Highlights January 6 - January 18

Highlights for the last 2 weeks:

Treasure Map: We created a treasure map for the boys. The map is the morning and evening routine. The maps are posted inside their door. The map has helped by minimizing the tears and uncertainty of what needs to be done next. The treasure is more tranquility for parents and boys.

Daily Jobs: In addition to treasure map, daily indoor and outdoor jobs are added. Some of the jobs are vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, weeding, picking up toys, cleaning out the chicken coop, and washing the back window. I help them accomplish the job. The eventual hope is they will learn how to do the job on their own. Underfoot has thrived with the new job schedule and is very responsible in accomplishing it. Hurricane likes the one on one attention but get distracted easily and needs to be redirected. They are doing appropriate things for their age.

Itzhak Perlman concert: The concert was a once in a life time for us. The music was amazing as we listened to him play his violin. He showed his personality as he took his violin from the concert mistress by checking it over. Perlman walks on crutches from the effects of polio. He then gave a hearty laugh. He plays a Stradivarius violin. At one point in the piece, he improvised. If he forgot or just does that during a concert, he chuckled, leaned forward and smiled at the front row as if to say, "See I messed up but watch what I can do." He didn't stop but continued with his playing. Sweetheart and I talked about that afterward about how he knew he made a mistake in his memorized 43 minute piece and smiled and carried forward. He didn't stop playing to have a pity party, cry, or quit. It reminded us about life and how we have trials and can continue forward even when we know it isn't perfect.

Pruning Trees/Vines: Yesterday we pruned our little orchard and vineyard. The work was exhausting. The boys carried limbs to the chipper and played. They so wanted to cut the trees. We tried to work together but listening to specific directions didn't work out so well.

Many times we mentioned how Grandpa Kirky has an orchard and loves to prune the trees. I told the boys my job was to pull the limbs too and when they grow up they can prune their own orchard. We are sore today from the squatting, lifted arms, and scratches on our arms. Next year we will all wear long sleeve shirts. Pruning makes such a difference to fruit output and makes the tree more beautiful. Again we were reminded of a lesson of how God prunes us by giving us trials to help us be our best. The part I think I forget is that it takes work - a lot of work to be the best we need to be.

Hurricane's Hearing: Hurricane had a follow up appointment for his hearing. He improved in some of the sounds - probably because he understood how the test was taken better. He does have a mild hearing loss in his left ear for high range. It is absolutely nothing to worry about. He doesn't need hearing aids. He will probably fail the school hearing test for that range. We'll monitor it every 6 months than move to every year to ensure consistency in his hearing. He'll need to marry an alto so he can hear her sing. :)

Pinewood Derby: I am the cub committee chair in our congregation. The pinewood derby can be an emotional nightmare for mothers, a competition for fathers, and a mixed bag for boys. We held ours at the firehouse and had all ranges of emotion. We only had tears from 2 boys that night that we know of. Not too bad with 20 cars running. The following week we had a committee meeting that discussed the highs, lows, and how to improve it. Next year it hopefully will be better.

Started Physical Therapy: I crashed on my bike in September of last year. My ankle has never really healed. I started physical therapy this week so that I can return to exercising. Sweetheart and the boys built me a rocker so I can do some of the PT work at home. The therapy will last for 4 weeks at 2 sessions a week. I should be running and biking again in that time frame.

Be Well.

On to 2014

On Monday we shared 5 of our ladies with some friends, bringing the flock down to 12 (from 17). I (Sweetheart) forgot to shut the door to the coop. Lindz, Wendy's friend, and her family came to stay with us Monday and Tuesday nights. They currently live in abroad. It was the first time that Wendy met Lindz's husband and their daughters.

We woke up on Tuesday morning to dead carcasses. 2 ladies survived the carnage. It was heart breaking. I spent the day shoveling dirt and doing tasks to get the trampoline put into the ground and set up. (After putting chicken parts and carcasses in the garbage...) At dusk, Hurricane came into our room, screaming "a chicky, a chicky, a chicky outside..." To our astonishment, a third chicken appeared from nowhere. We got her safely inside the coop. It was sad to loose the ladies, but how grateful we were that the third lady somehow survived. We don't know what attacked them, but we won't let that happen again.

Our neighbors hosted a New Year's Eve get-together.

They had food, fire, and conversation. The boys loved the sparklers that we lit.

We celebrated a New York midnight and went to bed shortly there after.

On New Year's morning, our neighbor hosted a Hot Chocolate Run. Her son wanted to run the 5K race in Phoenix. She put together a 5 year old length course for January 1, and our boys ran it for the hot chocolate. The girls joined us.

We followed the Christensen-Hoggan-Kirkham bowling tradition to bowl on New Year's day. The bowling allies open at noon here.

After the bowling we put together the trampoline and finally got the mat on, so that the boys could jump on it.

On Thursday I got the net up on the trampoline and did a few other odd jobs around the yard. I took the boys to the park and helped them practice with their new bikes. No training wheels. They both fell down a bunch, but by the end of the afternoon, both were feeling very confident.

On Friday we weren't feeling good, so we took it easy. I limited my outdoor activities to collapsing down four of our garden beds (the ones that were displaced by the trampoline.) The nuts had rusted quite a bit and getting them off required bolt cutters. Wendy updated our other family blog. She put up about 10+ posts.

Saturday we got coi fish and garden plants for the aquaponics system. We also got an automatic closer for the door into the chicken coop. I made some changes to the coop to make it easier to clean out. At the end of the day, 5 more ladies joined our group.

Be Well.