JACOBS CIRCUS

We had a visitor at breakfast this morning

2011-09-22T08:31:00.004-05:00

Sophie brought in some crape myrtle branches last night to make a bouquet for the table, so he must have spent the night inside. After we photographed and played with him a bit we put him back outside.

Also on the camera:

Anna helped Julia put on her (too small) shoes. :)

Nature Walk in September

2011-09-09T16:12:00.006-05:00

I took the little girls and my new camera to the Nature Center this afternoon. The weather was beautiful.

All my shots of Anna are action shots.

We found raccoon tracks.

The water is very low.

Checking out the wildflowers.

There was a big black snake near the water, I don't know what type of snake it was. It got frightened and ran away when I tried to get closer.

I still have some work to do figuring out my new camera. I think this was a great photo op, mostly lost. Better luck next time.

Anna loves the chickens

2011-03-03T17:37:00.005-06:00

And Julia loves the sunshine.

Thursday Shenanigans

2011-02-24T10:23:00.004-06:00

On this rainy, dreary, inside morning I was in the kitchen making pancakes while the girls, who were supposed to be getting dressed, were arguing in the living room. I heard Sophie shouting "Ellie, you take me off that list right now!" so I went to investigate. I found Ellie prancing around with the following paper and taunting her sisters:

I confiscated it like a good teacher, but I couldn't help giggling at Eleanor's phonetic spelling of "crimnuls", "cuoot" and "jooleu". What a stinker.

Sophie, in her never-ending quest to master every bit of information the world has to offer about horses, immediately went back to her reading about horse evolution and telling me at great length what a shame it is that those tiny rabbit-sized horse ancestors in her book are now extinct so we can't get one.

Meanwhile, Anna and Julia were in the kitchen squabbling over their favorite ~~toy~~ oven rack. Anna won, of course, but Julia is learning to fight back and I'm sure will soon become a force to be reckoned with.

More February Photos

2011-02-20T20:44:00.004-06:00

Sophia's birthday celebration (2/15):

And some cute pictures of Julia that Sophia took the next day:

February So Far

2011-02-15T12:46:00.005-06:00

February is Birthday Month at the Jacobs Circus. This year Anna turned 4 (2/6).

Ellie made her a special crown for the occasion.

She was too focused on her new sticker book to smile for the camera.

We had snow two consecutive weeks, which brought such fun as snow days and late night calls to the towing company to have Tony's Fit rescued from a giant drift.
Abby loves snow and thinks it was all for her benefit.
Julia had the next birthday (2/13), the big fat One. She is the World's Most Beloved Baby, and brings joy everywhere she goes.

Julia woke up from her nap the other day with such awesome bed head that it needed to be photographed.
Today is Sophia's 10th birthday, so I'll try to post more photos later...it may be a few days before I get around to it. :)

January Park Day

2011-01-28T21:36:00.007-06:00

We needed some fresh air and exercise today, so we went to the park. Sophie and Ellie made some new friends and played for a long time, but forgot to ask what the other kids' names were. Anna decided to take herself to the potty and wandered off looking for one, luckily I found her not too far away. Mostly it was a great day, although I do wish sometimes that Anna wasn't such a go-getter. Keeping up with her is more than I can take most days.

Snapshots of the day

2010-12-09T16:38:00.005-06:00

We had nice weather today for December, it was sunny and I don't know how warm but the girls and I spent quite a bit of time outside playing with the dog and cleaning up the yard and chicken house. I set the baby on a sheet and she happily scooted about (she doesn't crawl, she scoots) while I moved chicken litter from the hen house to the garden beds and raked leaves into the pen. I think I'll do fine this winter if we have lots of this kind of weather!

At one point I overheard Ellie calling Julia "Baby Chestnut" as part of some game they were playing. Sophie told her that was a weird name, to which Ellie replied "what else do you want me to call her, Baby Chester? Now THAT would be a weird name!"
Ah, the impeccable logic of the 6-year-old.

Anna now has an imaginary sister named Daisy that rides in her flower car and follows us as we drive around town. Anna has taken to shouting to me at regular intervals as I'm driving, "I see her, Mom, look, it's my sister right beside us in her car!" If I don't acknowledge Daisy, she'll just keep screaming at me until I do, which can be pretty distracting in heavy traffic. She (Anna) also refused to get into the van today until I pretended to take Daisy's hand and help her into her car. Just add that to my list of things to do.

The day was pleasant considering we started the morning with a fire in the living room. Tony got up early, and went into the living room, and screamed "Fire!!" which woke us up pretty fast. It was a mess. I guess I left a candle burning and it ignited the plastic tray of Julia's high chair which was for some reason sitting on top of the bookcase next to the candle and some papers. I could have burned down the whole house had it all ignited sometime earlier in the night, or had Tony not decided to get up early. It has made me painfully aware of our lack of emergency planning, so we're making a fire safety plan right away. I'm also going to get a fire extinguisher and replace batteries in the smoke detectors.

I leave you with a several months old but really cute photo of Julia.

Julia and the Pumpkin

2010-11-09T15:09:00.006-06:00

Here's something cute that happened in the kitchen this afternoon:

Insert New Post Here

2010-11-05T19:14:00.001-05:00

Insert witty text here, explaining my intention to update the blog and introducing the new layout and slideshow.

Julia's Baptism

2010-04-03T12:13:00.008-05:00

Julia was baptized this morning, during the Holy Saturday liturgy. Here are some photos:

This is Julia with her godmother, Elena Tiemeyer:

Our Baby is Here!

2010-02-23T11:23:00.002-06:00

Julia Henrietta Jacobs came at 2:46 am on last Saturday morning, February 13, after a fast and furious labor and birth! She was born at home, of course.

Here are a few photos taken after we all slept for a few hours

And here is Julia at 10 days old

Anna's Third Birthday

2010-02-07T10:45:00.006-06:00

Happy Birthday to Anna!

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T12:20:00.002-06:00

It's a cold and snowy and sniffly day at Chez Jacobs. Time for some knitting and brewing and maybe later baking.

No resolutions for me this time, just praying for a peaceful and prosperous and healthy 2010!

Abby the dog

2009-12-19T10:33:00.004-06:00

This is Abby, our new dog.

She was rescued from the shelter by our friend Bianca, who passed her on to us. She's been a Jacobs dog since August and we love her a lot. She is a red heeler mix. Mixed with what is a great mystery! She is really cute, she has one blue eye and one brown eye, and she's just short enough that she can't counter surf.
She lets the girls dress her up:

Even though she doesn't exactly enjoy it:

She loves her squeeky chewy toys:

And puts up with lots of love and such from Anna:

Yes, I swore we wouldn't get another dog while we lived in the city limits, and Abby would love to eat the chickens, so we have to find creative ways to keep them separated, but Abby just won our hearts and we're really glad she's here. :)

It's been a bad blogging year

2009-12-10T11:41:00.007-06:00

I've been meaning to get back to the blog for some time, but for some reason I just don't feel like talking too much these days. Several months have gone by with no posting, but a lot has been happening...

Eleanor became a 5 year old girl. :)

We discovered that same week that we are expecting a number 5 Jacobs baby. (Preemptive answers to the standard questions are...no, we aren't trying for a boy, no, we don't know if it's a boy or girl, and no one was more surprised about the baby than we were.)

