Merry & Bright?

Hi!

I've been pondering what to write about for this week since I turned over my new blogging leaf last week. I thought I'd keep the new leaf turned over for at least two weeks :)

As you likely know (from last week's entry), I've been baking like crazy over here! Finished up some mini muffins of the Friendship Bread I posted about and these delish Peanut Butter / Oatmeal / Chocolate Chip cookies, too!

Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we host our Annual Holiday Dinner. 50+ people come and go for an open house style party with loads of buffet style food. It is one of my FAVORITE days of the year. I love having our house company ready and decorated for Christmas. I LOVE making LOADS of food - a big turkey, homemade noodles, mashed potatoes, "baked corn", gravy, stuffing, oh my! Clearly, this is 2020, so we are not hosting our Annual Holiday Dinner this year as we know it. This is the 20th year for it! So basically, I've been hosting these longer than I've had Homestead Phil around :) (This picture is from last year as our tree is not yet up! haha)

We considered two options for our 20th Annual Holiday Dinner. 1. Zoom - I think most people are zoomed out though, right? 2. Ask which friends within reasonable driving distance are interested in a social distance outdoor visit at their home where we can drop off some of these delicious cookies that I've been baking and Homestead Phil has been tasting! We snap a selfie, enjoy a quick visit, and move on to the next stop! If you know anything about us, we're kinda of "Go Big or Stay Home" kind of people. So we opted for option #2! Sounds more Merry & Bright! (Homestead Phil hasn't said it but I'm sure he would have preferred option #1!)

In addition to this revamped Annual Holiday Dinner, I've tried to brain storm as to how I/we can be an extra blessing to others to help bring them joy or provide some extra "Merry & Bright" in the midst of this bizarre season of life. I put up outside Christmas lights this year. Some years, I do it. Some years, Homestead Phil does it. Some years, we don't put up outside lights. Not many people see them but I wanted to see them and bring a smile to who ever may see them. I've also decided to wear my Christmas shirts around the house even if I'm not going anywhere. Usually I save them to wear them out for parties or shopping, etc. So when I wear them, I'm going to post to my FB wall so I can share my joy with others :)

At the same time, our state just mandated another shut down but they didn't outright say that it's a stay at home order. This announcement just came out yesterday to be in effect as of today. Even more reason to spread some holiday cheer, right?! Some friends are all in to participate in our Holiday Dinner - Revamped! Many, whether they are in or not have expressed out thoughtful, sweet, and generous this is of us. This is about bringing joy to our friends and family but golly... I just LOVE feeding people even if it's just a small box of cookies! Since the announcement by the state yesterday, at least two of my Facebook friends have posted offering help to provide Christmas to a local family to help lessen their burdens this year. Not just some copy and paste post but true heartfelt offer to help especially knowing that restaurants are no longer operating with dine in service which means less or no hours, barely any tips if any, and right at the time when restaurants are usually the busiest.

I don't share this for credit but to remember how this year has been very different and how we can each make some slight changes in our paths to bring some extra joy to others - help it be more Merry & Bright! I'm still brain storming on what else I/we can do and I still have a few things up my sleeve not just for the holidays but beyond! How about you?

Ready or not... 2020 is coming!

Hello!

We made it through Thanksgiving and Christmas and now we are clearly approaching New Years and then for us that means January "workation" and our Rent The Chicken Owners Conference!

This time of year comes with goal setting and reflecting. Are there things that I wanted to happen in 2019 and they just didn't? Of course! At the same time, so many other things were knocked out of the park without expectation! We are blessed! We made some big change personally and professionally which certainly had an impact on exceeding our expectations.

One area was my health. You may not know this but I am overweight. It was just getting to the point that I was having a hard time bending over for long periods of time, getting out of bed, and fitting into areas or "squeezing" through areas that had plenty of space for most people. At the same time, I just lowered my expectations to know that I would just be overweight forever. I lost some weight on accident in 2014 (building 54 coops in the front yard in 3 months!) and in 2017 (keeping up with a 6 year old!). Before that, I only ever tried two diets. One when I was in college which was a true diet saying how much and if what to eat at each meal (think tuna salad and raw veggies). The other one was fairly simple - eat when hungry, stop when full, and pray like crazy in between to not eat! I maintained for a number of years with that philosophy and a well used gym membership. I enjoy going to the gym but gym memberships where we live while working from home are far from convenient. (Yes, that's an excuse! haha) I do enjoy running but don't make it a priority.

Just like there are a number of ways to start with backyard hens, there are a number of ways to lose weight. This time of year many make resolutions to lose weight. My resolution is to keep off the weight I’ve lost in the last few months and continue to lose. However you are working to lose weight or maintain, are you able to continue if you have a major job change? An injury? An emotional life change? I have been overweight most of my married life and sturdy prior to that. Miscarrying babies wrecked my already a mess hormones which didn't help with weight loss / weight gain. One year, I cut out soda (and even now I only drink maybe 1-2 a month if that). It was also when I started running for the first time. After a month of running three times a week 3-6 miles per week and no soda, I lost 2 pounds. People always say the easiest way to lose weight is to stop drinking soda. Well... I proved them wrong! haha

You may have seen in the news recently about Intermittent Fasting? People who have never been able to lose or never been able to keep it off are losing and keeping it off BUT... the health benefits are astounding! Even people who don't need to lose are fasting for health reasons. Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure - they are all decreasing! Again not just with weight loss but those who don't need to lose weight have these health benefits from Intermittent Fasting. There are a number of effective intermittent fasting principles. These fasting hours are with water, black coffee, tea without sugar or cream, pickle juice, olives, and possibly homemade bone broth. Some people don't eat for 16 hours (including sleeping of course) and eat meals without snacks during an 8 hour time window. Others build up to 36 or 42 hours of fasting. When some eat, they eat keto or low carb / high fat or just their regular diet at meals without snacking. The huge benefit I see with this program is the higher probability to keep the weight off and continue with the health benefits once goal weight is reached. Since I'm not restricting my regular diet during my eating windows, there's no risk of adding too much "bad foods" as foods are integrated back in if that makes sense? Granted, once goal weight is reached, I will still need to fast a few times a week to maintain but I can plan that around scheduled events without an issue! I can successfully be in a vehicle and not *need* snacks and I baked without taste testing during a fast last weekend. Amazing! Anyway... I could say a whole lot more but I'll save that for another time.

