Hardly a Holiday Hiatus

 

We are in that subtle lull between the holidays of Christmas and the New Year.  Christmas this year similar to the last couple has lasted about a week and a half and ended in full exhaustion and only minor colds from depleted immune systems.  The Christmas tree made its exit yesterday morning and again I wonder why I allow such things in the house and quickly remember it is because Sophia wants it.  The tree this year was so dry I was afraid that the heat from the LED lights would be enough to turn the whole house into a blaze.  They are truly some botanical version of solidified gasoline.  But alas, Sophia wants a real tree and not an artificial one so a real tree it is.  This years tree looked quite awful by the time it was taken to the back yard and left for the birds, it was missing so many needles that it appeared to have some version of pine mange.  Tree disposal aside we have been busy.  Christmas gift came and went and it appears that this year's hit was small tub of bath drops that change the color of the water.  We are currently filling colored water into latex gloves and hanging them outside so that they freeze like big hand pops, so we will be all set when the packy/snowman snow arrives.  Plenty of down time on the couch but also getting outside a lot as well.  The kids have really taken to cross country skiing, it is clearly in their Nordic blood and yesterday we were able to do about a two mile loop.  Sophia's boot laces needed to be replaced but fortunately she had a spare pink set in her bedroom that fit just fine for her three-pin boots.  Merrick is using learner skis that strap right to his boots.  I am already thinking next year I will get them upgraded equipment as it is just a great way to spend some time outside during these months.  Yesterday was also "National cut-out snowflake" day, so we made sure to show our patriotism and fill the kitchen floor with paper scraps and the windows with lacey flakes.  Today Sophia has a friend over and while they were playing "summer" she thought it was a good idea to pose in the snow and grin past the incoming cold--life with Dad--I thought it was a great idea too.  Later this afternoon I think we are off to the water park for some splashing and water slides as well as completing our newest science experiment.  Merrick received a "Gross Science" kit for Christmas which includes petri dishes, so this morning we prepped the petri dishes.  We are going to culture his armpits and between his toes before we swim and then again after soaking in the chlorinated pool and showering--again life with Dad.

Break even or Breaking bad?

 

 
The hour is upon us for both the winter solstice and the overhyped retroprophicized end of the world.  The last several weeks have left us much more interested in the solstice.  Rebirth and new growth as a function of self-reflection is in the air, although given the amount of green grass still showing in the yard we are having trouble even putting last year to bed.  The kids and I spent a little time ringing the bells at the local grocery store and they both had a great time singing jingle bells as loud as they could.  Jingle bells was the only song that each of them knew and it turns out they really only knew enough of the song to get people through the foyer, but that was enough to collect plenty of money for the Armies of Salvation.  Merrick was in charge of the paint stick to push the dollars deep into the pot, while Sophia handled the bell duties.  The tree is decorated and the lights are strung outside and the anticipation of opening gifts is showing on the faces of the kids.  We were a little late on finding the advent calendars but the kids were fine with the delay when I told them that they would have to eat the first 6 chocolates to get caught up.  Today is their Christmas sing at school and as I type both Grandprize and the great grandpa are on their way over to spend the day watching the kids sing and play their recorders.  Merrick is finishing up his soccer, but I think he is then done until the outside season starts up in the spring.  Sophia is still dancing and Merrick and I have taken to dropping her off at the studio and then hitting the coffee shop for tea or hot chocolate were we sit around and talk while playing poker or black jack.  I am finding it a really fun thing for him and I to do.  Sophia also has a dance routine that she is performing tonight during the half-time show of the local high school basketball game.  A big and busy day for the kids, but that is how the holidays roll.  The presents are bought and wrapped and with the commercialism out of the way, the kids have become quite reflective on the great items of importance in life, I couldn't be more proud of them. The kids are doing well in school, happy and healthy, I could ask for no more.

