A Good Day Off

The boys had a day off of school today, and we thouroghly enjoyed it.  The boys had a little Spanish lesson, and Lydia and I had a gardening session.  We planted lettuce, arugula, and lavendar in my new greenhouse. 

Sol is busy trying to hatch eggs.  So far, she's on day 3, and she's keeping them under her.  She's sitting on 6 eggs now.

See how puffed out her feathers are?  We have her in a separate area of the coop, with her own food and water, that she can't get out of and the other chickens can't get into.
And this really warms my heart:  Elijah was trying to teach his sister how to ride her bike.

And lastly, a cutie photo:

All in all, it's been a great day. 

Zoo Day

The weather has been so nice the last couple of days.  It was warmer today, but it was sunnier Friday.  Anyway, we took advantage of the nice temperature today and took the kids to the zoo.  We all had a good time.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I finally got around to making that chocolate trifle.  Now I can't wait to eat it for our Valentine dessert tonight.  (Although, of course, I did sample it as I made it.)  I made a balsamic chicken for dinner, with mashed potatoes and steamed cauliflower.  Everyone should be pretty happy tonight! 
The kids have already gorged on the M&Ms my parents sent and spent a long time reading their Valentines from school.  Since we had a 2-hour delay this morning, they had a short day at school.  Lydia and I surprised both boys by showing up for lunch.  Then, after we left, both had parties in their classes, so I don't think they had too much learning today between the holiday and the late start.  They were very excited. 

Elijah brought home his recorder.  He's learning to play "Hot Cross Buns" for his white belt as a "Ninja Recorder".  The black belt is actually "Ode to Joy", so I guess he'll get pretty good at it!  Or that's the goal, anyway.

Malachi won 2 games of Valentine bingo and came home with stickers and a tube of chapstick.  He's so excited about that chapstick.

Lydia has been playing with stuffed animals all the time lately.  She prefers her brothers' animals, of course.

Katie has decided that she's having a second puppyhood, or something, because she's playful most of the day lately.  I haven't seen her with this much pep in years.  She's 8 years old!

The chickens are good.  Sol is still broody, although she's not yet setting on eggs after the moving fiasco.  Nathaniel and I need to decide our next plan.  The kids really would love to have chicks, and Sol is willing to set, but where she's located is not a good place for several reasons.  Trying to get her to prefer another nest has been a failure.  So I'm not sure what we'll do next.  The good news is, it seems that if she does hatch any eggs, there's not much that we need to do to care  for the chicks. 

Picture Book Giveaway!

Check out this link : http://www.whitesugarbrownsugar.com/2012/02/giveaway-my-hands-sing-blues.html and enter to win a picture book.  It sounds like a really good one! 

I plan on telling you more about Sol and her so-far unsuccessful broody attempts soon.  (We're still trying to get her to stay on a nest in the corner rather than in the boxes where all of the chickens lay eggs.  I've got one more thing to try, and I'll try to get some pictures and such later.  She really wants to hatch eggs, she's just a bit uncooperative on the site.)

Broody Hen and A New Skirt

The boys are very excited that we have a broody hen.  One of the buff orpingtons, which the kids named Sol (Spanish for sun because she's yellow) is sitting on 7 eggs.  She started yesterday, and continues to sit, so the kids are hoping for baby chicks.  I'm pretty sure it takes 20 days before they'll hatch, but I have to double check in a chicken book. 

In other news, I made Lydia a new skirt.  She says it's a dancing skirt, and she wore it to church today to rave reviews.  I plan on making more for sale in my etsy shop.  It's my version of a half-circle skirt, and I'm excited with how it turned out.  It has an elastic waist, and yes, it is great for dancing since it has enough fabric for some swishing action.

She loved posing for the camera, as always!

Just Playing Around

I haven't posted in a while, and there's not really any big reason for that.  We've been busy, but not terribly so.  The boys have been really absorbed in Legos:

And Lydia has been playing with my old gymnastics mat.  It has many uses, including a mat for roll balls (summersaults) and a way to drag all her stuff down the hall:

Lastly, I've been doing some sewing, and I recently made my favorite sundress ever:

Unfortunately, it's a little small for me, but just looking at it makes me smile.

Rooster and Rome

Our Rooster "Green Taily", or "Smarty", depending on the boys' mood

I figured that it's been a while since I've shown you a picture of the rooster, so here he is.  He has some really pretty feathers.  We still don't know what kind of chicken he is. 
Our hens are laying way better than expected.  The Ameruacanas are said to lay 3+ eggs a week, and the rest were all supposed to lay 5+ eggs a week.  Well, we get 7 to 9 eggs a day from 9 hens, so they are really taking this laying job seriously.  Yesterday I collected 9, today 8.  That's pretty typical over the last week.  As you can imagine, we have lots of eggs, so it was good to hear that Nathaniel's friend/coworker wants to buy a dozen a week.

Also, I think all of you know that my wonderful husband traded his airline points to get us tickets to Rome for our 10th anniversary this year.  As it's getting closer, I've been getting more and more excited.  I've been trying to learn Italian and brushing up on my Latin.  (Yes, I'm that nerd.)  Anyway, I now can say things like Vorrei un po'di formaggio per favore.  (I'd like a little cheese please.)  Many years ago, Mamaw and Papaw got me a learn Italian set (because I've always wanted to learn a lot of languages) but now I've actually got some motivation and am currently on lesson 22.  I can't say a whole lot, but I am learning, so that's nice.  As for the Latin, I'm actually remembering more than I thought I would, and I'd like to be able to read the monuments myself, so I'm brushing up on that, too.  Maybe someday I'll actually be fluent in a couple of languages.  That would be so cool. 
As I study the Italian, Spanish filters through my head.  I remember that when I first studied Spanish, I filtered it through the Latin I knew, so this is not new, just kind of odd.  Now I often think in Spanish while I'm reviewing Latin, too, since my Spanish is better than my Latin now.  I've found myself trying to talk in Italian and ending up in Spanish.  Oh, well, it may work out in the end.  My Columbian friend Gloria assures me that Italian is pretty much "like Spanish with a bad accent".  (Her words)  Of course, she doesn't actually speak Italian, either.  I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever heard any "real" person speak Italian, just some bits on the Godfather movies or other tv (and now my learn Italian tapes).