Mother's Day

I have to bring up Mother's Day for the sake of my own memory.  It's fading, fast.  I'm gettin' old here people.  But I desperately want to remember how much I love being a mama, and how sweet my girls are. (Especially tomorrow or the next day when someone is fighting over the bathroom or I have to pick up dirty socks off the dining table.)

So for that, I need to blog.

My girls awakened me early Sunday morning with great excitement.  I mumbled something about needing more sleep, but they wouldn't have it.  Noodle had prepared a beautiful breakfast of a fresh egg and cheese burrito with a side of neatly arranged tangerine sections.  I would have taken a picture of it had I had my wits about me, but it has been repeatedly shown that I don't have any wits at seven a.m.  It was an expertly prepared breakfast--since my sweet eleven-year-old Noodle has been preparing her own eggs since she was about six.  Poor thing had to learn.  Getting up at the crack 'o dawn to cook is not my forte.

As I was eating, Hopers gave me the gifts she made for me at school.  I can honestly say, I love some things about sending my kids to public school.  These little treasures they bring me are definitely one of them.  I'd never be able to coax something so funny out of them myself.

A refrigerator photo magnet.  Technically, I went to the school and took this photo (and one of each kid in the class).  There goes my hands-off theory.  But I wasn't in on what was being made with the photo, so it's all good.


But here's the funny part.  Parents out there, you know you love these...

 It's a purse.

 But a purse with a True Story.

Oh those goats...always slipping my memory.  It's 'cause I'm old, you know.

I love it when I'm nice, too.  Makes things so much more pleasant.

Mrs. Carroll is Hopers' teacher. Excellent comparison, Hopers, excellent.

There is a particular dark green dress I own that Hoper's always asks me to wear to church.  I never do, of course, because it's covered in sequins! (I bought for a cruise, once upon a time...)

Happy Mother's Day!

Keepin' Up With the Chickens

For all two of you who have been keeping up with my chicken adventures, you'll be glad to know I have updates!  I'm sure you have so many questions, like, "Just how many chickens do you have, anyway?" and "Have you looked into medication for this problem?"  Hopefully, I can answer these and more today.

You may remember our little group of chicks that we hatched from eggs in an incubator.  They are now about eight and a half weeks old now and we have whittled them down to three chicks.  By "whittling" I mean giving them away, since the alternative meaning would be really gross.  We gave away Penny and Smoky because we felt 99% certain they were roosters.  We also think Checkers and Uno are roosters, too, leaving Nugget as the only female we managed to get out of the whole batch.



Uno

Checkers

Nugget.
Yes, she has a beard and fluffy ears.  She's a little sensitive about it, so don't bring it up around her.  I keep telling her it's fine, it's just an Easter Egger genetics thing, but she doesn't listen.  Ah....teenagers.

You must be thinking, "Why don't you just keep the roosters?"  That's a whole story by itself, but the main reasons most people don't want roosters are:

1. They crow.
2. They fight with each other, sometimes to the death.
3. They have a weapon--a spur--that grows on the back of the legs, and they'll use it on you if they don't like you.
4. They don't lay eggs.

Now, these are not necessarily all my reasons, but they are good ones.  There are also benefits to having one rooster per 8-10 hens:

1. They protect their ladies from predators.
2. Hens are happier and lay eggs better with a gentleman around.
3. They can be just as friendly as a mouse if they have the right temperament and are raised by hand.

We recently sold Benjamin, our bantam Old English Game rooster because of reason number 3 on the first list.  He was becoming mean, mean, mean...even drawing blood a few times on Seth.

Too bad he was so purty.  He had to go though.  Not to mention, I have Checkers and Uno, who are completely sweet and docile and will let a child carry them around the yard, who can fulfill their rooster-ly duties in another month or so.

We still have his little harem of ladies out in the barn.  They have all finally started laying.  Between the 7 of them, we get three or four eggs a day (little eggs, since they're little chickens!).

The Seven Dwarves.  Eating scratch feed I threw down for them. 

And then.....

Let's see, that's three teenagers plus seven hens...that's 10 chickens we have living out in the barn.  But wait!  There's more!

We have babies too.

They live in the house, in one of those big blue storage bins.  Sometimes, they get to play in the yard. They're extremely cute.  Check them out:

Charlotte. She's a New Hampshire Red.  She is very sweet, learned how to fly out of the brooder very quickly, and will one day be a rust-red-colored chicken.