The garden started out great, but suffered severe neglect when I began to experience the 24 hour a day nausea that has been my new friend for the past 6 months. I am anxious to start again this spring.

Tony became a licensed architect (way to go Tony!) and has managed to at least stay employed through layoffs and pay cuts at his office... we are very thankful for his job.

We said goodbye to Maggie the bear dog finally, it was a very sad time, and we still miss her daily.

Our lovely easter eggers began laying lovely blue eggs, before all of the chickens started molting for the season and stopped laying. We're really missing the backyard eggs!

The shrinking income and uncertain economic future would have us down, but we still have these:

And someone gave us this:

I will post more about that later. ;)
And then there's always Christmas around the corner

Life is good.

Kids at the park

2009-06-13T12:32:00.004-05:00

A bit overdue, more photos, taken at the park this past week:

Just a bunch of happy, silly kids. :)

Highlights from conversations with Eleanor

2009-05-08T10:33:00.005-05:00

I haven't posted many of these stories lately because I began to wonder if our beloved readers would rather just skip the stories and look at pictures of the kids, but I really love telling them and it occurred to me that the blog is also for me to enjoy, so here goes:

This one is from dinner last night, when Tony and I were discussing the new handwriting books that the girls are working in and how they will correct the problems that the little girls have with letter and number reversals.
(this from Ellie:) "Well, I can't reverse the number 8! But I can reverse 2, and 4, and 3, and 5...."
As her doting parents we of course see this as evidence of her budding genius. :)

And another from a few days ago, when Ellie was doing her characteristic wandering around the house and talking to herself, she came into the room and said to me "So mom, if I'm not Good, and I'm not a Jerk, then just what am I?"
I don't actually know who told her she wasn't good, but I'm afraid it's mostly true. ;) She also isn't a Jerk, so I guess she's just a funny little kid.

Just some photos of the kids

2009-05-05T12:21:00.003-05:00

Anna eats toast with jelly

Sophie has an attitude

Ellie has another new talent

Anna takes her potty everywhere

Anna can make very scary faces (she had green paint on her forehead)

piggie in a basket

Dyeing Eggs with Onion Skins

2009-04-17T14:00:00.005-05:00

We spent the morning dyeing eggs to bring to church for Pascha (which is this Sunday). The tradition is to dye the eggs red, but there really isn't a good way to get eggs really red without using yucky dyes that come off on your fingers when you handle them. Last year we came across this natural way to dye the eggs and it's my new favorite. I've been saving onion skins for several months, and we've saved up several dozen of our own eggs just for the occasion.

Here are the eggs before

and the bags of onion skins (yellow ones)

I made the dye first by boiling the skins

Here is the strained dye cooling before I poured it on the eggs

These are the eggs after boiling in the dye

The finished product, I really like the dark reddish brown color.

New Baby Chicks

2009-04-11T20:46:00.003-05:00

We ordered four new chicks for this year. They are "easter eggers" which means they will lay very pretty blue-green eggs. As an added bonus, they have very cute puffy cheek feathers. They came in the mail four weeks ago, so this is a bit late, but here they are:

This is what they looked like when they came out of the box

This was last Wednesday, when they were 3.5 weeks old, and we took them outside for the first time

they aren't little puff balls anymore, but they're still really cute

they let the girls handle them

the girls named this one Turtle, she's the sweetest

this one is Sunshine, we think she will be white

and this is Bean

and Ivy

Anna with Turtle on her lap

The big chickens are spending most of their time in the pen we built them these days because they like to tear up the garden beds and we have seedlings in them now. :)

We are busy working on plans for a new improved coop so they will be more comfortable when they are all outside full-time.

So Much for Spring.

2009-03-30T21:42:00.005-05:00

We had a late ice/snowstorm Saturday that has slowed down the blooming of our shrubs and trees. I don't know exactly how much snow we got, but we were lucky...we had a blizzard warning with up to 2 feet of snow in the forecast and most of that went southwest or northeast of us. We just got mostly ice.

The good news is that as of this afternoon it was almost completely melted and even though all of the blossoms on our trees are gone, I'm sure that they will leaf out soon. I did cover our lilac bushes, because I couldn't bear to think of a whole year without the lovely lilacs. They seem to have fared well, I'll post pics when they bloom :)

Ellie's New Toy

2009-03-24T21:11:00.006-05:00

Here we have the cute little girl pushing something in her stroller...

What could it be, that beloved toy she's playing so nicely with?

Why, it's Log!

Kids in motion

2009-03-16T13:49:00.004-05:00

Spring!

2009-03-04T17:43:00.003-06:00

After being sick for most of the past week, we were playing outside this afternoon and I noticed these on our bushes:

I love spring!

Anna does, too.

Backyard photos

2009-02-20T12:37:00.005-06:00

It's another strangely warm day for February, and the little girls are playing nicely on their "balance beam" outside:

A few animals joined in,

and another little girl.

Gratuitous chicken shot:

Happy Birthday, Sophia

2009-02-16T21:44:00.002-06:00

Here is a birthday post for Sophia, a day late. She had a party and it was a lot of fun, but I was too busy and then too tired to blog about it. Here are a few photos:

The party guests did shrinky-dinks (fun!)

And we had strawberry cupcakes

Yum!

Here's the big 8 year old!

Happy Birthday Anna

2009-02-06T09:48:00.002-06:00

Two years ago:

One year ago:

This year:

:)

Thursday Update

2009-02-05T17:40:00.005-06:00

Things have been a bit hectic, not much time for blogging. Right now I'm listening to Maggie barking at Margaret outside, Sophia screaming at me from her room, and Anna getting into the knives on the kitchen counter...better make this short!

A few gratuitous pictures:

Crazy Ellie and Anna (Sophie took this one)

Bedhead Anna

Anna just started the dishwasher again, so I'm off...

Anna answers the phone

2009-01-27T10:29:00.003-06:00

I just got off of the phone with a very confused and (thankfully) amused woman who was calling our house to talk to Margaret about the homeschool drama group the kids are doing...

I saw Anna walking around with the phone and talking like she was having a conversation with someone, and I just thought she was playing with the phone like she often does. I did notice she seemed to be talking a lot more than usual, and saying things like "Need Fofie? (Sophie)" and "Sure" and "Hello" over and over again. I was commenting to Margaret that it's too bad that she won't actually talk like that when there's someone on the line, and something clicked in my head so I decided to get the phone and see if anyone was there. And there was! Hee hee.

I think Anna heard the phone ringing and picked up and started talking, because it wasn't a number we have programmed in for her to accidently call.

So that's one more thing for me to keep an eye on around here.

Sophia's Squirrel Bag

2009-01-24T10:47:00.005-06:00

Here's a crafty project we did this week, I just finished it last night. This is a felt squirrel made (by me) from a picture drawn by Sophia. She insisted it needed to be sewn onto her bag.

We are doing lots of little crafty stuff, typical of this time of year when we're starting to feel the cabin fever. I'll try to post more as things get finished...

edited to add:
Yes, that is the same dress she was wearing on Thursday...;)

Thursday Update, Maggie Update

2009-01-22T20:55:00.004-06:00

Today it was unseasonably warm, and the girls played outside a bit. I took some pictures of them on the swings and captured Maggie the dog-bear doing pretty much the only thing she does these days that isn't sleeping or eating, which is barking at the girls while they swing.

