Chooks and the Danger of Being a Weekend Warrior

My friend is chicken mad. When you visit her home you'll find her kitchen full of paraphernalia and literature pertaining to this fluffy little barnyard critter. With three large coops on her property and her latest addition of ducks to the menagerie of birds there was no doubting that when I went searching for her birthday present I definitely wasn't stumped as to what interested her - chooks! At her thirtieth birthday celebrations she was excitedly telling me about her new brood that were squirreled away up in the kitchen in her incubator. Forty eggs!!! So when these baby chicks began to hatch, we decided we'd love to see these guys emerge into this great world too.

So after swimming lessons Tuesday morning we visited my chooky mad girlfriend and although we didn't see any actual hatching but we still learnt a bit about our poultry friends. We watched a video there that Chookie Girl took, which was amazing, so we found a real time vid of a chicken hatching to share.



It sure is sweet to watch them emerge!

When her first baby hatched he squeaked and squeaked for company and couldn't get dry properly either. Chooky Girl placed her fluffy piglet in with him and after the baby had instinctively snuggled up real close, he dried out in no time!

I never knew that a baby chick hatching was such a messy business too. Baby chicks have a small hard bump on the end of their beak which they use to peek open the top of their egg. After the chick emerges wet and slimy with the umbilical cord and part of the embryo sack still attached to them you can see inside the empty egg shell little red veins of blood that once fed the chick whist it was growing.

Can you see the embryo sack still attached and sitting in the palm of the hand? This falls away within a few hours of hatching.

We also found that these chicks are hard wired for survival. We simulated a mother hen sitting upon her brood by carefully cupping our free hand over the top of the chick who then went to sleep! Pretty handy in times of danger!

We also learnt that as the time draws near for the chickens to hatch (after only 21 days of incubating!) the humidity around the egg needs to increase dramatically and that if we were to feel around the eggs under a broody hen at this time the feathers are damp and clammy.

Sometime in the next few days I hope to get my boys and I off to the library so Kangaroo in particular can do some more 'research' on chickens,

So that was Tuesday, which was great, but Tuesday night, well, that wasn't so great. I joined a touch football team three weeks ago in an effort to introduce some aerobic exercise regularly into my life and Tuesday nights are the games. All day I'd been looking forward to having a great run. Five minutes into the game I leapt to catch a high pass and as my fingertips grazed the ball, my feet came back in contact with the ground and my left ankle gave way with a loud 'pop' audible to everyone on the field. My ankle had rolled outwards and my foot was sitting neatly facing inwards. Sitting on the field grasping my foot I definitely struggled to contain myself. I really could have just balled but you know, that would have been way too embarrassing!!!. The pain was intense but I did manage to hobble off the field to a waiting ice pack. It's funny the thoughts that swirled through my head as I sat on the side of the field icing my ankle, things like, thank goodness I did the full house clean today, how on earth am I going to cook tea on Wednesday night and how sad and frustrated I felt at not being able to go to Zen Do Kai on Wednesday night!

Today I've tried to remain sitting on the couch and 'rest' - a few up and downs at least, but what mother can resist her boys - diligently applying the RICE method (rest, ice, compression, elevation) I can see that the despite this the outside of my ankle has completely disappeared under the swelling! This means sadly that not only is Zen Do Kai off the cards but quite probably Mr E's and my first Tango class scheduled for this Saturday with some other very brave friends is no go too.

As for dinner, I find myself lucky to have an extremely kind and thoughtful friend who came to play for a while with her little ones and also cooked a beautiful vegetarian meal for us all. For this I am so thankful. Thankful for beautiful friends.

It's times like these that my mother likes to remind me how dangerous sports can be! I'm sure when I eventually get round to letting her know inevitably the little irritating remark regarding the danger of being a Weekend Warrior's will sneak into the conversation. Injuries really are few and far between fortunately for me and are definitely nowhere near frequent enough to exclude sport from my life.

To my mother I say, this Weekend Warrior just can't wait to get back out on the field again!

