May in an Eggshell

This past month we have been living outside as much as possible for several reasons.  First, the weather has been gorgeous.  Second, it is a lot easier to clean up yard toys than it is to clean up house toys.  Third, it is super simple to NOT clean up crumbs from our meals.  Fourth, I tend to yell at the kids less because they get along better outside and because I care about what the neighbors think.  Either way it works.  And finally, we have a lot of stuff on our to-do list, and it all needs to happen outside!

Will and I spent the winter months drawing up plans for our yard come spring.  When we weren't busy plotting out the garden and designing our chicken coop we had fun researching swing sets.  It was our intent to build one ourselves but after pricing out the pieces we decided to keep our second car and find a "like new" already built swing set on Craigslist instead.  We found a simple A-frame wood swing set for cheap and have decided that it is the best money we have ever spent on the girls.  Lucy spends most of her time outside on her swing, and absolutely loves it.

 After we checked the swing set off of our to-do list, it was time to plant our seedlings in our new square foot gardens.  Will had planted all of our seedlings from seed and nursed them to life under some grow lights he had set up in our basement back in February.  We do not have a dry basement, but the silver lining is that the seedlings were all watered from the water we collected in our dehumidifier.  So in a sense, it was like they had gotten only rain water all of their life.

So far we are a big fan of this new type of gardening.  There is something about the neatness of each square, and knowing exactly how many of each type of plant fits in them that simplified a task that used to be quite daunting.  Plus, we no longer have to worry about losing plants from the pitter patter of little feet running through the garden.

We have found that we need to water the plants daily though, as the raised garden beds definitely dry out faster than a traditional garden bed.  Here Will is below filling up a watering can from the rain barrels he made.  We have two fifty gallon barrels that collect water from our garage roof.  One good rain is enough to fill them completely and so far we have made it through all of May without having to use any other water source.  Only time will tell if we can get through the hot summer months without tapping into city water.

You may have noticed in the above picture that there is more going on than just filling up a watering can from a rain barrel.  Lucy has entered a stage in her life where she thinks body parts and their functions are hilarious.  With all of Will's outside work, Lucy has discovered what she calls a "bum-bee crack" on Daddy's lower back.  The other day I caught Lucy tickling Will's bum-bee crack with a chicken feather while saying, "Goo-chee goo-chee gooo!"  I almost died laughing when I saw that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and she was sporting her own little bum-bee crack!

Lucy not only has become obsessed with bodily functions but also with fashion.  She is becoming very conscious about what she wears.  The other day she told me, "Mom, I don't feel pretty.  I'm going to go get a hair clip to put in my hair."  She loves wearing hair clips, head bands, dresses and girly shoes.  Anyone who knows me, knows that she did not inherit this trait from me!  The four of us were shopping the other day and while I was off browsing I overheard Lucy ask a sales associate if she knew what aisle the make up was in.  Will about flipped over and I think may have even thrown up in his mouth a little bit.  The sales associate just laughed and told Will that she believes, quite frankly, that he is doomed.  Here she is below trying to give the camera a kiss.  Notice the artfully placed hair clip.

Lucy shares not only her high bum-bee crack with Will, but now his love of garage sales as well.  The church on our street held a yard sale a couple of weekends ago and Lucy asked if she could bring some of her own money to buy something.  The math teacher in Will snatched up the opportunity to teach her real world money management skills and off they went.  The kind women running the sale took a shine to Lucy and told her that she could buy anything she wanted for a penny each.  After filling a plastic grocery bag full of odds and ends that she told Will she just had to have, she went up to the women who had just sat down to a lunch break of freshly delivered pizza and asked how much the pizza was.  Needless to say, I don't know who was more proud when they came home with a plate of hot pizza and a bag of goodies - "All for only a quarter!"

Here Will and Lucy are below enjoying an evening rainstorm in their pajamas.

Lucy went to the dentist for the very first time this past month.  We have been building up to this moment since last summer, when I took Lucy with me to a dentist appointment so she would be familiar with the environment.  Thankfully, the same sweet hygienist who cleans my teeth also cleaned Lucy's.  I beamed with pride and a little sadness at my baby getting her teeth cleaned like such a grown up.  She did a great job.

