Sleep Deprivation

In my sleep deprived state, due to Lil Sis's restlessness between 3 and 5am, and Sammy getting up at 6, I thought it would be fun for Big Bro to write today's blog. Here is what he came up with.

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Once upon a time Big Bro and Lil Sis goed to Candyland.

Big Bro and Lil Sis rode their bikes to Candyland.

And then they saw Cloudy Bear and Cloudy Bear was being mean to the gummy bears.

Big Bro and Lil Sis blew Cloudy Bear back home.

Now they sawed the gumdrop peppermint trees.

Big Bro and Lil Sis went to Peppermint Forest.

And that's the end.

Sammy's Story

Nini called the other day to say that one of the elderly people she cares for was dying and his 7.5 year old king poodle, Sammy, needed a place to stay for a few nights. He had been barking after being left alone in the apartment of the assisted living facility while his owner was in the hospital.

Sammy came home the following day with Nini. She brought him over briefly so I could meet him. He's a sweet, handsome boy, very good natured and docile. He's not trained in basic doggie manners but would do well if someone took him to dog training school. I tried briefly clicker training him to sit and he took to it easily.

The following day Sammy had a proper introduction to Pepper first. Nini and I introduced them outside and they were both wagging their tails. From there we took him inside to introduce him to the kids. They did very well together and I wasn't worried about conflict between kids and canine. 

However, Sammy is a medium energy dog, whereas Soku was low energy and Pepper is also low energy. He was a bit much for Pepper after they had been hanging out for a while. Pepper was here first so she is my priority. Unlike Soku, Sammy is a middle aged dog who will live another 5-7 years.

Sammy is a sweet, goofy boy who still acts very puppy like in a lot of ways. He would do very well with a family that has the time and energy to train him and integrate him into the family. He also has a skin condition which has him taking $130 worth of medication each month. He needs someone who can commit to his medical needs too. If any locals are interested in Sammy let me know. He deserves a loving, forever home. Nini will be fostering him for two weeks.

Estate Sale Dog

 In the summer of 2011 my husband went to check out an estate sale. There he saw an old wood stove that he wanted to bid on for our maple sugaring hobby. 

At this Estate Sale there was an old Husky wandering the property. The auctioneers announced that he was available along with all the other household items. My husband came home and told me the tale and how he felt bad for the dog. He noted how 18 month old Big Bro had gotten along well with the old dog. So I suggested we go back. My husband still wanted to bid on the stove and I wanted to see the dog.

He was arthritic, mangy, matted, and a bit aloof. I asked one of the family members about him. His name was Soco. He belonged to the elderly couple who had passed away. None of the adult children could take Soco because he was an alpha dog and didn't like the dogs the children already had. If no one took him, he was going to be put down.

The next day I went back with Pepper to see how the two dogs would interact. Soco was a bit grumpy when she got too close to him while he was napping, but they seemed to do ok. Pepper is the most docile, submissive dog so the fact that he was an alpha wasn't an issue.

We brought Soco home and showed him the grounds. We quickly rechristened him Soku because we didn't want him to be named after an alcoholic beverage (Southern Comfort) That night he paced and whined and howled all night long. No one could sleep. We tried putting him in the basement to at least have some distance from the whining but the old boy just got himself caught in odd places as he tried to escape so we had to keep rescuing him. Needless to say, it was rough.

The following day I brought him to a groomer who knew him. It took her all day to wash and comb him because of how stressed he was. But it revealed just what a handsome and majestic boy Soku was.

With him cleaned up we let him stay in the living room the second night, but he still howled and paced. I spent a good part of the night downstairs with him trying to get him to relax. He would rest for a short while, but then would return to howling and pacing.

 

The following day, unbeknownst to us, he pushed open our broken screen door and disappeared. After driving around frantically to find him, I came across him over a mile from our house trotting on the road back in the direction of his former home. He had a keen sense of direction, or perhaps it was just luck.

By the 4th day the howling and pacing still hadn't ceased. I was desperately calling all the local vets for advice and to see if anyone would medicate him so we could all get some rest. No one would do it, and his appointment with our vet wasn't for another 10 days. It was a hellish first week, but finally Soku relaxed and started to integrate into the family. We took him to the vet for the first time in years and treated him for his Lime disease. I think he realized, once he started feeling better, that living with us wasn't so bad after all.

In fact, it was Pepper that I started feeling bad for. We would take both dogs on walks but Soku got all the attention. That dog could turn heads of people driving down the road. They would slow down just to shout "beautiful Husky!"

Soku certainly wasn't an easy dog and he never totally dropped his grumpy persona. I can't blame him for it since at the ripe old age of 15 he lost everything he knew and had to start over. He was also going blind and deaf and had also been only minimally cared for for many years. I like to think we at least gave him a better home for his last days.

