Learning from the Bluebirds

Some of the lessons I've learned from bluebirds Sialia and Silas include:

1. Waking up early is over-rated. There is nothing sweeter than sleeping till the sun comes up then being served breakfast in bed.
2. Things change. Scrawny naked pips can become beautiful bluebirds. People can change, too, if you stick around long enough to notice.
3. Sometimes it’s okay to sit on the fence and see what happens. Other times, you have to know when to fight for what is important.
4. Babies thrive when their parents work together as a team.
5. The best way to keep a home clean is to get rid of the crap. Carry it out in sacks when you must.
6. Parents usually know what is best for the children.
7. Intruders are part of life, especially when you have a bunch of babies born at the same time. The hard part is choosing whether to let the strangers learn from you or whether to swoop down and peck them on the head till they leave you alone.
8. When you know the weather will be scary, keep feeding the kids and act like nothing is wrong.
9. The best thing to do during life’s storms is hunker down and stay close to your family.
10. Life happens and it isn't always good, but that doesn't mean you have to quit chirping. Someone may be looking at you as the bright part of their day.
11. Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. - Henry Van Dyke, ornithologist, 1852-1933
12. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches up in the soul and sings a tune without words and never stops at all. - Emily Dickinson, 1891

A Royal Wedding Tea Party

I don't know if I remember actually watching Princess Di's wedding, but my moms said I did. What I do remember is about fifteen years of seeing the princess with a big poofy gown carrying an armful of flowers. I remember seeing dolls, plates, stickers, and magazines with the princess bride. So, when Prince William and his fiancee Kate set the date, I planned to do something memorable with my little girl. One of my best friends is from Great Britain, so we decided that a wedding watching playdate sounded perfect.

Somehow along the way, I got a little bit too excited about the whole thing, and it turned into a Royal-wedding-watching, prince-and-princess-crown-creating, child-friendly, perfect-little-tea-party playdate. The youngest two attendees (one four-months old, the other two-weeks old) slept most of the time. The other seven kiddos (ages two to four years old) had fun putting on princess and prince (aka: Power Ranger and Buzz) costumes, making sparkly crowns (with veils added to the girls' crowns,) and snacking constantly on all the tea-party finger foods. Some of the kids enjoyed watching the wedding, but mostly, they played.

Ema, Simone, Jennifer and I enjoyed our adult time and stretched the morning to naptime while we enjoyed dainty treats and tea. Some of the treats we had with English tea were scones and jam, Scottish shortbread, English tea biscuits (cookies), mini quiches, ham and cheese spirals, cucumber sandwiches, crown-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries, and wedding mints.

Watching the wedding was entertaining and sweet. I was impressed with the classy lace dress Kate Catherine chose. I was surprised by the bright yellow Queen Elizabeth chose, but next to the red military uniforms and the gold robe on the clergy, it didn't seem so outrageous. What was crazy was the variety of hats on all the ladies. I think the kids were mesmerized by it, even if they didn't watch all of it.

Will was at school during our wedding party, but I packed him all the fun finger-foods in his lunch, so he still got to taste all the goodies. We recorded the wedding (five a.m. our time) and Will came home from school and hurried through his chores so he could watch the recording. I must say I was really surprised that he sat through the ceremony and even hushed everyone so he could hear all the words. I didn't expect such enthusiasm from a seven-year old boy.

Maybe my kids will remember watching a magical Royal wedding ... just like in all the fairy tales. 

Mockingbird Whoppers

April 18th - There are still just three mockingbird eggs. I guess she's done laying eggs for now.

April 19th - I am taking Whopper Easter snacks off the menu for this year. I can't help but think these look just like the candy, and I don't like the idea of eating mockingbird eggs.

April 20th - When we come outside, Polly usually flies away and watches me take a picture. The parents have been in our backyard a lot more often lately.... or maybe I am just now getting around to noticing.

April 21st - incubation day 4 (maybe?)

April 22nd - day 5

 April 23rd - day 6

April 24th - day 7

April 25th - day 8. These should incubate for around 12 days, so I expect them to start hatching next weekend. It is interesting that the last three days of nest pictures all look the same. They all have a little space between them, and it doesn't seem that Polly is turning them anymore. I know she still sits on the nest some, though. She and Tex have both been scavenging in the backyard and garden a lot more lately, but unless I see her fly off the nest, I cannot tell them apart ... yet.

 

A lot of fluffs

Just about the time I had to stop opening the bluebird house, the house finches made their debut! Here are the daily pictures since I last posted about this nest in our front yard.

April 18th

April 19th - A friend asked if the fuzz in the nest was dog fur -- it isn't. It looks a bit like all the cottony tree-stuff floating through the air this week (cottonwoods "shedding"??). Underneath the nest, there are a lot of white fluffy feathers.

April 20th - How about a penny to show just how small these eggs are?

April 21st - Welcome to the world #1!! I thought it was a caterpillar or huge piece of tree-fuzz at first. This little one is REALLY a fluff-ball already. This was taken around 9am, and at 1pm, it is still the only one who has "catched!" as Ben, Maddie, and Jon like to say.

April 22nd - The second fluff-ball was there when we checked the nest at 7:00 am, and the third emerged sometime between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. 

