To Each His Own

Before our week-end got to this point:

We went to a parade.

Some people go to parades because they want to see their daughter walking with her choir

even though by the time the camera recycles, she has walked right on by her parents.

But some people

go to parades because the grasshoppers and ants are just so great along the parade route.

Tennessee Sojourn

My travel companions and I thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Volunteer state, even though we're not sure what it looks like there. You see, for us the visit was all about family.  We lovelovelove my sister and her family and haven't ever lived closer to them than a full three-day drive.  Now they're just nine hours away!!

No, we do not travel by shopping cart, but yes, it is a good workout for Checkered.

Apart from having every.single.thing in common with their cousins, my boys are mighty fond of their uncle.  It doesn't take too many war video games to begin believing that the military is where all the heroes are.  Thank goodness, there's one in our family.

Uncle Hero helped one young man acquire the proper uniform and assisted him in the perfection of a salute.

It was unfortunate that my young soldier learned too late that his uncle out-ranks him by 14 levels.

Tears gathered in all our eyes as our brief reunion ended and we headed west.  Thank - you, Army, for bringing our relatives closer to us.

Next on the vacation agenda: an IRL blogger meeting and a wedding (but not a wedding with a blogger - lest anyone be concerned.)

So Good at Judging the Neighbors

There is a family a few blocks away who have spent the last decade living in a multi-generational household. Grandpa and grandma own the small house, and when grandma got ill and son-in-law [SIL] lost his job, SIL, daughter and their four kids moved in.

It was to be temporary. But life has crazy turns. Grandma's health stabilized, but SIL never found work. Daughter occasionally found a seasonal job, but soon learned that she was jeopardizing her government assistance by working. SIL has a skilled trade, but has refused all work - even the small $100 cash jobs neighbors have asked him to do. At times while living with grandpa and grandma, SIL's own children broke the very appliances he is trained to fix. He never offered to fix them and allowed grandpa to do the honors.

The tensions built and SIL and his family have found another relative who has agreed to let them move in rent-free. But they didn't want their kids to change schools, so SIL and wife drive the kids back to grandpa and grandma's house every day. Unfortunately, SIL's car died and grandpa and grandma have given their own car to SIL and family.

All grandpa and grandma's generosity is on behalf of their grandsons. They don't want their grandchildren to suffer.

I don't think I would have been so accommodating. Then again, could I turn away the chance to provide for my own grandchildren? I just don't know.

What about you?

Not My People

I suppose if I were filled with more spit and vinegar, I might look for some old family pictures to post here, but since I am kindness personified, I won't. (See how much I love you, Dad and Mom?) (And were we the only family that had trouble keeping every eye open when we tried for a family picture?) Since I won't be adding any family images from my youth, you must click over to this site and view some of the most interesting family pictures OTHER families have taken.


http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Before you click, here are some recent pix of my kids:

A Quick Trip to Kentucky

Our quick trip to Kentucky was lovely although the drive was a bit warm with a broken a/c in the van. I take back anything I've said recently about enjoying a car ride when the windows are open. The drive away from the heavy humidity of the Ohio Valley was much easier on Sunday than the drive into it was on Friday.

The highlight of the trip (other than being with my mom and dad) was the fact that my sister who currently lives in Texas was in Kentucky. What a treat for everyone!

We got to watch the boys play football. The Ohio River looks deceptively pretty in this picture:

We ate at my favorite hometown, greasy pizza place:

Checkered bought a shirt for me from Giovanni's. I suspect that it looks better on the young girls who work there.We got to see some of the remodeling being done at the church where my dad is the pastor:

We enjoyed watching our youngest nephew ride a scooter:

And then his brave mom riding the same scooter:

When my older sister stopped by, I announced that I would like to have a quick family picture -- my parents with their daughters -- but that's a different post for a different day.

Now I'm off to spend the week at Cub Scout day camp.

Oh, lucky, lucky me.

Week-End Update

• Imagine my joy yesterday when I read that Detroit is the 8th worst skin city. Weather, health care, stress all contributed to the rankings.
• Our television gave up the ghost in early May. Checkered and I independently declared that we would wait ALL summer and then some before we would consider buying another one. We meant it!
• Our new t.v. came home Friday night.
• I may just throw up if one of us says again, "Look at that beautiful picture."
• My first son continues his Boy Scout merit badge requirement of spending 30 days recording which birds eat from our bird feeder. I've never been a bird-watcher, but this has been kind of fun.
• The kids sorted through their left-over school supplies over the week-end. The oldest brought home NOTHING. She threw away everything while at school. The youngest brought home 5000 pounds of broken crayons. He said all his intact crayons had been stolen. The middle kids brought home full garbage bags of papers which we enjoyed sending to the recycling container.
• I was always the student who brought home all those papers.
• Wallpaper removal project resumes today after a brief hiatus imposed by the arrival of my children's summer break.
• One of our many unemployed friends says the worst part of job searching is how many employers don't even acknowledge that he has applied to work for them or do not contact him at all after an interview. He says he would much prefer a rude, "No," to listening to the sound of nothing.
• I haven' t seen my younger sister in two years. She and her kids will be in Kentucky this week-end visiting my parents.
• Guess where I'm headed Friday? :)

She's Growing Up

Once upon a time, a young teen-ager called her grandma to ask for

the recipe of that delicious pudding.

