Cricket Killer

It all started the other night right before bed. Bradley came running to me, “Mom, there’s a jumping black spider in my room! It’s really big, Mom!”

A spider jumping? I’m so confused. And ugh! I’m in the middle of getting the twins ready for bed- sitting on the toilet seems to take these two forever and Collin’s being Collin and needing constant supervision. And now I have to catch a spider in the boys’ room?! A jumping one, none the less. And all I really want to do is get these kids to bed because I’m tired and honestly, these kids are driving me nuts!

I really doubt there’s a spider, so I didn’t rush. “Where is it?” I ask Bradley as I go into the room and scan the walls and floor. He points to a corner by the closet, “There it is!” he exclaims.

I look, expecting to see lint or something silly that’s not a spider at all, but there was something there.

“It’s just a cricket,” I say, a little confused because I have never seen a cricket in the house before, especially on the second floor. They are usually in basements or something.

Yet there it was- a big fat cricket skimming along the baseboard. His black body shined in the light as I chased him down and tried to catch him with my bare hands. His legs felt spiny against my cupped hands and just when I thought I had him he would leap out of my hands and escape.

I can’t believe Bradley doesn’t know what a cricket is! I somehow feel I have failed him in some small way because every kid should be able to identify crickets, along with lightning bugs and rolly pollys (you know those grey things with lots of legs that roll into a little round ball when you flick them).

I told Bradley to keep a watch on him and I went and got toilet paper from the bathroom so I could catch it. I used to catch them with my hands when I was little, no big deal. I don’t know when I became such a wimp, the squirming fat body and sticky legs keep freaking me out. I feel as if I’m not setting a good example for the kids, squealing every time it jumps from my hands.

I pick it up with the toilet paper. I can feel its fat body squirming between my fingers. I run to the bathroom and fling the whole thing in the toilet. We watch it swim around the toilet bowl. It keeps trying to escape up the slippery sides of the bowl.

“Mom!” Bradley is entirely exasperated and a little upset by my actions. “Why did you do that?!” he demands. “It’s where we pee and stuff. Gross! It’s gonna die!”  (Hello?! Yea, that’s the whole point. But I didn’t say anything about that.)

I guess I should have/could have let the cricket go outside. It makes me think back to my science teacher in college. Seriously, she would NOT kill a fly. If there was an ant, bug, or spider, she would not hurt it and would get quite upset if you smashed him with your foot or slammed a book down on the insect. She would save the little creature by scooping it up on a sheet of paper and gingerly carrying it outside to let it free. How kind and caring. I guess I don’t always have it in me, considering I’m a cricket killer tonight.

So here was this experience where I could have taught Bradley some sort of lesson, like kindness or taking care of our environment because all animals and insects are important to our Earth…but instead I flushed the jumping black spider/cricket down the toilet.

Cricket killer.

But it’s bedtime! I don’t have the time right now to deal with a cricket and I lost my patience right after dinner when I started counting down the minutes until bedtime.

Maybe next time I will set it free. Maybe next time I will have some compassion for that annoying fly or pesky cricket that shouldn’t be in our house in the first place. Just maybe.

xxx

Butterflies and Fly Puke

A yellow monarch dances under the willow trees skinny swaying arms. There is a light breeze and I see a fish jump in the calm lake, almost as if it is a rock skipping in the water. It is Monday; all the other campers are gone, except for a few empty RV’s next to us and one other family further up the road. I sit in my green lawn chair, drinking my Mt. Chill (don’t you just love the names of generic pop?), and take deep cleansing breaths of nature. I’m really glad the wind is blowing the other direction; otherwise you smell the port-a-potties that are three cabins down. They have their advantages and disadvantages of being so close.

A cardinal, bright as an apple with a shiny beak, lands under the tree less than 3 feet away from me. I sit still and watch him hop on his strong bird legs. He cocks his head looking at me, as if he is asking me where everyone went. He jumps higher on the tent pole like an acrobat, scaling the side of the tent sideways. Man, I wish I had my camera. Then I remind myself just to enjoy the moment. I take a picture in my head.

It is almost perfect; the scenery, the weather, the quiet peacefulness. Then a fly buzzes my ear. I can count at least 20 of them on the porch rail, and that is only the ones standing still for a brief second to include them in the head count. I once heard that a fly pukes every time it lands. I imagine all the fly puke everywhere. If this is true, then our entire cabin and everything around it is saturated in fly puke. Oh nature, how I love you.