week of changes

 Mother nature was right on cue with the changing seasons, the week started off in the high fifties and sixties and Thanksgiving night ushered in a 30 degree drop in temps and the years first snow.  The kids both had their teacher conferences and they went as expected. Both of them are adjusting well to the knew school and seem to have healthy groups of friends. Dance was cancelled as was soccer for this week, so we had some extra time to hang out.  This of course really means that we had more evenings to play poker.  However given the midweek drive back to EC for Thanksgiving and the mild weather, we decided to stop along the way for some deer hunting.  Wednesday afternoon we made it to the woods about 2:45 and put on our blaze gear.  I don't think we were in the woods for more than 4 minutes when 5 does came running right to us.  I was carrying Sophia's little 20 gauge and pulled up on the lead doe, but click, the safety was still on.  Even with all those deer around as they started to scatter I didn't have a clean shot at any of them.  It was still a good lesson for the kids in that it is better to miss a shot because your safety is on than to walk around dangerously with it off.  We spent about an hour and half leaning against a tree but the didn't see any more deer and I thought the kids sat very well for their respective ages.  Sophia opted to not go out on Thanksgiving day morning with the rest of us, but instead hung out with Aunt Becky and grandma for some toe painting and pink hair dye.  The House was alive with all the cousins and Aunt Toot showed up to play kick the can with the kids for more than an hour while the rest of the adults ate pie and chatted after the Thanksgiving day meal.  Friday found us at the Museum for a few hours and then some well deserved naps for everyone, before an evening of Turkey soup and cards at the round table.  Saturday was a drive home and the kids were exhausted and the rhythmic rubber on concrete quickly put them to sleep.  Merrick sleeping the whole way home.  Accumulated snow this morning when we woke up, so there is shoveling and snowmen to add to the days list of domestic requirements as we begin to retool for the upcoming week and shift gears towards the Christmas season.  This morning does require us to bake 3 batches of brownies for Sophia's science project.  We are going to test the effect of eggs and the brownie density.  Seemed more of a learning opportunity than a volcano and fitting of a caloric season.

Smiles of Late Fall

 
Only 3 in the afternoon but the grey light of late fall makes it look like the end of the day.  The temperatures are not rare, but at least uncommon for November, with mid fifties and even a warm rain, that feels more like spring than fall.  We have stayed busy regardless of the weather and just now have got back into the house with the kids' clothes soaked from rain and gutter rain off.  We started with a backyard fire, but as the drizzle became a downpour I headed into the house and the kids ran to the front of the house to build gutter dams with leaves.  They will dry and their laughter will become future memories.  Saturday was filled with some domestic chores including finding some dress clothes for Merrick and acceptable shoes for Sophia, for the symphony that evening.  Merrick had indoor soccer, but spent most of his time, chasing, being chased and generally showing off for a girl that is in his class as well as in soccer team and after school program.  I met her dad, and even he laughed at their conjoined amoeba style of soccer.  Sophia had a friend over to play for a few hours while Merrick slept.  The evening was spent at the symphony, clearly a change for us but I suspect a new variation of entertainment for our evenings.  The symphony was playing movie themes, including multiple Star Wars songs.  The opening song was the Star wars theme song and I am not sure if the wide eyes and grins on both the kids at the music or my perma-grin at the kids was more memorable.  While both kids loved the music, the sandman ultimately beat Merrick and Sophia agreed to leave only if we could go back without Merrick to see one of the Christmas shows.  Our seats were phenomenal front and center in the fourth row.  Sophia herself was sleeping five minutes after arriving back home.  Sunday brought the a birthday party for Sophia (Packers bye week) so Merrick and I were on our own to build a deer cart, eat ice cream at the local deli, make some chocolate cookies as well as play at the park for awhile in the nice temperatures.  We are going to make some corn muffins and generally warm up from an afternoon outside.  Merrick from the shower just said, "my hands have to feel like normal hands before I can wash myself."

