Soggy Chickens and Wet Afternoons

Today was a nice soggy day. The older kids were at Pomerelle for their last day of skiing (hopefully getting snow- not rain) and that meant Heidi, Reagan and I stayed home to do school, laundry and make cinnamon rolls. This afternoon I stepped outside to check to see if I needed to give the hens more protection from the rain. The little kids followed me sporting their collection of pink parasols and helped collect eggs.
It actually felt quite spring-like with everything dripping wet instead of frozen solid and Heidi asked if we could go for a walk. Now the strange thing is that if the weather had been nice, I bet I would have said, "No, I was planning on finishing a sewing project this afternoon." But instead, because it was grey and raining I said "Sure!"
We walked over to the pond and listened to the rain falling on it. Then we ambled down to the river where we saw geese and ducks and deer tracks and noticed the place we swim at in the summer is certainly gloomy looking in the winter.
Reagan's umbrella has seen better days....
Did you know we have aquired a rooster? We didn't really want a rooster, but once you have chickens I guess everyone figures you must want more. (Actually, I do want more chickens but I am interested in the egg laying variety.) And so, we have a rooster and we've named him Bill. :-) He is quite a character. He free ranges and sleeps in the pine tree above the rabbit hutch.

"To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic abberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense."
Charles Darwin,
Origin of the Species

And speaking of eyes, here is an optical illusion to wig your eyes out with. When you look directly at a wheel it doesn't move but letting your eyes rove around the picture makes it all seem to come alive. Optical illusions are so weird.

Politics

I've never discussed politics on my blog - I guess like this to be a "happy place". But for some reason I felt like sharing a Wall Street Journal clip concerning Obama's failure to include his campaign promised tax cuts for small businesses in the stimulus package. Hey, why should Obama do tax cuts for business (that would actually help our economy grow) when he can just give a personal tax cut to all us that make under $75,000? Yah, I'm banking on that extra $7 a week to really change things for my family..... :-O Seriously, I think with these kinds of policies being implemented we are pretty much assuring ourselves of Depression times to come. *think happy thoughts...happy thoughts..*

Skiing

Hailey documented last week's ski session for us. Here are some of the pictures she took:
This was her view as they were getting close to the mountain.

Here's Torsten getting ready to get on the lift.
The day started out nice and pretty clear and you could see all the way up the mountain.
But by the afternoon, the clouds rolled in and it started to snow.

Taylor in the lodge taking a break to eat lunch.
Then heading back out to get more skiing in before going home.This has been such a fun ski year because so many of our homeschool friends were doing the same program! This was also the year of learning how to jump and to ski really fast- no more snow-plowing for Taylor. :-) The kids are sad that there is only 1 more ski day left!

Are they not making soap like they used to?

My Reagan, who is not yet 5, sometimes likes to say words that are not so lovely. Not cuss words or BAD words, more along the lines of bathroom words- if you know what I mean. He really thinks it's quite funny and the kids and I are pretty tired of it. So last night, the older kids came in the kitchen and told me "Mom, he's saying those words again." Okay, what am I going to do about this bad habit of his? I need to do something! Shaking my head sorrowfully and with a shocked tone of voice I said,
"Oh Reagan, now your mouth is dirty and I have to wash it out. Come over to the sink."
"It's dirty?" he asked with surprise.
"Yes, I need to wash it clean because you've been saying yucky words."
"Okay."
He calmly walked over to the kitchen sink. (He's taking this better than I thought he would. Isn't he supposed to be showing signs of trepidation at this point?)
I boosted him up to the sink and put a squirt of Ultra Concentrate Dawn on his tongue and then started wiping it around. (Okay.... still no reaction. When are the signs of disgust supposed to start?)
Finally, I turned the faucet on for the rinse cycle and proceeded to finish Reagan's tongue bath, which is all that I feel I've accomplished by this point.
I put him down and asked "Are you going to say naughty words anymore?"
"No.....Mom does it look clean now?" He opened his mouth for me to inspect while I tried hard not to laugh.
Then as he left, Reagan said to me, without a trace of cheekiness, "Mom, that soap tasted good!"
I think this whole little exercise didn't quite work out the way it was supposed to....when did soap start tasting good?

Lovely Little Bunnies

I just had to use the word lovely in the title, because Reagan uses it all the time and it makes me laugh ("Mom, you're such a lovely Mom"). Anyway, here are some photos of our lovely bunnies that Heidi adores. They are so incredibly soft and plump- you can't help but want to squeeze them.