mallard eggs

A few days ago we noticed there was a mama mallard sitting in my tulips in the morning when Kevin was leaving for work. I thought it was cool having our own duck. Morning after morning she was still there. I started to look forward to seeing her in each morning. Today, on Mother's Day, I peeked at her, she got up and walked away and there I saw five faint blue eggs sitting in her little nest.

So, now that I have my own duck, I took to looking up a bit about my duck. Ma Mallard typically lays one egg per day until she has accumulated a full clutch. Early in the nesting season, a full clutch averages 12 eggs. As laying progresses, Ma will add grass, twigs, and copious amounts of her own down to the nest, resulting in a well insulated and surprisingly well camouflaged nest bowl.

During the laying period, Ma visits the nest for only about one hour per day. While there she lays an egg and works on nest construction. Don't be concerned if she skips a day. She does not incubate the eggs during the laying stage. Because no embryo development has occurred, weather conditions in her absence generally have very little effect on the clutch. An exception is a hard freeze, which may kill the embryos if it occurs before the hen has insulated the nest. Once she has constructed a nest bowl, she will cover the eggs with nest material whenever she voluntarily leaves the nest. This behavior makes the nest less obvious to predators, and protects the eggs from temperature extremes.

Incubation begins after the clutch is complete, and typically lasts for about 25-29 days. During this period she will usually cover the nest and go off to feed for about an hour each morning and afternoon. Once the duckies hatch, the walk away!!

Can you see her hidden in the mulch? She isn't around during the day and now I'm wondering how I can keep the dog away from the next for the next month. Not to mention that I need to water the flowers and also plant some annuals. Ma Mallard sure did pick a good nesting spot. It's sheltered and pretty!

We also have a resident hawk that came back. His family showed up last year and live at the top of a pine tree in the back yard. Under the trees in some bushes, we have a bunny family. We saw it coming.... the hawk got either the mom or the dad bunny, and one of the babies. There were some body parts in the back yard, but I still see one of them munching in the mornings.

Yesterday I also saw a fat raccoon run through the backyard. I wonder what other friends we have around here?

go with the flow

Hey there! Yes, we are still alive (as evident by the new Flickr photos you occassionally see). I've been working a lot more with a push to do at least 20 hours/week. My free 2-hour time slot around lunch time has gotten eaten up by paperwork. So, no crafting around here either. I still have a beautiful quilt for myself that I haven't even started the quilting on. It just sits on my chair downstairs...waiting.

My girls...here's an update...

Charlotte
Certainly a grown-up 4-year-old. She seems to have sprouted a new vocabulary and attitude. She's a Miss Know-It-All and tries to correct me constantly during the day. I've instituted a "Yes, Mom" policy around here and she's doing quite well with it. Now that she's a little older, she's easier to reason with and explain things too. Charlotte is growing up too fast! Every day I look at her and she seems a little older. Not to mention her pants keep getting shorter each day too. I turned some pants/leggings into capris. Can't waste pants here!! She knows all her letters and the sounds that go with them. Besides wriring her letters, we are working on sounding out simple words like cat, dog, boat, help, etc. She is so smart it blows my mind. Big things in store for this girl. Charlotte rode her bike 2 miles the other night. She didn't even cry after falling during a turn on her bike. Hot stuff!!

Gretchen
Oh. My. Goodness. Gretchen's really lucky she's the cutest of them all. I think Terrible Two's has entered this house. Pair that with a poor vocabulary and we have major tantrums!! She's a light switch. One second she's sweet and cuddly and the second she hears NO, she's on the floor screaming bloody murder and just being horrible!! And this goes on all day long! Inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs...it doesn't end! Poor Elsa just wants to sleep where it's quiet! Speech is going great, we are down to one day/week. She continues to make good progress but that's just it, it's progress.

Gretchen got a big kid bike a few weeks back and is working on trying to move the pedals. I know she'll master it before the summer is over. This little girl wants to do everything on her own. She picks out clothes, gets dressed, shoes, socks, everything! You try to help and she screams at you! Yikes!

Elsa
My sweet little baby. She's just about 5 months and I can't believe how fast time is going. Elsa is a rolling machine. You lay her on the ground and she rolls over. The other morning I found her on her belly in the crib. I guess we're approaching belly sleeping! Elsa coos at people and smiles, giggles. The day care ladies fight over who gets to hold her, telling me she's the best baby ever. I just smile and say, "Yes, she is the best baby ever." Elsa sleeps well and naps well. After a walk to get ice cream the other night, Elsa slept from 8:15pm to 6:15am. Amazing!! Most nights I wake up once to feed her. Hard to think that in one more month we'll be starting solid foods. Where did my baby go?!

