Family Briefs

When I have the time, I keep the house pretty clean, rotating those big tasks (like cleaning the oven, scrubbing baseboards, washing windows, and dusting ceiling fans) periodically throughout the year. As such, my spring cleaning is more of a de-cluttering. I’d like to say that I have an organized way to attack all the accumulation from the previous year, but I don’t. Whatever mood strikes me is where I choose to attack.

Today it was the garage. Our garage, like most, lacks air conditioning. When the sun is out and it’s 90^o, the mood is not likely to strike to go clean it. Today, however, it rained most of the day - thereby keeping out the mosquitoes and lowering the heat (the humidity, however, is another issue).

Working through some of the kids stuff, I found myself sorting the Play-Doh (tossing the old stuff while they weren’t looking), putting the right color Play-Doh back in the “can” with the coordinating lid - thanks to my OCD. I gathered all the cap gun stuff back in it’s box, put all the propellers back with their respective shooters, and put all the paint supplies back in the paint drawer. It’s a very cleansing feeling - getting everything sorted and back in it’s proper place . . . of course it’ll all be undone by this time tomorrow.

See, when things are cleaned and in their proper places, the kids can find them - it’s like having Christmas all over again! Including the fallout afterwards. Now, I do have my kids clean up after themselves like any self-respecting parent would, but they aren’t as good at putting everything in it’s proper place - their method is more a cram it somewhere and run off to get something else out.

I’m hoping Packy the pack rat can help us a bit with our sorting. Sort it Out! is a wonderful tale about a pack rat who collects things. When his mother has enough and instructs him to sort it out and put it all away, that’s just what he does. This rhyming story by Sylvan Dell Publishing is such a fun read, but I think I love the pictures by Sherry Rogers the most. The fun, bright animations remind me of “I Spy” books - there are so many fun things to find on each and every page. On the first page, for example, the fence is made of paper clips; the wagon wheels are tinker toys; the doormat is made of dominoes - LOTS of fun things to find.

As the pages go by, Packy, discovers lots of different ways to sort out his treasures. I love the way the sorted items are put into one succinct rhyming word that is to be found on the adjoining page . . .

“The turtle, the clover, the skinny string bean,
he placed in a pile made of things that are . . . green.”

This has been great for my almost five-year-old who is learning to read.  She has just enough clues to find the word on the adjoining page and shout out, “Green!”  Now, if I could just get her to carry that enthusiasm over into sorting out her stuffed animals into a pile that we could find a new home for, I’d be excited too!

As with all the Sylvan Dell Publishing books, there are activities at the end of the book to keep you talking with your kids about the story.  There are hidden picture challenges, a scientist’s sorting chart, Packy’s sorting cards (which we’ll copy and cut out to “practice” our sorting), and a writing project to stimulate kids’ creativity.

I think I’m gonna head over to their store and buy me a cuddly packrat . . . just to remind me to sort out my own stuff and keep it in it’s place (and toss anything that doesn’t have a place as I’m sure Packy’s mom will do when he’s not looking :-)       ).

One day in the midst of feeling overwhelmed about all the things around the house I needed to do, I stumbled across a great blog post that really spoke to me (because catching up on blog reading is the thing to do when no one has clean underwear). Her feelings about Christmas - honey, I’m all there. Ahem . . . ‘course we still have an Easter basket and a bag full of empty Easter eggs cluttering the countertop.

So what is my problem? If it feels so good to get rid of the clutter, why do I have so much of it!????? The problem lies in that few short 15 minutes that Ellen Gaver was talking about. I’m so eager every morning to get to my computer to see what wondrous revelations await me there, that I’m immediately sucked into the laptop time warp zone. Next thing ya’ know, it’s time to go pick up kids from preschool, have lunch, take naps, pick up big kids from school, eat snacks, and rush off to after-school activities. I’m sorry, WHERE was the time for decluttering?

By spending just a few minutes in the morning BEFORE heading out to the World Wide Web, I’ve found that I can actually accomplish quite a bit - I mean, enough to notice, ya’ know? Though the house could use more than 15 minutes of my attention each day, giving just that little bit might save my sanity one day. Now, if I could just find the rest of those Easter eggs . . .

You know all those little pre-packaged fruit snacks? They come in all shapes - princess, Dora, smiley faces, and on and on - the manufacturers make these VERY appealing to little people! I don’t buy them, however, citing to my kids that “it’s not on the list so we’re not buying it.”

These little packages simply don’t provide any snack-worthy benefits, and the dentist says they are awful because these little sugary “snacks” stick to kids’ teeth. So, we only enjoy these “fruit snacks” when they are included in a birthday goody bag or the kids go to grandma’s house. I wish there were a REAL fruit snack that the kids enjoyed as much . . .

