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Vamping Up Egg Production

Posted by html404 on December 3, 2012
in Animals, Business, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff

Jr. vamping up egg production by helping collect eggs.

It’s been nearly six weeks since our hens started laying. I can’t tell you how much we have been enjoying our farm fresh egglicious treats! Our homemade waffles, pancakes and baked goods are so much more light and fluffy. It’s amazing. And the girls have been saying they notice a difference in how the eggs cook as well.

Our original flock of hens.

I was slightly ambitious and marketed our eggs right away and quickly sold out of them! Yeah, even before we had eggs to fulfill orders….but we have a waiting list in case anyone dwindles off! Incredible, eh? We even had someone stop by the other day and asked if we have eggs – that’s with no signage whatsoever except for the farm magnet on our van which only states our farm name and phone number…no products but I guess they can see chickens when they are out.

All my marketing efforts were simply via email and we have a paid listing on Eat Wild ($50/yr) and Local Harvest ($25 suggested donation/year), but only one egg customer came through Eat Wild and she’s on our waiting list. Gotta love free to low cost marketing.

So based on this experience we will be increasing our flock for 2013 and have already started. We have a broody hen setting on two eggs now. It’s kind of an experiment because we came across two fertilized eggs while candling them so I decided it won’t do any harm in letting a hen sit on them to see what happens.

Broody hen update: The hens are sitting on the eggs but they don’t seem to be sitting on them consistently so I think we will be looking to borrow or rent an egg incubator to hatch out a batch of fertilized eggs. It’s kind of disappointing not to have one devoted hen unless something went wrong with the eggs or something. We may try again…we’ll see.

Candling to those unfamiliar is simply putting a light under the egg and slowly turning the egg to see if you find a dark spot, otherwise known as the fertilized egg. Candling is also used to detect any defects or cracked eggs.

Our hens have laid up to 17 24 eggs a day, then we had that cold snap and their production trickled back down to several a day. Then we (or my hubby did with Peanut’s help) winterized our coops since we will be over-wintering 32 hens/roosters and two turkeys and today we are back up to 15 eggs in a day. So we should be able to supply our egg customers with eggs this weekend. Yay! I am so excited to finally see our hens start paying for their keep!

New flock of 100 red sex-links, not a heritage breed, unfortunately.

Please Note: this was written weeks ago and just kept getting pushed back. And last week we purchased a flock of 100 one year old hens, sooner than we thought we would buy more chickens, but when the opportunity came from an area family farm we know and trust and with people waiting for local eggs we just went ahead and did it. The “new” hens are giving us 60-70 eggs a day and I really need to get marketing them as a few leads fell through from our waiting list. I have a couple of leads to follow up on and we have an event on 12/15…but I won’t be taking two week old eggs there because our slogan is “Fresh. Local. Every Time.” and I don’t want to be accused of not having fresh eggs.

Turkey egg and yes, they are a brown speckled egg.

Brownie, our turkey hen, also started laying…but bah-humbug she’s not very maternal. Disappointing to say the least but we have a farmer friend who asked if one of our daughters would be interested in incubating turkey eggs for her and we’d split the hatch, which will be a very cool farm, homeschooling learning experience! Farmer C has heritage breed turkeys which is what we wanted to try next year so here’s to hoping it all works out and goes well. We might even try and incubate some of Brownie’s eggs as we do want to do Midget White Turkeys again. They are very yummy! We ate one for Thanksgiving dinner!

Tom and Brownie, our Midget White turkey breeding pair.

Tom, our turkey tom, is still strutting his stuff. Every day this is what our pair of turkeys looks like with Tom following Brownie around.

So we are really vamping up egg production around here!

Oh and we finally got our electric fencing, but have yet to get the solar panel up and running. Technically we aren’t suppose to use the fencing or the solar panel during the winter or with snow, but we haven’t had any heavy snow yet….so we are keeping it up until the snow flies at least.

