Friday, April 29, 2011

Five Minute Friday

Yay!  It's Five Minute Friday again, and I'm participating!





The rules?  Write for 5 minutes without stopping to edit or correct.

Today's topic?  If I knew I could, I would...

Ready?

GO!

If I knew I could, I would take back this evening and replay it.  It was not one of our better ones.  I hate it when you go out to eat somewhere and anticipate a great time and then something goes wrong that makes it NOT a great time and then you are stuck there and you have spent the money to do it.  Then the money is gone out of the budget and you know that you have to wait a month before you have the opportunity to go out again.

That happened tonight.

We went out and Gabriel threw up EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And the service was so slow and they mixed up Elizabeth's order....

And this was Elizabeth's birthday outing.  We may just have to reallocate something in the budget to go out again sooner than a month from now.  (Sometimes I am so TIRED of living on such a tight budget...but I know it will pay off in the end!)

But other than that, I think that if I knew I could I would stay home with my kids.  If I didn't have to work all day every day, I would stay home with them.

Also, if I knew I could, I would go into DC and try to do something to fix the immigration issues so that all of my family could get all of their documents fixed and there would be no more worries about that and everyone could be where they most need to be when they most need to be there.

I also would like to reach out to my friends and travel the world with my family to visit them all in their places.  They have come to see me, and now I want to have a turn to see them there!

And lastly, if I could, I would fix the relationship that is so wrong inside my family...my mom , dad and sister.  I would reach right into all of our hearts and find the button of forgiveness and acceptance and push it so hard and so fast that everyone's hair would turn!

But I would not change who I am, nor where I am nor how I got here. I am in the place that I need to be in the time that I need to be here because this is where God chose to place me and He is blessing me fully while I am here!

STOP!

Wow!  That was a fast 5 mins...let's see what fell out of my head today!  (I hope it's better than what fell out of Gabriel's tummy this evening!)

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Random Thursday

Today has been a rough day.  I got rear-ended with both of the babies in the car and we were all fine, but I was so angry with the man that hit us because he looked like he had been drinking and he hit and ran when he saw me get out of the car and call the police on the phone.  I was so angry!

Then, almost as soon as I got home, I got a call from a good friend of mine who had some difficult news to tell me.  I felt like I didn't know what to say.  I was too wrapped up in my own feelings and anger that I couldn't focus on opening my heart to God to be able to minister to her.  I feel like my issue of the hit and run is so inconsequential compared to her news, and I felt so small that I didn't have the words to say.

So, I will pray for her and her family, and I will also pray for the man who hit me and whatever issues that he was having, and if you would join me in those prayers, I would greatly appreciate it.

I will also share with you some pictures that made me smile again, and I hope that they make you smile, too.
Gabriel and Jimmy after a soccer game.

All 3 stuffed in the back seat of our 2door hatchback Focus.

My happy girl at finding so many daffodils!

Sniffing the flowers!

This was back in the day when Elizabeth and I lived in HI. 

Riding on the beach was awesome!  There is no match for that feeling.

It was so beautiful there.  Elizabeth and I mucked stalls in exchange for the privilege of riding the horses.
I feel more peaceful just looking at these pictures.  I hope you enjoyed them, too, and I'll see you tomorrow for 5 Minute Friday (and Elizabeth's birthday!  She's going to be a teenager!  Where did the time go?!?!?!?!)

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

360 Degree Yard Tour

So, I was going to link up to a blog that  I ran across it on Pumpkin Pie Painter and it looked like so much fun but it was closed.  I decided to use the idea anyway.

The idea was to take an area of your house or yard and taking 360 degrees of photos.

So, here goes!

I am starting facing the house on the left side and spinning around the yard leaving out the non-garden parts.

This is our pea/bean garden with the notorious teepee trellis that my mother-in-law and I made.  (That's Little Boy nosing his way through the garden and into my picture!)


Next, omitting pictures of our driveway with the Blue Beast sitting in it, we circle around to the front of the yard along the front fence.  There are our 3 blueberry bushes.  You can see that one is already setting fruit, while another has flowers.  The last is still just green.  I am a little surprised that they are doing so well because 2 of them were transplants that my father-in-law moved, and let's just say that he doesn't always worry too much about taking the roots along with the plants.





Then, on the other side of the sidewalk and omitting our sagging gate, you can see our newest addition, our potato garden, which just got planted yesterday in the morning.  Gabriel and I worked very hard on that one.  We are lacking mulch and edging, but at least the taters are in the ground!




