I'm feeling Back on Tract :o)

My attempt at kidney humor,

laughing does make me heal faster, even just a giggle :o)

It's taken me all week to gain just a little of my energy back. I may not have mentioned, I'll back up (b/c really i thought it wouldn't be such a long ordeal) I woke up around 2am last Saturday morning in excruciating pain..oh yeah...I was puking from being in that kind of pain and I could barely stand on my own. That elusive kidney stone I had a few months back..the one stone that had found a cozy little spot back in my right kidney after causing me so much pain had now decided to make it's way down again! Emergency room kind of pain. The CTscan showed a 6.3mm stone headed for my bladder, which would not be sooo bad if I hadn't had a double kidney infection only a few months ago and signs of infection again. They gave me some..wow..amazing painkillers, thank-you to them for that and you'll know why if I said anything strang (er) than usual on your streams teehee :o) Soo Monday morning I was in surgery, I was home in a few hours and I feel like I've been zapped of all energy for a whole week. blah And you do know how next to impossible it is to be sick with four curious children right ? :o)

I did get outside this morning with Maya for a little gardening,

our 1st tomato this yr mmm

we found this baby Maple growing in one of my pots..

What tree is this? here's a sign..

I was out of breath just pressing the shutter for this shot

something so simple, something I love to do
not taken for granted

we did transplant the little tree after she got a great look at the roots

and the seed from which it emerged

so we'll keep our fingers crossed

Maples are always welcome in our yard

Maple tree talk led to Maple syrup talk like the kind we had on our french toast

which led of course to a chapter of "Little House in the Big Woods"

and some back porch painting

Maya painted Laura's little house in the Big Woodsshe included details from the story,

like the little and big cat door from the joke that Pa told his girls

and Jack, the bulldog

it was a good day :o)

and it ended on a sweet note

nobake chocolate oatmeal cookies

and now..good night zzzzzzz

Ducklings

You know how we have our favorite creek? This is our favorite ..pond :o)

I think it's important to explore many different habitats.

We find a variety of plant and animal life in ponds

(which I'm determined to make time to blog in more detail for later posts. )

As for this day..we were greeted by a well known pond visitor

A mama duck and her 2 ducklings! She is a Muscovy Duck

and she's helping her duckling over a branch in the waterkeeping them closeand teaching them to find foodthis little fellow reminds me of my own ducklingscurious :o)
and cute, yesThe time we spent with this little family was full of fun

and full of new questions to be answered such as..

"how long will mama duck protect her ducklings?"

"do ducks have teeth?"

"where do they sleep?" "what do they eat?"

"do they have any predators?

sounds like a trip to our library and more duckling observation!

until our next pond visit...

Me ~week 4

My babes and I went to our favorite park today,

where we saw the sweetest newborn ducklings eeee! photos soon to come..

and while they were knee deep in the stream I was chasing my timer :D

I've been asked a couple of times to give an sp tutorial :D how fun is that!

so for these shots, I placed my water bottle in the exact spot

(which was a little patch of flowers for my hair :)

where I knew my eyes needed to be in order to line up in focus with my lens

I then pressed the shutter to focus, then again for the timer,

then I dashed to the grass while trying not flash onlookers :o)

A favorite little tip of mine I use to relax clients:

only look directly into the camera at the very last second,

it works for my sp's too

Now go have fun with your sp self! xo

Wildlife Biologist

A much loved and always anticipated program at our library is when the wildlife biologist comes to visit with all of his cool friends

like this prarie dog

I forget what this was, related to a scorpion anyway
Milk Snake
mimics the venomous coral snake
"Red touches black, friend of jack..Red touches yellow, kills a fellow"

If he thought she was scared..
she wasn't :o)

Tortiose

she will outweigh and outlive her caretaker

Fennec Fox

his ears help regulate his body temperature

Meg's been telling me she'd love this as a pet

so it was super fun for her to see one in person

sharp teeth and eyes at the front of his head

signs of a carnivore

then we brought some of our own friends

of the human kind back home with us

for lunch and play!

See those markings..this must be Maya's apple :o)
i love her toothy gap

Birds of a Feather...

It's been all about the Robin's around here!

They seem to love our yard

and we couldn't be more pleased about that :o)it also seems they are constantly hungrythen a week later, all of that grub started to show

and the nest became too smallwe were there for their first flights!!

And we noticed that both parents coached them to safetyKyle gave this little guy a pet on the head

before he gave his new wings another go and he's off
we watched eachother for a while...
then he flew to the treesthe 3rd of the 4 that took flight
also caught the eye of a neighbors puppy
Maya and Kyle chased it and were proud to bring it home
so as it would be a plaything no longer but the next morning his injuries prevailed...

Proud and beautiful, thank-you for gracing our yard

and our hearts