We've got girls!

Chickens

Well after all these years of boys boys boys I finally got some girls!  We have ten girls.  Five are Buff Orpingtons and five are Barred Rocks.  They are good for both meat and eggs and are good natured chickens.  We started them in the house in the dog crate.  The boys were all in love from the beginning and have held them everyday. Cooper has taken to telling people he has ten girls in his family.  Marshall loves to catch worms and bugs for them.  They boys have taken care of the girls by keeping them with fresh food and cleaning out their water.

  

BUT...when they were about three weeks old I had to move them outside to the garage.  The dust from the pine shavings was too much to have in the house.  

Robert was tasked with building their coop.  We are going to have them free range within electric netting with a mobile coop that can be moved around the acreage.  That way the girls gets to eat bugs and fertilize the ground and they are safe from predators. He came up with a plan based on what I told him the girls would need.  I think he did an awesome job!

Flamingo Flock pink!  Because something at my house should get to be pink.

They should start laying in July.  I have the date circled on the calendar and I just can't wait to get that first egg!

Fairies and Orcs

We are back to school and we have added so many things in this year.  Things that make this mama very happy that they are actually happening! Reading and math have always happened but homeschooling is supposed to be so much more than just getting school work done.  I am trying to offer a feast of ideas and expose them to the beauty of this world that God created.  I'm trying to ignite a fire not just check off boxes of completed work.

We have added morning time in which we all come together and sing, pray, do memory work and read good books together.  We then separate into bigs and littles and I work with those groups until lunch time.  After school work is done and if the weather is nice we all go outside to run around.  In winter there is not much to do on our fledgling homestead so taking inspiration for Pinterest I decided we would make a fairy garden.  

So what is a fairy garden and why would a family with four boys need to make one?  

• It is a spot that you make believe in and create a little world with sticks and stones and whatever else we can find or re purpose 
• It is where the fairies with their truth and light fight against the orcs and darkness of the world.  
• It is a place to keep their minds alive with wonder 
• It is something else to do with the long hours of our day   

So here is the beginning of our new imaginary world.  It only took a little help from me before their creative juices got flowing and they started coming up with their own ideas.  They have some birdhouses that my mom sent them to build and we are going to put them in the there as fairy houses.  

This is what we started with.  We used some wood from an old fence that perfectly made an arch as an entrance.  They had already made a pathway with rocks and sticks before I got the camera out. 

A dear friend passed down some of her mother's birds to me recently. I couldn't use them all in the house and these are made of resin and I though they would hold up to the elements. 

Barrett is laying shells (from Galveston) around a bird statue. 

Marshall went right to work making arches and pathways. He has a eye for aesthetics and construction.

Alright so it was my idea to hot glue the sparkly stones to the reclaimed wood.  But hey, as the only female presence I felt the need to pretty it up some.

From the other side of yard...  MORDOR!

They are working on getting all the green gone and making it look dark and dank. 

Back to School

We got back to book school this week after our Christmas break.  There is always an apprehension after a break when you feel that suddenly everything you taught them the last term will not be there anymore and that is when I take a deep breath and remember the motto of our school:

"Education is not the filling of a pail,but the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeats

We actually got back to school last week but we were working on the other things, the life things.  We had a shift in chores and those require time to teach and I did not want to be pressured to rush through it so we could get to "real" school work. That just leads to frustration on my part, which leads to yelling and no one learns anything good from yelling.  Cooper is learning to sweep the floors and Marshall has proven to be a whiz at loading the dishwasher.  The twins have taken over feeding the cats and dog (big brothers taught them).  It was a good change because our morning run very smoothly now and better yet, housework is done and the house is staying a bit more tidy.

We are starting our second term this week and it so exciting to start new books.  In addition to the books we read over the whole year we are adding a biography of Queen Elizabeth and Children of the New Forest this term.  I can't wait until term three when we read The Jungle Book!  Marshall is not adding any new books but is making great progress with reading and I forecast he will be reading his fables to me by the end of term 3!  