I started this "Way of Life" or "Way of Eating" (or not eating as it may be! haha) on September 19th. I was sick in October and again for 3 weeks from mid-November through beginning of December and was not able to fully fast like I wanted but still did my best. Currently, I'm down about 25 pounds and dropped entire pant size with another size change coming soon!

Here are some helpful tidbits - Buy The Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung. Read the back two sections first "What to Eat" and "When to Eat". No snacks. Plan your fasts around celebrations to not miss them because of your "diet". Change up your fasting "schedule" to keep it challenging and exciting! (If you are on any medication that requires food intake, please consult your doctor before attempting Intermittent Fasting.) Find a friend who is doing this and be accountable. More people are Intermittent Fasting than you know about! It's kind of a Fight Club mentality of "What happens in Fight Club, stays in Fight Club" but with Intermittent Fasting. There are a lot of myths about it like I'm starving myself and my body isn't getting the nutrients that it needs, etc. My body has plenty of nutrients to feed off of while I'm fasting. Don't worry :) So I'm breaking the rules a bit by publicly outing myself and hoping for not a lot of backlash. Please be kind to me for being open about this as it's working for me and tens of thousands of others (that I know about!).

Happy New Year!

*taps the mic* Is this thing on?

It's been a LONG time since I wrote here. Much longer than I expected when I looked yesterday to see how long it really had been.

I have a lot to catch you up on but I won't spill the beans on everything at one time! :) The summer was lovely. It was full of laughs, hard decisions, and lots of purposeful visits with friends and family! I'll rewind though! We had a FANTASTIC delivery season since you heard from me last. Across the board with all of our Rent The Chicken Affiliate locations and our own, we met and exceeded goals for both Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken for 2019! We could not have done that without the support of our friends, family, Affiliate partners, and of course our renters!

We were told our RTC SUV needed extensive work right towards the start of our delivery season. We prayed and decided to trade in our little car for a pick up truck and that we'd pay the boat load of money to fix our SUV. Turns out... the shop who quoted the extensive work was off by a few thousand dollars and our regular mechanic had it done for under $100! Granted, we had to take it back within a month for some more work but it hasn't been back to the shop since! So we officially have a fleet of RTC vehicles in Western Pennsylvania! (2 makes a fleet, right? haha) We sold our old little RV and bought a modest pull behind camper and enjoyed a number of small and one larger trip this summer. We had a super great time at our local county fair - The Great Dayton Fair! I'll post more on that another day as there were loads of ribbons earned!

Homestead Phil surprised me with a small and lovely vow renewal for our 10 year wedding anniversary! Our niece, Brooklynn, from Oregon visited again this summer! This time, it was only for 6 weeks rather than 10 like last summer! The garden was great this season with more to come! Loads of onions, about 75# of tomatoes (salsa & spaghetti sauce!), hot peppers, green peppers, and a high yield of weeds!

I continued to help with the Girls Ministries at our church and have taken on a new role which is co-leading the "Friends Club" group for our 6th grade young ladies! I even chaperoned for a Girls' Retreat for the first time! Homestead Phil no... Commander Phillip continues to volunteer his time with the young men of our church with the scout group - Royal Rangers. They are stoked to attend a week long camp next summer call Camporama! We traveled to Indianapolis for Coop Camp with Coop Dreams where we separately held babies goats. Don't get any ideas, Homestead Phil!

We took in a Pittsburgh Pirates game with our little guy and his little friend earlier in the summer. We also went to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky with Brooklynn and two of her little friends. So powerful! We watched a parade then we were IN a parade and we even enjoyed a day at Kennywood! We also experienced our first Sprint Car dirt races! (Only spectating!) It was like motorcycle dirt flat track racing but with cars of varying sizes. Intense!

Givi Kitty is doing fairly well. Lots of partying at night and sleeping all day :) Oh and she thoroughly enjoyed multiple camping trips this summer as well! As if I don't wear enough hats and I don't have enough titles, I added "Norwex Independent Sales Consultant" to my resume! Norwex offers cleaning products without needing the use of chemicals or paper towels in less time! Let me know if you'd like more information or click here to peruse the webstore. And of course I still refer to myself as Homestead Jenn when I'm selling Norwex! :)

And.. I made it my goal to make sure all of the local ice cream shops stayed in business this year. My fav: Hand-dipped Caramel, Chocolate Covered Pretzel in a waffle cone. Wow. The rest weren't awful but that was my fav!

Catch you next time!

The Shift.

This time of year is full of resolutions and goal setting. It can also be a time of reflection on previous goals and resolutions. This time of year for us is a big shift. The last month or so, I've been sick twice (boo!), and will the number of incoming calls decreasing, instead of sitting at my desk, I made good use of baking cookies & spending extra time with loved ones. I wrote about a lot of that last week.

