Chicks and Trees and Bees, Oh, My!

Darlin picked up a half dozen of Red Star Sex Link chicks when he was out and about yesterday. I went through the pictures on our camera and downloaded a lot of them in order to have room to tape the boys' reactions when Darlin brought the chicks home. He pulled into the drive way, I picked up the camera and just as I pressed ''record'', it flashed the caption ''battery exhausted" and that was that. I was bummed. I could even think of anything I could take batteries from just long enough to record the moment. Oh, well. Some memories we just have to treasure in our hearts, but I had hoped to share with you all too. Moments like these are when it is good to have my memory book/journal. It's the sketch book I bought a few years ago to capture moments like these and the unsung beauty of everyday life. I kept two of them when I was a teenager and my siblings were really young. The stuff they said as little ones and toddlers is so funny, yet would hardly be but a faint echo in the past had it not been captured on paper.
     I was recently talking with a dear friend about baby books. I disclosed that I felt guilty because I had not kept up with them, and could not remember things like how much a loaf of bread cost and what the headlines in the local paper were when they were born. I have decided to make my own baby books, without complete teeth charts (I know when they got their first teeth, come on, a little grace here! Lol) Darlin suggested a binder so I can move pages around and such. Brilliant. Now I just need a cook, nanny and maid for two weeks while I work on them! Ha, ha. There just never seems to be enough time in a day. Not to mention that by the time I dig out my scrapbooking stuff, clear the table and get set up, nap time is half gone!      While I do think it is important, the interruptions are more important (usually). For example, about a week ago I had Little Boy settled in the play pen with a bottle and some toys and Big Boy up at the table with me to color while I wrote a page in my memory book. I pasted a few magazine clippings on and a couple stickers to decorate it, wrote the date and then the phone rang. The caller was a lonely, elderly relative who'd lost their soulmate years ago. They go days sometimes without seeing a soul. This was the third day in a row that they had called. And they almost always talk for an hour or more. About ten minutes into the conversation Big Boy was all done coloring and had moved on to emptying the cupboards and Little Boy was verbalizing his readiness to join him. Was that some valiant sacrifice on my part? Hardly. My attitude was way off. I was being selfish and impatient. Do I remember what I was going to write about that day? No. In fact, the book is sitting on the shelf with the old date on the blank page. But does that person remember how it felt to have someone to talk to? Most likely. To my shame I never seem to grasp these concepts in the moment, but only afterwards. Anyway, what a rant I hadn't planned on giving!

So, we have chicks, and we hopefully will be getting some Blue Laced Red Wyandotte chicks in a week. We planted our peach and apple trees yesterday, between our Crab apple and Wolf River trees. Our berries should get here early May. We just may be getting some honey bees too! Darlin has been looking at plans to build a Top-Bar bee hive! He knows a guy that will be selling bees through next week. I'm so excited, I've wanted honey bees for 16 years! Lord willing, we will get some.

  Have a splendid day, friends! And why not try hanging your laundry out to dry on these sunny days? You'll save electricity (or propane) and your laundry will smell amazing! Not to mention there is something therapeutic about hanging laundry in the sunshine while the Spring birds are singing everywhere!