It’s a BIG day at Grandma Sandy’s house.....Updated!!!!

***Updated

After the glorious discovery of 3 eggs earlier today, Grandma Sandy cleaned out the hens' coop really well, as a reward for such good behavior.

After The Chef got home, he headed down to the coop to figure out a temporary make-do spot to put the nest boxes.

And just what do you think he found?

2 more eggs!!!

For a grand total of 5 today!

I’m most happy that “the girls” knew to go to the coop to lay their eggs. After all, it was in the afternoon after they had been out for a while.  I would’ve expected them to lay their first egg under the fig tree or stairs to the pool deck, or any other common place you’d find them in the afternoon.  But these 2 girls must have trotted their happy little selves down to the freshly cleaned coop, scratched out a little nest in their clean pine shavings, and left a surprise for us all.   I figure that’s a great start! Hopefully getting them to lay in the nest boxes won’t be too difficult.

UnLESS they were just trying to prove me wrong for accusing them of not being very smart!

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Eggs? 

No eggs?

We shall see!  :)

It’s a BIG day at Grandma Sandy’s house!!!!

We have our first eggs!!!!!!

The boss and Dogos went down to the chicken coop after lunch to let the chickens out, and lo and behold, they found 2 eggs!!!!

After the girls’ exciting discovery, Middle Man decided to go scouting around outside to see if he could find any eggs outside of the coop.
Sure enough, he found this white one behind the barn.  I expect there may be an egg or 2 more to be found.  These first eggs are small but they’ll get larger with time. 
Now it’s time to train the hens to lay the eggs in the nest boxes.


Wish me luck because I really have no foolproof plan where that is concerned, and let’s face it, chickens are not very smart.  

Grandma Sandy is tickled pink.

But I’m not sure anything can top the kids' excitement upon their discovery today!

YAY!!  We have eggs!!!!

Fig tree lovers

When The Boss and Dogos went down to the barn the other day to let the chickens out, I decided to video their “freedom run” to the fig tree.

They love that fig tree like nobody’s business.  

They hang out under that tree all day long!!

Summer highlights

We started the summer by celebrating Peanut’s 12th birthday.

During the whole party, I kept thinking to myself...

a gaggle of girls

giggling,

gossiping,

gabbing,

gobbling,

girls today

grown tomorrow

Thank you, my year in 4th grade English/Language Arts, for my time with alliteration and other sound devices.  ;)

Happy birthday, Peanut!!

Dogos and The Boss had great fun, too!

Peanut’s birthday was followed by a great week of Vacation Bible School.  You know it was a great week when your children are still singing the VBS songs in mid-July, right?

Next up?

A girls’ trip to New Orleans!!

We spent the day in the French Quarter eating beignets, shopping in the quarter, and visiting the Kids’ Museum.

The girls’ all-time favorite part of the Kids’ Museum was the Little Winn Dixie grocery store.

It was set up exactly like a real grocery store, except everything was kid-sized.  The children were able to get a miniature shopping cart and shop through the pretend produce, dairy and meat sections, frozen goods, etc. and place their items in their cart.

Then they were able to check themselves out at the checkout counter.

And after printing their receipt, they were able to return their items and start all over again!!

If I ever win the lottery, I will build one of these at my house.

It was seriously that much fun.

When Dogos started checking out her items, I had to laugh.

She is a very picky eater and what did she choose?

Exactly the few foods she likes to eat.

Bread, milk, ice cream, mac-and-cheese, bananas, and cereal.

(I think chicken nuggets and cheese were still in the basket.)

Our trip to NOLA was fun, but except for the Little People Winn Dixie, the Kids’ Museum really wasn’t that great.  It was outdated and nearly half the activities were broken.  It was inexpensive and the girls had enough fun in the Winn Dixie to make it worth the trip, but we won’t go there again unless they do a major overhaul.

Guitar Boy had a big trip during the middle of June.

See this happy face?

This happy face had just returned from a week-long mission trip with our church youth and SON Servants to Jamaica.

It was a great week and an eye-opening experience.  He came home with stories about pouring foundations and building houses.  I think the thing that really meant the most to him, though, was the time they spent at an infirmary for sick and disabled elderly people.  

There was one gentleman named Godfrey, who was 87, that engaged Guitar Boy in conversation.  When he learned that Guitar Boy was the oldest of 5 children, he told him that he had a very important responsibility as the eldest of his siblings.  He told Guitar Boy that it was up to him to pave the way for his younger siblings and that he needed to be a young man of integrity.

