Lyrics

Have you heard the song, “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” from the   movie My Fair Lady?  Our girls love the soundtrack, and have been singing this particular song a lot lately…with a difference.

“Wouldn’t it be Loverly” is a song about all the things Eliza would like if she had plenty of money.  She goes through things like chocolate and a chair by the fire, including “lots of coal making lots of heat.”  Our children don’t really get the idea of coal fires, and have changed this to suit their ideas of comfort better, apparently.  Or maybe to align better with the chocolate comment.  At any rate, for this part of the song, all of our children now sing, “Lots of cows making lots of meat.” 

It is highly difficult to keep from laughing. 

Dessert

It’s been snowy here this week.  That’s something for our area – we don’t have snow all that often.  Michael took the whole week off, so we’ve been enjoying things like sledding and snow ball fights without them having to involve me.  I’m a snow wimp.  I enjoy doing things in the snow that get me exercise – like walking to the store, which I did this afternoon – so that I stay warm.  I do NOT like having snow thrown at me (nor do I like throwing it – my hands get COLD!), I do not like standing around, waiting for people to sled down the hill or climb back up the hill, or whatever.  You get COLD standing around in the snow, for goodness sake!  But walking to the library (which we did as a family yesterday) or to the store (which I did today myself) are good activities, because you get nice and warm with the exercise. 

The kids love the snow.  There are so many things one can DO in the snow!  Throw it at people!  Receive a handful thrown in one’s own face!  Stomp out a path!  Make ridiculously small and cute bootprints!  Sled down the sidewalk outside the house!  Pull one’s brother around on the sled!  The activities are endless. 

Hannah, of course, has remembered her Little House education, and she wanted to make dessert with snow.  Her original idea was to make maple syrup candy.  It turns out, though, that one needs to use about a pint of syrup, which is as much as I bought at the store today, and our family has other uses for maple syrup in the next few days.  But Michael came to the rescue, as usual, and suggested using the raspberry syrup that we have for flavoring coffee to make real snow-cones.  Hannah enjoyed hers immensely, and wanted to be sure that I documented it on the blog. 

She wants you to know it was good. 

Simism

Simeon has picked up on a few key phrases lately.  One of his favorites is “too many times.”  I’m not quite sure where he got this, but he uses it to answer lots of “why” questions:

Me:  Sim!  It’s time to go potty!

Sim:  NO!  I don’t want to go potty!

Me:  Why not?

Sim:  Because I go potty too many times.

**

Me:  Okay, let’s wash hands.

Sim:  NO!  I don’t want to wash hands!

Me:  Why not?

Sim:  Because I wash hands too many times.

**

Hannah:  Sim, can I unbuckle you?

Sim:  NO!

Hannah:  Why not?

Sim:  Because you unbuckle me too many times.

**

Michael:  Sim, it’s time to get ready to go to bed!

Sim:  NO!  I don’t want to go to bed.

Michael:  Why not?

Sim:  Because I go to bed too many times.

**

Now that we know how he’s going to answer almost every “why” question, you might think we’d stop asking.  However, it’s so darn cute to have him inform us that he’s done something too many times (such a jaded two-year-old) that we can’t seem to stop ourselves.

Musings on seasonal cleaning

I finally realized why I don’t understand spring cleaning.  It’s not that I don’t think that one’s house needs a good cleaning on a yearly basis.  It’s not that I think my house is too clean to need to have a spring cleaning.  It’s not that I’m against all cleaning (although at certain times in my day, you might think so, based on the way my house looks). 

It’s because I don’t want to be doing a deep clean of my house in the spring. 

Maybe that sounds weird, particularly since spring cleaning is such a byword.  But in the spring, I want to be OUTSIDE!  I want to do yard work and gardening and plan new projects outside.  I want to come inside and announce to Michael that I’ve planned our new hardscaping and he should come out and see what I’m planning.  (Poor Michael.)  Things are bursting forth from the ground, and I either want to be tending them or pulling them out before they take over. 

