It's been awhile since I've taken time to post - life has gotten decidedly busy to say the least. I hardly know where to start.

I now have 25 chicks in a large box in my barn. Most should be layers with about 5 roosters thrown in. They are now 3 weeks or so old and are getting in their permanent feathers. I keep two heat lamps on them at the moment as yesterday and today are quite cool. We are actually under a freeze warning tonight. I really really hope that it doesn't freeze as my trees are in bloom and I would really like some fruit off them this year. I plan to attempt to cover the shorter ones but that's not many. We will see.

Bus route - well it's easy to tell that the school year is winding down. The students are either really well behaved or really challenging - there doesn't seem to be much in between. I turned in my first conduct report in a long time on my "seatbelt" child - his resource teacher requested that. My middle school students are being their "normal" challenging selves - several will probably be suspended from the bus for a few days. End of year field trips are in full swing - I will be driving tomorrow most of the day with two more trips "on hold" pending my ability to find subs for my routes. Considering we hardly have any subs, that's a major challenge. My morning route and kindergarten shuttle are covered - am just waiting on a call back on my afternoon route for Friday. Squirrel has his only field trip of the school year Friday - he really really wants me to be one of the drivers for it.

Stretch is equally busy this week - he has his first performance of the musical tomorrow morning. (I am driving a bus to that - it doesn't involve my taking any time off my routes). Last night, tonight and Thursday night practice goes until 8:00 pm with performances Friday and Saturday nights. After his final performance he's asked to attend the "after party" for the cast - which will likely have him "out" until the wee hours of the morning. I am a little nervous about that but it's at one of the cast member's homes so hopefully will be chaperoned well and he will have his cell phone so can reach me if need be. We - B, Dipstick, Squirrel and I will be attending Saturday night's show.

The remodel at B's has not progressed much since we spent the time there hauling concrete. Some siding has come off and things are slowly getting packed up inside. Concrete for the crawl space is supposed to be poured sometime this coming weekend. However the electric has to be transferred to the new box, phone line has to be moved and the weather has to be "right" before that can happen.

I guess on that note, I had better scoot for now and get something in the crock pot for supper and hopefully measure out ingredients for a batch of muffins.

Stuff

This turkey shows up at B's house when there are people doing stuff outside. We think it was probably a pet.

I started a post yesterday and ran out of time to finish it - I'm determined to get this done today. Of course that means that I need to type fast. Squirrel is in school today - he stayed home yesterday since he fell apart just before time to get on the bus. He slept from when he went back to bed at 7:00 am until 10:45 - definitely not normal for him. I was able to pick up his homework and have him work on it later during the day - he got most of it done. I figured out last night that in addition to sheer exhaustion from the weekend, part of his problem was likely due to a reaction to the little bit of sun that he got over the weekend. It's time to get the sunscreen out regularly again.

Busy busy weekend and week. I'm honestly not sure where to start...It is beautiful and mostly sunny out now. Yesterday morning we had thick fog during bus route time - it was like driving through a wooded desert where everything was muffled but there were eerie patches of woods that appeared and disappeared through the mist. Now it seems rather like trees and bushes have burst into bloom overnight. Daffodils and grape hyacinth are blooming. Forsythia are everywhere while lilacs have leaves on them and will bloom in a couple of weeks.

We spent a good part of Saturday at B's moving concrete. He's starting a big remodel at his place and we are helping. So far it's been fun to see the changes as things are torn off that need to come off before anything new can go on. It was a lot of work and we were all pretty beat by the time we got home. The picture below is just some of our chicks - Suz had 2 day old chicks (by the time they arrived) delivered to her place a week ago. 21 of those are mine definitely - I may take more just am not sure yet.

Sunday was definitely a rest day - made for a nice change. We went to Suz's for supper and the evening. The boys played outside while the adults were able to visit inside. It was fun to see how the chicks were growing. We played an old game B and I had never played before - Suz is great for board games. It was 9:00 pm before we got home so it was straight to bed for the boys.

