Since the weather has warmed up, we have been doing a lot of yard work outdoors.  Most of the property was overgrown for over a decade and it’s been a huge task of trimming, pruning, and clearing.  My parents have been coming nearly every week and thanks to their hard work, things are really taking shape!  It has been amazing to see the transformation.  We have discovered so many little treasurers throughout the property.  The more we work, the more we are able to uncover what it must have looked like years ago.  As I was describing the yard to my sister, she said it reminded her of The Secret Garden.  It totally does…except there is no crying crippled boy locked up in a room.  But in many ways, spending time working in the yard is therapeutic.  It is mentally healing to be outside in nature and bringing order to the chaos.  I just love it.

The past few days, I have made it my mission to trim the pine trees by the side and front of the house.  I bought myself a brand new handsaw from a garage sale for $2 (since Israel doesn’t like me using the chainsaw) and I’ve been sawing away at the pines.  In the process, I’ve discovered 3 new bird nests!  Israel found one the other day, of all places, in our trailer.  So, the boys and I have been observing 4 nests and watching their progress from day to day.  We also enjoy watching and hearing the different species of birds that come to our feeders.  I seriously feel like we live at a bird sanctuary.  They are just everywhere so it probably isn’t safe to stand under any of our trees. 

The first robin babies we saw (and I wrote a blog about), ended up being a heart breaker.  A couple days after hatching, the 3 chicks were gone.  It was very sad.  The nest was just too exposed and close to the ground.  The nests we are following now are in much better locations so we’re more hopeful.

To incorporate this as part of school, I’m having Manu and Micah make a nest observation picture journal.  I’m also trying to tie in as many object lessons as I can think of.  It is such an amazing experience and in the boys’ minds, I want it to be associated with spiritual and practical lessons that they will never forget.

This is an enormous nest.  She decided to take advantage of all the room.

Bird Nest #2: 
As I was sawing off a fairly large branch of a tree, I heard really loud flapping and it scared me.  I jumped away from the noise, and then I saw a mourning dove hopping around with its wing extended.  It totally looked injured, and for a minute I thought it was.  It was very convincing.  Until I had a thought that it must have babies nearby!  As much as I know how stressed that bird was, it was exciting to see a “broken-wing feign” live.  As I looked around the tree, I was in for a treat.  Two fairly large mourning dove chicks were sitting in a nest right above my head.  I knew they would be fledging soon.  They could barely fit in the nest.

Today when we went to check on them, they were gone.  The nest was empty except for a ton of droppings.  I think I can say with confidence that they have fledged! 

Bird Nest #3:
While I was trimming the trees where the doves were, I discovered that there were metal wires wrapped around each of them.  From the looks of it, you can tell it had been years because the trunk had tried to grow around the wire.  It was totally choking the trees!  I had to pry them open with pliers and it wasn’t an easy task.  I was trying to save the last poor tree, when I looked right below the wire and saw a nest with 3 perfect robin eggs in it.  Unfortunately, a couple days later, the egg count was down to 2.  But today when we checked on them, there was a hatchling in the nest and the second egg was cracked!  It was time!

Bird Nest #4:
Yesterday, we discovered this nest.  The pine trees by our mailbox were so overgrown so I was trimming the bottom of the trunk when I heard a bird take flight very close to where I was.  I looked around, and to my amazement, there was another robin’s nest with 2 eggs and a new hatchling!  I’m sure it had hatched that same day.  We, once again, had to postpone this trimming mission until after the babies fledge.  But, I don’t mind. 

Mama Robin faithfully sitting on her nest. 

I’m sure there are dozens of other bird nests in our backyard that we just can’t see.  But I’m so thankful that we’ve found these four that are low enough so we can quietly watch from afar.  I just can’t imagine how many bird nests, animal homes, and babies are destroyed when entire forests are taken down…especially in the spring.  Well, we are looking forward to watching the progress of each bird family as time goes on.  So many lessons to be learned.  We are praying for special protection on these families. 

This post is definitely to be continued…!

Micah checked out a couple of books from the library on police officers that we read to them.  For school, I had planned on having a mini music lesson because Manu wanted to learn how to play the harmonica, but then Micah begged to learn about police officers.  In fact, this morning, he came into our bedroom dressed (as far as he was concerned) just like a mounted police officer (one on horseback).  So, I told them that we’d do both.  After our normal school routine, I taught them some basic music theory and then it was time to learn about the police.  One of the books had a small section in the back about fingerprinting and what detectives do.  It was quite clear that today the boys would be police detectives.

