Introducing Bert and Ernie

Some silly Mama Robin decided our back deck light would be the perfect spot for a nest. This has been attempted in the past, and discouraged, but we were busy with other things this year and weren't paying attention. Between the time we really noticed and the time she was sitting on eggs was a pretty small turnaround, so we gave up. It does seem like a nice spot, facing east, out of the wind and the majority of our Weather. Can't blame a girl for trying. We noticed one egg had crashed to the deck but for about a week or so now we've had new friends, Bert and Ernie. Perhaps it's Roberta and Ernestine, but either way, they've perfected the Duck and Cover maneuver anytime we open the door to take the dogs out!

 

And then there was none

 I should have posted this one after the next post, but I trust you all to be able to file it correctly chronologically in your own minds. This is Thing Three pre-summer haircut, which he debated getting. The deciding factor, I believe, was how much flipping of hair out of his face he would have to do at the pool this summer...

The end result. He looks humungous. How is our baby so big?!

Summertime, fuzzy hair for the win!

Our very own Greaser

Thing Three's class read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and were awarded bonus points if they dressed up as Greasers or Socs. You'd be amazed what kind of costume materials we have hangin' out around here, right down to an unopened, cellophane wrapped box of candy cigarettes which his teacher made him throw out! I'm a bit miffed as I'd been saving those, but am trying to believe she was just staying in character as well...

(That's the all-important comb, you know)

 

The end of an era, Part I

 The Resident Middle Schooler is no longer in residence. He has upgraded to Resident Freshman! Yesterday was his very last day of middle school, so we had to send him off in grand fashion:

This kid saw me making the signs and groaned, "ohhh noooo." He knows the drill:

The bus driver got a good laugh at us standing out there with the signs (and no doubt at Liam, one-quarter awake in robe and slippers) and toasting with our coffee cups. He beckoned me to his door as he dropped Thing Three off in the afternoon and thanked us, saying it was the best thing anyone had done for him as a bus driver. And here we were just trying to get everyone on the bus to smile- a last-day tradition we've done for years. I'm so glad our Shenanigans spilled over and made someone's day!

***

One small shout out to our TP supplier, Who Gives A Crap, which may be juvenile but I find completely hilarious which is probably part of why I get such a kick out of kids in the first place- thank you guys for using EXCELLENT boxes to ship your renewable product. We've had so much fun with them!

A luxury state of mind

 Today is our first day of bona-fide summer vacation. I had somewhat planned to attempt an outside run this morning, but upon awakening I realized it was raining. It is so nice to stay in bed and listen to the rain. I thought, "what luxury!"

Then I realized that was just the tip of the iceberg. Here I was, in a bed, which I only have to share with my husband, not all of my children, and no pets or livestock. Our bed is a real bed- not made of straw/sticks/leaves in a sack- it's raised off the floor, we don't require mosquito netting. It's in our bedroom, with a door, and our children each have their own places to sleep also off the ground and without bug nets. There is a roof over our home which has many rooms- so many I can't keep it all clean. We share our home as we wish, but again don't have livestock in the downstairs or chickens or things of that nature. We live a life of luxury, yet we don't often recognize let alone appreciate it. It reminded me to give thanks, not just for the lovely sound of rain, but for all that we have. Our blessings runneth over. Don't sweat the small stuff- revel and delight in your own big picture. I bet if we all made lists of blessings that we would be astounded. Happy hump day!

He really IS my child

 A long, long, LONG time ago, whilst working at camp, I ruminated to my future husband and another male coworker that I'd figured out the problem between men and women. The other coworker quipped, "you mean there's only one?" 

The problem is that women have so many thoughts so quickly that we edit them internally to bring the pertinent information to the conversation, which explains how we get from "eggs" to "shoes" in our heads but leaves the fellows completely stymied because we didn't fill in all the points in between. If we did, we would NEVER stop talking and every explanation would overwhelm all male sensors. The next time a woman says something that doesn't make any sense to you, know that it does make sense to HER, and probably any of her girlfriends in the area, and question whether you have the time to go through a point by point explanation, because she CAN give you one. I promise. 