April 23rd -  There are still 3 chicks. They keep getting fuzzier, and it is hard to tell where one chick starts and the other ends.

April 24th - - I thought they all four were here, but eventually got a picture with an egg in it. These three fluffs are filling the nest fast. It seems that one may already be opening its eyes, but those beaks! They are a lot bigger than I thought they'd be. These fuzzy creatures look a bit cartoonish, but I can't figure out which cartoon bird they look like.

April 25th - I am no cotton farmer, but I can't help but think of a cotton boll ... or a bowl or cotton. I am ready for them to get some feathers to hide those internal organs. Its not so cute when I can see the bugs in their throats through that paper-thin skin. I have to convince myself to think "cute," but mostly that's not working. ;)

Easter Weekend

This has been a FAB-U-LOUS weekend! It started Thursday afternoon on a not-so-great note: the school nurse called because Will had a headache all day, so I went to get him. His headache turned to fever as the day went on, and I spent a bunch of time praying he wouldn't be sick for the weekend. Thankfully, a few rounds of Tylenol helped the fever and headache.

Friday was a holiday for Allen and Will -- okay, a holiday for all of us since it was Good Friday, but they got to stay home with us. Maddie and I went out that morning to get a few more garden supplies to plant some herbs. When we got home, Allen started working on the lawn, and I did my best to stay patient with all four kids who were helping me move all the herbs into pots. It went well for the most part, but I stepped backward off the porch, fell into one of the holes when they are trying to find China, and flew backwards landing dangerously close to a pile of dog turds. The fall knocked the wind out of me, and with that came all the words that stay back when I bite my tongue. Oops #1 (after I started counting, anyway.) After the oops, we got a bunch planted -- strawberry plants, chamomile, lavender, peppermint, sage, lemon balm, cilantro, basil seeds (to add to our current crop,) and a couple of thyme (I told Will we never seemed to have enough "time" and he laughed with me. That's my boy with a similar sense of humor, and its fun that he dishes it out, too.) We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the weekend -- making chili and soup, making icing for the cake, and boiling eggs (....or attempting to.)

Saturday, Allen's parents came. That morning I ironed -- A LOT! -- but the kids asked what that tall table was... and what is that thing you are moving on the clothes? "Children, this is an ironing board and an iron. I use it to get wrinkles out of clothes. Haven't you ever seen one?" The answer was "no." Oops #2.

We all went to the grocery store for a tasty taco or sandwich lunch. There was a costumed Easter Bunny greeting kids at the store, and the kids kept calling him SuperBunny. He comvinced them that they needed to leave some carrots out for him, but Will was skeptical because, as he put it, "If I looked deep into the bunny's eyes, I am pretty sure I could see man-eyes in there." That afternoon, we dyed eggs with the kids for the first time. The kids were old enough that I wasn't afraid of the colorful chaos, plus we had grandparents to help. It went well, once the kids understood they couldn't drop the eggs into the bowls or squeeze the eggs to get them to cooperate.

Several eggs were broken, but it wasn't till one of Will's hit the floor that we realized, that some were soft-boiled instead of hard-boiled. Oops #3. That night we celebrated Nana's birthday a week early with hand-made cards and carrot cake. All four kids had fun with the cake and the egg colors, but I think they all loved the flash light Easter egg hunt with all the neighborhood kids. They got to stay up late, play with flashlights, run and play with other kids, AND eat candy.

Sunday, we woke up and headed for church. When I started searching for Easter outfits a few weeks ago, the boys asked for ties, so they were all really excited to get to wear a tie to church. In all my ironing and clothing-prep, I forgot to make sure that the new clothes actually fit the kids -- Will had to change out of his suit pants because they were way too big around the waist and kept falling off. Ben's 4Ts are too big now that he's in underpants instead of a pull-up so we were pulling his up often, too. Oops #4 and #5. Maddie was thrilled that I curled her hair, and we actually got out the door on time to get to Sunday school at 8:15. The kids all went to Sunday school, then we got all of them to take to "big church." Usually, Will comes with Allen and me to the regular service, but this time we wanted to bring the little ones, too. Partly because I enjoy having them there with me even though it can be distracting, partly because I got an email asking for volunteers in the preschool building. The church was expecting 500 more preschoolers than normal and wanted help. I thought my best way to help would be to take my kids out as the crowds arrived. I just don't have it in me to be a preschool teacher or helper at this stage of life. We were home around 11:30 and the Easter Bunny had come while we were gone. The kids excitedly found eggs in our yard, then we had a tasty lunch. Nana and Papa headed out that afternoon, and we didn't do much the rest of the day.

It was a wonderful weekend full of happy family time and good food. I still haven't found much in my life that beats the joy of having all my kids with me in church as we worship together, and that was definitely my favorite part of the weekend. Maddie's favorite part was the flashlight egg hunt. Jon enjoyed hearing the Easter story -- the most-repeated part being "the bad soldiers played a game. Whoever won the game got to keep Jesus's clothes after he died." Ben enjoyed the candy. When I asked Will what his favorite part of the weekend was, he put on the charm trying to earn some extra jellybeans, "Mama, your hugs were the best part of the whole weekend!" What a great way to wrap up the weekend. :)