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.

D.E. Brownies

These are our two ducks, Petunia and Daisy.

Camo-duck.

According to our research, they are supposed to lay about 150 - 200 or more per year.

I say more because I think that's where were headed.

We've been getting 2 a day for almost two weeks.

That's a lot of duck eggs!

Introducing D.E. brownies

Duck Egg brownies.

They're quite good.

Yikes!

Our boys may or may not have put the ducks on top of the carport.

The boys may or may not have gotten a lecture.

The ducks were rescued and unharmed.

You are not looking at a picture of normal eggs vs. pullet eggs.

These are normal eggs vs. very large eggs.

The two on the left are duck eggs.

We haven't cracked these open yet, but we're really hoping the big ones are double-yolkers.

We've never seen a double-yolk duck egg.

And yes we've cracked lots of jokes about the poor creatures laying such large eggs!

Why

It had been a long couple of days with the viewing, funeral and meal. We chose to make the two hour drive home straight after the family meal. When we got to our road it started raining. We were thankful the storms went south of us. There was this beautiful rainbow behind our house when we pulled into the carport. Of course I had to take a picture. The rainbow is a reminder of God's promise. His promise to not destroy the world again with a flood. It was a beautiful thing to see after a long and emotional day.

I have never been a person that has asked God why.  I have always accepted things as they are even if I didn't understand them.  This is no different.  Asking why doesn't change the facts.  I cannot bring my dad back by asking why.  I have to learn how to live with the way things are now.

Throughout this whole ordeal with the murder of my father I have not had any animosity toward his killer. Yes, that's right I do not hate the guy. Contrary to what the world tells me I have a right to do. I call myself a Believer. (I personally hesitate to use the term Christian. Way too many people claim to  be a Christian nowadays and don't even believe.) I believe that I am a sinner, as all of us are. I believe that I cannot, on my own, be up to God's standard of perfection. He is holy, I am not. I believe that Jesus, God's Son, is fully God and fully man. I believe he is perfect and never sinned. I believe he died for all sinners. I believe He rose on the third day. I believe He is coming back. I believe in the Truth of  His word. And as a Believer, I cannot hate my dad's killer. The Bible teaches that "all have sinned and fall short of of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23) That's you, me, my dad's killer, and the populace of this planet. It also says that sin has a consequence. "For the wages of sin is death". (Rom. 6:23a) But there is hope, the rest of the verse says, "but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 6:23b) And it's available to everyone, "for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom. 10:13) It does not say everyone except murderers.  It says "whoever". It's the sinner's choice to make the call, but it is available to all. God's free grace is accessible to everyone. How could I hate someone that Jesus loved enough to die for?

That's why I will not hate my dad's killer.  Do I hate what he did?  Absolutely.  Do I hate him?  No, in fact I pray for him to understand the Gospel.

Twenty-one

We celebrated our 21st anniversary Thursday.

It was the first time in years that nobody was sick.

We didn't do anything special.

It was special just being with each other.

I made a chocolate angel food cake.

We enjoyed the porch swing in the nice weather.

We had a wonderful day full of various activities.

Busy

We have been busy around here.

We've managed three weeks of uninterrupted school.

We enjoyed the last baseball game with the boys.

It involved a father-son game.

(One of the players from our house is very sore.

I won't mention which of them this is!)

We're still dealing with my dad's affairs and belongings.

It's taking longer than we anticipated (or wanted) it too.

I take my time going through his stuff.

I can only do so much a day, or every other day.

I'd say we're about halfway through.

Someday, I'll have my living room back.

We're not the only ones busy around here.

Pepper has been busy too.

Hers is the destructive kind of busy.

This is our dog, Brown Nose.

She had another nice sized hole for us to fill in.

One morning we found another pile of stuffing from lamb chop.

She had some sticks thrown in as well.

The ball didn't quite make this pile. 

There also happened to be a second pile of things.

Apparently she was bored that night.

She felt the need to relocate our pile of firewood.

Sometimes I think our yard looks like we have a toddler living here.

I wonder if we could train her to put her toys away?

I'll keep dreaming... and cleaning.

This is what's left of lamb chop.

It is completely devoid of stuffing.

Connor said its heart was hanging out.

We threw this toy away.

Don't fear.

She has a new lamb chop.

Actually, she received two.

One for now and the other for later.

'Cause you know she's going to destroy this one too.

Funny Farm

 Some of our hens have started laying eggs.

We get about five a day right now.

The big egg in the middle is not from our hens.

It's there to show how big a normal egg is.

The eggs start out small when a hen starts laying.

A young hen is called a pullet.

So these are pullet eggs.

This is Zeus.

We occasionally catch him.

It's our way of trying to keep him from getting mean.

I'm not sure if it's working or not.

He's not friendly, but he's not timid either.

At least at this point we can still catch him.

It's his first (and last) time being in my kitchen.

(Unless he does get super mean and then he can be in my kitchen... in a pot!)

As long as he remains nice, he can sing his sweet crow all he wants.

His feathers have filled out nicely.

Some have an iridescence to them.

His name is fitting for a rooster.

He thinks he rules the roost.

He doesn't, the ducks do.

Last but not least, our crazy dog.

What kind of an animal post would this be without her?

She almost always sleeps with something resting on the bottom rail.

Usually it's her head.

This time it was a bottom foot.

For about 5 minutes Pepper was running around with a leaf stuck to her collar.

This was my attempt at getting a better picture of the leaf.

We're not sure how the leaf got there.

She looked quite silly with it.

We discovered she's not afraid of heights.

Yesterday she was even higher.

We figured she was chasing some critter.