What else can I say?
Category: Family
A Zombie Free Saturday Afternoon Walk
The rain stopped long enough on Saturday afternoon to take a walk down to the cemetery before dinner. The boys brought their new toy bows to protect us from orcs, goblins and uruk-hia that were there to attack us. I think that they must be more dangerous than the zombies and ogres that normally plague our walks.
This morning the boys started by fighting zombies. Then turning into zombies – until they couldn’t find a brain in Tucker to eat.
It rained most of the day – which put a damper on our hopeful beach plans. But a slow day is nice once in a while. Will had a friend, Tyler, sleep over again last night. We took Tyler home just before lunch on our way to the toy store – Ben had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon and needed a gift. The boys spent their allowances eacg on a set of toy bow and arrows.
Will had been wanting to watch the “Lord of the Rings” movies again. We had watched them two years ago (and skipped lots of scary parts). This time, with Ben at a party, Will wanted to watch the entire movie (win-win, Ben got to play at a party and Will got to watch a movie that had given Ben nightmares previously). It was a rainy day and perfect for a three hour movie. And the movie explains the lack of zombies on our evening walk (and the addition of enemies from middle-earth).
Friday night at Michael’s Dairy
We are having a nice family evening. Both Will and Ben have friends over. We cooked up the chicken I got from the Sawyer farm and headed to New London for ice cream (and to visit Susanna at work)
After dessert we took some time to run around the Mitchell College campus.
A perfect evening by the fire
Planting the garden (and other house chores)
It is quiet during the day with the boys not here. That gives me a chance to catch up on chores. But I’d rather have the noise of kids running around and squeeze in chores on the edges.
I picked up (and planted) tomato, pepper and celery seedlings from the Sawyer Family farm. I also picked up a freshly slaughtered chicken – dinner one night for the boys and me.
I mowed most of the yard this weekend (a little left to finish next week). The yard is coming together. The garden is planted. The flower beds are getting cleaner (ok, still work to do).
I also covered the hole in the second floor of the barn where the original stairs had been. I am getting ready to install a large (4′ x5′) window in the south facing wall. I will hinge it so I should be able to get a nice breeze in the summer. I had to repair glazing on the window and paint it.
In addition I removed four of the glass storm windows and installed screens (I have only 3 screens, so I’ll have to make more this summer.
It finally feels like summer here. Now for pizza and beer while enjoying the evening from the patio.
Saturday Night Out (and Sweden wins 2012 Eurovision)
It is a rare weekend night that I am home and the boys aren’t here. Even rarer now to have that and Susanna not working. Last night was one of those rare nights. In addition Loreen from Sweden won the 2012 Eurovision contest. I think they hadn’t won it since 1918 or something like that. Sorry, not 1918, I’m thinking of something else; Sweden hadn’t won Eurovision since 1999. Understandably, Susanna was pretty excited. Also, understandably, as hard as I may try, I’m just not as excited as Susanna about it.
Anyway to celebrate the Eurovision win (for Susanna) and to celebrate a night we can actually go out (for me), we dressed up and went to Foxwoods Casino for dinner and drinks. We enjoyed mexican (food and drinks), and I actually won $20 on the slots (yeah, slots, like lottery, tax on people bad at statistics – but it is fun sometimes just to put in $20 and see what happens – and going to a movie would cost just as much).
We came home to enjoy the humid evening on the patio. We even dug out some of the sky lanterns we had left from last summer and lit two of them – watching them drift away into the night sky. I think we will save the remainder until the boys are back (and for when Susanna’s sisters visit this summer).
Speaking of visits, it looks like both of Susanna’s sisters may be here at the same time. That will be a change, from a household that has more males than females in it to just the opposite. If anyone wants to find me that week, I’ll be locked in my workshop. I have beer and water in there. I just need to find a urinal and install it – I’ll be all set for a couple of days at least.
Enough random musings for this morning. Time to drink my coffee and get moving on my day.
Spring nights
Spring evenings are meant for ice cream at Michael’s Dairy in New London followed by “dandelion soccer” in the overgrown field next door.
Filling in the space (and weeks of making cutting boards)
It has been a while since I’ve written. I would love to pretend it was because I have a crazy exciting life, and I’ve been too busy living it. But sadly, that isn’t the case. I have been busy, but not that exciting.
I spent this month making cutting board after cutting board. My cousin got married two weekends ago, so as a wedding gift, I made him a set of drunken cutting boards, inspired by projects on lumberjocks. They turned out pretty nice (for my first try). Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them (I didn’t want to post before the wedding, in the odd chance that he actually reads this blog).
