Congratulations Abigail!

Great job not sucking your thumb! Two weeks of being thumb free is liberating for the entire family. Keep it up!

One of Our Three Month old Aracana Chickens

February 20, 2006 update

Monday morning! One of Baruch's favorite days of the week. He watches and waits for the garbage truck. We are ready for a busy week. School is pressing on me as I anticipate the baby coming and want so much to finish up our various studies before then. Thirteen weeks and counting. We have started ripping wallpaper down in the kids rooms. Hoping to paint before long. I am thinking I will paint the boys room sand colored as they love cowboys and that would go well. I haven't decided for sure on the girls room. I was thinking sage green on the bottom half and mauve on the top with a flower border in the middle. I am wondering however, if I should go with more neutral colors. Please send an e-mail with feedback. Drew has a tax seminar to give Tuesday night. Wednesday night we will have our first in a serious of Bible studies on Ephesians. Thursday night Mary and I will attend a shower for a young lady at church who just had her second baby, a boy named Rees (her maiden name). I am coming up with the games for the shower and am looking forward to that. The first will be a nursery rhyme multiple choice, the second a team effort to change a dolls diaper. The partners will each use one arm, the other two will be tied together.

The budding author writes. . .

Falling

One day a man went to the pool. He fell through a deep tube and splash! into the pool. He saw one man down at the bottom of the pool. He was swimming when he saw this. It was his shadow. The man saw when he swam it followed him. "Oh no!" he said "some person is trying to get me." He swam to the land and went to Twinkle Land. It was twinkling. He got scared because everything was twinkling. He walked with a net and caught five twinkling people. "I know" he said "this is Twinkle Land"

The End
By Jacob Matthew (age 6)

Drew

Here are some of our family photos. . .

Abigail and Baruch

My favorite thing to play is cowboys. I like to play princess too. My favorite book is No Roses for HARRY! by Gene Zion. I want the new baby to be a girl. -Abigail

Beth and Mary

Hi I am Mary. I like to read books. My favorite book is A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Right now I am reading Elsie Dinsmore book three. I like to play "play dough". Mom's tummy is getting huge.

Jacob

One of my favorite past times is drawing horses. My favorite book is Mice of the Seven Seas by Tim Davis. I like Mice of the Seven Seas because there are pirates, traps and treasure in the story. I want our new baby to be a boy! -Jacob

Mary and a Chicken

Chicken Journal thoughts by Mary, Jacob and Abigail (typed by Mom)

January 29, 2006
It was around 2 PM when we got our baby chicks. We expected 25 buy we really got 28. First we drove on White Street but we didn't’t know which side of the street it was on so we looked on every side. Soon we ran into the Post Office but we didn’t know which door to go to. Papa jumped the fence and ran to the wrong door and read “Go to the Main Entrance”. So he climbed the fence and went to the van. He drove the car to the main entrance and went in and got the chicks. He brought the chicks to the van. Then we drove home. Then I (Jacob) helped Mom get everything ready. We washed the tub, feeder and water pail, while the chicks were in the box. We brought the tub down and I (Jacob) went to the garage to get the sawdust! Then we put the newspaper Grandma and Pa gave us on top of the sawdust. Then we put water in the water pail Then we put the chicks in and tried to fit in the feeder but it was too big. So we got two glass bowls and put them in the tub with food in them. Then one chicken got sick, then two more got sick. Mom put the sick chicks in separate tubs because all the others were being mean to them. Mary and Mom warmed the chicks to help them get better.

January 30, 2006
The sick chickens are doing a lot better. I (Jacob) picked out my chick because of how her head looked. I named my chicken Bawk bawk. I picked out a chicken for Baruch. He named his Andrew because he likes to say that name.

Mrs. Vosberg came and picked up her 20 chicks. Now we have 8 chicks. Oh no! We put the three sick ones in with the others and they drank and drank. One of the sick ones wasn’t doing well. It had a tumor. It got wet and I had to dry it off. Then I (Jacob) rubbed the tumor and it got better.

February 1, 2006
I gave the sick chick company with my chick. They did well. The sick chick started pecking at Bawk bawk. Then I took her up and I said this very low, “don’t bite”. I named the sick chick Bawk. Now Bawk and Bawk bawk are in with all the other chicks. Now they are doing very well. They started growing feather.

February 6, 2006
The chickens are growing up. They have new feathers on their wings. Mary's has the most tail feathers. Five of them have tail feathers. One chicken flew up to the top of the bin. It was mine (Jacob's).

February 13, 2006

Jacob - I recognized that one of the chickens had really cool feathers. And I picked two chickens and that one was the one I had picked. I really like it.

Mary - The chickens are growing feathers very fast. Now they look almost like miniature adults.

Abigail - The chickens have big wings.

April 11, 2006

Mary - The chickens look just like adults now. They are covered with feathers all over. If you go into their pen you can find hundreds of feathers all over but you cannot see that they have lost any. I know which chicken is mine because it has a copper neck. The chickens will be laying at the end of May. Abigail feeds the chickens grass so I decided to eat grass to. Maybe then I will start laying eggs and I wouldn't have to worry about going hungry.

Cob - They are growing feathers and they are all done growing them too. My dad thinks their feathers have the bugs but I don't think they really do. I feed the chickens, clean out their cage and sprinkle oyster shells and feed them mash. That's it, bye. My chicken is the coolest.

Abigail - My chicken is white. My chicken is the prettiest. My chicken has not layed any eggs. My chicken is very very very very very pretty. None other chicken is just white like mine. I like to feed them grass.

Baruch loves to go into the pen. He is constantly trying to let the chickens out :-) (mom's note)

April 22

Jacob is the main chicken care taker. He is doing an excellent job. They have only gotten loose 4 or 5 times and 2 of those were due to Baruch's handy paws on the gate. The chickens are continuing to thrive under Jacob's care. (mom again)

Jacob's Chicken Drawing