Progress

Lately, Luke has been doing more drawing with markers and less biting the ends off of them.

Therefore, even though he is sprawled out on the table while he's coloring, I still consider this a win.

Planters

This weekend we started doing some planting.  Luke and Eliza helped me plant wheat grass, as is one of our Easter customs.  And Cat planted flower seeds in our flower beds and in a big pot in our little back yard.  I cleaned out our Square Foot Garden boxes, which had turned into Grass Boxes, so that we can get our garden started soon.  Cat and Jack helped me with that big project, then Cat decided it was hot enough to fill up the kiddie pool (even if she did feel the need to bring out multiple bucket-fulls of warm water from the house).  Cat, Eliza, and Luke played in the water then relaxed in the sun.  We're sure grateful for spring!

CDC

Last month Cat joined a new club at school - the Cake Decorating Club.  Once a week the participants stay an extra 30 minutes after school to learn techniques of decorating cakes and cookies, and Cat always comes home with something sweet.  They spent the first few weeks practicing piping frosting and last week began working with fondant.  "It tastes gross," she said, which made me laugh because although I love the way fondant looks, I'm not a fan of the taste either.  And I usually go for taste over aesthetic (which is why our wedding cake was chocolate with cream cheese frosting).

Isn't it cool that this is offered as a club, though?  It struck me as random, even more so because it's the PE teacher who teaches the cake decorating techniques, but also very cool.

The Best Backward Glance Ever

We had some misty weather one morning this week.  I had to make a stop at a neighbor's house before going home and Eliza asked if she could take the umbrella and walk home by herself.  She and Cat both LOVE umbrellas and I thought she just wanted an excuse to use one in actual rain (no matter how minimal it might have been) instead of pulling out an umbrella and using it as a sunshade or a prop.  But when I started driving home and looked back at her, it really was mostly a prop.  She was dancing and twirling and spinning the umbrella around and having a grand ol' time.  I wish I had a video to share, but this picture will just have to do.  You'll have to imagine the rest.

TBT - Mema Visits Uncle Will's Ranch

The following is a story Ben's mother sent me recently containing memories from her childhood.

Cleo and her brother fishing at Uncle Will's.

A time of excitement in my early years was our visit to Uncle Will’s ranch in Texas. Uncle Will was my grandmother’s half brother and lived on the old family ranch in San Saba, Texas, the same place where grandmother was born. I was about 4 or 5 when we all took the Greyhound bus to Texas to visit them.  The bags were packed the night before and we were up before day the next morning.  Mr. Mack who ran the bus station came to get us in his car.  At the bus station, Grandmother discovered she had left her glasses at home so Mr. Mack took her back to get them.  I remember so clearly worrying that she would not get  back in time and miss the bus.  Also, I knew which direction was west – where the sun went down- and when the bus maneuvered from street to street in cities along the way and wasn’t heading ‘west’, I was terrified we wouldn’t get to Uncle Will’s ranch.  I am sure my mother tried to explain to me the reason the bus had to go in other directions sometimes, but in my stubborn nature, I was convinced I was right and we were lost!  Oh, how I worried!  To my great delight, we reached Texas after a day and night on the bus.  In the bus station at San Saba, Texas, there were big cow horns mounted on the wall and everyone wore cowboy boots and very big hats.  How exciting!  Uncle Will came to get us in his pickup truck.  He had to make several trips to get us all out to the ranch.  There were horses, plenty of long horn cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, a windmill, a dog, a fish pond, and it was heaven!  Aunt Julia welcomed us with open arms.  I was allowed to sit in front of Uncle Will and ride his horse. 

We went back to visit several times over the years.  On our visit when I was 9, my brother and I were allowed to take fishing poles and fish in the pond.  Aunt Julia insisted I wear one of her big sun bonnets to keep the sun off my face.  Her daughter Christine lived not far away and let me sit in her lap and steer her truck as we went to her house to pick up something.  I loved doing this and was eager to go.

