We are making some progress putting up what we tore down. The tractor shed is almost finished and ready to be a place that we can store the other barn materials once we start tearing them down. Scott milled the beams in the front of the tractor shed just like he did for our chicken run. I cannot wait to stain them and paint the shed to match. That will probably come much later though as we still have 2 more barns to tear down. I am just excited for having a place to put those materials out of the weather now.
How cute is this tiny wheelbarrow?! It is perfect size for the kiddos. Shepard especially loves it. He will just push it around the yard empty just for fun. Here, they were taking turns scooping and dumping the gravel for the tractor shed. They actually did this for about an hour or more nonstop. If it weren’t for lunchtime, they may not have stopped.
This Week’s Books
Shepard is very much into the Little Blue Truck books. They are pretty cute with all the farm animals. “Bikes For Sale” as well as “Hello, Mr. Dodo” were cute reads.
“Mr. Pumpkin’s Tea Party” was cute. I would not recommend “The Purple Balloon”. It is great that sales of the book go to a good cause to support cancer research in children, but for me I didn’t feel the material was presented well and found it very difficult to read to my child.
“Exclamation Mark” was a cute twist on grammar. “I scream for Ice Cream” was fun to read because of all the wordles. “Wumbers” was a little difficult literally just difficult because the words were made using numbers. Scott and I cracked up at each other trying to read this one to the kids.
Gluten Free & Dairy Free Menu
- Paleo White Chicken Chili with basmati rice and avocado.
- Sautéed chicken with guacamole, black beans, sweet potato fries, buffalo cauliflower with a side of Tessemae Habanero Ranch.
My new new favorite soup is definitely paleo white chicken chili. Yum-o. I think I have been trying too hard with seasoning for the kids. I sautéed some chicken with just olive oil and salt and Ava said a few times that she absolutely loved the seasoning on the chicken. “Mommy, this seasoning is so yummy. It’s my favorite”. Sometimes simple is just best I guess.
- Paleo zucchini carbonara with chicken, navy beans, and gala apples.
- Shepherd’s pie with beef, peas, and carrots topped with mashed potatoes.
I am a big fan of zoodles. However, not a big fan of the work that goes into making them. The zucchini carbonara was good, but I think I will probably use lentil pasta more so than zucchini…at least until I have an abundance of zucchini growing in the garden that I need to do something with. Since I made my upside down and backwards shepherd’s pie last week, I made a normalish version this week. My normalish version consists of beef, carrots, peas topped with dairy free cream cheese mashed potatoes. The kiddos were actually big fans of this.
Farm Animals
Benny and Pip, the rulers of the roost. Most of the hens see Benny as the big guy in charge, but some of the hens definitely don’t show that same respect to Pip. Poor Pip, he loses his fair share of squabbles with the ladies.
On the left is a duck egg and on the right is a regular size egg from a hen. See any difference? The duck eggs this size don’t even fit in a regular egg carton. We all tried the duck eggs scrambled for breakfast one morning. There is definitely a difference just cooking them. Just from whisking them you can tell that the yolks are much thicker than regular hen eggs. The taste is a little different. For me, the texture was the noticeable difference. They are just overall more dense…maybe it is those extra nutrients they say duck eggs have. The kids liked them. Shepard said he was eating Bertha’s egg and Ava said she was eating Martha’s egg. Of course we are not sure yet which ducks are laying but both kiddos seem to think our big Pekin girls are.
In any case, we will be sharing the duck eggs experience with the rest of our family and see what they think.
Louise has been extremely broody lately. She has been sitting on an egg or eggs….most of the time that are not even hers…all day long. Poor thing, I feel so guilty when I collect the eggs in the evening and take the ones she has been sitting on all day. Right now, it is just feels too cold to raise chicks. We are thinking about using an incubator to hatch some more in the Spring, but if Louise is still super broody by then we will probably let her take care of one on her own and see how that goes.
Fitness
Definitely should have fit some more workouts in this week, but sometimes you just gotta get stuff done…like the tractor shed and some yard work. This probably makes me a weirdo but I like to check my heart rate average each month. If I am under 60, then I have met my goal. I like these goals much better than weight goals…haha.
On Another Note…
Anyone else have difficulty just letting kids be kids in your vehicle? It is a big pet peeve of mine. Since we don’t venture into stores anymore per Covid, I don’t even put shoes on my kids when I put them in a vehicle. I keep spare pairs in the back just in case. My dear husband Scott is helping me with this pet peeve of mine by fully lining and protecting the vehicle from our kids.
He started with floor liners for the front and back. I am loving these because they cover everything and trap spills if they were to happen…..I guess I should just go ahead and say “when they happen” because Lord knows they will.
Next, we have seat protectors from the kickers. I like that these have pockets as well to put some cards or games.
And an absolute recommendation to save your vehicle from the carseats that do some significant wear and tear on your vehicle seats are the carseat “seat protectors”. One of the best things it does besides preventing creases in your seats is preventing crumbs from going to unreachable places. If your kids are like our kids, their crumbs go beyond just inside the carseat. It drives me nuts finding old popcorn and cheerios in and around their carseat. It especially drives me crazy when the kids find it, treat it like treasure and still eat it.
This Week in the Shop..
I have some cute and comfy active bottoms in my Poshmark closet! You can check them out here.
I hope this week and the whole month of February treats everyone well! God Bless!
