Monday was another work day. Any time Joyce is willing to come over and be part of the work party, we are happy to get busy. Again, my job was to care for the children and the meals while the work crew did their magic. Interestingly, Isaac is often part of the work crew. He gets in the middle of what’s happening, offers to do anything no matter how humble, and learns lessons the hard way with lots of correction. Sometimes I cringe as an order is snapped out to him or he gets scolded for being careless. But Isaac works even harder to please his bosses, and he’s slowly earning their respect.

The current kitchen project is the wiring and electrical work needed for lighting. The challenge is in figuring out how to wire things without too much demolition. Things are pretty torn up in my poor kitchen! I will sure be relieved when it’s time to start putting everything back together again.

Now, I know everyone is eager to get a chicken update. Good news is that we still have all seven chicks! And they’re getting bigger, and they’re providing lots of entertainment and learning for all of us. I believe the day is very close for the chicks to go to their country home. As much as I’d love to keep them here, I know the time isn’t right yet for my dream of having chickens to come true. Still, I’m so thankful to God for allowing me this time of “foster care” for chickens. It’s been fun and nostalgic, and it gives me a renewed hope for the future when someday we’ll get to have our own flock of chickens again.

Since the chicks are able to withstand the weather these days, we keep them in this play yard in our front yard. But sometimes the Spring breezes are crisp, and lately we’ve been getting random rain showers, so I put a bucket out for the chicks to take shelter in. They seem to really like it, and they look very cozy in their cat-litter container. They don’t seem to be concerned at all about the connection between the word “bucket” and “chicken”.

When it’s nap time for the chickies, they all pile up in the back of the bucket and snooze away.

Monday, after the work was done for the day, and the grill was fired up and ready to cook steaks, and the potatoes were baked, and the bread was sliced… Laura carried Amelia in from the back yard. Blood was all over Amelia’s chin. Apparently Amelia had fallen off our trampoline and had split her chin. Amelia didn’t seem fazed much at all. When I saw her I asked, “Amelia, did you split your chin?” She answered rather disdainfully, “No! It’s just bleeding. I just need a bandaid!” Upon closer inspection, it appeared that she had indeed split her chin just a bit, so we held a quick conference on whether or not she needed to go to the doctor for stitches. It probably could have gone either way, but finally we decided to take her to a “prompt care” place for a check up. Michael loaded up our precocious little girl who was so very matter-of-fact about the whole thing, and he also took our eldest daughter who was really more shook up about it all, and they headed out to get Amelia’s chin fixed. The prompt-care folks had them in and out of there in less than an hour! They used that durmabond (superglue) stuff on Amelia’s chin, got her all taped up, and sent the trio back home again in time for the end of supper.

And so life goes on. Work, play, and split chins. We never know what the day will hold!