An avian tale

The short story, as tweeted by my husband:

We had a nest of 4 robin eggs in a waist high bush. One of our children was a little too curious and now there are 3. #lifelesson

The rest of the story:

Ever since we discovered the robin's nest near our front door, we've been very careful to avoid using the front door as much as possible. We didn't want to disturb Mama Bird. We were especially pointed in telling Robbie to stay away from the nest, that if the Mama Bird smelled human on the nest she would abandon it and the babies would die.

Last night, Mike and the boys were heading out to get supplies for Charlie's roller coaster project for school. Robbie said he would wait in the car. I didn't even notice when he went out the front door. A minute later, he came inside wailing hysterically.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry!"

It didn't take long to figure out what he didn't mean to do. He had gotten curious about the nest, reached it and picked up one of the eggs and crushed it. I think he just didn't realize how fragile the eggs were and he didn't know his own strength. (Grapes of Wrath, anyone?)

He was SO upset. Almost inconsolable, really. We talked -- once I could get him to quiet down -- about how he did mean to go over to the nest and reach in and how that was disobeying what we'd told him about staying away. I told him I know he didn't mean to hurt the baby bird, but that disobedience has consequences and there was nothing we could do to help the baby bird now.

I told him I didn't know if the Mama Bird would come back to take care of the other eggs or not. Mike and I decided that if she didn't come back by morning, we'd call the DNR or a local nature center and see if they could take the eggs and incubate them until the birds were ready to hatch.

But within about 10 minutes, Mama flew back to the nest, poked her head in and ATE THE CRUSHED EGG! I couldn't believe it. So much for grief and being fearful of human smell (grubby, little boy, human smell at that).

Once her snack was over, she flew off, only to come back a while later and take up her perch over the remaining three eggs. 

Now, that is a life lesson.

A little bird told me...

to be careful going in and out the front door, because a Mama Robin has built a nest about 3 feet from the door.

This was the nest at 7am on Tuesday:

This was the nest at 4pm on Tuesday:

And this was the nest at 8pm on Tuesday. Mama Robin sitting guard.

When someone goes in or out of the door, the Mama Robin flies away to a nearby tree. If you're not watching, you might just walk right into her flight path. I don't understand why she leaves the nest, though. It seems like she'd sit very tight to be protective of her eggs.

A quick search told us that the robin eggs should hatch in about 2 weeks. I hope they make it. I think it would be so cool see those little baby birds.

Made up

I think I started wearing makeup in the 8th grade. I don't remember if I wore foundation or lip gloss or mascara. What I do remember is the cobalt blue eyeliner. I liked it because I thought it brought out the blue in my eyes.

In high school, I wore make up daily. As the oldest daughter of a woman who didn't really wear makeup, I didn't have anyone to teach me how to wear makeup. I think I just kind of figured it out (or made it up) as I went along. High school was when I really started wearing foundation. I had to so I could hide the embarrassing hairs that had begun growing out of my chin.

And of course in college, makeup was a must -- even on days when I wore pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt to class.

I'm not sure when it was that I stopped wearing makeup. When I stayed home with my kids when they were little, I would stay au naturel on days we actually stayed at home. But if we went to church or the grocery store or the park, I put my face on.

I know that when I went back to work almost five years ago, I went back wearing makeup. My sister sells Mary Kay and I'm sure that I was well-outfitted with foundation, blush, eyeliner, lip liner (people still wore it then, I'm sure), mascara and maybe even some eyeshadow.

Exactly when I quit wearing makeup, I'm not sure. Maybe in the last two or three years. I recall that the first few times I went to work without a trace of "paint" on my face, I was very self-conscious, apologetic even, about my untouched appearance. I didn't go cold turkey. On most days I wore makeup. But from time to time, if I was running late or had misplaced my makeup bag, I'd go without. Eventually, I quit being self-conscious about it and I quit wearing makeup all together.

Once in a while, for a special occasion I'd put my face on. But it had to be really special. Like a wedding or the Go Red for Women fashion show.

For some reason, last Friday on the way to my aerial acrobatic adventure, I looked in the mirror and thought "I wish I'd put on some makeup." Something about the way my lips blended in with my skin, which was pale even though I'd not yet gone upside 30,000 feet over Lake Michigan, made me think a little color would be nice.

So when I met up with some college friends that night, I got real wild and wore, gasp!, lip gloss! By Saturday morning, I was back to sporting the "organic" look. Same for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, when I got dressed, the dry cracks in my heels were killing me. So I slathered on the Heeltastic and put on socks and tennies. You can't exactly wear something nice with socks and tennies, so I chose a pair of khaki capris and turquoise v-neck t-shirt.

When I dropped the kids off at the babysitter's, her mom said "Oh, you're not going into the office today?" I guess that I did look a little bit like I was ready for a day of garage saling. A few hours later, at the office, I was sitting in a meeting with four other women. I looked around and noticed, "everyone at this table is wearing makeup...except me."

I didn't think about it again until this morning. Unlike the past 500 or so days, today, I thought I'd wear some makeup. Of course I had to go out in the garage to find the bag of random stuff I cleaned out of the Pilot when we sold it nearly a month ago. That's where my Mary Kay tinted moisturizer was.

To finish the rest of my face, I had to find Annie's makeup bag. Good thing I have a teenage daughter or I would have been out of luck!

I thought I might feel instantly transformed once my face was done. But I didn't. I was pleased with the results, though. It was Mike's day off, so he was spending the day with the kids and he noticed. When I got to work, one of my co-workers said "You look really nice" and then an hour or so later said, "You're wearing makeup!"

I considered putting a picture of the made up me in this post. But the point isn't how I looked. It's how I felt. And today, I felt like wearing makeup. And I'll probably wear it again. Maybe even tomorrow. Probably not every day. But whenever the mood strikes.