at home today

venus

a few things from a sunday at home -

singer's first egg!

we found one pale blue beauty today.  singer's first egg.   i've been waiting for it.

a beautiful dozen

two weeks after finding our first egg, we had a whole dozen!  

i'm not totally sure which of the hens are laying - but it is really fun to judge the egg shapes and colors and try to guess.  (each hen is said to lay a characteristic shape, so keepers of small flocks do learn to tell them apart....my books tell me).  i think 5 of my 10 hens are laying now.

second egg

once i came home from mexico i did get the thrill of finding an egg in the nesting box.   i was so excited!  there it was. our second egg.  simple perfection.  resting there in the hay, a tiny gift.  a wonder really. 

our first EGG!

 

we have an egg! 

i am so excited!  of course, the chicken did wait until i was out of the country to lay the egg.  so i missed the thrilling moment of finding the first egg.  but asher was pretty happy to call and share it with me.

a huge thank you to my cousin Andra for caring for my kids, my cats and chickens while i was away.   and especially for knowing that the first egg is important enough to warrant a phone call and a photo text message to mexico.   it made my weekend :)

Quinn

Quinn loves being outside.  he loves it far more than my other boys ever did.    he has learned to say "outside" and today he tried to say "chickens" while pointing at the windows in the sunroom.  he is simply more content outdoors.

close call

we thought we lost clementine to a hawk. 

andy was working outside, watering plants.  i was inside, changing a diaper - again.  even inside i heard the commotion of alarmed chickens squaking, wings flapping, and large birds running through bushes.  andy came to tell me to get outside.  he knew he had seen the hawk, but he wasn't sure if it had gotten any of the girls. 

feeling old

i can pinpoint the first moment i felt old.  

it's easy because it just happened.  i don't know why, but it was sort of stunning.  i've always felt young.  actually i guess i've just never felt like a "grown up".  regardless of the husband, house, job, 3 kids.... in my mind i'm still a kid myself, just playing at these adult things.  i've joked "wow, we're getting old" dozens of times, but always with disbelief. 

it started with Christmas this year.

happy new year!

happy new year!  did you eat your black eyed peas for luck?  we did.  though i had to force three of my family members to swallow a spoonful, i'm pretty sure that still counts. 

today, the second day of the new year, i'm going to enjoy at home with my family.  this is our last day together before everyone starts back to work and school.  so far, we are still in our pajamas and the older two boys are logging hours in front of the video game they got for christmas.  i'm about to call a stop to it so i can take them with me to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for this amazing soup.  i made this soup several times last winter (which is short in houston)  but forgot about it until i was looking for something to make today.  of course, every one of heidi's recipes i've tried has been yummy.  this is unexpectedly delicious.   it's so good that i am willing to get out of my pajamas on this lazy day and go to the store.  you should probably try it.

freeloaders.

Quinn and venus

first, a quick hello to my grandma (my fancy grandma, mary nell, who my chicken nellie is named for). Grandma got her own ipad for Christmas and i hope she has figured it out enough to be reading this.  hi grandma!!
 
my oldest chickens are 20 weeks and 5 days old today.  the transformation from tiny baby chick to strutting hen has been amazing to witness.  they change and grow overnight.

according to all my books about chickens, all of my breeds should begin laying eggs between 16-20 weeks.  which means mine are overdue.  their combs and waddles are growing and turning red, so i know they are close.  we are anxious to finally see our first egg in the nesting box!