Trap Shootin' with Drey

2 comments Posted by Janice at 2:10 PM

Saturday was the last day of the Trap Shoots, which are held in Hollister as a fund raiser for the boy scouts.

Drey won 5 of the shoots he was in, even with the nasty wind.

Two kid shoots, he was able to shoot 5 out of 5 clay birds. The buddy shoot with an adult, the kid shoots first, he shot 9 out of 10....so the buddy only had to shoot & hit once. Then he did a buddy shoot as an adult, with an adult, and backed up his buddy who missed twice. This round they even had a shoot off. He also did an Annie Oakley, which is an elimination game, and won without going out once.

By the way, his buddy, or adult wasn't his dad, but someone that they just met at the shoot. Taft will often help with loading and releasing the clay birds. Here is a photo with all his pork prizes...and is he happy!

 

O' Christmas Tree, How Pretty Are Your Branches

0 comments Posted by Janice at 2:10 PM


"Looking for a place to rest, she laid comfortably on a bed of needles, that had fallen over the years from the over head pine trees"

Our Christmas Tree was one that Aaron & the boys went up to the south hills to find. These strappin' men brought home a pine tree, ready to decorate. But Aaron first gave the warning that the tree is dry, and might not last too long.(we've had a few years of drought) Fine. First Drey puts up lights, and the boys decorate it to their hearts desire. Next thing I find, Tearsa has un-decorated it, putting the lights on her way, and with some help of the brothers, redecorate the tree. She has also decided that the tree needed ball ornaments, and spent time each week shopping thrift stores to buy them.

I found what my part in the tree was, that being- taking it down. No one wanted to help. I finally gave up, and decided to just do it...the tree was dead and dying anyway, so it isn't glowing with that Christmas spirit. Actually when the lights were turned on, since the inter core of the tree was pretty brown anyway, it did look like it glowed, an optical effect with only green tips on the limbs.

Things were fine, until I got to the removal of the lights. Tearsa did a professional job of stringing the lights....she went winding around the branch, all the way up the limb and all the way down...and then wound a few times around the trunk before she went on to the next limb. 800 lights were on this tree, which is equivalent to about 6 miles of unwinding cord. I wouldn't have bothered, but these were new lights I had just bought this year! It wasn't long into this workout that the screws on the base didn't like the way I was handing the branches, and thus the tree fell over. And the needles, softness isn't how I would describe them, since they were scratching my forearms, but they were falling! The fresh scent of pine filled the air too, perhaps from the pitch that was covering my hands?

Tavin & Tilmann had come down during the later part of the activity (the others were in town)
& make some k'nex equipment to help clear out the fallen needles on the carpet. By the time we gathered them up, with the help of a broom we had a 1/2 garbage bag full of pine needles. Yes, we could have made a soft bed to lay comfortable down upon.

 

Junie B. Jones Masks & Room Mothering

1 comments Posted by Janice at 2:05 PM


Tilmann's birthday celebration at the school, started off with making masks of Junie B. Jones. Junie B. is book series that his teacher has been reading to the class. So she read, while they colored & cut. I thought I would include a photo with the masks, and one without....notice those cheerful smiles! (honest they liked this project, but someone had said, "hey with a mask we don't even have to smile"...and so they still aren't smiling.) Then they paired up, and played 'war' card games, which is a favorite of Tilmann's. Afterwards, they went fishing for their treats, and a wind-up toy. Tilmann loved helping with the fishing pole.
This all sounds so simple and easy, but I had just spent almost an hour (they stayed in from recess to spend more time with me) with Tavin's forth grade class, as a room mother. The last day of school was canceled, due to snow & I was to be their Christmas room mother. Those original room mother plans had changed (who wants to make a Christmas craft after the holidays and we already ate the treats) so instead we played cards. I decided kids don't play card games any more (I played lots with my grandmother & brothers) so I'm teaching them games, like Crazy 8, War & we even played Spoons. But it was more difficult than planned, lots of these kids had no clue what a spade or a club was (spade would often be used as a heart, since they sort of look alike!) and there was plenty of noise! They each got to take home a deck of cards (bought some jumbo decks at Target on clearance for .25) and a paper with how to play those games, in case they forgot the rules. I soon remembered after that short time that I never wanted to be a teacher! P.S. this is a small school with less than 80 students, celebrations can still happen.

 

Spice Up the New Year

3 comments Posted by Janice at 1:46 PM

Just in case you might be wondering about all the meaningful tasks in the life of Janice, I thought I'd mention the spice cupboard. It's clean, it shines, and the spices are even in alphabetical order! (Yes, I also have a lot of sprinkles.) This took hours to complete, over a period of a few days! But to me, this looks like a work of art...so I'm posting a photo. Now if I could only get more motivated on cooking those meals!

 

Protect Thy Ears

3 comments Posted by Janice at 7:27 PM


This is a photo of Tavin, who oddly enough wasn't sure if it was himself or his younger brother. Anyhow during Christmas break, early hours of the night, he awakes his mama crying about his ear. Yes, we know it's an ear infection. When we are at the doctor's office, I ask about the other ear, "It has some scar tissue, from when he's had tubes or other ear problems". I reply, "No, this one hasn't had tubes, and rarely has had ear troubles. Could it be a small stone in his ear?" I'm sure by this point the doctor is wondering how much sleep I've lost in the night, but I go on. "Two days ago, his brothers were playing (in the house- and throwing them at their siblings!!!) with those pops, or pop its- those things you can throw at a sidewalk and have them snap. One was thrown at his ear, and he was sure there was a rock from it that went in his ear. His father looked and couldn't find anything, and decided it was the loud noise that bothered him." Sure enough there was a rock in his ear, instead of scar tissue. The doctor worked with a small tube and squirt water in his ear, while having him lay on his side, the nurse trying to collect the drainage, which meant the carpet became wet. After a few tries, there it was, his rock. The doctor was thrilled, never has he had one ear infected & a foreign object in the other! (it's the little things that can make a day) We are hoping Tavin will stick to 'protecting thy ears'.

 

Now You See It...Now you Don't!

1 comments Posted by Janice at 7:27 PM

This is Tilmann, taken on his birthday. Perhaps you might notice in the first photo the rather large (at least the size of a silver dollar) spot which has no hair? Let me tell you a story. Aaron is cutting the boys hair with the electric clippers. It's Tilmann's turn, while Aaron is working, Tilmann brushes up his hand next to his ear...which hits the electric clippers... which the spacer flys off... and scalps him a good hole. Yes, accidents happen, but Tilmann was devastated, "but dad, tomorrow is my birthday". Sure the ideas are flowing...."we could shave it all off" (on a kid this age, it would look like cancer treatments) or "we could do a hole on the other side, and it could be where you had horns". (who wants to look like they were de-horned? Obviously we live on a cattle farm for this thought to pop into their heads). But instead we look at the practical idea in the matter....gluing the hair back on! Honest, I used a tacky glue, afraid if I used super glue, we might not get the 'old' hair off, when the 'new' grew back in, and just worked with it. Sure it wasn't perfect, I couldn't lay all the hairs in the right direction, but it was an improvement! (take another look at the 'before & after photos) But when you're a boy of 7, your day isn't full of quietly sitting, so some of it falls off as the day wears on. I'm not sure how many days I'll be gluing...I guess till I run out of 'spare hair'. I'm sure hoping his hair will be growing fast! Days can be interesting at our household! Sure this is way funny, but right now it certainly isn't to poor Tilmann. P.S. His father felt really bad.

 

3 comments Posted by Tearsa at 11:46 AM

Happy New Year!

By the way, I fixed the settings so everyone should now be able to leave comments.

 

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