Learning to Leap

The Management in my home is getting fed up. New policies are being instated and enforced with diligence. New policy #1 (and being illiterate does not exempt residents from responsibility) All clothes found in the laundry room or hamper which are not actually dirty shall incur a fine of 25 cents per item. Certain young residents around here are slightly obsessed with changing clothes at amazing rates of speed. Clothing must be worn a minimum of half a day in order to be considered for laundering. Management has deemed it appropriate to charge a nominal fee for extra needless laundry. This seems fair. After all, the money will likely go to purchase additional detergent, dryer sheets, and Tylenol for my aching back. We are prepared for the reality that most of our residents will be broke within two days, but don't worry, rent is cheap around here. New Policy #2 "No food allowed past this point." This includes, but is not limited to, goldfish crackers, gummy treats, l...

Sleepovers. Aren't they fun? I am not a big fan and here's why: 1. nobody settles down to sleep no matter how much extra time you give them to talk and 'get it out of their system' 2. the younger children feel left out because the older children get to have all the fun, so you try to include everyone in the sleeping in the fort adventure. This NEVER works. 3. they stay up super late and get up super early, too excited to have their buddies with them to waste time snoozing. 4. mom and dad pay for all this fun for the rest of the day with cranky, overtired children I have a new reason to not love sleepovers. I just discovered this one last night, or rather, this morning at 3am. Sleeping peacefully, dreaming of a time when my home knew some peace before Hank joined us. It was a lovely dream, really. Suddenly I was awakened by the sound of crashing and banging and stomping on the stairs. When I heard the unmistakable sound of the jingle of dog tags, I knew at once th...

We all need breaks sometimes. Last Friday was one such day for the girls and me. After finishing up schoolwork, the girls and I loaded up and headed for a nearby walking/running trail that has a playground and a wooded creek. They love it there. I instructed this child that she may walk around in the water and throw rocks, but please to not get her clothes wet. You can see how that worked out. Someone else also loves it there. The dog. Of course the girls would not even consider leaving poor Hank at home and make him miss our adventure, so the canine hopped up into the van with us and happily rode along. And I suppose, if you have to take a dog somewhere with you, this would be the ideal place to visit. It has a huge fenced area designed for dogs and owners to mingle and scamper. The fence keeps the more “frisky” puppies (and let’s face it, some “frisky” owners), from escaping to the playground nearby and terrorizing the children minding their own b...

This week was VBS at our church. For those of you who don’t know, VBS stands for ‘vacation Bible school’. Next to Christmas, this is one of the most anticipated four days of the year to a lot of kiddos. Not to brag, but our church pretty much blows it out when it comes to fun, and I hope they learn a little about Jesus while we’re at it. Anyway, this year I taught the Bible lesson to four groups of kids ages 1 st -4 th grades each day. Because I didn’t want to be the schmuck who totally blows it and makes the kids dread Bible time each day (and consequently be eaten alive by 4 th grade boys who are bored), it took a little time to study and prepare. And this is generally how it went each evening… First item to understand about my week: my husband was out of town for most of it. He was hard at work visiting agents and handling the details of his job. This left me solely responsible for everything regarding the children and the dog and the home. Second it...