I Am a Mighty Oak

I am an acorn
Full of potential, in need of nourishing
With sun and soil and rain
I sprout, upward and down


I am a seedling
Surrounded by my siblings
Sending shoots and roots
I explore grow and expand

I am a sapling
Reaching for the sun
Tall, trim, flexible
I yearn for more

I am a tree
Roots diving deeper and deeper
My canopy spreads
I grow in strength and stature

I am a tree
Standing in a forest of fellows
Unique in purpose and place
I lift nests and climbers

I am an oak
Soaring above the valley
Victor over fire and flood
I breathe life to all around me
Seasoned, wise
Mostly, I raise acorns


By Oliver and Rachel DeMille

On the back cover of their book

Leadership Education

The Phases of Learning

Thanks for joining me for A Though for Thursday!

The Coolest Fort Ever

Welcome to Talk about Tuesday. To see what everyone else is excited about this gorgeous Tuesday visit The Lazy Organizer

So what do you do when it is Labor Day and your daddy has the
WHOLE DAY OFF!
But it's raining outside.

You drink a big mug of hot chocolate and build the mother of all forts, of course!

It has to be big enough to fill the entire living room and it must fit the entire family inside at once.

The baby will even love playing inside it!

PEEK-A-BOO!!!

Then you must spend the rest of the day in the fort. You must bring down every Hot Wheel in the house and look at as many books as you possibly can.

When it's bed time you must beg and plead with your parents to let you sleep in the coolest fort ever until they relent and say yes.

When your parents threaten you with going back into your own bed if you get up and play instead of going to sleep you actually listen and are asleep in less than 10 minutes!

SHOCKING

But at 5 am you realize you are in the coolest fort ever and must wake up the others to play. Then that mean old mommy comes down to threaten you with going to your bed again (fate worse than death) and you shockingly go back to sleep for 2 1/2 more hours!
I don't think this fort is going anywhere any time soon.
Can we say school in the fort today?

Stroke of Genius

We all know I'm smart, I mean that's a given, right? Well, now I feel I've moved into a whole new category.

Genius

I solved a problem this week that I have struggled with my whole life.

The problem with boiled eggs.

The problem with boiled eggs is that you have to put them in the refrigerator if you want them to not spoil. Plus, they need to be in an egg carton in the fridge so they don't all go rolling around in there. We can not have lose rolling eggs all over the fridge, that would just be mayhem.

So how do you tell the difference between the ones that have been boiled and the ones that are still raw?

It's easy at Easter time, all the colored ones are boiled, duh!

There is nothing worse than wanting to eat a boiled egg but you mistakenly pull out a raw one.

Sticky yucky raw egg all over your fingers and probably the ground, too. GROSS!

In the past I have just tried to remember which side of the carton I placed the boiled ones.

Can we say less effective?

All together now, "Less Effective!"

I end up standing with the fridge door wide open racking my brain tyring to remember where they are, knowing I could end up with egg goo disaster.

I finally remember I left the raw ones next to the raw ground beef. So I grab one from the other side, pleased with myself for remembering correctly, for once.

I go over to the sink very pleased with myself, my taste buds all ready for the salty egg whites and delicious yellow middle.

CRACK!

Oh, ya, I forgot I had 7 raw eggs and the one on the end was NOT BOILED.

The drippy sticky egg goo makes me lose my appetite for boiled eggs and I go without.

Well no more, my friends.

I have come up with a solution once and for all.

You all have probably done this your whole lives, but my mother never taught me this trick, I was all on my own!

So here it is

You mark the boiled ones with a B. I used a Sharpie.

Then look at this, you can put them in the same carton with all the raw eggies you want and you can always tell the difference with just a quick glance!

How smart am I, I ask you?

Genius, I tell you, sheer genius!

P.S. See that egg on the far side of the picture? You know, the Ginormous one? Yes, I feel sorry for the chicken who laid that one too. Well, it ended up being a double yolker! First one I have ever gotten from my chickens. I did get one once that was super tiny and had no yolk at all. Weird chickens, We sure do love them though!

A Thought for Thursday

Photo by Sanjay Kittimani

I have been thinking a lot about starting a new tradition on my blog. I'm sure you all are getting tired of hearing me ramble

on and on and on and on.

I thought I would share with all my fabulous readers a new thought from someone other than myself every Thursday!

This gives you all a much needed break from my insanity and it gives me a chance to share with all of you some of the insights I have learned during the week.

They may be funny, inspirational, thought provoking, or even song lyrics that I really like.

I hope this becomes a fun tradition.

You have to know going into this that I read a lot with my kids so don't be surprised if a lot of the quotes are from children's literature.

So let's get this thing started. We just finished reading

The Trumpet of the Swan

by E.B. White.

Here is one of the passages I thought was beautiful.

"The sky is my living room. The woods are my parlor. The lonely lake is my bath."

DRAMA!

OK Sharida, remember taking these pictures way back when? These were taken nearly 6 years ago.

Oh me, oh my, how time flies.

That is the cutest, sweetest, softest, biggest blue eyed baby girl ever!

I loved those sweet smiles and the wobbly little legs.

Now just look at her.

She is 6 and as tall, if not taller, than most of her 8 year old friends and cousins.

She is reading well, coloring to her hearts content, loving every animal she sees, especially my sister's baby kittens and our horse and chickens.

