::30 Days:: 1

The only picture I took today:

We've been playing with the old Spirograph set lately.

Any one remember those?

I had a set when I was a kid and it used to occupy my time for hours.

Probably got rid of it when we moved.

I found this set at yard sale, almost complete.



Random Tidbits: Post-Easter

No new pictures to post. I've misplaced my camera and can't remember where I put it. I have 4 children that like to take pictures too, and if I don't keep it hidden, they'll run the battery down and I end up with 232 pictures of blurry close-ups of various toys, faces, and walls. Maybe 10 of those 232 pictures are absolutely priceless!

So Easter has come and gone.  We made the bunny teeth picture on the recent post into cards and sent them out to close family. They were a hit! It's fun to send out traditional stuff with a quirky twist.

Drowning in Easter candy. Oh my! I usually make a stop at the stores after Easter for clearance sales on candy, but I am passing on that this year.  We have lots and lots of candy and one very sneaky boy that loves candy! I'll find wrappers hidden behind dressers, under the couch, beneath the cabinets and on the floor in the pantry. tsk tsk! When I find Peter, he has a ring of chocolate around his mouth.  I'm not surprised-- when I was pregnant with him, I had a mad craving for chocolate and even dark chocolate made it's way past my lips!

Any chocolate that survives into the Fall will be transformed into Fudge.  I buy the clearance chocolate bunnies and total up the ounces and turn what was so-so chocolate into delicious fudge or bark candies. It's a good way to save money when it comes to buying ingredients needed for holiday baking. Just remember to keep the chocolate in a cool dark place and not in a room that becomes hot during the summers.

I need to re-locate the candy-- Stat! I think today alone, he snuck 8 lollipops! And of course, when the sisters see him with a lollipop, they want another, too!

Would you believe we had snow flurries on and off all day today?  It's not unusual to see snow in April where we are, but after several weeks of warm-almost-feels-like-summer weather, 50 degrees is COLD! Coming out of winter, 50 degrees is downright balmy! But we've gotten spoiled and it's just miserable around here!  The wood stove is roaring with a fire, sweaters and flannel sheets have come back out and thank goodness I didn't plant the garden yet! We had a freeze a while ago and a lot of the orchards around here lost a big majority of their apple crops. I sure feel bad for them. Calling for another freeze this week. Oh boy!

Local schools are letting out May 25th because they used zero snow days this year! Some other counties are choosing to close every Friday to keep the last day of school the same date, but this county is choosing to let out early instead.  May 25th! Wow!

Gretchen is working hard to earn money. She doesn't know what she is saving for, but she wants money! She's been helping me with the laundry and the dishes and general cleaning up.  They all have chores, but she's doing more than usual. It's been really nice to have an assistant helping to fold laundry and it sure made the work go faster!  I hope I can talk her into putting some of it into savings instead of spending it on toys. We were at Goodwill the other day and she offered to buy a toy for Peter, which was really sweet of her.

Evelyn wants to cook dinners with me more often.  She says she needs to learn how to make more dishes or else her husband will have to do all the cooking. I don't know where that came from, but we shared cooking duties and she was proud to have made the whole main dish all by herself and set the table and served up the dishes. They can all cook minor side dishes and simple meals like eggs and toast, but I've never let them do a main dish all by themselves. Peter is showing an interest in cooking and it's nearly impossible to keep him out of the kitchen! He drags a dining chair in and parks it right next to me so he can help, too! Sure makes me wish I had a bigger kitchen because it gets crowded in there with a kid on either side of me.

I have errands to run in the morning, so off to bed with me. Hope your Easter was filled with love and fun and Blessings!

Hard Lessons

Poor Evelyn.

She had a couple of hard life lessons to learn recently.

First, she took out her anger at her sister and destroyed an article of clothing. Big no-no. Her punishment was an apology, of course, and to also replace that item. So we took them to the thrift shop so Gretchen could pick out a replacement and Evelyn had to pay for it with her own money.

Lesson One.

We went next door to the grocery store to pick up a few items and for some reason, they all seemed to have taken a silly pill which resulted in poor behavior at the store. I hate when they act up like that and all I want to do is to hurry up, pay, and get out of there! Just as we were ringing out, Evelyn gasped and she said she lost her wallet!

Oh, no!

We quickly parked the cart to the side and marched up and down the aisles.  I wish I could say we found it, but no such luck. It was a cute little fabric wallet she made out of yellow cowboy fabric and held all of her dollars, probably close to $25. Went to the front desk to leave a note and a number to call if it turns up. One more check through the aisles and it was time to go.