Boiling on a Beautiful Day

This past weekend was gorgeous. With sunny skies and temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s the maple sap was flowing. On Saturday my husband chopped wood so that we could start boiling. The wood came from a dead maple tree on his father's land, so it was free. We have a very low budget, low tech maple sap boiling system so we are always looking for dead wood to harvest. He also built a fun snow tunnel with Big Bro.

On Sunday we gathered the sap and brought it to the barn. Using my Girl Scout fire-building skills, I started a fire in the old wood stove that we got for cheap at an estate sale a few years ago.

Everyone wanted to help build the fire, even Lil Sis.

It was almost a one-match fire, but it's been a whole year since I built a fire so it ended up actually taking two matches.

Then it was time to filter the sap to get out any dirt and bark that may have fallen into it.

Since we have a very low tech system, and a wood stove that is designed to throw heat around a room rather than just concentrate it on the pot, it took a while to get the almost 20 quarts of sap to boil. Keeping the boil is hard too because we have to frequently feed the fire. Feeding it often enough wasn't possible since since I had a Citizens Climate Lobby meeting in the afternoon so my husband was on his own with the kids and the fire.

At our slow evaporation speed it took a few hours to get down to the level shown in the above picture. But before we went to bed that night it was done. Our first batch of 2014. 

Those 20 quarts of sap in the pot yielded just half a quart of actual maple syrup. Needless to say, we do this for our own fun and enjoyment, not for profit. But the rewards are sweet!

My Story of Stuff

I have stuff I saved from my childhood for my kids. Things like teddy bears, figurines, a Bearhouse, dolls, cars, a Tonka truck. 

My kids also have inherited some stuff from their dad, a random bag of Star Wars toys and other odd figurines, plus a huge bin of Legos. 

They even have some stuff from when their Nini was little and when she was raising me and my sisters. They have some old sweaters made by Nini's neighbor back in Germany, and a doll that she had as a girl.

It is really fun to see my kids playing with the same doll that my mom played with. It is just as cool to see them wearing a sweater I used to wear, or play with toys that I or their father used to play with.

However, it was a long time getting to this point. Growing up, Nini taught me to be well organized and to periodically purge things that were broken or that I had outgrown. Consequently, I like to keep my stuff to a minimum and not feel weighed down. 

I also moved several times as a young adult so that meant I had to carry all this stuff with me or into storage more than once. It wasn't always easy or enjoyable moving all that stuff. There were times that I pared down my stuff further, and times that I wished I could pare down even more ... but I had a sense of responsibility and nostalgia to hold onto things just a little longer.

I was surprised at what a relief it was when I could give my son and daughter some of those books and toys. FINALLY they were going to the people for whom I had been saving them for decades. 

Recently, at one of Lil Sis's music classes, another mom commented what a nice sweater she had on. 

"Did you make it yourself?" The mother asked.

"No," I answered. "It was mine when I was little."

The other mother was clearly impressed and she let our instructor know when there was a chance. "I could never said anything that long." Said the instructor.

I totally knew how the instructor felt.

Then again, in this "throw away" society we never have to hold on to anything for very long. We can always just go out and buy a new one. While it is convenient, it is wreaking havoc on our planet. What if more people did save more of their things for the future generations? It would probably be a healthier world, at least where garbage is concerned. Things would be made to last too.

I remember a conversation Lady Mary had in season two of Downtown Abbey. She was engaged to a nouveau-riche man who had just bought an old estate for them to live in. The couple went to tour the property and it was a huge but bare mansion. "How will we furnish it?" asked Lady Mary. Her betrothed answered something like, "We will just buy things from the factory." Lady Mary was obviously not comfortable with that answer, and replied "In my family we don't buy, we inherit."

Not that we can or should all behave like the old ruling classes, just have more reverence for what we purchase and throw away.

Little Maple Sugarers

We are in the midst of a good stretch of weather for collecting maple sap. This past weekend I told my husband the 10 day forecast, so he got the sap buckets, lids, and taps out of the basement. 

This year the kids are old enough to help him wash them out with soap. Not surprisingly, my husband did the bulk of the washing and the kids decided to play peekaboo with the shower curtain.

Over the weekend it was too cold for the sap to run, and we were still sick (never ending nasty cold!) so we never got around to hanging any buckets. But on Wednesday night my husband came home a little bit early. With the last light of dusk, he and the kids went out to hang the buckets on our sugar maple trees.

They had to drill the holes in the tree by flashlight. The kids had a blast helping their dad.  Pepper liked being outside with the family too. I was inside cooking dinner.

We should have about four days of good weather (warm days, cold nights) where the sap is running well. I will keep checking the weather report for when the next good stretch will be. Hopefully we will get a good yield this season.

The Creepy Good Samaritan

The kids and I were in between appointments yesterday and had to kill some time in town. We went to the mall, not because I particularly like the mall, but because it is warm and the kids could run around. We also needed to buy a birthday gift.

As is often the case, Big Bro was crying for a snack. "I'm too hungry!" He whined, "Can we get a snack first?"

