A Really Good Giver

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17


It is so very true that every good thing is from the Lord—in my life He has used a consistent pattern. The gifts usually come through my mom. I can look around my house or my kids or what I am wearing, even what I am eating and some portion of that has been given to me by her. She delights in giving gifts and not only gifts, but REALLY GOOD gifts. It brings her joy to see us find a really great thing that we can use and use or just plain enjoy. She adds her touch and sparkle to all of our lives. My mom is not only a giver, she is an abundant giver. She gives selflessly of her time, energy and resources. I have never seen anybody on this earth do that as well as she does. And because there is no way I could ever repay her, I hope simply to be like her. I love my mom :)

Wrestle and Save

This morning we were reprimanded by our daughter, “Mom, Dad be quiet Hudson is still sleeping!” I was in a “defend the mule kick” hold and wasn't quiet about getting out of it. Adam likes to get a rise out of me and demonstrate his wrestling abilities. I like to retaliate by being a total spaz and see how well I would fare if someone where actually trying to pin me down. Its good practice. He told me today that his secret was just waiting until I get too tired of all the kicking—then I am a piece of cake. We used to be awful. In the early days of UFC (and marriage) we would watch fights all the time (sorry mom). They inspired a lot more aggressive play, but during the baby years I didn't feel like being messed with so it subsided. Anyhow, it is funny that Adam is the only person that could pin me down besides my Dad. (I haven’t been pinned my Dad since high school, but I haven’t forgotten). I'm sorry to admit that there have been others who have tried, maybe that’s why they never stuck.

David started his very own savings account today. It was kind of exciting. I only hope my kids can far surpass me and Adam in that area. Yay David!

Chickens: Part 3

Eggs from the girls!

After months and months of waiting, it finally happened. We got our first egg! I wasn't there for the discovery, but I got a picture via text message. We were so excited—I could go so far as comparing it to feeling your baby kick for the first time. Pride swelled having watched these chicks grow up and produce their own eggs. Nobody ate the egg. We just stared at it for a few days. Finally we cooked it up (tiny little thing). Adam, Hudson and I each had one bite and it was totally delicious! Being the color person that I am, I was excited about the beautiful golden color of the yolk. When we started having more eggs, every morning was like an easter egg hunt.

After a while we started to hear more loud sounds from the coop. In addition there were some very perky feathers on our Marilyn. We had had our suspicions, but one day we took a good long look at our lead girl and confirmed in fact that she was a rooster. This got a little awkward with our kids when the rooster behavior began. But, actually it opened the door for some conversations that needed to happen. Our kids will forever replace "the birds and the bees" with "the chickens". We still call him Marilyn. Anna calls him, "Marilhim", but old habits are hard to break and I think it's kind of funny.

Today I walked outside and I just about freaked. I did freak actually. The girls were all standing by the brush pile in our front woods and not six feet away from them was a coopers hawk. It was just sitting there surveying the situation. Hard to believe the hawk could even consider taking one of the girls; right now with all their winter feathers they must be three times its size. I looked at Marilyn and wanted to make some chicken alarm noises, wishing I could summon them to their secure position in the front pine tree, but I managed to run out (with Hudson) and the hawk flew up into a tree. I still had to make more of a fuss to get it to fly away. Bold thing. Crazy that was sitting right with the girls almost like it was one of them.

I know Marilyn would have gotten into it with the hawk. He is a good rooster and recently has grown into a protector/provider sort of fellow. While my kids can no longer pick him up or sit on the ground by him (that was a sad realization) he watches over his girls. I have watched him call the girls and pitch food to them before he eats himself. What a good chap.

Chickens: Part 2

Back to the chickens: The girls got big pretty quickly. It was fun to watch them grow, but the pool on the porch wasn’t going to work too much longer. Adam needed to get started on the coop. That was quite a process and honestly I was really impressed by it. The plan was to use salvaged barn wood and build a coop that we could have many more chickens in the future if we decided to. It took time though because we had to wait for enough of the right kind of wood to finish it.

