Lankford Love

A lot has happened since I last posted! So I'll hit the high points. My Mom's Day Off... For a late birthday gift, Brendon gave me a "day off!" While I love spending my days with sweet Lil, being the mom of toddler can be draining. A day off was just what I needed! I admit that I didn't use my afternoon as intentionally as I should have. (Errands were a bad idea. What was I thinking?) But the morning was fabulous! I met up with one of my best friends and shopped! I can't even remember the last time I met up with a friend to shop. College, maybe? Super fun! Then I met Brendon and Lil for lunch at Chipotle! It was so fun to get to meet up with them and then say "see ya!" ;) A little chicken update... The other night Sweetie (our sweet, hence the name, black chicken) went missing. I was devastated (She's totally a pet at this point), thinking a hawk got her. I looked everywhere. Even in neighbor's yards, our garage, the bushes, the a...

Well we found the evil hawkS' lair - er, nest. And yep there are two of them. And where there's a couple, there's babies... Wonderful. See that nest in the center of the photo? That's it. We thought it would for sure be lower down in the tree, thinking the smaller limbs but would not be able to hold their weight. But it's very high. Crazy!

Life is just busy and chaotic right now! Not bad. Just chaotic. Yesterday Lilleigh and I were just off. Bad moods all around. A viscous cycle. Cranky, cranky. And to top it off she cried for 30 minutes when I was putting her to bed. It was sad - for her and mommy. At the end of the night I was ready for a looong break! Being a stay at home mom isn't easy! Not that working is. Just saying staying home isn't the walk in the park I envisioned as a child. Ha! What was I thinking? I'm encouraged by the blog post my friend Samantha wrote in response to my Facebook status about my day. Today Lil was her sweet self. She even took a long afternoon nap to make up for the day before. I couldn't help but thank God for new beginnings. A new day, after a day like yesterday, just seemed so beautiful. And it was. But I have to tell you. Not that what came next made the day less of a blessing from the Lord. Or made my heart any less thankful for new beginnings. But well, life co...

Lots of "little" updates, so here we go... pure randomness! 1. Lilleigh said "baby" today! The story: I was getting her up from nap and singing my silly made up songs that I sing to her - something about "Lilleigh Baby" - and when I laid her down to change her diaper, she said "baby." Multiple times. She kept repeating it because I was getting so excited, and clearly she understood that she was saying a real word. So proud of my "baby" girl! This isn't a photo from that moment, just a photo from today. Isn't she so stinkin' cute? And look at that fun cloth diaper! We were given it for a product review for Thankfully Thrifty ! 2. We got two new chickens this weekend. If you remember, we started out with four and then found out two were roosters , so for a long while we've had two. They've given us about a dozen eggs a week, which is pretty awesome, except now I want eggs like daily, plus baking. So a dozen isn...

Some updates for ya... 1. Lilleigh - She is doing MUCH better! Yea! Her fever broke Tuesday night, and she's been oh so happy ever since! Yea! Her runny nose is lingering, but we can manage that. Meanwhile, I got sick Wednesday night (on top of the cold I already had), but after some elderberry Brendon picked up at Sprouts, I've been feeling much better! And today my cold seems to almost be gone! ...Just in time for Brendon to get a cold. Ugh! No one told me how much sickness comes with having a baby! They get something from other babies, and then it spread through the house like wildfire! Pretty crazy. 2. Sleeping - Still not a whole lot of sleeping happening here. Lilleigh has been averaging two wake ups per night. (Notice the word "averaging.") This weekend her Mimi is in town, so we'll let Mimi sleep. But after this weekend, it's Lilleigh boot camp ! It's like Ab Ripper X - "I hate it, but I love it." I'm prepared for several sleeples...

We found our first egg!

So it turns out that out of our four laying hens, we have two roosters. Queeny and Ida May. This explain a lot - like why the two of them sometimes go at it. And why we don't have eggs. (The heat and the fact that they have not been mature until now also explains that.) My neighbor was watching them this weekend while we were in Houston for Labor Day (pics from the weekend to come), and she texted saying she heard cockadoodling! Don't get me wrong, cockadoodling IS loud, but when the rooster are inside the coop and we are inside our house, you can't hear it. Outside you hear it, but it doesn't wake one up or anything. Thankfully. Otherwise I'm sure we would have gotten a letter from the city already. They do that sorta thing. Needless to say, Queeny and Ida May will be finding new homes. I'm tempted to say we should eat them. But I don't want to have to pluck their feathers. Or kill them. Queeny is too pretty for that... I'm actually sad we have to g...

