An open letter to manufactors and prospective home sellers

You may think that you have come up with a great idea--cold water and ice from the door of the refrigerator, but I am here to tell you that unless you include a water lock on said dispenser you are seeking the wrath of the mom. Picture the situation. A two-year-old discovers that if he pushes the dispenser in the door, water will come out. It does not matter if his cup is in the right place or if his cup is too small or if there is even a cup there. Water will come out. Without the lock, the water will pool in the reservoir, spill down the door, puddle on the floor, and run under the refrigerator. Mothers will have to use seven or eight towels a day to wipe up the spilled water they discover every time they come into the kitchen.

Homeowners, don't fall for the advertising, especially if your neighborhood is filled with first-time homebuyers. The family who buys your home will not bless you for thinking of their convenience. They will curse you every time they have to pull the refrigerator out from the wall to wipe under it. They will question your sanity with statements like, "Why didn't they spend the extra on a counter depth fridge instead?" They will threaten to ship their children and the fridge to your house in Florida so that you have to deal with the clean-up.

Think of the young moms. Think of the young children. Think of the fish who want water in their rivers. Don't buy the water and ice dispenser in the door of the refrigerator . . . unless it has a lock.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our crazy household to yours.

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We try to have clean mouths, but we are not perfect. A swear word here or there never hurt anyone, we think. And then we hear the words tumbling out of the mouths of our babes. All of them. At the same time. Justifying the curse word that they chose to use. On Christmas Eve.

It all started with the Bourne movies. The actress in the movie plays a German and she swears in German. To keep from swearing in front of the children, my dear sweet husband started using her German swear word when he was frustrated. "Scheisse." Then, S. and F. both started using it. My dear husband repented, but the damage was done. Finally, he sat down and explained that one really shouldn't say "schiesse."

Fast forward a few months, frustrating months, with the occasional English swear word being shouted as boys blatantly disobeyed or ignored their parents, or injured each other. At dinner tonight, Christmas Eve, A. poured his milk out. F. looked at him and said, "Dammit." My eyes went wide and then even wider because he kept repeating it. I tried explaining that we really shouldn't say "dammit." S. jumped in with his own, "dammit." R. tried helping me (in between laughing while wiping up the spilled milk.) But the boys persisted.

Me: "It isn't a very nice word, F."
F: "But dammit is a good word. Dammit, dammit, dammit."
A: "Dammit, dammit, dammit."

For the sake of the world, I tried not laughing as all of my children swore with such jubilation on Christmas Eve, but I failed. I laughed. F. thought we were laughing at him, and started to cry. I hugged him and explained why we were laughing and why we really shouldn't say "dammit."

Dammit, it was a hilarious moment at the dinner table.

First day of school

S. started kindergarten this fall, and he was very excited. His class started with 24, but now has 27. His teacher, Mrs. Tracey, seems to be nice.

It started off with two hard weeks where S had to learn to navigate the difficulties of a new school, a big class, and a full day. But, he pulled through and has made some friends. I'm not 100% sure what happens, because the stories that S tells are more imaginative than factual, but I've been there and I'm not too worried.

All in all, we've missed him during the day, but F. likes having the chance to be the oldest.

Randomness

We slaughtered our broiler chickens back in August. We went to visit them a few days before. Notice that the black/brown chickens (layers) have a full measure of feathers, but the white in the second (a broiler) does not. A little grotesque, but they were and are tasty. We're having another chicken tonight.

One afternoon, while I was quickly checking my email, I looked up and found this. F was exhausted.

There are many other pictures I have to post, but both cameras have dead batteries (which I found out this morning when we went to the farm). I'll pick some up, upload pictures, and then stick in a post of pictures (and maybe some descriptions).

6 (six)

Have you met Boris? No. Well, let me introduce you.

Boris, these are some of our friends and family.

Friends and family, this is Boris, the baby dragon, and one of the key characters in the series, My Father's Dragon.

Boris joined us for S's birthday party this August. I have to admit that he had a wonderful time and serious regrets his having to visit the garbage truck or recycling truck this week. (We'll miss you too, Boris. We just don't have space for a dragon.)

We read the story months ago, and when we started thinking about how to do S's birthday this year, we thought of going on an adventure (like Elmer in the book) to rescue a baby dragon. So we did.

We introduced the tigers to bubble gum with a gum shewing/blowing contest. (Those pretend bubbles were great!)

We taught a lion how to groom his mane.

We escaped from a gorilla via an obstacle course.

We ate lollypops with the alligators.

Finally we saved the baby dragon.

After our adventure, we went inside and ate cake and ice cream and drank blue Koolade.

It was riotous fun, and we're so happy to have a 6-ear-old at the end of it.

Family Hike

We went on a family hike in preparation for my sweet husband taking the 11 year-old scouts on a 5-mile hike. We went to Starved Rock, a park about an hour away. Supposedly two native American tribes were in the middle of a war, and one killed the other's chief. In retaliation, the tribe was forced to the top of the stone mountain, where they starved to death. Not the greatest story, but a great legend.

We ate lunch first, and then hiked around for a while. F. and A. started off in the backpacks, one of which broke, and then at the end we all walked back together. Here are some pictures.

