Mrs. Egg and Her Little Chickies

Drool

Everything about this kitchen is absolutely wonderful. One of these days when we build our vacation home in New Mexico, this will be my kitchen. Prepare yourself. Here it is.

Happy Owl-oween!

My super cute pumpkin (that took me almost 4 hours to carve). Tip:  Spray your carved pumpkin with a bunch of hairspray to keep it from wilting and molding. Ours still looks like it was just carved. I've tried rubbing vaseline on them and spraying them with bleach, but nothing works as good as hairspray.

 

We went with our friends on a trick or treat hayride around their neighborhood. Lulu was a zombie bride and Blondie was a candy corn witch. Today they've eaten candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and their moods tonight are indicative of such. I'm thinking tomorrow I may box up what's left and send it to the troops overseas.

 

This afternoon I went to Michael's to see what kind of Halloween decorations I could get on clearance, and they were playing Christmas music. I was partly appalled, and partly really excited.

Cinco

Today she is five. I don't know what else to say because my brain is fried from listening to her talk all day long. My goodness, her five year old self can talk. ALOT. I've listened to everything from the pros and cons of being a witch or a mermaid for halloween, to her new strawberry shortcake doll, to how chick fil a nuggets are better with ketchup than polynesian sauce. It doesn't matter that each subject is unrelated, she just flows right into something else. When she runs out of things to talk about, she starts singing. Then, that prompts her to talk about something new.

All She Wants For Chrithmath....

The other tooth fell out!  Personally, I wish they would never grow back because I think it is just too cute. And i'm in even more peril today because Blondie just shrieked with much excitement that one of her bottom teeth is loose, too. She's not even 5 yet! Well, okay she'll be five next week, BUT STILL. And it's REALLY wiggly. I told her that I was going to superglue it in because she is just a baby and is not allowed to be doing things like loosing teeth. EVER. In other exciting news, Grandpa bought Lulu her first .22. They went to the deer lease this weekend to try it out and she is really good! Kevin said she hit the Target every time and hit the bulls eye a couple of times. And yes, it's pink.

The Chickies have a stomach virus. Lulu had it late Sunday night into Monday and stayed home yesterday as well. Monday afternoon, she got off the couch and played outside for a few minutes, then came in exhausted and laid back down. As we were trying to make her feel better, Blondie threw her hands up in the air and exclaimed, "Why don't you feel sorry for ME!?" We nearly died laughing. Well, late last night, she got her turn. She went to bed not feeling well and woke up around 1:00 this morning. Kevin asked her if she was alright and she promptly threw up all over his arm and chest. As he took her to the bathroom, she threw up all over the carpet, bathroom rugs and the wall. Kevin can gut a deer and pull the heads off of dead birds, but he absolutely cannot handle poop or vomit. It's quite entertaining to hear him gag and carry on in the corner while the poor child is sick and i'm trying to contain the mess. I've threatened him more than once in our marriage that if he gets sick, he has to clean up his own mess. So, last night we alternated between restless sleep, laundry, and steam cleaning carpets. All this on the day I run out of Tide. In other news, Lulu finally lost another tooth. This one has been hanging on for what seems like months. She finally yanked it out herself Sunday afternoon.

Merry and Bright

We went to a birthday party this weekend, where I took the cutest pictures ever of the Chickies and their friends. Look at the two little bitty blonde ones on the end. I could just eat them up.

So Proud

Lulu, the 2nd grader extraordinaire, has taken 9 accelerated reading tests this week alone. She has scored 100% on every test she's taken this six weeks, except for 2 (which she only missed one question on). She's exceeded her goal in number of books read and points earned, and she's reading ABOVE her diagnosed reading level. This morning she begged me to speed on the way to school, and then RAN into the library so she could take another test before school started (instead of socializing in the gym with her friends). This calls for a special 32 ounce coke Slurpee this afternoon. She rocks.

Also, please send money because i'm going broke at Half Price Books.

Happy Autumn!

 

Today was extremely "fall-ish". The highest our thermometer here at the house has reached is 68 degrees. At 2:30 it was still 63!  I stopped by Starbucks after school today for the obligatory first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season. Oh my. I forgot how good they are. To also appropriately usher in the fall season, I made roasted vegetable soup and pumpkin bread. Blondie has nearly wiped out the entire pan of pumpkin bread today. Both kids will slurp down a whole bowl of this soup, if that tells you how good it is.

