Oh my goodness, I disappeared! But sitting her tonight at my quiet desk with a "new post" window blinking in front of me (and as a matter of fact, a ladybug crawling across my screen), it feels so nice to be back here. I've been out to SanFrancisco for work at BabyCenter's offices. I've been fighting this walking pneumonia (still!), we've had trailrides through Woodlawn, family in town, outside projects, homeschool co-ops....life is full to overflowing. (And PS, I've made some plans to slow down come Winter. Saying 'no' is a very good thing.)

And while there's a lot of backtracking I could do, I had to pop on here tonight to say hello and show you a picture of one of the newest arrivals at Woodlawn.

Harriet, earlier this summer.

Lee and his "wife" Harriet--a pair of young peacocks--were birthday gifts to me this summer from my sister. My grandmother had peacocks, and well, give me the gift of something my grandmother had...I'll be happy.

They were five months old when they were given to me--but it takes peacocks a year to get their full plumage. They live in a partioned off section of our chicken coop, since the chickens like to give them a hard time (understatement).

Sadly, late this fall, Harriet got pretty abused by a chicken that somehow got into the peacock's pen.

And when the temps dropped drastically two weeks ago, we lost Harriet in the night.

Now, Lee is distraught without her. He paces and tries to get out of his pen to be with the chickens (who are so mean to him) and is lost without his mate.

And let me tell you this, peacocks aren't a dime a dozen. It's hard to find a replacement peacock. And meanwhile Lee is pretty much breaking my heart on a daily basis.

So last night after a 4-H meeting, Emma came home with the genius idea to put a mirror in his pen. So at the top of our to-do list today was a trip to Target for Lee's own personal looking glass. As if peacocks weren't vain enough, right?

For now, we've tricked him. He's cooing to the bird in the mirror and attempting to make friends. But he hasn't completely given up on the chickens and his mirror bird seems to only be a temporary fix. So we're back on the trail for a new peacock friend.

My to-do list looks something like this:

Make dinner

Do laundry

Pick up toys

Put an ad on craigslist for a peacock.

Yup, Woodlawn problems. I'll keep you updated on Lee and feathers crossed (ha) he finds a friend very soon.