Thank you, Godfrey!!

Guitar Boy said that when our youth leader asked if our group could pray with him, Godfrey insisted on praying for our group first, and through tears, expressed his gratitude for their visit to him.

Guitar Boy loves telling the story of meeting, visiting, and praying with Godfrey.

And isn’t that just the way that God often works?

The very people you hope to love and serve in His name end up being far more of a blessing to you, instead?

It was around midnight before The Chef and I got home from picking up Guitar Boy.  Peanut and Middle Man waited up to see him.  

You can tell by their faces how happy they were to have him home!

Of course, within about 48 hours they were all back to arguing and fussing, but for a while there, things were great!  Ha!

Speaking of blessings, Grandma Sandy started moving into her new home for the upcoming school year.......

Hallelujah!!

I’ll be teaching a K-1st loop, starting in 1st this year.

That means that this year I’ll teach 1st grade, then the following school year I’ll teach K and keep those students the year after that and loop up to 1st grade.

I’m particularly excited about the other looping teachers I’ll be teaching with.  I like them all a lot.

The best thing is that I’ll be teaching 1st this year when The Boss is in 1st, and K the next year when Dogos will be in K!!

Those of you that know me, know that I have “a thing” about the number 11.  It’s just one of my favorite numbers (as well as the number 5) and it always seems to turn up.  

Well, wouldn’t you know it?  I texted my new principal about what classroom I’d be in and guess what?

Yep.  You got it!

We were also able to squeeze in a trip to The Lake to see Mimi and Pop.

Dogos enjoyed fishing.  We left Peanut behind to spend a few days with Mimi and Pop.  She thought she’d died and gone to heaven!!

Earlier this summer, Middle Man went to a baseball camp at the high school.  Our high school baseball team has won the state championship several times in the past few years so to say he was excited to learn some new baseball tips was an understatement.

Clearly, this is not a pic of him from camp, but since I didn’t have a camp picture and I thought this was cute, I included it anyway!

Speaking of cute.......

Look at this cute chicken that Middle Man made me!

He’s been spending time with The Chef down in The Chef’s shop, aka MAN-ville, and he built this little chicken for me out of scrap lumber, cardboard, poker chips, 2 pennies, chicken feathers, and a tuft of Suzy’s hair.

I love this little chicken so much!!!

It was a total surprise. 

He designed it, planned it, and built it himself.

Speaking of chickens, our chickens are now free-ranging.

They've discovered our gigantic fig tree and make a mad rush for it whenever we let them out of the coop.  They love to scratch around and find figs that have fallen to the ground.

Since we’ve raised them from chicks, they are very well-socialized and love to be with people.  There are 10 whole acres behind the barn for them to explore and graze upon, but they like to hang out under the fig tree, which is near the pool deck, (don’t worry, the chickens aren't actually by the pool..that would be gross!) as well as Manville, where they can find Suzy, The Chef, and any number of the kids.

No eggs yet, but I expect we may have some by the end of August-mid-September.   You can see the red comb on the white chicken.  That’s a sign that she’s maturing.  They’ll be 18 weeks old on Monday.  Egg production can start anywhere from 22-26 weeks.  

At least, I think!  I’m switching their feed over to layer feed this weekend.  We’ll see!

The last little quick trip we took right before the 4th was to Gulfport.  We went to play in the sand and water for a few hours, then change clothes and have a popsicle at my aunt’s house before heading back home.

Dogos loved, loved, loved digging in the sand.  She could’ve stayed there for two days.

The Boss liked it for about 30 minutes, tolerated it for anther 30 minutes, then announced she’d rather just stick with the pool.  

She did, however, enjoy looking for seashells.

So there you have it.  The highlights of our summer so far.

Time is quickly running out!!

In just a few short weeks, school will be back in session.

But we hope to squeeze in more summer fun before then!

End of school year odds and ends

Great news.

Middle Man’s team won the kickball championships!!

Before the game, they are READY!

And they’re off!!!!!

The Chef and Dogos came to cheer our team on.

The McAttacks won with a 7-2 victory.

I’m sure it had everything to do with Dogos’ enthusiastic cheers, don’t you?

A week or so ago we had our AR bowling field trip reward.