Grandma obliged by emailing the recipe,

and the teen-ager made the Chocolate-Banana Trifle

for her mom, dad, and brothers.

It was a special Memorial Day treat, and

it turned out so well that the teen-ager was only slightly bothered by the

fact that her mother took a picture of the teen-ager with
"undone" hair.

Shameless Sales Pitch

Look at this interesting family just back from Easter service. The service was nice and the sun was shining, so they said, "Time for a family picture." Twenty shots later, they had four pictures where all 12 eyes were open.

WHAT is wrong with the mother's hand? Maybe she's flashing a gang symbol.

Of course, there were others where the faces looked fine, but the mother's posterior was enormous. You won't see those shots here.

Marlene likes this one, but the mother's leg appears to be at an odd angle. And it is all about the mother here.

Closed eyes. Big butts. Odd appendages. But you know what the family did right? They ordered their quilted pictures from Jill. She's nice. She even came to their 14 year old's birthday dinner. Sweet, huh?

So, wanna order your own quilted picture?

My Family at 5:00 on Sunday

Save your preaching when you see this true glimpse of my gaming family:

Bless your heart, Pepper:

Fueled by Chaos

Our evenings look like evenings in most other homes, I suspect. There's homework, there's sports, there's music lesson, there's simply life. So Checkered and I juggle and borrow time from one activity to pay the next. We tag-team a lot, and somehow the kids get to school, and get home. We get to work and the house eventually gets clean. The dinner gets made and eaten. The dog gets walked. And we fall into bed each night thankful for our family, our lives, and even our busyness.

But sometimes in the midst of our nightly chaos, something or other gets overlooked. We've failed to make the next day's lunches. We've forgotten to do some of the homework. We've missed a bath or two. We've never thought to check the next day's calendar and have not shown up for very important appointments. We don't try to live this way - it just seems to be how we currently roll.

One night recently, while three of the kids studied for tests and Checkered and I quizzed them and took care of house chores, I remembered that my youngest child's October reading log was due, but it was fairly empty. In my naturally unruffled and calm demeanor I hollered, "Get your books and get in the living room NOW! We have to read!!!" (I will deny this when he will surely one day announce his hatred of reading.)

So my child and I cozied up together and plowed through the book, Dust for Dinner. We talked about what the Dust Bowl was and what it meant to families to lose their farms. We talked about Sponge Bob. We talked about the kids in 1st grade. We talked about what we should eat. And while we were having this intellectual reading time, another child of mine walked through the room and announced, "I think the dog pooped in here, but I don't see it." We all sniffed and agreed with his astute observation. Then we read another entire sentence of Dust for Dinner before another child of mine walked in and yelled, "Why do you boys always have to fart?! Is that all you ever do?!" That brought the other boys into the room and they began to brag about their farting prowess.

But then we all decided the puppy poop/boy farts odor was not diminishing and I was sitting in a veritable cloud. I started to sniff. It wasn't the dog. It wasn't some boy's backside. It was my reading partner's feet all cozily encased in socks.

"Child, when did you put these socks on?"

"The last time we went to church."

"But today is Wednesday and we went to church on Sunday."

"Okay."

"But you took a bath last night."

"Yes, and then I put my socks back on. These are my favorite pair of socks, so I sleep in them every night so I'll be ready for school in the morning."


72 hours and counting of straight sock wearing.

A cloud of noxious foot odor.

A's on those kids' tests the next day.

A completed October reading log.

Tons of laughter.

And a sneaky sock thief/fairy during the night.

Yes, that's how we roll.

Cupboard Cooking

A few weeks ago we ran out of money.  I mean, we weren't homeless or destitute, but we were pretty much cashless and would remain that way until payday which was three weeks away.  What that meant for our family was a buckling down of spending or rather, as Checkered reminded me, a stopping of spending.  Much to my own dismay, that included the grocery store, too.

At first I figured we could all just diet and fast until payday and maybe Checkered and I could regain our youthful, svelte figures that we never really ever had in the first place. But then I remembered that I owned some children.  No, we did not eat them.

So, clever homemaker that I am, I announced,

"What an exciting adventure this will be for the Flag family!  Until the end of July, we shall be cupboard cooking. Our meals will generate with the ingredients currently living in our cupboards.  Let's see how creative we can be!"

And clever we were for a meal or two.  Then my creativity failed me, my picky eaters failed me and the weatherman failed me.   We were quite bubbly from beans.  We were not quite satisified from cereal night.  And it was simply too hot to cook the mystery, label-less foods I found in the back of the cabinets.

So brainstorm of brainstroms, while talking to my sister, Red, one day I decreed that we would be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner that night.  It was fast, cool, and a guaranteed winner.

Dinner time arrived, and I was happily loading an entire loaf of whole wheat bread with peanut butter when the doorbell rang.

Who could it be?

To be continued...

HINT: It was NOT Red [who lives a mere 1800 miles from me:( ]