We were welcoming our little Doodle Bug into the family.

Hard to believe she is seven today. My sweet, big girl.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  I love you so very much!

a very resilient, brave (and sometimes stupid) little bird.

We came home from running errands on Wednesday afternoon – following a big rainstorm – to find a little bird in the front yard.  Big Girl found the bird sitting on the ground under one of the trees and called me outside to see it. (We think he must’ve gotten blown from the nest during the storm.)

At first, I wanted to just leave the bird alone, thinking nature would take care of its own.  Then, I realized quickly that neither the girls nor my conscience would allow that to happen.

I called my mom, who used to raise birds, to find out what I should do. She suggested picking up the bird in a dishcloth and putting it in a shrub and hopefully its parents would find it and take care of it. So that is what we did.

“Peep” (or Cheep, or Tweet as he has been called) sat happily in his makeshift nest until SuperMan got home from work that evening. He fed him a few worms and made him a “nest” in some grass clippings in the flower bed under a tree.

The next day, Peep was hopping all over the yard and we spent a lot of time “rescuing” him as he hopped into the neighbor’s driveway, rolled down the hill and got caught in tree limbs, etc.

The girls got very attached to him and spent a lot of time watching him from the sunroom and front porch.  He had quite the personality and would open his little beak asking for worms anytime anyone got close to him.

His parents continued to feed him and SuperMan offered worms every evening when he returned home from work. Peep hopped all over the yard and got bigger and bigger. We were pretty happy and hoped that we’d rescued him and that he’d soon fly off to be a big bird in our woods.

On Friday, we got a suggestion to put him in a makeshift “nest” – a basket hung from a tree – in hopes that his parents would be able to better care for him and that we wouldn’t have to keep rescuing him from driveways and streets.

So, SuperMan and I made him a “nest.”

And we figured we were good to go. Peep had a new home, safely away from predators and vehicles and tucked up under a tree so he would stay safe and dry.

And all was well.

Or so we thought.

Until it got “cold” last night.  After the storms we had yesterday, temperatures dropped into the sixties last night. Which isn’t really cold unless you are a baby bird.

And unfortunately, I think it was too cold for Peep.

The girls are devastated.  Big Girl is crying in her room. Little Bit is trying to make sense of it and reasoning it out in her own little way.

SuperMan and I feel bad, but, you know, we did the best we could. And we know that. I hate that he didn’t make it, but I am glad that the girls had three days to experience a little bit of nature – and even a little bit of the harsher realities of life.

So now Peep will live on in our memories and we’ll watch his siblings as they grow and fly from the nest (that was too high to reach to put Peep back in) and the Circle of Life will go on.

I bet you read that and thought “Huh? It’s still SUMMERTIME. Is she NUTS?”

Well, yes, actually, I am a little nuts, but it is also getting close to that time of year… or at least for us it is. Where we live, school starts in early August, so we’re already seeing stores full of back-to-school supplies and the girls are already starting to obsess about who will be their teachers, etc.

So, naturally, I’m thinking back-to-school shopping.

And I thought I’d share with you some of my picks for this year.

• Last year, I purchased both girls Backpacks from LL Bean – they were a bit more expensive than the local options from WalMart or Target, but well worth the purchase price as they lasted all year and they are in great shape to go another school year. I won’t be buying new backpacks, that’s for sure. The girls love these and they don’t really need new ones.

 

• I also bought them lunchboxes to match – and they are not showing any signs of wear from last year’s use, so we’ll most likely reuse those as well.
  I like the fact that they have a mesh pocket outside for napkins, hand sanitizer, etc. and the lid has another mesh pocket inside that fits a drink just perfectly, leaving the entire base for your lunch goodies.

• Bento Boxes from Laptop Lunches.
  Doodle Bug loved having her “bento box” lunches last year – I made up my own by using a large Tupperware-type container with silicon cupcake liners inside. But the drawback was that I was challenged in keeping things separated, especially when something was liquidy (like ranch dressing to dip veggies in) and then we had a mess to deal with – either at lunch or after school. UGH.
  Not this year! These nifty boxes each seal individually and the whole case is insulated.  Additionally, they are PVC & BPA-free  and dishwasher safe!!

