Giant Egg

One of our hens has begun laying gigantic eggs. Here's a picture of the first one she laid yesterday, next to a normal sized pullet egg. We thought it was a fluke, but she laid a second one today. These things are huge. I haven't cracked one open yet, so I don't know how many yolks are inside. I'm guessing at least three since these eggs are much bigger than the double-yolks we've been getting.

Kenzie was outside today when a neighbor walked by. He began telling her how he missed his chickens that he had back in Spain. When he goes for walks, he slows down as he passes our house, hoping to catch Nugget cock-a-doodle-doo-ing. He also hinted that he might like some eggs when we start getting extra, which should be real soon, once all the girls start laying reliably. Maybe Kenzie can start earning her tuition money by selling eggs, except I don't know what legal hoops we'd have to jump through to sell (legally, anyway) backyard chicken eggs.

Private School

Good news, bad news.

We found out this week that Alex was accepted into the private, Catholic high school that he applied to (good news). This would really ease some of the pressures at home (more good news). Now, we have to figure out how to pay for it (bad news). Plus, the school is about thirty miles away (more bad news). We usually spend a few thousand dollars each year on homeschool supplies (including extracurriculars likes music, art, sports, etc), but the expense of private school is several times what we've spent in past years on all the kids' combined homeschool expenses. And we'll still have the other homeschool expenses on top of Alex's tuition, books, transportation expenses, uniform costs, etc. We've applied for financial aid, but that is very hard to come by around here. We have until August 1 to get the tuition together, and to receive the 5% discount for paying in full by that deadline. Other options are payment plans, but that would be like adding a couple car payments to the monthly expenses. Not a good idea.

If it's God's will for us to pursue this course, he'll send us what we need.

Kenzie is very excited today. We attend Stations of the Cross every Friday evening during Lent, and older my boys always help out, as altar servers. Last week, our priest told Kenzie to get there early if she wants to get fitted for her Altar Server garments. She has been wanting to be an Altar Server ever she her First Communion last year, but our Deacon, who is in charge of scheduling training sessions, has not gotten around to it yet. So, knowing how badly she wants to start, I think our priest is going to waive the training session for now. She'll start tonight with Stations, and be eased into the Masses with her brothers. She'll always have at least one mbog brother with her, to show her the ropes, at least for a while. She is both very ecstatic, and a little nervous. Alex and Connor serve almost every weekend because the Mass we attend is a very lightly attended Service. Thus, even when they are not scheduled to serve, they get volunteered because the scheduled servers don't show up.

Kenzie is so excited about this, that she is delaying her attendance at a sleep-over birthday party at her friend's house tonight. The party starts at 6, and she won't be able to get there until about 8. I even told her she could miss Stations tonight. I then regretted my weakness in excusing her, but it didn't matter, because she'd have none of that. That says a lot about the priorities of one, young 9 year old girl.

The Haunted Trail

A while ago I promised a pictorial tour of our Haunted Forest Trail. The weather broke a little this past weekend, so some of the kids and I went for a walk. This time I had my camera with me. Here are some of the highlights.

We started at the beach. You can see it was windy that day. The wind hasn't stopped blowing like this for four days. They say it's bringing some of that lovely, snow-filled, Canadian air. Two to four inches are being called for tomorrow.







From there, we passed the Black Lagoon. No Creature was active today, so the swans were safe.

Here's where the Giant Spiders swing down from the trees when they're hungry. Fortunately, the high winds had them heading for shelter. There were a few buzzards circling this area, though, out of habit, I guess.

Here's the Swamp, where the 'Thing' lurks. It's much more threatening in the Summer, when the growth is so think, the 'Thing' can sneak up on you.








Here's Taylor approaching Three Troll Bridges. Notice how the trolls planted a little sign right in the middle of their territory. This is to lure unsuspecting hikers into stopping for a look-see. Tyler, of course, started stomping on the bridges and screaming a challenge to the trolls to come and get him. Fortunately for him, I think the trolls were hibernating this time of year.

Here's evidence of the T-Rex that lives in the Haunted Forest. What else could have knocked down such a huge tree? (don't mention the wind, that would spoil the fun of this trail)







Moving on, we have to look to the skies, where Pterodactyls have been sighted on calmer days.











To prove we've actually moved back in time, here's a cool caveman bench. It looks like something left behind by Fred Flintstone.

Moving on, we finally approach Big Foot territory. We know he's been here because we can find all kinds of giant footsteps filled with water.

Unscathed, yet again, the brave warriors triumphantly reach the end of the trail. I don't know what they'd do if they actually met any of the creatures purported to live around here.