Sky

Each morning as I drive to work the past few weeks have been beautiful. There is no better word for it than that- beautiful. The colors of an artist palate are brushed across the morning sky. Reds, blues, greens,pinks and purples  are on the backdrop of blue with a  wisp of white. It sure is a sight that fills my soul with happiness as I drive to work. It is a sign that I can make it through anything with a lovely sight to hold me over until I get home. The morning sky is silhouetted with a farm deserted with no cows in the lot. But towering over trying to touch the vibrant upward color, is three perfectly aligned in height from the tallest to the shortest grain silos. Needless to say I am looking forward to my drive in the morning. 

eggs

One of the highlights of my day is going out to talk to my chickens. When I talk, they listen. When I bring them scraps as a treat, they squawk at me happily. When they see me coming toward their coop they run as fast as they can to greet me. They give me joy. They also leave me gifts. Eggs! Each day I can't wait to count those oval wonders. Today 10, that is amazing as I only have 13 hens, plus 2 roosters. I give my daughters a dozen, my parents, friends...then sell the rest for a good price. I have given up having beautiful flower beds, as they eat them. I have given up strawberry beds, as they eat them. This is in exchange for them eating thousands of bugs. Running around my yard making me laugh. Cackling a tune that only they can sing. Plus those beautiful oval perfect delicious eggs they leave me. I sure like my chickens!      

Baked

This week on my way to Shipsewana to grocery shop in bulk I stopped by a few Amish garage sales. Everyone of them were held in a heated garage or basement. It is sorta chilly outside so that felt nice on my oldish bones to be warm as I searched for treasures. What I was most excited about was the baked goods I bought. My car just filled up with chocolate chip, sugar, and molasses cookies, a loaf of bread, plus cinnamon rolls. Which I put in lunchboxes the next day. When friends stopped in they enjoyed a treat too. Another goodie I got was 2 butternut squash for a quarter each. My family loves squash. I can't wait when I bake them for the house to be filled with deliciousness aroma of Fall. Well... I had a wonderful time shopping. Oh I asked one lady what time she got up to start baking the cookies as they had just came out of the oven...4am was the answer! I thanked her for making them as would my family.  

Patch

Yesterday I went outside to check on my chickens and ducks. I knew with all the warm weather I would not need to water them. I was right, water puddles were everywhere. We have a low spot in the driveway there was a duck swimming party going on . Wings flapping, bills dipping, tails wiggling , water flying all around. So while the ducks were having a good time the chickens were too. There in the yard was one patch of grass showing green around the white snow. There were the chickens scratching the heck out of that patch. dead grass was flying in the air with bits of dirt. Their feet were using muscles that needed exercising from winter dormancy. What fun they were all having on this warm spring day!

Zero

The book 50 Degrees Below Zero is how it feels outside today. It is so cold out. How do you know? Well when I went out, I first slid and almost fell as the snow was ice. Then my face felt frozen. My skin was tight red, burnt by the wind. My dog ran out of the garage then turned around and came right back in. She was cold, she wanted back in the warmth. Once to the chicken coop I opened the door to see frost crystals on the inside of the walls. It was like a disco ball, glitter frost from the chickens breath was on the board wall, beautiful. I was out only a few minutes, however it felt longer. Like the book Below Zero , I felt frozen stiff and was so happy to be inside my warm house.    

Time

It seems like when you have days off they go by so quickly. They also seem like I never stop working. As soon as I get up I see something that needs done. I cook yummy dishes for my family, You know the things that you never have the time to cook or prepare except on a snow day?  I see the dirt and dust around my house so I clean. I pick up, then put away what I see out of place. If I take a nap it's dark by the time I get up because of the shorter days. Therefore I try hard to just keep moving. So I go gather the eggs and fill the hens feeders. By the time everyone gets home, I feel like I have worked harder than if I was at my job. Time sure went fast on this day, I'm exhausted, ready for bed and thankfully a 2 hour delay  in the morning so i can sleep in!     

White

Today we are getting a snowstorm, everything is white. The ground yesterday was brown/green  with grass for my chickens to peck on. Today all is white, the ground, branches on trees, my house even looks like an igloo. I took a walk out to the barn stopped and smiled. Everything is so white and clean. It looks like a blank canvas, in a few days the snow will melt and colors will again appear, causing the canvas to fill with colors once more. But for now I'm enjoying the white canvas, clean and bright for the eye to behold . Let it snow.

