Little things

Funny how it's usually the little things that you take for granted the most. Soon the turkeys will be butchered, and our source of many hours of sore laughing muscles will be silenced. Going on an Easter egg hunt every day, the sweet smell of fresh cut hay in the barn (and smelling like it yourself!), and being greeted by an 8" tall rooster every morning. Yes, our rooster is about eight inches tall, his name is Mr. Collins (all you Pride and Prejudice fans will get this), and he thinks that he is the most magnificent thing in the world. Even noises that become white noises over time can be taken for granted. Our elderly neighbor goes to town several times a day just to get out of the house. Everytime he comes back up the driveway, his old beagle stands on his lap, sticks his head out the window and announces their arrival. There was a time though, when this old dog was too worn out to even do that. Fortunately, they found out what was going on and fixed it. So that old dog can continue his song for many more years (hopefully). :)

PS - I really don't know where I'm going with this post... Being whooped does strange things to my brain. ;)

Summer Nights

Our little man - Mr. Collins

Princess 'Megan' Cleo-cat-tra giving us her typical, condescending glare

Our latest poultry attempt. So far they have been very successful (except for the one that the dog snatched...)

They think that they are beautiful in their eyes.

Simply stunning, Mr. Tom

A must :not: read!

I haven't read the Twilight books or seen the movies. I chose not to - most would ask almost with disbelief, "WHY?" At first, I thought that it was just the fact that the main character was a vampire. A handsome vampire. That sparkles. No thank you! Anything that really deals with the occult of dark romanticism is not my idea of good entertainment. As I found out more about the series and saw what it was doing to young girls, young women, even married women, I abhorred the series even more. What ever gives you the over sensualized thoughts, the emotional 'ripping out' of your heart for a fictional character, giving you a fake example of what 'true love' is making all other human relationships worth nothing, suggesting that you isolate yourself to be with the blood-sucking, FICTIONAL boyfriend is definately not worth getting involved in.

Phil. 4:8 shows us what God says we should put our time and efforts into.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Just some thoughts on the pop culture icon that has swept the females of the nation off their feet...

For more reading about the Twilight series, please read this:
http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.6099193/k.76B1/The_Darkness_of_Twilight.htm

A classic, retro evening

The theme for the ball in June was WWII - an odd choice for English Country Dancing - but very fun! As usual, I finished my dress the day of the ball. ;) But strangest of things, I was able to convince my brother to finally go! :D So we got ourselves all dressed up and went to the ball!


Yes, there is a story behind my brother 'costume.' Back in WWII, my great-grandfather helped to rebuild Pearl Harbor after the December attack. When he came back to the states, he always wore a Hawaiin (sp?) shirt and khaki slacks. My mom even remembers that as his 'default', everyday clothing.

I love the big flag! Although, it has fifty stars.

Rosy the Rivetor (aka - Holly)

Winston Churchill even made an appearance!

Mingling...

I had no clue that one of my friends had taken this until she posted it onto Facebook the next day... The strange thing about it is that you can see my Great-grandma Jenny in it! We have a picture of her back when she was my age, and she has almost the exact same face!

A British invasion complete with argyle

The evening did sort of have a 'musical' quality to it.

~The End~

I hear angels singing

Okay, so maybe not... but for those of you who have gone on any outing with me that involves food will know of my many, limiting food allergies/intolerances. Those of you who haven't, let me get you caught up. ;)

All my life I've struggles with just feeling healthy and good. Whenever I had a cold or allergies, I would get a secondary infection. When I was little, I was always on some form of antibiotic for my ear infections. I then realized how prone I was to whatever decided to hit me when my lymph nodes became infected... My energy levels were never where they should've been - if you asked me how I was doing, my normal response was 'tired.' When I entered the teens years, I had many skin problems (acne and ecxema (sp?)), and I started getting frequent, random stomach aches and severe migranes. These eventually culminated into a constant, migrane-intensity headache and stomach aches in my Junior year in highschool. 'Conventional' doctors didn't prescribe anything that helped, and I was becoming doomed to live a sick life.

Then some friends of ours directed us to a natropath about and hour away (really depends on the traffic), and we scheduled an appointment. The natropath did a simple blood test to find out what my food intolerance was - fruit/sugar and potato. These food intolerances were 'the root' of my health problems - everything stemmed from them.

It took about 3-4 months befre I felt well enough to do anything (my summer was spent on the couch watching decorating shows and cooking shows. My brother says that my cooking greatly improved after that summer). Even then, I would have to frequent to the natropath's for lingering problems...