Christine’s son, Joe Allen, was about 17 at the time.  He let us tag along with him whenever he was at Uncle Will's.  He would hoist me up on his horse and away we would go.  We got to go rabbit hunting with him and his friend one night.  To do this, one of the big boys drove the truck across the huge pastures shining the headlights on big jack rabbits.  The other big boy stood in the back of the truck leaning over the cab with his gun and shot the rabbits.  Us little kids sat in the back and rolled all over the place laughing till our sides ached as the truck bounced over the grassy pastures.   The boys shouting “There’s one!  Shootem!” I’m sure my mother would have had a fit had she known how dangerous this was.  It was pretty dark, but you could see the outline of mountains in the distance.  This sounds barbaric but had to be done periodically because the rabbits multiplied so fast and dug holes in the pastures.  The cows stepped in the holes and broke their legs.  Anyway, that was the logic Joe Allen explained to us and it sounded pretty good to me.

Another exciting adventure at Uncle Will's was the ‘round-up’.  He had rented his ranchland to an owner of a huge head of Brahma cattle to graze for a while.  It was time to round them all up so they could be taken on to market.  Now Brahmas are big cattle with long horns, known for their ill tempers, not the type of animal you would want to charge at you.  So, as you know, the most exciting thing for a child is to be safe in an experience with a bit of danger.  We were allowed to again ride in the back of the pickup truck where a ranch hand had a big sack of cow feed.  Out over the range we went while they called to the cattle.  We didn’t roll and tumble on that trip.  If we fell out, we had been warned, the cows would trample us and we might be killed. The tailgate on the truck had to be down to let the cow feed flow and we kids were sternly warned to stay put or else we would have to ride in the cab.  The cow feed was spilled out periodically from the back of the truck making a trail.  As soon as the cows realized it, they started following the truck.  Faster and faster the truck went and faster and faster the herd of cattle came. By the way, there was a huge bull in the herd as well.  We kept a sharp eye out for him and when he was spotted, we feared he would charge right into the truck.  Now, that was exciting to be a part of! They were led through the range right up to the fenced in area, at which time the truck turned abruptly and the fast moving cattle went right into the coral.  And just like that, the whole thing was over.  We relived that adventure a thousand times.  Each retelling, the tale got bigger and bigger, the cows came closer and closer to us in the truck. We saw their huge brown eyes more clearly and could feel their breath and almost touch their big sharp horns.  It was more and more dangerous!  Well, except when we were telling our mother about it.  Then it was just a little ride in the back of the truck with nice cows following behind.

I really loved Uncle Will and Aunt Julia.

Jack and John

This morning I was in the kitchen with Jack and Eliza while they were eating breakfast.  When they started talking about imaginary friends, I told them that Cat had an imaginary friend named Alice when she was about Eliza's age.  In fact, when we told Cat that I was pregnant with a girl, Alice was one of the names she suggested (the other was Elizabeth).

Jack immediately announced that he now had an imaginary friend named John.

Then he told me that I should have imaginary friends, too.  I laughed and wondered exactly what he meant by that.  Does he think having an imaginary friend is so fun that everyone should do it?  Or does he think that my social circle is lacking?  Or is he telling me to spend more time on Facebook?

When I picked Jack up from school today, he told me that he'd had a great day, and John did too.  Then Cat got in the car and said that Alice had a great day at school as well.  Then John and Alice shared a seat on the way home.

I need to ask Cat... what has Alice been up to over the last 5 years?

Mommy & Me + Chuck E. Cheese

Our kids earn tallies (literally just marks on the family calendar) with good behavior.  When they reach 100, they get to have a Mommy or Daddy date.  Eliza earned her date recently and chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese with me.  I usually leave the video game-oriented activities to Ben, but I went along with Eliza because she wanted me to.  She loved getting to play the games and just hang out, and didn't even begrudge the fact that after spending $10 on tokens we literally earned only 50 tickets, which we exchanged for two pitiful notebooks as Eliza's "prizes."

It was great to get to do something fun just with Eliza, though, and I'm glad we had that time together.  She really is such a sweet, happy, and fun little girl.

I texted this picture of Eliza playing an Army-shooting-type
game to Ben and said, "This is so not my thing." :-) 

Pedaling to make the animal go 'round.

Diorama

Cat had an assignment in social studies recently to put together a diorama that represented the history of Utah.  That was the only stipulation.  Oh, and it had to fit on her desk.

