Thawing from the big freeze gives my mind much to think about

After the big freeze comes the time to relax from trying to survive this arctic chill that consumed our lives the past few days. The kids are back in school today since Christmas break and although I love having them home, I am enjoying some quiet time. But the quiet just gives me time to think about too much time on my hands.

I've been cleaning and getting things in order. I do not take my Christmas decorations down until after Epiphany which was Monday. I do that to remember that Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season, not the shopping and craziness of gift giving. I give gifts I just don't put as much time into it as others and I'm not financially endowed enough to do the things I'd like.

While relaxing my mind I came across a few pages online about special needs moms and was drawn to it because I am one of those too. A blog for Mommies of Miracles Twitter page and find others like us.

Then there was a post on Mommies of Miracles that caught my eye, "God will give you more than you can handle" and I gasped thinking why are you saying that? But then when I read it, I had a whole new outlook. I can remember a time I was grieving so many years over a rash of close family members who died. It seemed they were all dying at the same time and I was always wondering who was next.

It all started with when I lost my paternal grandmother a few days after my youngest son was born, the next year my maternal grandfather (my mom's dad) passed away and exactly one year later to the day we buried him my mother died, and that was the most devastating thing for me, she was my heart. She was ill but it didn't make her loss any easier, then my step-father (her husband) died a year and a few months later and followed by my great-aunt whom I was close. Then another devastating blow was my father diagnosed with cancer and dying 8 weeks after we were told.

Then a close friend's son was KIA in Afghanistan who was like a brother to two of my boys and the pain and loss brought back all of those feelings again, because I can tell you losing a child is the worst feeling in the world and watching his mom go through all of that pain and suffering was heart-wrenching. I recently lost my step-mother and I realize that dying is a part of living, we all have our time, but it is never easy to let go and we will never get over these losses they are a part of our journey in life.

My eyes got a glimpse of a post on Mommies of Miracles and I read God will give you more than you can handle...and I read why and it made sense and some of the comments made even more sense.

Jesus waited to go to Mary and Martha when He learned that Lazarus had died. And when he went to them, He saw Mary and Martha and they were crying. The Bible says, "Jesus wept." John 11:35 but He knew what He was going to do; he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus had such compassion on His friends Mary and Martha that when He saw that they were crying, He was deeply moved and cried with them. It was one of His many miracles.

The hard part of life is death. It is a true principle that God will give you more than you can handle because you have to be made low in order to open your heart for the Lord's spirit to enter. This is what the Bible says about not giving you more than you can handle.

1 Corinthians 10:13 - "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond that you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." (New International Version.)

Still have all my fingers, toes and nose

It's so cold outside and inside for that fact that I feel the need to check my fingers, toes and even my nose to make sure it's attached in this frigid weather. I've lost quite a bit of sleep the past couple of days due to the freezing cold temperatures. It takes a lot of time and effort to take care of pets, chickens and children to keep them warm and safe. Our double-pane windows are so frost covered you can't see outside even when the sun is out in all of its glory like it is right now.

Even in the warm air you are cold when the temperatures including windchill is more than -20 F. I hesitated yesterday evening to take a shower in fear our electric going off-grid. I didn't want to get caught in the extreme cold with wet hair & body and no way to get warm. Finally, I broke down I just couldn't take it another day and I took a quick shower and dried off best I could. It luckily didn't take long to warm up in this dry air from our electric furnace.

School was supposed to go back in session on Monday following the holidays, but I have to say I was relieved to get the call the past 2 days that the children will be home during the worst of this arctic blast. The county court system closing was announced on Monday but parents had to wait until the early morning hours of Tuesday to hear that school children were not going to classes. Many parents on Facebook expressed upset at the schools idea of a 90-minute delay when the county courts were closed for sessions.

It's too cold outside!

I made the decision early Monday to keep mine home. Their safety is my biggest concern and many felt the way I did and decided early to take matters in their own hands. The rest of the state had over 400 closing before this little ole speck in the woods was acknowledged as being closed.

I must be a bear, I am in need of a nap...and since the world has put life on hold and it is too dangerous to drive anywhere to school or work, I think I'll take advantage of the extra sleep time. Have a great day!

Soup and frostbite symptoms

Hearty Beef Stew to warm up your day!

I think its time for a bowl of soup to warm up.

• Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup
• French Onion Soup
• Hearty Beef Stew 

It is below zero and double digit negative temperature right now and its the "warmest" part of the day. This cold spell has displaced my heat, stolen my beauty sleep and numbed my brain.

The main thing this cold January day is to stay warm and watch for signs of frostbite or hypothermia. Hopefully in 24 more hours the temperatures can rise and warm up my little neck of the woods.

