Author: Jo Bird

game night

/ Jo Bird / 5 Comments

We had a pretty quiet weekend around here. Saturday night we played games with the boys. Games with a four year old and two year old can be a bit tedious. Of course interspersed with the torturous monotony there are moments of hilarity, but generally speaking the pleasure is all theirs.

Halfway through the first round of Candyland Richard suggested that we rig the cards. Those who have played know the frustration that comes with drawing the gingerbread card when you are within reach of Candy Castle. He said that if we rigged them once and never shuffled we would be free of such bad luck. But I insisted that we play honestly. On principle.

We feel bad about our impatience with our two year old who still can’t quite identify colors and our four year old who has a trouble following the sequence of the rainbow trail. Combine those factors with their short attention spans and it is a disaster for the nerves. Can any other parents relate?

By the time we got to Cootie I was willing to compromise a little on the rules for the sake of expediency. Eli was getting bored.

Yeah, that’s right. It was for Eli’s sake.

if only I were that clever

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The other day when I titled my post something about Big Bird I seemed to have misled some readers. If only I were that clever to introduce my pregnant self as Big Bird. I AM a big Bird these days. After seeing this expectant Jersey cow at the fair I decided I would quit saying I feel like a cow. She looked so huge and miserable. I’ve got it easy compared to her. Seven pounds? Bring it on. Her offspring will likely weigh more than my four year old.

domesticity gone trendy?

/ Jo Bird / 10 Comments

Harvest time has hit the blog universe. I saw that everyone was freezing corn and decided I had to do it too. Is it just me or are these domestic pursuits (canning, gardening, knitting) making a comeback? Maybe we can blame it on “these tough economic times” or maybe stay-at-homers are looking for better ways to spend their time and relieve the guilt associated with our facebook addictions. In any case, I find these pursuits very gratifying for many reasons.

One reason being that I’ve read research that concludes that children involved in the production of their food are much more likely to eat it. (Particularly helpful in the vegetable category.) So I had the boys help me husk the corn.

Another reason is that the flavor of homegrown produce has a superior quality, even after freezing or canning. And without the preservatives, BONUS.

I was lucky to get a great deal on this corn, making it an economical blessing as well.

And then of course I’ve said over and over that hard work pays dividends in the form of self-worth. And hard work it was! I was feeling pretty good about myself when my head hit the pillow.

smorgasbord

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments
It’s that time again. Time for wranglers and Pronto Pups. Time for smelly petting zoos and scantily dressed women. We did however, manage to avoid the cigarette smoke and drunken fools by attending the fair on “Family Night”. I love the fair. I love that rich and poor and folks from all walks of life can all enjoy a funnel cake just the same. And I boy do I love me some funnel cake.

This year I wised up and bought tickets online in advance so that we could afford to let the boys ride the rides without dipping into our retirement.
What my last post lacked in pictures I will compensate for in this post.

When I was pregnant with Cameron we lived in Pocatello and we went to the Eastern Idaho Fair. I emptied Richard’s wallet by eating everything my heart (and tongue) desired. He commented that he would never take a pregnant lady to the fair again.

Clearly I’ve persuaded him otherwise. Perhaps because with our third child he has learned “What pregnant lady wants, pregnant lady gets.” What did I want this go around? Hawaiian teryaki chicken, french fries, lemonade, caramel apple, funnel cake and ice cream potato.

returned from the hills

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments
I borrowed this picture from my mother-in-law.
We spent three days camping over the weekend. It was great. I forgot my camera. I had mixed feelings of being frustrated not being able to capture moments by photograph and being relieved to not worry about capturing the moments. Here’s my top 10 favorite things about the trip.

10. Starry nights and sunny days.
9. Hours of swimming with the little guys.
8. The softball sized bullfrog that would hop around the campground at night.
7. Night swimming. (Yes, I realized during that it probably wasn’t safe.)
6. Devoting a couple late night hours to speculating about the national guard helicopter doing spotlight searches and the Sheriff’s boat doing “random patrols” around the lake. We were sure they were looking for either a dead body or an escaped convict. Neither, it turns out.
5. Having a major comeback playing Ticket to Ride with Richard. (Or just playing a dozen games of TTR with Richard. The winning was a bonus.)
4. Dutch oven cooking.
3. Feeling like the stalls in the marina restroom were swaying after spending so much time on the boat.
2. Watching Richard, in his element, on the waterski.
1. Of course, just watching pure delight on the boys’s faces as they expolored, played, and swam.

And now I bring you: BIG BIRD

/ Jo Bird / 6 Comments
It’s random sometimes the things that delight children. This month for our card swap the theme was kid’s birthday and so I made a card featuring characters from Sesame Street. Cameron loved them and all while I was working on the cards he asked if he could have one. So when I finished I made a set for him and for Eli and glued them to popsicle sticks. (I love it when my pack-rat habit of saving things like popsicles sticks is justified!)

