what's up weekly. (Where Have I Been All Your Three Weeks?)

Well, boy howdy, it's been a hot minute since I've showed my face around here.  The truth is, we went on vacation and it ended up being a three week process - a week of prep, a week of travel, a week of settling back in at home.  Not to mention the fact that Thursdays are the days that I typically write the blog, and we traveled both there and back on consecutive Thursdays, so it just didn't end up happening.

That said, I'm here now!  We're home and settled in and excited to tell you about the last three weeks.

First, there was a men's movie night with our church family, so Atticus and Todd went to that, and Penelope and I stayed up late to watch the seventh Harry Potter movie.  (I never know how to say that - the first last movie? The first half of Deathly Hallows?  It's confusing since they made one book into two movies.  It was the right call, but it makes it difficult to reference.  For me.  On a personal level.  And I think they should have taken that into account.)  

Later in the weekend, my friend Stephanie and I taught a canning class after church, and we made jam from some blackberries our other friend Rebekah found at the Amish near her.  The jam was amazing, and it was so fun to gather with the gals at church to learn a skill!  That same afternoon, Stephanie sent me home with our new chickens, Rosie and ChickenMine.

Introducing them as neighbors before dropping the bomb on them that they'll eventually be roommates and sisterwives.

They could not be more different from one another.  We have quickly learned that Rosie is chatty and skittish and fast: the second she sees you in the vicinity, she starts gabbing it to the whole neighborhood and running around like... well, a chicken with her very noisy head still on.  ChickenMine is exactly the opposite: she is so docile and sweet and willing to be held.  She coos at you like she's asking a question: "brrrrrr? brrrrr?"  It kills me.  Francis Schaeffer talks often about how evolution cannot explain the existence of personality in the universe.  There is no explanation for personality unless there is a Creative Person behind and above and outside it all.  I think it is so funny and miraculous and incredible that God has made kajillions of chickens over the course of time, and even they have unique personalities.  What an endlessly interesting God we serve.

Anyway, back to Rosie and ChickenMine.  We only had a couple of days to introduce them to the old hens before we left on vacation, and it didn't go spectacularly well.  They had been picked on in their old flock, and it seems that's their lot here too.  Now that we're home, we're trying to be as intentional as we can about putting all of them in the yard together, so there is space to spread out while still being "together," but they still just keep to their separate groups, except when Howitzer is kamikazeing the new ones.  Poor girls.  I'm pretty sure Rosie is going to die of a heart attack.  Pray for her.

The night we got home from vacation, the kids immediately headed to the backyard to put the chickens to bed, and they discovered an opossum in the chicken run.  Luckily, it didn't seem interested in the chickens themselves, only their food bowl, so we didn't lose any.  So that was good.  But unfortunately for Todd, the first thing he got to do after driving for fourteen hours was bludgeon the varmint to death with a baseball bat.  I'll spare you the photos.

Since we've been home, life has been full of catch-up laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning, and last-minute projects and errands before we start school next week.  Todd took Atticus out to shoot clay pigeons with some guys from church.

I ripped out my south garden bed because it was literally doing nothing except growing the worst okra you've ever eaten.  That week we were away was hot and dry, and everything was in rough shape to begin with, so we returned home to pretty dismal gardens.  I just faced reality head-on and figured it was time to pull things out.

This batch of compost from the city brush site is really leafy and light - it's perfect for top dressing the soil that's already in there.  In a month or so, I'll cover everything with chicken straw to protect the soil through the winter, and to feed it in the spring when I turn it all in.

"We" shoveled more rock.  "We" are a team.

I am the site supervisor.  The girls are bystanders.  The boys are the heavy lifters.

The kids caught lots of bugs, including a cicada they named Barry.  (This year has been The Year of the Cicada, let me tell you.)

It finally cooled off enough to spend some enjoyable time outside, so the kids had breakfast on the deck this week.

Babies with apples are my favorite.  They look so adorable.

Finneas celebrated his half-birthday.  (Fun fact: on half-birthdays, we sing half of the birthday song.  "Happy birth-" is as much as they get.  It's a little foretaste of the feast to come in six months.)

We did spelling placement tests yesterday, and made sure we have everything organized for Monday.  I think we all feel equal parts excited and unready to enter back into the rhythm of the school year.  But, "what's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does."

And that has been the extent of our life lived at home over the course of the last few weeks.  Some of you eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that I left a few minor details out, like anything about our vacation, or the fact that Laurelai turned ten years old!  Let me address the latter point now:

Lolo is sweet to her very center.  If people are like a box of chocolates, she is pure goodness all the way through - no weird surprises.  She is servant-hearted and loves to help, and she's a hard worker.  (The other day we were discussing how work existed before the Fall, so that's how we can know it is a gift, not a curse.  And she said, "It was really nice of God to let us keep it even after we sinned. I like work.")  She is a perfectionist, and takes her time to do things well.  She hates messing up or feeling like she has disappointed people.

A self-portrait with her new roller skates.

She is funny and artistic and excellent at math.  She dresses well and spends extra time doing her hair each day.  She likes walking on the treadmill, crocheting, sewing, reading, baking, and caring for the chickens.  She is amazing with babies, and she has asked for a garden bed of her own next spring.  She is extremely extroverted and has limitless energy when she's around new people or groups.  She is a neon lightbulb - a lot of very bright, pulsing light condensed into a compact little tube.  She brightens our home and we couldn't live without her.

Now, as for our trip, I will need to fill you in in another post because there is just so much to share!  But here are a couple teaser photos.

Okay, I'm signing off.  We have guests coming this weekend, and a Psalm Sing tonight, and school on Monday - I feel like the weekend has already flown by and yet I have so much left to do!  So I will be back soon to continue the story of our vacation, but you'll have to be patient with me.

Happy weekend!