She's Off!

 Alyssa left at 3:30 a.m. this morning. She flew to Memphis to see her Grandparents for a week and then will board the plane next Wednesday, on her 15th birthday, to meet her mission team in Texas. From Texas, she will fly to Nepal for three weeks of ministry to girls that have been rescued from the se* slave industry. After that, she will fly to India to hike into unreached villages and minister at leper colonies. Once she completes her six weeks in Asia, she will fly back to Texas before coming home. She will not be back home until August 1st. Please pray for her when she comes to mind - this trip will be spiritually, emotionally and physically exhausting. We are so proud of her, she worked very hard to raise the almost $7,000 that this ministry trip cost. I thank each and every person who supported her in many, many ways! We are already feeling the emptiness of her being gone!

  
We are going to have two children overseas this summer, as Gabriel is only days away from his military deployment. He will fly to HI in the next few days and will then deploy on three different ships over the ocean until Christmas. We are praying for him and Alayna as they are apart for this first long deployment of their marriage. 

Our lives back at home aren't quite as exciting. We wrapped up soccer yesterday and are at the pool every afternoon for swim team. We had a small surprise dinner for Alyssa (that I did not take one picture off - hate it when I do that!) and have some out of town company coming tomorrow. In the meantime, JD is working on the chicken enclosure -

 And Kenny is back to wire the fence to keep escaping goats in and predators out -

The goats love the pasture grass/weed combination

The Beginning of the Chicken's Fancy Fence

 Since the chickens have been such trouble, the chicken fence bumped up in priority above finishing the screened in porch. The porch will be better to complete in the heat anyway since it's covered and has a fan. JD and the boys started early yesterday.

Lunch break

 They started by constructing the main beam.

 This is our current fence which isn't doing anything to keep the chickens in since it's broken in several places and it isn't keeping the guineas out since they fly over effortlessly.
 

  
The chickens are everywhere. This is what came running when we fed Hans a treat of grain yesterday. 

We separate Hans and Leia at grain time since she needs a cup and he only gets a taste. There are always chickens in her stall also ready to share her portion. There is one that sleeps in the hay feeder and several that lay eggs in enough places that we have a daily egg hunt.

 The main beam was super heavy; I think there are two more to go.
 

  
JD balanced the beam with the tractor bucket to install it.
 

  
Today we took a building break to head to Amish country for supplies. The kids and I hit the flee market while JD talked to the garage builders. I let the kids enjoy the puppies, but was wise enough to not come home with one.

  
What we did come home with, however, was the silkie chicks I planned to get -

10 for us and 10 for Wendy

 AND a pigeon for Ben. In Ethiopia, the kids have tame pigeons that fly around during the day and come back to their cages at night. Ben has always liked birds and hopes to be able to tame this one to that point. Poor little guy is pretty nervous now, I hope it improves.

I planned on the new silkies joining the ones I hatched out only a week ago and the pigeon joining the "teenager" chickens that have one whole side of the chicken coop. The problem was the new ones are so tiny that the week olds were trampling them and the "teenagers" were picking on the pigeon. So, I have everyone separated to the point that I even have the teenagers living in the food entry part of the coop and had to run out for a new watering can.

The teenagers

 Through all the change, James' silkie just sits on her egg. It isn't even her egg, it's an Americana's, but she doesn't know that. 

 AND in case you were afraid that I was lounging around while the boys worked hard, I pressure washed the front the house and weeded the garden while they worked. The weather was perfect for a day spent outside!

Camp Is Coming

 Every weekend in April and May are filled on the calender. Tomorrow we are heading out of town for family camp. We will then be attending Easter service at our friend's church that we spoke about orphan care at last year. You might think that I would be packing for tomorrow, but I have instead spent the day on the fireplace room downstairs. I decided it would be optimal to have both coats of paint on the floor before we go, so it can cure while we are gone and be ready for baseboards and furniture when we get back. JD and the boys moved everything from the fireplace room to the now finished game room.

The boys then scraped any paint slops from the walls off the cement. This morning, after a quick doctor run to ensure James didn't have strep, I painted the last closet and touched up the walls. 

