Which came first?

The chicken in your house or the egg in your house?
Well, for us it was definitely the chicken in the house. We kept chickens (Buff Orpingtons!) several years back, but had grown tired of the constant chicken issues...always having to shut them up at night (they are definitely a delicious favorite amongst the local wildlife population!) and chicken poop on the porches, and whatnot. Apparently we went without them long enough to forget these things, because this year when we drove past the sign at the co-op that said they had chicks for sale, we just HAD to stop. So then we had 12 chicks and it was March. Therefore there were chicks in the house for a month or so before it was generally warm enough to put them out in our chicken house, with plastic over the windows and a heat lamp at night. They have grown up now and are starting to lay. And since we have 2 puppies at our house still (anybody looking for a super sweet, small-sized, doggy companion?) we have been propping the dog flap open while we get them house-broken (and they are doing very well with that!) So just guess who thinks it is an open door for her to come in and lay her eggs in a climate-controlled, safe setting? This hen just jumped up on the bench by the back door (pay no mind to the messy pile-up everyone) and scratched around in these jackets/paper towels/coveralls and sat down to lay.
Fresh eggs anyone?

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Last month started our parade of birthdays...from July to December we have one or two birthdays every month. Gets pretty expensive, especially with it leading up to Christmas! My recommendation to everyone is always have your birthdays in the first half of the year! ;o)
We usually go somewhere for Hannah's birthday - a waterpark, or a trip to a big city zoo or aquarium. This year we stayed home for the first time in ages. We have been so busy lately I am just tired. She is now 11 years old and so we celebrated with a crazy cake and some presents she needed or asked for. She chose this "kitty litter pan cake" for its extreme grossness (definitely our #1 child in the Amused by Gross category) and mostly made it herself. She really excelled at sculpting/arranging the tootsie rolls. It was fun to make and easy and pretty yummy too! If you need a weird cake for a kid's event check it out on www.allrecipes.com ...it is all the rage right now!

Spiders!!!

Ever since Hurricane Ivan, we have had these incredible spiders all in our oak trees. Never saw one before that, but now they are everywhere around here. They are called Golden Orb spiders or sometimes Calico spiders. They spin a gold colored web and can grow to be pretty big. They like to build their webs in huge conglomerations that my kids call "Shelob's Lair" after the spider in Lord of the Rings. This one is on the end of our house in a web that is approximately 15 feet by 6 feet...she has gotten so big I thought she deserved her own post in my blog...soon she'll make an egg sack and then die. Then we can be somewhat spider free until next summer. :o) Kind of tough when you live in the country...lots of bugs and not much you can do about it. Not like in the city where there are paved streets and sidewalks and the city mosquito trucks as well as your neighbors all spraying pesticides, too.

Back to School

Well, we have now officially joined the ranks of the back-to-schoolers. It is HARD to drag ourselves back onto a schedule. Summertime around here means a bit of a free-for-all on things like bedtime and chores and routine. Unfortunately, we all seem to like it like that...so...re-establishing some order can be a serious challenge. I have gotten most of the Fall stuff done, though I am still working on eBay-ing clothes and things we won't be using anymore and buying what will be needed. And so there are bins of items stacked around that will have to be put away soon. I am also still working on my downstairs bathroom make-over (about 15 years overdue) too. BUT! all the school supplies are here and we are getting up in the mornings and doing our chores and working through our daily school lessons again. Violin lessons are underway, orchestra starts next week. Hopefully things will be completely settled into a seamless routine in another week or so...
well, I can dream anyway.

Amy

Beach Vacation!

Everybody should get atleast one vacation to the beach a year. Lucky us, we usually get more than one since we are not far from the coast and our Nana and Granddad are in Pensacola, FL. They kindly invited us to Portofino resort for several days and we had an absolutely fabulous time!!! Wish I could bottle it up and pull it out in the dead of winter. There is just something different about the sunshine and the breezes and the quality of the air at the beach...don't know what it is.
Back home we hit the ground running for the last big push before school. I have ordered homeschooling materials and gone through clothes and signed up for music lessons and packed things up and we are heading to the big city today to move M into the dorm. This next week we will begin our weekly drive to Tuscaloosa for our lessons for another year. But, I still have the memory of the sound of the waves, a little bit of sunburn and sand in the car to remember my beach vacation.
Sigh.

Amy