Summer!

I had planned to make tons of soap this summer. I ended up relaxing, preparing for this next school year, spending time with the kids, visiting some family, watching my son play lacrosse. So now I get to scramble (we actually, the kids are helping) and make as much soap as I can over the next couple of weeks before school starts. We are going to be selling our soap at a winery! So we will be designing some soap for that as well as the packaging.

This past spring was a milestone for me. I have been making soap for 10 years now! exciting! my favorite soap is still castille. It was my mom's favorite and it's such a simple yet wonderful soap. I think that will be our first soap... I am OUT and this is a first! Then of course, Pumpkin Spice needs to be made... that's a family favorite too. I say this as I sip some Pumpkin Spice coffee from Green Mountain :) mmmmmmmmmm

Ok, back to work! Happy August!

Back to Soap

School is almost over. I survived my first year of teaching high school math. It has been quite an adventure with having to relearn all of the calculus concepts in order to teach them the next day and to learn the new, Virginia way, of doing Geometry. All this while dealing with an improperly installed furnace and the carbon monoxide that it was spewing, being a mom and a wife and a business owner too! Whew, what a year! But now we get down to business... SOAP! I have some in stock, mostly lavender. I want to make a strawberry scented soap for my first soap of the year... I have the strawberries for adding all ready... so I think I will make a batch today while Greg and the kids are golfing :)

The pond is finished (see my facebook page for that) and we are fixing up the house... painting and landscaping... everything is coming along nicely!

Soap, Teaching... life

Well we just recently finished the first semester. Geometry in a semester. Wow! That was fast! Teaching kept me so busy I haven't had much time for soapmaking, but I plan to change that. I plan to make some soap this year... and lots of it! :)

There won't be any updates on the tadpoles until after we have our new pond put in. It seems our pond wasn't very sturdy and disintegrated (or was damaged by a big bad crane!). So we lost our baby fish and two of our original fish. We panicked and I was so focused on getting the fish out of the pond that I didn't think about what was going on with them once they were out of my sight. We didn't acclimate them to the bath water temperature and we didn't adjust the water chemicals, so they didn't survive. I was thinking more clearly the second day when we discovered that we had four of the big fish laying on their sides in shallow muddy water and now they are in a tank in my daughter's room. Poor fishies, the tank is smaller than they are used to and they don't like it. But we are working on redoing the pond and they should be out there as soon as the weather is better.

I will get some pictures of the pond, the crane and the new tank up soon... I just haven't had much time since we are moving from the old school building to the new one now that finals are finished.

Happy 2008

It's been quite a year... and I'm ready to see what the next one brings! I started teaching again, jumped in with both feet and started with Calculus and Geometry of the accelerated type! And now I'm going to be teaching AP Calc, Accelerated Geometry and PHYSICS!!! I haven't studied physics in 20 years. I haven't even thought it about it for that long! I'm starting to work on my lessons though, so I can at least be a little ahead of the game. I think it might actually be easier to teach than AP Calculus now that I am getting started on my review.

As a first year teacher, I really did not expect to be teaching such high level classes. But I am and I'm enjoying it. I like the kids, I like the topics (I'm learning to like geometry). I am still adjusting to working full time and also to preparing lessons adn reviewing the concepts.

I am still making soap. I'm working on my organic line. I have a friend working on the labels and I have chosen the paper for packaging. My sister is talking about buying into a winery, so I might even have some wine soaps ready for her to add to the gift shop! I love making soap, so do the kids... so we will continue to do this, even on a small scale.

Happy Soaping!

2008

We figured out what was causing the headaches earlier in the year, and what was causing my fatigue and disorientation.... it seems that our furnace was never installed properly and was spewing carbon monoxide gas. The inspector missed it. The kid from the heating and cooling company that came in to make sure our system was ready for fall caught it. It seems our CO detector was at the end of it's lifetime, but it never made any noise that the levels were so high. when we purchased new ones and installed it (while the kid was still here), it registered over 100 ppm! Scary stuff. My daughter brought home the lowest grades she's ever gotten... and since it was fixed, her grades have all risen.

So now that I am feeling much better, I've started up the business again! It feels good to be soaping again. We got some packaging for natural house cleaning products, some new papers for the organic line of soap and some new fragrances to play with!

So happy holidays from the Foxes Den!

The First 6 Weeks

At the end of the marking period... it's been interesting. I've had to review quite a bit of calculus and the students are learning... Geometry is much different now than when I went to school. It's less about the proofs and more about the concepts. They don't even have to do any indirect proofs. All they need to know is how to START an indirect proof.

I may not be teaching physics in the spring. I'm not qualified to teach community college level since I don't have a master's degree yet and I don't have enough upper division physics credits to make the college happy. Plus they tell me they might have 3o students for the class. So they might have to hire someone else to do it. Fine with me... I'll stick with math, I like it better anyway :)

Soap... what was that again? Haven't had much time... I have a few batches that need to be wrapped... but I haven't made any in months. :( I think I might have to make some this weekend...

Orange Soap!

We've been experimenting with ingredients for our newest line of soap made with organic ingredients. We've titled this line The Naturals. One of the ingredients we're using, in its more natural form, is a deep orange. It really colors the soap. So we were trying to determine whether or not to keep this wonderful ingredient in our soap. We welcome all opinions!