Charlyn’s Web

I could hear the riotous laughing and giggling as I came down the hall.

Don’t those girls know they are supposed to be getting ready for bed?!?!? What are they doing?

I stalked in to the bathroom, put my hands on my hips…. and then I heard what they were saying.

“P**p!”

Laughter.

“Panties!”

Shrieks of laughter.

Girls! You know we don’t talk like that!

“But Mrs. L said that it’s potty talk and that if we are talking like this we need to go to the bathroom and we’re in the bathroom.”

How can I argue with that?

For the record, I, myself, me, their Mother, have said this also but when The Mother talks it’s all “blah, blah, blah” but
when some one else says these things, well, that carries a whole lot more weight. They might actually hear it when someone else says it.

And what is it that makes those words so funny?

Disclaimer: These photos were taken on the same day as Ditch Day. She is wearing different clothes today! Honest.

Taking turns even!

It’s hard work!

Brother’s turn!

Unfortunately, their combined weight made it too hard to pedal in the gravel. They didn’t get very far. I guess I can’t use the song “He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Brother” and I don’t think there has been a song written titled: “She’s Too heavy, She’s My Sister”. Which is a good thing.

Let’s have a mini-contest. Well, contest might be too strong of a word as I have no prizes to give out. This isn’t one of those high class/high volume/money making blogs. We be low class/minuscule volume/no money type blog. But we are all for having fun!

So… how many clocks did you have to “spring ahead” the other day? I, personally, did my watch on about Monday but the brave, intrepid Col. Panic reset our clocks Saturday night- all 11 of them (not counting my watch). Plus two that reset automatically. Although, the one he had to set outside in order to pick up the signal to reset it might not be totally “automatic”. His watch reset automatically. The computer did it all by itself. The number 11 includes the van but the clocks in the other vehicle has not be corrected.

The Col. is a stickler for time- it must be accurate. None of our clocks are set ahead… or behind, with the exception of the antique clock which keeps it’s own time. He sets clocks accurately based on GMT standards. Until a certain young lady messed with his watch, he had it set to GMT and he knew to add hours automatically. That would confuse my poor little brain, I’m afraid. I’d never know what time it was (let’s all break into song now! )

Anyway, I’m sure I had a point here, somewhere….

Oh, yeah- can you beat 11?

When Col. Panic was a younger man he worked for a family that ran a custom harvesting business. They owned combines and trucks and would travel to different areas that had crops that needed harvesting. They harvest wheat, corn, milo, and barley. I’m sure I missed something but they will let me know. The Col. would often play with the, eventually, four children of the family. He was a great kid himself and would engage in games of hide and seek, basketball and various other things. I know that at least once, he scared the heebie geebies out of at least one of the girls in a game of nighttime hide and seek. They remember these things- well.

Fast forward many, many years and the youngest is all grown up and in college. For some unknown reason (itchy feet?) she decided to go on a college exchange program to a college close to us. Imagine that. So we have been enjoying her company the last couple of months.

But what goes around, comes around and she now enjoys coming and getting our kids all riled up. I am sure The Col. NEVER (you hear that? NEVER) did that with their kids.

The piggy back ride- or as my kids call it “Monkey Back”- as they enjoy a game of hide and seek.

Why, yes, TG is wearing the same outfit as the last post. You have issues with that? I can assure you that I have peeled it off of her body and it is now in the wash.

Going after The Boy.

Her best hiding spot.

The Boy didn’t find her until she sent TG to tell him where she was hiding. TG was also hiding with her and I don’t know how she kept TG quiet all that time.

The Boy’s best hiding spot, his tunnel.

She didn’t realize that it went down under and so missed him when she checked there.

It’s been great fun getting to know as an adult the child we used to know. We look forward to more fun times.

And, yes, she is going to kill me. But her sisters will thank me.

Some days are just meant to be spent in the ditch.

Going down!

Pedaling hard to get out!

New tactic- use the feet.

Refuse all help from Sissy and insist you can do it on your own. Until your Mother gets tired of standing there and pulls you out while you protest.

Then do it again. Same thing, new ditch.

Except this time manage to get yourself out of it .

Encouraged by success- ride on the unbroken territory of the bank until the slope calls your name.

Try to get out there and fail so in order to save face ride along in the bottom for awhile.

You planned to do it that way!

But there is still the sticky problem of getting out.

Grunt!

Let’s try something else. Does this look easier?

No, it wasn’t and after much effort on her part- her Mother again had to help. This time she asked.

But that doesn’t mean she learned anything. New un-blazed territory! Who needs boring old roads?

Same old story. Help a neighbor out here, Dog!