I am only a part-time nature lover. I can take it in short bursts.

Where do the flies go at night? Where are the mosquitoes during the day? And why do they feed on us? I have decided this is nature’s irony.

Taigyn the Fisherman

The boys did a lot of fishing. Taigyn was the only one who caught anything. As long as he didn’t cast the line out, he caught something. He pretty much just dropped it in front of him and a fish jumped on the hook. And no, it doesn’t count if you catch the same fish twice. 😉

Better luck next time.

xxx

Dishsoap & Dragonflies

Day 3

I went to our outside watering hole to wash my hands. The translucent wing of a young dragonfly was stuck like tape to the orange bottle of dishwashing soap. You could see the veins of the delicate wings sparkle in the morning sunlight, like a freshly spun spiderweb gleaming in the light. His thread thin legs clung to the wooden pole, as if trying to support himself and break free. I imagined it probably felt like hanging there from your hair, your scalp in pain, follicles screaming to break free, giant hands coming at you, please don’t smash me, please don’t hurt me! I meant to help him but my hands were wet and I went to dry them off, for fear I might further damage his wings, and got busy and forgot. It was like that all day, same story – just a different interruption. The dragonfly was still alive and hanging there in the evening, as the sun was setting. I finally set him free.

xxx

From Tadpoles to Tiny Frogs

I step out onto the back porch, the concrete burning my feet, and tap the turquoise tote with my big toe. I watch the remaining two tadpoles fly through the water, startled and swimming for the next rock or pond scum to hide under. The color of the tote reminds me of the ocean, somewhere tropical that I will not be visiting for a long time…we will wait until the babies get bigger, but a girl can always dream palm trees. The ripples my tapping toe makes must look like tidal waves to the little creatures. Their new skinny frog legs flailing at their sides.

And yes, there are only two left. One died of natural causes and the other from a curious toddler who decided to go wading in the tote. Oops!

They are so tiny, they could sit on a dime and still have lots of room. “Be careful,” I warn Bradley as he catches it with pinching fingers and sets it gently on his palm. I am hopeful it is still alive as he puts it on his hand. A hop and a jump…yep, it’s still kicking!

We had a lot of fun raising them and watching them change and grow. Hope to do it again next year.

xxx

Below is a short video of the babies Bradley caught at the farm. There was so many! We let them go before we went home. Bradley lightly dumped the jar and they jumped, darted, and swam away.

 

Raising Tadpoles

The dishes are done, the laundry is clean, and all the sweet babies are in bed. It’s been a long day and the bottoms of my feet just ache. But FINALLY…I get to sit down and relax (hope I didn’t just jinx myself). I’m lounging on the couch on the front porch, enjoying the cool breeze.

There is a large plastic container sitting on my counter (the one where we end up collecting all the junk; purse, bills, etc. It would make a great kitchen bar if we could just knock out part of the wall). The braided pretzel label on the container has been wet and is wrinkly and trying to peel itself off. This is our makeshift tadpole home. It is equipped with a nice large rock, courtesy of the Mississippi River, and 4 tiny tadpoles, courtesy of my mom’s co-worker. Bright green pond scum floats lazily in the murky water and clings to the edges of the rock. Tadpoles dart around the edges, as if they are racing. You can see their tiny little frog legs right by their tiny tadpole tails. 

Directions for taking care of these babies are handwritten on a scrap of paper and scotch taped to the sides, along with the lid.

Keep in shade. Needs a rock to get out of water (check). Do not feed. They eat their tails. Rain/distilled water. Keep water clean (need to do that).

Now we will just keep our fingers crossed they live and we get to see them turn into frogs or toads.

I will keep it updated.

xxx

Below are a few misc. pics of the day and a video. The boys had a blast cleaning the rocks, but of course! It deals with water. 🙂

Happenings in the Backyard…

A lot has been happening in our backyard lately. Besides the baby bunnies, which you can read about in the previous post, we have 3 bird’s nests. One I’m pretty sure is empty, the second I can’t see because it is in a ledge, but I see the momma sparrow coming and going and I can hear the little chirps, and the third is actually in a light fixture on the side of my neighbor’s house. Every time I do the dishes or sit on the back porch I can see the momma robin feed her babies. It is so cute to see the little beaks stretched out and open, waiting for their momma to feed the four babies. That is kinda how I feel sometimes, three little babies lined up with mouths open waiting to be fed. And I go down the line, spooning food into each little mouth. (One is actually Collin, he thinks he needs to be fed along with the babies.)