So we headed to the food court. There was a long line and we were waiting our turn. In front of us there was a man who kept looking at us and smiling. He was trying to be friendly, but he was just giving me the creeps. I know, how how could someone smiling and admiring your children seem so creepy? I don't know either, he just did.

I felt uncomfortable, but would return a quick polite smile and then avert my eyes and look at the menu. Every time I looked up, there he was smiling. Then it was his turn to get up to the counter and he announced, while looking back at us,  "I want to pay for the people behind me in line too."

 "Oh no, you don't have to do that." I answered hastily.

 "It's my good deed of the day," he answered giving a wink. Then he handed the cashier some money and added, "You have $15 to spend." Then he left.

The cashier turned her attention to me and said "He such a nice man, he does that all the time. I will give him his food for free tomorrow. It's a nice cycle."

Suddenly I felt bad for thinking this guy was creepy. We ordered some food and the remainder of the $15 went into the tip jar.

So thank you to the man who paid for our snack yesterday. I'm sorry I thought you were creepy. I think it's a great thing that you are doing for strangers.

But I can't blame myself too harshly either. As parents we have to protect our children. One never knows who the real creeps are out there. 

Baby Pepper Attachment PART 2

Lil Sis carried Baby Pepper around with her 24/7 for a few weeks. Not to be outdone, Big Bro decided that Baby Pepper should be his special toy not hers, after all, that is just the nature of early childhood sibling rivalry. 

I convinced him that another tan, stuffed dog, simply named "Doggie" was his special friend. Doggie was given to Big Bro by an acquaintance as a welcome baby gift. 

Big Bro accepted this and for a while both kids toted their respective dogs around, and even out to dinner one night.

Lil Sis calls Doggie "Big Bro's Arf" and seemed ok with the arrangement. At first. Just a few days ago she has left Baby Pepper behind and commandeers "Big Bro's Arf" whenever she can. Doggie is now the stuffed toy of choice and we are back to them rivaling over it. It doesn't help explaining to Lil Sis that Doggie belongs to Big Bro. I mean, that's how Doggie came to be called "Big Bro's Arf" in the first place. Logic is lost on an almost 2 year old.

This time there is no obvious decoy toy to avert one of the kids' attention to. Even Baby Pepper can't extinguish the fights.

But as they say, this too shall pass. Just no one buy them any more stuffed dogs please, unless perhaps if they are identical.

Works of Art - Big Bro Edition

Since Big Bro started preschool he brings home new artwork almost everyday. He also draws a lot at home too, more than he used to. There have been a few real gems that he created over the last several months... More than just scribbles, drawings I want to remember.

Here is his gallery, Big Bro, age 3.

Oct 2013: first self portrait

Fall 2013: "It's a robot and a windmill."

11/20/13: "This is my mom."

1/12/14: "This is Mommy looking up at a butterfly."

Winter 2014: I told him how to spell "Daddy" and he wrote it all by himself. Technically it's not art, but I was impressed.

2/12/14: "This is me as an owl."

2/15/14: "This is 7-7-7, when Mommy and Daddy got married. And this is me jumping over it like this!" [Then he recreated the jump]

He drew this (totally unprompted) after my husband was talking about how we got married on 7-7-07.

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Here are more that he created after the original date of this post. Most of these are from Big Bro age 4.

3/24/14: Rocket ship.

4/10/14: Firetruck 

4/13/14: L to R: Christophe, Olaf, Anna, and the big snowman throwing Olaf into the snow bank.

August, 2014: "Me and Lil Sis holding hands and jumping."

August 2014: an all color berry bush

November 13, 2014: Frosty the snowman with Sarah (from Frosty Returns) and a tiny Big Bro.

November 2014: Portrait of Daddy

December 8, 2014: butterfly and caterpillar

December 2014: Santa and a Christmas tree

December 2014

3/22/15: ferry boat with a truck, a car, and a sea gull

Copy of snake memory card

5/27/15

June 27, 2015: a person at the beach

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And now some of his art as a Kindergartener

October 2015

October 2015: a turtle made out of leaves

1/17/16: Mommy this is what the sky looked like when I woke up out this (east facing) window.

1/17/16: Mommy this is what the sky looked like when I woke up out this (southeast facing) window. There's still one star out.

1/17/16: Mommy this is what the sky looked like when Daddy got up. 😆

7/31/16: watercolor of our house

Valentine's Day

Once upon a time my boyfriend picked me up from my college campus for a weekend getaway for Valentine's Day

A few years later that same boyfriend suggested we fly to Paris. It wasn't for Valentine's Day per se, but it did coincide with the holiday so we said it was.

Predictably, since that boyfriend became my husband and we had children , Valentine's Day has been replaced with simpler gestures. Flowers, a box of chocolates, dinner out. Even that has morphed to getting Vietnamese takeout to eat at home.

This year we are all still sick from last week so putting some festive clothes on the kids was all we could muster. Nevertheless, there is so much love to celebrate!

Happy Valentine's Day!