I Did It!

I've been wanting to cut my hair because it is getting tooooooooo long. And I thought since it is so long, I would donate it to an organization that makes wigs from real hair to give to cancer patients who lose theirs during chemotherapy. I kept thinking that I would get online to see what I needed to do in order to donate it. But days turned into weeks, and so forth. Today, after taking my shower and fighting to get a comb through it, I thought, "I can't stand this hair any longer, I'm going to cut it." So I went online to Google "donating hair." At first I thought I would donate to Locks of Love. They wanted at least 10 inches of hair. I went and grabbed a ruler and measured out 10 inches. "Oohh! I don't know about that," I thought. I remembered that Pantene Beautiful Lengths only needed 8 inches. I measured out that and thought that was a little more doable. But here was my worry. No organization wanted highlighted hair, semi-permanent color treated was acceptable though. They take hair from about 10 different people, put it all together to make one wig and then color it all to match. If your hair has been colored often or highlighted, it won't accept the new dye very well and may not match the other donations. Well, the ends of my hair have been highlighted when my hair was nice and very short. So I was afraid of cutting 8-10 inches off my hair and having it rejected because of it having been highlighted. But I still wanted to cut my hair, so 5-6 inches came off.
Here is me taking a picture of the mirror with my reflection showing the length of my hair. It looks like 10 inches wouldn't be a problem, but that would put it above my shoulders and I didn't really want to go that short. I think this is the longest my hair has ever been. It's called, No Money to Get a Haircut Regularly, Look.Here is my 5-6 inches. I showed Dom these little pony tails without saying a word and his reaction was "tell me that didn't come from Anna!!!!"
Here is my after shot, that Alex took of me. I am being very brave posting this on my blog when I am not wearing any make-up in this picture!!! I still can't believe I'm doing it. I may regret it later.

The Joy of Living in the Woods

This is what greeted me outside my kitchen window this morning. It always bring me a little joy to see these awesome creatures in my backyard. This is part of the reason Dom and I always wanted to live in the country, to be able to enjoy nature and its wildlife. Of course, we didn't think about the deer devouring my rose bushes or tromping through the garden and nibbling on everything in sight. There were a total of five deer outside this morning. A couple of young bucks were part of the group, which is unusual. We normally only see does together and maybe a lone buck once in awhile. At first I saw two deer, one was grooming the other's ear. It was sweet. Then the groom-ee raised up on her hind legs to nibble on my crab apple tree. Once I hollered for the kids to come look, they discovered three more hidden in the woods. Then there is the pursuit of finding them as if we are looking at a Hightlights hidden picture book. And me hushing the kids and telling them that the deer can hear us inside the house.

We've also been seeing a lot of turkeys lately. They, on the other hand, don't bother my rose bushes or garden. Quinn has taken up the desire to catch a baby turkey. I don't hamper his desire, thinking he will never actually accomplish this task. But I also said the same thing when he wanted to catch a hummingbird. I said, "sure, if you can catch one, you can have it." Be careful what you say! We have since had three humming birds find themselves trapped on our front porch.Quinn has caught them and I had to eat my words. Hummingbirds don't make good pets, because they don't live long. They need to eat constantly and don't do that well inside a make-shift cage. But be happy to know, that I did not let him keep the first two birds, we released them. The last one, I finally gave in and let him keep it with the intention of letting it go, but it didn't make it even 24 hours. Poor thing. So, we'll see if he actually catches a turkey.

Fun With Dough

Monday, we had friends over to our house from the Monticello Moms group, that I have been a part of for a couple of years now. It is just a group of moms that get together so our kids can play and we can enjoy each other's company. I am hosting for this month of August. On Aug. 11th, I invited them over for "Fun With Dough." And it was fun, but also very messy.

We started off with dough to make Bubble Bread. Yum!! You pinch of a small piece of dough, roll it into a ball, dip that into melted butter, then dip it again into a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, (1 Cup brown sugar & 2 T. cinnamon), toss that into a bundt pan, and repeat. Once all your dough has become cinnamon/sugar balls, let dough rise for 30 minutes, than bake for another 30 minutes in 350* oven. Oh, this is so good right out of the oven, and is worth the wait. It disappeared very fast with so many little mouths to feed.

While the Bubble Bread was rising, we made play dough. Play dough is fun for the kids, but, oh so, messy for the moms. I should have taken a picture of the mess after everyone left. And the moms did help clean up before they left, but Anna kept playing and then Quinn and Ethan joined her. There was play dough everywhere in my kitchen, where I was trying to keep it contained.

