Don't you love the days when things go right. I'm not talking about those big-we-got-a-new-fill in the blank days. Just the simple days when good things happen and you have the presence of mind to drink it in. I had one of those recently. It started out with a good nap from my little Mite. This is no small miracle, as last weekend he learned how to climb out of the crib. So The Prof and I took an hour out of the afternoon to assemble the "no tools required" netting to contain him. Well, no tools were required, but it would have helped if they labeled the thing with front and back, so we didn't have to do it twice while Jack Be Nimble was busy perfecting his in and out routine. Now that it is together I recognize this as THE baby toy I wanted 4 babies ago, the one I wish my Mom could have had. So now he is napping away. So I got busy with the peaches from the tree in our yard (our house is not without it's perk). Since we don't spray, they get a bit buggy. So many just get skinned and diced up for pies and the freezer. I dunk them in hot water for a couple minutes and then in cool to help get the skins off. Then I made a pie and tucked it in the over. Don't I feel June Cleaverish.

So much so that I want to tackle the garden today. I'm not much of a gardener, flower or vegetable. But my hope is to eventually have a colorful perennial garden. Reality is that my back bed has been ignored in favor of pouring my limited attention to the front bed. Don't even talk to me about our weed Field where others would grow grass. It is so bad it has embarrassed Half Buck since he was 9. Anyway, the garbage can didn't have much in it. So Buck and I hauled it out back and he willingly helped me weed and pick up for half an hour. Two Bits joined in when I offered him the little clipper to dead head the flowers. Of course he cleared a whole big patch down to the ground. But he liked those clippers. After a little more training, he was dead heading the front beds too. So the garbage is filled to the brim, the weeds are less monstrous, Two Bits glasses bill is diminishing and it is time to have some fun now.

I think the best part of it for me was helping Cents learn to Jump Rope. The Prof and I went out with the new rope and Two Bits and Mite. Two Bits jumps like a pro and wants to learn to double dutch. Apparently Grandma Buck used to jump double dutch, but I never saw this. Of course Mite wanted to get into this act with helping twirl the rope, trying to jump. Have you ever seen a toddle try to get airborn? It is so funny. Gravity has a firm grasp on this little tyke, so he wasn't getting much about the rope lying on the ground. Eventually we distracted him enough to let Cents give it a go. Seeing her face shine when she finally got it was so fun. All the songs and chants for jumping rope are struggling to come back. So leave me a comment if you remember some for me.

The Jumbo Gyppy

We had a family reunion recently and had such fun. It was basically just the 11 kids, spouses, and grand kids with my Dad at the park. But it was our park, across the street. Only our park has grown up too and looks nothing like we remembered. I'm telling you it went in for the tummy tuck, the face lift and the nose job. The playground, the pool, the building, the tennis courts had all been completely ripped out and rebuild. Looking back across the street to our house and neighbors the transformations was about as remarkable. I grew up on a cookie cutter street where 8 out of 10 houses were the same. Now they had different porches, siding and windows and didn't match my memories. All but one had been updated. So three things looked the same on that side of the street: The Macks, our birch trees, and the fire hydrants. But it is still sitting across the street from the old homestead. Dad likes to call that the orphanage.

During our cloudy and sprinkling off and on reunion we heard the ice cream truck go by the orphanage and a whole set of stories came out. According to my dad, one day a man asked to park in front of the house and was a bit apologetic about it. To be nice he offered to buy ice cream for the kids. So my dad smiled and said sure. He called into the house and out popped 11 kids who had just been offered free ice cream. Now that is expensive parking. Sister Mary 1 was recalling how the truck used to be a Jumbo Ice cream truck, and my Dad thought it was a gyp. So they became the Jumbo Gyppy in my family. I don't really remember calling it that. But all memories are not shared as the generations move through a big family. As one of the littles, I can remember talking an older sister or brother into treating or talking Mom into opening her mad money purse in the kitchen cabinet to splurge on ice cream. I do remember begging to work with the ice cream man and riding with another friend in the back and fetching the ice cream for half a day or something that approximated an eternity. I was cured of work for quite awhile after that.

