our life with chickens seems to stay so similar from day to day until something exciting happens - like a blue-green egg! and then i'm reminded just how fortunate we are to be living with these fowl.  i discovered today, that it is our beloved araucana, bettis (named for her thick neck, like the beloved, retired steeler, jerome bettis), that is producing the blue-green egg. both my mom and i discovered her in the nest box today, around the time the egg appeared. here she is in all her thick-neck glory:

when beginning our research into raising chickens, kenny and i fell in love with all the characteristics of the Buff Orpington. So far, our Buffs won't let us near them, and we are not sure if they're laying yet - two opposites of what we were expecting of them (very friendly, and good layers). But they sure are beautiful!

now, when i refer to our chickens as beautiful, i know that some of you are rolling your eyes or laughing thinking, "beautiful? i think NOT!" i know i'm in the minority. and this is a picture that doesn't flatter our Golden Buffs...and i agree, these chickens aren't necessarily beautiful. but they're our current fabulous egg-layers, and we're thankful for our eggs!

here's another beauty. am i the only one who is reminded of george washington upon looking at these silver laced wyandottes?

every evening, our boys love running around with the chickens. a few of them usually hang out with us when we're outside at the jungle gym in the evenings. rowan usually ends up picking a few of them up, while sawyer tries to, but freaks out at the last minute. adam is also very fond of them - as they are of him. they walk right up to him and peck his hand, his fingers, his feet.... he laughs and "yells" at them.

...except for the fact that kenny and i were awakened at 5:30 by a pretty awful sound coming from the outside. we're still not sure if it was an animal or made by a human, but neither of us could get back to sleep. so off we went downstairs to make the coffee at 6:00.

but for the first time in several days (even weeks?), adam was in a cheerful mood upon waking up and throughout the morning. i've been wondering about his ears, but more sure it was his teeth that have been bothering him (have you ever watched those molars creep their way through the gums in the back of your child's mouth? it looks so...painful!) since he's just grumpy for most of the day. but today? he had his milk, ate an egg and some toast and played happily on the back porch with his brothers all morning.

at 9:00, the boys and i piled into the car for a grocery trip, and to hit the Goodwill (i'm loving the boys' fall/winter clothes i'm finding for 99 cents and $1.99 at Goodwill and Salvation Army!). on the way out, i let the chickens out and checked the nest boxes - something either kenny or i do every morning. this morning, smack dab in the middle of our brown eggs sat a beautiful blue-green egg. rowan couldn't be more excited!

Goodwill was a bust for boys' clothes, but i found a whole section of just fabric for cheap (i didn't buy any since none of it was what i needed for current projects). on the way out, i drove around back to the donation center and something caught my eye...i thought i saw what could have been an antique sewing machine. but at the Goodwill? wouldn't they be in an antique store? i decided to ignore it and went on to the grocery store.

but i couldn't forget about it. fortunately, the grocery store is just across the street from the Goodwill, so after i piled the boys into their car seats, strapped them all in, found their favorite music, we headed over to the Goodwill again. i pulled around back, hopped out of the car and walked over to the piece of furniture...and it was: an antique sewing machine. it wasn't antique enough to have a pedal that you pump; it was electric. but it was old enough. and get this...it was $5.99!

kenny and i have always liked antiques. i don't care that this machine probably doesn't work (i haven't plugged it in yet - i'm afraid to, looking at the frayed cord) because at least it would fill a corner in our home. so i bought it.

and despite the fact that adam only slept a total of 45 minutes today, he was still chipper and happy and non-clingy. it's amazing how your child's well-being really plays into the overall feel of how a day goes. because even though the blue egg and the sewing machine were big parts of my day...really, it was adam being pleasant and happy that did it for me.

on one of my first visits to kenny's parents' home (when we were dating or engaged...i can't remember which), i remember spotting something hanging on their basement wall that caught my eye. when i asked kenny about it, he told me it was an embroidered version of a painting he did when he was about 5 years old. his grandmother recreated one of his paintings with yarn. i fell in love with the idea and tucked it in the back of my mind.

a year or so ago, kenny's mom gave him a thick envelope filled with paintings and report cards, drawings and notes that he had done as s child. i think he was ready to throw it out, but being the nostaligc type, i opened it and examined each picture, read each note that he had written to his parents or grandparents, and put the envelope on a shelf so he couldn't throw it away. why throw away such treasures?

it wasn't until early this summer that i put two and two together and realized that in that envelope was the original "kenny smith painting" that his grandmother reproduced. and i'm now honored to have both!

the first month we moved into our new digs here in the country, i took a composting class hosted by an environmental group in allegheny county where we were given a brand new composter (which is serving us well...we've been composting green and brown materials now for 16 months and it's only 1/3 of the way full). the class took place at the rachel carson homestead which was the original home of who is known as the pioneer of the environmental movement, rachel carson.

i found out that she wrote a book called silent spring in the 1960s which is known as an attack on the newly developed insecticides and other chemicals for use in farming and suburban gardens.

