7 quick takes!

-1-

Last night, all four kids ended up in our bedroom somehow. It was really weird. Usually we get Emmett in our bed around midnight (we put him in his crib for bedtime but I'm not ready to completely give up co-sleeping yet so when he cries I just bring him in bed with us until morning.) and probably two or three times a week we'll get a random kid come in, too. But last night was still highly unusual. First I believe it was Michael who came in. Then Lou, then Josie. So, I woke up this morning actually feeling very secure and warm inside (and that wasn't just because of all the extra bodies in my bedroom ;) It is just so nice having every piece of your heart in one room, all sleeping securely.  How blessed the six of us are.

-2-

We got a thermometer that goes inside the chicken coop and we can see how cold it is in there at night. Right now it looks dark and chilly but it's not actual all that cold out. It just feels dark and ominous to me. 

I am still surprised at how resistant I was to summer ending and fall beginning. I've always been a fan of fall and a non-fan of heat. But there was something different about this summer that changed me. I think I actually already miss the summer. Who am I???

-3-

Yes, Emmett - who is 16 months, basically eats the same amount as the other kids now.

Though of course there still are still some very lovely things to experience in the fall. Warm lunches and dinners. Fall holidays. I really love the colors and smells of the changing season. But, you know what - I'll pass on the Pumpkin Spice lattes this year. A TALL comes in at just under $5.00. I know I'm usually not the most frugal of gals, but even I know that's ridiculous. Pass pass pass.

My friend just told me she got an espresso maker at Value Village for like 10 bucks and it works great. I also know there are recipes out there that duplicate the PS lattes, so it's time I try one of these alternatives. Actually one day, what I should really do is go to one of those restaurant kitchen supply stores and buy one of the whip cream canisters so I can make my own whip. I feel like that's the best thing Starbucks has going for it anyway - is their vanilla whip cream, you know? 

-4-

A scene from this morning. One of the nice things about ripping your carpet out down to the sub-floor is it's very conducive to messy crafts and substances! 

They were really going to town this morning with the play dough but I didn't stop them. They were being really cute together. I love that about my kids being home a lot together. Yes, they fight, but when they get along it's just bliss to observe. 

-5-

We have a busy weekend up ahead but all I really want to do is rent Cinderella and snuggle up with my family and stay home. What about you? 

-6-

We actually had a bit of a slow week with homeschooling this week. "Weather week" is going to be stretched to another week as we didn't get to everything I wanted to. Which is totally fine. I'm winging this kind of stuff (it's not officially part of the homeschool curriculum that I'm following)

They are such great little students. Really, the best.

Louisa gives me push back every once in while but overall it's amazing how easy she is to teach. She loves it when daddy steps in and does stuff with her too. She is taking chess club at the co-op and she plays with daddy too. I don't even know how to play chess! Yikes. I guess I should let my first grader teach me!

The biggest challenges remain keeping the boys happy/distracted while we do school stuff. A lot of moms will do school while the littles are napping but I just can't do that because I desperately need that time to do other things like; eat, read, rest. I need some time away from them to just chill and so I don't like doing school then. Instead I try to get the boys doing something where I know they'll be happy for a little while, then we go in and start some school. As I said before, this setup is already working much better for me than the dining room table, or downstairs, because it's more easily accessible, I can close the door - and, I'm not tempted to multi-task because I see chores that need to be done.

I've actually relaxed my housecleaning quite a bit these last few weeks. Which is a huge major change for me, but a somewhat necessary one. Things are still tidy, but the things I consider peripheral chores are getting ignored more in favor of homeschooling. (Core chores would be clean kitchen, dining room, and living room. Peripheral chores for me are clean bedrooms, sanitized bathrooms, clutter, yard work) Right now my house actually feels uncomfortably messy, but I've got plans to get the kids out of the house tomorrow for a couple of hours with daddy so I can do some heavier cleaning. I'll feel better then!