I suppose I will share one more Ice Cream Truck story. My kids once heard one coming and began the begging for money. Now with 5 kids, we don't always have a lot of cash to spare. In fact, why do the kids now always have more cash than I do? But this was before all that. So I simply told my little Buck and Half Buck that when the music was playing, they were out of icecream. Horrible I know. Thankfully they've forgotten. But God bless the sister that won't let me live it down : )

Crime and Punishment

I have been blessed with ample opportunities to discipline some kiddos over here lately and the creative juices must be flowing that direction. It is so tricky with these older boys to figure out what would be a consequence that doesn't punish me so much either. Of course I can remember my mom finding work for kids who couldn't get along, and I was usually part of that crowd. So here is a sampling of this weeks crimes and punishments:

Half Buck was asked to watch Mite at the library for 5 minutes while I helped Cents and Two Bits choose books. The problem was we had one of his rat pack along. So not cool to watch a baby bro. So they didn't. When I returned in 3 minutes because mommy radar was in high alert, there was no baby bro to be seen. After glancing around we saw all kinds of commotion in between the double doors out of the library and Mite was being shepherded back inside by a librarian. Should I say Media Specialist? Hot Mama, but first to reclaim my escapee. Hmmmm, really want to take that friend right on home, but why punish him. So I let Half Buck know his day was coming. Later I gave him the option of: a week without friends or 2 babysitting gigs without any monetary compensation. Guess what he chose? Boy was it fun to wake him at 7:30 am for his first sitting job : )

I took Buck and Half Buck to Harry Potter 6 this week. I have broken my unwritten rule of you have to read it first. It just isn't happening with my firstborn. I feel this failure keenly. I still hold out hope of a late in life conversion to the love of books, but game systems have come between him and the written word. Alas. The movie was pretty good and pretty long and we found ourselves stopping at past 11 at Meijer. I know this is crazy, but Finish Dish Detergent was Free with coupons and it was the last day of the sale and we had been at the lake all week. It was a now or never kind a deal (Okay, I know you are all thinking I'm nuts, but it was free Finish Detergent and I had 4 coupons: 4 free boxes and you can check out that part of my insanity over at bestbets). So it was a three minute trip for 4 boxes of free detergent and no the boys couldn't go look at legos or game in the electronic section they could stay with me thank you very much. But they didn't. So after 3 minutes I had my rain check (see, I'm not the only one pigging out on free dish detergent!) I am waiting on the bench up front. I'm tired, I packed a cottage worth of stuff this morn before 10. At 10 I switched to the cleaning lady. At noon I took a beach walk with 3 sibs and numerous nieces and nephews using them as slave labor to haul back rocks for my landscaping dreams. After lunch it was time to go back to the real world and home, but I managed to delay it until around 3:30 enjoying one last Shermans ice cream cone on the way. Then I made Little Ceasars Pizza for dinner. It was a long day, but it is the last day of vacation and some of the ice cream money amazingly was unspent. Okay, we charged the pizza. Anyway, that is my list of excuses for paging the boys after waiting 15 minutes at the front of the Meijer. Like there friends will know....at 11:30 at night. Anyway, they were all mad at me!!!! Who took them to the movie, gave them pizza and a week at the beach I might add. So I'm thinking these boys can help me reclaim some coupons from the recycling center....or.....wash the dishes by hand without the item we went into the store with. They chose recycling.

My star in the family fell a bit this week. Two Bits is a happy, easy, compliant, smart boy. I'm so glad because he is in the middle. Now I know Sister Mary 3 and the middle kid in my clan would say: the centerpiece, the cream in the oreo, the meat and cheese in the middle, the best stuff is in the middle. Good point. I love going to this boys parent teacher conferences or as I call them: mutual admiration meetings. But I must confess this boy has a stubborn streak that runs silent and deep. I mean deep. It was his week to load the dishwasher, but he didn't want to. All kinds of excuses, whining, trying to get out of it ensued. All the while his big bro Buck was taking out the garbage as asked, and pulling in the wet towels before the rains as asked. So when he sneaks away when my back is turned, it is off to time out. He is quickly ready to comply now, but now I need a time out. So he can wait til my kitchen chore is done. He asks once more to come out and I tell him this. When I call him out a few later, he humbling comes out and reports: I was angry when you said I couldn't come out of time out so I broke my glasses and threw them in the trash. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I'm more than a little angry. You'll have to see my earlier post on glasses to know how hard it is to keep these boys in glasses over here. So my reply is: I think you already know you made a bad choice when you are angry. Now I'm angry and I don't want to make a bad choice. So we will talk about this tomorrow (when I'm not seeing red glasses). I imagine he is a bit fearful of what I can come up with by tomorrow, so he keeps coming round to it: I don't even like glasses, I don't need them, do I have to pay, how much. WE WILL TALK ABOUT IT TOMORROW teeth clenched. Well it took me about 3 weeks to get the insurance to agree to replacing them. And he has been earning money around here with weeding and extra chores to chip in. Since they are covered this time, we will tuck it in his college fund and hope he is wearing contacts by then.

