up...

I'd like to think of myself as a fairly confident person; a person who boldly pursues her dreams, not accepting defeat or impossibility. My goodness, I've pretty much gone after what I've wanted my whole life. But lately I've been feeling my self-imposed limits. I've been feeling the smallness of my living. Sure, I have dreamed and I have pursued, and I have achieved...which is great and I could not be happier or feel more blessed. However, in recent weeks I've had a voice inside of me saying "yes, yes this is great, but it's all been so, well, little." I've been dreaming small dreams, taking small steps, achieving small successes.

I can say, without doubt that dreaming little almost always leads to success and that it's the big dreams that are most risky. I can see that I've been a safe dreamer. I've never been a big dreamer and I can now say with certainty that it's been more about a lack of confidence than anything else. But now I'd like to start dreaming a little bigger...okay, maybe I think I'd like to start thinking about maximum potential type things here. But how do you do that when the highly trained portion of your mind shuts down your thought processes before they even become fully formed?

So, I've really been trying to push myself a little in the way of opening up. I'm trying to grow into different parts of myself in an attempt to start feeling more comfortable there. I feel as if my skin has grown and I need to grow into it's more expansive form and shape.

It's hard, and uncomfortable, and some days I want to stay small. But, honestly, right now I'm welcoming this period of growth. I'm excited for what's coming. I need to keep silencing negative self talk, being brave enough to be seen, and being confident enough to open up. I want this. I'm ready.

Bring. It. On. World.

Important Matters of Business...

You know how I like to be all play and no work, but I have some important business related things to share with you. First off, Madeline Bea Soap Co. will be hosting a very special fundraiser this October for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The LLS funds lifesaving research that has contributed to major advances in the treatment of blood cancers and treatments for other types of cancer, such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. They also provide education and patient services. A portion of all our sales during the month of October will be donated directly to LLS. This would be a great time to do some early holiday shopping or to stock up on some of your favorite Madeline Bea products.

In addition, I will be joining my friend Darby {a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor} in the Light The Night Walk benefiting LLS on October the 8th. For anyone willing to donate to support me in the walk, I'm offering the chance to win a $50 Madeline Bea Soap Co. gift certificate. Donations can be made directly through my personal fundraising page. When you donate, you will receive an automatic confirmation via email which you can use for tax purposes.

Coffee Mocha Soap

On another note, we are now serving up some super yummy Coffee Mocha Soap in the shop. And next week, look for some new products as well as the return of a favorite hand salve from last fall!

Have a beautiful fall weekend!!!!!

Heart Full of Love...

I am here to give testament that the hardest rains bring the most beautiful of rainbows. This week has been sunshine after last weeks rain. All of it brought experience, growth, and beauty and this week we seem to be enjoying the harvest of our efforts.

While Rayne is at school in the mornings and Maya has been taking some consistently healthy naps {cross your fingers}, Layla and I have gotten little daily pockets of time to be together just the two of us. Some days we read, some days we play, and some days we just color. But since we had decided together with Layla that this year wasn't quite the right time to begin preschool, most days we try to do some type of learning activity together. She is enjoying the challenge, the obvious improvement in her scissor skills, and the attention from her mama. I am very much enjoying being a part of her learning and her growth and I'm loving our one-on-one time together. It's been keeping our connection and our mutual understandings strong.

My Maya, my sweet, sweet Maya, has said her first word: "mama"! It's very sweet, very endearing, and very exciting for all of us here in this house. {Dad is a little miffed that he wasn't the object of her phonetic efforts...but happy just the same} She is very proud of herself and her new ability to call to me in a way I most certainly cannot resist. I do have this profession on video for all those who are currently thinking that no 6 1/2 month old could be speaking already {and for those who just want to see her in all her cute glory} and as soon as I get it uploaded I will post it.

And my Rayne, my strong, capable, and amazing Rayne, is doing so very well in Kindergarten. She loves her teachers, loves the many friends she's already made, loves the bus, the books, the activities. She's so excited to read and she's getting closer every day. I miss her very much every moment that she's there, but I'm so happy for her and so proud of all that she is!