Lucy's communication continues to amaze us and even phase us.  Lately, she will refer to something she feels strongly about but leave out key details and get super frustrated with us when we have no idea what she is talking about.  "Mom, why was the elephant's mom sad?"  "What elephant Lucy?"  "The elephant!"  "Um, in a book?"  "No, mom, the baby elephant's mom!"  "Where did you see this elephant?"  "On TV!"  Think, Liz, think!  "You mean Dumbo's mom?"  Crisis averted.  Keep in mind I've never seen Dumbo with her, but I am guessing she saw it at a friend's house.  Most situations, I never do find out what it is she is talking about and she gets quite angry at us when this happens.  I am learning that short, one word answers to her allusive questions are the safest way until I figure out exactly what she is referring to.  It's like playing 20 Questions, except with a very emotional and short on patience opponent!

Memorial Day weekend was a bit of an emotional roller coaster with our chickens.  About a week prior it had become clear to us that four out of the eight chickens were roosters.  Our yard had become a violent, dangerous place and all of us were beginning to live in fear of those roosters.  Two of them were beyond aggressive and would peck and attack the other chickens, drawing blood and yanking feathers.  One of our hens refused to leave the coop she was so terrified and we had begun tossing their food over the fence, for fear of going into their pen.  Plus, their cock-a-doodle-doing was becoming obnoxious.  They didn't just crow when the sun came up - they crowed non-stop, all day long.  We were starting to stress that the neighbors were going to call the city on us.  So, we decided that the roosters had to go.  On Friday of the holiday weekend Will took them in to be processed.  Despite all of the trouble they were causing, it was still difficult for us to say goodbye and end the lives of birds that we had raised from day old chicks.  It was our first experience of being directly involved in the food chain.  I mean, every time we eat meat we play a role in the circle of life, but to actually be the one that said, "today is the day" was a very different experience.  Our yard returned to it's pre-rooster calm on Friday though and we knew we had made the right decision.  The chicken drama was not over yet though.  On Sunday morning Will went out to open up the coop and saw our favorite hen had passed away during the night.  We have no idea why, but this particular hen, an Isa Brown, had seemed sickly for as long as we had her and was always at the butt of any rooster aggression too.  We had hoped that once the roosters were gone she would perk up, but sadly that didn't happen.  In a matter of two days we had gone from eight chickens to three.  I was beginning to wonder if our remaining chickens would need counseling for PTS syndrome.  On Sunday night we decided that we still wanted the eight birds we had originally planned for and found a farm on Craigslist that was selling chickens about the same age as ours.  We picked up five new chickens the very next day and have enjoyed watching them establish a new pecking order.

In case you were wondering, I've found photographing chickens is similar to photographing toddlers!  They refuse to stay still and could care less about posing for a camera!

Our weekend wasn't all chicken drama though.  A Memorial Day parade goes down our street every year which we look forward to.  Lucy remembered the parade from last year when the girl scouts threw candy at her and was very excited for it to return.  We set up our chairs under our maple tree's shade in the front yard and chatted with neighbors while the girls played with bubbles until the parade came.  Here they are below watching a police woman set up a street barricade near us.

My birthday was the day after Memorial Day and as I've mentioned to several people, it started out quite rocky.  Emma cut a molar during the night and was literally up all night.  Lucy developed a head cold out of nowhere and couldn't sleep either.  I found out we had no Tylenol in the house during the first hour of my birthday.  Needless to say, the three of us were not happy campers come morning time.  There were several points of time the morning of my birthday where I asked out loud, "It's my birthday, don't you care?"  The girls responded by pausing whatever cranky behavior they were in the middle of, looking at me with blank stares, and then resumed their cranky behavior.  Will called at lunch time all happy-go-lucky and wished me a happy birthday.  It didn't take him long to pick up on the fact that the Birthday Monsters were in full force at home.  Fortunately, the three of us took some really good naps that afternoon and we all woke up feeling much better.  Will came home from work and my birthday continued to improve.  We decided to ditch our dinner plans at home and headed out on a walk to downtown where we picked up take-out from one of my favorite restaurants and ate it in a nearby park.  Afterwards, we walked to Main Street and had ice cream cones.  See how happy that made us?

When we got home, Will surprised me with a cake with my name on it from a bakery downtown.  I couldn't remember the last time I had a cake with my name on it, so this made me happy too.  Later on that night, he admitted that the cake was a last minute decision he made when he hung up the phone from our lunch conversation.  Either way, well done Will and I have to say that my birthday recovered quite nicely and I went to bed with a smile on my face (partly due to the fact that I knew I had at least 6 good hours of sleep until the Tylenol wore off of my children).

So there's our May in an eggshell!