When we got to the car, I told her I knew exactly how she felt, I once lost my birthday money when I was about her age and I remember checking at the front desk for weeks afterwards, hoping it would show up. I know it was no consolation to her to hear that Mama knows how she feels-- right now she is just so upset with losing it. I told her, in the future, she needs to leave her money at home, hold on to it tightly, or give it to Mama or Daddy for safe-keeping.

Lesson Two.

After we got home, she asked quietly if we could have a bowl of ice cream to soothe her pain. Ok, just this once.  Hopefully, some nice person found it and turned it in. We'll call tomorrow and again in a couple of days to see if it turned up, but I'd be very, very surprised if we ever saw it again.

Halloween 2011

The thing about living in the country is that we're so spread out from neighbors that children can't trick or treat around here. People look for other ways to go trick or treating, like the mall or other venues. A local church in town hosts a 'Trunk or Treat' in the parking lot out of the trunks of their cars. It works well, the kids yell "trick or treat" and a little something-something gets dropped in their open bags. We thought we'd try going to one of the little neighborhoods as well and I was quite surprised, though I really shouldn't have been, at how many people were parking their cars and walking around the neighborhood.  There must have been hundreds of costumed kids! I hope those houses stocked up on candies! We went to a couple of houses and then decided to head back to the car, there were just too many people and cars and I didn't think it was safe anymore. Plus, it was cold and started to mist so after a quick walk through the small shopping strip where each store was also giving out candy, we came home.

I made Peter a Transformers costume!

He loves Transformers and has several cars he goes to bed with. I found an image of Optimus Prime from the original Transformers cartoons and used that as my inspiration. I purposely made the outfit a little bigger so he could wear it longer and while I was sewing it he was so excited, trying on unfinished pants and sleeves and shouting in his little 3-year old voice: "Transformers! Transformers!" It's made from warm fleece, which could also be used as jammies or a regular outfit.  I also made a mask from the Transformers autobots logo but he refused to put it on for the picture. I could barely get him to stand still long enough for a picture.

So, time for trick or treating and what does Peter do? Absolutely will not put on the costume. Fine. He can use the Popeye shirt. Nope, won't use that either. I know! We'll put him in camo pants and he can use his camo jacket and he'll be hunter boy, except his camo pants were in the dirty clothes basket and after a sniff-test, determined to be too stinky to wear. We finally managed to get him dressed in regular clothes and after much screaming and whining, got him buckled in the car to go. He perked up once we got out of the car and went trick or treating.

Miss Gretchen as a pink princess.

Someone tell my girls to stop growing up! They were so excited for make-up! I never use make-up myself, but I had coupons to get free make-up, luckily, and bought some eye shadow, blush and lipstick just for Halloween.

Evelyn started out as Frankenstein's bride, but morphed into a black princess bride. I wasn't able to get to the store and buy hair stuff to make her hair black and add white stripes to her hair, but she was ok with that. She was just as excited to wear make-up and I tried to make hers a little more dramatic and boy, did she look like a different girl with all that make-up on! She made Piggy a costume, too!

Miss Sylvia wanted to be a princess, too, and while looking for a fancy dress to wear, she spotted this old Cinderella costume we had that was down in the basement for a couple years. It just fit her and she opted to wear this. Flimsy and poorly made, but she was happy and that's what matters.  I made her wear a shirt and tights underneath since it's see-through and it was cold.

Happy Children make for a Happy Mama.

I'm disappointed Peter didn't wear his costume, but I know he'll wear it later. I enjoyed making it anyway.

Hope Halloween was good for you, too!

Yard Sale Finds

We haven't been yard sale-ing much this summer. When we do go, I try and make up for lost time and hope, hope, hope that each yard sale I stop at, something good pops up!

Pickings have been so-so, but we did get lucky and found these adorable doll beds!

 They stack to become bunk beds and the girls really love playing with these.

We've talked about making blankets and pillows but there's so many other projects going on, we haven't gotten a chance yet. Probably later, during the colder months when we're all cooped up in the house, those long-awaited projects will get started. For now, they swipe their old baby blankets from the closet and fold them over to use for their dolls.

Want to guess how much I paid for them?

Two dollars!!

Score!



Nine

Evelyn turned nine today!!

Hard to believe that's it's been nine years already. It doesn't feel like yesterday that I held her in my arms, but it certainly doesn't seem like it was that long ago!

She is turning into such a smart, beautiful young lady. We are very proud of her!

Strawberry cake with vanilla frosting, as requested.

We weren't planning to have a birthday party since we didn't have one for Sylvia or Gretchen back in January, but Grandma and Grandaddy wanted to be here to share her special day and then my Aunt and Uncle came over and then next thing you know, Andrew's sister and her family joined us! Turned out to be a pretty special day for Evelyn.

