Brotherly Love

I'm pretty sure this post has the sweetest pictures ever in it. Even sweeter than the baby chicks. All of these were taken over the course of just today, and I'm positive that I didn't catch all of the sweet moments, either. Just a few. These two boys are my heart - I feel like I should be celebrating THEM on Mother's Day, for coming into the world and making my dream of becoming a mother come true.

Matthew had a very sudden moment of deep sadness. I was concerned about what happened; if he was hurt, sick, scared - what was going on? He responded quietly, "It's my Grampy. I miss him." Grampy Steve passed away just one year ago. Over the past weeks, there have been tears from a lot of us. We miss him and the overwhelming love and support he showed these little guys. Matthew said, "Grampy usually comes to my soccer." I know, buddy...and I hope he's still watching.

This picture shows what happened when Andrew learned why his brother was suddenly sad. The hand holding was followed by words of wisdom, understanding and a little bit of gentle distraction. I'll never be able to look at this photo without getting choked up. They are amazing.

The rascals were due for bedtime a half hour before this next photo was taken - but how do you end this kind of fun? I'll tell you how: let them freeze their tushies off and they'll come begging for a shower and warm bed in about ten minutes! Between baseball practice, a soccer game, a zoo trip with their father, swimming with the neighbor girls and an almost 90 degree day, they were ZONKED at the revised bedtime. I wonder if they'll actually sleep past 7 tomorrow morning?

Instead of traditional bedtime stories tonight, they opted to lust after new Playmobil sets together. They were plotting and planning, deciding what goes on whose wish list and who had enough money in their wallet to buy what right now!

Little Andrew was so tired - he could barely get up and make it to bed. Matthew took full advantage of non-wrestling snuggle time with his big brother. <3

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there. It's the hardest job in the world, but the pay is overwhelmingly generous...especially on days like these.

Pukestack Rock

Matthew's kindergarten class went on a field trip to Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach to learn more about tide pools. Knowing that my child is prone to becoming carsick, I decided it was in his best interest to stay OFF the puke-inducing bus and ride with me. Our wonderful NanaDee came along with us to make sure Mom had free hands to help the little guy out if need be. Plus, she made for awesome adult company on a long day of driving.

We started off with a very excited little Matt-Matt. We knew we'd drive much faster than the bus, so we stopped off at Starbucks first - Matthew even got his own little kid's hot chocolate (which he downed in about 30 seconds!) NanaDee got Matthew cozied up in the back seat - he even got his own little personal air source, in case the sickies started getting to him. He was mesmerized by the lights on the fan, though (and I'm not entirely convinced that's not what ended up making him feel nauseous at one point! Ha!)

Anyhow, we made it to the beach without incident. It was a gorgeous drive, and seemed to fly by. Both of my little guys are wonderful travellers! We get to the beach and the busses had just arrived. I walked over as they were unloading to some very flustered teachers, parents and crying kids. Something was obviously awry.

SIX children got carsick and vomited. Holy worst-case-scenario. I would have died. Matthew stated, "I would have been one of them." Oh my gosh. I couldn't believe it. Those poor kiddos. I stepped up to help out where I could. Yes, this totally puke-phobic mama saw crying kiddos and had to help somehow. I hung onto one that was particularly scared and kept telling her it was going to be okay..even though in the back of my mind, I was well aware that there was still a 2 hour ride back happening in a very short while. (The bus ride back ended up being uneventful for them - so I wasn't lying after all!)

All in all, we had a wonderful day. It was a SHORT time on the beach for such a long drive, though. I did the math: 4 hours of driving, 30 minutes in bathroom lines (there were 90 kids total, and maybe half as many parent chaperones), 1 hour on the beach and a 30 minute 'picnic' lunch in the parking lot. I don't think I'd want to do it again without having more play time between the drive time!

Here's our excited little guy, leaving in the morning:

Excited to reach the rock!