Cold weather and hypothermia

Chicken Soup Submissions Wanted

Topics for possible upcoming books for Chicken Soup for the Soul

Deadline extended from December 31, 2013 to February 3, 2014.

My Guardian Angel stories from people who believe that they have encountered or been helped by angels. How did your angel manifest himself or herself?

How did your angel help you or someone you know? Please do not send stories about people who are "angels" because they do nice things, and also please do not submit eulogies where you say that your loved one is now an angel.

The deadline for story and poem submissions has been extended from December 31, 2013 to February 3, 2014. If you have already submitted a story or poem for this title please do not submit it to us again. We have it in our database and it will be considered for this title.

Reboot Your Life stories are all about a time when you were in a rut or your life being boring and dull. Hopefully you did something positive about that. What kind of major changes did you make that brought back purpose, passion and joy?

Did you start a completely new career, have a travel adventure or find a new hobby? Was it a new love interest or an attitude adjustment that helped you reboot your life? Chicken Soup for the Soul publishers want to hear your stories.

Stories can be serious or funny, but we definitely want them to inspire our readers to take a chance and give them the courage to reboot their own lives. The deadline for story and poem submissions is January 30, 2014.

All about birds on National Bird Day, just for fun

Many folks are bird watchers including myself. I usually don't know one type from another except a cardinal, blue jay, robin, hummingbird and a crow. Instead of getting involved in a local bird counting because I don't know many bird species and I hate math not to mention my memory sux anymore, I prefer to do different things when it comes to birds, I like find them in a bird word search puzzle

My mother used to have a clock that would tweet a different bird song on the hour. I always loved that and I even owned one myself. If you want to learn to name that bird here is the perfect place to listen and learn about the birds with a bird quiz.

How to avoid having bird collisions with your windows. 

Spring is not anywhere near but here is a recipe to make your own Hummingbird Nectar. I do this every year and have beautiful little fluttery birds around my porch.

Recipe 

1 cup white granulated sugar
4 cups hot boiling water

Boil more than four cups of water on the stove top. When you use more than four cups of water, you can adjust to the loss of water from steam. Carefully measure out four cups of boiling water into a large bowl. 

Add one cup of white granulated sugar. Mix the white granulated sugar and water together until all of the sugar is dissolved. Carefully place the mixture into the refrigerator to cool, usually overnight. When mixture is cold, take the mixture of the refrigerator. You now have a bowl of hummingbird food. 

Polar Vortex: What is it and why do we even want to know?

Polar Vortex is to blame for the cold spell we are having in the Midwest. What is a polar vortex? 

According to Wikipedia, a polar vortex is a polar cyclone. They can be mignogno cyclones, polar vortices, Arctic cyclones, sub-polar cyclones and circumpolar whirl is a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near one or both of a planet's geographical poles. 

A fictional example of what a polar vortex is similar to the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow which depicted three extremely strong polar vortices developing over and devastating the northern half of the globe.  They are supposed to be related by climate change and global warming. Polar vortices are strongest in the winter. 

In short, it is cold out and going to get much colder over the next two days. The winds are blowing and it has went from rain to snow, snow to rain and back to snow again and a lot of wind. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be negative double-digits will continue for two days. 

Let's hope these vortices do not produce dangerous scenarios like the movie. Be prepared and be safe. 

Red Junglefowl survive arctic blast despite cold temperatures

What are Red Junglefowl? Chickens. Mine are Rhode Island Red laying hens and it is freezing outside. All of our pets need to be somewhere warm and safe during this arctic cold weather, whether it is a dog, a chicken or any livestock.

Cold weather pet safety

We've had one of the coldest weather events in several years here in the Midwest and it nearly froze my poor laying hens. I got home through the drifts of snow and blowing sub-zero windchill weather and realized I needed to reset the light in their chicken coop. The blistery cold wind was whipping through every crack and crevice of their coop as I rushed around stuffing plastic bags in every opening to block the sharp winds and fixed the heat light in their coop.

Oh, they were very happy. As I was working they were talking to me as if to say thank you. Me and my "chickas" love to chat with me and during the winter we don't socialize much but they were definitely happy and thankful to see me hard at work for them. (Hopefully, they will pay me in more eggs.)

The heat light did such a great job that they got off their roost to cool off in the bottom of the coop throughout the night and that was even with their little door uncovered. (For some reason their removable door disappeared. We have it set up where they can knock it down and come out in the morning.) What really surprised me is that the rooster didn't crow all night like he usually does when we use the heat light. He surely was content as the girls and maybe sleeping in or maybe I was sleeping in and didn't notice.

Best website for learning about chickens: Raising Backyard Chickens. 

Until next time...

Neighbors chickens invade my yard.  The rooster decided to abandon these babes for my Rhode Island Reds and now lives with my girls.