First Egg!

in case we weren't on enough of an emotional rollercoaster Sunday after discovering our lost chicken, the next day swung us in the opposite direction...with the buzz of finding THE FIRST EGG!

(sort of appears we had high expectations on our first day of egg collecting, with that big basket, doesn't it?)

And Then There Were Four

The raccoons took one of our chickens last night.



We spent the holiday weekend with Colleen and Ron, and were stumped when it came to deciding what to do with the chickens. We've never left them overnight before. They roost every night in their little henhouse, and Justin goes out sometime after dark and locks their door so that no predators get in, and he lets them out first thing in the morning. So---what to do, if we're not here? We weren't sure. We decided to leave extra food and water and hope that they stayed safe during our absence.



Off we went to enjoy the 4th of July and our extended family. Ron and Colleen took us to the parade, fed us extravagantly and loved on us for two whole days. We arrived back home yesterday afternoon and were relieved to see all five ladies milling about the yard, happy as can be. Wow, thought we, they did just fine. Guess they don't need to be locked up after all....



And then came this morning. We lay in bed and talked about how nice it was to not have to race outside first thing and let them out. We gloated about how happy they must be to not have to wait on us but to be able to wander outside any old time after the sun was up to go on the hunt for bugs. We felt so proud to have such strong hens that could defend themselves against the roaming neighborhood cats and coons.



Justin was in the shower when I realized I needed something from the car, something I forgot to bring in yesterday. I walked out past the coop barefoot, still in my jammies, and stared dumbly for several minutes at the scattered pile of feathers next to the Volvo. I couldn't figure out how the boys could have gathered so many feathers, and why they would have left them next to the car. I kept trying to remember what we had done yesterday evening and when it was that they played outside (they didn't). By the time I finally glanced over at the coop and saw another pile of feathers, outside the fence, my head was just starting to comprehend what I was seeing. I ran over to the fence, ducking to catch a glimpse under their building, calling them, scanning the yard. Four chickens came to greet me.



Back out to the car, where I finally saw a trail of flurried feathers leading through the parking area and out into--and all around--the front yard. Every six feet or so was another pile of feathers. My heart sank. I ran inside and yelled for Justin, and we went back into the yard.



What a way to wake up, right? And how could we not have heard anything through our open window? The trail led into the bushes, out to the street, and stopped at a neighbor's tree. By then we were finding evidence that our chicken wasn't so much what you might call "alive". We stepped back and shielded our eyes and searched the treetops for any kind of visible den, but those trees are so tall, and raccoons are so good at hiding. We couldn't see a thing.



It's a bit melancholy around our house today. It seems silly to be mourning the loss of an animal that we planned on eventually killing ourselves anyway. But we weren't ready, and it feels, rightly, like a life has been stolen. And there are still lessons in little moments like these. As we came back in and tried to compose what was left of our morning, and distract ourselves with making breakfast, the Lord brought to mind the parable of the shepherd, who will leave his flock of 99 to find just one that is missing. I feel a twinge of understanding, searching for the one that was lost. And I'm thinking: How much more, then, does Christ care for us, and long for our restoration?

***********************

Here are some photos from our weekend.

Doesn't Reubsy look handsome in his momma's glasses?

waiting for the parade:

justin and doug and (a few of) the boys:

lollys with gramma:

reuben, sam and sophie:

sparklers!

Shelfy's Long Swim Home

I have several friends who are in a season of waiting right now. They have all individually petitioned God for something and are waiting anxiously to see how it will all play out. In honor of them, I want to share something that happened at our house last week....

At Cole's 3rd birthday, his favorite gift was a stuffed trout that he received from Michael and Kristin. He named it Shelf. That was four years ago, and though different stuffed animals have been favorites at one time or another, Shelfy has always been in the top three. So around the time Sean was born, when I realized that I hadn't seen Shelf for awhile, I was worried. When Cole said that he hadn't seen him for awhile either, I was even more worried.

We started praying every night that Shelf would be found. Sort of trivial, I know, but this is spirituality at a six-year-old's level. Cole's friend was lost and we were grieving. We hoped that he would be returned safely, so we prayed. And prayed, and prayed, and prayed.

