Let's Make a Deal

Through a sad series of events we are storing some valuables for a dear friend of ours. Among those things there are multiple power tools and hand tools. There are old tools and very few new ones (they aren't very good anyway, are they?). Even so, there are these tubs. Big plastic 55 gallon drums, with bung ringed lids to seal them. Three of them, to be exact.

At the time of our entrance into the "storage" phase of our life it was, as I said, sad. No one was paying attention to all the details and some things were left for examination later. One of those later examinations was the storage drums.


Today, being the ambitious woman that I am, I washed all of the camp clothes (twice, to be sure, to be sure...) and I finally finished folding all the piled up laundry that had been neglected for a period measured not in days but weeks. The dishes were all caught up as we discovered, while L was gone, that M is quite capable of emptying the dishwasher all by himself and S loves to help, even if he is over zealous and shouldn't be handling glassware. So I moved on down to the basement, but not before I conquered the trip to the dump...

Digression: Please, those who live in suburbia, be thankful for your trash collection service.

I'm really going somewhere with this, please be patient... After the dump, I wandered to the real target of my day: The Basement. Ours is above ground, don't you know? It has been a shambles after the water receded from the last flood (March 2008) and really needed some attention today. I made a little progress before the rain began to fall which brought L and MM in from the garden where they had pulled up the beans and corn preparing for a late crop of corn! And S had risen from his nap in a foul mood! Great. Now I'll never get this basement even remotely organized!

Never fear, MM is here! After a moments rest he began searching for something to do that would be helpful. So he made his way to the drums. They are heavy and cumbersome but none the less, good for what they are used for. Behind bung number one, we found pinto beans, vegetable oil, rice, salt and mesquite seasoning. No problem. 105 Pounds of life sustaining food. Good enough. Behind bung #2 we found pinto beans, vegetable oil, rice, mesquite seasoning, wheat grain and brown sugar. Now for the big surprise, behind bung #3 we found pinto beans, vegetable oil, rice, mesquite seasoning, wheat grain and brown sugar.

The total number of pounds of food we found was staggering: more than 350 pounds of food.

So, we are somewhat prepared now. There's only one problem with half of this food: Those 1.25 gallon bottles of vegetable oil all three of them. One per container... They were busted. One less than the others, but all none the less busted! Yes, we now have in our basement 350 pounds of food half coated in vegetable oil.

The question I pose to you: Do you see our problem? and, what would you do with it all?

Wikki Stix (TM, I'm sure) and Oatmeal

We went to a restaurant that gave Wikki Stix to our kids instead of crayons! What a life saver. Now, I know my kids are supposed to be trained for situations like restaurants, but we don't do them often and when we do they are the kid friendly ones. Desiring to try out a new restaurant, Paulina's, that my parents recommended, we took M and S (L is away at camp) with us. Everything was fine until other people came in. Then the host brought us the stix. It was like a new world had opened to us. We had something to entertain all of us while we waited for dinner, which, by the way, was fabulous!

Onward to oatmeal. Not many people know many things about me and this is classified under the heading of "No One Cares" which makes it great fodder for blogs. I have always enjoyed a good bowl of hot oatmeal (even in the summer) ladened with brown sugar and cinnamon and butter. I always like it from the stove, microwaves just don't do right! Instant oatmeal (I was introduced to it by force while pregnant with M) is just blech! or so I thought, until today. With L gone breakfast duty falls back upon my shoulders. So this morning lacking the typical armament of cold cereals (I know they're a waste of money) I offered instant oatmeal (bought by someone else and left here for emergencies). Instead of using the typical water to make it I used milk.

S wasn't very hungry so I fed him half of it by the spoonful. The other half was eaten by me and I didn't gag on it! Here is my recommendation: If you must use the instant stuff, use milk to make it work!

Sincerely

Bunkbeds and Gardens

Whether it is bad or not, I do not know, but I do know that Hopers has fallen off the ladder, twice.

