last night, adam played some sort of cruel joke on me. and then on kenny. and then on both of us the entire night.

kenny
had bible study last night, so i put the boys to bed all by myself
(which is a great feat, in and of itself. because rowan and sawyer seem
to unload all of their bottled-up energy that they didn’t have at
dinner time and will not simmer down until their head hits the pillow.
and even then it takes some settling down for them. and adam is just at
the age where evening=fussy. so bedtime is about 45 minutes of crazy).

so
last night, after fussing for a bit, i put adam in his crib at 7:30.
the boys and i settled into a bedtime story on the back porch five
minutes later when adam began to scream. and scream. and scream. so i
borught him to the porch with us because i thought he felt as though he
were missing out on some award-winning bedtime story and he couldn’t
possibly sleep through the night without hearing it.

but that
wasn’t the case. he didn’t want to be with us either. so i walked him
around, then layed him down on his belly in his crib 15 minutes later.
he was out.

25 minutes later, i put the boys in their beds. they
were out in 30 seconds. and 30 seconds later, adam was up screaming
again. it took me walking him around the front yard wrapped in a
blanket, listening to the summer cheepers to settle him down. he
finally fell asleep on our bed. i transfered him to his crib and he was
quiet.

for 20 minutes.

by this time, kenny had arrived
home, and i gave in. i told kenny that he had screamed ALL NIGHT LONG
(a slight exaggeration…but only slight) and he took him downstairs to
try and calm him. 10 minutes later, i gave in and joined them on the
porch. 10 minutes later, he was asleep after walking him around the
porch. we were convinced that he had an ear infection. or a stomach
ache. or an allergic reaction to the democratic debate (um…if that’s
the case, he’s so not his mother’s son). so we brought him to bed with
us. which is saved only for the “sick child” occassions. we were sure
we had a sick child on our hands.

at midnight, he was still
asleep…moving around a little and stirring, but falling back to sleep
quickly. by 2:00 a.m. i was dangling from my side of the bed since he
was lounged out all over my side. by 6:00, he was awake and gurgling,
cooing, and talking just as he does in his crib when he wakes up. i
looked at him and said, “there’s nothing wrong with you, is there?” he
just giggled and cooed. i was rather thankful he was healthy, but that
little stinker got just what he wanted: a night of rest on a pillow-top
king sized bed right in between momma and daddy.

we’ll see what he has up his sleeve tonight…

I never have anything to contribute to the weekly “Works for me Wednesday” over at Rocks in my Dryer, although i do always get some pretty good tips there.  But this week, I have a great little tip to share with all of you. The best part is…it’s environtmentally sound!

There are several organizations that you can sign up with to get rid of your junk mail. You’ve all heard of the “Do Not Call” list?  There is a “Do Not Send” list as well, and here is where you sign up for it. It’s free!

Another great organization that does this AND plants a tree every month for every customer that signs up with them (it’s $36/month), is Greendimes.

Get what you want in the mail, and save/plant a tree at the same time! Visit other Works for Me tips here (every Wednesday!)

before you go snickering about how earth day is just a way for tree-huggers to get their own (recycled-only, please) hallmark holiday, i’d like to point out that there is a lot of good that comes out of observing good earth-stewardship practices.

for instance, and i’m not saying i’m a big fan or anything, but OPRAH dedicated an entire show this week to environmental issues, and how the average household/person can make small changes in their daily lives to make a big impact. Oprah is watched by millions of people. Surely more people will begin recycling and reusing, now?

there are also earth day celebrations in many cities and towns across the country making people aware of the need for change in how we live. so how did you ring in spring by observing earth day this year?

we were so excited to be outdoors (on saturday) where it was sunny and warm. i spent the morning washing and line-drying all of our bedsheets (our room smells lovely – i can’t wait to crawl into bed!). the boys helped kenny clear out the area around the firepit at the base of our yard (old dead leaves and lots of weeds. we plan to plant grass, have a few big rocks to sit on, and plant wildflowers and other indigenous plants). we planted a few plants that may or may not live (easter hydraneas and lilys…probably hothouse flowers, but it’s worth a try), and picked up sticks that fell throughout the winter all over the yard (hundreds and hundreds of sticks and small- to medium-sized branches). 

kenny and i walked around the yard with the boys making plans for the flower beds (the previous owner had HUGE flower beds with just about every flower imaginable. i’m incredibly intimidated by these overgrown and weedy beds. but they need help), the shrub garden (yes, a garden of shrubs. it’s becoming an eye-sore and i’ve never really liked it. we’re getting rid of it by replanting the shrubs elsewhere in the yard and planting grass) and the vegetable garden. (kenny is currently starting heirloom vegetable seeds that we received as a thank you gift from our friend serina to plant out in the garden by the end of may). i also began the change-over to completely natural cleaning products and cleaned our laundry room bathroom with water, baking soda, and vinegar.

but we did spend a good part of the day frustrated at the lack of recycling recepticles in our county. in fact, we spent a good part of the day looking at neighboring counties and admiring their recycling programs. i am planning on calling the recycling department monday morning to get the skinny on the lack of recycling in or area. goodness knows, we don’t need everyone burning their plastic containers every saturday this spring and summer (since everyone in the country seems to burn their garbage).

if anyone reading this knows anything about starting a recycling “system” in small-town america, please give me your best advice. not that i’ll be doing it, but i can at least make a lot of noise.

we ended saturday by cleaning out the chickens brooder’s bedding. we’ve done this a few times already since monday and we are just shocked at how quickly these little chicks are growing. their wings are starting to get bigger and they stretch them out and mock-fly around the brooder. rowan begs to pick them up about 400 times a day.

tomorrow is a picnic lunch at moraine state park after church!
enjoy the sunshine!

