411 The Walters Bunch

We all eventually have to face our reality. We wrote off the fighting with each other as being a strong female. The raised hackles, they just have long feathers. I mean some girls have longer hair than others. The loud noise at all hours, she is just vocal. There were so many excuses, but we can't put it off any longer: the reality of The Bunch is that we are the proud owners of a flock of roosters. Not many people mention their rooster flock and this is with good reason. The boys are not only notoriously loud and  aggressive, but also smelly. The new Rooster Lodge we stuck out in the back pasture took a good week to piece together. Now our 6 roosters live in an 8x8 coop while free ranging on about 3/4 of an acre or so. Our 4 hens live the life in the mansion that is 16x16 and without the noisy boys, they are enjoying the serene life. Why did we keep 6 roosters you ask? Well, the easy answer is we really tried not to. We looked everywhere to process them. We finally found one place...

We did it. We made it through birthday season. The kids had a blast at the trampoline park with their cousins and friends.  We kept it simple with homemade cupcakes and just a few decorations. I like these low key, fairly low stress parties. I know the elaborate ones are a little more festive, but they are also a lot of work. T with his friend and cousin. A and her friend's foot....long story. We still have our roosters. It is apparently harder than I thought to find somewhere to slaughter them. I guess there is not enough money in chicken processing. I know we could do it ourselves, but I just don't think I could EVER get the kids to eat chicken again if we did and I think it is just gross. I can probably drop them off at the market okay, but that is about it. We have decided, a full year later, that we are ready to attempt another trip. Albeit, it is only for a week and 6.5 hours away, which for us is super close. We decided on Branson, MO because it had so much...

T turns 9. Yes, we recycled Xmas paper. A turns 14. We recycled her princess bag from 6 years ago. T is in heaven with his teepee and war bonnet. The celebrations continue at the house. In fact, I have decided it is just easier to leave the decorations up until after everyone has celebrated their birthday. Unfortunately, Harvey thwarted our plans to celebrate with family and friends. Not that we are dealing with anything of significance compared to our southern neighbors, but it did cause a severe gas shortage that we have had to deal with. Therefore, the party was postponed by a couple of weeks. My husband asked me the other night if the island in the kitchen was going to always say Pirate Party.  Of course, I reminded him that we haven't had the actual party yet, though I am surprised he asked since with my OCD behaviors NOTHING stays out of place for long. Our weather has been so beautiful lately. One benefit of Harvey for us is that it chased off all the humidi...

The kick off party to birthday season begins with me. This year was a landmark bday so my husband and kids planned a fun day of surprises. To begin with, my husband made me my favorite breakfast: eggs benedict and a vegan cinnamon roll, picked up from my absolute favorite restaurant. Afterwards, they took me to go get my hair cut, which wasn't really a surprise since my husband had asked if I needed a haircut, but I did wait 3 weeks so they could take me and on the condition my hair would be cut first. We also stopped at Starbuck's and I was able to enjoy a real cup of coffee.  It is weird to live in the country and not be able to get your coffee fix with decent coffee. He had also already told me about this. The kids did great not telling me what was planned....my husband not so much. He was so excited he really wanted to tell me everything beforehand so I could know how well he did planning things out. I am not sure he really understands the concept of a surprise. How Swe...

One of the great joys of homeschooling is having the ability to schedule our day however we seem fit. This worked well with the eclipse. The local library had a viewing party, which was fun. We decided to attend and luckily finished school early so we had no worries when we returned. The library had pizza, lemonade cake, mish mash snack, and freeze dried ice cream (it was left over from the summer reading program). All of us enjoyed watching the progress of the moon and while we only witnessed a 75% eclipse here, it was great fun. We witnessed a change in the amount of light and noticeably cooler temps. I love it when the kids can experience things they read about first hand. The kids were really into what was happening and it was SO great to see everyone united doing the same thing, even if it was just for a little while. We are looking forward to being in the path of totality on April 8, 2024. My mad scientist husband working on A's gift in the super high humidity. D and I ...

Well, that time is already upon us again....back to school. In no time at all I should be having nightmares about the slope intercept formula and the periodic table. This is only our first week and so far it has gone fairly smooth, but I fully anticipate harder days as the weeks go on. Our summer flew by and other than the chicken coop and our visit to Nebraska, I am not real sure what we did. You always worry when your son asks to put on make up, but it turned out ok. We still haven't taken the camper any farther than my father in laws, but I am starting to get the smallest inkling of the travel bug so maybe in the fall we will take a vacation. It will most likely only be a week and a short trip at that. I know that no one is ready for a long trip still. Our month long trip last fall has cured everyone of their wanderlust. We have great memories and really enjoyed ourselves, BUT there was so much driving! I promised the kids never for a month again so I think a week will be...