You Can Sew Do This: Soft and Feathery

Brandon is officially a quarter of a century old! -- as of about two months ago, that is-- Brandon had received this really large feather pillow as a Christmas present a year ago and it was great! But we noticed that it had no problem poking the feathers through the pillow itself and pillow cases (even if we put 2 or 3 pillow cases on!!) so we knew something had to be done. I did some research on how to make a good feather pillow. Fortunately, my mama taught me (and my brother ;) how to make pillows when we were younger -- all hand stitching mind you. So I knew the basics of making a pillow and I set to work! I made sure to get the recommended material, 100% cotton ticking, and my mama had given me her old sewing machine so I thankfully didn't have to do it by hand! I made the pillow with relatively few problems-- let's just say it was a good learning experience. Brandon helped me stuff it with the feathers from the old pillow and I closed it all up! I laid on it to test it, it was super thick and fluffy, but it didn't take long before the feathers began poking through. Goodnight, I was so annoyed! All that I tried to do to prevent feathers from coming through was futile. But I didn't give up! I let Brandon think that, of course, because his birthday was coming up....in a month. (and I'm a huge fan of surprises!) I set out to do more research and I inspected my own feather pillow that had been bought at Belk. I've had it for years and its been plenty fluffy and rarely ever pokes me. I noticed that the outside layers looked as if it was a quilt for a pillow. Here is what I came up with and applied to my second attempt!

First, I got some more the the blue and white striped cotton ticking. But I also got some quilting batting, I just went for the cheap stuff.  Lastly, I purchased a curtain that had the black out material in it. There's probably a place to buy that type of material without getting a whole curtain, but my options were limited, AND the curtain is still useable (just don't look at the bottom-half of the black out curtain behind the regular curtain)! With all my materials purchased, I cut out the material. Most average/standard size pillows are 20 in x 26 inches, keep in mind that you want to make each side about 1- 1.5 inches longer just to give you leeway for any mistakes and for hemming. After the cotton ticking is cut out, you want to do a zig-zag type of pattern on all the edges to prevent any unraveling of the material. After sewing up the edges, go ahead and wash, dry, and iron the material. The washing will take out any stiffness in the material and take care of any shrinkage that may happen. Ironing will make it flat of course, and therefore making it easier to sew. Sewing with crumpled edges is impossible! Next, you want to cut out the quilting batting and black out material layers.

 

    

Once they are all cut out, stack them on top of each other, the batting obviously going in the middle. You want to sew all the layers together, I had a little issue keeping all the layers aligned properly. But then I'm also no pro at sewing, I've only done a couple of sewing projects on my own.

After the layers are all aligned and sewn together, fold it over so that the inside is on the outside and you want to sew all the sides, except for keep at least half of one of the shorter sides open because you gotta stick the feathers in somehow! Or the polyester filling or whatever you're wanting to use on the inside.

 

Almost done! Turn it inside-out and its feather stuffing time! Word of advice, do this outside!!! It will get messy, I promise you. The ground, the air, and your clothes will all be covered in feathers. So keep your mouth closed! Also, try to make sure it's not very windy outside for obvious reasons. Once all the filling is in the pillow you can finally sew up the last opening edge.

This last time I just hand-stitched it because I was tired of the sewing machine (we have a love-annoyed relationship). However, I would advise you stitch it by machine. I will probably go back over mine in the near future. The machines can do a lot tighter stitches than you can and so the feathers have a harder time coming out. And viola! You're done! The pillow has turned out pretty great really! The feathers have to work really hard to get through. I will say the pillow material was kind of stiff because of the black out material. I'm sure there is a way to take away the stiffness, I just don't know about it. Good job! Enjoy that pillow you just made, I know Brandon has been ever since his birthday. :)

Simply Southern

So the other week, like a month ago, I was in a crunch for groceries and I didn't want to spend anymore money on my groceries. I decided to see what I had in my pantry and freezer. You see, I'm the type of wife and cook that makes weekly (usually) groceries lists and they're based off of what menu I have planned for the following week! This way I don't go out and buy a lot of random junk that I don't need to be eating or that I don't need for what I'm cooking. Fortunately, yet sometimes unfortunately, when we're at the end of a week's menu and I haven't gone grocery shopping our pantry and fridge start looking pretty bare. But I like it that way! Keeps me from overspending and buying food that may spoil before we eat it.

