For the Love of Chickens...and Babies

We love chickens at our house (and babies, and baby-bellies)! As you can tell by the montage of photos below we just really like chickens a lot. They are: simple, peaceful, fun to watch as they peck around the ground for bugs and seeds, easy to care for, and in exchange for your hospitality they gift you with nutritious rich yummy eggs.

I decided since the kids wanted to paint today that I wanted to paint too. Being pregnant and feeling creative I felt inspired to paint my belly from my pregnancy with Everett, I had never painted my belly cast  of him. I had to think of something to commemorate him and perhaps something that would mean something to the both of us. Since he was a little tiny baby he's been going with me to feed the chickens. As he got older we'd go out and sit and watch the chickens for fun and to relax. We'd nurse on a bench by the chickens and when he started toddling around he enjoyed (and still does) chasing the chickens. Nowadays he even catches them without help. He also just loves eggs and the wonderful mystery and routine of gathering up something from our chickens that we cook up in the kitchen. As a younger baby he learned that dropping eggs was fun...because they made a wonderful messy SPLAT. That was frustrating for me but still really funny, and it was loads of fun for him. For a time we had to watch him very carefully because he LOVED splatting eggs on purpose! (He even chucked eggs into the living room once!)

So as I thought about what to paint I decided chickens...and baby chicks, and eggs would be the perfect and fun thing to paint. Both chickens and eggs are also a symbol of spring, fertility, and birth. And so the belly cast painting began. And it was lots of fun. When I showed Everett he squealed with delight and gave this hearty "Heheh!" laugh that he does. I think he likes it.  

Our chickens lay brown eggs and I wanted a childlike-drawing feel of the painting. It makes me chuckle looking at it.

 I aptly named my belly art work 'Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch' because we keep having more babies. Haha :)

 I'm thinking I may be the only person with a chicken painted belly cast! Although I did find some ducks!

Just Because Party

We haven't done anything outside the home as a family in a long time, so Ricky and I were brain storming ideas today and we came up with pottery painting. We found the perfect place because they let you reserve a party room which is perfect for a family of nine that values privacy and has little ones wandering around. Even better, food is allowed!

This morning we called a family meeting. The kids shouted out various curious ideas about our meeting. The most popular of which was, "Moms pregnant!?!"

Hah. :) Nope.
It's cute though, this is their first guess no matter when a family meeting is called.

We announced that we were going to do something fun today. We told the kids we reserved a party room at a paint your own pottery studio to have a "Just Because Party." We've never done pottery studio painting before so I explained to them exactly what we were going to do and how it works. I talked slow and specific to the younger kids so they understood we don't make the pottery, we pick it out, and we don't take it home right away, they have to fire it in a kiln. Then I had to explain a kiln is a oven capable of heat of several thousand degrees. After explaining the process in detail the kids thought it sounded fun. The last words were from Layla who said, "Yea, sounds fun. But I still think mom having a baby would have been more exciting." Hahaha. LOVE these kids.

We ordered a huge party platter of Jimmy John's sandwiches and a bucket of their delicious deli pickles to pick up on our way. We put together a platter of cookies for dessert and packed up some drinks and chips.

The pottery studio was really nice inside, the people were friendly, and the private party was a hoot. We had a lot of fun. Everett was a small challenge at first but once he learned his boundaries he settled in just fine. I was pleasantly surprised that even I got to relax and paint in peace without Ricky needing to pry him off of me.

The kids had received some Christmas money from Ricky's Grandma and recently a Valentines card with some spending money in it from my Grandma Smith. This helped to pay for the things they wanted to paint. For those of you wondering just how much pottery for nine people costs, it's a lot. :) (We've spent more at Build-A-Bear in the past though.) I'm going to send photos of our fun time to our Grandparents, they'll love to see what a fun family time we had and what the kids picked out.

Sebastian (3) picked out a Hulk head that is hilarious. As he's picking it out it's one of those moments where we really just want him to get a plate or a cup to paint. Something he can use daily. Something that isn't going to be so...green and mad looking... and something that isn't five dollars over his projected pottery budget. Hahaha. But we let him pick out what he wanted because we know he just loves superheros (and a little bit because he's so tired he could be on the verge of a meltdown at any moment.) It was really a good thing for him to paint because mixing or running many colors together wasn't an issue and we could touch up all the spots he missed easily. The top hair piece comes off and it's hollow inside, so he can use it as a piggy bank.

It was quite interesting that Sage and Ricky both painted mugs that are very, very similar to each other. Like practically the same. They weren't sitting near each other and each had picked out their own colors on their own plate. So funny. I was surprised that our kids that tend to finish art projects quickly spent a good amount of time on their projects. Our "Just Because Party" was a lot of fun! We are excited to see the vibrant glossy glass versions of our pottery in ten days!

