using the camera to stop time

do you know who’s feet these are?

 

they belong to my 2 3/4 year old.  the kid is a nut. fearless and impossible to slow down.

 

he must keep up with the older kids.

 

get out to where all the action is.

 

first, with one hand on the wall,

 

and then pushing off on his own.

 

i stand behind – not much steadier than he is (it’s been about 20 years since i’ve been on ice skates!) trying to convince him to slow down.

 

i help steady him after a fall, lending a hand when needed. but it won’t be long until he’s out there with them.

 

click.

saint feet

I believe I”ve mentioned before that when my mother came to visit she took my two oldest to Disney World.  It was little P’s 5th birthday and that’s Grandma’s present for the great big age of 5.  While there, one of the store clerks let him select an article of clothing for Mr. Potato Head.  A birthday present, of sorts. Apparently, Little P made his selection without any hesitation.

Until yesterday, I was a bit confused as to why these were so appealing to him.  But over lunch, and very casually, he mentioned Mr. Potato Head’s new saint feet.

 

And I thought he wasn’t listening.

turkeys and a few other miscellaneys

We made turkeys today. I couldn’t remember who had the original one (Alicia at The Mayfly) so I had to stalk Jennifer’s craft kit post (we added glitter to ours because that’s just the way we roll here – everything looks better with glitter). While I was there I gleaned a few other ideas for these next few weeks. I’ve even started cutting up and sticking the projects in bags. This makes me feel like I’ve actually accomplished something and that maybe – just maybe – we’ll get through these next few weeks okay. Maybe.

 

We aren’t anywhere near where we should be “in school” – we’re several weeks behind. I blame this on a) the flu – x5 for each member of our family, b) my mother’s visit. Not that my mother’s visit wasn’t wonderful – but I should have started the school year earlier to accomodate it. We’ll be doing school during Advent.

I suppose that’s just as well as it keeps our hands and minds busy.

 

Speaking of Christmas, I should be online shopping right now. I don’t know what to buy the boys – my daughter has a list a mile long to choose from. She got to the toy catalogs before I had a chance to bury them in the recycle bin.

The good news is, I really don’t have an opportunity to hit any stores without them with me – so it looks like most of their presents (from my husband and I anyway) will be made. This will bother my husband more than it bothers me.

 

Which means that instead of sitting here on this computer, I should be sewing. First up (and I can say this because they don’t read my blog – I mean, no one does, really – but especially not my children): library tote bags. Something small enough for a child to carry, large enough to hold those gigantic oversized picture books. And with a pocket for the library card.  The pocket must be vinyl so that as I’m coralling them away from the check out desk and back to the car I can glance into the bags and make sure that, indeed, the library card is still there and not abandoned on the checkout counter/reading chair/floor/recycle bin/sailing through the air.

See that? You’ve just helped me map out the project.

log cabins

There’s been a bit of a furniture move around here.  The wood floors have me absolutely ecstatic and our little house finally feels like home.  A small wall has become the perfect place to put our little wood bookcase. And this book case – the shelves too close together for the larger books – has become the perfect spot for our little nature table/seasonal table.  I’ve wanted to do this for awhile, but nothing has fit.  But new floors give you new eyes, and voila! It works now.

The kids are liking it too.  When I announced the purpose of these new “empty shelves” and gave a little Thanksgiving prompt, they knew just what to do.

This one, didn’t quite make the move from floor to shelf.

 

But rebuilt, it looks pretty sturdy.  Poor turkey, sitting there behind the fence doesn’t have a clue as to his fate in a few weeks.

 

Uh oh. Sound the alarms! 2 year old hurricane moving in!

 

worth a read

I don’t speak much about the current state of our Country. I don’t speak much about the current administration.  It’s not because I don’t have heartfelt convictions. It’s not because I don’t think we are sooo on the wrong track as a country.  Bush wasn’t my idol. A good man. An intelligent man. But a man who strayed from conservative principles.  Still, reading this article over at Hillbuz gives me great hope.

