Baby’s got skills.

He’s not so sure he’s impressed with the upright world quite yet, but Pierce joined the land of all things vertical this week.

Go, Baby Boy.

Next up: The land of wearing pants during waking hours. It’s overrated.

Goat naming.

The goats have names. Hezekiah, Lamentations, and Pearl join Snow, Coffee, Cream, and Munch in our barn of friendly goats. Those babies are the highlight of the day for the kids. Goat chores just got longer. Pretty sure it’s not just work that’s being done up there.

I picked the names Hezekiah and Pearl. I’m not sure where Pearl came from but Hezekiah is mostly just to hear Ruby try to say it. It’s stinking funny. She even giggles at herself.

Expert goat chaser, at your service.

The girls go to co-op early for dance practice. So as we’re on the porch waving good-bye as they drive away in a friend’s car, Ruby announces, “The goats are out.”

Really? Now? When the girls are gone and I have to take all four kids ages four and under up the hill to chase some stinky goats? After my shower, when I’m in good clothes? Of course. When else?

Sterling held Pierce (and then Charlotte knocked him over, so he’s laying flat on his back, hollering for help because Pierce was on top of him and he couldn’t get up. That was a sight.) and I started the foolish process of catching a goat that doesn’t want to be caught. One’s tame as can be, caught and back in his pen. The fence is fixed, and then, doing what I’ve found to be the best way, (because goats really like to get out, so this is a common occurrence, unfortunately) I chased the doe toward the big hay bale. In one giant leap, she’s on the bale, cornered, and all I have to do is grab her, pull her down, and put her away.

I’m starting to get good at this. That’s sad.

Rescue Sterling for his cloud gazing position on the lawn, tear Charlotte away from the new baby goat she’s determined to love on, and we’re back to normal. You know, our normal. I have a feeling we’re anything but everyone else’s normal.

FYI: The bed under the bed worked beautifully, and my handmade pull-ups are fully leak proof. Life just got a whole lot easier and my house gained 12 square feet.

Organization.

As a kid, I’d have said I was organized. My bedroom was always clean, just as my mother. I was good at keeping things picked up.

My children are good at putting things down. While some of them have neat-ish tendencies, give the lot of them ten minutes and a whole lot of mess can occur. No matter how hard I try, I do not have enough hours in the day to keep the house as neat as I’d like. School takes priority, and at the end of the day, while school is always done, the house doesn’t always speak well of our other accomplishments.

I’m on a cleaning binge. I’ve done the once, twice, three, and four times over, trying to find things we don’t need. Eight people in 1200 square feet fill it quite full, but there has to be a better way. Scrounging for blogs of people who have done this and thrived instead of succumbing to the clutter, I’ve found some great ideas. Today, after cleaning out my laundry room, we reorganized the kids room. For a while there, Sterling and Ruby were getting worried because neither of them had a bed left in the bedroom, but now…

Liberty’s in the top bunk. Charlotte’s in the crib. Eden’s in the bottom bunk. An extra mattress for Sterling and Ruby slides under the bunk bed during the day, out at night, and the room just grew by leaps and bounds. I lost two beds to store things under, so please don’t look in the closet just yet, but we’ve gone from a crib, two toddler beds, a set of bunk beds, and five dressers in a 12’x12’ space – and yes, it can be done, but it becomes strictly sleeping space at that point – to now, one set of bunk beds and the crib (and still five dressers) and a whole lot of floor space. It’s a beautiful thing.

Oh, and the changing table is in the laundry room. Formerly by the front door, I’m sure it greeted more than one unannounced visitor with eau de Charlotte. No more. I’m making progress!

What we found in the barn this morning:

One baby girl

and twin baby boys

makes three new baby goats born in our barn this morning – from two different does.

So, so fun! So far, Eden named one of the baby boys Lamentations. Charlotte just thinks they are a real live snuggle blanket.

This one’s for you, Dad.

After a discussion with my dad during which I realized I’ve done roughly 300 extra loads of laundry this year. About a year ago my two middle children quit wearing diapers – and I started doing laundry. Now, with plans to rearrange furniture… details to come… Dad suggested I make pull-ups of sorts. I haven’t bought them for various reasons, so I’ve just washed sheets almost every day for at least one dear child.

My latest project of the day:

Yes, I just posted photos of underwear on my blog. But tomorrow, when sheets are dry even if children are not, it will all have been worth it.

For the record, everything involved I had. Extra PUL for waterproofing, flannel scraps for the lining and soaker layer, and Blaine’s old t-shirts for extra absorbency. I didn’t use a pattern, and the first is rougher than the second. If they work well though, I’ll make a couple more. Talk about frugality!

Time’s up. Time in. Time out. Or something.

Our new chore cards are working wonderfully. The house is maintaining better than ever before. A good half hours’ warning is politely requested before dropping by… but we’re making progress. Overheard this morning:

“That’s your 10-minute speed clean, Ruby.”

“Well, Sterling, I call it my time-out.”

Ruby really likes the speed clean. Can’t you tell?