Little Dude is very interested in all letters and numbers as of late. Recently, he has noticed the digital clock on the oven.
He stares at this clock and shouts: Mom! Mom! MOM! MOOOMMMMM! What time it is?
And I look at the clock and reply: 4:17.
Little Dude continues to stare at the clock for, oh, I would guess about one minute.
Little Dude: Mom! Mom! MOM! MOOOMMM!!! Now what time it is?
Me, with an-ever-so slight smile upon my face, for I find my boy cute: 4:18.
Little Dude: Oh.
And I go back to doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, and other such exciting tasks that encompass my life, thinking my boy must be the smartest boy in the whole wide world.
Little Dude: Mom! Mom! MOM! MOOOMMM!!!! Now what time it is?
Me: Ok, buddy. I am not doing this all day.
Little Dude: What time it is?
Me: Time to play.
Little Dude: NO. What time it is?
Me: 4:19
And yes. This continues on and on and on . . .
You would not believe the wrath I must endure when the oven timer is counting down by the second.
Rocks his world.
Handsome Dude has been discussing his birthday often as of late. I have not come to terms with the fact that my baby will be turning five, so I like to pretend like his birthday doesn’t exist.
Handsome Dude: Mom, when it’s my birthday, I want all my friends to come, ok?
Me: Ok.
Handsome Dude: But I don’t want you to come.
Me: What?
Handsome Dude: My friends don’t want to see you.
?
Me: But who will make your cake?
Handsome Dude: You will. You just can’t come.
What a punk.
***
Today was going to town day, an exciting day if there ever was one. You will be happy to know that I wore my magic boots. I actually wore a skirt with leggings and my magic boots. This is very un-Taylor-like, and most assuredly, very un-Ruralville-like.
My girls about died when they saw me. I think they thought I was Barbie. The Home-School-Mom version. If that is possible. And it’s not. But I am 30 now, and apparently more willing to take such fashion risks. Everytime I wear an outfit that Daisy Mae likes, she pleads with me:
“Mom! Can I have that when you are tired of it?”
I try to assure her that when she is big enough to wear such things, she will have no desire to wear my clothes. This thought is unfathomable to her. Bless her heart.
You will also be happy to know that on this day, this going-to-town day, I went to the optical center.
Shocking, I know.
And you will be ecstatic to discover that Handsome Dude has a new set of frames. Of which they gave me for free.
I owe these people my life. Perhaps I should make them cookies? Send a thoughtful card?
What, pray tell, do you give people of whom you owe your life?
Your first born son?
He’s ashamed of me anyways.
***
In other news, we might get chickens. Because that’s just what we need in our lives.
Chickens!
Oh, but wouldn’t it be cute to send the dudes outside with little baskets to gather the eggs?
Presh.
And “presh” is what cool people, such as myself, say to abbreviate “precious.” FYI.
I am sure no trouble with befall us with the chickens. I am hoping for an uber (or ueber if you are know-it-all like Sister Meagan) cute chicken house.
Knowing my luck, my husband will make it all hillbilly-ish. He always does that to me. This is my lot in life, my burden to bear.
Anyways. Chickens? What could go wrong?
Please Advise.
Rabbits and chickens, OH My. I cannot assure you though that nothing could go wrong with having chickens, I will not steer you wrong. I can picture a chicken coop with a dear head mounted on it 🙂 Sounds like you will be very busy.
I would just like to point out that your daughters have confirmed what I have been saying all along:
YOU LOOK LIKE BARBIE.
except in a pretty, normal way. Barbie really doesn’t look normal. She looks like someone pulled her pony tail waaaaaay too tight and cinched a belt around her waist within an inch of her life, and made her wear one of those weird fifties torpedo-boob bras. Even when she’s not wearing a bra OR belt OR her hair in a pony tail. She’s basically being constantly, invisibly tortured.
Creepy.
You are not creepy. You are what Barbie SHOULD look like.
So there.
😉
I would not object to having the new “teen body” Barbie body 🙂
hehe @ torpedo bra and cinched waist…Oh those 50’s Hollywood pin-ups have alot to answer for.
My brothers wife and kids thought chickens would be the best thing to get when they moved to their own ruralville. Chickens are long gone. They are loud, and stink, they wont stay in their lovely little house. They will gather around your porch should you have one and ahem do their business on said porch. And if you have food outside for another pet, they will eat it. And you will never drive out of your driveway again without having to make sure you dont run of them over and traumatize your children. But you know, free eggs, so sure go for it lol.
Well for starters the chickens could go the way of the eyeglasses. I say go for it…might as well embrace all that is ruralville.
Then you can enter the rabbits and the chickens in the fair. 🙂
Handsome Dude is so funny!
My two year old peeped over my shoulder while I was reading this, saw the photo of LJ up the tree and said, “Mummy? Is that a MONKEY?!”
Just sayin’.
i’ve never commented here before, but i read all the time. my 2 yr old says the SAME THING! he always points to the picture of LJ in the tree and says “dat monkey?” and then laughs.
I love my chickens and yes if they have access to your porch they will poop there….and if you leave feed bowls out they will eat it…they will also tear apart a garden bed with their scratching and pecking….Fences around these areas go a long way to solving these problems…well as long as you close the gates 🙂
Nothing sweeter than seeing happy chickens roaming the property making happy chicken clucking noises…and those “loud” noises they make is what we call the “Egg Song” and I think you can guess why. Oh and the delighted smile on your child’s face when they collect those eggs, a wonderful little gift from their fluffy butted birds…(my 3 yr old loves counting out the green and brown ones…if we are lucky come spring we will get some blue egg layers.)