Can you just hear the cries of "it's not fair!" coming from her younger sisters? Oh brother! I spent much of the day fielding complaints from Sylvia and Gretchen over every little thing and by evening time, I'd had quite enough griping. It was either hush up or go to bed right. this. minute. It worked for about half an hour before they started up again. I think I was more ready for their bedtime than they were!

Happy 9th Birthday Evelyn!!

We love you very, very much!

Another Tooth!

Goodness Gracious! This girl has got to stop spitting out teeth!! Evelyn's going to be nine next week and I can hardly believe it! She's growing up so fast. We love you girlie! xoxo

Always Something To Do Around Here

The desk top computer has been giving us trouble lately. I'm no computer expert, but I know enough to get by. The router/DSL modem crapped out last month, so I got a new one. The problem with the new router though, was we had to turn off the security to get on the internet! That ain't right. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the security system to view the new router as a non-threatening program. Then the power went out once and we lost internet connection. I finally figured out it was the new router. After much fiddling around with it, I re-installed the program disc and it worked, but we still had to turn off security to use it. Yesterday, the power went off and once again, the router/DSL modem no longer worked. This time, however, I couldn't get it to work again. Time for a new router. And a new security system.

Amazing how a day without internet services can sort of put a damper on things. We aren't online all day, but there are quite a lot of things we do on the computer and not having internet service really stunts us. We're too far from anywhere with wi-fi access and more than 20 miles to the nearest Library, so packing up the laptop is not ideal for us. Making a trip into the big town was necessary.

The other day, the riding mower sputtered and back-fired, then shut off on Andrew just as he finished the majority of the mowing. Lucky for us, he knows enough about engines that he knew what it needed and a trip to the hardware store for parts should do the trick. The hardest part about that was finding a hardware store that carried what he needed! At one store, the filters were all bent. At another, nothing matched what he needed. Third time was the charm indeed when he found all he needed at store number three.

While at the hardware store, we picked up fencing. We're going to fence in the chickens! After much talk, we've decided it would be best to build a pen around the chickens. I love the idea of free-range chickens, but in the case of my chickens, that means free-ranging all over the back stoop! Nothing like stepping on cold, mushy chicken poop in bare feet! I used to be Miss Barefoot until the chickens came along, then I became best friends with my flip-flops.

We bought 150 feet worth of fencing, which I think will give the chickens plenty of room to roam. I'm still thinking on a way to make a gate without resorting to buying one. I have plenty of scrap wood, so I'm leaning to making a frame then stapling chicken wire to it and voila! a door. I get lots of ideas in my head, just a matter of translating to paper to actual materials.

The kids are pretty happy about fencing in the chickens. The big rooster chases them and I constantly have to provide distraction to the rooster so the kids can make their escape to the swing set. It's getting irritating. Warmer weather equals kids playing outside equals mama dropping everything and distracting the rooster 10-plus times a day.

Anyway, after we got home from the computer store and the hardware store, I tried to get the new router working. I had quite the time trying to get it all to obey me. I get frustrated to tears when it comes to the computer because visions of it freezing and floating bits of money flying out the window do not a pleasant picture make. After about 4 hours of installing, un-installing, deleting, more installing, updating, down-loading, re-starting and one final updating, the desk top works! It works, it works, it works! Happy dance!

I worked right through dinner and sweet Evelyn made dinner without any prompting. She came to me and asked me to check and see if the macaroni was tender. "Macaroni?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm making dinner because I can see you are too stressed out from the computer, so I wanted to help you." Evelyn replied.

Well, melt my heart! We ate a mighty fine dinner of macaroni and cheese last night, paired with a glass of juice. It makes me proud when one of the kids can step up to the plate and pitch in when Andrew and I are both busy doing something.

Andrew's friend is supposed to come over tomorrow and let Andrew use his brush hog. I'm so excited! All the weeds and brambles and small brush are slowly overtaking the yard and I cannot put up the new fencing for the chickens until we clear away the brush. Using the brush hog will make the job go so much faster and easier, then we can just maintain afterwards. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

Percy the cat is quite the TOM cat. He is getting rambunctious and jumps BC, the older cat, a lot. He's starting to pee on clothing or towels that get left on the floor and I try to keep after the kids to pick up their clothes, but I don't catch every one. We could smell pee somewhere and sniffed around for it, but couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Andrew says here, I say there. Finally I moved a bed over and there was a pair of pants, soaked with cat pee.