Keep spinning to the left and you can see our 2 grapes vines that just went in last week.  They also seems to be getting ready to set fruit, which I find fascinating.  I wasn't expecting anything until at least next year!




Another turn to the left brings into view our tomato/pepper garden.  The turtle was my hubby's addition, and all that is left is to plant the marigolds along the front edge close to the tomatoes.  Marigolds are supposed to be good at helping keep pests off the plants, or so I have heard, and I am partial to them anyway because I remember planting them and then collecting the seeds off them every year with my grandmother when I was little.  My mother-in-law does not agree with this.  In her country, El Salvador, marigolds are only used in cemeteries and for dead people, so she is not too keen on them.  She calls them 'sin buche' or 'without neck'...strangled, perhaps?  I am not sure for the reasoning behind that...




Oh, but she did stick some potatoes in the front corner, but they were just potatoes that she got at the store and they sprouted before she could eat them.  Supposedly the potatoes at the store like that are treated so they won't have many tubers.  I guess we'll see.  We can compare them to the ones that Gabe and I planted in the front that were real seed potatoes.  I'll let you know. 


Another turn takes us to Georgie, who was hard at work weeding the beds but had to take a break.  (This red table was another one of my failed projects.  I found it in someone's trash last year, and I thought that it would be great for the kids to paint however they wanted to and then they could use it outside or on the porch for their lunches or crafts or whatever they wanted to.  But it turned out that I was much more excited about the project than they were, and I never had the time to do it, so...need I say more?)



Little boy again on the front stoop...




Taking a detour out to the sidewalk...check this guy out!  Tomatoes in no time!  My mother-in-law said that tomatoes won't grow in pots and I said they will, so we got 2 cherry tomato plants and put one in the ground for insurance and the other in the pot for proof.  It didn't grow last year because I put it in a terra cotta pot and then she left for 3 months so between working full time and having the baby and the toddler at home with us while we worked, watering went by the wayside.  This time, though, she's staying here all summer and I put it in a plastic pot to retain the water, so I think we will have much better luck.

And that's pretty much it! 

Thank you for joining me on a tour of my gardens!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

When Things Don't Go Quite as Planned...

I always have big ideas.  They never really seem to work out, though.

For example, our Caja de Lamentos is still on the table filled with all our shortcomings and not yet burned.  Christ has died and risen again, but our box is still there.  We were SUPPOSED to burn our box on Saturday.  But why, oh why did we not burn our box on Saturday?

Let me just tell you.

Elizabeth had been gone for the week with my parents on a trip to GA to see some family there.  She got sick on the day they left, so when she arrived home, on Friday evening just in time to cruise into the service, she was still a little shaky.  But that should not have really stopped us.

But then Gabriel, who had already been to the doctors office on Monday for something funky that was causing his leg to be all red and swollen and then back again on Friday because he couldn't breathe well again, decided that he would like to go back to the ER and began to wheeze and not be able to take in full breaths of air.

At about 10PM, Jimmy and I loaded into the car to take Gabriel to the hospital to get him breathing correctly again and it started pouring down rain.

We got home at about 1AM, and it was still raining.  Then the cat, Dixie, woke me up at 2, and Jo was up at around 5ish and then Gabriel woke up again around 6, so Jimmy and I hauled our weary selves out of bed to take care of the little guys and let Elizabeth sleep in a while to kick whatever bug she had brought home with her.

So, by the time I remembered that we were supposed to burn our Caja in the evening, I also realized that the wood was wet because it had been rained on all night and into the day and I had forgotten to cover the wood.  So, it didn't happen.

Then we were thinking about doing it on Sunday, but my parents had invited us over for dinner on Sunday late afternoon, so we couldn't do it then, either.  (I had boiled some eggs, though, thinking that we would paint them there at their house for something to do other than to rip apart their finely furnished home, but I left the eggs at home (but took the paints!).

Perhaps Monday, then.  Elizabeth was going to have school on Monday, but Jo wasn't, so it was a possibility, but then Jo was up all night on Sunday throwing up in her bed...and hair...and pj's...and bed again...and carpet...and....you get the point.  This lasted all night.  By Monday night, there was nothing burning but our eyes from being open so long!

Tuesday is soccer practice and Wednesday is church...we will get to it sometime, but I am afraid that it has lost some of its symbolism.

But things like that always seem to happen to me.  I have great ideas and I really want to carry them out, and I really try to do it, too.  But things never seem to go as I plan!