To my amazement, Thing Two had a moment like that this morning. He'd asked me if we had an unopened grape jelly as he'd finished a jar yesterday. Never mind the facts that A) it should have been on the grocery list days ago if he was that low and B) he should have looked for it when he finished yesterday's jar to confirm we did indeed have another. 

I told him to get crackin' on his other morning jobs to get him out the door on time and that I'd find it. I found it, brought it out, and handed it to him. He states, in his morning voice, which is lower than low:

I dunno why we hung people for witchcraft cuz it's clearly useful.

I think I blinked twice and kept going with the corralling of Thing Three who was moving slower than molasses (these last few days of school are killing us. Just killing us. We will never make it past Memorial Day.) 

It wasn't until I sat down to confirm his above quote that he gave me the second half which tied it all together:

I dunno how else Mom found the grape jelly.

Aha! He mastered the "say the first part, skip the rest, and say the last!" WooHOOOOOOOO! 

***

Also, let's go, people. I've only received one guess as to what he purchased in a gift shop in DC. 

NOT a yellow version of the White House, but good guess!

I’ll take “That’s Unbelievable for 500, Alex.”

 Thing Two’s senior class spent a week in Washington, D.C. helping various charity groups, checking out some monuments and museums, trying out international restaurants, and making memories. While the stories forthcoming have been and will be entertaining, I’d like to take a moment for some fun and games.

Question: what do you think Thing Two purchased in a gift shop? 

Hint: it is indeed yellow.

Prediction: even if I gave you 3000 guesses, I’d be shocked if anyone gets it.

Go!

Y’all are my witnesses

Lest we get a nasty-gram from the city because our "grass" is approaching the 8" limit, this is why we aren't mowing.

It looks like the field in front of the chapel at Camp Lambec in early summer- like a mirror with grass poking out of it.

The "creek"/drainage ditch out back. Below, Amur honeysuckle have taken over what's left of our drowned pine trees. Apparently it's like candy or soda pop for birds; they love it but there's not much nutritional value to it. And it SPREADS. There's also black raspberry canes in there. Last year a smart robin built a nest in that mess and had protection AND a food source at hand. This year we have one who has built her nest on top of our deck light, so we've been scaring the bejeezus out of each other on a regular basis. She hasn't figured out that if she'd stay PUT instead of flapping away at breakneck speed when we're right beside her that everyone would be happier!

This is part of the drainage ditch we dug ourselves to get standing water from part of the swamp that borders our property to the above drainage canal. It's only a few inches deep, but I can't even tell you the satisfaction I get when I schlep out there and see water running through it and down the side of the ditch! *squelch squelch squelch*

 

Camo

Methinks this child assumes if he color coordinates with the Old Lady Room that I might not notice he's on a device...

definitely a "nothing to see here" vibe goin' on.

 

With a little help from Mortimer

This is the "garden" behind our garage. The yellow circle highlights some Creeping Charlie, which is a gorgeous, spreading ground cover with purple flowers that the bees all seem to love. It creeps EVERYWHERE, sending out runners, then suddenly I have huge clumps of it and I feel guilty yanking it out because the bees are clearly working it and then I feel terrible. Plus, it's pretty! We have it instead of actual grass (which is a pain in the you know what anyway, in my opinion) in many places.

The pink circles are my lupine, and mine does bloom pink, though the park down the road has zillions of blue ones so I might have to do a seed exchange so we can have both. I'm so excited that it is also spreading. YAY!

The purple circle is dandelions, WHICH ARE FLOWERS.

The blue circle is violets, which also show up on their own and are beautiful and peaceful and I love them and I don't care that they're uninvited and also seem to be spreading. 

