Lutheran Hen

A cool bowl

2012-01-04T08:29:00.002-06:00

This is a cool little bowl. We inherited it from some of our friends who have older children. My little chick #5 is now three, so she had learned how to carry a bowl with out tipping it. She can walk through the house with a cup of water without spilling. Please do not think that I have a daughter that never spills, she does. But this skill is pretty much on her I can do list.

What if I only gave her bowl like the one pictured above? This bowl is designed not spill, a no mess bowl. Great for mom, maybe even mom focused, because is the child learning anything? Do they learn to carefully balance the Cheerios so they do not have to pick them up? Would other things then be delayed by a child using nothing but a spill proof bowl and cup.

These are the things that make me go ummm while I wait for the coffee to brew.

A New Year

2012-01-02T08:55:00.002-06:00

We now find our self at the beginning of a new year. A new year means many things, we can improve our self, eat better, organize things, cook better.......The list can go on and on and on. Maybe we will make plans to do things, lists! Who does not like a good list? I know nothing feels better than checking something off of a list.

How about planning to die? Do we ever put that on list? Do we ever think of our death to sin through our baptism? Daily we drown ourselves in our baptism through Jesus Christ our savior. We must die in order for Christ to dwell within us and do the good that our sinful nature is not capable of doing.

"We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4"

Our baptism is the most comfort giving part of our christian lives. My children can deal with their fears so much better when they remember the promise of their everlasting life. They make the sign of the cross and remember that they are completely cared for by their Heavenly Father. How does their Father in heaven do that? By giving them loving parents, a safe home, clothing and food. Most importantly though, is because He did not abandon them in their sinful nature. He sent them the perfect savior, the spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ. He made the payment for all our sins. Not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood. That he poured out upon us, to forgive us of our sins.

Fears can be set aside because God is our Heavenly Father. We are able to trust in Him through our baptism. Christ, living in us, is able to have the trust in God that we lack. He is able to calm our troubled heart and bring us back into the safety net of Christ.

You are free to live each day in your baptism and have your sinful natuer die. Through Jesus Christ we are able to live in Gospel.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:18:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas from the Lutheran hen house. This year flew by as most seem to do when there are five chicks in a house. Everyone is growing and learning and living each day in the forgiveness so freely given to our by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I feel as though we have been greatly blessed this year. When most people think of blessings, they think of earthly things. In a baptised child of God, we think of our forgiveness as a blessing. Everyday our sins are before our eyes and we may feel like we will never be able to accomplish the tasks before us. Our Father in heaven knows our every plea and sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect lamb for us. Jesus was blameless, we are not. Jesus was kind, we are not. Jesus was taking care of his neighbor, we are not. Jesus was spotless, we are not.

Through our baptism we were crucified with Christ and raised from the dead. We are now the spotless lamb because Jesus Christ dwells within us, through our washing at our baptism. "He Saved us though the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying." Titus 3:5-8

Here are the five chicks after the Christmas Eve service at our church tonight. As you can see Chick number 4 wears glasses now. He also broke his arm last spring. He loves math and plays games with numbers all of the time.

Chick number 5 is now THREE. She is cute, cute, cute and likes to snitch butter, look at babies, play with her sibling and ask for chocolate milk.

Chick number 2 has learned to count many, many carbs. His type 1 diabetes diagnoses came in September and our lives have been forever changed. It is just our new normal.

Chick number 3 has the best imagination in the world. She loves to play and sing and talk and change clothes and decorate and use glitter and anything else that is fun.

Chick number 1 reads and reads and reads. She also helps me a lot! She is what you would call, my right hand gal. She has begun to babysit and like the extra pocket money that she can make.

Chick numbers 3 and 5 had matching dresses this year. Thank you Nana and Papa for the cute outfits.

Enjoying their goody bags after the Christmas Eve Service.

Dutch Baby adventuers

2011-05-06T09:10:00.002-05:00

My friend, who is a much better cook than I am, taught me how to cook a dutch baby. Some of you may now be asking, "what in the world is a dutch baby?". It is a fluffy type of pancake, a play on a popover, because it is baked all together. I use this recipe for my dutch baby and have tried it three times.

When I first made one the children were very concerned that we were going to eat a baby. Kids are funny that way, especially mine. They try to whip me into a frenzy every chance they get. Chick #5 was the most confused by the title of Dutch Baby. The first attempt at cooking a dutch baby involved sauteing apples. After the apples were tender, the batter was poured on them and it was baked. It also involved melting butter on top of it and drizzling some lemon juice upon it during the final minutes of baking.

Dutch Baby number three was full of bacon and sausage. It was a huge hit and completely disappeared. My sister and her son were here so the dutch baby knowledge was passed on to her.
The bacon/sausage version has been the most popular one I have made so far.

This morning I tried a coconut dutch baby. I added flaked coconut to the batter before I baked it and I loved it. The kids were half and half in love with it. It was not a hit so I am not sure that it would be worth it to try this version again. Coconut does have a funny texture and a few of my kids do not like the way that it feels in their mouths. I would like to know how it tastes when made with coconut milk. If I ever try that one I will let you know.

Here is the coconut Dutch after I served it. I tried to make homemade whipping cream but you can tell I failed. I added the powdered sugar right away and I bet that did something to the chemistry of the fat and fluffing and the whipping. I will have to search out a episode of Good Eats to figure out why my cream flopped. There is a good thing about cream and sugar, it always tastes good even if it is not fluffy.

Here is the coconut dutch baby hot out of the oven. Yummy!

The feast

2011-04-28T10:24:00.004-05:00

Chick #1 was confirmed on Palm Sunday. We had so many family and friends that traveled to our little neck of the woods to celebrate this wonderful occasion with us. Some of you maybe be wondering what on earth is a confirmation any way. First I will begin by explaining what it is not. It is not a graduation from church or Sunday school. It is not a turning over of one's life to Christ. My daughter did not turn her heart over to Christ or ask him to come into her heart.

A Confirmation is a confession of one's faith. A faith that was given to them by the Spirit. It is also a understanding that our learning of Christ is never ending and that we live in continued catechises for our entire lives in this world.

My daughter became a Christian by hearing the word of God. My daughter became a child of God at her baptism when she was only 11 days old. She was baptised with plain water, "from the tap" to use her words. This water was then combined with God's word and she became holy and set apart from all people.

During her questioning which was before our pastor, family and one set of friends she spoke of the faith that was given to her by God. In a very poised manner, she told us of the triune God, her sinful nature and her need of a Savior. She spoke of the Commandments, Creed, the Lord's prayer, Absolution, Baptism and Communion. She was alone and the only confirmand and she did a beautiful job.

In the Sermon our Pastor did a beautiful job of telling Chick #1 that Christ was coming and where he would be. He would be placed into her mouth under the bread and wine of communion for the forgiveness of her sins.

Chick #1 with some of our dear friends. I have known the lady in this picture since she was born.

Chick #1 always giggles when she is visiting with this lovely women. She prepared beautiful food and everyone loved it.

My sister decorated this beautiful cake for the special day. Chick #1 had a hard time coming up with an idea for the cake but we guided her to this nice design.

Here is the whole family.

Chick #1 with The Rooster's father. It was so nice having him and his sister and bothers there for the afternoon.

Here she is again with The Rooster's mother and step-father. We are very lucky to live close to them and spend a lot of time them.

My parent's were able to make the trip down and Chick #1 was very excited to have them here, so was I.

These are her Godparents one set traveled 10 hours and the other 16 hours. Thank you so much for coming and spending time with us.

Our Pastor, he who must not be named, posed for a picture with our churches only confirmand this year. I need to get a copy of this picture to our church soon, so I can be hung on the wall with the other confirmand photos.

A mother's face

2010-12-14T15:06:00.002-06:00

A mother's face can show many different emotions. We, as mothers, go through many things with our children, who have been given to us by God our Father. These children give us joy and laughter. Most of the time our lives, as mothers, are not that bad. We have it pretty good and we do not even realize it.

My dear friend is going through something no mother should have to go through. Her son is in the hospital and he is very sick. He can open his eyes and look at her, although his eyes can not focus because of all of the medicine he is on. He does try to hold onto her hand when she places her hand in his. She looks forward to every tiny wiggle of his toes. She loves him!

Love is a feeling that you can not always see. Kicking is a verb you can see and laughing is a verb that is seen and heard. Love is little harder to see. Last night, while I was visiting the family at the hospital, I saw her look at her son. It was not a happy glance that you often see parents give their children. This was a look of determination, compassion, longing, needing and loving. I have never in my adult life seen a look like that upon a person's face.

Even though this mother loves her child so so much, her love can not save him. Our Father in heaven loves this little boy even more than his mother is able to love him. God has promised to save this child and already has. This little boy, of seven, is promised an ever lasting life in heaven. This promise was given to him when a little bit on water was sprinkled upon his forehead during his baptism. He was one day old and our Father in heaven already loved him. In all reality, God loved him at the beginning of time. God loved each one of us and that is why we were made by him. God loved us so much that his Son, Jesus Christ, shed his blood for payment of our sin. He loves us so much that he gives us His Holy Spirit that is poured out on us in our baptism. God loves us so much that he feeds us with the holy food of His Son's body and blood in Holy Communion.

These are the only gifts that matter. Who cares about the wii or ipods. The new clothes and jewelry are all junk. When it comes down to desperate times, sorrowful times and fear times, the gifts that our Father in heaven has given us are able to put a safety net under our feet. There is something outside of ourselves that has promised us life. The object of this faith is solid and will hold us safe even though the world is tumbling around us. God, our heavenly Father, looks down on us with love in his eyes and he shows mercy upon our sinful nature.

Kyrie Eleison

All that I need

2010-11-20T21:48:00.003-06:00

What is the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer?

Give us this day our daily bread.

What does the mean?

God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What is meant by daily bread?

Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body. Such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like. (Luther's small catechism)

The Lord's prayer, the perfect prayer, given to us by God's only Son Jesus Christ. It is a prayer that rolls off of our tongues with ease. We do not have to think about it. It is comfort.
Mommies set food on the table before their children to enjoy and eat. Daily Bread.
Daddies go to work and provide for their families. Daily Bread.
Clothing is received for birthday presents or from friends that have out grown them. Daily Bread.
I have a husband that loves me. Daily Bread.
We live in a country that provides us with freedom to work and learn. Daily Bread.

What if a family is struggling to receive their daily bread? Who provides these meals, housing, clothing..... God our Heavenly Father.

It is a wonder to behold this work done by God the Father through his Son Jesus Christ through people here is a sinful word. That is the church, caring and providing for the sheep and making sure their trough is full. These little sheep need a roof over their head. These little sheep need a place to lay their weary heads.

When there is a crisis with a member of the church, Christ in us provides for these people whether it be food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home. . . . . .

God gave us one prayer and it is perfect. He provides for his sheep.

Reformation Day

2010-10-27T10:11:00.003-05:00

I want to do a few reformation day activities with the children with week since we will be celebrating this church day on Sunday. Today I will be reading to the children out of Paul L. Maier's book Martin Luther A Man Who Changed The World. I found a nice picture of Martin Luther here and hopefully it will busy them so that I am able to read without to many interruptions. Here is a word search that the older children can work on. This week we have also enjoyed singing A Might Fortress Is Our God. Chick #4 almost has the first verse memorized and is working hard on remembering some of the words. Maybe I will find a few other fun to share with you but for now I think this is good.

Climbing

2010-10-20T14:30:00.002-05:00

Chick #5 is climbing onto everything. She scoots chairs all over the kitchen getting into whatever she wants. For other parts of the house, she will grab the step stool from the down stairs bathroom and haul it into the living room to try to reach her hearts desire. I have now came upon a new part of parenting. My job is to keep this little two year old girl safe and sounds. It is really a lot harder than it seems.

Everyday

2010-10-19T12:10:00.002-05:00

Here I sit in the kitchen listening to a child plunk at the piano. Hamburger is trying to cook from a frozen state upon my stove. I am hoping that children have their math books open and that Chick #5 is not attacking lipstick. This stuff happens every day. Every day I sit in my home and everyday it is the same. Our home may seem busy and happy and funny and interesting, but to me, it is the same old same old everyday. I get bored in my home and I mess up a lot. The laundry is not done, the meals are not planned out, I am not always nice to my children or my dog. Poor dog, he get the worse of it. I fail at loosing the weight I gained right after chick #5 was born. Plus, I do not always love my spouse or my God.

My God, my Father in heaven, saves me from all of me. My sinful nature is in every single cell of my body. My sinful nature come out in my words, thoughts and deeds. But my heavenly Father has saved me. His Son, Jesus Christ, died for all sin. Sin from Adam and Eve until He comes again. God does not see me or my sin, He sees His perfect holy Son. Through baptism I died with Christ and rose from the dead with him. Christ is alive in me and He loves my spouse, cooks the meals, loves and cares for the children and pets the dogs head.

