Is it over yet?

I love living in the Northeast and having four seasons every year. By the time one is ending, I am usually ready for the next. It has been wonderful having Jamie home for the Summer, especially since the birth of Leif, but we are all ready for some routine here with the coming of the new school year and the Fall.

Jamie went back to school yesterday, and while we had planned to start our kids too, we decided to start easy this week and work up to the routine I hope we can establish for the year.

I have learned that even without routine home schooling is "Learning 24/7", and the triplets are making sure Leif is learning! He loves to watch them play, and they love to entertain him. It is really cute how they have each become attached to him, and want to help out. He always rewards them with a sweet smile.



Summer vacation is over, and in a few months I will have to remind myself that I was wanting to get this school year going. All three teens are high schoolers now, and I am using a first grade curriculum for the triplets. Dante is in pre-school full days this year, with plenty of physical, occupational, speech, and ABA therapies. He even has a walker now, another thing to get used to and hopefully get him walking. Tomorrow is his first day, and Monday everyone else starts in earnest.

Micah is Mr. Smartypants

School starts soon! I have been cleaning and organizing to get ready. Yesterday I came across a small 9 piece puzzle from a bag of prizes that we had never used. I was about to toss it, but instead gave it to Micah since he was at the table. Without ever seeing it before, Micah spread it out and pieced it together- without a picture of the complete one to go by.

I know it was just a simple small puzzle, but I'm proud of Micah for being able to take a stack of pieces and put them together. The poor guy is in for it now-- time for some more puzzles in the house!

Vacation!

We just spent our annual week at Rumney Bible Conference on family vacation- our 11th year! It was wonderful and relaxing, except for the kayaks capsizing with Alexander, Zachary, and Micah. (Actually, that event did finally succeed in teaching Micah some safety awareness-- "no boats, all done boats" and he didn't take off for the pond without asking again.)

Amelia does love to kayak and is careful. She is able to go in her own when attached to someone in front of her. She and Micah also enjoyed hiking in the woods looking for pinecones, and everyone loved swimming. The teens were able to go tubing on the river with Jamie, while I convinced the 5 youngest they all needed a nice nap. Every day was a good day, and we are thankful for the time together as a family without the busyness there always seems to be at home.

We look forward already to vacation next year!!

" Bugs on a Leif "

The Reality of Being a Mother Hen

Have you ever felt henpecked and want to fly the coop? Not feeling high enough in the pecking order? Too many old biddies clucking at you? But you feel a little chicken?

There are so many sayings related to being a chicken. Since Zachary has been keeping chickens it is obvious how a lot of the sayings came to be. One new experience for all of us has been watching his hen Gizzie "go broody", set on her eggs for three weeks, and tend to her babies for the last five weeks in the lean to and yard. She was super protective and would barely even tolerate Zachary coming near her.

Until now, all of our chicks had either been incubated and hatched by us, or bought as day old chicks. So it was a learning experience to see just how protective a mother hen is when allowed to raise her babies.

Then in one shocking moment, it was all over. Some maternal instinct told Gizzie she was done, and they did not need her anymore.

So she left them and returned to the coop. Just like that. They were on their own, and not too happy about it. Zachary said they cried (cheeped pitifully) as darkness approached and they did not know what to do.

However, they found their way to shelter, and are just fine today.

I wonder if this is something I should try?

If You Want Something Done Right....

As I woke up today around 6:00ish AM, I heard some metallic food preparation sounds through the fog of my morning haze. As a stumbled into the kitchen, I saw Sunny sitting at the table eating Cheez-Its and drinking juice. Amelia (who no doubt served Sunny) was over at the stove surrounded by flour, honey, brown sugar and all manner of cooking ingredients. She was bent over a bowl on the stove, stirring her concoction and looking very pleased with herself. I asked her what she was doing. She was making coffeecake. Apparently no one else in the house gets up a decent hour and it is left to the responsible ones to make breakfast. I personally found this amusing. It was a mess to be sure, however it was a sincere mess and she made it with a good heart. I wonder what's on the menu tomorrow?

James

Catching Up

I cannot believe it has been more than two weeks since my last post. It is odd how summer vacation seems busier than the school year, even though it isn't really.

We have been spending our time getting to know Leif, enjoying Daddy being home for the summer, weeding the garden, and doing some running around. Last week the teens were all at Camp Good News. Amelia was suddenly the oldest at home, and not surprisingly jumped right in to take over the animal care- with Dad's help of course. One night they came in from feeding the goats and meat birds (who share an enclosure) and Jamie owned up that at one point there were NO animals in the enclosure. They were able to round up the 2 goats and 11 chickens in no time, though. The laying hens stopped laying this week when Penguin, a huge black Austrolorp, decided to go broody and set on eggs in the favorite nest box. We went from 7 eggs a day to 1 tiny egg a day-- the only one who still laid was the bantam hen Acorn. I never new hens could go on strike (because they all prefer the same next box and it was unavailable). When Zachary got home from camp he told us we should not have let Penguin set the eggs, but what do we know? I'm sure Jamie is glad Zachary and Nikita are back to take over the animal care again!

This week Amelia and Sunny have been having a blast attending Vacation Bible School. We decided that Micah was not going to attend because he is too prone to taking off, plus he is not completely potty trained yet. Yesterday Jamie and I walked Micah up to the local general store, where he proudly made his first independent purchase-- a bag of M&Ms.

Below are some photos that show some of what we have been doing:

We now have a beautiful new table that was made for us by Mr. G. We have been able to have all 10 of us sit down together only once so far because of Alexander's work at camp, but we absolutely love the table!

This is the first picture of Jamie, Leif, and I. I love how Leif is looking at Daddy.

One afternoon Jamie decided to kick my butt in Scrabble while Leif napped. The triplets saw us playing a game and got on one of their own.

Nikita was given a bag of clothing, and she had fun trying some of the stuff on. Here she is looking like a federal agent-- do we watch too much NCIS?

And she looks far too old in this photo. She is only 14!

Sunny holding Leif. She is bending down to kiss him.

Amelia holding Leif. She loves to sing to him while his diaper is being changed- his least favorite event. (The diaper changing, not the singing)

Leif officially has a belly button and did NOT appreciate his first bath.

Sleeping like the baby he is. Leif is so sweet!