All Gone

Both boys got personalized mugs from their Grandma Knapp for Christmas.

This is Connor's.

Most people who know us know that we have chickens and ducks.

This is our fourth year raising chickens and our first for ducks.

We truly enjoy our feathered friends.

Connor is our resident chicken whisperer.

When he's outside he almost always has a chicken in his arms...

even if we're trying to leave for town.

Sometimes I'll holler instructions as we go out the door for Connor

not to pick up a chicken because we're leaving.

Why do you need to pet a chicken when we're getting in the van?

(I guess it's just evidence of children.)

We've really enjoyed the ducks too.

It's fun to watch them play in the puddles when it's raining.

Meanwhile, all the chickens are under the carport watching the ducks as if they're crazy.

Not to mention that Connor can eat their eggs.

Unfortunately, our feathered friends have had a tragic ending.

Sunday, as we were leaving for church,

I opened the door to let the chickens out and

discovered there had been a chicken massacre.

My heart sank as I discovered more and more chicken/duck horror.

I'm glad the boys didn't discover it.

As I opened the back door we realized the varment that did it was still in there.

Pepper made a valiant effort to get the angry little critter.

It put up a good fight and ran under the chicken coop.

After a time of coaxing it from under the coop, it ran to Dwayne's car.

Of course it climbed up under the hood.

I'll make the long story short: the angry villain came to a timely end.

We thought it was a weasel but later learned it was a mink.

By the time we got the stinking mink (and it really did smell bad),

it was too late to make it to church.

Not to mention that we were all shocked and upset at loosing our entire flock.

All of them.  All gone.

That's a rooster, six hens, and two ducks.

Connor took it the hardest, which upset us even more.

Christmas

Christmas snuck up on me.

I knew it was coming and I thought I would be fine.

Then the crying started the morning of Christmas Eve.

I think I cried off and on for two days straight.

That's not how I wanted to spend Christmas.

I did enjoy the times between the tears.

I also realize that this was just how this Christmas was.

I needed to cry through it and that's OK.

I'm eternally grateful for the birth of our Savior.

That's what Christmas is about.

That will never change.

There is hope of a future without this sting of death.

No pain, no sorrow.

No more sin.

Just to be with Jesus.

Forever.

I can't wait.

~

So between the tears we enjoyed a visit to my mom's.

We enjoyed pizza and a movie.

Gifts and laughter.

Silly socks.

And pretty paintings.

***

Christmas morning we started with our tradition of reading about the greatest gift of all.

I didn't take many pictures.

Random

I'm guilty of not making a post in a while.

I don't like it when the blogs I read go a long time without a post.

So that's why this post is full of randomness.

I made anise cookies over the weekend.

This was my first failed baked batch.

It was at this moment that I realized I did not put the right amount of flour in the dough.

Oops.

I gently forcefully scraped the cookies from the pan.

I haven't had a batch like this in a long time.

(I've had many failures over the years trying to bake Connor safe cookies.)

Thankfully, all I had to do was add in some flour and all was well again.

I can't tell you how much we're enjoying using duck eggs to bake with.

Especially Connor.

He claims these are his new favorite cookies.

We even threw on some frosting!

Yes, we have cookie cutters in the shape of a foot.

Nothing says Christmas quite like a frosted foot.

We had a beautiful rainbow in the west.

Both my brother-in-law and my father-in-law called me to tell me.

They wanted to make sure the boys saw it.

The boys had been sick so I was letting them sleep in.

(It's awesome to have that flexibility when you homeschool.)

So I took pictures.

(OK, I would have taken pictures anyway.)

I'm diligently working on Nolan's quilt.

I'm not neglecting the house/boys too much...

Surprise

Over the weekend I finished quilting the bottom half of Nolan's quilt.

I'm celebrating the fact that this part is finally done.

I had a nice surprise when I rolled it.

I thought I was only half-way done.

Turns our that I'm almost done.

I only have some sashing, one row, and a border left to quilt...

basically the matching top portion of what you see here.

I can't tell you how excited I am to see that!

I'm guessing another month and I'll be done!!!

:)

Table Runner

A year ago I made a goal to finish hand quilting Nolan's quilt by this Thanksgiving.

It didn't happen.

I was well on my way to accomplishing this goal, but

news of my dad's death changed our lives forever.

It took me a while to get back to quilting.

(My dad always asked me how my quilting was going... kind of

hard to get back to it when your accountability partner is gone.)

I decided I needed a break from the current project.

Thankfully I had another in mind.

Back in the spring I bought a table runner kit at a yard sale.

I don't own any table runners.

I'm not a decorating kind of person, except for Christmas.

However, I liked the colors and style of this runner.

It looked like a beginner's kind of quilting project.

Besides, the price was right!

It took several weekends.

It came together rather easily.

