HAPPY APRIL!

It's been a crazy week here (do all of my posts start that way?). First of all, the sheep didn't come over last Sunday (for Easter). Our fences needed more than a bit of attention so the girls are waiting. This Sunday is the target date - they are great with child/lamb so they need to be moved very soon. I need to get an electric fence charger as I want to run a single strand of electric fence around the top of the fence. Ginger, the guard pony, likes to bend the fence down while stretching for that grass that is, of course, greener on the other side. She was single-handedly (or four hoofedly) responsible for the rapid deterioration of the fence last summer.

Several chickens have joined us - thus far they are sharing 3 eggs a day - awesome! Dad didn't bring Mark's rooster - aka his nemesis. Last summer, one rooster was determined to wake Mark up by crowing under our window - at 3AM. Obviously the rooster had an identity crisis as it tried to be nocturnal.

The weather has been great. I have to keep myself from grumbling over it ONLY being 40 degrees some days. Repeat to myself - 40 was warm two weeks ago, 40 was warm two weeks ago....I have hung laundry on the clothesline so it definitely warming. Nothing smells as good as sheets straight off the line, warm with sunshine.

On Monday the kids and I went on a great field homeschool field trip at NDSU in Fargo. The subject of the study was the circulatory system. Here is a fairly good overview of what we did:

1)We had gross anatomy. The girls were cutting up pigs hearts and poking about on cows lungs. Matthew stood back and didn't really want to touch anything (even with gloves on, of course!).
2)We studied the microcirculatory system by looking at the capillary exchange on drugged frogs under the microscope. The skin is so thin at one point on the frog we could see the exchange taking place. We also looked at the heart beating in a fertilized egg (cracked open and under the microscope) that was only 3 days into incubation.
3)Then we made blood slides in hematology and looked at red and white blood cells of sheep and cows.
4)We studied immunology next and learned about blood typing - but I wasn't listening very closely during this part :)
5)The kids learned how to take blood pressure.
6)We then reviewed blood chemistry.

Doesn't that make you tired just listening? I was exhausted when we were done - it went from 10A-3P.

Mark and Matthew took a quick run (and I mean quick) to Michigan. They were picking up a car that my brother Richard and his wife, Cindy, are giving to Matthew - could his smile be any bigger?? The guys took the train on Tuesday, stayed for the morning on Wednesday in MI and went on to IL to see Mark's family. The visit was short and the men got home at 2AM this morning. It is apparent that Matthew was overtired as I found him sleepwalking around 3AM. He was crashing around in the girls room and woke them up. He then proceeded downstairs and was sick. I think he had some caffeine on the way home - and is totally unaccustomed to that.

The kids studied Valley Forge on Wednesday at K4K (Matthew missed it). The teacher was trying to get them to realize how much the soldiers went through the first winter there so she had them take off their shoes and walk outside, around the building, through the snow and then sit around a campfire trying to warm themselves (don't worry, no one is sick). Then they went inside, dipped their feet into red paint and walked across newspaper leaving "bloody" footprints. The mothers then washed the kids feet. The gang then made hardtack and went on to an art project. Lunch was delayed by 30 minutes so the kids were REALLY hungry and actually ate some of the hardtack while they waited for their food. The afternoon was time for more cerebral learning, but they still went outside and learned to march with "Baron Von Stueben" counting out the cadence in German. We finished up with gymnastics. Wow! Next week Katelyn makes an appearance as Martha Washington.

I picked up some work reviewing and revising policies and procedures for an organization in Fargo/Moorhead. Mostly it's typing, but it does require some thought. I appreciate the chance to put some $ in the bank account.

I took some time to put away most of the snowpants and extra mittens/hats/scarves. Mark says it will be my fault if we get an April blizzard!

Next week we send the two oldest children off for a music camp - Weds-Sat. Alyssa will be bored silly without someone to hang out with so I have booked her for a field trip to learn about spinning wool and a haircut. We can spend some good mother/daughter time together.

That's all for now! Happy weekend to you. Don't forget to change your clocks.