Althought I think Sesame Street beats Caillou and Dragon Tales in cleverness and humor by a landslide, it isn’t exactly Cameron’s favorite. He was familiar with Elmo (thanks to consumerism) but the other three were new to him. So I put the boys on my lap and we watched Oscar the Grouch sing about trash and “C is for Cookie” featuring the Cookie Monster himself on YouTube.

I just love YouTube. For many reasons. But today I loved it that I could introduce the boys to some of childhood’s timeless characters with the click of a mouse.

blame it on the times

/ Jo Bird / 2 Comments

During the week away with my family my brother blamed all things gone wrong on “these tough economic times”. While I don’t mean to be insensitive to the issue, I have become a little irritated with the way the media has exploited the situation. But it seems “these tough economic times” have turned even Eli into a penny-pincher. You’ll notice, if you look closely, a dime inside the envelope. He wripped the envelope to pieces trying to get the “key” out. (“Key” is his term for money.)

Who sends money in the mail? The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society does – amongst other charitable foundations. I donated once, and it used to be that they could guilt me into more donations by mailing me personalized return address labels with pumpkins or lilacs on them. They are always seasonal and how they expect me to go through 50 scarecrow labels in the appropriate time period for scarecrows is beyond me.

But now they have upped the ante. Apparently people were okay with accepting free labels without donating. They started with a nickel, but now they are sending a dime in the envelope with the labels. I suppose it is meant to make you feel as though you are stealing $0.10 from this noble organization if you don’t return the dime along with your donation.

For someone as prone to guilt as I, I am surprised it hasn’t worked. Must be “these tough economic times”.

Oh well. Eli has saved about $0.35 now. That’s more than enough to ride the mechanical horse at the local grocery store.

warnings

/ Jo Bird / 2 Comments

Yesterday while making my second stop at the gas station in one hour (a story for another post) I noticed this:

Gasoline Health Warning:
Do not siphon gasoline by mouth.

I usually assume that these warnings are posted as the result of a lawsuit, where someone did something stupid and found a way to pass the blame and make a small fortune in the process.
But I was sure that no one out there would do something that ridiculous.

I was discussing it with Richard and my in-laws and they informed me that, in fact, people have and possibly continue to do such a thing.

Wow.

scripture power

/ Jo Bird / 3 Comments
The neighbor boys brought over a couple spidey chairs that they had either tired of or grown out of. Cameron and Eli were thrilled. I told them they were perfect for sitting on and reading. (I get my reading plugs in where I can.)
I had a moment of self-righteous glee when I discovered that their choice of reading material was the Book of Mormon. It was Tuesday and Cameron has become especially interested in his scriptures on Tuesdays when the JW’s come because he sees us read from the Bible. Last week I felt a little awkward when he grabbed his Book of Mormon, sat next to me on the couch and opened it up as though he intended to participate in our discussion. But in their usual kindness, they just smiled and encouraged his interest in scriptures.
I love the way Eli crosses his ankles like that!

After perusing the few pictures in the book, Cameron brought his book to me and asked about this picture.

I told him that it was Moroni burying the plates. He asked “For the people to eat on?” Thank Heavens no one served any meals on those plates.

meal time

/ Jo Bird / 5 Comments
The other day I had an insight. Eli is a very messy eater and I was particularly frustrated with this problem one day when a voice said to me “Aren’t you his mother?”

Up to this point I had always just accepted that Eli’s terrible meal-time habits were just a part of him. That’s Eli, he’s just messy. It never occurred to me that I could instigate some sort of change in his behavior, and it certainly never occurred to me that as his mother I was responsible to do so.

So at lunchtime today I resolved to sit at the table with the boys during lunch and teach them manners. It went like this:

“Don’t eat until we say the prayer. Don’t put your fingers in your drink. Your food must stay on the plate. The plate must stay on the table. Don’t get up from your chair until you’ve been excused. Don’t wipe your face with your shirt. Please eat with your utensils and not your fingers. Don’t crumble your crackers. Don’t slurp your noodles.”

Then it dawned on me, the obvious truth. You can’t expect to teach children these things in one meal. The fact that Eli’s habits were more my fault than his became suddenly apparent to me. At breakfast time I usually feed them and then eat my breakfast alone so I can read. I typically fix their lunch and then eat mine in front of the computer. Dinner time is better, we usually eat as a family. But when Richard is out of town I sit at the table only long enough to finish my own meal and then proceed to the sink where the dishes await.

From now on, or at least until meal-time manners improve, it’s three meals a day at the kitchen table for the three of us. As juvenile as the conversations may be, I know quiet meals are just one of those things that I gave up when I decided to have children.

I know. It’s worth it.