I'm Still Here!

Have ya missed me? I have been busy. Sorry for no recent posts! Meg in Tally finally prodded me into, at least, sending a short post to let you all know I'm still with ya. Thanks Meg, for showing that you care! I was waiting for someone to poke me and say, "hey, where ya been?" I don't know what is with me today with all the "ya's."

I truly haven't meant to let almost three weeks go by with no post. I can't believe it has been that long. I won't have time to write all that has been floating in my head during all this time, but I wanted to write a short post. Now, if I could telepathically write my blog posts, we would be in business. I can draft a post in my head, while in the shower, but can't find the time to physically sit at the computer and regurgitate it back out of my head. (I think I watch too many sci-fi shows, Dom's favorite.)

Last post, I mentioned my goals of getting things done with homeschooling. Well, I have been working very hard on that and I don't get much spare time after everything is said and done. I haven't even been reading my friend's blogs and there is some sort of "blogging contest" going on, so they are writing a lot. Good thing I didn't join that contest, although no one asked me too. :( No, I'm really not sad over that. Who has the time? Not me!

Our tenant finally moved out of our rental property, so any "spare" days that I've had, I was cleaning and painting over there. Cleaning someone else's dirt, really isn't any fun. Good thing I'm not a maid by profession. But wait, I am, but it's my own dirt and that of my family's. That's a little different, plus, I really do clean behind my refrigerator more than once a year. Oh, you wouldn't believe what was behind the tenant's fridge. Ick!

With Dom's furniture leasing business, we went to Panama City Wednesday. I think that is the only time since I last wrote. So there is another "spare" day swallowed up.

I have been meaning to post pictures from a "field day" that the Monticello homeschoolers had a week or so ago. But those pics are still on my camera. Hopefully, I will get those pics to you soon with Alex and Quinn coming in first and second in the potato (or really feed) sack race. They had fun.

We have more babies at our house. My mama cat had kittens again, making it twice this year. Which is a first, she usually only has them once a year and that is in the spring. She's been busy. We have three look-a-likes under the house (where kittens have always been born here). They look just like our current Tiger, Princess, and Friskie (which isn't a stretch since we have three solid gray cats. Make that four). The kids have been under the house to see them, I haven't. I really don't want to belly crawl under there, not a pleasant thought. But maybe, I'll get the kids to take my camera under there for pictures. See, another exciting blog post in your future.

Well, that is a quick wrap up for you. I really will try and do better! I just haven't figured out where to pencil that time slot into my day yet, but I will work on it.

Disappointment

I was so excited about having a brooding chicken. I put books on reserve at the library to read to the kids about the developing baby chick inside the egg. I went online to find out how long a chick needs to be inside the egg, 21 days, and marked the calender accordingly. I cleaned an old chicken water container and food dispenser, in anticipation for the chicks arrival. I "made" the brooding chicken safer by putting her inside a dog carrier, or so I thought.

She made her nest in the barn, not inside the chicken coop. It was open to any would be predator and I was worried something might come and get her. I even lost sleep one night with that worry (a little bit of sleep, I still slept but did wake up on occasion and thought about her). So one night, the kids and I went to her spot and moved her and her eggs inside a dog carrier. We placed the carrier into the same spot she had already chosen. By day, the door could be opened and left open for her to venture outside. By night, it could be closed to keep her safe.