I finally felt well enough to live again, although it was nothing like how I lived before. Because of my food intolerance (mainly potato - it's in everything, believe me), every outing and trip had to be well thought out to account for very limited food options. As time went on though, new problems started to arise even though we were keeping to the strict diet. Believe me, that is very frustrating to put so much work into keeping something out of your diet and have new problems pop up.

Then another friend pointed us to a natropath (much closer too!). She doesn't treat things as an intolerance (a sort of genetic issue - you don't create the enzymes needed to digest the food), but as a treatable allergy. o_O She found that I had more food limitations that previously thought. On top of the potato - no wheat, chocolate (what?!?!?!?!), lectins, etc. The list is still growing, but it is also shrinking at the same time. Through a strange process of pressure points, molecules, and accupressure called NAET, you can correct the nervous/immune system to accept these sustains once again.

You may be asking, then how do you develop allergies in the first place if you can treat them too? The natropath says that many things are part of it - the (way too many) vaccines that are given (they even contain mercury - if it's such a deadly element then why is it in there?!), GMO foods (they have been genetically altered so much that the body does not recognize it as an edible food-therefore it is a toxin that the body just wants to get rid of and builds an 'immunity' to it), and the stress, chaos, and worry-ness that our culture has created. Apparently the body doesn't neccessarily register emotion, it just nows about the chemical reactions that are going on and reacts accordingly. If your body is under stress, anger, any bad feeling, it will take whatever you happen to be eating as the source of its 'not feeling good' and build an immunity to that. This is probably why so many people are coming up positive for being allergic to the so called 'comfort foods'. Do you ever wonder why so many people are finding gluten problems and celiacs? Breads are one of the first foods that we reach for when we feel under the weather.

Anyway back to the story (we have to get to the climax, don't we?)-
I had my first potato last night in two years. And with lunch today, I had a couple of potato chips. Now the steamed potato wasn't exactly what I remember (you know when someone dies or something is taken away from you - it becomes glorified?), but the potato chip - that was an experience. The satifying CRUNCH + the wonderful saltiness = BLISS! I'm pretty sure that I heard angels singing when I took that bite.

A story of the city hen and the country hen

Who said that the grass is greener on the other side?

Just over a week ago, some friends of our purchased a used chicken coop for their chicks, and it came with 2 free chickens. They really had no use for the fully grown, reliable laying hens, so they asked us if we would like to take them in. What's the harm in bringing two more chickens home when you have more than thirty already and the neighborhood coyote likes to stop by for dinner every night? So we picked up the little ladies and integrated them into our flock.

When we went to bring fetch them to their new home, a good family friend from out of state joined us. He could not get over the humor in going to the city to pick up some chickens. The whole 'chicken in your back yard' has become quite the novelty in the area, and there is quite the movement towards growing your food in the area. Stores have opened up that charge some outrageous prices for some basic neccessities, just because it is the 'chic' thing to do. (yes, the cheesy pun was intended)

Anyway... We bring the new girls to the country coop, and they moved in quite nicely. They even started laying eggs! But a couple of days ago, one of them found themselves flying over the fence that divides our property from the neighbor's dogs. Unfortunately, we only discovered her over there just the other day, and it wasn't until this morning that we were able to get her back to our side of the fence. So I grabbed a shovel and some grain. This chicken is coming back home.

To get a chicken back onto your side of the fence (the fence is too tall to jump over) you must do the following:
1) Dig a small hole under the fence big enough for the chicken to get through
2) Put down a small line of grain to 'bait' the chicken to your side of the fence
3) Patiently wait for the hungry chicken to fall for the trap
4) Quickly fill in the hole once the chicken is through. You don't want her to go back.
5) Attempt to catch crazed chicken and get her back into the coop where she belongs.

Follow these fool-proof steps and your chicken will rarely have to spend more time than is neccessary on the wrong side of the fence.

No seriously... I bet those girls had quite the 'culture shock' when they moved out here. ;)

Maid of the Rohirim

I just finished this doll dress this afternoon! :D I couldn't believe how well it turned out - it was one of those projects where you weren't sure how everything would work out, but look at it! I must say, I am very please with how gorgeous it is. :)

A close up view of the bodice

I couldn't help myself... I had to take it outside to get pictures!

Your time is up, my pretty!

9 1/2 weeks after we brought home 20 cute little chickies, it was time to fulfill their destiny! :bwahaha!: As we loaded them up into the truck to take over to a friend's house (she had all the equipment for the job and many more birds to deal with than us), my uncle gave the poultry a final salute as he hummed "Taps."