I try to be thankful for this but I always fall short because of sin. So for the moment I am happy that Christ in me can make this a safe and happy home for my husband and children and goofy dog.

Mother's Day

2010-05-11T16:24:00.007-05:00

I am not a fan of Mother's Day, I hate the touchy feeling emotions of it. I do not want the praise or the thanks. Most of all, I do not want hear the pastor preach about mothers on Mother's Day. Mother's Day reminds me of all of the faults that I have had, the failures I have encountered, the hard times of being a mother. The cards from the stores are silly and none of them cover the topic well. This past Sunday, on Mother's Day, the best thing that happened to me was receiving Christ forgiveness of all sin and receiving Christ's body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. This radio show talks about mothers with truth and it is a nice change.

http://issuesetc.org/2010/05/07/4852/

http://issuesetc.org/2010/05/10/4872/

sun and dirt

2010-05-03T07:59:00.004-05:00

We had a very nice weekend at the hen house. Saturday morning was lazy, and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast made by the Rooster. He had weekend of painting and I had a weekend of laundry. We needed a couple of chairs to place on our front porch and found some on sale at a local hardware big box store. How hard could it be to paint a couple of chairs? Well, as it turns out, the Rooster worked on them all weekend and only one it finished. The other is primed but is still in need of a final coat of paint. When you take into account how much my husband gets paid for an hour of his time at work, these turned out to be pricey chairs. If we have to do this again, I think we will just buy the finished product.

I was on baby chick duty and Chick #1 also helped with this. She loves to toddle about the yard but we must keep a close eye on her so someone must be her shadow. I was able to go on a nice jog while Chick #3 had softball practice. The sun was shining beautifully so I sat and watched her practice in order to soak up some vitamin D. I may have gotten a little to much because my legs are a slight shade of pink but the sunlight does wonders for my Mommy brain.

Sunday we were able to help my Mother in law and her husband put in their vegetable garden. They have a great location for a garden with plenty of sunlight. We helped buy some of the plants so we might be able to enjoy some of the harvest. Many tomato plants were placed into the ground, so I will be canning tomatoes and salsa this summer. I guess that I should begin hunting for free canning jars.

Dressing Up Standards, Dumbing Down Schools

2010-04-22T10:06:00.000-05:00

Dressing Up Standards, Dumbing Down Schools

I am often asked if I give my children tests. My answer is always "no". I know everything that my children know. Every now and then we play the board game Smarter than a Fifth Grader. My husband will read a question and I know that Chick #2 does not know that yet but, Chick #1 read about that in such and such book. My children can read as much as they want, and there is no time limit put on it. If they want to get lost in their books until noon, I let them. They will get to their math and other subjects later. I have never made them right out a book reports because they are constantly telling me about every story they read. I do not have to test their comprehension skill because I see them being used every single day. They have a love of learning that is very beautiful. My children will spend hours looking at maps, reading in encyclopedias, listening to books on tape and discussing books with one another. They are developing a strong sense of family and a understanding about caring for one another.

This job of home educating my children is a difficult one. They are always under foot and I have to be able to answer many many questions. I have fears of messing up and not doing a proper job, but I don't think that will happen. Even though we have bad days and fighting does go on in the house. Grace is given to us. Our sins our forgiven and Christ in me will take proper care of these children.

Pass the salt please

2010-04-18T15:04:00.009-05:00

Sometimes I love the weekends, they are lazy, calm, uninterrupted and just plain nice. Then there are other times when I do not like them because of them being lazy, calm, uninterrupted and nice. My personality and the children's change, the day to day things are just to much and we need a break. Isn't that such a strange thing? I fear that our next weekend maybe a bad one. My dear husband has to work next Saturday and none of us are looking forward to it. I fear that it may feel just like a Thursday when it should not. Saturdays are referred to as Daddy day. The Rooster wakes up and makes a big breakfast for the family and we just hangout together all day.

The Rooster does so many things for me and I am so thankful for him. He saves me from things I can not handle a pile of laundry, to many dishes on my counter, my racing my mind, the children. God intended for families to work this way. A husband and wife are placed in the family to help each other and work together. He, my husband, provides for us by working every weekday so we can have a comfortable home, food, and things we need for this life. I stay home caring for children. Everyday he is free to leave our home and work. He can do this with peace, knowing that things are being taken care of at home. His children are safe and their needs are being meet by his wife.

A marriage is more than just helping one another, there must also be a respect for each other. My husband still thanks me for cooking meals, and cleaning up things. This is something that happens daily. If he needs me to help him he still always includes please in his sentience. I try to do the same with him. If I need him to help with a sick child or a very messy diaper, I try to ask nicely. Sometimes I think that this respect for one another in a marriage is disappearing in the world.

Husbands, in the world, think of their wives as nags. They blindly follow what their wives order and develop hard feels about the situation. Wives, in the world, think of their husbands as another child that they must keep under their thumb. Dealing with their husbands is a chore and never thought of as a joy. I find this has also become a standard in this era. We can find this scenario playing out in TV sitcoms and in movies. It happens in reality TV shows and right under our own noses. Once something starts to touch every aspect of our lives, it is hard to think of this as being incorrect.

As a stay at home mother I rely upon my husband for everything. There is a lot of guilt involved with this. During times when money is tight, I wish that there was some way that I could help out. I really do not have any skills that I would be able to use to make money. If I were to help, it would be in a very plain way such as working in a retail shop. We would then have to add in the cost of gas for driving to town. There would be added stress placed upon the family caused by me not being here. I do not think that the pros out weigh the cons on this issues. Right now the vocation that God, our Heavenly Father, has given me is the vocation of wife and mother. I am pretty sure that it is a full time job and for now my plate is full.

In order to help next Saturday go smoothly, we will be taking a trip to the big zoo that is close to us. The kids will love the change of pace, the exercise, and the picnic lunch. This will also be the first time that Baby Chick will be involved with the whole zoo experience. I am sure that her excitement and the change of pace will be just what we need to make it through the day without the Rooster.

Papa's lap

2010-04-15T09:05:00.004-05:00

I stole the title from our pastor. Yeah, I admit it, but you will see why.

When we pray Our Father who are in heaven what are we saying? Another Lutheran way to say this is what does this mean?

With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him and dear children ask their dear father. (Luther's Small Catechism)

A small child will confidently run up to their father and call out, "Daddy, Daddy". The father will then sweep up the child into his safe arms and comfort the child. Once when I was a teen we experienced a earth quake. At the time we were living in Germany and the quake was very tiny, but something that I had never experienced before. The quake woke up me and my sister and we were both frightened. In that moment of fright we did not call out for our mother, but for our father. I remember looking back thinking how funny it was that we called out to him without any thought, both of us at the same time. At our moment of fear we went to our father.

We have the confidence to call out to our Father in heaven the same way. In our fear, despair, joy, happiness and all other emotions we can call on God, our Father Heaven. He is our daddy in heaven, our Papa who's lap we can crawl into and find peace. He loves us, cares for us, provides for us, and forgives us. We pray to our Father because he has promised to hear us. Psalm 65:2
He has given us this perfect prayer, The Lord's Prayer, for us to pray. In this prayer we call on him, and ask him for all things. In this Lord's prayer he gives us forgiveness of our sins, and reminds us of how he provides for us.

We are poor sinful beings and have been forgiven for all of our sins, the ones we know of, the ones we are unaware of and the ones we have yet to commit. Our Father in Heaven gave us his Son to die for our sins. We have been washed clean and do not need to fear our Father. Jesus Christ, His only Son, has made it possible to approach our Father and confidently pray to him.

Light hearted

2010-04-10T09:33:00.002-05:00

This has been a heavy week. I won't lie and act like my life is perfect because there are many things that are not. Yes, I do stay home with me children, I educate them, cook for them, clean, and care for husband. Life is stressful and difficult even though it may not seem so on the outside. This week I have been missing family and friends that are far away. I have questions things about myself but I have not been shaken. I look forward to receiving the grace given to me by my Father in Heaven, his own Son's body and blood poured out on me for the forgiveness of my sins.

For this weekend I plan on enjoying this beautiful weather. The dog needs to be taken for a long walk and so do I. Some spring cleaning will hopefully get finished up around here. It is not really spring clean in the sense that I am washing curtains, I am simply trying to declutter things. I would like to clean out some flower gardens and find the new little plants growing under the old dead leaves. The baby chick needs to spend some time outside in the sun that will put me on shadow duty, following her around watching her discover her world is a treat.

On Monday I plan on doing some serious blogging and will stretch out my writing wings. I hope to do a little reading and I might even pick up my knitting needles. Have a great weekend.

Water washes me

2010-04-08T06:20:00.008-05:00

I have been thinking about baptism lately. For a few years I have wanted to blog about it but time is always short and other things would distract me. I am a fan of the Duggar's TV show and chick #1 and were watching the episode when their little preemie baby was born. The tiny little infant looked so small and weak. The Family were rejoicing that the little babe was born and alive but many of the Duggar kids were also crying as they looked at the weak infant. Chick #1 looked at me and said "That baby is baptised, isn't it mom?" My heart broke when I told her no. The Duggars are Baptist and they make this very well know during their TV show. They are Christians and know that Christ's forgives them but they do not baptise little babies. That is just how the doctrine of the baptist church is. I could tell that this fact upset chick #1.

Baptism is such an amazing and beautiful thing. Very simple water is combined with God's word and you have a baptism. This simple act brings faith to a tiny baby. A faith that is stronger than any human, a faith that can persevere through many things, a faith that is not of human making. The faith is Jesus Christ's perfect faith. Our sinful lives can not trust in Christ blood to forgive our sins but His own faith, in us, can trust in him. When our heavenly Father looks at us he does not see our sins, our faults, or our ugliness. Our Heavenly Father gazes upon his perfect Son when he looks at us. We are sinless beings in God the Father's eyes.

This hymn has been playing in my head lately and I thought I would share it with you.

Baptismal waters cover me

As I approach on bended knee;

My Father's mercy here I plead,

For grievous sins of thought and deed.

I look to Christ upon the tree,

His body broken there for me;

I lay before Him all my sin,

My darkest secrets from within.

Lord, may your wounded hand impart

Your healing to my broken heart;

Your love alone can form in me

A heart that serves You joyfully.

Baptismal waters cover me;

Christ's wounded hand has set me free.

Held in my Father's strong embrace,

With joy I praise Him for His grace.

Lutheran Service Book #616

Here is a link to a Internet radio show talking about baptism.

Or if you want to read something you can go here.

If you like to buy a book about it you can go here.

Now let us all rejoice in the gift of baptism that has freely been given to us.

Love and honor each other

2010-04-05T07:58:00.006-05:00

Teens and young adults think that they have a right. For some reason they think that they can do things that mess with other peoples lives and families. I do not care if they are being "careful", there are still sins being commented against future husband and wives. In this world a kid gets in more trouble for steeling then from committing adultery. Teen should not be having this "romance" with each other. If young men and women are not ready for the responsibility of being a Daddy or a Mommy they should not play Daddy or Mommy. They have no idea of the commitment that is need to raise a child. These young children, the teens, have no idea how many people are effecting by this behavior.

God has given husbands and wives a very special gift. This gift is to be loved and enjoyed inside of marriage. We are meant to have a sexual relationship with only one person. Only that person should know you in that way. I don't care what teens or young adults say. They do not know that type of love. They should not act like they do or love another person in a married way until they are married. God has given teens parents to guild teens through those horrid years. Parents need to have the strength to do their job and realize that they are still the parents. Should a teen be sleeping with his girlfriend under his parents roof? No! There, that is the answer and I said it and everyone knows that I know that it is wrong. The parent is sinning against the child by not being a parent, the child is sinning against it's parent, against their future spouse and against their girl or boyfriends future spouse. They are sinning against God and living outside of the union that he intended for husbands and wives.

Boys need to learn that they are boys unless they have the means to provide for a family. I do not know of any 16 or 17 year old that could provide housing and food for a wife and child. If you can not do that then you should not be sleeping around.

Girls need to understand what it is to take a care of a child. To care for a baby does not mean that you drop it off at the daycare center in your HS. It does not mean that you have your parents care for this child. It means that you care for this child 24/7 and it is hard. It is the hardest job that there is in the whole world and if you can't do, don't sleep around with boys.

Parents of teens toss up their hands and declare, "we can't tell them no." Really? I think parents could if they are willing to wear their parent's pants. Do these children need cell phone, games consoles, and cars? NO. We are not here to be our children's friend. It is hard to make your children mad but God gave us children to teach them to be responsible adults. Our job is to protect them, tell them no and give them rules.

Is someone being responsible by letting the govt. provide food or housing for them? NO! So many problems of this world could be fixed if people would just learn how to keep their legs together. If you do not have the means to pay for a baby to be born in a hospital then don't participate in the practice of making babies.

I have been tossing a lot of law out in this post. I know that I have made many people mad and upset over this. To be honest, I have not said anything that you did not already know. Everyone that knows me knows that this is how I feel. I am not going to apologize for saying any of this.