VHS

Today while home I decided to clean out the VHS movie tapes. I had them since the girls were little. They were taking up lots of space. I had seen many of them over and over.( I still kept all the favorites) I remembered the We Sing Along's , Thomasina, Barney and many, many Disney movies. Then there were the sets of Anne Of Green Gables, which we watch every winter to this day. Sound of Music, including Titanic , which was so sad I vowed to only watch it once. I have a pile of nearly forty on the floor waiting for the girls to go through to see if they want any of them first. Then they will go in the garage sale pile. Every thing now is on DVD . In my lifetime I have seen 8tracks, cassettes,VHS and now blue ray DVDs what will be next . I guess that's how they keep us buying things as consumers.

Ducks

It was my turn tonight to go out and do the chores. Feed the dog, feed the chickens and ducks , fill the wood stove for the evening. The past two nights I have been late getting home, so it was my turn. It was dark  with the moonlight illuminating the sky enough so I could see fairly well. I turned the corner and couldn't believe it. There in the back yard snow were hundreds of tracks all over the yard. Upon a closer look I saw it was chicken and duck tracks. Well when there is snow on the ground they always stay near the coop never venturing very far. This is because their feet get really cold. But that's the tracks they were! What had happened while I was at school all day? Did they have races in the snow? Was another animal after them? Did they invite other ducks from the sky to visit and have a duck party in my backyard. I went in the coop to gather the eggs and asked them . But just received a quack and cluck answer. I guess it will remain a mystery. Hum????     

Recipies

I'm sure we all do this, the older I get the more I try to pay attention. I have always been frugal raising four daughters. Now I'm starting to pay attention to a few things on how I eat. I think my family does not eat enough fruits and vegetables. I am looking at recipes that target these ingredients. I sneak them in recipes hoping my family doesn't notice. Then I tell them," surprise you ate bok choy"." What in the world is that?" It's a veggie. We are also drinking smoothies filled with fruit and spinach. I feel better. My hope is that my family is also.
The other thing I'm trying to do is when we go out to eat I pay attention to the food and look closely at how it must be made then I try to remake it at home. Then we do not have to go out to have it. Going out for us is at least $60.00. I can buy a lot of groceries for that. Bunches of fruits and vegetables.

Magazines

All the BONS are reading books. Some read the same book as their older children then they have conversations with them about the book. Some are in book clubs so they have to read to keep up the pace and chat about the happenings in a circle of  book love. Some have stacks in their homes waiting to be read as others have suggested them , therefore they must read them.  Whatever the reason they are reading constantly, tired eyes scanning the pages. Then there is me! MH was at the teacher store with me and had them stacked in her arms I swear up to her chin. "They are free, aren't you going to read them?" I said no, I can't remember the last time I read a book to be honest. I big thick smelly old book. So what am I reading? Magazines! I absolutely love them. They are short. I can watch TV and glace at my magazine. I read everywhere as they are skinny and lite weight. However I made a rule that the only ones I keep are my Chicken and Mother Earth News magazines. Everything else I read then I pass on to someone else and I tell them they have to pass them on too. Pay it forward. I have found somehow this site that I do not pay more than $4.99 for a yr subscription. So its fun buying them as gifts and send to my family too.
Mother Earth News
Chicken
Poultry
Grit
This Old House
Rachel Ray Cooking
Bon Appetite
Southern Living
Self
Seventeen
Fitness
Biking
Log Home Living
Family Circle
Weight Watchers
Garden and Gun
Architecture Digest
Mary Jane
Photography
All You
So I have been reading just not books. Anyone want a magazine?

 

Listen

I just finished reading Ruth's email about a conversation she had with a student in the hallway. Then I jumped right over to my blog. I am very guilty of this- I do not take the time to listen. It is true, I get so caught up in time  I hurry, hurry, hurry. I go, go, go so fast on full speed that I do no listen. Humans big and small come up to tell me something and I move on or I say I don't have time and we will talk later. But later never comes during the busy day. So I will try to listen better, more intently, more thoughtfully. I have been missing some good moments I am sure. I need to Listen!  

Photos

Today I cleaned out 3 drawers full of photos. I made 4 piles for each of my daughters. My life looked back over the years with much joy. Images flashed in my mind back seeing all the special moments in my life with this wonderful family I created. What fun we had. I giggled lots and smiled over all the happy times of camping, Disney, sports games and family. Rex came home looked at some of the pictures, gave me a hug and said,"Where did our little girls go".   I used to take so many pictures now with phones that take so many photos we don't print them off to hold in our hands . We send them to others in cyber space. I think I need to go print some this weekend. It sure was fun reminiscing today!   

Laundry

Today I made homemade Laundry soap. I guess I have been making this for a couple years now. I started because even with a coupon It seemed like I was going through a bottle of it a week. It really hiked up my grocery bill.With  as much laundry as I was using I thought there had to be a better alternative. I was reading in my Mother Earth News magazine and it showed how much you could save a year by making your own detergent.A friend at work had an  Amish friend who gave her a recipe. I tried it and liked it.(now you can find this on Pintrest) It is powder that only uses 2 T each load, plus it lasts me a year.   I hang my clothes up outside or on a drying rack, never using my dryer. I can use the money I save on something else. There is "always" something else.

