Artwork of the Week

"My Princess has laser eyes!"  

-kindergarten student

Another Day in My Short World

 

Daylight Savings Time.

It is not only the change in sleep patterns.  There are things to do around the house.  The reminders.

Change the batteries in everything.....but especially the smoke detectors.

I am not sure how this happens twice a year, but Tall Man is ALWAYS gone when it is time to change the batteries in the smoke detectors.

I have a week.  Less than seven days. Tall Man will be home.  I moved this task to the bottom of the Spring To-Do List.  Five days to be exact......

chirp.......


       chirp.........


              chirp.........


It started at 0318.  That is 3:18 AM to all you civilians out there.

I turned my fan on so I wouldn't hear the chirp.....then I froze my buns off.  Yeah - it was the window fan and it was 47 degrees out.

But I slept.

So this should be easy, right?  Take the battery out, put the new one in.  Did I mention the detectors  are hard wired into the house?  When you take one battery out, they ALL start chirping.  UGH!

I am short.....the boy can help!

We struggled for an hour trying to get batteries to seat correctly in the tray.  They have swivel trays.  They are above my head. They have no metal snap to plug the 9-volt battery into.  You just place the battery in the tray, swivel it back into the chirping disc on the ceiling and voile, it is done.  Sure.  Easy.  NOT!

The questions started:
 
1. Why can't smoke sink?  The detectors could be on the ground.
2. Would a hammer take care of it?
3. Can we rip it out of the ceiling?
4. How long would we hang from the wires before we fell to the ground?
5. How hard do you have to throw a 9-volt battery so it sticks into the wall and how many times would we throw it before we hit the wall and not the window or any other glass object?

We finally got it....43 minutes of arms above head...me on my tippy tippy toes.  The Man Child's monkey arms reached just fine, but he just didn't get the right angle on the battery.

Love you Tall Man.
Welcome to Monday and another exciting week!

A Sentimental Friday

I am a proud Mamma.  I have three wonderful children.

Sure, there are those days…..

Then their gifts shine through.

My eldest, Peanut, has so much beauty and kindness.  And a voice!    She popped out singing, and has never quit.  She went off to college to study music.  Then, in the middle of her Junior year, she announces she is changing her major to ART!  This is the child who was flustered in any art class in high school.  She brought home her first pieces from her fabric design classes and…….WHOA……I have an artist!  I am inspired by her passion and her drive to delve into something new.  I wish for her to always have that passion in everything she does and to inspire those around her with her smile.

Frog is the middle child.  She spoke her own language with Peanut as her official translator.  She speaks softly, until she sees an injustice, and then WATCH OUT!  She will clench her fists so tight her knuckles turn white!  And then she will voice her opinion, loudly.  She wasn’t always like that.  She was quiet, but she had a spark, and then someone tried to put that spark out.  We had to fight to help her find that spark again.  I am so excited for her as she sets off for the brave new world of Nebraska in the fall.  She is an artist too.  Her world is full of swirls and delight.  I wish for her to keep her flame burning brightly and to be able to help others find their way when they get lost.

And finally, my baby, and my only Man Child.  He has grown so much and I know his future is bright.  I have to remind myself he is forced to live in a house full of women (yes, both dogs are females too) and he misses Tall Man when he is away.  I am trying to help him find manly things to do.  As a teen age boy, I wish for him wisdom to do his homework and practice his horn.  I wish he would clean up after himself and I wish he would know when to take the trash out without having to ask him to……oops.  I guess my wishes went in a different direction for the youngest in the household.

And for myself?  I wish to stay young at heart so I may enjoy all of their fun as they continue to grow into fabulous adults who have the ability to change this world for the best!!

A Life Lesson Learned in School

I had a favorite Language Arts teacher.  She always painted a vivid picture while reading to us or even when she shared her own stories. 

We came to school one day and heard there had been an accident in her home.  When she returned to school a day later, I learned a lesson that I will never forget.  There aren’t many of those high school moments that can impact daily life as you get older.  This one did.

