And Another One Bites the Dust

Another chicken, that is. We've lost 2 in the last 3 weeks.  Which is sad.  And perplexing. And of some concern.  Do we have a hideous illness? I hope not!

So now we have 22 chickens, which are giving us about a dozen eggs per day. That's enough for our simple needs plus we do sell to a few friends on occasion.

Can I say here publicly HOW MUCH I appreciate my dear husband Kevin?  Dead animals totally freak me out, and in our long and illustrious marriage I have rarely had to deal with a dead animal. I am so thankful that Kevin deals with the dead possums, skunks, guinea pigs, raccoons, cats, and chickens.

Na-No-Wri-Mo Update

Naomi has written (in 4 short days) a WHOPPING 22,000 words in her novel!  Amazing.  I think she needs to increase her word count...originally it was 30,000.  Of course, she may run out of plot soon in which case she'll need to stop.

Lydia has been plugging away and has between 3000 and 4000 words.

Miriam has been a big surprise.  She is almost 8 years old, and I've not taught her much about grammar and punctuation.  To my shock, she is writing her own novel -- I mean, she is actually typing it in instead of having one of her older siblings type for her.  What she is doing is obviously WAY harder, and I am proud of her.  She has written about 400 words, not easy for a 7 year old!  I am considering how much to help her polish and edit it, since her dialogue in particular is fairly hard to follow. I will say this...she is using quotation marks close to correctly, which is impressive.

Joseph decided against writing a novel this year.  His big sisters are too busy to do a lot of typing for him, and he doesn't feel up to writing like Miriam is.

So far, my girls have been more "natural" writers than my boys, which is typical.  I will encourage both boys to do Na-No-Wri-Mo some year, but not this year.

All in all, I'm impressed and pleased with the first 4 days of Na-No-Wri-Mo in our household.

Na-No-Wri-Mo

And it began!  Yesterday!  National Novel Writing Month!

Na-No-Wri-Mo is a monthly effort by hundreds (maybe thousands) of writers to produce a book in one short month.  It may be a SHORT book, but a book nonetheless.

 Adults need to produce at least 50,000 words, but children under 18 can choose the length of their book. If they succeed, they get 5 free copies of their bound book.

Naomi and Lydia are both trying for 30,000 words.  Joseph and Miriam have much lower word count goals.

I'm excited to see how well they do this month. The 2 big girls are, in my humble opinion, wonderful writers for their ages.  I'm looking forward to the results.

Gotta Start Them Young...

  Not really, of course.  We DO start our kids young on laundry, but not ages 2 and 1.  No, our sweet young ones just LOVE to mess with the washer and dryer.  We like the front loaders, but the buttons are accessible and both machines make cute little noises when the buttons are pushed.  Downright irresistible.  At least there is a Child Lock feature for both machines.

The Location of the Plastic Dishes

   I thought I'd mention one little thing we do to make life easier around here.  First, we use plastic bowls, cups, and plates for most meals.  That, of course, is to minimize the chance of breakage.

  Another big thing we do is we have these items stored in a lower cupboard so they are accessible to short people.  Our 6 year old currently sets the table.  She can easily reach in and grab what she needs.  I don't need to help.

  Our 2 and 9 year olds, who empty the dishwasher, can easily put the plastic dishes away. Yes, our 2 year old is starting to help with this.

  Just a little tidbit that I thought might be helpful. I read about this idea somewhere -- having the dishes near ground level -- and it has been a huge time saver for me and enables the children to do more.

The Last Couple of Days

Isaac finally succumbed to the illness on Thursday night. Thankfully, he was only sick for a few short hours and was mostly recovered by Friday.  He does have lesions on his face, one of the fun symptoms of this illness.

Yesterday, Lydia and Isaac walked way back to check out the fall colors and kick large mushrooms on the ground.

We've been on a chess craze this week.  I don't enjoy chess, but most of the children do.

Kevin made very tasty sticky buns!

They were delicious!

One morning, it snowed.  In late October.  Kids were thrilled.

One By One...

  At the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring (the first of the Lord of the Rings movies), the narrator solemnly intones something like: "One by one, the free peoples of Middle Earth fell to the power of the One Ring."

  Here, it is more like, "One by one, the children fall to the power of the Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease."

Ok, it doesn't have quite the same ring (ha ha, pun!) but you get the idea.  The kids are sick.  Daniel got it exactly a week ago and is close to recovered.  Miriam and Angela got it yesterday, and spent much of today huddled in miserable, weepy balls on the couch.

  All the children have had it except Isaac and Naomi, and N. may have gotten a touch of it. Kevin has it. So far, I do not. I have a remarkable ability to stay healthy until everyone is healthy, and THEN I get sick. Usually I get quite pompous about my immune system, and then I fall to The Illness.  So we'll see what happens this time.

  In some ways, a semi-major illness is a total pain.  The kids are unhappy, I get less sleep than usual, and I have extra work because some kids cannot do their chores.  On the other hand, in some ways life is simplified.  I fairly often battle anxiety about whether I am using my time well. Should I do extra school?  Should I take the kids on a field trip?  Should we go to the library? The park? 

 When we have a fairly serious illness, I know what I need to do. Stay home.  Keep the routine moderately stable.  Minister to the sick. Comfort the miserable.  There is less anxiety because I don't have to wonder if I am using my time wisely. Basically, we are in crisis mode and I just want us to survive :-).

  Of course, I don't WANT us to be sick, but I am trying to be content in all circumstances.