nesting

when i was pregnant, i had this instinct of nesting in an almost maniacal way. i think it already complements my propensity to want to keep things neat and clean (or at least the appearances of keeping them that way). but all 3 times i was pregnant, i went into psycho mode, rearranging furniture (yes, while 6 and 7 months pregnant)...and i'm ashamed to say i rearranged furniture only to rearrange it back to its original position. i also scrubbed our deck with harmful mold cleaners--not once, not twice, but THREE times outside. i kept saying to everyone that i was trying to make myself go into labor.

call me dense, but i never had really thought about *why* they call it nesting. that is, until a pair of birds (finches, i think) began building a nest inside the mailbox that hangs right outside our front door!

abouut 2 months ago, we began finding piles of "trash" inside our mailbox. at least that's what i thought it was. i kept pulling it out, thinking, "how the heck did all this crap get in here?!" then one day not long after, my husband said, "did you notice that birds are trying to build a nest in our mailbox?" duh. ok why didn't i think of that? (ok maybe it's the sleepless nights, working all day, not enough caffeine...i'll cut myself some slack on the lack of observant brain cells right now)

so we left a note for the postman and waited. but i guess we had cleaned out their "trash" so many times they gave up on us. until about a month ago. when we started noticing stuff accumulating inside the box again, we didn't clean it out this time; instead, we posted a note on the outside of the box for the mail carrier to put our mail inside a plastic dinosaur box marked "MAIL" on the table on the porch.

i stood precariously on a chair and took some pictures and was going to blog about the little birds a few weeks ago, but then after we put up the note and took the photos, they didnt' seem to return. so i thought maybe i had accidentally touched something or had bothered them and scared them away. then 2 saturday mornings ago i noticed that they were back, flitting back and forth across the porch. so i went outside to our sidewalk and using the zoom of my camera, and sitting quiet and still (obviously the kids were inside, nowhere near the mailbox). this is what i saw:

the lookout on the fence beside the house


then to the column on the front porch (notice what's in her mouth?)


then over to the chair beside the mailbox (you can see the nest material better in this photo)


this is one of my favorites of just her tail sticking up while she leans down before disappearing into the box to get things situated


and another right before going inside the box


after making the deposit and before flying away to gather more material


the (mostly) finished product (this is the best i can do because i don't want to open the lid on the box any more than it already is...and as you can see our box isn't in the best shape ever either!)


now to the big news: the other day i checked on the nest, and i saw EGGS in there! i am beside myself. it takes all the willpower i have to stay away from it, because i don't want to see them abandoned because of my lack of restraint. i desperately want to figure out a way to take a picture of them, but i am so afraid of scaring the birds away that i decided that you can imagine them for yourself. they sit at the bottom inside the right-hand side of the mailbox, and the are tiny and white. this morning i actually went to check on them, and i couldn't see inside the little tunnel they are sitting in. this tells me the momma bird must be sleeping on them right now.

i cannot WAIT until we have baby birds! i talk and talk and talk about them to the kids, who say, "can we go play now mom?" in other words, i'm boring them. oh well. i will choose disinterest over too much interest, which might tempt them to try to touch something out there. for now, they are oblivious to what's happening inside that box.

and our mail carrier has accommodated us beautifully: he went directly to putting our mail in the dinosaur box without so much as a question.

for those of you who might have thought my teaser yesterday was leading to perhaps more monumental news, i'm sorry. :) however, i do have a bit of personal news i can share, at least without the details for now. my husband, who has been looking for work since january, has a job interview today in orlando. i'll keep you posted on how that goes.

see what i told you? great things are happening. for now, i'll take what i can get and try to store up for those dry spells again, for as i get older i realize that there's bound to be another one sometime down the road.

happy tuesday everyone!