Daydreams VS Reality

In my daydreams I always pictured raising chickens in this beautiful chicken coop, with pretty little window box flowers, painted red with white trim, and filled with lovely egg laying hens. I envisioned looking out my window and seeing fat, little chickens wondering around my yard pecking at the ground, and collecting eggs every morning. Little gifts from my happy chickens.

In reality my husband decided he didn't have time to build a coop, even though I found the perfect building plans, I am not allowed to keep chickens at my house (a long story that will make you head implode from the sheer ridiculousness and injustice....I live on a freaking farm!), and I only have 3 hens left, so that doesn't really leave me with  a large amount of egg laying hens.  But I've decided to embrace this reality and make it the best it can be.

On Sunday the chicks moved to my brother's house with a nice homemade run Ty made for them.  They spend all day in it and then I put them back in their brooder for the night. They really like being outside all day, pillaging the ground and looking for bugs. Then yesterday their new home came in the mail.  Yes, I ordered and Eglu.  I have been in love with these for quite sometime.  They are cute, modern, and on sale! If you don't know about these adorable little coops then check out their website. Adorable!  We bought and Eglu Go, because it was on sale, but I like the Eglu cube the best.  Seriously check out their website, you will fall in love.

So here is my lovely husband, who just got back from work when I begged him to put it together.  So Ty and the kids built my Eglu while I giddily jumped around the yard.

Here's all the pieces spread out in the driveway

Everyone helping put in the screws

Tank wanted to check it out to make sure everything was up to snuff.

Everyone is happy with their hard work, and now I have an adorable chicken coop!

This chicks have only spent a couple of nights in their new home, but I think they will come to love it.  I'm coming to enjoy my reality as well.  Even though I miss having the chicks at my house, and I would love to be able to look out my window and see them.  Keeping them at my brother's house is better than not having any at all.

Ode to Caffeine

I want to take a little time today to thank the maker of caffeine (ok, so that's probably God) and just let caffeine know how much I appreciate and rely upon it.

Dear Caffeine.

I want to thank you every time I wake up at 2 am hearing someone vomit in the next room.  I want to thank you and 5 am when my son wakes up and decides he can't go back to sleep and wants to eat some eggs. I want to thank you every morning when i brew my tea, because I know you are going to be their bolstering my up, and  keeping me going. I want to thank you during the tantrums, sicknesses, meetings, late night sheet changings, and early morning workouts.  I want to thank you at 4 pm when I can barely keep my eyes open to drive home, but you get me there safely.  I want to thank you when I'm at my in-laws, because not only do you keep me awake and moving, but somehow able to restrain my rage and keep from killing people.  I want to thank you at bed time because as I ready myself to be awoken 3 or 4 times, I know you are going to be there for me in the morning so I can do everything all over again.  So here's to caffeine.  A main staple of my diet, for good or bad.  It keeps me running, and able to do the things that need to be done.

Your Biggest Fan,

Summer

Goings On

Here's the rundown of what has been going on at the Moser house:

Lex has been learning to read with this AWESOME, easy to use book called, The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  We love it, and it's really working. I am amazed at how well he is doing and the way he can sound out words and read small sentences! 

 The weather has been somewhat nice...if not warm and sunny, at least tolerable, so we've been jumping on our trampoline.  I must tell you that I think my husband might enjoy it even more than the kids.  We love going out after dinner and all jumping together as a family. Lots of good fun!

Yes, this is a picture of Ty in his skivvies.  I have no idea why he is not wearing pants and I'm sorry.  This is the only picture of the trampoline I have right now.

At night the kids and I have started reading their first big chapter book.  I don't know if 2 1/2 and 4 is to young, but they really look forward to it every night.  We are reading, Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater.  I think this is going to  become a fun tradition, hopefully for the rest of their lives. We've always read picture books at night, and we still do, but we also do one chapter a night of this new chapter book.  Gosh darn it, my kids are going to be well read if it kills me! :)

So that's what's going on in the Moser house.  Pretty boring, but it's a good life.  At least most days.

And Then There Were Five....