The week after New Years for us is always about The Shift. The Shift from a slower pace being plopped right back into the swing of things. Every January, we host our Rent The Chicken Owners Conference inviting all of our Rent The Chicken Affiliates to a local conference to kick off the upcoming Rental Season. Homestead Phil and I work on sessions that we will present at the conference, meals, social times, etc. We work on coordinating logistics, prepare the itinerary, and more. At the same time, we start to hear from more of you via email, telephone, smoke signal (j/k .. seeing if you're still reading!). We also increase our Affiliate Group Conference Call schedule from once a month to every other week through April. Soon, one of us will always have to be home during the work day as the calls get to be so often that they are hard to field on the road with just the iPad. I am not even complaining! Incoming calls are needed or we won't be renting chickens! As even more time continues, both of us have to be home during regular business hours. Homestead Phil ran a report recently on our incoming calls of April - June of 2017 vs April - June of 2018. We had over 900 more calls in that three month period in 2018 than 2017! Say, what?! We anticipate that 2019 will have an even higher inbound call volume!

We set a number of business goals but not typically many personal goals. Maybe this year will be different. I'm fairly certain, one can make new goals even without changing the year, right?

One goal: running. I really hope to be able to start running again soon. With two major sinus infections that caused my lungs to not function to full capacity in the last 5 weeks, I haven't been able to get out even when the weather has been nice enough. Maybe within the next week, my lungs will cooperate and I'll be able to share my running adventures again!

We were on a workation recently and Givi Kitty joined us in our little RV. We started using this term a few years ago where we are still connected to our phones / emails / social media, etc but we are working off-site or unavailable for a few hours during the week day. We could NEVER go on a workation in May for reasons I explained above. I think I could learn a lot from Givi Kitty as I likely don't rest enough. (I think she could learn from me as I don't think she works enough! haha) Here are some pics we snapped of her during our workation.

Annual Holiday Dinner

Every year since 2000 around this time of year, I invite everyone we know to join us for a meal. When Phil and I married, we changed the format from joining for a meal to open house style. It is for sure one of my favorite days of the year! It's A LOT of work but so fun! This year, we raised a few turkeys with one to be used at our Annual Holiday Dinner. The most stress I had of the entire day involved this:

Not before adding the majority of this stuffing being added to the turkey! Homestead Phil prefers the stuffing to be baked outside of the turkey which is why not all of it went IN to the turkey! :)

After 4 hours and 45 minutes, I decided to peel the foil off of the turkey above only to find that the turkey was PERFECT! It was so moist and delicious! Currently the frame is soaking in boiling water so we can make some broth to be used through the year. After about 50 friends and family members, lots of great food, many hugs, we ended our 6 hour party with only this much stuffing! It was ranked as one of the favorites of the day! That and Becky's spicy corn dip!

We asked as many friends and family to snag a photo with these create signs that Homestead Phil made like he did last year. The previous few years, we had a photo booth section. Although we really enjoy the photo booth photos, the selfie photos are great too! Here's a photo with me, the sign, and my friend Val.

Givi Kitty enjoys a good party just like I do! She hung out most of the time under the tree or in her cat tree. After everyone we left, snagged a few selfies with our lovely Givi to finish off the evening.

And just like that, our 19th Annual Holiday Dinner is complete. We're already talking about next year! Until then, I need to can the broth that's on the stove and freeze some of the turkey that is leftover in the fridge! Amazingly, of the 25+ pound turkey, we only had less than 5 pounds left!

The Plague!

Wow!

On Thanksgiving, two of our nieces came over for slime making, nail painting, baking, and Christmas decorating. In the midst of that, we took Homestead Phil to the airport to enjoy some warmth in Arizona with good friends and his dad & step-mom. The girls and I went to glow in the dark mini-golf on our way back from the airport! Not a great photo because ... well dark area and forward facing camera without a flash!

On Black Friday, I went to bed feeling like I had a scratchy throat coming on. By morning, it was legit a very sore throat on the way to a sinus infection. I was holding down the fort with the outside animals, giving Givi Kitty an oral antibiotic twice a day, and maintaining the businesses. I powered through for 5 days of a lot of time on the couch until it was time to pick up Homestead Phil from the airport again! Even after that, I would get small bursts of energy but was still pretty dedicated to the couch for another 3.5-4 days. During that time, Homestead Phil made an appointment for me and took me to the doctor. It was clear that this was not going away on its own! Two weeks later, the cough is minimal. I have a few days left of the antibiotic. This time of year is my favorite! Business is a bit slow as expected which means I take some time for myself! Being sick though, I missed out on more than a week of being purposeful with my time to bake, visit with friends, and prepare for our Annual Holiday Dinner! (More on that next week!)

So while I was doing this:

Homestead Phil was doing this:

So I'm back in full swing and ready to be purposeful!

An Update From The Homestead

Let's first chat about our beloved Givi Kitty. We made it through a week of IV fluids twice a day. We just finished a round of antibiotics. She's on a phosphate blocker. She loses her appetite far too much for our liking now and again so we provide an appetite enhancer for her to make sure she's eating enough. She's definitely feeling much better since my last update! She was drifting from the dining room wood floor as she made the turn into the carpeted hallway the other day. (Imagine a car drifting through a turn when the back end cuts loose a bit as the driver accelerates out of the turn. That's what she was doing as she was high-tailing out of the dining room!) She even hopped up on my desk all on her own recently! She's also back to sleeping on my head at night! She doesn't really like to eat alone. I blame that on our syringe feeding time when she was really sick a few weeks ago. So now she wakes Homestead Phil to let him know that she's hungry despite her food being right next to her and him beside the bed!

