Country Living

Living in the country has it's perks.  It is quiet and peaceful.  There is plenty of space to play and lots of wildlife to enjoy.

Unfortunately, this time of year it has it's drawbacks.

Time to play in the back yard, boys.  Or get on your blaze orange.  Or just come inside during hunting season.  Yikes!

There's Nothing Like HOT CROSS BUNS!

Fall Leaves

Ahhh Fall! 

Multi-colored leaves.

A crisp breeze.

Free labor  kids who need to get out of the house 

for fresh air and exercise.

Remember when you were a kid and your Mom and Dad would hand you a battered old rake and send you to the yard to tackle the leaves blanketing the lawn?  We used to spend hours raking, forming blisters that would break and ooze on our pudgy little hands, as we made enormous piles.  We'd jump in the damp leaf piles and then have to rake all over again so we could fill the black plastic bags.  Then, carefully, we'd drag the bags all the way to the road, trying so hard not to tear a hole in them as we went.  If we were lucky we got a quarter for each bag. Sweaty, sore, and smelling like musty autumn leaves, we'd collapse on the floor in the family room.

So where did I go wrong as a parent?

Chin Up Buckaroo!

Stud Boy?

Stud Boy?

 Stud Boy!

While playing HARD CORE FULL CONTACT FOOTBALL, no wait...while playing ICE HOCKEY WITH 20 SOMETHING PUNKS, no wait... maybe it was a game of TAG in gym class...yup, that's it, TAG, Stud Boy got hit in the chin so hard the ER doctors were convinced he broke his jaw. Since the boy is a Stud, he didn't even feel the need to lie about how he really got the injury.  I would have at least embellished.  But whatever! 

The gory details included a laceration on the inside of his lower gum that was larger than a half dollar, opened to the muscle and took 12 stitches to close up.

Stud Boy may have a future in Hollywood, once he can open his mouth to smile, eat, speak... 

Poor Stud Boy! 

A Good Book

 

I cleaned the house on Sunday.  I was in the mudroom when I came across this ginormous spider I am sure was a tarantula.  It was in the recycle bin next to the empty water bottles.

As a child I was very fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful books.  My mother was a teacher and would read to us every night.  My father built a beautiful book case and it was at the top of the stairs filled with award winning children's books.  One of them was called, "Be Nice To Spiders" by Margaret Bloy Graham, published in 1967.  It was about a little spider left on the steps of a zoo by a boy who couldn't keep her anymore.  Helen, the spider, went from being loathed to being loved in the span of 30 pages after eating up all the flies at the zoo, making it a peaceful place.  It is because of this wonderful book that I took the hairy, man-eating tarantula outside very carefully to live in our back yard, instead of in our mudroom.

Another favorite book of mine was "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary, published in 1965.  The mouse, Ralph, lives in a hotel and rides around on a boy's toy motorcycle. Ralph saves the day by getting medicine for the boy.  A real hero, this mouse Ralph.

Today I sat in the living room working at my computer.  This came out from behind the couch.

I immediately called the hubby at work and told him to come home with this:



 and this:

If you are looking for me tonight, I will be here:

Reading this:

Career Choices

This is a picture of Stud Boy and his beautiful cousin at a College Visit.   We have spent a number of weekends visiting area colleges to decide where these High School seniors would like to apply.  Beautiful Cousin is considering a career in marketing.  Nice!

Stud Boy is undecided.  You know, that's okay...at 17, how do you know what you really want to do with the rest of  your life?

At 9, you know.  Thing One wants to be a Professional Football Player and Thing Two wants to be an Artist.  I know what you are thinking....you hope I have a pretty big nest egg and long term health care insurance that will pay for a decent nursing home and life time supply of Depends since the odds of those two supporting me in my old age is slim to none.

So the responsibility, as it should be, falls to the one and only daughter.  In this case, Darling Daughter.  When the discussion around the kitchen table is what major Stud Boy is leaning towards, Darling Daughter pipes in that she will be going to college and studying Mythology.  She plans on being a Mythologist.  Great!  I'm sure there is a high demand for that job and it earns a great living!  I'm hoping she can get a job at snopes.com.

I think I better start playing the lottery.

Did you?