Yesterday was an exhausting day for me. Let me back up, last week was an exhausting week for me. It was "back to school" week. I decided I would get up every morning by the alarm clock!!! I know, that is a novel concept! Being a homeschooling, stay-at-home-mom, has some advantages like not having to get up at a specific time each day. But that can lead to laziness and I have been prone to just that. So I decided to get up everyday at 7:30, get in the shower and actually get dressed before noon!!! I had the kids start setting their alarms also, so that they would be up and dressed to eat breakfast all at the same time and not staggered through out the morning. I decided to start treating my homeschooling like it is my job, so that maybe, just maybe, I will feel like we are actually accomplishing something this year. You see, I have all this guilt that I'm not doing enough with them. After Anna was born, I had this whole health issue with my thyroid, and it has been a struggle for me to get back on my feet. This just happens to coincide with our first few years of homeschooling. Anyway, back to my point. Getting up early everyday, and setting goals (I have never been a goal setter) that we would get certain things done each day, and then actually meeting those goals, well, it exhausted me. So after doing our school work each day, and making three meals a day (why do we need to eat so much) there really wasn't much time for housework. I managed to get a load or two of laundry done each day, but not much else. So I decided Saturday would be the day we clean the house. I had the kids help me (hard for the perfectionist in me, but I'm trying). At about 3:30 we were done with the house, and I knew I needed to go out and clean a spot in my car that had started to mildew. So outside I went with our small steam cleaner to clean the carpet in my car. I thought it was just one spot, but on closer examination, it was several spots. I ended up cleaning the entire car, even removing the back seat and a plastic strip that was under that seat, so I could clean the mildew that was growing under that. I wiped down all the seats, etc,. etc., etc. During all this, I kept running back into the house to finish making a batch of bread, and to start dinner. I had Alex and Quinn stir the Sloppy Joes I was making for dinner, while I went out to finish the car. I was truly exhausted by dinner time when we finally sat down to eat. I told Quinn to go outside and lock our hen in for the night, along with a few other requests. I just didn't have the energy to do it. And I don't think I will allow kids to eat in my car ever again (famous last words).

This morning, Quinn comes in with all these broken eggs, saying, "you are going to be so mad." Yes, I was very disappointed to learn that my hen's house had been broken into last night and she and her "babies" were gone. I was very upset. I'm not sure Quinn managed last night to close the door to her carrier securely and I think a raccoon got her. So my attempt to keep her safe might have been the exact thing that got her killed. I had such high hopes for those baby chicks and their brooding mama. I was surprised at how upset I actually was about losing them. I have told my friend Tammy, who is new to chicken raising, not to get too attached to them, because they are easy prey and many get eaten by wild critters. But here I was, all upset over my hen. I had to remind myself, that it was just a chicken. My children are all well, my husband is all well, I'm all well. It's just a chicken.

This afternoon, I saw a raccoon on the back porch eating the cat food. I hollered "there's a raccoon on the back porch" for anyone who was in the house to hear. Alex said, "why did you say that so loud?" I hadn't realized that I had said it any louder than usual, but I replied, "because I could spit nails at it if it's the one that got my hen." Then Alex said, "Mom, there are three babies." And as I turned to look, not really all that interested, we've seen raccoon babies before, there was one that was tinier than we've ever seen before. It was so cute and adorable. I tried to get a picture, but they ran off before I could. How can something so darn cute, be such a nuisance when it comes to my chickens? I guess that is the cycle of life.

Birds, Birds, Birds

Today, was for the birds. Turkeys, humming birds, and chickens, that is. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window, because that is where I'm at most of the time, and I saw turkeys. I counted about seven of them. I, of course, called everyone over to the window to see them, Dom included. We all ohh'ed and ahh'ed, then Dom walked into the family room and said, "there's more out front." So we all moved to the family room window to see more. The ones from the back had met up with the ones in the front. I then counted about 19. As I was watching them, and Quinn was wishing he had a net to be able to catch one (which he does have, but I did not remind him about it), I remember my loyal readers (that's you) and went to grab my camera to snap a picture. By then they had made it over to the gazebo, as you can see here.


Not long after all that excitement, Quinn gets all excited again and runs out to the front porch. We now had another hummingbird trapped there.


Yes, we still have Christmas lights up. I'm not sure why, but Dom will take down all the lights from outside and store them until next Christmas, but has left the ones that border along our front porch, up. They have been there for about two years now. I guess we are not trying to impress the "Jone's" anymore since moving to the woods.

Of course, Quinn grabbed the first empty ice cream bucket he could get his hands on, and caught the little bird. I reminded him about what happened last time he caught and kept a hummingbird (see Joy of Living in the Woods) and Dom has told him, by the end of today, he will be letting the bird go.

Then to add even more excitement to the day (how can we contain our ourselves?) Alex tells me that he found the nest to my favorite laying hen. Since adding the chicken run to our coop, we have some chickens that fly the coop. Sometimes they go back in the coop on their own, some we catch and put back in, and some stay out most or all of the time. One of my best laying hens has decided to stay out. I knew she had to be laying eggs somewhere, but we hadn't found where yet. Until today. And not only did we find the eggs, but she has decided to brood.Here she is on her eggs inside the barn. Maybe we will have some baby chicks running around here soon. I'm glad God has provided my science for this homeschooling year! For a little while, anyway.