Luke had received his Scholastic Book order, which included a "Glow-In-The-Dark" science experiment kit, a few days ago. I made him wait until Keith could help him figure it out, since I almost failed chemistry. It mainly involved water, cornstarch and glow powder. The simple ingredients were NOT proportional to the resulting mess. OK, I will admit that it did indeed glow in the dark and it did feel disgusting in a most boy-pleasing kind of way.
We also butchered our two teenage chickens. They were creating a mess anyway, but it was their strawberry-snitching ways that spelled their end. I wasn't sure how Kate would feel about it, since she had named them (Rachel and Rebecca) and coddled them since infancy. She surprised me by being the one begging to do it that very evening. The kids watched Keith do the first one, helping when it got to the plucking part. (At one point, I asked Keith if he thought we should boil the chicken to make the feathers come out and we both laughed, remembering our very first butchering experience in Cameroon.) Then Kate went looking for the other one. "Oh, Rachel!" she called. "It's your turn! We are going to eat you!" Drew wanted to chop the head off. I figured he would chicken out (yeah, couldn't resist that pun) so I went inside to put Joshua to bed awhile. I came back out in time to see Drew washing off his blood-spattered legs. "I did it!" he bragged. Kate was determined to gut this one by herself, so she had her hands buried inside the chicken, pulling out various organs and trying to identify them. That one was the strawberry culprit, she discovered, so I guess the first was collateral damage. Keith and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. There is no way either of us would have been gung-ho over chicken butchering at that age!
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| I thought I'd spare everyone the gross pictures that followed this scene. And no, the shovel had nothing to do with the proceedings. We are more humane than that! |
We watched the SkyCare helicopter land just across the way. That was exciting, but in a very sad way....a 9-year-old boy had been hit riding bike just down the street from our house. While we didn't know him personally, he turned out to be the cousin of our across-the-alley neighbors. All we know is that he sustained head and chest injuries but was still alive.
I went to bed very, very thankful to be together as a family, making messy memories on a warm May evening.
Your kids are amazing! Although come to think of it we were never squeamish when Dad butchered the chickens...maybe it came on later in life.
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