Happy Birthday, Maggie!!!

Shame on me for not posting this sooner!!!  We had a HUGE birthday here on Feb. 17th...our baby turned FOUR! The night before I tucked her in, and I told her I had so much fun with her when she was three, and that I would never again be tucking my three year old into bed.  Too much mama drama for her...oops.  She started crying and said she didn't want to turn four and that she wanted to stay three.  I assured her three was awesome, but four was going to be even better...we would have lots of fun with four.  She agreed and went to sleep.

We had big plans for her birthday, it was a Monday, and Matt had off work because it was Presidents' Day.  We were planning on going up to the cities for some fun, but the weather had other plans, with a blizzard on the way, we stayed home - snowed in - for a fun day together.  

She woke up to balloons covering the floor in the hallway as she got up.  She had decided the night before she wanted cake and bacon for breakfast.  Here she is with her cake shortly after waking up (it was a chocolate mud cake...who wouldn't want that for breakfast!!) 

And, in true Maggie fashion, she ate her cake first to save her bacon for dessert :)  She then opened her presents...a long list of things she had wanted...and thankfully enough stuff to keep her busy for our snowy day.  She got a bouquet of beautiful flowers (which she had to put on her nightstand), markers, fancy scissors (scrapbooking ones), her own construction paper and two other kinds of fancy paper, glitter glue, Hello Kitty hairbrush, two rolls of her own tape, a puzzle, a Hello Kitty coloring book, a Lalaloopsy paint with water book, and her own...her very own...pink John Deere baseball cap....which of course she had to wear while on the tractor helping Daddy clear the snow from said blizzard.

So, I spent my day doing puzzles, crafts, drawings, painting, and hanging out with the coolest four year old I know... and it was the best 'snow day' I've ever had :)

Happy 4th birthday, sweet Maggie, you are my heart....

Math!

The time has come.  My 4th grader is doing math I need to refresh myself on, and some of it I'm learning for the first time!  Did you know there's an algorithm for finding the square root?  I always just got close with whole numbers and estimated the decimals, or used a calculator.  Mason will be learning to find the square root of any number using this algorithm before the year is up...fun stuff!!

In case you're curious, here's the link on how to do it: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/square-root-algorithm.php

In other math news, Isaac learned to borrow today (I guess they call it 'regrouping' now).  He did it without any tears, frustration, or confusion.  How??    Watch and see!  We use Math-U-See and we all love it!  I love watching my kids learn...so fun!!  Isaac only used the blocks for the first 5 problems or so, then he ditched them and breezed through the rest of his problems.  When I asked him how he liked regrouping, his response was "Fun!"

Bonus: While I was typing this, Isaac snuck up on me to give me a hug and whisper an 'I love you' in my ear.  Soaking it up!!  :)

Apparently you SHOULD count your chickens!

So, like I said, we just got a foot of snow.  A foot of wet, heavy snow...from a hefty blizzard.  The day of the blizzard it wasn't snowing in the morning.  It wasn't even snowing by lunchtime.  So we let the chickens out.  It was a gorgeous day, and the chickens were wandering farther than they had all year so far....

See where this is going?  Stay with me...

Snow started around 2 or 3pm-ish on THURSDAY, and our chickens hate being out in the snow.  We figured it was probably a good time to shut the chickens in, so Charlotte wandered on down with a fresh bucket of water, and shut them in for the storm.

See it yet?

Thursday evening we watched it snow, and snow, and snow.  The wind howled, and howled, and howled.  Friday we didn't venture out much...Charlotte took care of the chickens again, but other than that and Matt spending massive amounts of time clearing the driveway, we just didn't go outside.

Flash forward to today...SATURDAY.  We let the chickens out, collected eggs, brought them fresh water, and they all seemed happy and healthy.  Even Miss Henrietta (our broody) was still sitting away.  However, today as Matt rounded the corner of the garage around 1pm, he found something.

I bet you see it now, don't you :)

He found a chicken.  A chicken covered in snow.  A chicken covered in snow and ice that had been left outside during the blizzard...for TWO WHOLE DAYS.  She had ice and snow all over her face, back, under her wings, everywhere!  Matt brought her inside and I wrapped her up in a towel and stood with her in a sunny window to help the ice melt.  She looked healthy enough, surprisingly!  I stayed in the mudroom with her and after most of the ice melted off her I offered her some food.  She quickly ate.  Apparently she was hungry...very hungry!  If you look closely here, you can still see some ice in the middle of her back.  And yes, she is the same breed as our broody, but I'll assure you, our little clutch of eggs is safe and warm.

I kept her inside until her feathers were gooood and dry (maybe two hours?)...and by the time she pooped three times on my floor I figured she was healthy enough to go back to the coop.  She is one tough bird!

SO, I haven't counted my chickens before they've hatched, but apparently it's a good idea to count your chickens once in a while to make sure you're not missing one!  :)

The end.

Snow!!

We got about a foot. Matt has spent many many hours on the tractor clearing the driveway and various paths we need around the house. It's sooo pretty!

We've enjoyed all being snowed in together, there's something about having my family all together that just feels so complete, and right...especially when the weather is raging and we're all snuggled in our warm home. We are thankful the power never went out, many around us lost power for up to a whole day. We did have a tree fall right across the driveway, but a neighbor helped clear it at ten o'clock at night in the middle of the blizzard. Yes, we really do have awesome neighbors :)

All the snow and frigid temps forecasted do have me dreaming of gardening and green grass though!! God's creation is always beautiful...no matter the season :)

Broody mix up!

