Charlyn’s Web

We ate at McDonald’s after church today because we had another thing going on in town later in the afternoon. We had enough time after we ate for the kids to play a little bit. It’s been awhile since they have been able to play there.

When we were driving off, Pixie announced that she had a new boyfriend.

Oh?

“One of the boys that was at the play area.”

I see, what was his name?

“I don’t remember, he told me once but that was all.”

Uh huh. Well, you’ll have to tell the boy you are going to marry.

She looks at me funny, like she doesn’t really understand why she would have to do this.

“No.”

We may have had a breakdown in communication there- I was thinking of the serious meaning of “boyfriend” and she may have been thinking that he was a boy and is now a friend. But this hadn’t clicked with me yet so I asked Aren’t you going to marry the boy you’ve been saying you were going to marry?

She sighs, “I don’t know who I am going to marry.”

Into this introspective moment Miss Sunshines pops in with:

“I don’t know WHAT I’m going to marry!”

“Has R borned a baby?” asked Sunshine about a month ago.

Umm, no.

“When will she borned a baby?” she persisted.

Honey, as far as I know, there is no baby .

“But she got married!”

Yes, and that was a good first step but, you know, that it takes a long time to make a baby.

“Yes, I know!!!” Miss Know-It-All stated. She is the child that is always saying “I know!” loudly when a person tries to explain something that she obviously doesn’t understand. I’m also not to sure about her listening skills.

I thought the matter was laid to rest. I told R’s mother about it and we got a good chuckle out of it.

R came over for dinner the other day. Before they got here Miss Sunshine asked again-

“When will R borned her baby?”

I told you there is no baby!

“Yes, I know it takes a long time- but when?”

Sigh.

I rolled my eyes as we went round and round again.

Not believing her Mother, who obviously knows nothing about babies, she approached R after dinner.

“When are you borning a baby?”

Luckily, R has a sense of humor and again explained that there is no baby and probably will not be one for awhile. I hope this puts that idea to rest, I’m not holding my breath.

I don’t worry about the kid’s social skills- they not only get to learn who to treat each other, the most annoying siblings on earth, with kindness and dignity on a daily basis but they interact with children of all different ages several times a week.

It’s the Homeschooling Mother that often has the problem. We are at home, struggling to teach the kids, keep up with laundry, keep the house decent and have conversations about made up people all day. There are times I get quite twitchy wondering if I will totally lose adult conversation skills.

We’ve had a busy time the last few weeks. The Col. was home from work over Christmas, then we went to my parent’s over New Years and I visited with family. Then we came home and I collapsed for a day. Tuesday brought our usual homeschool sports and recreation day so I got to talk to other Mothers there. (and you thought those activities were for the kids!) Wednesday is the day when my Mom calls. I joke that I spend hours “listening” to her because she does most of the talking. That often seems to happen but the phone calls are enjoyable and I am thankful for them. So after about an hour and a half I got off with her, about an hour later my good friend, who I haven’t actually talked to for quite awhile (we email and instant message often), called. We spent the next few hours catching up. During that call the one phone handset died so I picked up the one in the bedroom.

Shortly after I got off with her I thought I should call a lady from church to ask her something before I forgot. Talked to her for a bit. I then went out to the shop and heard the phone ringing. I grabbed the handset out there and talked to another friend for one of our shorter conversations of about an hour. I was thankful that I had a fully charged handset to use.

After that marathon day, I spent another hour on the phone to another friend on Thursday, had company on Friday night, had coffee with a friend on Saturday afternoon, a date with my husband Saturday evening and church on Sunday.

Whew! I think I’ve had enough. I thought about taking Monday off again- but I needed to get school going so decided against it. I stayed off the phone though.

The door knobs in our house have never been stellar and now they are falling by the wayside quickly. They get to the point where they refuse to turn and operate anymore. Stubborn things.

The knob to the Girl’s room was getting worse and worse. It took quite a bit of effort if the door was shut to get it open again. One morning, the door was shut and it took me trying quite awhile before Pixie got it open from the inside. I told them to not shut it completely until their father could look at it.

That advice was followed for an hour or two and then the door was shut. Pixie on the inside of the room. Sunshine decided she wanted in and couldn’t get the knob to turn. I gave it a try, and tried again, and again. I had Pixie try from the inside. No luck, still stuck.

