Do You See What I See?

Yep... it's still hanging around.

Daddy's Helpers

We've had a drippy faucet  in the kitchen for quite some time and now a drippy shower...and now... a high water bill.  So today the faucet got fixed by Daddy along with his two miniature helpers.

Routine or Schedule?

One of the benefits of homeschool is not having a strict schedule to follow.  I do however like a good routine so we don't get too far off schedule.  So far we are staying on track even if we have to do a little extra in the evening.  We love being able to get up and have a leisurely breakfast before we get started on our school day... and take a break to pick weeds from the garden or play outside (or chase chickens like yesterday lol).  We can take a long lunch and eat at DQ or at the park.  It's so nice!   Our basic routine is to get up and have breakfast and start school by 9:00.  I take turns working individually with each boy while the other is finishing up work or playing with the 2 little ones so they don't distract us.  We have lunch around noon then a little playtime.  After that is nap time for the little guys while we do our joint work (history/geography and science).  It took a few days for us to get this down but it is working great now. 

I'd like to know what you do.  Do you have a basic routine? Or a schedule?  Tell me about it! :) 

The Eagle Has Landed

Um, I mean Chicken.  The chicken has landed.

Friday we were "gifted" an orphan chicken.   Rumor has it that some people that own an asian restaurant had some chickens in their back yard which is against the rules in the nice community they live in.  Someone called the authorities and when they came to investigate, they opened the coop and let them loose before they could get back to them.  They hoped they'd come back home later.  Well one of them decided to take up residence in my inlaws yard for several days.  They were tired of it so they called us to come get it. 

James and the boys headed out at about 9:00 Friday night.  Chased the chicken around the neighborhood for a while then brought it home.  We left it in the dog kennel overnight and part of Saturday.  I then sent the Rhode Island Reds out of the coop for some roaming time and put the new little chicken in the coop.  Later, we brought them all back in and they seemed to get along.  Well we let them out again (intending on keeping the little one inside).  She escaped the coop, too, and flew over the fence.  Henry and I chased her around and finally lost track of her.  We gave up and decided she had either been eaten by a neighborhood dog, hit by a car, or found a new place. 

Just in case, I posted a lost chicken sign on facebook... because I'm cool like that.  On Sunday, a friend posted a pic on facebook of a chicken that had been spotted listening to the children's sermon at church that morning.  The boys and I were very happy to hear she was alive and well! 

 

We spent the rest of the day hoping she'd show back up at home. 

Fast forward to Monday morning.  We were in the back yard and the neighbor called over the fence that he had seen one of our little chickens, the whitish brownish one, fly over the fence while walking his dog.  He told us it had ran across the street to our other neighbors bushes.  I checked the food that was in the kennel (we'd left it open hoping she'd come back) and sure enough it was empty. She had come home!  She was gone again but at least we knew she knew where to come for a meal.  We tied the dog up so he wouldn't scare her away if... when she came back.  It was long til Nelson spotted her out the window.  We made a trail of feed across the yard into the kennel but she was too smart.  She stayed in the shade and finally nested down in the corner of the yard.  We tried to catch her but she ran through the fence.  Henry and I decided to chase her one last time.  I grabbed the rake and off we went.  She gave us a good run and finally ran under a neighbors dumpster lid that was tilted up on the ground.  I slammed it down and then hoped I didn't squash her.  Oops.  Turns out she was fine.  Henry ran home and got a trash can and we scooped her up and brought her home.  She is confined to the kennel until she gets her wing clipped and outgrows the ability to fit through the slats in the fence.  I'm not sure she'll ever be that big though so we'll have to come up with another way to let her roam the yard without escaping. 

So that's the story of our  new little chicken.  Stay tuned for more stories from the funny farm...  ;) 

My Best and Most Painful Birthday Present Ever

 

My best and most painful birthday present ever... That's what Henry told everyone at church that he was.  :)  If you don't already know it, Henry and I share the same birthday.  Today!  I like to say that I'm still 25 since I gave my birthday to him on my 25th birthday.  He was suppose to arrive by August 26th and I just new he would be here at least by August 31.  Or sometime after September 1st.  But nope, he chose to come on September 1st. It really is pretty special sharing a birthday with someone you love so much though. 

Henry decided to follow in Nelson's footsteps and break his water after we'd finished watching the Rangers game in overtime and went to bed.  I didn't have any contractions to start with this time but since my water broke, we woke up my parents (who were staying with us) so they'd know to keep an eye on Nelson and went on to the hospital.  My mom came up later after things got going good. 

It took a long time, about 19 hours, and was a little bit eventful....  When I finally got my epidural it went up instead of down. You know, like it made my chest and my neck numb but everything from my diaphram down was feeling it all. Wierdest. Feeling. Ever. I thought I couldn't breath. The guy wanted to try to redo it but I wouldn't let him. If you can't get it right the first time, sorry, that's it. No second chances putting a needle in my spine.  The one time that James slipped out to get a bite to eat and some coffee my heart rate went through the roof.  So high they paged a cardiologist and when James came back they had a team of people checking me out and had me hooked up to all kinds of things.  They threatened me with a c-section if things didn't calm down but they did.  They continued to monitor me though just in case.  Then Henry's heart rate kept going dangerously low.  We changed positions multiple times and as a last reslut (again with the c-section threats) they put a catheter in my uterus and turned on fluids.  It worked so that told us the was compressing his cord... putting fluid in helped him get off of it.  Thankfully I jumped to a 10 shortly after and was able to push.  The nurses didn't think the pushing would go so fast but it did.  After one push they demanded that I resist all urges to push until the doctor made it in.  It seemed like an eternity and once she made it in, 2 more tiny pushes and Henry was born!  He was discolored... kind of a grey color... and didn't breath on his own so I only saw him for a split second.  I wasn't even sure what was the matter because they didn't tell me anything but I saw on my mom's face that things weren't quite right.  I learned later he had to be suctioned really good and coaxed into taking his first breath.  Thankfully it was nothing more.  He was passed off to me and I couldn't believe it when I saw him!  He was beautiful.  But he did not look anything like I expected!  He was so different than Nelson.  He had a the smallest amount of blonde fuzz on his head, he was so thin, and just tiny!  If I hadn't been there I wouldn't have believed he was mine. James was the only one of us to mark him! 

Henry was such a sweet baby and I couldn't wait to show him to his big brother!  Nelson was so excited to have him home too.  Until the crying started... LOL!  He was definitely higher maintenance and it took a while for us to get use to him and him to us.  After about 3 months of being fussy, not gaining weight fast enough, and testing my breastmilk, we learned the poor boy was just hungry... combine the high metabolism he inherited from James with the low quality milk he was getting from me and the poor kid was starving!  A bottle of formula a day changed the world! :) 

So.... today is my best and most painful birthday presents 8th birthday!  Happy Birthday Henry!!