So, it turns out our second hen we *thought* was broody really wasn't.  So we apparently caused confusion by giving her a clutch of six eggs...since our REAL broody (Henrietta) had gotten off her usual nest, and hopped on the smaller clutch of six eggs since broody #2 wasn't, in fact, broody.  Henrietta's nine eggs were cold, but I've read that if a hen is off for less than a day they eggs may still hatch, and it was only a few hours she was off.  So, not wanting to abandon any of the eggs, we shoved them all under Henrietta.  So she was on 15 eggs!  She's such a good little mama.

I did remove two of the eggs last night, I knew they were just added that morning...since they were white, so Henrietta was down to 13 eggs.  And this morning when I collected eggs, others had laid in Henrietta's clutch (it's common for them to climb right in her nestbox with her and lay).  So I removed all the eggs that weren't marked, and I counted only 12!!!  Apparently my crayon marks had worn off one of the eggs (I do remember a couple of them being wet when I tried to mark them and the crayon didn't stay well)...so we had those for breakfast, and no, there weren't any baby chicks in them (thankfully!).  They must have been sat on for less than 24 hours.  No biggie.

Now, we still have 3 eggs under Henrietta that won't hatch for a couple days after the first batch hatches around March 6th.  SO, we really need to hope and pray for another hen to be broody by then to finish out the couple days of hatching them!  We don't know if any will hatch at this point, but we're learning.

I'm such a rookie at this, so I'm marking my lessons learned:
1) Give broody hen her own nestbox, separate from the usual laying nest boxes...or at a minimum, make sure to collect all other eggs frequently so she doesn't confuse her clutch with any other eggs.  You'd think they'd be smart enough to figure it out, but sometimes they just aren't.  And give her the new, separate nest BEFORE putting fertile eggs under her to make sure she'll stay broody through the move.  I do not want to separate her from the rest of the flock though...for a few reasons I won't go in to :)
2) Always always always mark eggs, and don't mix batches...it was a confusing accident here that the different dates got mixed, but we're trying to just deal with it now.

Just praying we get at least a few chicks to hatch, and for another hen to go broody so I can try it again and put my lessons learned into practice!  :)

Adventures in broody chickens

A few days ago we had a hen go broody...one of our beautiful barnevelders, Henrietta.

So, we gave her 9 eggs.  That part of the story is simple enough.  She's been on her nest for two full days, expected hatch date is ~March 6th (Happy Birthday, Dad!!).  :)

This morning Charlotte and I went down to water the chicks and check on Henrietta.  As soon as we come down she typically hops off her nest and heads for the scratch that we throw down.  I wanted to get video of her getting back on her eggs...since it's so sweet...and this is what I captured.  This one's long...

Hmmm...a second broody hen?  I waited to see what Henrietta would do...and I caught this:

I wasn't convinced that the second hen was really broody, she didn't squawk at me when I reached for the eggs, so I removed her, and put Henrietta in front of the nest...here's what she did, note Henrietta's true broody behavior...I've never heard a chicken squawk like this before she went broody!

So, I decided to give broody hen #2 a small clutch of 6 eggs, she's not acting really broody, but if she is willing to sit I don't want to discourage her since we could use the chicks!  If she's still on them tonight at dark I'll give her a few more :)  Happy broody hens make me happy...I love seeing how God has designed these beautiful birds!

To be continued...

Brothers and sisters

Being homeschooled, the kids are together all day, every day.  In a lot of ways, it's fantastic...they get to know each other, and they are truly great friends.  However, if you couple young egocentricity with a lack of ability to control emotions, it sometimes leads to volatile situations :)

We had a chance to do an exercise in school yesterday though that was fabulous. We are studying Asia, India specifically, so we were learning about their culture. In India , there is a festival called Raksha Bandhan that is to celebrate the love and duty between brothers and sisters. The holiday does have it's roots in Hinduism, but I used it solely for the kids to focus on each other.  Siblings have a special relationship, and I don't think most siblings truly value that until they are adults.  So, I simply had Mason and Charlotte each write down three things that are special about each other...it was a chance for them to put aside what they thought THEY were good at, and to think of what makes each other special in our home, family, and community.  

It was kind of humorous, but Charlotte got it right away (so part of what makes her special, right? )  Her three things made Mason special were that he: 

1) is good at lots of things, like math

2) is funny

3) and he is nice to her

Not bad!  Mason, on the other hand, had trouble getting it right.  Once I explained to him that Charlotte having 'super stinky breath' isn't exactly what I had in mind, this is what he came up with:

1) she helps a lot around the house

2) she is a good problem solver (when her siblings fight, specifically)

3) she can get stuff done faster than me

The best part was when I made them tell each other what their list said.  Getting kids to find the JOY in putting Christ first, others second, and themselves last is not easy! But we'll keep trying :)

2013 Cushing Year-In-Review

Here it is!  I had over 3,300 pictures to sort through this year...it must have been a fabulous year with that many photog moments.  So, it's long...but it captures so many special moments of our family.  God has certainly blessed us!



2013 Cushing Year-In-Review from Sonia Cushing on Vimeo.