Spring Break Part 1

First day back to school after spring break...the morning went well. Both boys were ready early and, in spite of not wanting to get out of bed, I did not run too late. It is a beautiful sunny morning - the greens are brilliant and fresh, leaves are peeking out, daffodils and crocus are blooming...spring has finally arrived.

Spring break just flew past - guess that two trips to Chicago will make it seem that way. We had planned on going to Chicago last Sunday afternoon (a week ago) and staying until Tuesday night. B and Dipstick were due home from CO Saturday night so that would have given us a chance to see them and then head out. However B called Saturday morning and told me that they were going to miss their train connection from Chicago to South Bend and wondered if I could pick them up. Of course I agreed...rushed around making phone calls and getting stuff together. Squirrel rode with me on the way up...he got to spend an extra 24 hours with his aunt, uncle and cousins. The benefit to that was that I had some one on one time with him on the way up as well as company for me on the drive. The train was over 5 hours late so didn't get in until 10:20 pm after which we had to locate checked luggage (which was already on it's way to South Bend- we still don't know how that happened), get ticket refunds, make restroom stops, etc before we could head back east. We had to stop in South Bend to drop another couple at their car and pick up luggage then we headed home. It was 3:00 am by the time I dropped B & Dipstick at their house. I did not get home myself until 3:30 am - was in bed and asleep by 4:00. (Stretch was home alone this entire time - he's old enough to appreciate the time and he was able to take care of the chickens and other animals.) Stretch did not wake me up Sunday morning - I woke up to phone the head of the nursery at church to let her know I was in no shape to hold babies that morning and went back to sleep. I didn't wake again until about 11:45am when I had 2 different phones ringing at the same time. B brought Stretch home from church, waited on me to get around and we went to lunch, did grocery shopping and basically ran around taking care of stuff. Stretch and I left for Chicago about 6:00 pm. Squirrel was very very glad to see us when we arrived - he ran and hugged us both.

While there, I got to have supper with a good friend that I used to work with - we usually get together whenever we are in town - her daughter comes along also - eat and yak for a couple of hours. Our older nephew had school during the day and his dad had to work - that meant that La and I got "girl time" with 3 boys in tow. We went and visited the cemetery - beautiful day for that - took rubbings of Mike's headstone as well as pictures. What was neat about that was that Squirrel was, for the first time, eager to visit there - he actually was more "enthusiastic" than his brother was. We missed our exit on the way there and got to drive past the airport - the boys were all excited about that. Excitement on the way home involved missing another exit, getting caught in traffic and not being home in time for school dismissal. J did not get the message that he was to walk to his babysitter's house with a friend instead of his mom picking him up - that message not getting delivered involved several phone calls while finding him. He eventually ended up back at school and was safely picked up and taken to the sitter's house. Tuesday we made absolutely sure that we were home in time for school dismissal. We ran around "shopping" that day - La allowed Stretch to drive her car while I drove the other two boys - we were going to drop her car off to get tires repaired and oil, etc changed. He did really really well coping with traffic and rainy misty weather - probably the most excitement he had was having a wide load pass him and another wide load ahead of him. We also took pictures of the 4 boys - that should have been done Monday as the weather was better that day. As it was, the weather was nasty enough that we had to do them inside and I didn't think they turned out as well. It was nice to be able to use the digital camera and see that day how they turned out. La and I had good visiting time - alone - with no kids Monday night late when she met me at a bookstore after supper and late Tuesday night after everyone else was asleep.

Wednesday we made a leisurely trip home - making stops at a couple of different places and generally taking our time.

Away

So many thoughts ... scattered, twisting... like leaves blowing in the wind.

In Chicago visiting. Enjoying the time with family and friends. Exhausted due to different schedules, different beds. As usual time goes by too quickly - trying to cram everything into 48 short hours. Looking forward to being back at home. Amazed at how the nephews have grown. Pictures, laughter, tears. Travel on spring break.