A weird week beginning with the craziest hail storm I’ve ever witnessed! Thankfully, everyone was safe and sound at home and we watched the whole thing from our back porch. The yard was covered in ice, but we only lost a little bit of our lettuce in the garden. And it was Pope Benedict XVI’s final audience yesterday. He was Pope when we converted so it just feels strange.
Pregnancy Update: Passed my glucose test! No 3 hour test for me and I’m so glad. Baby Gwen is kicking and rolling. I can’t believe that she’ll be full term in 9 weeks! But then again, I can because it’s so hard to move around and I’m so sleeeepy.
On the Homestead: Funny story. We woke up a couple of weeks ago to the most horrible sound. What is making that noise at 5am?! Are the kids practicing the world’s most annoying way to wake us up? Nope, definitely coming from outside. Is something attacking the hens? Wait…..that hen with the beautiful feathers that’s always bossing the other hens around….she’s not a hen! It’s a rooster and he cannot figure out how to crow! Since our neighbors already dislike that we have chickens, we decided not to push it even though having one rooster is allowed according to city ordinance. The rooster would have to go. So here I am, about to turn a squawking rooster into Coq au Vin:
Scary! I’d never made it before but I felt all Julia Child pouring wine over the poor rooster and wearing a frilly apron. It was sooooo yummy. And we also solved that annoying crowing problem…so…win?
Book Love: Can’t wait to share a review of When Donkeys Talk: A Quest to Rediscover the Mystery and Wonder of Christianity by Tyler Blanski with you next week! I still haven’t made much progress in the giant unabridged Les Miserables, but I really haven’t had time for much reading (we’ve all taken turns being sick except for Benjamin.) So I feel like I’m almost a month behind my 2013 reading goals. I think from here I’m just going to slowly plod through Les Mis while continuing on with my other reads. Next up: Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South!
The Quotable Lucy:
Daniel: Lucy, I love you.
Lucy: Otay. Tickle?!
Links:
8 Reasons Why Freezer Cooking Can Work for Anyone: Life Your Way (Lots of great ideas for those of us who were resistant to the idea to freezer cooking. But with Baby #3 on the way, making meals ahead of time is really becoming a necessity. I adore my friend Stephanie Cornais’s From Your Freezer to Your Family: Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes eCookbook if you’re looking for a good place to start.)
My Favorite Pope Benedict XVI Moments: Home to Catholicism (This one made me laugh. I’ve been loving this blog lately!)
Why We Choose a Midwife: Better Than Eden (Great piece by Mary! I love the midwifery model for birth and women’s health.)
Spring Wedding: twIN STYLE (Drooling over these beautiful spring dresses…except they have waists….something I’m lacking at the moment.)
A Child’s Guide to Parenting Book: Honest Toddler (Honest Toddler is always hilarious)
Notes from Beneath the Veil: Conversion Diary (Great post on wearing a veil during Mass by the wonderful Jennifer Fulwiler.)
Flannery O’Connor, Women, and the Home: Dappled Things (I adore Flannery and found this piece so insightful. Do you know about Dappled Things? If not, you should! It’s the best!)
Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has contacted me about contributing their story to Carrots’ upcoming series about NFP! If I haven’t returned your email, it’s just because we’ve all been under the weather and I’m yet again behind on emails.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Haley
P.S. You can also follow me on Twitter (@haleycarrots), Pinterest (haleyofcarrots), FB, and Instagram (carrotsformichaelmas). I love connecting with my wonderful readers!
Thanks for the link up!
I also adore that Lucy comment. I hope Quotable Lucy becomes a more permanent feature. 🙂
I am so loving your blog these days, Haley! And Lucy has the sweetest little voice. She’s not as verbal as Benjamin was but her words are just toooo sweet.
So funny, we have a surprise rooster as well! The boys think he is beautiful but he’s started getting mean and though I like the crowing, we don’t want to risk angering the neighbors. we’ll have to get rid of him. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do him in or not… Several of our eggs I think have been fertilized so I’m sort of hoping that there’s a few more and one of the hens is able to hatch something! How cool would that be? Thank you so much for the link!
Your post was so well done, Mary! I thought it was such a great explanation of the difference between the midwifery model and the conventional medical model. Yes, our neighbors already aren’t thrilled with our mini farm in our front yard so….no need to have animal control deliver a complaint, right? And he was so yummy 🙂
That’s some serious hail!!
I understand about Pope Benedict, he was *my* Pope too; I joined the Catholic Church in 2009. :'( I skimmed your conversion story (I’ll read it fully once I put my son down!) & I noticed you joined after your son was born. My husband joined the Church in 2006 and I thought it was important we raise any children we had in the Catholic faith (vs. my Protestant faith). Long story short, I ended up joining the Church 3 days before our son was born!! I love how God works. 😀
That is such a beautiful story, Jessica! We weren’t quite ready to convert when B was born, but we definitely had a sacramental view of baptism and I asked our baptist minister if he would baptize our new baby. When he said that he couldn’t, we realized we had to start making our move. Gotta get that little guy baptized!
Hi Haley,
Thanks for stopping by my blog. We ended up with a rooster, too, after my boys hatched three eggs. We kept hoping he wouldn’t be, and then one day he ripped out a distinct cock-a-doodle-doo. Luckily, we found him a good home. We had a major hail storm almost two years ago with large hail like that–scared my younger boys to death! After it was over, our house looked like we’d had a drive-by shooting, and our garden was destroyed. That concerned me more than the roof! Your blog is great–I’m signing up to follow. 🙂
Your rooster story is so funny! And thanks for the links–you always find such good stuff!
Julia, where on earth are your pearls? 😉
I, too, am sad about Papa Benny 🙁 but so thankful that he was pope when I converted last Easter. All we can do is pray for the future of the Church.