Why I Love Great Big Sea

Dec23

After a crabby sort of an afternoon and evening I am positively cheerful. John is home for FIVE whole days. He brought Makers Mark with him and we watched my new Great Big Sea DVD tonight (thank you Laura and Happy Birthday!). In case you are sadly uninformed of the wonderfulness of the band Great Big Sea, their website can be found here .

My top ten reasons I love Great Big Sea.

1) Their songs involve words like, cheese, gypsum, and shebang.

2) They have two songs about horses falling through the ice.

3) They play the bodhran, bouzouki, fiddle, tin whistles and banjo.

4) Once I heard them sing acapella with no microphones, (the cheese song no less) awesome.

5) They make mildly inappropriate jokes thorough out their concert while bouncing, dancing and smiling. I should know, I have seen them in concert eight times.

Should I be admitting something like that?

6) Facial expressions, it’s all about the facial expressions.

7) The drummer can also play the piano accordion and sing U2 songs

8) Their music inspires dancing, bouncing, clapping and happiness. Despite the fact that I am so musically uninclined that I can not clap along, (pathetic but true) I love it.

9) Ivy has renamed River Driver “the food song”. My singing range is small, I can sing (OK I can try to sing, it’s not always good) some of their songs, this was her lullaby when she was a baby. She may be scarred for life, only time will tell.

Should I be admitting something like that?

10) “From the tropical island of Newfoundland” it’s Great Big Sea. Go listen and be happy.

The Rest Of Life

Dec20

As much as I love the Christmas season, cookies and all, it does have a tendency to push the rest of life aside. Spending evenings making toys for the girls, writing Christmas letters, baking cookies, it’s all part of the joy of the season (to get all sappy about it) but it really puts a crimp in the rest of life. Who wants to sit and pay bills when there are cookies to be baked? Take the dog for a run when there are presents to be made, ordered and wrapped? Rip out the old carpet when you could be reading Christmas books with your kids in front of the fire? A few days ago we did not move a workshop from one outbuilding to another through eight inches of snow, instead we trimmed our tree.

Through the years we have struggled where exactly to put a Christmas tree in our little house. When the dog requires a love seat for a dog bed (you think I’m exaggerating with the “requires” but I’m not, she is unbearable without her couch) and the house is small there just isn’t a way to put up a tree without some major rearranging. Some years we’ve put furniture out into the barn, sometimes we’ve moved things upstairs and one year I put the tree in the kitchen and moved the kitchen table into the living room. This is something that I’m afraid fell under the “my wife is a crackpot” category in John’s mind but I thought worked out just fine.

This year we’ve tucked our little, lopsided, and very tipsy tree in the corner of the living room opposite the wood stove. Then we tied it to the wall and left all the good ornaments off. Between Clara and the tipsiness I still fear for the ones we did hang! It looks very cute there, and full of character. Lots of character is what happens when you choose and cut down a tree at night with no flashlight, but I digress… This year while preparing to put up the tree I did what I’ve done with the rest of life this season, I shoved it aside. In this case the rest of life was a couch, two recliners, a stereo, the biggest speakers that ever inhabited this size house, a sewing machine, a chest of sewing supplies, a bin of toys, a basket of magazines, a tub of Christmas lights and a partridge in a pear tree. I actually took a picture of what my living room looked like and then decided not to post it, it was that bad. While sometimes I have a little trouble letting the rest of life slide during the holidays I had no problem sitting in my chair looking at my tree, ignoring the mess around me and just enjoying the season for a few days. Either that speaks of my love of the holiday or my hatred of house keeping, I’m not sure which one. It wasn’t until tonight when I got tired of “taking the long way” through the living room to get to the office door that I finally pushed and pulled and rearranged things into something a bit more practical.

Now that I can walk through my house I’m going to enjoy my holidays and continue to ignore the rest of life waiting in the wings. There will be plenty of time afterward to come up with plans for those projects that will land me back in the “my wife is a crackpot” category. For instance I’m thinking we’ll use sleds to move the workshop through the snow… but not until January!

Yum! Yum!

Dec18

In the middle of lunch today Ivy stood up on her chair, opened her eyes as wide as they would go, smiled her biggest smile, and threw her arms up and down expressively as she said:

“Mom! Clara is learning to talk!!! She said: ‘Yum! Yum!’!”

The only thing better than watching Clara grow is seeing Ivy’s joy in it.

In addition to saying “yum, yum” she and Ivy went sledding by themselves today.

They lasted about ten minutes and nobody ran into anything.

The morning was a success.

Until Clara fell and chipped her tooth, that sort of put a damper on the fun.

The last toothy grin!

Have a Little Patience!