Peter let Charlie the cat in the house a couple days ago, and he made a beeline to the bowl of cat food on the floor. I let him chow down when this happens, then put him back outside when he's done. This time, however, I got distracted and forgot about Charlie being in the house. I got a quick reminder when Percy spotted Charlie and a swirling, angry, hissing and yowling ball of black rolled around the kitchen floor, tufts of black fur flying! I'm not stupid enough to stick my hand in there and separate them, but something needed to be done! It all happened so fast, I somehow got them apart, swatting at them with a towel or something, then just as I was about to pick up Charlie, Percy came charging again, and the crazy ball of two black cats fighting rolled into the sun room, leaving a trail of fur. Andrew came in and managed to pull Percy off Charlie, then Charlie hid under the table in the sun room. After I finally coaxed him out and let him back outdoors, we knew something had to be done about Percy.

No way are we letting him out, free to impregnate every fertile female cat within spitting distance. He has an appointment on Thursday to get neutered. After he comes back, if he continues to pee in the house, he'll go outside with the other cats. Hopefully he stops that, cause I really like having him in the house. All the other outdoor cats are there because they peed in the house at one time or another.

Andrew works from 1-9 today, so I'm hoping for an uneventful day. At this rate, I'll be happy to distract the rooster to let the kids outside than face another computer issue.

More Milestones

We've had lots of milestones lately. As the family grows, the milestones come more frequent and I am constantly reminding myself to take photo evidence of each event. When Evelyn was born, we easily filled several photo albums of pictures with nothing but Evelyn. Along came Gretchen and we barely filled one album of photos. Then the digital camera entered our lives and along came Sylvia, then Peter, and I have yet to even put one photo into an album since. I'm so grateful to this blog, or else the kids will grow up and wonder if perhaps they were adopted, as there are barely any pictures of them to show otherwise!

Sylvia lost a second tooth recently. Another easy pull and pop! it was out. She still has the remnants of sun blisters on her cheeks from the sunburn we all got while in Florida. Evelyn has a bunch of loose teeth and Gretchen has been wiggling one... We may have to start a fund for the Tooth Fairy!! :o)

Gretchen got her ears pierced! I always told the girls that when they felt ready, they could get their ears pierced. She's been fretting over whether it will hurt much and here's what Evelyn told her: "First, Sharon will numb your ears, then you'll feel a pinch, and the next thing you know, you got a hole in your head!" It was a little more complicated than that. :o) She burst into tears after the first earring was in, wailed that it hurt and tensed up. I could see that if it had been me doing the piercing, she would be pushing my hands away by now. Sharon, the piercer, was wonderfully patient with Gretchen and offered soothing words of comfort. Plenty of experience guided her to know she needed to move quickly and while I was bribing Gretchen with a milkshake afterwards, she deftly pierced the second ear and it was done! Four days later, she is happy with her decision and following orders to keep turning the earring and keeping it clean. She is eyeing the pink dangly earrings I am wearing and I promised her she could have them at the end of her 6-week healing period.

We had our first corn-on-the-cob this year, here. We had cobbed corn in Florida, but this is our first at home. Not grown by us, obviously, but we couldn't resist and boy, was it ever tasty! A common summer meal for us is BLTs and corn-on-the-cob and we had an early start on it this year.

Just seeing Peter enjoying that corn so much makes me want to eat one, too! I'll try and refrain from buying any more corn unless it was grown locally, but just this one time... :o)

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's what Evelyn (8) thinks of Andrew and I:

heh, heh! Don't think we'll ever stop kissing-- ever! :o) Ever, ever, ever!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Catching up

* None of the fallen feathers from the chickens go to waste around here. The kids like to gather them up and make things with them. Cat toys are the main project, but Evelyn crafted this indian hat and was so proud of it. With all the sales on school supplies going on, I am stocking up on plenty of markers, crayons, pens, construction paper, and glue. Glue goes fast around here and we have already used up one bottle within a week of purchasing it!!

*Sylvia's 'attachment' preference is tape. Lots of it!! She uses so much of my tape that I have to hide it or else it will be gone. On one of our little visits into town, we decided to let the kids have fun in the dollar store and pick one item each to get since they had behaved well that day. Sylvia picked tape! 8 rolls of tape for $1! I tell ya, that was the best thing she could have ever picked! She likes to wrap little toys in construction paper ( trying to get her to switch to newspaper) and lots of tape to seal it up, then she leaves her "presents" around the house for us to find and unwrap. I swear she uses half a roll of tape just to tape one present! But it's her tape and her dollar, so I'm not saying a word. I try to show her she can use less tape, but she pushes my hands away and keeps at it.

*Andrew has the day off on Sunday, so I am going to butcher a rooster or two for dinner that day. It cannot be put off any longer! Just this afternoon, looking through the window, I caught 4 roosters, taking turns, mounting one poor little hen! Poor girl! I rushed outside and scattered them, but told myself it's time for them to go. The young ones are almost as big as the older ones, and if it wasn't for their non-existent spurs, I'd never be able to tell which is which! Only the two older roos have long spurs.

