Problem solved!

Tonight I've realized something that might eliminate a problem for me, or parents everywhere. You see, I have been challenging myself to let go of little things that bug me, and allow the world to be as it is without my having to fix it. Hard task.

One of the ways I've done this is to allow - don't laugh - the toilet paper roll to be backward. That is, paper comes out the back, not the front. Most people have a preference, or so I hope that it's not only my neurosis. Anyhow, I usually switch the roles put on backward. This week I didn't and I've gone a whole, well, maybe two days handling this quite well. Recognizing my annoyance and knowing that I can let go. Deep breath here.

But back to my realization. For some reason, as I was getting ready for bed, I thought about Graeme unraveling the toilet paper. Like every time we have a new role. With this roll, he hasn't done it and I think it's because it doesn't unravel if it's backward. I tried to spin it myself and you actually have to work hard spinning backward to unravel anything. Not as fun. (Or so I imagine for Graeme.)

Could that be an easy solution for parents everywhere? Maybe others have already noticed this, but I'm fully willing to let things be backwards. It beats having re-rolled toilet paper any day. Just shows if you open up to different ways of being, new solutions arise! And that's just with toilet paper...

Grocery Priorities

While I was spending my time planting in the front yard, I let the boys play trains and have a snack.  Gavin came outside after a while to show me his shopping list.  It reads as follows: 

1.  Car Feed (as you know, all of the toy cars and trains in our house have to be fed real people food or they get grumpy)

2. Pistachios

3. Letter Cheezits  (Scrabble Junior Cheezits, clever marketing)

4. Candy

5. Alphabet Soup

I need to train him to take inventory of the pantry and write the actual shopping list.  

Update in Pictures

In the past week or so, I've written many posts for you, but unfortunately, none of them have actually been extracted from my brain.  So, this is my attempt at a synopsis of what we've been up to.  The famous, or not-so-famous, catch up through pictures.  Here goes:

First, garden and starts:

The seeds I started indoors are doing quite well.  I'm thinking I should probably replant them before they get too big - particularly the cucumbers because they will start twining around themselves and then be useless.

Here are some of the tomato starts.  There are a bunch as nearly all have survived.  They are tiny, but last year even the tiny starts ended up producing fruit, so we'll see.  They make me smile every morning nonetheless.

Here are the new plants the boys and I chose for the front yard.  Below are some "bumblebee flowers" which we all thought were too cute to pass up.  Hopefully, everything will survive my mediocre watering habits in the summer and grow in beautifully.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the backyard flower bed.  It looks even better now as the tulips have bloomed... however, the point of the picture was to acknowledge that the clover won the battle. I was going to try to weed it out, but then thought there might be a better use of my time.

Novelty picture of the lupine coming up in the backyard.  I love the way rainwater just bubbles in the center of the leaves.  This is but one of the ten or so pictures I took.  Luckily for you, I just posted one.

And the war begins... slugs beware.

Aww... cute little bird at the bird feeder.  We put this up about three weeks ago and the birds love it.  And we love the birds.  I was wondering, however, why there were some many sprouts coming up in my garden. Things I did not plant.  It didn't take long to figure it out; my all-knowing neighbor had warned me.  The birds apparently like to share their seeds with the garden.  Needless to say, we'll have a lot of sunflowers.  (And who knows what else will pop up!)

Oh well, how about that!  The whole post and all of the pictures have been about the yard or garden.  (You can tell it is Spring!)  Yes, I do have the boys to talk about.  They enjoyed the chocolate eggs at Easter and wore cute little vests that they'd never wanted to wear before.  Both Gavin and Graeme are very busy.  Gavin's brain does not stop.  Ever.  And Graeme hangs right in.  Can you recognize what their newest drawing obsession is?  They've drawn out quite elaborate schemes...

Graeme's Routine

Everyone has a morning bathroom routine. For some, things take a few minutes. Others allow their activities to fill whatever time they have. It occurred to me this morning as I looked at a pile of unraveled toilet paper, that I should document Graeme's routine. Because he enjoys his time in the bathroom, he repeats this routine in whole and part throughout the day as time and supervision (or lack thereof) allow.

This is what happens upon my saying, "Graeme go potty!"

Step 1: Go potty.
Step 2: Play with related anatomy.
Step 3: Get off potty and hop the length of bathroom with pants around ankles.
Step 4: Hop back to tissue and pull up pants. Maybe.
Step 5: Unravel tissue, but save a few squares on the roll in case it is needed.
Step 6: Wash hands.
Step 7: Pick up soap and draw road with fingernail.
Step 8: Replace soap and rinse hands.
Step 9: Fill cup of water.
Step 10: Take sip. Dump rest in sink.
Step 11: Repeat step 10 as necessary.
Step 12: Draw roads on counter with water spilt.
Step 13: Dry counter with hand towel.
Step 14: Give hand towel a bath.
Step 15: Dry hands on clean towels on shelf.