We started to let the girls free-range after a few months. They would pretty much stay together and really enjoyed all the mulberries they found on the ground. The porch was a MESS from their purple foot prints and purple poop. Another thing that was interesting is that right before dusk they would all line up by the porch door so they could come back inside. However, if it wasn’t dusk—just try to get them inside! We had a rough go of it on our anniversary. All dressed up and ready to go, but the girls were out and we spent over a half an hour chasing them so that we could leave. We lost a few chickens to predators too. The price of being free-range, but still it was pretty sad.

By the end of the summer the coop was ready for move in. I BLEACHED the porch floor and for the most part all was well with it again. It took a bit for the girls to get used to their new home. We laughed at them at night because they all just huddled together on their perches and looked super scared. A couple of times we heard noises that sounded like a half cock-a-doodle come from the coop, but we just shrugged it off.

On my birthday we went out. One of the kids had shut the door before all of the girls got back in for the night. When we got home we heard some noise and Adam went outside and saw a possum run off into the woods. There was a ton of white feathers. Marilyn. Adam searched and searched with a headlamp for the other girls. He found a few and put them safely back into the coop. Still no sign of Marilyn and being that she was bright white and there was no sign of her, we were pretty sure we had lost her. The next morning I woke up early and went outside. There she was! Looking ROUGH! Poor thing had been through it, but she was in tact shaking her feathers in the middle of the driveway. We were so relieved!

End of Part 2.

We Ate the Cheese

“You know, we could eat our cheese soon—it has been almost two months.” Me
“Let's do it.” Adam
“Now?” Me
“Yeah now, we will slice a section off, share it with the kids and I will re-wax the other half.” Adam
“Let’s wait. ok fine. Just do it.” Me

And with just that, Adam headed down to his cheese cave in the cellar, grabbed the farmhouse cheddar we made on the day after Christmas and sliced into it. It felt like we should have had more ceremony, but it was fun to finally see what was hidden and aged inside the thick black layers of cheese wax. Quite lovely actually, a bright cream color. It was a dry crumbly cheddar that was kind of sharp. I don’t eat cheese so once I started it was a little bit hard to stop. Stomach ache to follow, but it was a good first cheese! I am proud of us.

A Really Great Friend

Recently I was working on the computer in our office and Adam was sitting on the couch smiling. I asked him what he was smiling about and his answer surprised me. He said that he was thinking how nice it was that I have a really great friend. It makes such a difference in your life when you have one of these friends. A really great friend is a person that is FOR you and wants the BEST that the Lord has for you and your family. A friend who has been through hard stuff with you and will keep you tethered and anchored to who you are and what the Lord is trying to accomplish in you. Someone you can celebrate eachother's successes and pray through failures-- regularly laughing about them, sometimes yelling about them on the prairie path. Can't forget movies, flea markets, spin class, Sarasota, very first triathlon, COFFEE, fires, kid adventures, campouts, home birth, book club, Bible Study, an ocassional show because her husband is a rockstar, haircuts, Great America, Disney World, Kentucky, Lifetime, just sitting in each other's kitchens.

We celebrated Stef's 40th birthday Friday night. So great to get out without the kiddos and let your hair down a bit. I actually did let my hair down for about 3/4 of the evening before it succumbed to my pony tail holder. We went to a fun comedy club and out to dinner, but the best part was just chatting and laughing with my really great friend and our boys; a sweet evening I will remember fondly. Happy Birthday Stef!!!!

1000 Time Trial

I love swimming. I love my swim team. I have had more difficulty getting to practice this year due to increased kid activities, church change and working more. I just keep telling myself that I have years and years to swim and get better (Lord willing) and if I can't give more to it now that is OK. Easy to say though until you pop into practice for a 1000 TT. It's embarrassing, but I have no one to blame but myself and then I shouldn't blame myself because I have decided that it isn't my priority this year. My head can really be a mess. It is a good exercise in humility I suppose. Anyhow, I am only better off because of swimming and I should continue to do my best at practice and whenever I can get there. I will be back with a greater capacity at some point. For now I just need to be content (not only content, but thrilled!) with all of the other great things and opportunities I have been blessed with--there are many!

