The start of orthodontic braces

Here we go on the journey of braces for our girls.  I was 19 years old when I got mine on, so I was very happy that Miss K could get hers on at 14 years old.
She brought a friend along for the ride and to do some shopping for another friends b'day in June.

May as fill up good before the braces were on and her teeth were sore.

May as fill up good before the braces were on and her teeth were sore.

Fortune cookies are always fun to laugh at.  We took a tonne of silly photos, but being the good Mom I am, I promised NOT to post them on the blog :)

So instead, here's one of me with the VERY jiggly Jello jigglers

Before

Pretty cool blue light, they let myself and Miss K's friend watch the whole process.  I finished a crocheted dish cloth and gave it to the assistant once they finished.

Time for a little shopping and commiserating that Miss K would no longer be eating any popcorn :(  boo hoo ( she has now discovered popcorn twists)

buying our wonderful "anti-parasite" pills on the way home

Another beautiful sight that we do see quite often, but this time managed to have the camera along!

 After... her teeth are already moving and making room for the eye teeth to come in.

My 2 chickies ~ Miss K and Licorice

My Mother's Day... just a little late

Realized that I hadn't posted anything from my Mother's Day 2012.  Hubby was away, my folks were away.  When the girls asked what I would like, I said I didn't want to cook really and I did want some time outside and to READ my book.

 They made me a lovely picnic and insisted that I open my presents outside too.

 Little stumps had homemade signs with little messages on them 

 Cocoa was also enjoying Mother's Day sunshine

 Holly Hobbie... they know me SO well

 They also gave me some Bounty coconut chocolate bars too.

 A bunny... again, they know how much I want one

A hose sprayer!  YIPPEE ... I don't know who has more fun with this gift ~ me or the girls!

I lazed around in the sunshine, we ate watermelon, I finished my book.  It was a great day and I felt loved even though I thought I would feel very alone.  My girls are darlings.

Hen and Chicks ~ White Silkie Bantam

OH these cute little fluffy white silkie bantams really have the momma thing down pat.  The first one "Crystal" hatched out the beginning of April and now wants to brood again!  We're trying to convince her otherwise.

Her sister "Snowball" just hatched out 4 little eggs for us.  Now 2 of these eggs have miracle stories.  We put 1 Americauna/Danish Leghorn egg under her and 3 brown eggs from our Isa Brown/Brahmas.

 My Mom did chores for us one day and found a green egg on a cage underneath the nest and thought "weird, a chicken laid an egg on the cage".  So she put it in the egg pail and the into the house it went.  We came home, did our things, then Mei went to wash the eggs.  Filled the pail with lukewarm-cold water and when she picked up the green egg she saw the pencil marking on it "OH NO!"  So I quickly wrapped it in a tea towel, took it over to the heat of the fireplace and looked into it with a flashlight.  Sure enough, there was something in it.  I thought maybe something moved, so we warmed it by the fireplace quickly and Mei ran it back out to the hen.  We thought we'd check it in a few days and probably throw it out.

Checked in a few days and it was cruising around in the egg!  Well, it survived HOURS away from the hen, a bath and everything.  Beautiful little chick that Mei named "miracle" and is she's praying it is a hen.

Rosie with her 4

Snowball with the lightest chick ... Brahma/buff orpington and Isa brown cross

Chick I helped on the left, Miracle has the stripes, then 2 more in the feed dish

The 2nd miracle egg was a brown egg that had pipped but didn't make progress.  It was a day late already and so I tapped around the shell to see if the chick would then pop out.  Nope, so I pulled some of the shell away and saw the membrane was tight around it's head and it couldn't break it.  So I loosened all that and then stuck it back under the momma.  Thought for sure in the morning I would need to toss it as well. In the morning I was SO happy to find an empty egg shell!  Beautiful little golden yellow chick, not white and not brown.

Unfortunately, another slightly older chick got into that pen and I think it pecked this little miracle chick and there was blood on it's neck.  So we washed it up and dried it and it's with it's momma and seems fine.  Hopefully in a day or so we can blend the two bantam hens together with their 4 chicks each.  "Rosie" and "Snowball". ~   UPDATE:  This morning the little one I had helped, then it got pecked, it died.  It got steadily weaker, so maybe more damage had been done than we thought.  I couldn't get it to drink really and now it's gone.  Better now than later I guess.

Dandelion Syrup Recipes

Ok, so I've been playing around with the idea of using dandelions as food... I'm going to buy some organic lemons and make a dandelion lemonade as well.

Now, I've made 2 batches of dandelion syrup (as in pancake type syrup).  I think the 2nd batch turned out a little better than my first try.  I blogged about that on my other blog, click HERE  for that.

My syrup is a typical pancake syrup consistency, not a corn syrup one.  It is very nice in tea or on plain yogurt.

The 2nd time I basically twisted the yellow bloom part off the dandelion and had very little green in it.  Put 8 cups of water over it, boiled for a few minutes, then let sit overnight.  Strained, simmered it for a long time after adding 2 cups of brown sugar.  It is very very sweet to our taste buds.  I put it in hot sterilized jars and it did seal, but it is in our fridge and I'm trying to use it up as I'm not sure how long it would last.
Next thing to try is just putting some of the bloom pieces into corn muffins from a previous post.

Gluten Free Corn Muffins Recipe

Found a new favorite muffin... great with sweets like jam and also good for ham and pickles!

Found a nice website called Gluten Free on a Shoestring  Muffin Recipe Here

Seasons

I feel as if I am entering another season ~ a season of tears and letting go and also of hopes and dreams.

Mainly, it feels like a season of tears.  When the little chick died last week, the tears started and I feel they are not going to stop all the soon.  I seem to have these little seasons and my hubby says it is good for me to embrace it.

Do you have these moments too?  How often do you allow tears to fall?  Tears of joy.  Tears of fears. Tears of Thankfulness?  Tears of frustration? Tears of understanding or empathy?  Tears of pain?

I will embrace it....now let me go get my hanky.