The Crazy Chicken Lady

A friend of mine recently titled me The Crazy Chicken Lady. I would actually be happy to have that title, but I need some chickens first...

For the past few weeks I have been doing some heavy research on food. Organics vs conventional, local and in season foods, whole grains, etc. I'm still doing my research, but what I have discovered so far has begun to change our family's eating habits. I am slowly getting rid of all the refined and processed foods in our house. I have been making all our bread, muffins, etc from scratch with whole wheat, and I am thinking of getting a mill and grinding my grains, too. I have started seeking out organic, free-range meats and eggs, and organic whole milk too. I feel like the entire rational behind all this would be too much to explain in a blog post, but here are a few interesting things I've learned.

1. Conventional foods are grown with pesticides, herbicides, etc that make their way into the food, and then into our bodies. If farmers have to wear masks when they spray their plants, then I don't know about you, but I don't think I want that chemical in my food. Even a conventionally grown corn, eaten by a cow (even though cows should probably be eating grass) makes the cows milk/meat not as healthy and nutrient-rich.
2. Local foods are picked at peak ripeness. The food that comes from Mexico/Peru/Guatemala has to be picked in time to travel thousands of miles. After many bitter and/or mushy berries this winter, Richard made me stop buying them.
3. Some vitamins are absorbed better into the body if they are eaten along with fats. And natural fats are broken down easier than processed fats. So bring on the butter!
4. Grains start losing their nutrients immediately after grinding and being exposed to the air. Plus, freshly ground whole-grain breads are the tastiest. MMmmmmm.
5. Most of the chicken meat in our grocery stores come from chickens that have been pumped with hormones and grow up in a cage where they don't even have room to move. That is, if they could move. You see, many of the chickens can't even carry themselves on their own feet, because they've been engineered to have the highest amount of breast meat (Americans prefer white meat) possible, making their bodies too heavy to support. Now, I am typically not a bleeding heart for animals that are raised to be consumed. I have no problem seeing an animal at the butcher shop. I know where meat comes from, unlike some people who can't bear to watch an animal die, but they will still eat meat from the grocery store. I mean, really? Come on people. Get out of the city once in a while... But that doesn't mean we should abuse the poor things. God gave us the animals to take care of, and eat for nourishment. We need to be good stewards of what God has given us. OK, enough said on that one.
6. I did a test comparing the regular grocery store eggs with local organic eggs from the farmer's market. First off, although the color of the egg doesn't matter (I don't think?) these local eggs were beautiful! In my carton I had white, brown, green, and blue. Very cool. I took a picture of the local egg and the grocery store egg side by side. The local egg was much richer in color, the shell was thicker, and it tasted very fresh. I was surprised at the difference!

In my quest for locally grown food, I decided to seek out a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). A CSA is where you sign up for a share of produce each week from a local farm. Each week, you go pick up your box of fresh produce at the designated pick-up location. Easy peasy. Well, I couldn't find a convenient pick-up location for me, so I set one up at my own home! It can't get easier than that, right? Each week, the farm will deliver amazing yumminess to my home. My neighbors will stop by and pick up their share during the two-hour window I set, and I get my share for half the price! Oh how I love a good deal. :)

OK, so why does all this make me The Crazy Chicken Lady? Well, I have decided (although I haven't gotten official approval from the Hubster) that I want to have my own chickens when we move to Texas. I have already done some research. The area we're moving to has no zoning law, which means there are no rules saying I can't have chickens. I plan to have 3-5 hens, and let them help me in the garden too. So on top of fresh eggs, they will also keep the bugs away from my garden, keep the weeds and grass down, and their poo can be used as compost! That might even be a better deal than getting a CSA for 50% off! I am SOOOO excited. I've started browsing chicken coop designs, and looking at different breeds. Maybe I am crazy after all, but I don't think my neighbors will mind when they get fresh eggs in return.

So, if anyone is interested, here are the resources I recommend. I have read more than this, but these are just the ones I recommend.

In Defense Of Food by Michael Pollan

Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food by Christine Avanti

Food, Inc

http://www.breadbeckers.com/ - they will send you a FREE CD explaining the benefits of freshly milled grains.

No, Sir & Yes, Ma'am

We have been trying to teach Gabriel to say "sir" and "ma'am", and he just caught on this week. I think it's so cute hearing a "Yes, Ma'am" from such a little voice. However, he seems to prefer adding a "sir" after every "no". So I am often called a sir. To help him understand when to say sir and ma'am, I have tried to teach him who boys and girls are. Daddy is a boy, Mommy is a girl, Gabriel is a boy, Baby Hope is a girl... You get the idea. So today our conversation went like this:
"Gabriel, do you want more apple?"
"No, Sir"
"Gabriel, thank you for saying 'sir', but mommy is a "ma'am"
"Yes, Ma'am"
"Very good! You say ma'am to girls. Do you remember who is a boy and who is a girl?"
{with a big proud smile on his face} "Daddy boy! Gabriel boy! Baby Hope girl!"
"Very good! And what is Mommy?"
"Mommy Boy!"

... We're still working on it.

Snow Day!

Gabriel finally got to play in the snow for the first time. I have been getting him excited about snow by reading books and talking about it. So by the time we got to play in it, he already knew what a snow man and snow angel were.

FYI, when you don't have snow boots for your child, zip lock bags with rubber bands around the ankle work great!