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Junior Edition: Reverse Charades Review

Posted by Professor on December 1, 2012
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas

Reverse Charades ~ Junior Edition

Reverse Charades is a hilarious twist on a classic stand-by (where one person acts out words for the team to guess ~ boring)! With Reverse Charades, the entire team has 60 seconds to act out as many words as one person can guess. It is fast paced, fiercely fun team competition that is an absolute riot with families. work teams, school groups, party-goers or among a few close friends. But be warned… you are in for big ad dangerous does of fun!

Contains:
360 double-sided word cards
sand timer
instructions

Basic rules (from the publisher):
1. Split into teams of three or more. Decide on a number of rounds or a point target to win.
2. 1 word guessed correctly = 1 point. Each team has one minute to guess as many words as possible.
3. Each team selects a guesser (everyone gets a turn) and the rest of the team acts out the words.
4. Shhh! Not a peep among the team members.
5. Ready, set, go!

720 words, for 6+ players ages 6 and up, geared towards Kids & Family.

Our Review:

This was a great game for our family. We brought it to Thanksgiving at my in-laws …and played it with everyone! We played with a total of 4 teams ranging in age from 4 – 65. It really was a great game for everyone.

I am sure you are asking exactly what is “junior reverse” charades. Basically it is the same thing as original reverse charades except it is geared towards children and family. For both versions of reverse charades the concept is very similar to the traditional version of charades… EXCEPT that the “team” acts out the word or phrase and only “one” person guesses. The game is only a slight change to the traditional game but LOADS of fun!

One thing we liked was the “boxed” format. Usually we play charades with everyone throwing ideas in a bowl and one person choosing from what everyone has written…then one person is the timer and so on. With this game everything is done for you (except acting out the silliness). We liked the addition of the double-sided word cards and sand timer…it took the hassle and thinking (time it takes to think of something to put in the bowl for the opposing team) out of the game!

This game will give us material to talk about for years! Everyone had fun with the silliness of the game. I actually think the adults had just as much fun as the kids laughing and acting out fun scenarios! We sincerely endorse this game if you are into silly family fun! If you have a family game night …this should be on your shelf!

For more information on the game and other products please visit: http://reversecharades.com/about-us/

Don’t forget to enter our Reverse Charades Review and Giveaway to win your own Reverse Charades game!

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Reverse Charades Review and Giveaway

Posted by html404 on November 30, 2012
in Contests, Faith and Family Reviews Friday Giveaway, Family Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giveaways

We love to play board games at our house but in recent years we haven’t played too many of them. Favorites include RISK, Monopoly, Stratego, Life, Checkers and Chess. Games in our home haven’t been very respected and pieces get scattered and lost, the box gets broken, then the board and so on. Our rule is we’ll replace them if we find them for $2 at a garage sale, which is where most of our games have been found.

When the opportunity came up to review Reverse Charades – the Original Edition I thought it would be fun and a break from our board game sabbatical. Not that Reverse Charades is really a board game since it has no board, but you know what I mean.

Reverse Charades Review

Our family was divided on how they liked Reverse Charades. We had older children who were not too keen about standing up and acting in front of us, even though we are their family. We had others who really liked the game and thought it was fun and continued to play it even after we quit due to little ones needing to be put to bed and certain grumps who were being “Debbie Downers” Always has to be one…

Over all I think most of us enjoyed spending some family time together doing something different. It was good to laugh and work together (we helped younger ones with their words).

The game itself is played just like charades always has been or at least how I remember playing it. The game box contained a set of cards and a timer. It retails for $23.99 and has gotten rave reviews across the web and beyond.

So if you are looking for something fun to do over the holidays seriously consider a game like Reverse Charades…..

Reverse Charades Giveaway

And you now have a chance to win your own Reverse Charades game!

Enter to win your own Reverse or Jr. Reverse Charades (Jr. Reverse review will be posted tomorrow) Charades set in the form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Maddie and Matt Happy Earth App Review

Posted by Brande on November 29, 2012
in Eco Friendly Products, Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Reviews, Techie Stuff

The Maddie and Matt Happy Earth App is a free earth friendly app. It is a wonderful tool for teaching your kids about recycling and helping the Earth.

There are 5 different activities. “Spot the Difference” is 2 pictures side by side and you tap where is the difference is. Is it actually tricky, but fun. Below is my Maddie and Matt Happy Earth App review.