Roasted Vegetable Soup

1 yellow squash, 1 zucchini, 4 carrots, cut into quarters lengthwise

1 onion, cut into eighths

6  whole cloves of garlic, peeled

1-8 oz. package of mushrooms, cut into bite size pieces

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can of white northern beans, drained and rinsed

1 bunch of kale, cut into bite sized pieces

3 cans of chicken broth

salt

pepper

thyme

Cajun seasoning

Water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle plenty of olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet. Arrange squash, zucchini, carrots, onion, and garlic on sheet. Drizzle with more olive oil and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 30-45 minutes, or until carrots are tender. You may need to stir things around a little to prevent burning. Cut everything into bite sized pieces and mince the garlic. Place in a large soup pot along with mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, kale, and broth. Add enough water to cover everything. Add salt, pepper, thyme, and cajun seasoning to taste. Let it simmer for at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese. Serve with hot bread or, for those under the age of 8, goldfish.

Nekkid Crab

Today the crabs (we're up to 7 now) have been incredibly active. A couple of days ago, Rozilla molted and moved into a vacant shell. Today, as I was giving them fresh food and water, I lifted up the coconut house and found her out of her shell. She sort of darted around like she was embarrassed and was trying to find something to cover up with. I quickly put the coconut back over her and grabbed my camera. For some reason, it wasn't focusing well, but you can still see her. The girls had gone to get lunch with Kevin and walked in about 2 minutes after she went back into her shell. I was disappointed they couldn't see it first hand, but i'm glad I got a picture so they can see what they look like without their shells. Pretty interesting.

Indecent Crab from Mrs. Egg on Vimeo.

New House Update: The Ultimate Lesson in Patience

Waiting. Hoping. Planning. Having patience. Losing patience. More waiting. More hoping. More planning. More patience. This is how our life has been for the last two years. At times, building this new house has been so exciting I can hardly stand it. But most of the time, it has been frustrating, depressing, endless, and downright hard. So hard, that at times, I think I can’t go another day and want to throw the blueprints in the trash and forget the whole deal. But then, a tiny glimmer of hope will rear its head, and my excitement becomes so overwhelming that I completely forget the hard. It seems like every month will be “the month” that we start building. Up until this past Friday, we were going to start on the house this week. Everything was ready and our builder was one day away from calling his contractors.  But, our deal with the Fort Worth Planning District fell through, so now we have to re-plat our property. Which is not a huge deal, except we have to wait for another two to three months for all the paperwork to go through so we can get our permits.  I can wait two to three months. Heck, I’ve already waited two years, what’s another couple of months?  We had found a loophole to avoid re-platting (if we re-plat, we have to donate a portion of our property to Fort Worth for a future road), but we would have to buy an additional half acre, and we would not be able to legally use our existing water well. When Kevin went in on Friday to obtain this permit, the guy he had been talking to this whole time had gone out on emergency medical leave until next year. The other city planners told him we did not have adequate documentation to qualify for the loophole. Technically, we do not have the proper documentation, but Kevin’s mad sales skillz had convinced the guy that we did. So, they told Kevin we had no choice but to re-plat. I suppose if he had sweet talked them more, he could have convinced them, but he is just worn out at this point, so he hung his head, said okay, packed up his papers, and left. And this is where “it’s meant to be” comes into play. We don’t have to shell out more money for another half acre that we don’t really need. We are able to use that cash to do something we would otherwise have to wait on, like landscape the backyard.  Grass is a good thing to have in a yard, you know?  We’ve been able to save up a lot of money to put down on the house in this time we’ve been waiting and an extra two or three months means we can save a lot more.  Which means that our mortgage will be lower, which means we can have money to live with once we get in the house, instead of being those people who have a really nice house, but have to go to Goodwill for their clothes and eat Ramen noodles every night.  Additionally, we can use our water well, which is a huge thing, because a) we’ve already spent a ton of money on it, and b) our co-op water is nasty and i’m tired of buying water from Walmart every week.  When we gave our builder the news, he told us that really, it’s a good thing because our lumber estimate has been reduced by seven thousand dollars (!!) since the time he first bid it, and pouring a foundation in the cooler months will be safer than pouring in 90-100 degree heat anyway.  But we won’t be in for the holidays. That was my main concern this whole time. I wanted to at least be in for Christmas. If we started now, our builder told us he could have us in for Christmas, but we would likely be moving furniture in on Christmas Eve. That’s no way to spend a holiday.  I’m all about food and Christmas trees and wreaths and hot coffee around the holidays—not unpacking boxes and going to Luby’s for Christmas dinner. So we won’t be in for Christmas (or Valentine’s Day, for that matter), but by next Christmas, we will have beds for family to sleep on, and pots and pans unpacked to cook in. So, in a nutshell, that’s where we’re at. It’s disappointing to have to push the start date back, yet again, especially when we were literally days away from starting, but I’m convinced it’s for the best in the long run and I’m at peace with it. 

 

PS. We’ve waited so long, we just might have enough money to pay for the beaded inset cabinets i’ve been wanting. Good things do come to those who wait!

 

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.