At bedtime Layla snuggled into her bed and the last thing she said to me in a yawning voice was, "That was fun mom, but I still think another baby would have been more exciting." Cute, crazy kid. I'm so very glad the kids like being a part of our big family as much as we enjoy it.

Private Party Room, VIP only!!!! :)

Shelf-full of paint and a one year old; what could go wrong?

This little troll guy Sage painted really turned out cute

Slinging & nursing baby while mommy paints his cup. I'll always treasure this picture.

And this picture. Ohhh my love.

Ethan's painting a Sword in the Stone on his plate, turned out neat!

Charlotte's underwater giant mug

Such a creative idea adding a castle

Add caption

We don't have a buter dish! I'm always throwing butter on a plate and in the fridge.
 So I knew this was the perfect useful thing for me to make for myself.

See the two mugs? Ricky and Sage didn't have any idea they were painting nearly the same thing. Weird! (Ricky's has a cloud and brown handle.)

I can't wait for the kids to see how bright and shiny their projects will be after firing!

Leaving to load up, Charlotte stayed inside a few extra minutes to finish detail work on her mug.

Making time to do a few things, photos and a moment to reflect on being a good role model

Yesterday was a fantastic day, even if I had to get up an hour earlier than usual (little kids were up) and I had a headache for half the day. Everett was a handful and I didn't think I could keep my eyes open several times. I tried to nap with him but he just nursed and then took off. What a milk thief. We are on a great schedule again though and it feels amazing! The older kids are working hard on their work everyday and are enjoying it!


The last time I wrote I mentioned a few things that I hadn't been able to do. I'm glad to say yesterday I made two pies with the kids and tonight I got the sewing machine running and made a couple small things.

After a good day of school work yesterday (but an insane crazy, busy, crying, wild Everett!) the kids helped me in the kitchen for hours in the afternoon. We made a big roasted chicken and mashed taters and gravy dinner. We also made a cherry raspberry and lemon meringue pie.

I made a playland for Everett by shoving an ironing board between two beds.

He runs, climbs and crawls for an hour on this thing.

Sage rolling out pie crust

Getting pies ready, that pie zipper bag, to roll perfectly round pie crusts out, is my favorite thing EVER!!!

Everett painting

Our decoupaged kitchen table and pies

Thursday was Layla's 7th day of school. She came home with a 100% on her spelling test. We didn't feel like she was given enough time to study but we worked with her and she pulled through. I texted Ricky a picture of her test and he replied back: holy shit! I told him that with his analytical brain and my stubbornness and attitude (and sassy charm ;) that kid has places to go. He said he always knew she was super smart, we just need to get her to use her power for good and not evil. He's been saying that since she was two! LOL! We are proud of her. She's doing so well. The sting of missing her wore off quickly last Wednesday and turned into me just wanting her home again, selfishly. But she's doing it and I'm truly glad for her. I'm still crazy shocked as to why anyone would want to sit at school all day, LOL. Because that's not me, I have to be moving around. But, if it's her thing then I'm glad and I am still nurturing and supporting her.

One day when Charlotte was four years old someone handed her a stick of celery. She ate every vegetable known to man except celery. It never occurred to me to buy it because I hated it. I bought lots of veggies that were just so-so to me, but I never bought celery because I'm repulsed by it. Even the smell is strong like black licorice to me! She ate it up. That was when I realized in order for children to experience life you have to be open to life. It's something we take to heart... "allowing" our children to explore life and form their own opinions without being told what they should think. Ricky and I don't express our deeply held beliefs aloud without following up with an explanation that they should learn all they can when they get older and then form their views with a open heart and mind.  I want my children to be who they are because that is who they are, not because somebody told them who to be. In our home we model strong morals and deep family values founded on commitment, love, and honesty. We model "Godly character" without shoving it down their throats, and you know what? They model it back. I don't think I have to scare my children into being good moral people with faith and values. I think that comes from within, and it develops over time with life experience and with good role models.

 I do scare them into cleaning their rooms, doing their chores and keeping the cat box clean though. LOL. ;) Haha. They'd tell you, that's all true...

Layla after school day 5, homeschool art & online time...

We had a really nice time at our homeschool playgroup today. We had to leave early to get home for Layla to get off the bus. We all thought it was strange not having Layla with us, she really would have enjoyed today. I was thankful that when she arrived home she didn't look as tired as yesterday evening.