Is there hope after teens having fallen into this behavior? Yes. Does our Father in Heaven still care for them? Yes. Has our Father in heaven poured out forgiveness to all sinners? Yes.

A sinner must first realize his sin and then repent of it. To learn of your sin is a hard thing. It breaks you down and makes you feel like crap. It causes sorrow to run through your body but it does not last. God loves us. God loves us more than his own Son. We sin and we deserve death. That is the bill handed to us. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to pay that bill. We have done nothing to earn this but God have freely given it to us. We can rejoice in this forgiveness of sins.

If you desire to read any further on this topic I urge to read about the sixth commandment here.

thoughts

2010-03-31T20:47:00.002-05:00

I sit here thinking. I do this alot and often and all of the time. Women always think and it is something that we never shut off. Why is it that if I am always thinking I can never think of anything to write? I have often tryed to think of blog posts but then I worry and can not sleep. Maybe blogging is not my cup of tea?

Lately I have been getting more thing done around the house. Laundry has been folded and put away and the living room floor cleaned. The kids did some good work on their bedrooms over the past week.

We had a really wonderful unschooled day. I picked one topic as our jumping off of point. It was telephones. We all have them and we carry them around everywhere. We are also studding that time period of history when the telephone was invented so, it fit in with our normal school studies. The kids learned about Alexander Graham Bell, Scarlet fever, sound waves, and Greek root words. Wyatt has a reading lesson and Constence did her writing. Then I read from our novel we reading out loud and the older kids practiced composing compound sentences. We did out bible reading and they practiced piano and played outside. I was able to wash bedding, cook, and workout. I really do like homeschooling.

another morning meal

2010-02-04T11:20:00.004-06:00

This morning we all woke up just a little bit earlier so I was able to make one of the kids favorite morning meals, waffles. A waffle iron can only make one waffle at a time so it takes about an hour to make these. That reason makes this meal happen a little less often in this house. I cooked the left over bacon from earlier in the week to go with the waffles.

Tomorrow it might be another egg morning in our house. I have not planned that far in my head yet. The Rooster takes over breakfast duties on the weekends. He makes a huge meal on Saturday mornings. I remember when he first decided to start that job in the house. He said, " I want to do something that the kids will always remember". So he picked making Saturday morning breakfast. Sometimes other things get in the way, like baseball games or hunting, but as a rule, it is his job. The kids always look forward to Daddy breakfast. Every now and then I will help to make biscuits or mix up pancake batter. Usually it is a morning that I can enjoy a little quite and drink my coffee.

More hen house breakfasts

2010-02-03T10:32:00.005-06:00

My pictures got flipped around but we can live with that. This morning I made muffins for the little chicks. This is the recipe that I used this morning. I can not find my favorite recipe for muffins because my little chicks like to look at my cookbooks. I wish they were a little nicer to my books so the pages would not wear out. The page out of my Better Homes and Garden cook had the same demise as the cover, destroyed. So I am hunting for a good substitute. This one is close but the texture is a little crumbly. The chicks loved them so they will work for now. We also had grapefruit which is a favorite of all the chicks. My blue coffee cup was a Mother's Day from the fourth chick that he picked out all be himself.

Yesterday we had french toast. I fried half a pound of sausage and made 13 pieces of french toast. Two chicks had a banana to fill up their tummies. The batter that I dipped the bread in had 6 eggs, about a cup of milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in it. We top our toast with little butter (if wanted) and a drizzle of syrup. For while I tried using real maple syrup but the price started to go up. Now we use regular high fructose, maple flavored, corn syrup. When there are 5 children in the house and 1 income, corners have be cut.

Homeschooling makes it so much easier for me to make homemade meals for my family. We are not in hurry to get out of the door in the morning so they can read and do studies while I busy myself in the kitchen. They look forward to our time sitting around the table and enjoy each others company. I hope that this will stay true as the older one get closer to their teenage years. I am sure that many people will tell me that this will change but I can always hope.

Hen house breakfast

2010-02-02T08:12:00.003-06:00

Many people are surprised to find out that my children do not, as a rule, eat cereal or processed food for breakfast. Every now and then The Rooster will buy the boxes of sugar (cereal) when they are on sale. It is not the most practical thing for me to feed my little brood of chicks because they would empty a box everyday. Yesterday this was our breakfast. I cooked 1/2 pound of bacon, 6 eggs, one green onion, 1 oz. of cheese, 7 pieces of toast and banana. Chick #1 is not fond of eggs so she has toast with peanut butter and a banana. The children do not drink coffee, that is my cute little cup. They either have raw milk or water, every now and then we will have juice served at breakfast.

On a good day we are eating a little before 9am. The children have become better about starting a few of the subjects before we eat so our school day does not last so long. What am I cooking this morning? Sausage and french toast.

Library day

2010-01-29T20:32:00.004-06:00

Today we traveled to the Library in the big city where we live. Our little country town library does not offer much in the way of children's nonfiction, so we pay to go to the library in a larger town. The oldest chick informed me today that she has read 13 books since the new year. Can you believe that? She loves library day and always begs to go back before I am ready. We can keep books for six weeks so we usually only go there about once a month. I thought that I would give you a list of what everyone in the family is reading so here it is.

The Rooster The Lonely Way by Hermann Sasse
The Hen (me) Emma by Jane Austin or Winter Solstice by Rosemunde Pilcher
Chick 1 (12 yr) The Lord of the Ring series
Chick 2 (10yr) the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
Chick 3 (7yr) the Little House in the Parie series

Another day

2010-01-28T18:55:00.002-06:00

Today was piano day. Everyone that has children that take piano lessons knows what I mean. Even more, homeschooling mothers who have to change the day to get the kids to lessons. I thought I would have it a little easy. Three children had lessons today so I could drop them off and then head back home. If I was lucky, little chick 5 would fall asleep in the car and get in a good nap after I carried her back into the house. Those are the key words here. Back into the house. This little lady is a very light sleeper. Of course she woke up while I was trying to bring her into the house and to her room. Maybe the house was just too quiet. I mean really, how many times is the house just down to two children. So then I spent the next hour and ten minutes trying to have a nice story time with chick 4 and a fussy crying baby. Not the lovely moment I had in mind.

Our mind always play those tricks on us. We think that the world will be lovely. Our children will listen to us, I will get things done, my boys will not start wrestling in the middle of the store. You get my drift. Everything is always tainted. It does not sparkle and it is not nice. There is grime every where, dust, tears, pain, sadness, lack of sun......

This will only last for a little while. Our days in this life are short and we must think of what has been promised to us. In our baptised lives, we are promised a life without tears, without pain, without hunger, and all of the other discomforts of this life. Christ blood given for our sins is the love that our Father in Heaven has given us. We are only in this world for a little while but we are not of this world. The moment will come when we are taken to our Heavenly home and then we will have all the mysteries revealed to us.

Should I?

2010-01-27T18:51:00.002-06:00

I have been completely lost from the blogging seen. I was huge and pregnant, had beautiful little baby. Now said baby is into everything and still nursing. You see, I just can not give that up yet because she is my last baby. Some of my friends have been blogging about amazing things and I have just been here. There is a reason that I was not blogging or on the computer much. My computer was moved from downstairs up into our bedroom. It was no longer in the main living areas of the house. As soon as I would travel up to my room to steal some computer time. The chicks would begin to run wild down on the main floor of the house. When it was time to upgrade my cell phone plain I upgraded. At least with a smart phone I could see what my computer friends were up to. I just did not chat much. So I am back with a hip new notebook computer in my kitchen. I am in love and wireless. I suppose I could be in the living room with the other three chicks watching a movie but really, why would I leave the quiet. Hopefully I will get the chance to blog more often because life in hen house is crazy. As I type little chick 5 is playing toilet paper. I better run.

golden birthday

2009-04-02T11:24:00.004-05:00

Chick #2 turned 10 on the 10th of March so it was his golden birthday. I wanted to do something just a little different for him to mark this special day. Ten presents wrapped in golden paper seemed very fitting. Now you must know that they were not expensive gifts. Just little things that I knew he would be happy with. Trading cards, gum, a candy bar, a top from the clearance rack for $4 were a few of things that he enjoyed unwrapping. He also had asked me for a Green Bay Packer cake, this was the attempt that I made.

We had his party at home and I did not want four 9-12yr. old boys running around the house all afternoon, so I sent them on a treasure hunt. They had to solve the riddles on pieces of paper to find out where the next clue was hidden. The boys plus the oldest chick ended up running all over our little town to find the clues. Chicks #3 and 4 had to stay home with us because they do not listen to the older kids so well.

His party was about week after his real birthday so he had asked The Rooster to bring him home a giant cookie from Sam's. I think that it added a few pounds to both the Rooster and I.

Here he is standing by his ten gifts. They were on our mantel for two day before his birthday. He spent a lot of his time looking at and shaking his gifts. A few of the bottoms had some how been opened by his birthday. He claims to have no recollection of removing any tape. Yeah right!

Sock

2009-03-07T16:55:00.006-06:00

Baby chick has very cute little feet. Of course we all knew this information all along but she did not. Just recently she has begun to explore these cute little things. The other day a loose sock caught her eye and she had to find out if it tasted good or not.

A Visit

2009-03-07T16:01:00.003-06:00

My parents were down for a visits in February so we took the opportunity to celebrate three of the chicks birthdays. Chick #2, #3 and #4 have birthdays in February and March. They gave them all their presents. Can you guess what their gifts were? Roller skates for the younger two and chick #2 got a pair of roller blades. They will be having so much fun with them after the weather warms up a little.

Chick #3 is showing chick #2 how to skate in our dinning room. Nana and I did take the chicks down to local skating rink so that they could really skate with music, lights and everything. NaNa has posted a few pictures of that here.

The three of them with the cake that had all of their names on it and candles for all of their birthdays.

Chick #2 likes to decorate the cakes too, so I let him do the yellow frosting. I am sure that he will want to help with his own cake next weekend. He had told me that he wants his made from scratch instead of from a box. I will have to plan a little extra time for that.

NaNa made sure that she had plenty of baby chick time.

PaPa made sure that he had plenty of comfy couch time. I looks like he had a valentine delivery.

The girl chicks enjoyed making homemade valentines. We do this every year and make the table a big red and white mess.

Here is everyone with the grandparents after church services.

Chick #4 is 4

2009-03-07T15:53:00.003-06:00

Chick #4 with his Iron Man cupcakes! He just loved them.

Little chick #4 is already four years old. I thought that I better get a few of his photos on my blog before I had to blog about the other two birthday's coming up in the house. This little is still very much a Mama's boy. I know that soon he will think that Dad is the really cool guy but for now he is still very happy to stay close to his Mom. He said a funny thing to me the other weekend after we had attend a family member wedding. The Rooster and I were able to dance with each and the little chick was very sadden by seeing this. He told me afterwards that it made him sad to see me dancing with his daddy. I asked him why he felt that way and his answer surprised me. "Mama" he said "you are suppose to only dance with me." Little boys are only little boys for such a small amount of time.

funny

2009-02-03T21:11:00.001-06:00

Now here is a question for you. Are you behind or really ahead when you accidentally fold the dirty laundry? I do not know, ask The Rooster.

Unexpected

2009-01-23T18:47:00.004-06:00

The baby chick with her new bib. There will be plenty of room for when she starts to eat solid foods in about 3 more months.

Here I am, The Hen, making pizza crust for the Rooster and Chicks dinner. Yes, I am not wearing make-up. Now the whole world knows what I look like with out mascara. Oh the horror.

Unexpected gifts are some of the funnest ones to receive. My friend wrote about sewing a apron for a gift. I was secretly very excited because hen material would definitely give away who it would be for. I was hoping maybe I would get the gift. Why would I be chosen though? I know this woman and we really get along very well. Actually, I think that we are very much the same. I was so happy to open this gift which was a rooster and hen apron for me. I love aprons and like to have an excuse to wear them. I do not know if she knew that about me at the time when she made it. She also sent me mint flavored chocolate. This is also my favorite. If I am given a choice over flavors and mint is one flavor to choose, you betcha, I will choose it. The baby chick also received a beautiful bib. This woman is so talented and I am very thankful for the gifts she sent us.

