Birds

One of the advantages in of living in the country is the wildlife. Of course, this can also be a disadvantage, depending on the wildlife. Lately we've been seeing lots of amazing birds.


This little golden winged warbler hit our front window. He lay on the concrete for awhile and I wasn't sure he was going to make it. Ethan and I both went out and held him for a few minutes. He was tiny. Thankfully, he was just stunned and flew away a little while after that.
This photo is hard to see so you may have to click on it to view this bird better. It's an indigo bunting. He visited our feeder multiple times a day for about a week and then disappeared. He was so blue!

Of course we have a hummingbird feeder too. We see a few hummers but lately we've seen more finches on our hummer feeder. It's bizarre.

And they actually are drinking out of the feeder too.

We often see and hear sandhill cranes. They are beautiful creatures. And a couple weeks ago we actually saw some baby cranes. And I had my camera with.

I like to try to take the boys to feed ducks during the late spring months. It's such a cheap, fun outing.

The boys enjoy eating the cheap bread almost as much as they love feeding the ducks. After eating homemade whole wheat bread, it's like dessert.

I hope you enjoy these photos. I am fairly certain my next few posts won't be so light-hearted. We're dealing with a lot around here, but I'm not quite ready to share yet. In the meantime, I'd appreciate your prayers for peace and wisdom.

Blessings,

"Ben Fwankwin!"

Ethan's my little bookworm. Yes, that's him reading during breakfast. (I wonder who he learned that from?!) A couple months back, Ethan received this book:
Well, Elijah discovered it a little while ago and he has become quite fixated on "Ben Fwankwin." And not necessarily in a good way. He's terrified of this picture of Ben Franklin! He doesn't like to see it or be near it.

I went to get him off the potty the other day. (He can handle the "mount" but needs assistance with his "dismount.") When I opened the door, Elijah held his hand up in front of me and yelled, "BEN FWANKWIN!" I guess that was his two year old way of telling me he wasn't done with his business yet. I laughed so hard that both boys have started holding out their hands and saying it for just about any reason.

So then the other day Elijah and Ethan were playing downstairs and Elijah in all of his two year old enthusiasm had started chasing Ethan around with the end of the vacuum attachment.

Ethan recognized Elijah was getting pretty wild and he started to get a little concerned that Elijah was going to actually hit him.

It wouldn't be the first time.

So Ethan ran over to the bookshelf and pulled out the Ben Franklin book. He held the cover up as Elijah was running towards him and yelled, "Ben Franklin!" Elijah saw the picture, screamed, and quickly ran in the other direction.

Boys!

Museum Fun

In the last few weeks, the boys and I (along with Gramma and Papa) were able to visit some museums in the twin cities - for free! This is part of the twin cities library's program called Museum Adventure Pass. If you're in the area, you should definitely check it out. You can "check out" passes for 2-4 people to visit a variety of museums, at no cost. We are about 45 minutes from the cities, which makes it a perfect day trip or overnight at my parents' if we choose.

The first museum we visited was the Jackson Street Roundhouse, a train museum and working turntable. There a half a dozen different railroad cars that you can walk through or even pretend to drive. They also have a shop where they work on restoring very old train cars. The boys had a ball as they are both "train brains." It runs in the family as my grandfather was a railroad man who worked for the Grand Trunk railroad.

This is the turntable that revolves around to store cars in the roundhouse. We got to ride the turntable which was pretty cool.

Elijah loved going in the different train cars. He's a very tactile kid and loves to manipulate things.

The second museum we went to is the Bell Museum of Natural History. I went to this museum myself as a child. Elijah was less entertained here as it's less hands on and more visual. They have a touch and see room that both boys enjoyed though.

Here's Ethan dressed as a bear and sleeping in a bear den.

The dioramas are wonderfully done, but Elijah wasn't too impressed. He did like this loon one though as he has a stuffed loon at home that he used to be quite attached to.