*Working on a wet walnut how-to post. I should have that up next week. I popped open one of the jars I canned last week, poured some on ice cream and it's so good! I'd like to try it with pecans one day, just substitute the walnuts with pecans. Maybe over the holidays when the nuts go on sale... This is when I miss living in Louisiana where we could pick fallen pecans and fill paper bags full of them for free!

*I think Peter is ready to be potty trained. He keeps taking off the diapers or he sticks his hand down the front of the diapers to play with his willy and then the fit gets messed up and the pee trickles down his legs. After the supply of diapers I have runs out, I'll be switching to training pants and then start potty training. I can see the light at the end of the diaper tunnel!! hooray!! more than 8 years of constant diaper changing and I'll soon be done!

*One of the young hens laid their first egg today! Pretty soon, the other ones will start laying and I should be getting at least 8-10 daily. When I have several dozen, I'd like to try and sell some. Make a sign and hang it out front. I might be able to avoid doing that and sell to friends and family only. Did you see that massive recall on eggs the other day??? Good grief! Makes me happy I have my own chickens.

*My mom feel down twice this week. Makes 3 times this year. Nothing broken or sprained, but she gets sore and hurts a few days afterwards. I need to keep a closer eye on her and get her in for a check-up. I want her to live a good long time, watch her grandchildren grow up and hopefully, she'll live long enough to see her great-grandchildren, too.

*Good news/Bad news:: I got my period/I'm not pregnant! It's never fun or easy when Aunt Flo comes to visit me every month, but when she is here, it's a relief to know I have dodged the pregnancy bullet once again. Andrew has an appointment for a consultation for getting snip-snipped! I can't wait! No more worrying when Aunt Flo is late or having to deal with raincoats anymore! Was that TMI??? :o) It's my blog, I can write what I want!

*It's almost time for that children's consignment place to start up again. I think I'll be selling the kids' out-grown clothes there for sure. The foyer has boxes and boxes of too small clothing they don't wear anymore and it looks like a yard sale is not going to happen this year. I am considering volunteering one day a week with the sale, because she added a new bonus to volunteers this year:: for every hour past the required 4 hours you volunteer, 1% will be added to your percentage of the sale. If you just consign, the percentage you earn from the sale of your goods is 50%; with the volunteer hours, if I worked 2 8-hour shifts, that would net me 12 (16 hours minus the required 4) extra percent to my sales making my total 62%! So if I sold $100 worth of items, I'd get back $62 instead of $50. Makes a difference.

Andrew usually gets 2 days off per week, so if I can leave the kids home with him, get there early and stay most of the day, I could handle a day or two per week and try to volunteer at least 4 days which would give me, hopefully, 48 hours of volunteer time. That would be equal to 44 percent added to my 50 which makes 94%! In the past, money earned from the sale of our items went to pay for car insurance. It sure would be nice to have that extra money again. The sale starts Sept 13th, so that gives me a month to get ready for it.

*It's the weekend! Andrew is working Saturday, so I'll be canning tomatoes in the cool of the morning before it gets too hot. Off to bed for me!

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Have You Seen Me?

I love watching Evelyn's mind at work. There are times I can literally see the wheels turning or when that light bulb pops on. She has a little craft box where she keeps her supplies and a particular pair of scissors that she likes to use when cutting her scraps of fabric. She usually keeps it on her dresser, but there are moments when she forgets and leaves it out somewhere-- on her bed, the floor, the table. Her younger sisters and brother love when she leaves it out! They have craft box radar and know exactly when she has left it out.

Anyway, she moaned that her little red scissors were gone. She ranted and raved that one of her sisters or brother took it! She practically wanted me to strip-search everyone to find those scissors. I told her that next time she needs to be more diligent in keeping her craft box put away and I offered (again!) that she could keep her craft box with my sewing box in the cabinet, locked and safely kept away. I assured her that the scissors would turn up eventually, but she couldn't be consoled. She was really upset.She made signs and posted them around the house. I had to laugh at the made-up phone number.

She specifically posted a sign on my dresser in my room, as if I was the one that took her scissors. I swear she gave me the evil eye a couple of times, but I hope it's only because I refused to strip-search the other kids and turn the house upside down.

Eventually, the scissors were found. Turns out, Evelyn was the one that took them outside for an outdoors crafting sessions and left the scissors behind. I found them when we went to the pool and they were in the grass under the table. Good thing they were red or else they'd probably still be out there!

Aren't kids fun?! :o)

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Success!

I love it when a party goes as planned. With the exception of a few missing guests (we missed you!!), most everyone on the invite list showed up. I made sure to cook 90% of the food the day before, so I could enjoy myself at the party, too!

The menu: Pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, hot dogs, 2 kinds of potato salad (one is Andrew's Grandmother's recipe and the other is mine), chips, veggies and dip, and of course, cake and ice cream.

