Where do I start? It's my birthday!

I plan on getting back in the groove of blogging. Our summer visitor / niece Brooklynn has returned back to Oregon after 10 weeks of being with us and Our Girl has started school. Both of those factors SHOULD mean that I have more structure in my life and can get back to some "Family. Food. Fun!" especially on Fridays on our Rent The Chicken Facebook Page.

I don't even know where to start! Instead of puking words out in just one blog entry, I will start small and give tidbits. So I'll start with this: My birthday is tomorrow (which will likely be today by the time I post this)! I am turning the big 4-2! For about six months of the year, Homestead Phil and I are the same age. Pretty incredible as we didn't meet in college or high school where one might think when our ages are so close together. We're not throwing nor hosting a big party BUT my mom's Family Reunion is on my birthday (again)! It's special to me. For as long as I can remember, I celebrated my birthday with my maternal Gramma. Her birthday was September 2nd along with one of my uncles. Her birthday morphed into a family reunion so it's like I always have a big family gathering right around my birthday on Labor Day weekend. Will there be cake with "Happy Birthday"? No idea but there is usually the best deserts in the whole county at our reunions! I made some of my famous "Deviled Egg Casserole" which is just egg salad! I also made gobs. They are yum and are known in other parts as whoopie pies.

On my birthday in 2013, the Family Reunion was held. It was also the same day that Rent The Chicken was first ever printed in a newspaper - front page below the fold in the local newspaper of my hometown: Indiana, Pennsylvania. That's confusing for those not familiar. Indiana is the town in the state of Pennsylvania. We were certainly the talk of the reunion and some of my relatives even brought copies for us to see! From there, the Associated Press picked it up and we were printed in even more newspapers! Here's a link to our OG article: The Indiana Gazette We didn't even have official Rent The Chicken shirts yet! :)

I love my birthday. I talk about it for about a week or so before hand. Pre-Facebook, I'd tell everyone that my birthday was approaching. I wouldn't be fishing for a gift. I just didn't want anyone to forget the feel bad. So everyone had a heads up! :) I love that Our Girl loves to tell people about her birthday. We celebrated her birthday this summer. Maybe it's her age or maybe she's like me and just likes to tell people about it! Maybe I act like a child in regards to my birthday? haha.. one or the other is quite possibly true! Either way... I love being with family, eating yummy foods, and hearing that great jiggle of "Happy birthday to you...!"

Remember when...

Remember when I used to blog at least once a week? I'll try my best to get back into the swing of things!

With our niece Brooklynn visiting for the summer, Our Girl (foster kiddo who we plan to adopt), day trips, maintaining and growing both Rent The Chicken and The Chicken Network, plus managing the home part of The Homestead, I've been a bit busy and maybe even overwhelmed so my blog took a backseat. In fact, it may have been on the back bumper and not even on the backseat!

We drove to New Jersey to be part of a Coops for Troops presentation. It was our first time but a number of our Rent The Chicken Affiliates have participated previously. To watch last season's episodes of Coops for Troops for free online, go on over to Coops for Troops! Scroll down to "bonus features" which are the actual episodes. It was an incredible experience. A local chicken 4-H club nominated a vet to receive the package of generous sponsors including chickens from Rent The Chicken!

We made a day trip to Old Bedford Village in Bedford, PA. It's been a few years since I've been there. It's this great "village" experience that stepped us back into the 1800s with basket making, history lessons, a blacksmith, candle maker, and more! They did have some chickens but none were available for rent! :) Like Aunt like niece in these photos!

We are well into #TompkinsPalooza2018 as I mentioned a few entries back. It's really about being purposeful with friends and family. Neighbor kids from up the road have been visiting again. They used to visit when we had our last little guy and it's good to have a reason for them to be visiting again. In addition to a few trips, we've also been puzzling (probably not the right verbiage?!), swimming in the river, playing board games, creating in the kitchen, and more! We also hatched baby chicks this week! Can you believe these kids are convinced that they need three meals a day?! Yesterday, "Uncle Dad" (as Homestead Phil has been renamed around The Homestead) "made" breakfast, we went out for lunch as we were out running errands and the natives were getting restless, and we traded eggs for pizza at our favorite local pizza place - Wolfies. I didn't have to cook one meal! There was a death in our church family so I did whip up about 3 dozen eggs worth of egg salad for the meal to follow the funeral.

Our IT department (aka Homestead Phil) is backing up my phone, updating my operating system, and has big plans for a phone upgrade for me. So I've been without my cell phone for hours! It's a good thing I have a PC and a work phone all conveniently located at my desk while the updates are happening. When I talk on the phone, it sounds like the person on the other end is a little mouse in a box trying to talk to me so I've been using the speakerphone option. Even my headset isn't work well. In addition to hearing people when I'm trying to talk on the phone, I hear the emojis with the last 27 iOS updates are pretty great! I wouldn't know, they all show up as squares and question marks when people send them to me. I just use my imagination as to what emojis are being sent to me :) All in a days work, right? Hot Date plans for our Friday night include a trip to the Verizon store. Yay.

Chat soon!
-Homestead Jenn

Coupon Codes and more!

I feel like all of my blog entries include "and more"! I think that's because I am down to one blog entry a week and I want to cram as much into it as possible!

First... we recently signed up for Groovebook at the recommendation of family. Here's the jist: It's an app that you pay monthly for that allows you to upload up to 100 photos in one month. They then generate a cute 4x6" book (with perforated edges) that is mailed to you once a month. Brilliant! For all of those photos that you snap with your phone but they never, ever, ever are printed! Brilliant! We received our first book today and are just as impressed as we thought we'd be! Here's a Coupon Code to use when you register and we'll get a free book too: Go to Groovebook and use Coupon Code: TOMPKINS1902 It's only $3.99 a month! You cannot even print 100 photos for $3.99 a month!

Things over at The Chicken Network have been great! We are preparing to announce a few more items! In the meantime, I created a special Coupon Code for those following along at home here on the blog! It's just a little something - Save $5 when you spend $30 or more. So go to The Chicken Network and use coupon code HJSBLOG5OFF! Discount Bundles are excluded as they are already discounted thus the name, right? :)

We picked up our 9 year old niece (Phil's sister's daughter) from the Cleveland airport on Monday. It was her first time flying alone and she did great! Before picking her up, we took Our Girl to the Cleveland Zoo. It was so hot. No joke. I almost melted. I thought I was starting to melt but it was a false alarm. It's crazy to think that our niece has already been with us since Monday! AND Our Girl has been with us for 8 days full-time! We are blessed! It was awfully quiet on our way back from Cleveland (aside from snores!)

Yesterday, the girls and I each donned a dress and I took them to the theater! It was a children's musical with about 40 children through 8th grade in the production. They were so excited to watch every move on the stage! Too bad I forgot to take a selfie. :( I made a big announcement to the girls this evening of "WE ARE NOT LEAVING THE HOUSE TOMORROW!!" They looked at me like I had 10 heads because we've been go go go go go. It's time for a break. Well.. a break from leaving the house. Except... we are out of milk. Someone is going to have to leave the house tomorrow!

This week: we made Rent The Chicken deliveries (the picture is of Homestead Phil providing a presentation to some campers at a Summer Camp who is participating with Rent The Chicken), the girls went to summer camp one day, we made meals together, ate out, went to see our Amish friend, Levi, swam in the river, used the Easy Bake oven, and so much more! Oh and maintained essentially 2 businesses :) (Rent The Chicken and The Chicken Network!)