Brandon and I are very much of "clean eating", if you want to call it that. I don't buy boxed suppers or frozen dinners. I just don't want all that processed junk going in our systems. It's just straight up not good for you! Plus, I love cooking :). I pretty much have to go grocery shopping weekly otherwise the veggies and fresh food I end up buying a week and a half ago are spoiled or spoiling by the time I plan on cooking/eating them! (I learned that one the hard way. For a little while I tried planning a menu for two weeks at a time. Well, I got pretty frustrated when I got to week two and my asparagus and other things were no good.)

Sorry, I got a little side tracked there. Anyways! I am going to share a SUPER DUPER easy and quick supper idea with y'all! Brandon and I love love love cornbread. However, Brandon is quite picky when it comes to cornbread (and I thought I  was picky about it!), but I finally found this recipe on allrecipes.com (I think). I had this memory the other day of when I was younger and we'd have pinto beans and cornbread for supper and I loved it! Truthfully, pinto beans by themselves don't have a lot of flavor by themselves. I was inspired by this memory to make pinto beans, cornbread, and roasted broccoli (gotta have that veggie!). I was shocked when Brandon told me he had never heard of pinto beans and cornbread. I guess that's what I get for marrying a yankee ;).

Here's my yummylishous Cornbread recipe:
 Prep: 10 min. Cook: 20 min.
8 servings.

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. yellow cornmeal
2/3 c. white sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 c. milk
1/3 c canola oil

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. Mix the dry ingredients first and then the wet. Lightly grease your 9 in. round pan (I don't recommend using a 8x8 or 9x9 glass with this time and heat). Once all the ingredients are well combined pour the batter into your greased pan and slide it in your preheated oven! Cook for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, mine usually just needs 20 min. And enjoy this sweet, moist cornbread!

Nutrition (1 slice):  275.1 calories, 10.7 g fat, 41.8 g carbohydrates, 4.7 g protein

Roasted Broccoli:
Prep:~3 min. Cook: 10 min.

Broccoli
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Garlic powder (optional)

I don't give you exact amounts because it really depends on how much broccoli you feel like eating. So first, preheat the oven to 450-- mine seems to take forever to preheat! Then spread out your broccoli on a cookie sheet, its okay if it's frozen. Then you want to spritz or pour olive oil on your broccoli. I got an oil mister at TJ Maxx for like $7 and it is awesome! (I have a tendency to put too much oil on things and then the food doesn't turn out right). You don't want the broccoli sitting in oil, just enough to lightly cover. Then do the seasonings to taste and pop those suckers in the oven!

Nutrition (1/2 cup): 27.4  calories, 0.3 g fat, 5.6 g carbohydrates, 1.9 g protein

Pinto Beans:

This one is super easy! Like I said earlier, I don't buy canned beans. If you do, then just heat them up and add salt and pepper as you wish. But if you cooked up your beans like I did here, then just take a baggie out of the freezer earlier in the day and let it thaw. Once thawed, throw in the pot and warm it up. Easy peasy! Oh and you'll want to add some salt and pepper to that also. Hint: the pinto beans taste pretty good on top of the cornbread.

Nutrition (1/2 cup): 120 calories, 0.5 g fat, 22 g carbohydrates, 8 g protein
 

So depending on what you're trying to get out of your diet, if you're doing high carb/low fat or high fat/low carb, will decide as to whether this is right for your lifestyle choices!

