Second Winter

We have almost made it through our second winter in Michigan. It has been less snowy than last year, but definitely still cold. We are supposed to get a couple of inches of snow today, but all the snow build up was able to melt over the sunny weekend. I feel adapted to the weather now, although I still do not enjoy driving in the snow and ice. We have had a few days where the ground was literally one sheet of ice from rain the night before freezing solid.
I can hear Betty the chicken being very loud right now. I think she's laying an egg. We got six eggs this morning, I think almost all of the chickens are laying now. It's fun to take the little boys down to check for eggs in the morning after taking the big kids to school. We give the hens scratch corn and mealworms, refill their food and water, and bring the eggs to the house. Since the water sometimes freezes over night in their waterer, I have a plastic bowl that I can fill.
Today is going to be laundry day since we don't have anything else planned. I want to brew tea and start my kombucha again. Its been in the fridge "sleeping" over the winter because we weren't drinking it fast enough and then the new bottles would pressurize when left to ferment too long, and explode when we opened them! I've been feeding the sourdough starter and its doing well. I want to try making a completely sourdough raised loaf soon, which looks tricky. It has to rise for 8-10 hours instead of the 2-3 with traditional yeast. I made some sourdough bread with Lora when she visited for Chris' birthday, but we used sourdough starter and yeast for a quicker rise, and it was not very sour tasting. It also had a close texture instead of the big bubble spaces you see in the San Francisco style sourdough.
Tomorrow is Wednesday and our busiest day of the week. Addison and Asher have a walking school bus about a block from school, so we drop them off a little early. They also need to have their running clothes (for Addie's Girls on the Run program after school) and swim trunks and towel (for Asher's Ready Set Swim program). Then the boys and I come home and get dressed and ready for the library. August has a 30 minute program at 9:30, and Alec has a preschool style reading hour at 10:30, so we spend the whole morning at the library. August and I spend the second session time downstairs playing legos, knitting, and reading books. They get homemade cookies from their teacher Ms. Mary afterwards. We pick out new books for the big kids, and lots of picture books. Sometimes we stop at Meijer on the way home for dinner supplies and lunch. When we get home, Bridget needs walking and we have lunch and usually need some quiet time. The boys probably need a nap, but neither of them will take one anymore.
This weekend Chris cut all the boys' hair and also the dogs. They look nice, although he left Gus' curls on top and I need to trim them a little. We also loaded up about 3/4 of the cardboard from the garage and Chris recycled it yesterday. I wanted to get the garage cleaned before it snows again, but it looks like that won't happen. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather next week and I can get the rest of the job done. I tried to fill Alec's bike tires the other day, and couldn't find the bike pump, so the garage definitely needs cleaning. Or the bike pump got left somewhere in the yard, hope not though. We also met some friends from church for breakfast at Connie's Cafe, our favorite breakfast place. They have enormous cinnamon rolls and we bought one for Dave and Sara because they haven't been there yet. We also took the kids to Dr. Seuss's birthday party at the library; they had a couple of crafts to do and some popcorn. Asher had a birthday party at the bowling alley for his friend Allie who lives down the road. After we finished at the library, we went back to the bowling alley and we all bowled and had pizza and root beer. It was a lot of fun! I definitely want to make it a regular thing; they have a family deal for $42 dollars with pizza and an hour and a half of bowling.
Chris started doing the ketogenic diet again this week for a 30 day Biggest Loser challenge they are doing on base. David and Sara are also participating. I am not doing keto with Chris which makes it a little harder for him, and makes me feel guilty so I might do low carb with him but not as strict. I packed him a leftover chicken breast with lemon cream sauce and broccoli for lunch, as well as some hard boiled eggs (from our chickens), roasted pecans, asiago cheese crisps, and some electrolyte water. He's doing intermittent fasting, so he will just drink his coffee and water until noon-ish. That puts him at about 18 hours of fasting depending on when he eats dinner.
I think thats all for now since I need to start some chores.