Ta da! Here enters Doug with Jerky.com. Doug contacted me about trying some of his products and reviewing them, and you know how I’m all about FREEBIES! He sent me some pineapple jerky for us to sample. The kids quickly devoured it, and my husband almost didn’t get to try it. I salvaged a package for him so he could share his thoughts on it too.

With four children, we’re on a pretty tight budget these days and I was disappointed to find that the pineapple jerky wasn’t $1/box like at the grocery store. Of course, it’s much better for you - why is it that it costs so much to eat healthy?? Well, that’s my soap box for another time. Anyhoo, where was I . . . oh yes, my budget. We buy pineapple every week, have a food dehydrator and decided we could duplicate Doug’s creation - I mean, the label says the only two ingredients are pineapple and honey. How hard could it be?

Apparently they have a magical brew there at Jerky.com. Our jerky just didn’t measure up . . . it fell flat. So, guess we’ll splurge every now and then . . . ‘course with Father’s Day coming up, I should have already ordered one of their Beef Jerky Gift Baskets. You have to splurge a little on fabulous fathers, right? I’m really eyeballing this one. Reckon’ they could get it here in time? I’m off to order!

Can you guess what this is a picture of?

A) A turtle that died eating Easter basket grass
B) A collection of rocks and trash found in my yard
C) Evidence to clear my name

The correct answer is C - this is really gross. Just looking at this picture, I doubt your first guess would have been dried dog poop. Great Dane dog poop. Great Dane-that-finished-my-youngest-child’s-chocolate-Easter- bunny-out-of-her-Easter-basket poop.

The kids thought I ate the last bit of it (which I was tempted because she just wasn’t eating it fast enough!), but I didn’t - I really didn’t. Here in the yard, amongst the weeds and pine needles, I found the evidence. Aren’t you glad I shared it with you?

Summer boredom busters . . . well . . . . our favorite is the waterpark. The best part is, I have my mom give us all season passes as a Christmas present - mind you it’s not very exciting to open (unless you’re the one who has to find a home for all the new goodies delivered on Christmas Day), but an awesome gift come the 90^o mark!

So plan ahead and ask for waterpark passes so you can splash down all summer when everyone is bored. Read my original waterpark post for tips on how we manage the waterpark with 4 kids, and read on for more summer boredom busters:

1) You just gotta have a Wii - wii love the Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit! Great during a sudden afternoon thunderstorm or when it’s just too stinkin’ hot. But THIS is the game going on my Christmas list this year!

2) We plant things in the garden - it provides ongoing entertainment (weeding, watering, harvesting, and finding creative ways to keep the critters away from your crops). We’re currently anticipating blueberries . . .

3) I take the badminton set and put it up in the backyard. A little extra physical activity usually ensures good naps!

4) This year we’re heading to the bowling alley more often - they have a great deal during the summer you’ll definitely want to check out!

5) Wash the car - a little extra water play that makes the car look good is a definite win-win in my book! You can even wash the dog (which are known to turn in to automatic sprinklers :-)).

6) We participate in the library summer reading programs - every day during quiet time, I have the two oldest read while the two youngest nap. They record the books they’ve read and turn it in to the library to choose a prize.

Typically, my kids don’t complain to me too much about being bored. I think they know I’ll come up with something for them to do - like organize a bookshelf, scrub the baseboards, file paperwork, de-clutter a closet, or take a nap!

There is an area just below our excuse-for-a- garden (3 blueberry bushes, struggling strawberries, a fruitless fig tree, and a lone cabbage school experiment) that is becoming something of a jungle. Not that Tarzan would feel safe swinging on any of the vines, but he’d at least find some prickly shade under the young mimosa tree. The prickles are attached to a thriving blackberry bush - something of a slap in the face for all the work we’ve put in on the strawberries.

I had plans to go out and chop through all the undergrowth and restore order from chaos, but the kids don’t want me to disturb the blackberries. They’ve read “Blackberry Banquet” by Terry Pierce, one of the books in our Sylvan Dell library, and they want to try the “juiciest berries any critter could eat.” I’ve tried to explain they are not critters and probably won’t be nearly as fond of the blackberries as the mouse, bluebird, and squirrel in the story. After all, we’ve seen plenty of these critters stealing our blueberries (despite the net)!

And while I doubt that a bear is going to tromp through the yard looking for our delectable blackberries, I”ve tried to convince the kids that by “flaunting” these berries outside the net, we might be at risk for just that! Apparently, they are all FEARLESS, as the blackberry bush remains. Heck, I might as well just clean out around it and integrate it into the garden. That’s my best hope for getting rid of it, ’cause it’s sure to wither and die once it’s a part of the garden!

