How to Catch a Worm

New Pets

I know you are all going to be so jealous here. You are thinking; if only I could have something so cute and lovable in my house as well. Fear not my loyal blog readers, you too can have your very own pet worms. I know what you are thinking. To be honest, I thought it myself. I also then thought, oh who really cares.

The girls discovered today that if they bounced up and down on the big yoga balls out in the yard that worms come up to the surface (video to follow on the blog site if blogger cooperates). They immediately asked if they could keep them as pets.

I originally said no, but then I thought, "You know, she keeps begging me to get her a lizard to put in that terrarium she brought home from her dad's. If I let her put the worms in then I won't have to say no 24 more times to a lizard." So they dug some dirt and collected some worms.

Apparently they tickle.

We tossed in a few scraps from dinner and there you have it.

Pets in a box. Alexa decided hers are girls. Who am I to argue? Really people, I am out numbered here.

Home Again, Home Again

The girls arrived home with hugs, kisses, and a suitcase full of dirty clothes. It is a good thing too because my last vase full of dandelions had totally wilted. So it is good they are back to keep a fresh supply brought in to me.

They hit the ground running. No sooner had we eaten some lunch then Alexa wanted to go plant the seeds. A week ago while we were at the gardening store getting pots for the tomato plants, I let them pick out flower seeds. "You said we could when we came home from Daddy's." I did say that; I just didn't realize it was going to be so soon.

Each of the girls has her own flower garden area. They take it very seriously carefully thinking about what seeds they want to put in the garden each year. Last year Morning Glories were a big hit, and this year is no different.

Alexa talks to her seeds while she plants them. She is so concerned about them, "Don't worry little guys I am going to tuck you in all nice and cozy."

Chloe got really excited about the idea of mixing some kinds of seeds together. She was literally bouncing with excitement about how it will look this summer.

Lessons Learned

My kids come home tomorrow and boy am I excited. I feel like I have accomplished quite a few things over the last few days. I have also learned a few things about myself too. Things like: I should never work from home as I might lose parts of my mind. When left to myself I make lists and cross things off in a desperate attempt to validate my time.

See? But it is OK because I have gotten things like making appointments, removing the plastic from the windows, and cleaning old files off the computer done to name a few.

I also have a formed a touch of an addiction to old NCIS episodes that I have been getting on Netflix. I nearly hugged the mailman for bringing new ones today. That also figures into why I shouldn't work from home.. not enough human contact. That isolation made me rather chatty with the guys at the dump and the cashier at the grocery store this week too. I seem to be more of a people person.

Lots got done though! I mean just look at this basement.

Well, OK don't look too closely there is stuff down there that I can't even explain. The people that owned this house before me raised seven boys here. A number that still makes me shudder. I think they spent time amusing themselves down there. I mean why else would there be a smiling sun painted on the oil tank?

Then there was this little event...

I still can't even contemplate what kind of sick joke mother nature was playing here. I mean I didn't paint my toe nails to look pretty in sandals for nothing! However, the snow has stopped and the sun is out. so hopefully soon it will all be a bad memory.

A Cup of Tea

I have been reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I am really enjoying it. It is a wonderfully powerful reminder of how one ordinary person can make a huge difference in this world. As a teacher, I am also blown away by children and communities who will sacrifice everything and work amazingly hard for the chance for their children to receive an education. I have seen so many children in this country that care so little for the opportunities that they have. It is inspiring to see other places where that is not the case.

I was reading last night and came upon this story that was told to the Greg Mortenson about Balti custom. I love to read about real people and real experiences. The wide variety of religions and customs in this world fascinate me to no end. So I wanted to share it here. I believe we can all learn a lot about life from all kinds of people. This story focuses on the small, isolated, villages in the mountains of Pakistan and the Muslim religion. Neither of which I know much about and I have been finding them fascinating.

When the porcelain bowls of scalding butter tea steamed in their hands, Haji Ali spoke. "If you want to thrive in Balistan you must respect our ways," Haji said, blowing on his bowl. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die," he said, laying his hand warmly on Morenson's own. "Dr. Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea."  

I read this passage several times. I love it. What an amazing way to live. It is the sweetest, most simple idea; share what you have, take time to get to know one another, and slow down.

You Have to Be Kidding

I woke up this morning to this...

I had that slow processing speed that can come to you right after you wake up. I found myself staring out the window thinking, what is it? I can not even tell you how depressing I find this. I mean I know it CAN snow in late April, heck I have lived in New England a long time. I have seen it snow in May before, but that doesn't make it any less of a shock. Yesterday, I was on the deck in flip flops eating lunch in the sunshine and today... well...

Some of us can't even bear to think about it.

You just hide your head and hope it will all go away.

To be fair I knew it might still get chilly at night. I even went so far as to toss an old blanket over Alexa's tomato plants before I went to bed last night. You know, just in case. They are now all piled into my office to wait out the storm.