Maddie and Matt Happy Earth App Review

Here is “Create your Own Happy Earth”. Which you drag and drop face parts to make a happy Earth.

Then there is “Segregation Game”. This one you drag and drop the trash into the correct can. If you choose the wrong can, it “throws” the trash back.

With “Choose a Screen” you select a bubble. When the screen changes it take you to Matt and/or Maddie and teaches you about conservation. For example, if you chose “Conservation of Water” – Maddie and Matt would tell you to turn off the faucet when washing dishes.

“Earth Facts” is very cool. By giving you 10 fact. When you select a fact it will show more about that fact.

Did you know the Earth is 4.6 Billion years old? Now, that’s what I call a bonfire! (Editor’s note: The Gould family does not believe the earth is 4.6 billion years old. That is what evolution teaches. We hold to the biblical view of creation which teaches the earth is actually only 7,000-10,000 years old.)

As an adult I really enjoyed learning more about the Earth and Conservation. This type of app I would suggest for kids 6 years or older. My daughter is 4 and doesn’t understand all of this information yet. But, this is a fantastic app for your older kids.

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The High Calling Review

Posted by html404 on November 26, 2012
in Articles, Business, Family Stuff, Reviews

I recently had the opportunity to read The High Calling newsletter. It is a weekly newsletter centering around articles about “every day conversations about work, life and God.” Below you will find The High Calling review that I wrote. I chose to review the October 24, 2012 issue.

The High Calling Review

The articles in The High Calling newsletter are short and to the point, almost leaving me with a hunger for just a little bit more. I really liked these articles in particular:

Gratitude as a Business Strategy by Dena Dyer was enlightening and encouraging as I thought about our little business ventures and I especially liked this:

Proverbs seems to agree, according to chapter 16, verse 25 (New Life Version): “The man who gives much will have much, and he who helps others will be helped himself.”

Stop Waiting for God to Tell You What to Do With Your Life by David Rupert was something I could relate to and testify as true because there have been many times my husband and I have just taken what we call a “leap of faith” and God has assuredly met us on the other side.

I believe God joins us only when we take that initial risk. If you have a tiny twinge of passion toward anything, you have to jump right through it on your own. It is there that God will meet you.

The High Calling newsletter covers many topics from work, community and culture to family, faith and attitude. These subjects are covered in the form of articles, videos and audio. I encourage you to check it out and see what nuggets you find to inspire and encourage you.

Faith and Family Reviews reviewed The High Calling in exchange for an Amazon Gift card. While we consider it a privilege to receive compensation for reviews, our thoughts and opinions are our own.

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Littlest Pet Shop Premiere Party

Posted by Professor on November 16, 2012
in Family Stuff, Furniture, Girl Stuff, Kids Stuff, Uncategorized

“Littlest Pet Shop” Premiere Party

Who does not love the Littlest Pet Shop toys? My girls certainly do! We were excited to see that there was a new cartoon featuring the lovable characters from the brand.

The cartoon premiered on November 10^th on the HUB TV network … and I am sure it will be featuring the cartoon regularly.

As part of the Mom select blogging opportunity we were given materials and the cartoon to review and have a party with our friends. Our children had a blast.

They obviously LOVE the toys so they were excited to see the cartoon. The cartoon is a half-hour show that features Blythe (a littlest pet shop character) and her father as they move into a big city apartment above the Littlest Pet Shop (which is basically a day camp for pets of all types). The story continues to show that Blythe has unearthed a hidden talent of being able to talk to animals. The show was a hit in our house and with all the children at the party.

Mom select and Littlest Pet Shop provided us with products and recipes to use during our party. We received masks, hairbrushes, and lip balms for each of the children at the party. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of the party as three of the guests did not want pictures on the Internet and most of the photos I have showcase their children. So to respect their wishes I have not included any photos.

Thank you Mom select, Littlest Pet Shop and HUB for providing us with this opportunity to host a premier party and watch your new cartoon feature!
http://www.hubworld.com/littlest-pet-shop/shows/littlest-pet-shop-show

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Grow with the Grain ~ National Bread Month

Posted by Professor on November 10, 2012
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Health, Health and Nutrition, News Worthy, Organic, Uncategorized

November is National Bread Month!