Mei Ling.  A Silkie. Hopers picked her out.  The tiniest little chick you ever held, she feels like holding a dime--a warm, flapping dime.  One day, she'll be a little ball of fluff.  Kind of like she is now.

Qi Qi ("chee-chee"). Also a Silkie.  Noodle picked her out.  Silkies are known for being good pets, their funny looks, having an extra toe on each foot, and not being able to fly because of their unusual feathers.

Charlie and Violet.  These two are Barred Plymouth Rocks.  They look almost identical, and are the same size, except that Charlie has white eye makeup.

The Golden Laced Wyandottes.  These two are older than the rest of the chicks by a week (they're 3 weeks old).  They balk at being held, but will one day be beautiful with lacy black and gold patterned feathers.  Meanwhile, they're scraggly, skittish, and I haven't come up any good names for them.  Any suggestions?

Miss Comet.  A Golden Comet.  She is super sweet and calm and I know she's a girl for sure because boys of this breed are an entirely different color. YAY!

So now you have the low-down on the chickens.  That brings us to a total of 18.  For now....
I met a lady the other day who had 49.  That makes me totally sane in comparison, right? No need for medication yet!

Although, I did see a Chocolate Cuckoo Maran chick online that....

*Ahem*

Stay tuned for more chicken adventures!

Spring Break Kids, Chicks and The Egg

We had a big day today. It was the first day of Spring Break (Monday). We had 11 kids from the neighborhood and beyond come and play at our house, including Noodle, Hopers, Tobi, Tabi, Jeremy, Micah, et al. The kids had a blast playing hide and seek, building a fort in the barn, holding chicks, riding bikes around the yard, playing tag, doing Tinikling (a Philippino dance), and generally eating everything in sight like a plague of locusts.

Meanwhile, Victoria, our only fully adult hen who has been holding out on us laid her first egg!

It's little (she's a Bantam chicken) and blue-green colored (she's an Easter Egger breed) but we couldn't be more excited about it.

And in other news, the chicks are 4 weeks old now.  We have moved them to a large dog cage inside the chicken pen.  The other chickens don't like the presence of these intruders, so it will be a while before we can let them all freely mingle together.

Here's the role call, with how they looked a month ago when they were born and how they look today:





Uno

 

Smoky



Penny

 

Nugget





Checkers

We still don't know who's a boy and who's a girl, but it was too hard to hold off naming them. We tried to pick either/or type names, except Penny, which probably guarantees we'll have a rooster out of that one.

We're praying hard that they'll all be hens, and in 16 more weeks, we'll be cheerfully showing off their first eggs!!

Pinterest

Thanksgiving Camping

For the last several days, I've been living in a tent, cooking over a fire, and not bothering to brush my children's hair. No, we didn't suddenly become vagabonds.  We celebrated Thanksgiving!

Our tradition, going back since I was a kid, has been to pack up and slip away to the woods for several days during this special holiday. No one has to worry about hosting a fancy dinner at their house (or even cleaning it for that matter).  No one has to answer work email or phone calls (no cell service).  Nothing but God's creation, plenty of play time, and of course, lots of food!

This year the involved families were: ours (Me, Seth, Noodle, Hopers, and Poppy the dog), my parents' family (Amie, G-Daddy, Tobi, Tabi, Teegan, Tate, and their 5 dogs), and Seth's sister's family (Jena, Dave, Kirsten, Katelyn, David and their two dogs).

We went to Aiken State Park in South Carolina. Originally, I was skeptical because 1. it wasn't booked up for Thanksgiving like every other state park in America, and 2. most of the reviews I read said it was "quiet", which in my mind translated to "ugly and boring."

My skepticism was for naught.  It was gorgeous. The landscape reminded me of the rolling, hilly woodlands of North Florida. The park boasted of two small lakes and a winding little river passing through it.  We soon discovered that, yes, it was quiet, and no, it was definitely not boring.

I think we were the loudest ones there.

Tate, Teegan, Katelyn, and Jena

We played a few games of impromptu football and soccer.

Hopers, Tabi, Noodle and Tobi

The kids roasted marshmallows pretty much any time they thought about it...which was whenever they were awake.

