Soooo, it's been a REALLY long time!!! Here is a quick catch up.

Yes, we killed the rooster and had a lovely coc a vin. The buff chicks are all laying beautiful eggs now.
Son two turned 6! I turned... well never mind.
I landed in L&D with preterm labor at 26 weeks, things settled down and I went home. Diagnosed mild gestational diabetes at 28 weeks. Landed back in L&D at 31.5 weeks and stayed there for a while as they worked to stop labor again. Those steroid shots REALLY mess with your blood sugar! Diagnosis of pre eclampsia and failing placenta at 36.5 weeks.

And one last trip to labor and delivery at 37 weeks and 6 days, an induction for pre-eclampsia. After a labor as long as all of my other labors combined, and shoulders that got stuck, in the wee hours of morning, July 13th, Zachariah (my fourth son ) joined us earthside!  God is so gracious!

 And then we actually got to take him home!!!!

Son three turned 3!

We started our school year. I now teach third grade, first grade, and pre-K.
Our garden was a moderate success until some beetles decided it looked like a smorgasbord!!!
We celebrated our anniversary in Big Bear.
We finally were able to bury Providence, a daughter I/we lost in 2009.
I bought new hiking boots!!!! and started hiking again.
We had a happy Halloween.

AND,
We went camping at the coast.

I promise to try to be better with this blogging thing in the future! :)

Spring Chickens

I was not necessarily planning on adding to our laying hens this spring, but Mr. Rooster (still technically a cockerel,a beautiful silver Ameraucana)has risen to the top of the pecking order and become rather aggressive. He has grown so aggressive that I cannot let our chickens out of the coop for their usual forging because Mr. Rooster will chase down any child within 100 feet and an occasional adult as well. Anyhow...His days are numbered. In the meantime, our girls and Mr Rooster have loads of grass delivered fresh to their table daily. Our birds LOVE their greens!

Problem is the rooster was my son's pet chicken. So we are easing this impending loss with 3 new chicks.
Last week we purchased 3 Buff Orpington pullets (young females)from a local hatchery, they will be joining our laying flock in a few months. My boys adore them and have named the girls Rosy, Daisy, and Lady. Buff Orpington chicks do not generally have purple stripes on their heads, (as you see in the photos) that was a quick dye job on my part so my boys would not fight over which bird was which. 1stripe= Rosy, 2stripes= Daisy, and 3stripes= Lady.



The addition of 3 newbies will bring us to a total laying flock of 9 hens and pullets; 4 Plymouth Barred Rocks, 2 Ameraucanas, and 3 Buff Orpingtons.
I also have a couple of Ameraucana eggs, and one Ameraucana-Barred Rock egg under a friend's hen who is setting. Mr Rooster has been very busy and all of our eggs (Ameraucana and Barred Rock) have been fertile for the past few weeks, so we're waiting to see what happens with those three eggs.
Joy

Spring is Springing Soon!

Technically Spring does not begin for nearly 2 more weeks, but in Southern California it really is already here. I should have started seeds for our vegetable garden weeks ago, but finally managed to get them going this weekend.
4 varieties of beans, 2 types of peas (really probably too late), 4 varieties tomatoes, 2 kinds of sweet peppers, 2 hot pepper plants (Jalapeno, and Anaheim), both long and fat eggplant varieties, 3 kinds of summer squash, Swiss chard, 2 varieties of watermelon, 2 types of musk melon, honeydew, and a LOT of certified organic non-GMO corn.
We will finish prepping the garden area this coming weekend. I have had good luck with a variation of 'lasagna' gardening so we are planing to do that again. Once the ground is ready I will direct seed (and likely tent for a while just in case we get another frost or two) a mix of loose lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions, and herbs. I also have strawberry plants ready to set out, and buckets of very loose soil ready for some carrots and potatoes.
I'm saving up to buy a deep freezer this summer, I'd like to be able to stock it up with the majority of our garden's abundance. I don't think I will really have the energy for canning very much since our baby is due in late July, but I am still planing on putting up tomatoes and various jams since those are pretty easy.

Ash Wednesday, the begining of Lent

I am not Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist or Episcopal. Mostly, I was raised in conservative churches, Southern Baptist, General Baptist, Mennonite Brethren. I don't think I even really knew about Lent before I was in college, but it caught my attention at that point, and became a personal observance for me. I am introducing my eldest son to the concept this year.
As a Christian it should always be my goal and purpose to be ever becoming more like Christ, taking on more of His nature and putting off more of my inborn nature.
Lent is a time to remember Christ's time here on earth, how He lived, what He gave up by becoming flesh, and the trials He suffered. He did it all for us. What a glorious God! He knew we would need a Savior from the foundations of the world. He planned ahead to provide us our Savior. He allows us to choose if we want to be saved. Jesus came to earth, fully God and fully man to provide payment for our sins and the only viable substitution for our death penalty. A perfect holy God chose to take on human form so we could spend eternity with Him...Wow!



Lent, the 40 day period prior to Resurrection Sunday(secularly referred to as Easter) was a common observance for Christians prior to the Protestant reformation. It is a time for the Christian to purposefully align himself more with Christ. Common modern day observances of Lent generally include fasting from something, like food - chocolate, sugar, meat, food during daylight hours, or sometimes actions or attitudes - internet use, television, secular music, worry/anxiousness, self determination, pride. The point of all of this self denial is to cause the Christian to go to God in prayer for strength, and replace the previous normal with a new or deeper lever of reliance and submission to God. Since one's spiritual life is between them and God, with Christ as the intercessor there is no necessity to go to a special church service and have an ash cross marked on one's forehead. Simply pray and commit these days between now and Resurrection Sunday to Christ, then pray for strength to keep your commitment.
Lent is not a time for physical self improvement (though many forms of fasting do have that result) but rather a time to purpose to grow and improve your spiritual life.
Prayerfully consider the observance of Lent this year(even if you are a few days late in starting) it is truly a blessing.

Joy

The Cake Part 2

It was a success!! A truly So Cal inspired Cake. And most importantly, he LOVED it!!
Here it is, the In-n-Out Double Drive cake. Complete with classic cars!

Front

Another view of the front.

The back

Having problems with the pix thing...better views at Photobucket http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm84/2sweetboysmom/Blog%20pix%20spring%202010/

The Cake Part 1

I am about to undertake a task I am not sure I can complete to my satisfaction. I am about to make a 3 dimensional cake for my son's 8th birthday. I have done 3-d cakes before, but this is big...I am making an In-N-Out drive thru! We have purchased a scale model Corvette to park out front.
I am planing this-
Make 3-5 1/2 sheet cakes, and then cut out pieces and layer.
Do a crumb coat and freeze.
I will do the frosting on Friday, and the decorative stuff on Saturday morning.
How did I let him talk me into this anyhow? I know it was months ago before I was pregnant. I must have been feeling particularly creative and invincible that day...Not the tired,can hardly get dinner on the table self I am at the moment. Oh, the stuff you will do because you love your kids!! :)

I'll post photos when it's done.