I made several mistakes learned a lot.

I even used one of my sewing machine's fancy stitches.

So don't think I made those wavy lines on my own!

It was fun and quick project.

Fallen Angel

These are duck eggs.

It took us about a week to save up a dozen.

It takes a while when you only get two a day (and you keep eating them).

Connor finally decided to forego the omelets to save eggs for an angel food cake.

So I had thirteen eggs to work with.

I'll admit that I had my doubts as to whether or not this would work.

I had read many articles online about using duck eggs in angel food cakes.

Some praised them and said the cakes turned out great.

Others said they were terrible for this kind of cake.

That's not very helpful information,

nor is it a confidence booster.

Good thing I am not afraid to fail in the kitchen.

I'm quite good at that!

So I whipped up the egg whites.

The texture seemed a little different but I kept going.

Can you say fallen angel?

I've made dozens of angel food cakes over the years.

I've never had one fall before.

It fell while it baked and I have no idea why.

The funny part was when it fell out of the pan while it was cooling upside down!

I should have gotten a picture of it.

It was quite funny, especially if you picture an

old fashioned coke bottle sitting in the middle.

(I use the bottle to cool the cake upside down.  It fits perfectly in the center.)

This is quite possibly the saddest angel food cake I've ever made.

It makes me chuckle.

But the redeeming factor is that it tastes good

and it's safe for Connor to eat.

Well son, do you like it?

"Mmmm, oh yes!"

Is it worth saving the duck eggs for?

"YES!"

So I'll have to figure out what happened to my fallen cake and try again.

Duck Eggs

In our excitement over Connor being able to eat duck eggs, we made cookies with chicken eggs.

He's seen us eat these cookies over the years.

I didn't make them often because he couldn't eat them.

This is not a recipe that would turn out well using the egg-replacer stuff.

We love this cookie recipe.

It makes large cookies.

Rich in flavor.

Lots of chocolatey goodness.

Connor was a good sport and had a bite.

We determined that he is in fact allergic to chicken eggs.

(We also had him try scrambled chicken eggs with the same result.)

He's slightly bummed that he can't eat chicken eggs.

The good news is that I can make these cookies with duck eggs.

They look identical and they taste exactly the same.

He devoured one cookie and begged for another.

We are so thankful for duck eggs!

What Do You Carry?

Before I get to the carrying part, I have to share the beautiful weather we've been enjoying.

We knew it wouldn't last long.

And they're probably the last 70+ degree days we'll see until spring.

Kung-fu chicken!

I'm not sure which is funnier,

the fact that's he's doing this with a chicken or that she's letting him!

 So the question of the day is: what do you carry in your wheel-barrow?

Wood?

Straw?

We carry a boy and his chicken.

Seriously, think about this.

Only Connor would do such a thing!

"Are you comfy Hazel?"

There's only one Connor and

he's our chicken whisperer.

Wanna a ride too?

A Whole New World

We have some super exciting news!

Connor's eating duck eggs!

The truth is that we have no concrete evidence that he's actually allergic to chicken eggs.

We only have tests that say he has the antibodies, so we were told to avoid them.

We've read that some people who are allergic to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs.

We have a surplus of duck eggs.

So I decided to make brownies with duck eggs.

They turned out to be very good.

It took us quite a while to convince Connor to try some of the D.E. brownies.

He had the tiniest piece possible.

He loved it and he didn't react to it at all.

We made him wait until the next day before he had more.

The following morning he ate an entire brownie.

Not a single reaction!

We are so excited and thankful!

If I'm making pancakes I usually I fix Connor's without eggs first and then

"daddy" pancakes with eggs last.  This is so I don't contaminate Connor's.

But not today!

This morning I made one batch of pancakes made with duck eggs.

Of course we didn't stop there.

Dwayne made Connor a one egg omelet with a duck egg.

Connor got the deluxe omelet complete with bacon bits and cheese.

Unlike the brownies, it didn't take long to convince Connor to try the omelet.

He then proceeded to devour the omelet.

Who needs manners when you're eating your first omelet!

He said he wants one for lunch too.

Our heads are swimming with all the possibilities of the foods we can make with duck eggs.

Jack O' Lantern

It's been a long time since we've done the pumpkin thing.

Dwayne cut the tops and we set the boys free to do the rest.

I can't tell you how happy that made me.

I don't like pumpkins.

I think they smell awful.

I was so glad it wasn't me digging out the guts!

:)

Turns out that Connor's not so fond of it either!

Ha ha.

And neither was Nolan!

Double the ha ha's!

I'll be honest and say that we enjoyed this part the most!

I think we chuckled the whole time.

That's what loving parents do.

;)

Connor's pumpkin.

Nolan's pumpkin.

What's a jack o' lantern without a lantern?

Pepper immediately barked at them.

Goofy dog.