We got back from our Austin visit yesterday and it never fails that I need a vacation to recooperate from my vacation. We had a blast though. It was our first adults only road trip since we’ve had kids. J’s parents watched Z and SJ while we made our way to the “live music capital of the world” with two of our nearest dearest friends. Since I had my hands free of kiddos I was able to take lots of pics, but I won’t bore you with them. Oh, who am I kidding? Here is a little play by play of day one.

If you’ve never tried Bocce ball you are missing out.

Then we walked to the bridge were all the bats sleep during the day.

And we waited for them to come out.

And we took pictures while we were waiting.

It was really difficult to see in the dark, but thousands of bats came swarming through the city, and they moved really fast!

We made time for sushi that evening.

And ended the night with one of the cities randomly distributed public pianos.

Hey guys, I am currently hanging out in the fun, beautiful, and unapologetically WEIRD Texas state capitol. We just got done watching the world’s largest urban bat colony fly out from under a bridge. Anyway, I’ve got to run for now, but here are some Easter weekend photos for you all to enjoy. I’ll check back in when we get home in a few days.

This year we surprised the kids with chickens for their Easter present. That’s not why we got them, but it was convenient since it’s Good Friday and all. They actually came in the mail, but they have been staying at my friends house until I went to pick them up today. She lives in a residential area just like we do and not far from here. Yet, even in the city they manage to keep an impressive vegetable garden along with 10 chickens.

It’s always nice to have someone ahead of you proving that it can be done.

So now we are the proud owners of five baby Rhode Island Red chicks!

Just like most newborns they pretty much sleep, eat, peep, and poop. These little rhodies will probably start laying at the end of the summer and have the potential to produce from 250 to 300 eggs a year.

This basket of eggs is from my friend’s chicken shown in the second photo.

I am definitely looking forward to eating fresh from the nest eggs in the morning, and that is the main reason we got the chickens, but they will also be the family pets. The kids have both been SO excited to meet their new little friends and the chicks are really excited too, or maybe anxious or shocked might be a better word. Actually this breed of hen are known to be extremely good natured and have even been called the “lap chicken” because of how much they act like a sweet household pet.
The surprise was supposed to be for the kids, but I think I am more surprised than anyone. Do we really own five chickens? We just started talking about the idea a few weeks ago and I figured it might be something that we do next spring, but now here we are with a bunch of peeps, and they are not made of marshmallow.

I have never been able to grow a darn thing. J on the other hand has a knack for agriculture, so he’s been leading the way as we embark upon this family gardening adventure together.

With as much as I want to be a country girl I still have a lot of city left in me. I couldn’t believe how much the pea seeds looked like peas. If you’ve got the “are you serious?” look on your face right now it is probably the same look my husband gave me when he told me that peas are seeds. That makes sense, but I never thought about it.

I was also shocked about how quickly everything has sprouted. Some stuff grew overnight and by a week we had a little growth from almost every row we had planted!

My biggest concern is that there are little animals to contend with so we need to get the chicken wire up pronto. I’ve seen what those birds can do to a fig tree. But for now I’m still in the honeymoon stage of gardening.

The whole experience has been great and while I may not know the fate our plants, at the end of the day I do know that we’ve done something right if we are all outside together and I hear or say the words “you kids need a bath!”

1. We use filtered water and reusable water bottles instead of plastic.

Last week my phone was going shorter and shorter intervals in between charges until it eventually just stopped working entirely. It’s a long story, but I went without a phone for 5 days. This week a tornado touched down and a high wind storm went through my city. Roofs were torn off, trees were knocked over, shopping carts and patio furniture were tossed around as if they were made of Styrofoam and we had to go about our business without any electricity for the day.

We all are doing fine by the way. It did affect our home some, but we may actually get a new roof out of it.

J checking out on of the trees that snapped in half.

In the midst of having no phone and no power I finished up the book I had been reading about unplugging from the hyperconnectivity of the digital age and it really got me thinking. I have a new phone now (more on that later), my computer is working (even if it is on it’s last leg), and the power has been restored in our home, but I don’t want to return to life as usual.

Call me crazy, but today we are taking off to spend a couple nights in a tent and purposefully distance ourselves from the comforts and luxuries of our home. I am looking forward to this little adventure, but I am even more excited about the big adventure that is life and the direction that I feel the Lord is calling me. I didn’t plan on taking a blogging break this week. I had a topic planned, and some posts loosely written. It pretty much took a tornado to stop me, but I will be back to blogging next week and I want to share some about some of the bold, but exciting changes we’ve made as a family and what I am learning through all of this distance.