No credit for mommy

We were riding in the car when Nathan said, "Mommy, Credit Karma helps you with your credit."

  "Really?  Where did you hear about that?  Was it on Grandma's TV?"

"Yeah."

  "So what can you do with credit?  What is it good for?"

"I don't know."

  "What do you think?  Can you get a sandwich with credit?"

"No, Mommy!"

  "Well what is credit good for?" I asked.  The truth of the matter was that I could not think of a good way off the cuff to explain credit to a five year old.

"I think credit is for getting jokes on your phone."

  "You think that is how daddy gets the jokes on his phone?"

"Yeah." 

  "Okay."  And I left it at that, while quietly giggling to myself.

Later, I was relating this story to grandpa, and Petra started asking what credit was for.  My definition was like this, "Credit is like saying, 'If you give me two pieces of candy today, I'll give you three pieces of candy tomorrow."

Nathan overheard me and indignantly asked, "Wait, mommy, you knew!?"

In sun and rain

When I got home from work on Friday, it was 50s and sunny, and my children were all inside playing on computers or hand held devices.  Before even saying, "hello," I told them that they could either go outside and play or do some chores.

They all ran outside.

Julia climbed on this and that, and asked about getting a ladder out so she could climb on the roof of the garage.  They took turns on the swings.  Nathan and Petra explored our spring runoff.

Paul decided that he would like to earn some money.  He and Steve had made an agreement that if Paul shoveled out a clearer main channel into the meandering marsh that our spring runoff has become, that Steve would pay him a certain dollar amount per wagon load of dirt he moved.  About halfway through the first wagon load, he and Steve negotiated a slightly higher dollar rate. 

They all got some badly needed outside time.

Saterday it rained, so Paul did not continue working on the creek.  Instead we agreed that it would be worth $10 to us for Paul to shovel out the section of the chicken coop that we use for young chickens.  He did it, and Steve and I were pleasantly surprised by how efficiently he worked without us even checking in on him a dozen times.  He's getting so big and mature, at least in spurts.

Steve also took Paul shopping for muck boots to help with further work on the creek.  (The boots are enormous.)  While Steve was talking over taking Paul shopping for boots and hitting Home Depot, Julia gave him a hard time.
"Wait a minute!  You're going shoe shopping?  In a store?"  (Steve dislikes shoe shopping and especially dislikes doing it in a brick and mortar store.)
"For muck boots."
"But it's SHOE shopping."
"For muck boots."
"Those are still basically shoes. From a store."
"But they have the word MUCK in the name.  I also want to swing by Home Depot to get the right socket piece to fix the light fixture in the dining room."
To which Julia said, "See I told you to get the porcelain one!  NUMBER 7!"
I looked at Steve quizzically.  He explained, "She thought I should get the porcelain the last time we were there, because she knows that porcelain is #7 on Moh's hardness scale.  Julia, you are fount of random knowledge."

While my older guys were out shopping, Petra played with Nathan and read to him.

Julia helped me make a "Caramel Apple Casserole" for breakfast for Sunday.  She helped core and chop the apples. It was good knife practice for her and it was good for me to take a breath and remember being that slow at cutting apples.

Julia chopping apples

Steve fixing the light - it only took 3 trips to the hardware store

Pretzel lasagne

"Arg!  Soup?  Do I have too?  What if I make pretzel lasagne instead?  I will write down the recipe," Petra said, followed by a giggle-giggle.

"Mommy, how do you spell bowl?"
  "How do you guess?"
"B-O-E-L"
  "Not a bad guess, but it is B-O-W-L."
"O-W?"
  "Yep."
"Okay.  How do you make the symbol for pound?"
  "Well, you can write L-B or you can make the hashtag symbol like this," I say while crossing four of my fingers like a... well you know.  Meanwhile, I'm thinking, "I can't believe I just described that in terms of 'hashtag'."

"Okay, mommy.  Here is the recipe for pretzel lasagne."  giggle-giggle.

Put 10 pretzels or pretzel sticks in a boel bowl.
Put in 1 LB shugar.
Put in 1 tsp water.
Ster.
Put in Heat.

Maybe, we'll just stick to the soup. 

Extra hashbrowns with that, please

Today I had to have some blood drawn, and because of bad scheduling on my part, my appointment wasn't until 10 in the morning.  They usually ask me to fast for this, and I hate missing breakfast.  It makes me sad, and cranky, and tired in the head.