Let it Snow?!

Thank goodness it's nearing bedtime! The sweet lil puppy dog we're taking care of for my cous' whilst she's off enjoying those European delights, is spending most of the night barking at everything that we can't see or hear. After two nights of it, Mr E is thinking the dog may have a death wish but I really think that's just the sleep deprivation talking. Poor bloke even had a tumble stumble down some stairs at work. Fortunately it was stealthy and he only bruised his arm and nothing else. And that'll need to heal quick smart because we have what's called a 'Senjo' on the Sunny Coast this weekend.

Basically a Senjo is grading for our belts for Zen Do Kai and as he's been helping out another girl for the past six months in prep for her black belt red tip something or other, I'm not sure, he really needs to be able to partner her well and be able to perform his best for his, I think, brown belt. I'm pretty proud of him. Two years ago he'd only dabbled here and there briefly in martial arts but he's found a place that he likes to train and has involved us all as well.

Kookaburra is going from his yellow to orange belt and myself, white to yellow. Kookaburra's concentration and commitment is so obvious when he's training that my little heart just swells with pride. Kangaroo has only been going for a short amount of time so he won't be grading this time but his Kyoshi handled it so well regarding his not grading this time that Kangaroo is happily excited about his grading for the next time it comes around.

What else? It's been such a long time since writing anything substantial in my blog that I'm kind of stuck on the details of life and rarely get round to reflecting. Some time soon I hope. I do enjoy my blog but sometimes I feel like there is just way too much to put down and at other times there ain't nothing at all interesting to say!

Mr E's Mumma is staying with us during the weeks and returning home to Brisbane on the weekend whilst she's looking for a place to rent which is incredibly hard to do 'cause she works fulltime and the real estate agents are closed when she's not at work. It's been a month now and I hope they're able to find something soon for two reasons. Mr E's Dad really misses his wifey and the other, well, I have to admit that the impact it's having on Kookaburra who is sleeping on double thick camp mattresses on his brothers bedroom floor is not getting the best night sleep and is waking up looking ragged so consequently the flu we had back in September keeps rearing it's ugly head because the poor kid has never fully recovered from it.

So I have two tired little boys trying to contend with a very tired Mum and Dad and who still do their lesson work and keep up with our busy lives. I cannot wait until the Christmas hol's when all the extra curricula activities come to a momentary standstill out of respect for our sanity. In the meantime I'm teaching our boys to be helpful and that when it comes to chores and jobs our attitude is that even though it may be assigned to someone as their job, if we can see that the job needs doing or that the family member could do with a hand we get in their and help because we are family and we care for each other. Acts of kindness! We're also getting through our lessons quite well. Today the focus was on finishing some of yesterdays SOTW writing and then we were into our FIAR which is just plain enjoyable. At the moment our book is Katy and the Big Snow. We've focused on the weather, the water cycle, how the wind is formed, the characteristic of determination and the use of personification in literature and art. Now that we're nearing the end of the unit we can indulge in a fun game and project. This is easy as and loads of fun for two little boys. First we bought a two dollar plain, white shower curtain then gave them both a permanent black marker each (this is definitely an outdoors activity!!!!)

and we drew a compass rose in one corner and discussed the North East South West and the inbetweeners of North-East and so on until I was sure my boys understood.

They then drew roads and built the necessary infrastructure for a city out of mega blocks, like the Police Department, Fire Brigade, Council Depot, Schools and shops, electric company and so on.

Once this was all ready they got out their little cars and planes and then let it snow!!!! Shaving cream snow!!!!!




They dug their way out of disaster which did get very slippery and resulted in sliding and silliness. Kookaburra was quite serious about the 'job' of bulldozing a clearing through the city like Katy did but little Kangaroo thought the texture of the shaving cream was a scream and just wanted to play.


He tried throwing great globules of the stuff at his brother only to find his 'snowball' stuck to his little hand.

