Tag Archives: chickens

spring has sprung

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“It’s surely no accident that
the most universal toast is,
‘To Life.'”

 ~quote from Victoria magazine

 

Spring has sprung!  Everyone’s happy!

This was Rich at a little league game on Monday, with a photo of the two of us the very next evening:

It’s much more fun watching baseball with the sun in your face than it is when wearing five layers and still cold.

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I made dinner, packed it all up and put it in the vehicle, drove Caleb to drum lessons (with S and S with us, too) then went to the HS for Dave’s meet, Rich picked up the boys there for baseball, when Dave was done Sarah and I went to baseball to watch Seth’s game, too, all with dinner in the car for people to eat when they were hungry.  Sarah walked around eating salt potatoes out of a plastic cup.

I took the photo of Dave with the javelin and his siblings all around him because it always touches my heart when they wander away from me and form their own gang.  Sibling-love is great to see.

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Dave in mid-air.

He had another meet yesterday but it was away (I don’t go to the away meets).  He confessed he was relieved that I wouldn’t be watching him “do badly”……(track is a new sport for him)…..to which I replied, “The only time I think any of you ‘do badly’ is when you get hurt.”  It’s obvious that David likes track, he’s often smiling.  After his events were over I took him some food before I left and he was verbally thankful.  “What’s this?  A brownie?  For me?  SWEET!” he said.  So I left with a smile on my fact, too.  Later on he told me he shared the brownie.

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Seth’s first game of the season was a dud because his team had two players missing and therefore didn’t have enough to field a team.  They had to forfeit but then played it anyway.  I saw Seth playing pretty much every position.  (He’s catcher in the photo).  He pitched, ran to cover second, ran to cover first……When he was catcher he did very well but it makes me SO nervous to see my son so close to a swinging bat.  Rich reminded me to look at all the protective gear he was wearing but of course as a mom of boys you just know for a fact that they can always find a way to get hurt.  It didn’t help that Caleb was watching through the fence and saying “He doesn’t have a CATCHERS mitt on, it’s going to KILL his HAND!”

Seth got the game ball.  🙂

But he would tell you his favorite moment was when he slid into home plate to score a run.

His baseball pants are gray but Caleb’s are as white as snow.  One of my favorite challenges is to try to get them white again after each game.  (I’m a dork)  What I do is sit on the floor, lay them out in front of me, spray each dirty spot with shout and then take a bar of laundry soap and scribble it into the stains before popping them in the washer.

The most horrifying thing I saw this week was a child (not my own but it very well could have been) DELIBERATELY fall on his knees in the dirt and grass multiple times during warm ups just to dirty his white pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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She makes me laugh…….at one point she was also carrying around my umbrella.  She was wearing:  sunglasses, a thick fabric headband that looked more like a hat, winter coat, shorts, and a backpack which had a small metal mailbox in it containing her tic tacs.  All set for another night of baseball.

Rich took this video of Caleb getting a base hit last night.  I have such fun watching him play.  We were down by home plate at one point to watch Caleb hit.  He got a triple and Rich tried to video it but it turned out to be a perfectly clear video of THE FENCE.  But when Caleb got on third he did a dance, moving his arms and shaking his hips a little.  His coaches kept reminding him of what to do and it was almost like he was half-listening.  He had a coach RIGHT there and started talking to him like it was time to have a conversation.  “PAY ATTENTION CALEB!”  The first base coach yelled all the way over “GET ON THE BASE CALEB!”  And the team mom also coached, “QUIT EATING those SEEDS and keep your hand out of your pocket!  …..who has those seeds?” she asked the dug out, “I’m getting rid of them……”  and so on.  And Caleb dances and smiles.  They lost the game though but at least they had fun.  I left early because it was raining.  I drove to the grocery store to get ice cream for a before bed snack.

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This McCoy planter is so beautiful!  I found it antiquing.  And of course I can’t resist taking photos of the lovely eggs…..

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Even Parker the dog gets one each day.  I give it to him whole and he drops it on the ground to crack it and eat it.