The rest of the plants are just going to have to tough it out and hope it melts quickly.

Basements and Bureaucracy

After leaving you with such a tempting announcement of basement cleaning for today I am sure you have been eagerly awaiting my report. I had to take care of one issue before I could sequester myself into the dungeon. I had received a letter reminding me that I hadn’t licensed my dog yet this year.

Now, to be fair I already knew this. It just so happens that to re-license your dog your have to go to City Hall between 8:00- 4:30 Monday through Friday. I do not find these to be very convenient hours as I am actually working between those hours on those days. I would actually believe that most people are. It would seem like City Hall would have a better percentage of people actually able to register their dog if they offered later hours at least one day a week. However, the letter was also sent to the Burlington Police, Department of Animal Control I opted not to make this a matter of principal or anything. I mean look at him…

He really isn’t much more than a glorified stuffed animal. He wouldn’t make it in prison. The guy sleeps sucking on a stuffed chicken under a purple and pink butterfly blanket. It just wouldn’t be pretty. So I made the trek downtown this morning, and now Cabbie is all nice and legal.

I can also happily report that my basement looks great. I hauled an entire car full of stuff to the dump. I had bags full of stuff to take to Goodwill, but instead set it outside my house with a free sign on them and almost all of it is gone at this point. I am really excited about how much stuff I was able to get rid of. I made a few interesting discoveries too. When my mom sold her house she boxed up a few things and wrote my name on the boxes. I opened them up today and found a:

varsity jacket complete with Nancy Regan era Just Say No button,

the birthday candle my grandmother bought for me when I was born. Every year we burned it until I was 18. Note the 5 lb 15 oz weight nothing like the 6+ lb. Andrea… guess we know who was hogging all the food in there.

A hat that has to have something to do with Girl Scouts and camp. I only pray I never wore it, or at least that there isn’t any photo evidence that I ever wore it.

Girl Scout sash,

A program from our (Glenolden Elementary School) first grade production. Really things only a mom would keep. I found the note card where she wrote my blue poem that I had to read too… incase you want me to read it to you.

My clarinet book and music (found the clarinet too).

Another Girl Scout item. I think we had to wear these at Peak 85. When they made us camp in floorless tents in a sheep pasture in England. I note the button that indicated a sub camp. I think this is for keeping track of where you are suppose to be. In case you wander off into the Boy Scout area and then have to go racing back to make it in before they notice you are missing. Not that it ever happened to me personally, but I am just saying those kind of things could have happened to less trustworthy individuals. Me, I only had wholesome friends and we never would have done something like that.

I also found these funny little guys. They might look really strange, but I was really excited to find them. My grandfather made them. Whenever we would make the trip out the Grand Junction, Colorado to visit him he would open up the closet with all the wood working projects inside and let us pick one out to take home. I can remember my dad telling me to hold on to them that they would mean a lot to me someday. He was right.

Solo

The girls are away to visit their dad for a while this vacation. I will not get to see them for five solid days. I have never gone this long without them. It was definitely rough to say good bye. I still can’t think about it a lot because, quite frankly, it hurts too much. I have a list of things to do while they are gone. Partially to keep my mind off of it and partially because I can’t easily do some of these things while they are here. I have gotten a fair amount of things done between yesterday and today. Both days have been sunny so I got some of the flower gardens weeded and seeded. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I managed to flick gasoline all over my right arm while filling it and it took me about 10 pulls just to get the thing started. Both of which reminded me how much I hate mowing the lawn. Never the less it is done.

I rearranged the office furniture which I had been meaning to do for some time. I like it a lot better.

Although I now know I have an electrical outlet that no longer works in there and a rather unsettling gap between the wall and ceiling. Both things I was happier not knowing.

I also got around to cleaning out the kid’s dressers to remove all the clothes that no longer fit them. I found all of these socks no longer have a mates.

How is that possible? I buy them socks all the time, and I always buy them in pairs. Why do this many no longer have a match? It is an age old mystery I know but I still can’t figure out where they go exactly.

I went grocery shopping today. The most notable thing about that was that, without the kids here to buy for, I am a bit lost as to what to buy. It was the strangest thing. I went to get some things that I want to eat for the next few days and honestly I think I have forgotten what exactly I like to eat. Which is probably one of the most bizarre statements, but it is true. I found myself wandering around thinking what do I eat? It is a strange thing to go from cooking for kids to just yourself.

I will leave you this little teaser… tomorrow… I clean the basement.

Literacy Breakfast

Yesterday morning I took the morning off using the last half of a personal day I had left. Alexa and I went to school with Chloe for her literacy breakfast. It is a very cute event that the school has twice a year. You are invited in to eat breakfast and listen to your child read. So off we went, Alexa was really excited because she gets to do this like walk to school with her sister…

and play on the playground before school like the big kids.