When you buy a towel

2009-01-17T10:32:00.003-06:00

One day the Hen was able to go shopping. OK, I wasn't really shopping just trying to get in and out of Target quickly with five children before baby chick had to nurse. I just needed to buy some basic house stuff like tp paper and toothpaste ect.. While finding my purchases I decide to look at the towels. I could really use some for the upstairs bathroom with few washcloths too. So after looking them over I bought the cheapest ones in green and pink. Two days later, at home, baby chick takes a nap, so I decide to find a home for our four towels and four washcloths. I started looking through the drawers in the bathroom and realized I needed to clean them out. I was setting my goals low. I just wanted to clean out two drawers. Opening the first drawer I begin to remove junk. I would like to know where all of this junk comes from. Shower gel had spilled into the bottom of this drawer so I pulled it out and wiped it nice and clean. Now for the bottom drawer, which I also pulled out and cleaned do to more shower gel. When I pulled out the bottom drawer more junk fell into it's place so why not clean under the sink too. I hate under the sink. It is my all time most hated spot in the house. I noticed that there were wet toilette paper rolls under the sink. Oh no! Hey I just bought these, what happened to them. I look under the sink and see a crack. Oh no again! I knew the over flow had a crack but this seemed new. I turned on the water and sure enough it began to drip. There had been some old pull ups under there from when I potty trained chick #4. Those had been soaking up the water and then drying out in between sink uses. So under the sink had to be scrubbed with bleach water do to some mold that had grown there. The Rooster was not exactly pleased when I called him and asked him if he could pick up a new sink. It had to be done, you just can not limp along with a cracked sink. Since I had cleaned that much on the vanity I went ahead and cleared out the last two drawers. I really want to know who keeps putting toys in the drawers in the bathroom. After it was all said and done there is a nice new sink in our up stairs bathroom. Just be careful if you buy new towels for your bathroom. Who knows what may happen.

Hold on to your hats

2009-01-04T21:35:00.002-06:00

I ran across this tonight while I was looking through all of my bookmarks. Sometimes you need to checkout those things that are important but we often set aside. I am a little scared about how this could turn out. Lets all pray that the most vulnerable in this world would be protected.

Day of Christmas continued

2009-01-01T23:04:00.002-06:00

On the sixth day of Christmas what was the Hen doing?

Said good morning to her sister. (Who surprised us by driving down all night with her husband and son to see us and my parents for the new year.)

On the seventh day of Christmas what was the Hen doing?

Visited with more friends.

To be continued.

I hope that everyone has a very blessed new year and rejoices in the many gifts Our Father in heaven has given us.

Hen days of Christmas

2008-12-29T20:00:00.003-06:00

This is to be sung to the tune of The Twelve Days Of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas what was the hen doing?

Having guest come over for some dinner.

On the second day of Christmas what was the hen doing?

Packing for vacation.

On the third day of Christmas what was the hen doing?

Traveling to her parents.

On the Fourth day of Christmas what was the hen doing?

Singing in a church.

On the fifth day of Christmas what was the hen doing?

Shopping with her Mom.

There will be more to come later on during this Christmas season.

reading 100

2008-12-16T19:11:00.009-06:00

There is a reading challenge going on next year that I think I will be able to do. My friend Gina told me about it and you can sign up here. So this will be where I will be keeping a list of all of the book I will be reading to myself and the chicks.

1. Superman Returns by Brandon T. Snider
2. Milly and Tilly by Kate Summers
3. Sea Monsters by Marfe Ferguson Delano
4. Milly and Tilly by Kate Summers
5. I'm a Manatee by John Lithgow
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
7. Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant
8. Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit
9. The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
10. Opera Cat by Tess Weaver
11. Mouse in Love by Robert Kraus
12, Forgot My Shoes by Jessica Harper
13. Mad, Mad, Mad Toy Craze by Stan and Jan Berenstain
14. Too Much Vacation by Stan and Jan Berenstain
15. MaMa's Day Surprise by Stan and Jan Berenstain
16. The Birds and the bees and the Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
17. The Prodigal by Beverly Lewis
18. The Revelation by Beverly Lewis
19. Curious George by Margret & H. A. Rey
20. Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation by Stan & Jan Berenstain
21. Arthur's Halloween by Marc Brown
22. The Obvious Elephant by Bruce Robinson
23. Cowlick by Andrea Renaisse

Chick got a new dew

2008-12-05T18:47:00.003-06:00

Chick #3 needed a new look. She had been working on growing out her bangs for some time. As you can tell, she is now able to tuck them behind her ears. She had two layers of hair, a very long layer and then her bangs that were down to her chin. The Rooster had made appointments for the boy chicks to have their hair cut this past Wednesday, but Chick #2 is boycotting haircuts because he wants to grow his hair out. It must be a pre-teen boy thing. I believe that he is looking up to a few teen boys in our church that have long hair. Since there was extra time scheduled I figured I would give chick #3 a treat and let her have a hair cut. She has always been the one to want to short hair. The new short hair cut matches her personality to a tee and it looks very cute.

The next morning after her hair had dried from her bath. I flipped up the end with a curling iron. She was as bouncy as her curls for the rest of day. Today she has been attempting to write lyrics to some songs that she hopes to set to music one day. Chick #1 has been gracious enough to write the words down for her because she is not able to spell many words yet. I will keep you posted on this musical endeavor.

I got her smiling

2008-12-05T18:28:00.002-06:00

The baby chick has been smiling for some time but it is very hard to take a picture of it. I finally was able to succeed earlier this week. Of course she smiles at me the best. While NaNa was here visiting, she said the that the baby chick really looked like me. To tell you the truth I had never really thought about it. Then tonight when I was looking at these photos trying to pick out the ones to post, I saw the resemblance. The pictures reminded me of baby photos I had seem of myself.

Halloween

2008-11-01T16:55:00.003-05:00

We have started a Halloween tradition of having some friends over on Halloween so the kids can have some good old fashioned fun and the adults can enjoy some nice conversation. This year I made Cheeseburger soup and chili. It was very tasty and everyone enjoyed it.

Here is a picture of chick #3 and 4 with their friend the Cool Cowboy.

Chick #1 was a wife of an Frontier minuteman from the Revolutionary War and her best friend is a veterinarian.

Here are the Minute Men ready for fight for our freedoms. Chick #2 is the smallest guy on the right.

Here the whole crowd in enjoying the wonderful chocolate harvest. Yet again my dear chicks have failed me and they did not harvest enough Twix candy bars.

I do believe that little chick #4 had his fill of candy after all of the fun was over.

Opps!

2008-11-01T16:49:00.003-05:00

Are bagless vacuums really that best thing to buy? Right now I do not know. Please excuse the mess!

She is eleven

2008-10-29T09:41:00.003-05:00

Chick #1 is now eleven years old. She has really changed and grown-up so much in this past year. The changes in her almost seem as great in this one year as a new born turning one years old. In this past year she has learned to deal with her emotions is such a better way. As a young girl, chick #1 would become very nervous over tiny things and in the past year she has learned to deal with things very well. She has become a wonderful helper in our house. It is just amazing to the Rooster and I how she is missed if she is gone. Nothing seems to get done as easily as when she is hear. The other kids mope around and will not pick up their things. Then chick #1 will come through the door and the house is all a twitter again. She has learned how to cook a few things and sew in the past year. She has learned many things about how to motivate a three year old to do things. Her creativity is amazing when she comes up with games to help the little chicks #3 and 4 pick their toys.

Her party was held this past Saturday with a trip to the movies. We took her and four of her friends to see High School Musical 3. The movie was actually very good if one could just get past the singers awful tone.

Here is a picture of her just 3 short years ago. You can really tell how much she has changed!

Chick #1 sewed with wool for first time this year. A wonderful friend of mine taught her and she was able make this lovely skirt.

This picture was taken at the county fair during the fashion show. This is the highlight of her year when she gets to model an outfit that she bought (very cheep). The girl knows how to spot a bargain. She also modeled an outfit the she sewed. This year she was able to bring home two trophies.

Today is also my birthday. It is fun on the mornings of our birthday because we can tell each other happy birthday instead of Good Morning.

Chubby Cheeks

2008-10-27T11:35:00.002-05:00

Little baby chick is already 1 month old. It had been the fastest month of my life. Even the other chicks are commenting upon how quickly time seems to be going now. The little baby chick has gotten her cute little chubby cheeks from nursing so well. I think that they have filled out even more over this past week. Today I may try to take the ugly duckling for a walk this afternoon. It has been four weeks since my c-section and I am feeling fairly well. I do think I will push it to hard and only walk 1.5 to 2 miles. It will do me a lot of good to be out in the crisp fall air. Fall has sprung up so quickly here. In two weeks we have gone from wearing shorts to sweatshirts and jackets.

A few picutres

2008-10-23T16:15:00.002-05:00

Opps! My pictures turned out in the wrong order but I will live with it. This is a picture of the baby chick taken last Sunday when she was three weeks old. This past Wednesday at 3 am she smiled at me! I guess it was worth it getting up and feeding her if I get a little smile out of it. She is being stingy with them though and has not smiled at me since. The other chicks claim to have gotten a few.

He really loves her. When I first told the chicks that we would be having a little baby, chick #4 said "No mommy, we do not need a baby in the house." I think that it is safe to say that he has changed his mind now. He really loves kissing her and loving his little sister.

Chick #1 had her first volleyball game this past Saturday! She really had a fun and time and enjoyed that game very much. Her she is severing the ball for her team.

Oh, and now the work really starts. I had spoiled myself for the first three week of the baby chicks life and we used disposable diapers. Last Thursday was the first time that I had to use the cloth diapers. The Roosters has to wash them for the time being because I am not suppose to lift anything heavier than the baby chick for 6-8 weeks. It sure does take a lot longer to change a diaper when you are using cloth but the little babies just look so cute with those diapers on.

unschooling

2008-10-23T10:37:00.003-05:00

Is it a good or a bad thing that the three year old chick figured out that the bouncy seat can be used as a catapult? Now who knows where I will be finding legos.

Baby chick's washing

2008-10-15T20:18:00.004-05:00

Baby chick was baptised on October 4th at our church. It was a very lovely day and we all rejoice with the gift of forgiveness that was given to our little one through the waters of baptism. God that Father has given this to her through His word and the water that she may have life.

Me (the hen) with the wee baby chick. She is tiny and sweet.

My husband (The Rooster) with her. He always makes our little babies look so small in his big arms.

The baby chick with her sponsors, my sister, and our close friends that I will call Pastor K and wife. We have been good friends with them for 8 and a half years. We always have fun having impromptu dinner with them or watching football.

A picture of the whole family

This is a picture with my parents at the front of our church. Chick #4 just barely made it through the pictures with out starting to cry. He had been missing out on his normal amount of sleep and just could not handle all of the pictures. The fact that he also had a cold did not help matters any at all.

chicks with the baby chick

2008-10-15T20:03:00.003-05:00

Chick #1 with baby chick

Chick #2 with baby chick

Chick #3 with baby chick

Chick #4 with baby chick

These are photos that were taken while I was still in the hospital. Each of my little chicks had a turn holding the baby chick. They were so excited to get to meet the baby girl chick.

The littlest chick

2008-09-30T10:24:00.006-05:00

Here is a picture that the Rooster took of me before I went into the OR. Many of the nurses were surprised to find out that this was my fifth c-section. It seemed to go about as well as the others but the meds. seemed to make me more nauseous. I had my good friend Diane come to support me if there would have been oxygen problems with the little chicks. C-section babies seem to have low oxygen levels and then they need to stay in the nursery longer. Chick #5 cried very well after her birth so all of the gunk came out of her lungs. I was the one who was bleeding to much and shaking to hard to hold her. That soon passed and I was able to snuggle with the tiny chick.

Here is the Rooster making on of the many phone calls after the little chick was born.

Our littlest chick was born September 26th at 8:11am. She was 20 inches long and weighed 7lbs. 15oz. We handled the deliver OK, she seemed to fair it a little better than I did.

She was very alert and wanted to look around a little before she attempted to nurse. I was anxious to have her latch on but I needn't not worry. She nurses like a trooper.

Here she is soon after her first bath. The other chicks were able to help the nurse wash her hair and little baby Chick #1 was so happy to have the chance to help.

The next day I was able to be up and walk around a little so I was able to bath her. Chick #3 was helping me wash her beautiful hair this time. In case you did not know, all of my little chicks have been born with lots of dark hair. I just would not know what to do with a bald baby.

The other chicks along with NaNa and PaPa went shopping to buy chick #5 a coming home outfit. This is what they picked out. It was such a beautiful little dress for her to wear home.

A sad statement

2008-09-05T14:04:00.002-05:00

While I was reading the morning paper, the following quote caught my eye. More over is was that the following quote was called a Gem!

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers." -Edgar W. Howe

Now isn't this statement fitting with what one hears at the end of August. Everywhere you turn mothers are talking about how excited they are to be sending their children off to school. "They will finally be out of my hair", "Oh, it is so good for them to be away from me" and "The pre-school teacher told me that they cried half of the day, but it was good for them." These are all comments I have heard from passing mothers in small talk at summer picnics.

Do you know what my main reason was that I started this homeschooling adventure? I like my children! I did not want to see their little five year old selves walking up to the school and their hearts aching for their mother. I could not suffer in such a way and have my children gone away from me for such a long time.

