Pockin' Chickens

I heard them whispering, plotting, and scurrying about downstairs. Julian says that Kalen said this, "Let's put these on our face and Mom will think we have Pockin' Chickens!"

I laughed and laughed. These kids crack me up.

Quote from Julian

"I think it's cool that Barack Obama has dark skin.  I thought all presidents had light skin like Bush and all those other guys."  

The other day Julian said this as we passed several front lawns that had Obama signs. I thought it was a cute comment.  We went on to talk about those that are still campaigning.

Goodbye Lucy

These are some photos and a little clip from last night.  We took Lucy out to a park near the American Tobacco Trail.  We think she will be happy there.  That is where we found the toad, named Peanut, Maddie held in some photos awhile back.  

The boys handled it well.  Maddie was upset.  I told her many times that it was okay to be sad and we talked about it.  We both agreed that she would be better off.  

We are so thankful to have met Lucy.

Pictures of Our Weekend

The boys washed their bikes.  Cute.

Kalen working.

Okay, so a week ago, I bought these glamorous glasses at Target.  I was needing some darker ones.  They are so big.  Scott and I call them my "glam glasses", like I am a movie star or something.  Funny.

Eleanor, Brantley and Katie

Eleanor hugging Maddie in the backyard.

Miss Eleanor Gasaway

My weekend started out wonderfully on Friday with shopping.  Scott stayed with kids and I went out and used some of my birthday money on some new clothes.  That was such a treat and a rare thrill.  Thanks Scott.

That afternoon, Scott took JJ out to Mad Hatter's for fries and a little reading time, while I took the others on a big bike ride.  To reward the kid's efforts, we went to a park on the way.

Saturday was a full day of fun as a family.  We went to the farmer's market in Durham, the bike shop, Whole Foods and the library.  We picked up a couple of blackberry bushes at Whole Foods.  We miss having a blackberry bush.  We had one in Boone.  

Sunday, we we went to church and a cook out at one of our neighbor's house.  That was a lot of fun.  Their house has the exact same layout as our house, but, as you could imagine, looks totally different.  That was interesting to check out.  Bill, our neighbor, fixed us some veggie burgers.  We had a great time.

Monday, we had the Gasaway family over.  They came to NC last week from Iowa.  It was great to visit with them and attend a picnic with them and some more folks at Duke Gardens last night.  

That about wraps it up.  Just a bit ago, after the kids and I did a bit of homeschooling, we headed out to the bike trail to enjoy this beautiful warm weather.  It is so nice to be able to get out and go with these kids.  Thank you, Lord, for good health and good times!

Scratch Louie, Call Her Lucy

After reading this little bit of information on Wikipedia (next paragraph), we now think that Louie is not a male turtle, but actually a female. She seems to have yellow irises and a higher-domed, rounder shell. We are not experts, but we are enthusiastic learners.

American Box Turtle: 90% of the time, male box turtles have red or orange irises while the female has brown or yellow ones. Also, the female has a tendency to have a higher-domed, rounder upper-shell, while the male has a lower shell with more of an oval or oblong appearance.

Lucy has been a lot of fun for us to watch. The kids call her by name, it is so cute. Lucy is not going to stay with us forever. Soon, we will take her to a more turtle friendly habitat.

Louie

We found a Box Turtle in the road this morning on the way to Target. I pulled over to a safe spot, put on my caution lights and walked over to it. Of course, the little guy or gal didn't recognize me, so he/she quickly went totally in his/her shell. I put it on the floor in the van and we went on to the store. We let it hang out in the van while we quickly ran into get a few things. We came back and he/she had moved some, but was safe and feeling a little less scared, I guess. It just so happened that there was a PETCO right next door, so we walked into it with our new little friend. Knowing that my kids would enjoy watching this little guy for a day or two, I wanted to find out some information about him and find out if I could get a nice temporary container for him to hang out in (plus, I figured the skinks we catch would enjoy a better container as well)  Sure enough, a guy was very helpful as he told us what a Box Turtle likes to eat and what environment it likes. We bought a container and took him home.