And NOTHING is sweeter than the look on your child face who has been patiently for weeks trying to coax the chickens to eat from her hand and THEY DO…Our girls (and boy) run to greet our 3yr old each evening (and sometimes in between) and will follow her around the yard.
If you start with just a couple and get uber cute ones then I know even you Taylor will love them…and for the record, most chickens prefer not to be touched so they have that in their favor too :)…If you decide on just regular buy from the feed store this spring chickens…Road Island Reds are great layers and really friendly…though not sure how they go in your cold part of the country….*google* is my advice 🙂
wow my response is almost a post now….
I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to cute coops…My user name Kelsie Aman (creative hun)
Email me if you have any questions, I am not an expert but I will help were I can.
Blessings Kelsie
We always had Rhode Island Red’s growing up. Chickens are great! Just no roosters. 😉
Why no roosters? Are they mean-ish?
yes. Roosters are not just mean-ish. They are mean. They will attach small children and “spur” them. It hurts. I know, I was once a small child attacked by said creatures.
Ouch Kendra that sucks…And sadly many roosters are mean.
Which is why everyone loves my Chicken Boy Bravo…He is one of the biggest roosters you will ever see, but so sweet and I trust him no end with my 3yr old…One of my GF’s commented she loves that her kids can be around my chickens and rooster and she too does not worry.
You are a wealth of chicken information!
Love that he wants you to make the cake though. It is so nice when they get to this stage:)
At one point in our lives we had chickens. When we lived in Uganda which, I think, is a lot like Ruralville. We had a lot of chicken poop in our yard. And one day my son told me he knew how chickens had baby chicks. (He was five years old at the time.) he said the big chickens jump on the little chickens and squeeze them until an egg pops out. So. Chickens are great for homeschoolers?
My sister and brother-in-law and their 3 kids had chickens once. Notice I said *had* chickens. They had a coop all set up (complete with an old screen door as the entrance to the coop) and a fence all set up around the chickens so as to keep the chickens safe and contained and what not. And they really enjoyed the eggs! And then one day my 4 year old nephew went outside to see the chickens only to find one without a head laying on the ground and another one pecking at the dead one on the ground. Nice. A coyote (did I spell that right?) had gotten under the fence and killed one of the chickens. Within a week that pesky coyote had eaten/killed all of the chickens. So no more eggs now! They used to have bunnies too…but something bad happened to the bunnies and they didn’t make it either. Perhaps my sister and her family should not have farm animals anymore!!! Good luck with your chickens though!
At least bunnies are fluffy and cute! Chickens have no redeeming qualities. Well, except for all the funny stories you will have for us about how you have chickens now.
Free eggs? Hmmm?
Chickens! Ha! I know less than you do about chickens. In fact, I was teaching my kids (meaning my students at school) the diff. between lay and lie and sit and set. So, I had a cute little story about chickens and laying eggs and setting the table, etc. We illustrated it to have the concepts sink into our brains. One of my kids came and asked me if he could have his chicken sitting in a tire, because this is what his actual chickens at home do. I didn’t know chickens sat in tires. So, my big city-fied advice? Get some tires for the chickens to sit in? That is all I know on the subject. Chickens. Ha!
I want chickens too! However I live in suburb-ville so that wouldn’t go so well. I’m excited to see how your try at them works out.
Chickens!! I love mine. The kids love to help gather eggs, clean the coop and feed them. I recommend reading backyardchickens.com for lots of advise, planning, etc. Great website.
hope you aren’t afraid of the egg sucking snakes that sometimes invaid the coop. Hide a ceramic egg in there for them and they will eat it and die, so that’s a plus.
I find this comment to be quite discouraging. 🙂
The only thing I can think of that could go wrong with chicken ownership is that you will see fit to subject us all to discussions and diagrams of chicken genitalia.
Oh, you know you appreciated the informative nature of the rabbit genitalia post. Don’t deny it.
Raising chickens is a difficult task. My friend Kris at Simplify (http://cakesbykristin.blogspot.com/) has been raising them this year and it’s harder than it appears. You fall in love with your chickens and then they get all clique-ish and they become mean to the one lonely chicken that you have lovingly cared for and it breaks your heart and they peck at her and won’t let her roost and it’s just like junior high all over again. Hmmmm….or maybe it’s just me.
That is why I don’t mind EATING chickens. They are mean creatures. But, I do have fun memories of raising them as a child. I would gather and sell the eggs to the neighbors. My poor dad paid for the feed, took care of the chickens, and I got to sell the eggs and keep the money. Raw deal for him. Good for me.
When are you getting the pig? I hope you’re not expecting the boys to actually reach the house with intact eggs. Buena Suerte, Mijo.
I’m laughing at the phrase “free eggs”. It seems like after all the work of building a coop, a fence and paying for chicken feed – they might end up being a little pricey. I’ve always wanted chickens, so maybe I can just live out my dream through you!
free eggs = misnomer.
try ground flaxseed mixed with water as an egg substitute in baked goods. healthy, cheap. downside is you can’t scramble it. upside is it won’t attract scavenging wildlife.
Chickens are fun. We also always had Rhode Island Reds. Make sure you have an enclosed/COVERED coop if you have any kind of hawks where you are. Or your chickens will fly away without flapping their wings; if you get my meaning. My mother in law has hers in a huge dog kennel.
If you get a rooster; keep him in the pen, don’t let him out. Then you will have fertile eggs. Invest in an incubator, hatch some chicks. Great homeschooling lessons there! Yes? Sell laying hens. Get a hatchet; supplement the elk meat.
You will be a REAL ruralite homesteader!
Is your family going to join 4-H? 🙂