We gave a try to our first time of raising meat chickens. Meat chickens are not used for our Rent The Chicken rentals and our rental hens are not used for meat. Meat chickens are an end of line bread which means they do not reproduce. They have been bred to get chubby quickly and are processed around 6-8 weeks old. If they are not processed at that age, they start to develop health issues due to their weight. Homestead Phil does not prefer to process anything with feathers so we opted to use a USDA certified butcher to handle the processing. The chickens did fine in our care but we would prefer to have a better system for the next time we venture into this process.

We officially started making our Rent The Chicken deliveries here in Western PA. I think Spring is FINALLY here! We still have availability for rentals in most of our regions but some are very limited. We have to decide how many chickens to raise / order in October for them to start laying for the Spring. All of our locations decided in the fall as to how many hens they could rent for this Spring. We've also been accepting deposits since the Fall for Spring deliveries so some areas are almost sold out due to the popular nature of our service. Not sure if we're in your area? Click on this link and then click on the location closest to you: Rent The Chicken Locations

Did I tell you about Homestead Phil has wanted to badly to host chicken races? He finally got his wish at Farm to Table Pittsburgh and I FINALLY figured out how to take the video from within a message and download it. Here's a snippet. No spoilers! Go to our Rent The Chicken Facebook Page to watch. It will take you right to the video when you click.

Our church is hosting its Annual Tea for Women and Girls tomorrow. I'm super stoked! Two years ago, I took 2/3rd of my sister's daughters with me. Last year, I won an award for most creative! I wore my beach hat, sandals, rolled my pant legs up, and pretended that I was going to the beach! Here's a throw back from the first one I attended:

So much!

So much has happened since my last entry and I apologize for not being in touch sooner!

For my second year in a row, I traveled to the Southern Women's Show in Nashville to help Homestead RayLee of Middle Tennessee and Homestead David of West Tennessee with their booth. We had a contest on our Rent The Chicken Facebook page as to what we should name the "Show Hens". The results were: Dolly & Reba. Pictured to the right is Homestead RayLee with her sister Mandy and Reba (the chicken!). We had scheduled times at one of the speaker stages of "Selfie Chicken Station with Dolly & Reba provided by Rent The Chicken". It was a hit! By golly, we rented some chickens at the show! I think there were 40k people projected to attend. I'm pretty sure we talked to all of them! haha They host more events than just the one in Nashville. For the list, click here: Southern Women's Shows then click on the location closest to you!

We also had fun snapping photos with Patsy (the white stuffed chicken) at our booth. Please note the photo bomber in the middle of the photos! *innocentlook*

To make the Nashville trip even more egg-citing, my Mom and Aunt Bonnie tagged along! While I was talking about chickens for four days straight, they enjoyed the Show and toured around Nashville and went to Graceland! They made the trip extra special and I'm so happy they decided to join in on the fun!

And now for an update on Givi Kitty. Since my last entry, she had an additional steroid injection to help with her lips. Shortly after, she started being more picky about the wet food choices that we had for her. While I was in Nashville, Homestead Phil traveled all over our county trying to find food that she would eat. Ultimately, she just wasn't eating and it had nothing to do with the choices in front of her. :( Back to the vet we went this time for blood work. She's now on twice daily fluid injections, antibiotics, pain meds, and I'm feeding her by syringe with diluted wet food. The vet gave us pretty bad news in regards to her kidneys. :( A vet friend asked to see the results of the blood work and gave us a bit of hope. We are doing our best to make sure she is eating as much food as possible and that we are sticking to the treatment. We are far from ready to let this kitty go from this life!

Everyone I'm sure has reasons that their pet is so special to them. Since marrying in 2009, we've tried to grow our family the old fashioned way which resulted us being in a club that I don't wish upon anyone - The Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Club. In the last few years, we also transitioned into the Infertility Club. We adopted Givi when we needed something extra to love. As you may or may not know, we do not have any living biological children despite being pregnant many times. In 2011, we were pregnant for the 4th time. With our 4th pregnancy, the blood work and ultrasounds were looking to be on track. No matter the outcome, we knew we still wanted a something to hug and care for whether we carried to term or not. We are both highly allergic to cats but a cat suited our lifestyle at the time better than a dog. Givi has never caused us to sneeze, have itchy eyes, or any other allergy symptoms. It wasn't even something we had to get used to and she often sleeps on my head! She has been through pregnancy loss #4 and many more since then. She was such a comfort too when our Foster Son moved last fall. She has also traveled all over with us for motorcycle events, Rent The Chicken events, and she even traveled to Tennessee last summer for the Solar Eclipse! She's only 7 years old and as long as she is healthy, I want to continue to enjoy her in the crazy life that we live!

A Day In The Life

Crazy busy days are upon us here at the homestead! This is our busy season and it is good to be busy! If you're considering participating Rent The Chicken this year, don't wait to place your deposit as you may miss out! Our service is available in more than 60 major markets in the United States and Canada. Click on this link and then click on the location closest to you to find rental packages and pricing for all of our regions: https://goo.gl/ee8aLa

Just yesterday, we (as in me and our Affiliates) were recorded for a news segment in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; recorded for a radio show in Barrie, Ontario; scheduled a radio interview in Vancouver, British Columbia; got word of a TV interview in Middle Tennessee; and scheduled an interview with a local paper in Pennsylvania! Oh and we hosted a Facebook Live video of ducks hatching! We're now offering Hatch The Duck in Western PA as a pilot program. During our test hatches, we streamed live for the hatching. And we answered like a ba-ga-zillion calls, responding to just as many emails, and kept up with social media posts. We also, received the FREE Chubby Mealworms for each of our rentals for this year! Stay tuned for our media appearances!

