The Confident Mom Affiliate link

Reposting this for those who are getting my posts via email . . . I discovered after I wrote the post that The Confident Mom does have an affiliate program, so I signed up and edited the post to include the affiliate link and expand the info. about TCM a bit more.

My affiliate link is http://www.theconfidentmom.com?ap_id=purplekangaroo 

This gives me a percentage of any purchase you make through that link.

I'm using The Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner, a system my mom discovered and started using, that I decided to try too . . . it incorporates elements from Sidetracked Home Executives, Flylady and similar systems in a way that seems to be a really good fit for me. The lady who wrote it has chronic health issues (lupus) and it is designed in a way that seems so much less overwhelming and easier to do than other ways of organizing household tasks I've tried.

The tasks are divided up in a really incremental, manageable way, and I can just tell the kids to pick a job off the page posted on the refrigerator when it comes time to assign chores. It's pretty flexible, and at this point I'm just doing what I can and not worrying too much if it doesn't quite all get done.

No pressure at all, but if you do decide to check out the program and purchase it as a result of my post, I'd appreciate the affiliate points. :)

Scheduled Day

Day one (again) of trying to have a more planned-out schedule for the entire day, both for myself and the kids. So far it seems to be going pretty well, actually.

We just finished spending 30 minutes on chores, and now the kids are exercising (walking the dog and going up to the end of the driveway to meet our neighbor at the school bus stop and get the mail) while I take a bit of a rest break. I've been sick for the last several weeks with a respiratory and sinus infection that's been sapping my energy and putting me into a flare-up, but after 26 days it finally seems to be in the process of getting better, hopefully.

We had a hot breakfast (side pork, home-grown fried eggs, and bananas) and the kids are mostly done with school (7yo still has some to do later during her scheduled free time, because she wasn't diligent during school time, but AJ and M&M got done early enough to have an hour of extra free time).

Dinner is well underway--soup is put together and simmering on the stove, and I'll probably make biscuits or muffins to go with it. The main part of the soup is legumes--quinoa and a variety of split legumes--red lentils, matpe beans and pigeon peas. I added homemade broth (from simmering the bones from a chicken and a rabbit we raised and butchered and had for dinner earlier in the week); some fresh carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet potato and a tomato; celery, chickweed, dandelions and deadnettle from our garden and fields; and some Himalayan pink salt and black pepper. So far it's looking and smelling very flavorful. I have some additive-free country-style breakfast sausage that I may cook up and add for flavor, perhaps--or maybe I'll just add a pat of butter and garnish with sour cream. If I don't add the meat, I may try blending up the soup with an immersion blender before adding some frozen sweet white corn just before serving (yes, we can have fresh corn now!). We'll have a green salad alongside, with some more wild greens added to the store-bought salad mix to add interest and nutritional density.

Now it's time for the next thing on our list--working on caring for the animals, cleaning out cages, etc. We'll have about an hour of family fun time together after dinner.

I'm using The Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner, a system my mom discovered and started using, that I decided to try too . . . it incorporates elements from Sidetracked Home Executives, Flylady and similar systems in a way that seems to be a really good fit for me. The lady who wrote it has chronic health issues (lupus) and it is designed in a way that seems so much less overwhelming and easier to do than other ways of organizing household tasks I've tried.

The tasks are divided up in a really incremental, manageable way, and I can just tell the kids to pick a job off the page posted on the refrigerator when it comes time to assign chores. It's pretty flexible, and at this point I'm just doing what I can and not worrying too much if it doesn't quite all get done.

* Full disclosure: After writing this post, I decided to look at see if TCM happened to have an affiliate program. They do, so I set up an account and edited the post to include my affiliate link. The link above will give me a kickback of any sales initiated through that link.

The Pleasure of Poultry

I've come to the blog several times to write a post, but so much has changed since I was blogging regularly that it seems overwhelming trying to catch my readers up to "life now" as opposed to "life then." I finally decided just to jump in and start writing about the "now," even if it leaves some gaps.

We now have small acreage (more than 5 acres, less than 10) in the country, which is an absolute dream come true for me. I've always been a farm girl at heart, and I feel so much more at home out here in the country, surrounded by fields and animals, and good-hearted farm people. Our nearest neighbor is a quarter of a mile away, but the neighbors here are a comfortable little community that finds the balance between having each others backs and "live and let live" in a way that suburban neighborhood politics can't reach.

I've always wanted poultry. Last summer we chicken-sat for a friend, which gave us a chance to try out having chickens. These weren't just any chickens--they were a small flock of Barred Plymouth Rocks that have been bred for generations by a hobbyist breeder who was working on getting show-quality characteristics and homestead production characteristics in the same flock. These birds are from lines carefully selected for good health, temperament, size, production, hardiness and longevity, foraging ability, and general gorgeous ideal chicken-ness. :)

We ended up purchasing a rooster and 4 hens from that flock, and also with the breeder's permission last fall we hatched out a couple of batches of BPR eggs.

Just for variety, we also ended up with a couple of Easter Eggers/"Americaunas" and a handful of bantam chickens. I had fallen in love with the midget white turkeys at my friend's house also, and I bought four turkey poults which turned out to be a tom and three hens. Midget white turkeys are a rare breed that are at adulthood only slightly larger than a chicken, and they are very friendly and full of personality. And, I obtained a few coturnix quail that were sort of thrown in with the turkeys. :)

I'm enjoying the poultry *so* much, and am finding them to be a fairly easy-maintenance type of livestock to own. Not only are the eggs beautiful and delicious, but the birds themselves are so enjoyable to have around.

I'd heard that turkeys were supposed to be stupid, but I think my midget white turkeys are actually smarter than the chickens. And they are *so* curious! It's hilarious to see them all running to go look at whatever is happening. They are also highly expressive. I love all the noises they make. They gobble, but they also purr, trill, and make a "put, put" noise when they are interested in something. And they hiss just like a cat when they are frightened or angry.

The young roosters from the batch of chicks we hatched out in September are posturing and challenging each other, but no serious fights so far. They puff up their neck feathers at each other, jump in the air once or twice, and then each go their own way. It is getting to be time to eat some, though, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how some of the extra roosters will taste.

The younger chickens seem to be getting along fine with Elmer and his ladies (the older established flock). They mostly ignore each other, and I haven't seen any showdowns between them. They all enjoy free-ranging and then put themselves to bed at night (although I have a few night birds that want to stay out and play in the dark just outside the door, that I usually have to shoo inside before I close things up). 

One of my favorite things about the chickens is how solicitous the roosters are of the hens--calling them over for the best bits of food, and making sure they take cover if a hawk or other predator comes around. They also have a variety of vocalizations, and I'm learning to understand chicken language too. There are different calls for, "Hmm, what's this?" "Come on, girls, I found something yummy for you!" "Danger! Take cover!" "I'm laying an egg." and so forth. They particularly like to pick through the rabbitry and the manure pile, eating any dropped food, worms or insects they can find. The poultry are especially useful as fly control. 

Eventually I'd also like to add a handful of muscovy ducks, both because of their meat and eggs, and also because of their reputation for eating massive quantities of mosquitos, flies and even mice.

I'm sick with one of those winter viruses, so stayed home from church today. But even sitting here feeling miserable, watching my birds puttering around outside the window makes me smile.