Until Mom rescues again, and insists you stay out of the ditch. The thrill is gone so you give up the bike to Sissy and discover that roads aren’t really that bad after all.

Ah, the feeling of wind blowing through your pigtails!

I can take a hint. You want to see more photos of Col. Panic’s kids. Well, here is his favorite.

Oh, maybe not.  But it is his dog!

A friend (yes, I have one…. maybe two) and I talked the other day about canned vegetables. (Note to self: Clue right there about lack of friends – could it be your stimulating conversational skills? I mean really! Can’t you think of something else to talk about besides canned vegetables?) We discussed that they are higher in carbohydrates than fresh or frozen because there is added sugar in them. I am not sure why they add sugar to canned vegetables but apparently they do. (Quick- run to the pantry and read some labels- I’ll wait.) Personally, I buy fresh or frozen pretty much exclusively because I prefer the taste.

Fast forward to the next day when I was making a Three Bean Salad to take to pot luck. I tried a new recipe and I liked it but will have to fiddle with it because it had a lot of sugar in it. There I go again- fiddling with a recipe! Anyway, because I have such an interesting life, I stopped to read the label on the dark red kidney beans (Great Value- because I am cheap thrifty.) First ingredient: prepared kidney beans. No surprise there.

#2- water

#3- cane syrup- what? why?

#4- salt- I knew there is lots of salt in canned beans.

#5- high fructose corn syrup!! Why?

There were more things added that help promote color retention- I probably really don’t want to know about them.

But why the sugary stuff added? I mean, kidney beans? Sweet?

I rinse them before adding them to things in hopes of reducing the salt content and so I hope it helps with the sugar too but how much have they absorbed sitting in the can?

Sigh. So, I’ll have to read more labels in the store and suck it up and buy more expensive brands.

Or go all homestead like and boil up my own.

Last week the weather was lovely, for a few days at least. So we walked/rode down to the mailbox and beyond.

Remember last fall and Pixie’s bicycling difficulties? Well, she still uses her feet to stop instead of the bike brakes but that is, perhaps, a good thing as she jams the brakes on so hard that she skids all over the place. She can now get going on her own and can even turn around. All without the continuous whine that used to proceed from her mouth. Here she is actually standing up and pedaling.

The Boy just took off, as usual, zipping around. Here he takes a side trip down into the ditch- and back out again.

Sorry, they look like ants! I was being left in the dust!

Then there is my baby- the one who marches to her own drum.

What interesting characters they all are. Wonder where they get it.

Note: I made these pictures “smaller” in hopes they wouldn’t take too long to load for any dial up readers out there. (Hi KN!) Let me know if they take too long to load still and if they look OK. Thanks!

This has been the snowiest winter in memory (mine anyway, which isn’t saying much). I had inherited (such a nice, genteel way of saying “hand me downs”) some nice snow pants through the years that we have hardly used. The Boy grew out of them in no time with hardly any opportunities to wear them. For some reason when I was going through things to re-gift (how many euphemisms can I come up with?) I kept wanting to put them in the “share” pile and not the “futures” pile because I kept thinking that The Boy had outgrown them. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, we have more than one child. I swear, I am not blond! There was no reason the girls could not wear them also. So this winter when the snow was falling ever so frequently, I went in search of said snow pants that would fit The Girls ever so well. Not in with the winter stuff. Not in the Futures box. Hmmm. Search again. The Boy’s were easy to find but not the others. I didn’t really do the unthinkable and got rid of them, did I?

As you could see in my Trees post, there are robins around. When I go outside I hear the birds singing loudly and ever so often, when it’s actually quiet in the house, I can hear them in here too. All the snow piles have melted and it’s been in the 50’s. The sun has shined. My little heart goes pitter-patter at these signs. It sings that possibly, just maybe, spring might be approaching. But I also know, the true sign that spring has arrived will be when I find those snow pants!

Groan.

I am supposed to find the book closest to me and turn to page 123.

This was the first challenge as the closest books didn’t have 123 pages in them. Children’s books aren’t usually that long. So I reached into the school reading basket that is close to the computer here. The first one that I grabbed was:

“Parables from Nature” by Mrs. A. Gatty ( which is a possible clue as to it’s age. )

Find the 5th sentence and then type the next three here.

I remembered too, that only a short time before, I had seen budding almond-trees in villa gardens outside the town. They were not common in my own country, and they must all be out in flower now, I thought; and this decided me. I would go and see them that very day.

I am now supposed to tag 5 (yes, five!) other people. Well, since I don’t know 5 other people with blogs that haven’t already been tagged, I’ll just leave it here.

Aren’t you glad I didn’t grab Pilgrim’s Progress? I sure am! Those sentences go on forever!