As far as being a mama goes, I just don't know if the blessing cup gets any fuller!

I hope that you all are having a great week as well!

You Shone, Baby...

This past week, our little Miss Layla had her first ever ballet class.

She has been waiting so patiently for two years while she watched her big sister dress in beautiful leotards, wear pretty pink ballet shoes, and dance to all her favorite songs. And although we knew she really wanted to take dance, we were a little worried how our little Miss Layla would take to the actual class structure.

She was a shining star! It was clear that all this time she's been watching, the

dancer within her was just bursting to come out!

We are so proud of you Layla!

DIY: Baby Food...

Maya has turned six months! {about two weeks ago but seeing as how she is almost constantly in my arms, I never got to give her a proper post...} Anyway, I kind-of wanted to do a little post on making your own baby food and Maya so kindly suggested that I share her belated "Happy 6 Months" post with a topic that she is so very fond of: homemade baby food!

{I must mention before going any further that I am most certainly not the type to put headbands on mostly bald babies. However, Layla adorned Maya with this one-because she decorates everyone and everything in her path-and I must admit it was too cute to take off.

Ah-hem...I mean I got right around to removing it after breakfast.}

Okay, so anyway, I started making baby food rather than purchasing the canned variety when Layla was a wee babe. I think I mostly did it for cost saving purposes, but I liked the idea of knowing precisely what was going into the food that I was feeding her. At the time, I would simply cook the fruit or vegetables on the stove and then puree it in the blender. I have to say that if your thinking of making your own baby food and you currently own a blender or food processor, making your own is rather easy. You have total control over the ingredients and the options are endless as to what varieties to serve.

With Maya, I was absolutely certain that I'd be making all her entrees right in my own kitchen. We were very fortunate to be gifted with a Baeba Baby Cook. This little device has made making Maya's meals all too easy and I highly recommend it to anyone who is wanting to try, thinking about, or currently making baby food at home.

The contents of baby's meal are cooked in the device, water is drained off and then added back in as needed when pureeing {right in the device} and voila! Clean-up is rather simple because all food activity is limited to the the device. There's a video on the website which pretty much sums up how to use the Baby Cook and allow me to reassure you that it really is as easy as it looks.

Now, as I mentioned, making baby food without the use of the Baby Cook is quite easy as well. However, there is more clean-up involved and I usually had a hard time getting my blender to cooperate in getting the puree to the exact consistency that I was looking for. Also, I usually tended to make way more at a time {because of all the clean-up} and therefore had to pour the extra into ice cube trays, freeze, re-package into plastic baggies, yada, yada, yada. The Baby Cook allows me to cook in smaller portions and not have to deal with all the freezing and so forth.

Right now, we're pretty much just making a variety of vegetables but once Maya gets a little bigger, I'll be excited to try some of the recipes in this cookbook. While certainly not necessary to making any kind of baby food, it's a really great guide and provides lots of great, and unique ideas for more complex baby foods.

So, there it is! My little plug for making your own baby food and my new best friend: the Baby Cook. I'd like to mention that {while it would be super nice} neither Baeba nor Williams-Sonoma is giving me one red cent to write this. I'm just one mama trying to help out another!

AND...Happy 6 Months, Maya! You are so stinkin' cute it's un-real!

Aaah...Motherhood {and the post I didn't write}...

The other day was one of those days where every time I tried to accomplish anything {I mean ANYTHING...going to the bathroom included} I was met with an insane amount of resistance. One of those days where I spent two thirds of the day yelling at the kids and one third of the day feeling guilty about being the WORLD'S WORST MOTHER. The kind of day where I just want to go to bed and rush along the fresh start of a new day. I'd like to tell you that I gracefully acknowledged my situation, took some deep breaths, gave myself a time out, and finished out the day in a mature fashion. However, I did none {as in not one} of those things.