I most emphatically DO NOT want to be chasing dust bunnies around or redoing the basement organization. 

Summer isn’t a time for cleaning, either.  Summer is a time to be outside as much as possible.  I don’t really even like to cook much in the summer, because it takes too much time inside.  My house gets a little here and a little there in the summer.

Fall, on the other hand, is a PERFECT time for me to clean.  Now that daylight savings time has ended, there are long evenings of darkness when rearranging and cleaning what’s around me is a natural thing to do.  And cooking and baking and trying new recipes and sewing and doing all the indoor things. 

Friday night Michael and I spent about an hour and a half in the basement, organizing and rearranging, getting rid of things and planning where everything will go.  Last night we did another two hours.  I had a great time!  Michael was probably surprised, because I seem to remember him suggesting something similar about three months ago.  And I seem to remember rejecting the idea in favor of something outside.  I think he took that to mean that I didn’t want to rearrange the basement.  That’s not the case.  I just don’t want to rearrange the basement in the summer. 

This small epiphany is going to be really helpful in my life.  I’m going to take advantage of this self-knowledge to plan when I’ll do serious cleaning!  I won’t even think of planning it in the spring any more, because I know that I’ll either do it and be grumpy or (much more likely) not do it and regret that my house isn’t cleaner…but not enough to actually spring clean in the spring. 

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure it out.  Happy Fall!

Hair

Michael is brushing Naomi’s hair.  It’s somewhat tangled, so she’s fussing about it.

Michael tries to reassure her, “When it’s brushed, it looks so luxurious, like a shampoo commercial!”

There’s a silence.

Hannah speaks the mind of the girls, “Dad, is that supposed to be a compliment?”

I really like this article

It says so much about motherhood that I’ve discovered, slowly and painfully and joyfully.

She’s better!

Gypsy is eating again!  We’re very relieved, and it might just mean that the syringe-feeding and syringe-watering might be over for the time being.  Hannah is all for continuing the syringe-feeding – now that Gypsy’s better, she’s having a great time hand feeding them. 

Phew.  What a relief. 

Spaying

The bunnies have been spayed.  Hildy is bouncing back.  Gypsy is slowly rolling back.  Hannah did a lot of research beforehand to know what to expect, and knows all about the need to possibly separate the bunnies, the need to get one of those collars for them, in case they’re chewing out their stitches, etc.

Hannah just said to me, “I guess now that we’re spayed…Wait!  Now that they’re spayed!”

I assured her I had no plans for spaying her.

Hannah replied, “If you did, I would chew the stitches out.”

I told her that I’d have to get her a Victorian collar if she did.

“Elizabethan collar, you mean.”

Did I mention she’d done her research?

Yum!

I’ve been trying out some new recipes.  It’s something about Fall – I seem to have to try new things.  Tonight I tried this spaghetti squash recipe.  It’s really simple and really good.  Everyone liked it, except Naomi, who tried an infinitesimal bite and then didn’t eat any more.  I’m not sure that she actually got a taste of it, and I think I’ll try it again on her sometime soon. 

This week

Sim is feeling better.  Phew!  Fever is no fun for a toddler…or for his family.

We went swimming yesterday, and these days when I take the kids swimming, I have to remind Naomi repeatedly that she has to jump in FEET FIRST.  “FEET FIRST, Naomi!  FEET FIRST!”  And then she executes a lovely little racing dive.  WHERE DID SHE LEARN THAT?  I don’t know, but after last week’s swimming session, I had her practice at home.  She stood on the edge of the carpet and jumped onto the floor.  That did not tempt her to dive.  At the pool, she did finally manage to jump in feet first, after only one or two dives.  Thank goodness!  The diving escapades aren’t good for my blood pressure. 

