The Boy and his bike

Well, today he decided he wanted to learn how to ride his bike. WOOHOO! No training wheels, so it is interesting, but I think it went well. I hope he sticks with it. He wobbled and started to get irritated, but then calmed down. That by itself is amazing. He is SO his mother’s child. 😉 I just LOVE raising myself. He did start to get the hang of the whole balancing thing, which was super cool. We had a bit of a conversation, then I asked, ” Do you just want me to shut up and get out of your way?” and he said yes. LOL I love my kid.

Wow. A year, really?

I just realized that almost a year has gone by since I last wrote here. That’s just sad. A lot has happened in that time. I’ve gotten two rescue chickens. I’ve added 10 chicks, which was a real handful. Then I fostered 25 more for a friend until my back was about broken in half from bending over to pick them up and move them to clean their area. I have survived introducing the 10 pullets (adolescent female) chickens to the established two adults. More recently I have grieved the lost of two of the pullets, one a couple of months ago to an unknown predator, and definitely the most painful was one of the original rescues. Speculations abound from raccoon or possum to hawk, only to be confirmed with the placing of a trap. A small raccoon was found in the trap looking up at me oh so pitifully. There was much debate as to what to do with said raccoon. It will remain a mystery here.

My remaining 8 young ladies and 1 older lady are doing well, relatively. The older is at the moment in a cage stinking up my dining room. We are trying to determine if she has an upper respiratory infection. I’m leaning towards not, since she has been doing this for a long time and no one else has gotten anything.

So there have been a slew of other things pop up in the past month or two.

I’ve started working on a consultant basis for my former employer helping with marketing. Lots of time on the computer. I have become an activities coordinator for our cover school. It’s pretty cool cause I get to plan things that we will like to do and other families with like minded, generally same age group kids will come with us.

And now the doozy. We are pondering international adoption. =O I am so overwhelmed, but oh so in love. Maybe it’s just like, or infatuation. I’m not sure yet. A friend has just come home with her new son from Ukraine. While they were in country, a group of five Ukrainian orphans and their directory came over here for three weeks. We have gotten to spend quite a bit of time with them. They came over to see the chickens one day. We had a blast! They loved the chickens, picking them up and carrying them all over the place. We also colored and painted fingernails and the boys went outside and did whatever boys do. Later in the week, they held a birthday party for the kids at the host home. That was wonderful to see these kids get gifts and be celebrated like never before. Hurts my heart to think that they won’t be able to take most of it back with them. They came to our church this past Sunday and we went to a park for a picnic afterwards. It was wonderful to get to know them a bit more, as well as the host family. Tonight we will go to the host family’s house for a going away party. They leave tomorrow. My heart is heavy that I may not see them again. My mind wonders if I might see them (or at least some of them) again in one way or another. Plans are being made to have a camp in Ukraine next year, so maybe we can go there and minister to them.

I just hope that WE can hear God clearly and know His direction. No. I know we will hear him clearly and know his direction because we are praying for that. He is for us and not against us. I must remind myself of this daily. Some times moment by moment

Be Joyful in Hope

We have some new friends, over at  that have adopted 3 Ukrainian orphans and host some others occasionally.  There are 5 here right now.  Last Monday they came over and played with the chickens, colored, painted toe nails and fingernails, just played and had lunch.  It was amazing!  Saturday night we went to their house for a birthday party for the orphans.  We made new friends and the children have really stolen my heart.  Dave and I are considering how God may ask us to be involved.

 

In other news, at least one of our young girls has started laying eggs.  They are just the cutest little things.  very dark brown and smooth, nice hard shell and a beautiful almost orange yolk.  

 

Just a little while ago, Joseph and I were watching Ratatouille and he decided he wanted to cook something with me.  He wanted to create something with me in the kitchen.  So we went into the kitchen, found some ingredients and spices and threw them together.  I truly had no idea how it was going to turn out.  It was lots of fun and it turned out to be really good.  Now he is wanting to make ‘some kind of salad, but that isn’t a regular kind of salad’.  I have NO IDEA what that’s gonna be, since we have very little in the house, but it’s going to be fun trying. 

