Countdown to Coop

It's Done!
Moving day was Saturday. First, Kyle put the chicken wire on the vents, then decided to make some windows so we could see what those girls do behind closed doors:

Kyle plans to put doors on the windows for rainy or cold days. No chance of either of those conditions any time soon.
Here they are inside the coop. The roosting pole we made for them is too big around for their little chick feet, so Kyle quickly put together a smaller one that sits just a few inches off the ground. All the chicks have their butts to the camera. Are they mooning me??
Here's the ramp they use to get to their roosting pole. That's Dinah preening herself. (She's not headless although it looks like it.)
I'm so proud of this coop and the hardworking, super good-looking man who built it for us. See those happy chicks? They're thankful too.

Tincture Tutorial

This week, one of my favorite things happened: I got a big box from Mountain Rose Herbs. Woo-Hoo!! Oh happy day!

I tore into it right away because I purchased a bunch of these $1 dropper bottles for my latest project:
I'm going to make my own tinctures! YAY! Do you have any idea how much money I'm about to save??? It's insane! A tiny 1 oz bottle of tincture at the health food stores averages $10-15. I'm about to make a several 4 oz bottles of tincture and, including the price of the bottle itself, it's going to cost me little more than $2.
I decided to start with Horehound (our go-to herb for preventing or curing ear infections), and Plantain (an astrigent - good for facial complexion, poison ivy, poison oak, bug bites, etc.)
Step 1: Fill a clean jar half full with fresh or dried herbs.
Step 2: Pour Apple Cider Vinegar to the very brim.
Step 3: Twist the lid on tightly.
Step 4: Shake the jar vigorously. Yes, the crazed look is imperative to the process. Look happy! Think of all the money and trips to the health food store you're saving yourself!
Step 5: Put a wet cloth in the bottom of your handy-dandy crock-pot. Set to WARM. If you don't have a crock-pot with a warm function, buy one. You deserve it!
Cover crock-pot and abandon for several hours- all day if you want, you've got other things to do.

Step 6: Remove from crock-pot and put in your cabinet. Don't forget about it, though! Become a good friend to your new tincture and visit it a couple times a day for a good shake. Refer to Step 4 at least twice a day. If you use fresh herbs, you will be ready to strain out the herbs after 3 days. If you use dried herbs, allow 3 weeks.

Countdown to Coop

The chicks are 4 weeks old now and we are very eager to get them moved to the coop!
We've turned the heat lamp off now and the roosting box is down to 80 degrees, which is significantly cooler than it is outside. Hope these chickens are tough and can handle the heat!
Jeff, you asked and you shall receive. Here's our coop:
And here's the Chicken Run:

After we put the netting over the vents, we'll move the chicks in. More pics forthcoming.

And the Winner Is. . .

Vision Forum sponsored a DVD Giveaway for me, featuring their latest set

and Liz won the giveaway! Way to go, Liz! Email me your mailing address and I'll drop-ship your DVD of choice ASAP.

Time for Something New

I'm in need of some new tunes to add to the ole iPod. What are your favorites? I pretty much stick to two kinds of music: upbeat Christian bands or Praise & Worship. Gimme some ideas, please.

Deceiving Children

Last night at dinner, Kyle asked the kids if they knew how far away the moon is. They guessed 10,000 feet away. He then announced that he's been offered a job on the moon. This launched (ha ha) a discussion about what it would be like to live on the moon. I jumped right in, convincing the kids that this was indeed true. Kyle said that real estate is very cheap on the moon, so we could get a really big house. Unfortunately, pets are not allowed, so we had to come up with a solution for Misha. No problem. Pedro would have to stay on earth in order to finish college, so he could take care of Misha for us.
After about 15 minutes of this discussion, Maya said: "Ok, you gotta put a stop to this moon business!"
When I cracked a teeny tiny smile, Isaac said: "I saw that smile! I know what that smile means!!"

I'm curious: Have you ever deceived, fibbed, or told a tall tale to your kids?
Do tell.

Getting It All Done, Part 2

My friend Beth was kind enough to remind me that I never did follow through on Part Two of "Getting It All Done". I do that a lot, sorry! I had promised you all our chore chart and here it is: Daily Chores
And so you'll know what that actually looks like, I took pictures of all of us doing our chores on Friday:
Elena swept the dining room and entry way.
Maya swept the kitchen and den.
Isaac swept the front porch and sidewalk. (I have no idea what's up with the Aunt Jemima thing he's got goin' on.)
I was washing sheets and towels.
(I think Pedro produces way too much laundry for one week. What do you think??)
Elena wanted more camera time, so she found more work to do on her own. Whatever motivates you, honey. I'll take pictures of you all day long if you wanna clean the house top to bottom!
After the girls swept, Isaac mopped the kitchen and den and Chloe mopped the dining room and entry way.
Daniel and Lydia unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. It makes them feel so important when I ask them to do this. They are my most willing workers.

Elsie Dinsmore

I love these sweet books!
Elsie raises the standard of godly womanhood to new heights. Feminists will not be happy with Elsie. She is a God-honoring young woman who strives to solve problems while working through biblical authority structures.