With the the new year, I wanted to take up a resolution that did not have anything to do with my weight.  So I decided to teach myself to watercolor and tip toe into the mysterious and elusive world of Art.  Most people think of art (drawing or painting) to be an innate talent and if you are not good at it then "oh well" I just can't do it.  I refuse to believe that because I am not good at football but I can still play it!  Sketching and drawing and painting used to be taught and most educated people had a working knowledge of how to put an image to paper.  I am so grateful this is one of the forgotten subjects we can add into our sons' educations.  They will be taking an art class once a week through the YMCA and I can't wait to see what they create! Once I master watercolors I will teach my boys so we can use the skill in our nature journals.  Speaking of which here are some of my recent paintings. (I put these online not to brag, quite the opposite, they are far from "right" but you have to start somewhere and I encourage you to start!) Youtube has a ton of tutorials!

Holly bush - I had to find one with a berry on it because I really love color and all the greens and brown get boring to me. I messed up on a shadow placement - can you find it??

House Finch - The red is the wrong red and I didn't blend my colors very well but I still love him!

Renaissance School Days

We went to the Texas Renaissance Festival for their school day program this year.  I was super excited because we are studying the renaissance this year in school. Although I wish one year they would ditch Henry VIII and let Mary and  Elizabeth fight it out.  Now that would be history coming alive!

Marshall's at least feeling fabulous.

 

 We made it to the joust just in time due to some traffic on the way.

Cooper wanted to ride the flying trampoline ride.  Don't ask me what this has to do with the Renaissance but he had a blast. I suppose they can't fling kids out of trebuchets so this has to suffice.

He was nervous the entire time but never wanted to quit.  He finally got to do a flip at the end.

Marshall, not being a fan of heights, decided on the mechanical joust.  He got the ring on the second try! Huzzah!

Barrett trying to figure that lady out.  "She tall!"

Cooper's not impressed with the dancing.

"Ye Olde Funnel Cake"

About 16 years ago this used to be a chicken on a stick shack called the Royal Arms Tavern.  I worked here my senior year of high school.  It's now a stroller rental place.  The irony is not lost on me even though my stroller pushing days are almost over.

Best bubbies. They were so tired from walking they finally held hands because I was walking too fast.

Cub Scout Fall Camping Trip

After three years of watching Rob and the big boys drive off with the vehicle loaded up with camping stuff, the twins and I joined them this time.  We spent three days and two night at Brazos Bend State Park and everything went surprisingly well.  We only had one incident with the fire (Graham touched his hot stick and burned his hand) and the mosquitoes were only bad one night.  Although Robert bore the brunt of bites as he obviously tasted better then the rest of us. 

Mmmmm. there is just something better about perked coffee.

We heard hoot owls at night and the crows woke us up.  Graham woke up saying "the birds won't be quiet!"  

They are making what they call "smoker sticks."

Egg burritos for breakfast

This tree was the envy of all the boys at the camp out.  We had several visitors who all tried to climb this tree and swing on it's low lying branches.  It was like a built in playground at our campsite.

Barrett at the actual playground.

Look we are camping and happy about it!

Playing Batman even in the wilderness.

Speaking of birds, we were very fortunate that there was a birds of prey exhibit at the nature center.  We got to see a a falcon, a hawk, an Andean Condor, and an owl.  It was so very interesting to see them so close and to watch them eat chicken legs in a matter of seconds (the condor).  

They loved the birds but alas sleep won out. 

Marshall was awarded his Bobcat Saturday night.  He even did his good turn the next morning by helping me make breakfast.  

 

 

Nature Study Monday - warning there are maggots!

We met up at the hippo park today for some more exploring.  The big boys spent quite a long time digging up rocks out of the path.  They even started collecting tools to help them dig from the tree limbs and sticks.  This was the prize of the day that was finally unearthed after about 20 minutes of digging.

I took the little guys for a walk and I found the mother of all nature study find.  A pretty well decomposed squirrel with maggots underneath!!!  Best quote about it was "That is awesome... and very disgusting."  Nature is not always pretty but this is part of the process of dying and decomposition and I am glad the boys were able to see it firsthand.
 

 Marshall found a stick with a "V" in it and was using other sticks to balance it.  I like this kind of experimenting.

Barrett said he was a frog jumping off his rock.