This is the primary reason why we aren't able to put her to sleep, even though she stumbles all of the time, she can't hear, she increasingly can't see, and she seems to be in a fair amount of pain from her arthritis. She is a border collie which means that when she was younger she would chase pretty much anything that moved, including the broom and vacuum cleaner, any shovels, the water spray from the hose, cars, balls, frisbees, and of course the kids. Now that she doesn't get around so much (she's 15 years old now) she can't really do any of those things, but she still gets up and goes to the door anytime she's awake enough to notice the kids going out and goes out to bark at them (I think because she can't chase them).

I believe that as long as she feels up to the job of barking at the kids we'll keep trying to make her comfortable and postpone the inevitable. We really do enjoy having her around, even with all of her issues.

I should also add that since Maggie is an honorary chicken, the chickens are going to miss her greatly when she's gone!

What I got done today

2009-01-19T15:31:00.007-06:00

I haven't been getting very much done lately. I'm still recovering from sickness and I'm definitely not on top of things yet. I just cant seem to organize my thoughts and figure out what needs to be done.
Earlier this afternoon I was trying to decide what to do with the day and the little girls were fighting and whining and everything was going downhill fast. So I sent everyone to bed. They all cried for about 30 minutes and then it got suspiciously quiet. I wasn't feeling like doing housework so I decided to do something that would make me feel a little bit domestic. So the little girls all got a nap and Margaret and I made cupcakes. They are all still asleep, and I'm hoping that when they wake up we'll all have a cupcake and a much less whiny evening.

Update:
Margaret's working on a friendship bracelet

and Sophie and Anna woke up happy and are enjoying the cupcakes:

:)

Has it been a week already?

2009-01-15T16:11:00.004-06:00

I realized this afternoon that it was Thursday again, and I'm not really sure what we did all week. The girls and I have been passing around a cold, it was pretty mild as colds go, but we're all a bit out-of-sorts and out-of-routine because of it.

A few sleepy pictures of the girls that I took this morning...
Anna fell asleep with blue marker on her hand, and apparently rubbed her eye a bit in the night, because she woke up with a blue eye:

Ellie:

Sophie:

Almost a dozen eggs from our own backyard:

I can't think straight right now since Anna's screaming, so I'll update more later...

Thursday Update

2009-01-08T10:45:00.002-06:00

Well, we've been finding an egg a day in the hutch, and a few days ago we found two so I'm sure there is more than one chicken laying, but we still haven't figured out who it is (besides Hyacinth). The girls are having a lot of fun going out there to check for eggs!

With the holidays behind us we are getting back to routine around here, getting lots of school done, and the middle girls started up gymnastics again this week. Sophia got a ribbon for her vaults on her first day back!

Here are some funny shots of Anna, taken this morning, with her new, ummm....Fun toy purse thing that sings and will soon have no batteries. ;) She was making it play this little tune over and over and dancing along, with her tutu around her ankles. She will only wear the tutu around her ankles for some reason, and sadly by the time she's old enough to explain this to me she won't remember it. Good thing we got pictures I guess.

A New Year, Keri's simple resolution

2009-01-02T10:47:00.006-06:00

I'm posting my new year's resolution here, to remind myself to keep it, and to keep myself accountable. It's actually nothing grand and shouldn't be hard to do, but I have a little addiction that is doing me no good and I'm going to stop it. Here it is:

I hereby resolve to stop reading doomsday predictions on the internet. There is one blog in particular (I won't name it but my family knows it) that I won't read anymore. That's it.

I am not going to go into this year afraid of the impending Zombie apocalypse, or even another Great Depression, but rather I will believe that we Americans are smart and resourceful and will face the coming challenges and overcome them. I have no faith that our new president or my local and state governments will save us, but I'm also going to be optimistic that they won't do us in either. Very optimistic, I know, but optimism is the central core of my resolution.

It will definitely be interesting to see what this year brings.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T09:52:00.001-06:00

Slideshow of 2008 Highlights, it's only 4 minutes long this time. :)

Eggs!!!!

2008-12-31T16:47:00.003-06:00

Well, Tony was looking out of the window this afternoon and noticed that there were only three chickens pecking around, so he went outside to locate the 4th and discovered Hyacinth was hanging out in the chicken hutch by herself. So, we opened up the side and found eggs! There were 4 in all, and it's been about a week since we've had it open, so we're not sure if she layed them all or if more than one of the chickens is laying, but either way, we have eggs. It was so much fun finding them. I didn't expect the cheeps to start laying until spring, but there you have it. Here are photos:

Hyacinth looking very pleased with herself:

The eggs in the hutch:

After we washed them off:

When I hooked the camera up to upload the photos I took of the eggs I also found this:

It appears that sometime since the last time I looked on the camera there have been chickens in the kitchen. I'll have to ask the kids about that...

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T16:56:00.003-06:00

My Children are Not being nice

2008-12-23T13:21:00.003-06:00

We have never done Santa Claus at our house (I have no problems with people who do, we just didn't ever get that started.) My kids know all about Santa, but we don't make believe presents come from Santa, they just come from whoever they're from, mostly mom and dad.

So, up until this year there has never been a "better be good so you can get Christmas presents" thing going around. This year it's all changed because the little girls watched a stupid Christmas show about these weird bug-eyed fairies that work for Santa and go around watching to see who should be on the "naughty" list and who should be on the "nice" list. This has become a constant theme with them, and they have several lists they've been carrying around and working on and using to manipulate each other.

Ellie's list is a bunch of jumbled letters that only she can read, but Sophie's reads "Margaret, Sophie, Ellie, Anna, Penny, Sparkey, Maggie" with a checked box by each one. This is her "nice" list and anytime anyone does something she doesn't like she x's out their check mark. Once she's happy with them again she re-checks the box. The paper is getting crumpled and thin as she removes and reinstates her siblings over and over again. All day long I've been listening to "Margaret is on my naughty list, no presents for her!" and "Anna is so good, see, she's on the nice list" and so on and so forth.

'Tis the Season to tattle, I guess. Sigh.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

2008-12-16T22:04:00.004-06:00

Hello everybody!

We haven't been posting much, so here is a little update:
We have been getting some snow, and right now its about 3 inches high. It's cold, so no one has gone outside today with the exception to check on the chickens.
We are all preparing for christmas, and the tree is up (but not all the way decorated). Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim are planning to come and stay a little while for christmas, so we have been cleaning the house and rearranging the bedrooms to make room. All of us kids will camp out in the play room with our couch and tv, and I think that will be a lot of fun.

The weather is really dreary. It's been snowing on and off today. But really, this time I don't want to play in it. :)

Sophie and Dad were playing Animal Yahtzee, and Sophie got 5 of a kind.
Ellie fell asleep before everyone else did, as usual.
And some other random photos:

Chicken on the Roof!

2008-12-10T14:03:00.006-06:00

I've been wondering if the chickens were able to fly high enough to escape our 6' fence, and I guess we got our answer. Yes, after spending all day yesterday in their hutch hiding from the cold wind and snow, the chickens came out to stretch their wings this morning and Rosalind flew up onto the garage roof. We convinced her to fly back down, but I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I think we might need to clip their flight feathers to make sure they stay put.