For the next week, Elsie Dinsmore books and audiobooks are on sale! Woo-Hoo!!

Countdown to Coop

The chicks are almost 4 weeks old now and we're not sure they're going to make it much longer in our garage. When they're little and lightweight, they can fly pretty well! This week, we've been taking them outside for some Chicken Run Time. Kyle and I made the chicken run on Saturday, and this was their first introduction to it. They all stayed in one end of it, seemingly unaware of how much space we had given them.
Elena stayed right by the run and babysat while the rest of us played.


Kyle takes his job as pitcher very seriously:
What a wind-up!!

Dog-Tired

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard;
I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had
a home and was well taken care of.


He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on
his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked
down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him
out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard,
walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again
slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for
several weeks.

Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would
like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog
is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your
dog comes to my house for a nap.'

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a
different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home
with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch
up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'

Meteorology

Every morning we start our day with a Meteorologist's report. One of "the four big kids" (our affectionate name for Maya, Elena, Isaac, and Chloe) will pull up the iGoogle home page, which looks something like this and tell us: the day and time, the weather forecast for the week, and the moon phase.

They love doing it and are learning a lot.
We've customized our iGoogle page to include Classic Art of the Day, scripture of the day, National Geographic picture of the day, and Baby Wild Animal Pictures.

Check it out!

Bad Medicine

In an unmistakably insecure and aggressive move, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution at its annual meeting last weekend to introduce legislation outlawing home birth - according to The Big Push for Midwives.

What the AMA's resolution and these other kinds of potential and actual legislation do is to open the door to penalizing motherhood, in effect. Because most of these legislative attempts do not directly address the issue, they leave the door dangerously open to criminalizing women for making the decisions they feel are best for themselves, their babies and their families.

Read the rest HERE.

Are You Bold??

The other night, we went out to dinner with our friends/neighbors to Jason's Deli. They have $2 kids' meals, thus the draw.
Jason's Deli has a soft serve ice cream machine, free cones with dinner. (Ok, so maybe that was another draw.) Well that particular night their ice cream machine was broken and we parents were talking about what a disappointment that was for the kids. Then I got an idea!

I went up to the manager and explained: "We've got 10 kids here, who were all counting on an ice cream cone. (I cocked my head to the side and put on my best pathetic look.) Since your machine is broken, can they have a cookie instead?"

Now you have to understand, these cookies are HUGE! We're talking 5" diameter chocolate chunk cookies.

I smiled real big at the guy who I was asking the world of. I may have even batted my eyelashes. (They're worth it, trust me.)

He gave in.

Gave me a double stack of the giant yummy cookies. And since the babies can't possibly
eat a whole one {{snicker, snicker}}, each of the adults got half a cookie too.

I'm Curious: Would you have done the same? Have you? Tell me how your boldness has paid off.

Hair

The other day, I met another mom and her kiddos for a playdate. Three months ago, three of those kids were adopted from Ethiopia. She has three biological kids as well, just like us. So, she was asking me about black hair care.
(For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to be referring to African-American and Caucasian as "black" and "white". I'm not referring to color of hair.)
Black and white hair, appropriately, are exactly opposite in their needs. "White" hair gets greasy over time, black hair gets dry over time. I only wash Maya's hair once a week and with conditioner only. I also moisturize her hair every 2-3 days, generally just with a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of olive oil and water in a spray bottle. Because her hair has never been permed (aka straightened), the water just makes her locks look better, not frizzy.
The same is true for skincare. In the winter, I have a very hard time keeping Daniel "black"- his legs get grey from being so dry, even hours after lathering him down with lotion. If they don't put on lotion after bathing, they will look like little grey kids an hour later.
As far as hair styling, I highly recommend making room for that in the budget. lol (I'm a DIYer for a lot of things, but I don't have the hours to dedicate to my lack of skill.)

Loose Ends

I've been reading Pride & Prejudice for a summer book club and I'm down to the final chapter. As always, when I get to the end of a good fiction book, I don't want to finish it! I don't want it to end! When I get to the last 50 or so pages, I start pacing myself, reading only a few pages at a time so I can relish every last word. I am loving this book!
Here's a fun quiz I just took, it was quite accurate:

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgment that serves you very ill indeed.

Please leave a comment and tell me who you are.

And now for the results of the recent Adoption Contest. . .
I asked Lydia what her favorite number was (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 since there were six entries). We just got back from the Splash Park when I realized I needed to hurry up and choose a winner.

The winner is Heather! Congrats! Email me your address and I'll ship the book ASAP.

Countdown to Coop

The chicks have been home for a week now. We've already had to get a much bigger box for them, they're growing SO FAST!

Notice they're getting their feathers now. They have wing feathers and just yesterday, everybody got tail feathers. So cute!
We're now allowing the kids to hold and pet the chicks, we told them they had to be a week old first. You should see the chicks run when a little hand goes in the box.
Kyle has now floored and roofed the coop, so it looks great from the outside already. (I'll post pics later.) The chicks will move-in in another 4 weeks.

