Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A Spring in Our Steps

Spring has invigorated our chickens. They seemed to be fine during the snowy winter but the warmer weather has made them more active and perky and the longer days have increased their egg production.

Laying an egg

Look at these lovelies

We are finally FINALLY getting green eggs. Our chickens were supposed to start laying sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Henny Penny (may she rest in peace) started laying right after Lewis was born, if I remember correctly, so sometime in September, and then we started getting eggs from at least one other chicken. One of our chickens is supposed to lay green or blue eggs so for months we would eagerly check out the nesting boxes to see what might be there, only to find just brown eggs. As time passed, we started to lose hope on the colored egg issue. Then, finally, at the end of FEBRUARY, we found our first green egg! This means that our Ameraucana hen hasn't been laying this whole time. Slacker. And I am rather surprised that there is such variance in when these hens started laying; they were all the same age to within a few days of each other.

But now! Now that there are more hours of sunlight, we are getting lots of eggs, one nearly every day from each chicken. Mrs. Benedict (pictured up there in the nesting box) lays smaller brown eggs, Drumstick lays big brown eggs (she was the second one to start laying, after Henny Penny), and Ella lays large green eggs. Supposedly within about a year year their eggs will get larger but they will lay less frequently; then they will be HUGE, because they are already as big as the biggest ones you buy at the store.

Kindergarteners playing soccer

This spring Grace is playing soccer at one of the city rec centers here. She's been asking to play soccer for quite a long time now but I missed sign-up deadlines and games were at inconvenient times and so forth until this spring. Her team is made up of kindergarteners and they play other teams of kindergarteners meeting all at the same time. Her team was assigned their uniform colors and they have dubbed themselves the Penguins. This whole team sport thing is new to me, as the closest I came to a sport growing up was ballet and running cross-country in high school. I think she is super adorable in her little cleats. They were significantly outmanned in their first match but in the weeks since then they've played teams more on their level; Grace has even scored goals! These small people seem to have the best luck when their approach is kept very simple-- kick the ball as hard as you can in the right direction and then everyone run after it.



This past weekend was soooooooo busy but also so wonderful. Rob's parents came in town to visit and we had an Easter church extravaganza which included me playing piano AND our church's big resurrection party AND a baby dedication for Lewis. Easter is becoming one of my new favorite holidays since we moved here to Salt Lake; celebrating with our church community here is such a gift. We did this song from David Crowder's new album this year, and I am really loving it now. We got up on stage with all the other babies and their families and read a Bible verse we picked out for him and then people who we love prayed for him and us.

Up on stage at church

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of.
Philippians 1:9-10

Praying for Lewis

In the afternoon, we had a HUGE PARTY up in the neighborhood where our church has its office. My friend Becky has lovely pictures of it all her beautiful blog. There was beautiful food and warm sun and a bounce house for the kids and a couple baptisms and lovely togetherness. The weather was amazing, and the view, and the experience of being with people we love as we celebrated resurrection and new life for all of us.

Easter view

1 comment:

Eva said...

Green eggs!!, call me dumb, but I didn't know there were chicken that lay those (I though it was only other birds). Funny, the eggs you call brown are called "red" here.

Your penguin looks adorable.