 On the way, the kids and I came up with a name for him. This week, we got a book by one of our favorite children's book author's, Ezra Jack Keats, entitled Louie. That name seemed cute enough.  so now we have a little turtle hanging out with us today. We have let Louie roam around our backyard, feed him cabbage and collard greens and provided water. 

Needless to say, the kids are really enjoying this experience.  Take a look at Louie.

Inspiration for His Song "Cinderella"

Tonight, I found this clip attached to a news article online. My heart has been so heavy today for Steven Curtis Chapman's family. They lost their littlest one yesterday. If you watch this video through, you will then hear him talk about what inspired him to write this song. Get your tissue box first.

Moms and Dads, let's slow down. Let us savor the simple moments with our children.

Her Love Notes

Our sweet 6 year old, Madelyn, loves to write people notes.  She is so good at encouraging others.  She has given Scott and I countless notes over the past year.  I love it!  

One of my favorite parts of dating and being wooed by Scott was receiving notes from him.  He still leaves me sweet notes occasionally, but it is so exciting to get notes from someone else I love dearly.  

Here lately, she likes to write at night.  She will secretly leave notes on our pillow.  So sweet.  The messages just melt our hearts.  

I am so thankful for the gift of words, they mean so much.  Hand written notes are not as popular as they use to be, because of email, blogging, text messaging and such.  Not that these methods can not be endearing and such, but there is just something about knowing that someone took the time to sit down and write out a message just for you.  

Encourage someone today, write them a note with your hand and a pen.  Just as Maddie does, you are sure to brighten someone's day and put a smile on their face.

What Could Be Cuter Than a Litter of Kittens?

Our neighbors came over with their mama cat's litter of kittens.  Karina and Gemma are so good at caring for these little ones.  Our kids had seen them when they were a couple of weeks old.  Now they are four weeks old.  My kids adore them.  I have a weakness for kittens.  I use to think that there couldn't be anything as cute as a kitten.

Now, I think this (spaghetti face) tops any kitten.

Homeschool Science Fair

More Gardening

Today we spent some time outside with our garden.  We did some harvesting and more planting.  Scott also weeded, hoed and mulched around several of our plants.  It is so nice to be growing our own produce.  

Our lettuce has done very well.  We harvested quite a bit today and we still have tons.  Our chard is coming right along as well.  Swiss Chard is so beautiful.  Despite the clay-like soil, downpours, and several low temperatures last month, our various tomato and pepper plants are doing just fine.  

Scott planted more tomato plants and zucchini seeds today.  I have a great zucchini bread recipe that we hope to use a lot this summer.  My mother-in-law gave me a great tomato sauce recipe years ago.  I am hoping that the 15 tomato plants will yield enough to make several containers full to store away.  Hey, maybe that could be my next canning project.  :)  Yes, I did say 15 tomato plants.  

 I'll go ahead and share the pictures with you.  I could go on and on about the hopefulness of gardening and such.

This was before we started working in the garden today, but you can get a glimpse of the layout.

Scott and I spotted this little ladybug friend that was on a leaf of Romaine lettuce.

Madelyn bought some Petunias at the farmer's market this morning.  We had a good time planting them.

This is our first tomato.  This is off an Early Girl tomato plant.

This is a picture of my little experimental planting.  I planted two rows of Bush Beans.  This is not a part of the big garden.  Scott tilled up a bit of space just under and to the side of our deck.  Most of the seeds have sprouted and turned into cute little plants.  We shall see how they do. 

This is our pumpkin.  Yes, we have a huge pumpkin plant that took root in our compost.  After we threw our pumpkin seeds out last fall they were thrown in with the compost.  With time, they started to take root and grow.  Talk about rich soil!  Gotta love compost, even if it is kind of gross.  It is so natural, free, and rich.

This is a cucumber mound.  We hope to make more pickles this summer.  

This is some of our homegrown Collard Greens.  I cut them up and cooked them in my wok with olive oil, garlic, pepper, Earth Balance, cilantro and a tiny bit of Soy Sauce.  We ate them with mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, cauliflower, and bread tonight.