What a start to Spring!

Hannah was very please with her "giant" snowball.

 Well, Spring may have arrived a couple days ago, but I think the weather didn't get the memo! We woke up Thursday morning to a couple of inches of snow all over! The girls were delighted and it did look pretty. The chickens didn't know what to think of it though, and I had to put some straw down in front of their coop so they'd venture outside. We had lots of fun playing in the snow while it lasted and now today seems much more like Spring. Sunshine and blue sky and 50 some degrees. Yay!

"Cheese!"

The ladies love to look in through the patio door and see what's going on inside.

The girls watching the hens enjoy one of their favorite treats...oatmeal.

What a difference from a couple days ago! The poor daffodils were drooping under the snow.

 Blessings!

Happy Spring!!!

 Hope you all had a great first day of Spring! Ours was cold and rainy, but I still got out for a minute to snap a couple of pictures of some of the springtime flowers blooming in our yard. Here's to a wonderful season full of new beginnings!

 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

Blessings!

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...it is cloudy and gray. We even had a dusting of snow on the ground this morning. I hope Spring decides to show up soon here!

I am thinking...about all I should be doing instead of spending time on the computer right now.

I am thankful...for my husband working so hard to take care of me and the kids so I can stay home with them. What a blessing!

In the kitchen...not much happening in the kitchen today. The guys won't be home for dinner, so I think the girls and I will do something simple.

I am wearing...jeans, a black t-shirt with sparkles and a print on the front and my new sweater that I got this past week when we were at the beach. I love it!

I am creating...working on knitting a shawl for my mother-in-law for her birthday, and going to start knitting a hat for one of the girls. I had so much fun with my first hat I want to make more! Anybody want a hat??? LOL :)

I am going...this week I get to go to my favorite coffee shop for a few hours with a book and just have a little me time.

I am wondering...what fun things the girls and I can do while hubby is out of town for work and James is with grandparents for Spring break...hmmmmm :)

I am reading...an assortment of books from the library, from child raising to being self-sufficient to books on chickens. So many books, so little time!

I am hoping...to get all my laundry finished today. We had quite a pile after our trip to the beach.

I am looking forward to...bed time...I am sooo tired!

I am learning...how important it is to think before you speak.

Around the house...Ellie is napping, Hannah is playing Mario Kart for a few minutes and the laundry is calling my name.

A favorite quote for today..."There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." Jane Austen

One of my favorite things...watching the chickens run around the yard. This morning they were chasing the little juncos that come to our feeder.

A few plans for the rest of the week: library day tomorrow, maybe going swimming with the family, a playdate this weekend, and whatever else comes along.

A peek into my day...

The girls at the beach house feeding seagulls out the patio door.

The seagulls. :)

Hope you have a great week! Share your own daybook here at Simple Woman's Daybook.

Chickens!!!

 We have chickens!!!! After the past few years of dreaming and talking, hoping and planning, we are now the proud owners of 5 Buff Orpington one-year old hens. I am soooo excited!!! We brought them home Saturday morning and have been enjoying them so much already. Hannah and Ellie pulled up chairs next to the coop and sat and watched the "ladies" off and on all day long. They are thrilled to be chicken owners.

 We spent pretty much all last week building our coop with the help of our wonderful, amazing friend. He took some of the ideas I had and was able to turn them into plans and figure everything out for supplies, etc. And it turned out way better than anything that I had planned to attempt on my own.

 The ladies have a 4x8 foot penned space for pecking around in and a 4x4 foot cozy coop complete with 2 next boxes and a rustic roost. Plus, on nice days they can roam around the yard to their hearts content. They've had two days of free-ranging so far and have already torn up every single garden bed in the yard. (We'll have to figure out a plan to keep them out of the garden boxes when growing season arrives.) Watch out slugs!

Hannah and Ellie checking out the coop before the chickens arrive.

First egg!

 The ladies seem to be adjusting quite nicely to their new home and have already given us 10 eggs since Saturday! When the weather gets warmer we should be getting 5 eggs per day.

 Of course, we had to name the ladies even though they pretty much all look exactly alike. And since there are 5 chickens and 5 of us, everyone got to name one. Yay!

Matt- Sandy (short for Sanders...as in Colonel Sanders)

Me- Lindu (Finnish word for bird)

James- Nugget (I think the guys got confused on the purpose of the chickens!)

Hannah- Rosetta

Ellie- Rosie

Chicken Love

This girl is super excited about having chickens!

Took them 1 minute to flip all the bark chips out into the grass. :)

Thanks for sharing our excitement over the new additions to our family!

Blessings!

What we're up to this Wednesday

 Hello! Today is Wednesday, but we didn't get around to taking a nature walk today. When we woke up this morning there was snow on the ground and more coming down! It looked so pretty! The girls ate their breakfast as fast as they could and then we bundled them up so they could go play in the snow. They had a good time trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues and running around making footprints in the snow. Living where we live, we don't really get much snow, if any, and so any little bit that shows up is a big deal for the girlies.

Now as I write this the snow is all melted and turned to rain, but it is still quite chilly outside. And although we could have still gone for a walk, we decided to stay home and do some fun stuff inside, plus we started work on the chicken coop today. Hooray! We'll get to bring our chickens home soon!