For ages he just picked up handfuls and would clap his hands together to see the shaving cream fly off into hundreds of little puffs into the air. He really had a wonderful time, as did Kookaburra who joined in with the merriment and as I took my inexhaustible supply of photos I reflected on how incredibly lucky I am and how much I want to hold my boys so close and love them up.

SOTW Volume 1 Round 2

The past few days has seen us reintroducing Story of the World Volume One for Kangaroo's Prep/ Grade One history program. Kookaburra is loving doing it again too, fortunately!

Here we are right at chapter one, wondering what makes history. It's pretty simple stuff really. We read the section designated in the Story of the World Activity Guide and then Kangaroo narrates to me while I record his thoughts into the free two day a week lapbook we're using. Combined this with some great ideas from the self proclaimed OCD Story of the World using Mumma at The Chronicle of the Earth Blog and I might stand a chance of finishing this program with my boys and they getting so much more out of it this time.

This has been a hectic year. We've had so many opportunities to be involved in the community in various ways that I'm so glad and immensely appreciative of, but I find myself feeling very relieved to be saying goodbye this week to our latest 'job', a nearly three term stint as volunteers and visitors to one of the local private schools Art class on Fridays. I'm glad because this will aid my attempt to stem the flow of lost time in our home. I've also clamped down pretty tight on visitors and outings in the mornings and do not answer the phone, the calls go straight to messages so if it really is important I'll catch it. Every week we have several great reasons to be out and about and although I really miss catching up with friends and having my boys play with their children I've found that as Kookaburra is getting older I need to be very committed to my priorities. For us, for various reasons, homeschooling does take up a lot of our time and if I let a few hours slip through my fingers in the morning (read that as, this week my washing machine is in pieces so we'll have to make time to get the washing done at our local laundromat. But hey! We can at least enjoy some reading together!) inevitably our afternoons are sacrificed.

Today I managed fine. We had swimming lessons first thing this morning and got our language arts and math done before lunch so in the arvo we enjoyed A Dirty Dig. I buried some household items like tools, pencils, pot, toy car etc things that symbolise our present society into our sandpit and armed with trowels and paintbrushes my little archaeologists carefully excavated the site.


We also got some inspiration on how to exactly carry this out from here.




Kookaburra sifted the sand to find any stray artifacts.


Meet Elvis. We're babysitting him for two weeks whilst my cousin is on holidays with her family in France. Lucky girl :) he's a Dutch barge dog whom apparently has no idea how to play... Well, Minna and Thor have sorted that out and after two days, Elvis is running around chasing the kong right along with them. I think he'll be fine!



Kangaroo gently brushes away the sand from his treasure. A silver serving dish therefor, he concludes, that these people were rich!


Kookaburra and Kangaroo happily pose for a picture after their successful dig before taking their final bagged items upstairs where they reflected on the culture that left behind these buried remains, another narration for Kangaroo and some writing for Kookaburra. We also used this table to record our findings.

Thank goodness for the internet and clever blogging homeschool Mummas! A quick check on my some of my favourite bloggers for inspiration on how to approach each chapter of SOTW and I know that this program will keep on being interesting again for my boys a second time round and it leaves me with less head scratching for ideas and more time for being with them.

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution! and other Weighty Issues

I 've neglected my poor little blog of late in favour of having a rather busy life and consequently I have a ridiculous amount of photos I now have to somehow pick through to find what I really want to diary about whilst contending with the continuity of life. So while I was dwelling on my internal struggle (so kidding) this morning, I came across a link for Sir Ken Robinson from TED. He is always informative, thoughtful and challenging and one day I'll get through all my current literature so I can order, guilt free, his book 'Out of Our Minds'.

As for our real life (not online), today we have a very full day planned. Friends from Toowoomba are coming to play for the day, my little nephew will be joining us too and it's also playgroup day. Lots of children and loads of fun and heaps of noise and I better get cracking soon on something baked to share. I'm thinking one cup slice and blueberry muffins will be the ticket.

