It Got Us!

My family has not been this sick in, well, ever??  Little Bug has not been sick to where she needed any medication for 2 years!!  Hubby came home feeling a little sick last week and the flu took over.  Hubby ran high fevers, Big Boy ran high fevers, Little Bug ran a few fevers, I never did run a fever but oh did I feel like death had hit me.  It has been horrible and Big Boy is still battling nausea.  He is the only one who had the stomach flu.  He was diagnosed with influenza A today and was given meds for his nausea.  Hopefully, he will be on the mend quickly.  The level of body aches was certainly off the charts for all of us.  I think each of us at different times spent at least 3 days in bed.  We are on the upswing but gonna steer clear to hopefully not infect anyone else.

I have worked hard over the past few years to try to build a good healthy gut in myself and my kids.  I share info with hubby, but he doesn't always follow my suggestions :)  I really believe that a strong, healthy gut helped.  Big Boy is not great on his nutrition and following my suggestions either.  Little Bug and I sailed through much easier than the other two. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't pleasant and we certainly had our moments of deep ache and pain, but it moved on quickly.

Besides just good nutrition I also like to diffuse essential oils and take certain supplements at needed times.  I had failed to run our germicide air cleaner and had not really diffused our "Health Shield" essential oil this winter and we got nailed.  For those of us that took it, I think the elderberry helped a lot.  There is proven scientific data that now shows that it can actually help with viruses.  Check out the data, you might be pleasantly surprised it isn't just snake oil.  Another supplement that helps me a LOT when I fell under the weather is taking the echinacea goldenseal blend.  Do your own research and of course always consult your physician as needed before taking any type of supplement.  These are just things that work for my family.

Egg Basket Time

Its that time again.  Spring is in the air, the daylight hours are longer, the weather is warming (sort of), and the chickens are starting to lay more eggs.  It takes roughly 23-26 daylight hours to form an egg.  I have had a rare occurrence where a hen laid 2 eggs in one day, but it was also due to the timing from when the egg before that was made.

I'm pretty sure one of the new pullets we hatched is going to be an olive egger.  Her eggs seem a little more olive than blue or lighter green.  We'll see how that progresses.  I never take for granted the awesomeness of being able to walk into my back yard and collect delicious eggs from happy hens.

We had to cull another rooster and I also gave another rooster away with 5 hens this weekend.  We are now down to 47 chickens (40 hens and 7 roosters) and 2 ducks.  The next day the crew were all upset enough that they only laid about half the eggs they usually do.  There were a few more eggs today, so hopefully, they have settled back down.  If you don't already have chickens and you have the opportunity to do so, I highly recommend them!

Princess Time!

What's sweeter than a daughter and her daddy?  A daughter and her daddy at the Daddy Daughter Princess Ball!  Little Bug is still into everything princess so when I found out (almost too late!) about this year's Daddy Daughter Ball I signed them up.  They went for the first time last year and had a blast.  This year was no exception, they enjoyed it equally as well.

It's important for dads to show their daughters how they should be treated.  The early years are a good time to start building the foundation of what you would like your daughter to expect as God's princess.  God has a plan and purpose for each of our lives and in most cases, marriage is no exception.  What better role model than a godly man she calls daddy to show her not just how she should be treated but also how she should act and behave that is becoming a princess.

More precious memories for her memory book and another step closer to tomorrow.  The days go by quickly and it's nice to cherish the memories along the way.