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They rarely walk on the front lawn so I had to laugh when I looked up from my book and saw the flock making it’s way to the bird feeders.  They like to eat the sunflower seed that drops down from the feeders on the porch.

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I had to take a photo when I saw the knives on the quiet piano.  “Dave was here”.

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I asked Seth to take the garbage out.  I was running around the kitchen trying to make his dinner.  “Why do I have to do everything?” was his groan as he sat in front of the TV.  (The truth is he does almost nothing)  “Now you’re standing in the corner for 10 minutes.”  “Okay, I’ll do that first before I take out the trash.”  “Now it’s 12 minutes.”  And then he stopped talking and I won.  By the end of 12 minutes he was on the floor lying down on his side, with only his face in the corner.

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I played two games of P-I-G with David and Sarah.  Here is a photo of Sarah trying to make the impossible basket that David just shot.  Their faces are so cute.  (I won both times)

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After basketball we dared him to jump in the pond.  He was happy to be dared.  He prides himself by being the first one in the pond every spring.

I asked him if it was cold and he said yes.

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Then they went fishing.  Sarah tried to bring herself to touch a worm.  She is sincerely quite squeamish of them but was trying her best to participate.  It didn’t help that Dave would say things like, “Oh, don’t touch that one it bites.”

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It was a small one but Rich got home just in time to give Dave his first lesson in cleaning up a fish to eat it.

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I put butter on it and put it under the broiler where it promptly caught on fire.  “I guess it’s done.”  “Are you sure mom, just because food is on fire doesn’t mean it’s cooked.”  Dave said dryly while bending over his fish and filleting the second side.

Seth was the most disturbed by it all…..because of the smell.  I guess his nose is the most sensitive.  He said “Can someone get this fish head out of here?”  And Rich took it out and threw it away in the woods across the road.

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She gave me this flower.  It’s an artificial flower that fell off the front door wreath.  She found it and got creative by finding a small stick, painting it green & pink, sticking the flower into it and giving it to me.  She also used one of David’s pocket knives to carve a little design on it.  You can see how pleased she is with herself.  I was most impressed by 1) she didn’t get paint on her shirt and, 2) she put the paints away when she was done without being told.

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To finally see COLOR is glorious.

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~distractingly beautiful clouds

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~I get this as a treat at the natural foods store.  Delicious!

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It’s so good to go barefoot again!

Seth and Caleb fishing derby

This photo is from a week ago…. (I didn’t take it, it was given to me by the sports photographer)…. at a fishing derby that the wrestling coach hosts at his house for the team every spring.  David, Caleb, and Seth are all three in this picture, can you find them?

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Dirty and happy at the end of a long playful day, getting their own bedtime ice cream.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.  Psalm 121:7

 

 

cold feet

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I just got back from taking old cornmeal muffins to the chickens.  I did what every other New Englander would do when it’s March 24, sunny, and 39 degrees.   I threw on a jacket….and sandals.

Parker the Dog couldn’t get any closer to the hens because of his Hidden Dog Fence.  He was very much longing for an old cornmeal muffin.

I have sent various children to the coop for the last three days and they all skipped back to the house cheerfully saying, “No eggs!”  “None?”  “No, they ate them!”  “Did you check the barrel?  They’ve been laying in the barrel lately.”  “Yep, there weren’t any!”

Just to be sure, I also went in the coop.  I found seven in the barrel and 3 each under two brooding hens.

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I put them into the same bag I had brought the muffins.  By this time I was calling myself Stupid because my toes were turning pink and icy and I had sandy textured snow in my berki’s.  There was a bit more darn snow than I had anticipated.

I kept my eyes on the warm dry dock as I slipped toward it, planning to warm my feet.  Upon arrival, I kicked off my sandals to get rid of the snow and dry off.  One of them slid right across the dock and….into the pond.  Thank goodness for cork bottoms.  While Parker stood on the bank and leaned across the water with his nose stretched out toward my shoe doing nothing, I also leaned over the edge of the dock stretched out my arm to retrieve it.  “Stupid” I called myself.  I tapped my shoes on the wood to get as much snow and water off before slipping them back on to walk back to the house, keeping in as many of the bare patches as I could.  This must be why the children are always skipping into the house after they go to the coop.

