Category - Family Life

Well, here it is, the end of winter.  I love winter!  Cold and snow, hot chocolate, warm soup, down blankets and flannel sheets.  As much as I love winter, I dislike summer.  Hot, sticky and full of bugs that bite.  Blech!  And spring makes me nervous with all the violent thunderstorms and tornado watches.  This all means that from now until late September, I’m going to be crabby.  You’ve been warned.

So let us look back fondly at winter and bid it a fond farewell.  Ah winter, I hardly knew ye.

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Well, I’m back.  All of my blog posts from my original homeschoolblogger site have been moved over to this one.  I’ll spare you the technical details, but it took a bit of work to get them here.  I’m working on getting the pictures loaded up here on Typepad, instead of being hosted at Photo Bucket, too, but it’s not a high priority.  So all of you reading on a feed reader may still see an occasional "update" to an old post come through.  Go ahead and skip it, you probably won’t notice anything new.  Or read it if you have time.  You may find something noteworthy.  I’ve had a great time rereading some of those old posts.  This one – Random Thoughts for A Friday -had me nearly in tears laughing at my children.

My new blog look is in the works and I have to say I’m very excited.  I won’t say anything more so I don’t spoil the surprise, but the suspense is killing me!

Our weekend was a productive one, again.  Our Kinkade painting arrived from Disneyland and we hung it up promptly.

Bip likes to climb up on the couch and sing to it, in that sweet, nonsensical baby way.  I ask him if he wants to go back to Disneyland and he nods.  Love that little guy!

We did some work in the bedroom.  We unpacked 2 boxes and put up these bookshelves.

And hung up this guy (that’s a doll in the bed, not a baby!):

Boo went to shoot arrows with his best friend.  His buddy’s family was off for a little archery practice and invited Boo and Phil to go along.  Boo could hardly contain himself!  I don’t have any pictures to share since I didn’t think to send along the camera, but I’m told it was a lot of fun.

Pumpkin Girl got a chance to ride her new bike around our cul-de-sac. 

Bip rode "Cappie".

One thing that I like better in our new location is living at the end of a cul-de-sac.  And there is only one set of houses here, so there’s never any cars.

Finally, I got a chance to attend Brownie leader training.  Yay!  Actually, it wasn’t that bad.  I went with a friend who will be the co-leader with me and I let her drive.  We got there too early and were drafted to put together a color guard and do a flag ceremony.  Now, I used to be a Civil Air Patrol Cadet.  I was even in the color guard.  We had uniforms,flag harnesses, ladder-laced boots with white laces and snappy salutes. Sometimes we even had wooden rifles.  You know, to guard the flag. But this time, I felt like a big Dorkus Malorkus carrying in a tiny flag on a stick and holding it while everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance.  Fortunately, I was flanked by my peeps who shared with me the dorkiness of this quasi-solemn moment.  I hate being "volunteered."

Here’s a picture of me as a cadet in the color guard.  I’m the one holding the waving blue flag.

I was further annoyed when I realized that I was getting a headache because I had forgotten to eat lunch!  Fortunately, I had packed Luna bars and there was vending machine.  All in all, it wasn’t a bad day.  Didn’t learn anything too earth shattering, but now I’ve been "read on", as we say in the Army, to Brownies.

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It’s laundry day in the Little Army House and I am still at a loss for interesting things to blog about.  I suppose I could wax poetic about my laundry system, but then again, maybe not.  I do have a few questions that were posed to me, either in comments or in emails.  I think I’ll answer one of those today and spare you once again from my laundry.  Next week: Lorri Makes a Grocery List.

My lone comment to my Babies! post was from my maternal Grandmother, or as we call her, Grandma Honey.  She asks, "Where is Pumpkin?"

Pumpkin is our beloved family doll.  As my mother is fond of saying, "She’s almost as old as Lorri!" My mother says this about just about everything. In this case, it’s true.  Pumpkin first belonged to my aunt Mary.  The story goes that when I was born, my then-5-year-old aunt got Pumpkin.  Pumpkin can only be described as lovable.  She’s about the size of a 6 month old baby and has been known to dress in the outgrown clothes of the family’s most recent baby.  Let me state for the record that Pumpkin never belonged to me.  At no time did I ever inflict damage to Pumpkin. 

