Here's a tip

If you click on the picture of the pond in the post before this, you can really see the birds... no pressure.

Bird Study

I was pondering today the fact that I haven't mentioned our homeschool in quite a while, so I thought maybe I ought to post something about our current fancy. So, here's a peak at what we're up to...

We're studying birds. I didn't plan this (exactly), but it just so happens that birds came up in our noeoscience curriculum and Victor's Little Saints program at the same time (just in time for spring! how about that?). So, we're off on a big tangent, making pinecone bird feeders, taking nature walks, and doing lots of reading about birds.

 

 

 

I know it's hard to see, but that white sliver above the pond in the picture below is a white heron (we're pretty sure). How cool that he showed up, seriously, as we were sitting by the window with our bird guides in hand and our binoculars handy.

 

Caught in the Act

Climbing here...

 

will land you here.

 

It's Wild Around Here

I've been wanting to post a new picture of Felicity, but I can't seem to get her to sit still long enough to capture her current phase. So, let me just describe it to you. She's wild.

Yesterday, she figured out how to climb onto the kitchen table. Lucy never did that. Victor did it once. She has already accomplished this feat 4 times. In one day.

At church yesterday, a woman whose granddaughter is about Felicity's same age (and about double her size and weight) made the remark that our little spitfire "needs to grow."

I don't think so. She is on the shorter side, and she's thin. But I think I can explain why. She never stops moving. Ever. Except when she sleeps.

Last evening as I was nursing her to sleep, It occurred to me that even as sleep was beginning to overtake her, she was still wiggling, squirming, reaching, even with her eyes closed, until finally she succumbed.

So, it's no wonder that her percentile for weight is in the single digits (if not negative digits...). She is growing, eating like a champ, and has more energy than I realized was humanly possible. This is even after witnessing the development of her wide-awake-at-all-hours big sister.

Some of her other recent adventures include: sneaking into the laundry room to eat dog food, climbing under the pew at church and escaping out the aisle behind us, and climbing up the playset at Grandma and Pada's house all by herself (with close supervision, of course).

She has also recently discovered the joy and freedom of the great outdoors. She has ingested both mud and mulch without adverse reaction (we think), learned to say the word "outside" and begun to demand rides in our bike's pull-behind kid cart.

She is giddy at the signs of spring. And we are loving her enthusiasm for life. I'll just be moving all the breakables a little bit higher on the shelves.

Random Thoughts...

I went into the kids' bedroom today to get them up, and Numero Dos was already awake. "Mom," he said, "I thought this would be a day when we would come downstairs and find you doing email!" They're on to me...

_________

We have 2 wooden snake toys in our house, one big and one little. The big one has been affectionately dubbed "Snakellini". This morning I referred to the smaller one as "Little Snakellini". "No," said Numero Dos,"he's a boy." Ok, so how about "Snakelloni", I offered... The response: "His name should be John." Alrighty then.

Dear Cow,

I'm thinking of you as you spend your last night, probably snuggled into your straw-lined pen, snoozing away, oblivious. I'm so thankful that have no idea what tomorrow will bring. My friend reminded me this evening that you have had a nice life, a full life with plenty of grazing on the best that midwestern grass can possibly offer. You've had plenty of exercise, and probably a good friend or two. Your life has been infinitely more pleasant than those of your counterparts who spend their days in the misery of factory farms.

However, I am sad. I don't know why. Blame hormones, lack of sunshine, or some other third party interference, but I'm grieving a little bit for the upcoming end of your life. I'm sure it will be quick and painless and you'll never know what happened.

Our freezer supply was dwindling, so I called our local slaughterhouse (I hate that title) to get in line for a quarter of beef. It just so happened that someone cancelled their order, and our request will be ready this weekend.

For your sake, I'm feeling tempted to force our household into a vegetarian state. But, what good would it do, really? Your fate involves consumption.

Well, Mr. Cow, sleep well. The food chain must continue. We'll think of you with gratitude with each juicy hamburger.

Sure Signs of Spring on Our Street

1. Chunks of mud and grass scattered throughout the house.

2. Neighbor kids excitedly greeting each other across backyard fences.

3. The grill, fired up and ready to go.

4. Our high-strung doggie contentedly lying on the back patio in the sun (as opposed to freaking out about coming back in the house).

5. Bags of cast-off clothing in the car and ready for drop-off at Goodwill after the semi-annual closet-purging session/switching of the seasonal wardrobes.

6. Kids with bare feet (or kids in rainboots).

7. The revving up of lawnmowers everywhere.

8. My favorite: the first green of tulips, crocuses, and daffodils pushing their way up through the brown, dead ground cover.

We're Back!

We returned yesterday afternoon from a whirlwind weekend of visiting friends in our beloved former hometown (Pittsburgh!!). It was a really fun trip, except my buddy Janelle and I missed our girls' afternoon due to illness of her daughter. Bummer. Hope you're feeling better, B.C.!

Laundry awaits! I think we'll spend the day resting and regrouping and call this week spring break.

Thanks to all our good friends whose hospitality made our little vacation so pleasant!