I looked around at the mess after everyone left, and thought, "why did I bother to clean my house before everyone came?" But once I started to clean it up, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had originally thought. I was able to tidy up fairly quickly with help from Alex and Quinn.

I have a few friends who think my house is always immaculate. Hah! With four kids, is that even possible? I spent two days before anyone came over trying to get my house CLEAN. Yes, maybe by some standards it was already clean to some people, but I am a perfectionist and I want my house perfect. Which is really impossible to keep that way with kids in the house. I'm trying to find a balance to that, keep house simi-clean to my standards, but not so clean that I drive myself and my children insane trying to keep it that way.

Overall we had a fun day and I am happy to have had a messy house afterwards as proof of that fun. It was worth it. August 25th, everyone is invited back to my house for "Fun With Water." Don't you love how I've titled them as some great event? We are going to have swimming, sprinklers, and snowcones. I guess I could have titled it SSS. Stay tuned for pictures from that in the days to come.

Thief

I have a thief. I went out to the chicken coop this morning to feed the chickens. I turned around to look and see if I had any eggs where a few chickens have been laying them lately, not in their nest boxes. And what do I see? A SNAKE!!! At first, I was startled, but then I let my brain start to process what to look for. Do I see a rattle? No. Does it have orange stripes, like the poisonous coral snake? No. That's all I could remember for poisonous snakes. I was pretty sure it wasn't poisonous and I thought it looked like an oak snake or rat snake, so I breathed easier. I then stood there and watched my dumb chickens. They were curious about it and just stood way too close, in my opinion, to the snake and watched it. I thought, "you know, curiosity killed the cat or the chicken in this case."

Now back to why I have a thief. I am sure you can figure out why the snake was in the coop. I figured it might have eaten an egg. On closer examination, not too close, I see this egg shaped bulge in its middle. And I thought, "hey you stole my egg!!" The snake was trying to climb its way up and over a wooden wall. Here I thought, "can't you figure out how to get out, like the same way you got in. What, are you related to the chickens?" See previous post Chickens.

So I ran back into the house to retrieve my camera and a book to help identify the snake, hoping that the snake wouldn't get away before I got back to snap my shot. It was on its way out, but not before I took this picture.

It might be hard to tell, but in this picture, the egg is right where the snakes body turns around the wood on his way out of the chicken coop. I figure he might have a hard time getting through the chicken wire with that egg in his belly.

Before heading back into the house I opened my handy Florida's Fabulous Reptiles & Amphibians book and sure enough, I am correct, it is either a gray rat snake or oak snake, pictured here from that book.

I then looked through the venomous snake section of the book, and I was close to remembering all the poisonous snakes. I forgot about the copperhead. But I think if I had seen a copperhead, I would stay away. Pretty much anything with orange on it, I would stay away from. And definitely anything that rattled.

Haircuts

Besides being chief cook and bottle washer in our home, I am also the family beautician. I cut everyone's hair including Dom and myself. Today, I cut the boy's hair.





Here's Alex before I cut his hair. This was a challenge to get him to smile. He didn't want his picture taken. He is starting to act more like a teenager everyday. But he is only nine!














Here is the after picture of Alex. His hair is a challenge to cut. It is incredibly thick and is slightly wavy, making it hard to comb. It seems like I can cut and cut on his hair and never be done. I am always telling him to be thankful for that thick head of hair and that I hope he keeps it all his life.
















Here is Quinn's before shot. He looks kind of cute with that shaggy hair. I can always tell when its time to cut their hair because Quinn's hair is hanging over his ears. His hair is fine and straight so it shows its length faster than Alex's wavy hair.
















Quinn, after. I always joke with the kids about taking off their ears and re-attaching when I'm done. Those pesky ears are always in the way. Its hard to cut around them without actually cutting them.


















Ethan, before. His hair wasn't too long this time. I did a real number on him last time, cutting it quite short. Isn't he cute?















Ethan, after. Looks like he just won a race, doesn't it? His hair is very fine and thin, so it is the easiest to cut, but it also shows any of my mistakes the easiest. Quinn's hair used to be thin almost like Ethan's but thickened up in the last couple of years. Maybe Ethan's will thicken up here eventually too.

Here is sweet little Anna. I didn't cut her hair today, but did it a couple of days ago. Here she is after her bath today to remove chocolate ice cream from her hair. I don't have to contend with her ears while cutting her hair like I do the boys. I just trim the ends and her bangs. The challenge with her is keeping her still, but she's pretty good about it.

