Garbage Can

"Best part of today was riding in the garbage can."

Yes, that came out of my kid's mouth tonight.

I was tucking Elsa in bed when

she offered up that little gem completely unprompted.

Many nights I ask the kids what their very favorite parts of the day had been.

I'm often surprised by their answers.

Tonight I was snuggled in Elsa's bed with her when she shared that little nugget all on her own.

This evening the kids discovered a brand new garbage can we have for hauling our glass to the street for recycling.

They decided it would be perfect for a little joy ride around the yard.

They even fought over who got to ride in it.

Elsa had the longest ride of all although it was super cold outside and I didn't want to stand out there long enough to capture it on camera...

Leprechaun House

One gloomy day after spending entirely too much time on Pinterest,

filling my head full of images of unrealistic, idyllic images I had a bright idea...

build a leprechaun house!

It'll be so fun!

We can scavenge items from the three acres of woods we live on.

We have lots of bark and moss and sweet little twigs and little ferns and pebbles!

We'll get fresh air

explore our property

and have some good old fashioned teamwork!

Ha!

We walked the woods

we tried to scavenge.

But I was foggy headed and weary with the gathering of boots

and rain coats

by the time we headed out the door that all I could muster was a silly photo of the kids in front of the cows.

Cows they were far too entertained by, watching them pee and poop.

And trying to check out if the lady in the back was about to have a baby.

I think she was...

Carl's head was filled with properly measured and cut and framed up little structures.

I can't blame him.

He's watched his daddy build everything perfectly his whole entire life.

My head was filled with lovely little Pinterest images such as this:

Later I showed Carl pictures of what I was envisioning.

And I've must have decided he wanted to try it out.

The next weekend we had one of the most vivid rainbows touch down in our neighbors field.

The boys caught sight of it before I did.

All I saw was Carl running

then Charlie running after him,

wearing my boots.

I headed out the door to chastise Charlie for tromping off in my boots when I caught sight of this beautiful, beautiful rainbow.

I couldn't get mad at Charlie for throwing on the first pair of shoes in sight in his effort to reach that rainbow before it disappeared.

Heck I was afraid I couldn't get a photo fast enough before it disappeared.

And those boys had a pot of gold at stake!

That rainbow renewed their drive to build a leprechaun house.

This time we found all the right materials.

We weren't even distracted by rivers of cow urine.

Mark cut up a fence board for us to lean together for our cobbled little house.

Carl went with him.

Mark was kind enough to decide to just build a properly constructed little house nailed together with a door and all.

But wise little Carl reminded Mark that it wouldn't be their house if he built it for them.

So, we worked together to put together a homey little shelter for any little leprechauns wandering through.

It's not as picturesque as what I saw in Pinterest

But it has lovely bark, soft and vibrant green moss, a little rock fire put, little rounds cut from apple branches for stairs and a walkway, and a little leprechaun trap baited with pennies in the hopes we can catch a lost little leprechaun willing to grant us three wishes.

Charlie kept saying, "Mom you gotta put this in Pinterest!  Lots of people are going to heart it!"

A painful reminder that I do spend a little (ok a lot) of time on Pinterest.  Perhaps too much.

Bald Little Heads

I've shared before that a little girl dear to our hearts is battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)-and kicking it's a*# I must say.

After a rough start (over half of the school year) she's returned to her regular class.

When we were talking with Carl about how he might be able to help her feel better about coming back, we talked about shaving his head so she wouldn't be the only smooth little noggin in the class.

He thought about it for days.

And he made sure that it would grow back

before he decided that was what he really wanted to do.

It was pretty amazing.

His teacher and a few buddies shaved their heads in class fresh for our little friends return.

Charlie was adamantly opposed.

He was worried that his brother would remain permanently bald.

As Mark was shaving away,

Charlie lamented from the corner that he would be hideous, creepy.

But he isn't.

He started with a mohawk, just for fun.

And now his fresh bald little head.

And the kicker, is that Charlie requested to go bald too.

Bald IS beautiful!

Last night we shaved Charlie's hair off.

I'll try to get a picture of the two together tonight to add here.

It feels nice to know that your kids truly care about others.

That they take a moment to put themselves in others shoes, and try to consider what might help them to feel better.

Our little friend's parents will be participating in the Big Climb in Seattle March 24th.  Sam's team is in the top 10 for fundraising- Team Sam I Am, if anyone is able to add to that donation I know all families battling blood cancers would appreciate it.

One More Crazy Mama Event To Share

Maybe I should blog more of my good days than my bad...

But this mix up was too classic for me not to share.

Actually it happened a couple of weeks ago, and I'd even forgotten about it until I was talking to my mom and she didn't know the story.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email reminder that I was scheduled to usher for Olympia Junior Programs.

OJP has been around at least since I was a kid.

It was something I looked forward to every year.

Kids dress up and ride school buses downtown to the Washington Center for Performing Arts (we went to the Capitol Theater then WA Center in the olden days).

And then the kids get to see live theater.

It's fantastic and so wonderfully inspiring for those kids to experience cultural arts in this form.

Any way...

I make sure that I'm ready and have everything set so I can volunteer.

I get downtown and park in time.

Go through the mandatory orientation (no matter how many times you've volunteered).

I lead my bus to their seats.

Then I start looking for Carl.

Not seeing his class, I lean to another mom and whisper, "I don't see Carl's class."

She looked at me and said, "This is 4th and 5th graders.  He's not here."

Duh.

No wonder he looked at me funny in the morning when I told him I'd see him at Junior Programs that afternoon.

He wasn't even there!

Since that mom had disclosed that she hadn't signed in yet, I whispered back, "Your name is Jennifer, you're leading bus #4.  I'm out of here."

And I got to go out to lunch with my husband.

What an absolute dig-bat.

Today is the real OJP day.

I get to volunteer for both boys since first through third graders are going to see Br er Rabbit today.

I hope they let me volunteer with a boot on my foot...

The Boot

Yesterday was interesting.

Almost exactly a year ago I went to the podiatrist because my foot hurt.

Turned out it was an inflamed little bone under the ball of my foot.

I was fitted for orthotics and have been wearing them when my body has allowed me to run.

Which ramped up this spring.

I was doing well, running up to 10 miles a week.

Then that darn spot started hurting again on my foot.

And really, I'm such a space cadet I didn't clearly recall when or why my foot had hurt a year previously until I was sitting in  the exam room with the dr.

She took some x-rays of my foot again.

Lucky me, that silly little bone under the ball of my foot was snapped in half.

I have no idea exactly when it happened.  I just knew that my foot started hurting after a run and the 2 weeks of rest I tried didn't entirely make it go away.

So now I get to wear this boot for the next 4-6 weeks.

I'm just waiting for my klutzy self to tumble down the stairs trying to navigate them in this thing.

Want to know the kicker of yesterday, post boot?

I noticed I'd been wearing my underwear inside out all day long.

So, be warned...  Inside out undies just might lead to having to wear a darn boot forever!

The up side, is that the kids have been over-the-top helpful.

What is it they say about developing habits?

It takes 28 days?

Looks like I've got exactly that to train those little munchkins to pick up their own s#@*!

Happy Friday all!