Archive for May, 2008

getting down to essentials
5/20/2008

Here’s my birthday cheesecake.  I used the basic recipe in The Joy of Cooking.  It was super duper yummy.

birthday cheesecake

Now, for the real reason for this post:

The movers and packers will be here Thursday.  That leaves me two days with a washer and dryer.  And two days to get things in order and ready for our summer of adventure.  By May 31st we will be moved in to a little apartment in Alabama, where we will stay for a month.  In July we will make our way to Denver for a short house hunting and in-processing stay, then will be in California by July 21st.  We’ll be there until September and I’m hoping we’ll have lots of cool beach treasures and stories of camping and  a trip to Legoland to show for it.

All this means that we will have to live with only the things we can fit in our cars. for. four. months.  I’ve got toys whittled down to a small tub of little animals, another of wooden blocks, and another of legos.  Today my mission is to fit the kitchen into a Rubbermaid tub, wash all possible laundry, and get clothes under control.  There’s camping gear and books and computers and bicycles…

 Anyway, I’m not going to be posting here for a few weeks.  I’ll be back sometime in June with news of packing, travel, and apartment living with 4 kids…

Wish us luck!

Not on the Test
5/16/2008

We’re big Tom Chapin fans here.  I just found this video.

AMEN!

5/15/2008

My sad, sad experience with the little birds I grew so attached to make me look forward all the more to this:

Isaiah 11:6-9

6 The awolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of athe asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the bcockatrice’ den.

9 They shall not ahurt nor bdestroy in all my holy cmountain: for the dearth shall be full of the eknowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

 

I wish it were like that now!  Faith, faith…

the way of the wild
5/14/2008

This is the last photo of the robins this past Saturday. It is amazing how they changed over the week.

the last photo :: one week old

All of my baby birds have fallen prey to raccoons or cats. Barry found one of the robins barely alive at the base of the tree–cold and barely holding on to life. The parents were hopping around the branches and so we hoped that if we put the baby back in the nest it would be fed and warm, but they didn’t go back. The night was rainy and cold.

A couple of days before we found our birdhouse that had been full of baby sparrows on the ground— something had reached in and pulled 3 bald little bodies out, mangled them a bit, but left them there. We reattached the house to the fence thinking there must be something left inside, and sure enough, the mama fluttered out. She came back with a beak full of grubs, hopping along the ground, searching for the little bodies. It was so sad. Eventually she did go back in the house, came and went, came and went. There must have been one left in there. A few mornings later, though, a paw had obviously been reaching in. Fluff, feathers, grass strewn all over. No more sparrows.

no more babies

It is amazing how precarious life is– how beautiful in its beginnings, how fragile and short it can be. Hopefully that mama robin will make a better choice in the location of her next nest– somewhere sheltered and high, where new eggs can be laid and set on and hatched.

On a totally unrelated note, I turned 30 yesterday.  It was pretty anti-climactic.  I spent the day recovering from a weekend full of house guests (my parents, 3 of my brothers, 2 sisters in law, 3 nephews and a niece came all the way from Idaho for Brenna’s eighth birthday and baptism) and a serious kidney infection.

I did get a new cookbook, a very cool new camera lens, and bought myself a springform pan because I think I am now mature enough to learn to make real cheesecake.  All of these things deserve their own posts, so I will report back as my crazy-getting-ready-to-move life permits.

baby robins :: day 5
5/7/2008

I set up my tripod and got gradually closer and closer so I could get a picture of the mom on the nest.

keeping them warm

peep

Then I got out my step stool like I have been every day to take this picture:

day 5

It ended up blurry because I was under a swift attack. The mama was really brave today. I could feel her wing against my hair. I’m afraid tomorrow I may really get pecked. I may have to talk Barry into giving it a try.

The babies look much bigger, probably double what they were when they hatched, and much darker. I wonder when their eyes will open.

a tad bigger
5/6/2008

day 4

day 3:: getting fluff
5/5/2008

day 3

I guess I was lucky on the first picture of the babies because one opened its mouth for me.  This morning they were just a squirming mass, all huddled together.  The parents weren’t too happy about my intrusion.

on guard

They want to stay close now, though, so I can get pictures of them.  When the mama was sitting on the eggs she’d fly away before I could get close enough to take a picture of  her head and tail sticking out of the nest.

5/3/2008

Verily I say… the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;

freshley hatched

a baker's dozen

make way for ducklings!

floppy and slimy

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

(D&C 59:16, 18)

 

Happy May Day!!
5/1/2008

blossoms

happy may day!

This is the month of change.  My tiny baby with the prettiest face and button nose will turn 8 on May 9th.  I will be 30 on May 13th.  On May 30th we will no longer be residents of Ohio.

Phew!