I'm hoping to go to an art museum or two in the near future using these passes. I can't pass up anything free!

Mental Health Day

We had a LONG day yesterday in the cities, car shopping and visiting with my parents for my dad's birthday and when we got home I went to bed early. When I woke up this morning, I felt fine. We ate breakfast and I did a few things, but then while I was in the shower, I just felt this overwhelming sadness and I started to cry. And then I couldn't stop.

So back to bed I went. I didn't really get out of bed until an hour or so ago.

This doesn't happen to me often. Paul doesn't quite understand it when it happens and it's very hard for me to communicate what I'm feeling when I'm in the thick of it.

I miss my babies. Paul took down the baby gate at the top of the stairs today. That wouldn't have happened if Felicity were here. If Jeremiah were here, I'd be feeling lots of movement and eager anticipation for his due date in Oct.

I feel broken. Instead of my body being a haven for growing babies, it's a place where babies die. It's really hard to like my body when it has betrayed me in the cruelest way.

I think these feelings are normal. They're not fun, but I think they ARE normal. It's what I do with these feelings that's most important. And right now I'm struggling with that part too.

BUSY

I have a bunch of fun ideas for posts, but no time lately. Been busy trying to finish school - WE'RE DONE! (though hoping to work on music and art this summer), had to make an emergency trip down to the cities because Paul got rear-ended yesterday on his way home. He seems to be okay, but is quite sore and feeling pretty out of it. Unfortunately, our car is totaled so there are many decisions to make involving that. It was not his fault, so please pray that the other driver's insurance pays and quickly. I'm also trying to figure out some health issues and make decisions regarding who I should see, which really means deciding how much money we are willing to spend on it. Please pray for us this week AGAIN!

Thank you for your prayers for Felicity's 8 Month Heaven Day. I made it through. We have been in desperate need of rain here for weeks and finally it rained that day. It actually helped my mood having a cold rainy day.

Oh, funny thing. The day after I blogged about my favorite sandals, I found another pair at a thrift store! They are brand new, fit perfectly and actually are a nicer brand and I got them free with a coupon! So I'm happily wearing my new pair and making a little less noise. I haven't gotten rid of the other pair, I haven't had the heart yet.

Blessings,

Addiction

I have an addiction. Okay, I have a few addictions, but this one has been consuming me lately.

It's not necessarily a bad addiction, but it's there nonetheless. This is my addiction:
Yep, these nasty old sandals are my addiction. (Sorry for the vertical photo - blogger won't let me fix it.) They are OLD and being that they were so cheap to begin with, they have not aged well. I bought them while pregnant with Elijah and have happily worn them for the past three years and through two pregnancies. I LOVE THEM!

I'm not a shoe person. I have probably 10 -12 pairs but that's for all seasons. So for the summer season, I have about 3 pairs that I wear regularly, if you don't count exercise shoes and my nasty garden shoes. Anyway, this pair is worn the most. They're black (albeit faded) so they go with everything. They have a stretchy band which provides for utmost comfort (whether pregnant or not) and they make that oh so annoying "FWAP, FWAP" sound when I walk. But I just can't throw them out. We're going to a museum tomorrow and will be doing a lot of walking and I already know these beauties will be making my feet happy the whole day.

I'd happily buy another pair or three and I've searched just about every store and online extensively, but cannot find them anywhere. They were purchased at Wal-Mart and every time I'm there, I drag the kids back to the shoe section in the hopes that they will have them again. But I'm always disappointed.

As you can see they no longer have any tread left. I thought a few strips of those things you can put in your bathtub to avoid slipping would help, but even those are starting to wear off.

I'm sad.

I think after the summer is over, I will have to send these sandals off to the shoe cemetery (aka the dump). I will miss my addiction.

Please leave a comment if you've seen these sandals for sale anywhere. You could buy them for me, charge me triple the cost and then we'd both be happy.