**Find out more about the educational books at Sylvan Dell Publishing. Each one of their books has a wonderful section for learning more after each story. There are questions to discuss, recipes to try, and things to think about.**

I remember a wise parent telling me when I began having children (and apparently couldn’t stop) not to eat the food left on the children’s plates . . . it adds up. This is so true! Yet, as I would push all the food off the plates, I would cringe seeing it all piled up in the bottom of the sink. What a waste!

With one child, it’s not so bad to eat their “leftovers” . . . but by the time I got to three kids, I was afraid that I’d be as big as the side of a barn just trying to keep from wasting food. I tried cutting back on my own meal so I could eat their remnants . . . still it was hard trying to balance what I ate with what I THOUGHT they would eat. Sometimes when they ate more than I expected, I just “fixed” my hunger with an extra bowl of ice cream (after they’d gone to bed, of course :-).

So, I was back to scraping food into the sink for the disposal to handle.  Then it hit me!  There was at LEAST another meal sitting there for someone (of course, it was a bit unappetizing there in the sink).  Instead of dumping this food in the sink, I put all the extra food into a divided Tupperware-style plate and put it in the fridge.  Now when the girls want PBJ’s, I just pop this one-person meal in the microwave (killing any little-people germs) and I’m set!

No wasted food, no extra wasteline, and one less PBJ sandwich I have to endure :-)  It works for me!

Without fail, more than one child will tell me to ask the bank teller for however many suckers are needed to go around for the number of children in the car (they never ask for one for me).

We’ve always called them suckers. In fact, when they are chomping away at these sweet delights (breaking away bits and pieces of baby teeth as they go), I remind them that they are called SUCKERS - you’re supposed to just SUCK on them!

Today, as my 4- and 6-year olds are singing the “Hannah, Hannah, Fo Fannah, Banana, Nana” rhyme in the back seat (suckers in hand), I realized I should have called the treats from the bank lollipops from day one. There are a lot fewer words that rhyme with”lollipop,” and you won’t have to worry about the “F” word being one of them!

Seems our community is running rampant with a stomach virus. Some of the company we had on Thanksgiving Day came down with it just hours after leaving (it wasn’t my cooking, honest!). We’re so glad to have narrowly escaped the vomiting and diarrhea, especially with small children!

I’m not so sure we’ll be so lucky to escape a bad case of stripes; I can already see the early symptoms in at least two of my children - the two who care what other people think. What? You’ve never heard of this dreaded disease? I hadn’t either until we found it at the library - a book, that is, by David Shannon.

A Bad Case of Stripes is a delightful story about a young girl who loves lima beans. Now, she didn’t tell her friends this, of course, because no kid likes lima beans and she wanted to fit in. She cared a lot about what other people thought of her, so much so that she had a terrible time choosing her outfit for the first day of school.

Of course, who cares about what clothes you’re wearing when your body is covered in bright, bold, rainbow stripes? This is exactly what happens to Camilla Cream as she’s trying to get dressed for that first day of school. Her mother sends her to bed and calls the doctor, but Dr. Bumble can’t seem to find a reason to keep her home from school.

At school the next day, Camilla is laughed at by everyone. Of course, when her stripes changed to red, white, and blue with stars during the Pledge of Allegiance, her classmates began shouting out different designs. Sure enough, her skin changed to match the polka dots, chekerboard, and camouflage patterns that were being called out.

The specialists are called in; the experts are called in; even an Environmental Therapist is called, but Camilla’s condition only seems to worsen. No one can determine a cure for this odd skin condition that seems to take on the colors and shapes ofwhatever they mention (especially yucky when the experts talk about viruses and fungi).

Only when a sweet, plump, old woman stops by and offers to help, does Camilla seem to have a chance. The woman offers Camilla some lima beans. “”Are those magic beans?” asked Mrs. Cream. “Oh my, no,” replied the kind old woman. “There’s no such thing. These are just plain old lima beans. I’ll bet you’d like some, wouldn’t you?” she asked Camilla.”

Just after refusing the lima beans, Camilla finally admits that she really does like lima beans. As she eats the beans, Camilla is cured.

Oh, if only the stripes were really that easy to get rid of. But aren’t they? Maybe not after one dose of being ourselves, but after regularly practicing being ourselves - you know, on a daily basis. Getting dressed in the morning with no one else in mind but ourselves - not what others will think, but what do I think of the clothes I’m putting on?

I’m so glad that my oldest daughter (who currently cares quite a bit about what others think - and she’s only FOUR!) absolutely loves this book - don’t tell her, but she’s getting it for Christmas (the library wants their copy back :). Hopefully, she’ll see the hidden message amongst the pages and learn to make choices for herself and not for others.

Happy Reading!

How is it that we can send a man to the moon, yet no one seems to be able to create a bottle of spray butter that actually SPRAYS!!!????