A Popsicle Day

The only requirement about popsicles in our home is that they are not eaten in our home. Here are the kids on the back porch enjoying wonderful popsicles--except Sinatra--they pawned off the green watermelon flavor that no one likes on Toddler Man. He seemed happy though.

The Spot

There is a spot to the left of our front door that has been an eyesore since the first spring that we lived in this house. The alcove originally had a lovely crepe myrtle in it, but it had grossly outgrown the space so we chopped it to the ground. When we went back to remove the stump we feared that it was wrapped around the waste water drainage pipe, so we didn't rip it out that day.



Fast forward one year: the stump sprouted new shoots that looked ridiculous. I trimmed them throughout the summer and thought about what might look nice there.

Three years: this is getting downright embarrassing. The scrubby spot greets visitors with a friendly, "Hey, neighbor, would you like to add a rusty washer or a car on blocks to complete the look?" Jon pulls out the other shrubs that are growing in our front bed, but resists the urge to yank the myrtle stump because we don't want thousands of dollars in drainage repairs.

Four years: Jon took a shovel and ax and ripped the thing out. The drainage pipe clean out is there, but thank God that the pipe is buried far below Jon's circumference of destruction.

Now we have a beautiful pencil holly that will grow 8'tall and 3'wide--perfect for the spot. Now perhaps people won't look at my front entry and fear seeing the rest of the house.



Pretend that the hose reel isn't broken. That happened the day that we put in the holly. The spot must have been grieving it's Kentucky back woods feel and decided to rebel.

First Day of Summer

A few days ago was the first day of summer. We try to celebrate the turning of the seasons. For fall we bake a pumpkin pie. For winter we have hot chocolate and a movie. We're still working on spring. But for summer we go out for ice cream!!! (or a slushie).



This year we went to Cook Out for fantastic shakes. I got Heath/toffee, two kids picked chocolate cherry, another chose peanut butter cup, and Jon's was the best--peanut butter fudge.

But we couldn't stop there. Next door was Krispy Kreme. The boys came out with 2 dozen donuts--because who can resist the deal when you get the second dozen so much cheaper?!

So after we sugared ourselves up we ordered pizza to top off our healthful day. So goes the first day of summer.

Tomato, Tomahto

Growing up as a military brat with parents from the Midwest, I often wondered what accent I ended up with. (Mom, I tried to resist, but I just had to end that sentence with a preposition). This very quick quiz told me what I'd always suspected: I have a midland accent.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

We, Wee, Oui, Wee-wee, Wii

Gem would tell you it's a homonym (sounds the same, means something different): a group referred to in first person, small, "yes" in French, liquid waste, a video game system. Guess which one is new to our house?

We have a wee Wii (not to be confused with wee-wee: which we also have). Jon came home yesterday with the Wii game system!!! We played bowling and the kids played boxing last night. So much fun. If we connect it to our wi-fi, we can download the original Mario games for free!!! Yea!!! Next we'll have to buy steering wheels and get Mario Cart.

A Miracle

I know that it isn't really a miracle, but the breakthrough feels just as dramatic: Shakespeare is actually picking up books to read them!!! I'm so thrilled that I have a hard time making him stop and do other things--like math, or chores.



Here he is reading a chapter about Joseph in his children's Bible. Earlier he read a book about dragons and (with me) a chapter in a book about Benjamin Franklin.

Reading has been such a struggle for him. A friend advised me to back off rather than push harder. His attitude changed from, "I hate reading." to "I can do this." Now he wants to pick up the books that challenge him.

I knew that he wouldn't still be sounding out words on his wedding day, but part of me had started doubting.

Hitchcock's, "The Dirds"

According to Sinatra . . .

Ice Cream and Swimming

Summer has definitely arrived. We let the kids buy ice cream from the ice cream man and the next day we went to a pool party.


Shakespeare at the water wheels. He spent most of his day on the diving boards.


Sinatra splashing his little friend.


Gem in front of the mushroom/umbrella thing. She also spent most of the day on the diving boards. It's so nice to have two swimming. I don't have to keep up with them all the time.


This was a major breakthrough for Popcorn. He normally balks at getting in the water. The 0-entry pool was just the thing for him. At first, he just got wet up to his knees, but after I took him down the kiddie slide once he was in the water. He even started playing with a group of other boys, doing an obsticle course down the slide and under the mushroom thing and then letting a bucket dump on his head then repeating. What a wonderful pool!!!

Typing

When I was in 4th grade my dad made my brother and me learn how to type. That would have put Mark in Kindergarten. Every day after we came home from school we had to sit in front of our computer and play Typing Tutor for 30 minutes. Dad made us do this until we could type 45wpm and very few mistakes.

We whined about the whole thing, but in the end I liked the payoffs. I was the only kid in 4th grade who was handing in typed papers. But hey, when you can type 45wpm and use spell check, why attempt the hand written stuff?!



In the spirit of keeping up with the Joneses (maiden name), I'm having my kids do 30 minutes of typing a day--20 min. drill and 10 min. games. The games have GREATLY improved since I was 9 years old, but are still drills in disguise. My kids argue over who gets to do typing first. They love it. I guess it helps that I home school. I just make it a subject in school for the summer (year round schooling). They like that it's on the computer and has games. I only wish Math was as popular.

Beach Bums

This past weekend we were beach bums. Forget the hotel and hot water and even electricity--we tent camped at the Cape Hatteras National Park camp sites in the Outer Banks. The pristine beauty that is offered at these beaches is unparallelled on the east coast. There are very few areas that allow development, so between the modest towns and beach houses you find miles of untainted beach with rolling sand dunes. And the lack of development keeps the massive crowds away, making it a wonderful family environment.

Our first two days we spent on Cape Hatteras: camping, swimming and making smores on the beach.



The third day, we took the ferry to Ocracoke Island (only accessible by boat)

and rented a 4X4 so we could drive on the beach and find a secluded spot.
Notice the seculsion.

We also bought a few boogie boards and had great waves thanks to a stiff wind. The two oldest loved the boogie boards (so did Gem and Shakespeare). Popcorn played in the surf, but nothing over his ankles. Sinatra was just happy to scoop sand and chase "dirds".

Here is Shakespeare making his sand castle with moat. As the tide came in he even dug a canal to stave off destruction for a few minutes.


Gem is in her favorite spot--the water.

The only picture of me. Gem took this one of Jon and me with the Ocracoke Lighthouse in the background (far left).

This was our only family shot during the entire trip. The sand dune held the camera for us and wouldn't stop putting its "fingers" over the lens.

Popcorn loves his Diego shirt and his new "hunter" hat.

We ran up the dunes while waiting for the ferry.

Jon with older kids at the Ocracoke lighthouse. I was with a napping Sinatra in the car.

Happy Sinatra with a sandy face.

When we got back to Hatteras the wind was still stiff. We decided to go out to eat instead of trying to grill at the camp site. We went to a wonderful barbecue place and they had the weather channel playing: severe thunderstorms expected by midnight and continuing through noon then next day. Ugg.

When we arrived at the camp site (9pm) we were still debating whether it would be worse to tear down in the dark and drive home or tear down in a storm. I ran down to the site to grab something, but found that our little supply tent had blown away. Also, our big tent had collapsed on the windward side. We had our answer. For the next 45 min. we broke camp in the dark. We rolled out of there at 10 pm (recovered our little tent from the ranger) and arrived at a hotel at 1am. The Holiday Inn Express never looked so go.

Except for the last little episode and the mosquitoes, the vacation was great (not for those who can't stand to rough it) but wonderful for us.