How do you other people do it?  I read blogs and everyone seems so calm and sane and things and projects seem to get done!  What is the trick to this????

Oh, but wait...before you make suggestions, let me show you what I'm working with...

Yes, this is my pile of family.

Honestly, though, when I think about it, does it get any better than this?

But still...if you have any suggestions...  :-)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Half-Cat with my Whole Heart


Last Friday we had to say 'goodbye' again.  It really seems like too much.  To have to say goodbye to two dogs and a cat in just two years feels like it's just too fast.  You barely catch your breath from one and you are getting knocked back again by the next. 

But let me tell you the story of Half-Cat.


That was not always her name.  She was a hard one to name.  She kind of came with the house when we bought it 13 years ago.  At the time, we had 7 cats, but we had left them all in the apartment until we could get a little more settled in the house.  I was home alone one day in the new house, and I was feeling a little lonely without my cats by my side, when I saw the cutest little kitten playing outside.  She was playing with something she could see by the light from the kitchen right outside the sliding glass door.  It was January, so it was dark early and very cold.  I had seen this kitten around outside and figured that she was either a stray or had been left behind by the previous owners of the house.  So, I quietly slid open the glass door and the kitty, in her distraction with whatever it was that she was chasing, fell right into the kitchen.  I knew from seeing her before that she was not tame, so rather than try to touch her or call to her and scare her back outside, I quickly flipped a laundry basket over her, trapping her underneath it. 

At the time, I was working at a garden center where there were a lot of stray cats, and the owner had taken it upon herself to trap and spay/neuter all the cats she could.  I helped out a lot with this, so I had some experience with handling feral cats and I also knew a vet who was willing to work with them.  So, with a leather glove on my hand, I carefully transferred the little kitty, (who still had very sharp little teeth and claws!) to a carrier and took her to the vet to be vaccinated and spayed. 

As with most feral cats, the doctor stitched her up with a dissolving glue instead of traditional stitches, so I would not have to bring her back in if I couldn't tame her.  I let her loose in the bathroom to keep an eye on her for the first few days while she healed and to try to get her a little used to me. 

Let's just say that didn't work.

She was so frightened that she scaled the walls and the shower curtain and finally was able to slip out of the bathroom when I was trying to slip in.  This was our only bathroom with a shower, and I was very pregnant with our first, so there was nothing for it but to let her back outside and hope for the best.

Throughout the years she stayed close to home and appeared every evening for her dinner, but never let any of us pet her.  She was named and renamed by the kids that I took care of, but never let anyone near her. 

She was a long haired domestic, so it was so horrible to see her during her shedding months because of course she would not let me brush her at all.  Sometimes her fur would shed in great sheets and it would look like she had a little furry skirt on until it finally caught on something and fell off.

I also felt bad for her on the coldest nights when she would sit outside the door and stick her little nose up under the screen door and snuggle in the warm air that escaped through the crack at the bottom of the door.  She had a warm bed on the porch with a nice blanket in it, and she used that sometimes, but she just couldn't overcome her fear even though you could tell that she really wanted to.

She was so cute, though, when the other cats would come outside.  It was like she was waiting for them and she would run up to them and rub against them and mew her little kitty high-pitched meow.  The other cats seemed to like her, too, and sometimes would all sit snuggled together.

Finally, after many name changes, we ended up with the name Half-Cat.  We somehow settled on that one because she was always only half ours (and usually the hungry half was ours!).  The other half of her was a wild kitty that craved the outdoors and freedom.

On Friday afternoon, my neighbor called to me to come to his yard to see something that 'might belong to me'.  And there was little Half-Cat, curled up under the azalea and bulbs that my neighbor had planted beside his porch.  She looked calm and peaceful and too still, and I knew that she was gone.

I got a towel that she liked and wrapped her in it and Jimmy and I buried her in the back yard under the leland cyprus.  I know she would have liked it there.

It is a strange feeling, losing Half-Cat.  She is such a connection with my past and with my beginning and with my personal growth.  It kind of feels like the ending of an era.  Not so much as I know that it will feel that way when we lose Georgie, Jimmy's favorite feline, but still, it is a loss.  She was such a sweet kitty and we will miss her always being on the stoop waiting for us or running from the neighbors yard when she heard our car pull up even though she knew that she was going to stop just a little short of our outstretched caressing hands. Her friendly presence just always being there will be sorely missed.

But don't worry, Half-Cat.  You can rest easy knowing that you will always have our whole hearts.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Saga of the Clothesline, Part 2

The Saga of the Clothesline
Part dos
(A continuation of the first)

This is not what I had in mind
When I asked my fair prince to find
A solution to my sagging line!
Oh, the trials I encounter all the time!


Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Five Minute Friday

SO, it's not Friday anymore, but that day kinda passed in a blur with Gabriel sick and back to the hospital again, so I think that I will pretend that it is still Friday for a minute and participate in Gypsy Mama's Five Minute Friday anyway.




The Rules?  Write for 5 minutes without editing.

The Topic?  Hard Love

Ready???

GO!

Hmmmm...Hard love.  Is that kinda the same as tough love?  Or strong love?  For me, tough love is when I don't let my oldest (or youngest, for that matter) daughter wear what she wants to wear to school even though she 'needs' to wear it to be 'cool'.  Tough love is when I tell her:  I'm not here to be your friend.  I am here to be your mother.

Hard love would be what I sometimes feel when everyone is out of control and I feel like throwing in the towel and just giving up on tough love and letting the chips fall where they may.  Sometimes it's hard to love tough.

And I also think that hard love is what God's love is for us.  I mean, it must be REALLY hard to love us.  Sometimes I can't believe how I treat Him, and He keeps coming back for me (figuratively, of course.  God never goes anywhere, it is US who stray and return to the fold),.  So that is hard love, too.

And yesterday, on Good Friday, while I sat in the pew at church and I listened to the words of the Bible telling me how it all went down that time long ago, I saw strong love.  Christ's incredibly strong love for us that he died for us...for me!  And even as horrible as the personal pain was to be hung on a cross, He had to suffer so much more...for me.  He had to suffer all my sins on His innocent shoulders and know that His father, God the Father, had to turn His back on Him because he couldn't stand to see all that sin.  Complete abondonment.

That was strong love.

And there's the beeper.  Hmmm...this was a little tougher today.  Let's see what happened...

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Saga of the Clothesline

For some reason I woke up this morning thinking of this and I knew that I had to put it to 'paper' immediately or I would loose it.  Enjoy!

The Saga of the Clothesline

I once had a clothesline
It was very fair
It stood out there regally
Drying my clothes in the air

But then came disaster
One snowy winter past
A tree fell upon it
And broke one fair mast

My husband was asked
To fix it with care
So he went out and fixed it
By suspending it again in air

But as soon as the laundry
Was hung out to dry
Again the injured pole fell
And I just wanted to cry

My laundry was dirty
Down in the mud
My husband's job didn't work
It was a dud

So I pleaded again
My fair prince to revive
This sad state of affairs
My laundry was waiting inside!

My laundry could not dry
In the machine every time
It doesn't smell as good
And it cost a pretty dime!

So a ladder was employed
And the sad post was leaned there
And once again the line
Was up in the air

It swayed dangerously
It creaked and it slipped
But it did the job, I guess
And there my clothes could drip

But there was a problem
With this method, you see
That meant the ladder was being used
for something other than scaling a tree

Or cleaning the gutters
Or entering the attic
And when we needed it
Elizabeth had to stand there and be static

She had to stand there and hold
The poor injured post
Because if it kept falling and standing
All would be lost

It would break off at the bottom
To never stand again
So holding the post Elizabeth stood
In cold or in hot, sun or in rain


She stood there bravely
The poor pole supporting
And she didn't like it
Especially in the morning

The there was the issue
Of cutting the grass
Without a weed eater
That grass did grow fast

And it grew up tall
All around the ladder and pole
And it grew up so high
That it could hide a mole

So my brave husband
This Monday last
Moved the ladder
And cut around that sagging mast

But Elizabeth is in Georgia
And couldn't do her duty
So the old post fell down
It was rusted right through(ty)

And it broke off completely
Right there at ground level
And when I saw my line on the ground
I started to snivel

Because now we are post-less
And the laundry is waiting
Right in the washer
Awaiting its hanging

But there's nowhere to hang
My laundry with care
I cannot suspend it
To dry in the air

So fair prince has been told
If he would like to wear undies
That are so very clean
And not really grungy

That a new post must be found
And installed post-haste
We really do need it
There's not a moment to waste

So we shall see
And I'll keep you posted
On the saga of the clothesline
And if hubby gets toasted

For a job well done
And carried out with care
So my clothes can flap
In the fresh spring air!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Beans, Beans, the Horrible Fruit...

Spring has sprung the grass has ris'
I wonder where them flowers is

The flowers in the ground are stuck
I wonder should we pluck them up!

