Recycling

June 2008 When Mitchell found his old bath seat in the bathroom cupboard, he was determined to find a use for it. Initially he tried sitting in it to look at books, but eventually decided that he had to lay back so far that it must be for a more relaxing occupation. He hauled the thing downstairs and tried it out on both the floor and the couch to watch TV.

More Caleb

Part 1
Caleb: Mom, I gotta joke for you.

Me: OK, tell me.

Caleb: Why did the fly go to the market?

Me: I don't know, why?

Caleb: Because it's a joke, of course!

Part 2
Last night, Caleb was ill--fever, aches, miserable, with a bout of vomiting thrown in. After a rather restless night, he woke looking and feeling much better. He decided though that his stuffed animal "Baby Kinkajou" was sick, and went about doing things to help BK feel better. After making sure BK was comfortable, Caleb disappeared for a little while. When he came back in the room, he spoke to BK saying, "Baby Kinkajou, I have a wonderful surprise for you." From behind his back he produced a box he'd rescued from the recycle bin and announced to BK, "Look! It's something for you to throw up in!" I guess when you're sick, certain things do have an added appeal.

The Running Man

June 7, 2008 Sheridan was on the city track team this year, and here is the one picture we got of him competing. This was as he ran the 200 m at the last meet of the season. There were several other track clubs there, and Sheridan finished 6th in this event, 6th in the long jump and 5th in the 4 x 100 m relay (his age group included kids born in 1996 and 1997). He placed higher in other meets, but I've lost track of them all. After one meet he brought home 2 ribbons (a 2nd and 3rd, I think) and at another, his relay team took 1st, and he got a medal. He really enjoyed the experience and plans to participate next year as well. I actually enjoyed track much more than the team sports we've tried. Maybe next year we'll remember to take the camera to more meets. . .

Oh, What do YOU do in the Summertime?

June 9, 2008 Caleb and Marcus show their ability to entertain themselves in the playroom. In my opinion, Marcus (note, he's still wearing his baseball cap) looks like an uncertain alien jedi (toting a firearm just in case the mind-control thing doesn't work), and Caleb looks like a very confused bee-keeper. But, hey, whatever keeps them happy, right?

My Grand Quest. . .

(Well, one of them. . .) . . . is to find a healthy chocolate cake. I've decided that if I had a slice of chocolate layer cake and a glass of milk to look forward to each day, my outlook on life could be seriously improved. The problem is that daily consumption of that much butter and sugar can't be good for me. So I'm on the hunt for alternatives and if you know of anything that will provide my daily cake fix and not go directly to my hips, I'd love to hear about it. I'm actually thinking of toying with a brownie recipe that incorporates pureed spinach and carrots. But frosting is key in a chocolate layer cake, and I just can't think of any way to make that healthy or even slightly healthier. Sigh.

35!

Here are a few highlights from my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I actually stole these pictures off my Mom's blog because (naturally) we didn't get any taken ourselves. The first picture was June 1, when Guy was out of town, and I went to my parents' house for a visit. Mom surprised me with this birthday display of all my pictures. This is a tradition she started when I was still living at home. I admit that many of these pictures definitely make me cringe, but the kids got a kick out of seeing them all up there. The second picture was from my actual birthday. Guy had just gotten back into town, so Mom helped out by providing my birthday cake (the leftovers made me happy all week, and I managed not to share them too much :-) and she and Dad stayed with the kids while Guy and I went out for a really really yummy dinner. Oh, the gorgeous flowers are from my Visiting Teacher. I had decided earlier that day that I was ready to be done having birthdays, but dinner and chocolate cake make getting older worth it.

How To Bond with Sheridan

One Saturday morning, Guy and were looking out into the backyard (probably discussing the many things that need to be done out there) when this very striking bird flew into the apricot/plum tree. We called to Sheridan to come and see (he's been very into birds for the last couple of years), but by the time he got downstairs, the bird had flown off. Naturally he asked what kind of bird it was, and naturally, I didn't have the faintest idea. He fetched his bird guide book and started trying to find a picture of the mystery bird based on my description. After a couple of misses, I described the bird again, he got very excited, and turned in his book to a picture of a Western Tanager--

This was the bird Guy and I had caught a glimpse of. Sheridan was pretty excited and said that it's kind of rare to see one of these birds because they're so "secretive" (only he pronounced this word with the emphasis on the second syllable which changes the meaning significantly). I actually saw the bird again (or maybe another western tanager because it seemed smaller) later that day, and, thanks to Sheridan, knew what to call it.