The first thing I did was tell the kids that I had quit. That all further issues that day would have to be directed towards their father who would be home in an hour. Then I began my "I give up on having any sort of ease in my life, I will do everything myself, I will labor on endlessly" pity party and went to start what {I determined} needed to be a great home cooked feast that would have made June Cleaver proud. I then proceeded to curse out my {still absent and mostly innocent} husband for leaving all but the correct amount of rice needed for said dinner in the box and therefore thwarting my every attempt to be a good mother. All this was accomplished with a teething baby in my arms who {bless her heart} thought her crazy mama was rather hilarious.

I'd like to tell you that after eating a perfectly fine {albeit not grand} dinner and handing off the baby that I simmered down, re-gained my composure, read the girls a book, and enjoyed a quiet evening with my husband. But I did none {as in not one} of those things. I fleeted to my workspace to do chip away at the mound of to-dos for Saturday's craft show. I worked angerly and poorly and got almost nothing accomplished as a result. So...I took to my blog. Thinking to myself that this was the sort of messiness that needed to come out; that people needed to see. I wrote about the frustrating {near impossibility} of having three kids, a business, and any sort of life of my own. I typed away, telling myself that women all over would read my post and feel less alone in those really hard, really dark moments.

But the more I re-read the post I was writing, the more I just sounded angry, resentful, and ungrateful for all the blessings in my life. Then there was this tiny, yet very mighty, voice inside of me that said "yes, all this is true...but I still choose THIS!" I realized that, bad day or not, I would not change one thing about my life. Not one.

And so I spent my last few free moments of the evening getting a shower. I kissed my little ones and Maya and I went to bed...to rush along the fresh start of a new day.

Slather Up...

Rosemary Peppermint Foot Balm 4 oz.

The weather is turning cooler and my skin is already showing signs of dryness...I know that means it's time to break out the moisturizers to treat and protect for the coming months. That way, once summer returns, my skin healthy and radiant and ready to be shown off. {okay, not really because I've had three kids and it totally changes all things about a body...but I try at least!}

Granny Smith Hand & Body Salve 4 oz.

These great new salves are now available in the soap shop!

The Makings of a Good Weekend...

• antique shopping
• grandparent visiting
• soap making
• nap taking
• dirty house...forgetting
• bike riding
• acorn gathering
• acorn painting
• full moon gazing
• late morning sleeping
• dinner grilling
• much picture taking
• much laughing
• much loving

Hope yours was lovely as well!

This Girl...

...is really missing her sister/best friend these days. It's hard to be left behind while the other half of who you've been for the three whole years of your life is out making new friends, riding buses, & learning all kinds of things.

But this girl is so unique. She finds magic everywhere. She is magic! Do not let her tough exterior fool you. For inside this girl you'll find deep and true love, fierce loyalty, an inquisitive mind, and a sensitive soul. But, as with all true treasures, to see the real soul of this girl you must take the time, do some exploring, and invest a little of yourself.

This mama is one happy treasure hunter these days! And this girl, well...I think that she's finding her own treasures within herself,too!

Hello September...

...it's so nice to see you again!

I cannot believe that I was actually ready for September to begin. All August long, I felt for sure that I would be hanging onto summer with absolute assiduousness. Life can surprise you...along with your own strength and character, sometimes.

September has also meant the re-opening of the soap shop!!!! To be truthful, this nice long month that I "took off" was the first time in many years that I have taken a vacation and did not think about work much at all. Yes, I made soap and did a few various other work-related tasks...but anyone who owns their own business knows that the fun parts constitute only a fraction of the work.

Anyway, I thought that I would have trouble getting back into the work swing. But if felt good to open up the shutters and dust the cobwebs off the old shop this morning. I'm getting excited about the upcoming season and impending events. Also, I've missed my customers: missed our interactions, missed our tiny conversations, missed our shared visions for perfect gifts, etc.

So, what have we learned from our month of August {that was truly all about growth and learning for me}? We learned that change can be good...when the timing is right. We learned that letting go is hard, but essential for growth. We learned that taking time off is essential and refreshing. We learned that being gentle with ourselves is one of the most valuable tools in helping us be our best, most authentic selves. And we learned that, while being lazy is super fun, getting back to work feels good too! There is a time and a season for everything.

Please stop by the shop, say hello, and join me in welcoming September!