Dec14

At John’s family Christmas last Sunday there was short conversation about how Ivy is of that amazing age where she soaks up information, retains it and then actual feeds it back at appropriate times. My contribution to the discussion was that while it is amazing to watch her learn and grow, all this intelligence and parroting has it’s drawbacks! Truly it’s not the information that is the trouble, I watch and wonder at that part of her growth with the best of the sappy-amazed-that-my-kid-is-clearly-the-smartest-kid-ever-parents. It’s the phrases of mine she has picked up that I take issue with. I mean really if she’s going to copy things I say she could at least make me look like the nice, kind, patient mother that I am…

Most often heard? “Settle down Mom, settle down.” This is also the one that makes friends and relatives laugh the hardest who hear it… it’s not that funny, trust me!

Yesterday when getting her sister a drink of water I heard: “I’m workin’ on it Clara, I’m workin’ on it.” Which is something I realized I say all the time after I heard Ivy say it to Clara. Unfortunately, I’m fairly certain it’s much cuter when Ivy says it since she’s lacking the whole harassed mother persona.

Also yesterday Ivy “Ya wanna-ed” me. I have a bad habit of saying things like, “Hey, ya wanna come put away your toys?” “Ya wanna put away silverware?” “Ya wanna let me comb your hair?” Why do I ask questions when I know the answer will be no? Why is my grammar so terrible? It’s a bad habit, I’m workin’ on it. Ivy is helping me: “Hey Mom! Ya wanna wipe my poop?” Yup, new years resolution, I’m striking “ya wanna” from my vocabulary!

John and I are not immune to accidentally letting loose a bit of foul language in front of Ivy. So far we have escaped having to deal with the consequences of that except for, “DUMB IT!” Which I’m certain is her interpretation of John yelling “Damn it!” (Definitely John’s fault. I have other choice words) Since she’s not actually swearing, we are going with not making a big deal of it, letting it slide and trying not to laugh.

Then of course there is the line about needing to have patience. I think that phrase comes standard with the whole mother thing. Congratulations here’s your baby, let me check your car seat and don’t forget to take your “have a little patience.” But tonight, tonight, Ivy humbled me with her patience. Waiting for John to get home (with dinner) I was getting grumpy (as was Clara, we like to eat on time, dumb it!) I grumbled something about John being late within Ivy’s hearing. Ivy pipes up with: “You just need to have a little more patience Mom! Here you can have some of mine.” she says as she hands me a pocket full of imaginary patience.

The moral of this story? Be careful what you say, or your three year old may tell you – Ya wanna settle down!? I’m workin’ on it, dumb it! Just have a little patience!- and true or not, that’s not something a mother wants to hear!

“Oh…

Dec13

…the weather outside is frightful(ly cold),

but the fire is so delightful(ly hot),

So, since we’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

Sledding…

Dec10

…it’s all fun and games…

…until you run into a trailer hitch.

‘Tis the Season

Dec9

I think I missed the memo that it’s December, and that Christmas is essentially two weeks away.

I must have been in Kansas when it went out.

Even though it snuck up on me I am excited the holiday season is here, I love it: The cookies, and the family, and the driving, and the snow, and the cookies, and the gift giving, and the Christmas trees, and the cookies, and the kids on Christmas morning, and the family dinner in Pewaukee (this will be 98 years at the same table!), and the cookies- I love it all. And since I’m all adult-like and I get to pick out and buy presents for my family I have found that I enjoy that far more than you would think from someone who has never, ever, been a shopper.

So, now that I have received my belated memo every day I don’t have something planned I think about how I should go take the girls and make a trek out into the world of stores and shiny items to pick up some gifts. Then the Christmas spirit starts to wane as I mentally plan my day. My thoughts go something like this:

It’ll be best if I can leave the house as soon as possible to get back as soon as possible. Earliest the kids get up at 7 and it takes us a good hour and a half to dress, eat and do chores. That’s right about when Clara is ready to take a nap. We can skip the nap this morning, she’ll be OK so long as we are doing things. Of course skipping the nap does result in a high probability that a melt down will occur in some public place, most likely when I’m trying to pay. This will no doubt happen just as Ivy is trying to put extra items from those evil displays at the register on to our pile. It is hard to carry the two girls both throwing fits bodily to the car as well as a shopping bag, but I can do it if I have to. Then even if we make it back on the road tear free I’ll have to try to get Clara home before she falls asleep. If I feed her something half way home that should keep her awake until we get home, but will likely mean a McDonald’s stop. Then I might be able to get her into the house for a nap, but since she’ll be overtired we are looking at an hour napping max (don’t ask me why, that’s just how it works). Or she’ll fall asleep in the car and wake up when we get home, hungry and really cranky. Meanwhile Ivy will likewise be hungry and in need of a “rest” but protesting it all the while. Wound up from being in the car too long yet still tired in the afternoon, that’s a guaranteed recipe for an afternoon “rest” struggle. By the time I get done attempting to get them to sleep (and possibly feeding them) it’ll be time to make something for dinner to make up for the fast food consumed for lunch. Most likely I will have to do that with two cranky kids hanging off of me. John probably won’t be home in time to help (end of the year push at work and all that) and by the time I get them into bed I’ll be hating everyone and have lost the whole Christmas spirit thing entirely…