 

Chloe did a wonderful job reading to us.

She even read a couple of her reports that she had written herself. I really like the cover on her matter report.

She explained to me that she had all the states of matter in the picture: the cloud is the gas, rain drops and water for liquid, and the sunken ship is the solid.

Alexa was a great audience listening with rapt attention.

We had a lovely morning. It made me wish I could go to work everyday at 10:30 instead of 7:45.

Gardening

We had some projects to take care of today. First we decided it was time for a new bird feeder. Well, actually I threw out the old bird feeder since it was moldy and Alexa spotted it. This made her sad and I agreed that we could get a new one. We had to make a trip to the gardening supply place anyway. So we worked to get our starving birds back to a regular food supply.

We have had a bit of a plant explosion here over the last few weeks. Remember those tomato seeds Alexa planted a couple of months back? Well….

They are getting bit crowded.



Then there are the pepper plants that the girls planted this past fall out of a green pepper I was slicing up.

They are getting a bit squished too.

I started thinking a few weeks ago that I could just build some kind of raised bed and bring really good dirt in to make a garden. Then I realized that I have no real carpentry skills, and I don’t actually own a circular saw. The carpentry skills I could probably fake; I mean we aren’t talking about a house I would be building. The saw thing though was a bit of a road block, especially when you get right down to it, those things scare me. I mean it. Right now I can safely say two out of the three (female) members of my family are rolling their eyes in disgust (the other I can’t be too sure of), but I have a real phobia of the things. So building my own was out of the question. The dirt around my house really isn’t good to plant in (at least not anything you want to eat) due to lead paint exposure and all. I looked at the raised beds for sale, and they were way out of my price range. So I opted for the large plastic planters, and we commenced the task of repotting. My helpers were really excited to get going and did a great job.

Alexa was a very nervous plant owner. She kept reminding everyone to please be careful so we wouldn’t hurt the little guys. She does appear to be in the middle of some type of rap in the picture...

They gave them a good watering (in the rain) for good measure.

Here is hoping my little plan works.

Hair Drying

I had to purchase a new hair dryer today. My old one keeps turning itself off in the middle of use. That wouldn’t be a huge problem if it didn’t take about 15- 20 minutes to let you turn it back on. That kind of time I just don’t have when getting ready for work.


I was a little amazed at all the features they put on hair dryers. I just really just need it to, you know, blow out hot hair. You can get a lot of features that I am not even sure what all of them are for. I picked out the simplest, least expensive model. It still had a lot of extras. Things like tourmaline technology, cool shot button, and a hinged filter which it says makes the cleaning easier. I didn’t actually know I was suppose to clean the hair dryer and am now thinking this may have been the reason for the other one’s demise.

It also has Ionic Technology which is promises complete ionic coverage to give me less frizz. Now this I can use. I have hair that likes to explode into some kind of giant puff ball on any given day. I though this might hold some promise until I got home and discover that the hair dryer I already had was also built with this technology. Disappointing to say the least.

I also noticed on the paper work included with the dryer that there is a Haircare Hotline I can call should I need to. Now I must say this I found amusing to no end. What exactly do you call the Haircare Hotline for? The name hotline seems to indicate some type of emergency situation. Do these things come up often? I have never encountered one. Have other people? Am I tempting fate by even bringing it up? And who is working the Haircare Hotline? What qualifications do they have to be handling these emergencies? Can we be sure that they are a professional? Is this a 24/7 kind of thing or only 9-5. I mean 9-5 most people are already at work and the hair problem is already out there for everyone to see. It would seem that you would need to have operators on during peak hair styling hours to catch those emergencies. It could just be me though.

At any rate I will be sure to keep you posted as to how my new technology works for me. I do think that I will pass on the Haircare Hotline and stick to my beloved hair dresser who takes such good care of me. However, if any one wants the number I can pass it on to you.

For Uncle Ryan...

Alexa has been going to preschool two days a week this year. It has been wonderful for her. It took me a lot of searching to find a place that would work for us. In the end we could not have asked for a better program. Each week they focus on a theme and a letter. They have the usual preschool type themes of shapes, colors, and holidays, but they also have some that resemble more school age topics. Things like magnets and famous artists. This week they are studying space. Alexa came home today with some wonderful prints of planets.

She also made something this week that she really wanted to make sure her Uncle Ryan saw. So Uncle Ryan this is for you…

She made a rocket ship. You see Alexa’s Uncle Ryan is a rocket scientist. As in the line, “Come on it’s not rocket science…” Turns out it is! She really wanted Uncle Ryan to see her ship, “Because maybe he could use my idea.”

So what do you think Uncle Ryan?

See anything you can use here? If you want, I can have her call you and make the special noises that make it fly! You know, just so you can have the full effect.