Here’s the plot:  In the early morning, someone had passed security and managed to steal a train from the Ramos Train Station.  They weren’t sure who it was, but one thing was for sure.  There were lots of fingerprints left behind.  The crook obviously was an amateur and didn’t wear gloves.  Detectives Manu and Micah were on the case.  They arrived to the crime scene and began dusting the fingerprints (with baby powder and their mom’s cosmetic brush).  One brushed the prints while the other repeatedly relayed through their radios, “There’s too much baby powder!”

They transferred the clearest print (using scotch tape) and began to narrow down the suspects. 

In this court system, you’re guilty until proven innocent.  We all turned ourselves in and got fingerprinted. 

First suspect:  Imanuel Alexander Ramos.  Detective Micah took his prints.

Next suspect:  Micah Christian Ramos.  Detective Manu took his prints.

Finally, Mama was the last suspect, but it seemed highly unlikely.  Why would she steal a train that she herself bought?  Was that even technically stealing?  The boys analyzed the data and compared all of the fingerprints.

The evidence was quite clear according to the detectives.  The print matched identically to that of Mama Ramos.  They couldn’t decide whether to handcuff me or not as they took me to jail.  Detective Micah insisted that we didn’t have to handcuff.  Then, as they were about to lock me up, once again Detective Micah erred on the side of grace and said, “Okay, we’ll give you one more chance!”  Detective Manu concurred.  In fact, they told me they’d give me one hundred more chances!  I don’t see a very bright future ahead of them in the field of justice.  But, it was fun pretending for a day!

This was my things to do list for today:

- do laundry
- go to the bank
- drop off recycled goods
- take boys to the library
- buy pet food
- go grocery shopping
- fill the bird feeders
- read to the boys
- go running (in the backyard)
- tidy up the yard
- clean the house for Sabbath

And all this was on top of the normal daily grind.  I’m thankful that we were able to get everything done.  It was more difficult because I had to bring the boys with me everywhere since Israel is out of town.  Once we left the house to run errands, they had to get in and out of the car 5 times.  I must say that they were champs today.  After the final errand, I decided to treat the boys so we picked up some dinner and headed over to a local park.  After two hours of playing frozen tag (-and according to the boys’ rules, somehow I am always “it” no matter what), we spent some time by the rushing river, and then headed home.  We had worship and then spent some time talking with Israel over the phone.  (He is in Colorado for GYC Board meetings.)  I put the boys to bed and then I took the most magnificent shower.  Now, I am ready to fully embrace the Sabbath and all that it entails.   

After six days of truly legit work and labor, I can see how someone would be inspired to write an entire song dedicated to one day of the week.  I completely can resonate with these words:  

Today for school, the older boys and I did 2 science experiments using a great book we checked out from the library.  It’s called Backyard Science. 

The first experiment was called “Worm Sounds”.  We took a large worm from our worm farm, put it on a piece of aluminum foil, and listened to the sounds of its setae (- the bristle-like parts of the worm used to grasp) as it crawled around.  We used a paper cone to help us hear better. 

The other experiment was called “Ants on a Log”, except it didn’t have to do with the snack kids like to eat.  It was about what snacks ants like to eat.  The boys had lots of fun choosing what types of food to use in this experiment.  Here’s what they decided:

At first, we had a hard time attracting the ants.  We placed the plate next to an ant home, but every time an ant would come onto the plate, it seemed that it would always happen upon the garlic first and then flee for dear life.  We learned early on that they DO NOT like garlic.  We waited a couple hours and when we came back, we were in for a surprise.  The ants were throwing down!  First things we noticed the ants were going after were the lettuce and the pistachio.  After those were nearly exhausted, they were gorging themselves on the veggie meat.  They hardly touched the tostada, cheese, fruit snack and chocolate.  Oh, and of course they stayed away from the garlic.  We left the plate out over night and we’ll see if they ended up gathering the rest of the food eventually.  But it was clear what they preferred to take first from our ant buffet.

The boys were surprised with the results.  First of all, they totally thought they were doing the ants a favor by giving them the pieces of fruit snack and chocolate.  They couldn’t fathom how the ants would not take full advantage of the free sugar.  Secondly, we watched one ant drag a huge chunk of pistachio clear across the plate to its home.  That was pretty amazing.  So, the conclusion was that ants not only are crazy hard workers, but they are also healthy!  I, personally, was inspired by their self-control and temperance.  I guess there is a reason why they are so strong.