Fall Forms of Fun and Fantasy

Leaf Piles, hunting, pumpkin carving and even some lost teeth to round out a couple weeks of fun. The yard mostly waited until one final sweep this year, we were too busy doing other things to worry about he leaves piling up, but they did kindly wait for us.  We raked large piles and the kids wrestled in the leaves as kids are supposed to do before we spread the leaves over the garden and blanketed it for the approaching winter.  It has been a good fall but with November here it is time to change our mindset the very real possibility of winter.  We were able to spend some time in EC with the cousins and even managed to carve some pumpkins on a cool afternoon.  The pumpkins, I understand, eventually were devoured by the neighborhood deer, but the carving was fun.  We also were able to take a midweek hunt and headed into the Oconto early one morning.  The kids had their BB guns and were searching for chipmunks and red squirrels that were so plentiful  a couple of weeks prior.  With the storm clouds rolling in we were quickly sidetracked by an oak that was such a perfect climbing tree that we had to dangle on its limbs before heading home.  Sophia dropped her hat on the way to the tree, and as a homage to Grandprize I tossed her hat into the air and blasted the brim off of it with the 20 gauge.  No worries, however she had a new hat by the following evening.  Merrick tore out his first tooth, after I told him it was a little loose and maybe in a week or so it would come out.  He didn't have that kind of time and ripped it out at the supper table in about 8 minutes instead.  Tossing it on the table and matter of factly saying, "Here is my tooth."  Halloween has come and gone although our pumpkins are still guarding the front door for another night.  Sophia was running from house to house as we trick or treated and Merrick was hip to that idea but his interest waned inversely with the amount of candy in his bucket.  Merrick is back at soccer on Saturday mornings, and the birthday party season is also approaching while Sophia is dancing during the week.  We are staying busy and Sophia and I have taken to evening tea after Merrick is in bed are having some great conversations.

Soggy weekend but bright smiles

 

Pretty slow week as the rain continues to dream of being piled like snow.  Fortunately the rain was not snow as we had over 3 inches of rain during a three-day soaking rain.  We stayed busy albeit mostly indoor events.  We did have to cancel our camping plans, but that too was clearly for the best.  We played some cards and lady luck was shining on Sophia and when Merrick finally thought he had a winning hand of three aces, Sophia came snarffed up the pot with a straight.  The kids brought pumpkins home from their Friday afternoon field trip and after soaking them in the rain on Saturday, they were able to gut and carve them on Sunday.  We did try to roast some of the seeds, but unfortunately they dumped off the cookie sheet and spilled all over the preheated oven.  Saturday Sophia did don all her rain gear and go pick the last of the chocolate mint in the flower beds.  She has been using it for evening tea and given the massive amount that she picked we also decide she should take a mint tea bath.  We piled a large amount of mint into an old nylon and steeped it in her bath.  It was a quality menthol type pore cleansing bath, perfect for a rainy afternoon.  The rainy weekend was interspersed with some cooking including ginger cookies and banana bread.  We also added (and by we I mean Sophia and I) garlic sauteed octopus to our gustatory digressions.  This is not a smell that leaves a closed up house very easily.  We did have a couple of nerf gun fights, a requirement.  Sophia had noticed that all the girl spies in the movies are well dressed so so had to wear her dress and carry her extra, actually all, bullets in her matching clutch purse.  Then grandma Nancy came over for a couple of days to go to school with the kids.  They had grandparents' day on consecutive days so the fortunate kids were able to have grandma around and go to school with them.  Everyone seemed to pretty smile despite the rain.