Yummy Yummy in My Tummy

I don't know about y'all but I have been sooooo busy lately! But I'm not really complaining, this really is an awesome time of year! I love the holidays for so many reasons: extra excuses to see family, and perhaps some that you don't see very often, you get to eat so much incredible food, and you get time off work or school, and we get brought back to the reason of who we live this crazy life for: Jesus!! We went up to see my family in Tennessee for Thanksgiving and then we'll be going back up this weekend for my sweet friend Emily's wedding and  Jeff and Leslie (I told y'all about them a few weeks ago) will be flying in!!! The following weekend, so the one before Christmas, we'll be driving the 10 hours to Brandon's family up in Missouri. The day after Christmas, we'll drive back home and get to have Christmas with my side of the family! Whew. And then a week later we leave for a cruise ;)

I have a recipe for you that is so incredibly yummy, it's like eating dessert for a side dish! This is your true southern Sweet Potato Casserole recipe. It's family fav, and when I took it to a gathering with a bunch of friends I didn't get to take any home! (So sad.) Now even though there are sweet potatoes in this thing, that does not mean it is healthy! But it is oh so good. And that's what matters, right? ;)

Here's the list of ingredients for sweet potato mixture:
3 cups sweet potatoes
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk 1 stick of butter
2 tsp. vanilla

 (Yes, feel free to admire our lovely wallpaper).

My family usually gets the can of yams, so the sweet potatoes are sitting in a sweet syrup. But for next time I'm considering using fresh sweet potatoes and cooking them up (to soften). When I do that I'll have to play around with how much more sugar I need to add to the overall recipe.

So first! You put all the (above) ingredients in your mixer and mix it up good! While it's mixing, using a stick of butter to butter up your 9 x 13 in pan. Also, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 

Once your mixture is thoroughly mixed, don't worry if you see small chunks of butter- that's normal, put it in your pan and stick that sucker in the oven! For only 10 minutes.

Next! While it's baking, it's time to make the topping.

Topping ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 stick soften butter
1 cup of chopped nuts (we choose pecans)

Mix all of the ingredients except the nuts. Once all the ingredients are mixed, I suggest acting like its a pastry and using two knives to cut everything up, then you can put the nuts in.

As soon as your initial 10 minutes of baking are up, bring out the sweet potato mixture and crumble the topping on it. Then stick the pan back into the oven for an addition 20-25 minutes. You want to see that everything had pretty much solidified and the topping wont look as crumbly anymore. More like a dessert type of crust. Yum, yum.

(And as you can see, I kinda forgot to take a picture before we started digging in. Whoops!)

Now let your taste buds feast!

For The Love of The Game

If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever want to coach a soccer team I would have told you that I wasn't sure, but I doubted it. Mostly because I doubted my abilities and qualifications. Now, re-wind to the beginning of September, my neighbor told me that the local parks and rec was having a shortage of soccer  coaches. We had played together on the same adult league in the spring, so he knew that both Brandon and I play. When my neighbor first told me about the shortage I responded, "I don't know..." and somewhat forgot about it. Then, that next Sunday, a lady at church found out I played soccer and told me about how they're needing coaches for the rec league. Apparently they were really struggling to find enough coaches. Finally, I let myself play with the idea of coaching.

Soccer is my passion and has been for years and years. I've played since I was five (or six, either way it's all "bunch ball" at that age) and I continue to play when I have the chance. I've played rec league, travel ball, with my middle and high schools, and then I was able to pursue my dream of playing collegiate ball.

The idea of coaching intimidated me, yet I started bubbling from within of excitement when I thought about it with serious consideration. After asking some questions and some contemplating, I decided to give it a go and asked Brandon to be my assistant coach. We were going to be coaches for a U10 girls soccer team. I then began getting excited about getting to teach the girls about my passion and, maybe, hopefully, light that same passion in them. I was hoping they would be excited about the sport as I am and want to learn. I also hoped that I could somehow shine a light for Jesus with these girls and their parents. But I also began feeling a little fearful of if I could actually do this job and do it well. I know the game hands down, but creating practices, being in charge of the strategy of the game, and being in charge of 10 8-9 year old girls?? It started to make me wish I had taking the coaching class when I was back at Tennessee Wesleyan College (TWC). I began looking things up and creating my first practice. I was excited and nervous, but mostly excited.

