In the artsy mood.

Do you ever reflect on how different your life is from what you originally thought it would be? I've been doing that lately. Nothing like three days of a low-grade fever to give you some time for reflection.

When I think back to the days when my oldest was getting to "school age", I had visions of a household with no TV, music constantly playing (various types but plenty of classical of course) and a plethora of books laying about to be picked up at a whim. Let's not forget the availability of art supplies and the possibilities of creating at a moments notice.

That's not my reality. My house is cluttered well filled but with toys, dvds, and other miscellaneous objects. And for someone who is musically inclined, my home is rarely filled with music. What about all of the piano proteges I was going to give birth too? Or that family orchestra I was sure to have? Or the four part harmony I envisioned wafting throughout my house as we so joyfully did our chores? Where are the "Von Pevensie Family" singers?

At first glance, one could consider this a travesty and fall into a deep depression. The thing is, this current reality could change at a moments notice. It's about choices, right? Everything in life is. Just because a television actually resides in my home, it doesn't mean we have to turn it on. So we haven't done Art in a long time...we can start today...or rather tomorrow since it is 11pm at night. Tomorrow is a new day!

So I've decided to make a change tomorrow. It may last for just one day or perhaps for a week or longer. For sure we are going to "create" something new tomorrow. I have several projects in my mind but I think we will start simple. I will choose a card from the Usborne Activity Cards, 50 Things to Draw & Paint, that I dug out today and just "go for it". Nothing fancy, nothing exotic, simply a little painting activity. It's a start, it's a new beginning.

So is anyone out there reflecting on things they would like to change in their lives? It's not too late to make a change. Anyone want to join me in "moving in a new direction"? If so, leave me a comment. Tell me what it is you are changing for at least one day. I would love to encourage you!

Following through.

In light of the previous post, I wanted to post this...

Well here is one thing I am following through on. I am training for the Rock N Roll Seattle 1/2 Marathon. I am raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. I need everyone's help. Please donate! I have a required donation limit. It's not that much in the big scheme of things. If everyone gives a little bit, then we will reach our goal!

I am running this with my sister. Training for an endurance event can be tough but our worst day is still better than the cancer patient's best day on chemo. I'm trying to get the word out about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's work. They do so much for the patients who have blood cancer. Although I am short on time today, I intend to come back and post more information so you can know why the Society's work is so important.

Please pass on the link to anyone and everyone. Here is the direct link so you can cut and paste it.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/rnrseatl09/tjensen

All donations collected are tax deductible.

Why does it have to be this way?

Please tell me why.

I've heard it said that people who have an allergy to something often "love" that something. For example, people who have an allergy to dairy products often love eating dairy products. That seems so unfair. Why would God make it that way?

I have two children who should avoid dairy. It's not a life threatening allergy but does cause some real intestinal problems. I've begun to guess that they got that DNA from me. I've never really noticed a problem with consuming dairy until recently. It's unfair. We live in a dairy saturated world! I have never been a real milk drinker but I love yogurt. And how about that taco thing I just made myself. The fried corn tortilla spread with refried beans and topped with cheese...oh yeah, and the sour cream. I totally made it before realizing what I had done. Humph. I was going to go dairy free again. Well I can't exactly throw it out now can I? If you are one of those smart people who are thinking, "Oh yes you can!" then just hush. By the time you read this it will have been consumed and there is no reason you should give me grief about it. I have enough guilt in my life.

I thought about starting a dairy free blog. Not like it hasn't been done before as I'm sure it has. I just thought if I did that then I would have to be accountable and actually go dairy free again. Not likely to happen soon (the blog that is) so I guess I don't need to worry about it. I also keep telling myself I should "go raw" again and blog on that. Right now, I haven't exactly been the regular blogger so I doubt I should start anything with that either. Of course I keep telling myself a lot of things that I think I should follow through on. I think that is part of my psychotic make up. At any rate, although I'm not exactly following through on any of those thoughts, I can still write about them, right?

You gotta check this out.

I know I haven't been keeping up on this blog, however if you happen to come here, you have to check out the latest thing I'm doing. Please check out this website. I am training for the Rock N Roll Seattle 1/2 Marathon. Check out that website to see why I would torture myself train for another endurance run!

Rant & Rave

You know, I'm tired of someone from the disabled whatever calling me every other week and telling me "back in spring" I told them I couldn't help them out then but would in 6 months. I also loved how the most recent fellow, "Clark", totally ignored my request to take me off of their calling list when I told him he was the third call for the same thing from the same organization. Oh, he was smooth the way he ignored that I said he was the third call. "Well that's what we do. We call you back if you weren't able to help us..." and then proceeds to tell me that the disabled are hard workers, some served in Afghanistan and Iraq, blah, blah, blah. When I told him there was no way I was able to buy anything because I have a $4,600 dental bill to pay off because of my little one, do you know what he said? "Well some of these guys have lost limbs!" I wish I had been quick enough to say, "And how is that my problem?" I am all for supporting and loving on those who have served or are serving in the military but I have financial obligations. That dear dentist who I owe all of that money to, doesn't normally take payments. She did me a favor. It is now my responsibility to honor my word which was, "I will put all the extra money I can toward that bill until it is payed." Sorry Clark. As much as I would like to support your cause, I have to support my family first. I am a giving person. Sometimes I give when I don't even have the money to give (because my debt isn't payed off) which is probably how I got on your phone list in the first place but the "buck stops here". No more are you and people like you going to make me feel guilty because I can't help everybody in the world. I do my part. My part just doesn't include you and your cause.

