On my Way Back From The Coop

6" from snow storm Carol brought these lovely views:

Pool area. My chairs and table are almost buried!

I fell into a snow bank!

Dog run is full!

Looking back at coop. 

 From coop door. 

Chicken pen

Hazel, happy to have warm water and meal worms!

A few front porch photos:

Ignore the chaise - sadly it's going to the dump. 

I love the white stuff. It's so pretty. And last nights snow fall was fluffy, too!

Caffeine Consumption in Kids

I saw an article shared on Facebook and was going to leave a long comment but you know how people are so judgmental on Facebook so, here was my response that I later decided not to share in its entirety:

I with held soda from my children until it became a problem.  Ironic, huh?  My oldest, then a middle schooler (7th or 8th) would come home and tell me how his school mates would make fun of him and say bad things about me because I wouldn't allow my children to drink soda.  Up until then it had been on occasion, at restaurants, mostly - and even then they mostly chose the caffeine free sodas.  I eventually wound up purchasing 2 2ltr bottles every 2 weeks and told my 3 kids they could only have a 1/2 cup a day until it runs out then - that's it until I buy more.  That got to be a pain.  I eventually bought a soda stream (which we all LOVE) and still drinking soda is more of a privilege but one I'm less conservative on now-a-days.  However, I lost the battle with the coffee.  And, whereas my oldest didn't get soda until middle school, my youngest had the opportunity to drink it more regularly when I 'gave in.'  And, what the older kids get, the  younger kid wants.  So, my youngest began begging for coffee  -  which prompted my 'coffee rules.'  They are only allowed 1 tsp of sugar and 1 creamer.  I buy the little liquid packets because they could never eyeball the measurement by pouring liquid creamer into their cups from the big bottles.  My youngest can have, at most, two cups of coffee a day.  The older boys are old enough and responsible enough that I don't watch them with their coffee consumption but will admit that on weekends we can consume (all of us) up to 3 pots - Pots!- of coffee. 

Maybe not my most shining admission as a parent but some battles are not worth fighting.  There are definitely bigger fish to fry.

Mudroom Bench (&extras)

This is a charging station I made rather quickly.  The holes aren't exactly circular but it is pretty (in my opinion) and gets the job done. :) 

 

 

 

Not the best picture but this is one of two steel trash cans.  As you can see I wrapped some burlap around the center and wrapped some twine around that and added a tag that says, 'Woof' on it to indicate - this is the dog food.  :)  The other can is for chicken feed.

 

 

 

My mudroom still needs some final touches - and I've even added a rope along the top of all walls at the level of the bead board.  It looks cute but I need more bird decals that I had begun to decorate the top portion of the wall with.  They've been ordered.  More pic's to come.

 

 

Joshua testing out the bench - wearing his 'crown.'  :) 

 

I had two small pallets that I placed back to back for the bottom of the bench.  The seat is nothing more than a stair tread.  Then, I spray painted it black and added handles at the bottom to hold the pallets in place at the bottom.  Turned out cute, I think.