Saturday, June 15, 2013

We Have Chickens!

We never want life to become too slow or boring, so just to make things extra interesting, we decided to get chickens. The chicken idea came up over a year ago, when I ultimately said "no way" to chickens, and this year we revisited the idea, and I gave Walter the go ahead to work on a coop. We re-purposed a shed and turned it into a nice little home for our ten chickens. The only thing we had to purchase for this project was the fencing--how great is that? 

Sarah has been wanting to get chickens, so when we decided to move forward on the chicken project, I suggested we split the cost, and the eggs, and get five chickens each, and house all of them in our coop. Now we are enjoying joint chicken custody. 













"Now take a picture while I act like a chicken!"

Much to my surprise, Isabella chose to take a road trip with my parents to Columbus yesterday, instead of joining us to pick up the chicks from the chicken farm. She insisted that she "just needed to see her grandmas." I can't argue with that, so off she went, happy as a clam to have her own adventure.

Meanwhile, Sarah and I loaded the kids into her van, where Isaac was very upset that we'd moved his car seat and put it in a different car. Thankfully, once we were on the freeway, and he realized I wasn't abandoning him, he stopped crying. Getting the chickens was relatively painless, and as pulled out with the chickens in the back, we were certain this was either going to be a great idea, or a terrible idea, and we hoped they didn't die on the way home. I still can't believe we have chickens.

So far, Maya is the only one to actually touch a chicken. She bravely picked one up out of the bin whereas Sarah and I "gently" dumped them out. They moved as one and huddled in a corner, piled on top of each other.



A few hours later they became more adventurous, and this morning they are full of life and entertainment.












The chickens are eight weeks old, and these are the different breeds we have:

Plymouth Barred Rock (2) 

Rhode Island Red

Cinnamon Queen(2) 

Speckled Sussex 

Silver Wyandotte

Golden Laced Wyandotte

Columbian Wyandotte

Plymouth White Rock


More chicken information next time! 

Thursday, June 13, 2013

I Have Superpowers

Actually, you have superpowers too, and they're probably the same ones I have. For example, I can hold my pee for a really long time just so I don't wake a sleeping child who is content on my lap; I can hold my arm in the same position for at least an hour, even after it falls asleep, for the same reason as already stated--yes, I have timed my endurance, don't say you haven't. I can function (more or less) on a very small amount of sleep, even though a breakdown is inevitable in these situations, I still manage. I can tolerate being on hold for forty-five minutes with the medical supply company, doctors, etc, and still be polite. I can also tolerate an extremely exhaustive amount of crying from my youngest child, and have yet to dig a hole and bury myself in it, so I'd say that is a huge accomplishment. So yeah, you probably have some similar superpowers on your list. 

But I want some real superpowers. We were driving to Vacation Bible School (by the way, it's a good thing Isabella doesn't actually go to school. I can't stand having to be somewhere that early in the morning. It throws off my whole coffee/reading/children playing quietly in the background time. I'm such a good mom, I tried to convince Isabella this morning that we should just keep cuddling in bed and skip that VBS business) this week and Isaac was crying in the back seat because the sun was in his eyes...I want to be able to move the sun. I mean, that would cool. Oh, and the water falling from the sky this morning that made Isaac cry the whole way into Church--I would be able to get rid of that too. And as for laundry, if I had real superpowers; if I were a real supermom, I would just wiggle my nose and everything would be freshly laundered and put away. Why can't my dryer put the clothes away--that is so lame. Everyone is so focused on their car or their phone doing something magical, I just want my dryer to do something more productive than just drying

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This means a major topic change that I'm too lazy to lead into with a real transition. 

We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Cleveland Zoo. Isabella was most impressed with the animal poop, and Isaac, well, he couldn't get over all of the very exotic and rare robins and sparrows that were flying around. And then, after being mostly discontent for the entirety of the trip, he discovered a sewer cap, and thought that was pretty awesome. Needless to say, we don't need to go back. 





Isabella's reaction to the dinosaur that sprayed water...





I've had some major gardening disappointment. I lost most of my tomato seedlings, and all of my pepper seedlings. Trust me, I was crushed, and I cried, and despite the fact that I tried to rehabilitate them, they are gone. Isaac is also in the process of learning to garden. I gave him this marigold plant and he tried very hard to plant it upside down.

More on reading aloud, and the chapter books I have read to Isabella in another post, but I must say, we have definitely enjoyed reading The Trumpet of the Swan, and as you can see, Isaac is reading well above grade level.




Our woodland friend...



Isabella, planting her own garden...

This is completely random, but Bullseye enjoyed the tea party a little too much...

Choosing a birthday cake recipe (she's turning six on Monday!)...


Why does Isaac have a sticker on his back? Just in case we forget his name. No, actually, he becomes very attached to his church classroom sticker, and gets very angry if we remove it before he is ready. Usually we just have to change his shirt to spare him the disappointment of losing a sticker from his back that he can't see or feel. You'd think he would forget about it, right. He never forgets--ever. 

The peas, green beans, edamame, squash, zucchini, and sunflowers are all growing very well.




I am happy to report, that Isaac's mood is slowly improving, and as of today, he has walked more than two feet in one direction. Yes, my arms are tired, thank you for asking.
p.s. This is where we finally catch up to pictures with his new hair cut. My mom cut off over an inch all around, and Isaac basically acted as though we were slowly severing off his arm.