Want to bet that group calls me again in two weeks?

That had to hurt!

I don't know which chicken popped out that egg but you know it had to hurt. I have never seen a chicken egg as large as this one in my life. Of course most of my eggs-perience comes from the ones purchased at the grocery store so what does that tell you? Boring. Nearly all the same size and for most of my life the only ones I saw were white. I am a color gal and I like variety. It's way more fun wondering how many teal ones we'll get today.

The other day I came home, opened the refrigerator and my jaw nearly hit the ground. Here's what I saw.
It's hard to tell exactly how large that egg is in this picture. Those 3 "little" eggs are normal size eggs. I'm thinking that is the equivalent of giving birth to a 14 lb baby. I mean you just look at it and say, "Ouch!" My first thought was what bird could have gotten into the coop and laid that egg? Let's see...my only choices would be quail (nope, too small), pheasant (could they have big eggs?) or...one of my chickens. It didn't take long to figure out it had to be one of our chickens but Yowza! I can't imagine.


So here is Edmund holding a normal size (not boring white) egg. That looks pretty normal in is tiny hands, right?














Here is Monster Egg in those same tiny hands.
Get the idea? Crazy huh? Have you ever seen such a thing? If you have, I sure hope you'll comment.













So are you curious about what is inside that thing? We sure were. I wondered just how many yolks were in this one! Well, you're in luck because I had my handy dandy camera near by when Peter accidentally turned and cracked the egg on the refrigerator handle. He said the shell was fairly soft. I have yet to do some research to find out if a wrinkled looking egg is the sign that this was the first egg a chicken laid. We've had wrinkled looking eggs before but they aren't real common in our coop. Can you imagine your first baby being HUGE? Oh sure, I know it happens but I can't imagine it being me. Oh shoot. Obviously I'm not a computer wiz because I thought I downloaded this as a larger picture. I really wanted you to be able to see up close what was inside. The contents of this bowl are what came out of the monster egg. I'm not sure you can tell but that is the white, the yolk and a whole 'nother egg...as in you are looking at the shell. Weird. It's elongated and that shell was extremely tough. I gave it to a guest who happened to be here and asked her to crack it so we could see what was inside that one.I'm not sure what startled our friend but the egg ended up on the counter top. As you can see, it only held egg white. Hmm. So I don't know what this all means but it sure made for an interesting moment in time. How many people can say that they've seen a whole egg inside another egg? Well, anyone who reads this can. So if you've seen this before, please comment because I just gotta know! This is pretty interesting stuff for a "girl from town".

I did have to laugh because of my friend Deena Marie's comment on the last post. What was it? Something about not liking the idea of cracking open an egg that might have something more than yolk in it? I'm laughing because I almost posted back that if you get the eggs right away (we collect every day ya' know), you don't have to worry about finding a partially formed chick (ew!). Who would have thought that there were other options?

This is why we got chickens~

I wasn't expecting any eggs until late September or early October. These little beauties showed up in August. The one on the right was especially small but we didn't care. We were just excited to see the fruits of our labor. Okay, the chicken's labor but you know what I mean. We bought all of the chickens in late April. I think I read somewhere that they mature around 6 months. It wasn't long before we realized that some breeds might mature quicker. We figured out that we had a buff rooster fairly early. First of all because that darn chicken was extremely ornery. It wasn't long though before he was growing a comb and wattle. It was at least a month or maybe more before we discovered two more roosters in the bunch. My younger children thought those roosters were being mean to the hens. I had to explain that they were mating with them. I'm sure Edmund doesn't "get it". I just keep telling him they are helping the hens to make eggs. He doesn't need to know right now that you don't have to have a rooster to make eggs, right?

These brown beauties showed up behind our grill on the front porch. I knew one of the goldens was sitting back there a lot but a quick glance (after Jake chased the chickens off the porch) told me she was just finding a nice place in the shade. The next day Peter came running in to tell me he found a bunch of eggs behind the grill. We were so excited to find these 6 eggs! I was especially excited because I wanted an omelet for breakfast. There is something about finding eggs when you weren't expecting eggs that makes the find something fabulous. And until you have had the opportunity to eat homegrown eggs (verses what you find in the grocery store), you don't know that there is actually a difference.

I really should have taken a picture of the 'home grown' eggs next to a store bought egg but I didn't want to contaminate my omelet. The yolk in home grown eggs are fairly orange while most of us know how yellow they are in store bought eggs. Doesn't that just make you feel better about eating home grown eggs? They are 'special'. It's kind of like the first time you ever make homemade bread from scratch. It is such a feeling of accomplishment. Although I didn't lay these eggs myself, I get that same feeling. Besides I am a color junkie. I just love things that are colorful. This is why, when I worked in a fabric store as a teenager, I had DMC floss in nearly every color. It didn't matter that I may never embroider something with color number 967, I just had to have it. This is why I'm eagerly waiting for some of our other chickens to start laying because I'm looking forward to the blue-green eggs as well.
So we celebrate because now we have these fantastic eggs from our very own chickens! Although we've had egg laying happening for a few weeks now, I'm still posting it under "Fantastic Friday" because we're eating eggs today. You can see what a bright omelet they make. I was really hungry so started in on the homemade toasted bread. I couldn't wait until the omelet was done. It still made a pretty picture. Anyone jealous about my yummy breakfast?