National Bread Month is a great way to remember to put whole grains in your diet.

We try to eat as many whole grains as possible… from bread, to pasta, to cereals. How do you incorporate whole grains into your lifestyle?

Here are a few things to remember:

Bread and grain foods provide many essential nutrients our bodies need to stay healthy and help fight diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and birth defects.

Whole grains are a good source of fiber and complex carbohydrates – and are naturally low in fat.
Enriched grains are also a good source of complex carbohydrates and are one of the major sources for iron and folic acid in our diets.

A big key to maximizing your health and energy is taking a look at your diet – including how you “fill your plate.”

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating six one ounce servings of grain foods each day.
Grain-based foods like bread, buns, bagels, tortillas and crackers are not only healthy, they’re convenient and affordable.

About White Bread/Enriched Grains:

White bread – whether it be sliced or as rolls and buns – is enriched, meaning that B vitamins including thiamin, and riboflavin have been added back in approximately double the amount of whole grains and niacin has been added back in its original amount.

Folic acid is fortified to over twice the amount found in whole grains.

Enriched grains are the primary source of folic acid in Americans’ diets and, according to the CDC , have been credited with a 36 percent reduction in birth defects since the FDA mandated fortification of enriched grains in 1998.

Enriched grains are also a major source of iron in the diets of most Americans and are a good source of complex carbohydrates.

About Whole Grains:

Whole grains are a good source of complex carbohydrates, numerous vitamins and minerals, and are naturally low in fat.

Whole grains are a good source of fiber and other important nutrients, such as selenium, potassium and magnesium.

Whole grains may lower risk of heart disease, some cancers and diabetes as well as other disorders, such as hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome and diverticular disease.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the sandwich! There are many reasons to love sandwiches:

Sandwiches are one of the easiest, most versatile and convenient ways to make a healthy meal for individuals or families.
Bread is the most important ingredient in making a healthy and delicious sandwich; it is the foundation of a great meal any time of day.
The complex carbohydrates in bread and other grain-based foods provide lasting energy the human body needs on a daily basis.

The sadwich shown above is the Avacado BLT…the recipe can be found here http://www.gowiththegrain.org/recipes/recipe.php?recipe_id=1144&featured_order=1

My children LOVE their sandwichs…favorites include Ham, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Grilled Cheese. Although Peanut Butter and Jelly is the GO TO favorite hands down for lunches!

Do you send your kids to school with sandwiches? What’s a go-to sandwich for you to include in their lunch bags?

I recently discovered Celebrity Chef Bryan Voltaggio who has created some delicious recipe creations. They range from traditional to interesting. Definitely worth a look see! You can check them out here: http://bit.ly/t9woak.

Chef Bryan is definatley a sandwhich innovator to learn more about his history please visit this link: http://bit.ly/REO3uL

For more information on National Bread Month and Whole grains PLEASE visit http://gowiththegrain.org/
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of the Grain Foods Foundation. I received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

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Melissa & Doug Terrific Twenty List and Giveaway

Posted by Brande on November 8, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Books, Deals, Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Holidays, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, News Worthy, Parenting, Shopping

Head over to Melissa & Doug’s Facebook page to enter to win one of their Terrific Twenty! Then, don’t forget to visit Melissa & Doug’s Website to see all of the Terrific Twenty and the many other fabulous learning toys Melissa & Doug has!

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Operation Christmas Child #OCCGiveBack

Posted by html404 on November 6, 2012
in Family Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giving Back/Charity

Years ago at a church we attended we participated in Operation Christmas Child with our two older children, they were wee things, but I don’t think we have done it since. The past couple of years one of our daughters has been asking to do up shoe boxes for children but we just have never got around to it….shame on me! Then BlogFrog sent out an invitation to participate in this year’s Operation Christmas Child shoe box campaign. Of course I had to do it, if only to hold myself accountable to get it done! I still found myself getting the shoe boxes and contents for it together at the last minute due to my tooth issue and the fact that I never put it on my Google calendar. I had it on my blog calendar and BlogFrog’s calendar but not mine, which is the one I use to send myself reminders of events, important posts coming due etc. We finally took a trip out one day last week to gather enough items to do four shoe boxes – 2 boys and 2 girls. I paired up our children so they could all participate in putting a box together for a child.