Evelyn requested a 'buggy' cake, so after much thought, I came up with a caterpillar cake. Cute?

It was hard frosting this, especially on the cut ends of the cake, but I'm happy with how it came out. 10 candles:: 2 for Peter and 8 for Evelyn. M&Ms for the spots, twizzlers for the feet and mouth. (there was going to be a butterfly cake, too, but the frosting just wasn't cooperating, so it got shoved into the freezer. I'll probably try to frost it when it is frozen and use it for Peter's cake later on his actual birthday. I'm sure he won't mind having a butterfly cake--it's a bug, isn't it? maybe I can switch it into a regular ol' fly? hmm)

Evelyn and the kids sure liked it! Peter fell asleep and napped while we had cake and ice cream. He was a cranky thing before I got him down, so I didn't want to wake him. He'll have some cake and ice cream on his actual birthday in July. There was plenty of cake left, so I'm kind of glad the butterfly cake didn't work out. That would have been just too much cake!

The pool was a big hit with the kids!! I am so relieved. I worried all night, after we filled it, that we'd wake up to an empty pool the morning of the party. We made sure the water guy "approved" of the digging out we did before we filled it all the way up. It isn't perfect, but so far so good. *knock on wood*


After the pool was filled, we still had water left in the water truck, so we filled up all the bins I had previously used to try and salvage water from last time. Turns out I am glad we did, Peter has lots of fun going from one bin to the other and we use one bin for dunking feet before getting into the pool. Of all the big bins he could hang out in, he chooses to sit in the bucket! Silly Peter!

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I'm sad to see the weekend end, it was such a nice long weekend with Andrew off beginning on Friday and not having to return to work until Monday evening. We are enjoying the luxury of our own pool and the only downside is the kids begging every waking moment when can they go swimming again. "Can we go swimming yet? Now can we go? Is it time to go swimming yet? When can we go swimming? Now? Is it time yet? Can we? Can we? Can we??" I can't blame 'em. I remember when I practically spent the whole, entire summer at the pool when I was a kid. Only difference was, there was a lifeguard there, so Mom or Dad didn't have to go with me all the time.

A Girl and Her Chicken

That Evelyn, she is a stubborn one. She has a mind of her own and I could tell her a thousand times not to do something and she goes and does it anyway. Part of me is glad she is her own individual, but there are times when all I want is for her to listen and do it.

One of the things I am forever telling her, is to leave the chickens alone. She'll say, "okay mama", and then turn around and pick one up. ~sigh~ I don't mind too much when she is being loving towards them, but half the time she has a mean streak and just wants to see them jump and squawk when she throws a stick at them or chases them around the yard. Our chickens are friendly birds and they come running when one of us goes outside, usually looking for scraps or a hand full of feed.

Here's Evelyn in one of her loving moods towards the chickens. She has one of the younger ones, either the Rhode Island Red or the New Hampshire Red-- I can't tell the difference just yet.

When she is content to sit with a chicken on her lap like this, I don't mind at all when she wants to "play" with the chickens. I must admit though, she does very well when it comes to helping me with the chickens-- closing the coop for the night, gathering eggs, feeding them, etc. I appreciate having her help with the chickens and it's one less thing for me to do.

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The younger group of chickens are growing quickly and it's looking like I have 4 roosters and 5 hens. Another month or two and I'll have to butcher the roosters. There is already a mean one in the bunch and he likes to peck. I had them in a large bin when they were chicks and as soon as it warmed up during the day and night, they were put outdoors with the bin. I think that was a mistake, I cannot get them to go into the coop at night. The older chickens want nothing to do with the younger ones, but I suspect that will change once the younger hens are noticed by the head rooster when they're of age. Or at least I hope so.

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In the mean time, I have to wait until dark, when the chickens are settled in the bin, then stick the whole bin into the coop for the night. I tried to take the bin away, but they just settled in a different location outside of the coop which made more work for me to gather them and stick them in the coop, so I put the bin back. I put the bin right by the door of the coop once, and they chose to settle by the house. Any ideas? I still haven't put up a fence, though I am thinking about it these days.

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Egg production is at a standstill right now and I'm lucky if I get one egg a day. I don't go egg hunting in the woods with all the poison ivy at their peak so I have no idea if they are laying eggs out there or not. Do chickens lay eggs when they are molting their feathers?? I read somewhere they do not... something about having to grow new feathers taking up all their "energy" instead of making eggs. True? I sure miss having a fridge full of eggs. I'll never moan about having 7 dozen eggs in the fridge again!

Evelyn Is Eight!

Where did the time go? On June 5th, this girl turned 8!

How is it that my baby is now 8 years old?