The white circle is morning glories, which again, big surprise, I encourage and love and can't wait to have everywhere. 

The red circle is apparently wild garlic mustard (according to my plant identification app) and why we have patches of it in the garden and out front can only be explained by the word "wild". I have no idea. Wasps and ants seem to like the tiny blossoms. I think I remember reading it's edible but please don't try it without confirmation!

Oh, and if I remember correctly, Mortimer was the name of Bill Cosby's squeaky marker back when he was on TV. That's the mental sound I heard when I was making the circles, so I threw that out there for anyone who'd appreciate it. 

How does YOUR garden grow? No judgment from me!

 

Like any good Midwesterner

i can't help it. i'm a sucker for pretty, interesting light. so the other night i was outside taking photos and the tornado siren goes off. well, everyone knows that's when midwesterners head out to the front porch to see what's going on instead of heading to the basement! we didn't have any action but, if you can, help out the folks in michigan or other states who did see action- way more than they wanted to, unfortunately.

the web above has nothing to do with dangerous weather, but damon and i observed it earlier in the week because of all the moisture and dandelion seeds it had accumulated. we'd laughed about how the poor weaver probably went out first thing in the morning, delightedly rubbing its front legs together, preparing to examine the bountiful catch, only to realize they were dandelion seeds bouncing around in the breeze. that has to be so frustrating. "dangit!"

 i love the light below. i never get tired of sun on green.

 

Yes, my children; more sunrise pictures

Because I just can't help myself! Could you?!

 

"'The time has come,' the Walrus said, To talk of many things:"

 "Of shoes- and ships- and sealing-wax- 

of cabbages- and kings-

and why the sea is boiling hot-

and whether pigs have wings.'"

So says Lewis carroll's "The walrus and the carpenter" which actually does not occur in his "Alice in wonderland" despite being in the animated disney version, which is also why it took me awhile to find it because i was looking in the wrong place. i digress. this isn't about me.

these are the words that have been banging around in my head for a long time. somehow, and i blame may for being the craziest month, i never posted about thing one's birthday last year. or the year before. i don't know how that happened as i know i have photos that were supposed to go on here of the cakes and the smiles and the sunglasses and and... heck! i'm so sorry. my deepest apologies. 

so, thing one, the one who made me a mama, whew. 

how can you be 21 and legal now? 

you came out hollering and the nurse said, "wooooooweeeeeeeeeeee, do you have a temper! where did you get that!?" dada and i looked at each other and shrugged. no idea. but i'm glad for it, because you were a tiny puddin'pop, small and mighty. you turned into someone who knows how to stand up for yourself and others, who gets fired up when people are treated badly, who drags others to get the help they need. i know you say you're not the mom friend, but you kind of are. we are proud of you.

we love your art, especially now that you don't draw on the walls (as much) and we see the joy it brings you when you get it right. we love that you sing along in the car on road trips. we love that you empty the dishwasher unasked. we love that you get excited about skull shaped ice cubes. okay, everyone in the family loves those, but it doesn't negate the fact that we like that it tickles you. we love, and are constantly surprised, when we turn around and you've snuck up right behind us. we love that you are an individual and that you don't merge just to do what everyone else is doing and we love love love that you don't follow along with others' dumb choices "just because we're adults and we can." so proud. you have no idea. nooooo idea!

we love that you're learning to cook and that you're getting better at cleaning up afterwards. we love your patience with these awful dogs. we love your zero tolerance of siblings in your room but the fact that you'll still share the twizzlers. we love that you dive in to help, whether it's hauling puppies down a hall for a stranger or ninja-ing food pantry items around with pap. thank you for being kind and respectful, especially with those who you can tell are having issues, whatever they  may be. you are a treasure and a delight. we love being your parents. thanks for blessing us.

happeeeeeeeeeeeeeee birffffdaaaaaaaaaaaay toooooooo yooooouuuuuuuuuuuu!