-7-

 And, we're still loving these pets of ours. I like to keep the eggs right here out on the counter so that when I need an egg, there they are. That's right, you don't actually have to refrigerate fresh eggs! The ones from the store are quite a bit older (up to like 7 weeks old) so they need to be refrigerated. But for us, it's as nice as can be to just reach out and grab an egg or two when you need one. The extras go to neighbors and friends.

and thank you to everyone who saves egg cartons for us!

Still so glad we went ahead and got chickens. I highly recommend them!

Alright well naptime is long been over (though Emmett went down late for his) so I should probably go figure out dinner.

ciao!

More Quick Takes here!

First Nature walk of the 2015/16 school year

Nature walks are a big part of our homeschooling life. I have noticed many articles pop up about how children these days are being starved of playtime and outdoor time and it breaks my heart! What will this generation of children be like as adults, who have little or no connection to nature? How will they grow up without skinned knees and empowered by exploration and even a little bit of danger? It just seems so obvious to me while I watch my kids be kids outside that this is CRUCIAL to their childhood!

Now as I've stated before, I myself am not actually a naturally outdoors-y person. Really! But having these kids...especially as they are getting older, has really pushed me to get outside much, much more often. And it's so good for me. For all of us.

 

 

Emmett looking pretty grown up these days, huh??

Photos from here on out are actually taken by Lou!

In this same vein, at the beginning of this school year I instituted a new policy in our home. We're saying no shows during the week. Yah. EEEEEEEEEK. A couple years ago I never thought I could pull this off. Maybe I can't. The only reason I am doing this now is because I can actually count on my oldest two a lot more just too keep an eye on the boys if I need to step out of the room for a quick shower or whatever. I know it sounds crazy, but a 6 year old and a 4 year old can make a huge difference between total chaos and just partial chaos. I knew I couldn't push myself to institute a "no t.v." rule in my parenting years up until now, but I finally feel ready.

There is no self-righteous patting myself on the back right now, believe me. My kids still get screen time. In fact, they are watching a show right now! (Hey now, it's Sunday.) It's just that I finally feel we can now concentrate on other things during the week at least, without me losing my mind. I don't think if you are in that place of "I need to turn on a show for my kids here and there or I will be a wreck" you should even care that other people aren't. Seriously. I was there until most recently. I'm a firm believer in doing what you gotta do to survive the hardest parenting years. It annoys me to hear otherwise. I mean, what are you going to do? Sacrifice all sanity so that your kids can be completely "unplugged" No. Still, I thought I'd throw it out there that we are planning on doing this for the foreseeable future. Also to show how things change as your kids get older! I didn't think certain things would ever be possible for the longest time, but - here we are!

Friday night is still family movie night and the weekends will be more flexible. Just no morning-show-so-mom-can-get-ready-for-the-day, and mostly no evening show so mom can make dinner, either. Though that could come back once the weather turns and sending them outside will require more rigmarole. :/

But yes. Nature walks: two thumbs up. Here's to many more!!

(funny story real quick about this particular location. We live between two mountains called Cougar Mountain and Tiger Mountain. There is a sign at the beginning of this trail warning people to be ont he lookout for bears and cougars and other wild life. We actually did see bear scat (I looked it up, so I know!) There weren't really any other folks out on the trail during the middle of the work day. I was actually slightly nervous that we might see something and I wasn't too comfortable with being out there on my own. I was very careful about keeping the kids somewhat close and looking around corners and such. We have bear spray so next time if I go out here I'll be sure to bring it!) Nature walks need not include dangerous wild creatures popping out of the bushes!

A tour of our chicken coop

When we waltzed into the local grange in March and walked out with 8 baby chicks, Mike and I didn't exactly know what we were doing. We had done some reading up, but we still knew we'd figure things out as we went along. (That's generally how we do things.) We definitely did not have a chicken coop ready for them! We didn't even have a brooder. Mike built one after they got too big for the big cardboard box we had for them initially in the laundry room. They sure did grow fast!

Before we knew it they were ready to explore outside. Then, they started to get too big for their brooder, and then, by mid-summer, all of their feathers had grown in and they were more than ready to be outside full time!