You'd be surprised at how remarkably quick most of these steps can happen. And, if you happen to come over for a visit, you'll know why the soap looks chewed on.

Looking Forward

Even though it is raining, I'm still thinking about Spring.

The boys and I have been in the garden working in the compost and planting some early crops. (Saying "crops" makes me feel like a farmer.)  We all were very pleased with this year's compost. Though still not perfect, it looked WAY better than last year and the boys loved playing with all the worms. Gross, I know.  (They did wash their hands after.)

With any luck, the seeds we planted last week - carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and beets - will enjoy this wacky rain/sun weather we have and produce yummy salad fixings. Craig laughed at me when I thought I should water before we left for the weekend; I just consider myself ever hopeful that our weather will warm up.

Thanks to our neighbor who loaned us her greenhouse, we have quite the grow-op indoors as well.  We have four types of cucumbers, six kinds of tomatoes, assorted flowers, basil, and a few peppers growing. They are all tiny, but hopefully they will survive their laundry room life to transplant in April or May. I am very excited for the garden, some sunshine, and the enthusiasm of my well meaning helpers.

We ventured to Flower World in Maltby yesterday to buy some plants for the front yard as well.  Once everything is planted, I'll post pictures so you can see what one of my paychecks buys.  Hee, hee.

Growing Appreciation

Tonight, I've had a revelation of sorts and had to share.  You see, I'm a person that likes things to be fairly tidy and put together.  In a perfect world, my home and car would always be clean and clutter-free.  Not so, however, day-to-day.  But I have come across a secret that I think, in my younger days, I may have dismissed as cheating or a less than optimal solution to one's problems.

We had people coming over last week and, in an effort to create a more cozy environment, I ran around cleaning up spots that had attracted piles of books and papers of various importance.  I knew what was in the piles, for the most part - no bills or anything.  My secret?  I put the pile, with all the guilt it embodies, in the back room!  Out of sight to be dealt with later.

Yes, I know this really isn't a secret as everyone does sometimes with things they mean to do when they have time.  But you know what?  I like it!  I'm growing to appreciate the virtues of well played procrastination.  Not that I'll make it a new habit or anything, as things get out of hand quickly.  My psyche, however, now approves of the quick fix.  No longer do I need to stare at the pile every night knowing I "should" be taking care of it.  It'll get done eventually.

Totally acceptable.
 

Mischief Brewing

My parents have introduced Gavin and Graeme to their new role models: Calvin and Hobbes.  Since I mentioned that Gavin had taken interest in some comic type books at the library, they sent along a few collections of Calvin adventures for Gavin to read.  He's hooked.  This is great in the sense that he's reading something he enjoys and gets exposed to some pretty hard vocabulary.  There is, however, a down side in that they get introduced to a lot of other words that they quite enjoy: "World Class Poophead" and the like.

It's not that they haven't heard things like this before, and I'm choosing to see it as an opportunity for conversations now rather than when they hear the words from kids at school in the Fall.  Most of all though, they stay entertained while I'm making dinner.  Can't beat that.  And I hear this laughter frequently, which also makes the heart smile:

They've also been busy still playing with words.  They'll make up "word search games" and recently I was surprised to see them playing a game called "find the letter".  For a little background, usually when I'm taking a shower, the boys get into everything they aren't supposed to... well, snacks and craft supplies.  (Graeme in particular enjoyed making "snow" from some Styrofoam balls that were in the craft bag.  Ugh.)  This day, unlike others, I found them playing in the school room and having a great time.  The game consisted of scribbling on the chalk board as crazy as they could, then the other child would try to find a letter (or something that resembled a letter) in the mess.  Then they'd write it up top and make a word out of it (like "pig, "cat", etc.).  I was impressed.  And now I can see that Gavin REALLY needs kindergarten.  He might just teach the class; he does quite well with Graeme as his student.

Tonight they were quiet again and, though I wondered what they were up to, I didn't dare disturb them.  After about 20 minutes (enough time for me to read a magazine and have a glass of wine - good mummy), they emerged with these:

This is, according to Graeme, a diesel electric #1 engine.  You can see the "#1" even though the shape is somewhat questionable.  Gavin cut this out for him, but he drew it... not too shabby.

 
Gavin came out with Harvey, who is the crane engine on the Thomas the Train series.  He's written Harvey, minus the "e", and has a cute little hook and everything.  I was impressed again.  Then they made little beds for their trains and put them to bed in their rooms.  I'm sure they'll want cereal in the morning too.  Trains and cars are still quite hungry around here.