Deogratias

Reason 998

...why I LOVE living out in the country. Spotting a beautiful doe through my kitchen window.  Nicholas snuck up on her and snapped these pictures.  This was just two days after Lee saw fresh deer tracks in the same part of the yard. 

 

  

 

When I first saw her she was out in the open, but by the time I alerted the kids and grabbed the camera she had fled into the woods.  Nicholas watched her for about 5 minutes until she fled into another yard.

It's a wonder our dogs didn't see her and chase her away.  The last time we saw deer here they managed to chase all three of them in different directions.  This was much cooler, and now I know to be on the lookout.

Sure, I know that deer are spotted in subdivisions around here too, in fact while living in our old house we twice saw deer crossing the road in front of our neighborhood.  But here I'm not upset to see them eating my bushes, rather happy to see them eat the brush. 

UPDATE:  About an hour later Alex saw another deer in the yard and got to watch it for 5-10 minutes.  Lee arrived home and he and Nicholas treked through the woods to get some more shots.  The blurrieness is due to the low light.

4th of July Once More

I feel kind of guilty that I didn't spend yesterday praying for and thinking about all of the great patriots we have had in our country.  Although we did a little history lesson in the car on the way to the lake, for me it was a day of relaxing, fun and reminiscing abaout 4th of July's gone by. 

I'll be turning 45 in a few weeks, and I've come to realize that I have so many  4th of July memories.  I've been so many places and done so many different things, and its hard to come up with a favorite.  Yesterday's trip to the lake with the family and some friends ranks right up there though.  Here are some shots of the day.

 

We arrived at around 5 o'clock, allowing us to rest and have family fun around the house most of the day.  Hamburgers and hotdogs were grilled and eaten on the boat, we got a chance to swim, and then we watched the fireworks.  It was great fun.  But when we pulled onto our road at around midnight, I realized that I was the 1st lector for the 8 a.m. Mass today.  A late night and an early morning make for a long afternoon nap!

Last year I spent the 4th on the couch watching baseball and resting.  We had just moved into our new house and I was pretty exhausted from all the work we had been doing for the previous months.  Lee took some of the boys to Acworth to see the fireworks, but they didn't end up making it to a spot where they could see them. 

The year before it was this:

and this:

 

Previous years we went to the lake on our boat, which we sold back in 2001.  We've gone to Centenial Olympic Park to watch the fireworks and listen to the Atlanta Symphony.  We've gone to Marietta a few times, and we've stayed home and cooked out with friends.

As a kid the 4th was always memorable for me.  Several times my parents took me to the National Mall to watch the fireworks with the Washington Memorial backdrop.  That was pretty awesome!!  We mostly had cookouts with our friends and neighbors at a place called the Laurels.  i remember walkling around and with my friends carrying firecrackers.  We had some kind of trick where we would break them and step on them and it would make a small bang.  That was always fun.

Lately I've been missing some of my old childhood friends with whom I have lost touch.  I've been having tons of great memories of fun times.  Maybe I'll get back in touch with them someday, but maybe not.   Either way I hope they are having happy 4th of July celebrations wherever they are. 

Happy Birthday USA!  May you have MANY more!!!!

Chickens, Pot Pie, Eggs and School

 I've been a very bad blogger lately and I've really missed it.  And I'm sure you all have been dying to find out about the Chicken Pot Pie.   LOL!!

 Well, suffice it to say that it was good.  So good, in fact, that we have already had it twice.  (See picture left)  It's helped me to realize that making homemade biscuits isn't that  hard, and we even had those with sausage last weekend for breakfast.

So what's kept me so busy for the past couple of weeks that I couldn't blog?  One word - school.  No we haven't been doing it, rather I've been preparing for it.  We're enrolled in Mother of Divine Grace School for the 09-10 school year and there has been alot to read up on and to buy.  Books alone cost more than the tuition, but fortunately my father has generously paid for them. 

It's turning out to be alot of work now, but hopefully it will be much easier on me once the school year starts.  I feel better knowing that Jacob will be working on a real college preparatory curriculum and that we'll be filling up the kids' educational gaps.  MODG has such an excellent reputation, and I know so many people who use them.  I've enjoyed my 2+ hour conversation with our consultant, and I really feel enthused about getting our school year started.

I've also ordered and received 50 day old baby chicks and subsequently sold 17 of them.  I've figured that ordering more than I need and selling some is a good way to finance the purchase of new chickens.     

Speaking of financing and chickens, during the month of June our chickens layed 237 eggs.  We haven't sold any yet, but ate and/or gave away them all.  During the same month I spent $25 on chicken feed and still have plenty left over.  Calculating that out it means each egg cost $.10  That is quite a deal on fresh delicious free-range hormone and antibiotic free eggs.  If I bought eggs for $3 a dozen at the store, the cost would be $.25 per egg.  

So we're saving $.15 per egg or $1.80 per dozen!  Plus that we're getting to enjoy our pet chickens, having an animal componant to our homeschool, all the while keeping the bugs down.  Last summer we had ants in the house continually, despite spraying, hiring a pest company and trying different natural organic pest control methods.  This year we  had ants inside the laundry room once, and that was before we decided to let the chickens range free all over the property.  We haven't had fire ants since then either, and that is a first for us here in Georgia.

I'd say that would make chicken keeping a real value for our family, and I would recommend it to everyone.  It's really very little trouble once you get your system down and the benefits WAY outweigh the cost. 

