Beyond 500 Eggs

 

509 eggs washed, scrubbed, and dried so far

We found our first egg in the nest box on December 15th. Since that day all seven of our girls have started laying and we average about half a dozen a day. Our girls give us so many eggs that we can give away dozens of eggs a week to friends and family. Yesterday we passed the 500 mark. (We keep a spreadsheet to analyze this whole chicken raising endeavor.) So are backyard chickens worth it? We think absolutely. There's nothing quite like going out to the coop, reaching in the nest box to get an egg, and taking it inside to use in a recipe. It's also nice to know that our girls have a happy home and they give us some very tasty eggs.

The Lemon Tree: 3 Years Old

Just for the record...the lemon tree is three years old and still growing strong!

 
You can read about the challenge here...
The Lemon Tree Challenge
Sprouting from Seeds
The Conclusion

N.C. & St. L. Depot & Railroad Museum

The boys and I visited Jackson, TN earlier this week. On Monday, we got to spend the day with Granna and we visited the N.C. & St. L. Depot & Railroad Museum. The City of Jackson has restored the depot and has converted it into a railroad museum. Here's a look at some of our fun:

One room of the depot consists of a massive model train set. The Jackson Area Model Railroaders Club maintains the track and the four trains that run on it. We spent a good deal of time in here!

 

After some fun indoors we headed outside to see a real dining car and two cabooses.

 

 Seth was all about pretending to eat!

 

We took one final look inside the depot...

 

 

It was a fun little adventure with Granna!

Preschool at Home: Letter L

Last week we learned about the letter "L," the number 12, we learned Mary Had a Little Lamb, This Little Light of Mine, and about Daniel and the Lions Den. Here's a look at our board:

 

We made a ladybug with 12 dots, 6 on each side of the body.

Look what book arrived in the mail this week from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

It fit in nicely with our letter of the week. 

We made thumbprint ladybugs.

I showed Seth how to turn one of the thumbprints into a ladybug by adding dots, antennae, and a circle around the body. I did one, he decided he wanted to do the rest.

No "L" week would be complete without reading the Llama, Llama books and making a llama craft (you can see it above on the board).

We sang Mary Had a Little Lamb and This Little Light of Mine all week. Seth was not a huge fan of the song This Little Light of Mine. I'm not sure why, but I know we definitely need to practice it a little more before he can sing it by himself. I think having a cool lamb puppet helped with the learning of Mary Had a Little Lamb

We did some painting with Legos one day.

Then our Bible story of the week was Daniel and the Lions Den.

 

Both boys are fond of puppets.

One day after we read our Bible story we made a handprint lion.

You can see the finished product on our board.

 

 

The next couple of weeks are going to be spent preparing for Easter.

We will resume with our letters after that.

Adventures in Louisville- Take 2

The boys went to visit Nana and Pop this weekend. While they were busy having their own adventures, Bryan and I headed north again to have a few of our own. Here's a little recap.

The Setting- Louisville, Kentucky

3:15 pm EDT- a sweet treat from Annie May's

 4:00 pm EDT- a walk on the Big Four Pedestrian Bridge

 

 5:30 pm EDT- dinner at Hillbilly Tea

 cauliflower soup topped with rosemary oil and walnuts

 

6:45 pm EDT- coffee at Quills Coffee

 

8:45 pm EDT- arrived at Headliner's Music Hall

9:40 pm EDT- The Kopecky Family Band took the stage (amazing, by the way)

 

11:00 pm EDT- Milo Greene 

 

 1:30 am CDT- pulled into the drive way after a day that I never want to forget

Preschool at Home: Week 11

This past week, we learned about the letter K, the number 11, 

Three Little Kittens, the days of the week, 

and the story of Jesus Calming the Storm.  

Here's a look at our board 

and a link to the Pinterest board where I get most of my inspiration:

 

 At the beginning of the year, I gave Seth his own calendar (from Mighty Dollar). We color the pages for each month as we come to them. We also talk about the days of the week and what day it is each day. Seth can almost say all the days of the week. We even attempted learning the months of the year this week. I think it's been a nice addition to our preschool learning time. We are also marking off the days until the first day of Spring.

 We studied the letter K so we focused on keys, kites, koalas, and kangaroos. 

We covered a "K" with keys.

 

  

We made a koala.

  

Seth traced the numbers 1 through 11 on these kites one day. 

He is still hit or miss with identifying his numbers correctly.

 

Silas loved using some color wonder markers and paper while we were learning one day.

  

We learned Three Little Kittens this week. We just repeated it every day.

 We focused on the story of Jesus calming the storm this week. Because I was teaching this lesson to our Burmese friends, I kind of took the easy way out and just did everything I did with them with Seth. 

We made this craft...

 

 Here's Seth version...

  

and we reenacted the story using a blanket and a boat.

One highlight from the week and from lots and lots of practicing over the months, 

Seth sort of wrote his name on a receipt from a restaurant. Yay!

Next week we move on to the letter "L," the number 12, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and lots of other things before taking a couple of weeks to focus on Easter.

{Gratitude} Lately

Thankful for one last bountiful harvest from the fall garden.

Although my heart so desperately longs for the country, 

I'm thankful for gentle reminders that it might not be too far away.

 

Thankful for safety when our car was totaled a couple of weeks ago.

Grateful for seeds, glorious seeds...

 

 and the fact that they are growing!