Draft 2021

After a slow November and early December, the ladies have picked up in their egg production. They're back up to laying 4-7 eggs, which is just about perfect. I have plenty to use myself and extras to give to friends. Everybody molted last fall in September and October, and they're nestled snug in their coop. With the weather this cold, we have a heat lamp on in the coop and a device to keep the water from freezing. The girls are really glad that Michael has taken over gathering the eggs and changing the water. It's a cold, cold job these days! One poor lady laid the monstrosity you see above a week ago. To give you a little perspective, below is a comparison between jumbo and a regular egg. Yeah, I know. Ouch! I finally got around to using the egg today and it turned out to be a double-yolk. I am so thankful for the ladies and the hard work they do for us everyday. A dear friend gave us meal worms for the chickens for Christmas. We need to get them out to the co

Or why I need a thesaurus and a dictionary to write my Christmas gift tags. Nearly 8 years ago, I bought my darling husband a set of DVDs for Christmas. You see, we'd been watching The History of Britain on TLC or some other channel that entire fall. Now, it's a long series, with many, many episodes and we completely enjoyed watching them. When we could stay awake, that is. You see, we'd start out watching an episode and one or the other of us, sometimes both, would fall asleep before the end. When we'd try to recap for each other, we'd find we couldn't remember crucial details, like what happened with Queen Mathilda or exactly what led up to The War of the Roses. Strangely, this only deepened our love of this series, as we could watch it over and over... and over again and again and it never got old. So, the perfect Christmas gift for Michael that year was, of course, the complete series on DVD. I wrote a funny little ditty on his gift tag, complete with rhymes

And a good time was had by all...

This is what happens when you let the guys mix up the frosting for Christmas cookies. I don't know about you, but gray and purple just scream "Christmas" to me. Decorating Christmas cookies is a family tradition. This year, we decorated early so everyone could participate before heading back to college after Thanksgiving. And so that the cookies were made and decorated before Christmas this year. Ah hem. We have such a good time together as a family. Oh, wouldn't that cup of coffee be good right now with a sugar cookie???? See that stack of unfrosted cookies? I made a double batch this year, so we had several stacks like that. I used to have to encourage the kids not to "gloop up" the cookies with too many candies, chocolate chips, and other decorations. You can tell everyone is older now, since our favorites have just frosting and colored sugar. I'm not sure making the cookies that early is a good thing, though. Zach took a couple dozen back to sch

I have a lap dog. The only problem is she weighs about 115 pounds! Just try telling Ivy she isn't a lap dog. These days, every time I'm downstairs she jumps on the couch next to me to snuggle and almost always ends up on top of me. I don't really mind, though Michael gets a little miffed when I tell him there isn't enough room on the couch for the three of us, so would he please move? She's actually a little St. Bernard, since she'll likely finish up no more than 120 lbs. Her mama was 160 lbs. and her daddy weighed 140 lbs. I can't imagine. We'd like to write a series of children's books about "Ivy, the Littlest St. Bernard." Wally has gotten used to her and will even "snuggle" at times. This is her spot on the couch. She likes to be kissed on her " po ' dots." Sometimes it's hard to get your angle just right. We've had Ivy now for just over year. And what a year it's been! But we can't imagine our li

Late every fall, the crows descend. They arrive by the hundreds to roost in the tall trees in my yard. Apparently, crows used to roost in the countryside, but starting 30-40 years ago, began to congregate in cities. I find it a little creepy to see mobs of these huge, black birds flocking in the skies over my house. Then again, I was probably only 6-years-old when I first saw Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds . Why do these birds roost together in the fall? Ah, the mystery deepens. No one knows for sure, but thoughts include warmth and safety, communication, and socialization. Perfectly natural reasons, I'm sure. But it still gives me the willies.

Not allowed to sing, dance, play Christmas tunes, or do much of anything for two hours... About 10 years ago (and believe me, I have no idea where all that time went ) I saw a great Christmas Advent idea in a magazine and decided to copy it for my family. Thus was born the advent boxes. It was great fun for little ones having a box to open every night counting down to Christmas. At first, it was easy: candy canes, pencils, Christmas activity books, etc. I must admit, the best use of the advent boxes was my own - for years I chose tree ornaments that I loved, placing 4 of each in one or two boxes. I never would have felt okay about doing that directly for myself, but hey, if it was for the kids... But as the kids got older, 25 boxes full of kitschy X-mas stuff seemed a little... excessive. I mean really, an 18-year-old guy really doesn't want stickers and pencils any more, you know? Plus, my ornament collection pretty much filled up the tree, so... it was time to come up with

I didn't think I would be here again, in this particular place. It's been years now that my two oldest children managed to tame their own personal demons and gained, if not total dominance, then great control over their mental illnesses. Each of them was diagnosed with severe anxiety disorders and major depression at the tender ages of 10. Now, at 21 and 19 years old, they are fully-functioning young men, in charge of their lives and imbued with the great desire to help others. Our oldest will graduate from college in the spring; the other is a successful sophomore at Iowa State University. I gained control over my own demons over the course of about 5 years of therapy, therefore able to start my forties without the cloud of severe depression coloring my every day. I'll never forget the day I realized my oldest daughter also suffered from mental illness. The signs of her OCD and anxiety were unmistakable. With trembling hand I called the therapist to report that she ne