It's hard to believe that this beautiful little girl was once in my belly

and now she is on her way to being a lovely young lady.
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~8 Things About Evelyn~

1. She has lost 8 baby teeth so far.
2. She loves to play with her Barbie dolls.
3. She doesn't need me for a lot of things anymore, but she always says she needs me.
4. She wants me to pierce her ears. I did it for my friends but poking a hole in your own child's ear is something different. Brave girl, she sat patiently still while I fumbled with a needle, tears escaping from her clenched eyes and all she has to show for it is a tiny hole in her ear with no earring. We are taking her to a piercer at the end of the week.
5. She has a teeny bit of a mean streak and gets sent to her room when we catch her being mean to one of her siblings.
6. She loves to swing as high as she can and catch the leaves with her feet.
7. She has an adventurer in her and if we let her, she would explore the woods around us and we probably would not see her until dark.
8. She delights in meeting other 'Evelyns', even when the majority of them are old ladies.

~~~

I made her this '8' shirt.

Remind me not to start a secret embroidery project 2 days before it's due to be given.

I'd never done this before and I stayed up until 3 am to finish it so she could wear it on her birthday.


I think I did pretty good.
~~~

Happy Birthday my dear Evelyn,

May you celebrate many many more!

We love you!

~

Nothing Stops

With all of us laid up with the sickies, life doesn't slow down. The kids are mostly better by now, though Peter still has a bit of a runny nose. Andrew and I are still rough but slowly getting there. My ears are all stuffed and I can't hear a thing, and I already have it hard enough with lipreading children that like to talk with fingers or toys in their mouths.

Things still have to get done around here, tummies still need to be filled, diapers changed, clothes washed... Soup was on the menu for several meals straight and I hoped we'd all feel better by Saturday for that triple birthday/ easter get together. We mostly were, so we went and had a good time, then afterwards on the way home, we stopped at our old haunts and shopped at the used bookstore and international food store.


Miss Evelyn lost her 8th tooth and 2 nights in a row the tooth fairy forgot to take it and leave money under her pillow. Blame the sickies, but luckily, while Evelyn was getting dressed, the tooth fairy must have flown in and did a quick exchange before we left on Saturday morning. Tooth Fairy must have been running late and was lucky not to get caught or he would have turned to fairy dust!

We are taking care of a injured chick... I'm not too sure how it happened and the who, what, where or why it happened, but a couple of days ago, checking on the chicks in their box, one of them was laying on its side with the others walking over it. I picked it up and while it was still alive and breathing, it was in a weird position and couldn't stand up. I separated it from the others and keep it in a warm box and I admit, I didn't have much hope for it. I searched and searched online for how to help an injured chick and there isn't much out there.. mostly for injured wild birds or a chick with a bad leg and one of the three comments to that one was "eat it!"

I have been giving her (I'm not sure of the sex, but we refer to it as a 'she') warm water with sugar mixed in, as it seems to be the standard for sickly birds, and she is still drinking, so that's hopeful right there. I thought maybe it was a broken neck because the position of her head is bent back to the side and upside down and she tries to stand but falls and kind of scoots herself around and around.

I wake each morning holding my breath as I check her, fearing the worse and am relieved that I find her alive, yet wondering what am I going to do if she doesn't improve? This morning was the best of all, she seems to be better somewhat, she is able to stand and walk and has had her first bit of food in a couple of days. I think maybe she has a broken wing, but I am no expert, so I can't really say. Her head still twists around in that funny position, but when she walks it looks almost normal again. She is so little though, compared to the others.

She's the little one in front, I brought up the other one for comparison. They are the same age.

She can't seem to hold her head straight and sort of angles it downwards to see where she is going. But she can feed herself now and drink water on her own, so that's a good thing!

This is her resting, you are looking at the top of her but her head is turned upside down. I don't know what to think or do. Time will tell. I keep her separated from the others and she is warm and the upside down bowl you see is to keep her from falling into the water.. I don't have an extra waterer and need to get one, I didn't expect her to live past the first night when I found her like that several days ago.

If any of you have any advice on what to do, I'd be glad to hear it.

Bursting!

I can't believe how much Evelyn has really taken to sewing! She has really done so nicely and is a much better sew-er than I was at her age. She drew 2 pictures and wanted to embroider them, so I cut out two pieces of muslin for her, helped her trace her pictures, showed her a few stitches and she just took off! I'm just bursting with pride!

She made the girl and cat one first, then the next day, she did the boy and dog one. Both were finished in a couple of hours. I told her we'd get frames and hang them up and she couldn't wait for me to frame them, reminding me several times. They'll get hung up in her room. I love them!

