There are (hopefully) now only about twenty days left until I get to see my new little sister. Naturally, preparing for her grand debut is preoccupying the entire house. We are almost completely ready to bring her home. Flowery onesies are ready to receive her tiny body:
The pastel bows and butterflies that have been absent since Maria was a baby now have made their appearance.
Sweetly patterned blankets are ready to wrap around her:
And decorative touches light up the room:
I just love how transparent three year olds are! They just completely don’t realize how much they completely give away their secret, mischievous plans.This story comes from just a few weeks before Daniel was allowed to stop taking naps (because he couldn’t get to sleep at night).
Landon’s iPod touch usually lives on his bedroom clock where it can charge and play music, but this had to change when we discovered Daniel playing with it under the covers of his bed. He was supposed to be napping, but decided games on the iPod sounded like a better idea.
The next day I took him to his bed for a nap, and we went through our usual routine: read a book, get a drink, and say “I love you”. When I finally tucked him under his blankets, he sat up with a start. “Hey, where’s Landon’s iPod?” he asked.
“Oh, he put it in a hiding spot,” I replied casually.
“Where?” He glanced about the room anxiously.
“Somewhere,” I said.
“Oh.”
Crestfallen, he allowed me to re-tuck him into bed and kiss him on the cheek. He pulled the blankets up to his chin and turned over sighing, “I do wish Landon’s iPod was here.”
The baby chickens sure are getting a lot of attention around here! They are so cute though, so who could resist picking them up and petting their silky soft down. There are four of them, and they’ll be beauties when they grow up! 
This is what they’ll look like when they are big:
A barred rock:
A speckled sussex:
A gold laced wyandotte:
A columbian wyandotte:
We’re working on naming them, since so far only the gold laced has been named (Victoria). Chickens have ended up being a really fun and rewarding project, so everyone is excited about the new additions.
Right now, we just emerged from the end of a major winter storm. It began with rain Monday night, which froze into a very thick layer through the night. It turned into sleet on Tuesday, and didn’t let up the whole day. The high pitched sound of ice pellets hitting icy windows was painfully annoying, and I couldn’t wait for it to end. In addition, ice had given our windows an opaque glaze treatment, and I never realized how much I depend on looking outside through the day. Not being able to see out drove me batty! This, coupled with the unceasing ice pellets was psychological torture! The day seemed to last forever.
I woke up yesterday morning to see the havoc the ice had wreaked on the trees. It seems like a hurricane blew through and then suddenly froze. Top branches of large trees are leaning to touch the ground. Strong limbs hang from trunks like limp noodles. Every tree has branches on the ground, and splintered boughs are everywhere. I saw a few that look like they went through a paper shredder! I doubt the city will look the same for quite a few summers.
Here are some examples of the type of damage around:
On top of the ice came six inches of snow, weighing things down even more and causing us to lose power for about three hours this morning. Our formerly beautiful trees now look like this:
Our neighbors bushes:
On a brighter note, our spring chickens have arrived! We chose this week of all weeks for them to come when we ordered them in November. I lost two nights of sleep worrying that the plane bringing them from Connecticut wouldn’t make it to the airport through the storm, and they would be trapped halfway here in their box. Fortunately they made it here safe, alive and peeping. Pictures coming soon!
Ever since the day we found that first egg, the chickens have given us a steady supply of 2-5 eggs a day. Most of them are pretty small, since young hens lay petite eggs. One day, however, we found a GIGANTIC egg waiting for us. As I cracked it open, I wondered if it had a double yolk, since young chickens are know to do that more frequently than old chickens. Sure enough, it was!
My birthday was a very exciting day, on account of the white smoke coming from Rome. How many people in the world get a pope for their birthday?
I had a tiramisu cake, and it was delicious. It looked really nice, too.
Yes. My family ate half a cake in one sitting.
I REALLY like coffee in desserts. Landon has been making ice cream like crazy, and last week he made some coffee flavored for me, so I was able to top my slice of cake with my favorite coffee ice cream.
(By the way, Landon’s ice cream is excellent. He’s able to make it smooth without crunchy ice crystals I tasted in our last attempt at homemade ice cream. Furthermore, his recipe calls for egg yolks which make it luxuriantly creamy. Now after writing that, I’m actually going to have some right now, because it’s Sunday, which means a break from Lent.)
(I have dibs on almost all of the coffee ice cream, because most of the boys don’t like it.)
White smoke is coming from the sistine chapel!
One of my favorite things to do every spring is watching spring make its way up the nation on Journey North. On the website are maps showing people’s first sightings of robins, tulips, hummingbirds, and monarch butterflies all over the country. I always watch eagerly for the first glimpses of spring so I can add them to the map. Report your first sightings this year!
This is the time of year that signs of spring begin popping up. The very first tulips and daffodils usually spring up around March 10, and robins usually come either on or right around my birthday, March 13. Snow geese will soon pass overhead and finches and redwing blackbirds will also arrive not too long from now. Today is supposed to be around 40 degrees, so I’m keeping my eye out for any of these spring migrants!
Landon and I are eagerly watching Rand Paul’s filibuster in the Senate live on the computer. We are both taking a government class this year, and I watched the classic movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington earlier this school year. It’s really cool to see the things I’ve read about in school books playing out in real life. I wonder how long this filibuster will go on? The record is 24 hours and 18 minutes!
UPDATE: It lasted almost thirteen hours.
Landon found the little one in the coop this morning. Immediately all the boys wanted to go on an egg hunt. “You won’t find any more,” Landon said. Joseph proved him wrong.
Now the question is: “Who dunnit?”
I was in the process of working on some school, when I heard Daniel’s voice coming from the kitchen. “Pumpkin,” (he calls me pumpkin), “will you come out here and drink some tea with me?”
“No Daniel, not right now,” I replied. “I’m busy with school.”
“But Pumpkin,” he protested. “If you don’t come, you will take my sunshine away!”