I tried getting a credit card like item to slide in and work the latch back but couldn’t get it in there. The screws for the knob were on the inside as were the door hinges. The door opens in. I called The Col. to get advice as to what to do. He was stumped too. The window is hard to open from the outside and too heavy for Pixie to open from the inside. He asked if she was upset.

No, she was drawing on her bed so no need to hurry.

He finally decided to try slipping a screwdriver under the door to her and coaching her on how to get the screws out. He said to remember that she was opposite of me when telling her which way to turn the screws. He knows my failings.

I slipped the screwdriver under the door to her and chanted to myself “lefty loosey, righty tighty” then remembered to reverse that and told her to turn the screw towards the living room wall. She decided that the screwdriver was too big.

I told her, mainly in jest, not to worry, that we would slip food under the door to her. She seemed pleased with that prospect.

I got another screwdriver and slipped it under to her and repeated my instructions.

She was able to get the screws out. Whew!

Ok so the knob was apart. Now what? I tried pushing on various parts of the mechinisim that was still there. Nothing did anything. So I called The Col back. What do I push on? He couldn’t really tell me but did suggest that I take the knob on my side, that luckily had more of the workings on it, and use it to see how the door worked. I put it in, turned it a few times while I watched it and the latch snapped back!

As I let Pixie out she grumped that she was unhappy as she wanted to get her food pushed under the door to her. Can’t please some people.

Our Tree.

Can you see me? You’ll have to make it larger by clicking on it.

The Church’s tree.

Can you see The Col. practicing his guitar?

I was told I put it together wrong thereby changing the species.

We have lots of snow! The Col. has been good about keeping the birds fed and we are enjoying watching the hordes of them wipe the food out.

Yesterday, I noticed something sticking out of the snow. Is it a bird’s tail? No, I decided, it was some sticks the Boy must have stuck out there. Then he wandered in and looked out.

“What’s that out there? Is it a bird?”

He swore he hadn’t left sticks out there and then he ventured forth into the single digit temperatures to see what it was. It was indeed a bird, dead, sunk into the snow. The Col. looked at it when he got home and said it was a dove.

This morning, I glanced out the window and saw a hawk feasting on the remains. I grabbed my camera but knew if I went outside it would fly off so I snapped a few through the window. So please excuse the poor quality.

He sat there a long time just surveying the landscape. He must not have been too hungry. The other birds, who had been hanging out in the rose bush by the house, began to get brave and venture back to the feeder. Can you see them? There is even one on the ground.

Then the hawk swooped into the air heading straight for the rose bush. Birds scattered!

He gave them a good scare but I don’t think he got one.

The light in the evenings has been spectacular here of late. I spent some time outside with my camera as the sun set the other day.

Pace, pace, pace.

Whine.

Pace, pace, pace.

I roused a bit. There was someone, something walking in the bedroom. Not one of the kids. Ah, The Dog.

We have started letting The Dog out of the confines of the utility room. He is older and less apt to chew on things plus the kids aren’t leaving things out so much. He has to be watched a little bit as he will pick up the stray stuffed animal but overall he’s handled his new freedom well. But this night, well morning- it was 2 AM after all, he was pacing by my bed. The whine moved me to action and I pulled myself out and followed him to the door. I let him out, did a thing or two as I waited for him to come back to the porch. I let him in and returned to my warm bed.

Pace, pace, pace.

“Hi Mom!” he seemed to say. “Since you are awake and all.”

That’s when he went back outside until The Col. got up about 5 and I informed him HIS dog was outside.

The gate went back up for a bit and he was confined to his room. But we have loosened up again.

Last Saturday I was snoozing in bed, trying to get some more dozing in before I was rousted out of bed by my hungry crew when I felt someone staring at me. It crept into my tired brain that there was someone by my bed. I expected to open my eye to see the brown eyes of The Otter staring at me. I expected her to announce, as soon as she saw any eye white, to declare her normal morning greeting.

“I’m hungry!”

I pried my eyes open to indeed peer into a set of brown eyes but they didn’t belong to an Otter but to a Dog. He was quite happy to see me move and by the licking of his mouth I assumed he was also announcing that he was hungry. I knew, this time though, that The Dog’s Father was awake and let him get up to tend to his dog.

And lastly, I will leave you with this photo. Apparently, Little Miss Sunshine decided The Dog needed some reading material.