Barn Owls

This is Molly.  She is a barn owl that we have been watching for a few days now via live web cam from San Marcos, CA.  She is in the process of hatching several owlets.  She started with 5 eggs and so far at least 1 has hatched.  We've loved watching her mother these eggs and little baby.  Her mate, McGee, brings dinner each night and it's very interesting to see her eat (gulp) and feed her little one.  You can watch her too if you go here.

We have learned a lot about barn owls recently.  One thing we discovered is that they swallow their prey in large pieces.  Because their stomachs can only digest the soft tissue parts, the undigested fur, bones, etc. are formed into large pellets which the owl spits out (regurgitates).  This usually happens about 18-20 hours after the owl eats.  So, each owl pellet contains a virtually complete skeleton of the animal the owl ate the previous night.

Well...we just so happen to have a friend that was so kind as to give us several owl pellets.  Turns out you can order these things online - who knew?!  Anyway, they come wrapped in aluminum foil kind of like a little baked potato....

                                  

And here's what they look like when you first unwrap them....

Okay, so then we grabbed some toothpicks and started (carefully) digging.  We discovered that the pellets were made mostly of tightly packed fur.  Here's what they looked like as we took them apart...

And here's what we found inside!

YIKES!

The best laid plans...

Well, that's how we planned to start this week, at least.

It's my fault really...me, the mom...I'm the one who uttered the words, "We haven't been sick much at all this year." What was I thinking?

We arrived home Sunday night after a weekend of business travel with a very sick B and the other two not feeling all that great either. We spent half of Monday at the doctor and the rest of the day everyone slept (except Dad, of course). Tuesday the kids felt much better but I was down for the count. Wednesday, we rallied! Happy St. Patrick's Day. We did some schoolwork, practiced our music and crossed lots of things off our To-Do list. We were on a roll - but it was a short-lived roll. This morning, after coughing all night, B woke up feeling worse than ever. So today we spent the morning getting chest x-rays and going back to the doctor. Oh, and did I mention that the car is sick too. It died in the hospital parking lot this morning. Ironic...

So in many ways our week has been somewhat derailed. The "post-production" catch up here at the Rolf Academy has not happened yet.

But we have done some things that weren't on my list. We've measured medicine and read thermometers and helped take care of each other. We even got to see the BIG x-ray machine and a picture of the inside of B's chest and what his heart looks like and what his pneumonia looks like! Who knew!

So anyway, sometimes no matter what WE may plan, life brings something else and we just have to go with it. Today we have sunshine and for that we are thankful.

Things you can do on a sick day

Hi, this is A. I am sick so here are some things I like to do on a sick day.

1) Lay on the couch
2) Watch a movie
3) Play "Sorry!" with my mom and my little brother
4) Do pedicures
5) Sit on the back porch if it's warm

If you try these things or something similar I bet you'll have a fun time being sick!

Seuss!

"Seussical - The Musical". The play was produced here at the local college and C got to be a part of the cast as a Who-kid. All of us enjoyed every minute of this rambunctious production.

And along the way, we learned a few things too...

We learned a lot about Dr. Seuss. The cartoon on the right here shows a few little-known facts about Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss). We found this information fascinating and especially enjoyed watching a documentary on his life produced by the History Channel.

Here are some miscellaneous other things we learned...

"A person's a person, no matter how small."

"I have wings, yes I can fly!
Around the moon and far beyond the sky!"

"Follow your hunch..."

"Think and wonder and dream far and wide as you dare!
When your thinks have run dry,
in the blink of an eye,
there's another think there!"

"Oh, the places you'll go!
You're on your own, you know what you know,
don't worry about how fast or how slow!
Be certain you step with caution and tact,
'cause life is one great big balancing act."

Pretty good stuff, don't you think?

Stop motion

This is one of our favorite videos!! It shows what you can do with everyday stuff and a camera! Makes rubber bands look good enough to eat!

We made some videos...

...oh, but we did memorize a poem first. The poem is Emily Dickinson's, "Hope Is The Thing With Feathers". Each day we would read it together and watch a little YouTube clip about the poem. We decided making our own videos would be fun and we do love our Flip Video camera! Now if you know these children it won't surprise you to discover that A's interpretation is simple and serious and C's is, well, the exact opposite.

So...here they are!