  So, I will probably add this to the list to purchase – at least for Doodle Bug – and see how they work out. I'll either purchase the entire kit (pictured above) or just the little containers (which is how I may start out and see how it works since I have nice lunchboxes already)

  There’s a mesh sleeve on the outside for holding a water bottle – and I plan to purchase this one –

• The FlyLady’s stainless water bottles – I have been wanting to get them for a while now – I love that they are double-walled, have two openings (one large for adding ice, etc, one small for drinking) and the nifty colored loops to keep them identified by owner.
  Since I have been trying to justify buying them for the whole family, I figured this is the year to do it – no backpack purchases to eat up the budget, so I’ll splurge on this!

There will, of course, be the requisite purchase of thousands (it seems) of crayons, markers, pens, pencils, and the like.  The kids are still using some of the things we purchased last year, but it’s hard to pass up the sales when crayon boxes are twenty-five cents each (instead of a couple dollars as they are mid-school year) and so I usually fill the cabinet when we go shopping.

What about you? Are there any major school supply purchases you’re already contemplating?

I’m still on the hunt for a 3-ring notebook that lasts more than three months in a kid’s backpack. If you know of one, let me know!!

We’re on the first day of our holiday weekend – visiting family and relaxing at Mom’s.

We didn’t leave until yesterday evening and what should’ve been a fairly straightforward drive down turned into an adventure in and of itself.

And, actually, that is what I have decided this summer is all about – adventure.  Not ADVENTURE in big capital letters, but the little, everyday adventures we encounter.

I don’t know if it is because the girls are bigger and we’re able to do more things with them (and with less of a schedule to worry about adhering to) or if it is because I’m 100+ pounds lighter and more open to spur of the moment adventures or if it is a little of both…

but that is what this summer is about for me.

adventures

finding the fun in the everyday

relishing the unexpected

embracing the new and unusual

tossing the routines out the window

going with the flow

Yeah.

That’s our summer this year.

And it’s awesome.

So, last night, we headed out around 6ish and SuperMan decided we’d take the “long way” down to avoid the traffic in downtown and on the interstates. The radio stations were reporting it was terrible so we figured we’d rather ride a little longer with pretty countryside to see than sit in a traffic jam.

So off we went.

We figured we’d eat dinner in Athens… which was a walk down memory lane for me.

We drove in circles downtown looking for a parking place and/or a restaurant to eat in.

However, my GPS had other ideas. Every single restaurant I tried to find was either closed or the building was under construction… so, we headed south again and figured we’d just find dinner along the way.

Which led us to Madison, GA. A very cute antebellum town that just drips with Southern charm. By the time we arrived there it was after 9 and we were all starving. We lucked up on a parking place on Main street. Right in front of a Japanese place. Score!

A little sake helped to relax things a bit – and make my eyes blurry…

Little Bit tried sushi and decided she liked it. I was amazed.

The girls had some new flavored “Japanese Sprite” drinks.  The melon tasted like you were mainlining sugar … the strawberry didn’t have much flavor to me… but they loved them.

Big Girl got a case of the giggles at her own silliness when she made this goofy face after getting a steak “kabob” from her sister’s unfinished dinner…

 Kinda scary, huh?

And then, after we finished dinner, we headed out to the car to find a fireworks show going on … which we could see over the top of the courthouse.  So, we ambled along Main Street and watched the fireworks a little.

I browsed the shop windows, only to discover that one of the displays wasn’t quite what I thought —

Hi, Kitty kitty.

So cute. She looked a lot like my Scooby Cat did in her younger years.

And then we were back on the highway for a little while…

Making a pit stop along the way – check out Little Bit’s shoe choices. 

And then SuperMan was too sleepy to drive any more. By this time it was after eleven and he’d been up since four AM. He was fried.  I stopped at the Starbucks to get a little “fuel” to keep me awake for the remaining drive… and as I pulled into the drive through, they were turning off the lights.  But the very sweet, very professional barista was kind enough to tell me that I still had “seventeen seconds” before closing and she would be happy to make me a coffee.

It was the very best coffee I’ve had in I don’t know how long.  It was absolutely perfect. And I enjoyed every single drop.

Thank you, Miss Barista, for being willing to make me a latte in the last seventeen seconds of your shift. I really appreciate it.

