Spring has Sprung

Rain, rain, rain! It has made the ground so soft, so much easier to work with than usual. Yes in places it has been just downright sopping, but, I would rather have the rain than none! My hair on the other hand could do without all the humidity! Oh well!
     It has been a VERY fruitful spring so far here on the homestead. Almost 3 weeks ago, Toastie my cat, had kittens, 6 adorable kittens. There are 2 males and 4 females, she had them in a box in our bathroom (like any good cat should).  Two nights ago she decided for whatever reason she wanted to move them. I imagine it is because she felt I was taking to many liberties with picking them up and petting them. I was started to let the kids pet them and I assume she just felt they would do better under my nightstand. As long as I know where they are, I am fine with that!
     We have had a brooding hen ( a black silkie) for about five weeks now. I have never seen a brooding hen in action before, it is VERY neat. Basiclly she sits in her nesting box ALL DAY, she seemed to have started laying on one or so of her eggs. Now that the other hens know she is brooding, they climb up in the box with her and lay their egg (pretty much on top of her) and she scoops that egg into her clutch and sits on it. This hen DOES NOT get up. We have a hen that *thinks* she is a brooder but she gets bored after about 2 days and gets down. I suspect she has ADD and just can't sit still that long.  :) Anyway this hen had about 10 eggs under her at one point. Unless you mark them ( which we should probably start doing) there is no way to know which egg is which. So you just wait for a chick. A chick hatched last friday, it is such a cute little thing. It seems to be doing well. This is an experiment, letting her hatch her own eggs. We will have to see what the chicks disposition is like , my philosophy is "everyone does better with a momma" so we will see!
---------WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT--------- I wanted to update the chick section of this blog. Last night I brought in a bunch of eggs from our ADD hen. I told Stewy that since she doesn't sit on them consistently we need to make sure they are taken from her.  He started cracking the eggs ( there are sure to be embryo's in them we are just uncertain of the stage) he cracked an egg and it started chirping!!! I almost started crying as I said, "STOP STOP!! Take it back out and put in under the momma!!!! " So hopefully, we didn't damage that one to badly and it will hatch in a few more days!!------END EXPLICIT CONTENT-----    Sunday we added a new line of mammal to the farm.  I purchased 2 GOS (Glouchester Old Spot) and Large Black (creative huh?) mix hogs.  These both are rare heritage breeds and are meant to be raised on pasture (which is better for them anyway than raising them on grain , IMO) The meat with these guys is said to be much richer and smoother. Now, I already LOVE pork so a better tasting pork sounds GREAT to me. They are also AMAZING rooters. As long as they stay where they are supposed to, we plan on putting these girls to work having them turn over the land. We can then reseed and move them to another area of pasture. Between the chickens and the pigs, I am anticipating GREAT things! We got two females. My intent is to see how the summer goes with raising them. If we decide that pigs aren't our thing ( like we did with goats) then we will butcher both girls. If I like the idea and it works out well we have talked about butchering one and breeding the other. I named them "scrapple", the one that I anticipated that we would be eating, and,  "sweetie", the one that I anticipated that we would be breeding. However their dispositions did a little flip flop and Scrapple is the one who wants the attention and Sweetie is the one who thinks she is being murdered when you try to pet her.  They come when they are called (it's so fun to watch them come running). They have big floppy ears that act as blinders, so they are not as jumpy as some other pigs that you've seen. This is a neat new venture that I am very excited about!
    As far as the humans go, we are all doing well. The kids love the animals (especially the kittens) and #1 is always eager to go get the eggs for us. They are all such a big help (some days more than others, but we are working on that). We are still doing school and will continue with at least math and reading all year around. We plan to take breaks here and there as needed. That is the beauty of Home Schooling is you can do what is best for your children and for you ( but more of that for another time) .
    Enjoy the rain, God has given it to us for a reason.  Yes, it makes things hard to mow, and yes, there is lots of mud; but, there are SO MANY worse problems we could have. So my recommendation is go with it! The August dry heat will be here before you know it!

How YOU feelin??

