Stir Crazy!!!

It's that time of year...we're past the coldest days of winter, yet not into spring. We've had a few previews of warm sunny weather, just long enough to make it that much worse when the cold front sweeps back in. Here in Georgia, there has been record amounts of rainfall. While we are in desperate need of rain, it would be nice if it didn't all come back to back, for a month straight! Our pond in the back pasture may have hope yet.

The hen house is completed, with all of our chickens secure in a "run". I hated to gather up our free range hens, and confine them. Even with a large run, it's still not the same. After loosing several hens and my prized Aruacana Rooster to a Red Shouldered Hawk, I was left with no other option. We still have 4 Golden Sex Links, each laying a nice large brown egg per day. Still waiting on our 2 Rhode Island Red and 2 Black Orpingtons to start laying.....any day now.

By May/June, we'll have 5 Aruacanas laying, along with 4 more Black Orpingtons, 4 Lavendar Orpingtons, 4 French Black Copper Marans. I plan on having close to 2 dozen eggs per day. This should provide enough to sell 8-10 dozen per week, and make enough to pay for the cost of keeping chickens, while providing enough eggs for our family.

Still no definate signs from either of our Nubian nannies that a baby is on the way. If nothing shows by the end of Feb, we'll try breeding them both to our billy. A few babies in the fall will be good, but we're really ready for some milk..Looks like I'll be shopping for a nanny in milk, or one that is ready to kid soon.  

With all this cold wet weather, I've started to get back into cooking. I absolutely love to cook, but being married to a amateur chef who completely eclipses my skills, my time in the kitchen is usually limited. Lately, the tide has been turning, and she's more than happy to let me prepare dinner. Pinterest has been my "not so secret" weapon. It's really provided alot of inspiration and desire to try new recipes.

I will admit, I have a distinct advantage to most men in the kitchen...I had a mom, who taught me alot of the basics of "from scratch" cooking, and have had 10 years of watching Nicole do her magic, pairing up entrees with side dishes, flavor combinations that most wouldn't think would blend so perfectly. I've picked up a few trade secrets during that time. I'm not going to turn this into a cooking blog, but I will share a few of my favorite tried and true recipes.

I found this website Kayotic Kitchen a few months ago, and have been dying to try a few.  Kay is a Dutch homemaker, who has alot of great comfort food recipes (calorie counters beware).

The Cherry Coke & Jalapeno Meatballs has been on the top of my list, and last night I gave it a shot.
Now, I may be biased, but this gets a 10 out of 10..I used lean beef, and baked them at 400* the meatball itself had a great flavor, but the glaze is what takes it to the seventh heavens! She presents them as an appetizer, but I served them with veg/fruit kabobs, consisting of sweet potatoes, orange bell peppers, apples, zucchini, and pineapple. Set aside some of the "glaze" before it gets too thick and apply a smooth coat on the kabobs right before they are ready to remove from the grill.



Say a few prayers for Nicole, she has root canal this afternoon...nothing fun about that, although the eventual relief from pain that she's been in for the last few days will be a welcome reprieve. While I hate to see her "down" it appears I'll have the kitchen for a few more days.. I'd better be careful, she may "allow" me to cook more often! :)




 

Let's try this again...

So the original blog attempt didn't last long, but here goes Act II... Many things have changed, so I'll start with the most recent, and try to catch up as we go...


 Nicole and I just finished up with the Bi-annual performance of the Junior Service League Follies. It's a broadway style variety show, performed by local community members, to raise money for local charities. This years theme was "As Seen On TV"  Songs, dances and skits of popular TV shows, a few recent, and many old. It was a rough 3 weeks of rehersals every weekday evening. In between work/practice our kids hardly saw us. We played multiple characters, due to the large number of scenes, and limited cast.

 Nicole was cast as Mrs. Partridge, (The Partridge Family) and Shirley (Laverne&Shirley) as well as many chorus numbers, including singing harmony with her younger sister Haley on the CocaCola song. (I'd like to buy the world a Coke).

I played several characters as well. A short 3 line "commercial" in spoof of the Robert Conrad battery commercial..."Go ahead, I dare ya",  "Are ya ready kids pirate for (Sponge Bob Hot Pants),  Major Nelson (I dream of Jeanie), Snottie (Star Trek spoof), an acrobatic agent (Mission Impossible), thug (COPS), scene investigator (CSI-LasVegas, Miami, Rome), and last but not least Burt Reynolds as Turd Ferguson (SNL Celebrity Jeopardy).

Over all it was a great show, great experience. As always it was nothing but the best working with Chris ( CAPfollies.com ). I haven't heard the final numbers, but initial reports show we did pretty good on raising enough money to really help the community, especially in these hard economic times.


As many of you may know, Lucas had an injury to his front teeth a few years ago, while visiting Rock City. His first visit to a dentist was the next day to get emergency work done on his front two teeth (top). Unknown to us at the time, they strapped his head, body and arms to a papoose board. He had red marks on his face, from what we thought was reaction to gloves, but later found out it was them holding his face roughly. for about a year after, he would freak out at the Dr office (where he had no issues before) and wouldn't even sit in a barbers chair for a haircut. It took us a few times to figure out that they must have really traumatized him.Come to find out, they aren't even Pediatric dentist, despite the business name of.... Children's Dentistry of Rome, Raided by GBI

Fast forward to present...his front teeth did not take back like we were told they should, and they were really turning black. Nicole met a new PEDIATRIC dentist at Chic-Fil-A. He was expanding from Cartersville, and opening a new office in Rome. Lucas' first visit to him went really well. They cleaned his teeth and did a simple exam. They earned his trust and he left in much better spirits than his last visit to a dentist. They recommended pulling the top two teeth, to prevent speading infection to adult teeth, and he had two cavities. We scheduled two separate visits to get the work done...