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster.  President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it.  ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush.  We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11.  He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone.  More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us. . . .

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

FOR HOURS. . .

The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them. . .

The Obamas should have done that.

But didn’t.

Wouldn’t.

Thank goodness George W. is still on his watch, with wonderful Laura at his side.

We are blessed as a nation to have these two out there…just as we are blessed to have the Clintons on the job, traveling the world doing the good they do.

And we are blessed to have Dick Cheney, wherever he is, keeping tabs on all that’s going on and speaking out when the current administration does anything too reckless and dangerous.

Cheney’s someone else we villainized and maligned in the past who we were also wrong about.  There has never been a Vice President, including Gore, Biden, or Mondale, who was more supportive of gay rights than “Darth Cheney”. There has never been a Vice President more spot-on right about the dangers facing this country from Islamic terrorism. . .

After the primary battle of 2008, we never thought we’d go back to Texas for anything, but sometime in 2010 we want to find some event in Dallas the Bushes will be at so at least one of us can go up to them, tell them we are deeply sorry for ever thinking ill of them, and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their service to America.

We’re sure they will just stare at us and wonder why these gay Chicagoans are crying, but we don’t think we can get through a meeting with them without being emotional.

What they did at Ft. Hood for those families humbles us.  Every day, the Bushes are most likely doing something just like it behind the scenes. . .

We will never look at the Bushes, the Bush presidencies, or their legacies the same again…and someday when his presidential library is built, we will be so proud to visit there and tell anyone will listen about November 10th, 2009, the day we finally appreciated former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.

Thank you for your service, Mr. President.  We’re sorry we didn’t appreciate you while you were in office, but we thank Heaven we’ve wised up and can see the good you are out there doing, under the radar, today.

Before you get crazy on me. It’s an article written by two, gay liberals.  Honest men. Why does this make me giddy? Because of their next post here.  Honesty.  Intellectual honesty. The original article is worth a read. Go on over to HillBuzz and read it.

HT: Mommylife

the tooth fairy goes…green?

the 7 year old has it figured out.

She collects the teeth. Brings them to God. He pays her for the teeth. She then slides the money under the pillowcases (this is a kind of pay it forward thing, I think. You get paid out of last night’s teeth cash flow, etc), and He gets to reuse the teeth!

Everyone is a winner.

 

Even the dinosaur who is willing to send back bad teeth.

2 dinosaurs and a (bouncing) colonial girl

a week late for halloween. and 10 days after we went trick or treating – but who’s counting, right? anyway, i’m posting these pictures because they make me laugh.  my daughter has always bounced.  since she was a wee one.

she gets so excited, that she just can’t contain any of the energy then…boing!

up she goes! when she was 2, i thought she’d grow out of it.  same for 3…4…5…6…and now we’re half way to through 7. I don’t expect 8 will be much different.

it’s so hard to wait to collect the candy. you can’t contain all that joy and excitement while waiting for mom and grandma to snap the pictures!

happy halloween!

more apples

just barely.  I didn’t think my children liked applesauce. Everytime I try to sneak it in at a meal its met with groans. I figured out the secret, though. Don’t mash it up so much. At least in our house – it’s a big seller when there are chunks.  So, all the previous jars of applesauce? They’re almost gone.

It was always the intention to go back and pick more – especially when the Granny Smith came in. But then the flu came for a visit and well, here we are. Four days until the orchard closes.

So we picked a few. And bought more that had already been picked. And now my counter sits with 3 1/2 bushels of apples. Yowza!

A bushel of those are granny smith – our 2nd favorite eating apples (the absolute favorite around here is the pink lady) – so some of those for canned apple pie filling and a lot for eating. Otherwise, plenty of golden delicious for applesauce. I’m trying to form the habit, in each season, of storing up enough until the next season. I think we’ll have enough applesauce to last us until next August.

that was a surprise

from my husband. yesterday. for our anniversary.

 

do i have to tell you i was in tears?