Right after the appointment, Nathan and I went to McDonalds so I could make up for losing time on my favorite meal of the day.  Because Nathan can be a finicky eater, and he had just had breakfast a couple of hours before, I wasn't sure if I should get him much.  I ended up ordering 2 sausage McGriddle sandwiches (the bun is made up of syrup infused mini-pancakes), one hashbrown, juice (for Nathan) and coffee for me.  I figured that if he wasn't good for his sandwich that I hungry enough to eat two of them.

He was good for the sandwich.  What is more, he tried the hashbrown and asked for one of his own.  Halfway through our meal, I went back to the counter to order more food, because he and I were both hungrier than I had anticipated.

After he polished of a respectable meal (I did too), we did our grocery shopping.  As I finished unloading the car at home, I heard Nathan upstairs singing at the top of his lungs a song by Sandra Boynton.  "I NEED A NAP!  I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE..."

More self defense stuff

Steve has been taking Kyuk Ki Do classes at our tae kwon do school.  It is another style of martial art, and I refer to it as "the vicious one."  It draws techniques from tae kwon do and judo and also focuses on locks (like elbow), jabs (like throat), and pressure points.  While tae kwon do and judo can be competed in as sports, kyuk ki do is pretty strictly self defense.

Steve tested for his green belt Friday night, and the kids and I surprised him by coming to watch.  I think he did well.  He got his new belt.

He said that he and one of his friends both kind of choked during of the drills.  Master Chung's evaluation included, "You two need to focus."

That's all well and good until you are trying to remember what you are supposed to do with your seventy-something, Korean instructor 3 feet away from you, and you can barely remember your own name.  Master Chung is a little intimidating.

Monuments

A friend from Kansas sent me this picture from her drivings around and suggested that our farm needed one of these.

Who doesn't need a 15' metal rooster in their garden?

 Steve and both declined.

So I sent her a picture of my windowsill at work and explained that these monuments were really as much as I needed. 

This might be as close as I get to Paris

Although, the rooster could be fun if it were part of a climbing set with a secret club house in the body and maybe a slide down the back.

Civil Engineering on a Snow Day

Yesterday was MLK day and the kids and I had off.  The alarm rang in the morning for Steve, but when I looked out the window, I couldn't see the road.  "I vote we go back to bed until we hear a snow plow go by."

"Deal."

In the afternoon, I conscripted some forced labor from Paul and Julia to shovel the driveway.  Then they took some time to build a small snow fort.  Petra went out to join them.

Meanwhile, Nathan had a bit of a cough and runny nose, so I didn't encourage him to go outside.  He found his own building materials.

I sent Steve the message:  It's snowing faster than I can shovel.  I got the Jetta back in the garage, and I didn't break anything.  I can't say anything else good about that parking job.

Overheard today

Today we had snow day #3.  The kids are having a little trouble controlling themselves.  There were a few moments of levity, though.  Here are a few things I heard - 

Petra: Mommy what kind of mythical animal do you want to be?

Mom: How about a unicorn?

Petra:  You can be a zebra unicorn.

Mom: Okay, that sounds good.

Petra: You can be a zebra unicorn, and I'll be a zebra unicorn with wings.  A pegasus zebra unicorn.  And nobody can kill us because our hearts are in our horns, and it would burn their hands to grab our horns.  How old do you want to be?  We're both kid unicorns.

Mom: How about 9?

Petra: Okay, you can be 9, and I'll be 8, but I'm only one week younger than you.  We'll live up in a protected meadow in my room.  It's magic so we're safe there.  The wood floor is water with piranhas in it.  But don't worry, they're not aggressive piranhas unless somebody goes after one of their family members. Mom, you're standing in the water.

Mom: Is it okay if I can swim?

Petra: Unicorns can only swim about a 5 out of 10.  But if this is magic water then you are only a 4 out of 10.  But since you grew up in this meadow, and the magic water is a little diluted, you are probably a 6 out of 10 for swimming.

Mom: So I'm okay?

Petra: Yeah, you're okay.  I'm going to get some berries out of the bush.  Julia's bed is the bush.  Pretend I'm flying up there... 

(She rolled with this for about half an hour.  I think she stopped to breath once.)

-------

Meanwhile, Nathan was setting Steve up to play super heroes.  Nathan picked his 3 super powers, and asked Steve to spell them out for him so he could write them down on a piece of paper.  Then Steve had to pick 3 super powers of his own.  This took a while, because Nathan vetoed most of the things Steve picked.

Steve: How about super laundry folding?

Nathan: No.

Steve: How about shooting ice?

Nathan: No, daddy.  That's insta-kill.

Steve: What about laser eyes?

