Whoa! What an egg!

I got this egg out of our chicken coop this afternoon. It is the biggest egg I have ever seen. This is the egg in my (Brian's) hand.

Here is the egg in Jordan's hand.

Here it is in Iain's hands.

This is the egg against a quarter.

Here it is with two of our regular eggs (brown) and two grade AA large eggs from the store (white).

This is the egg in the grade AA large eggs carton.

And one more with a quarter, one of our regular eggs, and one grade AA large egg from the store.

I feel bad for the chicken who laid that egg! I wonder which one it was: Rezzie, Remember, or Badu, our three Barred Rocks. We have three new chickens too: Sweetie, Squeaky, and Pip, all Rhode Island Reds. Iain says I should enter the egg in the Western Idaho Fair.

Summer Sampler

Here are a few highlights from our crazy-wonderful summer:

Uncle Allan and Aunt Christine visited with cousins Daniel and Fiona. Aren't baby feet the sweetest?

Iain turned 4! We had a party at the park and Mama made a firetruck cake for the big day at home.

We camped at Yellowstone and drove through the Grand Tetons. I got to see my Uncle Greg on that trip!

Iain played T-ball for the first time and LOVED it!

We traveled, swam, went to a baseball game (Elinor's first!), visited with friends, enjoyed fireworks, and...

painted the house!

It was a full summer, rich with blessings.

Spring in the Foothills

A few weeks ago we went for a nice little walk through the foothills to Camel's Back Park. It is so nice to see spring coming! I love living in a place where I can enjoy the turn of seasons.

The trees are all budding, and a few in our neighborhood are even starting to blossom already! I must find time to finish pruning our fruit trees here in the next few weeks.

Three brave adventurers! A baby is such a fun conversation starter. Everybody wants to know how old she is, and if Iain likes being a big brother, and tells us how pretty Elinor is.


We took the Red Fox Trail up the hill. Iain did a good job keeping up-- our boy is getting very big!



In the photo above you can see the Capitol dome in the distance. I love Boise. You can walk in nature within sight of downtown.


Still snowy in the mountains! After we climbed over the Camel's Back, we descended to the park and played on the playground for a bit, which of course made it all the more fun for Iain!

Brief autumn recap

I have been increasing tired and having trouble getting around, but we still managed to have a little autumn fun in the past few weeks. Iain loves to cook and was very excited to help me make and decorate these sugar cookies.


He also throughly enjoyed pumpkin carving. We read "My Happy Pumpkin: God's Light Shining Through Me" before we carved it, and Iain took it as an instructional manual for the whole procedure. He turned the pages and told us the steps to follow.

And here is the finished result:


On Halloween we went to the Reformation Celebration at church. I was so busy, that I didn't get a chance to take many pictures, but here is Iain as a train driver and me as a medieval lady.

Autumn Mist

We had a lovely rare fog this morning, so the boys and I decided a little trip to the Greenbelt was in order! It's so fun to see Iain developing friendships.


It was pretty chilly this morning. There was even snow on the foothills.



We saw some geese gliding quietly in the fog. They were beautiful, but the the boys were so excited that they quickly scared the birds away!


Just a hint of fall color in the cottonwood trees this morning.



Iain and his buddy had fun "taking a race" down the Greenbelt. I walked as fast as I could and jogged a bit alongside them-- hopefully I won't feel that later.


Of course when we got home, we had to have some hot "tocolate" with "marshmelons." Yummy! I love autumn, and I'm thrilled that we've settled in a place that has it!

Lord of the harvest

The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Psalm 85:12

We've had a cold snap here lately-- the first taste of fall. With my new internal heater, I'm only too happy for some cooler weather. Alas, the cold has killed our garden. I harvested the last four zucchini yesterday. For novice gardeners we had a great crop and we learned a lot. We planted onions, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, cilantro, mint, pepperchinis, and strawberries. Our apple tree bore loads of apples, but they are sadly infested with worms. Next year we will be better prepared and spray in the spring.


I made fresh salsa, zucchini grinders, zucchini muffins, zucchini bread, and pesto. We had the blessing of sharing our abundance with friends and neighbors too. Next year I hope to learn to can and make more of our harvest last through the winter. I do have about 18 cups of shredded zucchini and some pesto frozen. We are also hoping to plant more variety and a much denser garden to increase yield and keep weeds out. Iain is very firm that next year he wants to have corn! I'd like to plant pumpkin and bell peppers as well. Next year our strawberries and rhubarb will be more mature and hopefully we will see more fruit from them.


It has been amazing to see food coming out of the ground in our backyard-- truly more than we were prepared to handle. What a blessing and such a wondrous testimony to God's loving care for His people and His world. It was great for this city girl to get a taste of the rhythm of the natural world this year.

A New Home for the Douglas Family

We're under contract on a HOUSE! A perfect little house for us, right in the city, with a nice backyard and washer dryer hookups! Here it is:


Welcome to our home. This is is our new living room.


Here is the dining area.

The kitchen.


The hallway, complete with two friendly faces.


I have more pictures of the bedrooms and the bath, but blogger was giving me grief about posting them right, so it will have to wait.

And the backyard with plenty of running room!


We're hoping to close March 17th. Buying a house at this point was so far beyond our expectations or even hopes. This is just a phenomenal blessing from God. Thank you Lord for blessing us over and above what we could think possible.

We're just thrilled to pieces!