Job

Daughter #3 has a new job. She had an interview then several phone calls. Finally the call came stating you have the job! She will be working with a group of civil engineers, surveyors, railroad engineers and a whole building of people with like minds. She comes home all excited about learning new plans and meeting new people. We can see this as a wonderful opportunity and are so happy for her. Going to college, pursuing your dreams and making it all happen. Life is good.

40

I'm doing the 40 bags in 40 day challenge. When my friend asked me to do it I said, I really don't know if I can do that. What I was really thinking was that is a lot of my stuff that I have to get rid of. My next questions was, How big do the bags have to be? Then I read the blog my friend sent and it says the bags can be any size. They can be as big as a garbage bag or as small as a Wal-Mart bag. OK I can do this. Of course my husband said I could get 40 bags just out of one room. He is probably right. So with all these snow days I have really bagged up the junk. I am on day 7. I have this nifty chart to fill out each day to keep track of the bags. However I have way more than 7 already. 5 bags went to the goodwill-gone. 6 bags have been burnt in the trash-gone. 2 bags went to my oldest daughter's house-gone. 3bags went to daughter#2's house-gone. 1 bag went to daughter #4's apartment-gone. 3 bags are ready for the next garage sale-gone. 1 bag is going up to my mother's cabin-gone. I must say I'm on a roll and this isn't that hard - I can do it. My husband is right I have lots to get rid of, by the time I get to 40...or maybe 80 I'm sure my house will be less cluttered. Its just amazing how much you accumulate over the years. Well I'm off to find another bag!!!    

Warm

At our house its very warm. If we are cold we turn up the heat. I just love my wood burner! We run around in shorts like its summer. The snow is swirling and blowing outside. Inside is cozy,toasty,snug and at times roasting. I enjoy cutting wood with my husband. To me its a date, We get out out the tractor, dog running along side. The sounds of the woods inviting. The scenery fills the soul. Just one task at hand and nothing else to dwell about. Good hard work never hurt anyone. Its good to work your muscles. When the cords of wood pallets are lined up. It is a good feeling of accomplishment of a day well spent. With weeks like this one below zero I have a good feeling when I am prepared going out to chuck a few pieces of wood in the stove then hurry back into the warmth. It sure feels good!  

Dust

It is everywhere in this house. I see it in every room and hanging out on everything. Where does it come from? They say if you burn wood you have more. Its in every corner and under every piece of furnature. I sweep it up,suck it up and wipe it up. As soon as I turn my back, there it is again. Like the game of peek- a- boo. I see you dust. Ive used sprays and spritzes which seems to help for a day. Then it multiplies the next. Or maybe the dust fairy sprinkles it all over each night. When the kids where younger and whirling around in this house like Tasmanian devils I didn't see as much of it. Or maybe I was just chasing after them so I didn't notice. Of course that was a good week-end job for the kids -dusting. But now that they are gone,guess what , I have to dust again. And I see it everywhere. I do not like to dust. I need a magic wand so it disappears. Wishful thinking! 
*I did buy an enviro cloth- that does make it a little more fun when I turn up Meatloaf then dance around dusting! You should try it too!   

Rolls

When my husband opened the door from a hard day of climbing bins and being out in the cold all day, he said,"Something smells really good in this house". It was then that I smiled and knew I had spent my day off doing the right thing. Cooking grandma's caramel roll recipe. They are a lot of work. Because you have to warm this as wait. Stir this and wait. Add that and wait. Let raise and wait. But with all the time they take as soon as they come out of the oven the plateful disappears. In they past two days I have made 4 pans of rolls and they are all GONE!
It sure makes me happy to see them chatting about their day around the kitchen table as they snack on a warm roll.
I had to have lesson after lesson from my mother on how to make them perfect. I'm glad she made me learn. She would say, Tam they are just not quite tall enough so I'll be back next week." or."Tam, your caramel is not thick enough so I'll be back next week." I am so glad she kept coming back until they were just right... perfect~I will call her tomorrow and tell her.  

Call

I've read Ruth's blog and watched her inspiring video about her past ten little words. After that I had to join in the group of that long list of others that have their little word already. It was seconds until it popped into my head, saying I'm your word...CALL.
So that's my word, call.
I will call someone I haven't talked to for awhile and chat on the phone.  Not a text, not an e-mail a call, one voice listening to another. I have made my first call and had such a nice visit.
When I was sending out my Christmas cards I noticed that half the people I sent cards to haven't sent them back. People are losing touch with one another so this is my way of staying in touch with my friends.
You will be getting a call, when you least expect it. :)