during snack time this morning, rowan looked at me and said, “are you hammered, mommy?”

all i could do was laugh. when mama laughs, everyone laughs (which is probably why when mama is cranky, everyone is cranky!). and then after about 2 minutes of hearty laughter, rowan asked, “why did you laugh, mommy?”

back up a few hours when i was getting the boys dressed this morning. i was leaning over our bed, dressing adam when rowan started walking around the bed hammering imaginary nails with an imaginary hammer into the perimeter of the bed. when he got to me, he “hammered” my legs to the bed and i pretended that i couldn’t move. i told him to use the back of the hammer to “un-nail” my legs from the bed. he thought this was hilarious.

so i guessed that was what he meant. i answered his question: “i just thought your question was funny because clearly, i’m not stuck to the bed right now!”

to which he answered, “that was funny mommy! you were hammered to the bed!”

eventually he’ll see the other funny side of the story. but not for a long time, i hope.

it was FREEZING yesterday. add to the cold, it was WINDY. when we ordered our chicks back in early march, it was 60 degrees. i imagined us picking up our chicks donning shorts and t-shirts, sunshiny day and all. the sun met us in ohio, but pennsylvania was hidden under stormy clouds all day long (and we were in ohio all but one hour).

so it didn’t REALLY take 10 hours. but we left at 10, met kenny at 12:15, and were on the road by 12:30. it took us over two hours to get to the hatchery in polk, ohio, which was really quite nice and not at all what i expected. we parked the car, got out and stood next to a penske delivery truck with literally thousands of chicks in boxes inside, waiting to be mailed. it made me happy that our little chicks were to be riding home with us, and not the noisy 1000-other chicks in the truck.

it was a long day, but totally worth it. the chicks are loving their new little home in their brooder in our laundry room under warming lights. the boys step up on their stools to be eye-to-eye with the chicks and they all run over to the glass to see the boys.

a few things we’ve learned about chickens from observation already:
 - when they are one-day-old, they suffer from narcolepsy. they walk from the water to where the light is warmest and stop mid-step, eyes begin to close and then fall flat on their face. or they fall asleep with their head still in the food dish. it was really quite entertaining for kenny, my mom, and i to watch after the boys were in bed last night.
 - they’ll peck ANYTHING. they especially like to peck at harder things, like wedding bands and screws in the walls of their brooder.
 - they’ve stopped chirping so much and now when we hear them chirp, we wonder if something is wrong.
 - today, they all seem to fall asleep together, for about 45 seconds each. they’ve all had about 89 naps already since this morning.
 - just as a newborn infant, they’ll keep you up all night. kenny came down to check on them (and their temperature) at least three times last night.
 - three brooder lamps shorted on us last night, even after checking them out last week. we have two normal bulbs in there now, keeping it at around 85-87 degrees (it should be close to 90 the first day, and down a few degrees as they grow).

adam, sitting in the middle seat with me:
 

the boys, with their new chick friends in between them in the back seat:

rowan, gazing into his new little friend’s eyes. his friend wondering if he’s her mother?

kayle, the tabby is “interested”

where the boys went the minute they woke up this morning:

what a day. i have NO energy to blog about our 10-hour trip to ohio…but my goodness, are these chicks freakin’ adorable. seriously, it’s like the energy and exhaustion right after giving birth.

i’m off to bed, but here is a few pictures of our baby egg-layers.

tomorrow (monday) is the day!

our 15 little chicks are still growing in their shells in the hatchery somewhere in ohio. they will be “induced” early tomorrow morning, and fully hatched by mid-morning. we pick them up in the afternoon and drive them home to their new brooder which has a fresh layer of pine shavings, a nifty new lamp to warm them at 90 degrees farenheit, and eager little boys who can’t wait to smother them with love all over them.

pictures will follow once the excitement has died down in the household.

on the other hand…i get tulips, hyacinth, dandelions, and little purple flowers picked just for me each and every day. straight out of our flower beds. and the boys, with a little help from daddy, bought me an easter lily last week.

so there is definitely sweetness, and not all potty humor, in raising boys.

what is it with boys?

for the past few days, i think i’ve heard the words that describe bodily functions or body parts more times than i care to hear outloud. even if they are coming from my innocent children’s mouths. and not once or twice a day…more like 3 or 4 times an hour.

i am told everytime they toot. today, as rowan sat on my lap while we were driving the tractor around the yard he told me “i tooted on your leg!” followed by an, “is that okay, mommy?”

i’ve overhead conversations between rowan and sawyer:

rowan:“do you smell something bad, sawyer?”
sawyer:“yes!”
rowan: “i just tooted.”

and then…

sawyer: ooooh! i p**ped in my diaper! i’m STINKY!

and even…

sawyer: my toot didn’t make any noise, mommy. why?

and at a restaurant, when kenny came back to the table from using the facilities, rowan said in his VERY loud voice, “did you already pee, daddy?” and when his question wasn’t met with an answer (we were trying hard to tell him to quiet his voice) he repeated it and we tried again to “shush” him to no avail. the waitress laughed, poured our coffee and said, “i remember those days.”

there are a few other contexts in which these subjects have come up. but i’m almost embarrassed to blog about them, so they will remain in the family. like what sawyer was saying (yelling!) over and over and over as he was jumping on the bed. and the hysterical laughter that happens when these boys say a particular word.

who taught them this???

perhaps we’ll tape record them and make their future girlfriends listen to them over and over and over.

…for the wintertime blues?

ours? one part gin to two-and-a-half parts tonic and a slice-o-lime. on ice. with dinner. it’s only the classic summer drink, and if it doesn’t feel like summer outside, we can make it taste like one inside!

is anyone else suffering from “this-winter-is-getting-OLD” syndrome?