I think of this little ditty every spring when things are just starting to get green.  My mom used to recite it to me when we used to walk to school together in the early spring.

(The title of the blog is another rhyme we used to say...do you all know that one?)

Anyway, gardening is in full swing around here.  I know that I am supposed to draw plans and keep notes and all, but I haven't done that yet.  If I have a few minutes to either plant my stuff or to make notes, I chose to plant.  I will probably be kicking myself later...

Early Sunday evening, my mother-in-law and I had an impromptu planting session.


Yes, she is using a post hole digger to plant small seedlings.  We cannot for the life of us find the long handled shovel.  How do you lose a whole 5 foot shovel with a red handle?  I have no idea, but somehow, we managed to do it.  What can I say?  We're talented at those kinds of things.

 This one needs a little more dirt around it, but you can see our newspaper pots beginning to be composted!


So this is how it turned out.  At the base of 3 of the ummm....sticks are peas and at the base of the 4th stick is a bean plant.  In the front are 2 jalapeno plants (those are Gramma Uita's...no spicy stuff for me, thank you very much!) and in the empty space in the back is a lonely squash plant.  Our 'trellis' is tied together at the top with an empty mandarin orange bag.  But honestly, I do think it will look really cool when it is covered in peas.  I'll keep you posted.  I actually do not like peas.  The kids love peas and Jimmy will eat them, too, so I planted them.  Whenever I cook them, I make just enough and then put them on everyone's plates and somehow there just is never enough for me, too, and I just have to sacrifice and eat carrots or a salad or something.  Elizabeth has caught on, though, and will often offer me hers to share.  I politely decline and let the poor child eat all her peas by herself.  Oh, the sacrifices one must make as a mother! :-)

(I know that the sticks look a little rough, but let me tell you, they had the possibility of being much rougher.   Those were some branches off of a wild and crazy bush-tree thing that grows in the corner of our property, and it they were all twiggy and a little out of control.  Gramma wanted to leave them that way...in all of their hairy glory, but after looking across at all the neighbors neatly pruned, trimmed and edged lawns, I figured that perhaps we could take a few of the more branchy branches off and just leave a few larger branches on to tame things up again.  Not that I am trying to compete with the Joneses, nor do I really care what other people think, but it is out of respect for the fact that my neighbors and any company they may ever have has to look at our jungle all the time, and I do believe that in the city, there needs to be a respectable limit to our strangeness.)


We also got our 2 blueberries from last year transplanted and the new one that I just got planted in a row of 3 along the front.  Here it is with a few flowers on it already.  We obviously are in desperate need of mulch!


 The other garden on the other side of the porch, which is all we have used in past years, (the stick garden is all new this year) is laid out with tomatoes, green bell peppers, a bush cucumber and a random spare bean plant.



Those got planted today.  Well, some of them did but then Gabriel tried to help a little too much and it got out of hand.  Maybe the rest can get in tomorrow. 





Gabriel also helped Buelo get the grapes planted today.  I have never grown grapes, but Gramma wanted to try them, and so did I, so we put in 2 vines and we'll see what happens.
Gabriel is just so helpful!

Georgie didn't really do much of anything.


Jo got in some play time with the neighbor girl, Sarelly, (I know, it's a horrible picture.  I think the phone rang...)





And then Gabriel sailed away.  When I asked him why he was leaving and where he was going, he called out over his shoulder...

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!




Monday, April 18, 2011

Palm Sunday

There is so much crowding my mind this evening, that I am not sure that I can sort any one thing out to really dig into and write about.

Our Caja de Lamentos is filling up, waiting for Saturday when we can open it up and burn away all of our sins like Christ did on the cross, and my heart is filling up with grace and gratitude for all that I have and all that Christ has done for me and made real to me in these last years.

Elizabeth is gone for a week long trip to visit my family on my father's side in GA, which has been very difficult for us.  Jo and Elizabeth share a bedroom, and Jo really feels Elizabeth's absence.  She is also of the age to be able to ask why 'Izzie' can go with Grandma and Grandpa to Georgia, and she can't.  That is as hard as it is painful to try to explain...so much so that I can not even put it into words here - for which I have filled out many papers to tuck into our Caja this week - and I feel a great sadness for the state of affairs in our family.

Gabriel is cutting about 4 more teeth all at the same time and he got bitten by some kind of something that crawled up his pants leg and bit him a few times so the area is red and swollen, so sleep has been a rare commodity around here.

Jo is out of school this week and because of the rain on Saturday, our business has not yet moved, so she is home all day with us.