I clearly remember Pumpkin and all her clothes living in a little red suitcase.  I assume she resided there for a number of years after Aunt Mary outgrew her, until my cousins – grandchildren 2 and 3, arrived.  Pumpkin then lived with them until coming into the possession of my family.

When my oldest was a toddler, he had a love of all babies. I thought he might like a baby of us own, so I asked about Pumpkin and she was tracked down, a little worse for the wear.  We let her come to live with us anyway and Boo was delighted to have his very own baby.  Pumpkin’s neck no longer held enough stuffing to hold up her head and someone (please note, it wasn’t me!) had chewed on her fingers.  I was also not the one who tried to pierce her ears.  Turns out, Pumpkin is a Madame Alexander doll and I researched the Madame Alexander doll hospital in New York City, hoping to send her off for some cosmetic surgery.  My timing being impecable, I was all ready to send her off in October of 2001, only to find that the doll hospital was closed until the next year.  A result of September 11?  I may never know.  But we were finally able to send her off the next Spring.

Pumpkin returned with a newly plump body, a new crying mechanism (I never knew she cried when you tilted her!) and brand new hands. 

Since then, Pumpkin has traveled the world with us and now lives happily with Pumpkin Girl (our oldest daughter) and her collection of well loved baby dolls.

Above: Pumpkin, Sunshine, Amy, Honey,  Snowflake (on Honey’s lap),  Star, Pumpkin Girl,Kitty (on PG’s lap).  Doesn’t she come up with great names for her dolls?

I’ve got two more pictures of Pumpkin that I’m trying to track down.  Watch this space, I’ll have them here later today.

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It’s snowing again.

I had to drive in it to take the children to Sunday School this morning. Driving in the snow is not normally a big deal, except that I grew up here:

Beautiful, sunny Santa Barbara, where snow is something you drive to, enjoy for a day or a week, then drive home.

I’m not complaining, though. I love snow! The more snow the better!

However, today I also had to shovel snow. About 4 inches of it to dig our cars out. Poor Philip hurt his back about 10 years ago and he hasn’t been the same since. He’s been walking around in pain ever since he shoveled ice out of our driveway last week. I insisted that my arms (and back) were strong and that I would be happy to shovel us out. Plus it makes good blog fodder.

And one last picture for you. This is looking out our front door. A lamppost in the snow. I half expected to see Mr. Tumnus coming home from shopping at the commissary.

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“The wonderful thing about brothers and sisters are
Sisters and brothers are wonderful things.
The thing we love about brothers and sisters is…
Just about everything!”*

The other day I heard Pumpkin Girl say, “Boo-oo-wa.” To get a full appreciation of what this sounds like, you have to remember that she is 6 years old and angry with her older brother. It’s sort of a half-whining sound and has three distinct syllables. (Ok, as she’s reading this over my shoulder, she wants to say it’s more of a quiet “wa.”)

So “Boo-oo-wa!,” she says. “Stop giving me the Big Eye. ”

I looked up from what I was doing. “Honey, what in the world is the ‘Big Eye’?”

“It’s when he looks at me like this,” and she proceeds to scrunch up her pretty face into something both comical and menacing at the same time. “It annoys me,” she added.

My children make me laugh, each one of them on their own. But they really, really get me going when they are being siblings. You see, I’m an only child so all this sibling stuff is new to me. The bickering I could do without, of course. It’s the other stuff that’s golden. The things they come up with together – The Big Eye, The Pit of Never Return, “The Adventures of Bear, Sock Monkey, Super Cat and Lola” – having a sibling as your best friend really adds a certain dimension to their play.

It goes beyond that, too. Like the commercials say, some things really are priceless. Like an older brother and sister who invite you into their room “because we aren’t playing with any choking hazards.” Or a sister who makes your breakfast, or a brother who saves a spot for you in his bed in case you have a nightmare. Now that’s love!

And here I was thinking that I didn’t have anything interesting to blog anymore! So I present to you my children at their finest – giving you the Big Eye.

*from “Franklin and the Green Knight“

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We finally got enough snow to be worth writing about. A light dusting, followed by a layer of sleet, then more snow overnight and freezing rain in the wee morning hours. The District was shut down, with pretty much only Federal employees showing up on a two hour delay. The roads were slick and hazardous this morning and fortunately, Phil’s classes were cancelled for the day.