What actually happened that prompted the Pediatrician to comment on the bunk bed is this:

A neighbor girl was over the top bunk was being used as storage and L was experimenting with gravity. Toddlers are named such because they are not handy with their balance. L was no exception. He lost his balance on the overcrowded bunk. His collar bone hit the bottom frame. He wailed and I rushed him to the ER. Dr in ER was obviously new at this game and had no clue how to examine a kid 2.5 yo in serious pain. To his credit, I was a first time ER mom and had no clue how to calm a kid 2.5 yo in serious pain and afraid of these bright lights and strangers. He slept through the night and until noon the next day at which time I called the Peds office and after a moments examination, was sent to X-ray to confirm what we already knew: collar bone broken. In a brace (that we still have!) for 3 weeks and he's fit as a fiddle (and he didn't stop his thumb sucking either!)

But I didn't blog tonight to elaborate on my previously boring post. I had a blog all ready about transparency vs. invisibility and in the end decided that I am both and it didn't matter, because I'm not the one you are supposed to see, anyway! So if not about fractures or motherhood, then what?

Hey, I know, more about the garden. We spent the week in town so we could enjoy VBS at our church instead of driving 80 miles a day just to get there and back. So MM (that would be, My Man), has been home alone for 4 days! The house was in great shape when I got home (no surprise if you know MM). However, he did confirm previous notions that coons know when corn is ripe and ready for the picking.

That creature gifted with opposable thumbs very neatly shucked several ears of corn and made it look as if a person had done the job. In years past we have been able to see their eyes out in the garden at night and scare them away. This year MM has been keeping his own journal of plantings so he can know when things are due. It's kinda like child birth predictions, but that is another story for another day. So he didn't have to be as vigilant wondering which week we'd have coons around. We had several types of corn planted and have already enjoyed several meals of fresh corn. Today however was the harvest day. MM went with M to the garden where they picked 30 ears. That is as much as we've already enjoyed.

From all the ears we've had this year only about 4 worms were found! Yeah. The gnats are awful, but no gross amount of worms as in years past. Some were too big for good eating raw and others were perfect. All of them visited the blanching pot and the quenching tub after which they were put up in the freezer. Now we have about a quart of fresh corn and 10 ears that are experimental taste tests to see which we like better. Tomorrow we have tomatoes to put up and weeding/mulching to do, too.

I know, our harvest doesn't sound impressive. It's not meant to be. However, this is a learning process and we are learning. Perhaps we'll break even on our harvest one of these years!

On a side note, we are trying out the Reyn*ld's vacuum sealer. We have a F**d Saver but it may be on the way out. If the hand held unit works, we may switch to it and leave the bulky one behind. The real test is to see if it looses it's seal over time.

I'm so hungry, mom...

If you haven't enjoyed a 2.5 yo lately, you should. I have one to share, but I know he won't perform for you as well as he does for us here at home. Along with his expressive hunger pangs he's also very inquisitive: "Mom, er Dad, What are you doing?" [he really does switch between mom and dad like that, guess he's practicing like we do...] To which one must respond in a short time frame lest the question be asked again... and again... and again. We try to keep him from learning to ask repeatedly therefore we must answer him. Next we'll try training him to ask once then waiting for the answer. Somewhere in this post is the answer for which I'm looking.

You train them for years. They learn your every skill, right down to the annoying "I must have a plan for everything or surely it will all fall apart!". How did I come to a place where my first born must know what is going on at all times and be in on the planning of the event/day/outing/week? I like this trait some times, but when I'm trying to surprise him, it's really difficult. Perhaps I should just quit trying to surprise him. Perhaps I should just quit doing special things for him...

