tHe enD oF BriTTanYs life as sHe KnoWs iT

Tonight may be the last time I EVER let Brittany do anything. I may never let her leave the house ever again. Her world as she knows it will soon change radically. You see, when my oldest child leaves the house for any reason, she leaves in her absence a trail of sorrow and hardships for her dear mother. I don't think she means to be so cruel, but she is. She is leaving tonight for her first 'all night-er' at church with all the girls from her Wednesday night class. She will be gone and this is what I will have to deal with:
"Mommy, wheres my Bit-ney?"
"Mommy when is my Bit-ney coming home?"
"Why can not I go with Bit-ney?"
"But I am big."
"But I NEEEEEEEED my Bit-ney."
"Mommy, my Bit-ney needs to come home right now!"
"I can NOT sleep without my Bit-ney!"
What a cruel, cruel child I have. Yup, I think tonight will mark the end of life as she knows it.

To Be Or Not To Be...

Last night Rebekah got her finger smashed in her bedroom door. I don't really want to know the "truth" behind just how this smashing of the finger came about but I can imagine since it was my children there was a brother, a tattle tale, and a bystander involved. You can probably guess who is who. Any how, Coby and I were at the other end of the house listening to our children "getting ready for bed" and were greatly amused at the giggles and laughs coming from the other end of the house. As we were talking and this great pride and love was swelling in us that our children were listening so well and, well pretty much all that and a pickle we had a child come to us. This child shall remain nameless, and so to protect the Innocent we shall call this child 'the tattletale'. Well the tattletale came to us and said, "I am not sure what happened, (never a good sign when the 'tattletale' does not even know what is going on.) but Rebekah got her finger smashed in the door." Not hearing crying we ask, "Is she alright" and in the grand tradition of tattletales she replies "I don't know" Brilliant. Wonderful. Thank you for your insight. Note to self: Get a new tattletale for our family. Coby left to view the damage and then I hear the crying. I go to see if my services can be used, I see the 'Brother' and the 'bystander' innocently in the bathroom brushing their teeth. I then go to see Rebekah and look at her finger and see her pinkie is quite swollen and has some skin off of it. I say to her (Momentarily forgetting myself) "Oh Muffin..." She then stops her crying and looks at me all matter of fact and states "Mommy, I AM NOT a muffin." "Oh your not, you are a chicken, I'm sorry" "That's OK." And life goes on.

Shhh Dont Tell...

On Sunday night as we were sitting in church singing Rebekah leaned over to me and whispered...
"Mommy, when we get home I am going to 'Mawry' Michael"
"oh, does he know this?" I asked.
a little muffled giggle and then she says to me
"nope. not yet."
Then she covered my mouth and said
"don't tell."
She is a persistent little thing. Maybe one day Michael will give in....maybe.

A Very Chicken-y Valentines

There are a few holidays I don't care for, Valentines is one of them. I never really got into it when I was single and in the last 10 years of having a 'significant other' I still have not really cared for it. Quite frankly I think it is a rather silly holiday that has NOTHING to do with romantic love and no one really understands the true meaning behind it so it just gives women a reason to get mad about being single or mad at their husband/boyfriend if they don't go all out. Just plain silliness I say. I think that is my real problem with a lot of holidays, people celebrating them just because and not knowing the why behind it, not really knowing that it has a COMPLETELY different meaning then what the world thinks of it now. All that to say, I am trying to teach my kids the meaning behind these holidays so they know what they are really about. This year we had a little valentines party with some homeschooling friends that came over for the morning and we made sugar cookies, valentines, and just had fun being together. I want my kids to have that 'fun' of these parties and get together but I feel it is super important to have them know the REAL reason for these many holidays our country and world has. Not just a date on the calendar that you get off school or work, or just an excuse to party and goof off, but to really know what the meaning is behind these days. So I guess I am wanting to challenge you all. Do you know the meaning, the history behind these days? The real reason for them being on our calendar? If you don't I would challenge you to find out. I think you may be surprised with what you find.

Which Came First The Chicken Or The Child?

