Spring Chickens and Scenes From a Sunday

No, not Easter Sunday, you know me, I have yet to get around to those pics. This was actually the previous Sunday, far more mellow, way less action packed, and much more sunshiney. It was just a nice little day at home.

My morning started off with stacks of dishes to be done, laundry, floors desperately in need of vacuuming, and the general chaos that ensues when a gang of four rowdy kids, all under the age of five, are let loose in your home…

Have a closer look…

Now extrapolate this to the entire house.

I will admit that on a less beautiful day, one not quite so filled with bird song, rose-scented breezes, and the warm promise of Spring, things may have been off to a discouraging start.

However, on this particular day, it was the words “a beautiful mess” that came to mind and even inspired me to get out my camera and try to capture the sort of chaos that makes a house feel like a home, lived in, loved.

Nevermind that there are CRAYONS strewn across the wood floors… don’t their tiny pops of color look pretty through the rose-colored glasses of a perfect Spring day?

Ah, the culprits! They may look innocent, but do not be fooled. I actually did a double-take when I walked out the back door, after having whipped the house back into some sort of order, and stumbled upon this rare little scene.

Clover and the neighbor kids, all squished into the sandbox, playing together quietly, happily, no crying, no throwing sand, no arguing over sand toys… I’m telling you, it was weird. I had to run and get my camera!

Later that afternoon, we spent some family time in the garden. Lucas and Clover planted some small blueberry bushes. He started digging the hole and she ran right over to get her tiny shovel from the sandbox to help. She loves being papa’s little garden helper.

Clover moved on to the patch of wild onion under the plum tree for some flower picking, while I joined in on the planting. You can never have too many strawberry plants strewn about the yard.

I didn’t even have to ask Lucas to take my picture… that’s how magical of a day it was ;)

Clover taking pride in her onion-scented bouquet.

Someone told us recently that chard is great on pizza. It’s now on my to-try list. You can never have too many chard recipes at your disposal.

A double-yolker!

Yup, it turns out one of our chickens will every once in awhile lay an egg that is quite a bit larger than a normal sized egg and has two yolks instead of one. This is the third one we’ve found!

We’re still not sure which hen is laying them, but Lucas and I both have our money on Hiccup.

Little Kettle Corn went broody on us for a few days. Luckily, after gently picking her up and moving her off the nest a few times, she seems to have snapped out of it.

When we let the girls out to free-range, usually toward the end of the day, the first thing they do is run straight to the back corner of the yard to their favorite dust bathing spot. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, it turns out the key to a clean, well-groomed, parasite-free chicken is a good honest roll in the dirt!

See how pretty they look after.

I sat under the willow with my camera poised as they pranced through the backlit flowers after their dust bath. I couldn’t help but edit in some soft-focus...

Glamour shots for chickens, anyone?

Happy Spring planting!