Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Monday, March 23, 2009

Candling Our Chicken Eggs

You know how some days you can't get a sentence right no matter how many times you write and erase it? Today appears to be one of those days. And I'm just writing about chicken eggs for crying out loud... So, what to do? Start writing about how you apparently can't write today. That should get the juices flowing. One hopes.

So, last night we candled our chickie eggs. Before I tell you how that went I have to tell you about something I'm still chuckling over. Saturday as we were driving about contemplating ways of amusing ourselves hubby and I were discussing the possibilities of a little farming venture. Along with our gardens and orchards that we have begun we were talking about chickens and goats for eggs, milk, and meat. Suddenly from the back seat Joshua speaks up. "By the way, all the chickies that hatch from our eggs in the our incubator are not food."

I assured him that all the chickies that hatch from this batch will just be pets. He insisted "every single one!" "Yes", I told him, "every single chickie that hatches from our eggs that we have now will just be a pet. Not for food."

We had a bit of trouble seeing into our eggs. We finally decided that even with all the lights off our kitchen just wasn't dark enough. Anyway, we had four eggs with definite squirmy little chickie embryos visible. Two eggs the shell seemed too thick to see through (?), two were indefinite---hard to see if there was an embryo in there or not. And one egg had a dark blood ring kinda like this...
Which means the chick had died. Overall we were very pleased with our little 'experiment'. Brannon and I really enjoyed seeing the chicks moving around inside their shells. I have to admit, i never thought about seeing them move, DUH! :-) They were quite squirmy though, which was fun. Probably trying to get away from the bright flashlight, lol. Joshua said he couldn't see anything. I imagine he didn't stand still long enough. ;-)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Monday, March 16, 2009

A New Endeavor

My dear husband has been grumbling rather loudly that we are NOT ready for chickens...
In his defense, he is absolutely right.

In my defense: I didn't procure either eggs or incubator. I merely plugged them in when they were brought through my front door and handed to me. Furthermore it has been several months at least since I mentioned casually to my dear mother-in-law that it would be fun to hatch some eggs to go along with a creation science study. Some day...

So, some day appears to have arrived. The critters are excited. They can't wait until we can candle the eggs to see if there appears to be anybody inside. Joshua, being five, doesn't quite have the concept of time down and whenever I tell him it will be three weeks until they hatch he wants to know if that is today. :-) We put them in on Saturday, March 14. So this weekend we'll do our first candling. In the meantime it's turn them five times a day and keep an eye on the water level and the thermometer. Grandma says it's like babysitting...

The plan is when they are big enough to go outside we'll put them inside the fence around the new trees. Hopefully when the spring and early summer gardening chores (like fencing, planting, greenhouse etc) are taken care of my honey will have time to construct winter shelter for our chickens (assuming they hatch that is). If not, I guess they'll have to winter in the greenhouse...assuming that gets built...

So, you can see his point when he says we are not ready...

Again I say to you, IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!! ;-D

About Me and Blog Awards

Ok, I just want to shout out a big Thank You!!! to the lovely ladies who have given me blog awards in the recent past. You know who you are:) I can't tell you what a thrill it is to see my name listed and know you guys are reading and enjoying my blog. I love it!!! :-)

BUT......... As you may have noticed I'm not so good at following the rules and passing the things on! It's not that I don't appreciate the love. Honestly. I'm just really bad about doing any kind of chain thingy... I never forward emails or text messages, because I don't want to. I'm just not into it. This habit seems to have spilled over into blog land:) So while I'm lovin the love, you must award me at your own risk, as I may or may not ever post the thing and pass it on.

Thanks for understanding (I'm assuming here of course:-D)

Friday, March 13, 2009

Thursday, March 12, 2009

For Matthew--Thoughts on 'The Silver Hand'

Ha! So it is more than a figure of speech. When he came up out of the lake I kinda assumed his hand was mobile, ya know. But then it was described as fixed. Until Siawn challenges his kingship, and he raises his hand and moves it to show he is no longer maimed. That made me happy:)

Meldron's end was fitting. Although Siawn Hy deserved it more. The slimy son of a viper!

Speaking of Simon. At the beginning of the first book I never would have taken him for the one who would end up being the arch enemy. Sure he was selfish, but that was the fault of his upbringing. I just figured he was kinda harmlessly selfish, you know? When he was so unhappy with Lewis' appearance I just figured he didn't want his bubble burst, like "Don't rain on my parade, man. I'm totally free for the first time in my life. I don't have to answer to anyone's expectations but my own" I just thought he was happy with his new, exciting life. Then when he begins to show jealousy, then hatred toward his former friend you see the seeds of what he is to become.

