Transformation

Our transition in sending C and AB to school this year proved to be much harder on AB than on C. She tends to be initially shy, and boldness is not really one of her characteristics, whereas her big brother is 100% outgoing and bold. She tends to hide intentionally in his shadows but going to school made that difficult. She had a rough go at the beginning of the year just trying to find friends and be confident in a classroom setting.

When I posted months ago about the school's fundraiser (Rollin' Roar), I saw first hand how hesitant AB was in participating in the fun. Every girl in her class sang karaoke as an activity. AB sat out with me and her young siblings and told me she was way too embarrassed to join them.

Wednesday the 4th graders were in charge of chapel. AB invited us to attend and said she had many speaking parts and a costume to prepare. At school I was shocked to see the transformation!
She stood before the entire school and said her lines in a microphone with confidence and clarity.
And what really was a shock was when AB played the roll of a teacher and volunteered to bring her Mimi Blair's old wig as part of her costume. I was so proud to see my shy daughter breaking out of her insecurities and displaying growth of character, not to mention getting some laughs with her great costume.

Chickens Stage 2

About 7 years ago we decided to get chickens. We ordered 20 Rhode Island Red baby chicks from the local co-op in hopes to have lots of eggs. Unfortunately we ended up with 15 roosters and not many eggs. Later we decided to have pet chickens and bought a bunch of bantam chickens...the ones that stay very little. They flew the coop (literally) and became free range, laying eggs wherever they pleased. The kids loved them and named each and every one. They had babies and we welcomed more chicks because they are so fun and cute. In October of 2009 they had multiplied to 51 bantams. Last week we had 2 left - one rooster and one hen. Remember my post about the raccoons??

This past week we embarked on a new chicken level for the Fish Family. We purchased 19 laying hens and 1 rooster to keep them in line. These are the regular sized, big ones which we haven't had in a while. We also purchased 25 broilers. Those are the fast growing chickens that we will butcher and eat in 6 weeks. No, we are not quite brave enough to butcher them ourselves but it might be in our future. Right now, we will drive them to a processing plant and come home to fill our freezer. We are pretty excited about this next stage of our hobby farm and plan on getting chicks every 3 weeks to keep the chicken coming.

Rule #1 for the Fish Sticks: DO NOT NAME THE BROILER CHICKENS. WE WILL BE EATING THEM! So far, the rule has been adhered to, but I can tell it's been hard.

Spring Is...

Puppy dogs who love being country dogs. She may not be smart,
but as My Man says, "She sho is purty!"

Baby Chicks

Lent Tree getting ready for Easter celebration

Sunglasses and drinking hot cocoa at the same time

Dogs who like to chase ducks and wade in the pond
and Mamas who don't like to bath dogs that often!

Painted toenails ready for flip flops

And catching fish in the pond and getting it ready for the grill.

The Fishes welcome SPRING!!!

Spring Break

This week is spring break. To start it off, we headed to the lake house. Having the lake house these last 10 months has been wonderful for our family, but it has one drawback. It requires work. Now I am a woman with a strong work ethic, but I can allow my filing papers to stack up or folded laundry to sit a few days before acting on them. My Man, on the other hand, has never received a "Honey Do" list from me because he sees and does projects before I notice they need to be done. It's a huge blessing, but can have drawbacks sometimes too. It's hard for him to relax when necessary at the lake house. He sees projects everywhere he looks, many are unnoticed by me or others.

Many times we have sweated over this front yard. As you can see, it's on a huge slope. We've had issues with erosion and slight landslides onto the driveway. We've tried just about everything My Man can think of...and he's a really smart guy.
This week we took rocks from way down at the bottom of the driveway and threw them way up the yard to fill in the hole rock by rock in hopes to prevent it from continually sliding down onto the driveway. It was no easy job, but we had lots of "helpers" and fabulous warm weather to go with it.

And we had all these ladybugs to entertain and amaze us on the porch once again.
And after all that sweat and toil, we must make time for fun. So what's funner than loading up the Fish Sticks and driving the 4-wheeler to the park for pizza and play?