Valentine Parmesan

The past several days have been jam packed with Annie Performances, serving duties and celebratory outings. My folks just returned from their trip to Thailand and David had a birthday. It's during these kind of weeks that you do what you can to keep it all moving forward. I am happy to report though that it really was a great week! I laughed a lot and truly enjoyed the whole thing. Valentines Day was the first night that I didn't have to go out in over a week, so Adam and I thought it would be fun to make Parmesan.

There is different info out there on what to do, but we followed the directions that were included in our starter kit from www.Cheesemaking.com in addition to some advice we found on various blogs. The interesting thing about making cheese is not that it is difficult, it just takes a good amount of time and some of that time requires very careful attention. Adam and I coordinated our efforts. For over an hour he sat in front of the sink stirring and holding a thermometer while I added boiling water around our pot of curds and whey slowly bringing up the temperature 3 degrees every 5 min.

There are intervals in the process where you have 20-30 min of letting a stage set or rest. We started watching Doomsday Preppers. Unfortunately I did not finish the cheesemaking strong--asleep on the couch. Felt kind of bad about that.

9 Years

On this morning 9 years ago I woke up early and got dressed in a brown shirt and maternity jeans. My house was organized and cleaned like a champion. Baby Anna was at my folks’ house. I posed for a picture and we headed to Northwest Community Hospital. I looked down at my belly and thought, “I’m looking forward to meeting you today.”

The birth went really quickly and relatively without hitch. I did have one complaint about about the jackhammers outside of my hospital room—that kind of stunk. But at around lunch time I met my baby boy son, David. Named after my dad—he was beautiful and precious.

David is 9 years old today. I am so proud of him. He is diligent and tenderhearted. I love that he accepts challenges and handles them in stride. He loves football and had his first fantasy team with Adam this past year. Two years ago I watched him as a 7 year old jump into a 50 fly swim race against kids who were in their early teens. He just rocks. I look forward to seeing how the Lord uses his life. It’s going to be great!

We LOVE you David! Happy 9th Birthday.

Thick Bread and 6 Eggs

This is not a recipe post. My boys made me laugh last night because they said that the kids at school were asking them why their sandwich bread is so thick. They replied that their mom makes their bread. I thought that maybe they were a little embarrassed my that, but they encouraged me with, "Mom, we like your thick bread!". Rock on.

Hudson likes to collect our eggs. I am normally thankful that he enjoys running out to collect them for me, but when I picked up his coat off the floor yesterday it felt a little heavy. I reached into the pockets and to my delight I discovered the eggs he had collected that morning—smashed up and coating my hands with lovely marigold goop. Hudson is not the first boy in our family to pocket collect and forget—that was Adam.

Macaroons

Tonight we were at a Super Bowl party at my brother and sister-in-law's house. I made a go to favorite of ours, chocolate covered macaroons. All my kids love coconut and these are a great gluten free option if you chose to make them with a gluten free flour. The recipe is off of the Bakers coconut bag--nothing unique, but yummy for sure!

David's Favorite Coconut Macaroons

1 package coconut (14 oz.)
2/3 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. almond extract
6 Tbls. Flour (tapioca flour works great as gluten free option)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease baking sheet. Combine coconut, sugar, flour and salt in large bowl. Stir in egg whites and extract until blended. Drop cookies into mounds and bake 20 minutes until edges are golden. Let cookies cool. Melt chocolate in over double boiler. Dip macaroons into chocolate and let cool. Serve on a cute platter!

On the way home from the party I exchanged text messages with my Dad from Thailand. Johnny was fascinated by it--so was I.

