Thursday, February 08, 2024

Day 1

 We have the brooder all set and picked up the chicks from the post office first thing this morning. 


First step is to make sure everyone knows where the water is. 
They are chirping like crazy and its the cutest sound ever!


Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Starting Over with Baby Chicks

 I am waiting impatiently for a special delivery of 25 baby chicks! After sharing a few with friends I will hopefully have 10 new babies :) 


As they grow in the safety of the brooder we are going to refit the chicken coop and hopefully make it predator safe. Sadly I lost my last group of hens to raccoons. 


Join me in this time as we create a new safe space.


Tuesday, December 26, 2017

HAHAHA! The Joke is on ME!

So as you can see Christmas was yesterday and I shared two elf stories! We did a lot of fun and helpful things this month but realized really quickly the elf leaving notes or little presents was a BAD idea. It quickly became a competition on who could find the elf first. So that meant my children who usually sleep until 7:30 or 8 were up before the sun. There was fighting and crying and whining over the elf. My answer was the elf had to go. I texted our next door neighbor and she went on a covert mission for me. (hide elfie while we were visiting Santa) and Elfie left a note that he had to go back to the north pole because everyone was getting up too early.

Elfie came back for Dec 23, painted everyone's noses red and left a note in dry erase marker on the bathroom mirror, "Merry Christmas"

The best activity we did this December was to go to a local nursing home and sing christmas carols. The residents loved it and our group loved it too.  The joy in several of the ladies faces and the dancing lady brought joy to my heart.


I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas Season and of course a great Christmas yesterday. I am not sure if the Elf will return next year, what would you do to keep your kids from waking up too early to find the Elf? Any tips or tricks appreciated! Merry Christmas! 

Friday, December 01, 2017

Day 1 - Elfie Arrived Today

So my kids were all late for school because I lost track of time doing our ELF scavenger hunt again and again. My kids reset up the scavenger hunt clues and did it 3 more times.

My oldest was expecting an ADVENT lego starwars calendar and I think he was a little disappointed that Elfie didn't bring one. I just couldn't do it again this year, 4 kids - 4 lego advent calendars that end up dumped into the giant boxes of legos we have in the playroom.

I hope that the let down of not getting his lego advent calendar is softened by the cool experiences we have in the next 25 days. (He really loves loves LEGOS and Starwars - but he already as a ticket to go see the new movie Shhh!!)

Elfie landed safely in the Christmas tree and he had a note (see yeasterday's post) explaining the plan for the next 25 days and a little scrap paper clue. The clues led all 4 children around the house to find the treat Elfie brought them. The treat was holiday tic tacs which may seem odd but it is a big deal in our house if you have tic tacs. You can always have one no matter what - I don't say no to tic tacs. So its a way for everyone to hear YES! and I encourage everyone to share with them.

And then we went over the MISSION - Write a letter or note of encouragement to a missionary.

We explained Missionary's are people who are sharing God's love in other countries and they might not be able to see their extended family at Christmas. We looked at a globe and talked about travelling and being able to help others.

Then we realized it was way past time for Seth to get to school and EVERYONE was late today!! 
(its odd but my kids are in 3 different schools based on their grade - so three different start times)

I will keep posting and I hope everyone enjoys our new elf journey. 
How are you sharing God's love this Christmas Season???


Wednesday, November 29, 2017

OUR NEW CHRISTMAS TRADITION ELF ON THE SHELF

I haven't blogged in way too long. But i wanted to share our new ELF on the shelf tradition. We are trying to help our children understand the true joy in Christmas is not in the presents. I know easier said then done when you have 4 kids ages 8,6,5 & 5!! Elfie is going to give my kids a daily mission to share God's LOVE and Christmas JOY! And yes it is November 29 and Elfie is set to return tomorrow and I am just now working on the plan. I will be sharing as I plan and as it unfolds.
Here is the opening letter to my kids from ELFIE - 

Happy Christmas,
It is so wonderful to see you all again. It seems like I have been gone forever! Its NOVEMBER 30th and this year I want you to help me spread Christmas Joy to people in your town and neighborhood.

I am super duper duper excited to share a very important Christmas Cheer Spreading Mission with all four of you!!
Now that you are all old enough to understand the importance of sharing God’s Love and Christmas JOY we are going to have an AWESOME 25 Days of Christmas!
I am still going to get into some mischief (lets be real I’M AN ELF) but each day I will bring a CHRISTMAS JOY mission!
OPERATION CHRISTMAS JOY begins tomorrow!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL SPREAD CHRISTMAS JOY!!

Love

ELFIE

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Check out my NEW BLOG.



Thank you for reading, if you feel like reading some more check out my new blog.



xoxo Melissa Mae




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

And the winner is...

Salty Mommy - - The reason i decided on Salty Mommy is I like the play on words. Salty can be the opposite of sweet, it can be used to identify salt water, it can be used to describe a christian. On dictionary.com the definition of salty is 1.tasting of or containing salt; saline. 2. piquant; sharp; witty. 3. racy or coarse: salty humor. 4. of the sea, sailing, or life at sea. I used visual thesaurus and it came up with the graphic I posted. I like that I was able to learn a new word while researching my new blog name. Piquant - engagingly stimulating or provocative. It is my hope that when you read my blog entries that they are piquant!


I went back and forth on Mommy and Mama The reason I ended up selecting Mommy was two fold, Salty Mama is already taken so that meant I would not be able to have Mama spelled this way it would have to be Momma. The second reason is my close friend Stephanie explained Mommy is younger then Mama. As I thought about it more and did some other research there are a few things associated with Mama that I did not want to be associated with. Big Mama, Yo Mama and Baby Mama. The idea that I am a Mommy is still new to me although our son has been a part of our lives since Feb 2009, it was Jan 2011 that he became our forever son and he calls me Mommy. So friends I am going to begin working on a better blog and with my graphic designer husbands help and I hope to become a better blogger. Thank you for joining me as I write about our lives full of adventures big and small.