More about chickens

The chickens really enjoy getting out and scratching in the ground.J and A are so excited about the birds laying an egg, that they check several times a day. None so far.

The birds in their house. They have a lot more room outside in their run. Chickens can be a bit dumb so I am having to teach them to go out the hole into the beautiful outdoors.

J and A love showing off their birds to all the curious neighborhood children.

Annah feeding them a leftover banana. Chickens are good for recycling too as they will eat wilted veggies and fruits and stale bread ect.

Even some of the neighbors came over to see the birds and I have had a lot of people ask about them. I guess they are bird celebrities:)

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Easter!

I love Easter. It is in the spring when everything is turning green. I like all the chocolate. But even more then that is that fact that it is a celebration that Christ has risen and is alive! For me this is why I believe, because my God is a powerful, majestic, ever-loving God. He loved me enough to die for me yet is powerful enough that not only did He rise again but in doing so he conquered death and hell itself. He is ot some passive, feel-good, mold-him-how-you-want, deity but He truly is the KING of kings. And the celebration of Easter captures a glimpse of this all.
I did some stuff with the hildre to try and make this relevant for them and we also did some stuff just for fun. I read them the Easter story of Christ and we acted it out. Tim and I also did an egg hunt for them which they loved.


Little man got his first taste of chocolate.

On Easter morning I made "resurrection buns" with A and J. I saw this idea somewhere on the Internet where you put a marshmallow (we only had minis) in the centre of some dough with some cinnamon and butter on it and bake it for 15 minutes. The marshmallow represents the body of Christ, and the dough is the tomb and the other stuff represent the oil and spices they put on his body.

Then when you take the bun out of the oven and open it, the tomb is empty just like how Jesus when he rose, the tomb was found empty. Josiah really got it but Annah was not impressed her marshmallows melted so she just poked at it (or cut it as the case may be).

Tim played the drums at church and I tried to get a good pic but here is the best one. He is the best drummer out there!! And the handsomest too :)

And here is a quick family photo of us all. Happy Easter everyone!

The chickens are here!

Yesterday we went to the Farmer's Co-op store and picked up our 20 week old pullets. They are your basic brown layer type bird. They sould start laying in about six weeks but the children check many times a day to see if there is an egg :)We brought them home in a box and as you see here the children were so excited to see them once we got them in the door. The older two are very excited about getting these chickens.

I still have to put some wire on the coop so for a few days the birds are in the basement.Besides it snowed here so it is pretty cold out. I worked more on the coop today so it should be ready for them tomorrow.

This hen is Josiah's and he named her Rocky. I thought Rocky sounded more like a rooster name but I said nothing. the today I said somethingabout all the hens being girls and Josiah said "No Mom! Rocky is a boy! Can't you tell by his name?" LOL. I did tell him that is was a girl as only the girl chickens lay eggs. Now Josiah wants a rooster. Annah named her hen, Brownie and I named Samuel's hen, Henny.

AS soon as they are in their coop I will post some pics of that. I am enjoying our chicken journey.

Coop building

So yesterday was a gorgeous day out (too bad it is snowing today!!!)and I spent the majority of it outside with the children building our chicken coop. The coop is now all ready for our birds who will be here Thursday. All I have left to do is put up the wire. I think the pictures pretty much tell the story :)

My little Menace

Sometimes I call Samuel, My Little Menace, because he is very curious and always seems to be getting into something. Here are a few things he did the past few days. Good thing he is just so cute :)

He likes to sit on the counter when I make supper. Here he is deciding that the salad needs some mashing.


The two older children have a craft cupboard full of crafts. I guess one of them left it open!


Hmmmm, what is in here for me to get into!


Samuel likes to read books but first he usually likes to clear off the entire shelf first so that when he sits down he has a wide seletion to read from :)


And here he is helping me out by clearing all the artwork and magnets off the fridge for me.

This little guy really is a lot of fun :)

A Busy Day.

We had a busy day here around the house. Everyday is different but I thought I would post some pictures to show how our day went today. The day started off with the two older children piling into our bed for "snuggling" but they soon got too rambunctious for that so we all got up. After breakfast we (the children and I- Tim went to work) worked a bit on the chicken coop we are building. Annah and Josiah are really getting to be very good helpers as you can see. We are going to be getting three "backyard" chickens.



For the rest of the morning I watched a friend's two children. The children all had fun painting, having a snack of fruit, playing outside, playing dominos and jumping on the mattress that we have in the living room at the moment. After a lunch of pita pizzas the other children left and we had a rest time. Samuel was especially worn out after all that fun.


We then went with Tim to Shediac where he had to do some bussiness. After we all went out for ice cream which J and A loved! After getting some groceries we came home. Annah very helpfully put a large part of the groceries away while Samuel scoped out what was in the bags. Josiah spent some time outside riding his "bike". After supper, we had stories, got ready for bed and now they are all soundly asleep. Before he want to sleep Josiah asked "What are our plans for tomorrow?"

Marriage

Tim and I have been married for almost eight years now. I have been thinking about marriage a lot lately. It seems that our culture thinks that marriage is supposed to make them happy and that their spouse should be a fulfiller of that happiness. Yes, this can be a a big part of marriage but it cannot be the main point if marriage is supposed to be "till death do us part". We are only human and will let each other down many times and if "happiness" is the point what do we do when we go through rough patches?



(This is the only picture I can find on the computer of Tima and I. I really need to get some more. This is from his Christmas banquet at UNB for the business students.)

Looking at the Bible though I see that the deeper meaning of marriage is to gain a deeper understanding of Christ and His relationship with us becoming more like Him in holiness and love (Read Ephesians 5).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZACkRe_W4Gg

This video explains what I am trying to say. It is about nine minutes but really worth watching. It is very encouraging and points towards a marriage that glorifies God. (Thanks to Renee Stam for "finding" this for me to "steal" :).

My Children: so much fun!

My children are such fun! Everyday they make me laugh. With such a cute faces like these who could not? As you can see on top the two older ones have a big imagination. Last week they dressed up as animals. LOL! I am still not sure which animal they represent. They did say giraffe and lion. Do you see it?