The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

We have 28 baby chicks peeping away in the apartment eating, drinking and fluffing their wings. We ordered an assortment of "heavy" males for butchering. I've really missed chicken since deciding to no longer purchase mass raised unhealthy chicken. The company I wanted to order my egg & butchering chickens from has all their egg layers on back order until late June. So I ordered my roosters and will be getting my egg layers from our local feed mill in a couple weeks.



The chicks are safe in a box under lock and key. The kids are enjoying watching them and I am glad to know that our meat is safe from the kids! :-)

I am also working on my first batch of cheese today. I'm making Farmhouse Cheddar. Currently my pot is sitting at 90 degrees allowing the curd to separate from the whey. Off I go to finish our first batch of cheese. Later I'll post about our visit to the farm house this past weekend.

Each day as a I mother my children, I am more and more grateful for the godly mother I have. Mom Conover you are my Martha Mom. You are always faithfully serving others at the expense of taking time for yourself. Mom, thank you for being so faithful to the Lord, to Daddy, and to us over the years. Thank you for making sure Kirk and I were raised in the church even through the years when daddy wasn't interested in spiritual things. Mom, thank you for being an example of how to seek out godly wisdom from the Word and from your godly authorities (our Pastor & Pastor's wife). Thank you for being transparent as you journeyed through your Christian growth. Your strength of godly character and unmovable faith served as a pillar for our family for many years. Mom, thanks for always keeping up with the tasks of the household for doing our laundry, making our meals and taking time to have fun with us. Thank you for always being available for a chat, and for bearing our burdens with us through your tears and prayers. Thank you for being with me as I became a mommy for the first time, and for being there as we welcomed each one of our children into this world. Thank you for your fun spirit and your contagious laugh. Mom, most of all thank you for being you!

I love you Mom!

Mom Reese, you are my Mary Mother. Thank you for accepting me into your heart and home as your daughter-in-law. Thank you for being such a constant example of a praying, discipling parent. Thank you for raising your son to be such a tender, compassionate, godly man. Thank you for the times you have graciously, prayerfully, and gently given us biblical wisdom and guidance. Thank you for being an example of how important it is to sit at the feet of Jesus and for how fully surrendered you are to Christ.

I love you Mom!

Thank you to both of my Mom's for showing me Christ as you daily strive to walk with Him and be more like Him.

Happy Mothers Day!

Philip is constantly busting his nose. The poor child has a Mayhew (my mom's side of the family) nose to begin with and with all the falls, running into walls, getting hit by base ball bats, etc. his poor nose keeps getting wider and wider! :-) He has a scab on his nose right now because he hurt it somehow this past weekend. On Tuesday at school he picked the scab and it started to bleed so the gym teacher put a big band aid across his nose. Philip refused to take off the band aid.

On Wednesday night one of the Tiny Tracker leaders asked Philip what happened to his nose, he replied "I picked it!" This response allowed all the leaders to have a nice laugh!

Thankfully on Thursday after being hosed down by his big brother Sam and being pushed over into mud and pine needles by the dog I had to throw him into the shower, taking the opportunity to RIP off the band aid. He cried and cried not because it hurt (which it did a little) but because he had planned on leaving the band aid on indefinitely.

A couple of weeks ago one of my favorite nutritional blogs was hosting a blog give away and I entered the drawing. I won some wonderful natural bathing products from Luscious Naturals.

You can see the products Cassidy offers by visiting: http://LusciousNaturals.etsy.com.

Why use natural soaps and shampoo you ask? The soaps, shampoos and bath products from the store are LOADED with chemicals that our skin absorbs that can cause illness, even cancer. Currently I'm reading a book called "The Cure for all Cancers" by Dr. Hulda Clark. No I do not have cancer, but I do have a family history full of cancer. We have decided to reduce our toxic load as much as possible by eating home grown and/or organic veggies, organic grains, beans, rice, and sugars, and by using things for cleaning our home and bodies that are free of toxic substances.

I'll have to post on info for safe cleaning and personal care products another time. For now I want to tell you about the products from Luscious Naturals that I got to try. I received her Luxury Salt Butter which I've been using on my heals and bad psoriasis areas on my feet & knees. They leave my icky dry areas feeling very smooth and soft! The Cedarwood Shampoo Bar which smells great, leaves my hair clean but without any greasy chemical residue. The Vegan Lavendar Calendula Organic Soap which also smells great, leaves my skin clean without feeling dry.

Thanks so much Cassidy for taking the time to make these products with such great ingredients and a wonderful cleaning quality!

This week Phil is working hard on our garden at the new house. He is fencing it, tilling it, planting the potatoes, onions, black berry & blueberry plants. I'm very excited that on Saturday I will be able to see the house for the first time! Phil and I are taking our anniversary day away to work in the new garden for a few hours, see the house then go out to a nice restaurant in Manitowoc that Phil has a gift certificate for.

We hope that by the end of our garden time on Saturday to have all the cool veggies in, the beds marked, and everything freshly watered. Our main garden is 42' X 75'. We will have a vine garden between the garage and barn for the vine veggies. Our raspberries, black berries, and blue berries are in different places around the property too.

We are going to be doing some successive plantings of several of our veggies as suggested in the the book I read on four season gardening. Over the next few days I'm working on getting my cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, onions, lettuce, and cabbage hardened up so we can plant them on Saturday. So, off I go to put them outside for a little wind and sun!

Today as I've watched Nathan play, it has hit me that my baby is growing up. He looks so tall in his shorts and tee shirt running through the yard with the dogs singing Sunday School songs at the top of his lungs. I think because he is my last child and he is now 3 years old, it is really hitting me that my baby days are over. I've never had a 3 yr old without having a nursing baby in my arms. I'm very thankful for my 6 children and for this new phase... yet...........twin girls would be so much fun!

No this is NOT an announcement. :-) Like Phil says, "I think our quiver is full!"

Here is a short video from Nathan's 3rd Birthday celebration.

There may be some of you who read my blog that think I'm crazy for trying to grow my own food, purchasing organic, and changing our family's dependency on the commercial food supply. Today I watched a lengthly documentary done by a woman in Canada I believe, that is very troubling. It is a long documentary but very worth the time it takes to watch it. If you care about you and your families future food supply and health you will want to watch it.


http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/01/this-company-may-be-the-biggest-threat-to-your-future-health.aspx?source=nl


This documentary and the article Dr. Mercola wrote about it make me so thankful for friends who shared with me books on health and nutrition along with sources for heirloom vegetables. All our vegetables this year are NOT GMO but they are instead heirloom vegetables which will give me the ability to save the seeds and use them next year. I probably won't be able to save and reuse the corn because I believe some of the land that butts up to ours has corn on it planted by a local farmer. If the only veggie I have to buy next year is corn seed, it will make for a very cheap harvest for next season. This year I plan to track my yields so that I will be able to total up the amount of organic food that we will have grown and preserved. I buy organic now so I will be able to figure out what the value of my home grown organic foods are and how much money will be saved.

Many people think, "Oh but all the WORK!" My thoughts are, I'd rather get off my tail and get moving while teaching my kids a time honored tradition, self sustainable living, then sit around eating food that is essentially poisoning us.

So off I go to pick up Philip from school, then water my plants!