Mommy's Blog: April 2017

Our menagerie continues to increase around this house. Now, in addition to one 13 year-old spaniel, a 2 year old house rabbit, 4 backyard chickens, and 5 soon-to-be Painted Lady butterflies, we are the caretakers of 5 week-old chicks!

We were only supposed to get two, I know.

But who can resist?
The babies were cuddled the whole drive home...

With a detour to share the love at our friend's house on the way...

The girls wasted no time in building a custom chick habitat, complete with toys..

We have added to our lives the mess of wood shavings, chick feed, and one more cage to clean.

And also, a whole lot of love.

Six days in, the babies are doing well. The smallest one, dubbed "Tiny," has us a bit worried as she is not growing quite as well as the others. But the other 4 are robust, with little wing feathers coming in already, and distinct personalities to go with their distinct coloration.

We got them from the $2 bargain bin at Meyer Hatchery, so there's no telling what breeds they are. That's the fun of it! Also, we run the risk of a rooster or two as I am pretty sure we have a few bantam breeds in the mix... So, we wait and see....

We've had some glorious weather this week to go along with our chicks. I've been getting back to running longer distances now that it's nice outside. Spring soccer is underway, though Ivy opted not to play this season. The kids have been walking and riding around the block, independently and with our little family entourage (we amble these days, moving slowly for our old lady dog...). Ivy has rekindled her love for neighbor Rachel, who loves our chicks, so things are working out fine. We've been getting our lawn, porch, and front garden spruced up, and right now all four humans are either reading, typing, or playing outside, relaxing for a bit between a morning of cleaning and an evening at the West Shore Chorale concert tonight.

It is springtime and all's well.

Making posters with our friends for the March for Science. Due to our crazy lives, only Nat was able to actually march., but we were all there in spirit..

The pink trees are in bloom on Somerton!

Sunset at Forest Hills and morning sun at Horseshoe Lake. Longer distance running = prettier views...

Aa silly bunny in the sun...

What a beautiful weekend we've had.

Blessings abound in this season of new life. Budding leaves, blooming flowers, weeds in our garden, our tall, gorgeous children, down-time with family, and - finally- some warm and sunny weather.

These past few weeks have had their ups and downs-- a tummy bug made the rounds through our family, mixed in with cold dreary weather and even a surprise April snow storm. On the flip side, a surprise snow day, too! And some lovely time off with my husband, and two kids who have been on top of their game despite this string of illness. As I write tonight, we are definitely on the up side. My house smells of hyacinths and our holiday hosting went off without a hitch. The news tells me that the outside world is a hot mess these days, but inside this home we are happy, and I plan to enjoy the heck out of it.

A bit of a retrospective of the highlights since last we met (not pictured: illness and snow. We're just going to let those go...)

Saturday morning "dates":

Our kids appear to be enjoying their Saturday Science Camp days, or at least tolerating them alright. Nat and I though? We're LOVING them. A good three hours of time together, puttering about on the near west side as we wait to pick the kids up...

And then last Saturday-- this sky!

We shopped at the West Side market, walked over the Gods of Transportation bridge, visited our lake, then had a delightful lunch in Chinatown. I could get used to this.

Springtime on Somerton:

It is prime walking weather around here, with flowering trees and spring gardens coming into bloom.
Wandering quiet sunlit sidewalks with my good old dog and my sweet little girl, loving where I live...

This one's latest milestone (aside from her exceedingly long legs)? She's started to be able to read "for real." She has been taking her Fairyrealm chapter books to bed with her to re-read and her confidence has just shot up. She's doing great, and sees herself as a real reader now. I love it.

Kitchen renovation:

Nothing like a little spring sunshine to inspire us to remove a cabinet or two.

Phase one of "create an eat-in kitchen" is underway. Future phases include: as custom bench over the radiator, an upholstered back along the wall, a new, extended countertop, a wood veneered wall, and generally making things look less terrible. We are a long way from "done" but I think we're going to love it. Plus the kitchen feels so much brighter without that big cabinet hanging over everything. Who needs storage when you can have light!

More Lake Time!

Seventy degree sunshine found us flying kites and playing in the sand. A foretaste of summer time...

A little bit of Lakeview. We squeezed in a quick aafter school tour to see how the daffodills were coming along.
Qite nicely, it turnss out.

Good Friday (and the second Friday off school in a row! Gratitude abounds!):

A quick afternoon trip to Lake Farmpark just to coo at baby lambs, warm summery sunshine,

It was summer-time warm while we were there, and indeed it felt a bit like summer vacation, with the day seeming to stretch out before us, time for aimless wandering and sitting together in the sun. Also, the Farmpark was chock full of young families, fully loaded strollers and toddlers in tow. I know, consciously, that my littles are not really so little any more. But it came into stark clarity as I looked at them next to all those teeny tinies, and as Nat and I felt our lack of stroller, the distance between those days and now... Those were good times, those days with our actually-little-ones. Lots of fun. Not so much sleep, though, so I think I am ok with being securely in this new phase of life. I am pretty fond of these two big kids. And of sleep. Plus-- you are never too old to visit the lambs!

Or, to enjoy the Egg Hunt!

Even though Jack did note, almost as an aside, "You know, I think I might be getting a little old for this..." (heartbreak!) I think he, too, is noticing the contrast when surrounded by tiny ones. He was among, if not the, tallest child there, my baby boy...

But! he's not too old yet! We're going to hang on to this tradition as long as we can, gosh darn it.

Gram -gram joined us this year.

Ivy participated in every craft she could find...

Jack stopped after the bunny nose craft, because-- mission accomplished.

Our friends joined us, too. Here's the Tenacious Trio, about to go conquer the Egg Hunt....

... with a stop along the way for egg-and-spoon races...

Lillian was extremely concerned that she find a golden egg...
(none of us did...)

... but we did find daffodils...

Note the sad little leopard-who-did-not-find-the-golden-egg...

... and logs to climb...

Jack needed a bit of help down. This isn't something you see every day.

Our intrepid hunters waited in line to go back in and find any missing eggs at noon. The egg finding was successful, but the weather not so much. We got stuck in a downpour that hit about 5 minutes in, and had to run, drenched, back to the buildings, with Ivy crying out, "I wish this wasn't happening!!!" the whole way. I guess that's where greed will get you...

Moments later, the weather cleared.

We brought friends back home with us for a wonderful, relaxing springtime afternoon...

Chasing chickens, dying eggs...

This boy dyed a grand total of one egg. To his credit, he spent most of the afternoon recovering from both a cold and his first session of soccer...

(here he is, looking ENTIRELY too old.)

... playing and reading and face-painting...

And then the girls set up a blanket in the lawn and set out to have "our most relaxing day ever."

And I think they succeeded. I mean, they were literally laying about, eating bon-bons in the sun.

Because the day was just too beautiful, we had a dinner picnic at Horseshoe lake.

Ran into friends there, too.

Then- home to bed and time to prep for Easter.

Thankfully, we had a helper this year:

It's as if he knew it was "his" holiday. Seriously. We didn't even pose him like this.

Easter Morning! Joy and candy and egg hunting and unwrapping and breakfast and dressed for the day-- all before 9am! Older kids sure do make short work of holidays.

Had a really nice Easter service at Disciples church. Wonderful music from Handel to mountain fiddle tunes. I enjoyed singing with the newly dubbed "DCC singers" and even got Becca to come up for the Hallelujah Chorus. It was nice having the whole family together for the service. Even if Ivy chose to sit with her friends and then go to Sunday School instead of staying with us. She sure does love her new church friends.