A baby, summer, starting school

I'm not even going to give an excuse about the 4-5 months I haven't blogged. I'm just going to pick right back up where life is now. Which, life currently has me about to send my firstborn off to kindergarten. *teary eyes.

Tonight is meet the teacher. Wednesday is school. I feel like I'm not going to cry because I know he's going to run in and own the place. And those who know my son, know that I am not bragging, but that's just the best way I can describe his HUGE presence/personality. I did cry a week ago when I was nursing baby girl to sleep. I got to thinking about when I nursed my big boy when he was a baby and how he and I spent sweet time together up in Michigan during his first two years if life. Maybe it's harder because the husband was working long hours and would be out of town and we had no family nearby, which left just me and my little Jack to our own devices.

The first one is tough, but I'm thankful for my two other bitty Blackwells that are hone with me.

If my next post looks like this: cndjeqvpervrievnef: it's because I'm smearing off the tears falling on my keyboard.

Crockpot whole chicken

Ever since we got live chickens, I've had a false sense of "farm girl". I went out and bought tomato plants last night assuming that I can keep them alive all summer so that we can have homegrown tomatoes. Y'all, I've never been able to keel a plant alive more than a couple of months, and that is FOREVER for me. I think I can hear plants scream "ruuuuuuuuuunnnnn!" when I walk into the gardening section of stores. If only they could run.

Anyways....all that to say that I've gotten a little more confident in my ability to do things in a semi-old fashioned way. To me, old fashioned is cooking a whole chicken instead of buying the individual breasts or an already conveniently cooked chicken at the store. I'm not a chicken on the bone person, but those whole rotisserie chickens from the store just taste so darn good. Plus, I figured that I can cook a whole turkey every thanksgiving and/or Christmas, then I should be able to do a little ole chicken. That, and they had one reduced for quick sale at HEB.

Sooooo, I googled some crockpot recipes because I'm all about fixing and forgetting it. Turns out it is super simple to cook a chicken in a crockpot. Just season with dried spices, place a cut up onion in the bottom of the crockpot for the chicken to set on and turn on low for 6-7 hours or high for 4-5 hours. I am currently cooking mine, so I guess the final verdict on taste and outcome is up in the air, but I was so excited about this that I wanted to share now. I'll update you on how it turns out!

Evicted

Big things have been happening this week.  It's spring break and Sloan has been sleeping in his big boy bed/bunk for the past 4 nights! (and naps too!!).  WOOHOO!  I was beginning to give up hope that he'd be out of the nursery until many months after Abby was here, but one night when we were gettting ready to put him to bed, he said, "I sleep in big boy bed?"  Now, he's said this before, but we've been too exhausted to deal with the inevitable craziness and excitedness that comes with sleeping in the same room with big brother to let him do it.  However, this night, I figured, eh, why not??  If he's actually asking, then we should probably take advantage of it.  So, after an hour and a half of listening to him and Jackson chatter back and forth, they both fell asleep!  Then, the next day, he successfully went down for a nap and stayed asleep in his bed!!  Besides just being happy that he's out of the nursery, I'm actually really excited about my boys sharing a room.  They are both really happy about it and excited and I really hope that this is the beginning of a strong bond between them.  I hope they become playmates and friends now that they are going to be sharing a room.  I don't know, but it makes me think of the future where they are grown and they talk about the old days when they did crazy/fun stuff in the room they shared together...

On a very related note, since Sloan is out of the nursery for good, I can FINALLY finish it.  We raised the mattress on the crib and put in the girlie girl bedding!  Her clothes are even in the drawers!  For some reason, having a room ready and waiting for her arrival makes it seem all the more real---as if feeling her sit on my sciatic nerve, kick my ribs, give me heartburn, and make my sleep uncomfortable don't make it real enough.  But, there's something about seeing this girl's room made up and waiting for her makes me all the more excited to meet her!

Bedding from Pottery Barn Kids

Pouf from CB2

Chair: Ikea

biggest brother checking out the new digs.

little big brother trying on the baby towel

Abby

While pregnant with both of my boys, I had a dream about what they looked like and what color eyes they would have. For Jackson, I dreamed he had hazel/green eyes, and for Sloan, I dreamed he had blue eyes. Both were right.

So, with only five and a half weeks left until the girl's arrival, I have been waiting and waiting and wondering if God would give me another "sneak peek" dream. Last night I finally had one! I dreamed she had blue eyes and a darker brown hair than my boys have. She was so pretty, of course! (I mean, does anyone dream that their baby will be ugly?? Probably not). I can't wait to see if this dream is accurate like the others, but it was definitely a great dream to keep me motivated and to lift my spirits these last few and kind of difficult weeks left.