She has a lot of homework. She has spelling and sight words to memorize by Thursday on top of some class work she didn't get done because in her words, "My teacher was too busy to help me so she said for you to help me at home." I kept my growling on the inside. So we had to do two phonics pages and had a small paper school book to read. With Charlotte this was a huge sore spot. In my opinion public schools don't have a good enough teacher to student ratio.  If you ask me kids should do school at school and not at home. In addition, I believe children should have homework very infrequently (besides reading) and I'm pretty much against spelling tests until 3rd grade or later (or when they want to sit for them). Wait! I'm pretty anti test in general (for many kids until older grades, every kid is different though of course). For these reasons and more we homeschool. But seriously, duh, if we liked the system: the homework, the hours, the tests, the sitting, our kids would all be in it. We don't, so they aren't. I asked her if she likes school, she still does. She has P.E. all week, she doesn't know why. I'm sure glad. Kids need to move around.

The first four days I was so glad she said she liked school. I'm already starting to get antsy for her to come home. I'd be much more relaxed if public schools didn't grade everything by tests and a standard. My kids are not standard. My kids are individuals. Boo standard. :(

Other things:

Art

When I signed Layla up for school last week the office ladies were super nice and even really nice about homeschooling. They inquired about what we did for music, art and P.E. I went into a several things we've done for music and P.E. over the years (homeschool band, recorder, piano, soccer, homeschool P.E., gymnastics, dance) but the conversation trailed into a different direction from there. I later realized I didn't touch on art. Art is very important in our house, VERY important! The kids do art everyday. We are also a super crafty family as well. Yesterday Charlotte, Sage and Ethan drew for three or more hours. I know at least the boys were working on the same picture the entire three hours! Ethan has been drawing for a very long time and using tons of tutorials online for years. He has read and done so many of them that he can recite some like an art teacher; I hadn't realized to what extent until yesterday. They boys sat next to each other and Ethan helped Sage step by step to draw a magnificent dragon. They first started with lines and circles, then connected them, then added detail, definition and then finally color. Sage used water color pencils to colorband paint his piece. I was stunned! Listening to Ethan explain everything was amazing! He really knew what he was talking about. Sage made a few alterations here and there to his picture (wanted his wings different) and Ethan supported him with kind remarks and encouragement. When Sage thought he had messed up on part of his picture I helped show him how to hide his mistake; he was so grateful and impressed. :) I cut out about half the stuff they were going to do for the day because they were just enjoying what they were doing so much. They were quiet, learning, engrossed, and happy.

Sebastian

Sebastian (3) just climbed over to Everett (1) rubbed his head and said, "Hi little cutey guy."

I just love that.

Online

I've gone 8 days without logging into facebook! I'm still feeling like facebook would be a distraction to me so I don't really have a lot of desire to log back on yet. I feel less *distracted. It's unfortunate because I do miss some things about it. :( I love the sense of community, keeping up with family, news updates, reading about things that both matter to me and don't matter to me, reading about friends, getting updates about sales, I miss wasting time, Etc. I just don't have the time. I don't know what I would have done having never watched the honey badger video on youtube, Antoine Dodson (I heart him), the only good Mighty Putty parody out there, Chuck Testa's commercial, or read the latest update from lamebook.com. (I just listed the most hilarious stupid guilty pleasures of my life.) And I can still see funny things, read emails, visit all the same websites...I'm just not ready to let the FB stream in my head again.

All I know is that each day ends with me not having time to sew, iron, paint, wash my hair or make pie. (All things I've wanted to do lately.) Everyday since Sunday I've told the kids, "We'll do science tomorrow." Everyday something has come up. I can't fit something into my life that I don't have time for. Not right now.  In eight days time I've been on the computer an average 1 hour per day. That's it. (Mostly blog related!)

Blogging is easy. Hardly anyone reads it and it feels good because I do it for me. Most importantly it's a keepsake I can save.

*What do I mean with my by "less distracted?" I mean more present with my family and my life. I feel like I'm not being pulled away to do or see other things anymore. I feel more focused. Facebook was like leaving the TV on all day and letting it filter in whatever it wanted to, accept worse. It served so many functions: humor, procrastination, socialization, news, education, shopping/sales updates. If I wanted to learn about my friends and family that was fun, but I'd get chatty and comment to everything. If I saw something funny I'd watch it. If I saw a good sale or product I liked I'd then spend time window shopping. I like the fast change. I change activities at home quickly, I'm an avid multitasker and I bore easily. If you watch me sometime, I don't sit still for long. I come from a long line of family members that are busy and piddle around the house constantly. It's what we do. The internet in general provides my brain with a constant stream of newness, facebook just put it all in one place.