Seeing as how I haven't made a diorama in quite a few years and felt a bit rusty, I wasn't even sure where to start.  After a lot of discussion about what to do and how to do it, we finally decided she would make a diorama showing some of the cool animals that live in Utah.  She got the idea approved by her teacher then found pictures of animals on the internet.  I formatted the pictures for her and cut them out, then taped toothpicks to the backs.  I advised her on the process for the landscape but she assembled it almost completely by herself.  She did have some help from her siblings, though.

I think it turned out great, and her teacher was pleased that she made sure to put the different animals in the correct habitats (rivers vs. dessert grasslands vs. mountains).  Kid Diorama #1 - COMPLETE.

I SPY:
Bald Eagle, cougar, Golden Eagle, Black Bear, bison
coyote, foxes, rattlesnake, frog, fish, and duck.

The Littlest Tinkerer

I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home

TBT - Andrew Hyrum and Charles Whitlock

When Megan and I were in St. George last weekend I took the opportunity to record Opa telling a few of my favorite family stories.  The text below comes directly from Opa.

Andrew Hyrum Whitlock was my great-great grandfather and he joined the Church in 1831 in Kirtland.  He'd heard of the prophet before this and came to meet him.  He was a teamster and hauled freight for the prophet.  (He eventually became president of the 7th Quorum of the 70.)

One day in Nauvoo, Andrew was told by the prophet that he needed to deliver some freight to one of the neighboring communities.  He said to him, "Joseph, I can't do it.  My boy is sick.  He's very sick.  I'm afraid he's going to die."

Joseph said to him, "Don't worry about that.  If you'll do your job, I will give the boy a blessing."

When he came back from this trip that he'd had, he thought all the way back, "I'm gonna find my son dead." And he got back and here he was in the front yard playing.  His wife told him, "The prophet gave him a blessing."  The son, Charles, had been told in the course of the blessing that he'd never have a sickness again until it came time for him to die.

Later on, when they came out to Utah, Charles, too, had become a teamster.  He'd been called upon to deliver some freight to this fort and he got up over a little rise and there were 12 Indians that were in his way.  They just saw him coming and they just parted the way.  Six on each side of the road.  He got right up to them and the fort was not too far away and he cracked the whip.  He had oxen.  They're not the greatest.  They're very sturdy but not very fast.  He cracked the whip and the oxen took off and ran like crazy.  The Indians started shooting arrows at him. They shot several arrows at him. And when he got to the fort, every one of the oxen had enough arrows in them that they all were killed.  He had an arrow that hit him in the shoulder.

He died at age 88.  And from the blessing that the prophet had given him until (his death) the only thing that he'd ever had was this shot in the shoulder by an arrow.

He said that he learned to trust the prophet.

Charles later on became one of the founders of the town of Ephraim, Utah.

Eliza's First (Official) Crazy Hair Day

Last week was Hair Week at Eliza's preschool.  They set up a hair salon, styled mannequins' hair, got their hair done by a beautician parent, and the week culminated in Crazy Hair Day on Friday.  Eliza came home from school on Thursday with a picture of what she wanted her hair to look like:

Yes, she wanted a purple mohawk.  And she was very unhappy when I told her that we would not be purchasing hair dye for the purpose of Preschool Crazy Hair Day and that it was impossible to put her hair in a mohawk because it was simply too long.  She said we should cut her hair.  If not all of her hair, we should at least cut the part straight down the middle so that we could spike it up.  I infuriated her further by telling her that we would not be cutting her hair for the purpose of Preschool Crazy Hair Day.

She REALLY wanted her hair to stick out.  I suggested that we put little braids all over her hair and that they would stick out.  She finally agreed to this, but the plan morphed once we got started.  She let me put little rubber bands in the front half but decided not to do any more than that, and not to do any braiding.  So I gathered all of the little ponytails and made one bigger ponytail on top of her head and let it stick up as much as it could.

When she came to the car after preschool she said it was the Best Day Ever!  I breathed a huge sigh of relief then took the kids straight to a park to play and run around and just enjoy the beautiful weather.  As soon as we got there, Eliza wanted me to take all of the rubber bands out.  This was not a fun process, and by the time we were finished she was in tears and exclaimed that she never wants to have Crazy Hair Day ever again.

I think I'll second that.

