pretty, happy, funny, real

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

capturing the context of everyday life ~ most Thursdays, here at Aspen Springs

{pretty}
Our very own fresh eggs!  Yay!  Hurrah!  Our hens began laying this week!  We have some blue/green egg layers in the flock as well, but those particular birds must be a little behind schedule.

putting all our eggs in one basket :)

{happy}
If you've read more than a couple posts on this blog, you know that we live in the country.  Mark travels a lot for work, so he gets the benefit of being out and about, but coming home to peace.  (Believe me, I realize that business travel is not all fun and games - but it is true that he gets a change of scenery pretty often.)  On the other hand, I am at home a lot.  I'm a home schooling Mom; in order for our kids to get an education, I need to stay home!  But last week I had a getaway and met up with Mark in a large city that is *somewhat* close to us.  It was a great couple of days.  Mark was working, so I had time to myself during the day, but got to spend evenings with him.  This was one of my destinations...

An old favorite haunt of mine that I happily strolled through without any interruptions!  I also got to meet my FAVORITE aunt and cousin (are you both reading this?) for lunch, which was a great treat.  I'm sure the entire restaurant heard us laughing.


{funny}
Our youngest child noticed the deer crossing signs near our home this week.  According to her, the sign means:
"Attention!  If you are traveling on this road at night, deer will be jumping over your car."

Ahhh, yes, if only they would just jump over the car...


{real}
We moved into this house the first week of September - right at the start of the school year. There's so much to do after a move that - honestly - the school room was not high on the priority list.  We got our books on a shelf and the computers set up, but that was about it for a couple months.  I still haven't "decorated" in the school room - and we could use a few key pieces of furniture to help the flow of the day - but I did at least get some maps on the wall this week.

Our main book shelf in the school room.  Each of the girls has a shelf for her books.

So, there it is: a little bit of everyday life from the last week.  Remember to visit Like Mother Like Daughter for more {pretty, happy, funny, real}.

We have an egg!

After nearly 21 weeks of chicken ownership, we have an egg!  Just one at the moment, but there should be more in the near future.  This is so exciting we can hardly stand it.  To those who don't keep chickens - or can't imagine ever doing so - this level of excitement might seem odd.  But we really are thrilled.  We'd been thinking about raising chickens - for eggs - for a while before we actually took the plunge, so this one little egg has been a long time coming.  The chickens have also been a whole family project, so to reap the benefits of our collective work is satisfying.  This one lone egg also confirms that we have been doing a good job with our chickens.  Many hens stop laying in the winter, but we have made a serious effort to keep their living conditions and food/water supply just what they need them to be - and it's paid off!  And perhaps best of all, I can very soon STOP buying eggs at the grocery store.

We don't know which of the hens is responsible for this first egg.  It is brown.  And 11 of our hens are brown egg layers, so that part is a bit of a mystery.  Hopefully, she'll be encouraging her coop-mates to follow her lead very soon.

An update from the hen house...

Our hens are 20 weeks old today.  It does feel strange to count their age in weeks -- like one would do for a baby... Rest assured we have not lost our marbles and gotten all strange about our chickens.  In the near future we will stop keeping careful track of their age.  But, up until now it's been important for a few reasons:

• In the early weeks - up to 9, I think - we had to be sure they stayed warm enough...
• Up to a certain age, they needed special feed...
• And, finally, the reason the hens are here to begin with - they begin laying around 20-22 weeks!

Though we find the chickens entertaining and have even given them names (maybe not a good idea?) we fully realize and remember that the chickens are not pets.  They are egg producers.

This is "Pat".
Pat is the mystery chick that the hatchery sent us as a bonus.  We named  her Pat because, in the beginning, there was no way (for us) to tell if she was male or female.  We're glad Pat isn't a rooster.  We've also had to figure out Pat's breed; the thinking this week is that she's an Ameraucana, which means she'll lay colored (blue/green) eggs!

So, a few days ago, Mark and our "chicken girl" - aka, oldest daughter - spent some time in the coop getting it ready for the hens to start laying: snazzy nest boxes and more room to roost.

Coop Interior.
Nest boxes (where they lay eggs) on the right wall, Roosting bars (where they sleep)on the left - only one is visible in the photo, but there is another bar above that one, and food & water hanging from the ceiling in the middle.

We've learned a lot about chickens in the last 20+ weeks... things like roosting, molting, nesting, pecking order, etc.

We have 6 different breeds in our little flock.  All the breeds are represented in this "group photo".  

Like so many "hobbies", chicken-keeping is actually very interesting once you get involved. We are still very new at this, but it's been enjoyable thus far (and we haven't even gotten the first egg) so we can imagine chickens being a part of the family routine from here on out.  The thought of keeping hens for eggs had NEVER occurred to us before we moved here and met people who consider it "normal".  Just another benefit, we think, of making a life change that put us out of our zone of familiarity - in many ways.

The chickens are used to her - she brings them food and water.

Stay tuned for news of the first egg(s)!

pretty, happy, funny, real

Capturing the context of everyday life ~ most Thursdays ;)

{pretty}

Well, if this doesn't qualify as finding contentment in everyday life, I don't know what does.  I almost can't believe I'm posting a picture of potatoes under the heading "pretty".  But, then again - look - they are pretty.  The purple ones are especially fetching.  I also have to admit that I find my vintage (aka: so-old-the-color-has-come-back) Le Crueset pot a rather pretty item.  It's probably the most loved item in our kitchen.

{happy}

Ice skating!  Our local parks & recreation department puts up a skating rink every winter.  It's great fun for skaters and hockey players alike.  The best part for us is that they schedule home school skating sessions.  We could go anytime, but the home school session is usually from noon to 2:00, so we don't have to fight the "after school" crowd.

{funny}

The girls got to meet the Miss USA contestant from our state.  They thought it was quite a brush with fame.  The only down-side was that the Miss USA contender didn't know she'd be running into 3 little girls that day, so she wasn't wearing her sash or her crown.

{real}

Do you do the Epiphany blessing for your home?  It's a beautiful tradition, but sadly, we didn't know of it until about 6 years ago.  The prayers and more information can be found here.

The final prayer of the blessing:

Leader: Let us pray. Bless, O Lord God almighty, this home, that in it there may be health, purity, the strength of victory, humility, goodness and mercy, the fulfillment of Thy law, the thanksgiving to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. And may this blessing remain upon this home and upon all who dwell herein. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

After the prayers of the blessing are recited, each room of the home is sprinkled with Epiphany water and incensed. The initials of the Magi are inscribed upon the doors with the blessed chalk. (The initials, C, M, B, can also be interpreted as the Latin phrase "Christus mansionem benedicat" which means "Christ bless this house".)

Example: 20 + C + M + B + 12

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Find more {p,h,f,r} this week - and every week - at Like Mother Like Daughter!