Special skills, we'll call it that for now. I just learned that Man in the Middle (MitM)has been teaching his girl cousins some pretty amazing things. They are younger and very impressionable. Arranging your child's bedroom furniture so that they can climb all around and through the room without ever touching the floor is not the best idea for raising boys. However, it works great for girls... until said boys visit! Last time MitM was visiting he led a parade from the dresser to the crib to the bed all the while Nice Niece #1 and #2 followed suit.

Onto the Did you know section of this blog: Did you know that pediatricians are now recommending (on what basis I'll never know) that kids be in a booster seat until they are 57.5 inches tall? Weight doesn't matter, age isn't a factor, height is. I beat that height by only 6 inches. I used to think I was on the verge of beginning to be tall until I was, in no uncertain terms, declared to be short. This booster seat info, while not changing my behaviour toward MitM who is significantly less than 57.5" tall or L, who lacks only 4", leaves me feeling even shorter in this world. L has several years to grow and he's less than 10" away from my height.

Other crazy things Pediatricians have told me and various friends over the years: Babies must sleep on their sides. Bunk beds are dangerous. Babies must sleep on their backs. Bicycles are dangerous. Babies must sleep on their tummies. Skateboards are dangerous. Babies must sleep. Trampolines are dangerous. Babies must eat. Skates are dangerous. Get rid of them all.
... They didn't read about the gators did they? Praise the Lord I don't have ER bracelets to go with each of these points...

No answers found today. Just a few more ramblings...

Fill my cup let it overflow...

So I enjoyed high school and college youth group way too much but today I'm overflowing with love.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Fourth of July Weekend. We started on the Fourth with a fish fry cooking all the fish we caught during the last flood and some striped bass that were caught more recently. We have a freezer full of fish and produce from the garden. I love our garden (have I posted pictures of it yet?). All our neighbors and a few more came to our house (a rarity) to enjoy the beach. We had a blast.
The kids were in the river from 3 p.m. until nearly 8 p.m. We ate fried fish, hush puppies, grits and lima beans. It's was a feast fit for a king.

But you don't want a play by play of our day you want the good stuff, right? Here's the good part:

We had my three sons, S, M and L in the river. There was D and Mc and A. Let's also remember Little A and Little Red. That's 8 under aged kids frolicking in the rivers edge, splashing, jumping and diving all according to their ability. Then the head count of adults was 8 at the river sometime more sometimes less watching those kids. We had been watching the clouds filled with rain passing us by with all their thunderous noise. The breezes cooled the beach just a little (that's right, a beach on the river!). It was nearly 7:00 when the kids were winding down from their play and had apparently worn out their welcome in the river. Two of them (the oldest I might add) were scanning the water (while 8 adults chatted and yet were vigilant) when what to their wondering eyes should appear... A Gator!. That would be all caps instead of small caps letters if it had been bigger than his 4 feet (or so). At first it didn't seem possible, 16 people on a beach and a gator wants to lurk around us?

Owner of house make decision: Get the kids out of the water!

Done. Now, explore. All the kids up the beach about 100 yards to be across the river from where he is in it.

Hey, oldest eagle eyed kids, stop throwing things at the gator. Don't train him to know that we can't really hurt him. Uh oh. He's gone under. Now we don't know where he is. Oh there he his. Whew.

Next. Evaluate exactly what he's doing. Oh. He's just cruising the strip. It's only about 50 yards wide. Well, then, everyone, back down the beach and to your playing.

Self evaluation. I'll not loose sight of him now.

15 minutes later. OK everyone, I'm calling it. Everyone out of the water. He's wandering too close to us for my comfort. I'd love some gator tail, but not while at the ER. As we calmly cleared the beach (all kids obedient!) the gator did wander even closer to us than before.

So, what did we learn from this experience? If you see the gator, just call it quits. He's been spying on you all day waiting to get hungry so he can nibble some tasty morsels (AKA, gator bait). Do you think he just swam in from some distant beach? No, silly. You really do swim with the gators.

What did we really realize? They feed at night, just like 'skeeters so there'll be no night time swimming for me!

So, wanna come for a swim?