Kevin and I are doing good. The warm weather we had last week was much needed. Can't wait for summer to be here!

staying positive

Two weeks ago I received a very sad email from a close friend of mine. Her husband had a seizure in their home and she had to call 9-1-1. Having done that before, I knew how scary it was. Having seen a loved one have a seizure before, I knew how scary that was too.

Over the last few weeks they've seen a neuro-oncologist and and two neuro-surgeons. It's been a very hard to absorb everything that is going on. We are living the motto of one step at a time. There is no speculation and no guessing. It's a "deal with the now" sort of moment.

So, if you are reading this, I ask that you please pray for my friend and her husband. He should be having surgery next week. We pray for a speedy recovery (only 3 days!!) and we deeply pray that the tumor is non-cancerous and comes out easy.

Tuesday update:
He's out of surgery as of 3 pm!  All is well!  Straight from the doctor's mouth: Everything worked out as best as it could.  Everything worked out as best as it could. The surgeon was very confident about the entire surgery.  He had an aggressive approach and says he removed all of the tumor. My friend will be in recovery 2 hours before family can see him.  Praise God!  Thank you for Dr. Baskaya's skilled hands.

elsa is 4 months

Sorry for my lack of contact. Things have been crazy around here as I'm being pushed to get in 20 hours/week for my other job. That means I'm working more nights and squeezing in more phone calls and paperwork during the day.

The weather has been horrible, you know that. We've been making the most of any window of true spring-like weather. We all took a trip to the zoo a few weeks ago, we went to Betty Brinn Children's museum last week, and the kids spent some time outside here and there in the last week. They are itching to be outside! I even pulled all the bikes out so that they can ride around.

Elsa is wonderful. She had her 4-month check-up yesterday. Elsa is 14 pounds (70%) and 25 inches (80%). I haven't had time to compare her to the other two, I'll have to do that. She is sleeping anywhere from 6-8 hours at night, it's just not always at the right time so I still wake up once to feed her at night. She is still working on rolling over and working at grabbing things and batting at hanging toys. Minus the small bald spot on the back of her head, she's perfect!

She travels great-- spending a lot of time in her car seat...sleeping. We are constantly on the go!

Gretchen's speech is awesome! She is really exploding with words. You might not know what the word is (i.e. swimsuit, hot dog) but we know what it is! Our therapist even said we could go down to once per week (a money saver!!!).

I had an awesome girls' weekend at the cabin this past Saturday. Kevin was at home with all three kids for like 36 hours. Wouldn't ya know, I had an 8-hr stomach bug and ended up getting majorily sick at the cabin during our party. It wasn't from alcohol...I wish it had been. So thanks for letting us go up there Roy and Elaine, but we'll have to do that again so I can redeem myself! At least none of the kids got sick yet.

video: elsa rolling over

video: Elsa rolling over a video by Midwest Family Life on Flickr.

She did it! Almost 17 weeks, almost 4 months (on Saturday). Elsa rolled over this morning from her belly to her back. I have to help to make sure her arm is up, not down her side. If it's down, she can't roll over her arm. She's rolled over 4x today! This is big news. No more leaving this little girl on the couch.

Elsa is our little love and a fun one to be around. She looks at you, makes cute noises and smiles all the time. We can even get her to giggle. She is sleeping really great at night. Pulling 6-8 hour shifts, so I feed her once early morning (between 1am and 3am), then she goes back to bed with no issues.

Elsa has been a bit fussy with eating. I think the "convenience" feeding doesn't suit her anymore. She only wants to eat when hungry, but sometimes that doesn't fit into our schedule. The girls still love her and she's a perfect little sister.

an Easter service to remember--

I'll try to make this short...and I sure wish I had a video.

We were in Green Bay this morning for Easter and went to church with Roy and Elaine. Considering we were there a total of two hours, the girls were really, really good. Elsa was perfect...big surprise.

There was a point during the collection that all the kids took their offering up to the front and put it in a basket the Priest was holding. I figured the girls would like to walk up there, stretch their legs. I quickly pulled out two $1 bills, gave Charlotte and Gretchen each one, told Gretchen to follow Charlotte, and for Charlotte to follow the other kids. Being the un-shy girls they are, they grabbed the money and left the pew to walk up front.

This all happened in a matter of 30 seconds.

Might I also preface the end of this story by saying there are two giant T.V. screens hanging up front so that everybody can see what's going on during mass. One screen on each side of the church. Kevin could see the girls walk up there but I could only see the screen. Kids started coming back and I still hadn't seen the girls on the screen. Turns out, they were one of the last ones because I was late to realize what the kids were all doing.