When we started out wonderful chicken hatching journey we were blessed with 6 chicks, which we named Henrietta, Lizzie, Emma, Fanny, Juniper, and Penelope. We've greatly enjoyed watching them grow, and learning about each one's personalities.  First we found that Lizzie and Emma were actually Cock-a-doodle-do, and Bubba (yes, our little hens are actually roosters).

Then we observed that they love eating bread, jumping around wildly when let out of their brooder, and LOVE going outside and ranging around the big pine tree.  That is were out sad story begins.

They also love the mulch around my laundry line

Here's Bubba

Easter Sunday, after all the fun and frivolities, we came home and decided it was nice enough to let you chickens outside to play for a little bit. WORST MISTAKE EVER! They enjoyed wondering around the yard, especially the large pine tree we have near our driveway.  Aren't they adorable?

After about an hour, the kids wanted to take our dogs for a walk.  Ty and I decided the chicks were having such a good time, and the weather was nice for the first time in weeks, that we would let them stay out while we walked the dogs.   Half an hour later when we returned home, the kids and I could only find 5 chickens.  After much panicking and frantic searching, we found out that my mother-in-law's dog, who lives 2 houses away, came frolicking by and ate Fanny.  

OK, as if, her dog eating my chicken wasn't bad enough, try explaining that grandma's dog ate your beloved chicken to a 2 and 4 year old.  It did not go well. There were many tears shed.  Here is our last picture of our beloved Fanny. 

Fanny is the large one, Penelope is the small one.

Beautiful little Fanny you will be remembered by the Moser household.

A Labor of Love and bloody fingers

I did it! I finished Lilly's Easter sweater with one day to spare.  Mind you I have been working on this sweater jacket for over a month.  As the deadline was looming I spent more and more time knitting.....I felt like my fingers were going to bleed.  It was all worth it when I finally wrangled her into it.

And yes, I did have to wrangle her into it. More like chase her down the hall, pin her legs down and force her to try it on. After the initial fiasco of trying it on, she loves it.  I must admit I am proud as punch of it.  So, because I am so proud of myself,  I am now going to display hundreds, OK that might be and exaggeration, of pictures of Lilly and her sweater.

You can find the awesome pattern by Kate Gilbert here

New Home and New Hat

Yes, we frequently stay in our pajamas all day. Sue me

We now have 6 chicks, Penelope and Juniper hatched this week, living with us, and I decided it was time to get a bigger brooder. Having no more  boxes I went online and saw that someone had made a brooder out of a dog kennel, so that's what the kids and I set out to do.  The kids loved the project, but I'm not sure how much they really helped. We are all very proud of our new creation, and the chicks seem to love their new home.  I love walking past the room and glancing in to see what the chicks are doing. They are such adorable little creatures.

My son just sits and watches them now that he doesn't have to stand on a stool to see them

On a totally different not I've recently finished a hat for a lady who gave me to pictures and said, "put them together."  I did just that, and this is what it became.

This is not my hair arm or hand, this is my husbands. I just had to put that out there.

I think it turned out pretty cute.  I think it will look even better on the baby.  If I get picture I will be sure to post them up here.  

Lilly's Sweater Update: I am now shaping the armholes and am pretty happy with the project so far.  There are a few mistakes, and I don't love the yarn.  But the pattern is so beautiful that even my own ineptitude cannot ruin it.  I would like to have it done by Easter.  We'll see how that goes.

Hanging with the Chicks

On Tuesday afternoon, we became the proud owners of 4 little chicks.  After three long weeks of anxiously watching the incubator, our first batch of eggs hatched. I don't know who was more excited me or the kids.

 We were lucky enough to be able to watch them hatch.  The kids couldn't believe how big they were in comparison to the eggs. What a great learning experience for them, but who cares about that? Have you ever held a cute fluffy yellow little chick? They melted the heart of even my stubborn husband who wanted no part of having chickens.

We have no idea if they are girls or boys, but we're pretending they're girls.  We named them Hen (Henrietta), Lizzie (Elizabeth Bennett), Emma , and Fanny. Just take a gander.........

I think they might be a little frightened by the huge face in the corner

Adorable right? Sorry the pictures aren't great. I was do busy adoring them to take great pictures. I'll keep you updated with better pictures as they grow.