Did you know that we're working on announcing the Top 10 Reasons to Rent The Chicken on our Rent The Chicken Facebook Page? Next week I'll post all of them on the blog to keep everyone up to date. No spoilers here! :) To find them go here: www.facebook.com/RentTheChicken

We (again as in all of Rent The Chicken) have a lot of events coming up! You can find a list here.

Update on Givi Kitty: She's doing FANTASTIC! She's loving her new wet food diet and is back on her 3 times a day nap schedule :)

We are looking forward to a weekend of reflection of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and His resurrection. We're continuing a new series at our church called "Fake News" and then we'll enjoy family time.
-Homestead Jenn

Givi Kitty

If you've been following my blog at all, you KNOW how much we love our Givi Kitty!

In the last few months, she's had a growing lip issue. It's defined as a "rodent ulcer" although it's not actually rodent related. There's no known cause and it is treated with steroids. We took her to the vet in the last two weeks. She received a steroid injection and was sent home with a topical liquid to be placed on her lips. That is not enjoyable for any of us!

Yesterday, after I landed a rental for North-Central Ontario (WOO!), Homestead Phil calmly said, "Can you come into the bathroom?". It's a very unusual statement. Like most, Homestead Phil likes his privacy in there! Givi Kitty had been bleeding from her mouth and there was quite a number of drops of blood in the bathtub. We couldn't stop the bleeding but we knew it was from her mouth and not coming from any other source. After borrowing a cat crate from the neighbor to contain her and a call to the vet for advice, the bleeding slowed. (We don't own a cat carrier because Givi walks on a leash!) *whew* As she started to clean her fur, the bleeding started again. :(

A trip to the vet that included in some time of her being left at the vet - although only a few hours to wait for the Dr to come in. She received lots of love from the vet techs at the office though! :) She was given a treatment to stop the bleeding from a scratch the size of a pin hole! She's now on a wet food diet and has been resting quite a bit since her adventures yesterday.

She just turned 7 a few weeks back and we are not even close to being ready to say our good-byes to her! We're hopeful that her lips continue to heal and that she doesn't have any more bleeding episodes!

Being Foster Parents

I'm sure I could dedicate an entire blog and not just a few blog posts to our destiny of being Foster Parents. One day I'll explain all about our journey to become Foster Parents but that's for another day. In March of 2016 after much thought and prayer previously, Homestead Phil sent an email inquiry to start the process of being Foster Parents. I woke to a text that said "I signed us up for more information to be Foster Parents". *blink* We received a follow up call first thing that morning.

Fast forward through 8 months of training which included a complete DIY kitchen remodel, a 27 day visit from our niece from Oregon, Brooklynn which included a 10 day road trip to the Mari-times in NE Canada! We received a call saying a set of brothers needed an emergency placement. On December 20, 2016, two boys, brothers, were brought to our home. At ages four and six, we were overwhelmed with stress, emotions, the onset of Christmas, and being clueless as to the trauma that children at those ages were exposed to. As it worked out, the four year old moved to a home better suited to meet his needs and the six year old who turned seven while with us stayed for 11 months. An incredible 11 months! A trying 11 months. An exhausting 11 months. An 11 months full of love. An 11 months we'll never forget.

We am so very happy and blessed to have been meshed with this little guy. He has no idea who incredible he is but I hope one day he finds out! I can't even put into words the emotions we experienced from start to finish and even now continuing to process the experience. My best advice to someone considering being a Foster Parent, open your heart as wide as possible to the child/children who cross your path and pray like crazy they remember your love forever. At the same time, know that the system is broken... BADLY broken. Although there are definitely some professionals in the industry that care for those they are responsible for, the system is not set up with the children in mind.

Due to our experience with "the system", we've prayerfully made a decision to switch to an agency that is focused on placing children who have already been in the system with forever parents - Foster to Adopt. Our credentials were transferred from our previous agency. We still had a number of meetings with our new case worker and passed our Home Study without an issue. So we won't have any "emergency placements" but our next placement will be strategic and planned. The phase we are in is called "matching". We read through online profiles of "waiting children" and send the links to our case worker. She then requests longer profiles of the children from their case worker. Sometimes she receives a response. Sometimes she doesn't. Once there's a case worker who has read our long profile (18 pages!) and we've read the long profile of a child/children (which so far have been devastating), then there may or may not be a decision made for all parties agree to meet - without the children. We have not made it that far yet as we've only been in the matching process for a few weeks. Once a sit down of adults occurs then a meeting with the child occurs either at the current foster parents home. Then maybe a meet up at a park or for dinner at our home. Then possibly an overnight stay and a weekend stay. All to determine if we are a good fit for the child and the child is a good fit for us. The move will then occur and the steps to terminate their parental rights will occur immediately followed by an adoption hearing.

Then, we will have something we've never had before. Our names will together be on a birth certificate of our first alive child. The little guy who was with us for 11 months will forever be our first foster child. But this future child, will be ours to call ours forever. I'm certainly romanticizing it as I know it will be a tough transition. It will be tough for us and for the child (or possibly children!). It's possible when our forever child turns 18, he/she may decide to go back to his/her birth family. Fostering is hard but rewarding. Foster to adopt - I'll have to report back on!