Chicken Education

I am officially the Chicken Lady.  Well, if having three chickens counts, then count me in.  My husband has been talking about chickens for a loooooooong time.  I said no.  I knew (and kind of still don't know) nothing about chickens and how to take care of them.  Mostly, I was just concerned that I would end up being the one to feed and water the chickens after everyone else in the family forgot about them.  But, my husband gave me his word that it would not be the case.  So, he started looking for a coop.  My one requirement was that it was cute.  We found a kit on craigslist and he put it together.  I have to say, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  I admit that I also fretted about the complexity of taking care of chickens, but Jesse and I soon realized that chickens aren't that complicated.  They don't need a ton of room to run around.  You just feed and water, basically.  They don't even need to come out of their coop.  The actual square footage that a chicken needs is very small and since we only have 3, they have plenty of room.

We got 3 chickens from our friends who started this whole chicken nonsense.  They have about 13 and got them when they were chicks.  They ordered them online and UPS delivered them.  Yes, UPS delivers live chickens....who knew???  Anyway, only one of the chickens is old enough to lay eggs right now, but the other two should start anyday.  Jackson is SUPER excited about having chickens.  He loves to come home from school and check to see if there are any eggs, and we have had one egg every day so far.  He loves it!  The first egg he found, he wanted to take it to naptime with him.  You know how kids are, if they have a new toy or some favorite item, they want to sleep with it.  Thankfully, it wasn't hard to convince him the egg needed to stay in the refrigerator.  After I got him to put in the refrigerator though, he said he couldn't wait to see what would hatch out of the egg.  Sigh.  Then I had to explain the "chicken-birds and bees" to him.  (which, I myself did not know the inner workings until recently).  Did you know that chickens lay eggs all the time?  Only when you get a rooster involved, do chickens lay fertilized eggs that will then turn into chicks.  I didn't know this, though it may be obvious to some of you all out there.  I grew up in the suburbs of North Dallas.  The closest thing to "farming/or what have you" was having more than one dog.  Anyway...I refuse to get a rooster.  My neighbor tried to convince us to get one because "fertilized eggs taste really good."  BLECH.  VOMIT.  NASTY!  NO THANKYOU.  I refuse to eat pre-hatched baby chicks.  And what if you don't eat it in time?  Will some deformed-refrigerated embryo chick be inside???  (shudder) I can't handle these thoughts.  So no rooster.

Speaking of rooster, though, Jackson named the chickens.  One is Rooster, also known as Mr. Logan.  One is Sam I am (which is the one that is the most fearless and will eat grass out of Jackson's hand).  The other one, which is the one that is laying eggs right now, is Crystal.  Yep.  Crystal.  Where the kid got this name, I have no idea.  It makes me laugh though, because Jackson has always been a very black and white kid (like his daddy).  He doesn't get too involved in imaginative detail.  He will tell you what something is and that's that.  What's the name of his penguin?  Pengy.  What's the name of Sloan's puppy?  Puppy.  So, to come up with "Crystal" is hilarious to me and Jesse. 

our coop.  We painted it the same green as our house.  yes, I am that ridiculous.

Sam I am, Crystal, and Rooster/Mr. Logan.  Rooster is a scaredy chicken.  She hardly comes out when we are around b/c our dog scared the chicken sh*t out of her....  (sorry, couldn't resist.  But it's true)

Sam I am and Jackson are developing a special bond.  She's the only one that isn't afraid of us and she comes out looking for grass from Jackson.

So, I'm in the egg business.  I have chickens that I can see outside my window.  I kinda have to admit that I like them.  Way more than I thought.  The only drawback so far after my 5 days of being a chicken lady is that I feel a little weird when I cook chicken for dinner.  It's weird to cook chicken on the stove while I can see the three lady chicks outside my window.  Hopefully they don't know what goes on in my kitchen...

Making progress

The boys are coming along in acceptance and preparedness for the arrival of their baby sister Abby Claire. Now, instead of saying that the nursery (which is now infused with pink) is his, Sloan says that it is his AND Abby's room. It's close to getting his foot out the door...
And just this morning on our way to school, Jackson suggested that we buy Abby a Dora the Explorer book because she would like it and we can all read it to her. Awww. Makes my heart smile :)

Ears

This is totally random, but in the morning, when the boys were watching cartoons, I like to look at their profiles and think about the way they look and the way they will look when they grow up. Every now and then, I really study their ears. There's something about our ears that amaze me and remind me how intricately we are created by God. The folds, the shape, the way they just stick out from our heads just so.

I don't know. This may seem weird, but ears give me pause in my day to day to remember who we are and who created us in His perfect image.