To my dismay and surprise, I discovered that pretty much all of my team was fairly new to the sport and had absolutely no fundamentals. I had previously figured we'd go over them and perfect them the first couple of weeks and then move on. My expectations were a little too high. I noticed a couple girls had potential, but I'm not sure that anyone knew not to kick with their toe! Oh my gracious, that was painful for me to try to get them to break that habit. And if you've ever seen someone just trying to learn to kick a soccer ball properly, just to pass it, it's kind of awkward. They have trouble with opening their hips and kicking with the right section of the inside of their foot, all so that the ball will go where they are trying to direct it. But it's not impossible. Just takes a lot of patience and perseverance.

I discovered a lot of things about teaching and working with 8-9 y/o's. Their attention span, if any, is extremely short. If your eight year old can pay attention for longer than 30 seconds, then kudos to you! They talk. A lot. And they all try to talk to me at the same time, and if they're not getting heard right off, they'll just speak louder. Goodness. They have not quite reached the capability to settle disputes among themselves, like who gets to do the throw-in or goal kick. They also get side-tracked really easy, that kind of goes with the attention span one.

I was prepared to lose our first game. The girls were just learning how to kick properly and dribble. But I was viewing the game as a trial-run, to see what kinks really needed to be worked on and who played where the best. We hadn't even gotten to the point of defending, being a forward, throw-ins, kick-offs, passing, shooting, etc. I hadn't even had a chance to work with the goalkeepers, at all. So, you see, we had a looooong way to go. We got beat pretty good the first game.....and the next....and the next. You can see how the pattern is going, don't worry, it doesn't really get switched up. Unfortunately.

As the season went on, I continued to try to have an upbeat attitude about the team and our games. I didn't want my frustration to be obvious to the girls, but to continue to encourage them to play better and better, but also to have fun. If they're not having fun, then why play? Plus, if they're not enjoying it now then they probably won't continue to play. Towards the last few games I was getting hugely frustrated and just downright mad at some points. Sometimes I felt like all the practicing we were doing hadn't made a lick of difference, at least for the majority. However, with this league each team plays each other twice. So my goal was to not let the other team score as many the second time as the first game. I mean, there's only so much I can do coaching them from the sidelines. But somehow, we did improve. It was slow and painful and frustrating. But little by little the girls quit running in packs down the field. They slowly (even though it took some reminders from me and Brandon) learned and remembered to stay behind the half line if they were defenders. That toe though. And believe it or not, the girls sometimes would actually kick properly.

The girls would get frustrated, unable to understand why we kept getting the beat. Even a couple said the field hated us or was cursed :) The thing was that they were just so far behind in understanding the game and using the proper techniques. Granted, they are 8 years old and they're just learning the game and some for the first time. I had to remind myself of that frequently. However, we were at a severe disadvantage when it came to a couple of the teams we were playing against. These teams did very well and had a couple girls that could just take the ball down and shoot decently. We discovered that these teams were hand picked, so they were stacked (and did travel ball together) and the rest of us were just out of luck. I basically had the leftovers and all the youngest. But I came to love the girls and wanted to push them to be better. In a way I enjoyed the challenge of only have a couple of truly experience girls and the rest starting from scratch.

Last night we had our last game of the season. We lost. But I was so so proud of them and so pumped of how we did! The end score was 3-2. That's the best we had done all year! Yeah, we had a few toe balls in there. But everybody was throwing the ball in properly, my goalkeepers learned and remembered they could come to the edge of the big box to throw, we even began passing a little, we learned how to "mark up", we learned how to be aggressive yet not overly and become dirty, we were doing so much better at defending. We learned a lot and I'm a proud coach. If I'm able to coach next season, I would hand pick those girls in a heart beat.

I surprised myself in a way of how much I enjoyed coaching. I knew I would love being around the game so much and I love to help people learn about the game I love, so why wouldn't I like it?I have learned so much about coaching and I know I still have a ways to go, but I've enjoyed all of it. I've wondered if the parents like me enough to have me coach their daughter again or if they'd rather not have to deal with me again. Last night, one of the moms asked if I would be coaching again next season, and that was all I needed to hear to know that I did do something right and I must've done a good job.