If you feel as though you have room in your heart and in your home, there are all sorts of ways to fill the room in your heart and in your home. You can simply ask families that you are close with if the parents could use a date night. You can find out if your nieces, nephews, or even cousins' children can come by for a few hours or to spend a weekend. Parents need a break! More formally, you can google "How to become a foster parent?" and then click on your state's results. It's not easy. The smile of his first time to the beach and his laugh when you make up silly songs and his first canoe ride (but always called it a kayak) and his tears when he has to move are all part of the process.

This was a deep one without many pictures. One day, we'll have pictures to show! Today is not that day. In the meantime, we'll keep focusing on Jesus, the memories of our 11 months, Rent The Chicken, "the matching process", Givi Kitty, and each other.
Much love,
Jenn the Foster Mom

Happy Birthday / Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe!

The amount of daylight is extending. Add to that Daylight Savings time. It's dark as late as 7:15pm here in Western Pennsylvania! Also, hens lay more eggs as the amount of daylight increases. So yay for increased egg production!

As we celebrate more daylight and evenings with more daylight, we also celebrate Homestead Phil's birthday! We also celebrate Givi's birthday on Homestead Phil's birthday too. When we adopted her July 31, 2011, we were told that she was likely born in March. It only made sense to assign her birthday to Phil's! Although Givi will pick Phil's lap every time if we are sitting on the couch together, she mainly sleeps on me at night. He doesn't allow her on his desk but I do. Or rather I tolerate it and he does not! haha Sometimes I think I have two monitors on my desk so she can sit in front of one of them and I can work on the other! From my desk, she does tend to go on a walk about across my chest and around my shoulder onto the back of my chair and back down again.

Homestead Phil is not a big sweet eater - I married him anyway! :) His favorite sweet is Peanut Butter Cookies so this year, I made them for his birthday. I knew I needed 20 to spell out "Happy Birthday Phillip" but, not all 20 would fit on the plate so this is what I came up with:

I'm not exactly sure where this Peanut Butter Cookie recipe came from but I would guess that it came from either my mom or my Gramma (my mom's mom).
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten (I recommend fresh eggs of course!)
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla. Sift flour and baking soda together. (I never sift anything!) Add flour / baking soda mixture to peanut butter mixture. Mix well. The instructions then say to roll into balls. I use a tablespoon Medium Scoop from Pampered Chef and drop them onto the a Silpat silicone baking mat. Then press down with a fork to make those fun tracks on the top! Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

I made a full batch when I could have made a half batch as all I really needed was 20 cookies! I baked the rest the next day after refrigerating the dough for a day. Homestead Phil did not complain! Well about the cookies. He complained about the weather that it was snowing on his birthday in March. I hope we're done seeing snow for awhile! C'mon Spring!

Food! err... Food.

The other day, Homestead Phil said "You don't talk about food enough in your blog." Agreed! My blog is "Family. Food. Fun!" I seem to be covering "Family." and "Fun!" but I'm lacking in the "Food." category!

Let it be known that one of my favorite foods is Macaroni & Cheese. Mac n cheese. Mac & cheese. Macaroni n cheese. Cheesy macaroni! What do you call it?

Boy do I heart mac n cheese! Probably my favorite one is a cast iron specific one. It takes awhile to make as it starts with bacon, then onions, etc but it is so delicious! Then it's baked in the same cast iron that the bacon was cooked it. DELISH! Here's a link: Macheesmo's Cast Iron Mac and Cheese! You COULD make it without a cast iron skillet or you could salvage one from your parent's or grandparent's stash.

I made this one recently only because I had leftover cream cheese from my holiday baking. I have more cream cheese in the fridge and I've been considering making some of that cookie dough dip. Have you tried it? It tastes like cookie dough but it is a cream cheese base so you don't have to eat raw egg. I do like to live on the edge and will eat raw cookie dough but if I'm having a dip serving size, I probably should steer clear of the raw egg. Anyway... this recipe was tasty although I didn't have any spicy brown mustard to add. I just used ground mustard. Here's the link: TasteOfHome.com Company Mac and Cheese. You can make it even if you don't have company coming over. I think I also added some meat to this one when I made it.

This is by far my favorite one to make when I need a quick meal. I found this recipe when we were in the midst of a DIY four-month kitchen remodel. All I used as a stove for four months was an electric skillet! This recipe is Skillet Mac and Cheese. I tend to add an extra slice or two of swiss cheese when I make it. I also double it to have leftovers and use more noodles than called for in the recipe. We know who raises 95% of our meet but by golly, I really love Hillshire Farms Cheddarwurst so I cut them up and put them into this recipe frequently. I've also put chicken, meat that tastes like chicken, and sausage. I'm not completely committed to macaroni as I also enjoy shells, farfalle, rotini, and radiatori. Without further ado, here's the link: Skillet Mac and Cheese! I've also made this in our little RV a time or two because it only takes one pan. Honestly, I make it in a pot more frequently than a skillet; however, I just got a fancy new 14" skillet from Pampered Chef that can hold a double recipe of this Mac and Cheese!

A Facebook friend, who apparently loves Macaroni & Cheese as much as I do, requested for Mac & Cheese recipes with the intention of trying all of the ones shared with her! I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand for a few of them BUT there was a recommendation of one that called for eggs! You heard me right! Apparently, it's a southern thing. Well... I pulled out my trusty new Pampered Chef skillet. (Let me know if you want one. I'll connect you with my cousin who sells Pampered Chef) and baked it right in that large skillet in the oven! This one is Paula Deen's and called The Lady's Cheesy Mac! It's the only one that I listed that wasn't called "Mac and Cheese". I like her out of the box name - not out of the blue box mac and cheese though! Homestead Phil likes it now and again but he can make and it that on the off chance that I'm not home for a meal. Here's the link: The Lady's Cheesy Mac. Interestingly enough, it calls for eggs but this is the only one of the four that doesn't call for flour. I'm sure if you have a gluten free pasta, you could make this as a gluten-free Cheesy Mac!