Here they are checking out the wood pile

And Margaret loving on Daisy

Shoe Update and Pest Control

2008-12-08T09:51:00.003-06:00

We have a problem with shoes, mostly stemming from the fact that the three littles won't keep their shoes on when we go out. This is actually how we lost one of Anna's boots at church a few weeks ago. So, yesterday we were at church and sitting in the pew where we normally sit and Sophia had her shoes off as usual, and one of them got kicked under the pew. She got down and climbed under the pew to retrieve it and found a little pink furry boot under there with her shoe. It was patiently waiting there for the past few weeks for one of the girls to climb under there and find it, I guess. I'm pretty happy that Anna has both of her boots now!

Margaret found a rather big spider in the kitchen this morning and it wasn't anything poisonous (if it had been we would have just squashed it) so we did the usual and caught it in a jar to take it outside. Margaret took the jar out to the breezeway, where the chickens like to hang out on cold days (you can see it coming, I know) and she released the spider, which scuttled away into the midst of the chickens where it was instantly gobbled up by Celia. It was pretty funny. Chickens really are great pest control.

Busy, Busy

2008-12-04T08:27:00.003-06:00

Well, in spite of a scary tire blow-out on the interstate on our way home, we are safely back in Wichita and the Christmas season is now in full swing. For us that means not so much shopping and decorating (well, a little bit of decorating) but rehearsals and dress rehearsals and performances and caroling until we're all ready to collapse. Between Margaret's "Best Christmas Pageant Ever" play and the actual Christmas pageant that the girls are doing at church and the homeschool group and a few office parties thrown in for good measure we will be going non stop for the next two weeks. At least we now have new tires to get around on!

Here's a little co-sleeping funny before I go:
Tony woke up from a trying night's sleep yesterday and told me he's decided that our two youngest children should be re-named Scylla and Charybdis after the mythical monsters. Anna, the all-night nursling as Charybdis of course, and Eleanor, who has her own bed but always wakes up sometime after midnight to climb into our bed and kick and poke Tony for the rest of the night, as Scylla. The more I think about it the more fitting it seems!

Thursday Update: Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T15:27:00.004-06:00

So, we are spending the week down here at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Oklahoma. Everyone is swarming into the kitchen, following their noses (the house smells great!), but we can't it eat it yet! It's a nice break from daily life back home, and the country is so peaceful, no police sirens and all that.

Everyone is swarming into the kitchen, following their noses (the house smells great!), but we just can't it eat it yet! We are having fun though, riding tractors and chasing the cats. I would post pictures, but I can't get the camera to connect to their computer. :(

Anyway, we hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday Comings and Goings

2008-11-20T22:14:00.004-06:00

I went to a yarn store today that I've been meaning to check out for some time. It's a lovely store, and I was particularly happy to find it because the last time I went to a lovely yarn store I was unable to look at anything. (I'm speaking of a store in Lawrence that was so kid-unfriendly that I would get fed up with the salespeople following me and the girls around and saying "Don't touch that, please don't let them touch that" and leave before I really got a chance to look around.) This lovely store actually had a little room with toys for the girls to play with and they were politely amused when I laid the sleeping baby down on the floor and left her there to look around. I bought some yarn to make some leg warmies for the girls, and I'm planning on going back soon and often.

We went out again in the afternoon to take Margaret to play practice, and in the hustle to get everyone to the car we could not find Anna's single pair of shoes that fit her. (We used to have two pairs that fit her, but she lost one of her boots at church last week, so that pair became a single.) I was exasperated and decided then and there to get her some new shoes. So, I went, unaided, to Target with the three little girls and tried to shop for shoes. It was a bit like trying to herd the chickens around the backyard. I managed to get them all to the shoe area, but Anna simply refused to try on any shoes. I was desperate, so I bought a pair of size fives and I'm happy to report that when we got them home she consented to wear them and they fit.

By the time we needed to go and pick up Margaret I was pretty sick of getting everyone in and out of the van, so I decided to park along the street and just wait for her to come out. I actually saw her peek out of the building a few times, look right past us, and go back in, but I was so weary that I just waited for her and she found us in the end. I spent the time looking longingly at the other moms with kids that get into the car and buckle themselves in and wishing for the return of those times when simply going somewhere wasn't so much work.

Here is my start on Anna's leg warmies.

In the end, a pretty good, typically exhausting day. :)

Overheard Conversation

2008-11-18T14:30:00.001-06:00

Ellie: Sophie, can you give me the red crayon?

Sophie: You have to say the magic word.

Ellie: What's the magic word?

Sophie: Guess.

Ellie: Lily cupcake?

Laundry Challenges

2008-11-17T17:38:00.004-06:00

I'm in need of some comic relief today, so here it is. This is a bit of photographic evidence of what I'm up against as I battle the mountains of laundry our family produces.

The story goes, I carried a load of darks in the laundry basket to the laundry room and left it there to do something else. When I came back 10 minutes later to put the clothes in the washer, they were gone.

Here is where I found them:

Here is where I found the empty basket:

Here is the culprit posing for me when she noticed I was taking pictures:

Thursday Update

2008-11-13T14:02:00.008-06:00

Ill. Most of us are, anyway. It started with Sophia and has worked it's way through Eleanor and Anna and as of this morning, me.

The cough and runny nose did not keep the middle girls down, though. Yesterday afternoon in fact they strapped on parachutes (that is, pillows tied to their backs with scarves) and literally screaming all of the way down they jumped from a plane (the sofa) and landed face down in the middle of nowhere (the living room floor). It was so much fun that they did this about 12 times.

I've prompted Margaret to give an update to her play try-outs but since she hasn't I'll just say she got a part that isn't big, but I'm sure she's going to have a lot of fun with it anyway.

To get inspired for the Christmas shopping season, we watched a documentary called What Would Jesus Buy?
The Jacobs family review of it is that it was quite funny in places, a bit depressing in others, gives a lot to think about, and is (for those wondering) not necessarily coming from a Christian viewpoint. Having a simple and traditional Christmas shouldn't seem like such a challenge, but we need inspiration at times to ignore the pressure around us to buy, and just stay home and bake cookies.

Here are a few pics and then I'm going back to bed.

A beautiful pink unicorn, part of a series of animal drawings Sophia did this week, based on this book.

Our chickens have been spending the chilly days pecking about the leaf-scattered backyard and digging up what remains of the garden. Margaret's favorite afternoon past-time is going outside to chase the chickens around. They are surprisingly fast, and outrageously funny to watch!

Edited to Add:
I almost forgot, I actually gave myself my first black eye this week! In a surprising feat of clumsiness, as I was sweeping around the table and leaned over to quickly rescue a teacup that Anna was about to grab, I stuck the end of the broom handle in my eye. It really hurts, and it's pretty embarrassing, and I can't wait for it to go away. I'll skip the photo. :)

Eleanor

2008-11-07T16:44:00.004-06:00

This child is a bit scary. Here's evidence I found under the table this afternoon:

I wasn't sure at first whether it was Sophie or Ellie who drew it, but Ellie took credit and explained to me that this is Hello Kitty and her little sister, who turned into a mermaid, and also happens to be bleeding. She wouldn't say why the little sister was bleeding, she just is and you can tell by the red dots where the blood is. Hmmm.

