We Like Making Our Own Stuff

We had a big let down in June... Yeah, that's a really bad photo edit of a "dead chicken."  Seriously, I have to have a sense of humor about the whole thing, because otherwise, I'd probably cry:  all of our meat birds were killed .  About a week before we had planned to butcher. It sucks. Needless to say, the blog post I had promised about sharing the butchering is not happening.  Something managed to get into the coop and killed them all (we had around 30 chickens).  We're thinking it was probably a weasel.  Now we are stuck with a loss; all the money we spent on feed, the time my husband put into building new feeders and setting up a watering system--poof!--gone. I guess that is the nature of farming, whether it be chickens killed by weasels, rain washing away your seeds, or frost killing off all your apple blossoms.  Mother nature doesn't play favorites.  But, as Babe Ruth said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home ru...

                      Woah, get a load of that belly!   That’s me at eight months pregnant with twins. Before I got pregnant, I was becoming somewhat of an exercise freak, with yoga and Pilates being my favorite.  Heck, I even jumped right into P90X and started getting some real pipes!  But then, our two little peanuts began to grow inside me, and all thoughts of exercise went out the window.  First, there was morning sickness, and by the time my morning sickness had passed, I was starting to get so uncomfortable from carrying the weight of two babies, that most exercising just wasn’t in the cards for me. I love our babies so very much, but once they were born, I must admit, it felt great to have my body back to myself!  And one of the first things on my mind was getting back into exercising again.

Nice weather has finally arrived, and we are all busier than bees around here!  But we always have time to fire up the grill! These two recipes are so simple and fast to make, that grilling can even become doable on a weeknight.  However, if you don't feel like firing up the grill, they can also be modified for the oven and stove.

We are elbows deep in dirty diapers, dishes, gardening, and meat chickens right now.   Spring is such a busy time for us! My husband has been doing most of the work with the meat birds, beginning with setting up their luxurious cardboard box pen while they were still chicks, needing plenty of warmth:

I created this simple recipe for my sons to take in their school lunches and to have as after-school snacks.  You can make your own granola to use if you'd like; I have instructions for doing this in my recipe for Homemade Fruit-on-the-Bottom Yogurt . There are plenty of healthy fats and protein in these bites--just what young, growing bodies need (but these make fine snacks for grown-ups too).  It is best to keep these refrigerated, since they can become quite soft if your house gets warm.

The month of April has been a cold and snowy one here in Wisconsin, but finally, here in these last days of the month, Spring has finally decided to show her warm, sunny face.  With temperatures now hitting the sixties and seventies, I have taken to the outdoors and begun cleaning out my flower gardens.  I'm pleased to see some crocus bulbs coming up, and the green returning to my thyme.

Skip the corn syrup and low-fat milk found in store bought fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts, and make your own homemade version.  Making yogurt is actually quite simple--all you need is milk and a yogurt culture (either from a previous batch of yogurt or a purchased starter ) and a little warmth.