Days With the Duerksens

Yesterday was the day!  Our 27 new chicks arrived at the post office!  Delaney and I went to greet the box of peeping chicks and take them to their new home.  Chelan and Caiden had set everything up the day before, so all we had to do was take them out of the box and put them in the stock tank.  Delaney's exact words during this process were, "Oh my!  Oh my!  Oh my!" So, we're starting our flock over again.  We are hopeful that these chicks will stay out of harm's way (aka raccoons)! It looks like these chicks came all the way from Iowa. They added 1 "rare exotic" chick to our order. Can you see it?  It will be interesting to see what it will end up looking like. This was the first brave chick to try the water! For some reason, Delaney immediately got a stick. I think it's because when we work with cows, we use sticks.  She automatically assumed we would need sticks to herd these chicks around!

We didn't make it to the MCC Sale this year, but my parents did!  Grammy came back with this oh-so-cute container of fabric scraps.  Just perfect for a little girl I know who likes to do projects!  Our first project with them was to glue the scraps down onto a picture instead of coloring it.  Well, Cambry decided she wanted to color the house, but everything else is colored with fabric! Cambry carefully unrolled each fabric scrap.  They were each tied with a string!

Last spring, we planted strawberries again after a 5 year break.  That meant we had to pick off the blossoms instead of letting them grow into strawberries.  We were all excited yesterday when 2 strawberries were red enough to pick - yummy!  It's been a long wait!

This is a story about a van, a toddler, and a somewhat distracted mother: Last Friday, I was getting ready to go to church to make copies.  Delaney was happily playing in the van while I gathered up all my papers.  When I finally had everything gathered, I went out to the garage to strap Delaney into her seat.  Then, I went around to the other side to take out the recycling bin from the night before.  I shut the door, and then I heard it - the automatic lock!  Delaney must have pushed the lock while she was playing. No problem - we have a key in a magnetic box under the van.  I've used it at least 10 times!  I went to get it - it wasn't there!  After 10 years, it finally fell off somewhere.  So, I started panicking a little bit, wondering how I was going to get the door open.  Delaney was still happy, at least. I called Chelan and he suggested I call a locksmith.  By this time, I might have been crying a little.  There wa...

Delaney asks me this question all day, every day!  It's her new favorite phrase!

I cannot wait to see this DisneyNature movie!  Two years ago, it was Oceans,  last year it was African Cats , and this year, it's Chimpanzee .  I saw an interview with Jane Goodall, and she said this is the best footage she has seen about these amazing animals.  It was remarkable what actually happened while crews were filming this movie.  Go see it!

What are the chances that one would break the exact same finger she broke a few months ago?  Pretty good if your name is Cambry! Last Friday, I was mowing all afternoon and then did some work in the garden.  All of a sudden, I saw a somewhat familiar car barreling down our driveway, although I couldn't figure out exactly who it was.  When I realized it was my Aunt Mary, several things went through my mind:  Why is she coming here?  Shouldn't she be in school?  Maybe she took a personal day?  Nope!  She was bringing Cambry home from school. Apparently, Cambry had slammed a heavy metal door on her previously broken finger during recess.  They had tried calling me, but of course, I was outside.  I guess that's one of the perks of a small school - a relative works there and everyone knows she's a relative, so they let her transport Cambry home! It didn't look real bad, and I wasn't even going to take her in.  But I decided to call...

So, while most toddlers call their pacifier a "paci" or "binky," our daughter calls hers a "need that."  We put her to bed and she asks for her "need that."  Actually, last night, she said her first plain-as-day sentence when I put her in the crib - "I need that!"  I suppose this term came about because every time I put her down for a nap or at bedtime, I give her the pacifier while saying (in a silly voice), "You don't need that!" While it's quite comical, I think we may run into problems soon.  We're supposed to be getting rid of that thing this summer, and I don't think it's going to be easy.  Luckily, she does not depend on it for anything other than sleeping.  It's home is on top of her crib, and it truly does stay there unless she's going to sleep.  I have stopped handing it to her, but she does usually grab it before she lies down.  Even though this is our 3rd child, it's our 1st paci...

Whew - we made it through quite an eventful, stormy day and night!  After watching storms move east all day, they finally made an appearance here around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.  We had been watching a storm come up from Pretty Prairie for quite a while, and it was eerily taking a similar path that the Hesston Tornado took in 1990.  When we heard there was a large tornado 2 miles west of Goessel, it was time to hit the basement! There were so many emotions going on among the 5 of us - Caiden had helped take things to the basement and then he sat in the corner, reading.  Cambry sat on my lap, shaking with fear.  Delaney was just so happy that we were all in the basement to play with her!  Chelan and I had racing hearts, but managed to stay fairly calm - we figured it would probably go north of us, and it did.  Chelan even went up to "listen."  Luckily, he didn't hear the "roar" he was waiting to hear! We watched the weather people on TV all ev...

I am finding that I am a total weather geek.  After hearing on the national news this morning of a possible tornado outbreak for Saturday, I am strangely excited and somewhat anxious!  We are living right in the bulls-eye of the storm area, so I actually got on the National Weather Service website to learn more.  I was reading the "forecast discussion" section and trying to figure out a lot of new terms like "srn," which means southern, and "advection" and "convection" - both of which I can't really remember.  I also learned some new airport codes, like KHYS (Hays) and KSLN (Salina) - why do weather people use airport codes?  What I found out was the bulk of the storms could occur on a line from Salina to Wichita - that's us! The Hesston Tornado happened when I was in 5th grade.  Maybe that came at the right age for me to become interested in the weather.  Ever since then, I have been an avid weather watcher -- especially when there cou...

This tutorial is thanks to our 18 month old and is labeled "How To Get Your Own Ice Cream When No One is Paying Attention To You."   1.  Push stool over to the counter and climb up. 2.  Proceed to scoop. 3.  Test to see if the ice cream scooper will fit in your mouth. 4.  Enjoy!

Caiden takes his school lunches pretty seriously!  I usually get a daily report from him about what he went back for seconds on, if he was first to do so, and who else joined him in getting seconds.  I must say, we are quite proud of him for being such a good eater at school.  This is how seriously he takes his lunches . . . S = Seconds Maybe Seconds N = No Seconds.  The reason?  Corn.  He never gets seconds when corn is served because he refuses to eat it!

We celebrated Easter about 4 times this weekend!  Easter #1 was with Grandma and Grandpa Duerksen and cousins.  Easter #2 was at church.  Easter #3 was just our family (we failed to get the basket hunt in before church, so the kids hunted while lunch was being made).  Easter #4 was here at our house with Grammy and Papa and cousins, etc.  All 4 Easter included a hunt of some kind.  Cambry might have been heard saying, "I'm not doing any more Easter egg hunts" before each hunt!  Once she saw the eggs, though, she couldn't help herself.  And, she was a fantastic big sister and helped Delaney find eggs! Easter #1 Our three with Mace - fishing = waiting Off they go! Cambry caught this big catfish almost right away - she wanted nothing to do with it, though. Reading clues    Easter #2 Easter Egg Hunt at church - it was such a lovely day! Myra Peters and Delaney - hopefully, they will be good church friend...