She loves to go horse riding with her grandpa and her favorite "Dead Aunt".

She builds roads for Hot Wheels with her little brothers.

She plays games on the computer with her dad.

She takes care of her baby brother in the sweetest way.

She loves her tap dance class.

She loves to be dirty, especially while camping.

She loves to eat, all day long, every day!

She makes my bed when I'm not looking and leaves little paper hearts on my pillow.

She bathes herself and buckles her little brother into his car seat every time we get in the car.

She loves picking out books to read at the library.

She loves her home school friends and going to their book group and park days.

She is the biggest daddy's girl on the planet.

She has become very independent.

She is suddenly all grown up.

You know what else she has become?

A DRAMA QUEEN

Need I say more?

Yes, I need!

AAAAGGGGHHHHH!

I just might strangle that precious child if she rolls her eyes at me one more time!

Keys

Have you ever just sat and thought about keys?

OK, Maybe I'm the only one, maybe I'm just really weird. They really are thought provoking little buggers.

When you have your keys everything goes well. You hop in your car and just go about doing what you want to do, without really thinking about those little things hanging from the ignition. Alas, if it were not for those little things you would not be going anywhere!

You'd be stuck, marooned, stranded, possibly in a very desperate situation.

You'd be kicking yourself, racking your little brain trying to figure out where on earth you left them.

When you have them you unlock your door and just go in the house.

Without them you bang on the door to no avail, it will not budge without those tiny magic keys.

You feel so close, if only you could just get past that pesky door, you feel trapped outside.

FRUSTRATION SETS IN!

When you have them you take them for granted.

When you don't you could go insane thinking about where they are and where you need to be in 10 minutes and how you could be there by now if it were not for those pesky lost keys!

What, am I the only one that has ever lost her keys?

Well, then you'll just have to trust me because heaven knows I have lost my keys enough in my ever so short lifetime to make up for all of my loyal readers!

Ask anyone who knows me, I am just a tad bit absent minded. Just today I got in the car all ready to go to church but left the baby snoozing away in the house. The rest of the family was in the car waiting for me. I hopped in and Mr Bird just looked at me. I said, "What are you waiting for, let's go."

He said, "What about Baby Cakes?"

Oh ya, minor detail!

I could give you countless examples of times I have lost my keys and put myself in very desperate situations indeed!
The first year Mr Bird and I were married I must have done it about 100 times. It got to the point that I became worried he'd leave me if I couldn't keep tract of those things so he did not have to keep rescuing me.

I thought how on earth can I have babies and be expected to keep track of them and all the "stuff" that goes with them if I can't even keep track of my keys. It was a really big problem.
With a lot of practice I became more disciplined about keeping a tight rein on my keys. They found a home in my purse where I put them everyday so I would not have to hunt them down.

For the most part I have done well over the past few years keeping track of them. I have been proud of myself.

You can imagine my delight when one day about a year and a half ago Mr Bird comes to me and says, "Have you seen my keys, I've looked everywhere and I cannot find them."

Finally the tables were turned, it was his turn to go insane looking for his keys, to be frustrated not knowing where they were. Maybe now he'd understand the pain I had every time I lost my keys.

Time passed and his keys never turned up. We finally bit the bullet and had another set made and we all lived happily ever after.

Until last week that is. I was going through all my pre-pregnancy clothes trying to determine what still fits and what I need to get rid of. I came across a pair of carpi's that I only wore a handful of times, I just never really liked the way they fit.

As I was trying them on I felt something in the pocket, something heavy-ish. My first thought is Quarters! I love finding missing money.

But alas, It was Mr Birds keys that were lost so very long ago!

It's no wonder he could not find them, he left them in my pants, DUH!

My New Vacuum Cleaner

I have a new vacuum!

I have been needing one for I don't know how long. When Mr Bird and I first got married his parents had just moved into a new home that had a central vacuum system and no longer needed their vacuum. So they did what any good in-laws would do...they gave their old crusty, but greatly appreciated vacuum to the poor newly weds who barely had enough money to pay rent and buy food to eat.

Here we find ourselves eight years later still using the same old decrepit hand-me-down of a vacuum. I think it's nearly as old as Mr Bird.

Needless to say it was time for a new vacuum.

Here is a picture of the old thing, not much to look at.

Plain and simple design, works ok, could be better, lots better.

Our new vacuum has a much better design. It has a special tool for cleaning really close to the wall. You know all the little bits that get shoved into the crevices that the ordinary vacuum has no chance to get at. The attachment is easy to use, no long hoses to drag through the house, it is a self contained gadget, always easily accessible.

Our new vacuum is self propelled, no more lugging and pushing a huge beast through the house in order to have spiffy clean carpets.

Plus it works great on tile. All the food tidbits that the kids drop during meal time are a thing of the past. This vacuum gets them ALL!

My new vacuum picks up things our old one left behind. I used the old vacuum then put the new one down and it found so much stuff that I didn't even see.

It's a good one!

I bet you want one too, don't you!

It only has one problem, it gets clogged too easily. If it finds a bit that is too big it sputters and chokes. I am constantly putting my finger in the filter to clean out the big pieces!

Are you ready to see a picture of my new, dearly loved vacuum?

It's a beauty

Here it comes!

You're gunna want one too!

Oh, how you're gunna want one!

I have the best vacuum on the block.

We even named it!

We call it the Baby-O-Matic

Best vacuum money can buy!