The *Almost* Stay Home Pajama Day

Ayden slept in this morning and since Daddy was already gone when he woke up, he wasn't in any hurry to get out of bed.  We snuggled in bed for a while before getting the day started and it was pure bliss.

Chicken chores have fit pretty easily into our morning routine.  We typically head outside around 10am or so to take Maverick for his walk, get some fresh air and play so we just take care of them then.

PJ pants change after he peed on his way to the potty.
He's *almost* got it...

We ended up changing out of our PJs at around 2:00.  My sister needed a favor and we needed a couple of ingredients for dinner so we finally ventured out for a couple of hours.

The sky when we got home.

One more pull of the wagon!

Ayden ended up skipping his nap because of our last minute errands.  He usually falls asleep in the car if we are driving during his nap time but he did not today.  Instead of putting him down for a late nap when we got home we just powered through and put him to bed a half hour early.  David put him down tonight and it took all of 10 minutes (if that!).  He was exhausted!  It is safe to say our little man still needs a nap, though he does relatively well without one behavior wise.  

What do you do when your child misses a nap?  Late nap/later bedtime or power through/early bedtime?  Either option works for Ayden but David and I need time to decompress in the evenings so we prefer the put him to bed early option.  

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Taking A Break"

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The Amazing Day

Today was amazing for a few reasons.

1) Getting the house "guest ready" on a Sunday night was an awesome way to start the week. I may just make that a ritual as long as we don't have other things going on (which we typically do not on Sunday nights). We woke up, put in a load of laundry, had breakfast, cleaned up from breakfast got ready and got outside (as to not undo said guest ready state of the house)!  It was so nice to just get right to playing without any chores to knock out before hand. 

2) We got eleven eggs from our girls today. There is something magical about opening he nest box lid to find those little treasures. These hens are already enriching our lives in so many ways. 

3) We hosted our Monday play group and it was a great success!  I had spiced cider for the moms and lots of toys out for the kids. It lasted about an hour and a half and a great time was had by all. We do need to get at least one more boy involved though. As it stands, there are 6 moms (3 of which have 2 kids) and Ayden is the only boy. We'll just call him The Ladies Man for now... 

On Monday afternoons I put in a couple of office hours at the family dance studio. Between that, the play group, chicken entertainment and lots of outdoor play, today seriously FLEW by!  Tonight is our at home date night. Can't wait to spend some quality time with my favorite man!

Did your day fly by or creep by today? I have a feeling tomorrow will be a creeper because we do not plan on even leaving the house. We may just make it a pajama day while we are at it.

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Farm Life"

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Casual Sunday

These were the only pictures I took today:

We ate our first batch if eggs from our own backyard, had a photo shoot for some friends, and Ayden and I took naps while David worked on some house designing. I am hosting our play group tomorrow so after dinner and bath time, David put Ayden to bed while I got the house ready for a group of toddlers and their mommies.  I think Ayden will be excited to see them at his house tomorrow!

It wasn't too exciting of a day today but it was full of good stuff all around. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

~Sarah

All Cooped Up

Today was chicken day!!  We started at the farmer's market then stopped by a local doughnut shop for a treat.

This artist has a couple of beautiful murals around town.

Maple bacon doughnut and a vanilla latte.
So delish and so worth the indulgence!

Then it was the moment we've been preparing for!

Getting acquainted.

14 Rhode Island Red ladies.

Checking out the roost bars.

And the nest boxes.

They really loved the food we chose!

David went out to add some chicken wire to the ventilation holes (we decided predators could probably get in through them if they wanted to) and he heard a celebratory "ba-GOK!  He opened the flap over the nest boxes to find THREE eggs!  He called me out so I swooped Ayden up and headed out to see for myself.  On my way out I heard another hen celebrating (they do this every time they lay an egg) so when I opened the flap I found four eggs!  They were here for less than two hours and already provided tomorrow's breakfast.

