Shop news

Phew! What a summer it has been so far!! I still have so many things I want to share with you from our trip, and so many more things that have been going on since we got home but for now I guess I'll just share with you about what's going on with my shop!!

It's slowly but surely getting stocked back up with puppets and peg dolls and I'm actually having a give-a-way on my Facebook page! Please go check out the shop and my Facebook page and help spread the word!!

                                                 I am happy to take custom orders!

D- Day in our house

It's a weird feeling to wake up in the morning with the knowledge that today is the day....

Today is the infamous "chicken day" in our house. We have raised these chickens from a few days old and now we've come to the day we've set to butcher. If you've followed me for very long, you know that this part of our lives is definitely a new venture for us and it's not one that we have decided upon lightly. I see it as a necessity rather than a choice tho. I see it as being responsible about our food and our way of life... if we are going to be meat eaters we need to do it in a respectful manner and I can honestly say that these guys have had the best life that we could offer. They have not been pumped full of hormones or antibiotics, they have not been held in cages that they could not even turn around in, they have had access to green grass and fresh air outdoors.... and yet still these chickens are just as freaky as everyone told us they would be...

I guess I was a bit naive to think that if they were treated kindly they would be any different... but these guys really are that much different. You can even see it in the picture above... these chicks are the same age.... yet one is like a giant and had very little feathers and the other is small and fully feathered. I have found myself apologizing to them every morning as I feed them... sorry that I too fed in to this need for bigger and better- gotta have it right now!I really thought that it would be different.

These chickens are a cross between different breeds of chickens... they grow so fast that at times their bodies can't stand the growth and they have heart attacks or break legs from the weight of their own body!  Not to mention their temperaments!! From the time they were little, they were not the nice little chicks that our other ones were... and now that they have gotten bigger, they are just down right mean!! So much so that my hubby has to wear leather gloves when he feeds them!!

So today is a mix of emotions.... I will be relieved to have this chapter of our chicken adventure over with. There is some sadness knowing that by the end of the day they will have all been turned in to meat for the freezer but on the flip side... by the end of the day I will have a freezer full of meat! :) I am trying to go in to this as taking back our freedom, taking back the ability to be self reliant.... I also find it interesting that by chance we are having our butchering day on Flag Day... maybe I'm a bit strange but I just kinda feel like this is the perfect way to celebrate flag day....What's more American than providing food for your own family!? :)

One of the girls

There is nothing in the world worse than being a little girl who is excluded. There is just something about belonging that is so important to the life of a little girl and being left out, or not welcomed into a group is just one of those things that is so hard to understand. Heck, it's still a hard thing to swallow as a grown adult! We all just need to be accepted, and loved and .... wanted....

As I write this my heart is over flowing to the point of almost bringing tears to my eyes... while it's not at someone else's house, my girls are having their first "sleep over" just down stairs from where I am sitting. They had their nails painted, and tiny details added to their nails, wore fun pjs and joined their cousin and her cousin in a "sleep over" including juice, popcorn and a movie of their choice! Sleeping Beauty it is! :) My girls were just beside themselves with giddy giggling as they pulled their sleeping bags into the living room. They just adore these older cousins who are 16 and 20. They think it's just so awesome to do anything at all with these cousins and the fact that they were invited and included just means so much.... I don't think the older girls realize how special this is to the girls and I'm pretty sure they don't know how much it is  appreciated by me. Being a homeschool mom means that they are with me ALOT, and being a military family means we live far from family. So these little moments are all the more special and all the more cherished. Our visit is quickly coming to an end as we have to start packing up the car tomorrow for our long drive home... I'm so glad to have been able to come on this trip and so thankful for all the wonderful memories our girls were a part of! :)

Another loss to a world of readers

I know I am WAY behind on this blog and I really have so much I want to share with all of you and just haven't had the time to write. I am almost bubbling over from inspiration lately and can't wait to get it all out in words but for now I just had to take a moment of remembrance. I couldn't let this day end without my own little moment of silence... a tribute if you will...

When my English teacher announced that we were going to be reading a Science Fiction book in my Sophomore English class I can still remember the feeling of dread that seemed to settle in the pit of my stomach. I was just so certain that there was no way I would enjoy ANYTHING under the label of Science Fiction...how could she be so cruel as to make us all read something so terrible and boring... and then we began to read.... My true love of a book was born that day and the story of Guy Montag and the temperature at which books burn (Fahrenheit 451 in case you didn't know) would become my all time favorite book, even now a good 15+ years later there is a copy of this book on the bookshelf in my room. 

 Thanks to that particular English teacher and that amazing book, I opened my mind up to a whole new world of possibilities. Mostly I stuck to reading other books by that same author but still... I was broadening my horizons! :) I later went on to read many of his other great books including The Illustrated Man. What an amazing writer to create such stories!!

Today, as I was coming in from a treasure hunt for old books at my favorite antique shop here while visiting family (talk about a great score of old kids books!) I heard on the news clip that a famous Science fiction writer had died. Ray Bradbury was still the only Science fiction author I have ever read and I just held my breath till they announce who it was...

Today the world loss yet another great author... Ray Bradbury. It makes me so sad that a writer so talented is no long in this world as we know it and can only hope that young readers to come will discover his writings and love them as much as I have...

