The Chicken Diaries #3

For someone who has been used to the graded supermarket eggs, it did come as a surprise to me that four chickens of the same age and breed, sourced from the same farm and now living together in the same environment could produce eggs of such inconsistent size.

I actually love getting my big eggs and little eggs. They are useful for different purposes.

As well as inconsistencies in size, the number of eggs we get each day varies. Whenever we get a day when all four hens lay, it is a cause for celebration (often in the form of a fried egg sandwich). For a while, we thought that none of them were laying. I was worried that they were somehow not happy. Were we not feeding them enough? Did they not like the space we had created for them? Then, my daughter found a nest they had made at the foot of one of the huge lleylandi trees that form our back boundary - a nest full of eggs.

It does give me so much pleasure having the chickens. Despite the need to get up early to let them out and to remember to shut them away safely at dusk, I do not regret the decision to get them one tiny bit. The greatest pleasure is how much my children enjoy the task of going to collect the eggs, especially when they don't return empty handed.

Forty Miles for Lent

I've never been any good at the whole 'giving something up for Lent' thing but my decision to do something positive - to add something significant for the duration of time between Shrove Tuesday and Easter Sunday - has been really successful.

I resolved to run Forty miles for Lent. Every time I didn't feel like going out training or making the effort to get off the sofa, I thought about my Lent tally and renewed motivation had me reaching for my running shoes. Once I got back into the habit of running again it became very self supporting - the more I ran, the more I wanted to run.

Then came the snow.

I know that many runners go out in all weather conditions but the idea of contending with freezing temperatures, bitter winds and icy roads was just not that appealing. However, as soon as I could, I was back out and feel a great sense of achievement that I managed to total over 45 miles - never very fast, never very athletically, but job done.

I am loving how the calorie total for my Lent mileage is looking. Although 5,679 calories doesn't quite cover the energy value listed for the chocolate Egg that my husband surprised me with, it does feel like a relatively guilt free Easter.

These 45 miles are just the begining. I have a lot more training to put in before I feel confident about taking part in the Market Drayton 10K race this May...  but I am on my way.

Glitter glue and googly eyes

Although it has only been a short term,  I am definitely more than ready for this Easter holiday and to celebrate the start of it, I had a craft session with the kids decorating easter eggs.

Whilst I was having a lovely relaxing, post run (just under three slightly painful miles), hot bath, my husband got busy blowing eggs. He expertly blew six but by the time I was out of my bath and dressed, little Dylan had already 'hatched' a couple of them!

With the remainder, I tried to lead by example and show two under fives how easy it was to transform a plain egg into Buzzbee the bee with just a little paint, some cling film for the wings and a cocktail stick for a deadly looking stinger. They were far more interested in simply squeezing copious amounts of glitter glue everywhere.

Dylan's googly eyed creation

Addy does love glitter glue

The results weren't exactly stunning (although Dylan's actually turned out much better than his big sister's) but they did have fun.

By the end of it, I could have done with another bath.

THE EGG BODS HAVE LANDED!

The rows and rows of Easter Eggs on supermarket shelves proclaim the fact it is that time of year again. I will no doubt be filling my trolley with ovoid chocolate treats before too long but I can't honestly say that anything I've seen so far has particularly egg-cited me (sorry!!). It is all much the same as last year... and the year before.

What has made me feel like a kid again are the Mix and Match Collectibles from Bluw Toys - Egg Bods.

These wind up toys with characters such as Fireman Scramble and Nurse Eggwhite can be jumbled up to form a host of new characters to fire the imagination.

The video shows a cracking bit of fun we had with two of the Egg Bods sent to me for review.

Available at all leading toy retailers for £4.99 each, Egg bods would make a great Easter Gift. (recommended for children 4+)

www.eggbods.com