then i had a baby and forgot all about her. until just last week when i came across an episode on our local PBS station of "On Q" that focused a bit on rachel and her local homestead. i found that she wrote more than just one book, so i requested a bunch of her books at the library last week and brought them home just yesterday. Silent Spring is one of the books i requested and can't wait to read, but one that i'm totally stuck on and in love with and now want to buy for all my friends who are parents of young ones is the sense of wonder. it's a remake of an old pamphlet that she wrote just before her death. the copy that i have includes stunning nature photos by nick kelsh among the words of her original pamphlet.

one of my favorite quotes:

i think i like that one so much because she has described who i am NOT...but who i want to become for the sake of my kids. when the fireflies were out in june and july, rowan and sawyer couldn't wait to chase them. that usually meant it was close to dark, which was closer to 8:30 or 9:00 - well past their bedtime. initially i was concerened about them being overtired, but then i realized that you're only their age once. and their minds are beginning to retain memories (i have memories from when i was three, so i know at least rowan will remember these times).

my favorite memories of our mini-vacation to lake erie this summer was playing on the beach at sunset. normally, i'd do my best to keep adam out of the water since he was in clothes and not a bathing suit, but it was at least 45 minutes until sunset and he wasn't happy unless he was at least ankle-deep in the water. so he splashed around, got completely drenched, and loved every minute of it.

i am becoming less tightly wound as a parent watching my kids take it all in for the first, second, and third times; seeing the wide sky over a big lake, or hearing a rain storm fall so hard it's hard to talk over its din.

reading this book comes at a time in my life as a parent when i am realizing how amazing the outside world is to a young child. all summer i've watched adam transfixed on ocean waves, staring up at our hemlock tree blowing back and forth on a windy day, watching rain fall from the sky. this summer, the older two boys have become more independent in their outside play and adam is learning how to navigate the yard, the pine trees, and the outside toys by playing with them. summer is the perfect time to soak it all in, and winter the perfect time to reflect on the outside from the inside warmth of a fireplace. spring and fall are perfect for both.

in the meantime, i'm excited to watch adam see and feel snow for the first time. i can't wait to see what next summer brings to us. i promise to let them all stay up a bit later, get a bit wetter and messier and enjoy every minute of it.

and here's our big three-year-old today. our rough-and-tumble yet super snuggly sawyer cole. we love you, sawco! happy birthday!

just after college, i read a book that gutted me, and continues to haunt me today

the book was Two Part Invention by Madeleine L'Engle. it's a beautiful telling of two people madly in love who married and raised a family all the while living life to the absolute fullest. at the end of the book, L'Engle's husband, Hugh, dies of cancer, and i remember feeling just heartbroken for her as she described the death of her husband being like an amputation.

i re-read the book a month before kenny and i got married and it struck the same deep sadness in me then as it did the first time i read it. perhaps it is time for me to read it again, as Madeleine herself passed away this week.

although news of her passing is so sad, i can't help but smile at the thought of hugh and madeleine reunited in that forever place where there are no more tears.

adam seems to have found the snack drawer already. and he's already helping himself to his favorite snack (graham crackers). and i guess the quarter-of-a-sheet-o-crackers-at-a-time just ain't cutting it for him. i should have known that he prefers to put four whole sheets in his mouth at once.

rowan took one look at this photo and said, "what a troublemaker." he's wise beyond his years.

the end of summer seems so...heavy. take a look around you. the green leaves are weighing branches down. the gardens have candy-apple red (or ripe-tomato red) fruit hanging on plants shared with dead, yellowed (once green) tomato leaves. the weeds have overpowered every effort of weeding. shrubs, grasses, and plants look tired of their summer life...as kenny likes to say, they look "rode hard and put away wet." they've had a good life in the hot sun. it's time to rest for the colder months and re-awaken with vigor come spring.

this is the first summer in a long time that i've enjoyed every last bit of heat and sunshine, and would love a few more weeks of MORE. fortunately, it can be in the 70s well into october in these here parts (i.e., october 21, 2001 was in the mid 70s...i remember this because i was wearing a heavy, silk wedding dress that day), so i don't really have to let go of it just yet. however, everywhere you look, fall is here: pumpkins and scarecrows and halloween and thanksgiving decorations line the shelves in every store.

we've been enjoying the cooler (or less humid) evenings after dinner playing aerobie while the three boys run around us in the yard. rowan and sawyer usually spend the time riding their bikes into the pine trees or swinging on their jungle gym while adam walks circles around us.

the other evening, kenny and i stayed on the deck with adam after eating dinner outside while the older two went to swing. they eventually ended up watching clouds (something i haven't done since i was a kid myself!). adam had fun with the cat:

not exactly the healthiest way to eat them...but look at that gorgeous orange yolk! our first eggs. many more to come (i promise not to post pictures of every egg dish prepared by our girls' eggs).

