Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Birthday & Puppet making

     Well, yesterday was our youngest birthday.  Ronny turned 7 yesterday and we just praise God for the past 7 years.  For those of you who do not know, on the day Ronny was born he was airlifted to Tulsa and was not supposed to make it.  When the helicopter lifted off, prayers were being lifted up.  By the time he reached Tulsa, he had stabilized (a miracle) and we have just felt blessed ever since.  He still has heart problems (mainly pulmonary stenosis) but he is with us and has brought such joy to our lives these past 7 years.

    We celebrated with a birthday cake, pinata and then hamburgers and swimming at the lake.  We invited some good friends and just had a great day.  Please remember to pray for Ronny and his ongoing heart problems.  Pray for healing and for the doctors caring for him.

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     We homeschooled our daughter from 2nd grade-8th grade.  Our boys have always been homeschooled.  Brandon (aka Bubba) is 13 and Ronny is 7.  This year we are also homeschooling our best friends' son who will be 7 in October.  It has been a challenge but a blessing.  Yesterday we made puppets and had a great time.  I just wanted to share some photos...

Bubba and his puppet





Ronny and his puppet




Conner and his puppet




And finally, me and my puppet
 

    As always, please help support my blog by clicking on an ad and supporting my sponsors.

In Christ,
Melody

Loving wife of Ronald and incredibly blessed home educating mother with fantastic children.

‎"Tough times never last, tough people do." -Robert Schuller

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher


Amazon Gift Cards: How to EARN them easily.

Hi, everyone.

    I am sure most of you all are like me...strapped for cash during this economy.  Well, I just learned of a great promotion called Swagbucks.  It is a way that you and I both can earn Amazon gift cards for free by doing what we already do....surf the internet.   We are hear anyway, why not get something out of it, right?  :-)

      You earn these Swagbucks by simple things too like uploading a photo of yourself, posting to Facebook, answering a daily poll, and downloading a toolbar.  In fact, I saw over 10 different ways to earn the Swagbucks in the few minutes I was on the site.  I signed up less than 10 minutes ago and have already earned over 100 Swagbucks.  Woot-Woot!

    Want to hear another cool thing?  If you sign up by Friday, August 12th, you will receive an extra 50 Swagbucks by entering the bonus code:  AUGUSTBONUS.  So just for signing up you get 80 Swagbucks.  And it only takes 450 of them to get a $5 Amazon gift card.  Also, you get referral Swagbucks so sign up, share the idea with friends and family and get to earning. 

   A blogging friend I know earned $200 in Amazon gift cards in just a couple of months.  I could definitely use them and I am sure you could too. 
   Click here to sign up:  http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Proverbs226Blog

As always, please help support my blog by clicking on an ad and supporting my sponsors.

In Christ,
Melody

Loving wife of Ronald and incredibly blessed home educating mother with fantastic children.

‎"Tough times never last, tough people do." -Robert Schuller

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

Monday, August 8, 2011

Our chickens and the breeds!

Hi, everyone.
     As promised I want to introduce everyone to our chickens.  They are new here but are the sweetest and most loving chickens I have ever seen in my life.  They love to be held and petted.  No pecking on us or anything.  I could hardly believe it. 

Cuckoo Marans



    We have 2 of these hens.  What I love most about this breed is the color of their eggs.  The lay really deep, dark brown eggs that are large in size.  So dark brown that they have a tint of maroon in them.  This breed originates from France and are considered heavy chickens with roosters that get between 7-8 lbs and an average hen is 6 1/2 lbs.   They lay about 150 eggs a year or 2-3 a week.  They are mainly egg layers but they do possess really fine meat qualities also.

White Leghorn

   We have 2 of the White Leghorns.  These are just like the bird in the cartoon "Foghorn Leghorn" but the word is really pronounced "Leggern".  Anyway, these are the birds that lay the eggs you find at the supermarket.  They lay X-large white eggs almost every day and average about 300 eggs a year.  They are really hardy chickens and can stand really cold winters and hot summers.  They are considered to be medium in size and weigh on the average about 6 lbs.  They originate from Tuscany, Italy.  They are egg layers and not viable as a meat producer.

Cinnamon Queen
   We also have 2 of these pretty hens.  The Cinnamon Queen is also called the Cinnamon Queen Sex Link.  It is called a sex link because it is a crossbreed from a Silver Laced Wyandotte and a New Hampshire rooster.  The Cinnamon Queen are known for their fast body development and fast egg production.  Meaning that these hens start to lay their eggs at a much younger age than most other breeds.  They lay large brown eggs and are considered to be a dual purpose bird.

Golden Laced Wyandotte
       We have one of these little pullets.  At maturity, the hen will lay a decent sized brown egg 4 times a week or an average of about 200 a year.  The roosters get to be about 8 1/2 lbs. and the hens weigh about 6 1/2 lbs.  They are a dual purpose breed (meat (large breasts) and eggs) and make good show birds.