Sim and Naomi have decided that emptying the bunny litter box and refilling it every morning is a special treat.  They love to accompany Hannah to do it.  And heck, I don’t mind – that way we’ll all know how to care for the bunnies.  Simeon is also really big on collecting the bunny droppings and putting them in the litter box.  This gives me pause, but they are quite dry and we always wash hands with soap afterwards, so I think it’s all right.  The excitement that he feels at seeing a pile of bunny droppings he can clean up is a bit odd, but he is a boy. 

The bunnies have an appointment to be spayed tomorrow. 

Hannah has her next American Heritage Girls meeting tonight.  AHG is a Christian scouting program for girls, and there’s a troop through our parish.  There’s also a Boy Scout troop.  It seems to be a very good program, and Hannah LOVES it.  She has already read the entire manual.  And she’s very thankful to Gran (and so am I!) for sewing the patches on her vest.

I somehow got talked into being the assistant unit leader for the Tenderhearts (Hannah’s age group).  However, compared with teaching horseback riding summer camp to 10 kids, each with a horse or pony, having to deal with a group of girls (no animals) is pretty straightforward. 

There’s more work being done on the fireplace!  Someday it may be finished.  I’ll ask Michael to show me how to upload photos, and then I can show you the newest look of the living room. 

Better

Sim was sick this week, running a fever in the afternoons and at night.  It wasn’t fun for any of us.  But he’s feeling better now, thank God!  And nobody else seems to have gotten whatever it was that he had. 

Helpful hints

I find that the bunnies really seem to be getting the hang of the command “home.”  That’s the word I use when I’m putting them back in their cage after bunny time.  “Home!” I say, and they start scampering to their cage. 

Of course, this might be because the entire youth population of the house also yells, “HOME!” and starts chasing them back to their cage.

So, I guess the helpful hint for bunny training is that reinforcement really is quite important. 

Halloween

This Halloween was Simeon’s first one being aware of what was going on…and he loved it!  Grandma Ellie made everyone’s costumes, as usual, and outdid herself – everyone has been raving about them.  They’re really cute.

Of course, Naomi, who wanted to be a horse, decided that she didn’t want to wear the horse head.  She wasn’t quite as convincing a horse without the head, although the tail did still suggest she was something other than a girl dressed in a brown fuzzy suit. 

Hannah was an Indian, and she not only wore everything Grandma Ellie made for her, she added some elements to hers.  It was really cute.

Sim was a dog, and his costume consisted mainly of the hat with ears, which was really, really cute, and which he consented to wear.  He also had an outfit with brown pants, but the hat was the best!

Our card reader isn’t functioning, so I won’t show pictures until either it’s fixed or Michael uploads photos some other way.

But Simeon was perhaps the most funny part of Halloween, and not in a way that can be captured on a camera.  We went trick-or-treating at Michael’s work on Friday, and Simeon quickly figured out what was going on, running from office to office, saying, “Trick or treat!”, showing his bag and yelling, “My bag has CANDY in it!”, calling, “Thank you!”, waving goodbye to everyone we spoke to (and it’s hilarious to see computer programmers waving to a toddler!), repeating as necessary. 

When we were trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, after every single house, he said, “Let’s go in another house!”  He also dragged his candy bag as it got heavier and heavier, and refused to let anyone help him carry it, or even carry him, except for very short stretches and up and down stairs. 

This is going to be helpful!

My sister left a comment after the hoarding post that dentists are paying $1/pound for candy and sending it to the troops, who can eat it or give it away.  My kids are excited about the prospect of getting to get rid of the candy that they can’t eat (and in this case, it’s not just because they don’t have the space in their little bellies or in their treasure chests, it’s because they’re allergic to ingredients) and get some money for it.  Although I’d probably encourage them to do it even if they didn’t get money…

There’s a place to enter your zip code and find a dentist near you who will do this. 

I do ask myself whether we should also be sending the troops extra toothbrushes, but I guess that’s covered in a different place.