Unbelievable

I'm at a loss for words. In this interview Bill Clinton attempts to minimize the horror of embryonic stem cell research by claiming that the embryos used aren't fertilized. Um, excuse me??!! Seriously. Does he really think we're that ignorant? Obviously, with another slick maneuver, he's attempting to fool the masses into accepting this massacre hook, line, and sinker. I'm dumbfounded. Somebody stop this madness.

Just for fun, I looked up the word 'embryo' in the good 'ol Webster's Dictionary (Ninth Collegiate Edition). By definition, an embryo is "a vertebrate at any stage prior to birth or hatching." A VERTEBRATE. Not something prior to becoming a vertebrate.

God help us.

Today's Whopper

This morning, Victor woke up with a bloody nose. It was a pretty bad one, no doubt the result of too much picking. Of course, no reasonable 4-year-old wants his parents to clean crusty, bloody gunk off his nose. Of course, an alternate tale is the logical thing to produce in such a situation. Here was his:

"It's not blood!! It's that chocolate cupcake I shoved up my nose yesterday!"

This looks interesting...

I'm pretty sure I can spare a tea bag or two. Check out the New American Tea Party.

Saturday Summary

It has been quite a week.

We had the broken tooth drama Monday with follow-up Tuesday.

Victor made his first attempt at writing his name on Wednesday. I've been trying to talk him into this for months. This time he was willing. He's obviously been paying attention, because it came out fairly legibly...

Lucy got her first pair of glasses yesterday. They're purple, wire-rimmed, with flowers on the side. They're strikingly similar to a certain cousin's pair.

Felicity learned to say "no"!

I cooked a real meal knowing it would just be me and the kids for dinner. I got the "thumbs up on the chicken, Mom" reaction from Victor.

We managed to attend to all our scheduled extra-curricular activities plus finish (almost) all the school work I had planned this week in spite of extra appointments.

For the second week in a row, we've made it through Friday evening Stations of the Cross. For Felicity this is a challenge. When people start moving through the church, it seems to her like license to go wild. But, with the help of friends and tag-teaming between Eustace and I, we've managed to participate in the prayer.

It's now Saturday morning. Eustace is off working, and we're all still in our pajamas. I think we'll settle in for a quiet day. Maybe we'll even start pulling out spring clothes... Dare I?

My husband is to blame for my coffee addiction. It started with fluffy, girlie, barely-even-coffee-more-like-pure-sugar drinks when we would hang out at Caribou Coffee before we were married. Then, with the snazzy coffee pot we got as a wedding gift, I started having a cup or two a week, definitely not every morning.

During my first pregnancy I didn't even drink decaff.

During my second pregnancy I didn't drink regular (most of the time).

During my third pregnancy I didn't drink more than a cup a day. For my afternoon pick-me-up, I switched to black tea.

If I'm so blessed to have another pregnancy, I will stick to my previous limit (how noble of me), but it will be painful.

Initially, every cup required, for my sensitive palate, at least 2 teaspoons of sugar. I thought I was really making progress when I dropped it to one.

Last night, I hit a milestone. I think I have arrived (almost) as a real coffee drinker. I took my coffee with only milk.

Next stop: black.

I'm so impressed with myself. All this thanks to my husband's influence (and the need to cope with the demands of small children and sleep deprivation). I'm pretty sure God really created coffee for mothers.

Good as New!

An Unexpected Sacrifice

This evening as Eustace and I were finishing up dinner, the kids ran off to play in the living room. We were chatting, lingering at the table, watching the kids wrestle, when suddenly Victor raised his head forcefully and clocked Lucy in the mouth. It was all purely accidental and unpredictable, but that was the end of Lucy's front tooth.

It was a clean break near the gumline with the pulp exposed. There was lots of bleeding and drama and off we rushed to visit my Dad's partner (actually boss now that my dad's retired from his dental practice, but I digress...).

We never did find the piece of tooth, but I expect it's working its way through her belly right about now.

And Victor's head? Aside from a couple of tooth marks and a little swelling, it's not too bad.

Anyway, thanks to one very kind and conscientious dentist (Dr. B), you would never know that one of her front teeth is now a fake. It looks amazingly good.

Providentially, Eustace had snapped a close-up shot of Lucy with his phone just yesterday. That gave our miracle-worker dentist something to go by when fashioning her new chopper.

The funny thing is, we had been taking meticulous care of that tooth, especially in the past year. The tooth beside it had developed a little decay, and we were worried it would spread to her permanent front tooth. So, we had given extra attention to carefully flossing and brushing those teeth. And, in one instant with one freak accident, it was a goner.

Lucy was a complete trooper with her dental procedure. It certainly helped that Dr. B is exceptionally patient and his assistant, who wasn't working but just happened to be in the building, was someone Lucy knows well and has long admired (thanks, Judy). So, of course, she was very comfortable with the familiar and gentle people fixing her tooth.

We had the typical drama about pain and suffering, but one comment stands out. Lucy, crying, wonders aloud why Victor's head is so hard. She says, "I thought we came from ashes!"

Which all of this does bring to mind. The body won't last forever. It's painful to think of this with regards to your children. But it's true. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust....

This isn't exactly what I had in mind for a Lenten sacrifice, but we (or I should say Miss Lucy) certainly could offer it up as such.