Pi Day of the Century

So, our commemoration of Pi Day this year was not in line with the momentous occasion it was.  Being the Pi Day of the Century, Cat advised us that we should be celebrating on 3-14-15 at precisely 9:26.  Since I didn't know what in the world kind of celebration we would have at 9:26 am and my kids all beg to go to bed if we keep them up past 9 pm, we resorted to our default tradition of eating Pizza Pie and Dessert Pie.  This year, though, I had The Bigs make their own individual pizzas, which was fun.  And we had our favorite dessert pie (peanut butter fudge - recipe below if you're interested).  Good times.

Peanut Butter & Fudge Swirl Pie

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream cheese (or Neufchatel), softened
1/2 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Creamy peanut butter
2 c. thawed Cool Whip (or 1 cup whipping cream, whipped up good)
1 Oreo pie crust (the brand matters - we've tried other brands and they're really not as good)
1/4 c. Hot fudge ice cream topping (I've also used a small amount of melted chocolate chips)

Beat cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter in large bowl with mixer until blended.  Gently stir in Cool Whip until blended.  Spoon into crust and drizzle with fudge topping.  Swirl gently with knife.  Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

More From Megan's Visit

We loved having Megan here with us!  We did plenty of homework and meal prep and other at-home things, and Megan was a great help with the kids and they loved being with her!  (With the exception of Luke, who was distrustful of Megan if he had any suspicion that I was going to be leaving the premises.)  She and I did some shopping and watched some movies (including Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - a must for sister time).  Megan also treated the kids to special beverages at a soda bar near our house and tagged along for things like a local ballet company's performance at the library.

Jack enjoyed the ballet for about two minutes.
All of the other kids, even Luke, were completely enthralled the whole time.

Pointe shoes!
 

Refreshments at a local bakery after seeing the ballet.

We were even naughty one morning and took the kids to school an hour late so that we could all go out for a special breakfast at a bakery in Provo.  Did you know that being naughty can sometimes be delicious?  Don't tell anyone I said that.

Megan and I also took off for the weekend to spend time with Oma and Opa in St. George.  This is the only picture I have to share from our trip: when O&O took us out to dinner at the legendary Chuck-a-Rama buffet.  It did not disappoint.  Even after waiting in line for 30 minutes just to get to the cashier.

O&O said this was their first selfie.  Do you believe it??

While in St. George we visited our favorite jewelry store and took a drive through Santa Clara and the mountains, stopping for a tour of the Jacob Hamblin home.  We went to church at O&O's ward and we did lots and lots of catching up and storytelling.  (I'll share some of Opa's stories in upcoming TBTs.)  It was a great trip and I really loved getting to have that one-on-one time with Megan in the car, and adult time with Oma and Opa without the chaos of kids in tow.

Megan, if you're reading this, thank you for coming, and you're welcome back any time!

TBT - Grandma & Grandpa's Family Superstitions

Since tomorrow is Friday the 13th, I thought this would be a good time to post these family superstitions, which Aunt Cathy shared with me a while back.

Every family has superstitions and customs that get passed on from generation to generation.  Many times they are just repeated and accepted without any knowledge of how they came to be.  Here are some of the ones that I can remember.

The most interesting one, to me, is a custom/superstition that came from Mom's family.  She incorporated it into our lives so matter-of-factly that I never questioned it when I was growing up, but when I told friends, later in life, about the custom, they would look at me strangely and say they had never heard of such a thing.

The custom is to say "Rabbit" the first thing in the morning, on the first day of each month.  It has to be the very first word that you say, and you have to say it out loud - by doing so, you will have good luck that month.  (The implication, of course, is that if you DON'T say it on the first day of the month, you will NOT have good luck for that month.)

Where does that custom/superstition come from?  If you Google the query - "saying Rabbit on the first day of the month" - you will get lots of hits.  Evidently it is a more common custom than some might imagine.  It seems to be an old English custom.   Many of today's Google hits don't take a guess as to its origin.  They try to connect it to the vague idea that people consider rabbits lucky (like a rabbit's foot).  When I looked it up several years ago, answers were a little more specific.  They talked about the ancient Celtic goddess, Oestra, who was the goddess of Spring, and whose "totem" animal was a rabbit.  (the rabbit's connection to her could also explain how rabbits became symbols of Easter ).  So, saying "rabbit" at the beginning of each month could be a way of invoking the blessing of the goddess.