Children Are Expensive

One of my favorite quotes is "children are expensive," spoken by Pastor Reb Bradley about child training. Today Anna brought that quote to light. A few hours ago, the boys ran to tell me, "Mom, you are going to be mad at Anna! She flooded the bathroom!" I have to say, I could have been furious with her if she didn't have three big brothers who have already paved the way for her. She is not the first of my children to do this. I think all of them around this age have done the same thing. The most memorable one was Quinn when I was in labor with Ethan. Yes, I was having contractions, just hours away from delivery, when Quinn ran the bathroom sink over and I was hunched down on my knees sopping up water with towels on the floor. So, today, Anna's sink runnith over didn't hold the same weight. There was an inch or so of water on the floor, but Alex, Quinn and myself sprang into action. Out came the carpet cleaner to start sucking up the water. Alex took charge of that while I started drying out the vanity drawers and cabinet. Quinn supervised! In a matter of minutes, the bathroom was cleaned up and I was thankful that it was water from the sink and not the toilet. :)

So why are children expensive? That bathroom cabinet has been water logged so many times, its paint is peeling. Eventually the cabinet is going to need to be replaced. But I say that we should wait until the kids are old enough not to run the sink over anymore. Maybe in ten to twenty years? Sounds like a jail sentence, doesn't? ;)

And let me add that the last child who ran that sink over propelled me to remove the plug permanently. So without a plug, how did Anna stop up the sink? Toilet paper!

Chickens

I am under the impression that chickens really aren’t all that smart. We added on to our chicken coop so there would be plenty of room to make happy chickens and we also fenced off a portion for them to have day time play. In the morning we go out and open their little door to let them have some freedom out of their coop, it’s like recess. Well, a rooster flew his coop and can not figure out how to get back in. He has been on his own for several days now. Seems to me, he is not so smart if he can’t just reverse what he did the first time. He stands on the outside of the fence looking at all the other chickens. You know he wants inside with them, but he doesn’t attempt to fly back into the chicken run. I’ve tried to coax him into an open door, but he is too afraid of me to accept my help.

But not all chickens appear to be so mentally challenged. We at one time had a “pet” chicken. Not by our choice, we were chosen by the said chicken. As I’ve said before, we have had several batches of chickens that have gotten eaten by wild critters. One batch we had a couple of years ago was disrupted one night. When I went out in the morning to feed the chickens, I thought I had lost all of them, until a lone bantam came out of the woods. I could not figure out how this little chicken got out of the coop, but she did and she survived the attack. Smart chicken, right? Yes, but the story does not end there.

As the sole survivor of her flock, we did not put her back into the coop only to meet the same demise as her sisters. We let her free range and roost up in a chosen tree at night. Well, chickens are meant to be in a flock. They do not like to be alone and this chicken proved that. She started to incorporate herself into our family. She stayed on the back porch with the dog and cats. She ate the dog’s food. We even found her in the kids bathroom one night roosting up on the shower curtain. She somehow managed to get in when either the kids or dog came in (Dottie used to open up the screen door with her nose to let herself in). She even spent the night in the laundry room a few times without me knowing it until the next morning. She finally chose our front porch to be her roosting spot at night, right on top of one of my plants. I started calling her CC for Crazy Chicken.
CC and Dottie Dog on the back porch.


CC by the dog food, and she did eat it.


CC roosting on top of the shower curtain.


Quinn holding CC.


We eventually got more chickens and having “secured” the coop, reintroduced CC into the new flock. She even took charge in showing them how things were to be done. We let them out during the day and at night locked them back up in their coop. CC would lead them into the coop at night. It was so funny to see this little chicken leading them all in.

The story ends on a sad note. What we thought was a secure coop turned out not to be. A wild critter started getting in at night. She was the first to go as if she sacrificed herself for the other chickens. I was sad that she was the only one taken that night. Eventually we lost the other ones. This is why we started over with a new coop. It’s no fun to lose your chickens.

Family and friends told me I should write a book about CC’s adventures. I can see in my mind’s eye a children’s series about CC. But until then, blogging about her will have to do.

***UPDATE*** OK, I went outside to take a picture of the chicken addition and the chicken run. I was thinking as I took the first picture, “wouldn’t it be funny if that rooster was back in with the other chickens.” I took a closer look and sure enough, there he was. I couldn’t believe he was ruining my story! No, really, he just made it a happy ending. And I am happy that he is back in the flock.

Chicken Run. This is when I noticed that we again had three roosters back in the flock. They are in the middle behind the tree.

Three roosters by the door that lets them out into the chicken run. The middle rooster is the one that finally figured out how to get back in with the other chickens.