Thursday Update

2008-11-06T20:30:00.006-06:00

So Wednesday, I (Margaret) auditioned for the play Best Christmas Pageant Ever at our local children's theatre. I was invited to the callbacks earlier tonight. I still don't know what part I will get, but I have that wish (that all kids get) to have the BIG part.

Sophie and Ellie are rejoicing in the large amount of toy catalogs arriving in the mail for the holiday season. They have cut out hundreds of the little pictures of toys out of the catalogs and have been playing with them for hours at the table. As usual, Anna climbs onto the table and tries to play too, making them scream as she crumples the cutouts up.

Right now, everyone is exhausted. Mom has been breaking up fights, and Dad has been juggling family life, work, and church. Sophie and Ellie are throwing fits randomly. Now Dad is reading to them 'The poetical works of Spenser'. I think they are asleep. Anna is sobbing because Mom set her down to do the dishes.

Bedtime Checklist

2008-11-05T21:03:00.008-06:00

1. Dishes washed...check.

2. Baby removed from kitchen sink, dried off and diapered...check.

3. Eleanor's teeth brushed 4 times (one for each year)...check.

4. Eleanor's toothpaste-covered dress in the laundry, exchanged for pajamas...check.

5. Sophia in bed with Lile on her pillow and throw-up bowl handy (just in case)...check.

6. Sparkey located under sofa and returned to his cage for the night...check.

7. Mom and Dad ready to collapse...pending.

Goodnight all.

*edited to add: Sophia isn't really sick, sometimes she just needs a little extra tlc at bedtime ;)

Baby dance

2008-11-04T09:27:00.003-06:00

The following was captured a few nights ago in the kitchen...Anna was being crazy cute while Margaret was playing music on the computer, Sophie was cheering her on, and Ellie was ready for bed:

More Fall Fun

2008-11-04T09:14:00.001-06:00

Well, the rest of the leaves fell yesterday, so the girls got busy raking this morning:

Thursday Update

2008-10-30T17:41:00.004-05:00

My cleaning efforts have been hampered lately by Eleanor's paper dolls.

She makes dozens of them each day

And leaves them all over the house

They are really cute, though.

We had several nights below freezing this week so I've been cleaning up and mulching over the garden for the season. Today we cut down the cannas that grow next to our patio, which means that the chickens will have to find a new favorite hiding place until next summer.

We have about as many leaves on the ground as there are on the trees now.

Maggie isn't doing too well, but for now we're just waiting to see what happens with her. I believe we will have to put her to sleep soon, and it looks like I will have to take her. I'm not looking forward to it, but I suppose when the time comes we'll just do what needs to be done.

Fall fun

2008-10-26T20:01:00.007-05:00

This evening, we donned tutus and leotards,

and crepe paper hats (note the buzzy bee airborne in the background),

and Margaret dressed herself up a bit like a scarecrow,

and then we proceeded to the church,

where Anna wore her crepe flower hat for a few minutes,

and we decorated some pumpkins,

had some snacks,

and a couple of hot dogs,

and did some bobbing for apples and ring toss and such.

And a good time was had by all.

Thursday Update

2008-10-23T15:33:00.006-05:00

Currently, Sophia and Eleanor are busily making pictures and doing worksheets at the crafting table while Anna is hanging out under the table trying to steal their papers and causing Sophia to shriek at regular intervals.

Last night the towel-clad littles, fresh from the bath, came to visit me in the kitchen while I was making dinner

Earlier this week Anna fed the chickens some leftover stir-fry,

Eleanor came outside to let me know that she was NOT happy (I can't remember why)

and the chickens considered coming inside to explore the kitchen, but decided at the last minute to run away instead.

Introducing...

2008-10-21T12:44:00.004-05:00

Sparkey the guinea pig:

I was absolutely not going to get any more pets, even though our collection of elderly animals is dwindling, but some friends of ours were giving him away and he was so little and cute, so now we have two piggies again. They can't live together, of course, because Penny is an old lady and Sparkey is a little boy, but it turns out Sparkey hasn't spent more than a few hours in his little cage in the four days he's been here.
Here he is exploring the house:

and watching TV with Sophia:

Life is good for the Jacobs piggies. :)

Margaret Plays Guitar

2008-10-15T18:33:00.009-05:00

I intended to bring Margaret's Flip camera to her recital last weekend so that we could tape her performance, but due to the usual Jacobs chaos of trying to get everyone ready to go, I forgot the camera. I was really sorry, because she sounded great. She consented this afternoon, however, to play one of her pieces for me so we could share it here. Due to some obvious distractions, she didn't do it quite so flawlessly here, but I think you get the general idea:

Margaret also played a duet with her teacher, Jean, but instead of taping her play just her part, she played her recital piece from last year for me:

A Lile Post

2008-10-14T12:14:00.008-05:00

I meant to do this sooner, but we've been busy... I've been anxious to move on from the Poo and Pee posts. :)

So, this is a post about Sophia and her dog, Lile. (Lily)

Lile is about the closest thing to a "blankie" that any of our kids has had. She is a webkinz chihuahua that Sophia received for Christmas last year. Lile goes everywhere that Sophie goes. Lile eats off of Sophie's plate at dinner, sleeps at her side at night, sits by her at church, and so on. Lile is Sophie's best friend and also her favorite experimental surgery subject. Lile has had hip replacement surgery, tail replacement surgery, liver transplant surgery, and brain surgery (and a few others, I'm sure). Sophie has a weird fascination with operating on animals, and even though she loves Lile, she regularly snips her open, messes with her fluff, then borrows a needle and thread to sew her back up. To quote my mother, my kids are weird.

Here is Lile's photo shoot (by Sophia, of course)

Front

Side

Other side (I think this one is her good side)

Back side

Note the sign behind Lile, you can't read it but it says "Liel" with hearts and a butterfly. If you look closely, she is also surrounded by paper butterflies. :)

Here is Lile with her would-be dognapper:

Oh no, she's been taken hostage!

She's getting away!!!!

Not to worry, a hefty ransom of a cookie was paid, and Lile and Sophie were reunited later that afternoon. ;)

A little Anna funny

2008-10-08T21:26:00.003-05:00

This evening she was walking down the hallway with her sippy cup, and looking rather pensive. I asked her, "Anna, are you drinking milk?", to which she replied "Poo".

Apparently she was thinking about something other than what was in the cup.

Overheard from the bathroom...

2008-10-06T19:27:00.003-05:00

at dinner this evening, from Eleanor, who left the table to go potty,

"Alas, I peed on the floor by accident!"

What a kid. Questionable potty skills but extensive vocabulary. Oh well, I guess the one will catch up with the other eventually.

Thursday update

2008-10-02T16:48:00.005-05:00

Anna figured out a new way to get into the drawer where we keep the games

Eleanor circled all of the things she wants in the Magic Cabin catalog (which is almost everything)

Margaret is practicing overtime this week to get ready for her recital this Saturday

Sophia put my ankle weights on the see saw so that she and Anna would be more evenly matched

Our garden flowers are blooming and looking very colorful and happy

It's one of those perfect fall days when the sunshine is piercing and the air is clear and the temperature is just perfect and you wish it could be this way all year! I also took this little video of Anna hanging out with the chickens this afternoon. You can see they are getting bigger, but they aren't full grown yet. They are 3 1/2 months old. Anna wouldn't look at the camera for some reason, the stinker. The quality is a bit poor since it was just taken on the digital camera, I really should get a video camera

Wasting time this morning

2008-09-25T11:32:00.003-05:00

I was messing around on the computer this morning and realized we had hundreds of photo stills captured over the past year or so in photobooth. I was having fun looking at them, so I made this silly little slideshow.