Just more reasons to smile

Each week brings a new form of entertainment or a least a new spin on an old favorite.  We started the week with the completion of a project we started the weekend before, locker shelves.  The kids have lockers at their new school and it took me longer than it should have to realize that they were going to need locker shelves.  We spent some time in the garage making shelving units for their books, shoes and assorted 'things."  As long as I was going to help them put the shelves in, we also cut the handles off some cheap mirrors and used some mounting tape to stick them to their locker doors.  Rounding off the feng-shu challenged decor was a collection of pictures I printed out for each of them from the past summer.  Decorating their lockers was really pretty fun, and it was a gas watching Merrick check his hair in his mirror--he won't even comb it at home.  The apples that Merrick and I picked the previous weekend had lost their crispness and appeal and were going to be better served in frozen storage until Thanksgiving for pies.  Both kids helped core and slice the apples and we easily bagged enough for two pies.  Merrick also tried his hand at reloading shotgun shells, in reality he was just depriming about 600 hulls, but the job was done either way. Sunday morning we headed to the Oconto for some squirrel hunting.  Neither kid chose to bring their BB gun, which proved a poor decision, as the woods was crawling with chipmunks.  I don't think we were ever out of sight of a chipmunk and while Sophia was putting a well planned stalk on a red squirrel, Merrick and I were in a stare down battle with a chipmunk that was only about 5 feet away.  All of them would have been quality BB gun hunting, but only served as a starter topic on sportsmanship when carrying a 20 gauge.  We hiked and sat, hiked and sat.  The kids sat quietly looking for squirrels and whittling with their pocket knives. We napped in front of a late afternoon Packer's game and then headed down to the bike trail to catch what is likely the last batch of free-range grasshoppers for Mitch.  With the cool temperatures the grass hoppers were easy pickings and I think we came home with nearly 30 of them to feed our resident dragon.  Friday night we also tried our hand at survival fires.  We each had a 'firestick' which is an industrially created version of flint and steel.  We made sparks like crazy but in the end we didn't get a fire going.  Not a bad thing to practice however.

Falling into a Routine

Fall is here, full in teeth and mouth.  The leaves are changing, the air is crisp and the sweaters and fleeces are no longer a stylish statement but a requirement to chase away the chill in the air.  We spent some time early in the week refinishing a curb-picked desk.  Power tools and eager child labor is no match for sixty year old varnish.  We finished restaining and varnishing the desk on Saturday and had it all moved into place by Sunday morning.  Saturday afternoon was a good time for us to get out for some squirrel hunting.  Merrick had his BB gun and Sophia carried my 20 gauge for most of the trip.  We hunted the oaks given the large amount of acorns on the forest floor and spent several fifteen minute increments just sitting quietly and still with our back against big trees hoping for a chance at a gray squirrel.  Alas, we saw none, but still took a couple of shots at some stray cans near where we parked the car.  Sophia was able to shoot the 20 gauge, but it gave her a small raspberry on her arm.  We returned for a brief nap before heading to some friends house for a meal and play time.  Sunday was spent working on fly tying and the domestic chores of grocery shopping, although the latter also required some breakfast pastries.  All of these activities wore Merrick out enough to ask to take a nap in the hammock.  Beautiful day to curl in under the warmth of a blanket and let the cool fall breezes rock you to sleep.  Sophia headed to a friends house for a while, and Merrick and I hit the orchard to pick some apples.  The apple crop took a beating this year, but we still found enough to fill our bag.  Having a "Merrick Monkey" to get the hard to reach apples is a benefit.  Most will get eaten, but we will peel up some to freeze for a Thanksgiving pie.  We did put the apples on the counter and pushed them aside to make room to make a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for this week's lunches and snacks.  As the weekend comes to an end we start getting ready for the new routines of fall that now include Monday evening dance classes for Sophia.  We are all always on our toes now.

Catchin' critters and Catchin' up

 

