another morning meal

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.