Toddlerville

2008-09-24T09:23:00.003-05:00

We have entered the world of the screaming protests of toddlerhood. Anna is 19 months old now, and she has discovered her voice. Anything that is not to her liking is met with screaming and foot stamping, and just the other day she sat down and started banging her head on the floor. So much anguish for such a little person.

We're still at the stage where it's cute to see her expressing herself like that, but when she started getting loud at the store yesterday, and the nice little old lady in front of us in line started giving us looks that could kill, I began wondering for how long I will be amused by it. I think we will have to start planning our shopping for times when she can stay home for now. I love to bring the kids with me, but when we reach the point of having to forget half the list and just get out before they kick us out I guess we have to come up with a new plan. :) (That's me, still smiling.)

Random Silliness

2008-09-23T15:03:00.006-05:00

We have been joking about making a music score for our 'Jacobs Circus, the Musical'. Ellie makes up so many little songs, it gave us the idea to do a musical of our life.

The list of songs so far:

'Lets Walk to Bed', in which Ellie sings of bedtime,

Chuggy Chan, an ode to Maggie the bear-dog (this is one of her silly nicknames),

Chubbly Bubbly Boo, an ode to Anna. Chubbly Bubbly Boo is one of Anna's silly nick names.

The Rain Song. Ellie sang this song when she played in the rain a few days ago, which goes like "When you get in the rain, you are wet! You're not dry! You are cold! You're not warm!" I wish I filmed Ellie singing that one.
I Do Believe In Sandwiches. In the newer Peter Pan, they have a part where they bring Tinkerbell back to life by saying "I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!", Ellie randomly started singing "I do believe in sandwiches! I do! I do!".

Yet Another Farewell to a Pet Post

2008-09-16T10:11:00.008-05:00

This morning our guinea pig Patch ("Patchy-Poo") Jacobs passed away after an extended illness. She is survived by her sister, Penny, and her owners, the Jacobs family, who will all miss her greatly. Patch was born June 1st, 2003, and died September 16, 2008.

The girls will undoubtedly be spending more time loving on Penny now that she is all alone, so hopefully she won't be too lonely. Here is an old post with pictures of the two piggies.

We buried Patch in the backyard and the girls decorated her grave with lots of flowers, then they spent some time hanging out with our newest pets, the chickens.

I'm not sure what it is with Anna and this scrunchy-nose smile, but it's awfully cute. As you can see, she still has both of her front teeth, although the right one still hangs a bit lower than the other. Contrary to my expectations, it has reattached, so for now she gets to keep it!

Dinner Mon Dieu

2008-09-14T15:12:00.008-05:00

Here is a recipe that I created last Friday while trying to make dinner with what we had on hand (Tony was gone with the girls to take Margaret to guitar lessons). I had in mind something like a stew, and I considered baking it a bit at the end to brown it, but I didn't. There isn't any meat or cheese because we don't eat animal products on Fridays :), but some beef or even some cheese might be a good addition.
Here's what I did:

6 or so potatoes, scrubbed and diced
1 white onion, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 zucchini, sliced
5 or 6 fresh tomatoes, diced (I probably should have peeled them, but I didn't)
A few pinches of dried herbs, I used thyme and rosemary, and a bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Heat some oil in the new cast iron dutch oven that your parents gave you (thanks mom and dad) and saute the carrots and onion. After they begin to soften, add the potatoes and let them brown a bit and start to cook. Then add all the rest of the ingredients, put the lid on and turn the heat down and allow it to simmer until everyone else gets home, about 45 minutes. Serve in bowls, but be sure to let the baby's cool first.

That's it. Everyone kept asking me what did you make for dinner (they all thought it smelled really good, I think it was the garlic and rosemary) and I didn't know what to call it, but Margaret said it reminded her of ratatouille, so Tony dubbed it "Potatoes Mon Dieu" which any one who's seen Better Off Dead will understand. We didn't have any fraunch bread, unfortunately.

Edited to Add: The next morning (Saturday) we took the leftover potatoes Mon Dieu and fried them (in little patties, like potato pancakes) and ate them with fried eggs. It was at least as good as the night before.

Thursday Update, of silverware and dreams

2008-09-11T11:34:00.006-05:00

We have had a soggy week with much rain and more in the forecast. Not much else notable is happening, just the usual endless stream of silliness with the occasional screaming fit added in for variety.

Sophie and Ellie have recently developed a weird habit of bringing several forks a piece to the table during meals, and having them all talk to each other and act out dramatic scenes while they eat with their fingers. Even Anna joined in the other day by holding up her fork to the other girls and saying "hello!"

Ellie had a bad dream last night and woke up yelling "no!" She later told me a long, drawn-out tale of how she dreamed she was running and then she ran into Count Olaf (this is a character from a movie the kids have seen) with Hanna's two sisters, and she said "can we eat this?" because they were hungry and a scary guy chased them around and then they ran into count Olaf's office and he had food, so they ate his cookies. It was very cute to hear her explain the dream. This is Ellie's nightmare world, scary guy and lack of cookies.

I also had a really bad dream last night in which my mother (sorry, Mom :) came to visit and painted every wall in my house a pale yellow. It looked awful. So glad it was just a dream. I guess my nightmare world is one where someone else is taking over and making bad home decorating decisions for me.

Ellie reads a book

2008-09-02T14:43:00.003-05:00

Edited to Add:
Ellie didn't know I was filming her until right at the end. The book she's "reading" is Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton.

Farewell to another pet

2008-08-28T20:22:00.004-05:00

Sadly, right after I finished the last post, we discovered that our oldest and most beloved fish, Princess Leia, had passed. He (yes, he) was a lovely large red betta fish, and he has now gone to rest with Alexander and Priscilla in the fish graveyard that Sophia established in the backyard.

Here he is in his glory days:

Here is another photo of him from earlier in the summer, and here is his first appearance on the blog.

This Week's Adventures

2008-08-28T16:53:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we caught this little baby mouse in the backyard. The chickens were making a huge squawking fuss and chasing something around that they found in the grass and I thought at first that it was a cricket. When I realized it was a little mouse I grabbed a jar and caught it. The girls and I fed it some of the guinea pigs' food and then took it to the Great Plains Nature Center to set it free in the lovely tall grass prairie. This all seemed a little hypocritical since I killed what was almost certainly one of its' relatives in the garage a few days ago. We have mice...and I'm not looking forward to this winter when they all decide to move inside. Anyway, this one was very cute and we had a nice walk to set it free.

This is a cute little shot of Anna when she woke up yesterday and Margaret was showing her the mouse. She was sleepy and looked rather confused.

Today it's HOT again and Ellie spent some time cooling down in the backyard.

I'm starting to feel that longing for cool weather and fires again. I should probably be careful what I wish for. :)

The Dog-Bear

2008-08-25T07:57:00.007-05:00

Ellie and I went for a walk to the playground yesterday and brought Maggie along. A dad with his little girl came along to play and the little girl (about 5) said "Daddy look, that lady has a pet bear!"