You know people in this country used to keep their own chickens all over until pretty recently, and the trend is going back that way again.  I encourage people all over to fight the zoning prohibitions and get chickens wherever they live.  

See how beautiful this girl is! 

  

Recently we found her sitting under a tree. When she got up we found a nice little present to fill up our egg basket.

Chicken Challenge Phase 2: Broccoli Chicken Casserole

In an attempt to save money, I've challenged myself to follow Keith Allison's recipe for feeding 10 people for three days on five chicken breasts.

Yesterday we dish number one, Broccoli Chicken Casserole.  Friday I stocked up on chicken breasts on sale at Ingles for $.98 a lb. and got all the other fixings.  I normally do not cook with canned soup, but in the interest of time I decided to.  I did skip the pre-packaged  bread crumbs though and made my own out of toasted wheat bread.  Here's the recipe (taken straight from his blog).

1 pkg frozen broccoli

1 can Cream of Chicken

4oz. Sour Cream

1 pkg. Pepridge Farm Bread Crumbs.

1 Stick of Butter

1 medium yellow onion

 

Place Stick of butter in a Large casserole dish and place in oven set to 375 degrees. Don't allow the butter to burn. Remove from oven and place all bread crumbs in dish and stir gently to soak up butter. Remove 1/2 of bread crumbs to sprinkle on top.

In bowl mix chicken, onion, steamed broccoli, cream of chicken soup, sour cream. Spoon mixture onto layer of bread crumbs. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs on top and bake for twenty minutes.

 

I must say it was yummy.  Everyone but Andrew loved it, and of course Andrew doesn't like chicken or broccoli so I'm not surprised.  The six of us ate every bite though, so I don't see how it could feed 10 people.  But I guess you could add a salad and dessert and cut down on portions.  And as Lee said, we probably eat more than most.

 

So I'm looking forward to tonight's Chicken Pot Pie.  Gonna make biscuits and all!

ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS - Prayers - Catholic Online

In honor of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus today, an indulgence is offered for the following prayer.

ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS - Prayers - Catholic Online

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Chicken Challenge: Phase 1 - Planning

This morning I ran across a blog post entitled How to Feed 10 People for 3 Days on Five Chicken Breasts, and it looks so cool that I'm going to give it a try.  Today is grocery day, and  I'm making my list now.  I'll let you know how it goes.

This came from a blog entitled A Mountain to Climb, One Family's Struggle to Begin Again After Losing Everything.  Blog and book of the same name is written by a father of 10.  

More Wild Things in the Backyard

A great thing about summer is all the cool creatures you can find all around.   All you have to do is keep your eyes open and try not to be afraid of harmless little insects, spiders and reptiles. 

For example, Nicholas snapped this photo in the woods yesterday.  I think it is a Southeastern Crowned Snake, and we're fortunate to see it - apparently it's rarely seen.  It's a tiny little thing that we've seen often sunning himself just next to our bridge.  He usually hops into the water when we walk by, but for some reason he stuck by this time and allowed himself to be photographed. 

 

 

Near this snake Nicholas found a patch of tadpoles, and he decided to capture some in a bowl and watch them grow. On Sunday he heard Cyndi talk about doing this recently.

 

The day before yesterday we found a couple of turtles out back.  They were each found separately about 30 minutes to an hour apart.

The first one was tiny.  Here you can see it in Nicholas' (very small) hand.

 

 

I tried to get as good a shot as Marjorie got of a turtle recently, but apparently neither my camera nor my photographic skills measure up.

Nicholas was not around when we released this tiny turtle or when we found the next one, so I tried playing a little trick.  I put the next one on the table and told him to come see how much our little turtle had grown.

  

Fortunately he's a pretty smart boy and didn't fall for it, although he did find it amusing. 

Later on we found a few animals, not exactly wildlife, but interesting non-the-less, on the property. 

A rooster...

 

some eight-week-old Muscovy ducks...

 

and some 3 month old chickens and guineas.

Praying for Cyndi

Today we're having some folks from our church over to pray a Rosary for the healing of our friend Cyndi.  Please pray for her as well if you can because she really needs it!

Cyndi is a  homeschooling mom with six kids who is suffering from cancer.  It began in her breast and has spread to at least four other areas, including her lung.  She will begin chemotherapy this week.

She is an awesome lady and fabulous mom, as attested to everyone who knows her. Frankly, I used to be envious of Cyndi because her kids are so sweet, respectful and intelligent - and cute too.  Thanks be to God my envy changed to fondness and admiration to her and her family.  Today will mark the second time we've had them over, and hopefully there will be many more.

We'll be praying the five Glorious mysteries with about 30 folks today.  Please join us if you can.  If you don't pray the rosary, just say some prayers for her.  God can do anything, and we're praying that Cyndi's healing is in His plans. 

Who is Compassionate?

We left our previous church a while back because we felt something was missing. The priests were not challenging the people to turn away from sin.  Our current church has a wonderful devout orthodox priest who actually discusses sin in his homilies.

One may wonder which church is most compassionate. The first one accepts people as they are and loves them. The second tells people to mend their ways. I say the second. It's no compassion to look at an injured person and tell him it's ok that he's spewing blood. The compassionate thing to do would be to attempt to stop the bleeding.

The following article tells it very well. Guest Opinion: Beware the New Compassion - Catholic Online Shared via AddThis

An Afternoon at the Lake