Tea Time

Don't call me at 2:00 in the afternoon. If you do, I may not answer, and if I do answer, you will undoubtedly be interrupting my favorite time of day. At approximately 2:00 in the afternoon, my girls and I get up from our quiet time, and sit around the kitchen table with tea and a snack. Today we (or should I say they) polished off the bag of "baked" potato chips with homemade French Onion Dip. I love to look into their sparkling brown eyes as they share bites with one another and with me, and tell me all the random thoughts that cross their minds.

Babies for Sale

No, not my girls! They, of course, are Priceless..... I'm finally trying to sell all my baby canaries. Sonny and Tinka had 8 total this year - 7 survived, and the final five are up for sale. Any takers?! The two males have beautiful song.

Project Man

After making a beautiful lattice arbor for one of my flower beds this summer (which the clematis loves), Adam decided to get creative again and is now making a wooden bridge for my other flower bed. It will provide some great interest, and will help break up the space.

Edible Art Projects

Today I came in from the gardens to find Kaelin in a good mood - finally! She has not been feeling well, but she greeted me with a smile and was literally smacking her lips. I asked her what she was eating, and she ran to get it - she had found Rachel's art project from Sunday School this morning, which was a small paper plate with oatmeal, rice, and whole grains glued to it. Kaelin was picking them off and eating them.....thankfully Rachel was out of the house and still doesn't know anything about it!

July...

We are almost through the rush of July birthdays. Adam's is next week, and that will take care of it for our families. I just posted a picture of the girls having a "stair party" - i.e. practicing for all our combined birthday parties! They had fun. When they were done, they threw all their guests down the stairs. We'll have to work on hostess behavior...

Timber!

For those who haven't heard, we bought a very old house last fall, and have been thoroughly enjoying having a place of our own. However, as everyone knows, home ownership is a lot of work, and in our case, adding a few decades worth of neglect adds to the excitement. There was a huge old tree hanging over our roof, which Adam and a few neighbors were finally able to take down a couple weeks ago. In addition, Adam has taken down a few more smaller dead trees and dead parts of trees. We've been told our yard was quite the jungle some time back. We've definitely had our work cut out for us this spring!

Sonny-boy

After 15 years of dreaming, I finally took the plunge and bought a canary this past week. What a sweetheart! I didn't realize that even baby birds (he's only 2 months) could be so social! We're calling him Sonny (or Sonny-boy) right now, though that might change. We've been back and forth on name possibilities, but so far Sonny is sticking. He is a quiet but cheerful little guy, very busy in his cage, and very curious about everything going on in the house around him. He seems to enjoy having his cage brought into the kitchen so he can be close to the girls and I during breakfast and morning chores. The girls think he's great, and love saying "Goodmorning sunshine" to him when they get up. Kaelin gets most excited, and will just start to squeal and laugh at him. We're not actually he is a "he" yet, since he's so young, but of all his sibblings (there were 4 babies from his nest), he was one of the most active. He talks a lot, but because he's a canary, it's a quieter chirping, almost like he was outside. Once in awhile he really gets going, and it sounds like he's ready to break into song, though that's not supposed to happen for a couple more months. By the way, here's an interesting trivia fact - songbirds, like male canaries, have to have a special "songfood" to help them develop their vocal cords and make them sing! He'll get started on that in a few more weeks, and then we'll see what happens.