Nicole took him Monday to get just the two teeth pulled. He walked back with the lady all on his own, wasn't really acting scared. When he came back out, they said he was their best patient EVER...and since he was doing so well (watching TV during all this) they were able to get the cavities taken care of at the same time. YEA!!!

He was a trooper for sure...

Been a busy week catching up from all the work I've missed around the farm during Follies. Can't wait to Sat morning, so get started.  Fri/Sat night we have a special marriage seminar at our church. Marriage Seminar feat. Mark Gungor 

More to come soon....

Don

 

Ready for Spring

Or so we thought. This past week has brought rain (yea!) but also some cold weather with it. We finally bought a tractor last weekend. It's just what I was looking for, and at a great price. I bought a Kubota L225, 24HP Diesel. Now we're just waiting on things to dry out a bit before we turn up dirt! I am so excited, can't wait to get the garden going this year.

I've hired some help around the farm, cleaning out debris left in the woods by previous homeowner, and clearing out brush/small trees. I have all the materials I need to build the chicken run, and goat pens. Hopefully we'll see that completed in the next few weeks. Got the jungle dug out of the round-about in the driveway. Nicole has a few ideas, can't wait to see how it turns out.

Sadie is on springbreak next week. We'll be leaving Fri, headed for Indiana, and then on to Grampa's in Ohio. Our good friends, Blake and Angie Stewart just had an adorable boy Max, and of course, Kirk and Danielle are due to have their 3rd girl in a few weeks. So, off work for a few days, hanging out with friends, and church in Jeff on Sunday....going to be a great week.

I'll try and keep the going again. It's hard to sit on the computer when the weather is nice and there is so much to be done.

                                           -Don-

14th Valentine's Day

14. That is the number of Valentine's Days Nicole and I have shared together. We've come a long way since those days of teenagers @Youth Conventions, July Conventions, Steak&Shake after church and hundreds of letters. Nicole and I STILL have each and every letter we sent to each other. From Aug of 1997!! I knew back then, I had something special when I found her. 13+ years and 2 kids later, she's still my highschool sweetheart!!!! Happy Valentine's Day!

When your kid goes missing....

Have you ever "lost" your child, even for a few mins? There's the panic and fear that rips your heart out of your chest, the battle between thoughts of "worst case senerios" vs. thoughts of "their just off playing somewhere". Seems anyone who has ever raised kids or taken care of kids, has experienced this once or twice. I know I've given my parents a scare, more that once!  Nicole and I had our first panic-attack a few nights ago.

By the time I got home from work, picked up the kids, made dinner, fed them, gave Lucas a bath, and did the night time routine with both kids, it was nearly 10pm. I was exhausted, and dreading the alarm @ 4:45am. It's been a 30 min ordeal getting Lucas to finally get to sleep.  I knew I'd fall asleep in a matter of mins, and didn't want him getting out of bed once I'd fallen asleep. I let him go to bed with me, knowing he would more than likely just fall asleep. Nicole was working closing shift, and would be home around 12, and would put him in his own bed.

 Nicole wakes me up around 1am, asking me "Where is Lucas?"  It took me a few seconds to realize he wasn't in bed with me. He wasn't in his bed either. I jumped up out of bed, and we both tore through the house. Looked under our bed, his bed, in the living room, in the corners, under the tables, in Sadie's room, in both bathrooms...no where to be found! Then the fear of What If started. It was in the 30's that night, and I started thinking of him going outside, and getting locked out of the house. I was so tired I wouldn't have heard him go outside. I feeling of guilt thinking that you could have, should have prevented this is awful. As a parent you feel you should always protect your child. To know you failed, is unbearable. On the second pass through the house, I went back in his room, and the bi-fold closet door was closed. There's no way he closed it from the inside right? Wrong! He was inside the closet, asleep on a pile of books. Somehow he had managed to grab on to the louvers and close the door from the inside. We asked him the next morning "Why were you sleeping in your closet?" He said "I was reading the books!" in a tone that implied we should have known that!  He's spent the last few days telling everyone he slept in the closet, we however, didn't think it was that funny at the time.

Family reboot!

Here we go, first of hopefully many fun, exciting updates to what we call life in the Waln Family. We'll try to keep it updated regularly with stories from Dad, Mom, and Sadie, interesting quotes from Lucas, cool anecdotes, and pictures...lots of pictures! This is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives, as individuals, as a family. We're starting some new things, both spiritually and naturally. I've been doing alot of research into Homesteading. We'll be learning gardening, canning, raising chickens and goats (to go with our 5 horses). I want to teach my children the things our parents used to do as a way of life, while giving them the "farm" experience.

We've got alot going on today. Our annual checkup with Dept Family & Children Services is this evening. It's part of the arrangement with our custody of Mercedes. Thankfully, we've had the same caseworker (Tammy) for years, who has come to know us, and it's a breeze. She comes to the house, takes a casual glance around, talks to us about Sadie, and talks to Sadie herself. Some of the things in the last year or two have really floored me. For instance, last year one of the items Tammy has to check (per DFCS) is to make sure we have food in the refridgerator. At first I thought this was absurd, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized this IS an issue in some cases. I'm thankful to be blessed on so many levels.
#1, I'm thankful for parents that not only provided all my needs. You'd think this is a given, but sadly it's not for many children.
#2 I'm thankful for the opportunity to provide for my own children. The Lord has always made ends meet, no matter how short the string was!  We haven't been able to give the kids all the things they've wanted, (rightfully so) but we've always been able to have the things we NEEDED.

I'm working around the house, trying to get a few things done before tonight. I have TWO special helpers today. Lucas and cousin Miles. Lucas has his hands full, trying to help me, AND teach Miles how to help. They are great "buddy-cousins".


On to the next project,   Dad.