Getting started

This seems like a good day to start something new. It's the beginning of a new week, my dear husband just started back to his regular school year schedule (he works for the school system), and it's a gray, overcast morning. My two girls are still asleep and my son is playing a Star Wars video game, so the house is quiet. Now, if only I had something profound to say...

Since profound things don't come to me on demand, would you settle for mundane? I had to throw out 3 eggs this weekend that we were going to hatch in a homemade incubator as a really cool science project (we homeschoolers are big on that kind of thing). I should probably tell you that we did this a year or so ago and the chicks hatched late and they were crippled and died, and my soft-hearted, animal-loving daughters cried over them - it was a bad scene. But now that some time has passed, we're going to do it again to show them that it doesn't always end that way...good plan, right?

All was going along great - the kids (and I) were turning the eggs several times a day, checking to make sure the temperature wasn't too hot or too cold, and making sure there was water in the dish to keep the humidity high enough. The temperature is supposed to stay right around 100 degrees, which it had been for almost a full week. So we go to Busch Gardens for a few hours and come home to find that the tape holding the cord for the lightbulb in place had loosened and the bulb had slipped down too far and the temperature was almost 120 degrees - yikes! Anything over 110 is too high, so round two of chick hatching came to an abrupt end.

Being that I never accept defeat even when the signs are all there screaming that I should, I immediately emailed my friend who had given us the eggs and incubator to BRING US MORE EGGS, because we are not going to stop until my children have gotten to witness the successful hatching of some cute, fuzzy chicks, regardless of the emotional trauma involved. Untold numbers of chickens hatch around the world every day in less than ideal conditions, so I know it's possible for this to work, plus the third time's a charm, right?

My friend is going to give us some new eggs the next time we see her...I'll keep you posted...