A women VP

2008-09-04T11:43:00.003-05:00

My first reaction to having a women running with McCain as the VP was shock. My gut told me that we would for sure loose now. I was upset and thought her job should be at home. But that was my first reaction. Now after some education I like her. She has the guts that I think McCain is sometimes lacking. Last night during her speech she impressed me and I liked what I heard. I believe that she will stand up for the right thing. She is supporting her children and I think that her husband will be supportive of her. I also liked that her daughter's soon to husband was standing up there with his soon to be wife and unborn child. This young lady is not running for anything and I wish the press would leave her alone. I could not imagine going through what that young woman is going through.

Summer update

2008-07-26T13:46:00.002-05:00

No, I have not fallen off of the face of the earth, bur sometimes I think that it would be nice. The summer has been way to busy here in our hen house. I remember having lazy days in the summer as a young girl and I wish I could have them back. I am a home body and having one activity a day is sometimes to much for me. With four children it is bound to happen that there will be hair cuts and ball games on the day so I better learn to live with it. For a short summery of the past few months continue reading.

End of May and the month of June!

It was filled with ball games, cancelled ball games and make-up ball games. We have had a very wet summer. It you can believe it our grass is still green! Usually, by this time of year The Rooster does not have to mow very often because the dry weather has caused to grass to go dormant. Most of our games would begin around 6 PM so that would mean I would have to have supper on the table no later then 4:30. It seemed like as soon as I was done cooking lunch I would have to get started on supper. That is the life of a baseball mom.

Chick #1 was on a large team this year so she did not get in a lot of playing of time. She basically likes to play because she can hang out with her best friend (white haired chick) (sorry, I do not have picture) and a lot of other girls. The girls were scared to bat the ball this year because many of them were hit with wild pitches. Chick #1 was one of the few who did pull off a few hits. In this photo she missed that ball, but it was taken early in the season. The umpire in an ever famous pastor around these parts who I will not name. Let just say that he and The Rooster like to pump iron together.

Chick #4 is a trooper and gets drug to everything. He loves all of the activity and was a blue ringpop junky during the ball season. If his little lips were not blue it just did not seem like a ball game. As you can see he was very lucky on a little fishing trip we took. He had the first catch of the day. We were all very proud of the little guy for bringing in the fish. Can you tell he has two older sisters? Yep! He is using a pink fishing pole. He really thinks that he should have Superman fishing pole, but beggars can not be choosers.

Chick #3 also played t-ball but I did not get any pictures of it. A pregnant mommy just can remember everything. She did have fun when we went to a 4-H painting class. She was in the youngest of the three group and did very well on her art work. She is still working on growing out her bangs. Some days she will have a head band on and on others she will put her bangs in little pig tails on the sides of her face. I am impressed that she works so hard at keeping them out of her eyes.
Once while it was pouring cats and dogs there was not any lighting and the little chicks went out to play. Kids just do not play in the rain like they used too, I hardly ever seem them stomping in puddles any more. My little ones love it. When chick #1 was under 1 year old The Rooster used to take her out into rain and walk around with her.

Chick #2 was the catcher with the mostest! He would dive, run around and roll to get the ball quickly. All of that movement would make the chick a sweaty mess. His last game ended after 10 PM and I made him take a shower before he could crawl into bed. He was just mud and sweat. As long as he was behind the home plate his head was in the game. We had to watch out if he was in the outfield though. He was more likely to be catching June bugs than watching the ball. What do you expect he is only 9.

Dancing dolls

2008-05-19T09:46:00.004-05:00

It seems that I am having troubles with posting photos again and it takes over 45 min. Maybe that is one of many reasons I have not been posting anything. Life may settle down for a little while since the girls are now done with dance. We have have their photos taken, rehearsed and performed over the past two weeks. During that same time there has also been many ball practices, games and graduations to attend. Both of the little chicks wanted curls for the dance recital so I pick up some fun little foam curlers. They absolutely loved having their hair in rollers and having a fuss made over them. Of course the Ugly Duckling needed one roller too. He really did not want to have his photo taken but the oldest was finally able to hold him still. During the recital the oldest chick had four costume changes and the younger one only three. This whole year chick #3 kept telling me that she hated dance and wanted to quit. She never cried about going, she just was never really excited. Then it came time for recital, costumes, jewelry, lip gloss and curls. She was is heaven! I told her that this is what all of the practicing was for and now it was time for her to show off. This little chick now tells me that she never wants to quit dance and she was a little sad when the recital was over. I am glad that she now understand that hard work can really have a fun pay off.

Money

2008-04-23T09:04:00.004-05:00

I am disgusted with how much money these candidates for president are going through. The three of them have raised over 70 million dollars in the past month. That is just one month of fund raising. 70 Million seems like a huge amount of money to me. Lets face it, filling up our suburban feels like a huge amount of money right now. I suppose I could use all of my research skills and try to find out what these three yahoos are spending their money on, but what would that matter. We all know they "need" expensive clothes and meals and shampoo and whatever else they think they deserve. But I will not waste my time in that way. I see so many places and charitable organizations that need help. America would do so much better to help children or the elderly than to pour their money into this crazy campaign.

Little eggs chicks and food

2008-04-21T16:52:00.003-05:00

I have been very absent from my blog for some time. Educating children can take a lot of time and we have been hitting the books. In our house we will be continuing school for most of the summer because we will be taking off the months of October and half of November when this new little chick is born. Speaking of the new little chick, he or she is causing me to pop out all over. I am sure that everyone who now sees me knows that I am pregnant. The new little babe is also causing my hunger to increase be leaps and bounds. Most women love chocolate and crave it. That used to be me but no more. I do not know what it is but the thought of chocolate is not appealing. I am hungry for vegetables and fruit. Now that is different! My first little chick caused me to love salty things, the next three were sweet tooth babies plus a craving for pepper. The consequences of the sweet tooth were three cavities. Yuck! I had never had a filling before and looked to my children to tell me what that experience was like. Now, it seems, I will be having a little veggie baby. So, what could that mean about this little one. Maybe it will grow up to be a wonderful gardener, which I am not.

Easter Chicks

2008-04-01T14:18:00.005-05:00

Easter at our house was a very exciting event this year. NaNa and my sister and her son were able to come down for a visit. It was a very quick one but it was very nice. The cousins had a great time playing and getting to know each again. They had just seen each other in January but they needed a little time to get familiar with each other again. They came on Good Friday and little chick #4 was finally back to normal. He had been suffering from a fever for most of the week that finally broke Friday afternoon. Saturday was a birthday celebration for little chick #3 who turned 6 and that meant a family trip to one of those fun pizza places. The food was very good and the kids had a blast. After the services on Sunday we finally got down to dying Easter eggs and having a little hunt. We hunted eggs for a while outdoors which called for coats since it was only 34 degrees. After that I wanted to head back inside the house. I think chick #4 was tuckered out from the cold weather outside and needed a snack. As soon as he found a egg in the house, he stopped where he was and peeled it. The little shells dropped right to the floor and he started munching. It was a very cute three year old moment.

An apple a day

2008-03-26T18:43:00.001-05:00

You Are an Apple

You are strong, powerful, and even a bit stubborn at times.

You have enough strength to help those around you in trouble.

You are adventurous and charming. Many people are drawn to you.

You love life, and you enjoy traveling the world. You enjoy fine food, art, and culture.

People have accused you of being a snob, but that's not accurate.

You do enjoy the best things in life. Unlike snobs, you truly appreciate quality... not just pretend to.

What Type of Fruit Are You?

A six year old chick

2008-03-20T18:48:00.005-05:00

This little chick turned 6 years old today. We got her two gifts and I think that she is happy with them. She never really asked for anything to specific but I guess that means she is happy with her little life.
She did ask for something tho. I will not be baking her birthday cake until Sat. for her party with family and I asked her if she wanted me to make her some special cookies or if she wanted daddy to pick something up from the bakery for her. She knew right away what she wanted, doughnuts. We never ever have doughnuts. In fact my little chicks had never ever seen a whole box of doughnuts. The hen house was full of excitement waiting for The Rooster to come home from work this afternoon. You would have thought that he was bringing home a new little puppy the way the chicks were acting. Oh the squeals that I heard when he drove into the drive way.
I had to take a photo of her eating the wonderful doughnut. She had chocolate from ear to ear.

Plus here is a photo of the girl chicks in their ballet outfits. Both of the girls danced in a local talent show on Sunday night and chick #3 just loved wearing her tutu. I was going to post a cute picture of chick #3 when she was a babe but my scanner and I do not have a good relationship. I can not get it to do anything right. I think that the Rooster is going to have to look at it and make it cooperate with me.

More in Issues ect.

2008-03-20T09:57:00.002-05:00

It seems that you can still down load from the archive of old issues ect. shows. You can find it here. There is also a petition that is being signed so that you can voice your opinion on the canceling of this wonderful radio program. Please visit here it you would like to sign it. You are also asked to call or write to David L. Strand. He is the executive Director for Communication Services for the LCMS. David L. Strand, (314) 996-1200 or (888)843-5267 david.strand@lcms.org . The voice of the laity can have a very strong impact at times like these.

A Sad Day in the LCMS

2008-03-18T18:04:00.003-05:00

It seems that one of our little seminaries has gone a bit to far. Maybe it is on the orders of our not so wonderful present Mr. Kieschnick. (Yes, I am leaving off the Dr. part on purpose) They have pulled the plug on one of the most wonderful resources that our church had to offer. Issues Ect. is now gone. No longer will people listen to Pastor Todd Wilkin, Jeff Scwartz and the confessional LCMS view about issues in our world. "Fired" was the gift they were given by the synod this week. They took all of the wonderful archives away as well. What a horrid thing to happen to the LCMS during holy week. I pray that the safety of Higher Things and Good News magazines will not be touched. Boo to you St. Louis.

I have news

2008-03-14T10:21:00.001-05:00

Myspace Countdown Clocks at WishAFriend.com

Two days

2008-03-12T15:20:00.002-05:00

Remember my last post about my sons new bike? He needed this bike because he had such tire issues with his last bike. Today, he walks into the house to announce that his front tire is flat. In just two days his front tire is flat. What does this boy do on the bike to flatten a tire so fast. Tomorrow he will have a lesson in fixing flat tires.

Nine year old boy

2008-03-12T09:44:00.002-05:00

Here is little chick #2 nine years ago. He had his 9th birthday on Monday, it does not seem like it was that many years ago when he was little. Now I could hardly pick him up he has grown so much.
He was surprised by a new bmx bike on his birthday. He really had no idea that he was going to be getting a bike. Last summer he was really hard on his bike and popped a few tires because it is just so cool to skid when you are a boy. Well we said we would only fix the tire so many times. He then started riding the Roosters 26" bike so it was really time he had one to fit himself.
It was such a nice day that he had to try it out. Of course he now want to raise up the seat and try to learn a few tricks. I am sure that my heart will stop when I see him practicing his new stunts. Hopefully we will not have any broken bones.
Look at all of the candles on that cake. He blew them all out in one great big breath. The cake was left over from a fundraiser that I had worked at the night before and worked well for our small celebration. On Saturday, he will be having a party with a few friends and I will be decorating a cake for that. He wants me to make a camouflaged cake. I will keep you posted on how that turns out.

freedoms

2008-03-07T13:12:00.003-06:00

Our freedoms as homeschooling families are being threatened once again in this country. The government is again sticking it's nose in a place where it does not belong. Children are given to parents to be raised and taught. It is not the governments job to do this. In California the courts have made a terrible ruling stating that parents can not teach their children at home unless they have a teacher certification. To learn more about this please go to Focus On The Family and listen to their broadcast on this topic. Then please visit the Home School Legal Defense Association web site and sign their petition dealing with this subject. We must begin to stand together and fight for our freedoms to raise our children without government interference.

Glass, Glass, Glass

2008-03-03T11:07:00.002-06:00

Some of you may know that The Rooster's grandmother died in December. As it now turns out his Grandfather is moving into a assisted living center and their apartment needed to be cleaned out. I have had many things brought into my house and I do not know where I will put them or what I will do with them. As to date I have three garbage bags of sheets and different cloth items, Grandma's sewing box, two quilts, and a table full of glass. Soon to come are two dressers and glass cabinet. The girls just love all of the glass pieces and think that it is beautiful. I am hoping the The Rooster's Dad will come over and pick out a few things. I think that I will keep a few items and maybe one of the Roosters aunts will want something. But I just do not have the room to keep all of this stuff. I wish that we could go back to days when people just had a few precious item. Now it seems that we have hundreds of precious things and we are always looking for more. I know that grandma bought many of things at garage sales so they are not that precious. A few still have the color dot on the bottom so you could tell who would get the money when it sold. It has been hard to see the aunts and uncles of the Rooster trying to find ways to deal with all of the stuff that these people kept.

