Kitchen Science Experiments and Rubber Eggs

I wasn't able to blog yesterday. Mostly, I felt horrible from the Lyme Disease and antibiotics. I'm in full blown Herxheimer reaction so it's been difficult to blog. Herxheimer is when you have a massive die off of bad bugs in your body. It has left me with tremors, muscle pain and joint pain and I can't get warm. The nurse came out yesterday and adjusted my midline catheter for my IV antibiotics. It wasn't working right but I'm thankful that I didn't have to have a new one put it. My track marks on my left arm are starting to disappear. I'm so attractive right now.

I didn't even take any pictures yesterday. Gasp-the horror! The ones I took for today are blurry because my hands shake. But since I didn't post yesterday, you all have tons to look at today.

Morgan had a soccer game last night that her Dad took her to. There was two games and a practice this week. That's her second from left helping the goalie. They lost 3-4 but I heard it was a good game.Tae spent the morning playing on This is Sand. Very cool site you can find in my links or here:

http://www.thisissand.com/

Patrick got lots of art supplies for Christmas and drew this fabulous bearded unicorn on a mountain top overlooking her egg nest...I think. Do unicorns lay eggs?

We did a few easy kitchen science experiments today. We love this experiment. Vinegar and an egg in a cup. In a few days...

the submerged eggs becomes like rubber and can bounce. The vinegar dissolves the calcium in the shell (I think) and seems to pickle it. Makes the whole house smell delightful. NOT!

We used eggs like these. All 9 of these are from my chickens and we got 4 more today. Look at the torpedo shaped one on top from my chicken Chipmunk. She just started laying and the eggs take a bit of time to get into the right shape. I have more chicks coming soon and will be able to sell organic eggs by the end of the summer. Aren't they beautiful in my Grandmother's antique ceramic bowl?

I'm finding a lot of kits that we never used for some reason but they sure are coming in handy when I don't feel well. This chemistry kit was in the back of the closet. The three hooligans reading the directions. Notice how interested Patrick is. Actually he was interested, he was just making a face at Tae who when I went to snap the pictures said, "Everybody say poopy!"

This experiment was supposed to show the kids "Capillary Flow". We folded a paper towel and ...

added two dots of red food coloring.

We put the cotton loop into the plastic straw and anchored it with a paper clip on one end and the other end of the loop went around the paper towel.

Like this very blurry picture.

Then the kids were supposed to add food coloring to the water and allow the wicking process to occur. Hmmmm...a little paper umbrella in that and I'd be all set. Looks delicious!

After, we made some cinnamon raisin bread from Bob's Red Mill mix. We've been trying some different gluten free items. I've been reading where gluten interacts with the Lyme spirochetes so we are trying whatever we can right now. Yeast and fresh chicken eggs go into the mix.
Tae helping with the mixer. He loves to help cook.

The delicious looking batter.

Fresh bread out of the oven. We tried a piece. It was horrible. Not very sweet which I expected and you couldn't taste any cinnamon. I guess it will be ok for toast in the morning. If not the chickens are getting gluten free bread for breakfast tomorrow.

I printed out some pictures for Morgan so she could work on her scrapbooking.

Tae took a break for lunch. Yumm-grilled cheese and Ranch dressing which he calls dip.

Daddy is bringing pizza and a salad home tonight for dinner. I don't cook on Fridays.

And lastly, today, some little girl just called my house and began singing "Happy Birthday Dear Auntie". It wasn't for me and when I told her that she had the wrong number, She said, "I don't care -You're my Auntie and I'm singing happy 50th birthday to you whether you want to hear it or not." Okay.....hey I'm not even close to 50 yet. Call me back in 10 years!

DuraSoft 3 Litetint

Lyme Land, Henna Art and Fresh Eggs

So do you all like the look of the new Blog? Cute isn't it. I'm getting good at this.

Let's start with the not so pleasant stuff. This picture below is my daily regimen of medication. Every morning and every night. Welcome to Lyme Land.

But enough of the unpleasantness.
Morgan worked on Math today doing angles, parallel lines, radius and circumferences. She did great. We use the Harcourt Brace book called Math Advantage. It works well for us. Patrick worked on some Math and Biology today. It takes him a while to finish Biology as it is a ninth grade book by Holt publishers. He loves Biology as always does well with it. His Math is coming along nicely and he's finally at grade level also using the Math Advantage program.
After lunch today, Morgan pulled out one of her Christmas presents. It was this really cool Henna Art kit that I got at Barnes and Noble. She's been bugging me for days to try it. This is what came in the box. The patterns, henna mix, instruction booklet and applicator tube. This is the pattern she picked. One of the most complicated ones there were. This is the mixture with the instruction booklet. It looked like stuff I scraped off my boot from the chicken coop. So the pattern Morgan chose didn't go well. The paste was too thick, and my hands were shaking from the Lyme disease. She washed off what I did and made her own but decided it was too gloppy and washed that off too. I guess it takes lots of practice to get it just right. We'll try another day.

My chickens are finally laying eggs and we are getting 2-3 eggs a day so far. I made myself some eggs for breakfast this morning...sunny side up. Isn't the pink egg in the center pretty? The rest are brown egg layers. I don't much care about color...they all taste good.

DuraSoft 3 Litetint

Chicken Nuggets Anyone?

DuraSoft 3 Litetint

So my chickens are now 17 weeks old. I've been checking everyday for eggs. These freeloaders need to start laying soon and earning their keep. The girls should be laying any day now. I'm looking forward to fresh eggs instead of the gross things they sell in the grocery store. One chicken is definitely moulting and it has no feathers under it's chin and looks ridiculous. Apparently chickens may not lay during cold weather, moulting season, tax season the lunar eclipse. I have no idea.

These pampered birds have the cleanest coop in town. I rake out the pine shavings in their coop daily and rake out their run. I hate a stinky coop. My coop doesn't smell at all-really.

I went on the chicken forum.....ok that makes me a total farm girl, when I knew nothing about how to raise day old chicks. It's actually quite informative. Back Yard Chickens.com if anyone is interested. So I wrote in to see what the signs of imminent laying were (yes they really it call it that). Some said to check their wattles-they should be bright red. They are. And has anyone ever noticed that chicken wattles look exactly like female labia? Just thought I'd throw that out there. And now that the vision of labia are forever burned into your retinas, here's something more.

The chicken forum also told me to check their "vents". Uhhhhh-is that next to labia because I want no part of it. The vent is where the egg comes out of. Chickens don't have labia's. What exactly am I supposed to be looking for in a vent? Dust bunnies? Now from what they tell me the vent is supposed to be moist (helps the egg to make a fast exit. Makes sense. Totally repulsive but makes sense. I think this is chicken foreplay. God help me. Okay, after playing chicken run in the coop trying to catch all 6 chickens I check them all except Chipmunk (the moulting one)because she craps down my leg as she screams in panic that I might kill her. Nope-no moisture in any vents.

Now-just so you know-when we take the dog to the vet and they say, "You need to express his anal glands," I also back away from that. That's what I have a vet for. Have at it. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any local chicken vets around.

So for now I will patiently wait for my girls to start doing their thing and am looking forward to some fresh eggs.