So gentle with the starfish:

I will never see this rock again the same way. Haystack rock = massive puke fest. I think I can laugh about it, though. Does that mean my phobia is lessening?

Little man checking out the nesting birds on the rock:

A quick lesson from mom about why you shouldn't throw your garbage in the ocean. (Or why it's okay to sometimes chuck an apple core off the side of the boat.) And a quick brag to NanaDee about how I used cloth diapers, thus saving the environment from nearly 8,000 disposable diapers that would have each taken 500 years to decompose (that's what the sign said!) 

NanaDee was such a wonderful addition to our day. She's super easy going, helpful, fun and everyone loves her!

 Looking for hermit crabs - found a couple!

#1 sign of a successful field trip:

It Smells In Here

My Mother's Day gift every year is 3 huge lilac trees in full bloom. That means that every time I open the back door, I'm blasted with the heavenly sweet scent of lilacs. The two biggest trees have the tiniest little blossoms - and the strongest smell! I always snip a few branches off to bring the sweet smell inside.

Unfortunately, Mike may be very allergic to these sweet little flowers. I've had to remove them from our highest traffic living areas to see if it helps him out. Darn it.

Matthew is quite the artist...he drew a picture of our entire household. There's so many critters that they got their own page. (I have to admit that I don't think we actually have any live fish left in our algae tank, though.)

The family got nicknames. And notice the two 'babies' he drew and named? Not sure what's going on there - no babies that I know of in our near future! He told me their names were Sabannah (not saVannah) and Jo-Jo. Cute, huh?

Productivity

What a day! I woke up to snuggles from the little one - it was so hard to get out of bed with that sweet little guy nestled in next to me. After I got the kids off to school, I created a homework nest on the couch and dug in for 5 straight hours of homework. I got way ahead and  unloaded a lot of stress by doing so.

Then, I joined Mike outside to finish up the chicken coop. He finished installing the chicken wire, put a roost into the coop and a hook to hang the heat lamp. We'll remove the heat lamp after a few more weeks - they're still just baby chicks with few feathers.

Here's my guy working hard...he's done such an amazing job with this coop!

I took the leftover chicken wire and built myself a potato tower. The idea is that as the greens of the potato plant grow through the soil, you pile dirt on top of it and at the end of the summer when all of the leaves at the top of the tower have turned yellow and wilted, you break open the tower and you have a ton of potatoes to harvest! I can't wait to see how it works out.

Just to the right of the potato tower, I used the newly weeded garden area for my huge plants: zucchini, pumpkins and artichokes. Fingers crossed it all works out!

After some gardening, I decided to move the chickens into their new home. The bathroom was filling with feathers and the ducks just stink. They needed their bigger home. Tonight, we'll put them upstairs and close up the coop with the heat lamp on. They'll be super toasty! We're supposed to have very nice weather this week, so I hope they'll do okay out there!

I snagged a video of the chickens doing their thing in the first several minutes of being out there - and Rio tried to escape! She fly out and started running - I was so worried she'd get through the fence and we'd never see her again. I was quicker, though - and she's tucked in safe and sound. That one is a crazy bird (she was the first to start roosting on her brooder in the bathroom and has never enjoyed being handled - even from day one.)

Catch up

My grandma always told me that busy people are happy people. I must be ecstatic, then - because I haven't stopped to catch my breath since last Friday! Here's just a part of what's been going on:

Matthew took Mom on a field trip to downtown Portland's waterfront for a Cinco De Mayo cultural celebration...

We had a graduation party for Auntie Mel (where Matthew blew up ALL of the smiley balloons for us!)...

Pop and Grandma Margaret (and Emma!) visited...

Baba told funny stories while we drove from Matthew's soccer game to Andrew's baseball practice...

And on our third gorgeous day in a row, my little leprachaun enjoyed a SOUR popsicle...

And then played a baseball game...

And walked off the field with an injury. Poor Right Arm takes a beating every May...just a bruise and some (ball) stitches this time...nothing beyond skin is broken!

