Chicken Glamour Shots

I know.

You didn’t even know this was a thing.

You didn’t realize that seven years of collecting chickens could turn into something like this.

That six children on summer break and an enterprising mother could:

catch chickens

wash their feat

fluff their feathers

paint their nails

feed them grass in the green room

set up a back drop

take them inside

convince them not to poop

or runaway {of course one totally did after Bennett dropped a large amount of bright, pink nail polish on her feathers and we had to get a new one}

and patiently have them wait till it was their turn.

Then they positively shined.

{This post is dedicated to my mother: who hates all things chickens: from their nails, to their warm, fresh eggs with butt feathers lingering on the outside, to their poop, to their spontaneous bouts of flying randomly at peole who think they are the worst.}

Katie

That One Time Some One Who Didn’t Know Me That Well Thought I Was a Hiker

I have met five hundred new people thanks to some church boundary realignments.

All super nice.

And athletic.

And fit.

And beautiful.

With 2.5 kids.

Living in subdivions.

Ahem.

Well, you know, then there’s me.

One new friend {I’m assuming we’re still friends, or almost friends, or can survive knowing we’re still good people even if we have nothing in common…}

texted me:

Friend: Hey do you like to hike? I meant to ask you that today! I’m planning to hike Wagner Butte this Saturday morning with some friends.  We’re gonna meet at my house at 5:30 am. {grimacing slash smiling with lots of teeth emoji} Let me know!

I had no idea we even had a Butte that you could hike called Wagner.

Me: How difficult of a hike would you say this is {dot, dot, dot, question mark}.

Me: For someone who says they like to hike but actually owns zero work out gear…hypothetically…

Friend {hopefully?}: Hahaha Well I’d say it’s fairly strenuous. And it’s 10 miles {we can all agree this should’ve had an exclamation point, right?!} But it’s not as hard as McLoughlin.

Let the record show I have never hiked McLoughlin…either.

Me: I mean, you’ve seen me…do you think I’ll die? Also, on a scale of one to ten how much are you regretting asking me?

Friend: Lol

Friend: I’m wondering how you stay so small if you don’t exercise. {laughing slash crying emoji} That’s impressive.  Well last year we had a girl come who considers herself an “indoorsy” girl and she made it to the top.  She also said she could barely get out of bed and walk the next day ha ha ha {why is that funny?}

Me: So I’ll make it, but I should absolutely find a substitute for Sunday…

Friend: {Two! laughing crying emojis} something like that.

Friend: Totally no pressure. And you don’t have to decide right now.  But it you want to come we’d love to have you join!

Me: Still?! Ok, I’ll think on it.

Friend: non-committal thumbs up emoji

I didn’t end up going.

Not because I don’t like hanging out with new people doing something I’ve never done before at the butt crack of dawn on a Saturday morning but for other completely legitimate reasons I cannot manage to recall right now…

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On to our last six weeks in pictures…!

So far from our property and garden we’ve eaten cherries, peas, squash, spinach, potatoes, lettuce and strawberries.

We are trying our hand at cotton and garbanzo beans as well.

Her hand on her hip like that, though…

Looking at pictures.

Mother’s Day pictures!

Spring did not disappoint this year.

Sun room is up and going and Bryce bought me the best letter board ever.

Our ingenius friends gave me a pinata covered it tax papers for the end of tax season.

Because I’m her best friend:

This picture and the following sheet pictures were taken by Elizabeth.

Indoor picnic because the weather doesn’t care that you made a promise and plans.

My friend helped me screen print a t-shirt for my business that doesn’t exist.

It says The Happyish Homestead.

Oh, and my husband is the best and bought me a new camera…

Making strawberry jam.

Wednesday computer games.

Thunderstorm.

Hot air balloons.

The flour game.

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After band concert ice cream.

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Movie night with popcorn.

Find a friend that will randomly drop off cotton candy for you…

Meg turned nine.

Some patriotic bunting.

Cherries.

I think we picked about 45 pounds from our trees this year.

And then we went out of town.

And the fridge we had left them in

ended up not working.

So then we lost about half but had some cherry wine instead…

Oh, and we put in some sprinklers.

And I only cried once and managed to get some of my abs back by filling in a million trenches.

Katie