I was the teacher in charge and we took 68 students that had earned between 100-149 AR points to the bowling alley for a few hours of fun bowling.

I was particularly excited that Middle Man earned his points in order to go. 

In fact, his point level was 147 and he waited to test on another book because he didn’t want to go over 150 points and have to go on a different field trip since I was going on the bowling one.
Wasn’t that sweet?

Here is Middle Man with 4 of my own students.

Aren’t those some handsome faces?

Here is another one of my students and one of my favorite people ever.

She looks like she’s really upset but she isn’t.

She had just had her first bowling turn and was shocked to have knocked down every pin but 2.

Victory!!!

She was so excited.

Love, love, love this girl.

It was a great morning of bowling!!

In other end-of-the-school-year news, take a look at what Dogos brought home on her last day of preschool.

This is a personal “Memory Book” that Dogos’ teacher made for each of her students.

Yes, that’s right.  

A personal memory book for each.   and.  every.  student.

Y’all.  I can’t begin to tell you how much this book means to The Chef and me.  It is full of picture after picture and page after page of Dogos participating in various activities related to each unit of study.  It has pictures of her with her daddy, grandmother, and me from her various programs.  It is just the most dear thing!

And even better?

I found out that not only did her teacher do this for each student, but every teacher did it and she’ll get one next year, too!

In other news, we recently celebrated The Chef’s birthday.

The celebration didn’t occur on his actual birthday, and because of that fact, Middle Man decided to make him a gift.  According to him, “Dad can’t just have a birthday and not get something!  That would be terrible!”

Soooooo, he decided to make him......

.........a cardboard guitar!!!

I had no idea he was doing this.  He was at The Pastor’s house for a while and when I walked over there he said, “Mom, Mom, Mom, for Dad’s birthday, I made him a guitar out of 2 cardboard rectangular prisms, also known as boxes.  I’m gonna play him a song for his birthday.”

I’m so serious he said that.

Now, I know I’m his Mama, so I’m supposed to think he’s smart and creative and all of that.

But folks?  He really is smart and creative!

He surprises me all the time.

Now if only I could get him to keep up with his lunchbox and shoes......

And because I’m still in love with my chickens, of course I have to include a picture of them, as well as mention the fact that they are learning to eat other stuff besides just chicken feed. 

They are 10 1/2 weeks old and will soon be old enough to be able to free range some on their own without my watchful eye.  In the meantime, we go outside for “chicken time” for an hour or so every evening.  They absolutely love it.  When they hear us coming, they run to the coop door and wait to be let out.  They love sunflower seeds and thought this watermelon rind was, well, interesting.  I’ll keep offering little healthy treats to them throughout the summer to ensure that we get some beautiful, healthy eggs once they are old enough to lay!

Our summer is off to a GREAT start!!

I hope yours is, too!

Family, fun, and a few surprises

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day weekend!

I sure did! 

Friday morning, I went to Dogos’ school for Muffins with Mom.

She made a card and bookmark for me and also gave me a beautiful flower.

Oh, how I love this girl!

We enjoyed eating muffins and fresh fruit and visiting with other Moms and her classmates.

This is a sweet card that her teacher made for each Mom.

She took this photo of Dogos’ feet for the front of the card and wrote a personal note to me on the inside, thanking me for sharing my child with her.  I love the prayer on the front, too.  It states perfectly what I pray for each of my children.  Before they were even conceived or born, I have prayed for each of my children.  I have prayed that each would come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, that they would each share an intimate, personal relationship with Him, and that the “growing up” wouldn’t be too painful or difficult.

As I type this, I am reminded of my grandmother, Grammy Clinton, who kept prayer journals for years.  When she died, the many journals were given to my mother.  Years ago, I spent some time reading through some of them.  Every year on my birthday, without fail, my Grammy wrote words of prayer for me.  Of course, she prayed for each member of our family....all of my aunts, uncles, and each of her 15 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren (now 30 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great grands!) throughout the year, but without fail, she covered me in prayer every year on my birthday.  I never even knew it at the time.  It’s been a long time since I read through any of her journals....probably since Guitar Boy was a baby.  The next time I go back home to The Lake, I will be sure to read through some of those precious books again.  Grammy was a true prayer warrior in every sense of the word and her relationship with Jesus was the most important thing to her in the world.

After Muffins with Mom, I drove back to our tiny town, dropped Dogos off at home with The Chef, and headed back to school.