We then swept, vacuumed, mopped and mopped again the floor. James volunteered to mop at lunch break in spite of not feeling too great. 

Then I put the first floor coat on - the second will need to be done before we leave around noon tomorrow. (Hoping and praying the husband volunteers for that one.) In all irony, he ended up Easter dress shopping with Alyssa after her travel clinic appointment while I was painting.

We are loving our first few spring days! Tori likes to help cook and I'm enjoying the help as well. It's always best if your spring lamb can don an apron and participate.

When I did the community yard-sale with Alyssa, I bought four sleds and a rip-stick for $10 - (no negotiation, that was what he asked.) The kids had a fun few hours with the sleds before they were put away for next year.

We like it when we can walk to the bus stop, but we are having some chicken issues. The boys have abused the fence for so many years that it has to be completely replaced this year. Since I want to expand my flock, I considered having the Amish (that are coming to build the garage anyway) move the coop to the back part of the pasture. We then are going to enclose the fence to keep the bully guineas out at feeding time. The plan then was to allow the chickens to free range the pasture during the day. The new problem is that the electric fence won't keep them in and they will ran-sack my garden. Now we are discussing fencing the garden also. So many details to figure out, but in the meantime - there are chickens everywhere!

The bus stop ditch - always fun to jump over

  
More chickens in the goat stall sharing goat breakfast. One roosted in their hay feeder the other night, causing them to refuse to eat the contained hay.

 Here's our barn kitty, Talley, that thinks she is a goat. She has chosen to live in the stall with the goats and shares their goat feed at times. I had forgotten about her ways after not having goats for several years, but she did the same thing six years ago when I had the milking Nubian goats.

Speaking of intelligent animals - here is Lincoln that I allowed to sleep in over the winter because I felt bad for him. Now it's 70 degrees, the kids are outside and....here he is!

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Happy Progress

My happy progress is that the back game room is finally finished, other than window sills, which is obviously not going to slow me down too much.

This was a project that originally was going to be completed before we moved in almost six years ago. Ben and Tori have been waiting since March to host a combo-birthday party, so we should be ready to set up the game tables and send out invitations after Easter.

We are now down to two rooms that need the ceiling painted, walls touched up, floors painted and baseboards hung. I am going to be so happy to start being able to use these rooms in the manner we intended.

I've already painted the ceiling portion here since I took this picture this morning. 

After the basement is completed, we are going to push through the last two jobs in the screened in porch - the rest of the ceiling and the tile floor. Then we can eat out there without climbing over scaffolding and saws! I can't wait!

In the meantime, I have to show my spice cabinet. My friend Wendy blessed me with Tupperware spice containers for my upcoming birthday. I was so thrilled to clean out the cabinet and put my spices into these containers that will keep the spices fresh far longer than the ones they come in. 

I told Wendy that I like to leave the doors open now just so I can gaze at them as I walk by - I'm sure only a full time Mom can even begin to understand that. 

Elijah, Bella and I are wrapping up the last few weeks of Classical Conversations for this year. I do intend on putting them back in next year. What will stink is that they will be in different classes and I'll have to split my time between them. We are currently doing a study on classical music and the orchestra. I wouldn't have thought that it would have interested Elijah much, but I was wrong. I pulled out an old "Classical Kids" tape set that was my oldest children's. (They don't make it anymore, so if you ever come across one - grab it!) They took classical songs and added words that are about character traits. Elijah will literally stand in front of the tape player and listen for quite some time. 

His interest now has spread to Peter and the Wolf, which was written to help children recognize the different instruments. 

We have found some variations of Peter and the Wolf on Netflix and You Tube also. 

Another good progress I have seen lately is that Selah is starting to grasp the idea of sounding out words. She and I will be working through Hooked on Phonics this summer; I don't like to pile work onto her K load already, but she needs it.

On the Bella front, she is learning to play! Children from orphanages do NOT learn to play like regular children. I have fought that with her since the beginning, but lately she has been playing by herself with toys. Big progress!