Just jumping around on subjects here, well I did mention food - I'm now the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I refuse to look at my scales anymore because I weigh more then I did when I was due with my boys. My biggest difficulty in getting healthy is that I just don't care. Being time poor and always in the company of my children is limiting and sometimes I feel resigned and think I damn well should be able to indulge but I have to face it. I'm really uncomfortable so I need to take control. Oh yeah, and there are those incredibly valid health reasons too. How do I fix my attitude? It's terrible. I have a gym membership but honestly the gym is boring. I can't go to the classes because of the timing is all wrong for me. The best time for me to get there is at half past five in the am but truly I actually love my sleep and need it too, otherwise grumpzillar arises about two in the afternoon. Not great for parenting. Oh and my memory, which is dodgy to begin with, add increased tiredness and I'm sure I'm going to begin to forget the names of my own children. What to do? What to do? My old self is telling this current self to just do it. Haul that lazy backside out of bed and don't eat so damn much. I know I kinda want too but it's so much easier to make an excuse.

So there's my current dilemma. I've indulged too much and am now busting out of my jeans. I'm lacking will power and I like cake. I have to do something about it and soon because summer is rolling around before I can blink and forget about bikini's (rofl!!!!) I just want to be comfortable and at this weight, I'm just very not.

Well it's time to get stuck into my Tuesday morning and it's going to be a beautiful day. I'm sure to get some exercise running around after kiddo's today, I just need a lot of self-control when it comes to the afternoon tea spread. Wish me luck!

a reminiscing

Finally!

Two weeks after my holiday with my sister and mother, here are the pics from glorious Byron Bay and her stunning surrounds. And it's a great time to post this too as my boys are sick and it's been an all round, pretty darn difficult few days. They've been miserable and I have such difficulty thinking of what the right thing to say to them when they're squabbling or how exactly to help them along when they get frazzled. Secretly, I could throw my hands up and hide out in my bedroom with my arms wrapped around my knees, which of course are huddled tightly to my body in the universal comfort/ protection almost come fetal type position and refuse to acknowledge the current 'joy' that motherhood is. It's my fault too. I've been hormonal, grumpy and snappy and after trying for a several years for babies we still have no signs of any more gracing us with their sweet cherubness in our home. Definitely a tick for the misery and woe box. A real current kicker though is that my poor Kookaburra has gone to bed tonight fairly certain he'll be waking up vomiting. Ah me. He says he hates being sick because he's certain it's how you feel when you're dying!

We've still struggled on with a few lessons but we still seem to suffer interruptions in our morning which is frustrating. Whether it's the Jehovah's Witnesses door knocking (every week!) or a relative dropping by. I love my family but homeschooling is my job :) Today we had my nephew who is also sick. He spent the entire weekend gone vomiting. It's horrible seeing them so ill. So having him here meant I couldn't do much with Kangaroo. Things just aren't going well. Kangaroo did have tummy pains but this seems to have passed and now he's just run down with a miserable cold. And all this whilst I'm trying to introduce how fun Five In A Row is! I've had it for a while and was going to sell it but thought I should give it a decent go before I did that. After all, it's so coveted therefor it must be great... right? I'll let you know how we go, when we've had a chance to give it a decent try and what I'm doing to tweak it into something more substantial. If we ever get better that is!

Huge whinge I know, but blogger is a great place to let the reality out.

So this is definitely an excellent time for me to post those beautiful holiday pics. I had so much trouble trying to choose which to post though! I absolutely loved my time away :) Aaah bliss :)

This was our tremendous accommodation for our two nights away. It's called The Old Church and is situated in Newrybar, near Byron Bay. I have to mention how much we paid because it was so very little - $175 per night for the three of us! This old renovated church had about eleven beds and a massive usable kitchen, a playroom with a ping pong table and a deck with a barbecue overlooking a blossoming cherry tree flanked by a massive macadamia grove. Magical :)



We had a little poke around in Byron Bay when we first arrived but we were pretty keen to get to see this Church so I set the GPS and of course it took us right off the beaten track and up a goat trail for a good half hour or so when in actuality we could have kept on the highway, turning off at the township of Newrybar and been at The Old Church's door in a minute. That happens to me all the time when I'm traveling. I miss my maps sometimes - I'm way smarter than the GPS ;) but the long way round was much better. The scenery was gobsmackingly beautiful! Green rolling valleys and sheer drop aways, with fat cows munching grass and gazing lazily out to the sea in the far distance. Envious muchly!