 This week our letter that we are focusing on is "R". We got out some trays with rice to practice writing and drawing in, and then of course just having plain, old fun. We also got out a couple other different types of rice to look at and then the girls experimented with playing with the rice using their feet. They spent a good 45 minutes or so playing in the rice!

 We also painted rainbows to add to our alphabet book that we are making. Later we are going to add some cotton balls for clouds around the bottom of the rainbows. After they painted their page for their books, they painted quite a few other pictures for our patio door "gallery". :)

We've also spent a lot of time reading books about rabbits, roosters and rocks that we found at the library yesterday. 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...dark and cold. We had a beautiful sunny day today though! Tomorrow goes back to being rainy with maybe even some snow.

I am thinking...about all I need to get done yet tonight.

I am thankful...for good friends. We had such a fun time out with 3 other couples last night for dinner and a movie!

In the kitchen...I kept the ants at bay today by putting peppermint oil along the edges of the counter. Didn't see a single one all day until just a minute ago. Will have to try some more tomorrow. I am so tired of these little ants.

I am wearing...jeans and a t-shirt. Had a sweater on but then got warm running around putting the girls to bed and getting other things taken care of.

I am creating...getting close to half way done with my hat that I'm knitting. Still haven't gotten around to sewing the pillowcases for the girls yet. Also, hubby and I are planning our chicken coop! Hopefully we'll get it done this week!

I am going...to the library tomorrow with the girls! :)

I am reading..."The Help" and really enjoying it.

I am hoping...to get up without hitting the snooze button tomorrow. The girls have been waking up super early, so I have to make sure to be up and at it before they get up so I can have a little quiet time. I haven't been doing very well with that lately.

I am looking forward to...getting cozy in my jammies and doing some knitting.

I am learning...and re-learning lots of things about chickens. So excited to be getting some finally!

Around the house...the kids are all asleep and hubby is playing games on his phone. Everything is all nice and clean. The girls were such big helpers this morning and we got the house all ship shape. :)

A favorite quote for today..."Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." James 1:19-20 I really need to work on this more...this verse is a good reminder.

One of my favorite things...working outside in the sunshine and fresh air. I would be outside all day when the sun is shining if I could.

A few plans for the rest of the week: of course there is library day, chicken coop planning and building, maybe a hike somewhere, and maybe even a free concert at the library.

A peek into my day...

The girls and I found our little columbine plant full of water drops the other day when we were playing outside and thought it looked so beautiful. God leaves us so many little treasures everywhere we go if we just take the time to look.

 If you'd like to share your daybook, just hop on over here. Have a blessed week!

Bacon Eclairs

 Last year when I was visiting my mom, we made eclairs for my brother's birthday since that is one of his favorite desserts. We didn't make them the true eclair shape, but we filled the cream puffs with vanilla pudding and topped them chocolate. As we were eating them we got to talking about what it would be like to put some bacon on them. Because we all know that EVERYTHING is better with bacon! :)

Anyway, I finally got around to trying our idea a couple days ago. I thought it would be a fun treat to have for hubby when he got home from being gone for a week with work.

So here is how I did it:

Cream Puffs (from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook)

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs

In a medium saucepan combine water, butter and salt. Bring to boiling. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir till mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.

Drop by 12 heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet. (I got about 15 with mine). Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or till golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Cut tops from puff; remove soft dough from inside. Fill with pudding. Replace tops.

Filling

Use any kind of vanilla pudding you'd like. I made mine from a recipe online, but for some reason I have been having trouble with pudding lately and it turned out very gluey. In my defense, it did at least still taste like a yummy, comforting dessert but it looked more like a kids science experiment than something you'd wanna eat for dessert. (And the pudding I made last week from my natural cookbook was like soup! *sigh*) Using instant boxed pudding would work just fine too of course. This is completely up to you. :)

Topping

For the topping I just melted about half a bag (didn't really meausure!) of semi-sweet chocolate chips with a little bit of butter in a bowl in the microwave. Then I just drizzled that on top and sprinkled on some cooked, crumbled bacon. Voila! Bacon topped eclairs! :)

Keep them in the fridge if you have leftovers.

My mind has been spinning with ideas for other fillings and toppings for cream puffs. If I come up with a good one, I will be sure to post about it! In the meantime, enjoy munching on some bacon-y, creamy, chocolatey goodness!

Blessings!

Wednesday Walk

 We haven't gone on a weekly nature walk in quite some time, so we determined to go this week, rain or shine. And although it looked very dark and rainy this morning, we were blessed with a beautiful, warm sunny day! After doing our circle time and some reading we ate a snack then headed out to the Tualatin Valley Nature Park. We had a great time and saw lots of neat things!

Moss and ferns were growing everywhere on everything.

The girls excited to get going. And of course H had to make a goofy face for the camera. :)

Hannah loved all these trees that were bent over like a bridge

Banana slug!

Thought this moss looked so pretty.

The girls loved this hole in the tree. :)

Newt #1

Newt #2

We saw LOTS of snakes...it was around 7 or 8...all right in the same area. Creepy and cool all at the same time.

Nature girls

We had so much fun today and are looking forward to another adventure hopefully next week! God made such a beautiful and wonderful world with so much to see and learn.

Have a blessed day!