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!

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 :).

get Real

We are so sick this week.

But today we still dutifully managed to plug on with the basics of math and language arts. I have read for an hour but then I found that my voice just couldn't cope any longer. All three of us are snotty and coughing, and really struggling.

It wasn't so bad this morning when we started up, but our momentum came to a grinding halt by lunchtime. Even my lolly bribing during spelling - a recent and wonderful motivator, which I refuse to feel guilty about - was an uphill battle. So by twelve our reality looked like this:

Sucking lollies whilst watching Andrew Lloyd Webers Cats on youtube.

It's now half three and we're in for a movie.

I'm getting real. This is how it is and sometimes our home life looks like this when we don't have any excuses - we do it for fun!

I want my boys to spell well. They like lollies. For us right now, it's a perfect match.

We like Youtube. And we love movies. I'm in charge and I help them choose their view appropriately.

I can't imagine our media habits ever changing.

With all the happy homeschool talk on this blog I thought it would be nice to know that I'm far from getting it all right.

Very far. But our right sometimes looks a lot like this and at other times there are no lollies, no media and whole lot of the wholesome stuff. I think it's Balanced.

Do you have anything you want to 'get Real' about today?

(I did make chicken soup for tea :) do I get some redeeming points now :P)

(I double batched it yesterday, so maybe not :)

Don't be so Snotty or we're all Drips really

Did you know that Mr E and I, well, we are so darn clever!

I know, I know!! I'm not supposed to say that aloud, only think it, but there it is, it's now officially out there. We are awesome parents for teaching our little boys the important stuff and ourselves, we set a great example too :)

I'm really very proud of how our family SHARES!!! We all share so well that for the first time in an age we have had or are currently enjoying that unbreathable, snottiness that only the really Great colds can bring on. Throw in some slight temps and persistently drippy noses and we have our weekend. We are all so clever, somehow we managed to infect our whole family this time - including me!!! I'm the Mummy, I never get sick!!! Famous last words... just hang for a tic while I grab another box of Kleenex :) Add that to the joy of having to exit our home for the viewing pleasures of potential buyers every day for the past three days, it inevitably equals one out of sorts household.

But I'm on the mend and Kangaroo looks to be in the very midst of it, while Kookaburra, I think, will be enjoying a leisure day tomorrow. No lessons and lots of stories, unless he wakes booger free in the morning. We'll see.

So we passed the weekend like this.....


A collage for Kangaroo and Mummy. I love the little face he drew on his 'rainbow' fish.


Saturn inspired collage for Kookaburra.


And a very little bit of 'Lord of the Rings' for me. This a scene right near the very beginning before Frodo jumps up and runs to join Gandalf on his wagon as they go to see Bilbo Baggins together.


Just enough to get some inspiration. Pastels again, the picture isn't very clear and the colours are so much better than what this pic conveys. The final pic I post will have to be a much better shot.

My goal was to prove I could be inspired from something other than someone else's work and I could put to paper an entire scene. Challenge nearly complete, but all that sitting still in one spot is very difficult. I get the wiggles after a bit ;)

This paragraph has helped me feel freer in trying out what I've always admired:

from The Complete Book Of Drawing Techniques by Peter Stanyer

'...we encounter our first problems with the art of drawing, we have fixed in our minds that to be successful with this skill our rendition of what we see must be nothing less than perfect. ... those who chase a visual truth through drawing, end up frustrated and feel a sense of failure. We cannot reproduce reality, we can only make a mark or statement that acts for that reality, or a mark or a statement that best suits our purpose to describe that reality - a metaphor.'


Isn't that liberating :)

I'm sick of being sick : (

Well, I'm a terrible blogger. Every time I start something happens lots of little "emergencies" or I just run out of time!

Our bigger, small one has been so sick this week with a middle ear infection, such a common childhood illness yet we've never experienced this. Its awful to have a child crying 'OWwww!' and feeling so frustrated because not much is helping to sooth him. But he went to the Doc's yesterday and he is, I'm glad to say, well on the mend : )

I feel like I've forgotten how it is for us all to be 100% well and every year, friends and I all seem to be bemoaning how the illnesses are worse than the year before. Does anyone else experience this or is it just those of us with munchkins?

Well, I hope everyone is well and if not... mend soon

Peace and love
JM