Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a mini muffin tin with liners. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt, mixing well to combine. Set aside.

Never underestimate the power of some white paint! Here is one of my favorite photos that we took that first month:

Our condo in Maryland. This was the very first place we ever lived in together. It was tiny and average but I remember feeling like it was a palace! It was our own! We could do whatever we wanted! I was very much into dark colors at this point - note the brown living room wall and the "eggplant" colored kitchen. Oy!! Here's another shot of the kitchen:


The kitchen in process:

• Read, read and read some more! This stuff is not common sense! I have quite a hefty stack of "chicken books" including this Chicken Encyclopedia that was invaluable! 
• We are huge proponents of feeding our chickens organic feed. In my opinion there's not much of a point to the whole backyard chickens thing if you're still feeding them the same garbage they would at any chicken plant. And the difference in taste and color is unbelievable! We saw a change in the color of the yolks one week in!
• Out of all the water system we tried (and we tried about half a dozen!!) this was hands down the best. It never leaked, didn't fall apart, kept the water clean and was really easy to use. 
• Make sure that wherever you live you have convenient access to a feed supply store. There were many a day where we didn't realize we were out of feed and needed to make a quick run for some. Having a Tractor Supply store just a few minutes away was a lifesaver. 
• Install the coop in a place where you can see it easily from inside your home. Besides predators there are a million reasons it is important to always be checking in on your girls. I was constantly watching their behavior, checking their food and water levels and generally making sure that they looked happy and healthy. Sometimes they didn't and the fact that I could see it and intervene immediately was so important. 
• So many of the blogs I read mentioned this and I wish we had taken it more seriously - have an exit strategy. Meaning - be prepared for the possibility of having to end the chicken's life. I think it's important to note this going into the experience. It's not all cuddling chickens and collecting eggs. There are a myriad of reasons it may become necessary to humanely end a chicken's life (most laying hens won't last past one to three years and will become very ill). In our case the hen was suffering greatly and putting her out of her misery was the humane thing to do. Thankfully Kevin had plenty of experience with this from his days of working on the farm. 
• Do the math. Having backyard chickens is not as cheap as some may make it out to be. Between the feed (especially if you're buying organic), the hay (we replaced this constantly to keep the coop clean and disease free) and of course the bigger ticket items like the coop, feeding and watering supplies and fencing it will add up quick. I wouldn't look at it as a money saving exercise. For us it was about the act of interacting with the animals as well as knowing that we are getting the most natural and healthy eggs possible. 
• Weigh whether or not this is something that makes sense with your schedule. In our case we weren't traveling a lot this past year, I was home with the kids and it just wasn't a big strain on our lifestyle to care for them. However, if your family is one that likes to travel often this may not be for you as chickens do requite a lot of supervision and care. 

I was a pretty anxious kid, a very anxious teen and if humanly possible an even more anxious young adult. Every problem seemed insurmountable, every conflict seemed to escalate well beyond what was productive and every mistake or loss felt calamitous. It's taken many years of therapy and stacks upon stacks of self-help books for me to arrive where I am today - where my anxiety feels manageable, where I have a substantial amount of peace in my life. It's not that I no longer experience anxiety or feel overwhelmed, it's more that I don't feel as powerless in the face of difficulty as I used to. I feel like I can continue breathing. I now say "I can do this" much more often than I say "I can't do this."
There was one therapist that I was seeing right before our wedding that said something to me that has stuck all these years later - "I think once the dust of your early twenties settles and you build a home and a family you will find that a lot of your anxiety will be dulled if not eliminated entirely." At the time her words seemed foolish, how could someone claim that my almost weekly panic attacks and crying fits would simply "go away?" And yet, to a large degree that is what happened. Now trust me, there was a lot of work involved but having children has a funny way of sifting out what really matters. I found that being responsible for two tiny humans meant I had little to no time for foolishness, fighting, drama, grudges and general negative behavior. It became pretty difficult to get a rise out of me if it didn't involve the health or wellbeing of my family. It's been a grounding and ironically, incredibly calming experience.
Very often I get fed up with the routine, with the predictability of being a stay-at-home mum. The breakfast/diaper change/playtime/netflix/nap time/lunch time/diaper change/playtime/snack time.... routine that I can now do with my eyes closed can feel suffocating. True I have outside creative endeavors that help to keep me inspired and challenged but for the most part our days look the same. And as most parents know - they have to. Children crave routine, stability and predictability. Often if you deviate from the schedule by a mere half hour it seems like everything starts to run amok. But remembering what life used to be like for me helps me to find gratitude in the mundane.
Because apart from the boring tasks I also know that every morning I will be greeted with kisses and hugs from warm little munchkins that smell of sleep and innocence. I know my ears will be filled with the sound of questions and adorable requests like "can we have ice cream for breakfast?" or "can I feed Franny my waffles?" My days will be rife with conversations about digger trucks, whether or not it's possible to catch a bluebird, the utility of slippers, how many pets is too many, whether or not Bob the Builder is a superior show to Puffin Rock and whether dogs don't speak simply out of stubbornness rather than inability. I know that I will hear that I am loved more times than I can count and that two pairs of eyes will look at me as if I am their whole entire world from sun up to sun down.
And yes in between I will break up fights and pick up the umpteenth cheerio or broken crayon from the floor and mop up spilled milk but in this too I am trying to find the silver lining, the reason for gratitude. Because as much as we would wish it to be so the majority of life is not glamorous - it is not vacations, fancy dinners, travel, parties, promotions, holidays and nights out. The majority of our lives will be composed of millions of these tiny mundane moments. And what a waste it is not to cherish them, celebrate them even. These two little people that cause me infinite amounts of vexation are also responsible for all the good in my life - the calm, the joy, the peace, stability and the endless laughter that now fills our home. I have been blessed beyond measure and I want to remind myself of that daily.
I have a home to clean, carpets to vacuum, a fridge so full some of the food goes bad from being uneaten, beds with sheets that need washing, far too many clothes that need folding and furniture that needs dusting. But most of all I have three beautiful souls that need loving and give me more in return than I could have ever hoped for. May I never, ever forget that.