Chickens

2008-08-22T20:40:00.003-05:00

They are now 2 months old. This was taken this morning, and the little voice in the background is Anna saying good morning to the cheeps.

Kids

2008-08-16T09:26:00.003-05:00

Eleanor's new skill. I've always said she was part monkey.

Anna really wanted to do it too but she needed some help.

Anna's yogurt mustache and beard.

That's it.

Food we grew

2008-08-16T09:07:00.003-05:00

In taking stock of the productivity of our humble garden, I'm thinking back over the meals we've enjoyed from it. A few of the things I planted (spinach and onions) just did nothing, and since I don't know why, I'm thinking of skipping them next year. A few others (kale and swiss chard and lettuce and basil) just keep going and going and I'll definitely do them again. The tomatoes are finally ripening and we're loving them...I did 8 plants this year and I'd like to do a few more next year. Tony and I are hoping to put in a few more raised beds this fall so we can expand the garden and more easily rotate crops.

These were from the first potato pot I dug up. Three of the four pots did great, but in one of them all of the plants died and the potatoes turned to mush. I don't think it was disease, I suspect I over-watered them. I'm thinking of trying growing potatoes in straw next year, rather than in the pots.

We had the potatoes with some of the green cabbage. We still haven't harvested the red cabbage. Cabbage it turns out is fairly easy to grow, but next time I'll cover it with a floating row cover to keep the moths out and avoid problems with cabbage loopers.

I planted lots and lots of basil and we LOVE pesto, so that's a definite do-over.

Last week I roasted some of the tomatoes with some peppers we grew and made salsa. We have a big bowl of tomatoes and we're just snacking on them. I don't think it's possible to have too many tomatoes.

We Like Oklahoma!

2008-08-11T09:13:00.012-05:00

The middle girls (Sophie and Ellie) spent a week with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jo last week. They had a great time and we enjoyed some unusual silence and peace around the house. We drove down over the weekend to pick them up and decided the great state of Oklahoma was looking particularly lovely. See:

We took a short detour off of I-35 and drove a few miles down historic Route 66 to get to a fun little rest stop called Pops, where they have hundreds of varieties of soda, a giant soda bottle sculpture that lights up at night (we hear), an enormous cantilevered awning structure, and walls that are very tempting to climb up, especially for little blond girls that can't read the "please do not climb the walls" sign.

Giant bottle sculpture:

Huge cantilever:

Jacobses going in:

Cool soda bottle display wall:

Jacobses inside:

Middle girl scale figures:

Little blond girl, thinking "I can climb right up that!":

Side view from far away:

Some More Backyard Photography (by Margaret)

2008-08-11T09:06:00.003-05:00

Anna practices for the circus:

Another lovely sunflower shot:

The chickens are getting HUGE:

Just look at how this one towers over the house!

:)

summer nights

2008-08-02T18:35:00.006-05:00

Our Girls

2008-07-27T18:23:00.006-05:00

The chicks (starting to look more like chickens):

Anna, hanging out:

Margaret, looking smug:

Eleanor and her flora collection:

Sophia found some honeysuckle:

Everyone is fine, Anna had roseola but she is fully recovered, we're busy and it's hot. Pretty much sums it up. :)

Another Lovely Morning

2008-07-15T08:36:00.004-05:00

The garden is definitely a success. My goal was to grow something this year, and in that at least I have succeeded! Sophia fell off of some playground equipment yesterday and hurt her arm, I still haven't decided if we should have it x-rayed or not.

This sunflower was a volunteer, from some birdseed that fell around the sidewalk. It makes me very happy.

The cheeps are spending most of the daytime in their hutch in the backyard this week. I think they'll move out there fulltime next week. The one in the doorway is Daisy, she's so friendly!

Here is a shot of the hutch we (well, mostly Tony) built out of leftover fence wood. It still needs some finishing touches and then I'll do a post about it, showing all of the amazing features!

The County Fair

2008-07-12T22:33:00.003-05:00

Today we went to the county fair and had a (mostly) lovely day. I forgot the camera, so no pictures.

The weather was unseasonably cool, we were wearing sweaters in July!! We saw lots of poultry, including some wyandotte pullets, black and white, similar to ours. We also saw rabbits, sheep, goats, cows, and there was a petting zoo with ducklings and llamas and miniature horses...in short, lots and lots of animals.

Pretty much the cutest thing all day was Anna at the petting zoo. She got so caught up in all the oohing and cuddling that she was walking around petting all of the other kids on the head. She got some pretty funny looks.

Ellie stepped in cow poo, and I unknowingly picked her up and carried her around a bit, so we brought home some fertilizer on Ellie's shoes and my pants (and the stroller wheels).

After walking around a lot, eating some junk food, smelling and wallowing in all of the animal glory, and riding a few rides, we drove home with at least two little ones screaming all of the way home because they didn't want to leave.

Can't wait to do it again next year. :)

Why we had to separate Sophie and Ellie in the van

2008-07-08T14:01:00.004-05:00

I hesitate to post this, it's pretty ugly. This happened on the 4th of July as we were driving to the lake. We thought it was funny, but that's probably because we're fairly desensitized to this sort of violence due to living with four kids.

So you've been warned, please use viewer discretion when watching this video, it's not for the faint of heart. These are children behaving very badly.

Oh, and another disclaimer, please don't assume that Sophie is as innocent as this clip makes it appear. I didn't get the camera out until after she had finished pushing Ellie over the edge.

We switched Sophie and Margaret for the ride home, and they will sit that way from now on.

Mediocre Chick Video

2008-07-01T20:02:00.002-05:00

Here is a youtube video we took earlier today. Daisy and Hyacinth both like to sit on the back of Margaret's hand. The quality is not so good, but you can at least hear their cute little cheeping.

More Chicken News and a Tooth Update

2008-07-01T16:45:00.005-05:00

The chicks are doing great, they are now over 1 week old. They spent a bit of time out in the grass today, scratching and pecking. They pretty much have names now, the two most outgoing are Hyacinth (she's the singer) and Daisy. Sophie and Ellie have named the other two Rosalind and Celia. Celia is the little one that was very wobbly the first few days, but seems to be coming along fine. They all have some wing feathers now and a few tail feathers. We can still tell them apart by their markings, but their personalities are easier to tell apart all the time.

Here they are outside earlier today:

Anna's tooth is still hanging in there, hanging being the operative word :(. It does not appear to be reattaching at all, and I expect it will fall out the next time she bumps it. It really was almost completely knocked out when she fell, so we're not surprised. I'm trying not to worry about it and just be thankful she wasn't really hurt. I am sad at the thought of her little smile changing. Oh well.

Chicken Update

2008-06-26T21:39:00.004-05:00

The baby chicks are doing well. We have them in the house right now, in a makeshift brooder which is a metal washtub with two lamps on top to keep them warm. They aren't very much work right now, but they can be pretty loud with the chirping sometimes. One of them in particular seems to like to sing really loud. The singer is the most active and jittery, while another is the most friendly.

Edited to add: We are a bit nervous that the singer might turn out to be a rooster. It's very hard to tell at this point, but she/he is definitely the most aggressive and vocal of the lot. :)

One of them is also obviously smaller and less active than the others, but she still seems to be doing ok.

