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What Will You Do Today With Your Boredom?
Adapted from my newspaper column. I am bored. If there is any mantra that epitomizes summer with children, that phrase is it. As their mother, the words send me into a tailspin. Childhood should be happy, joyful, and adventurous. Not boring. What can I do to pull them out of this distressing state? My suggestions yield little fruit. “I don’t want to do that.†By the time the kids are done nixing my propositions, I feel just as bored as they do. Signing them up for yet another summer camp becomes appealing. But what would I be depriving them of if I rushed to fill those empty hours? Kids have…
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World’s Greatest Crumble
When you put together the simple ingredients for this crumble, you’ll think, “Ho hum…nothing special about this, but a great way to serve up this week’s bountiful supply of berries.” Then, when you take your first bite, you’ll check to see if maybe a little elfin showed up in your kitchen, when you weren’t looking, and added some caramel, or vanilla, or … something. You’ll check the ingredients again on the recipe, and you’ll scratch your head, trying to remember if you didn’t add anything else than the required amount of flour, oats and sugar. Maybe it was brown sugar you added instead? Something happens when you cook this crumble.…
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All I Need Is A Net and a Pole
On Saturday night, Dad took the canoe out, with the little boys, to trek over to the lily pads. The frogs are so loud across the lake — they don’t give a hoot who might be trying to sleep. He always plans to do this, but with all the repairs, chores and cleaning up, it rarely happens. So, he just decided it was now or never…. even if it was almost midnight when they left. I only asked that they brush their teeth before they left. Dad was no match for his little sly frog catcher, who knows that “frogs can’t see from the side — you have have to…
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storms have kept me away
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The Storm Had Yet To Start
There was a strong wind, around 16 mph, and the sun was shining brightly. It was hot — the hot humid heavy heat that those winds could not blow off our chests. The seconds started to become filled as if they were minutes around 3 in the afternoon, when I heard a bang, a crash and then a tumble. Funny, how, after listening to enough kid-imposed disasters, I’m keen to the fact that if there is not silence after the first bang, then it is not a kid-induced bang. Because kids have an instinct to know that if anything makes a noise – they quit “before mom comes.†So, this…
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How Long Before School Starts Again?
I’m writing this at 2 in the afternoon — just after I finished my first meal of the day — a bowl of Go Lean Crunch (with the flax seeds) and my morning cup of tea. I’m saving the shake (with kale from my garden, for later.) My second full day of summer vacation, without my husband, at the lake. I am a bit exhausted. Already. Grant it — life at the lake is harder than life in the city — no dishwasher, no microwave, no TV, no garbage disposal, and generally it’s just not convenient to run out and get something when you need it. But so far today…
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The One That Really Got Away
See more great shots at Tracey’s Best Shot Monday.
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So, How’s It Going in Your Car?
He was ahead of me by about 2 hours, with the two little boys. There were lots of storms, purple lightning touching the ground — sheets of rain. So, I called him to ask how the weather was ahead of us, and to make sure they were all right. He said, “We’re doing just Great. One of them just used my Gatorade bottle to fill his squirt gun…. and he used it on me.” He didn’t even have to tell me who that was.
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But, You Just Got Here
Kids do grow up too fast — and something needs to be done about it. It’s stressful. It’s sad. And it’s just downright jarring to my sensibilities to walk into a room to see kids grow long legs and mature faces practically overnight. OK… maybe it was three years, or five years — but it doesn’t feel like years. It seems like moments. And its unsettling. It’s frightening. Not enough time to enjoy them at each stage they’re in — because they keep moving up. I don’t think the kids like it either. They are just as bewildered as me. They day went like this: 7:00 Breakfast…get boys ready for…
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