History fair

2008-02-29T09:48:00.003-06:00

I have a very good reason for not blogging lately. The hen house has been very busy researching history projects. A little over a month ago The chicks sign-up to be in a home school history fair. The oldest chicks have been reading, studying and typing. I had to help chick #2 with some of the typing he had to do for his project. He is pretty slow and he would also become frustrated. I figured it was better for me to type his words instead of having him give up. Chick #1 picked Elizabeth I of England for her project and Chick #2 picked the topic of Daniel Boone. They enjoyed finding their books at the library and I helped them find a few web sites they could research. It really amazed me how much more they learned besides history. The listed included library skills, grammar, organization, cooking, leather work, spelling, reading, comprehension and time management. I knew that Chick #1 would do very well on writing her project and finding information. I did not really know how well Chick #2 would do on his project. It turned out that he did very well. I had to give him a little more guidance than the older child. We would decide on a topic of Daniel Boone's life to research, for example his birth. Then I would give him a few question to find the answers for and he would then put those question and answers into sentence form and type them up. The chicks also had to prepare a two minute presentation about their topic. Chick #1 and I were able to find a few poems written by Queen Elizabeth the I, so she read those for her presentation. The presentation for Chick #2 was a little more difficult. He did not want to do it, but I had assign it to him so that meant he had to. It took a little brain storming on both of our parts until we came up with something. First, he had found a funny little story about Daniel Boone walking back-wards in the woods to loose some Indians. Then after that he talked about Daniel being a excellent tracker and showed everyone some animal tracks that he had printed off. It was such an enjoyable evening to see all of the work that these home school students had done. There were about 36 student at the history fair.

Chick #1 is standing here with her history board and hand made item. We had found an Elizabethan recipe for Apple Moye which is like apple sauce. She had fun cooking and severing it to the parents and children.
Here she is reading the poems written by Queen Elizabeth the I. She read very well but Elizabethan poetry is a little hard to understand. She presents herself so well in front of an audience. I had asked her if she was nervous at all. She said "No, I was so nervous for (Chick #2). He looked scared Mommy." That was just such a sweet thing for her to say.

Chick #2 was proud of his board and his leather pouch that he had made. At first he thought the pouch would be difficult to put together but then he quickly caught onto the idea. He spoke very well during his presentation. I was surprised how clear his speaking was and how calm he sounded because I knew that he was very nervous.

Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T09:43:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my readers out there. It is going to be a very cold day here with temp dropping all day long. A sweater will definitely be needed today. After my little chicks finished their breakfast this morning they were able to munch on chocolates given to them by their NaNa and PaPa. I had surprised them with Valentines hanging from the stairs and then they saw them as soon as they walked down the stairs. The older chicks are busy working on a history fair project. They have been learning how to do research and organize their thoughts onto the computer keyboard. They have two weeks left for this project and I hope that they will get everything done. I will have to post photos of their display boards after they have them put together. They are now finished with their chores so I need to go and tell them what things they need to be working on next.

2008-02-08T10:24:00.001-06:00

A three year old is in the house

2008-02-08T09:41:00.000-06:00

Chick #4 is three year olds today. He is a very active little guy and is always jumping off of our stairs. At this point in his life he loves super heroes and Disney Cars stuff and Veggie tale pirates. He wants a Spiderman cake today so I guess I should get started on that. Right now he is battling yet another winter cold and hopefully is will not last for to long.

Here is a picture of the little guy when he was about two days old. Notice how his hair color has changed? All of my babies are born with a dark full head of hair but that always loose it all. Well all but chick #1, she started to get hair cuts when she was six months old. Her little bangs were hanging in her eyes. Chick #4's hair grew back really blond but now it has darkened up a little more. In the past year he has done many new things and I am sure that while he is three he will be amazing.

Ash Wedneday

2008-02-06T09:24:00.001-06:00

I love Ash Wednesday and the imposition of the ashes. In all reality I love the whole lenten season. Our sinful nature is thrown into our face and the grace of our Heavely Father is poured out upon us. My little chicks have always loved having the ashes placed upon their foreheads as our family kneels at the table. Our sins are ever before us and the payments for our sins is spoken in our ear. The sacrifice of God's only son paided for all our sin. This blood is the price and we can simple say thankyou. Do we disever this grace? Did we choose it? No! God choose it for us and we let the Holy Spirit work as it will.

Savior, when in dust to Thee

Low we bow the adoring knee;

When repentant, to the skies

Scarce we lift our weeping eyes;

O, by all Thy pains and woe

Suffered once for us below,

Bending from Thy throne on high,

Hear our penitential cry!

By Thy helpless infant years,

By Thy life of want and tears,

By Thy days of deep distress

In the savage wilderness,

By the dread, mysterious hour

Of the insulting tempter's pow'r,

Turn, O turn a fav'ing eye;

Hear our penitential cry!

By Thine hour of dire despair,

By Thine agony of prayer,

By the cross, the nail, the thorn,

Piercing spear, and torturing scorn,

By the gloom that veiled the skies

O'er the dreadful sacrifice,

Listen to our humble sigh;

Hear our penitential cry!

By Thy deep expiring groan,

By the sad seputchral stone,

By the vault whose dark abode

Held in vain the rising God,

O, from earth to heav'n restored,

Mighty, reascended Lord,

Bending from Thy throne on high,

Hear our penitential cry!

LSB 419

A Peom

2008-01-17T16:54:00.000-06:00

Blogging is making me fat.

For I sit in my chair like a cat.

I look and I read

then I click and I type.

Oh, I can't miss any of that Lutheran hype.

Blogging is making me fat.

Blogging is making me fat,

drool runs down my chin to my hat.

There are photos of food

and recipes for the mood,

all you need is this and that.

Oh, bogging is making me fat.

Blogging is making me fat,

because I like to post pictures in fact.

I sit at the keyboard looking at photos of chicks,

they are cute in their hats or playing with sticks.

I need to get up and cook some more food.

Oh, blogging is making me fat!

By: The Hen

A nod

2008-01-17T16:18:00.000-06:00

I got an award from the Aardvark and I was not even trying. He was very merry this Christmas and mentioned many people on his blog. By the way, we were golden Aardie winners. You should check out all of the notables because you might be surprised.

Pay-It-Forward Contest

2008-01-13T18:52:00.000-06:00

This is going to be something new for me. I am a crafty person and some of you may or may not know that. I was a winner at Barb's blog so now I will give everyone a chance to win something that I will make for you by hand. Now you will not know what it is but I will give you a hint. It will be sparkly and lovely. Here are the rules: You have to have a blog of your own and you need to agree to send a handmade item to three of the readers of your blog if you win. If you want a chance to win you must comment on this blog by Jan. 31st and I will pick three winners. You should receive your prize by the end of Feb. I wish you all the best of luck and you had better comment away if want a sparkly gift to make your face beam!

For the ND relatives

2008-01-03T15:13:00.000-06:00

I have found this post about lutefisk for all of my family from North Dakota. I hope that you get a laugh out of it.

toddler logic

2008-01-02T18:10:00.000-06:00

The funniest things comes out of the mouths of little chicks sometimes. I am always so surprised by their logic. Last night chick #4 was having a grand time playing with a magnifying glass. He was looking at many different things with it and was pretending to find clues. I then explained to him that the magnifying glass "made things bigger", notice that I did not say make things look bigger. Today we went out to the mall with my parents so the little chicks could spend their $10 that they received for Christmas from one of the Rooster's aunts. Chick #4 picked out a Spider-man toy that shoots out foam darts. The toy is a little small to fit his wrist and he is not happy with the way that it feels. I do not know how small this toy company thinks that little boys wrists are but if it is tight on a almost three years old's wrist I do not think that a five year old could play with it very well. Chick #4 was walking all around my parents home looking for his magnifying glass. I remembered that he wanted to take it with him to the mall, but he had to leave it in the car. I asked the Rooster to get the magnifying glass for Chick #4. He was very happy to have the magnifying glass again and brought both the glass and the new toy up me. In his most sweetest voice he looked up to me and asked, "Now Mommy? Can you make my spider-man shooter bigger with the magnifying glass? It makes things bigger."

Merry Christmas from the Hen House

2007-12-23T15:44:00.001-06:00

Here is copy of the Christmas letter I sent out this year. It has been slightly revised for web use. I hope you all enjoy it.

Saints before the alter bending, Watching long in hope and fear, Suddenly the Lord, descending, In His temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ, the new born King. LSB Hymn367
May we all find peace in the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The Hen house was full of activity and wonder this past year. I do not know if it could be another way. This year I let each of the children write what they wanted me to tell everyone about them so here it goes.
Chick #1 turned *ten* on October 29th she also got two trophies this past year in 4-H. One was in the speech contest and the other was for decorating and sewing a skirt. She was very proud of that. She also did softball and this time she got to pitch a few times.
Chick #2 did the goat show in the county fair this year. He is now playing basketball. It is a little harder than he thought. He had a lot fun playing baseball this summer. His home run was a hit for his family and the team. He is now a very wonderful 8 year old who loves to help out with Chick #4.
Chick #3 got a blue ribbon at the county fair. She got the ribbon for her pen holder that she made. She was suppose to use it for pens but now she uses it for ribbons. She is also in dance class on Saturdays and she is five years old. This past summer she went to swimming lessons and passed to level two.
Chick #4 is now two years old. This past year he learned how to use the potty chair. He also sleeps in a big bed and no longer uses his crib. He likes to try and do everything that his big brother does. His favorite thing in the world is milk.
The Rooster is the ever faithful husband who is willing to support me with all my new ideas. He stood by me while I ran miles and miles to complete a
half marathon. He is also very willing to watch the children while I sing with the choir.
I am forever in love with him and support him while he puts in extra hours in at work. I sit in the pew with the children while he helps during church services with his elder duties. We are very happy and love the vocation that God has given us.
Finally, The ugly duckling, our dog has grown up but he is still very much a puppy. He loves to tease the kids and get things he is not suppose to have. Here is small list of the this he has tasted this past year; a life jacket, a shoe, a shirt, a garden hose, a sprinkler, a lawn chair, oh and another lawn chair, rocks, sticks, bug spray, blankets, a veggie tale pirate, green army guys, matchbox cars.... You get my drift right? May the peace of God be with you through this next year.

Whack!

2007-12-22T14:26:00.000-06:00

Just so every one knows that little chick #4 is completely fine I am posting this picture of him. He can not make snowballs so he grabs a stick and starts whacking.

Chick #1 was defending herself with the snow shovel. Who do you think could be doing all of this attacking?
Yep! Chick #2, the oldest boy, was after just about anyone. Well actually I kind of started the whole fight when I wanted a break from shoveling. I got this boy, smack, right in the middle of his back and he loved it!

Chick #3 just looks cold and all she wanted to do was make "butt prints" her words not mine.

Almost time

2007-12-22T14:06:00.000-06:00

It seems as though Christmas is just about here. I have mailed the packages, wrapped the little chick's gifts, wrapped the Rooster's gift, and baked more than I care to mention. We have enjoyed time with friends and advent church services. Today we had one of our Sunday School practices for the Christmas eve service. At the first practice everyone is pulling out their hair wondering how it will ever come together. God never fails to calm our nerves the weekend before Christmas. Today the children sang well and sat still. It is always sad for me to see the bigger kids singing in their last Christmas program. Fourteen years ago I taught one little boy in the nursery class and he would hug me every Sunday after church. Now, this same boy is 14 and he towers over me. Instead of hugs he teases me but always tries hard to do as I ask. It only reminds all to well that my own little chicks are growing way to fast the oldest will only be in 4 more Christmas programs. I have taken some beautiful pictures of cookies that I have baked. So please be careful and do not drool on to your keyboards.

Chocolate Crinkle

Coconut Macaroons

Spritz

Chocolate Butterscotch the most favorite cookie of the Rooster.

Staples Gone!

2007-12-07T14:27:00.000-06:00

This was no small task. The poor little chick, he went through more today than any little two year old boy should. The removal of staples in a wound is usually a very simple procedure but not today. It seemed that the staples were not put in correctly. I thought it was strange that I could hardly see them, but I also thought it had just scabbed over them. The doctor tried to take them out but one of them was in the wound and had healed into the skin. Yes! It was as bad as that sounded. Chick #4 cried so hard that he broke some capillaries around his right eye. I could not hold him alone so a nurse came to help and then another came. He is a strong little guy. The doctor than tried to numb it up a little and Chick #4 let out a wail again. He than said that they would sedate him a little and numb it so they could do surgery to get it. Now this was not full blown surgery, they just had to make a small cut to get the second staple out. (By the way, the first needed to be taken out also.) Then it was on to the hospital part and out of the clinic area. Little chick #4 had to drink a little tiny cup of juice that had the sedative in it. The nurse was impatient, but with a two year old, you have to let them drink it at the own pace. I could not pour it down his throat. Then I sat in a room with him till he got a little loopy. I could tell the meds started to work because he said he could not see the TV and his speech was slurring. I then carried him to the room where they would take the staples out. The nurse wrapped him, tightly, in a blanket. He thought he was just getting all comfy cozy for a nap. Then nurse firmly held his head and I held everything else. Then the nurse told me, "Now get ready because he is going to bust loose." WOW! He screamed and writhed even though they had given him drugs. The doctor felt so bad that this cute little boy had to go through all of that. In the end they did get the two little staples out and it looks just as bad as it did last Saturday. I should have just kept him at home and let God heal it in his own way. From now on I will not run my children down to the little hospital and I will go with my mama gut feeling. He is all back to normal now and playing happily. At least the sedative they gave him made him forget a little of what happened. Let me add just one more thing. It is not easy carrying a woozy 40 pound two year old. During the worst of it I could not let him sit by himself. Chick #1 and #2 had to help support him while he was sitting in a chair so I could put my coat on. The other chicks were very brave during this. The nurse let them sit in a waiting room and watch TV while I took care of Chick #4. Chick #1 said that she almost started to cry when she heard him screaming. I wonder if he was heard through the whole hospital. He started out being so brave but once they started digging in his head that quickly vanished. I do not blame him.