On the outside front, I am excited to expand my chicken flock this year due to our enormous egg consumption. Before we do, however, we (JD) is going to rebuild the chicken fence (that the boys have torn up climbing over the last few years) and we are going to net the top to keep the guineas out. They roam on their own until the chickens get fed and then they swoop in to bully the chickens for their food. Then the guineas will be locked out and the chickens will be locked in, except for free-range times. The boys will be thrilled that we won't have to trim wings anymore either, since they are ones chasing and catching several times a year. Before we start, I need someone to paint the chicken coop. Any takers?

They are very loud watch-birds!

 Thanks to my sister, tomorrow I get to head to DC for an over-night with my husband that is working up there. It's really nice to have a leisurely evening away with a dinner out!

Warming Silkie

 We have a pretty strict morning routine around here. I am making school lunches by 7:00. I get the school girls up by 7:20 and the homeschooling boys by 7:40. The girls eat first and then get ready for school while the boys eat and unload dishwashers. The boys should then be ready for outside chores while the girls and I head to the bus stop at 8:00. The boys' primary morning chores are feeding and watering the goats, chickens and barn cats. The goal is for the boys to be back in and ready to start school by 9:00. Several times the last two weeks, I have looked out the window to see James heading to the house with a lethargic chicken. The first one just seemed cold and perked up when placed in a Rubbermaid by the fire. The second one died in the Rubbermaid by the fire. That day, I drove to town and bought two heat lights for the chicken coop in spite of the fact that it really isn't that cold for animals that are housed in a nicer home than lots of people in third world countries live in. In spite of my purchase, we have lost about four more chickens. This morning James brought in our Silkie rooster; I really can't remember how old he is.  He has been very content in his box by the fire all day - in fact, none of the chickens ever seem to want out. They enjoy the attention, food, water and warmth I guess. 

 

Honestly, I am just wondering if we are just losing chickens that are getting old. I have had chickens for about six years now and we never get rid of them, so I guess they have to die of old age at some point. ( We have lost many, many over the years.) I need to Google "life span of a chicken". In the meantime, I'm rooting for Old Silkie; the silkies are always the tamest chickens.

 

Anyone else getting ready to add wood to the fire and tuck in their house chicken for the night?  Probably NOT.

New Van, New Chicks and New News!

We picked up our new (to us) van today. It is fairly new, a 2011 and only has 10,000 miles on it. It should last ten years and maybe, just maybe, I won't be forced to drive something quite that enormous at that point. As we stared at it in the dealer parking lot today, we commented that it isn't everyone who rolls into the Ford dealer in a 12 passenger van with the complaint that they have out-grown it! While I searched for the perfect van for the last several weeks, the only thing I asked every dealer was that I wanted one that was NOT white. I don't have anything against the color white, other than there are a hundred of them in my county alone. Of course, I got white - thank you Ford who decided to make 95% of the vans the last few years white. I would like to apologize in advance to the other large families in the county when my children open your side van door and throw in their grassy cleats before they realize that they are at the wrong van! 

We took Julia and Elijah to the dealer today to fill out the paperwork; here they are watching the Chipmunks while they waited. 

Here they are at the opening of the new white van. (I think I'll paint some shooting flames down the side or something.)

Julia found a tree to climb during Dad's last few words with the nice salesman who filled the tank for us before we left.

There she is! I know you are thinking church van, but there are little options for people like us at this point. 

While JD went back to work, the little guys and I hit Tractor Supply for grass seed, lime, chicken feed, (a small cool toy tractor)  - 

AND  six baby Americana chicks. Americanas lay "Easter" eggs that are pretty shades of blue and green. 

We had some chick bonding time before moving them out to the baby cage in the hen house. 
Nothing brings a family together more than baby anything. That long box in the picture is a big sun umbrella I bought at Ikea for the deck - it made a wonderful temporary chick condo. 

So, our exciting new news is that our first trip to Ethiopia for court could be much sooner than I anticipated; it may also be sooner than JD is even able to leave the country since he is in the middle of a re-compete for his job contract. In that case, I will be going without him, with a power of attorney. We are not willing to leave our little girls there any longer than we have to. There will still be a three month wait after our court date until they are cleared to come home, but the sooner the first trip, the sooner the second.