Mother Nature must be playing with us. This week has given us unbelieveably beautiful weather with cloudless blue skies and sunshine but the temperature doesn't want to get above the freezing mark. We've been breaking up the ice on the animal water troughs with shovels and trying to collect the eggs before they freeze. Our aracauna hen finally started laying so we have some 'ready-to-go' Easter eggs. Hers are generally a light turquoise color. Another hen has decided she's a B-2 bomber and lays hers while sitting high on a perch, dropping them to the ground. The only time they don't break is when they land in a pile of chicken poo, making them a joy to collect. We feel pretty lucky the girls are still laying even in the cold weather. We're collecting about 3-4 eggs a day.
We're still at six kids but the agency just called to update our records and see what ages we are willing to take. That usually means they're looking for a place for somebody.
Our little girl is getting a bit braver about trying to take some steps. She does best when she's wearing her specially constructed shoe inserts that help lift her arches and straighten her legs, although she'd much prefer to be barefoot. So far her record is walking about 6 feet without sitting down. She likes to have the boys clapping and cheering her on. She's learning many new words, trying several new signs and definitely knows how to tell us she's not happy. Her favorite thing is to announce that she's going to cry if she doesn't get her way. She'll ask for something and then say, "I cwyyy...." How she figured out to do that, I'll never know.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Eggs!!!!
Yes, friends and neighbors, it's true. Our Chicken Girls FINALLY started laying eggs. I thought, perhaps, we had acquired the only hens at the feed store who did not understand their career goals or maybe, we were just deficient enough at chicken farming we didn't know what we were doing....a totally plausible concept. Of course, our chickens couldn't be bothered with laying the eggs in the custom-built coop. Nope. They picked the lean-to off the shed, making little nests in some cast-off hay and I just happened to find the eggs while moving the dog food storage container. They have started to lay one or two eggs in the coop but still leave us presents in the shed, the dog kennel and various other locales. Now we have a perpetual Easter egg hunt. The kids are still trying to figure out why the eggs are not "regular white eggs" but they seem to have no problems eating them.
We had a surprise snow storm, letting the kids out of school on Monday. The buses could not traverse all the hills out here. The storm must have been centered on the Coast Range because once we got about a mile and a half east of the house, no snow.
As I write this, our little girl has divested herself of her pajamas and diaper, feeding them both to the puppy through the bars of the baby gate while simultaneously saying, "No Puppy!...Mine!" Two year-old logic at its finest.... :)
We had a surprise snow storm, letting the kids out of school on Monday. The buses could not traverse all the hills out here. The storm must have been centered on the Coast Range because once we got about a mile and a half east of the house, no snow.
As I write this, our little girl has divested herself of her pajamas and diaper, feeding them both to the puppy through the bars of the baby gate while simultaneously saying, "No Puppy!...Mine!" Two year-old logic at its finest.... :)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
New Year!
2008. Hmmm...where did 2007 go? The kids managed to stay up until Midnight, including the little one. She's still awake, hence the time of posting this blog. Our oldest boy turns thirteen on the 2nd. Phew! A teenager....fantastic....
Christmas came and went with only a wee bit of fanfare. We went for more of an "educational" theme this year with the presents. Most were books, games and art supplies. The kids didn't really believe us that Christmas wasn't going to be laden with toys. It was an interesting reaction when that proved to be true. One of the things about having foster kids is that many of the charitable organizations seem to feel that these kids need a plethora of toys to somehow 'make up' for the fact they are in this situation. We've found that once in foster care, they have more toys than they can play with and the lack of teaching about how to care for things, valuing possessions, respecting others' property, etc... results in numerous broken and destroyed toys. The shift away from toys this year seemed to work well and we don't have a lot of things being mistreated and ruined. Some people we told about our plan thought we were being Scrooge-like but this is a unique situation that is difficult to understand from an outside view. If anyone ever thinks of donating to a group that supports foster children, the most helpful things we have ever recieved are clothing, car seats, and school supplies....and hand-me-downs rock! Just because it's not new from the store doesn't mean it's not 'new' to the kids. If there's a superhero or cartoon character printed on it somewhere, even better!
Our little girl is turning into an even bigger ham. Her latest tricks are stealing the boys' clean laundry while it's being sorted and folded so she can "try it on" and practicing getting undressed herself. The latter usually leads to a little dilemma for her when she gets stuck in the process and we have to undo her from whatever twisted mess in which she's wrapped herself up. She's also fallen in love with Elmo and the dreaded Barney. Despite my efforts at expanding her horizons, she generally (loudly) protests my attempts to change to the Discovery Channel or CNN....
Happy New Year to all.
Christmas came and went with only a wee bit of fanfare. We went for more of an "educational" theme this year with the presents. Most were books, games and art supplies. The kids didn't really believe us that Christmas wasn't going to be laden with toys. It was an interesting reaction when that proved to be true. One of the things about having foster kids is that many of the charitable organizations seem to feel that these kids need a plethora of toys to somehow 'make up' for the fact they are in this situation. We've found that once in foster care, they have more toys than they can play with and the lack of teaching about how to care for things, valuing possessions, respecting others' property, etc... results in numerous broken and destroyed toys. The shift away from toys this year seemed to work well and we don't have a lot of things being mistreated and ruined. Some people we told about our plan thought we were being Scrooge-like but this is a unique situation that is difficult to understand from an outside view. If anyone ever thinks of donating to a group that supports foster children, the most helpful things we have ever recieved are clothing, car seats, and school supplies....and hand-me-downs rock! Just because it's not new from the store doesn't mean it's not 'new' to the kids. If there's a superhero or cartoon character printed on it somewhere, even better!
Our little girl is turning into an even bigger ham. Her latest tricks are stealing the boys' clean laundry while it's being sorted and folded so she can "try it on" and practicing getting undressed herself. The latter usually leads to a little dilemma for her when she gets stuck in the process and we have to undo her from whatever twisted mess in which she's wrapped herself up. She's also fallen in love with Elmo and the dreaded Barney. Despite my efforts at expanding her horizons, she generally (loudly) protests my attempts to change to the Discovery Channel or CNN....
Happy New Year to all.
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