And a photo for your viewing pleasure of last night's The Lady's Cheesy Mac in my fancy extra large skillet!

Favorite Things!

As much as I LOVE chickens and I LOVE being part of all that is included with Rent The Chicken, I do have a few absolute favorite things. Of course I love Jesus. I love Homestead Phil. I love Givi Kitty. Yes those are all favorite things of mine. I'm talking about those can't live without items. You have those items too... I know it!

In no particular order:

Number 1 - My Camelbak. For ages, I've had just the simple one with a small cargo area big enough to hold a flip phone or keys. I bet the newer version of my favorite Camelbak now has a pocket big enough for a smart phone. I've had mine since flip phones were around though! We bought a second one for Phil when he started coming around because we couldn't share one on two separate motorcycles! We used to LOVE going on cruise vacations! We'd still love them except that no one would be here to answer the phone when you call to place your deposit to Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken?!? At any rate, some how Phil left his brand new Camelbak at a port! I still had mine though. :) So of course we had to buy him another one. We settled on one with some cargo space but not a full on backpack. When it arrived, Phil handed it to me for me to enjoy my new Camelbak. Say, what? I don't need one with all of that space! Here I was compromising on the one that I wanted to accommodate what he really wanted and he was compromising on the one that he really wanted to accommodate what I was looking for. So we ended up with one that neither of us really wanted but Phil uses it as I still have my old trusted one! So what do I use it for? Why do I love it so much? I use it just about everywhere! I use it in the vehicle on road trips so I don't have to refill often and I don't have to buy drinks. I use it while on my motorcycle so I don't have to stop every time I am thirsty. I've even been known to wear it at a backyard party! Is it silly? Yes! haha BUT... I don't have to worry about losing my cup or someone else drinking out of my cup by accident! :) There are a lot of jokes about what's in my camelbak though! :) Once upon a time, I also ran frequently and even ran in a few 5k races. I used my camelbak then too. Do you have a camelbak or something similar?


Number 2 - My sun visors. I'm not particular about color or logo but I do like the ones that velcro so I can adjust it around my ponytail. I have good visors and "chicken" visors that I wear when I'm outside doing chicken work. Sometimes I even wear a sun visor under my winter hat on those cold and sunny days! One day recently, I was washing dishes and the sun was very bright coming in the kitchen window. I grabbed a sun visor and put it on to block the sun. I bet I looked peculiar in my pajamas and a sun visor. It looked like I was getting ready to sleep in the sun, I bet! I probably have 10 or so around. Most are blue though as you learned that blue is my favorite color in this blog entry. In addition to being big fans of sun visors, I'm also big fans of Jimmy Johns and Rita's. I was gifted two from visors from both places just for being passionate about their establishments! I also have this awesome visor that Homestead Phil bought for me called a Headsweats visor! Sometimes, I'm even with a famous motorcycle racer while wearing a visor or the local 2017 Dayton Fair Queen (who's almost my oldest niece!)!

Number 3 - My Givi Bag. This is Givi Kitty's name sake! My "Givi Bag" is a hard case that is water proof, locks, and clamps right on to the back of my motorcycle! I've carried some unique things in that bag! To name a few: groceries, a case of water, pasta salad & meatloaf for a pot luck wedding (you heard me right!), and a bundt cake. I learned quickly that bundt cakes don't travel well in the Givi Bag. Cupcakes do much better! :) When Phil was commuting 7 miles into Baltimore City when we lived in Maryland, he also enjoyed using my favorite Givi Bag. To give you a true scope of the size of the one I have, it holds two full-faced motorcycle helmets! Hmm.. that may not help everyone understand how big it is. Well I guess saying that it can hold a case of water already explained that? Anyhoo, I LOVE IT!

Number 4 - Cuddl Duds! I only have one kind of Cuddl Duds but I have 4-5 of them! The ones I have are an under shirt that makes me feel like I'm being hugged! They are great for those cold winter days! I can wear them under a t-shirt around the house or under a fleece vest for leaving the house. They are great for those cold Spring or Fall days when delivering or picking up Rent The Chicken rentals as well! I like the "Softwear" ones. I heart my Cuddl Duds so much that I asked for Cuddl Duds flannel sheets for Christmas last year! They are delightful!

Why "Homestead Jenn"?

I may have jumped the gun on this whole "I'm a blogger now" thing! Apparently there are new phrases like "pinterest photo" and "blog hops". There's a way to make a posted photo be "pinnable" - another word I just learned! haha I'll have to save the learning of those buzzwords for another day! I did learn how to add the social media icons to my blog and to Rent The Chicken.com! If you need to learn how, be sure to read Christina's igottacreate! blog!

Before I describe to you how I became "Homestead Jenn", it's best to back up to tell of how "Homestead Phil" came about. Good ol' Homestead Phil has always been a dreamer and a visionary. When we were planning to transition from life in the city to life in the country, he had big dreams of a large garden, raising meat rabbits for food, and having backyard hens for eggs. For as much as he is a visionary and a dreamer, he doesn't always envision the steps it takes to get to the dream. That's where I come in! I'm the planner, the list maker, and the "what do we have to do to get to the dream?" of the team. Before we even moved, I put my foot down to say "You can pick two things of the three!". Needless to say, my foot didn't stay down very long! Phil was listening to pod casts and watching youtube videos on homesteading preparing for the next stage of our lives.