Most of the other superstitions that have come down from Mom and Dad's families have to do with invoking luck, or assuring oneself of good luck - or, conversely, warding off bad luck.  Here are some:

As Mom mentioned in her memories of Christmas,  her family believed that any and all Christmas decorations had to be down and put away before New Year's Day, or it might bring bad luck for the new year.  Also, it was bad luck to wash clothes on the Friday after Christmas (don't ask me where that comes from!)  Food on New Year's Day was very important, as you know.  It always had to include a dish of greens (any kind - mustard greens, collards, spinach), which was supposed to bring good fortune in the new year; and a dish of black-eyed peas, which was supposed to bring good luck.

In Dad's family, the first visitors of the day on New Year's Day were very important.  Everyone wanted the first visitor of the day to be a male - that was supposed to bring good luck.  So, Dad says that the families of the neighborhood would get together before New Year's Day and decide who was going to visit whose house, to ensure that everyone would get their first dose of good luck for the year.

In order to ward off bad luck, a  person who spilled any salt unintentionally needed to take a pinch of the salt and throw it over their left shoulder.  I don't know the origin of why it was unlucky to let the spilled salt go, but throwing it over your LEFT shoulder had a long-standing reason.  People of the old days carried around the belief that you had active participation in your life by devils and angels - and the angel would be always standing by your right shoulder and the devil would be standing by your left shoulder.  So, throwing the salt over your left shoulder would be to ward off the devil.

And speaking of food, one rule of thumb that I remember Mom (and our Aunt Elsie) always saying:  never eat oysters in any month that does not contain the letter "R".  This makes perfect sense, of course, since those months are May, June, July, and August - the hot months of the year, when oysters would spoil very quickly (especially in the days before our grand refrigerators), and eating spoiled oysters could make you very sick.

Other kitchen-related superstitions:  if you drop tableware while you are either putting it away, or getting it ready to set the table, it means that "company's coming".  If you twist the stem off of an apple, recite the alphabet, one letter at a time ("A - B - C - D", etc) with each twist of the stem.  The letter that you have said when the stem comes off is supposed to be the first letter of your "true love's" name.  (A variation:  if you peal an apple or a peach, and you keep the peal intact - all in one piece - and then throw the peal over your shoulder, look at its shape when it lands - whatever letter it shapes is the first letter of the name of the one you will marry.

Here are a couple of ideas about itching.  If your nose itches, it could mean one of three things:  you will meet a stranger; or, you will kiss a stranger; or, you will kiss a fool.  If your ear itches, you will hear a secret.  If the palm of your hand itches, you will get some money.

There were, of course, many thoughts about how strictly you should "keep the Sabbath".  For the most part, during both of my parents' childhoods, that meant not doing any kind of work at all.  My Great-grandma Harris, my Grandmother Stovall, and my mother all used to say that if you did any sewing on Sunday, you would have to take each one of those stitches out with your nose on Judgement Day.

Temple Square with Aunt Meggy

My sister Megan came to visit this week and we had a wonderful time!  There were several adventures to be had, but I'll just share one tonight.  While Cat and Jack were at school Monday, Eliza and Luke and I took Megan to Temple Square.  It was an absolutely beautiful sunny-yet-cool Spring-ish day; the flowers were blooming, and there were hardly any other people around.

We took the tour of the Conference Center, saw the Christus statue at the North Visitors' Center, heard an organ recital in the tabernacle, and took some time for pictures in front of the temple.  It was lovely to be there near the House of the Lord, to feel the Spirit and talk of Christ.

I loved having this time with Megan, and playing tour guide for her.  I also enjoyed that Eliza was the only big kid with us so I could focus in on her and her knowledge of the Gospel.  I would ask her questions as we looked at Arnold Friberg's Book of Mormon paintings and she knew lots of the answers, as well as answers to other questions that came up during the Conference Center tour and at the Visitors' Center.  She was quiet and respectful when she needed to be and she didn't complain about walking all morning.  It really was a great morning and I'm so glad Megan wanted to make Temple Square part of her trip!

