April 5, 2013

• I’m Grateful For:

  • The chickens are laying, again!  It’s enough daylight for it.  Yes, I know they say that if you keep a light on in the coop, they don’t stop laying, but that’s a myth.  I know, because there’s a light on in our coop 24/7, and every Dec/Jan/Feb, our chickens stop laying.  And once the time change kicks in, they pick up, again.  So… I’m grateful!
  • Getting ‘Cinder’ and ‘Scarlet’.  ‘Scarlet’ just came out a few weeks ago, and I got it from the library (!!), which is HARD to do with new releases, but I also got ‘Cinder’ to re-read so that I was refreshed on the story… and I’m SO glad, because ‘Scarlet’ picks up right where ‘Cinder’ left off.  ‘Cinder’ being a cyber-dystopian futuristic version where Cinderella meets Star Wars (she’s a cyborg and loses her whole FOOT at the ball!), and ‘Scarlet’ being a cyber-dystopian futuristic sequel that adds Little Red Riding Hood and a Wolf to the Cinder story.  What SUCKS is that they only release one of them per year.  So 2012 was ‘Cinder’, 2013 is ‘Scarlet’, and I have to wait until 2014 to read ‘Cressa’ (< which I suspect will add Rapunzel) and 2015 to finish the series with ‘Winter’ (< which I suspect will add Snow White).  LOVE this series!!
  • We’re almost at 48 gallons of sap, so I’m extremely happy that… we got a hydrometer.  It was pretty cheap on-line, and now we’ll know what we’re doing a little better.  Which is good, because we made a few mistakes with the first couple of jars. (((Blush!)))  Luckily, you can always add the too-thick stuff back into the pot, dissolve it, and try again WITH the hydrometer!
  • Greg coming over last night to give us a quote on adding on to the house.  He’s a builder friend of ours, and we were interested in what he has to say.  We’d like to just extend one end of the house by ten to fifteen feet, to add another bedroom and a school room on.  No bells or whistles or fancies… just so we can have an idea of what we’re looking at, and if we can do it.  My house got cleaned up, in the process, so that’s good, too!
  • The income tax return is arriving (part is here, the other part pending for after the weekend).  It’s SO nice to have – I need to sit down and figure out what we have to do with it.  I know Brian’s truck needs new tires, and there are a few other things I’m sure he can remind me of… a list would be good.  And you know how I love to make lists!
  • Sunshine.  It’s hit 50 degrees this week – the snow is gone, and things are drying up very nicely – which is HUGE, when you have critter pens.  Spring and fall can be very icky times, for us homesteaders, but this one was bearable (fall was another story… we were ankle-deep thru November).  Anyhow, it’s so pretty out – I’ll be able to get out and de-skank the yard from a winter’s worth of dog dooooo soon, and that will really make things nicer.  First step to spring, in my chore changes.
  • Speaking of sunshine, April begins our Shabbat change… we have our dinner on Saturdays, instead of Fridays, from now on.  That’s a grateful, because a church nearby has scrapbooking once a month on Fridays, and in the winter, we can’t go… so I haven’t worked on my photos since September!  I’m way, way, WAY behind… and now we can go and once a month I can work on getting caught up, again.  And it’s nice time for Brian to bond with his boys without me.
  • Starting my elliptical chart!  I was waiting for Pesach week to be over… I thought that would be a good time to start up my workouts.  But I’m not using MFP anymore – it just doesn’t work for me.  It was overkill… and I don’t think watching calories makes a difference, because Brian doesn’t watch ANYTHING, and he stays the same… and I haven’t watched ANYTHING since V-day, and stayed the same.  You’d think NOT being careful would mean weigh-gain, no?  It’s just… plateau-ville.  So I don’t see how that helps.  Y’gots t’run.  So that’s what I’m focusing on, this time.  We shall see!
  • Two weeks off dance class.  Well, we took Pesach week off, because it was Firstfruits, but then we went to go to dance class this week, and forgot that it’s spring break for the public school kids.  Too funny – that’s what happens when you home educate, I guess!  Anyhow, we went to supper, took the kids to the farm store to see the pullets (I held a turkey, hehehe!), and get some goat food, and then we went home and watched a movie (we’re doing ‘The Frog Prince’ as our faerie tale right now, so we watched the Robin Williams version – the kids LOVED it, and even Brian was busting up.  Robin Williams as a frog is actually pretty hysterical… although I did NOT remember him telling the princess that she was ‘bitchy’… OR him flipping her off with his flipper.  Still… it was fun).
  • Pretty artwork!  I saw on Pinterest that if you dye condensed milk with food coloring, you can paint with it, and it makes ‘shiny’ paint.  It was VERY kewl to do – the kids loved it.  And we got some good results, too.  The added bonus?  You can suck on your paintbrush, and it’s tasty sweet.  LoL!!  I highly recommend it.!
  • According to SpaceWeather, there’s a conjunction of Venus and Mars of one degree on April 6th.  Mars being ‘war’ and Venus being ‘Coming Messiah – bright morning star’.  What did I post about yesterday?  Korea being the WAR trigger that brings about the COMING MESSIAH.  So I can’t help but wonder if something won’t happen on April 6th where Korea is concerned, based on the symbolism of the conjunction.  Hey, if He’s orchestrating things… it stands to reason, imho!  I’m grateful for signs to watch, for hints of things to come.

  • 10:22 am
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