Giving

We've been trying to teach our children about giving.

There are many ways of giving, but most of them boil down to money.  We wish that we could teach our children about giving their time, their care and their things and let it be.  But we've discovered that money must also be dealt with when teaching our children about being selfless.

The first step was to introduce them to an allowance.  We have a chore chart that rotates, and everyone is on an even playing field.  Everyone gets a turn with the same chores, even Aidan.  Nice to be able to finally keep it fair!  And the rules of the game run this wise: all chores must be done, regardless.  But if the chore is not done cheerfully (which must be coupled with a stipulation against complaining), then you don't get a sticker for the chore.  Chore gets done, but no sticker.  If they don't get enough stickers, they don't get their weekly dollar.  So the dollar is more for the attitude than the chore itself.

Enter the concept of what an allowance can "get you".  Enter trips to the store to purchase plastic junk.  Enter the introduced concept of sharing that allowance.  Early on, the idea that the money is "theirs" permeates everything.  And it's like teaching a person to share all over again.  Just like we did with toys when they were little (and sometimes we still have to work on it), we teach them that even though something belongs to us, it's still right to share.  Enter the plight of the human condition and a heart of care for the needs of others.  We want to hit all the angles and expose them to awareness about the needs of others.  Like Haiti and Japan.  Like addictions.  Mental illness.  Hunger.  And the overwhelming example of Jesus in His care for the human condition with all its ugliness and sorrow.

Unlike sharing, charity is not something you can or should "make" a child do.  I sought out answers to my questions in the realm of adult attitudes towards charity.  I took a good look at myself.  I talked to Shane.  He (as always) had an insightful, personal thought on the subject.  He said that when he thinks about what he's done for others, he always feels bad because it isn't much.  He doubted that any old person has said "Boy, I wish I hadn't given away so much to charity!"  We discussed our penchant for wanting "more".  There's always so many irons in the fire, that we can never get to them all.  A new upright freezer, a washer/dryer in one drum, a patio, a new car, pay down the loans, move the driveway to a new spot, save up for yearly vacations... and plenty of indoor ideas.  With all that we want to do, it's easy to forget that someone, many someones, are hungry.  Many somebodies don't get a good education.  And how comfortable do we feel when we choose ourselves, repeatedly, over them?  Shane and I agree: not so very.  Jesus didn't say "fill up thy barns and build bigger", but he said "take no thought for the morrow or for what you will wear or what you will eat".

I think it is an unavoidable, human trait to want.  And I suppose that the first thing I can do for my children is to WANT to think of others.  And to expose them to the burgeoning of love for others that comes with charity, and also to be wary of self-congratulation or the praise of men.

Whew!  Any thoughts?

Horse Shocks

Don't you just hate it when you get a horse shock?  Such a pain!

Once upon a time, a mother told her little boy that the cramp in his leg was a charlie horse.  This has gone down in history as a horse shock, and forever after, we get to hear about horse shocks whenever someone has a charlie horse, or simply a sore leg.

Chickens are worm-free!  Yay!  Somehow, I'm not yet ready to eat their eggs.  But I'm sure I'll get over that soon enough.  I'm starting to get tired of throwing away dozens of eggs.

All for today!

Nasty Chicken Heebie-Jeebies

Yesterday and today I have had the willies.  I'm grossed out to the max!

 So I'm going to gross you out, too.

I found teeny, little white eggs ON my chicken eggs!  Some nasty worm or parasite has reared it's ugly head.  I've done my googling and found a worm medicine, Flubenvet, that I hope will be effective.  But worms are just so nasty!  Shane says he'll give me an allowance bonus if I just get rid of the chickens altogether.  Would you take the bribe?  It's a cool 100 bucks.  Tempting.

Today I began pulling up old fence posts and pounding them into the ground to make a second chicken yard.  I have loved the circle of life idea of rotating my girls, letting them feed and fertilize, then gardening with natures own nutrients, while they feed and fertilize(decimate and poop on) another patch of land.  Can you tell the charm and enchantment has fallen away?  Gardening on worm eggs that can incubate in regular inchworms is SO not appealing.  

Right now their chicken yard is all white.  I've sprinkled diatomaceous earth all over the place.  Mixed it in their food, spread it inside the floor of their coop, sprinkled it in their favorite dusting places, sprinkled it over their backs and feathers and all through the compost pile.  It is little crustacean shells that kill little things because they are sharp.  To us, it's like a fine powder, but to eggs, slugs, worms, parasites, etc, it's like broken glass.  Or so I hear!  I figure it can't hurt and might help.  

The cause of all this MAYHEM??  Dare I admit the guilt and sin?  A dirty coop.  I piled the straw high and deep all winter long, just stirred it every week or so to let the heavy stuff fall to the bottom, while the fluffy straw was on top.  Worked good, too.  But.  I stopped stirring it once I decided to clean it out altogether.  Isn't that weird?  I decide it's time for a spring cleaning, but then don't get around to it.  Meanwhile, I stop cleaning altogether.  And I'm sure that a dirty coop is the fastest way to make sure worms show up.  Nevermind that there's a little mouse in the coop, which we've named Hanta.  Collecting eggs is now yucky instead of charming.

A sad tidbit: lately, the pecked egg thing is getting so bad that even though I harvest 3-5 eggs a day, I have to pitch most of them.  Today, for example, Aidan collected the eggs without a basket.  Two eggs to a hand.  Dropped one.  I took them inside, threw away two for eggs on the shell(one had been pecked), threw away one good egg because Aidan dropped it in the chicken pen and I was down to one.  However, we aren't eating any eggs, since roundworm can show up INSIDE the egg.  And I have no idea what worm this is, and I'm not eating it.  No arguments!  So no eggs at all.  *toss*  *toss*

So to summarize, here's a few ideas to help solve and prevent this problem.  I'll be leaning heavily on any chicken advice, so speak up!  

1) diatomaceous earth

2) Flubenvet meds with a two-step plan

3) Building a coop up off the ground? (but will they freeze in winter, which can go sub-zero?)

4) Keeping my loser self to a cleaning schedule.

I'm interested in trying large pebble sand in the coop for the summer, to keep them cool and then treat it like a litter box with a big scoop (like the one I use to clean up mountain lion poop at Wildlife West!).  I would go back to hay in the fall for warmth during winter.  Any flaws in a plan like this?

Girly Curly Fun!

Curly Sue!

 We just bought Julia some new sponge curlers!  She was all excited to try them out, so we washed and conditioned her hair... rolled them all up on a knobby bunch and put her to bed.

 It was a cranky little girl who woke up the next morning and complained through her chores. See her little tear?

But soon we headed into the bathroom to see if her hair is more like Mama's (won't take a curl at all).

I'm pretty sure her hair must come from the Stafford side!

I should have cleaned my mirror, sorry about that.  It was cute to see her run and watch the curls bounce!

And then she wanted to do a skin cream promo, and I have to say, I'm ready to try it! =)

Taking this batch of pictures REALLY made me notice again how my little girl looks like a Sampson!  I see bits of Sydni in my little daughter.  And it is interesting to get floods of nostalgia from looking at my daughter who doesn't even KNOW the darling children I used to babysit.  Sigh.

Also, I've updated our family albums.  I usually update them at the beginning of each month.  And the May album is full of pictures, including White Sands.