I won a clutch of Serama hatching eggs on eBay Monday night so Eleanor would have eggs on which to sit. They arrived in the mail today.

Wouldn’t you know it. She hasn’t been on her nest since Wednesday morning. I put the eggs in the nest anyway, in hopes she will find them and decide she still wants to be a Mommy.

If she doesn’t pay any attention to them within 24 hours, I guess it’s up to my faithful incubator to hatch them. Oh I hope she wants them for her own. I really am not in the mind-set right now to maintain eggs in the incubator for 3 weeks.

I got my free cookbook from Jiffy Mixes in the mail today!

Click here to jump on over to their site and get yours!

Even though I made a deal with Mike that I would re-home my Seramas if Felicity could have a kitten, they are still here. The friend that was going to buy them just hasn’t gotten here to get them yet.

Eleanor has been broody for 6-8 weeks with a small break, but she continues to want to be a Mommy.

Thus far, we have been eating all the eggs that she and Lily lay. We aren’t ones that can manage eating the fertile ones, so we crack each one individually before using them to check for that “red spot”. Both gals started laying in May and we have not seen any ominous spots yet.

Until today.

I keep taking away the eggs that Eleanor tries to confiscate for her own, and put them in the refrigerator. I last took eggs from her on Thursday or Friday. I planned on cleaning their cage this weekend, and just forgot to watch for eggs.

Today, Felicity and I got ready to clean their cage. We put all three birds (Roosevelt, too) out in the backyard for a little scratching time. After that, Felicity got 2 eggs out of the area where Eleanor “sits”. I told Felicity I wanted to open them, just to see if Roosevelt’s work is “working” yet. (She has no idea what I mean) We opened up the first one, nothing, as usual. The second one OMG! I wanted to cry. There was a bunch of blood area and a teeny tiny chick moving around!!!! It was about 1/4″ long, and if the egg started incubation on Thurs/Fri, it would have been 4-5 days developed. Seramas generally hatch at 18 days, so it was almost 1/3 of the way “done”.

I decided that if Eleanor wants to be a Mommy, she can. So I went to the store and got some things to put together to make her an actual nest. She loves it and has only gotten out for a couple of minutes to eat since I put her on it.

I told Mike that I will uphold my deal, but not until Eleanor is over her spell of wanting to be a Mommy. Funny though, I think Lily is getting the same idea as Eleanor

The post with photos of our farm, that is.

Well…the seller backed out at the last minute. We had the keys already and everything. Seems the man was quite a flake.

Guess it just wasn’t meant to be. AGAIN.

Gregory loves to help out around the house. Felicity, on the other hand, hates it. A few minutes ago I was able to catch Gregory helping with the laundry on video.

So don’t ya just hate it when a friend or acquaintance says they saved $XXX.xx at the store using coupons? Usually it’s a ridiculous amount of money, and yes, they saved it using coupons. BUT what did they buy? Chips, sugary cookies, processed foods, frozen quick foods? Generally that’s what they have in their pantry and freezer because of all the couponing to save money.

Also, lets not forget the amount of time they spend clipping, sorting and researching on the best deals for couponing (and running to 2-3 stores). Just from the few I’ve talked to or read on their blogs, it takes them 3-5 hours a week but the time they do their coupon stuff and write their lists.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend our money on good healthy food that I pick out for our family(not food that was picked out because I had a coupon for it). I’d much rather us eat healthy foods and have spent the money on it than to be eating junk, with kids strung out on sugary processed foods and have a little more cash in the bank.

Do any of you use coupons and feed good, healthy foods to your family using coupons to shop? Please comment and share your secrets.

I don’t mean to sound negative, I just don’t understand all this. Every time I look through coupons, there are a few I would use, but not a whole heck of a lot of them.

What about you?

I just found this and wanted to share. It’s hilarious!

This is something our family is learning everyday. Everyone has their opinion on simple living, and many think those of us living this lifestyle (or learning to live this lifestyle) are quite um…nuts.

I read this post by Amy over at Homestead Revival this morning. She really has hit the nail on the head with this wonderful post. Please go over and read, you’ll be glad you did.

If you are not already on the same page as those of us living simply, or working toward our goal of Simple Living, do take all of the information to heart and really think about what is being said. You just may change you mind.

We absolutely LOVE Melissa and Doug toys at our house! I couldn’t even tell you which is each childs’ favorite. We have lots of the cut and play wooden food, puzzles galore and loads more.

Which is your favorite M&D toy?

Well, regardless of your favorite, head on over to their blog and enter to win this:

There’s ways to earn more than one entry, just read the entire post.

Now who doesn’t like to get something FREE? I know I love to find freebies and giveaways!

You can get a free cookbook from Jiffy (as in mixes).

While reading my blogs today, through my Google Reader of course, I found an awesome giveaway posted by Gnarly Notes. Visit her blog for loads of wonderful information!

Claim your free cook book HERE.