I decided that cutting boards would be a good way to use up the wood cut-offs I have laying around the shop, and a good project to do with the boys. I took all the interesting short pieces of lumber laying around, cut the boards to 18″ long, milled them to the same thickness, and cut them into strips of varying width (1/2″, 1″ and 2″). I then let the boys pick out the strips they wanted to use and they glued up the boards. I made sure that the boards were narrower than 8″ when glued up so we could flatten them quickly on the jointer.
I had enough strips for Will, Ben and Ben’s friend, Anthony, to make boards. I also made two myself (with the remaining wood). One is a little bigger (pictured above), and the second I gave to a friend at work.
I’ll have to write more later about the wedding trip to Bowling Green, KY, visit to Mammoth cave with dad and Barbara, and a stop over in Louisville to see a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years. I would love to share all the pictures I took on my trip, but the camera stayed on the counter where I forgot it.
It is nice to be home and back working on the workshop. It is making progress. I’ll take more pictures tomorrow night (maybe).
An electronic free day…
The average young American now spends practically every waking minute – except for the time in school – using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation
Those ages 8 to 18 spent more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones
-Tamar Lewin (January 20, 2010, The New York Times)
It seems crazy how much children use electronic devices these days. And it isn’t limited to just children. I find it easy to spend too much time on my iPhone. I can check Facebook, play Words With Friends, and read my email throughout the day. The boys can easily get lost playing on their computers or on their Nintendo DS game systems.
It doesn’t seem healthy to spend that much time playing on electronics – there is little thought and creativity required when playing video games. I have given up video games several years ago; I found it too easy to get lost in the games and spend way more time than I wanted playing.
We decided as a family to take a small step. It wouldn’t be fair to ban the boys from video games, while the adults were still allowed to play on their iPhones. So now, most Saturdays are electronic free days. That goes for both adults and children. We try to be reasonable. One can use the phone (how else for the boys to arrange to have friends come over and play). The computer is allowed for homework (not really playing) or writing on blogs (writing requires creativity – and is a challenge for the boys). We also are flexible. If the boys are exhausted from running around all day outside – we can put on a movie or the TV for a little bit late in the afternoon for everyone to rest a bit.
So how are we doing on with our electronic free day? I notice a difference in myself and the boys on these days. We all sleep better at night when we have been both physically and mentally active during the day. I have lots of time to get things done – including more time playing with the boys. There is a lot less fighting between Will and Ben. Of course we aren’t perfect. There have been times where I check my email – yesterday while Will was at soccer camp for 90 minutes for example (next time I’ll bring a book).
Now time to put the computer down, and head back out to the workshop to build some more walls (either that or mow the lawn)…
… And a good finish (or a fun afternoon with a hike to the Hellcat wreckage)
The weather was nearly perfect today. Maybe a bit windy. But a nice sunny day makes correcting a rough morning much easier.
This afternoon, after soccer camp and piano lessons were complete, the boys invited their friends over to play. I was also able to make some progress on the garden while they played.
I had finished cleaning out the raised beds yesterday (with Will, Ben and Justin’s help) – thanks to a load of horse manure compost from the Sawyer Family Farm. I’ll see if I can grow more than just weeds in the raised beds this year. The first bed will be a mix of flowers and vegetables. The second bed has 27 strawberry plants (plus some random perennial flower that Ben or Will picked last year and didn’t die) – I started radishes in the last 3 feet of the bed that is still free of strawberry plants. The third bed I planted with a cover crop of buckwheat yesterday.
Late this afternoon, after all the boys’ friends had arrived, we decided to hike into the woods to find the Hellcat wreckage site. This is the third time that Susanna and I have been to the site (and the second for Will and Ben) – but we have yet to find the wreckage site for the other aircraft. Maybe we will search for it one of these weekends when it is just Will and Ben with us.
I have been getting some smaller projects completed in the workshop. It has been a week of making cutting boards – pictures will be posted later when I actually take some. I’m also making progress on framing in the new set of stairs to the second floor of the barn (and I need to remember to return the come-along to the Sawyers the next time I visit their farm – and to think I was just there yesterday – maybe I’ll remember to bring them to work on Monday – of course I’ll plan on riding in on Monday, so won’t put the equipment in the car).
Tomorrow promises to be another beautiful day – a chance to get lots done around the house. And yes, I’m passing on going to church (sorry Susanna) – but I do admit to going with Susanna to church on Easter Sunday (I know, I’m not sure what was wrong with me last weekend…)