Tending my little tomatoes, kids, and chickens

Hi. It is Tuesday evening. Kids are reading and playing piano. They will soon be getting into jammies and brushing teeth. Papa is out weed-wacking the back forty. I am sitting on the front porch listening to the sprinklers, the piano, and the baby wrens in the nest here on the porch. I had a donation sitting on the porch in a brown paper bag, and these adorable little wrens made a nest in there, on top of an old acrylic toilet seat rug-cover-thing. Now there are 5 (that I can see) little peeps in there, and whenever I sneak a peak at them, they all have their little mouths wide open, making lots of hungry peeping noises. Today Sassy Cat got out while we were working in the yard, and knocked the bag over. Girl came running out to me in tears. I set the bag back up, and touching them as little as possible, put the babies back in their comfy spot while the kids found the cat. I watched for a few minutes, and the mama wren (I call her Jenny, after the wren in the Burgess Bird Book) did come back, with a bug in her mouth. She took her own sweet time getting back to the nest- darting here and there to distract any possible predators, but she did go to them and feed them, so I am hoping that means they will all be okay.

Today the kids and I did a lot of yard work. They weed-wacked the back field while I weeded my asparagus bed, and transplanted some lettuce, basil, and pepper plants I got the last time we partied at the B family's home. It has been hot, hot, hot here. We let the chickens out while we were gardening. They are getting so big! About half their adult size now. It is fun to watch them interacting with each other and exploring the yard. The bad thing, is that they like my gardens. They nibble tomato leaves (I thought they were poisonous?), eat my blueberries right off the bush, and poop on my lettuce plants. Sigh. I think I may have to put wire around my gardens. If they eat blueberries and tomato leaves, they will probably try to eat the tomatoes when they ripen. I do have several tiny green tomatoes on the 5 ft tall plants. That is cool!

After the kids sweated and worked hard, we had a nature study class. We drew the trees we have adopted, and hiked up to the little waterfall. Good but sweaty time. Tonight it is much cooler outside than it is inside- much better than last night.

Yesterday morning was not good here. The kids were disobedient and rude. Soooo, we cleaned the kitchen. They scrubbed floors, walls, backsplashes, cupboards, the sink. They washed the table and chairs, and did the dishes at least 4 times. It took all day. In the afternoon, they did music practice. Other than that, all they did was pushups- every time they backsassed me or spoke out of turn. This parenting gig is harder than it looks. I hope I am doing okay.

Well, the piano has stopped, and so has the weedwacker. I best go supervise the tooth brushing, and let the Papa Dude know it is time for Twenty Thousand Leagues.
TTFN,
LB