I expected him to try his little escape number there at the end (speaking of which where is Paladyr?) I was surprised and positively gleeful when Bran's throw found it's mark (did you know I was so bloodthirsty??). But then he disappears into the manifest world. And what's all this junk about Simon being in league with Weston all along??? What the---?! I sincerely hope they don't manage to save his life somehow on the other side, gggrrrr ( I know you can't say anything cause you've read book three and i have not;). I don't think I could stand another book with Siawn lurking and being nasty. He'd better not come back, the WRETCH!!!

I found the whole bit with Tegid's inner eye very interesting. Sometimes when he is blind you 'see' more than you should as a reader, I understand this is assumed landscape and necessary for the carrying of the storyline. I found his inner sight a tad too convenient at times. Again, a vehicle to carry the story. Still. I enjoyed the moments when he lost it in the middle of something important (not being sadistic here, just more interesting). I understand it would have been too cumbersome to have too much of the action described to him by a third party. I love at the end how when he is healed he gets his physical sight back and yet keeps the inner sight.

I'm loving this:

Here I am upon my rock, and here I stay
I will be unmoved until you, Unmoving Mover,
move in me;
I will keep silent until you, Living Word,
speak to me;
In darkness will I sit until you, Light of Life,
illumine me.

Grant me now, Gifting Giver, three things I seek:
Knowledge of the thing I do not know;
Wisdom to understand it;
Truth to discern it rightly.

"Truth to discern it rightly" Love that.

I liked Tegid a whole lot more in this book than in the second half of The Paradise War. He was too depressed then, lol...

Poor Geowyn:( I understand Llew's position though. He doesn't think he'll be around all that long and doesn't want to lead her on.

So, what's with Twrch? The way the dog keeps weaving pointedly in and out of the story makes me think there's some, well, point to Llew having a dog. It seems too detailed to just be a bit of the landscape. But, maybe that's just me. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

The author, in the interview in the back, says he doesn't think 'the silver hand' is particularly dark. I disagree. Compared to the first book anyway. It was quite gruesome, and the mayhem was more personal as well as more widespread. That said, I'm takin a little break before I start book three. I'm reading some completely fluffy and ridiculous teen novel, just for something to laugh at:) We'll see how long I last though. I'm almost full of fluff already...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Spring

Strong little helper:)
Getting a fence around the new young fruit trees so the deer don't eat them...
Although--this hole could be a problem


Forget-me-not
Daffodil
Joshua and I planted his peas Saturday. The jugs are to keep the birds from eating all our seeds. We had about four pea plants last year out of four long rows! The rufus-sided towhees had a feast though!
I often forget how utterly happy I am outdoors in the sunshine behind my camera:) This morning I was mad cause I've had stupid cold symptoms for way too long and sad cause Brannon has come down with yet another cold also. I got outside and started taking pictures and before long I was smiling from ear to ear!
Mmmmmm, raspberries...
apples...




This afternoon Joshua was dancing around in the driveway making up songs, complete with guitar and drum sounds. It was wonderful to see him so exuberant, he's been so blah for so long :-)













Sunday, March 8, 2009

Kids Are Awesome!

I love how we can learn such great "life" lessons and "God" lessons from our kiddos.

We were hiking today, at a place called Cathedral Hills. The boys picked the trail that said "most difficult". LOL. First because they liked the sound of a challenge. But they quickly figured out that the trails marked 'most difficult' had the steepest downhills, the funnest for running down! :-) We wound our way here and there for quite a while. Pretty soon the uphills were being accomplished more and more slowly. On one particularly steep hill as I labored behind my panting critters I heard Joshua say "This is going to be a good downhill!"

What a great attitude to have toward life! The hill you're climbing may be really steep and difficult. You may want to give up, throw in the towel, sit down and not get back up. But, keep on putting one foot in front of the other...cause when you get to the top you're going to have one heck of a fun run down!!! :-)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Lovin' This!

http://www.ibethel.tv/watch/62:3:4

This is a sermon by Larry Randolph given at Bethel Church in Redding, CA last month. Lovin it! He talks about how much God loves us, how he dreamed each one of us billions of years ago, how all of heaven is watching and waiting(cheering us on!) to see if we will reach for the amazing potential we have in Christ... Anyway, good stuff. If you need encouragement today, just turn this on while you're doing whatever and have a listen:)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

T-shirt Renewed

So, I promised a while back I'd post some of the little clothing projects I have worked on this year. Well, it's kinda hard to do that if you never take pics of the stuff! Ahem.

Anyhoo...here's the only one I have taken a picture of so far. Joshua got all excited about having a shirt that said 'future fireman' after reading a book from the library about firefighters and seeing a pic of kids in a parade with future fireman t-shirts on. So...