Also, I wanted to be sympathetic to every persons stomach flu, ruined dinner plans, stressful day and sick dog. I commented or "liked" on every cute baby, good day, and fun outing. I liked the SOCIAL part. That's kinda the point of SOCIAL networking. It slowly just became too time consuming and distracting for me. So until I'm sure I can get on and off once a day without getting distracted I'm going to keep up with my break, it's so good for me!

Goodnight blogger land...

I LOVE crafty days

Yesterday we made magazine / paper organizers

 

Last week ~ and Father's Day

The above picture is of the kids doing sand art outside last week.

Last week was a great week. Aside from a seriously needy Penelope and grouchy moody Layla (both kids have been sick) last week was so productive. At the time I was having a hard time dealing with the girls, but in hindsight we accomplished so much and the week unfolded into a routine of homeschool, housework, outside fun, arts, and gardening.

I taught the boys how to clean the bathrooms, all the kids have newer "more advanced" household chores. I've struggled with taking the time to show them how to do more housework because it's just faster if I do it myself. That sort of attitude just hurts them and me though!

Father's Day was spent grilling on the new BBQ we got for dad and playing outside. We had what we called an old fashioned Father's Day; playing in the garden hose, kiddie pools, grilling, making organic homemade vanilla ice cream, and we left the air conditioning off and used a box fan in the house to keep cool. By 4:30 P.M. However, this barefoot and pregnant mama had enough of no air and turned it on. We then settled down on the floor and watched a season of Punky Brewster. We love getting old shows from netflix. They are so much fun for the kids (and us) plus we can introduce them to good story plots and wholesome lessons. They just don't make TV like that anymore.

Ricky seemed to have a very nice Father's Day. I'm so glad. He is such a great dad to these guys. They are lucky children. And I, a very lucky woman.

Lasagna Garden

We didn't water yesterday... and by yesterday evening the temperature dropped significantly outside and a beautiful thunderstorm rolled in. So did wind. Ricky and I found ourselves running around the lasagna garden picking up newspapers that were blowing far away into the woods. Ricky started spraying the dried papers with a hose because it wasn't yet raining. Once the rain started and he sprayed they were weighed back down and they stayed put. (I was supposed to put hay on them already but haven't yet! Once I do they will stay put!!)

The day before yesterday the kids and I finally planted our starter plants. We planted tomato, cantaloupe, watermelon and zucchini. We have seeds to plant today if the storm blows through (it's still storming this morning). We hope to get some sunflowers, cucumbers, green beans, and lettuce in the ground. Since we are planting so late I'm going to order some fertilizer from Gardens Alive in hopes for a bountiful harvest this year.

Photo Below: Lasagna garden layered with newspaper, cardboard, old leaves, old cloth diapers and retired corn from our play-corn-bin. We will add hay this week. You can spot a row of tomatoes to the far left. When you are ready to plant in your garden you just dig up a spot and go! We have nice top soil under here already, but if we didn't we'd have to wait for this to break down more. Next year when we start at a new spot it won't be this fast because we will be starting with little soil. The debris helps stomp out weeds (it suffocates them) while creating a nice home for worms and mulch for the garden.

I LOVE IT

Well the kids love http://www.time4learning.com/ and so do I.

I'm always looking for ways to make things easier so I wanted to share what we have been using in case it could help some one else too. We have been using http://www.time4learning.com/ for a little over a week now and my kids are going nuts over it. They want to do "school" everyday. It's very cartoon like and TV like so some parents may not like that, but my kids love it and are really excelling and learning in all subjects. It's cutting my work and prep in more than half because it's all preplanned and taught online. (The best is that the site actually teaches not just gives work.) I help them when they need help and we have verbal discussions etc.. It also tracks (by day, week, or month) hours, subjects completed, lessons, quiz "grades", and so forth. Sage, who I have mentioned before hates every reading program or attempt I try loves this and is really thriving with the phonics section (finally something clicks and works for him)! The cartoons are actually pretty hilarious. There is also a story builder section (and writing program for older kids) and to my surprise Ethan is bringing me 2-3 sentence stories daily that he types up by himself with a picture. A "reward" system is set up within the site also. You can go to the "playground" and play games when you finish your work. (Parents can set the work and play time limits to whatever they want.)
I'm thrilled with Sage's progress. Sage is easily frustrated and bored with other reading/phonics lessons/workbooks. Ethan excelled with http://www.clicknkids.com/ but Sage couldn't get past the lessons after around lesson 13 or 15. He hated it.

