Friday, April 1, 2011

Stinky McFinkey, Order from Chaos, and Chickens

It seems like it has been forever since I have been able to read blogs (and I’ve missed that!) or write one of my own.  I have been so busy that it’s not even funny.  March is the “birthday” of Relief Society, our women’s organization at church and I was in charge of a big, blowout dinner celebration.  Although it did not occupy all of my time, it did occupy all of my brain cells for the first half of the month.   I am terrible when I have an event looming on the horizon; I can’t think of anything besides “the event” and do not switch gears very well.  It is almost paralyzing at times.  Glad that’s over.
I also began a new adventure in March (in fact, the week of the dinner).  It’s a long story, and it’s their story to tell (not mine), but the bottom line is that Miss Popper is no longer going to day care when her parents are at work.   She is now spending her weekdays with her old Lolee, who does the best she can to keep up.  It is actually quite comical to see us.  The little girl who arrives at my house around 7:30 in the morning has been roused from her blissful sleep by her mother, who insists on waking her in order to change her diaper, feed her, and all that stuff.  By the time she gets to my house she is quite done with it all and can be somewhat irritable.  I call this little child, “Stinky McFinkey”.  I do my best to console Miss McFinkey, I give her some breakfast and a bottle, and then I put her little fanny down for a morning nap.
Miss McFinkey insisting on feeding herself:

Nap time is where the magic happens.  Over the next hour or so, this slumbering child is transformed.  When she awakens, she is no longer “Stinky McFinkey” – she has become “Cutie McTooty”.   Little “Cutie” and I have a pretty good time for the rest of the day.  So far, we have both survived three weeks.  She is so sweet and we have been working on reaching her milestones (sitting up, etc.) together.  I love having my girl here, but I will say that there is a reason that 50-year old women are infertile.  I just don’t have the energy her mother seems to have. 
Here is my girl, having a great time playing:

When I am not trying to keep Miss Popper alive or doing church stuff, I have been trying to work on our yard.  There is a reason that I have never shown a full picture of our yard (only close-ups and snippets).  You see, our dogs declared war on our yard a few years back, and they seem to have adopted a “scorched earth” policy.  We also have a variety of building projects that were started, but not finished, resulting in piles of lumber and building materials scattered hither and yon.  This is the year that we are finally working TOGETHER to get our yard in shape.  Robert is working on finishing the mansion for the chickens and other items in an attempt to use up the lumber.  I am planting flowers, herbs, and berry bushes everywhere that there is sun in the hope that if there is enough stuff growing, it won’t be so obvious that we don’t have grass.  We are also looking at laying some more flagstones on all of the “paths” that the dogs have created.  We are trying to create order from chaos.  Once we are finished, I might get brave enough to show you some “before” and “after” pictures.  For now, I will just show you a couple of things that I found this spring that were inexpensive, but that I find oh-so-neat.
I found this cute little thing at “Dollar Tree” for one dollar.  By having Robert drill some holes in the bottom, I transformed it into a cute little planter, just right for one lone plant:

My favorite thing is the set of solar-powered butterfly lights.  I put them among the butterfly bushes (ha ha).  Once dusk arrives, they put on quite a show, changing colors in sequence.  Beautiful!

I am still enjoying our chickens, Opal and Ruby.  I do have to make time for them to run loose in the yard because the hawk is still in the area.  Too many times I go out into the yard, only to find feathers everywhere:

That sight still makes me sick.  Not my girls!  So they are kept safe when we are not in the yard and allowed to run crazy when we can be out there.  I tried to get a good picture of them tonight, but they don’t stay still for very long.  Here is a blurry picture that at least shows what big girls they are:

So that’s it!  That’s the big excitement here in Woodbury World.  Hope things are going well in yours!

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