Dave and Seth

The guys channeled their inner manliness and spent lots of time hunting down wood and chopping it for the fire.

Seth and Poppy (left).  Poppy and Kirsten (right)

Poppy enjoyed camping as much as the rest of us because she got lots of attention.

On day 2 we found a big tree to play in.  It was my dad's idea: create a zip line for the kids.  You know whenever my dad thinks about trees, it means my husband will end up in the top of one.

Dad brought all kinds of climbing ropes and gear to play with.  Everything was super-duper rated for holding up huge things.  Like Tabi.

Me making a harness for Katelyn (left).  Seth trying his own harness (right).

I learned how to make a harness out of a single strap, some knots and a carabiner (Dad researched it and taught me). I became the harness queen, tying and untying straps on children as they took turns on the zip line. Seth thought it would be faster to use a ready-made harness, but after OW OW OW PUT ME DOWN he decided not so much.

Noodle, takin' a crack at it.

Everyone took a turn flying through the air and loved it.  Well, not Teegan and Tate.  They declined in favor of staying close to the ground.

Hopers

Katelyn zipping toward Tabitha. Aghhhhh! Tabi moved just in time.

I decided I needed a turn on this crazy contraption. I whipped up a harness for myself (I knew all those hours of knitting would pay off!) and clipped in.

Me, David, Hopers, Katelyn, Tobi, Noodle, and Dave

The kids thought it would be a breeze to pull me up to the highest point.  (They ended up needing a little help.  Darn you, apple pie!)



Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Next to our zip line trees was one of the lakes.  Did I mention this place was gorgeous?  I managed to hold down a couple of girls for photo ops.

Noodle

The girls.  Aunts. Cousins.  Tobi (9), Noodle (11), Hopers (6), Kirsten (13), Tabi (7), Katelyn (10).

On day 3 we found the other lake and decided to do some fishing there.

It was pretty, but the only thing we caught were frogs.  I think someone lied when they said the lake was stocked with catfish.  Either that, or the catfish were smaller than the frogs.

Hopers enjoying herself while Noodle pouts about the fishing.

We hung up our fishing poles in favor of a little canoeing.  There were canoes for rent to either paddle around the lakes or to take down the river.  My gang, plus David, were the only ones brave enough to travel a river in 55 degree weather, so we rented two canoes and jumped in to our little adventure.  We brought Noodle's i-pod with its waterproof case with us to take pictures.

The river was beautiful, the water was freezing, and Noodle was REALLY nervous about the boat tipping.

Me, Noodle and Seth were in one canoe.

David and Hopers were in the other canoe. 

Being split up, we lost sight of David and Hopers for a while, as they were the first ones in the water.  As it turns out, Hopers wanted to race us, but they spent a good amount of time getting stuck in low branches!

Every night, we settled around the fire after eating (way too much food).

Noodle, Seth, Tobi, and Kirsten

The kids took to drawing and playing hangman in the sand by the fire and singing songs...

Tate and G-Daddy (left).  Hopers (right).

...and making silly faces....

Jena and Teegan

...and telling stories....

...and giving the doggies some love.

Even with the temps getting down into the 20's on the last night, we all stayed cozy in our tents thanks to the great invention of the space heater. 

G-Daddy with Tate's frozen pants that had been left out to dry.

The kids all got along amazingly.  The food was out of this world.  We had our feast, of course, on Thursday, with turkey, fried fish, ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, macaroni and cheese, winter squash casserole, baked beans, rolls, green bean casserole, and pies.  Then, on Saturday night, we had a chili cook-off between the three families.  Jena made Green Bay Chili, which is a sweet and tasty beef and bean concoction served over macaroni noodles.  Mom made vegetarian chili with a side of "Noodle's Chili" to please my picky daughter who doesn't like onions and bell peppers.  I made venison chili, which has become a mainstay around my kitchen in the winter.

It was a really great trip. One of my top favorites ever, I think.  The kids are all begging to go back there again next year.  However, today is Monday. I am home and in the throes of a two-ton-truckload of laundry.  The kind of laundry saturated with campfire-smoke-knees-in-the-dirt-playing-hangman-loving-on-doggies for five days.  I am inclined at this moment to ban all camping forever! 

Good thing my laundry memory is short and my love for tradition is tall.

Happy Thanksgiving!