Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks
“I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.“
Steven Wright
Part of being the mama hen of any flock is constantly teaching the kids because as we all know, a chick who is uneducated, is a chick who is going to find trouble.
I am always trying to come up with ways to keep my little chicks engaged and thinking about things in life other than themselves.
A few weeks ago, Emma and I stopped at a local yard sale. The home owners were moving and it was clear they wanted to get rid of “stuff” quickly.
Emma picked up a jewelry box for 25 cents, I got about 2 dozen gift bags for $1 and thanks to Emma spotting it, I picked up this little beauty for another 25 cents.
I have this thing about older dictionaries (the ones that were intended to be left open on a lipped stand.) Dictionaries (just like the encyclopedias that Marc constantly reminds me he read as a child) have always been such good friends filled with constant entertainment and mind boggling information. Many was the evening that I, as a child, sat and read our household dictionary for hours, learning in detail about all those person, places, and things of which I had had no previous knowledge.
I decided to keep this newly found yard sale dictionary on the dining room table near where I eat and now, each night, during dinner, I flip through a few pages and we work our way through a handful of words, verifying what we already know and learning what we don’t.
Last night Marc was in Boston for a meeting. Trevor was at the gym. The two older boys at college. It was just the three youngest and myself eating our dinner and talking about the day. At the end of the meal, as I was getting up to bring my dishes to the kitchen, Emma looked at me with surprise.
“What’s the word of the day?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“What words are we going to learn from the dictionary today?”
She was right, I had forgotten. I sat back down and turned to a fresh page in our dictionary.
And that’s how we learned that a marten is a member of the weasel family valued for its fur, and a martin is a type of bird in the swallow family.
Chicks, you have to teach them well if you want them to grow into being fine flock members.
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As always, happy weekend everyone, health and happiness (and safety) to your flock.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.