Nathan: No.  Insta-kill.

Steve: Can I have super spelling?

Nathan: Daddy, that's not a super power.

Steve: You say that now, but wait until you grow up.  Okay, how about super baking power?

Nathan: No, Daddy!  That's insta-kill.

Nathan's powers: strength, super jumping, super speed

Dad's powers: talk to animals, flying, invisible

Petra also likes to play.  Apparently the candy cane ropes materialize from nowhere and can tie up your opponent

------

Later in the evening, Paul was rooting around in the cupboard for something to eat.  "Hey, did you know we have sardines!?"  (This was not said with happy excitement.  It was more like incredulity with a hint of distress.)  "It says, 'sardines in mustard sauce.'  Ew.  Hey Julia, if the sardines don't get you, the mustard will!"

Post by Julia - A Gift

This is a symbol of friendship and trust.

My friend Anna made this for me at christmas time.

She put a lot of work into it ( it is a scratch art).
While she was making it, at school,  
I was not allowed to look at it.

 If I did then she said that she would give it to someone else.

It was really really hard but I did not look at it.

When she finally handed it to me
I was so happy that I did not look earlier.

This is a Masterpiece.

Paul made this

What happens 

when you have

a 13 year old boy 

with a remote control Jeep,

a bunch of cardboard boxes

and duct tape

and free time?

Paul's Tank

What to do in the ice?

The kids had another day off from school on Monday.  So far (Tuesday) we are 3 for 5 on making it to school for 2018.  Monday was a swirling windy mix of snow, rain, and freezing rain.

After hearing that the snow would be melting in earnest soon, the kids bolted outdoors to try to get in some last minute sledding.  After a little sledding in the rain, they discovered that the snow had become a great packing snow and worked together to build a snowman.

After we came inside, and drank some hot chocolate (all before 9:30 a.m.) I wrote up a list of chores for us to work on.  Long lists of chores are a vital part of my snow-day survival tool box because:
1.  Making progress on house messes keeps me from going crazy
2.  Having constructive work to do keeps the kids from making new messes
3.  Having constructive work to do cuts down entitlement attitudes
4.  After finishing a chore, the children slip off and play nicely and quietly together
5.  Because they know that if they start bickering I will find them and give them more chores

Julia and I cleaned out the fridge.  I was inspired in part by hearing some of my friends talking about cleaning their fridges and in part by the mystery liquid on the 3rd shelf.   Julia was a good helper and ended with a new appreciation for how gross a refrigerator can be and how nice it is to have a really clean place to put our food.  I was pleasantly surprised by how little old food I found to put in the garbage.

I set Nathan and Petra to clearing off our dining room table.  I couldn't believe what a good job they did.  I have clearly been underestimating my childrens' capabilities in the paper organization area.

Paul had to fold the dreaded whites load.  Poor guy.

In the afternoon we took it easy with a movie.

After supper Steve had to leave for a meeting, and Paul had to go out and close up the chickens.  Paul came back reporting that the driveway was even slipperier than it had been in the morning.  There was really only one thing to do.  We put on our coats, pulled out the sleds, and slid down the wet, icy driveway in the dark.  Crazy and fun.

What to do in the cold?

It would have been a perfectly good day to curl up with a book.  The morning started at -6°F.  I think we would have been perfectly justified in curling up by the fireplace with some good reading and hot tea.

We did start off the day with a slew of housekeeping chores.  Sort the laundry, clean the bathrooms, dust some ceiling fans.  But the afternoon was open, and I wanted the kids to get outside.  These children needed wearing out. With a high today of 16°F, I didn't figure we would last outside more than 15 minutes, but anything was better than nothing. 

We went out to sled in the yard before the snow started melting next week.  To my surprise, half an hour passed and nobody was complaining of cold.  And as I watched my children run up and down the tiny slope in our yard and urge their sleds to go further and further, and I saw how big my little children are, I regretted not driving out to a real hill. 

On the spur of the moment, Steve and I bundled them into the car with our sleds and we drove over to the Petra's elementary school.  We picked a slope that was maybe 20 feet top to bottom and steep enough to sled freely without being so steep as to be scary to Nathan or Petra.  We all sledded over and over and over again.

Steve gave everybody (including me) turns riding down on his back while he lay on his belly on a sled.  Nathan sledded in my lap several times and then started going solo.  Paul sledded until most of his face was bright red from the cold.  Julia rode down twice while standing on a "snow scooter."  She kept her balance the whole way down.  The same could not be said of me when I tried it.