Silkie Bantams

Buff Silkie


Black Silkie



Blue Silkie
We have one of each of these colors:  one buff silkie; one black silkie; and one blue silkie.  I know they lay very small eggs but I think they are so beautiful that I was a bit impractical and bought them anyway.  :-)
These are really neat because of the hair-like plumage they get and they are also different because their skin and bones are both dark blue/black and they have 5 toes instead of the normal 4.  The meat is very different so they are not usually eaten but they make awesome moms.  In fact, they will lay on other chickens' eggs, as well as duck or turkey eggs too.   They do make great show quality hens also.  Silkies are quite small with the males weighing 2 1/2 lbs. and the females at 2 lbs.  They lay small cream colored eggs about 2 times a week and average just 100 eggs a year.  

    Well, that is it.  So, what do you think of our new additions?   Feel free to leave your comments and subscribe to this blog.


As always, please help support my blog by clicking on an ad and supporting my sponsors.

In Christ,
Melody

Loving wife of Ronald and incredibly blessed home educating mother with fantastic children.

‎"Tough times never last, tough people do." -Robert Schuller

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Chicken Run

     As promised, I am going to write about our new chicken venture today.  As you may or may not know, I left on Friday afternoon to go over to Mulberry, AR (a 2 hour drive) to pick up some chickens.  We have been wanting to become more self-sustaining and decided chickens would be a good way to begin.  We already live on a secluded large area of land, have a few wells, a creek close by, a lake within walking distance, many fruit and nut trees on our property, etc.   We just want to be able to provide for ourselves better since the economy is so bad and money is so tight. 
     Anyway, Friday, Ron and I went to the lumber yard and bought the necessary supplies so he and Bubba (our 13 year old son) could begin building the Chicken run and coop while I headed out to get the chickens.  We only have an older, small car but we put 2 small dog pens in the back seat and I left.  I kept in contact with Ron and the boys via a cellphone and found out progress was going mighty slow.  It was 108 with an even higher heat index and the 2 x 4's we had were so dry and hard that it took a great deal of effort to drill the screws into each board.  They would work for 30 minutes and then go and cool off. 
    Here is the area that the coop and run will sit.
  
And here is their progress on the run.  The finished size of the run is 8 foot by 8 foot and it is 4 feet tall.  We will build more of these and separate them by breeds in a few months, when we get our roosters.
 The bottom frame.
 The side frames are up.
 Bub holding the frame together so Ron can secure it.
 Bub nailing up some of the chicken wire.  We put welded wire on it too to keep out predators.

    By the time I got home, it was already dark and the guys were sopping wet from sweat and exhausted.  The run was done but they had not begun on the coop.   We put a tarp over the top, cut some milk crates (for temporary nesting boxes) and called it a day.  The chickens seem satisfied and we will build the coop beginning of the week. 






Tune in tomorrow and I will introduce you to our chickens!  :-)

As always, please help support my blog by clicking on an ad and supporting my sponsors.

In Christ,
Melody

Loving wife of Ronald and incredibly blessed home educating mother with fantastic children.

‎"Tough times never last, tough people do." -Robert Schuller

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Blogging Support with Business2blogger

     Hi, everyone.  Many people who have read my blog have written me asking me if writing a blog can be profitable.  Well, the answer is yes.  I follow a blog and the owner made $1200 last month.  Do I make that much?  Hardly!  But I am new and am still trying to build up my followers, etc. 

    I have found a new company that I hope will help me to make some money from blogging.  Business2blogger.  Click on that link to learn more about the company. Business2blogger helps businesses and bloggers connect.   So, check them out and let me know what you think.

    As always, please help support my blog by clicking on an ad and supporting my sponsors.

In Christ,
Melody

Loving wife of Ronald and incredibly blessed home educating mother with fantastic children.

‎"Tough times never last, tough people do." -Robert Schuller

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

Thursday, August 4, 2011

My husband

Hi, everyone.
    Tonight I want to write about my husband, Ron.  For those of you who are married, perhaps you can relate to this.  Have you ever just had a day that you just look at your spouse and your heart just almost explodes from the amount of love you feel?  It is like falling in love all over again.  This week, I have felt this uncontrollable, raging love for Ron more than once.  I love my husband every single day but this is like an explosion of feelings.      
     I look at him and my heart beats faster and skips a beat, my palms get sweaty, and butterflies start fluttering around in my stomach.  He glances my way and gives me that special smile and I get weak in the knees!  How wonderfully blessed I am to have such a wonderful, God-fearing husband by my side.  A handsome man who can still make me swoon after all these years.  A blessing from God that keeps getting better and better with age. 
     God has blessed me so much by sending Ron to me to be a wonderful husband and father to our children.  I pray that each of you find the special love like Ron and I share. 

      As always, please help support my blog by clicking on one or more of the links.  

In Christ,
Melody

Loving wife of Ronald and incredibly blessed home educating mother with fantastic children.

‎"Tough times never last, tough people do." -Robert Schuller

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher


Monday, August 1, 2011

To my children:
     I am not your friend.  I am your parent.  I will stalk you, flip out on you, lecture you, drive you crazy, be your worst nightmare, and hunt you down if needed.....I will do these things because I LOVE YOU!  
     When you understand that, I know you will have become a responsible adult. 

You will never find someone (besides our Lord) who loves, prays, cares or worries about you more than me.  This is my promise to you.

Love you,
Mom

I seen this online and liked it.  I do try to be a friend to my children but I try to remember that I am their parent first.