The shoebox campaign is a wonderful way to teach our children kindness, compassion and generosity! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I love opportunities like this because it helps us instill these values in our children by doing not just saying it.

Our Shoe Boxes

As I said before, I decided that we’d do four shoe boxes because I thought it would mean more to the children if they were able to pair up with a sibling and do some of the gift selections and shopping on their own…with a little guidance and a few parameters.

We chose a few things from our school supply stash and then we went to Dollar General, Family Dollar and Walmart for the rest.

Here is a video of the children as we put the shoe boxes together:

Our older boys were probably the least enthusiastic and our older daughter had to take our youngest son out of the room before we even started because he was trying to eat the treats we bought for each shoebox!

Junior was after all the treats for the shoe boxes so my oldest had to take care of him while we did up the boxes! Then he got into a tube of toothpaste. Never a dull moment around here.

I am never for sure how much the younger children take in on projects like this, but I do know from raising our older daughters giving back projects eventually means a lot more to them than it did. That’s why I like doing special compassion projects to make them aware of other people’s needs and put them first instead of themselves.

We are already planning on participating in putting together shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child next year! We thought we’d start right away so we could give more shoe boxes – my second oldest’s idea.

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Party Time with The Amazing Spider-Man! #SpiderManWMT #Cbias

Posted by html404 on November 3, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Movie Reviews, Movies, News Worthy, Reviews, Shopping

Ever since our first post about The Amazing Spider-Man our children have been eagerly anticipating hosting our party and watching The Amazing Spider-Man movie, which is due to be released on DVD on November 9th. It took us four different extended invitations before we found some guests available and interested in coming to a Spider-Man themed pizza party and each time our children asked, “Is so and so coming over?” so they were pretty excited when we got the yes.

We went party shopping at Walmart and bought fruit – we made carmel apples – veggies, Spider-Man themed party supplies and Marketside pizza. Walmart will be releasing Amazing Spider-Man themed Augmented Reality triggers that will be included on the pizza box & display pallet, triggering special Amazing Spider-Man experiences on the iPhone, iPad or Android in-store, especially for shoppers.

I found that playing hostess with people outside our household didn’t give me or my daughters the same freedom or time in snapping photos of everything and anything due to taking care of my guests. I tried though.

We ate first before going down to our basement to watch the movie.

The Amazing Spider-Man Movie

All the younger children waiting for the rest of the adults to watch the movie. Sorry about the dark photo.

The adults were upstairs talking and enjoying quiet conversation while the children were downstairs waiting. We interrupted them to get a group picture.

If you read my previous post, you know that we took advantage of the pre-order opportunity to get a digital download of Spider-man on DVD or Blu-Ray on Vudu.com. I also set up an UltraViolet™ (UV) account, which “is a new movie industry standard that allows you to securely store your digital movie collection in the cloud.” We really like online streaming technology.

The Amazing Spider-Man is rated PG-13, unfortunately for families with young children. I wish I had watched it in advance. I naively thought “Spider-Man…what could possibly be wrong with it” and neglected to read the rating, I should have known better. There were a couple of scenes I quickly had to cover up. A brief glimpse of one scene made our 10 year old son say, “That scene on the subway was unnecessary.” And guess what? He’s right.

The movie wasn’t bad, if you haven’t seen it yet, but a lot of the story line was changed if you are use to another version. Even the children noticed since they’ve watched the animated version. We tend to not like new changes.

After watching the movie we gave our younger guests The Amazing Spider-Man goodie bags and they left for home since it was getting late. We thoroughly enjoyed entertaining and look forward to the next time.

Friends talking

For additional information about The Amazing Spider-Man upcoming DVD release, check out Twitter (use hashtag #SpiderManWMT) or Facebook.

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment #CBias #SocialFabric” (Feel free to add any additional wording you would like such as “all opinions are my own”)