Today was the first day in the new season, the season of routines.  Merrick and Sophia are both back at school full time, and loving it.  Merrick is very happy about going to his new school and Sophia is settling in nicely and proudly tells me about her new friends.  According to her it only took her one day to part of the popular group.  Group survival starts early in life.  Merrick was proud that he was invited to a birthday party although he seemed a little unclear about the persons name, date or location of the party.  Hot lunch has been a big hit for both of them.  Last weekend was the first weekend after the start of school, albeit Merrick had a  much altered week.  Friday night we crashed and just tried to recharge after all the scheduling changes that back to school brings, although we were able to sneak out to the compost site and watch some of the quasi-tame and massively antlered white-tails munch on the produce of gardens past. We also hit a thrift sale on the way home in which we came very close to buying a stainless steel and brass viking helmet complete with real bull horns attached.  It was pretty cool, but not enough for use to part with twenty-five dollars.  Saturday morning we were back in the "steel-tent" and cruising for new deals and treasures.  Sophia scooped up a porceilin doll and Merrick grabbed an etch-a-sketch and we were back home in time for some domestic cleaning.  With our work done we headed down to the river with a bucket of worms and spent a couple hours catching fish.  The kids were catching gobies (a great lakes invasive) as well as stripped and small mouthed bass.  I was mostly catching stickfish.  There is a new bridge that is now open near our fishing hole so we were able to walk across that and watch the boats come through the locks.  Future plans for the bridge include a large pier to extend into the river channel for walleye fishing, so we are looking forward to the completion of that phase of the project.  As is so typical for this area there are always the sound of live music near by and Saturday afternoon was no different, we found a large stage with a cover band playing and stomped our feet for a couple of songs in the diminishing summer sun.  Sunday found us entertaining a friend of sophia's while Merrick and I putz around the backyard.  We caught one of the foundation digging chipmunks and spent a great deal of time playing frisbee golf, driveway hockey and tomato ball.  Tomato ball is pretty much the latest craze around here and completely a benefit of the summer drought.  The tomatoes, and most of the rest of the garden vegetables, are too small and green to pick--however they are perfect for batting practice.  Merrick cracks the heck out of him and given that some of the spray lands in his mouth I can count it as part of his vegetable intake.

Going, Going, Gone....

 

 
We fought the good fight to keep summer alive in these waning days before the academics begin again.  We burned up the last of our tickets at Bay Beach on Monday and I suspect it will be one of our last trips there as the kids are either getting too big or their expectations are for the rides.  We still hit a couple of the larger rides but after a couple of laps we head home, unlike the "old days" when we could spend three or four hours there with my fingers blistering from tearing off 25 cent tickets and them giggling on yet another variation of a circle ride.  But alas, Bay Beach gives way to new venues of entertainment.  We spent some time in Two Rivers at the Kite over Lake Michigan event.  It was way cool with massive kites some of which had to be greater than thirty feet across and multitudes of others that could have easily lifted me into the air and both kids.  There was also groups of performance kiters which sounds like an SNL skit until you see it and which point it is very impressive what these people can do given the unpredictability of the wind.  Amidst amateur kites costing several hundreds of dollars and exhibition kites of Jellyfish,  Koi and Dragons that had to be in excess of thousands of dollars, we flew our dollar kites and had a blast doing it.  Merrick's kite did break loose one time, but either fortunately or unfortunately there where so many other kites in the air that his string quickly entangled in the string of another kite and we were able to cut it free and get it airborne again.  Some time during the week, we stuffed cornish game hens with wild rice and Merrick buried his face wolf style into the grill fresh fowl.  He keeps telling me it is his new favorite meal--time will tell. At some point during the week it was decided that we need a formal dinner (I suspect Sophia was the impetus of this decidsion) so we all dressed up before dinner time and ate with out pinkies out--although Merrick and I did go with the Angus Young approach of ties and shorts.  We did hit the thrift sale circuit on Saturday morning, and while Sophia didn't find any treasures, Merrick had some coin burning a hole in his pocket.  At our first stop bought a 25 cent shelf and then a couple of stuffed animals at the next. As we went to get out of the car at the third stop he proclaimed that he wasn't going to spend any more money and that "actually I am going to pay off my debts and start saving my money."  With a balance sheet in order we headed out of another barefoot hike near the wildlife sanctuary.  The area is a great place for cross-country skiing in the winter which in reality makes it an even better place to hike during the summer.  We spent some time looking at habitat and pictures of garter snakes before we went out and were then able to find two of them with a woodchuck bonus.  Sunday afternoon was spent with Sophia learning how to make 5 gallons of red/beans and rice and rounded out the night with campfire and smores.  I seemed like a nice bookend for a great summer, ending much the same way that it had started.  I packaged the red/beans and rice up Monday morning and now have about 25 pounds of red/beans and rice to last all winter.  The garden was a bust, due to the drought, and after digging just a few potato mounds we decided we would leave the little ones for next years seed crop.  Sophia had a friend over for most of the afternoon and Merrick and I played baseball using the small green grape tomatoes from the garden as balls--it was a riot and now he smells vaguely like salsa verde!