Months went by. Then, a few weeks ago, as I was tucking the boys into bed, Cole said, "Mom, I'm almost ready to give up hope for Shelfy. I'm starting to believe that we're never going to see him again. I don't think we should pray for him anymore." Knowing that their bedroom/playroom is an abyss and that there were still some places we hadn't uncovered, I told him, "That's okay if you want to give up on Shelfy, but I'm not ready to lose hope yet. I still believe that we'll find him someday. So you don't have to pray for him anymore, but I'm still going to..." Cole agreed that we should continue asking God just a little bit longer for Shelfy's safe return.

On Father's Day, Justin was talking to his dad in Portland and got online to send his dad a photo we took of Justin holding all four of the boys at once:

...when Justin's dad received the photo, he emailed us back....and lo and behold, at the end of his email, he said, randomly, "we found a stuffed trout at our house, and thought it might be Cole's..."

I was absolutely beside myself. The last time we were in Portland was August. It has been nearly a year since Shelf was home. After all this time, God answered our prayer! I began stalking the mailman until the fateful day that an oversized envelope appeared in our box. Acting nonchalant (but frantically pulling out my camera), I tossed it to Cole and told him he had a package....

God absolutely heard our prayer. All of our many, many prayers. I'm so thankful that we didn't find Shelf right away, and that we were forced to wait all those months, because I know now that Cole will never forget the day that Shelfy came home. He has surety now that the Lord heard him, and answered him.....even though the answer didn't come quickly. And I am so blessed, at my deepest core, that he has this foundational truth within him now. I can't imagine that he will ever ask in faith for anything the rest of his life, without remembering this moment, when his God heard him.

Sunday Night Slurpees

....aren't a tradition, but they should be!

Or then again, maybe not. Cole had pina colada, Reese had coca cola, and Reuben had mountain dew...

and I'm pretty sure that not one of them fell asleep before 10!





We've been talking at our planning meetings recently about ways that we can cut down on our trips in the car. Being a homeschooling mother of four, I hardly leave the house anyway; the weekends are the only times we ever really use the car, and that is only to do the obligatory errands of buying groceries and going to the bank. But still, we've been brainstorming what some of our other options might be.





So this week, Justin built this bad boy:

which is an extra bike that Nils gave us that Justin outfitted with two side-saddle bags and two milk crates. Our Big Idea was to begin using this for groceries instead of the car (though I doubt I can do Costco on it...what do you think?) We tried it out on a quick Daddy Run to the corner 7-11 after dinner before Justin took it on its true maiden voyage, later last night, to the Fred Meyer store 2 miles away. Our list wasn't incredibly long, but he did easily make it there and back with all the groceries intact (including two dozen eggs).

It's nice to know that at least for the summer months--we have this option now. If the list is longer on any given day, we can hitch up the bike trailer and double the carrying capacity.

Quote of the Day:
"I ran over Superman with the lawnmower today. He wasn't very super" --Daddy Justin

Metamorphosis

Ever since June hit a few weeks ago, the boys have spent the better part of every afternoon out scouring the yard for caterpillars. I'm not sure what started this trend, but they've become quite proficient at the hunt. Even determined little Reuben--who used to rely on his older brothers to satisfy his bug-lust--set off entirely on his own a few days ago and stumbled out of the brush some time later with a beaming smile on a face and a wriggly little caterpillar dangling from his fingers.




Needless to say, we now have all sorts of jars and tin cans littering the front porch. They are filled with snails, caterpillars, potato bugs, you name it...and topped with the timeless waxed-paper-poked-with-a-fork-and-held-down-with-rubber-bands ensemble.



This past Sunday morning, Justin and I were on the couch reading the paper, occasionally glancing out the front window at the boys (some still jammy-clad) playing out in the grass, when Cole burst through the door with this:

which is, of course, a perfect little cocoon he discovered in the glass Ball jar that was suddenly and inexplicably missing its caterpillar resident...

I might have been even more excited than he was. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a real cocoon before (other than one on display at the zoo, perhaps)...we are anxiously awaiting the next stage of life to appear!

Camera Love

justin bought a card reader for the computer this week

here is my buddy on the new swing

playing pirate man

"mama, please, i hold him baby sean?"

(this one's a little blurry, but oh, the joy on his face)

...and to top it off, a father's day photo shoot at auntie sam's

The Alphabet And The Sea

Quote of the Day:


"MOM! MOM! I JUST DISCOVERED SOMETHING! A "U" is an upside-down octopus head, and an octopus head is an upside-down "U"!" --Reese, age 4, Lover of All Things Of The Sea