My Poor, Neglected Blog...

Well, life goes on here and I am not finding much time to blog. My apologies!

In the past two weeks we've dealt with sickness, resuming homeschool [YAY!], trying to figure out how to get 8 people where they need to go when our vehicle only fits 7 [barely], getting kids to activities with a newborn in tow [did I mention I'm totally overwhelmed?!], hatching butterflies, adding more eggs to the incubator, dealing with an EVIL bank [they hold CASH deposits for 36 hours!!], and... oh yeah, I turned 39 in there somewhere!

AND for the past couple of days Gemma has been trying to be colicky and fussy all day - we are *praying* this is a temporary thing and not a permanent state of events for the next 6-12 weeks. [I can't do colic again, I really can't... I WILL lose my mind!]

Anyway, in the meantime, here are some pics for your entertainment.

Here is a shot of all the kids, the first pic I've gotten of them all together:



Here are Monkey5, Monkey3, and Monkey2 checking out the butterflies that grew from caterpillars we ordered through the mail. I was amazed it worked, but it did - and was very cool. This was part of Monkey3's birthday present from way back in April... took me a while to order the caterpillars! We let the butterflies go today - it was neat to see them fly off. [It is still really hot here, so have no fear for the butterflies...the directions said it was safe to release them at these temps]:



Here is a picture of Monkey2 holding Gemma and Monkey4 looking on:



And here is a picture of Ms. Gemma herself - all wide eyed and looking around. She weighed 7lbs 1 oz at her 1 month check up, so she's gaining weight well - she looks right chunky to me after seeing her at 4lb 14 oz when we left the hospital!



And this is what my incubator looks like right now:



I've got more Cuckoo Marans eggs in there, lots of Ameraucana eggs, some Silkie eggs, some Polish eggs, and some Welsummer eggs in there.

Right now my hens aren't laying well - we are getting one egg a day most days! And I have tons of people wanting to buy eggs... so I need to get some more hens laying! I also plan to learn to slaughter the males and use them for meat [I know, creeps everyone out, but I am starting to have strong feelings about not patronizing factory farms - I like knowing my food had a good life and was loved and well cared for....plus you can't beat the health benefits of organic, home grown meat...].

So, that's the update on us... hope you are having a great week!

And isn't October just the best month? I LOVE Fall...