Sayings and Phrases

Because Painting Yourself is More Fun

Eliza at School

Eliza brought these four pictures home from school.  I love that her preschool does so many fun and interesting things.  Just off the top of my head: they've stuffed a paper whale the size of a baby Orca; they have a tarantula and several fish in the classroom; they paint and craft with a huge variety of products; and they do lots of role-play activities.  It really is a great place with wonderful teachers.  No wonder she loves it so much.

This is the poster that Eliza made to bring to school the week before her birthday.  Cat helped with taping the pictures on, but Eliza told her how she wanted it arranged and did the drawing herself.  Except she wanted me to do draw a couple of birthday cakes with candles.  (There's a reason I never pursued drawing as a creative outlet...)

As a Child

(A posed picture for a project I worked on last year.)

We've been trying to teach Jack about prayer for a while.  He had a short cover-all-the-bases prayer he recited most of the time and we would frequently remind him about what is appropriate to include in your prayers.  Several weeks ago, a light went on.  I'm not sure if he just figured it out on his own or if it was the result of a conversation at home or a lesson at church, but his prayers suddenly became more sincere and specific.  He would ask that the summer would come really quickly because he's so excited to go fishing with Papa.  He would ask that school be canceled tomorrow.  He would ask that we could have dinner at McDonald's.  Etc., etc., etc.

One night last week after laying down with him at bedtime for a few minutes, I told him that I needed to go return a movie to Redbox before the 9pm deadline.  He asked me to check on him when I got back, which I agreed to, then I left.  When I got home I went downstairs to check on Jack as I'd promised and Jack told me that his prayer had been answered.  He'd asked that I would be able to get back safely.  Then he told me that his prayers can fix everything.

Our natures must be changed to become as a child to gain the strength we must have to be safe in the times of moral peril. ... I know that by acting on our faith in Him we can be cleansed and changed to become pure and strong, as a little child.

                               - President Henry B. Eyring, "As a Child," April 2006 General Conference

TBT - The Mouse Story

I wrote this story a few years ago but have never posted it on this blog.  Not only does the recollection of this experience make me laugh, but re-reading this story is a great reminder that all toddlers, or at least all of my toddlers get into things.  I can only imagine what Luke would have done in this situation...

Jack and Eliza, Fall 2011

I’d heard stories of mouse sightings in various areas, but most of my friends who had seen rodents in or near their homes lived in one of two places: New York City (rats) or Utah (mice).  I don’t know if the South is more rodent-free than other parts of the country, or if I was just lucky to never encounter a rat or mouse in the 20+ years I lived there?  Either way, I suppose I couldn’t expect my blissful mouse-free life to continue forever.  When I moved to Utah for the first time, I made sure to keep the possibility of a mouse sighting somewhere between the forefront and the back of my mind.  I didn’t want to dwell on it and walk around with a broom ready-for-the-swat, but I didn’t want to forget about it either.

I started my day on Oct. 10th, 2011 the way I would start any day.  I woke up, got myself ready, took care of the kids, took my 1st grader to school, and came home.  I gathered a load of laundry and walked down to the basement to get the washing machine started.  Jack and Eliza, ages 3 and 1 respectively, were happily occupied in the playroom, which is next to the laundry room.

I loaded the washing machine and saw something that looked like a tail out of the corner of my eye.  I didn’t think anything of it at first, because my son had been playing with plastic dinosaur figures the week before.  I was sure it was one of those.  But something made me want to look, just to make sure.  After all, we should always double check that anything which possesses a tail and is lying on our floor is, indeed, plastic.  So I finished taking care of the laundry, turned my body and allowed my gaze to fall on the dinosaur, just to make sure.  Just to make sure.

As I looked at the being in possession of said tail, my eyes grew 17 times bigger and my heart started pounding out of my chest.

It wasn’t a dinosaur.  It was, in fact, a mouse.  Or, to be more specific, a mouse corpse.