So, SuperMan and the chicks settled in to sleep and down the highway I drove.

This lonely little highway with it’s speed traps and varying speed limits – that change from 55 to 65 to 45 about every ten miles… at least it keeps you awake and on your toes.

I drove through these pop-up showers – massive downpours that would last for five or ten miles and then clear up to dry highway only to find me driving into another storm in a few more miles.

All the while I was serenaded
by a snoring trio and sipping my absolutely perfect sugar free Caramel-Vanilla Latte.

And I drove

and drove

and they snored

and snored

until SuperMan sat up, turned to me and said

“What are you doing over there?” with much confusion and emphasis in his voice

and before I could respond he said

“Are you making a fly swatter over there?”

Uh, yeah, honey, that’s what I’m doing.

And before I could respond, he was snoring again.

sigh.

We finally pulled into Mom’s around 2:30.

Of course the munchkins woke up and were “wide awake.”

I left SuperMan to take care of them.  I think he ended up sleeping upstairs with one of them, but I’m not sure…

Today, I’m just in a haze. Glad we’re here but realizing that I’m getting too old stay up more than half the night anymore…

Wonder what kind of adventures we’ll get up to today? 🙂

We’ve been wishing and hoping for rain for weeks – and the storms have been all around us and never made it to our little corner of the county. Last week we watched the storms pass all around us (watching on the radar) and never make it to our house.  We could see the storms, literally, on the other side of the highway and yet we never got a drop of rain.

My theory is that the mountain messes with the air flow and it has to be a pretty strong storm to have the energy to go over the mountain and reach us. I’m not a meteorologist by any means, but after living close to the mountain for almost 20 years and watching the storms do this little dance around the mountain, that’s the theory I’ve come up with.

 See the ridge of the mountain there above my neighbor’s house?

Last night, we got “the big one.”

It was a heck of a storm… or series of storms, I guess. It started around six in the evening and when I finally went to sleep around 3:30 it was still raining, although the energy of the storm had diminished and it was just raining instead of the light and wind and sound show we’d had for most of the night.

We had hail, (lots of it) wind, LOTS of rain, thunder and lightning.  The dogs were scared to death, the kitties were hiding under things and the kiddies were not much better.  Our power went out around 7ish and didn’t come back on until around 3:30.  (which is why I kept waking up off/on until then – I was on “alert” in case it did come back on and worried SuperMan would oversleep and miss work, too)

We pulled out the kerosene lanterns and ate dinner by candlelight.  Cleaning the kitchen afterward was a bit of a challenge – how can you tell if the dishes are clean when it’s 80% dark in the house? – but we managed.  I can’t tell you how happy I was that I’d already cooked dinner in the crock pot and so when the power went out it was no big deal. All we had to do was plate up the food and eat. See? Planning ahead is a good thing.

Then, because we couldn’t do much else, we headed upstairs to get ready for bed.

The girls were a mess – Big Girl was traumatized by the no power thing. She railed against Mother Nature messing up her nighttime routine and how would she ever sleep without her fan and the “night light” of the neighborhood street light?  Little Bit was hot, tired, cranky and had leg cramps.  Poor SuperMan and I were just so tired we were ready to collapse with or without the kids joining us in sleep.  Finally, around 11, I put them both in bed with me and while SuperMan took a cool shower the girls fell asleep.  He escaped to another bedroom to sleep and I “slept” with the two whirling dervishes all night.  It wasn’t too bad, heat-wise, because we had the bedroom porch door open and a nice cool breeze was blowing in. It was humid, of course, but not intolerable.

When the power came on at 3:30 it woke me up when all of the electronics in the house came on in a simultaneous “whump” and surge of power.  I got up and turned off all the lights we’d left on and re-set the clocks and thermostats in the house.  Then I snuggled back down and tried to go back to sleep.

This morning, our yard looks like, well, like a storm went through (duh) – lots of limbs, leaves, etc. are down. But my flowers are happy little campers. They loved the rain.

The hydrangeas are a little bruised from the hail, but pretty still

The lilies are happy, too. Lots of new blooms today

So, for now, we’ll just say thanks for the rain, the cooler temperatures, and the adventure of “camping” in our house last night.  I’m just glad no trees fell in our yard and no one had any serious issues.

rain,family stories,parenting,storms