Johnny's Fun Things

A couple weeks ago my mom signed me up for basketball. I was really excited. After my first day of playing basketball I went downstairs and played Xbox for like two hours. Then my mom said we can turn in skate 3 for a different game at GameStop. It ended up that we got a double pack of games. After that we went to a chinese place. I ate a spicy tuna roll.the game was lego batman.

Our team the Lakers won the basketball game yesterday. I scored a basket. Today we are going to our cousins' house for a super bowl party. My mom made macaroons. boo that the Packers lost to the Giants. Anna is watching high school musical. BORING!

Anna's Thoughts #2

                                             

                      I just got out of my cast! But I might have to wear it on the other foot. It has the same thing. We're finally done with multiplacation, and going on to geometry. Annie is just one week away. The play is going to be great! Please come on Saturday the 11th or Friday the 10th of Feb.

                                                       And that's my thoughts!

Chickens: Part 1

We started daydreaming about getting chickens right after we moved out here. Adam had friends that were raising them and we both grew with enthusiasm about doing it ourselves. It just took such a long time before we could get our ducks in a row to do it. (going to use as many bird phrases as possible, for fun) Adam researched it all, figured out what kind of birds he wanted to get, what was involved with feeding them, keeping them, egg production, cleaning, etc. I am now convinced that one can accomplish almost anything with the help of YouTube. Finally, we just had to pull the trigger and order them, if only so that we could stop talking about how we were going to get them someday...

At the end of May last year we got a call from the post office that our chicks were there for pick up. They came in a box, just a couple of days old. We had ordered 15 pullets; 5 Speckled Sussex, 5 Black Australorps and 5 Easter Eggers. Cackle Hatchery gave us one extra chick, for a total of 16, but one died in the first few days and we gave one of our Easter Eggers to a friend who had lost one of their chicks. 14 left. All of these chicks were supposed to grow up to be good layers. We used the porch area inbetween our house and our garage (it’s enclosed) and set up a kiddie pool for them. Adam still needed to build the coop, but he had time before they would need it.

Our kids thought this was very fun! We got the chicks right around Johnny’s birthday and when school got out, so there was lots happening and fun people coming and going. We enjoyed sharing our family project with visitors.

Right away we could tell “the girls” had distinct personalities. Adam named our white Easter Egger “Marilyn”—she was the lead hen for sure. There was “Sugar”, “Ruth”, “Gloria”, “Esther”... We had names for the chicks we could identify. I was pretty busy with training right around that time, but Adam made a special point to handle the chicks regularly in order that they would be used to being held well adjusted around people, especially children.

End of Part 1.

Venison and Cake Bust

Last night Adam got a phone call that the deer a friend gave him a few weeks ago wasn't registered and that someone would be coming to the house to confiscate the venison. Bummer. We had a freezer full, but at least we got to make some venison chili before the DNR guy came to take it all. Venison Bust.

Today is the fourth birthday of the little boy Ben who comes to our house on Thursdays. Hudson and Ben have become good buds on these full day play dates and I enjoy the time to be in the kitchen making stuff. Of course today we wanted to make a cake to celebrate Ben! I love making cakes. Sometimes, however, it just isn't a good idea. There is no way around the fact that I simply should not eat them. I haven't been to the store, so I found a recipe for things I had in the house. (A delicious recipe from Molly Wizenberg’s, A Homemade Life)

I made the cake and explained to the boys that we would let it cool, make the frosting and then decorate together this afternoon. Lovely. When it was time to take the cake off the pan and put it onto the platter, our plans met their end. I haven't been baking things long enough! The past two cakes I've made (even when I have tested the centers) have not been baked fully through. I just need to remember that for whatever reason my oven needs to bake a little longer. Anyhow, the cake fell apart and is now in a big heap on a green vintage cake platter. It tasted delicious though! I really wish that I could say I did NOT devour part of it, but, in fact, I DID. Cake Bust.