Cherries

A lug is a box or basket for vegetables or fruit, with a capacity of 28 to 40 pounds. --Wikipedia

So this is my lug of cherries. In this small container was about 30 pounds of pitted cherries with sugar already added.




This is what a lug of cherries will produce--10 quarts of cherries ready for pies, cobblers, or anything else desiring delicious cherries.

One of those days

I needed to go to the library today to pick up a book I had on hold and also to return some books. As we walked in we had to venture over to the books they had on sale. Today was 50 percent off, so hardbacks were 25 cents and paperback books were a dime. How can I pass up cheap books? I couldn't but perhaps now I can and you will see why after I relate the following story.

We walked into the library. I was holding H as taking him in his car seat becomes harder every day as he gets bigger. I went left to peruse the cheap books. T and M went to the right and sat on the giant overstuffed chairs. I saw a few books that caught my eye but continued to look. T and M are now trying to put their heads through the plastic paneled book detection devices that you must walk through when you enter or leave the library. Still no problem until T sticks her head through the hole that M wants. M gets mad. T doesn't want to move and thinks it's funny. The plastic detection walls aren't very sturdy and why should they be if they just need to detect books that haven't been checked out. I tell them that they can each pick out a book if they will just stop. Yet T is laughing and putting her head through the stupid hole while M is trying to climb through the hole so that she can hit T. The librarian meanwhile is telling the girls to get off because it's unsafe. No change. So finally in a very non-library voice I say, "Knock it off!" and grab T by her arm and move her away from the situation. I take her over to my books and show her what I'm getting--anything to distract her. M meanwhile sees a book about penguins that she wants but I show her the one I already have which has more pictures. She wants that book about penguins so I just let her hold it. I hurry and go pick up my holds and we go to check out. I make the girls put all the books on the counter. I had 4 to check out and 4 to buy. I check out the books and then purchase the other 4 books and leave M's book about penguins to be bought by someone else. We are now heading out of the library back to our car. M wants to see her penguin book. I naively thought that she wouldn't remember what her book looked like. I gave her the book I purchased and she starts crying. She then grabs the book and throws it on the ground. T is now asking me about the zebra book we had checked out several weeks ago and that I had to return before we went on vacation. I told her we could check it out again; however, she is crying hysterically because she doesn't have the zebra book at home to read. Forget the 3 new animal books I had just bought. So remember I am holding H, M is yelling and throwing a fit about a book she wants that I didn't buy and now T is crying as well. No one wants to go to the car but me. So I can't go put H in the car and come back because I know M will dart out and most likely be hit by a car because she doesn't look and is so hysterical. Still holding H, I grab M's hands and start dragging/carrying her to the car. She is screaming. T is crying/screaming about the zebra book and H is just looking around. As we made our way to the van two different ladies commented to me, "Looks like this is going to be a long day." Ya think?

Suffocation

At 7:40 in the morning I am called urgently upstairs by E who exclaims that M has her leg stuck in her bed. I assume that M just has both legs through the slats on the headboard of her toddler bed. Wrong! What I find upon entering M's room is M in tears and one knee wedged in between two slats in the metal headboard. Not being one to panic (at least not yet) I try pushing her little kneecap back. Nope. I try moving her knee up or down. Nope. No movement. Nothing. M is screaming and crying because she is stuck. I stop and try to think how we can get her knee in a smaller position because she had to get it in somehow. Yet she has it perfectly placed so that I can't extend her leg straight because there isn't any room to maneuver. Now I panic. How can I get her knee out. I can't budge the metal rods so I can't bend them or break them off. Her knee seems stuck. Meanwhile E is telling M, "You're going to suffocate and die!" M starts crying even harder. I tell E that she isn't helping and to leave the room. E goes and wakes up her sister, T who comes in to investigate and E once again says, "M you're going to suffocate and die!" T then asks, "Is she?" "No" is my very firm reply. I'm loosing patience with E using the wrong word choice and for scaring M. I don't want to have to call the fire department and tell them my child has her knee stuck in her bed. I don't want to call my neighbors because off all the mornings I didn't get dressed before I went downstairs and I'm still in my pajamas. What to do?

Butter, margarine--anything greasy comes to my mind. I run downstairs and grab the tub of butter. I come back up, M is still crying and passing E on the way up the stairs she says, "M is going to suffocate and die isn't she?" "No" I say exasperated, "she isn't going to die. You're using the wrong word." I hurry into M's room and proceed to slather her little knee with the butter and then I pushed on her kneecap and out her little knee came. She was still shaky and only wanted to be held. E and T are in the doorway thinking that butter was a good idea. I calm M down enough and then go and find E telling her that to suffocate means you can't get any air into your lungs. M was in no danger of suffocating and that next time she shouldn't say that anyone is going to die because it just makes the other person scared.