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I washed my dishes and 13 eggs.

And put socks on.

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one dollar photo shoot

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“I live to enjoy life by the littlest things, feeling the grass between my toes, breathing fresh air, watching the wind sway the trees, enjoying the company of loved ones, a deep conversation, getting lost in a good book, going for a walk in nature, watching my kids grow up. Just the feeling itself of being alive, the absolute amazing fact that we are here right now, breathing, thinking, doing.”   ~Marigold Wellington

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On Wednesday the temperature reached 63!  I was too hot at times!  And the very next day the temperature dropped 30 degrees and by that afternoon it was snowing enough that all after school activities were cancelled.  I looked out the window from the couch, where I was cozy with a soft blanket, and saw the big wet flakes falling straight out of the sky.  It was so pretty.  I remembered how I would have Grace dress up so I could take her photos out in the snow.  Sarah was downstairs playing video games.  I sighed.  I didn’t feel like bothering to ask her.  I was too tired.  I knew it would take some convincing on my part to do a photoshoot with Sarah.  Therefore I watched the rest of my movie.

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Well, lo and behold about an hour later I had to shut in the chickens because there were no mature children home to send instead.  As I pulled on boots and took my coat from the closet, Sarah came upstairs.  “Where are you going?”  “I have to go shut in the chickens.”

“CAN I GO WITH YOU?”

“Sure!”

And so it happened!

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After the hens were properly shut in she asked,

“Do you want to see Ethan’s secret hiding place?”

“Sure!”

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It wasn’t very far away but traveling there was was rather difficult.  I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get past some of the branches.  I had to remove briars from the both of us at times, too.  We were crawling through the bushes and trees to get to Ethan’s secret hiding place.

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It was a big tall white birch tree.  Caleb discovered it once a long time ago when Sammy the cat led him to it by meowing.  And then he in turn showed Seth and Sarah.  It’s all a secret.  They knew what it was by Ethan’s name scratched into the bark.  It said, “Ethan loves……”  and I’m not going to tell you the name because it’s a secret, too.  By the time w got home I had forgotten it was a secret hiding spot so I told Ethan about it and he laughed and Sarah said, “Did Sammy show you the spot, too, E?”  And he said, “I think a cat did lead me to it actually.”

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FOLKLORE:  the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.

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Isn’t it amazing that in just one afternoon enough tiny snowflakes can fall to cover the ground and the trees?  A million little things………all together can add up to something significant.

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the mom

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Sarah Joy age 7 years and 9 months.  On a small walk with mom to the chicken coop.

Thanks for letting me take your pictures, Sarah!  I love you!

PS, I had to pay her a dollar.

ordinary morning, I love you

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Exciting!

We have three black swallowtail chrysalises in our butterfly nursery and the first one emerged today and unfolded its wings.

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“I think this is how we’re supposed to be in the world
~present and in awe.”  Anne Lammott

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homemade rolls, warm from the oven

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There’s the pretty-pretty pinterest way (which I love)….and then there’s the “I took old bread down to the chickens and used the empty bag to gather the eggs” way.  (which I also love).

Happy Monday, friends.

You are loved. 🙂

It’s ordinary to love the beautiful,
but it’s beautiful to love the ordinary.

cherry bars

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The path to the chicken coop is getting easier to trudge.  With all the snow we had last week it became a little annoying to wade through it multiple times a day to check on things.  We still have snow everywhere but our footsteps have stomped away most of the snow on the way to the coop so it’s easier to walk although I do find myself getting grumpy at times.  “Why did we put it so far from the house?” “The snow is blinding me!”  “Oh I just got some in my shoe”  “I hate snow”  “Slip”  “Fall” “trip”.  I spent more time down there this morning simply because although the wind was blowing quite a bit, the sun was shining and there was an actual warmth.  I said hello to the rabbits and the chickens said hello to me.  I sat down on the feed bag and a chicken hopped on my lap.  One sat on the rabbit cage right behind me and softly pecked my hair.  They are curious birds.

