The day began.
I heard noises coming from the kitchen; I remained, lazy, in my bed for half an hour longer.
Up at six.
Good morning, children!
“I woke up late” says Grace.
“I had to go wake her up,” says E.
“In my sleep I forgot all about school and when I woke up I thought, ‘What in the world is he doing in here at this time of day!” said Grace.
I thought it was quite responsible of E to wake his sister.
I fixed Grace’s hair for her. She simply does not care what her hair looks like. I give her another year or so, or maybe she won’t be the type of girl that spends a lot of time in front of the mirror? Time will tell, for now she is not, not at all. Mama still helps. She sure cleans up nice, though. Pretty girl. “Would you like a pony or a braid today?” I asked. “A PONY!” she answered, and she didn’t mean the hair style, either. 
The day began.
We got to see the sun rise!
By and by, I managed to get five children out the door for school. Lunches, homework, and all.
Seth and I made cupcakes. He insisted, then he and Sarah both ate two (after a proper breakfast, that is).
I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. I regretted the days I brought STUFF into the house. We have too much, too too much. I want to give a lot of stuff away; donate books (?, yes, books!) clothes, toys, and throw away junk. I’ve been in this spirit for days (I threw away my bread machine that I’ve had for 14 years, I haven’t used it for about 10)…..why hang on to old stuff? It just clutters my life and gives me more to clean up.
As our daily habits dictate, Seth and Sarah and I went outside for a lot of the morning. I do this with an ulterior motive, mothers everywhere can guess; it tires the children out and makes them SLEEP better, at naptime. Hee hee.
We began our adventures by photographing a few hideous chickens.
She begged me, with her eyes, not to notice her in this state.
As you see, she is molting.
It is a depressing occurrence in her life; she doesn’t even have the spunk to lay her daily egg.
Feathers are everywhere, just not *where they are supposed to be*.
Not all the girls are in such a state, this yellow (is it Margaret? Or Fluffy? Only my children know.) is still lovely. Then why, I ask, is she also not laying HER daily egg? No one’s laying eggs for me. I had to purchase two dozen this week!
Sarah’s silly face. I took her picture and then she wanted to see it. She knew it would be silly.
We saw an old bird’s nest in the (now bare) bushes by the house, so we explored a little.
Seth happened to dress in the same color as the pretty red bush outside.
As all good explorers do, we also made a discovery. These berries were growing on a vine, I have never seen these before. It almost looks like a yellow coat peels up and off the red berry. It’s an interesting wild plant that makes me wish again for a New England berry identification guide.
This is the nest we saw. Comfy looking, isn’t it?
Hope you’re having a wonderful day, friends.
((hugs))
Good to be Home 
we found those berries at our place this past weekend! We live on the MD/PA line. We’ve never seen them before but thought they were so pretty!
@MommyinChrist – That’s so cool! Thanks for telling me. Let me know if you figure out what they are!
@purpleamethyst76 – I looked them up and this is what I found. We found ours entwined with the branches of a tree that had fallen in the snow storm.http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/Oriental_bittersweet.htm
@MommyinChrist – Uh oh! “ECOLOGICAL THREAT: Oriental bittersweet is an aggressive invader” It is beautiful, though. Thank you so much for researching!
I see you found out that that berry is bittersweet. I like to use it in fall decorations with pumpkins,leaves etc.Poor chickens…(and I thought I had a bad hair day…LOL)
That is a sad looking chicken! lol
Hmmm, you are clearing out your house? I think you need to get rid of all your cluttery fiestaware You would be so much more organized without it…I’ll send you my address and I will take care of it for you. Lol.I do know that feeling, the feeling of too much stuff. I hate stuff. I will go in spurts of clearing the clutter and it feels so good. Have you read Organized Simplicity? The cover alone inspires me to clean! It is a nice quick little read with lots of helpful tips.Your chickens are…well, yeah, kind of hideous. haha. Poor chickens.I know when the seasons change and the weather gets cooler my parents chickens don’t lay as many eggs…sometimes none at all.Sounds like a lovely day.Happy Tuesday to you. =)
@Elizabethmarie_1 – Have to laugh…especially since you said you have a lot of fiesta ware already. You two are creating fiesta lovers everywhere. I get frustrated with clutter…yet have so much. Papers, mags, catalogs etc. are the worse of it, but also a small place after living in bigger houses, and inheriting treasures. Tell me if you figure out how to de-clutter. Your house is not very cluttered anyway. Poor chickens. Molting really isn’t very pretty, is it?
that first shot is so pretty! i sat looking at it for several seconds.. so peaceful!poor chicky.~ which of us ladies likes our picture taken when our hair’s a mess!! ;)cute cute shot of sarah. love her little wrinkled up nose.
what happens when the chickens molt? do all their feathers fall out? that is sooo sad.
Weird that no one is giving you eggs! Hope that changes soon!And isn’t it amazing how kids always know the names to animals like that, where they all look exactly the same, hahaSounds like a lovely morning!
Poor chicken:):)School mornings are busy and I hate “stuff” too!!!
i so understand about the state of decluttering and clearing out. it feels soo good to have things simplified!poor chickens…that looks so miserable! and, bittersweet!! it is WONDERFUL!! i adore it and each year go on the hunt for my supply for my fall decorating. it makes beautiful wreaths if you have enough of it. i think you would really enjoy having it in your home. =)happy Wednesday to you sweet friend!
I love bittersweet! Have written devotions and etc. about it….did NOT know it is considered invasive. Have thought about planting it so could have lots for fall decoration. Yikes! Guess it is appropriately named, huh?I’ve a chicken blog running through my head this morning….they give us lots of good material, don’t they, even if they decide to withhold eggs.That pic of Sarah is adorable!
Beautiful sunrise pictures! 🙂 Hey, was just wondering what you are finding out about your health?
Just looking at your pictures has made my day wonderful already! Dawn clouds, ugly beautiful chickens, and red berries.And I know the feeling of too much stuff…we have been de-cluttering for over a year now…yet we still seem to have to much STUFF! Haha
Its great to get rid of things you don’t love or need anymore. I’ve been making efforts to declutter over the last year. We’ve had garage sales, carboot sales, giving away things and dropping stuff off at 2nd hand shops (I suppose like goodwill…but in Australia). It’s still ongoing for me.I found the book The Joy of Less by Francine Jay inspiring, (not Christian).Adorable photos of your children and your nature shots are lovely.
Yes the chickens look terrible I thought they were in a fight (tells you how much I know about chickens)! I cannot believe you had to buy eggs!There is a blog I think it is called Clover Lane and she inspires me with her challenges of throwing out, (30 bags in 30 days), something like that. Our house is so so very small that I feel that way evey single day, the kids start hiding stuff from me! LOL!I was happy to see a post, I miss you friend!
I’ve been ill this week, laid up in bed, and 2 days ago (to cheer me up) the girls brought me a nest that was falling from a backyard tree. Rissy said, “Look Mom, there is my powder puff I threw away!” Sure enough, one of the birds had dragged it up the tree to its nest! We still have lots of colorful leaves, but it won’t be long until they are brown . . . and gone.
And . . . the chickens . . . We used to have parakeets, and now have a cockatiel. When they molt it makes then feel icky and that’s probably why you aren’t getting a lot of eggs. There have been times when my birds looked so miserable (huddling in a corner of their cage) while molting that I thought they would surely die and not make it. Go out and *sweet talk* the chickens to try to make them smile. Your posts always make me smile, maybe it will work on your feathered friends, too! LOL