The views as we drove!

The inside of the Old Church. You could have a ball in there. Huge!

After checking out and squealing crazily about our awesome digs for our stay we drove on to Ballina which is a lovely town... with a great coffee and cake shop. The weather was freezing and raining and the muted late afternoon light had us seeking the comfort of this lovely cafe with their gorgeous warm colours enveloping us as we devour tantalizing sweets and hot sweet drinks. This was our perfect introduction to the area. That and of course the book shop, the bottle-o for some birthday drinkies and where ever else we felt the desire to wander into.

The next day was my sister's big day. Forty! Here it was and we were bound to make it a beautiful day. Pancakes for breakfast at Macadamia castle and a little gift shopping for our loved ones at home followed by our trip to Mullumbimby and up to Crystal Castle. I'd been looking forward to visiting Crystal Castle so much. It promised to be a breathtaking place to visit and it truly was.

Even though we couldn't explore this unique place the way we would have loved too because we were hampered by frequent downpours but we did have complementary massive rainbow striped umbrellas to help us keep us dry, I'm still under it's spell and can't wait to go back. The gorgeous gardens and beautiful stones and the shop! Divine :)

What a brilliant birthday we thought. Nothing could top driving a winding road to what seemed to be the top of a mountain and being immersed in such a beautiful, peaceful place. Oh how wrong was I!

Grumpy bums that we are, we nearly gave the Byron Bay Lighthouse a miss because a brochure said that we would need to pay $7 for parking and then a fee to go into the lighthouse. Ba Hum Bug! $7 for parking, grumble, grumble. But we went anyway. The wind fairly whipped around us and my teeth chattered because I swear it was tipped with ice from the Antarctic. We arrived a little before sunset and the beautiful pinks and oranges were painting the sky as the sun shyly hid behind the clouds to slowly and beautifully say his good nights. A truly spectacular way to end a fortieth birthday. We stood in the freezing air, shivering and soaking up the wildness of the place and the beauty of the sea crashing against the sheer face of the bay. Reluctantly we left to grab some groceries for a birthday barbecue. I'll treasure that magnificent place, the day, the view and my lovely company. It's a place I'll visit when I'm dreaming.

So Happy!

We stayed up ridiculously late on Thursday night, each of us taking a turn at napping through Lost in Austen and eventually crawled into bed.


It was a sad goodbye on Friday but my naughty sis still found some joy in jumping on her bed!

Pose for me sugar ;)

Our Mumma and me. Muuma Bear had a relaxing time and she well deserved it too. I'm so lucky to have gotten this time away to spend with my sis on her special birthday and growing our relationships and friendships. We're all supposedly saving hard to try and make it happen all again next year. I know that we would all dearly love to explore this beautiful area some more.

When we were at Mullumbimby we were recommended the cafe at Newrybar which is one of only a few shops in the one street town. We had a very sweet goodbye breakfast there and it was the most happening and busy cafe! And the food was delicious :)

And finally Beautiful Byron Bay. Simply stunning.

Where musicians playing on the beach abounded. Wouldn't we all like to just pick up our uke and strum a few lines before soaking up some more rays or having a splash.

Sad, sad goodbye.

Happy 40th Birthday Sister Sunshine!

Had to share the gifts I scored for my boys. Quirky fair trade beanies which were an absolute bargain ;) Don't they look so darn cute!

And as always, my wonderful Mr E was dependable and lovely. He took time off work to be our boy wrangler and they all had a good time hanging out, playing games and fishing. But we were all pretty happy to be back together again no matter how good the holiday may have been :).