We are so excited about finally taking this step and Ayden is soaking it all up!  He was talking about how they were scratching their feet and looking for bugs.  He was mimicking all of their quiet noises as they were exploring their little yard.

You are actually supposed to keep new chickens cooped up (literally) for 4-7 days until they consider their new coop as their new home.  We let them out just so we could let them find a few bugs and so we could see them enjoying everything we put together for them.  Even though it took us a while to catch them one by one to return them to the coop it was worth being able to see them doing their chicken thing!

Do you know anyone with chickens or have any yourself?  What is your (or their) number one piece of advice?

~Sarah


Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Ayden's First Dance Competition"

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Cycle Of Change

David and I had a good laugh over this last night because it is so us!

We make decisions and incorporate things into our lives. Then, after a while, we are ready for some changes. On a quest to discover what those changes are, we hyper schedule and go to some extremes. Eventually we start to feel overwhelmed and tired so we pick and choose what we like from all the things we are trying out and settle into a new normal... Until we are ready for change again. It is a definitely a cyclical process.  There are some tried and true constants but for the most part, we are a family that thrives on variety and the excitement of the unknown. 

Our chickens come tomorrow. Talk about adding some excitement to our lives and change to our days. We will be opening up the coop and collecting eggs every morning then feeding the hens and closing the coop up every night. We'll have 14 new living creatures to take care and inspect the health of. It will be a two way relationship (farm fresh eggs are so amazing) but also a new, added responsibility. I would imagine we will go through the same process with them that we do anything else. First we will feel excited. Then the excitement will wear off and we may feel overwhelmed for a bit as we change things around and find our new "norm." After some time passes and we figure things out,  we will finally adapt.  They will become part of our routine and we will be ready for the next exciting step in this adventure. 

We are taking things slow for this very reason. We know ourselves and know that if we take on too much at once, we'll be more likely to throw in the towel in an effort to find balance again. Taking off one bite at a time is the key to our success.

We do have one amazing thing to our advantage. We have a sweet little helper who is excited about life and loves farm animals. If the eggs aren't enough to make it all worth it, he is!

How about you?  Does that cartoon sum up your life like it does ours?

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "What's A Fishy Say?"

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Fresh Fall Air

I had to get new tires today. Boooo!!  It is always so expensive to replace tires and it takes a lot of time. The thought of wrangling a toddler in the sitting area of a tire store (would that even be possible?!) was daunting to say the least. Instead of attempting the impossible, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Along with desperately needing new tires, my hair was also in desperate need of a trim. I decided to choose a tire store within walking distance from my hair salon then made the tire appointment for 1:30 and my trim for 2:00. I dropped the car off, strapped Ayden into the Ergo and enjoyed a 10 minute walk to the hair salon.  I got in early since we arrived early and afterward, we walked back.

It was the perfect, crisp Fall day for a stroll and Ayden and I both enjoyed the closeness that baby wearing offers since we don't do it much these days. We talked about all the sights and sounds and shared an apple along the way. Sometimes multitasking is just the only way to get things done!

Have you killed two birds with one stone lately?

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "The New Norm?"

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Tea Time

Now that it has gotten colder, I have been drinking hot tea every morning (and sometimes again at night). Ayden has, of course, noticed this and always wants some too. My go-to morning tea is English Breakfast tea which does have some caffeine in it. Since caffeine is the last thing our energetic boy needs, I have been either steeping him his own cammimile or  just warming up his morning milk. He gets it in an old mug of mine, which he LOVES and calls it "hot tea."  His favorite thing to do is sit down on the rug in front of our kitchen door with the mug beside him.  He takes a sip then sets it back down, waits a minute and does it again.  He always looks so grown up sipping out of his mug. Today, he took that looking grown up thing one step further. Instead of sitting in his booster for breakfast, he decided he wanted to sit on a "sool." 

I am overwhelmed by the rate at which our baby is growing and savoring every fleeting moment. 

What big kid things does your toddler do?  Anyone figured out how to slow it all down?!?

~Sarah

Flashback! Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "On A Roll"

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