A.K.A. Staple Head

2007-12-01T17:34:00.000-06:00

There was a little happening at the The Hen House today. While I was busy getting our lunch prepared and The Rooster was helping out in the dinning room, we heard a thump followed by a loud cry. This is never a welcomed sound in a house with four children. The Rooster was the first to swoop up little Chick #4. He was very scared, hurt and only wanted mommy. I held him tightly in my arms and whispered words of comfort into his ear. I then tried to look him over to find out what hurt so badly. There was drips of blood on his hair, and more was falling onto my hand. I told the Rooster what I noticed and he became a little shaken. Those people out there that know me already know that cuts makes me a little squeamish. The Rooster tried to see where the cut was and soon found that it was at the back of his head. Chick #4 calmed down very well and let us clean the cut and look at it. He had fallen out of a chair,, and hit his head on a corner on our computer desk that then caused a small puncture wound right smack in the back of his head. I called our pediatrician and asked the nurses if they thought a wound like that would need stitches. The nurse told me that it should be looked at but they could not get him in until 3:30. At that time it was 12:30 and I did not want to wait that long to have someone look at a head wound. It would also take about 40 minutes to drive into town to this office. Did I also mention that we had had an ice storm the night before so everything was very slippery. We decided to take the little chick to a small local hospital that is only about 20 minutes away. It is not a wonderful hospital but OK for very minor things like cuts that may or may not need stitches. All six of us piled into the suburban and arrived safely at our destination. Little Chick #4 was doing very well with the cut only slightly bleeding on the way to the hospital. After the nurse and the Doctor looked at it they thought it would be best if the cut had two staples put in it. Then it would heal much faster with out a lot of fuss. Quicker than a wink to staples were put in his head and all was better. Chick #4 took it a little personally that they hurt his head some more but he did not cry long and I got him to tell them "Thank you", in the end. Later on during the day while the chicks were playing at home, we kept hearing a door being slammed. Slamming doors in this house is against rules so The Rooster and I wanted to know who kept doing this. Chick #1 quickly piped up and said, "It was Staple Head!" Now how is that for a nickname.

A type of homeschooling?

2007-11-29T09:14:00.000-06:00

Only in my house would this happen. This morning after breakfast I tell chick #1 to go and take a shower so that we can do our errands. After I finished getting Chick #4 dressed down to the shoes, I begin to look for the ever famous Chick #3. I have to brush out her hair and make sure that she actually has socks on her feet. Low and behold I find her in the bathroom and she holding the children's encyclopedia for Chick#1 so that she can learn about plants while she is in the shower. What! Now reading books is all well and good but I must draw the line at trying to read books in the shower. Another thing I am pondering is the fact that Chick #3 is an accomplice in this. Is she Chick#1's lady in waiting? It is just so funny to witness the things that these little Chicks do.

More visitors

2007-11-28T11:12:00.001-06:00

Mark, Gina and John came for a clinic appt. with John's doctors in our area. I was more than excited to have them stay here at the Hen house for a few days. The chicks were all very excited to play with John again and visit with this kind family. They will be back in a few weeks for more appointment so we will be together once again. John kept the table entertained during breakfast by hiding under the table cloth or place mat. As soon as he got the chicks laughing he would ham it up a little more. Last night we had a little looper gathering with 8 adults and 16 children at Diane's house, 14 of the kids were 11 or under. As you can imagine there was a lot of activity in the house. Diane took picture and I might get to post a few of them later on.

A Week With Parents

2007-11-25T18:06:00.000-06:00

My Mom and Dad came to spend the week with us over Thanksgiving. It is always so wonderful to have family staying at our house. The house just seems warmer and I love preparing food for more people. While they were here, we went to a pancake feed to help a seminary in Russia.
This was an ultimate pancake feed with fruit topping and whipped cream. My father is the man with the beard in the red and my mother is sitting next to him in the blue. You may also recognize the red headed pastor from some of the Higher Things conferences. He goes over to Russia and teaches in the seminary every few years.

My Dad was busy working on some questions for a lay leadership course he is taking. Little chick #4 wanted to do work on a laptop just like his PaPa.

NaNa, the Chicks and I went for a lovely walk on Monday. The weather was beautiful with a high of about 73. It is not often that one can go for a walk in November without a coat on. We are shown here walking on our local bike trail. I simply love these trails and have seen them change all year long.

Then on Thanksgiving we had a lovely dinner! It was very wonderful to have such good company and good food again! On Thanksgiving Eve I had to miss church because Chick #3 was felling a bit under the weather. She felt so bad that she could not go to church with every one else, but after I explained to her that we did not want anyone at church to get sick too she seemed to understand. I held her and talked to her while we watched a movie. Then I read a few bible stories to her while she rested.

Later that night we made a gingerbread house. My mom had never made one before and she and PaPa had a lot of fun decorating it with the four little chicks.

During the week there was one unwelcome guest at our house. A pesky little stomach bug made the round from chick to chick. My Mother was a great help and did a lot of my laundry from the week. I washed my fair share of sheets this week too. I think that it is now gone through all of the chicks and is over. I am feeling a little under the weather today but it is not anything that I can not live with. Chick #1 was the last to fight with the bug and today she is back to her old self. She helped clean a lot of the house by wiping things down with disinfectant wipes. Those sure do come in handy when you are cleaning bathrooms a few times a day. Hopeful tomorrow all will be well in the Hen house again.

Ahhhh!

2007-11-17T14:59:00.000-06:00

I have found myself, this afternoon in a completely quiet house. This happens to me every now and then. If I were to put a number on it I would have to say maybe 6 or 8 times a year. The Rooster had to run and errand this afternoon and took the older three chicks with him. I am home the the littlest chick who is taken a much needed nap. At times when I am here alone (almost) I wonder what my life will be like when these little chicks have flown away. Will my days still be spent at home making a nice place for The Rooster and me? Will I maybe find a job outside the home? Will all of my little chicks stay close by and I will be baking cookies from them to munch on. Meanwhile I will enjoy my little bit of solitude and then vacuum the house. After all, my parents are coming to visit for of whole week this evening. It will be a wonderful week.

Italy, here I come baby

2007-11-16T20:29:00.000-06:00

I like the boots plus the food would not be to bad either.

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful.

You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

It's all good

2007-11-13T11:50:00.001-06:00

Nothing can be better than an evening filled with good company and good food. A fellow MartinLooper came to my neck of the woods for some shopping with her Mother. She wanted to know if I wanted to meet her and visit for a while. I, of course, jump at the chance to get out of the house and spend some times with friends. So I sprang to action and called fellow loopers and planned an evening. Diane, a good friend came along and then we drove to pick up Gina and John. Diane and I had never been to the Cheesecake Factory. So we suggested it as a meeting place. Wow! The restaurant was amazing! The decor was breathtaking and food was divine. It took our group of ladies quite a while to decide what to order. We giggled and laughed while reading through the menu. Finally, the orders were placed and lively conversation ensued while we waited for the meal. John was all smiles the whole time and kept everyone entertained. When the food was brought out to our table we gasped at the enormous size of the plates and portions. I really believe that my salad could have fed a third world country. OK, I may be exaggerating but it really was a huge plate of salad. I ate about a third of it and then enjoyed the rest for lunch today. Her I am with the gigantic salad!

John is one of the most patient little three year old boys I have ever seen. He sat so well during our two hours visit. Here he is with Gina lovely plate of pasta.

After a while he did want to move around a little so the little guy sat between Gina and me. I have spent a lot of time with him over the past month but usually the Chicks are playing with him while Gina and I talk. I did not get into the act of playing with him so often. Last night he really was teasing me. He wanted to sword fight with the butter knifes and I had to defend myself. Then he would giggle and carry on. He wanted me to tickle him with my long hair then he would pretend to cut it with his butter knife. Tiger, his semi famous stuffed toy, had to get in on the act too. I made a Kleenex cape for him and he flew over the table. I tryed to get John to eat one of the little madarin oranges that were in my salad. But he thought it was more fun to squish them up and try to feed them to Tiger.
We could not go the The Cheesecake Factory with out ordering cheese cake could we. The menu of cheesecakes was just as overwhelming to me as the entree menu. After we finally ordered and the cakes were brought out, John knew just what to go for. The whipped cream! It was good to seem him enjoy it. Notice his round little cheeks? We can only pray that they will become rounder with time. Gina just called me after lunch today and told me that they are going home today. This is a time of rejoicing and sadness. I am so glad that John is now strong enough to return home but I will miss getting to see my new found friend. John will have to be coming back up to the hospital here is a few weeks and Gina, Mark and John will be staying at The Hen House. It will be good to see her again. During that visit we will be having another Looper close by so there will be more laughter with Wendy and her lost boys.

When it rains it pours

2007-11-09T11:25:00.000-06:00

Just ask my husband and he will tell you that it is true. It never fails, that if one thing break in our house there will soon be another thing to follow it. Lets go back to last Saturday. My trusty kitchen aid mixer was kneading my bread dough and I walked away to check on one of the little chicks. Suddenly, The Rooster came up to me and told me that he turned off my mixer because it stopped. WHAT? I was trying to wrap my chicken brain around what he was telling me. How does a mixer just stop? Maybe he was trying to say that he turned it off? I always set my timer to beep when the mixer has kneaded the dough for the right amount of time. It usually takes about 6 min. for the dough to turn out right. I asked The Rooster, "You mean that you turned it off, right?" "No", he said. "It shut off so I turned the switch off". Now my mind was racing, could my mixer be broken? Oh the horror, I use this thing all of the time. It was the The Roosters idea to buy me this heavy duty mixer after I kept burning up hand held ones. The model we bought was a reconditioned model because we could have never afforded to but a 6 quart mixer any other way. The Rooster and I established that, yes, the mix was broke. I then look at my husband with pleading eyes. "Dear", I say, "You are able to repair presses that are as big as our house, surly you can fix this little mixer." The Rooster then took apart my mixer, that I am secretly in love with, and figured out that the motor is going bad. Good! We just need to get a motor. Well that statement is easier typed than done. Now the Internet is a wonderful thing and after much surfing and a phone call to acquire and differ part number, he was able to locate a company that sells the motors for these mixers. Mean while, in the hen house, that left me to do manual labor.

Poor Poor mixer!
Notice the bulging muscles from kneaded dough for 6 minutes. Just joking! Let me tell you that those women of the past must have had wrists and elbows of steel. Mine began to hurt after only a few minutes.

The vacuum then decided that it would try to copy the mixer buy busting a plastic piece that holds that tubes together that are used with the beater brush. Duck tape temporarily fixed that break down so I could vacuum the filth and live with the way the floor looked. Hopefully, both of these parts will find their way through the postal system and end up on my door step soon.

cooking and baking and chopping

2007-11-04T13:32:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I had a busy day at home. In the morning while chick #3 was at dance lessons I took the older chicks out for nice bike ride. The weather was a little cool and Chick #2 and I really enjoyed the ride. Chick #1 is not a girl up for challenges so she did not have as much fun as we did. But at least we made it home safe. Then I was to spend the rest of my day in the kitchen. I had to make a potato salad for our soup supper at church. Then I finished up the bread that I had soaked the day before. I made green chili for lunch and garlic chicken for supper. The green chili was an accidental dish that I was forced into making because we did not have any canned tomatoes. That is really a bummer when you have your heart set on something and then a key ingredient is missing. I recalled that I had heard you can make green chili using green tomatoes, so I gave that a try. After I perfect the recipe a little I might blog about that and then you can try it. We all agreed that it was good enough and everyone liked it. I then decided to freeze some of our many green tomatoes. If you read this blog often you remember that this is not a good year for tomatoes here. This is me whining about it.

Here are some of the green tomatoes that Chick #1 went and picked for me. I figured I should try them in something because there are just so many of them. I know that the Ugly duckling has been snacking on them because I have found them laying around in the yard.

Chick #3 helped with the washing and the taking off the tops. She talked for the tomatoes the whole time she helped me.

Then I did the chopping.

They look pretty don't they.