We attempted to have school in the morning. Boo’s best friend came by early to ask if he could play. Then an hour later, a friend of mine showed up, having trudged 2 blocks in unshoveled snow, with snow pants for my children. We bought them snow pants way back in September, of course. They were hanging in the closet, right where we would be able to find them at the first sign of flurries. I have no idea what happened to them. All the boxes marked “closet” or “clothes” have been unpacked. I will probably find them in some random box, acting a cushioning to some knick-knack, in a box marked “crafts,” along with half a dozen other things I’ve been missing. I’ve moved 9 times, I know how these things go.

Anyway, with borrowed snowpants and the gleaming snow calling, I let the children out to play. We even let Bip out. He did not enjoy trying to walk in the snow/sleet mix at all. We grabbed the baby sled and strapped him in. I pulled him around the cul-de-sac for awhile to get him used to it.

Then we went off in search of a sledding hill.

Pumpkin Girl, who always wears a dress, has her snowpants underneath her skirt.

Boo enjoyed helping Bip sled. He got a running start…

then let him go!

Bip loved it!

Later they helped our neighbors make an igloo in our front yard.

Along with the snow, Valentine’s Day also brought some gifts:

“Pirates of the Carribbean 2” for Philip, a Hello Kitty shower radio for me and little boxes full of candies for the children.

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Did I mention that I am the co-leader for Pumpkin Girl’s Daisy Girl Scout Troop? Another mom and I took over when the original leader PCS’d. That’s Army talk for “moved away.” It happens a lot around here. Anyway, my co-leader Tricia and I realized that if we didn’t take over the troop, it would completely fold up. We’re both brand new to Girl Scouts in general and Daisies in particular. I was a Brownie for one year, back in the day, but that’s hardly helpful now. We were apprehensive at first but figured, “hey, they’re Kindergartners, how hard could this be?”

Let me tell you.

The original troop leader seemed at first to be very organized. The three of us sat down before she left and she told us everything she knew about being a Daisy Leader. It took about 2 hours. It seemed pretty straight forward. I took home the Big Bag of Daisy Stuff to peruse. Tricia and I attended the last meeting with the outgoing leader, to get a feel for the meeting. Looks good, looks easy, no problem.

Ha.

Problem the first: Our local Girl Scout Council requires that there be at least 2, count them – 1,2 – official GS adults in the room. No other adults allowed. No non- girl scouts allowed. I don’t know who the 2nd adult was during the first two months of meetings, but I let it go. Apparently our council is involved in an Incident and is cracking down hard and heavy on this rule.

Problem the second: I can’t make the meeting scheduled for the first week of November. Remember Problem 1? Yep, Tricia can’t hold the meeting without me. If we can get one of the other Daisy moms to sign up as a GS, she can be the other person in the room. We actually find a volunteer, but we need to move the meeting down one week in order to give her time to get all the paper work finished.

Problem #3: I go off on vacation, leaving our house to flood. Remember that I have the Big Bag of Daisy Stuff? You know where I left it, don’t you. Yep, in the dining room that got flooded. Thankfully most of the items in the bag were salvageable. The only girl’s record that was ruined was Pumpkin’s. No biggie. But now I was living in a hotel, trying to figure out when and if we’re going to move. We ended up canceling our one and only meeting scheduled in November. Which leaves us in a bit of a crunch to finish up all the Daisy requirements for the year.

Problem #4: Our GS year ends in May because of all the moving that goes on in the military. The height of the moving season starts right after Memorial Day. The previous leader had all the Daisy Petals mapped out for the rest of the year, but now I’ve got to try and rework the schedule to make up for the missed meeting. We only meet twice a month, so there was quite a bit of wrangling to do to make it all fit. I spent hours arranging and rearranging potential crafts, petal requirements, and trying to make things line up with fun patches (more on that later). Then there’s “bridging” requirements to fulfill before the Daisies can “bridge” to being Brownies. Oh the horror!

This is the point where I should have just quit.