This little chicken has a name! Thanks to the unknowing collaboration of Elizabeth Daines and Brendon's boss's wife Jackie, chicky has a name! Please meet Clara Belle ! What I didn't mention is that there's a prize for the winners! ...Mainly because we just decided that there should be a prize! What is it you ask? Homemade soap, of course! Because hubby has been experimenting with making his own soap. Al naturale. We're so country.

I've held off on introductions long enough. Without further ado... This is "Tail Feathers" aka the still nameless hen. She needs a name desperately. I just haven't had a name that's popped out at me. Any ideas? A little about "Tail Feathers"... She's been termed this temporary (I hope) nickname because she was the only Rhode Island Red that we got who still had all of her tail feathers. This is probably because she can fend for herself. She isn't fiesty, like Queeny who we'll get to later, but there is no doubt that she's second in command (behind Queeny, of course). She's also pretty daring. This hen used to walk up to Sammy and peck her in the nose. Then Sammy showed her she isn't one to be messed with. This is Henrietta. She got this name because there's a children's book I love called Henry the Dog with No Tail . Well, this is Henrietta, the hen with no tail feathers. When we got her, her tail feathers had a...

Just another evening hanging out in the backyard with the chickens! The chickens were becoming interested in my dinner, so I gave them a few spaghetti noodles. And guess what. They like them. A lot. Sooo I gave them more. So it's spaghetti noodles that they are pecking off the ground. Queeny was getting kinda territorial over the noodles though. She nipped Henrietta, the hen without tails feathers, in the butt, as you'll see on this video.

And I just realized that I never posted a picture of the coop complete. Shame on me! Bad, blogger! Here it is... The finished coop. Brendon, his dad, and Lilleigh in front of their finished creation. The chicken coop! Isn't it gorgeous? When they said they were building a chicken coop, I wasn't expecting it to look like this! My hubby and father-in-law did an awesome job! They are fighting it now, but they will be building sweet Lil a play house in the future! Once she can look at them with those big blue eyes and ask herself, they won't be able to say no! ;) And some chicken photos... Queeny... This was before the other three - "the girls" - came along. And here are "the girls."

This past weekend Brendon's mom (Val) came into town. She was so excited to come up to see Lil and also to celebrate Brendon's birthday, which was last weekend. Val watched Lil for us while we saw Harry Potter! Uh-mazing. I'm sad that it's over. While Harry Potter is in no way a direct correlation to the Gospel, I do think J.K. Rowling was intentional about the ending. I've heard she's a Christian, and judging by the end of the series, I don't doubt it. (The books are even better though - read them! Or at least get the audio books to listen to!) It's going to be hard to top this series. When we got home from the movie, Lilleigh was actually sorta drinking from a bottle! She wasn't sucking on it, but she was kinda gnawing on it and drinking from it - more like you would with a sippy cup. Val was walking around with her, singing to her... distracting her, anything to make it seem less like a feeding and more like something fun. Ha. But Lil drank ...

Another update for ya! Today is Brendon's 27th birthday!  Happy birthday babe! From the inside Brendon trapped me. Haha! Until it's finished, this is the last update!

Here's some of their progress. It should be finished today, and hopefully chickens will be inhabiting it later this week! Larry and Brendon nailing on the roof. Progress as of last night. And as I type this, the door is actually on the coop, see on the left hand side where there is a tall narrow space. And they are also putting up the cedar siding. So I guess I need to get to taking more photos... And did I mention that it's Brendon's 27th birthday?? Well it is! We had pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. The pancakes had a candle in them of course! Photo of that is also to come.

Brendon and his dad, Larry, have started progress on the chicken coop! Hopefully it will be finished this weekend and ready for chickens! Sorta a "before" shot Measuring Cutting chicken wire Talking about next steps Taking a break Lil and I supervising Progress as of yesterday evening