"I'm Chasing Chickens!"

Brought to you courtesy of Nolan...
who was supposed to be taking pictures for his 4-H project.
Turn up the volume so you can hear Dwayne's comment at the end.

Dakota Style

Today I went grocery shopping.  I'll be honest and say I'm not a fan of doing that.

Shopping for a food allergic person can be very time consuming.

When shopping, I read every label of every item every time.  This is a must, no exceptions.

That is the rule for people with food allergies as ingredients & manufacturing change all the time.

In our house labels are read again when I get home and all food gets either a red or green sticker.

This is the process we go through to keep Connor safe.

Today I had one of those food-allergy "mom moments".

That's what I call it when something ordinary brings a tear to my eye.

Something as simple as sunflower kernels. 

These are special because Connor can safely eat them!

We found them a couple of years ago in our local grocery store.  It was great... until last year.

They stopped carrying them and I couldn't find them anywhere.

Until today.

I'm still not sure who was more excited, me or Connor.

We high-fived, hugged, and did a little dance right in the snack isle.

It was great!

Here's why they are special.  They are not processed with nuts.

Every other sunflower kernel brand I've read so far (and I've read a lot) is processed with nuts.

These taste great.  As you can see, the ingredient list is very short.

No goofy chemicals or hydrogenated oils.  Just kernels, oil, and salt.

So if you, or someone you know, likes sunflower kernels please buy a bag or two.

Dakota Style is a small company and it would be great to support their product.

Photo Fun and Evidence of Children #3

Nolan is doing photography in 4-H again this year.

His book and I have been telling him to look for the not-so-ordinary things.

Or things from a different perspective.

So I grabbed by camera and made him join me outside.  :)

Typically, I tell Dwayne I'm going outside to shoot things and I'll be back later.

I'm not posting any of Nolan's pictures until after the fair...

so you'll just have to put up with mine!

I have no idea what this plant is.

We got a start from Grandma's house at other end of the farm.

Trying to show Nolan to look at shadows.

Nolan's pics of this are pretty funny.

I've grown branches!

 

Trees are so much fun to play around with!

Is someone tree hugging?  Maybe it's a monster?  A tree hugging monster?!

Our house looks so bare since we lost the big tree in the back.

We have discovered that since the tree fell the mocking bird's perch is much lower.

Now when he sings it's quite loud inside the house!

He competed with our movie last night.

The boys finally realized that their clamp for the

Hot Wheels tracks will work on the porch railing.

It was a long ways down!

All Gone

So we had a few storms blow through.

We didn't really think it was all that bad.

We didn't have hail or hear any high wind....

although our neighbors did.

We're guessing the boys were too noisy while

we were in the basement to hear the wind.

A few mammatus clouds forming.

This cloud was billowing up before our eyes.

So cool to watch.

See the branch on the left side?

That branch belonged to the only shade tree on the east side of the house.

It was mostly dead anyway.

Thankfully it missed the porch.  Unfortunately it nailed Elmer's fence.

It looks so bare now.

It almost looks like the mocking bird is looking for the rest of the tree.