Okay, I gotta say, comfort to me is....

a fresh pot of homemade chicken-vegetable soup, a loaf of fresh homemade bread, all three of my boys at home, snow on the ground, and a stack of firewood all ready.  Aaaaah, this is the life!  Thank you, Lord.

The girls are sooo busy laying, we are averaging 16 eggs a day!  We've given some away and try to bake with them, but that's a lot of eggs... and it's not even close to spring (peak production time)!  Eric and I have an application in to get a permit and license to sell the eggs, which we will do out of my b-i-l's pharmacy, and at the market in town, come spring.  In the meantime, anyone want to buy some eggs?

It really is so cool to go out and collect eggs a couple of times a day.... between that and eating out of your own garden, you get a sense of how God originally created things to be... for us to be more self-sufficient than we all are this day and age.  It's SO satisfying being a little more self-sufficient and closer to nature.  I feel like we are starting to get our priorities straight up here, which is the reason we made this move to begin with.  We've got a long way to go, but we are on the right track, for our family.

I've been sewing (hand-stitching) aprons in my spare time, and that's a lot of fun.  I'm getting out the sewing machine today to see if I can become familiar with it... it was my great-grandmother's- the kind where it is in the table... an old Singer.  I feel like I'm channeling her a little when I sew, although I don't have her talent.  She, apparently, could sew!  But I do think about her quite a lot when I 'm sewing... she died at 92 (?) when I was in college, and she was a character.  I still have her Christmas ornament that I hang on the tree every year.. "Nannie, 1965"."

Rabbit was too embarrassed to show his face wearing an apron... go figure!

I'm also trying to wrap up a scarf I'm knitting (no pun intended!) and found a couple of other small knitting projects I want to try this winter... did I ever tell you that the first knitting project I EVER attempted was a grey sweater for Eric, who is not a slight man!?  It took me five years to complete (in between having two babies!) and is so baggy in one arm, he could stick a loaf of bread up there (although why he'd want to do that, I couldn't say) along with his arm.  But all in all, it really isn't TOO bad.  He CAN actually wear it, so I'm pleased.  But I've learned my lesson and now pick small projects...

Anyway, the boys are really great, although Rabbit just got over a little stomach bug where he was up every half hour puking, poor thing.  He was exhausted yesterday but got a good night sleep last night and feels MUCH better today (so good he could keep down an iced cupcake- that was his test! Although he pretty much just licked the icing off the top and drank a cup of milk.  I figure, if he can handle that, he's okay!) But I asked E if he missed Richmond, and he said no, he really loves it here... so that was great to hear.  He and his daddy are off riding the four-wheeler... you can't even see their faces, what with all the face masks and hats.... Rabbit's in here recuperating, watching Scooby Doo while I'm baking the bread.

So it's a great day.... hope everyone else's is great as well! Blessings....