*Note: This "secretive" bird has not been seen again by anyone in this house. It's too bad because it is a beautiful bird.

The same day as the bird identification, I found some white flowers growing (of all places) in the grass around the trash cans. I thought they were striking, but couldn't identify them, so pulled out a good specimen and showed Sheridan (he's recently been getting interested in plants, naming every bloom he sees as monocot or dicot). We started in my Garden Plants A-Z book, and, knowing that it grew from some kind of a bulb, decided that it was probably a member of the Hyacinth family. So Sheridan then got online and began searching the genuses listed in the Hyacinthacea family. It took a little time (Sheridan was engrossed and I started cooking dinner), but Sheridan found Ornithogalum umbellatum, the Common Star of Bethlehem, which matched our specimen.

It was a fun little treasure hunt. I was impressed (again) with my son, and he was beaming.

**A note on the Star of Bethlehem. I think it's a very pretty little Spring bloomer, but through further Googling I've learned that many people consider it a highly-invasive weed. In addition to that, the plants are poisonous. SO, I think I'll wait until next Spring (they've all died back completely now), see how many come up and where, and then decide if I should take steps to rid my yard of them or not.

Memorial Day 2008

Further evidence of our bizarre Spring. Chelsea came for a visit and we decided to go for a Memorial Day hike up Rock Canyon--in the cold, and rain, and even a little hail. When we left the house, it didn't look too bad, just a bit overcast, but we'd barely made it up to the cliffs where people rock climb when we turned around, pretty well soaked, and quite chilled (Mitchell, especially). The last picture shows Chelsea and the boys standing on a rare patch of dry ground, sheltered by the rocks.

Not quite the workout we'd wanted, but fun, nonetheless.

A Child's Prayer(s)

Highlights from Caleb's recent prayers:

After a Family Home Evening lesson about being peacemakers and getting along, Caleb included in his prayer, "Thank thee that I can beat Marcus to the chair this week." *

"Thank thee that we can't get distracted during prayers (at which point I opened my eyes to see him playing with some legos)."

"Help us not to be mean to each other, even thought Mom's really the only mean one in the family." **

* The chair mentioned was the swinging chair in the playroom, and was actually taken down the next day because Caleb and Marcus couldn't figure out how to share it. It has been back up now for several days and so far, so good. Maybe as long as Caleb doesn't pray about it again, we'll be ok.

** I have to admit that on that night, those words really stung, but I'm trying to see the humor (rather than the potential truth) in the situation.

Lagoon Day

May 22, 2008 Yes, the date is right. Such has been our Spring this year. The kids' school has a Lagoon Day each year where we can purchase tickets for about $15 less than the normal price. Sheila Reynolds (son Hunter was in Kindergarten this year) talked me into going and we went together to save gas, and offer moral support. We almost didn't go because of the weather, but I had babysitting lined up for Mitchell (thanks, Chelsea!) so we went. We got drizzled on most of the time and the hand warmers Sheila brought for the kids to put in their pockets were a good thing to have. But we survived, and I think everyone even had fun. At first we were really upset because none of the Kiddiland rides were running (since these school days are primarily for Jr. High and High School students), and we hadn't known that would be the case. They did run the carousel for just a half hour or so for a group of 2nd graders that were there and they let our kids hop on as well. That's where I took most of the pictures. We found enough other rides that Caleb and Diana could ride that they still had fun (Caleb's favorite was the Odysea, his least favorite was the pirate ship). I talked Sheridan into going on Colossus and he even went back and rode again with Sheila. I also talked him into going on the Rocket, but once was enough for him on that one. Marcus was tall enough to ride Colossus, but wouldn't be talked into it. Instead his favorites were the Wild Mouse and the Spider. The last picture was taken as they closed everything up just before we left the park (to show we'd survived).