Do I even need to mention that I have yet to attempt the shopping thing?

It’s funny how that sort of scenario seems worth a try when going grouse hunting, yet completely unmanageable if shopping is involved.

I think instead I’ll be using nap time and the power of the internet to do a bit of online shopping.

Now I’ve just got to cross my fingers that my satellite connection doesn’t go down in the snow that just started…

Ivy’s Favorite Things

Dec8

Sometimes when trying to distract Ivy I ask her a million “What’s your favorite…” questions.

I feel it evens us out a bit on the question asking.

Here is our last question and answer session.

What is your favorite…

Color- Pink

Animal – Ponies and Horses (Don’t try to make her pick just one or she’ll get mad at you!)

Food – Bananas and Apples (really? really?)

Clothes- Dresses and Skirts (Bananas and dresses, how does this happen???)

Dog – Piper

Cat – Fiona

Person -Mom

Thing to do – Picking flowers and raspberries and blueberries (She’s never picked blueberries, but she has picked and delivered at least three bunches of imaginary flowers today.)

Thing to do inside -just play

Chore- baby chicks

Time of day – night time (Odd since night time and bedtime are usually linked in her mind but I’ll go with it.)

Place to go -park

Thing to do at the park – go on the slides

Book – Elephants Child

Thing to do with Clara -wrestle (Yes, unfortunately it is. If Clara could talk I doubt she would answer the same.)

Friend -Natalie and horses…Natalie (Go Natalie, you got a billing above horses!)

Uncle -Tyler (actually this was me saying “What’s your favorite..” and she said “Uncle! Tyler!”)

Meal – Macaroni

Movie -Xialin showdown (Which I suspect she hasn’t seen in about a year and never requests to watch, but really, what do I know!)

To do in the car- (After lots of thinking…) play with horses and ponies

There you have it, Ivy’s favorite things of the moment.

She changes her answers often.

This is good.

It gives me hope that wrestling and bananas could be on their way out!

Jarring?

Dec5

Why do we call the process of preserving food in jars canning?

Why not jarring?

These are the questions Tyler and I asked each other in our canning delirum at one in the morning.

IMGP5962

The weekend was planned as a venison canning weekend. And it was. The last of the 64 pints are in the canner as I type.

Of course had we not found so many other things to do we’d be done already and we’d have skipped the delirium last night.

But where’s the fun in that?

The first set back in the canning progress was that Sarah and I have never been brillant about rationing time spent together. That history is a whole post that involves two countries, too much Diet Coke and a lot of tears, so I won’t go into it here. I’ll just say we saw each other, it was fun, and I probably should have been canning.

Then after staying up canning until delirium set in last night Tyler took me grouse hunting this morning.

I recommend hunting with Tyler.

Today he was my guide/Sherpa/driver/child sitter/dog handler.

While I did see a grouse and lots of track this morning I didn’t get a shot off , but I’ll forgive my guide/Sherpa/driver/child sitter/dog handler, he had his hands full.

Toe Jam

Dec3

Tyler and I both have a tendency to come down with athletes foot.

I have taken the prevention route by never wearing socks and shoes.

This is a technique that earns me odd looks, smart alec comments, and cold toes in December but prevents the problem outright.

Tyler wears steel-toed boots all day.

He is far beyond prevention.

Tonight I found out Tyler’s most effective cure for his athletes foot. It was a cure I found to be disturbing, disgusting and frankly down right fascinating. Tonight I watched his dog Turk lick every little crevice of Tyler’s feet and then chew off anything that wouldn’t lick off.

I hate licking dogs.

I really really do. The licking, the repetitive slurping noise, the fact that dogs seem to do it most often in quiet house late at night. Just thinking about it makes me want to yell at a dog. YEECH!

Take a licking dog and add to that Tyler’s feet, (Which I will not describe because this post already includes more information about either of our feet than anyone wanted to know, but I will point out that his athletes foot is bad enough to welcome Turks treatment!) and I was squirming as I watched in horror and fascination the treatment Tyler’s feet were getting.