Happy and Sad

While I was checking my email, waiting for water to boil, Lydia asked me to "take pictures of me happy and sad," so I had to oblige.

Here's her sad face:

and here's her happy face:

Then, naturally, Daniel asked me to do the same for him. Here's his saddest expression:

and here's his happy face:

a little different, huh?

I find it very interesting that Liddy is much more dramatic with her sadness, and Daniel is much more expressive with his "happiness" aka craziness. This is so very reflective of their personalities. Lydia can throw a very impressive fit. (Can you say "baby of the family"?) Daniel on the other hand, rarely throws a fit. In general, he is a happy boy and he's got quite a bit of crazy in him. Is that just boys??

Grandma's Apron

I'm convinced our kids don't know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.

I'm curious: Do you wear an apron? What do you love about it?

DVD Giveaway!

Vision Forum has just come out with these new great DVDs:



And since I know you love all things free, I'm going to offer one of them to you! Aren't I generous?? Look at each of these DVDs and decide which one you'd most like to have, then answer this question:

What one lie has turned our culture away from God and Truth?

(This is opinion only. There is no right or wrong answer. Whether I agree with you or not will not alter your chances of winning.)

Giveaway Rules:

1. Your comment enters you into the drawing once.

2. To enter a second time, follow this link:
Webmasters Earn Money Here!
Leave a second comment saying that you've become a Vision Forum affiliate, and you now have twice the chance of winning.

3. To enter a third time, do the above and send $25 to Clark Chatter. (PayPal only.)

4. To enter a fourth time, do all of the above and email me telling me why you think I'm terrific. (Your answer here actually will enhance your chances of winning.)



Winner will be chosen and announced June 25, 2008

Misha

Have I ever told you about our kitty, Misha? Well, she's not really a kitty anymore; she's 5 years old, but we call her Misha kitty. Misha is a Devon Rex, a hypoallergenic cat that we bought from a breeder because I'm allergic to cats and dogs.
Devon Rex cats don't have guard hair, only down, and it's wavy. I personally think she's beautiful, but we have heard more than once, "That is a cat, right?" She plays fetch occasionally, she's super patient with the kids, and she's very loving.

I love my Misha, probably mostly because she's the only affectionate pet (no the parrots don't count) I've had that I could still breathe around. I love that feeling- you know the one where your lungs are expanding and contracting as they should and you're not gasping for breath? That feeling. I've grown to really enjoy it.

Contest!

Have you always wanted to adopt?
Do you want to adopt in the future?
Are you currently in the process of adopting?

Then this contest is for YOU!

Leave me a comment telling me what adoption means to you and you'll be entered into a drawing for this book:


Winner will be announced next Wednesday, June 11th.

Guess What We Just Got?!

Yesterday, Kyle called the post office to give them a head's up that we were expecting chicks next week. This morning the postmaster called to say they just arrived. What?!?!?! We're not ready yet! (Well, we mostly were but we didn't have the chick feed yet.)
Here are our newest additions:
The kids are all going nuts over these cute chicks, of course. Even Pedro, who's done nothing but make fun of us city slickers for getting chickens. He was the first to care for them.

Our Weekend at the Lake

We spent this past weekend at the lakehouse with our friends. We were at the beach between lunch and dinner on Saturday, playing and having fun. The boys were playing King of the Mountain on the big tube. Isaac fell off two seconds after I snapped this shot.

All Daniel needed was a bucket and he entertained himself for hours!
And Lydia only needed a stick. She slapped the water over and over and over. . .

While the girls did this:
Isaac and Stephanie did this:Here's their driver:
Oh wait, that doesn't look right. I meant the tall one. He was the driver.

Then that handsome fellow took me for a spin. Woo-Hoo! He's a speed demon, he is!
This picture is really just for my CL friends:

So maybe we do grill in the summer. Sue me!
Sunday we spent more time relaxing. Here's our idea of relaxing at the lake.
Look at that cute boy! Notice anything different about him??? He's wearing UNDERWEAR! It's a miracle! Now I need to buy smaller shorts for him. Good grief!

Maya caught a 17" trout, but we showed him mercy and decided to take a picture of this one instead.
Aren't we gracious??

Chain-Smoking Health Nut

The other day, I was waiting in line at the grocery store, and I noticed that the guy in front of me was buying all health food. Organic juice, fruits and veggies, etc. I was impressed. Then as he was about to check out, he asked the cashier for a pack of Marlboros. I stopped myself from laughing out loud. And since I couldn't think of anything tactful to say, I kept my mouth shut. Now, you have to understand that wasn't easy for me.
After the guy was a safe distance away and half of my stuff was already bagged, I said to the cashier, with a big laugh: "What's up with that guy buying all health food and then getting cigarettes?? That doesn't make any sense!" This started a funny conversation between myself and the cashier, which lasted until it was time for me to go.

I'm curious: Do you do that? Do you talk to cashiers or other customers? Give me an example of what your usual check-out experience looks like.