Coaching has made me appreciate all the hard work that my coaches in the past have put in. Larry Fowler, Tom Gorman, TJ McCallum, Naomi Clarke. Shout out to all them for doing such an awesome job of being a mentor to myself and all other players that they have coached. It's amazing what an impact you can put on someone as a coach and I can only hope I'll be as half of a good as a coach as they were to me. There were many times when I'd walk the sidelines talking to my players and wondering if this is what Coach Clarke felt like and looked like, and I could only hope that I could emulate her. It's funny that I remember when I played in college, and during preseason or regular season we all thought Coach was nuts or we were mad at her for something, but nevertheless we respected her. But now that I'm in that position of being a coach, I understand what it's like to be in those shoes. At least somewhat. Who knows where this coaching career will take me... :)

(Somehow my eyes managed to be shut. We're also missing two girls. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have.)

"I'm So Excited...!!!"

You were singing the title right then, weren't you? Well, I was and that's what matters. Then again, maybe it's not part of a real song and Brandon just made it up. Anyways, I'll tell you what I'm so PUMPED about! Exactly a month from today, I'll get to see my sister, Leslie; Jeff, my bro-in-law; and Lucy, their fun, little, silky terrier. You see, they've been gone the past year in Costa Rica going to language school. Why were they in language school you ask? I'm pleased you asked!

Well, it started a long, long time ago-- actually, not that long. Really, just about 10ish years ago when my sister, Leslie, graduated high school and went on a foreign mission trip to Honduras with a local church. She absolutely loved it and fell in love with the people there and the work God is doing. So she kept going back. The second time she went, she stayed for three weeks with a missionary friend of ours in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Leslie came back, but she was missing one thing- her heart. Sounds cheesy I know, but its for real. If you ever get to talk to her about her passion for Honduras and the orphaned and needy kids there, you'll see it. That trip was her moment. Her moment, when God told her: "this is where I want you to come back and serve and love these people and tell them about Me. Don't worry about when, I'll let you know." The last handful of times it has been with a organization in Chattanooga, TN (close to my hometown) called Forgotten Children's Ministries (FCM). This wonderful organization has an orphanage right outside the capital, Tegucigalpa. (Actually, not all the children are out on the farm yet, they are still in the process of some of the construction for the little boys and girls' homes. Currently the little boys and girls are in their homes in the city. But that's another story.).

Fast forward several years to 2012, Leslie married Jeff (in 2009) and got sweet, little Lucy (2009 also), and they decided, as a family, that God was telling them it was time for them to start getting things together to officially become members of FCM's family of missionaries! Leslie had been waiting for so so long to finally hear God say, "it's time", and she couldn't wait. But first, they had to raise their funds. Since FCM is a non-profit organization all missionaries have to find people, churches, groups to be their sponsors, to support them while on the mission field. The next thing to do, before going to Honduras full-time, is to go to language school in Costa Rica where they would learn Spanish and be fluent (or enough) to speak with Hondurans without needing a translator. Now we're caught up with the current. They still have a few weeks left of school and they have a huge exit exam (oral and written) that they have to take before heading back States-side. *give them huge prayers for the exams for sure* Once they're back in the States, they'll get to see family, friends, and visit with those that are sponsoring them, and hopefully gain some more people that God has spoken to them to support them financially. And let me tell you, it ain't cheap living over in Honduras. For one, they have to live in a secure neighborhood (with gates and guards, all that), buy cars there (*ouch*), not to mention the usual groceries and bills to pay.

