The Snowball

I consider myself pretty financially savvy.  I keep a family budget.  I teach my children about finances.  I am the bookkeeper for Goat Milk Stuff and work with our accountant on how to best minimize our tax burden.  I avoid debt and (with the exception of a construction loan for GMS) live debt-free.  I have […]

Chutzpah

The other day, Indigo was going through our customer emails, and she said to me, “Mom, how do you say c-h-u-t-z-p-a-h and what does it mean?”  I immediately started laughing because I knew exactly what chutzpah meant.  I went to high school and lived in an area that was heavily Jewish.  I had lots of […]

Teachable Moment

By now, you all know how much I stress the importance of learning – not necessarily the traditional education model – but real learning.  Real learning can happen in a classroom setting, but it can also happen in many less traditional environments such as the car, the grocery store, and the dinner table.  It can […]

Confession Time

Confession time – for about a year now, I’ve been dissatisfied with my life. It’s very hard for me to put that in print and admit it to the world. It makes me feel very ungrateful to God. God has blessed me with everything I’ve ever wanted – an incredible husband who loves me, eight […]

Sometimes a Mom’s Gotta Do What a Mom’s Gotta Do

Saturdays are our busiest day on the farm for a variety of reasons. It’s the busiest day for tours, baby goat experiences, visitors on the farm – and we have to do it all without the help from our employees. But it’s October, and that throws in another complication – Cross Country season. During Cross […]

Opportunity Cost

I’m the one who does most of the writing here on my blog (not surprising, huh?!)  Brett does some of the proof reading and editing. But Jim is the one who adds all the pictures and hyperlinks. About a month ago, he told me that while I mention “opportunity cost” in a lot of my […]

Commitment

As many of you know, Brett is getting married soon.  She asked if we could do another round of P90X3* before the wedding (we completed the fitness program together a few years ago).  Of course I agreed.  Not only is the exercise good for me, but I get to spend time with my daughter who […]

Authenticity

I wrote my last blog post thinking about happiness.  But after I finished writing it, I couldn’t stop thinking about authenticity.  Authenticity is being genuine or “what you see is what you get”.  It is not being fake.  And I kept wondering, “Am I really as authentic as I think I am?” Let’s be honest […]

Living in Harmony

Somebody said to me the other day, “I really love my life and wouldn’t change it.  But if I had to swap my life for somebody’s, I’d pick yours.  I know you work really hard, but you all just always look so happy.”  And this was from somebody who knows “real life PJ” and not […]

Confirmation Bias

I am facing a very big decision that needs to be made within the next 6 months or so.  We’ve really outgrown our existing cheese kitchen.  We need some bigger equipment that we would have a tough time finding room for in our current kitchen.  And so I need to decide whether or not we […]