There was a fire.  She stood in front of our class and explained she had remodeled her dining room a couple of years before.  She was very proud of herself.  She did it on her own!  She painted.  She wallpapered. She hung a new chandelier above her dining room table. 

She followed all of the directions, however, she was missing an item listed and made a substitution. 

You see, she didn’t have any electrical tape.  So she just grabbed a roll of masking tape out of the junk drawer and taped up all those wires.  She hung that chandelier and stood back in awe.  Yep.  She did it herself.

You know the outcome now…..the tape dried over the years and eventually…..fire.  There is a reason that the tape aisle contains five hundred types of tape.  Always get the proper tool for the job.

Life Lesson?  

Never use masking tape for electrical work.  

It will set the house on fire.

They Got Me.....

I have been able to evade the sweet little vested girls for the past month.  The tables piled high with confections as sweet as the cherubs standing in front of the table.  Have you noticed that the girls get younger as the month goes on?  This is a brilliant marketing move! 

We were leaving Lowes this afternoon and sure enough 

there were the two little blondes sporting their vests.  

I hear a small.....sad......nasally voice ask, 

“Would you like to buy some cookies?” 

“No thank you,” I replied as I passed by on the way out to my car.

The next sound I heard tugged on my heartstrings.  

It was the saddest, “Ohhhhhhh….”  

that I have heard in a very long time.  

Those strings bungeed me back into the store 

and back to that table. 

“I changed my mind.  I would LOVE some cookies.” 

The sparkle came into the eye and there was the smile!  

And she got me for not one, but TWO boxes.....

As a post script note....rumor has it 

Tall Man has a closet in his office with two cases of each cookie.  

He obviously made a Girl Scouts sales goal for her Cookie Badge!!

I am so glad those cookies are not close to home!

A Puppy Tale....Tail Two

The following story is true…this is not a work of fiction.

When Puppy first came home with us, 

she didn’t know the rules of the house.  

She was a nut.  She was crazy.  

She loved coffee.

One morning, Puppy was very excited to see the 

cup of fresh coffee on the floor that her person was drinking. 

She sniffed.

She stuck her nose right in the cup and licked.

“Ow!  It’s HOT!”

Old dog quickly ran in and corrected Puppy.  

She whispered in Puppy’s ear not to use People Language. 

This is the only time we have ever heard her speak…

Birthday Memories

Another year has trickled by. 

Fifteen years to be exact.

The boy.

The Man Child.

It is every father’s dream to have a son….the one to carry on the family name.

This is my third child.  The easy one.  The one that rolls with the punches.  The one you hope you don’t forget at the Mall.  It was an awful pregnancy.  I can’t even describe the sickness.  It wasn’t morning sickness….it was twenty four hour a day sickness.  It was I had to be hospitalized sickness.  In the words of my physician, it was “This is a healthy-pregnancy-with-no-worries type of sickness.”  Yeah, he tried to convince me how healthy the pregnancy was, as I continually threw up everything and anything whether I was sitting, walking, sleeping, driving, cooking……

And then…..there he was.

 Our Man Child. 

He slept....

....and slept.

He slept everywhere and anywhere he could find a place to lay his head. 









Remember how I mentioned the third child is the one you don’t want to forget someplace?  It could have easily happened with this one….until he started to talk. 

And he was boy. 

Oh sure, his sisters would dress him up…

he even had his favorite blue tu-tu.

But the boy was always in there.  

He was poked in the eye with sticks. 

 Not once, but twice, by the same best friend as they played with their “swords”.  

He built things with his dad.  

He learned to hunt. 

He survived boyhood and is growing toward manhood.  

He is mechanically minded.  

He is a learner.  

He is a doer. 

 He is meant for great things.

Happy birthday to my Man-Child! 

I send you my hugs and my love for all of your days on this earth.

May you fly high your entire life....