Hawaii t-shirt with paint peeling off...(we helped what was left)
Felt from our large stash+the alphabet off the fridge for templates=




I think he's worn it a whole two times, lol. But, we had fun:-)
More projects to come, I promise! Just so you know, you have to forgive me if that turns out to be a lie...



Bits From the Church Conference

Ok, Matt:) I'll respond to your prompts. My favorite speaker was Larry Randolph. I'm very excited to go to a conference if either he or Kris Vallotton is speaking. ;-) What can I say, I like the funny ones...

I love Larry's personality and how he can make you laugh until you cry, but then you're chewing on what he said for days afterward (at least!).

Kris was my second favorite, (cause Larry was there, lol).

Did I get what I was hoping for out of the conference? Yep. I had tons of fun and I love God even more than I did a week ago. Plus I got to hear lots of way awesome teaching which is even now encouraging me in my faith. And have a blast during the worship times. And I got to drink lots of coffee, hang out with Mom and Vicki, feel a tiny bit silly crocheting while waiting in lines (only cause mom was knitting and Vicki was crocheting too so there we were all in a row, teehee) and bring home a Sons of Korah cd... all in all an enjoyable experience.

I think the thing that's impacting me the most right now is coming from Larry talking about obedience to God's voice, even in the smallest things(it wasn't the point of his message, just a stop along the way, but it really stuck to me, probably because there's a couple things God's told me to do that I've been pretty slack about listening too, cause they're not "spiritual" , sheesh, you'd think I'd have a clue by now--It's all spiritual!). It's kind of a "duh!" But sometimes we get so caught up in listening for the 'big' stuff we forget to listen when He tells us small things. I'm still cracking up over Larry telling us God shows up in his room one time when he's sick and saying "You haven't been drinking much water, have you?" You'll have to listen to that one Matty, its a good one...

And Leif (pronounced layf) Hetson...Wow, the guy's been through so much, and he's up there with a huge smile on his face the whole time. One thing he said is really sticking to me. A couple months ago he had a large tumor removed from his abdomen. So, he's up there saying, 'I have no tumor, so, I can pray for you and your tumors will be healed'. That so astonished me. It reminds me of Eric Johnson saying you can have victory long before your breakthrough. If we have the faith to believe God no matter what our circumstances are telling us we have the victory in the spirit long before we see the physical manifestation of that victory. So Leif believes he has the grace to pray for tumors and see them healed, even though he was not healed through a supernatural act, but by a doctor's skill, and he carries the spiritual victory for that healing. Don't know if the way I said that makes any sense, but, there you have it.

Everyone (who knew me well enough)was asking if I was coming back in May for the writer's conference. The author of The Shack, William P. Young, is going to be the main speaker. I'm ''not feelin' it'', the whole writing thing that is(long story, don't really want to talk about it). I just said, no I'm trying to go to Africa instead. Nobody then asked why I wasn't planning on the writer's conference. Sweet.

So, Matt, there you have some highlights:) We'll have to actually talk pretty soon, lol!

Monday, March 2, 2009

I really should have something to say today. But, I seem to be drawing a blank. I'm very tired after my trip last week and trying to convince myself that's ok.

Joshua is still on his tired/cranky/screaming-about-everything kick. I have to say, two weeks of that seems like more than enough to me! I've begun to wonder if he could actually be depressed? Can five yr olds be depressed? I don't know, anyway I prayed for him today, and I just remembered they probably haven't had their vitamins in a few days. We tried to go out and plant Joshie's peas and lettuce today, but he pitched a fit about every little thing, so we gave up. It's supposed to be fun after all...

Nate did some butchering with some friends yesterday and after coming home covered in muck of various kinds said he could really use a sturdy apron. Now, I don't know how often he'll actually be doing this kind of thing, lol, considering past history, but I don't mind making him an apron. I suggested using old denim and he was excited about that, so I'll have to start thinking how I want to make it.

Hey, Matt, I'm still enjoying the book. I think the story about Bladudd was a very odd one. I guess because they didn't explain a whole lot of what people were thinking and who they actually were. I guess it's partly allegorical. Like Sovereignty returned to him after he was healed because he was no longer blemished. But what was all that about the trials he would have had if he had succeeded in his theft of the enchanted pigs? And, he didn't come across to me as so prideful and arrogant??? I guess I don't know what he was thinking though... I'm really enjoying the blossoming of Llew and Tegid's friendship under their joint afflictions...even though I threw the book down when it happened, lol ;-)

Ok, I've erased this paragraph several times now, so I think I'm done for today. Yeah.