The security is crucial because Honduras is a rather unstable, third-world country and is over-run with drug gangs and their violence. Before you start thinking of gangs, drugs, and violence here-- let me stop you, its nothing like that and ten times worse. No exaggeration. I'll even give you a story: During one of my trips down there, with Leslie and Jeff and a mission team, we were riding our bus through the capital, "Tegus", so we could get to the mountains where there were some people we were going to give out beans and rice, love on them, and pray for them. Well, we ended up getting stuck in traffic. To paint a picture for you, imagine what, in the States, would be 3 lanes of traffic was actually 5 lanes in Honduras, and I'm not even counting the numerous motorcycles. They have their own lanes: between all the large vehicles driving. While being stopped, children and adults go from vehicle to vehicle trying to sell various things, like food or whatever kind of goods they might be able to make money from. On the sidewalks at various stations, there are soldiers with their AK-47s, watching. Not to mention all the drivers constantly talking to each other with their car horns. There's never a quiet drive in Honduras ;) If you look up ahead, but soon-to-be beside since we were slowly moving, there's a few cop cars (no different from the ones in America) around a roped off section with crime scene tape with a taxi cab inside the perimeter. As you get close, you see people being put in body bags by police officers. And there's something strange about those working the crime scene, and you realize fairly quickly that they're all wearing masks so it's impossible to identify who they are-- that, my friend, is for their protection. We come to find out a little later on in the day that it had been a gang related crime. The story is that a leader of a gang had just been released from prison, and got in a taxi with another random person. The one(s) that had been leading the gang while he was in jail found out he had been released. So they found the taxi he was in, shot him, the driver, and the other random passenger. Sad play of events, but with that said, not everything in Honduras is terrible. They have some of the most beautiful mountains you've ever seen, and sweet people that just need to hear the hope and love of Jesus.

Back to what I was saying, I'm so pumped to get to see them and spend some time with them (and let them see my chickies of course!). Fortunately, people that created Skype and Viber are geniuses; plus, Brandon and I were able to fly down and visit for a little while in July! So we haven't had to be completely without them. By February, they are hoping to have the rest of their support raised, and they'll be flying out to Honduras, yet again; except this time it's to stay for as long as God needs them there :) They will be working with the kids in the orphanage, as well as the mission teams from the States that come down, the people in the country that are in such desperate need of hearing the Word of God, and whatever else is needed to be done for the ministry and for Jesus.

 

If you're curious to know more about Jeff and Leslie and their adventures in Costa Rica (and soon-to-be those in Honduras), here's their blog! 

And, if you feel God whispering to you to maybe help them out, whether praying (tell them on their blog!) or financially, don't hesitate!

Now you can't forget about Lucy, sweet, loving, puppy (even thought she's not really a puppy anymore). She has a cute blog herself! If you have little ones, they'll love the stories she tells-- plus! they're educational, fun, and with a touch of Jesus. But hey, us adults love Lucy's adventures as much as the kids do. You gotta check it out!

Cookin' Up Those Dried Beans Easy

Brandon and I aim to eat as healthy as we can (however, we allow indulging from time to time, of course!), but we are always learning new things to cook and ways to make meals better for us. I make it a goal to not use canned or packaged foods. And I never buy prepackaged or frozen meals-- have you seen the sodium in those things?? Not to mention all the preservatives that nobody can pronounce? I began buying dried beans a few months ago. You see, even if you're buying veggies canned, they still add sodium and preservatives and all that extra junk that your body straight up doesn't need. So. I'm going the more natural, and cheaper, route. Whenever I have recipe calling for black beans (or whatever kind) and I'm out, I go buy a 2 lb bag of dried. Then overnight or during the day I'll dump the entire bag into my awesome crock pot and add about three times as much water as there are beans. All I do next is turn the knob on low and leave it there til I get up in the morning or it's been about 8 hours. Now, I do recommend you stir it a couple of times to make sure the beans on top aren't getting left out and are getting to soak up some water.

Once they're all cooked up, I turn it off and leave the crock pot sitting until the beans have cooled off. My next step is to bag them in quart size ziploc baggies to go in the freezer. I probably ought to measure the amount of beans I put in each bag, but I just haven't made the time for it when I'm baggin' them up. I once read (I can't take the credit), that two pounds of dried beans will equal to about 7 or 8 regular cans of beans. And it's all for 3 or 4 dollars!!

 As you can see, these are already frozen. I did those up about a week ago. And since I'm all about nutrition, here's some info about various types of beans! This is all for cooked/boiled beans.