Green

What to do with the massive amounts of parsley growing in your garden? Ghormeh Sabzi, of course! Yum! My favorite Persian dish as a child...and maybe even still! (It's better when mom makes it, though.) Matthew actually requested it this time!

(Not my picture - we always eat it before we remember to take a picture of the presentation!)

And what color did we paint our chicken coop? 

         

....................Green, of course! (Photography by Matthew)

Andrew helped out a TON! Matthew did at first, but we needed a photographer so he traded in his brush for a camera...

Some super cute videos of the chicken coop adventures, taken by Matthew:

What a Guy!

This post is about how much I love and appreciate my sweet fiance. Well...it starts that way, anyhow...

Have I mentioned here yet how awesome it is to be engaged to a personal trainer? I still do my own thinking, but have his brain close by to pick anytime I'm not sure about a food choice - and when I try to cancel a training session, he knows I'm full of (bad) excuses and won't let me! Why is this so smile-worthy? Because in working with him for the last month, I've lost 4.5 pounds and lots of inches. I'm so thrilled to be back on track and super close to my goal weight yet again. :)

PLUS - when we're out and about running errands, and I see something fuzzy I just HAVE to bring home, he 'lets' me. (I use the term 'lets' loosely - we aren't exactly a 'I let you or don't let you' kind of couple - but you know what I mean!)

Meet Red...she's likely to be our best layer of the bunch....

Red is named after our favorite character on our current favorite TV show (plus, she's a Rhode Island Red chicken - so it just made sense!) Mike and I usually only watch one sitcom at a time - we watch season after season until we're either tired of it or it ends. Our current favorite? Can you guess? I'll give you a hint: Red is hilariously grouchy.

I've considered changing the name of my blog to: From Polish to Poultry - because once upon a time, my nails were painted beautifully every single day. Now? I'm loving being an urban farmer - dirt, feathers, chicken poop and lots of hand washing = no more pretty nails. BUT - today, I splurged and painted them. It's a few hours later and they're already trashed. It's okay - I'll trade polish for poultry anyday!

More chicken news: Tweety (aka Little Miss Perfect) may actually become Little Mister Not-So-Perfect and may need to leave our flock. Since he was a Bantam chick, he came to us straight-run (which means he wasn't sexed and it's a 50/50 shot at whether you get a rooster or not!) We think he's a he because he isn't getting his feathers yet...and I've heard that roosters take longer than hens to get their feathers. No other reason, really - just a hunch. I wanted to be sure we had 3 good layers - and adding a young chick too much later in the game isn't going to be fun. Red is from the same place as the rest of them, and likely  hatched around the same time...she looks like it, too. Sweet bird so far - doesn't mind being held at all! She's a tiny little thing compared to Big Mama and Rio.

In other foul news, the ducks are whacked. They are seriously crazy...so much fun, but insanely messy, active and loud. Oh, and huge. These suckers are growing almost as fast as my neglected asparagus. (Have you ever seen that plant grow?!?) We haven't been able to keep the ducks from swimming in the water, which is creating such a mess, wet bedding and just plain chaos.

So, our solution was to separate the fast growing crazy ducks from the smaller, cleaner, sweeter chickens. (Who's idea was it to get these ducks again?) So here you have it - a bathtub containing the largest plastic bins we could fit...

The ducks are being SO loud since we separated them. I'm not sure if they're bummed about the chickens being gone or super thrilled to have so much space (and an open water dish!) I can tell you that this is the best thing we could do, even after only having it this way for a couple of hours. The water in the chicken brooder is clean (and there! We were having to refill it every hour or two because of the ducks splashing!) and the litter is dry. I'm not sure what happens when we try to combine the two sets of birds in the outside coop - fingers crossed we all get along! Maybe we'll have to have brooder playdates every day - move them all into one for awhile or something, so they don't forget each other? Any ideas for me from the more experienced bird keepers?