please mommy, can I get just a little bit wet?

My #3 has been begging me to get out the little blow up pools. I keep saying, “No honey, it’s just not warm enough yet.” Well today, without me knowing, they hooked up the sprinkler to play a game – “Try to NOT get WET”. Next thing I knew they were standing at the back door with damp clothes asking, “Mommy, can I either change or keep getting wet.” At that point what did it matter. They had the best time running back and forth. I loved hearing them squeal with excitement.

I LOVE this warmer weather. I LOVE seeing the green on the trees. I LOVE how fresh our grass looks. I LOVE how it all inspires me to want to click my camera like crazy. I only got a chance to take a few quick shots, none that I loved but it just felt SO good. I hope this weekend I will make time to get my camera out and just go CRAZY.

"A" for effort

I am sad to say that none of the eggs in our homemade incubator made it. I am really disappointed. The cooler was made with cheap styrofoam and it was just too difficult to keep the temperature at a constant 100 degrees. The first several nights I was up setting my alarm to get up every two hours to check it’s temp. We determined that two of the four eggs were not fertilized. One baby chick died around day two and the last egg had a formed (yes we cracked it open and explored) embryo that probably died on day 7.

So far the store bought incubator is extremely successful at creating the perfect climate for our 23 other baby chicks. I discarded one egg b/c when we candled it, we could tell nothing was happening. All the others are progressing along just fine. We can see plenty of blood vessels as we hold them up to the light and lots of movement. Just one more week and we should have some peeps!

My hubby and his dad are excited about building a coop. We are going to keep most of the chickens just north of us on their property. They live on 11 acres. I REALLY want to keep at least two at our house, in a tiny coop that all together as a family we build. I have almost convinced my hubby that it is necessary I keep some of these babies at home with us. He’s coming around!

Sorry for the lack of posts. Hopefully soon I can catch up on life and begin to seriously blog again soon.

we got more!

So, I wanted 4 more eggs. My friend drove me to the farm to get the eggs. What a trip. The girls loved all the animals and my #2 was glued to the baby goats. #1 was just interested in the tree house, the “mule”, and the woods.

I came home with 4 new eggs plus 19 more! This time I am using a store bought incubator. Good news though. I candled our 4 original ones today and it’s been confirm, we have baby chicks growing. I was so thrilled!

I think I might be crazy …

and it’s all RENA’s fault!

See, I have this friend who loves to garden – which I would love to do but my kids nicknamed me the plant killer – indicates just how green my thumb really is. This friend also has chickens. Her eggs are the BEST. Well she called me the other day and asked if I wanted any chickens. I was like – NO! Then she told me she was planning on hatching 40 eggs. SO the kids and I went over to see her whole set up. We candled some of the eggs and I just began to fall in love with the project. She has this fancy incubator that rotates the eggs, plus a digital remote thermometer to monitor the egg’s temp at all times. That afternoon she filled her incubator slap full but 4 were left over. She was just going to eat them but I couldn’t let them go. I had to have them. Thus began the hunt for a small incubator.

I was unsuccessful finding a small incubator in the time frame I needed, so today, thanks to youtube, the kids and I made one. They all 3 pitched in and we made it through the whole process with only 2 trips to Walmart, one trip to Home Depot, no arguments between the kids on who gets to do what and only once did I raise my voice. That is a successful project if I do say so myself.

Hopefully our little chicks will hatch in exactly 21 days. We have to turn them several times a day, so we’ll see how well I remember that! What will we do with these creatures once they’ve hatched? The plan is to get rid of the roosters on craigslist (I hope!) and keep the hens out at Eric’s parents house in a chicken coop that has yet to be built.

Honestly – I am thinking – what in the heck have I gotten myself into. Yes honey, I know you are thinking it too! But I can’t wait to see the look on the kid’s faces as they watch these little things break open. They worked really hard on it today and they are also responsible for rotating and turning the eggs. Our incubator is nothing fancy but we are all taking pride in the fact that it was built by us as a team.

We tried to make this as inexpensive as possible and use what materials we already had.

First we cut a hole in the top of a styrofoam cooler from Walmart ($1.88) and duct taped a piece of glass from a picture frame. It took me a while to find the right size glass to make the window as large as we could. (Sorry Jenn – it’s from the friendship frame you gave me!)

The girls decorated the cooler while Landon and I worked on a project outside.

I knew I needed wire “netting” (I guess that is what it’s called) to complete the incubator. Well the best thing happened. Yesterday while I was walking to the park through our neigborhood, someone was throwing away a huge bunch of wire, just like I needed. It was in great shape. There are several twigs and vines that needed to be cleaned out but I didn’t care. What a find! I dragged that stuff all the way home with a HUGE smile one my face.

We thought we were done. I used a tiny lamp ready made kit that only held small bulbs. ($4.00) A 25 watt bulb keep the temperature too low, a 40 watt was too high. That meant – make another trip to Walmart.

We made it back from Walmart with a full size lamp kit ($4.95) and a dimmer ($7.00) that screws into the lamp socket so you can dial it up and down right at the bulb. The bowl with water is placed at the bottom to help control the “humanity” as my kids keep saying.

Here it is completed. It took over an hour to get the temperature just right. 99- 102 degrees. (Thermometer $11.88) This part stressed me out for some reason. I kept thinking “What if we’ve gone through all this trouble and we still can’t get the stinkin’ temperature right!”

The kids love it. They all said they were so glad we didn’t end up buying one. I love it too! The temp reads 84.8 in the picture b/c it’s right after we placed the eggs in. Right now it’s hovering right around 100 degrees. I pray it stays there.

a coke and a smile

I am craving a coke. Like super duper REALLY bad. It’s been over a week since I have had one. The past two days I can’t stop thinking of how heavenly a 32 oz. cherry coke fountain drink over tiny pellet ice would taste.

I am not giving in.

it's that season again

That’s right. Soccer season has begun. This year all the kids are playing.

Right when I woke this morning I felt butterflies in my tummy. I knew instantly I was nervous and excited about the kid’s games. #1’s game began at 9 a.m. It didn’t go so well. They lost. Right after that the girls had their first game EVER. The kids ran around in a huddle like all little ones do. It was precious. #3 was placed in front of the goal as a defender. I looked out there to she her practicing her lunges just like she learned on our Wii Fit while everyone was kicking the ball and playing on the field. I tell you, that girl is something else. I was proud of her though. She’s playing on an older team – with her sister and she can keep up with all those other players. #2 had a great time. Right after the first kick off she ran around the field with the cutest little smirk on her face. I love watching all of them play. It was so much fun.

I didn’t get many good pics today. I will just post this one.

wacky weather weekend

Friday – Great temperatures. The 5 of us headed to Callaway to spend the afternoon together. We’d only been there an hour and it began to pour. We made the best of it and still managed to have a wonderful day.

Saturday – RAIN – tons of it. Sirens in the city warned of possible tornadoes. All soccer practices were canceled. We had a lazy day at home. By the late afternoon the sun was out and the temperature was in the low 70’s. We headed to the Payne’s and had a delicious dinner. Happy Birthday JP.

Sunday – We wake up to cold rain. As we get ready for church it begins to snow like crazy. We stay home so the kids can experience it. Then we spent to afternoon with my man’s family. By dinner time, most of the snow was gone. It was still freezing cold so we all snuggled together and watched Open Season 2.

I have loved every minute of our weekend.