As I mentioned earlier, MCT2 testing was last week.  After testing was done each day, we had a kickball tournament each afternoon.  In the words of my principal, “We’re gonna wear their brains out in the morning, and their bodies in the afternoon.  Hopefully, then, they’ll all go home and be so exhausted they’ll get a good nights’ sleep!"

I knew we were having a kickball tournament but I was in no way prepared for how serious the students and teachers take it!  Teachers bring lawn chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, and ice chests full of popsicles and bottled water.  My class won our first game but lost the 2nd so we didn’t get to the play-offs.  Our loss may or may not have had something to do with Grandma Sandy’s lack of kickball coaching skills, but that is a point on which I’ll choose not to dwell!

Middle Man’s class made it to the play-offs which were Friday afternoon, and his class would be playing the team that beat us.  Therefore, not only was I cheering his class on, but all of my students were, too!

Here he is in action!

I think it’s safe to say that Middle Man has found a new passion in life.

The child has lived and breathed kickball for the past week, and that’s no exaggeration.

He even had all the kids at church playing kickball on the front lawn of the church last Wednesday night in an effort to improve his own kickball skills before the play-off game.

Here is his cutie teacher, coaching their team from the sidelines.

She was a star athlete, herself, in high school.

Luckily for their class, she had stellar coaching skills, unlike Grandma Sandy!

Middle Man’s class won!!!!

This afternoon is the 4th grade championship game.

Wish us luck!  

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Saturday night we had a real treat.

The Pastor got the biggest, most beautiful strawberries so she and Peanut dipped them in chocolate and other goodies as a surprise treat.

YUM.

Strawberries weren’t the only surprise that The Pastor had for us.

Meet Smokey!
When the children and I got home from school on Thursday afternoon, The Pastor surprised us with Smokey, a six-week old kitten that she and Dogos got from the local animal shelter.
She is the sweetest thing, and beautiful, too.
In this picture she looks like she has super-huge ears and a big head but it’s only the angle of the camera.  I took a million pictures of her and she simply would not look up.  Her chin is tipped down.  Hopefully I’ll get a better picture of her soon!
The Pastor has been wanting a cat to keep mice out of her house.  
Living where we do, it’s just a fact of life, unfortunately.
Spook has failed miserably in his appointed job of keeping mice away from both houses.  Therefore, Smokey has a new home with The Pastor and we couldn’t be happier.  
Judging from the amount of purring she’s been doing, I think she’s pretty happy, too.


We ended the weekend with a wonderful meal last night of grilled red snapper and a crawfish cream sauce, with risotto, green salad, and a chocolate chess pie.  Thanks to The Chef!
The Chef and the kids gave me a beautiful Pandora bracelet and y’all....I was SO surprised.  Shocked, even!  I’ve wanted one for a long time but just never gotten one for myself.
And now?  I don’t have to!


We had such a great weekend and yesterday was such a nice day.
Most years, it seems, the kids fight and fuss more than ever on Mother’s Day and I end up thinking to myself, “One of these years I’m gonna wise up and go out of town all by myself for Mother’s Day.”
Of course I’d never really do that, but the thought HAS crossed my mind!  Being a Mom is wonderful, but it sure isn’t easy.
However, yesterday was really a treat.
The thing that made me the happiest about the whole day?  Was seeing how excited the children were.  The youngest 3 couldn’t wait to come give me a big hug as soon as they woke up.  
Feeling their arms wrapped around me and seeing their bright smiles and still sleepy eyes was humbling and left me feeling beyond blessed.


It also left me thinking of those women whose empty arms long to hold a baby of their own.
And of my friend Jennifer, a teacher at my school who lost twins at 18 week’s gestation after struggling with infertility.
And of my friend, Ruth, who lost her 30 year old son suddenly just a week or so ago.
And of whymommy’s boys who spent their first Mother’s Day without their Mommy and of her own mother who spent the day without her daughter.


I am a lucky, lucky woman.  I know that.  And because I know how blessed I am, it’s so very important to me to remember the pain that some other women have endured.  I know it doesn’t help lessen their burden, and in the grand scheme of things it may not matter at all, but I feel like in an attempt to not take my blessings for granted, if I can share someone else’s grief whether they know about it or not, then that’s what I should do.


Does that even make sense?!?
Probably not!


At any rate, we all enjoyed a weekend of family and great food.


Next up?


KICKBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

Wordless Wednesday