Bunnies, chickens and cats, oh my!

My chickens accidentally got out of their caged area but they looked so happy to be free and feel the sunshine on their feathers that I didn't have the heart to put them back. They immediately went to a sunny part of the yard and starting taking dust baths. If you've never seen a chicken take a dust bath, well you should sometime. It's a funny thing to watch. They do it to get rid of the mites that try to live on their skin and you can tell it feels good to them to roll in the dirt and lay in the sun in funny positions. Even our cat came over to watch. Gabby is about thirteen years old and almost as spry as a kitten. She still plays and does funny things and she's very talkative. Good thing we named her Gabby. The chickens were good and stayed out of the bocce court so I let them roam in the yard for a while until it started to get dark. Bryan doesn't like them in the bocce court because they dig in it and make huge holes that he has to fill in later. I understand. Our bunnies love it when I get them out of their hutch and they can eat grass in the bunny run. Patches likes to dig though so we have some very dangerous booby traps in our lawn that the boys need to fill in. You could really twist an ankle in one of those holes. I can feel spring in the air. The sun is warmer and brighter and things look so green and fresh. The garden yearns for her seedlings but I'm working on preparing the dirt so it's just right to receive our precious plants that will bring us such joy every morning when we harvest our little bounty of goodies in a few months. Gardening teaches me so much about life. Weeds, like sin, are so easy to remove when they are small and haven't grown roots but if you let a weed grow it becomes very dangerous, almost too dangerous to pull with regular gardening gloves. I have to use a special tool to get the root and then sometimes I have to get both hands around the root, steady my feet and pull with all my might. They don't often come up with the first tug either. I have to be determined to removed that darn weed. That's what happens when we let things that are not good for us grow in our lives. It's sometimes easy to just ignore it but it's getting bigger and stronger every day and soon will require special tools to remove when we could have simply just gone over even with bare hands and removed the little tiny weed. That tiny little weed could be an attitude, unforgiveness, selfishness, ungratefulness, bitterness, you get the idea. I want to be quick to remove things when they're little and managable and not wait until they require extra effort and even some injury.

Science Camp

Last week we went to science camp for the first time up at Alliance Redwoods in Occidental. If you don't know where that it is, it's near Sebastopol. If you don't know where that is, it's near Napa, well kind of. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that we went. I have been meaning to go to science camp for a long time. At least 5 years now. I finally got my act together, packed our bags, piled us in the car, set the GPS and headed up to science camp. My wonderful in-laws graciously agreed to pay for the camp which helped immensely. The forecast said rain so I tried to be prepared. Have you ever packed three kids and a mom for four days taking into account that it may rain all four days and you will have no washer and dryer? We also had to bring all of our own linens-sleeping bags, pillows, towels, etc. When we arrived it was raining so hard it seemed like it was night even though it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. I was not impressed. After checking in we walked back to our cars in the rain to lug all of our stuff to our cabin which luckily was very close to the lodge. The cabin was adorable and had recently been updated. New floors, new paneling on the walls, new sleeping mats, a wall heater. Very nice and cozy. The bathroom was very close too. I wore my cute Ug boots up there but quickly changed out of my wet socks and put on my trusty rain boots to keep my feet nice and dry. Well, come to find out my not-s0-trusty rain boots had a hole in them and in a matter of minutes my second pair of socks were soaked. I only had two dry pairs left. Uh-oh. Then I put on my tennis shoes thinking surely my feet would quickly get wet in those. Surprisingly they kept my feet relatively dry. It's amazing how uncomfortable you are when your feet are wet and cold. Okay, dry, happy feet. I can do this. That's what I kept telling myself. We all headed up to the meeting room for our orientation. Since it was raining so hard we were all completely soaked by the time we reached the room. We all shed our soggy jackets and tried to dry out before the meeting started. Then the councelors announced that we would be doing an acitivity-outside!!! Get on your wet raincoats and get out there!I quickly found a faster way to complete the project without running all over in the rain. Justin was my runner and I wrote down all the information needed. Mission accomplished. We then had a nice dinner in the newly renovated dining hall, had a short devotional time and then headed to bed. I got the kids settled and nestled all cozy in their beds. Then I went to the lodge to check my email while they fell asleep so quietly in the cabin. Not! When I returned an hour later they were all wide awake making flashlight puppets. I should have known better. I then settled them down again and after a while we all went to sleep. Luckily the next day we woke up and it wasn't raining! Yay!!! I'm not sure I could have done four days in the rain. For the next two days we had beautiful weather. The kids were able to do so many fun things, almost all of them involved a harness and a helmet-a boy's dream. Both boys did great. Breanna was able to hold her own on the hikes and in the afternoon she went into a class for her age group called Puggles. I believe a puggle is a baby platypus. They did some of the same things as the older kids but on a different level. She loved it. I was able to have some free time in the afteroon when all the kids were in their classes. The lodge had free wi-fi so I brought my laptop and checked email, played on Facebook and followed my blogs. The kids all loved the classes, the counselors and the food was actually good. I know, camp food good? Yep. It was very yummy and I actually went for seconds a few times. I'm so thankful that it stopped raining on those two days. By Friday the rain had started up again so we opted to head home instead of to the beach. We made the right choice. We love going on trips but we also love coming home.