The Holland’s Archive

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Posted January 13, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

My husband left yesterday for a two week business trip in Naperville, IL just

outside Chicago.  I will be a single mom to four during that time and my two little girls woke

up sick this morning. Not the thing you want tell a doting Dad and Husband when he calls at the crack of dawn

to wake everyone for school and say  “I love you”.   But we will be off to see our dear friend,

who is also our Dr. this afternoon and everything will be fine.

Wise_Outdoor_Meals

Now if we could make the two weeks go super fast.

The last time my husband went out of town on business he spent his free time hunting shops

out that had cute chicken stuff and beautiful wool yarn.

He came back with the most wonderful things.   He has great taste.  He always buys something

pretty for me to wear and then something for the kitchen and of course the kids get super cool stuff too!

But do you know what he brings home that I love the best?

Himself

My Sweet

My Chris

photoweavers.com

d’Uccle Update

Posted January 9, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

We’ll the “Girls” are doing Great!

They are  3 days into their hatching (they went broody in the same egg box at different times over a week time span)

Strange I know— but it looks like these Gals are in it for the long haul.

Now that is what I call “Farm Girl Sister Hood”

and I think they should be our mascots.

JuiceBeauty.com

Here are some updated photographs.  I added a nursery to see if they

would take to it and they did.  They moved the chicks over and put one mom

in charge.  She actually has 5 or 6 more under her wings taking a nap.

The other moms come out in turn to take breaks for food, water and bathroom,

but then straight back.

The chicks are sooooo cute!   Thankfully the weather is warming back up

and they will be able to go back out real soon.

It Takes A Village–Even If Your A Chicken

Posted January 8, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

Well the freeze down here in the south has taken all of us to task.  We are really cold.

This is the coldest it has been in over 100 years.  My husband left the outside faucets dripping which is the

common thing to do during cold weather snaps here.  Imagine my husbands surprise when he

found an upside down icicle come morning. What a hoot.

Well the cold weather did not stop my little mommas. They huddled together through the night

I Love Crossstitch

and yesterday morning I heard the first sweet “tweet, tweet, tweet”

I don’t know if you have ever had the privilege to see a newly hatched mille fleur d’Uccle chick, but

they are so cute.  They remind me of fuzzy pop corn. Much smaller than standard size chicks (the eggs are about 1/4 – 1/3

the size). They are very active and bouncy.  They come with feathers already on their feet.

So my husband left out right behind the kids getting on the bus and he was not privy to all the excitement.

All the mommas are in one egg box believe it or not and

that egg box is a  nice big portable egg box that I had for one of my standards.

So I moved the girls and the babies inside.

…….and when I say inside, I mean into my nice big 1940′s style bathroom where they can be cozy

and messes are easy to clean up.

(My husband was not thrilled about this arrangement–Oh well–Moms do what they have to do)

I am just so amazed at how well these six hens work together all crammed into this egg box.

They actually have a system going.  One hen is  watching for pips and as the egg progresses she rolls it over to the next.

All the chicks hatched so far have been helped out by the same hen and cleaned up by the another hen.  All of the chicks are

now under the supervision of the two hens on the far left of the box.

The hens are very sweet and gentle.  They will let you pick the chicks up and they themselves like being petted.

If you put a chick down on the wrong side of the box. within minutes they have maneuvered him to where

he should be. back on the left side.

It takes a village  even if you are a chicken!

New Year– Time to Organize

Posted January 6, 2014 By Suzanne Holland
My Favorite Kitchen Friends

My Favorite Kitchen Friends

The new year brings an urge in me to clean and organize. Lucky for me it does the same to my husband. I usually start with the kitchen because it takes such a beating over the holiday. As I was going through the utensil drawers this morning I came across some of my favorite “kitchen friends”.
I have very small hands and have found through the years that the Big knives my husband prefers just don’t cut it for me.

I find it really hard to stay away from Sur La Table. I would rather go there than a clothes store or textile store and I am a Couturier. Probably because my other self loves to cook and bake and immerse myself into all things yummy.

Which brings us to the trips to Sur La Table when I slowly started building my collection of favorites.
Kuhn Rikon makes these incredible tools. I started with one small really sharp knife. I was hooked.
Next came the more than awesome can opener. Then another knife and on to the veggie peeler. I am not saying you can’t use these if you have Big hands(my husband is hooked on them too), it is just a really great thing for me….and they come in super fun colors.
The latest item is from Zyliss. I have 4 kids–I make a lot of sandwiches. Nothing is more annoying than not being able to clean out that last little bit of Nutella from the jar or spread the sandwich even and cut through the layers without destroying the sandwich. Not anymore. My cute little orange sandwich knife from Sur la Table has fixed all that.

We’ll let me get back to organizing and cleaning. I know for sure these guys are staying.
If you are cleaning/organizing too, I hope you are successful and having fun!

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