The girls really like the shakespeare names the best, so we're leaning towards them (since there was no clear winner in the poll.)

Four at Last

2008-06-25T23:06:00.006-05:00

Ellie is now four years old. Her birthday (today) was quite an affair. We progressed from happy surprise as she woke up this morning ("You mean I'm four right now?") to telling everyone what to do because she was the birthday girl ("Sophie you can't wear that today because it's my birthday") and on to shrieking meltdown whenever anything happened that wasn't to her liking ("She cutted in front of me, I was walking there!") and using the threat of no cake to try and manipulate ("That's it, Sophie isn't getting any of my cake.")
By this evening she was a complete mess. All of my attempts to get her to take a nap had failed. Her birthday dress was filthy, her hair was falling out of her crooked birthday pony tails, and she was oscillating between a melt down state and a whiny repetition of "When do I get to eat the cake? When are we opening my presents?"

We had a nice dinner in spite of it all (just the 6 of us) and ate some of the cake (with sprinkles and blueberries, according to Ellie's specifications) and opened presents and everyone was happy for a few minutes. When Anna saw the cake she said "Yeah! Coo-kie!"

the cake:

the three littles:

Ellie with her new shirt, necklace, and doll:

We took a short walk after dinner and when we got home Ellie was so exhausted that she collapsed onto the floor in her anguish, yelling "I'm not going to bed! I'm not tired! You go to bed! I'm not going to bed!"

Five minutes after this tirade I found her asleep on the floor. Maybe she'll be a bit calmer tomorrow. (sigh) Four is supposed to be easier than three, isn't it?

A Difficult Day

2008-06-24T18:32:00.009-05:00

I'm feeling all out-of-sorts today. Anna kept us up most of the night fussing, so Tony and I were pretty tired today. She had a sad accident yesterday in which she fell down and hit her mouth and knocked one of her front two teeth loose. We took her to the dentist, but there isn't anything he can do. We'll have to wait and watch to see if it will re-attach or come out completely. I'm really sad at the thought of her losing her tooth.

Here is her beautiful smile before:

and after:

Tomorrow is Ellie's birthday and I have grocery shopping and baking to do which I haven't had time to do because the baby chicks came unexpectedly one day early!

They are so amazingly cute I'll have to post a video of their cheeping when I get a chance. So far we have nicknames for them based on their markings, and we plan to watch them and discern their personalities a bit before naming them.

Baby chicks

2008-06-23T11:17:00.006-05:00

After the loss of Blaise, we decided that we needed to find some other sort of pet to keep and take a break from dog ownership for a while.

We do still have Maggie, but having Maggie isn't really that much like having a dog anymore. She has arthritis so she doesn't really run around, she can't jump up anymore, she doesn't chase her beloved frisby anymore, she doesn't come when we call her (we think she's mostly deaf), and she can't go for walks unless they are very short. What she does do is sleep, eat, drink, and hang out looking confused. Don't get me wrong, her funny old lady ways are very endearing. The reason we call her the bear dog is that she doesn't really shed anymore and because of all her hair she looks like she's part bear. Unfortunately, since she's nearly 15 we are assuming that she won't be with us too many more years.

So, while researching alternative pets, Margaret came up with the idea of keeping pet chickens. After a bit of consideration (and looking at our city ordinances) we decided this could be quite fun and also a bit productive since we can get eggs. We ordered 4 baby chicks (silver-laced wyandottes) from a hatchery and they are being shipped today. We expect to receive them Wed. or Thurs. and then the adventure will begin. We are complete poultry novices so we've been reading a lot about keeping chickens and we'll be learning a lot as we go, I'm sure.

Provided the hatchery has followed our instructions, the babies will be all girls because we can't keep a rooster in the city limits. Please vote in our name poll, and we'll post pictures and names as soon as we have them.

Anna's vocabulary

2008-06-23T11:11:00.004-05:00

Anna has been doing a lot of talking lately and she's surprisingly clear and easy to understand.

So far she can say:
uh-oh
no no
down
let go (she uses this with Ellie all the time :)
hi
bye
doggie
ma ma
daddy
marba (this is what she calls Margaret)

a few others I can't think of right now,
and just the other day she said

coo-kie.

Oh boy!

Simpsons Circus!

2008-06-09T22:07:00.007-05:00

We've been Simpsonized!

Tony Simpson

Keri Simpson

Margaret (not Marge) Simpson

Sophia Simpson

Ellie Simpson

Anna Simpson

It's a Lovely Morning

2008-06-03T08:46:00.003-05:00

The kids are playing,

the growing things are growing,

the trusty bear dog is at my side,

Tony finished the last leg of the fence, enclosing the breezeway,

and it looks so nice from the front,

and the pre-teen is still in bed, reading.

Photography by Keri

2008-06-02T15:43:00.003-05:00

Anna:

Sophia, wearing her black braided wig and looking very pensive:

Photography by Sophie

2008-06-02T15:37:00.002-05:00

Here are some photos by Sophia of the fish,

Princess Leia:

Aaron:

Aiden:

They are all male betta fish, so they live in separate tanks. I don't claim any responsibility for their silly names, which I may or may not have spelled correctly. :)

Blueberries

2008-05-20T10:47:00.001-05:00

Sophia, in motion and at rest

2008-05-19T15:25:00.003-05:00

Jumping from the window sill onto the bed.

"Watching a movie."

Wha' happened?

2008-05-19T15:20:00.003-05:00

Catch up time

2008-05-19T14:31:00.011-05:00

I've been busy and sick, which is a bad combination since being busy while sick inevitably leads to being sick longer than necessary. Due to the long interval between posting, we have lots to share, mostly in photos, so here goes.

These are our Pascha baskets from back in April. Pascha came much later than western Easter this year, causing confusion amongst our family and friends. Here is a fairly concise explanation of the disparity, for those who are interested: http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-dating-pascha-or-why-orthodox-in.html
The dark brownish-red eggs were dyed with onion skins, something new we tried this year and they turned out very nicely.

Maggie, aka the world's only midwestern bear dog, fell asleep under the crafting table and got covered with bits.

The girls had a nice day at the zoo recently, and Sophia made a new friend.

I tried to capture the beauty of the lilacs at twilight, but you really can't photograph the lovely smell, so this was the best I could do.

Anna was hanging around and doing that funny scrunchy nose thing she does, but due to the low light the photo is a bit blurry.

Margaret created this lovely greeting for me on Mother's Day that made me smile.

We have growing things in our Square Foot Garden beds at last. The black pots on the left have potatoes in them, the beds have beans, tomatoes, some herbs, lettuce, kale, spinach, and swiss chard in them.

I have more, but I'd better save them because blogger is acting up and I don't want to lose what I've posted so far.

More Fence

2008-05-19T14:22:00.003-05:00

The new fence now has a new gate, installed this weekend:

Fence!

2008-04-14T12:07:00.006-05:00

This weekend Tony worked hard and put up the rails and most of the boards for the fence.

Here the rails are going up:

This is the same side with the boards up:

This is the back corner of the yard, you can see how the fence turns the corner and the section that isn't finished yet:

And this is a view from the street. We have a little side yard now with bamboo and hopefully soon some gravel where we can park a car occasionally.