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Invariably, we have a cat visitor or two, as well.  The chickens become nervous.

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They like to sink down into the hay to lay their egg and I always think to myself that they seem to enjoy the time spent waiting for it to arrive.  I watch them fuss and arrange the hay strand by strand and get as comfortable as possible.  If another hen comes too close, the one sitting makes an ugly caw  which means “Get away from me!”

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They do not fancy the snow and do not go far these days.  I prop the door open for fresh air and they hop in and out of the coop.

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A favorite egg laying spot.

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another curious cat visitor

He ended up with no where to go, so he had to back shuffle until he could jump back down.  It was cute because he stirred up dust along the way.

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Some of the hens melted down to the floor in the sleepy sunshine.  They stretched out their wings to soak in some healing rays.

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As soon as a hen was done, I took her egg and put it in my pocket.  (They would rather me let them eat them).  I have over a dozen saved in this way.  What to make?

How about Cherry Bars?

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1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 almond extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 (21 oz) cans cherry pie filling

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the extracts.  Combine flour and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture just until combined.

Spread 3 cups batter into a greased 15 by 10 by 1 inch baking pan.  Spread with pie filling.  Drop the remaining batter by teaspoonfuls over filling.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until done.  Cool on a wire rack.  Combine *the glaze ingredients; drizzle over the top.  Cut into bars.  Yield: 5 dozen

*THE GLAZE
I cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2-3 Tablespoons milk

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recipe source:  taste of home baking classics cookbook  pg 370

 

eggs (a short chicken tale)

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Welcome month of March, month of early springtime flowers, happy birthdays, and eggs!

E G G S

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As you may or may not remember, our family owns a flock of 14 hens.

But lately, NO EGGS.

The hens are eating them.  I don’t know if a hen lays an egg and then cheerfully eats it, or if she leaves her egg behind and then the next hen wanting to lay HER own egg eats the one she finds “in the way” so to speak, to make way for her own egg laying endeavors.  No matter, it is happening.  It is annoying.

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We are in the market for one of those nesting boxes which are slanted on the bottom so the freshly laid egg rolls away out of sight and out of the hen’s reach.  In the meantime, I am positively haunting the coop in order to snatch away eggs just as soon as they appear.

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In this fashion, I have so far collected 5 of them just this morning.

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Three of which I promptly cooked and ate for breakfast.  Outside.  So I could watch.

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“Yes, I am watching you.”

 

a meal the entire family likes

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This morning before school Sarah read me her reading assignment.  It was a book by Gail Gibbons about the sun.

It became an unexpected sacred morning moment; a small girl tucked up beside me reading in her sweet voice.

“The sun gives all living things energy and strength in order to grow.”

Ah yes, thank you Jesus, the Light of the world and only Son of God.

“Without the sun, there would be only darkness and nothing could live.”

…..he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

What a dark and deathly world it would be without His presence.

All of humanity benefits from his warm and life-giving light.

I see Him everywhere, I know you do, too.  There is no need to force a religion (laws and rule keeping) when you truly believe and love Christ.  He opens your eyes to see Him, He puts a longing (hunger and thirst) inside of you to know His beauty, and the whole of life blossoms and flourishes because of the relationship you share with Him.

Since Sarah read me her book, an old hymn has been keeping me company for the morning; written by Philip Bliss, the author of many of our favorite hymns:

The Light of the World is Jesus

The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in;
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee;
Sweetly the light has dawned upon me;
Once I was blind, but now I can see:
The Light of the world is Jesus!

No darkness have we who in Jesus abide;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
We walk in the light when we follow our Guide!
The Light of the world is Jesus!

No need of the sunlight in Heaven we’re told;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
The Lamb is the Light in the city of gold,
The Light of the world is Jesus!