Someday we will be neighbors...

We have really missed our friends, Ty and Danielle since both families moved away from California. And there's no doubt that Tabor and Gabriel really are best buds (more on that). We always joke that someday we will be neighbors again and raise our kids together. Oh, how I wish that would come true! Until then, we see each other from time to time, and cram as much fun as we can into our short vacations, to hopefully hold us over till next time.

For this visit, I will have to hit the highlights. I think the week passed so quickly, and we did so much, I wouldn't have enough time (being a mommy of two little ones) to write about it all. So without further ado...

We went to the National Zoo. It was chilly, so we only dared to take our pictures indoors, when we could take off our gloves. Here we are inside the monkey house. The boys loved seeing animals in real life. Hope loved it too, can't you tell?

We celebrated Ty and Danielle's 30th birthdays with chocolate cake.

Oh, and Danielle and I (Sarah) started nicknaming pairs of people that are most often together. It's just easier, and of course more fun, than saying everyone's names. Gabriel and Tabor are The Boys, Titus and Hope are The Betrothed, Ty and Richard are The Men, and Danielle and Sarah are... wait did we ever name ourselves? Maybe that's a task for the next visit.

We introduced Titus and Hope, aka The Betrothed. Despite our efforts to start their courting relationship now, they tended to stare at the loud toddlers running around rather than gazing into each other's beautiful baby eyes.

The Boys, as we call them, became inseparable. In the morning, the first one to wake up would call to the other, and start a back and forth yelling of their names. "Tabor!...Gabriel!...Tabor!...Gabriel!..." And so on. But since they're both so young, and still learning to say each other's names properly, it sounded like "Tay-boo!" and "Gay-bull!"

We took The Boys to the mall to ride the train around the food court.

And Danielle was determined to finish Hope's room before she left. Without her, it would still be incomplete, I'm sure.

And those are the highlights. I wish we could already schedule our next visit. But one day we will be neighbors and see each other all the time...

Bless The Lord, O My Soul

One of the sweetest things we have heard recently is the sound of our 2 year old singing "Bless The Lord, O My Soul". He has been singing it quietly as he plays.

A couple weeks ago, he also started praying. We have never asked him to pray, but now he does it from time to time. His first prayer was a little hard to understand, but we picked out bits and pieces. We were sitting down for dinner and were about to bless the food, when we heard him. It went something like "... pray Tabor ... pray Daddy ... pray Uncle Ty ... pray baby Hope ...". His eyes were shut as tight as he could manage, and his hands were folded together and squeezing each other. Yes, our good friends were visiting that week, and he wanted to pray for their family and his own family. What a sweet boy. If you could see my heart, you would see a smile on it :)

Gabriel's First Bike

The new thing these days is to give kids a balance bike instead of a bike with training wheels. A balance bike doesn't have pedals. So the child just pushes off with his feet, eventually going fast enough to pick his feet up. The point is that they learn balance, before having to learn to pedal. We got Gabriel a balance bike for his 2nd birthday and he loves it! He is just walking along with it right now, but soon he'll be gliding around. Check out this video we took of his first bike ride.

Gabriel's 2nd Birthday - Construction Party

It's hard to believe Gabriel is 2 years old! We celebrated his birthday just three short weeks after Hope was born. With a newborn in the house, it seemed a good idea to keep things simple. I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I was having so much fun with the kids that I forgot to take more pictures!

We invited a few of Gabriel's friends over for a construction themed party.

It was the perfect theme, since there has been construction going on around our house. Gabriel loves to go for walks and watch the big trucks move around. He is now learning the names of all the different trucks (crane truck, excavator, dump truck...).

Each kid received a hard hat and apron with their name on it, as well as a plastic hammer. We had a couple different activities for the kids. First, we let them use their hammers to nail golf tees into floral foam. They loved this! Although they got smart and figured out it was easier to just push the tees in with their hands.

We also put out coloring pages of trucks and tools. Gabriel stayed at this station for most of the party. Hmmm, future artist maybe?

Baby Hope joined the party in between naps. She was dressed up in her classy party attire... pink camo with bows :)

 
Gabriel's cake was made to look like a construction site. Everyone loved it, and I think the kids believed me when I told them I got the rocks from outside. :) They were actually chocolate candies.

We love chocolate cake!

Our gift to Gabriel was his very own bicycle! We gave him his helmet first, and took him for a ride later, when the weather warmed up. He walked around for a few days with his helmet on.

The party was a success, and my favorite part was watching Gabriel as we sang to him and he blew out his candles. Lots of fun!



Things to note for Gabriel at 2 years old:
- 75th percentile for height and weight, and is quickly outgrowing his size 2T shirts, but the pants are still big in the waist
- Loves puzzles, letters, numbers, and coloring
- Is now learning what sound each letter makes
- Favorite veggie is peas, and gets excited to eat them. Sometimes we have to say "you can have more peas after you eat your meat"
- Doesn't know the difference between "up" and "down", so when he wants to be held, he holds his hands out and says "up, please, down, please, up, please, down, please!"
- Loves his little sister and likes to hold her and kiss her head
- When he tries to jump, he squats, then stands up quickly and throws his arms in the air. The momentum doesn't quite get his feet off the ground, but it sure is cute :)
- Likes having family dance parties. We put on his favorite music (the Raffi children's music station on Pandora) and dance all around the room.