It’s been a foodie kinda day.

First I tried out a recipe that I found on . It just screamed FOOTBALL FOOD! It was really good. I thought that 1/2 cup of hot sauce was going to be too much, so I didn’t put much in it. I ended up added a lot more to it when I was about to eat it. OH MY GOSH! I just put it on Ritz crackers (a suggestion of my little foodie helper). Pretty good suggestion. Here’s the link for the recipe

Oh and make sure you have a good ole coke or sweet tea ready. I really needed it, not so much for the heat, but just one of those foods that really wants a coke with it. You know, kinda like a pizza. Hard to eat one without the other.

Then later, well, now actually, I am preparing to can tomato sauce for the first time. I am also going to roast some tomatoes. I’m excited. it’s fun. I actually have my laptop on the counter. ((yes, away from the water)). The cookie sheet of cut up tomatoes has just gone in the oven (175 degrees, supposed to be in there for 48 hrs!). I’ve boiled a bunch just long enough for the skins to split. Then I’ve put them in cold water. The skin just peels right off. I know I don’t have to peel them for spagetti sauce, but neither of us really like the peel.

Shopping for DooLollies by Nicole

Here is my new business venture that I would like to share with you all.  I am so excited!  I would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

Some of you that are Facebook friends of mine, may know about this already.  Forgive me for the overlap.  Please spread the word.  I can adjust them to fit smaller or larger.  I will do my best to offer other teams, where available.  Well, maybe not Tennessee (just kidding).  I also made one that was spread out much further for my sister.  She wanted to try to use it in the operating room, but it wasn’t quite long enough.

Cyber-talk to you soon,

Nicole

What a nice day.

I got a huge dose of Volkswagen love today. We got to go to the annual VW show. Oh my goodness! I so wish I would have brought my camera. It was really cool sharing this love with my husband, and to a lesser degree my son. Joseph was much more interested in going to the water than looking at cars. It was very hot, so I don’t really blame him. Maybe we should have gone to the water first, but I was afraid that some of the cars would be gone by the time we got to the cars. I did get a great shot of the apparently elusive ‘car cooler’, aka swamp cooler. I have been trying to describe this thing to Dave and another friend of ours for a few weeks. We have considered buying an old bug and they both asked me what I would do in the middle of Alabama’s sweltering summers. That’s when I started trying to describe this thing. I googled everything I could think of to find it, but to no avail. I felt like I was losing my mind, or thought they thought so. I feel vindicated or validated or something, now that I’ve found one and photographed it. I’ve sent the picture to the friend and Dave was with me, so he saw it with his own eyes.

car cooler on VW bug

It is official!

We have registered for our new cover school.  It’s an exciting, yet a little nerve raking.  I love meeting new people, but to be completely honest, I’m a little afraid that they won’t like me.  I hate the fear of rejection – rejection of me, rejection of Joseph.  We had a couple of ‘situations’ at our last cover school, personality conflicts.  That’s not why we left at all, and I know that boys will be boys, but it made things rather uncomfortable at times.  I’m sure there are other that don’t always like how their kid (s) act.  I’m just hoping it won’t happen much this year.

I guess we will see what this year hold.  I am still more excited than nervous.  I think.

I am well on my way to becoming a wonderful hippie!

I breastfed my child til he was almost two and loved it.  I carried him in a sling til I couldn’t any more.  I have just made my first batch of laundry soap and I am in the middle baking my first loaf of bread in our hand-me-down bread maker.  I’m growing some herbs (yes legal ones. LOL basil, mint, rosemary, etc).  Now I just need to use them.  I have made some mint tea and just added mint with a very small amount of sugar in some water.  It was very nice.  I have started collecting wine and other glass bottles so that I can try my hand at cutting glass for repurposing (candles, possibly using them in the design of our future house).  The very latest and most exciting/terrifying adventure is transitioning from school-at-home style of homeschooling toa much more relaxed approach that is working very well!