Too Many?

These are only a few of the muscovy ducks that we have here on the farm. We actually have in the neighborhood of 20 right now. They are everywhere! The females make this sweet sort of cooing sound similar to the sound a dove makes, but a little more shrill.

Now when it's just the five or so that are our breeding stock it's not so bad. Even when the ducklings are small and downy it's not so bad. But when they get to be full grown and poop everywhere, it is so bad.

I thought I would have a hard time sending them to be butchered. I'm over it. Now I'm just worried about freezer space.

What an awesome problem to have. I truly feel blessed to have more meat for my freezer than I have room for. I need remember to look at it that way instead of stressing about where I'm going to put it all.

Now back to the current duck situation. This is what I came home to last night after Jade's soccer game:

I am not going to be the one to get up on the roof and clean the poop off!

Going Out To Eat

Going out to eat is something we rarely do. It's expensive and I'm usually managing all three kid on my own. Also, I can't always control the ingredients when we are eating out. When you have to avoid nitrates and MSG, that can making eating out frequently not an option.But since it was Labor Day and the kids wanted new pajamas for the first day of school, we headed to Walmart. Of course we no sooner got there and all three kids were starving. STARVING I tell ya! So I took them to the Subway at the front of the store.
They had fun, at foods I rarely let them have at home. Bologna, real salami (we eat uncured at home), and ham (again, uncured at home). Even my three year old polished off a 6-inch sub by himself. And lets not forget the cookie. What can be better than a chocolate chip cookie on a rainy day?We had fun. The kids behaved. It was great. I have avoided doing too many things in public with all three kids at once because it would get to be so exasperating for me. Young children don't try to get out of hand. It's just that when your a little kid in a new place it can be really hard to contain the excitement. It's just bigger than they are.

I got to eat my whole sandwich. If your are wondering, I got a chicken breast on flat bread. That was so good. I need to learn to make flat bread like that at home. Or maybe it tasted so good because my kids were behaving so well I got to eat it from start to finish with out swallowing unchewed food to yell at someone. All in all, it was a great day. Kids with full tummies behave better too, so shopping was even a little fun. Megan is STILL in her new jammies. Wonder how long it's going to take me to get her out of them so they can be washed.

First Day of Virtual School

Today was the girls first day of "attending" the Virtual Public School through Connections Academy. This is a program that is brand new to Michigan and we are one of the first families to try the school here.

Almost awake, but not quite. The one drawback that is going to be difficult for us is that Michigan law requires that all public school students have an average of 6.1 hours of instruction per day based on a 180 day school year. The unfortunate thing is that this law doesn't take into account that it is much different sitting with your mom and sister at home than it is in a classroom with 25 or so other students. That means we have to start fairly early in the day so that we don't have to be doing school until dinner.

A neat work area. For the most part it still looked this neat at the end of the day too.

The computer is provided by the school along with text books, work books, lesson guides, and several other school supplies. They even sent a jump rope and yoga DVD for Physical Education. Yes, starting in 1st grade they are required to have Phys. Ed. every week.


Here' Jade all ready to start her day. She has been so excited to be able to participate in a school with a gifted program where she can work at her own pace. That pace was slow today. We are still learning how the system works and how to best manage our time.

Meg was especially excited to begin her day. Both girls were up at 7am and ready to start by 7:30am. It sure made me glad I was up early enough to get a cup or two of coffee in by then.

Meg's activities were the most involved. Here she is making things go with air. Not only did she blow on them with a straw, she made a paper fan. Then she showed her little brother how to do it. She loves to pass on what she learns to him. It's great to watch.

Here she is showing him how to sort plastic table ware. I think she was sorting according to function here. She also sorted by color, function and size.

And of course we had to have lunch. My children love to have meat and cheese plates for lunch. I had to force the fruit, but they ate it without too much complaining. How many school kids get mozzarella, Gouda and cheddar with their lunches? I bet it's not many. I know this plate looks sparse. Trust me it's more than it looks like and they had seconds.

Overall I was impressed with the first day. It was just challenging enough to keep Jade fully engaged all day. Her day took longer than expected. Mostly because she we haven't quite mastered the system yet. I think tomorrow will go much faster.

I did have to supplement Megs lessons a lot. She was done with everything is less than 4 hours. For tomorrow I have printed off some extra coloring pages and a craft that will go along with her Language Arts story. I'm hoping this will be a good time filler for us.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes as the year progresses.