Problem #5:
While the previous leader (let’s just refer to her as PL from now on)did schedule when each petal would be achieved, that’s about all she did. She did not leave any suggestions on appropriate craft projects. She did not leave a list of crafts she did last year as the leader. So as the designated craft lady, I had to come up with age appropriate crafts that are somehow related to the petals were are working on. Things like “courageous and strong”, “friendly and helpful.” It really shouldn’t be that hard, right?

Problem #6: PL set the dues at $3 a month. That leaves us about $2 per fun patch (more on this later) and $1 per craft – per month for each girl. Somebody please show me a craft you can do for 50 cents!!! It can’t be done. I know, I looked. And looked. And looked. In the end, we were able to come up with some crafts that could be done for free, linking right into our “use resources wisely” petal, and got the moms to donate unused scrapbooking supplies. But honestly – 50 cents a craft?

Problem #7: World Thinking Day. I still don’t totally understand this concept. I think (giggle) that on World Thinking Day, the Girl Scouts are supposed to think about the other girl scout-esque programs all over the world. I don’t know why we need to spend a whole day on it, but then again, nobody asked my opinion. PL’s only guidance is that Thinking Day is “very important.” Apparently, there is also a theme for Thinking Day. This year the theme is something about developing your potential. The suggestions for Thinking Day activities were wonderfully vague and unhelpful for the Daisy level. We finally just asked the Brownie leader what they were planning and could we please join them. So that’s our plan. I have no idea what’s in store, I just know that at the appointed date and time, I’m turning my Daisies over to the Brownies. I do know that at some point the Awarding of the Trefoil pin will occur. Which leads to…

Problem #8:
What happened to the Trefoil pins? Our beloved PL gave all us moms this wonderful “Welcome to Girl Scouting” letter that she wrote. In it she listed the recommend items we could buy, but really emphasized that these were optional items. Even in her orientation talk to us it was like, “hey buy these things if you want, but don’t sweat it, they are only Daisies for one year.” Several items on the list were marked “turn in to me, I will award at a later date.” I, of course, bought everything on the list, turned over the petals which need to be earned before being worn, the Daisy membership pin which would be awarded at the official investiture ceremony, the membership star earned at the end of the year and this trefoil pin, to be awarded for Thinking Day.

Apparently, I was the only one. Out of the 7 girls in our troop, 2 have already earned their trefoil pin, Pumpkin’s is in the Big Bag of Daisy Stuff and that’s it. We discovered today that one girl has already been wearing hers. Her mom also ironed on all of the petals on to her tunic, even though they are supposed to be earned. In talking to the other moms, they are all “oh, of course I want to buy the pin!” Uh, so why didn’t you buy it back in September. Oh that’s right, because PL said it was optional. So now we’re in a bit of a bind. The local GS mini store will only be opened on one day between now and Thinking Day. Someone is going to have to make a run to the main GS store in downtown DC. Fun! I think not. Looks like we’ll just order them through the mail.

Are you still with me? If not, I don’t blame you. I know my head’s about to explode!

Problem #9: The fun patches. Holy smokes, Batman! It’s just not supposed to be this hard. I will spare you most of the agonizing details of how Tricia and I finally figured out what a fun patch is and how it is earned. The answer is, “anything you want” and “however you want.” I’m all for letting the troop leaders exercise some creativity, but give us some kind of guidance! PL did actually indicate that certain months would go with certain fun patches. Tricia and I only had to come up with one or two of them. PL designated April as being Earth Day fun patch. Makes sense. Since we are going to be ordering only 3 trefoil pins, I do a little looking around the GS online store to see what else we might want. The one patch we haven’t tried looking for yet is the Earth Day patch. Turns out the GS store doesn’t sell one. Shouldn’t be hard to find, right? I googled Earth Day patch. I googled Earth patch. I searched high and low. The only thing remotely close to being an Earth Day patch has to do with recycling. Well, we’re not focusing on recycling at all. Not even close. I just want a simple patch with a globe, maybe some hearts or hugging arms showing how much we love the earth. I hope something turns up. Because with a budget of $2 a patch and only 7 girls in our troop, there is no way we can afford to have one made up for us.

So this is where we stand. (I didn’t even mention how PL left town without transferring the troop’s bank account over to me. )Tricia and I send each other about 300 emails a day trying to get this all worked out.

Daisy Girl Scouts – It’s not supposed to be this hard!!!

Can you believe we’re both considering being Brownie co-leaders next year?

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