Poultry Parade

 

In the last two days, we've let the poultry roam about the yard.  Notice that the white chicken in front of Harry the Turkey is a rooster.  What a size difference!

Harry tends to just walk slowly around the yard.  He looks regal and truly impressive.  The chickens are more interested in scratching for bugs and other goodies.

None of the poultry is fond of Maple, but they aren't too worried about her, either.  She doesn't bark or chase them.  She is more interested in finding out what they're eating.  She desperately wants to eat the chicken scraps that I feed them daily.  Acorn is perturbed when I let the chickens out, since she knows that they belong in their yard.  After looking at me questioningly, she just went into the house.  If she doesn't see it, she doesn't have to deal with it.  

Weekend Fun

On Friday night, Nathaniel, Emry, Gyunay, and I participated in a fun library program.  Each family created its own mini golf hole.  This was ours.

The boys practiced on it several times.

Then they got to play all 9 holes.

The boys had a blast. 

Nathaniel received a swinging camp chair early for his birthday.  Gyunay loved it so much that he bought one for himself.

And on Saturday, we went to the zoo!  Lydia, her friend, the younger boys, Nathaniel and I had a good time.

It was cold, so there were practically no people around.  We were pleasantly surprised to get to see the fairy penguins:

Updates

The kids had some fun with the camera on my phone when I asked them to take a picture of  some sign-up sheets at church.

Around here, everyone is hopefully fully healthy again.  I'm hoping we can stay healthy for a while.  Emry's basketball season ended with no tournament games for him due to forfeit, but he's looking forward to a new league.  Practices start in a couple of weeks.  Lydia's still enjoying parkour, youth group, and violin.  Gyunay has been making real progress with his swim lessons.  I'm beginning to think it's not crazy to hope that he might be able to swim by summer.  Elijah stays busy with school and work, and Malachi and Pilot are still at NKU, but they are looking forward to spring break in a couple of weeks.

 

Book Review- The Irish Matchmaker by Jennifer Deibel

I've read Jennifer Deibel before, and her books do transport you to Ireland.  I loved the setting, and the matchmaking festival itself was a fascinating idea.  I just feel that it could have been explored more fully, instead of the very predictable story that unfolded.  I did love the characters of Donal and his daughter Sarah.  I wanted to like Catriona, but I didn't feel that she was as well developed.  The faith element was well-done.  Overall, this is a clean, sweet romance set in beautiful Ireland, but I was left wanting something a bit more.  

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, but all opinions are my own.

Animals and Garden Planning.

 Our dogs both like to sit on the back of the recliner, like they are cats:

Our rabbit watches the dogs, and now gets on his hind legs and begs for both treats and attention.  He also lines up with the dogs to go into the yard, but we don't actually let him go out because he's a rabbit.  So he roams the deck and is quite the personality.  

Inside, I'm starting seedlings for our spring garden.  So far, I've got some starts of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, broccoli rabe, kale, and some flowers.  The tomatillos have been slow to germinate, so I may have to try again on those.  There's snow on the ground outside today, but I use seed heating mats under the trays, and the playroom stays above freezing and gets lots of light, so the plants are doing well.  Nathaniel cut down a couple of trees for me, so now I can try to get more plants in the ground.  It's hard to find enough sunlight on our property.  

Performances

 It was a busy weekend.  First up, Malachi had a brief performance Friday at KMEA, and Elijah and I were able to go see it.

Next up, my sister and her kids came to watch Emry play ball.  He had quite the fan club at his game.

Lastly, we showed the little guys Domino Masters and then challenged them to build with dominos.  They complained that it was impossible, and then they kept building:

I think they had a really good time.

Lastly, I've been trying to get things ready for spring around here.  Today, I put together my new garden cart.  It will sit on the deck, and I'll grow carrots in it:

February

 So, we are getting pretty far into February, and I haven't posted a thing!  Sorry!  We did have 119 eggs in January, and the hens are consistently laying more, so this month should be a good one.  With Malachi and Pilot at college, we are not running out of eggs, so that's good.  

Emry has been really enjoying playing basketball this winter.

And Lydia went to a birthday party at an escape room.  They all seemed to have a lot of fun.