Black Beans:                                      Pinto Beans:
Per 1 cup                                            Per 1/2 cup
Calories                         240               Calories                  120
Total fat                         0.6 g              Total fat                  0.5 g
Saturated fat                 0.2 g               Saturated fat          0.5 g
Polyunsat. fat               0.3 g               Cholesterol             0 mg
Monounsat. fat             0.1 g               Sodium                    0 mg
Cholesterol                   0 g                  Total Carbs             22 g
Sodium                         6 mg                Dietary fiber           8 g
Potassium                    801 mg            Sugar                       0 g
Total carbohydrates    45 g                  Protein                    8 g 
Dietary fiber               15 g
Sugar                          0.6 g
Protein                        15 g

Black eyed peas:
Per 1/2 cup
Calories                     99
Total fat                      0.45 g
Saturated fat              0 g
Cholesterol                0 mg
Sodium                       0 mg
Total carbohydrates   18 g
Dietary fiber              6 g
Sugars                        3 g
Protein                       7 g

There's a few for you! Can't you see how beastly beans are for you? Eat some beans!! And, you know, I seem to remember that they always seem to have a rhyme that goes along with them.... ;)

Until next time! :)

Chickens are Friends- NOT Food!

So my title may not be entirely truthful of my position towards chickens in general. But it definitely applies to how I feel about MY chickens! And anybody that knows me knows I love my chickies, and if you don't know me, you'll find out :) So I thought it might be fun ( at least for me ;) ) to give y'all some chicken trivia! I betcha at least 3 or more of them will surprise ya!

Fact 1. Girl chickens, until they lay or are one year old, are called pullets. Once they begin laying then they are called hens. Boy chickens, before they mature (and start cock-a-doodle-doing), are called cockerels. Once they're grown up then they're called roosters, cocks, or roos- whatever suits your fancy.

Fact 2. Chickens booty holes are called vents. With that said, hens lay eggs, pee, poop all out of one hole: their vents! Fortunately, they can't poop/pee and lay an egg at the same time (if your eggs are dirty that means your nesting boxes aren't clean as they should be!)-- isn't that a relief to know?!

Fact 3. There is actually a such thing as an egg song-- except, it sounds nothing like a song but more like a distress signal. Then again, if you just popped out an egg or were about to you'd be in distress too! Click to listen, it's kinda funny and not what you'd think of "singing". Egg song! And no, this isn't my chicken.

Fact 4. It takes anywhere from 24-26 hours for a chicken to form an egg. And the longest part, which takes about 20 hours, is forming the shell! It takes A LOT of calcium ensure that the shell is good and strong! A hen could potentially lay up to 1,000 eggs in her lifetime!

Fact 5. Chickens will live for an average of 10 years, but for pet chickens its not uncommon for them to live 15 or even 20 years! A hen's prime for laying is their first year, with their production rate gradually decreasing each year.

Fact 6. When you think of birds and baths, you usually think of the bird baths filled with water. Chickens do take baths, but not like that. They take dust baths. And it's exactly as it sounds, they kick up the dirt enough and then roll around and rub in it to get dust in all their feathers. The dirt helps keep them from getting mites and gross things like that. Weird, I know. And then they spend most the rest of the day preening their feathers. Meet Elsie, our Rhode Island Red hen: (oh, and my apologies for moving the camera so much. I think another chicken was distracting me :) )

 

Fact 7. You actually don't need a rooster in order for hen's to lay eggs. Unless, of course, you want them fertilized for hatching.

Fact 8. Once an egg comes out of the hen, and before it is washed, it is coated with a protein layer called a "bloom". On a shell it has many tiny pores, and the bloom's job is to protect the pores and prevent an bacteria getting in the egg. But once the egg is washed, the bloom is gone. Hence, why you have to refrigerate your eggs. It actually doesn't matter if you refrigerate your eggs or not, just your preference! But, if the eggs have been in a fridge, you don't want to leave them out for an extended time. It can cause the eggs to "sweat", and therefore taking the bloom off and leaving the egg unprotected from bacteria. The eggs will last longer if you put them in the fridge. Here's a fun little article to learn more!