Once we moved from outside of Baltimore, Maryland to the country in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Phil started to convert into Homestead Phil! He studied the seeds to buy for his garden. He researched the best meat rabbits to buy and breed. One random day when I thought it was far too cold to buy baby chicks, he said "I'm going to buy baby chicks. I'll be back after bit." (Notice: I didn't say he researched! haha) I think he said it when he was going out the door so I couldn't give a rebuttal! We had ZERO supplies for chick raising. We did EXACTLY we don't recommend for people to do when getting into backyard chickens. Phil started calling himself Homestead Phil. He created a Homestead Phil email address and even posted to a YouTube channel for awhile until we shifted social media to focus on Rent The Chicken. I ultimately did not get crowned with the Homestead Jenn title until we hatched Rent The Chicken.com! So apparently, I'm "Homestead Jenn" by association. :) Each of the families that offer Rent The Chicken from their farm/homestead are also called Homestead So-and-so! You can read about all of them on my favorite section of Rent The Chicken.com: The About Us Page.

So here are some flashback photos of the start of Homestead Phil! The chicks that started the vision for Rent The Chicken are being inspected by Givi Kitty! There were no chicks harmed in the snapping of this photo. haha The baby rabbit was our first ever breeder rabbit, Fiona. The sprouts are cucumbers growing inside. Eventually when the weather broke, they were transplanted into the garden. Rabbits love to snack on cucumbers! As much as Givi Kitty loves having me around, she is truly Phil's kitty. She will pick his lap over mine almost every time. She likes to sleep on me at night though so it all evens out! :)

About Homestead Jenn - Family. Food. Fun!

So as you can probably guess from my blog title and the front page of my blog, I am "Homestead Jenn". I've been branded this because my husband is known as "Homestead Phil". One day I'll explain why. :)

I've been thinking lately that I might just be interesting enough to be a blogger. Maybe? I'm definitely not interesting enough to be a vlogger though! Maybe I am but I don't want to make the time and don't have the abilities to make it be awesome. At this point, I'm not sure I want to make the time nor have the abilities to be a blogger! A number of people have recommended that I start blogging. I know this needs to be personal but not too personal. Not everyone wants to know every detail of my life but It can't be vague-ogging. (See what I did there?) I absolutely know that I want to write about Family, Food, and Fun!

Family to me is all encompassing. I have my loving hubs, Homestead Phil who has been my hubs since 2009! He's my biggest fan, partner in life, business visionary, and most recently pots & pans washer! We have our ever loving Givi Kitty who we've had since June of 2011! We have a boat load (probably not as big as Noah's boat but still a fairly large boat) of family members. We have mothers, fathers, step-fathers, step-mothers, sisters, brothers, step-siblings, sister-n-laws, brother-n-laws, grandparents, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' kids, and more! Homestead Phil and I are co-founders of Rent The Chicken. We help members of our community to get started with backyard hens for fresh eggs. We also help farmers and homesteaders (our Affiliates) to add an additional revenue stream offering Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken. Every time we add on a new Rent The Chicken Affiliate to grow our mission of "families helping families to bring one single food source closer to the table", we say "Welcome to the Rent The Chicken Family!". We also use the same phrase when someone commits to participating in either our Rent The Chicken or Hatch The Chicken programs! Both "families" in our mission are part of our Rent The Chicken Family. Homestead Phil is also sometimes just known as Phil. Odd, right? Phil and I also have our church family. Our Pastor actually calls me "Famous Jenn" instead of "Homestead Jenn" because of the number of times I was on the news and in the newspaper shortly after we started attending our church. As if that's not enough family, we'd like to continue growing our family. We are foster parents. Our current situation is that we are in the midst of changing foster care agencies and we are almost re-certified.

Food - When I order something delicious sounding or I'm cramming a delightful sweet pile of goodness into my mouth, I like to put my hands on my hips and say "I didn't get all these curves for no reason!". Ideally I should cram less into my mouth and have less curves but alas, my will for yummy food outweighs my desire to have less curves. I love to bake and I used to be known as Jenn The Baker! I also love to cook. Often Phil says "I'm getting a little hungry.". Sometimes I make quick sandwiches and other times an hour later I've come up with a new creation and hope it's not awful! By then he's almost starving! haha We of course always have fresh eggs on hand from our flock of backyard hens. We try to consume as many local foods as we can between raising meat rabbits, Phil's deer hunting skills, the generosity of my aunt & uncle who include us on their pork processing, and Phil's large garden. We also buy a quarter cow about every other year as well. I love deer steak but there's something incredible about a porterhouse steak off of a locally raised pasture raised cow! We try to keep balance in our food habits so we still eat Pringles too! :)

Fun! We are fun and funny! (Although when asked who's the funny one, I will say that I am .. every. single. time.!) We do these Facebook Live videos on our Rent The Chicken Facebook Page every month or two and I've been calling them "Fun with Rent The Chicken". A number of people get the humor as Sheldon and Amy from Big Bang Theory have their "Fun with Flags" show! We love to make each other laugh and we love to make others laugh too. We enjoy adventures whether it be via motorcycle, canoe, car, foot, or our little RV! Homestead Phil is always coming up with adventurous ideas! One day I'll tell you ALL ABOUT "chicken races". Maybe one day I'll even reproduce a certain video of me chasing a chicken. Good times. Good times.

I'm sure this is the part of the blog where I post a photo or two and say that I'll write again soon! Looking forward to sharing about my Family, Food, and Fun!