Random Winter Thoughts

Heading out today to the Library, I was pleased to see that the snow is finally starting to melt. I'm not tired of the cold, but I am tired of looking at the same, dirty snow from before Christmas. The snow by the road is yucky and brown and the snow in the yard is dotted with chicken, dog and cat droppings. No wonder the kids don't want to play in the snow!

The weather has warmed up slightly and I had the windows open to air out the house! It got up to the 50s the other day and my mom thought I was nuts! I thought it was nice out there and it was so lovely to smell the fresh air coursing through the house. It's funny how after several weeks of 20-degree weather, 50 can seem so warm!

One of my hens is going broody. I don't like to interrupt their laying process so I wait until after they get out of the coop to gather eggs, but every time I check, the same hen is still sitting on her and the others' eggs. After awhile, I reach under and collect the eggs. It's too soon to let her sit and try to hatch eggs, but maybe sometime in February, I'll let her sit on them. I figure by March, any chicks hatched will be alright with mama if it gets chilly, but it shouldn't get as cold as it has been by then-- knock on wood. If she is successful, she'll save me money on buying more chicks.

Garden dreaming is on the brain these days. Andrew and I are determined to do better in the garden this year, so we are planning and thinking and talking. I'll be making a small greenhouse for my seeds to start in, and we are coming up with ideas on how to build it and where to put it. Meant to get it in before the snow but.... oh well. It'll get started when the snow is completely melted.

Tax-time is coming. ugh. 2009 is the first year in a while where Andrew has worked the whole year at one job. It won't be the biggest, but it should be something, better than last years refund, I hope. The first thing we'll get, if possible, will be a new chainsaw for Andrew. He really needs a new one, as the old one keeps crapping out and parts keep getting replaced. I watch him get so frustrated with the old one and because of all the trouble it gives him, and we really didn't prepare enough wood for the winter. We are being stingy with the wood stove and if it's possible to be warm by adding a sweater instead of starting a fire, that's what we do. There's a local chainsaw shop that gives credit for trade-ins so maybe that will cut down on the price a little bit.

I'm dreaming of cherries. I know it's way too soon for cherries, but I am down to my very last jar of cherry almond jam and I am savoring every bit. On a whim, I added almond extract to my last batch of cherry jam and it has turned into something the whole family cannot get enough of! I only had 4 pints of it so we tried our hardest to make it last. This coming cherry season, I'll be sure to make several batches of cherry almond jam!

Evelyn got a sewing kit from an auntie for Christmas and she has just blown us away at the stuff she is creating! I think she has my knack for coming up with things without a pattern. The kit came with several pre-cut felt pieces to sew together and stuff to make a cat, dog and elephant and some fabric to sew into a pouch to hold it all. She made the stuffed cat and the pouch, then raided my fabric scraps and started making her own designs-- a purse with a latch and a pocket on the front; a little stuffed flashlight with a button for the on/off switch; little purses for her sisters.... She now talks about making a basket and after telling me how she is going to do it, I am impressed with her thought processes. If she keeps this up, I'll give her my old sewing machine whenever I get myself a new one. Hmmm... a chainsaw for Andrew and a sewing machine for me??? Oh please let this be a nice tax year for us!

Sylvia has mastered the computer and now begs to play computer games every time I get on here. She is pestering me now, and I need to get off anyway, so til next time!

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Introducing Oldest

Oldest is, well, my Oldest. My firstborn child. The first time in all things motherhood for me comes from her arrival. I know exactly when she was conceived and when I first suspected I was pregnant. From the time she came out of me, it has been a pleasure knowing her, watching her grow and continually being amazed at the things she learns and the stuff she says.

When Andrew and I talked about baby names, we didn't know if she was a girl or a boy. We wanted an old-fashioned name, nothing with crazy spelling (though there are some clever ones out there!) and something that hasn't been around for awhile, but people have heard of it before. For some reason, we couldn't come up with a boy name, but we had several girl names we liked. Then when she came out, we knew for sure what her name would be. Meet...

... Evelyn.

Our headstrong 7 1/2 year old girl.

Our whole world changed with her and we love every moment of it.

Evelyn is the ring-leader, usually, and does not like to be kept in the dark about things.

She'll investigate everything and our nick name for her is "the investigator". When we try to steal a moment alone in our room without the kids, within minutes, here comes the investigator checking up on us!

She is the one that sneaks candy out of the pantry, then forgets to hide the evidence. She is the one that rallies her sisters into doing something they shouldn't and when questioning her sisters, they almost always point at Evelyn and say it was her idea!

When she was a baby, she quickly figured out how to climb out of the crib so she wouldn't miss out on what mama and daddy were doing. Still to this day, we have to shoo her to bed several times a night and is often found awake long after she should have been asleep.

She lost her 7th tooth on the first day of this year. Lucky number seven.

My sweet Evelyn, how we love her so.

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