FUN Weekend?

Yes, I am questioning myself if this will be a FUN weekend.  Today will be, but tomorrow I am not so sure. 

But let's take it one day at a time.

Today will be a delightful morning for sure.  This little old house is getting a new stove!  As a stay at home mom who spends a lot of time in the kitchen I am beyond excited.  Our current stove is a 70s model that came with the house.  Over the past seven months she, the stove, has slowly been telling me she is tired.  Some days working fine and other days putting her foot down to even do the smallest task.  After several "in house examinations" by stove/oven doctors AKA appliance specialists it has been determined she is too old to continue this kind of work.  And just last night she had the courage to tell me, "no more, I'm done".   Lucky for me I was not right in the middle of cooking something.  But I was seconds away from putting something in the oven.  No sweat.  We'll move on to a newer and better machine and give this old gal a break.

And tonight me and my new kitchen friend will start our new life together at a high heat.  It's PIZZA NIGHT!!!!!

Now on to tomorrow. Tomorrow is a day we have been waiting for since the beginning of March.  Tomorrow is butcher day.  Tomorrow our family along with Brant's family will kill and process 47 (I think) chickens.  At the end of the day our freezers will be full of chickens that were pasture raised. 

BUT, my thoughts are blurry this morning.  I am thinking about tomorrow and what is to come....how will I react to all the killing of the chickens, what will the boys think, will blood be everywhere,  what will my role be,  will it all go fast, will we be working until dark (not likely), etc.  And so many other thoughts.  And then I keep thinking about how my husband put it in the first blog post on The Poultry Record .


Factory farmed broiler chickens never see the light of day. They are raised in cramped, overcrowded broiler houses with thousands of other birds. Selectively bred and genetically altered, their thighs and breasts grow so large and heavy that their bones cannot support their weight (have you ever noticed how big the individual breasts are in a package of chicken breasts at the grocery store?). Their beaks and toes are also cut off and they usually spend their short, miserable lives in the darkness to prevent fighting among the birds.

Several years ago, our family made a deliberate effort to start thinking about the food we eat: how it’s grown, where it comes from. And in the case of animals that we eat, the manner in which they are raised.

We are two families, who by the grace of God have been given the skills, abilities and desire to provide for ourselves some of the food we eat, and in doing so, to be less reliant upon the factory providers of the Frankenstein food products that have inundated our grocery store shelves.


And all that gives me strength for tomorrow and a little hope that it will be OK.   These chickens have been raised in the most ethical, honorable and humane way possible.  And we are extremely blessed to still have so many! 

So what part will I play tomorrow???  I sure as heck am not going to kill the birds.  The chicken plucker sounds like a fun job.  Besides the boys would love to help me with that. Google chicken plucker if you have no idea what I am talking about. Gutting the chickens may be pretty interesting if I don't mess up and break the bile duct!  Or maybe I could cut the feet off.  Who knows?!  I'll be back Monday to share.

Whatever it is I will be doing you can bet it will be a day I'll never forget!  And a day full of learning....talk about the ultimate homeschooling class!  Whatever I am doing I sure hope it is a FUN day. 

So what's on your agenda for this weekend?  Whatever you do get outside and have some FUN!