Then the little guys were stuffed in bags. Chick #3 thought that this looked liked the best part and, of course, the best job. She had to try her hand at this too. But the tomatoes got a little to excited in the ride they had in the spoon from the bowl to the bag. Every time she would have about five pieces end up on the floor and just could not figure out why. I figure that I now have enough for three batches of green chili. The next time I make some I will share that adventure with you.

Holidays

2007-10-31T12:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween and Happy Reformation from the Lutheran Hen! May the chocolate harvest commence!

Birthdays

2007-10-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of chick #1 when she was a wee little babe. Today is celebrating her 10th birthday. She is very excited to be growing up and learning more new things.
We had her party on Saturday with three of her friends plus the other chicks. There was rollerskating in the morning followed by lunch and then cake and ice cream. She still has that beautiful dark hair that she was born with. I gave her a special gift since she is turning ten and is now a pre-teen. She received a girly bag this morning with the American Girl book about growing up in it. I added person care items, lip gloss, a little training bra, a cute little bag, body spray and shower gel. She is looking forward to all of the new changes that will soon be happening to her.

She also received this dress from her Godparents and their daughter and son-in-law. It matched one of my skirts so well that we thought we would dress the same for Church on Sunday. Chick #2 took the picture of us because the Rooster stayed at church for the voters meeting. I thought I would add this picture of myself because it is my birthday today also.

Tagged again

2007-10-19T18:16:00.000-05:00

I have been tagged with this item once before so maybe I should come up with seven new things. Oh the turmoil of trying to think of seven things that my readers do not know about me. That is a little hard because three of my most faithful readers are very close to me. My mother, sister and life long friend. Well I will discount them because that would just be to hard. If you want to see my answers from last time click here
So now, thank you Laura for tagging me.

Here are the rules.
1. Link the person who has tagged you.
2. Tell seven true things about yourself.
3. Tag seven new people.
4. Leave a message with the person you have tagged so they know about it.

Seven truths
1. I am short only 5'2". I maybe little but I am feisty, not really ;)

2. I sing soprano and I am a diva!

3. I like to wear a single silver toe ring in the summer.

4. I have taken oven 700 pictures since January! Holy Moly

5. Holy Moly is my new favorite saying! I say it really loud and stretch out. The chicks think that it is a hoot.

6. Evey time I try to scrapbook I become so guilt ridden that I can not stand to do it. Chick #1's book is only done until she is 8 months old. She is now almost 10 years old and I will not even bring up the other chick's books. Poor me! Just think how far behind I am with having taken 700 pictures in 10 months. Oh! I can not even think about it. Quick I need to change the subject.

7. Last but not least, ummm! well! Oh darn what should I say now. Can it be about the Rooster and I both? Well, here it is, when we go out to do anything we are both very undeceive. We can never decide what to do, where to go, and what to eat. We always want the other to have what they want so we can never decide on anything.

Now who should I tag? I think that just about everyone has done this. Well I will tag Caroline ,Gina ,Ree, hey, I can dream that she may someday look at my little blog can't I. And The Funny Farm

Ok, I think that I have used way to many brain cells for a Friday night. I give up at four. Of course if anyone would want to tell more unknowns about yourself go ahead!

School???

2007-10-19T14:08:00.000-05:00

Homeschooling is not always easy, actually it is really hard sometimes. You know the times, the children all gathered at your feet, coloring lovely pictures while you read great literature to them. Then something happens to this wonderful picture, it is disturbed and the focus is totally lost. The dog wants to be the center of attention and is walking around with a box on his nose. He prances, he shows off, he takes it off and then quickly put it back on his nose all for the sake of a laugh. I hope you enjoy the show.

Tapping chicks

2007-10-12T09:26:00.000-05:00

This is for NaNa and PaPa because one video just would not be enough. Chick #1 is getting a little tuckered out by this time but I would too after an hour of dancing.

Dancing chicks

2007-10-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

Last night chick #1 had her visitors night at the dance studio. Chick#3 wanted to dance with her big sister so she put on her dance clothes tried to keep up the whole lesson. As you can see Chick #1 legs are not long enough to completely reach the bar, but little chick #3 finally got her leg up there too. The teacher was even laughing at that. Chick #1 is the youngest in her class but this year she really seems to be paying better attention. Never once does she complain about going to lessons. On Saturday it will be chick #3 turn for visitors day and we will get to see what she learned this year.

I added this picture of dancing chicks just to be funny.

I hope you enjoy the video of the girls doing ballet warm ups.

on

A Little Boy

2007-10-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my brood and I travel to visit with John and his Mother in the hospital. I enjoy these visits just as much as they do and we seem to enjoy each others company. John took great joy in watch Chick #2 try to juggle and then tease Chick #3. I think we might have wore the little guy out because he sat in his stroller for quite a while. He started to become uncomfortable so his Mother moved him back to bed. Between the stroller and all of the i.v.s and tubes he became a little tangled so I helped out. I had never held John before and his little boy's body is so light and frail. Yet, even in this state, he can smile and bring joy to the people around him. He was showing the nurses the signs for different letters and they marveled over him. After he was settled in bed and received his meds he took a well deserved nap. His Mother is ever at his side and is strong for him. When he is in pain she coos words of comfort to him in a way only a Mother could. I watched, before me, feminism in it best term. A mother sacrificing everything for her child. God has made women for a reason, to raise children and help the man that is married to her. It is not a coincidence that we were made second after man. God did for a reason. It is his order. He has given all women a vocation as helper. John's Mother has taken on this role in a way that none of us could ever understand. She is the ever vigilant Mother by her sons side. "You go girl!" Now that, in all good cases is, "I am woman hear me roar!"

Posts

2007-10-10T09:10:00.000-05:00

It seemed that the topic of apples was very well enjoyed be everyone. I was surprised over how many comments had been posted on the topic. Sorry to say, but I will not be baking with apples again any time soon. I did make some delicious pumpkin bread on this past Saturday. I guessed I should have blogged about that as well.

Standing at the sink

2007-10-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

Before next apple season I need to make a purchase. I spent way to much time standing in front of my kitchen sink peeling apples with a knife. Many interesting things happen while a mother is so occupied with fruit. Chick #3 pick up a Bob book and started to read it by herself. My oldest daughter, Chick #1 watch me a long time and thought that it looked to be the funnest thing in the world. She was amazed that the knife could touch my thumb with every cut and not injure me. She thought that maybe she should try but I am not ready to have my oldest daughter cutting apples with really sharp knives. I do not know what it is with mothers but we are always trying to hold that first child back. "Oh, they are not old enough yet", we tell ourselves. Then we have a third and fourth and they show us how wrong we were and how capable and inventive they can be. My poor hand started to ache from pealing and cutting up so many apples.

I made one really nice batch of applesauce and it tasted just wonderful. Never have I tasted applesauce with such flavor. Well. once when I was at my friends house, she served us some of her applesauce and it was very tasty. I figured that this year I would make it down to the apple orchard and buy a mess of apples so I could try it for myself. I kept that sauce as natural as possible by only adding a little cinnamon and brown sugar after the apples had cooked down.
Then I placed the sauce in jars and gave them a nice hot water bath. Don't the jars look so beautiful? I do not know what it is with food in canning jars, it just make me feel all warm inside. Oh, wait I am all warm inside because I had to do all of the hard work to get the scrumptious food in those pretty jars.
Of course a bunch of apples could not survive in my house with finding their way into a pie. I have a goal in my life to make a perfect looking apple pie that also tastes wonderful. I was close yet again but have not yet mastered it. I simply loved the way that my pie looked after it was done. The crust worked well for me while I was rolling it and placing it in the pan. But when I cut open the cooked pie is was hollow on the top. The apples had cooked down and the crust had stayed in its place. I am not sure how to fix this problem. I pressed the apples firmly down into the pie plate. Maybe it was the egg wash that I put onto the crust. Could it be that it got to firm and then the crust could not settle down onto the apples? I do not know. It sure does taste good with ice cream! Yum!

In His hands!

2007-10-02T09:13:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we had an extremely windy day here. It was the kind of wind that would blow you into the person you were walking next to. I know this because it literally happened to me. In the afternoon we went and participated in the local JDRF walk. If you do not know what that acronym stands for it is for Juvenal Diabetes Research Foundation. One of my husbands co-worker's son has diabetes so we walk every year to support them. While on this walk, in 50 mile per hour winds, I bumped into my children a few times. Our stroller would have blown across the parking lot with our son in it if we would not have been holding it. Now, in our front yard we have a young tree. It is probably about 13-16 years old. I really do not know, but the poor thing had a crack right down the middle of the tree. It did not go all the to its base, the crack was only about a foot and a half long. The Rooster and I had been worried about the tree falling apart and we were planning to cut it down as soon as we could. The day before one of the Roosters friends had came over to help in the cutting down of the tree but it did not happen because of the wind that day. We had no way to know were it would fall and you can tell by the picture that there are many power lines close by. So we scraped the idea and watched football. After we came home from the walk on Sunday, God took care of the tree and our children. Chick #4 had fallen asleep on the way home so I had to carry him up to his room when we arrived home. Chick #3 had to use the bathroom so thankfully she was quickly in the house and safe. The older 2 chicks were helping get things in from the car when "Crack", half of the tree fell. Chick #1 was next to the vehicle which was parked up by the house. So she was safe and sound. Chick #2 jumped onto the porch and watched the tree fall. He thought this was all very exciting and the Rooster and I were a little shaken. I told the chicks that God's holy angle was with us and the evil foe had no power over us. So now for the time being we have a crooked tree in our front yard.

Notice that the tree did not hit anything! God can do a much better job at these things that we can.
Here is our poor tree. It will come completely down this next week and then we maybe planting a new one. That issue is currently a topic of discussion at our hen house.

New Friends

2007-10-02T09:04:00.000-05:00

I have met a really wonderful new friend. I know that in the past I have spoken about Martin Loopers before and I have had the opportunity to meet yet another one of these amazing people. Her son is in a hospital close to where I live and they are living there until his body is healthy and well again. While she and her son are there they do not have any transportation. I went and pick them both up and brought them to my house for some down time and good cooking. We have had so much fun on these visits and last night we laughed to much during dinner. It is always a good thing to get the giggles. I do not think that this happens enough in our world today. If you would like to check out how my friends son is doing you can check out her blog at http://simuljustisetpecatur.blogspot.com/ Little John is going to be having surgery on Friday so we should all remember to say a pray for him and his family.

I have been AWOL

2007-09-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been busy in our house. We are now in the full swing of homeschooling. My dear husband is teaching the older two Latin this year so it should be interesting. Our new little homeschooler (chick #3) is doing well. I am teaching her reading and handwriting. Hopefully her numbers will improve soon so that she can start doing more math. The older ones seem to be handling their studies just fine. They are studying Math-u-see Delta and Beta, Christian Liberty Press Handwriting, Spelling Power, Story of the World Three, Apologia Science Zoology 2, English for the thoughtful child 1 and 2, Writing Strands 3, Prima Latin, Catechism work, Piano, plus studying musical composers. Do you now understand why I have not blogged in some time. I am also going to have the older two study some children's Lit. using the study guilds that are put out by Veritas Press. I just want each of them to go through two this year. They will of course be reading other books beside these two.
Chick #1 is reading the Harry Potter books right now. I read them first then I give them to her to read through. The little girl has much more time to read than I do so she is now waiting for me to finish book 3. I want to make sure that there is not anything to scary in them for her to read about. I have been keeping up with all of our laundry and I even got rid of some stuff. Chick #3 had way to much clothes and it would not all fit into her dresser. We have solved that problem by taken a huge bad to Goodwill. The chicks and I also went through toys and got rid of things that never got played with. It was getting just awful with the amount of toys we had tin the house. There was not room for them to be put away. I seem to have to do this every fall so that there will be room for the new things that will come into the house during birthdays and Christmas. I still need to read science to the little chicks so I should get going and do my duties. Hopefully it will not be so long between my posts again.

crawdad feed

2007-08-26T18:36:00.001-05:00

We had the pleasure of being invited to a crawdad feed this weekend. These little guys were wiggling around trying to pinch the kids that were wanting to play with them. Until, they were tossed into a pot with boiling water. These little guys were cooked up Cajun style and they were spicy!

"Poor me! My tail and claws have been eaten by The Rooster."

The Rooster seems to have a unique style in his crayfish eating.

Hummm. It looks like Chick #2 has the same type of style. I wonder where he learned that?

Here are chick #2 and #3 looking at the fest. They did not partake of the sucking of crayfish but they would gladly break the tail off for the hungry guests.

Making a sailor blush

2007-08-20T12:19:00.000-05:00

Chick #4 could make a sailor blush. He could cause a Grandmother to faint and a Pastor to be taken back. This seems to happen when the little guy it playing with his trucks. Have guessed? He can not say a "tr" sound yet and it comes out as a "f". Opps! I was trying to work on him saying truck today but he just got louder and louder and never really got the correct sound out. Hopefully he will grow and find the "tr" sound soon. For the moment maybe I should hide the trucks. :o)