The hill ended in a parking lot, and there was a bank of snow clods between the hill and the asphalt.  We slid up to, into, and sometimes over the bank.  Our sledding ended about the time the kids started having a snow clod fight.

I kind of wish I had pictures of Petra spinning on the round snow disk, or Nathan lying down with his scarf trailing behind him. 

But I was too busy having fun.

Winter coat shopping

Dear Steve,

I think that I should not be allowed to shop for winter coats for the kids anymore. 

Nathan's old winter coat was a size 3 and he now has a size 5 self.  Before we went out shopping I looked in the closet and found two boys coats: one size 7/8 and on 8/10. Too big. And Nathan didn't like the 7/8 coat.  It was the wrong shade of green.

But when we got to the store, I picked out size a 7/8 because I wanted him to grow into it.  Because my brain does not work properly in stores.  And if that weren't bad enough I got him 2 different size 7/8 coats. It made sense to me at the time. 

I don't think that this is the first time that I have extravagantly messed up a coat purchase.  I hereby abdicate coat and shoe shopping to you. 

I was going to recommend that we, by which I mean you, return one of the two size 7/8 coats and maybe pickup a coat for Paul that is heavy enough for his upcoming scout camp out.  Maybe something in a size 16.

Nathan really likes the reversible hat that came with his gigantic new redundant coat.

Love,
Sarah

Domestic training

I decided that a couple of my potholders were getting greasy and gross, so Monday night I pulled out my old potholder loom and made a new one.  Nathan helped.  He picked which color loop to use, put many of the loops in place in the first direction, and even hand weaved a few of the loops in the second direction.

Julia watched the process and decided to make a potholder herself the next morning.  Her potholder is a lovely patterned thing.  I showed her how to bind of the edges, and she got about halfway through before the other sides popped off the loom and started unweaving themselves.  We spent about 10 minutes together, both bent over the little loom with her holding loops on the spokes, while I reweaved and finished binding the edges.  Julia said, “I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.”

I said, “It’s okay.  I remember putting my mother through the exact same thing.”

It finished beautifully.

-----------

Tuesday afternoon I had a tall stack of dishes to wash that were not going to fit in the dishwasher.  I called Nathan and Petra in to help me dry dishes.  Now 98% of the time I let hand washed dishes air dry, so asking them to dry dishes with towels apparently really threw them.    “No.  NO!  Just dry them.  Use the towels.  Use those towels, hanging on the oven handle.  The dishes are already clean, DON’T put them back in the soapy water.  Just dry them and set them on the table!”

Once they got the hang of it, they were great little helpers.  

-----------

Meanwhile, Paul was tasked with making cornbread to go with supper.  I hoped he would redeem himself from the cornbread-made-without-baking-powder episode.  It helped that I was in the kitchen while he was cooking this time.  He got all the ingredients into the bowl, and even remembered to grease the pan.  

We did have to learn that IF you pour too much milk into the measuring cup, you may pour some back into the jug IF AND ONLY IF you have not previously used the same measuring cup to hold raw eggs.  We now have a jug of milk in the fridge marked, “For cooking purposes only.”

The cornbread turned out perfectly.

Greeting 2018 in the dark

We didn't have big plans for New Year's Eve.  I thought we might stay up a little late with a movie.  Instead the power went out at 6:30 p.m.

I was on the last step of making a pizza; I had pre-cooked the crust and heated the sauce.  I had just popped the pizza in a 400°F oven to melt the cheese when the lights went out.  (Ironically, it ended up being one of the most perfectly cooked home-made pizzas I've ever made.)

Flashlights!
Candles!
Battery powered Christmas candles from the windows.
Battery powered night lights in the childrens' rooms.
Propane fireplace.

New Year's Eve Dinner Table

We ate dinner by candle light, and lit candles in sconces on the door jamb. We put a candle on a pedestal in the bathtub so the bathroom had light and we didn't have to worry about children knocking it over.  We asked the kids not to flush the toilet because no power = no water pump.  We bundled up because no power = no central heat. 

We read stories instead of watching movies.  The kids all went to bed on time, if not a little early.

The power came on briefly before midnight, and then came on for good around 1:30 a.m. .  Steve and I listened to our neighbors shoot off fireworks in the distance.

Julia and Petra were both a little scared of the blackout.  They were worried (not even about pipes freezing).  I asked why, and Petra said she didn't like all the dark.

Nathan told me later that he liked the black out.  I asked why, and he said he liked the all the dark.  It was exciting.

From Christmas Day

Anticipation

Men with Legos

More Legos

Julia with Lego's Women of Nasa set