There is no excitement around here.....
and no work
and no school
just a few days of relaxing and playing with all the new toys.
I really love the week after Christmas - such a wonderful calm in the year!
Even brothers who have more than a little brotherly competitiveness between them seem to have called a truce.
Momentairly...............
So if this season is all about "Peace on Earth", why is everyone at my house so heavily armed?
We just celebrated Jeremiah's 8th birthday and there's reason to celebrate.
Yes, of course he's wonderful and he's grown so much and we can't believe what a great son he is, however, the real reason for celebration.....
We're down to 1 car seat!!
In West Virginia to graduate from a car seat you have to be 8 or 4'9". My short children apparently won't be 4'9" until middle school, so 8 years is the goal.
We placed our daughter Kirsten in a car seat in 1977 and it's been an unending nuisance of buckling and strapping and figuring the stupid things out since then.
So Jeremiah has been liberated and we only have one more to go.
Happy Birthday Jeremiah and good riddance to your car seat!
We have a whole lot of people here.
I love every minute of it although sometimes it feels like a zoo.
And every year on our anniversary James and I leave our bunch of darling little animals behind and go and be by ourselves.
All alone and we remember just how lucky blessed we are to have each other.
So today we're off.
Don't call and say "mom".
I changed my mind.....call me - I miss you already.
There's something new going on at our house.....dead animals. David has joined his brother in laws into the world of hunting. Living in the country in West Virginia provides him plenty of opportunity to find victims in his new pursuit. While I'd prefer that he would rid our yard of some of the prolific deer that are eating everything in sight, he has started a bit smaller. His first kill was a squirrel. I did sauté it in some garlic and we all had a taste and it wasn't disgusting. Some of us had more than one taste and although I liked it, I've been considering becoming a vegetarian lately. After bringing home a few more squirrels he moved on to a raccoon. It was fried in way too much grease at my daughter's house (while she wasn't home) and I think the smell still lingers there. The meat was more like chewing gum and we have forbidden him to bring another one home.
Of course all his younger brothers are dreaming of the day they can start hunting and have been running around outside with long sticks tucked into their belts, ready at a moments notice to shoot something.
I was thinking that I should be bothered by all this violence but the only problem I've really had is when the dogs get a hold of some carcass parts and then return home to throw up all over the couch.
One good thing about David is that he's ADHD and nothing holds his interest for too long.
With 24 feet attached to 12 bodies in the house, shoes become an issue. I'm not talking about buying them - it's where they end up when everyone comes in. (And I know this is a different subject altogether, but why is it that little boys come in and out of the same door at least three times more than girls when they play? Do they lose their way? What's the deal with that?)
Back to the shoes...... over the years we've tried numerous plans to address the shoe mountain that inevitably accumulates by the door in large families. For awhile we had a chore called "shoe deliverer" and that person was responsible for carrying the abandoned shoes to the room they belonged, but just like all of America, nobody was willing to take on that job for the small pay it received. For quite a few years James has used the "chuck" method to rid the foyer of unwanted footwear. Whenever he found the left behind shoes he simply opened the front door and chucked them as far as he could into the front yard. One memorable time the dog, Moose, across the street took one of the shoes back home for a chew toy. The made for a fun Sunday morning. Repeat offenders might find their sneakers floating precariously on the surface of the pool.
Last week James announced a new shoe policy at our family meeting. He would be collecting the offending shoes and hiding them in shoe jail. When the person realizes that their shoes are being held hostage they would be required to pay one dollar to redeem them.
Nobody seemed upset about this new training method until James collected $8 yesterday.
He has way to much fun with all this.
So if this season is all about "Peace on Earth", why is everyone at my house so heavily armed?
Getting all the kids together at one time has been a challenge. David is working and going to school and is buying his first home.....all at the same time. (I'll tell you later about helping him find a house - it was just like House Hunters!) AnnaClaire has a job and Corinne is on the basketball team at school and of course there are church programs and parties and recitals. It's been like waiting for the planets to align trying capture everyone for our must do Christmas traditions.
It's perfect of course and we decorated it while listening to our favorite Christmas music - the soundtrack from "The Grinch". I gave the kids all the beautiful bulbs to hang first and enjoyed a 20 second view of my lovely tree before they started hanging the "kid made" decorations. We have boxes full of Rudolphs made from candy canes and stars made of gingerbread that crumble a little more each year and miniature wreaths with pictures of kids I don't even remember anymore.
We just celebrated Jeremiah's 8th birthday and there's reason to celebrate.
There's something new going on at our house.....dead animals. David has joined his brother in laws into the world of hunting. Living in the country in West Virginia provides him plenty of opportunity to find victims in his new pursuit. While I'd prefer that he would rid our yard of some of the prolific deer that are eating everything in sight, he has started a bit smaller. His first kill was a squirrel. I did sauté it in some garlic and we all had a taste and it wasn't disgusting. Some of us had more than one taste and although I liked it, I've been considering becoming a vegetarian lately. After bringing home a few more squirrels he moved on to a raccoon. It was fried in way too much grease at my daughter's house (while she wasn't home) and I think the smell still lingers there. The meat was more like chewing gum and we have forbidden him to bring another one home.
Back to the shoes...... over the years we've tried numerous plans to address the shoe mountain that inevitably accumulates by the door in large families. For awhile we had a chore called "shoe deliverer" and that person was responsible for carrying the abandoned shoes to the room they belonged, but just like all of America, nobody was willing to take on that job for the small pay it received. For quite a few years James has used the "chuck" method to rid the foyer of unwanted footwear. Whenever he found the left behind shoes he simply opened the front door and chucked them as far as he could into the front yard. One memorable time the dog, Moose, across the street took one of the shoes back home for a chew toy. The made for a fun Sunday morning. Repeat offenders might find their sneakers floating precariously on the surface of the pool. 