     I started reading a book called Adrenal Fatigue  By Dr. James Wilson. It was recommended to me by a friend. She had started making diet changes and really started feeling so much better. So I thought I would look into this whole adrenal fatigue thing.  While reading the book it turns out that (according to the test in the book) I have moderate adrenal fatigue. My guess is that most all of the working moms, home schooling moms, have a certain level of adrenal fatigue. The thing is, it's something that can be fixed with diet, exercise, sleep, vitamins, etc. All the things that you need in your life anyway.
     So I started eating better, I cut way back on my carbs and cut out a bunch of sugar. I stopped drinking caffeinated coffee. I actually stopped caffeine all together ( and didn't have any migraines!) I increased my veggies, trying new ones that I hadn't tried before (endives, I don't recommend them) I LOVE Brussel Sprouts, always have. I got fresh ones though and not the ones that are frozen in a bag with "sauce" . I have been steaming things left and right. The book recommends trying different veggies and cooking them all different ways. Cooking the same vegetable different ways releases different nutrients. My alfalfa sprouts are growing in the kitchen right now. They should be good to eat tomorrow. I say all this to say.......
       I fell off the wagon Thursday night.  You see,  Thursday is our pizza night. Pizza sounded so good! Now, I could've just had one piece and stopped (I didn't ) and you know that with pizza you have to have soda ( my soda of choice is of course PEPSI!) After our dinner, we were watching our movie and I thought "Oh! we have ICE CREAM!!" So we ate ice cream. It was yummy.

~Oh wait..... did I tell you how GREAT I felt on Thursday ?(before I fell off the wagon)  I had felt so great because I had been GOOD for like a week or so!..... On top of eating better, I had been samba-ing around the house for about three days to the Rio Soundtrack. (The kids love it! especially Adelaide) My abs are killing me BTW...~
    
      So after my bingeing on Thursday I expected to not feel so well on Friday.  I actually felt OK. When I talk about feeling well I want you to know this is not just a "physically" well, but a "mentally" well.  I felt good on Friday but definitely not GREAT like I had felt on Thursday. Today is Saturday and I have felt like CRAP! Emotionally ,in a puddle on the floor and feeling like there is not a thing that I shouldn't eat.
     I say all of this to say. I am going to hop back on that horse in the morning. 1) Finish reading the book ( not just read enough to be dangerous , that's how I take my antibiotics! )2)  Eat better for me and for my family.3) Help my family eat better too!
      I really recommend checking out the book and see if any of the symptoms fit your life. Tired, wired,( actually Tired or Wired is the name of another book recommended to me, I haven't read it yet) weight gain, depressed, tons of other things like fertility issues, fibromyalgia, diabetes, there are all sorts of things that are effected because of your adrenal glands. It's worth a look! You never know what you might find! 

Nit-picky

     How important is it for you to be right? How important is it for you to make your voice heard? I had a struggle with this yesterday
     My wonderful, caring, considerate, husband was not doing things the way * I * would have done it.  I really let it get to me. He wasn't doing anything wrong, it definitely wasn't hurting anyone and I got all bent out of shape about it.  WHY? What good did it do? All day I tried to just let it go. For some reason I couldn't let it go until I talked to him about it. Thankfully he heard me out and did not get his feelings hurt, even though were the situation reversed I most likely would have.
     I am reminded of a quote I read from Debi Pearl " no man has ever crawled out from under his wife's criticism to be a better man- no matter how justified her condemnation". He doesn't go around the house telling me all the things that he wishes that I would do differently (sometimes I think it would do me good).
     I am making a resolution to adjust my heart. Before I start getting carried away with the things that he does or doesn't do, I want to look at myself and try and see things through his eyes. What do I do that drives him crazy? Laundry undone, dishes in the sink, floors unswept ( although not usually all at the same time ;) ?
     I challenge you, next time , before you criticize think of something you could do to help fix the problem. Next time the trash isn't taken out and it is overflowing try tying up the bags yourself, then take them out of the trash can, (that wasn't so bad was it) , might as well just walk it outside! Are you still alive? ( I only say that because the first time I did it, it didn't kill me either)
 I am sure that not all of these things apply to every household, I am sure though that you have your own things you could insert. Next time instead of blaming him, look to yourself.