Stuffed

Oh my giddy aunt. You bunch of chickens!! I see nobody commented on my 50 Shades blog. Really? Y'all make me laugh. Now that I'm done laughing, here's what we've been doing.

• We slaughtered chickens on Saturday. Not our sweet, egg-laying ladies. These were our fat, meat chickens. It was time. I guess I should say we processed them. Slaughter is such an ugly word. We went in on chickens with three other families. There were 20 to start with, but 2 didn't make the trip. The chickens stayed at one house and the other two families took turns feeding and taking care of them. We live about 30 minutes away, so that was a little much for us. Our part of the deal was come process day, we help. It may sound morbid or gross or whatever, but I had the best time. Hubby helped with the bloody stuff and the main defeathering process. My friend S and I would fetch the freshly cleaned chickens and pull all the pin feathers. That was harder than you might think. The big girl would get them when we were done. She would wash them, bag them, and weigh them. If you know my big girl, and some of you do, you would think she would run screaming in the other direction. She did an awesome job. Because we were short 2 chickens, we divided them up by weight. We all got around 33 pounds of chicken. I made one Sunday night, then used what was left to make chicken enchiladas tonight. They were super good, I must say. I still have 4 chickens in my freezer just waiting. 
• I am ready for this election to be over. I am ready for politicians to actually start telling the truth. Romney said people are dependent on the government and feel entitled. He's right. Obama said he believed in a redistribution of wealth. He's an idiot. They both lie to get what they want. I'm a Ron Paul kind of gal. I think we need to stop supporting foreign countries until we can get our shit straight. I think Medicare, and Medicaid, for that matter need to be overhauled. I think all entitlement programs need to be shut down for a year. Sorry, stand on your own two feet. Tough love, baby.  I think education needs to be about education not test scores. And if a child needs to be left behind, then a child needs to be left behind. I think teachers should be able to find a way to teach where no child is ever left behind, instead of being beholden to politics and unions. I think lobbyists need to be banned from access to all politicians. I think we need to bring all of our troops home and hunker down until our country can stand on it's own. I think we need to work on our infrastructure and our outer structure. I think the two yahoos running for POTUS need to kiss my ass and apologize to all of us. That should get me on the watch list.
• I am down 2 extra activities. We no longer have bible study and I quit science co-op today. The kids and I cannot stand the curriculum. To see my kids physically cringe when it was time to do science just broke my heart. We are changing curriculum and are pretty excited about it. Moving on. I have no idea what we're going to do with our time. 
• We are reading Missing May as our after dinner book. It is about a man who lost his wife. They had adopted a little girl who's mom had died and was a distant family member. It's the story of how the two of them are coping after her death and how they aren't. The big girl had received it as a Christmas present in 3rd grade from her teacher. We had never read it. I felt like now was a good time. We are still having some grieving issues. I'm hoping this will help us cope. Good grief something needs to. I read one part tonight and almost lost it. The kids asked me if I was alright. Some days I am, some days not so much. 
• Speaking of reading, I'm hoping to get to a stack of books I have in the kitchen. We have a little corner table and that's where all the books go. I was looking at my request list from the library and I need to order more books. I did check out some e-books. I'm hoping since they downloaded through my cloud that I get to keep them. The problem is reading on my Kindle. I have no problem reading it, it's when I stop reading I have issues. I guess because I've focused so close for an extended period of time I have a hard time focusing far away for a little while. Naps help. I can shut my eyes and I can see just fine when I wake up. Of course, I don't always get a nap after I read on my Kindle. I just don't read for long if I can avoid it. But I got some really good books. 
• I read an article the other day on the debate between spanking and not spanking. One woman went so far as to say that if you spank your kids, she doesn't want to be your friend. To quote Johnny Ringo from Tombstone, "Bye."  We have always been spankers and we will continue to be. Does that mean I beat my kids all the time? No, it means I discipline my kids the way that works for them. Spanking does nothing for the big girl, but you take her phone and iPod away, and good grief, it's like she was dying. Time out works best for the boy. He would rather have a spanking and get it over with. The baby does not like to be spanked. She would rather do time out or have her video games taken away. Sometimes, though, the wooden spoon comes out and everyone gets a couple swats. Those are rough days, let me tell you what. 

That's all I have for now. I have emptied my brain and crossed stuff off my list. I'm gonna watch a movie with hubby. I like these nights.