Three dozen is the number of full-sized slicing cucumbers awaiting us upon our arrival home from a visit to my hometown. Even a family of cucumber lovers might be overwhelmed by this number, but not everyone in this family will touch the things and even those of us who like them are getting a bit tired of cucumbers.
I've become one of those crazy neighbors begging everyone to please take a cuke or two. I suppose it was only a matter of time.
A while back, Meredith wrote about saying yes instead of the routine no that moms are often guilty of. So often, I find myself answering every question with no, later, or "Go away kid, you're bothering me." Okay, maybe I don't say that last one, but I think it.
When the girls came and asked if they could have a tea party, I bit my tongue and said, "Yes!" We got out the tea pot. Made cucumber sandwiches, peppermint tea and set out some fruit and slices of plum bread and had ourselves a tea party. I even got out my hats for the girls.
And the world didn't end for me. I spent time with my kidlets and had fun. I need to say yes more often.
In the Biblical parable, we are told of the seeds that fall in different locations and what happens to them. Of course, there is a deeper meaning to this passage, but for a purely visual image of the seed grown in good soil, I present to you a volunteer sunflower growing in the spot where our compost bin once stood.
This is also evidence of how much it pays to know your seedlings. When this and a companion sunflower (blown over in a windstorm) as well as several tomato plants sprouted out of the compost bin's soil, I could have yanked them. But I knew fairly quickly what they were and let them grow. Now I have beauty and tomatoes. Yay!
(Please ignore the tall weeds, brick pile and rotting fascia as best you can.)
For the past month or so, I've been engaged in an experiment. Since my children operate under a "No Light Turned Off" policy, I thought it might be a good time to try reducing our electricity use some place else. It's hot. It's sunny. I've been drying the clothes outside.
I don't have a clothes line and I only have one medium sized drying rack, so I usually have to press the patio furniture into service, but it gets the job done.
Although hanging the clothes outside isn't as fast and easy as throwing in the dryer it has been useful. I've caught several stains that didn't wash out the first time through that would have been permanently set by the dryer. The wrinkles on clothes are also vastly reduced, so that we don't look quite so much like a bunch of ragamuffins.
Sadly, what wasn't reduced was our overall electricity usage. It was slightly higher than this time last year. I suppose to look on the bright side though, just imagine how much even higher it would have been if I'd been using the dryer.
This is what I found by the front door the other day. I can only imagine the conversation in his head...
"I have a hammer and now I can destroy any...thing...I...want...right...after...I...lay...my...head...
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
It seemed inevitable that we would eventually need one of these. No, this isn't an announcement of impending Adams #6. However, the kids we do have fill every seat in a small minivan and they keep growing bigger. The minivan keeps adding on more and more expensive problems. So every once in a while, I browsed Craigslist, just to see what was out there.
The other day I ran across an ad not far from Nashville for something I'd heard about in van legends, but wasn't really sure existed -- the mythical double side door van. So, even though it was white and looked like a cargo van. And even though we don't need it at present, I dispatched my gallant knight to take a look at it.
If you have to buy a used car, buy it from a car fanatic. This van has lived all its life in a garage. He had special options and upgraded wheels put on it. The poor van is going to go from being the prized baby to workhorse. We have no garage (that will fit it or that we use for cars, being in the backyard and unreachable by driveway) and it will go from carrying two excessively neat adults, to 5 slobby children and their not that much better parents.
It's roomy and clean and my kids are very happy with the new seating arrangements, but it is going to take some time for me to get used to driving such a huge thing. I've never driven any kind of truck before and that's exactly what this is -- a large truck.
So give me a wide berth on the road for a while, but I can drive a lot more kidlets around now.
Posts
All Comments