*******

After getting Sarah on the bus, I went for a short ramble all by myself in the snow.  I was still wearing my pajamas but it wasn’t too cold thanks to a sweatshirt, a sweater, and shawl.

Orange fungus growing on a dead tree;

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I noticed snow covered cobweb wisps everywhere on the trees (why?)…….

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reflection of the stream;

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texture of slushy icy water;

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black and white;

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There is something magical about being outside in the woods while it’s snowing.

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Inside the chicken coop;

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I was thrilled to find a half dozen eggs!!  (the hens haven’t been laying for over a month)

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I rewarded them with a bowl of snow.

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Which they appreciated very much.

******

And now for a recipe.

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This recipe is “blog worthy” because the whole family loves it.  It’s different; there is no milk or cheese in the sauce, the mayonnaise gives it a richness.

Scalloped Potatoes and Onions

5 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup chopped onion
6 T. butter
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease a baking dish.
Layer potatoes and onion in prepared baking dish.
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually add broth, mayonnaise, salt, pepper; cook and stir until thick and bubbly, about 2 minutes.  Pour mayonnaise mixture over potatoes and onion.  Cover baking dish with aluminum foil.
Bake in preheated oven until potatoes are tender, about 1 hour 45 minutes.  Remove foil and continue to bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes more.  Cool slightly; serve.

(I double this for my family)

Also, the original recipe doesn’t call for ham, but I do add it whenever I have leftovers to use up.  Enjoy.

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The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.
Henry Ward Beecher

snow day

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I just got home from grocery and Christmas shopping.  I have some wrapping to do before the children start getting home from school but I thought I would do a quick post about our day yesterday.  I thought I would take photos all day long but I didn’t.  I ended up not taking any pictures after the point where Grace and I went to the grocery store to get stuff for lunch.

The morning began with breakfast, and proceeded right into a nerf fight between Caleb and Seth.

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There are nerf bullets ev.very.where.

I went outside to take care of the chickens and the rabbits.  The chickens are not laying eggs.  It’s pathetic.  I have to buy eggs.  I think they stopped because of the time change and some of them are molting.

We have rabbits because Jacob agreed to watch someone’s rabbits for them and so far they have not come to get them back.  Apparently she moved in with her sister and there is no place to put them.

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They are very cute and the entire family has grown fond of them.  I opened their door so they could hop around the coop while I took care of the hens.

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And this one

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immediately went into a bag.

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I thought the green background behind these red berries was lovely.

The children had a snow day because the snow had switched over to ice and then rain,  consequently everything was drippy.

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Under the trees the snow was dimpling from all the raindrops.

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cracks in the ice look like trees

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The children went outside for some sledding.  Of course it was rather wet but they still had fun.

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Seth was so little down there making a pile of snow.

And that was that.  Grace and I went to the store, by the time we left Seth was back in the house and he asked to go with us.  We said yes and bought him a big container of tic-tacs which turned into contention when we came home.  Sarah and Caleb wanted them.  Seth poured them all into a fiestware fruit bowl and then cried and cried because Caleb took the plastic container and threw it, causing it to break, and making the tic tacks fly out of the bowl onto the floor.  I sent him downstairs.  So then Seth gave it to Sarah and then a few minutes later decided he wanted it back, she started to cry, he threw it back at her, it hit the wall and broke further.  I sent him downstairs next.  Then Sarah was crying.  Grace taped it up for her.  This all happened because I was nice and bought Seth a treat.  Never again.

Grace and I made a sausage stuffed french bread for lunch.  Then, we prepared dinner, which was marinated meats for mixed grill kabobs–shrimp, chicken, and rib eye.

I gave Grace and David the job of cleaning the storage room and crawl space downstairs and they did a great job together.

We all took naps.

Rich came home early.

Seth broke one of my Christmas angels.  Broke the wing right off.

Everyone liked dinner!

We had a relaxing evening and went to bed early, where I read a book until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Check out my instagram later for a photo of what I found at Goodwill this morning!!!!

Have a great afternoon, friends!