The Diving Board

We have been taking swimming lessons this summer. F. was so excited to be old enough to swim, and, while he isn't the best at staying focused, he has done well. After the first session, they encourage the children to jump off the diving board. (The little ones get to wear life vests and jump to their teacher.) F. was excited and wanted to be first. Then he got on the board where the hand bars stop, and was ready to turn back.

One of the managers came up to help him--he still wasn't so sure

but he jumped to his teacher. He was a little scared and sad and cold.

The second session was a different story. He practiced jumping into the deep water with C on parent swim day and then we practiced jumping from high things so he wouldn't be so worried.

He took off like a shot and was the only one in his class to jump.

S also was in swimming, but since he had moved out of the little kid class, he was able to jump more than once, without a life jacket, and without a teacher.

His first jump was sideways, but he got better and better

We love swimming!

A Pet Show

On July 6, 2011, a pet show was held in the middle of corn country. The hosts, F and S, were proud to show the talents, and beauty, of the multitude of animals they have in their home.

The began preparing for the show, a first in the neighborhood, by making prizes and signs for the different animals. Both boys cut out and drew the pictures for the prizes.

They then prepared the venue, moving furniture and strategically placing the animals in the best place.

Although the entry sign listed dogs, cats, birds, dolphins, frogs, and bears, the show also included magical creatures, other amphibians, sharks, farm animals, and insects.

This is Pongo and Perdita (aka Puppy and Azul), whose marriage today was the inspiration for the dog show, according to show organizer, S. They are accompanied by Santa Frog and their son, Bill.

Taca and the twin sharks, Bill and Ben, began the show. The twins shared their special talents of spinning on their noses and bouncing on their tales.

Show organizer, S, took the time to advertise the show by knocking on neighbors' doors and showing the visitors each of the animals and their special talents. Here he explains to AB about Pongo and Perdita's recent marriage.

Visitors were also able to pet, hug, and cuddle with the animals in the show. Each of the animals, even the sharks, were good with people.

S, F, and their younger brother A, enjoyed the pet show so much that they hope to have another in the near future.

And the harvest begins

S wants to make sure you notice the cheese balls in the background. I want you to ignore the mess on the counter. Pretend you only see the radishes.

Brothers

Pollito

Call me crazy (CRAZY!!!), but we decided to try raising chickens this year. Actually, we decided to pay for some chicks, contribute to the feed, share the chores, and raise some chickens at our friends' house 30 minutes south of us. They have a coop and offered the space. I thought that it was a good way to try out chickens--see what their actual cost was, how much effort was involved (like I really know), and see if there was a real difference. We purchased 8 Cornish X Rocks (the mutant meat birds) and 4 Delawares (an heirloom dual purpose bird).

They arrived smaller than this, but quickly grew--especially the X Rocks. When we headed out to see them, S thought they were great. All 12 chickens were quickly named: "Peter Pan" and "Robin Hood." (Yep. Even the girls.)

They were cute, but this is what I've learned so far.

1. I don't like Cornish X Rocks. They are a mutant bird. They grow too quickly and their bodies can't really keep up with it. I know they make for a lot of meat quickly, but a bird that can't forage for itself is not a bird that I want to raise. If we do this again, I won't get these.

2. I can't really judge this experiment accurately because I am not really doing any of the work. I mean, yes, I helped prep the coop and stuff, and I'm contributing on the food and figuring out about processing, but with the birds 30 minutes away, it is really hard to feel like they are here and mine.

3. Birds die. I knew this going in to the experiment, but I figured that it would happen later on. I actually think my friend didn't really anticipate having an extra 26 birds (two friends' families with at least 12 birds each). As the birds were younger, the birds outgrew their space too quickly, leading to some possibly avoidable deaths. One of our Delawares died (drowning?), and a number of the X Rocks just died (smothered or their bodies gave out--remember they aren't natural). I feel like this is out of my control, so I can't say anything.

4. 30 minutes is farther than I think. Especially when I don't want to just show up at someone's home and hope it is okay to play with the chickens. If it were at a more neutral place, we might make it down more often, but as it is. We haven't made it down much at all.

This said, I need to contact my friend to make sure the boys and I can make a visit down to see the chickens. She has said that the male chickens--pre-pubescent roosters--have started strutting around as if they were the be all and end all.

Fishing, or something like unto it

One of S's friends from preschool talked about how his dad would take him fishing, so S and F decided that it would be worth a try. The only problem? We have nothing to go fishing with. So my dear sweet husband took an afternoon and made "fishing poles" out of an old garden pole and some fishing line (very useful for hanging mobiles above cribs). Then he took the boys fishing in the front yard. They caught all kinds of dangerous creatures--stone fish, sharks, etc.

In Process Fun

We are still working on getting our yard how we want it. We've had to fix some negative grades against the house, which meant pulling up old pavers and cement pads; we've put in a sandbox and pulled out some bushes. We are far from done, but our in-process jobs tend to enable the boys to have a wild time. For example, after pulling up pavers to repair a grade, the boys went crazy with a hole in the ground right underneath the water spigot. They were peacefully playing outside one moment, the next, I peaked out the sliding glass door and saw this.

Soaking wet chaos. They lasted for a good little while, and then I hosed them off and sent them inside to change.