Raising Thrifty Kiddos

Update to the previous post about Noah's birthday...

 That's what I thought we were gonna do.  We did end up going out to lunch and getting the stuff for his special dinner.  But there was an unusual turn of events.

 While we were roaming around Kroger collecting the ingredients for chicken cordon bleu, at some point Noah must have done the math in his head.

Happy Birthday Noah!

Who knew that my best, quietest, most easy going, sleep-through-the-night baby would turn out to be my loudest, most outgoing, friendliest and loudest, yes, I said that twice on purpose, teenager?

 Not me.

Life is funny like that.  And wonderful.

New Meaning to Tangled

Have you ever seen this before?

When It Rains It Pours

Do you ever have so many different things going on at the same time that you forget your phone number and neglect to buy soap and toilet paper?

I do.

Right now.

Pruning a Vineyard and Starting Cuttings

Yesterday we took a homeschool field trip to a research farm here in Kentucky.

They invited us to help prune the vines and clean up the vineyard.  What we actually got to do was learn a lot.

This is the farm.  It's really cool.

Dr. Noah's First Patients

Well, today has definitely been a learning experience.  On several fronts.

It started first thing this morning.  Elijah went dashing out the door to run the trash to the road, since he forgot last night.  He noticed a chicken laying by the coop door, panting.  That's not good, especially since everybody else was tucked safely inside.  Something was wrong since she missed coming into the coop the night before.  Something chickens don't do.

Frankenbirds

 
Hey, I think I finally got this figured out!

We've been wondering where these kind of freakish chickens come from.  They're certainly not selected by nature, and if they were, they wouldn't survive long enough to make more.  They're the kind of chickens that most Americans are used to eating.  They're the standard rotisserie chicken.  They're what restaurants use.  They are what we buy in the grocery store.

 But what exactly are they?

A Good Weekend

I've always wanted to do a corny family portrait like this.  You know, instead of holding violins...  This one just sortof happened spontaneously.  Too bad Benjamin was taking a nap and I was taking the picture.  Don't they all look so friendly???

Anyways, here's how it all panned out.

Building Raised Beds

A few friends have asked me about this lately.  I know it's really popular to build your own raised bed gardens and there's lots of websites to show you how.  I just wanted to add to that by saying that if you don't have any woodworking experience and you don't even own a saw, you can STILL build yourself some of these and have a nice little garden going this Spring.

Here in Kentucky, the weather is nice but the soil is not.  Our land consists of boulders mixed with rocks and boulders.  Covered lightly with a deceiving layer of topsoil that makes you think you might actually be able to dig a hole.  But don't kid yourself.  You will hit a rock... and then another.  Never fear... Raised beds are here!

And the Winner Is....

Congratulations, Tiff, You're the Lucky Winner!!

And here's the lucky comment, chosen by Benjamin through a random number system...

"---'just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, he became a butterfly' posted on my fridge.     This when helps when I'm feeling low."

Isn't that cute?

Just email me your address and I'll  pop your necklace in the mail ASAP.  (vaughns4jesus@yahoo.com)

Yippee!

Also, thank you all for participating and leaving comments.  I'm not sure why but I'm kindof obsessed with getting comments so you really made my day.  : )