In situations such as these, I sometimes find that the best course of action is to take no action at all.  So I slowly backed out of the laundry room, keeping an eye on the dead mouse so as to be sure that he didn’t come back to life during my retreat.  I closed the door, and looked in on the playroom to confirm that my mischief-making toddlers were not actively making mischief before going upstairs to get my phone and call my husband.  He’d never had to dispose of a dead mouse, that I knew of, but of course, he still knew what to do better than I did.  Husbands are handy that way.  How do I pick it up?  Does it need to be double-bagged?  I’m sure it’s too big to be flushed, so does that mean that the trash can is the appropriate resting place?  Or does the little rodent deserve a proper Christian burial?  For all I knew, the mouse was protecting our beloved laundry room from those bad gansta-type rodents you hear about on the news sometimes.  He might have died a martyr’s death, defending our family!  What is the appropriate course of action??

No answer from my husband.  But he texted me right away.  “Class is about to start.  What’s up?”

“Dead mouse in the laundry room.  What do I do?”

“Scream!  Then wrap him up in a paper towel and throw him in the trash outside.”

“I didn’t scream.  You’d be proud.  Are you sure I can’t just leave him there until you get home?”

“That is fine.”

I walked downstairs, armed with a few plastic grocery bags, determined to “dispose” of the mouse and make myself and my husband proud.  But something was off when I went downstairs.  There was no sign of my mischief-making toddlers.  No toy-related noises.  No giggles.  No screaming or fighting or crying.  (Thank goodness for that!)  No walking, running, scampering, or skipping.  Not even any breathing sounds.  Where are they?  They didn’t walk upstairs; I would have seen them.  Did they go outside?  Or are they hiding?  Surely they’re not....

Oh.  Of course they were.  I opened the laundry room door, and there they were.  To the best of my recollection, they had never before, and have never since, gone into the laundry room “just because” and I don’t know what would have enticed them in there on this particular day.  I hadn’t screamed.  I hadn’t said anything to them or brought attention to myself in any way.  Did I sneak out so quietly in an attempt not to alert them that they thought I was still in there, and they entered the room in pursuit of me?  Who knows.  But they were, indeed, in the one place I needed to keep them away from that morning.

I quickly searched for the mouse in the corner where he had been peacefully resting just moments before.  PLEASE be there.  PLEASE tell me that the kids didn’t notice the mouse.  PLEASE tell me that we aren’t going to all die from rabies.  Do mice even contract rabies?  And are they still contagious after they die?  Will we have to be hospitalized, or can it be taken care of with a few shots?  Should we have a fun run to raise money for rabies awareness?  Wait.  Back to the search for the mouse - because he wasn’t there.  He wasn’t in what he thought was his final resting place.  Because we all know that his actual  final resting place was to be in the local landfill.  

Of course he wasn’t still lying prostrate on the linoleum.  Why would I even think he was?  Had I forgotten so quickly who else had been in the room since I escaped to go upstairs?  So.  He wasn’t where I left him, er, I should say, where he had left himself.  Where was he?

Perhaps at this point in the story I should pause to let you know that when I describe my children as mischief-making, it may come across as critical.  I don’t intend to be.  They are particularly good at getting into things - the candy stash we “hide” on the top shelf in the kitchen, bottles of spices, Vicks Vap-O-Rub, toilet paper, my jewelry, and spare change, just to name a few.  But I honestly don’t think that they intend to make trouble with every waking breath.  They just happen to be active.  And smart.  And curious.  It was the curious part that got them into trouble on this day.

After standing in the laundry room with my jaw down to my belly button for an hour, or perhaps half a second, I noticed that my sweet pink-cheeked blonde-haired one year old daughter had a tiny little critter clutched in her hands.  At which point my brown-eyed son excitedly explained, “We found a mouse!”

Then, I screamed.  Kind of a lot.

And my baby cried.

I bagged up the mouse, washed my kids’ hands 700 times (of course I only saw one child holding the mouse but perhaps they’d been playing hot potato with the poor thing before I walked in - who knows?!?), disinfected the entire laundry room floor, and texted my husband.

“Don’t worry.  By the time I walked back down to the laundry room, J & E had found the mouse.  E was holding it.  Then I screamed.  And that made E cry.  Mouse is now bagged up and waiting to be buried in trash.”

I immediately received the perfect reply.  “Never a dull moment.”

Indeed.

Now I keep some extra plastic bags in the laundry room.  Because next time - and hopefully there will never be one - I will be prepared.

Motherhood Lesson #432: Dispose of it Immediately.

Jack and Eliza, Fall 2011