But then back home to more projects. Wax on. Wax off.
But ah, the life of a dog, who likes to play Sphinx on the edge of the driveway.
And then a movie in the movie theatre with popcorn to make it complete. Even with a little work, it's still spring break and we are enjoying it.

A Day in the Middle Ages

GCA had Middle Ages Day the last day before spring break. The middle schoolers had been researching a person from the middle ages that they had to dress up like for the special day. The cafeteria was decorated as the Great Hall and the "important guests" were introduced individually and assigned a special seat as the head. The meal was eaten in "castle style" with all the foods that the castle would have served...venison stew, hard bread, fruit cobbler, hard boiled eggs, roasted chicken, grape juice and cheeses and no eating utensils.
There were kings, princes, queens, princesses, monks, friars, warriors, saints, knights and many other important guests.
And this would be Marco Polo - the great explorer of Asia, friend to Kublai Khan. And where did Marco's Mama get his great Russian fur hat, you ask?? That would be the fur collar of his Nonie's childhood coat with several safety pins. It served the Payne kids well in the dress-up box and hasn't let us down yet!

And the rest of the school...well, they were peasants. But in spite of their low social status, they still received free snow cones from the snow cone man that treated the entire school.

Including 4 very grateful little Fish Sticks (who had never had snow cones before).
And in the Great Hall the Fish Sticks stuck to the edge of the wall and ate their lunches like good little peasants too. (Ruth is not angry, just grunting to open her water bottle, btw.)
They had fencing demonstrations (above - Marco Polo is far right), jousting with scooters and swim noodles and archery. What a fun way to end school before break!

What a Treat for Me!

It's been a year and 3 months since I last posted about a get together with my college roommate and best friend. It's so sad that we live about 1 hour from each other and see each other so seldom. I think I saw her about once a year when we lived 3 hours away from each other...of course that was before we had 10 kids between the 2 of us.

Melissa drove to my house with her 4 kiddos and treated me to a wonderful treat! She was pregnant in my wedding and now her oldest is 15...the perfect babysitting age - not to mention her next is right behind at 13 years. I left my 4 younger kids in the hands of her 4 kids and we went to lunch. No kids. No interruptions. No diaper changing. No nose wiping. No bottom wiping. No passing out cheerios while we wait for the meal to arrive. Just 2 adults who love spending time together but rarely do - chatting, catching up and reminiscing about our crazy days in college. It was a special treat and she said we will do it again. Hopefully sooner than 1 year away. I can't wait!! Thanks Mel - I had a great time!

Final Sibling Post

During Rachel's visit we never had a time when all 4 siblings were together. We kept crossing paths in 3's but never 4's so we seized every photo opportunity we could, no matter how incomplete.

The Payne Girls

Once when Rachel was graduating and Justin was in another state in the hospital, the sisters posed a photo with an empty space and sad faces to let Justin know we were just incomplete without him. We decided we needed to do it again for our big sis, Katie! So Sad!
Pops found this photo of me (probably age 11-12) being a little Mommy to my baby brother, Justin, with toddler Rachel standing by. (Anyone agree that AB looks like her Mommy?)

And here we are, the 3 of us, many years later.

We sure did have a super visit with Rachel and her kiddos. It's sad we can't get together more often, but the miles separate us too much. Eric, thanks for sending your wife and kids to us for 10 long days while you ate tv dinners and stayed in an empty house that was too quiet. We sure appreciate it. And Rachel, thanks for braving the airways with 2 little ones in tow, rushing through busy airports and sitting during layovers to come visit us. We love you and miss you!

Wheels

A few years back we had our driveway paved and have never regretted it. Have you ever thought of the difficulty of teaching your kids to ride bikes, scooters, roller skates, really any wheeled toy on gravel?? We have and we did it for years until we paved. Now wheeled toys are what we do. Scooters, Diego trikes, Power Wings, Rip Sticks, bicycles...you name it. Even some adults gave the more challenging wheels a try. Don't be fooled...they look much easier than they are!