Gretchen lost Charlotte for a split second and both girls found themselves looking at the Priest with a basket. Charlotte put her money in. Gretchen reached to put her dollar in but backed up. Looked at the Priest, made a gesture like she was going to take some out, but put her dollar in. Then Gretchen took one step up the stairs (to the altar), paused, looked around, and took two more steps. Watching this on the screen I started pushing Kevin "go get her!!"

The entire congregation thought this must be funny because they started laughing and the entire place clapped when Kevin picked up Gretchen. At least she looked cute today.

After Mass the Priest said, "This was the first time I've ever had anybody pause and think about giving me their dollar!" Oh goodness....it will be a mass to remember. Other people came up to us afterwards either cracking a joke or telling us how cute our little girl was.

All I have to say is, at least they thought it was "cute" because I was borderline mortified!

quick 'n easy peanut butter (and chocolate) cookies

Around here, we've been on a diet. No Easter candy. No (more) Girl Scout cookies. Nothing. If it's in the house, we eat it, so I don't keep it in the house. It really makes us grab a healthy snack if we need a little treat. But sometimes, and it's usually me, I get a craving and I need to fill that craving. Without running to the grocery store, I'm forced to find a treat hidden in the house. If I'm lucky I'll have a bag of chocolate chips, but if I'm really lucky, I have all the ingredients for a quick and easy cookie that even you can't mess up. (And I usually do have all these ingredients...)

Gluten-free (or not) peanut butter (and chocolate) cookies. These are the soft and yummy kind, my favorite kind. I really don't like my peanut butter cookies crisp and hard. I've added the Nutella and I would suspect you could add more of it or cocoa powder too for a more distinct chocolate flavor.

These first started out as a gluten free peanut butter cookie. I've improvised a little. Here's the original recipe:

1C peanut butter
1C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder

For these I double the recipe and modified it as follows:

1.5 C peanut butter
1/2C Nutella
2C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/8C flour

The double batch made just under 4 dozen cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your cookie sheets. Roll dough into 1" balls of dough and place 1" apart on cookie sheets. Flatten balls with a fork, making the standard peanut butter cross hatch pattern. Bake 10 minutes until puffed and pale golden. Cool on the cookie sheets 2 minutes -- this is how you get the soft cookie that's not over cooked. Transfer to wire racks or I use paper bags.

Enjoy!

gathered toddler purse

My girls love carring around purses. They stuff their purses until they are full! What's great about this gathered purse is that it's washable and a great toddler size. My girls are 2 and 4 and this fits them perfectly.

1. First I drew a rough design approximately 7.5 inches wide and 7 inches high on paper and used that as a template. I made the top narrower than the bottom and rounded the bottom. 
2. Iron some interfacing to your outside fabric then using your template, cut out two identical pieces for the outside of the purse.
3. Using the same template, cut out two pieces for the inside/lining of the purse.
4. On the top of the outside purse fabric, fold in some pleats and pin. Make sure that both sides come out to be the same width after you make the pleats. Sew the pleats in place.
5. Turn right sides together and sew around the outside of the purse, leaving the top where the pleats are located open.

6. Stuff the lining inside the purse, wrong sides together. A lot of tutorials I read make the outside and the lining the same size from the same template. I tend to make the lining a bit smaller. You can just sew a larger seam allowance to make it smaller. Once you stuff the lining inside, you'll see if it's too big.

7. To make the top sashing color (green), I cut a strip approximately 16" by 4-5" (depending on how thick you want the piece). If you don't have a piece 16" long, you can use two pieces and sew the ends together. I folded the fabric to find the middle and ironed. Then I folded and ironed the sides in about 1/4". Next, cut a peice of interfacing (doesn't have to be exact), and iron it on one side of the piece (see below).

8. Once the interfacing is on, fold it on your crease and measure it around the top of your purse. Measure how much you'll need, leaving a 1/2" seam allowance. Cut it and sew the raw sides together to make a loop.

9. Stuff the top of the purse inside the pocket of the sashing (green fabric) and pin in place. You are going to sew this to the purple fabric to hold it in place. All the raw edges should be tucked it and it should end up very neat.

10. The strap is made the same way as the green sashing. Or, you can sew around the ouside and turn it inside out. Iron and top stitch. The strap is about 14" long, or as long as you need it to be for your little one. Below, you can see I just stitched the strap right to each side of the purse, making a little box to ensure that the strap won't rip off.

11. For the flower, I use this tutorial from Ashley at Make It and Love It a lot. It's a staple in my house because it's raw, quick, and easy! I used the machine to stich the flower to the front of the purse, just a few tack stitches. You could also hand sew it.

12. Iron and enjoy you new creation. I know my girls love it!!