What a way to start the day.

Operation Hummingbird

Sometimes nature is cruel to animals and makes you weep as when we watched little baby peregrine falcons hatch and then die because of a sudden drop in temperature. Then sometimes it is not nature but man that causes the pain and it again makes you want to cry; yet, there is often reason for joy when nature takes control and an unconquerable spirit soars.

Yesterday when M and I went out to water the garden, I heard a buzzing sound coming from the cherry tree. Upon investigation, I saw a small hummingbird caught in the net we have put around the tree. What was to protect the cherries from bigger birds was now a trap for a beautiful hummingbird. I felt horrible and didn't know what to do. I called Steve at work and asked if he could come home early to help me. I didn't want to face a wounded bird alone. Yet he couldn't leave as the next bus wasn't for awhile. I then decided to call home as moms can fix anything. Mom asked if she could take a few minutes to think about what should be done. In the course of our conversation it was decided that she would try calling someone in the wildlife department and I would get the ladder, gloves, scissors to cut the net, a box to put the bird in and a special drink made for hummingbirds.

I went back outside and told the girls they needed to be quiet as we didn't want to startle the hummingbird even more than what it already was. E was given the phone and told to answer it right away if it rang. T and M were to make sure the box and drink were ready. I climbed the ladder and the hummingbird started beating it's wings frantically when it saw me approach. I tried to calm it down by speaking quietly to it and told it what I was going to do. I started clipping the net and had my gloved hand ready to hold the tiny, frightened bird. It was gorgeous with a dark purple band around its neck contrasted against the black head and light gray body. As I was clipping, I noticed that its little wing was caught on one of the net's strings so carefully I clipped the net--careful not to clip the bird. As soon as I cut it, the bird was free. I had no time to grab the bird but it was still on the inside part of the net. I told the girls they needed to see where it went. They ran around to the back and saw it up high. It would try to fly straight into the net trying to get out. But it would fly right into the net and then fly back. What had I done? I made a bad situation get possibly worse. Then as we tried to shake the net in hopes that it would fly out the top an amazing thing happened; the little bird flew right in between the netting squares and up and over our tall tree in the front of the house.

Prayers of gratitude were given that the little hummingbird could fly and was free with prayers of hope that it would be alright.

The girls and I were ecstatic to see the little black speck fly higher and further away. What a brave little bird!

Oh my...

If people link to your blog then perhaps you need to update it--but what to say? How about something funny?

M likes to take off her diaper and run around commando. It has become a constant struggle to keep her diaper or pull-ups on. Once you do get them on, off they come in about five 5 minutes. The other day I had just put her diaper back on for quiet time/movie time. I went into the office to work on a talk I have to give but then decided that I should really unload the dishwasher first. (There is nothing quite like procrastination.) I went upstairs and passed what I thought was a diaper but would M really take it off already? She looked so comfortable laying on the floor with her purple blanket covering her. I decided to ask. "M do you have your diaper on?" To which M lifted up her purple blanket and laughingly says, "No!"

There you have it. When M goes commando she'll tell you when she has to use the toilet. Yet, if you put underwear or anything else on her she feels free to just go whenever.

Long live Commando M!

Clean plates, messy table

We are trying to teach the girls to take over their plates or bowls after dinner. After dinner last night, E took her plate over to the sink. I thanked her and then M deciding that she was through eating her blueberry pancakes, decided to remove the last 4 pieces of pancake from her plate and put them on the table. She then climbed down from her chair and dropped her plate in the sink. She knows that we try to eat everything on our plate before taking them over to the sink and when she can't finish eating whatever, she dumps it on the table. She is very proud of herself for accomplishing this task and it always makes me smile to see her run over to the sink with her plate and see the food piled on the table where she was sitting.

Little Words

I am amazed at how little words like "thank you" and "please" can change how my day appears and can change my mood and therefore my reactions. After a long day today of running here and there and everywhere with the kids, I was quite ready to put everyone to bed and have a little quiet time when all of the sudden after cutting some pumpkin bread for a bedtime treat there came to my ears the words, "Thank you." I smiled and realized how happy I was to give my girls something they really wanted and appreciated and bedtime didn't have to seem so imminent. Then came the words, "Please can I have some, too?" I was no longer in a tired, frazzled mood. The bedtime hour was pleasant as they ate their bread, we read a book, and then they hurried off to brush their teeth and go to sleep.