Motherly Instincts

April has been a crazy month for me. Planting, vacation, birthday madness, maybe moving(?), a chore list a mile long, etcetera. Oy.

And as if I weren't panicked and manic enough already, my baby girl turns 7 this week, making me feel a million years old, and like I'm not really Mommy to anyone anymore, just MOM!/the lady who drives me places/the woman who's every word or look embarrasses me to death. I miss the snuggle days. Napping on the couch together, blowing raspberries on babies tummies and hearing a little one laugh for the first time. I've got the baby fever.

Having just spent a week snuggling the stuffing out of sweet baby Ryan, it's no wonder that I've got the itch. My logical brain is in a violent emotional conflict with my hormones and it's still unclear who will triumph. But I'm getting older, quicker than it used to happen, it seems (How does that work?), and I don't have a ton of time to make up my mind about which way to go. I said OY already, right?

I guess that the good news/bad news here is that it's not just me that has the baby itch. My hens have lately lost their heads and been sequestering little clutches of eggs here and there, and giving me the bitchiest of click-clucks when I dare go near their "hiding place". My girls have gone broody.

The rub here, of course, is that since we are in city limits, we cannot own a rooster. So the hennies can sit on their eggs and growl at me all day, and end up with nothing to show for it. So I'm wondering, could I and should I seek out some fertile eggs to slip under them for them to hatch out? If anyone has any experience with this particular dilemma, I'd gladly welcome your thoughts on the matter.

As to the baby-baby issue. Mama's got some thinking to do.