I have spent a great deal of time out on the patio this summer, mostly in the evenings when it's cooler. I have even turned on the fountain and sat on the garden bench just listening to the water burble. Just after dark, the yard twinkles with lightning bugs, and that always reminds me of summer evenings at the farm when I was a kid. The setting in my back yard is a quite a bit smaller and more urban than that of my grandparents' farmyard, but I hope my grandchildren have some of the same happy memories of Grandma's house when they are grown. Robin runs around the yard chasing the flashing bugs, usually to no avail...but I sure remember doing the same thing when I was a pup!
Little Ryan has taken to being silent at day care. We don't know what's up with that, but the past two days, he has decided to be silent at home, too--pointing to things he wants instead of asking. (He doesn't get them unless he asks, by the way!) He eventually comes out of that sometime after dinner, but yesterday he was still in silent mode when he left the dinner table to go potty. He was there a long time. (I should point out that at age 3, he's still not adept at doing a good job with the "paperwork" after he does his business in the bathroom, so he is trained to yell for someone to come check his bottom. We heard no such yell...but I did hear something so decided to go check on him. Egads! He had wiped himself, filled the commode with toilet paper--I mean level-to-the-top full--and flushed. I got there just as the water had come all the way to the top of the bowl. Fortunately, the tank was about done refilling, so no more water was rising, but it was a moment of panic. I got a big slotted spoon and a plastic bag and started dipping TP out of the pot. (The other "schtuff" had gone down first--thank God!!) Had to use the handle of the spoon to dislodge a huge clot of TP damming up the hole...and the day was saved. Will my plumbing survive my grandchildren????????
After dinner yesterday, I took the children to Hollywood Video to return some DVD's and pick out a couple of new ones. (My grandchildren don't watch a lot of TV, but when they do watch, it is usually videos. We have become weekly visitors to the "movie store"!) Then we stopped at Wal-Mart to get a swimming "poo"--and Grandma found a cheap little tent for the back yard. (It's a real tent--just not very big and not very expensive. Like less than $20.) Tonight, we halfway filled the poo and put the sprinkler in the middle of it, then put up the tent for an hour or so of play. I get irritated because they are so rough with the tent zippers, but I have to remind myself that I bought the silly thing for them to play in. If they mess it up, they mess it up--and it will be gone. As for the poo, the water was cold, of course, so that was good for some shrieks. Ahhh...summer!
"Big Ryan" was here again today to finish up a towel bar/drywall repair job in the half bath that "Little Ryan" created. It was a multi-step process. The good news is that I still had some of the wallpaper in storage with which to repair the damage. The bad news is that the old wallpaper is so much more yellowed than the new stuff that it shows! Also, the paste on the back of the new strip was apparently too old to work, so I had to make a run for wallpaper paste just to hang a partial strip. Hey...it's better than re-wallpapering the entire room! No one is ever in there, anyway...
I continue to do housework that doesn't show. Were it not for the repairs that Big Ryan is helping with, I could get really depressed. One of the things I do with the family here is have supper largely on the table when everyone gets home. That's different! Ever since Meg got married, I quit cooking because there was no one here to eat it. I opened cans or nuked frozen stuff. If I actually cooked, it was something I liked...and I ended up eating it all in short order. Now, all that has changed. Meg is actively counting diet points, so I am trying to come up with meals that accommodate everyone's tastes. Ryan eats next to nothing. Robin is big on fruit--and veggies such as cucumbers, cooked spinach, and carrots. Meg needs balanced meals carefully cooked to be low in fat. (I've been trying to make veggies desirable to her.) I eat anything...which is documented by my weight! Meg lost over 4 pounds last week. I probably found them!
Field Day this weekend. Gotta get busy on that!
No comments:
Post a Comment