The Eve of All Hallows

Happy Hollows Eve. In our household, we have celebrated Halloween by means of honoring Saints, historical figures and characters in the latest books we've read. We try to remember that Halloween is the eve of All Saints day. Tomorrow, we will remember all the saints that are in Heaven with our Heavenly Father. Since we are all God's children, and we strive to please Him in all we do, we too will be saints one day. As we live our lives here on earth and we pray for those alive and deceased, we are part of the communion of saints. That makes us all one in the Body of Christ. That is pretty special!

We've decided that this will be the last year that we celebrate Halloween. I've never really understood this holiday, if you can call it that. What is it a holiday of? It seems to have become distorted over the years.

I was shopping for candy at the local store. This year, the candy seemed to be extra expensive for some unknown reason. We don't buy a lot, we have opted out of the neighborhood trick or treating for the past few years. Instead, we have been trunk or treating at our church. Our neighborhood gets bombarded with visitors from all over. Literally, hundreds come and use our neighborhood as the prime candy collecting spot. HUNDREDS! So many people import themselves, that we can barely drive down our street and you actually have to wait in line to receive candy! People pull their couches up to there front doors and sit there giving out candy! Anyway, while shopping for candy, I was irritated and fed up. I blurted, "I hate Halloween!" I turned to the kids and suggested we celebrate All Saints day instead of Halloween for now on. They looked at each other, then looked at me and said, "Okay." It was as simple as that. We have friends that always have All Saints day parties. So, we are opting out of this celebration for a more meaningful one.

We still will be dressing up and decorating pumpkins, but we will be doing it with a new state of mind. Instead of ghoul and gross, we are going Saintly and virtuous. Our pumpkins even reflect this change. This year, Mike and I did some cool religious symbols vs. your typical jack-o-lantern. Next year will be even better!

So to go out with a bang, the kids chose 2 characters that are muched loved and talked about around here:




Calvin and Hobbes.














For those of you who aren't familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, it's comic strips about a little boy and his stuffed animal, tiger, Hobbes. The two of them go on some wild adventures and wreak havoc. They are very funny. The kids love reading them. Check out this link: calvin and hobbes wonderland!

Calvin and Hobbes were joined by St Michael the Archangel (Aaron) and the Fall Fairy (Sarah). Our friends, the Truxtons, joined us this year carving pumpkins and trick or treating.












The kids poked around on their pumpkins. Savanna decided on a multifaceted pumpkin. Here are the many faces of Savanna's pumpkin:


A chiseled jack-o-lantern pumpkin face. Look careful, it is hard to see in this picture.






A carved cross.








A chiseled Sorrowful Heart of Mary.






Charles tried a tree, but it didn't turn out the way he wanted it to. He decided to rip into the pumpkin and create a jack-o-lantern.



The facial expression looks something like Calvin's in the comic strip.








The growth in maturity of both the kids is truly showing this year. Charles and Savanna independently designed, carved and chiseled their own pumpkins. I didn't even cut the brain out of the pumpkins. They did all the work themselves for the first time ever!

Mike and I took a different approach with the pumpkins. They took on a new meaning this year. Mike chiseled out the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is just beautiful. It took a lot of planning and time to create this masterpiece. Too bad it will only last a day or so.

I opted for the Blessed Mother. I offer all I think, do and say through Her beloved hands for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls. Speaking of souls, in addition to All Saints day tomorrow, All Souls day follows on Sunday. That is the day we remember all the poor souls in purgatory. Pray for them constantly! They will pray for us in our needs too.

Here is my pumpkin in honor of my Beloved Mom:

This is the image on the back of the Miraculous Medal. The letter "M" stands for Mary, the Mother of God and My Beloved Mom. The cross represents Jesus.

That's it for now. Until later, God Bless.

The Final Product

It's done. Well pretty much done. There is a bit of tweaking that needs to be finished, but it is open for business. Our friends gave us their 3 chickens for a total of 4. They don't seem to like each other. The three bunch together and leave the one out. In a few months, we'll know how many we will actually keep. We're only going to keep the hens. The 3 came with names, so we named our's too. They are Izzy (after St Isadore), Henny, Muffy and Phoenix. Phoenix is the only one of the 3 that got a name change. He's Charles' favorite.

Here's a night time look at the coop:

Coop Continued...

We finally got the puzzle put together. We had to disassemble part of the coop, I forgot to take the width of the support pieces into consideration. So, we pulled apart, cut and put back together. I never said I was good at this. Actually, I found this coop on-line. No directions. Only a few dimensions and pictures, that's about it. So, I think we did pretty well considering, I really didn't know what I was doing.

It is great to work mini projects like this. The kids have finally reached an age where they really help. At one point, all three of us were independently working on something different. I think it would have taken much longer if I had had to build the coop by myself. The feeling of accomplishment always feels good. Here are some photos of us hard at work:




Savanna was very handy with a nail gun.











Charles is a champion with an electric drill.











Only Mom was allowed to use the circular saw.










Here's Savanna with her finished project. A two story coop condo is useless without a grand staircase!








While we were working on a beautiful sunny day, a couple of crazy, wild chickens came flying into our yard. I'd never seen wild chickens around here before. They flew right into the unfinished coop and started peeping around. Check them out!

Building Time

Today was a productive and fun day. We are beginning the building process of our chicken coop.



We are going to attempt to turn this pile of wood and metal, into something spectacular, okay, maybe not spectacular, but something worthy (at least for a chicken)







The kids worked hard measuring, cutting and learning to respect power tools.















We discovered that we needed to work as a team. Wood falls when nobody is supporting it!





They liked being a part of the project and getting to use the tools. Today we cut all the wood . Tomorrow, we will begin building! Can't wait. We will soon have a chicken condo fit for a chicken.

Chicken Update

Here is an update on our chicken. This little guy changed daily. One day he was little and fuzzy, the next day he had feathers. I noticed one day that his tail was red and swollen. I was a little worried thinking maybe he was sick. The next day when I checked out his little rear, feathers were poking out! They grow so fast!




Here is the latest picture of our feathered friend.







We will be adopting 3 chickens from some friends that participated in the project, but don't want to keep the chicks. They are about 6 days older than our chick. Hopefully this weekend, we will have a chicken coop for them to live in and we will have 4 chickens!

A New Kind of Treasure

Today we went on a treasure hunt. We were in search of a "letterbox". Never heard of it? It is actually really neat. There is a website that lists letterboxes world wide (Letterboxing North America). You search their data base and find a location either near you or where you are going. Print the information for the clues to find the letterbox and start your hunt.

Now, there are a few things you need in order to participate. You need a rubber stamp, an ink pad and a little notebook. When you find the letterbox, it will contain a stamp and a little notebook. You leave and impression of your stamp in their book and stamp their image into your book. We like to add the date, the city we live in and our "name". This is a hobby the kids and I have been doing for a few years now. It always amazes me that out in the middle of no where, in the middle of a small country town or just about anywhere, we can find these little treasures.

Below you can see our personal images.



This image is "Lady in Blue" Guess who it belongs to?







This is "Leatherback" Another give away!







This is "Princess of Hearts" This belongs to Mommy's little princess.




We each designed our own stamp and I carved them out for the kids and myself. They are stamped in the color ink pad that we use.

We'd love to take anyone on a letterbox adventure! Come join the fun.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I received a recipe today on how to make vanilla extract. We're going to try this at home. I'll let you know in 2 months how it is! If you want to make you own, check out Simply Recipes at:
How to Make Vanilla Extract | Simply Recipes
It is unbelievably easy!