Being a mom to these two little boys is the best job ever. I’m glad I can spend almost all day cuddling, playing and spending time with them.
Bike Ride
For last Saturday’s adventure, we headed down to Ogden for a bike ride. We’ve enjoyed biking on the Ogden River Parkway before, and this time we picked a slightly different route that included visiting three parks. PB had planned out which park we would stay at the longest, although I don’t think we stuck to his plans. He just likes numbers and sequences.
First Harvest
I bought lettuce a couple of weeks ago and then realized I wouldn’t have to buy lettuce for quite some time. The garden out front is taking off after a week of good rain and then some warmer weather. We have plenty of lettuce, a few radishes, and the wonderful snack of broccoli raab. I’ll go outside and pop off the small broccoli florets on the broccoli raab and eat them as a snack.
This salad was my first real harvest from the garden, combining the crops of lettuce, radishes and brocolli raab. I’ve repeated it a few times this week for a great addition to lunch. Lately, I’ve really enjoyed the taste of fresh produce, so I love being able to eat veggies that came from my garden.
Unknown Plant Suprises
When I moved into our house, there was one small tree I didn’t recognize, and a few other shrubs I wasn’t sure on. Eight years ago when I was taking a class on woody plant identification, I probably would have had no problem. But that was eight years ago, and plant ID is something I lose a bit if I’m not interacting with the plants. I wasn’t too worried about the identity of the plants–I knew they would revel itself later on with some identifying trait.
The first shrub to get a positive ID was a forsythia. Although it has a horrible haircut, it put on a wonderful display of yellow blossoms.
Next up was the small tree. This was one of the best surprises, as one afternoon I looked out and saw huge buds on the tree. I had a magnolia! I have always loved the bloom of a magnolia tree. It blooms in early spring, when spring is still very new and exciting. The blossoms are large, and here as a semi-hardy tree, very unique and precious to have. I would have never planted a magnolia tree–deeming it ill suited to to the site and too fussy for my tastes. But I love that I have one and can enjoy its huge blossoms every spring.
Now the downside about the tree is that somebody let a Siberian elm grow right up the middle. It reached a good eight inches in diameter before it was sawed back, but it still pokes up into the tree, and it still isn’t dead. It’s going to be a process to get it away from the magnolia.
Bird Refuge
If I were to pick up another hobby, birding would be high on my list. I don’t currently have the desire to invest time and effort into another hobby, so for now I enjoy identifying very easy birds like pelicans, and birds that I can remember the name of only because it is yellow-headed blackbird. The reason I am so tempted to take up birding, is we live ten minutes away from an excellent bird refuge. We went out with the kids and drove around the auto-loop and enjoyed massive amounts of awesome birds.
(Now I should insert all the wonderful pictures I took. But my camera is on its last legs and sorely needs to be replaces. All my pictures were blurry.)
SUPER EASY Tie Dyed Eggs
I recently overheard a conversation about a mom lamenting over the mess of dying eggs. I had to cut in and tell her of the following method. I came across this idea on a now defunct blog of a friend, and it makes egg dying super simple and mess free.
Here is what you need:
- Food coloring
- Paper towels
- Boiled eggs
Put drops of food coloring on the paper towels, and then roll the boiled egg across the paper towel. That’s it. There’s no need for vinegar or soaking. No splashing, or spills. You can even easily dye eggs that are already cracked. And the eggs look awesome.
Chicken Coop
The chickens were evicted from the brooder box. They stunk and were creating a huge amount of dust. The landlords were a bit nice and let them stay an extra week while their new home was being constructed.
We Joe has been working on the coop a lot trying to get it ready for the quickly growing chickens. Anytime we had any amount of free time, we would be out working on the coop. Because we were using reclaimed wood from the torn down shed, it took longer than it might have otherwise. Using reclaimed wood sounds great from an ecological and budget standpoint, but it also increases the time spent doing wonderful tasks like pulling out nails, discarding yet another board that split, and occasionally playing mini games of tetris to fill in a hole.
To make our coop we used plywood, a few two by fours, and side planking from the old shed. We also had an old door two old cupboard doors, tar paper and a few other wood pieces lying around. We did buy all the hardware, extra two by fours, the run fencing, paint and shingles for a total coop price of $175. Not bad for a coop that is six feet by four feet.
Both Joe and I designed the coop, a lot of it just as we went. That did means at least one time of pulling off a whole side and re-doing it so it actually functioned. (You can notice the change in the door side in the pictures.) It also meant hastily installing a rain gutter before another rain storm after the freak snow storm revealed that the coop was far from water tight. Now we can collect rain water off of the roof, so the gutter was worth it.
The coop is very roomy for our small flock of four. (And we almost certainly have a rooster. Right now, he is the nicest chicken of the bunch and I wouldn’t mind if one of the hens went broody and I ended up with some free chicks.) We want to get more chickens in the future. I don’t want them so much for the eggs, but for their excellent soil preparation. I have a lot of weeds to get tilled up and I would rather the chickens did it than me.
We still aren’t quite done. We want to make the run more secure, and are almost done with a new feeder and chicken fountain. We also want to make the coop more mobile, which will require wheels. Here’s the chickens enjoying their new home.
Obsessions
PB can become obsessive. Lately it has been egg hunts and geography. We did so many egg hunt in the week before Easter…upwards of 10 a day. We put away the eggs on Easter with a plea for no more egg hunts.
PB loves geography. Joe was trying to convince him that an atlas did not count as a story for bedtime. He choose a road atlas for a prize at the library. I was looking at an unlabeled map of the United States and was asking PB the names of the states, because he knows them better than I do. One of his favorite activities is asking Siri the population of various countries or states. It is a great if not strange interest for him. Still, I could care less to know that Utah’s population is probably higher than Kansas now, but not at the 2010 census. I do know a weird number such odd facts because PB wants to know.
I’m just glad C is a bit more well rounded. He generally likes everything, although the sandbox is heaven for him.
A Few Family Pictures
Why This Church?
I grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons. My family has been members for generations, since the church was established in the mid 1800s. I liked church growing up, I believed in what I was taught.
When I got to be an adult, I started to ask myself questions. Why was I a member of this church? I’ve never been dissatisfied with my faith: I wasn’t asking myself to solve a spiritual dilemma. But I did want to know why generations before me joined and stayed active in the church, and define why I also wanted to stay.
My church, like all Christian churches, centers on Jesus Christ. I have known my Savior, and feel my testimony of Him is strengthened by the teachings of my church. But I also believe I could have still gained a testimony of Him through any number of good Christian faiths.
While studying, I found a theological answer of why I should stay in this church and not another. The first answer is priesthood, and the second is Eternal Family.
1)Priesthood: My father and my husband have priesthood lineage lines that traces their priesthood ordination back to Jesus Christ. Most lines go back through fathers and grandpas and then meet up with Joseph Smith, who was ordained to the priesthood by Peter, James and John, who were ordained by Christ. In other words, the priesthood is authority and power that can be traced directly to Christ. We are Christ’s church, and we act under the direction of Him, directly through priesthood power received by Him.
2)Eternal Family: When I married my husband, the officiator did not say until death do you part. He married me for eternity. I have assurance that my family will be a family even after we die. This comes not from a desire for it to happen, but an assurance that through the priesthood we are bound together in the Lord’s way.
Ultimately, the real reason I go to church thought, is I believe it is where the Lord wants me. Every other reason is secondary to that. The church has brought me blessings, the greatest of which is a personal relationship with God and Christ. I want to continue that relationship, and so I remain where I believe He wants me to go.
Braithwaite Family Blog Archive 