On Thursday when I checked our nest there were only 3 babies left.  I think they’re so funny with their beady eyes, yellow “lips”, and tufts of fluff.

Today there were only 2.

As soon as I snapped their picture one flew away.  I bet by tomorrow the nest will be empty.

It’s funny, when it was supposed to be spring here in March, and then April I was really mourning being away from the magic of our amazing yard in Ohio.  I missed feeling like the world was just teaming with life, like the earth was in celebration at the coming out of the sun.  Spring in our suburban Colorado neighborhood just can’t compare.  It’s been late in coming, but there’s also the generic feel of  our yard.  No towering maple trees with dozens of goldfinches.  No red buds.  No kid made cities of forts.

But, these little birds reminded me that nature is everywhere– even in our neighborhood of arid postage stamp yards.  It may be different here, but still the miracles abound.  I know there are millions of birds, and I know it seems silly, but I couldn’t help but feel like just when I was missing them most, the birds found me.  Their nest was built, the eggs were laid, the babies hatched, and now they’re flying away.  It all happened so quickly we had to pay attention or we would miss it.  That’s how life is.  We can live and grow and thrive in a protective grove of trees or on someone’s front door.  Really, no place is perfect. Just like I know that this house, in this neighborhood is where I need to be, our front door wreath was just where those finches needed to be.   The ins and outs of our front door certainly weren’t ideal for this little bird family, but watching them has sure brought us joy, and made me feel that connection to the natural world I so needed.

Isn’t amazing how quickly it all happened?

2 days old

5 days old

The little eggs on our front door hatched on Saturday.  Oh, the adventures that lie ahead!  I keep having visions of baby birds hopping around our living room with all of us running around not sure what to do.

On Wednesday night Barry had to run out late, and instead of opening the garage door and risking waking up a kid or two he opted to go out the front door.  He opened it quickly.  The mama bird did not have a chance to fly away until the door was opened all the way.   As most front doors do, it opens inward.

Mama bird was flying around inside our house.

I sat and watched her, not knowing what to do.  I turned off the lights in the house, opened all the doors I could, turned on the porch lights, but she kept flying into the windows.  Oh, I felt so bad for her.  I kept praying, “Heavenly Father, you made this bird– help her figure out how to get out…”

She perched on the high banister in our tall open entryway.  She was so tired and I was too afraid to traumatize her any further.  When Barry came home he chased her around a bit more, then finally got a bed sheet, gently tossed it over her, and took her outside.

I was scared that the trauma would make her abandon her nest, but she came back.

Now her and papa bird are busy with all those mouths to feed!

And while we’re talking about baby birds, you must see Molly’s nest of blue birds!

Here’s a little tea towel embroidery I did while listening to General Conference over Easter weekend.  The ever inspiring Geninne posted hers and she kindly obliged when I asked for a pattern, so I had to stitch it up.  Hunter likes to carry it around saying “buhr, buhr”.  I finally remembered to take a photo of it before it gets dirty and thrown in the laundry.

Hope your week is off to a good start!  I had a good morning walk with a friend and spied nearly 10 goldfinches!

A few weeks ago I had an issue of Home Education Magazine out from the library and in it was an add for Bare Books.  My kids kept eying it, then we saw posts at Soule Mama and Balancing Everything about the fun of filling them up, so I thought I’d order a box full to coincide with all the writing I hoped would ensue with the unveiling of the typewriter.

It looks like I will be buying bare books like groceries.

The day they arrived we cracked open the box and everyone got started.  Logan filled his up in no time with the story of “Tom and the Magic Roller Coaster.”

I can’t even tell you how much I love his uninhibited 5 year old drawings and handwriting.  He is fearless in his art making.

Brenna and Jonah wrote stories too.  After writing and dreaming all day long Jonah was so filled with pride in his work.  As I tucked him in he said, “Mom, I never knew I liked writing as much as I like reading.  It feels so good to write something someone else will read and really, really like.”  He’s still at work making sure his handwriting is neat as he goes.  It’s fun to watch their personalities magnified in their work.  I will definitely post more books soon.

I’ve got a board book of our backyard birds in the works for Hunter who says “buhr, buhr” with his little pointer finger constantly.  We have an Audubon calendar and he will stand beneath it with his arms stretched up making all the noise he can to get someone to lift him up for a closer look.

It’s been embarrassingly long since I last drew something.  It really feels so good.  (Here are closeups of the goldfinch and robin.) I’m almost finished with the house finches that are nesting on our front door.

They have 5 eggs now.

My front door is going to be a mess when they hatch!

Our little mama finch has been hard at work filling her nest in our front door wreath.  I thought it fitting on this Mother’s day to show off what this little mama is working so hard to do.

10 years ago today I became a mother.  My little tiny Brenna came into this world and completely changed mine.  In so many ways I feel like I was born when she was– I found my strength and power and purpose.  And I finally began to understand my own Mom, to love and appreciate what I just didn’t have the capacity to love and appreciate before.

So, thanks mom for being my mom.  I love and admire you so much.  I think of all the little things– ordering me cool magazines so I could draw pictures of tigers all day long, not nagging me to practice the piano, but paying for lessons anyway, tolerating my messy room, but making me do my own laundry, lining up Action Packers along the kitchen wall to pack for week long camping trips and making it look so easy and fun.  In so many ways I am trying to be just like you, and it’s funny how in so many ways I am.

Thanks to all of you mothers who come here and read my blog.  Thanks for your comments and friendship and all the good you do in your own little sphere.  There is nothing more important in this world than being a mother.  I really believe that.

Ever since we put up our bird feeder, there has been more birds around the neighborhood (Team Sparrow who live in our big pine tree, some house finches, grackles, a few dark-eyed juncos, and one or two chickadees). I guess two house finches saw this as the perfect spot.   Anyway, my next-door-neighbor-best-friend Holly was over to play and we decided to play out front. As we were walking out the door, Holly spotted something fly away when the door opened.  Then we saw it. The Nest.

Now, I mean today, mom went out to see if she could get a picture. This is what she found.

We looked at a bird book and it says that one pair of house finches will breed up to 2-5 times a summer, and egg clutches are 2-6 eggs, and that our front-door eggs will hatch in 13-14 days.

Looks like we have new neighbors in the neighborhood!!

• Get up before everyone else.  Read.  Pray.  Do yoga (or go swimming).
• Take a shower, even if the baby has to come along.  (Naked babies are fun, after all.)
• DO NOT YELL UP THE STAIRS.  It does not make you feel happy.  Walk upstairs to say whatever it is that needs saying.
• Do not whine back to whiners.
• LOOK AT THE CALENDAR.  Your planner is your friend.
• Wait until after school to look at the computer.
• Read aloud.  And snuggle.
• Work on making something with a child.
• Work on making something all by yourself.
• Watch birds.
• Breathe fresh air.  Go outside, even for a second.
• Eat vegetables.
• Remember that there are people that live outside this house.  Talk to one (or some) of them.
• Give one hundred bazillion hugs and kisses.  (They are much more important than math.  Really.)
• Smile.
• Laugh.
• Sleep.

I’m printing this out and putting it on my bathroom mirror.  I’m needing the reminder lately during these days of not-quite-spring.

Speaking of spring– the new issue of Rhythm of the Home is up!

It’s full of creativity, fun, and loveliness– including the pattern for my sweetie birds.  Go check it out!

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…

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

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.

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.