I found Jane climbing the stairs with a roll of duck tape and a tube of toothpaste.
Look out world! With fresh breath, the desire to move up and duct tape for any problems that might come her way, this girl will be able to do anything!
*A note for those who worry: No, she wasn’t eating the toothpaste, it was very securely capped. Yes, I checked. No, she can’t get the cap off on her own.*
Today Ivy came home from school and proudly showed me her latest art work. Fortunately for me, and my rusty art history, Ivy also identified it for me as Henri Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy.
I took that as a good sign that not only has she been paying attention in art class but that it was going to be a good evening. Some days Ivy comes home bubbly and expansive with stories to share about school. But some days, tired days, we hear almost nothing.
The bubbly days are fun. We hear about the school drama, So and So “was this close to getting his B flipped!” and sometimes Ivy even shares what sort of skills they are working on in class.
Happily, Ivy had a great evening and shared all sorts with us about her day. In fact, for the rest of the evening she practiced another skill she learned today.
Ivy practiced while playing with Clara, reading books, eating dinner and getting ready for bed. She didn’t even need any encouragement from me to keep working at it.
Yes, tomorrow I’m sure the friend who taught Ivy will be very impressed with just how loudly she can burp on command.
Lately our internet service has been acting like a one year old who dropped her morning nap.
Sometimes it’s all giggles and grins…
… and sometimes it can’t make it through lunch.
Perhaps one day we’ll have reliable internet at home but until then I ask you, to once again, forgive the spotty posting and poor e-mailing – we’ll get it figured out eventually!
A Friday ritual. (Or if the internet is being horrible a Sunday ritual.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember
Anyone who ever looked at a cat and thought: “Now that’s the life!”…
…forgot to factor in children.
A Friday ritual . A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
This morning Jane and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast.
Jane was contemplating the finer points of spoon use as it relates to oatmeal.
I was contemplating falling asleep sitting up as I swilled large amount of hot tea and occasionally ducking for cover when the new spoon user got enthusiastic.
It was shaping up to be a quiet, lazy sort of a morning.
Then Clara came downstairs.
She sat at the table, ate a bite of oatmeal and declared that she was going to wash the floor. I was also informed she was going to need help getting her swimsuit on “cause it might get kinda wet.”
An hour later she was suited up and hard at work.
Jane and I, fully awake a de-oatmealed by this time, left Clara scrubbing and headed out to take care of the chores. By the time we were done outside I had a much cleaner floor!
I wonder, if I feed her eggs tomorrow will it inspire window washing?
Ivy drew me a picture of our Kansas trip at school today.
Normally, ( Now would be the time to skip to the picture if you are an extra sentimental type.) I burn all of her papers when she isn’t looking. (I tried to warn you! Don’t lecture me, my house is small and it’s mostly crap!) But I liked this one, as I told Ivy “We should take a picture of it with you just in case something happens to it!”
Ivy, Jane and I watching the geese fly over the camper.
John says with these kinds of admissions I’ll never get any votes if I run for congress.
Good thing that’s not on my to do list.
Murphy’s Law that is.
Our bird hunting trip to Kansas didn’t go quite as planned…
The weather in Kansas before our trip was in the 50’s, the weather since we’ve been home is in the 30’s. While we were there – highs in the teens with below zero windchills.
The prairie dogs of Prairie Dog State Park did not come out to play.
Tyler and Sarah head out to lay on the frozen goose poop so they can watch the geese laugh at them as they fly over.
The reservoir froze over the night before the boats got there and the duck/goose hunters laid on the ice and watched the birds fly just out of range.
Kids don’t last long outside in temperatures like that. And our plans to explore the park turned into plans to explore the local library.
]We knew that the drought conditions this year meant that pheasant numbers were down. We figured we could make up for that with the ducks, geese (so much for that plan) quail, prairie chicken, and turkey.
Well, I saw two prairie chicken from the truck once and quite a few coveys of quail were unearthed but Murphy really got me in the turkey hunting.
The first day there John who went out hunting with Tyler and his girlfriend Sarah first was very, very nicely able to pick up my hunting license for me. But he didn’t buy me a turkey tag. Bemused but unconcerned I figured I’d buy one next time I was in town. First time I got out Tyler, Sarah and I ran into a giant flock of turkeys and I followed (admittedly somewhat grumpily) as they bailed out of the truck with the dogs. Turkeys flew everywhere, shots were fired, I watched Tyler’s dog (incidentally named Turkey) retrieve a turkey and my dog try to eat a turkey (sorry Sarah, he probably thought it was a really big chicken).
It was exciting!
I went and picked up my tag that night. The only other time I saw turkeys they were running away – safely beyond the Private Property sign. 
Then there was the virus. I don’t think it was the nasty virus that took out an unbelievable number of my family members after Christmas, but something got Clara. Shethrew up in the truck on the ride down, came down with an all night screamer of an earache mid-trip and still (now with the help of antibiotics) is working on recovering.
Below zero temperatures, sick kid, camper – bad combo – dam that Murphy.
And then there were the other things, like when John lost the antenna of my shock collar and then a few days later I accidentally broke his in half. Sarah forgot her shotgun at home. I got sick on the way home and we had a much longer stay at a hotel in Nebraska than we bargained for.
But even though Murphy came out securely on top it wasn’t a bad trip.
Jane was a happy camper and liked working on her dog training.
Ivy and I were able to get out hunting together one afternoon and she quickly turned into an expert pheasant tracker in the snow.
Everyone enjoyed hunting with their dogs. (Especially me!)
And now that I’m home I must say, even a disaster of a hunting trip is better than unpacking the mounds and mounds of stuff that are coming out of our vehicles since we’ve been home!
Yup, disaster of a trip an all I’m already trying to figure out how we can do it again, if we can just figure out a way to beat Murphy…
Happy first birthday Baby Jane!
Jane was happier than it appears in the photo, it’s just that she was already taste testing the frosting that she swiped off the cake!
Behind the Willows 