So anyway it's really exciting that they all love it SO much! It's a great way to get school time in when I'm busy. I can also listen for when they have problems with a lesson (makes a sound when they make an error so then I know when I need to run over and help them). I find my self watching and participating in the lessons quite a bit. They are creative, engaging, and some are just funny. Charlotte just got signed up for http://www.spellingtime.com/ and I think that is going to work really well for her. We will see soon.

Today Sage wanted to know what a metaphor was and conveniently http://www.brainpop.com/ has a video about similes and metaphors.

This summer the kids will be attending a week long drama camp for 6-11 year olds. Their cousin will be in town and will also be going. It should be fun for them. Sage is a little nervous (and wants nothing to do with being on stage) but he is going because everyone else is. I really hope this is a fun experience for him. He is shy and doesn't like direct attention on him. OTHER We have spent several nice relaxing days inside and out. The kids are a tiny bit bored because we didn't go to playgroup last week and we have been staying in and saving money for our trip on Thursday. We leave for Las Vegas (my "home town") to visit family and attend my youngest brothers wedding. (I am the oldest of 5 kids.)

I'm really happy with how our kids are doing. I have been seeing a lot of learning going on and with little effort on my part. Ethan and Charlotte are reading a lot out loud to each other and their siblings. (Ethan and Charlotte read to Sage). They have a monster book (mythical beasts) and another book called History's Grossest, Wackiest Moments. They have been discussing everything from Dracula to Foo Fighters (I informed them that is also a band:) They also have learned about vikings, life before toilet paper and so many other things I can't recall now.

ART!
We recently learned how to make darling faries out of pipe cleaners, felt, flowers, and wood beads. My dear friend Molly taught us this craft and we have been having fun ever since. I didn't capture the best photos the other day but here are some samples. Pictured below is a group of fairies & fairy babies in buntings, a close up of a boy fairy Ethan helped make, and a purple haired fairy Layla helped make. They are now all happily housed in our wooden dollhouse.





MASSAGE
Today Charlotte learned the art of massage (and pampering lol) as we got treated at a day spa. We had an hour massage, and a spa pedicure/manicure! Oo-la-la! :)


ANIMAL SCIENCE & BIRTH!
Did you know opossums are marsupials? I did not know that. I'm going to ask the kids if they knew that and tomorrow we are going to watch animal births on http://www.youtube.com/ Here are some we picked out for the kids:
Kangaroo birth
Orangutan birth (Orangutan one is mine and Ricky's favorite)
Giraffe birth
Dolphin birth
3-D simulation of human birth (they've seen me give live birth more than once :) This simulation is very neat though.

Science, Art, and the Bead Incident

THE BEAD STUCK IN THE EAR
Last week was interrupted with a bead that got stuck in Ethan's ear. Sage "accidentally" dropped it in his ear (they had been playing and throwing the beads). It did not hurt or bother Ethan, and the bead was clearly visible. We tried for 6 hours to retrieve it the first night before giving up. The next morning I called three hospitals and two doctors offices trying to make the right decision about where to take him. All but one place told me to take him to the ER. I wasn't convinced that the emergency room was appropriate action. It wasn't an emergency first of all, second who wants to go sit in the ER, third I don't want just any on call doctor digging in my kids ear (I had done enough digging already haha)! The children's hospital in St Louis suggested I contact a ear, nose, and throat specialist. Ah, brilliant! So we made him and appointment ASAP which actually coincided with my 30th birthday (at 8am in the morning no less)! What are the chances? I told Ethan I'd surely always remember what I did on my 30th birthday now! The specialist was nicer than we could have ever hoped for. We were in the exam room for all of about 7 minutes. She had the lighting, special tools, and skills that we lacked. She painlessly removed the bead with a smile and we were on our way. What we couldn't achieve in 2 days, she did in no time at all. Thank you specialists!

SCIENCE WITH DAD
Tonight at the dinner table the kids brought up and discussed the following; oxygen, hydrogen, iron, copper, zinc, the periodic table of elements, flammable elements, the basics of space travel, space craft construction and the use of asbestos. They learn a lot of things from http://www.brainpop.com/ and then discuss them with us and we fill in the blanks. I just love when they bring up so much science and social studies out of the blue, and they do it all the time.

ART
The kids have been playing with modeling clay and sculpey a lot. Charlotte made a fairy from sculpey and we baked it. Everyday the kids have been getting clay out. Even Penelope gets in on the fun.

SHOWS
On my birthday (after bead extraction took place) we saw a fun show of visual comedy which included some magic, juggling, imagination, and hilarity. Watching the kids laughing was as much fun as the show. Then we ate a late lunch and picked up a luscious ice cream cake.