Mother’s Day

I got a special surprise for this Mother’s Day.  Aside from what’s to come later today and the comfy pink striped pajamas hubby gave to me last night, I was able to see our “baby” robins this morning.

Beginning in March we watched a pair of Robins make a nest in a tree in our front yard, right outside our living room window.  Mama Robin laid five eggs.  We looked everyday to see if they were hatched and finally, on one of our daily peeks, there they were, clear skinned, hairless, and eyes closed.   My, how they grew!  I was so amazed at how quickly they changed from little limp creatures to our sweet feathered friends.  About the time they were out growing the nest we left for Florida (I hope to write about that soon!). 

After arriving home the first thing I did was check the nest.  Gone.  We were all a little sad and I’ve kept my eyes open for any sign of them since then.  Nothing.  Then this morning God gave me a special Mother’s Day treat.

(I had to stop writing that and here it is three days later.)  As I remember it, I had gotten up fairly early to feed Caleb.  He went back to sleep so I decided to make some coffee and watch the sunrise.  When I went outside there was much commotion in the tree to my right.  I realized after sitting down that they were the robins, the whole lot of them!  It appeared to me as if Mama or Daddy robin was urging their young to fly.  They would swoop low and end up across the street or in a nearby tree.  One came diving out of a tree to my left over the car and so close to the ground that I thought he was going to crash.  He swept up and perched on a limb hanging low from another tree.  If any one of them stayed in a spot too long a parent would rush at them and squawk loudly until they flew off somewhere.  It was really fun to see them, they seem to hide during the day when we’re around, but I have found out their busy time.

We now have a captured moth (at least I think it’s a moth), it is pretty like a butterfly though.  She has laid at least a hundred tiny eggs in her new glass jar home.  We’re on day three since they’ve been laid and we observe them constantly for any signs of hatching.  Mama moth seems still and lifeless, but ends up putting out a few more eggs where ever she ends up.  That was a lot of work, she was big and round like a bumblebee and now she’s a skinny little thing. 

Chloe was dancing around saying, ”We’ll have so many little caterpillars and they’ll turn into butterflies and what are we going to do with them!?  We’ll have to get a bigger home for them all and then we’ll have hundreds of butterflies.  Then the butterflies will lay eggs and we can start all over again!”

I should finish by saying that my Mother’s Day was so nice.  With Daddy’s help the children picked out some very nice gifts.  Gabe got me a pair of pretty earings that I wore on Sunday and will probably wear more now that he has such a high value of them.  He said that when I die he wants the earings to give to his wife.  If that’s the case then I will wear them more so he’ll have the memory of me with them on.  The girls got me teacups and saucers with beautiful flower prints on them.  They have dressed up our china hutch very well.  As far as hubby, he treated me like a queen and later on when I told him that I felt very special he hugged me long and close and said, “You deserved it.” 

I’ve realized that I might actually get more posts in with hubby working nights.  I’ll just have to put a cap on how late I stay up.  It should be okay tonight, we all had a late night at the Redbirds game.  The kids and their softball team dressed in their uniforms and ran out with the players.  They got to meet some of the players and Gabe got his glove autographed and Chloe her T-shirt.  I didn’t get them into bed until 9:30!  Unheard of.  We all had a good time and I’m pretty sure we’ll all sleep in tomorrow.

 

Out of doors

I thought Nature Study would be tough while living in an apartment.  So far we have seen lots of great things to study and learn about.

First off, there are rabbits everywhere here.  And although I have not seen ONE robin yet, I’ve seen many other kinds of birds that I am eager to learn about. We also saw what looked like a robins egg that was dropped and cracked open with the chick still in it, dead of course.  It was fun to speculate with the kids what could have happened.  Did another animal try to steal it and drop it in route, or was it breaking out of it’s shell and then fall out of the tree?  I don’t know about the latter because there aren’t many trees to be found around here, at least not nesting trees.

We have also been greeted by flocks of geese and goslings in the fenced golf course right in our “front yard” two out of the three mornings we’ve been in our new apartment.

And we saw a baby bird trying to find safety near the pipes next to our sidewalk.  Hubby says he saw the parents hovering by and being noisy to protect there little one.  We explained to the kids that even when a baby bird comes out of it’s nest the mother and/or father still takes care of it on the ground until it’s able to fend for itself.

Fun stuff.

 

I love birds!

I never thought anybody would here me say that.  For some reason I always thought it strange when someone said they were a “Birdwatcher.”  What’s the big deal in watching birds?  That is what I used to think!  What exciting little creatures. 

One thing that I really have enjoyed about this cold spring is the return of all the birds to our backyard.  I’ve been learning so much just about the Robin, I can’t wait and am fascinated to learn more about all the others. 

Here is a list of what we have spotted so far:

-Robin

-Red-winged Blackbird

-Sapsucker

-Blue Jay

-Red Bird (it was red, and didn’t have the crest like a cardinal so I’m just saying “Red Bird”)

-Finch or Wren (I still need to distinguish between the two, we probably have both though)

-A read-headed, black-stripe breasted, long-beaked, speckled-wing bird, about the size of a robin.  I spent a chunk of time yesterday trying to figure out the name of this one, but couldn’t find it. 

-Crow (Which I have learned is one of the top three enemies of my friend the Robin, they’re nest nabbers.)

-Mourning Dove

That is all I can think of right now.  Oh, and the kids are learning right along with me.  We’ve observed Robins mating, fighting for territory, scavenging for nest making materials, and pulling big, fat worms out of the ground.  They get really excited about seeing birds now, which didn’t happen last year.  And every bird is a Robin to Sophie, “Tee a Wobin, Mommy.  Tee a Wobin, Mommy.”  So cute!

One of the reasons I shyed away from Charlotte Mason in the beginning was because of her emphasis on Nature Study during the younger years.  How am I suppose to teach about Nature, if I know nothing about it myself?  I am so thrilled that I have stuck through and am giving my children the chance to know more about the world around them.  For me and for them.