Fact 9. Chickens go through a molting process usually when the weather changes and begins getting cooler. During a molt, they begin losing their feathers, and more often than not, the hens will quit laying. They stop laying because they need the extra nutrients to get new feathers instead of laying eggs. However, some chickens can lay through a molt. Each chicken is different. The molts are essentially like a dog shedding its summer coat and growing in it's winter coat. Here's a picture of one of the worst molts. Poor chickie! (it's okay to laugh at the poor thing :)

Fact 10. Believe it or not, chickens can fly! However, they cannot fly for an extended period of time. Wild chickens need the ability to fly high enough to roost in the lower branches of trees to sleep for the night. Sometimes the chickens will fly/climb over something by using their feet to climb and flapping their wings to help them get higher. Or if something startles them, or sometimes you have no idea why, they will run, in a waddling sort of way, while flapping their wings like mad. They actually can go fairly quickly that way and its always funny to watch.

Bonus. I have not tried this (I have considered), but chickens can actually be house-trained and be kept in the house! Granted they are birds so they're kind of dusty. But I have read of stories of people that have chickens that will either run to the back door to go outside to go to the bathroom and then promptly run back inside once finished, or they just have a pile of newspapers or pads of some sort that they use.

So which one of these surprised you? Or did you know all of them??

Healthy Snack and Full of Protein!

You know those times when you're sitting in front of the t.v. or studying/doing homework and you're just feeling "snacky"? Yeah I know how those go. Or the instances where you are super hungry but its too early for supper and you already had lunch, but there's nothing really to eat for a snack (nothing healthy, that is)? No fear! I've gotcha taken care of :)

So. Who doesn't like trail mix? If you don't, you're nuts ;) (pardon my nuttiness, I do enjoy corny jokes-- most of which I create myself :) For those of us that do enjoy indulging in trail mixes from time to time all know that they to be full of crap that we don't need to be putting in our bodies. Not to mention those big bags make it ever so tempting to just sit there and eat 5 people's worth of it. But what to do when you're hungry, but it's not a meal time? Sometimes we go for those cookies....or chips....or that yummy mint chocolate chip ice cream... mmm. Plus! sometimes it's hard to find those snacks with enough protein and not too much sodium (which is a slightly controversial subject) and not too much fat-- at least of the wrong kind-- or too much sugar! It's definitely important to be filling yourself with enough protein, that is what is going to help you stay full longer-- not to mention help those quad muscles you've been working on at the gym repair themselves.

Brandon (my husband) and I have been trying to figure out ways to get more protein in our bodies when we've been working them ruthlessly at the gym. Plus, when you're working out hard, you're going to get hungry more. Also, the past couple of months we've been coaching a U10 girls soccer team which occurs in the early evening. Afterwards, we usually head to the gym (unless somebody is feeling too tired ;), but it's supper time and we're hungry. It's not ideal to go and work out if you're hungry; then you're tired and cranky and just have trouble giving it your all. Fortunately, my homemade trail mix has been wonderful to tide us over in moments like those! Anyways, enough of my babbling. I'll tell you what all I put in and how much!

1/8 c. Oven Roasted Dark Chocolate Almonds
1/8 c. Whole Natural Almonds
1/8 c. Honey Roasted Peanuts
1/8 c. Dry Roasted Peanuts
1/6 c. Raisins
1 Tbs. Milk Chocolate chips

Now I will tell you that I eye-balled those measurements. I put them in the small ziploc snack baggies so keep us from eating more than we should ;)

Here's the nutrition! Keep in mind that 450 calories is about a meals-worth. So don't eat the whole baggie if you don't need it! Split it with someone or between your morning and afternoon snacks!
                          
Calories -- 450                                                                                                      
Total fat -- 32 g                                                     
Saturated Fat -- 6 g                                             
Potassium -- 530 mg                                           
Sodium -- 145 mg                                                
Cholesterol -- 2.5 mg                                  
Total Carbs -- 34 g
Dietary fiber -- 6 g
Sugar -- 21.5 g
Protein -- 13 g

P.s. cashews would make a good substitute as well!