No Smiles

My big boys: The Prof, Buck, Half Buck, and Two Bits got treated to Disney for a week by The Prof's parents. Yay for in laws this generous. They love Disney and wanted to share it with all the grandkids. So every couple years they round up a group of "young enough to enjoy it and old enough to walk it" and head off. This year they also took two other 11-year old grandkids. In a couple years it will be Cent's and Mite's turn.

You can tell which kids are ours in these photos by the lack of smiles. I know they had a good time. Every couple days they could be pried away from the fun long enough to talk to me. Especially my 8-year old Two Bits. They would gush about the coaster or the show of the day. Okay, Buck at 14 didn't gush. But he actually had something to talk about. I am grateful in more than one ways to my in-laws!

Through the marvels of modern technology, The Prof sent me photos. Really, isn't this an amaaaaazing machine we're using? How does it work anyway? How is it I can put a line of code for a photo and up it pops on my blog? But they never seem to smile. What is the deal, I asked. Are they really having a good time, are they behaving for Grandma and Grandpa, saying please and thank you, bathing, changing their socks occasionally. All those things Mom looks out for and The Prof replies, "oh, I hadn't thought of that."

I've asked the boys why they don't smile for the camera. It turns out they don't like the way their teeth look. Who knew? We just had our first consult for Buck's braces and took a gander at the payment plan. No I didn't turn shock white at the quote. But it sure felt like I did. We see the other recommended orthodontist in a couple weeks. Sure hope I can find a really good coupon for this. I didn't even think his were in bad shape. Of course I didn't know the little space between Half Buck's teeth bothered him. Like most moms I buy the shoes with room to grow. So a little extra space is a good thing, right? Now Two Bits I know has it coming. His teeth came in a zig zag pattern once those big Chiclets sized teeth appeared. Orthodontists have Game Boys for your kids to play with in the chair!!! So now you know what you are paying for. Anyway, this man who is going to get my lay-new-carpet-remodel-the-basement-and-buy-a-decent-minivan money says I ought to have Half Buck and Two Bits seen as well. Anyone with the top front four teeth can get started.

Yikes, now I'm not smiling either.

Mites Haircut

I just cut Mites hair. Not the little trim of the bangs. Not the clippers. But I did try to put some layers in the back and sides. The Prof thought I was back to giving the bowl cut. It was cute and easy and in style when Buck was little. It looked like a Dorothy Hammill Pixie on Half Buck with all that thick hair. Yep there is the reason to not use real names. I just saide my son looked like Dorothy Hammill. By the time I was cutting Two Bits hair, I went to a clipper very young. I was using it on the big boys anyway. If your worried about my poor boys appearance: Buck and Half Buck gets their's cut professionally. I should say, Buck does, Half Bucks hair is longer than mine.

Anyway, I took Mite out on the deck in a towel after his bath. He sat on my lap with his passy and just let me cut. Yeah, like that is going to happen. Well everything but the sitting did. He was still while I did the back and that was about it. Then I tried to get him to look at the birdie in the yard. Of course the bird didn't feel like sitting still either.

The Music on the Side

I have so much fun seeing what is up in blog world and then adding something to one of my blogs. It is my new toy and it feels like Christmas. So I just added the Play list on the side with a couple songs that make me feel family. Feel free to comment and suggest other songs I should add. And for Dad, just hit the pause button in the middle, if you can even hear it.

The Mighty Mite

I can see where a lot of my current stories are going to be about Mite just now. He has sure been full of antics lately. The Prof has been gone for 9 days to Florida. So I had been running low on steam, high on short tempered. Buck and Half Buck really stepped up and did some sitting, helping, and generally giving me a break. Even Two Bits was good for a half hour of playing with Cents and Mite outside so I could get dinner cooking. But there were still a couple count to 50 moments. I know, isn't it supposed to be to 10? You have 5 and an Irish temper and see if 10 still works for you! Don't judge me, I'm in survival mode this week. The boys deodorant had already been played with. The lego destruction was a day or so ago. The ruined toliet paper roll had been cleaned up. But the rest of the house was strewn with items in the wrong place from Mites destructive tendencies or those teething days when he was, what we Trekkies refer to as, a klingon. I am hard pressed to know which phase I like least: teething Klingon or happy destruction mode. Apparently I forgot to close the door to the office, close the lid to the lap top and barricade the basement. With four unattended I'm going to the potty minutes,  Mite had removed 11 keys from the laptop and was having fun slamming and opening the lid. Now several folks have told me that you actually need a special tool to pry those keys off the board. But my little Mite....he has ten of them! The Prof got home yesterday and went down to view the destruction. Today he managed to get all but one back in working order.