Such a WannaBe

We have such incredible neighbors! We are learning so much from them, they are very patient, and their children (all 8 of them) are absolutely delightful. They have a wonderful son J, Christian's age, that I tend to ask a lot of questions, bless him!

When we first moved here J came over to introduce himself to me. He is very polite. I had already been watching my neighbors and admiring their huge happy family. Something I noticed was that the little girls seemed to only wear dresses. So I asked J what church his family goes to. He told me that they 'study God at home as a family.' So I boldly pushed forward and asked, 'Is it your religious belief that your sisters wear dresses?' He looked perplexed at me and said, 'Well mam, we call that playing dress-up!' I felt so silly.

Later some of his little sisters told us that J thinks we are 'city slickers' and that we're gonna take a lot of work! Boy is he right.

So today I asked J to come over because I was concerned about one of their hens. This hen had been in our barn for the past several days and hadn't moved a bit other than to blink. So I started to worry that it was hurt and wanted him to take a looksy. He authoritatively marched in, grabbed a stick and carefully peaked under the hen, and said, 'She's sitting on a slew of eggs.' Oh! And then he politely asked if the hen could stay in our barn... well of course... how exciting I thought. So hear I go again, asking one of my questions. Might I please add, right here, that I later today asked each of my children AND my very intelligent husband the same question and they don't know the answer either. So if someone DOES know the answer, please share, and please don't judge US... I am already quite aware of my cluelessness! So I asked J, 'how does a hen know that her eggs have chicks in them and aren't the normal eggs she lays each morning that you collect and eat?' Again, J looked at me perplexed and simply said, 'cause God made them that way.' Was that a dumb question? Does the rooster 'fertilize' the hen or the eggs after they are laid? How does the hen know to try and find a hidden place, lay eggs, and then know that she needs to sit on them to hatch them? So I AM indeed a country girl wanna be and I need to know this since I am too embarrassed to ask J again. That beautiful family of 10 probably got a good ole laugh over me during their family dinner tonight, oh well.

I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader... and I just proved that to my 12 year old neighbor. Still wondering though... I wish he had just explained the whole process to me... I think he is caught off guard when asked something that is such common knowledge to him. So to review... I don't care which came first... the chicken or the egg... I want to know... how did the yolk become a chick! Anyone ? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?