 

Enter in the help and enthusiasm of my 80 year old papa! He offered to help Mike design the coop on his computer at home (with a program he partially designed himself), then order the lumber, and spend a couple days a week out here actually building it with Mike! It was so generous of him, especially since it was a crazy hot summer, and since he lives about 40 minutes away. Yes, my papa is ridiculously awesome.

lots of hours were spent building this!

In any case, after a couple weeks of work getting the main coop and run up, and then a few more months of getting other things added on here and there, our coop palace is basically finished!

Here is a little tour for you:

First of all, here is a view looking out from the basement. One of the reasons this baby is so TALL, is because my grandpa made a small mistake. (Hey, I said he was awesome, not perfect!) It would have been about 6 inches shorter (I know, not much, but still) But when he was designing this, he also did it so that it could actually easily be converted into a shed if we decided one day to sell the house or to not keep chickens anymore. You would just rip out the chicken wire, take out the nesting area, add walls, and wa-la! A nice, solid storage shed. I thought that was purdy smart.

So when you open up the window next to the main door, you have access to the area where the chickens sleep (and do a lot of their pooping) It makes it pretty easy to clean out. We usually just take a shovel and put the yard waste basket right up near the window and shovel out the yuckies. The bottom is actually lined with scrap linoleum so it makes it even easier to clean!

It's so funny how they all sleep up on that roost at night!

Here is a view of the nesting boxes from the inside.

and from the outside. Mike's dad also helped us out, by helping Mike make these nesting boxes. We have four because you don't actually need one per hen. Ours actually each prefer particular a particular one, and sometimes they'll even be two in there sitting in the same one!

Here is a view from the back corner

My kids LOVE going out every morning to look for eggs. Our chickens seem to lay them in mid-morning. Sometimes as late as noon, so sometimes it's a challenge getting the kids to be patient and wait to get the newest eggs. It's become a bit of an obsession. I'm still waiting for the enthusiasm to die down a bit, but so far it hasn't.

Oh and here is Shadowcat being all fancy and getting ready to lay her egg!

Mike's dad also helped us make the door. I love the door!

Rogue does not like the door. She would rather be out! :)

Jean Grey and Sage agree.

Chickens and kids go together quite nicely!

If you are wondering what we use for the "ground" inside the coop, right now it is sand. There is a layer of grass clippings that I put down from mowing the lawn yesterday. They like to scratch through the grass looking for bugs. I'm not entirely happy with the sand, though. I think it would be nice to find a better material, even though some chicken people had recommended sand as being the easiest to clean.

We also feed them food scraps pretty much daily. They love those the most! It has been GREAT virtually throwing nothing away anymore. Seriously, this is probably one of my favorite parts about having chickens. I feel like any food scraps we have are going to good use - namely, we get everything back in the form of delicious, nutritious eggs!

So, as you can see, our chickens are quite spoiled. They are treated very well, and hopefully in return they will give us many pretty eggs!

Still, chicken poop is gross. If we don't clean out the coop weekly, it gets stink-y! So I'm not fond of that aspect. Also, we finally got an additional "run" built behind the coop. They still like to be out in the yard mostly, but the poop situation was definitely getting out of control. I will likely still let them out occasionally. Especially in the winter when it's time to till and prep my garden for next year! But for the winter we'll probably keep them back there most of the time. But just recently Mike finished a little pulley door in the back that we can open and let the chickens out with some additional space to dig for bugs and explore without making our yard unusable.

Our lot size is only about a quarter of an acre. We do have enough space but someday we'd definitely like to have more land...and more chickens! :)

Let's see...what else about these funny chickens? Oh, if you were wondering about their ridiculous names, they are all based on X-men females. Rogue, Storm, Sage, Jean-Grey, Shadowcat, Mystique, Lady Mastermind...and then there is Mayflower (Mike named her that because her breed is Plymouth Rock :)

I guess that's it! We are officially in the chicken and egg business! Crazy cakes!

(Don't worry Mystique...we shall never be in the bird-meat business ;)



 Promise.