Clucking Nuts!

I'm a person who is naturally wired to raise boys. My son makes sense to me. He and I speak the same language. I always wanted to have a girl also, but the idea also scared me.  Well, then Eden came along, and broke every preconceived idea I had about having a daughter. She is the perfect little girl. And by perfect, I mean that before her first birthday she knocked out a tooth, she wears clunky boy's boots with a pink fluffy skirt, laughs when boys throw rocks at her, and is the world's best cuddler. She is already tall and slim for her age, has porcelain skin and looks like a small angel. In contrast, her laugh sounds like a witch's cackle, her smile has a hint of crazy in it (which is aided by the missing tooth), and she has wispy hair that flies in every direction. She has a vivid imagination. Recently I was sitting on the couch and she came running up to me in a dramatic frenzy. She scrambled into my lap, tucked her feet in, and said in a mock terrifie...

Early on a Tuesday morning, I got a phone call from an excited lady at the post office, "I have a package here for you, and it's peeping!" I knew the chicks had been shipped the afternoon before and were safe in the box for 72 hours, so I made arrangements to pick them up in the afternoon. I decided that with 2 very excited preschoolers, it would be better to wait until Alex was home to open the box. It also bought me more time before I was committed to actually touching a chicken. Picking up chickens from the post office was a new experience for both myself and the post lady. With a grin she confessed that she had been peeking in the holes all day, and sent me off with my box, wishing me luck. I put the box on the floor of my van where the kids could hear the cheeping, then drove home slowly. When we got home, I had Micah place the box on the kitchen table. And after a few minutes of the kids bumping the box trying to peak through the holes, and whispering ...

Two weeks before the arrival of our third child, I went into labor... that's right. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a while, and they were getting more intense, but one day they just kept coming. I kept track of them all day... 15 minutes apart... 10 minutes apart. We went about our normal business, taking care of our children and put our kids to bed. Alex and I sat up watching a movie, timing contractions, when we heard the unmistakable sound of vomit. We ended up spending most of the night cleaning up our son and changing sheets, while he fought the stomach flu. By 5 am , my contractions were 5 min apart and a minute long... time to head to the hospital. So we packed up our kids, and brought Micah a bucket. I sat in the hospital for an hour or so while the nurses monitored my contractions. It seemed I was in labor, the contractions were real. But when they checked my cervix, there was no progress, which was not normal. Well, then I started vomitting. The low po...

The country life was not originally my dream. It was my husband's. And even after I began to share the dream, I flatly refused to have chickens. Firstly, my dad grew up across the road from a chicken farm, and drilled it into me from a young age to live as far away from chickens as possible. And secondly, chickens creep me out. I would not call it an actual phobia, but chickens make me very uncomfortable. Consequently, we are getting the silliest, fuzziest, most docile chickens you can raise. As I was reflecting on our life in preparation for this blog, I came to a monumental revelation. I have always considered myself to be a decisive person. And I have even come under a lot of criticism for pushing my husband around. But looking back, I realize that all my current plans started as dreams of my husband's. And thinking more, I realize there is nothing my husband declared he wanted that we have not done. Alex knew what he wanted, got me to want it too, then somehow got me to pl...

I'm not sure at what point it became our dream to live in the country. I think it all started as a small dream for a little privacy, and Alex's statement, "I want to be able to walk out my back door naked and not have anyone call the cops." Somehow this evolved into a full blown country dream complete with 5 acres, 45 minute commute, chickens, horses, home schooling, and living off the grid. I enjoy writing and keep journals for myself and for each of our children. Occasionally, I get the chance to write something that people actually want to read. My husband and a few friends have been bugging me for a while to blog about our adventures in the country, and the hilarious stories of our energetic children that have lead to so many funny facebook statuses. Recently, Alex and I attended a class on raising chickens (yes, this is our ideal date... when did I become that person ?), and afterwards Alex declared that it was time to start the blog. We ordered our chickens ar...