RIP

Ray Bradbury  

August 22, 1920-June 6, 2012

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out- Ray Bradbury

What's in the Bible Review

" Do you know what's in the Bible,....." is a new favorite song in our house.  A welcomed new song in our house!! We have been involved in vacation Bible schools for years, and have been loving AWANA for the last year but we recently just discovered a WONDERFUL new video series created by VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer!!! If our kids are going to watch tv why not make it a learning experience!!!

To be completely honest, my girls have never been interested in Veggie Tales... gasp! I know... weird huh? I remember watching them with my step son till I thought I was going to scream, so I just assumed all kids would love them... I know I liked them! lol But, never-the-less, my girls just never go into them. So when I got Volume One of What's in the Bible, I was really hopeful that they would like it!! NOT TO WORRY!!! It is their new favorite DVD by far... they even take it to other friends' houses when we've gone for playdates and they are anxious for the next one to come... guess I need to get that ordered quick!! :)

From an adult perspective, I really enjoyed it too. The humor was enough to keep me interested, as well as my husband and the material covered was really great too!!  We all really learned alot!!


! Please go check out the link at the top of my page, and if you order from it, you'll help us earn more for our kids!! I feel so good about them watching these videos and can't help but share it with everyone I know!!! :)




Legal Disclosure:
  I received a free copy of  Volume 1 What's in the Bible  in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

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And the winner is.... Promises!!

Please send me your mailing address within 48 hours or I will have to pick another winner! :)

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Feathers, chicks and eggs... o my!

 I'm wondering if there is an exact amount of chickens you have to own before you are officially considered a chicken farmer? lol Surely we have to be well on our way to it if there is! lol  If you have been following this blog for very long at all, you know how much we love our chickens and have so enjoyed the process of having them as pets and enjoying the eggs we are so lucky to get from them. If you have been reading for very long, you have probably also caught on  that we are very much into knowing where our food comes from and making sure that if we eat meat that the animal was treated with love, care and respect....Unfortunately tho, those qualities are hard to come by when it comes to eating chicken and we've become tired of paying the high prices for chicken and still not feeling 100% sure we are purchasing meat from well cared for animals.....  so here comes one big life adventure that we've started on....

 A number of families at our church went together to purchase chicks in bulk. 300+ chicks actually! Only 50 of those came to live at our house and let me tell you, we are getting an education in chicks really fast! These chicks are from a cornish-cross breed which means they are bred to grow big and fast in 6-10 weeks. We will be butchering them as a group with the other church families all at the same time. Now, I've had friends that have made comments in so many words, that they think we are crazy and how could we love chickens and then eat them. Well, here's what it comes down to for us anyways... We DO love chickens. We love the ones that we handle and baby and cuddle with- those ones get names. However, we also LOVE chicken, as in grilled, BBQ and roasted. Everytime I go to the store and have to buy this said meat, I have to wonder things like "Did this chicken ever see the light of day?" "Did this chicken get to play in the grass and feel the warmth of sunshine?" .... and the ones that really haunt me.... "Did this chicken spend its entire life in a cage so small it couldn't turn around?" "Did this chicken have any good days in its life?"
  Now I'm not saying this process is going to be easy. And I'm not even saying that I won't perhaps cry, or that I am personally going to have anything to do with the actual butchering (that was a deal that hubby and I made from the start). But I am saying that I won't have to feel guilty about eating this meat. I won't have to wonder if they were treated kindly or if they even had a "good day" in their lifespan.... I will know that they weren't fed nasty stuff and that in the end, they will have only had ONE bad day.
  I still look at grocery shopping as votes in one of the biggest elections we will ever be part of. Everytime we buy something it is voting for that company to have more power over us.... and I'm sorry but I am not about to give the power to any company that thinks that it is ok to treat animals the way they do. And I feel bad, that we as Americans have gotten to the point that we are ok with turning a blind eye to how our food is produced. My girls and I talk alot about those sorts of things. How God gave us these animals to eat... but how we should still be glorifying Him... and there is nothing about those factory farms that are glorifying God... But each day when we go check eggs and feed our chickens, we give thanks... both to the chickens and the Creator. It probably sounds rather funny but I'm finding more and more about country life to be so much more spiritual  I ever expected . There is not a day that goes by that I'm not reminded about God's love for us.... and I find it in the strangest places....in the feathers, the chicks and the eggs...

While we will be thankful for the meat in our freezer, we will also be thankful for the chickens that we still have...

Hummy, Benelli, Dandy and Tulip out in the grass on a sunny day- their first taste of sunshine! :)

Benelli likes to nap on hubby's chest at night while we watch tv!  There is no question these chicks are loved... even by the tough guy... who of course is responsible for naming this one! lol

A duck egg, an egg from our chicken Daisy and a store bought egg

I have always thought it would be neat to compare the differences in eggs.... The duck egg had a HUGE yolk and lots of white, the fresh egg had a much darker yolk and larger than the store bought smaller one. I asked the girls to tell me the things these eggs had in common and then we talked about the differences. I asked J why she thought they were different and she said that the store bought yolk wasn't as dark because it wasn't allowed to live in the sunshine and didn't get to eat grass... smart kid huh? The store bought egg actually came from Wilcox so I know that they are able to be outside but there has to be something about the way they are raised that makes their eggs have smaller yolk, less egg white and a considerably thinned shell. That duck egg's shell was so tough that I had a hard time breaking thru, and the ones from our chickens have been dropped on the ground and not cracked... the same can not be said for the store bought eggs that have broken in my hands while I wash them!