Which means that I am dying to sit down with her and work with her on her letters and numbers, which she is so ready and wants to learn, but really, I have to work.  And all that bring me around to how much I want to be home with my kids and home school them here but how that seems to be impossible because I have to work to support the family.  We can't make it on Jimmy's salary alone. 

So I have to ask, where does God want me?  What does he really want me to do?  Does He really want me to be sitting at a desk doing paperwork all day?  Is this what my life amounts to?   Chafing against the bonds that hold me to this job?  It is a good job.  I have a great boss and a wonderful person to work with all day, every day (my husband!).  But I can't seem to settle in to this job and give it my all and commit myself to accepting that this is what I was made to do.

My body hurts from sitting at a desk all day.  My fingers go numb from using the computer and mouse for hours at a time.  It this really what I was made for?

But to end this on a positive note, and to focus my heart and mind back to the things in life that bring me joy and love,

our church's Easter Egg hunt was this past Sunday, Palm Sunday.

Jo was amazed and surprised that she was being encouraged to pick up candy off the ground.  She didn't remember the last egg hunt that was outdoors because last year it was raining, so we did games indoors.





Gabriel started off with the right idea, but then he just started to pick up rocks, sticks, mulch or whatever he wanted and dropping it in the basket only to pick it back out again and throw it on the ground.  He ended up with one half of an egg in his basket by the end, but hey, he had fun and that was what it was all about, anyway!

Gabriel was also very content because his buddy Jordan was there ready to do anything and everything he wanted the whole time.  Can it get any better than this?







Jo had a blast on the playground with her Sunday School friends (and Daddy!), so it was a great time had by all and a lovely afternoon.

Especially since everyone came home and took a nap afterwords!

And after seeing those pictures and writing those words, I feel encouraged and uplifted. 

I hope you do, too!

Oh, by the way...tell me what you think of my new blog design!  (Some of you, (you know who you are!) would be very impressed that I did it all myself...from taking the picture of the grass in the rain, to formatting it and posting it!)

Friday, April 15, 2011

Five Minute Friday

I am participating in Five Minute Friday again over at The Gypsy Mama.




The rules?  Write for 5 minutes without stopping to correct or edit.

Today's topic?  Distance.

Ready?

GO!

Distance is all very relative,  you see
What's far for you may be close for me.

It also depends on the time and day
and how you chose to go your way.

My bed seems impossibly far away
When I have 3 kids to sleep before me at the end of the day

But then I can honestly say with heart
That sometimes people are never far apart

I have friends here and there around the world
In Canada is one very special girl

In France you will find and boy and his baby
And in Russia is a new family in the making

These friends are far apart by miles
But just thinking of them brings on the smiles

They are never far from my heart and mind
And I know that they feel for me in kind

So the distance between us is no big thing
It's just a shout through the heartstrings

So distance can't really be defined
What's far from home is always close in heart and mind

And that is what I have to say
On this five minute Friday!

Whew!  That's it for me...let's look and see what fell from my 'pen' today!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Fresh Greens and Scabbed Knees

Jo likes particular things.  She likes certain forks when she eats.  She likes certain jackets when it's chilly and she likes loves a certain pair of yellow shorts.

I do not know why she loves these shorts, but the sentiment began last summer and she has not yet forgotten about those shorts.  She has been dying to wear her flip-flops and begging every day to wear short sleeved shirts, and a few days ago, when Jimmy told her that it was going to be warm weather the following day, and mentioned the possibility of shorts, she jumped at the chance to ask for her yellow shorts.

That night, when all children should be fast asleep, her curly head popped out of her door to inform me that daddy had told her that she could wear her yellow shorts the following day.

Go to sleep, Jo!  We'll deal with it in the morning.

Jimmy, did you tell her she could wear her yellow shorts tomorrow?  What if they don't fit her anymore?


No, I just said shorts in general were a possibility.

Argh!  I hope they fit!

Yay!  Disaster averted!  The yellow shorts fit!

Speaking of shorts...
Do these really qualify as shorts?  I mean, they are supposed to be shorts, but when your legs are only about 8" long, how much shorter than your short legs can the shorts get?

Either way, it was exciting to be able to be outside in the fresh green grass in shorts...


Except, of course, for the bare little knees that get scraped so easily!  (And yes, these are different shorts.  Do I really have to explain to you why a 1 yr old needed to change his shorts?  Thought not.)  Interestingly enough, though, it was Jo who was more worried about Gabriel's scraped knees than Gabriel was!