Weekend: Chickens!

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I try to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of my weekends to make up for the fact that I work too darn much during the week.  I then feel compelled to detail all that enjoyment here on the blog to prove that I actually do have a life to preserve those wonderful memories.  So here it is, your usual weekend update – long weekend style:

Friday we got a half day, so I managed to make it home around noon.  MacGyver and I took full advantage of the fact that we had the Nanny for 5 more hours while Punky was still in school and extracurrics.  After some alone time and showers, we jetted out to pick up a part for MacGyver’s truck, Addy, then to Barnes & Noble – our laid back date of choice.  I find that I have a very particular emotional state that I experience almost exclusively in book stores (and libraries).  It’s a sort of blissful, excited anticipation – a mental and internal humming brought about by being in the midst of so much potential knowledge, entertainment, and exploration.  It’s like being in an airport with a ticket to anywhere or opening the coursebook for a University and having the freedom to pick and choose any courses you want.  I know it sounds insanely clichéd, but I really do feel that way.  I love books that much.

And threaded through all that magical anticipation is a ribbon of anxiety, just a tiny tug of stress.  Because there is never, ever enough time.  In a matter of minutes, I will be holding as many books as I can carry, stacked up and tumbling over, and as I make my way back to the table I glance longingly after tome after tome that I will not be touching that day – maybe ever.  There’s a touch of sadness for all the books I will never open, for all the stories I will never experience and knowledge I will never glean.  But, ultimately, the sheer bliss of the books I do ingest is much, much stronger.

I came out of that trip with a list of at least 4 books I needed to download to my Nook as soon as possible, but I’m also aware that with as much as we’re dishing out in child care right now – and with Father’s Day and our Anniversary coming up – that spending hundreds of dollars on books probably isn’t the best idea (we won’t pay attention to the fact that collectively, MacGyver and I walked out of B&N with seven books and 3 or 4 niche magazines).  So something that has been on my list for a very long time since we moved here instantly moved to the top: Get a local library card!

So Saturday, that is just what I did.  After a wonderful, leisurely morning sleeping in with the Flintstone (not only did he sleep until a little after 7, but we took a nice long nap together an hour and a half or so later), Flintstone and I packed into the car to head to the library.  First we had to stop off and return a skirt I had borrowed to a friend and we took a nice long walk and got a mini toffee cheese cake and some tea before getting back in the car.

The library trip was awesome.  I was a little worried that this smallish southern town might have a pretty sad excuse for a library, but I was wrong.  I mean, it’s far from a NY library, but it’s got a lot.  And getting a library card was easy (not like in NY where you have to provide approximately 73 different proofs of address, including 7 or 30 current utility bills, your tax return and a blood sample).  After a lovely couple hours blissfully wandering the stacks, we left with 9 or 10 new books.

On my way home I swung by a friend’s house to pick up Punky and one of her friends for a sleepover and spent a couple hours having a really enjoyable conversation.  I have some of the best conversations with this woman, and I will be very sad to see her and her family leave in a few weeks.  On the bright side, though, they gave us their chickens!  And the coup and run.  So while I was gallivanting around the library and chatting with my friend, MacGyver and her husband were moving the coup and chickens to our back yard!  We now have our very own source of fresh, delicious, very humane eggs.  The 5 chickens (3 white Brahmas and 2 black Jersey Giants [I think]), have been laying an average of 4 eggs a day.  It’s awesome.

MacGyver has been shoveling a wagonload of compost into their run every day.  We’ve been composting all our organic waste for almost a year now, and it has drastically reduced the amount of trash we send to the landfill, and our compost is FULL of little crawlies, which the chickens just go mad for.   Plus, the chicken waste is good for the compost, too, so MacGyver shovels it in, the chickens love it, and they make it better!

Sunday I was very involved in the Memorial Day service at church, and there was a really great picnic afterward.  We had planned to go to the beach later that day, but Punky left her DS outside overnight – a HUGE no-no, so we ended up having to do the consistent discipline thing for the rest of the day/weekend.  That’s definitely one thing that sucks about parenting.  It would be so much easier just to say “don’t do it again” and go to the beach anyway, because WE wanted to go.  But that doesn’t send the right message.  L  So we stayed home and Flintstone played in his kiddie pool on the patio.

I honestly can’t remember what we did Sunday night . . . I know we did something . . .  Whatever it was, it was nice, but obviously not all that memorable.

The new eggs mad for a really delightful Monday brunch of French toast with blended up organic raspberries.  Then, while MacGyver was at Lowe’s getting supplies for yet another MacGvyer project, I scrubbed the ever-loving Hell out of our floors.  I am slightly OCD (recently diagnosed – but that’s another post – nothing too serious), and when I clean things, I CLEAN them.  I swept.  Then I swept again.  Then I went through by hand and picked up any strays.  Then I spot disinfected, and disinfected the base boards.  Then I mopped the entire floor with a hot steam mop.  Hard.  Lucky for me, Flintstone napped the entire time – and let me tell you, that was one long nap!  I think he’s transitioning from 3 naps a day to 2.

It may not sound like the best way to spend a day off work, but I felt soooo good having that done.  If only I had 30 or 40 more days off to clean everything else in the house.  Aside from that, Monday was a whole lot of relaxing, reading, playing with Flintstone, and just general family bonding followed by a very enjoyable dinner.

At some point this weekend, though I can’t remember exactly which day, MacGyver and I curled up and watched Easy A.  I loved it.  Granted, I don’t get to watch many grown up movies, and I often sleep through those I do get the opportunity to see, so I usually like the ones I’m awake for, but I really liked this one.  It was fun and funny and upbeat and just a little bit campy.  I love camp.  Have I mentioned my appreciation of Xena before?  All camp.  Love it.  Anyway, Easy A isn’t super campy, but it’s campy enough to make up for its, we’ll say, literary shortcomings.

And her parents in the movie?  Effing hysterical.  I highly recommend it.

Well I’m sure I’m leaving out the very best parts of our weekend.  I know there are at least a couple things we did that aren’t springing to mind, but that’s the long and short of it.  Another absolutely wonderful weekend.  And a 4 day week ahead of me.  Bonus.