6 eggs this morning! what will we do when all 15 of the hens are laying? free brown and turquoise eggs, anyone?

back in july, i wrote about our day at the beekeepers association annual picnic. while we were there, we met a couple who we discovered were our neighbors (meaning: they live 4.5 miles from us). Buzz and Aleda keep several hives in their back yard - their house is near a busier intersection, so this proves that if you have a little bit of land, keeping bees isn't all that difficult. they gave us their card (they sell their award-winning "BuzzAleda Honey") and told us to come over anytime we wanted to "hang out with the bees."

tuesday was the perfect day. it wasn't humid, nor raining. kenny gave them a call and of course, Buzz was excited to have an excuse to open up the hives up and show a new beekeeper the ins and outs of the honeybee hive. Buzz and Aleda are grandparents, so the boys were entertained by lots of running around and jungle-gym climbing, and sand-digging (and two popsicles EACH!) while kenny met a few thousand bees.

i was able to grab a few photos of kenny suited-up with bees in-hand, but you'll have to excuse the window screen in the picture. i was holding adam and taking the shots (while the boys played about 3/4 of an acre behind the hives), and we weren't suited up. and although kenny said they were the most docile bees he's ever "met," we weren't chancing it to take a photo without a screen in between!

before you open a hive, you "smoke" the bees with a smoker. the idea behind a smoker is to make the bees easy to manage. when they sense smoke entering the hive, they engorge themselves on honey thinking that they need to stock up on honey, leave the hive and survive until the "fire" is gone. a bee engorged on honey is a very relaxed, docile bee, so it's easier to manage the open hive with friendly bees. kenny holding one of the frames:

if you look closely, in the center of the cluster of bees you'll see a yellowish dot on the back of the queen. Beekeepers sometimes put the dots on the queen so they can identify them quickly. there is one queen per hive of up to 50,000 bees! the queen lays all the eggs in the hive which produce either a drone (male) or a worker bee (female). the honeybee lives for up to 3 or 4 weeks while the queen lives for however long the workers deem necessary.


the setting sun on a hive of bees and their honey combs.

i never would have thought beekeeping was fascinating until kenny mentioned he wanted to keep bees one day. even then i wasn't interested. i kept referring to it as "his hobby." but now i am just as excited to receive and keep a hive ourselves.

you can't get a hive until spring, and if you order it through a catalog, you have to order in the dead of winter (january). you can also get a swarm from another beekeepers, but you still have to order a queen to keep the hive a-hummin'.

there is so much to know and learn about (and benefit from!) the honeybee. if you need or want proof of the One True Creator, study the intricacies of the intelligent honeybee. Intricacy and intelligence are God's specialty.

isn't it amazing that the littlest feet in the family are the busiest ones? the ones that keep the mama bigger feet busier than ever? i snapped a few photos lately of adam's feet because i recently came across his newborn footprints. babies have long, skinny feet when they're born, and padded and rounded when they're about to walk or crawl.

this weekend our beloved pool closed. we hadn't been in over a month due to traveling and cold days, so we spent a good two hours there on friday evening soaking up that 90-degree weather and sunshine. today, we met friends at the local lake beach for picnicing and swimming. the air was comfortable when the sun went behind the clouds, hot when the clouds disappeared, but perfect for sitting in the sand with toddlers and babies. kenny always swims with the older two while i frolic with adam in the sand and ankle-deep water. today it worked out nicely since i was able to chat with my friend jill who we met at the beach.

jill and i are friends (roommates, in fact!) from college, and two summers ago, she and her husband and then 2-year-old son, noah, moved from st. louis to a small college town about an hour away from us. we've gotten together several times since they moved here and it's fun to see our boys play together. since they arrived, adam was born, and they have a daughter now, ellie, who is 9 months. jill married joel, who i also went to college with. when we get together, i'm sure kenny tires of our "michigan" and "calvin college" conversations. but he's a good sport about it.

although tomorrow's high is 85, tonight's low is 55. this makes for chilly mornings and evenings. as i type, i'm sitting near our enclosed back porch (which leads to the deck) with a heavy, hooded sweatshirt (grey, not red, for you adam sandler fans) on and i'm still cold. i sense we're nearing to the winding-down part of summer. schools start back up this week, and summer adventures are done. we'll use up the warmth out of every day as best we can, and then i'll be ready to dive right into my most favorite season of all (although summer is soonly becoming my most favorite season...watch out october!). i will want to be indoors more, which might lead to more sewing. i have several projects lined up for fall...after i finish my first quilt (pictures after it's finished and after it's gifted).

on the chicken-egg front...the chickens escaped their pen today, so kenny secured it even more this evening after we returned home from the beach. we did find two fresh eggs in the pen and in one of the nesting boxes in the coop, so they've been washed and refrigerated (did you know you don't have to refrigerate eggs if you never wash them? unfortunately, the two we found were also quite near a bunch of chicken excrement, so we washed them and they're in our fridge). we also found another nest of about 11 eggs on the opposite side of our house. so more than two chickens, at least, are laying. we'll see how they do tomorrow!