spring break 2010

Gracie had six days off of school starting at the beginning of last week. It was a fun break that gave us a chance to do some things that we don't have time for during a regular school week. We spent most our days before my parents came bumming around with my friend, Rondee, and her little guy, Hayden. We played in our yards. We went to the Swiss Colony cheese outlet in Monroe. The outlet is connected to a few other shops. One is a clothing boutique that carries hats and dresses that would have been perfect for Easter Sunday if only we lived further south and were not so white. All of our outside play led to many bruises and scrapes - the beginning of summertime knees.

We spent an afternoon at the park with a group of friends from church. The temperatures that afternoon climbed into the 80s. It was so nice. This was the afternoon where in my poor man child was assaulted by a toddler half his size (who was within arm's length of his care taker). I was so shocked and tried not to be furious with the adult watching the little guy. She seemed aptly embarrassed and apologetic. The bite only just barely broke the skin and left a welty bruise over my favorite dimple. Poor Grant!

While Hayden was napping the kids and I played outside. We took bikes down to the dog run in our neighborhood and made laps and laps around its paved loop. It was Gracie's first time taking her new bike out of the garage and she was pretty happy, though very tentative, about it.
Our family was asked to take care of chickens for some friends. I was so happy that Rondee wanted to come along. Every afternoon after Hayden was up from his nap, we would load up and head out to the R* family farm. The kids really enjoyed the chore. We left with 18-20 eggs a day.

A word about keeping chickens: This used to be a little dream I fancied. It was a venture that seemed so straight forward in everything I read. In reality, the actual caring for the birds is very straight forward. But the reality is also very...animally. I don't know how else to put it. Chickens are in a constant state of molting and refeathering. They poop and walk all over everything- their perches, their watering bowls, their feeding troughs. Their eggs are dirty and mucusy. The simple acts of collecting eggs and changing water bowls requires the handling of many soiled items. We've done the R*'s chickies twice now. The first time was in the bitter cold of winter. Cori is very glad that I'm over this little idea - though it was really nice to have all the free eggs.

We were out of the house most of the day all day. While the kids were busy checking off their morning chore list, I was busy cleaning and preparing the house for whatever real estate visit was scheduled that day. Then we played ourselves silly. I did laundry almost every night and had to apply stain remover to nearly every article of clothing before it entered the wash. Good sign of a good time, right?