We caught the chickens, one by one, and flipped them upside down into the 'killer cones'

Once the slitting deed was done, we had to wait a couple minutes before we could defeather the goobers. We would throw them into the plucker, turn on the water, and let her spin! This strange contraption saved up :so: much time.

Oh yes. You wouldn't want to mess with us. ;)

Odd how it worked...

Emily was kind enough to show us how it's done. You chop off the head and the legs (at the knee joint), dislodge the trachea, esopogus, and something that is attached, and then make a slit to pull out the lovely inards. Just make sure to get all the lung out... they're sort of stuck inside the rib cage.

Even Emily's little sisters watched in apprehensive enthrallment.

All in all, it was quite a fun day - considering what we were doing.

Waiting

Good Friday has passed, and the momentous third day is quickly approaching. Today is a day of waiting. Who knows what it was like after Jesus had been crucified?

Maybe those who genuinely believed that he was the Son of God prayed non-ceasingly, hoping that the Saviour's words would be true. On the third day he would conquer death and save us from our sins. On the third day he would rise again.

Maybe the Pharasis and all of the Messiah's enemies were revelling in a wicked, joyous jubilee for their success in destroying the threat to their power.
Who knows what happened?

Maybe those who thought that Jesus was the Messiah that would save them from the oppression of the Romans wept bitterly for a lost hope. A dissappointment that they had placed hope in the wrong man.

Maybe there was silence. Waiting for the outcome of the execution. Maybe his enemies remained silent - lest their true intentions of the death were made known. Maybe some resigned themselves. Maybe some prayed fervently that all their hopes and dreams may come true.

Maybe some were angry. Angry that after telling all about these wonderful things, Jesus just up and died on them. Angry that the Son of God had not saved himself and saved them.

Maybe some were frightened. Since they had followed Jesus, perhaps the disciples worried that they would be next. Jesus still had much work to do with them.

Maybe some mourned the loss of such a great man.

Maybe the angels held their breath, maybe God paced (although He already knew what was to pass).

Who knows what really happened while the whole world, spiritual and physical, waited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc6XewzY0Xk&feature=related

Tis the Ides of March

March 12th, 2008, I went with some friends to tour Greece and Italy (we had all just finished classical literature). I had waited over a year to go on this trip, and in 14 days it was over. What remains is the memories and the friendships that were made. So, here's a sampling of our little adventure. :)

Picture it- you've been up for almost 18 hours flying across vast oceans and continents. As you cross mainland Europe, it's complete and utter darkness except for the lights of the small villages you're flying over. As you approach Northern Italy - the sunrise. The fairytale land of Italy suddenly emerges from the darkness as the light swiftly rises across the horizon. Your plane lands at 6:30 in the morning Italy time and you hit the road running to maximize every second of your dreamlike stay.

We were in Rome on the Ides of March, so this Caesar statue was all dressed up for his day. In case you don't know the story, go brush up on your Roman history. ;)

The Trevi Fountain - if you throw one coin in, you will go back to Italy. If you throw 2 coins in, you will also find true love. I threw two in. ;) PS - the romantic rome you think of because you've watched too many movies does exist - underneath all the tromping grounds of tourists. You just have to get off the beaten trail and explore a bit. ;)

The Titus Arch - General Titus earned an arch for him after he besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the last of those 'rebellious' Jews. Because of this arch, we know what the candlestick and many more of the temple treasures looked like before they were taken away (they're all depicted on the inside of the arch)

And how could you go to Rome and not see the Coliseum? That building is absolutely ENORMOUS!!! And to think it was built to make killing people a spectator sport... :'(

This is the Porch of the Maidens on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. A cool note on the history of the building - when it was built a certain nationality was chosen "because they are the only ones strong enough to support a roof." Well... If you look at the rest of the building anything that the ladies weren't holding up did fall down. Hmm... ;) And an interesting note on the weather - I guess that in the middle of March, winds from the FAR south pick up dust from the Sahara desert in Africa and bring it across the Mediterranian to Greece. That's why the sky is so dusty.

This is the bridge that connects mainland Greece with the Pelopenesse (sp?), the cow-udder look-like peninsula hanging off of Greece. Before this bridge was built it took hours to get around to the island. A special note on the water in Greece - go ahead and jump in when you're at the beach! The water is so clear and clean! Because it was colder when we went, we just got wet up to our knees. ;)

It's been two years... I can't believe that time has gone by so fast! I really hope that I can go back and explore the areas that we didn't get to see very much of.