Ah yes, the age old question that sparks many a debate. The Chicken and the egg. This is a question that many a philosopher has tried to answer. A question that has sparked heated debates and friendly banter. I am here to put it to rest once and for all. You see I have the answer. Yup, that's right, I Bethany J. Bennett have in the vast files of my brain the answer to the age old question. I know you are excited to finally know the TRUTH behind the all the controversy but first I must tell you a story...
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a small child. All this child ever wanted was to get married and raise chickens. She dreamt of the day when she would meet her prince charming and they would ride off into the sunset on back of his noble steed, bound for his castle and there they would live and raise little chickens and live happily ever after. The years went by and she kept dreaming of that day, dreaming of the prince, dreaming of the chickens. Well one day she met that prince and they married and they rode off into the sunset bound for his castle, but a strange thing happened when they arrived at the castle, there were no chickens to be found. You see this prince was not a farmer like the young princess was and so he did not posses any chickens. The princess was saddened by this news but alas their lives went on without chickens. She would often times visit neighboring farms and sit and pet the chickens dreaming of the day when her fine prince would allow her to raise some chickens of her own. Well while she was dreaming of these future chickens and all the chicken adventures they would share some children came to them and they loved these children, but alas they weren't, well, they weren't...chickens, the princess loved them just the same. She did start to notice that they did have 'chicken' tendency's. You see when they were out in the market she would notice that the children had a tendency to 'scatter', and when dinning in the palace there would be food left under chairs and on the table. The younger children had even on occasion 'pecked' or bit the other children. And so as time went by she began to realise that her dream of raising chickens had in fact come true.
So you see, the answer is simple. When someone asks you "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" you can simply reply "The Child."

Life Without Daddy...

My husband has been gone for a few days and as mentioned in the post "Where did the fun maker go" I happen to become more "funner" when he is away, at least that is what my chickens continually tell me.
So when he left on Wednesday I thought to myself how can we make these days fun for the kids and so I made a check list of sorts...
1. Have a couple 'snow days' = NO SCHOOL = FUN!
2. Have a 'camp out' in the living room = Hurt back = FUN!
3. Make little homemade pizzas for each chicken = Big Giant Mess = FUN!
4. Spend one whole day in jammies watching movies playing games and coloring = Stinky Chickens = FUN!
5. Have slumber party in Mommies room = Tired Mommy = FUN!
6. Make little mini pumpkin pies for each Chicken and their friends = BIGGER giant Mess= FUN!
7. Eat 'C-Roll' and watch a movie for breakfast = Cheerios in my sofa = FUN!
8. Snow ball fight = Mad Girls = Happy Boys = Slight amount of Fun!
Adding all these things together I then asked my Chickens if they had fun while Daddy was gone to that each replied "YES!!" all except my youngest. I asked her why not and she said "Not till Daddy comes home, then it will be fun." So 3/4 is not a bad fraction right? I mean 3/4 of my chickens thought it was fun, only 1/4 did not. So yes I will count this time as a success and look forward to my husband being home so I can once again hand the reins of fun MAKER over to him and take on the fun-SUCKER roll once again.

tHe aNTs gO MarCHinG oNe bY oNe...

Today my wonderful husband got up early to go to a prayer meeting and came home to our youngest chicken saying she was hungry. The next sound I heard was my husband opening the pantry to get said youngest chicken her C-Roll, easier said than done.
You see we have in our little chicken coop what some might call an infestation, an ant infestation. These little guys like to get into my pantry before I can put my youngest chickens C-roll in a nifty little container known as a "lock and lock" (every chicken coop should have at least one). So needless to say I lost my mind momentarily yesterday when I opened a SUPER surgery C-roll and forgot to put it into a "Anti Ant Container" and today my husband discovered little ants all over the C-roll. Rebekah however was quite delighted to discover her new little friends share her love for the same C-roll. She was then quite devastated when Coby threw her little friends in the trash along with the C-roll she was going to share with her new friends for breakfast. Coby made the kids oatmeal instead and every so often I would hear Rebekah shreek delightedly "Oh! My friend, come here little friend." and when Coby killed it and put it in the trash she was very sad "don't trow my friend away." "He's happy, he is with all your other little friends eating the C-roll" "OH!! HAHA. Its their new house, their new square house." Yes Rebekah, your little friends are happy in the new square house that is the garbage can...