I have been watching this bird’s nest for the last couple weeks now. It is amazing how fast they are growing.

The babies are out of the nest now. This morning I was sitting on my porch and I watched the momma Robin pecking for worms with one of her baby’s by her side.  When she flew off he wasn’t able to make it over the fence. I got a cute pic.

Amazing how much you can see and learn just in the backyard!

We also had a baby sparrow in the yard. I made the kids come in from playing ball until he figured out how to fly away, which seemed to be all afternoon.

I tried to peek at the bunny nest yesterday, but it is covered with fur and I couldn’t see anything. Maybe soon there will be floppy ears peeking out from their little nest.

It’s a jungle out there!

xxx

Our Day Without Electricity and Babies in the Backyard

I vaguely remember Brad waking me up around 5 something this morning. “The electricity is out,” he said. I mumbled something, heard the wind whipping the windows, and then closed my eyes against the bright lightning flashes and tried to go back to sleep. Notice I said tried, because it wasn’t but ten minutes later I felt someone grab my foot. Collin. This kid keeps waking up earlier and earlier every morning. I just want to sleep until 6 am…not happening anytime soon. Oh well.

So today we had to entertain ourselves. The house is so eery and quiet without background noise, fridge running (which you never notice until it is gone) and the usual household noises, tv in the background, etc. The kids and I made plenty of noise to fill up the empty space. We cleaned out the toy boxes upstairs and downstairs. This took a good portion of the morning, considering I had to keep reminding Bradley, “You never play with this. If you get rid of some toys then it makes room for new ones.” He kept picking Collin’s toys to get rid of. lol. We did manage to get rid of three good size boxes.

We played board games, read books, listened to “Coraline” on my Kindle, played with toys and messed up the toy room again, splashed in the puddles on the sidewalk. We also played Cash Cab on Taigyn’s iPod (we suck, by the way). My mom brought over McDonald’s for lunch. Thanks again, MOm!

It was a strange day, but lots of fun. We did not have contact with the outside world hardly at all. No Internet and my cell phone went dead, and we had to use Taigyn’s cell sparingly because his was just about dead too. It was a blast. Plenty of good quality family time. And I even won at Sorry.

By the afternoon, around 2 or so, this no electricity thing was starting to get old. And then I started worrying if it would come on today, because I really didn’t feel like sitting in the dark. I was also wondering what food in the fridge and freezer would still be good (it’s not that full, so if we did loose stuff, it wouldn’t be much). Luckily, Brad ordered us a pizza to be delivered, so I didn’t have to worry about dinner. Thanks again, hunny!

Kinda nice to play all day, and have lunch AND dinner delivered. We may not have had the basics, like electricity and the Internet :), but we were spoiled.

The power finally came on a little after 4.

AND…..AND….AND!!!!! 

It has been an interesting evening, too. I was sitting on the back porch and about jumped out of my skin. A rabbit appeared out of nowhere and sat right in front of me for several minutes, not moving, just staring up at me with those black marble eyes. I kept thinking, what the heck is wrong with the rabbit, he didn’t run, he looked kinda  mangled, and it had a goatee. I kept wondering if it was going to attack me or maybe it had rabies. I yelled for someone to get my camera, then it finally took off. Phew, didn’t get attacked by the goatee bunny. I did manage to get a few pics. It didn’t run far.

Goatee bunny

Poor mangled bunny. It looked like it didn’t make it through the storm to well.

It was strange after dinner. The air was cool and the air seemed to have an  other-worldly feel to it. And there were at least five or more rabbits grazing in the backyard. I kept expecting Bambi to join them. Below is another pic of one of our other bunny visitors.

The goatee bunny was still hanging out in what used to be the garden, but now is a mess of weeds, creeping charlie, and marigolds that came up on their own. All the other bunnies high tail it through little holes in the fence. But not the goatee bunny. I went to reach for a ball that was in the weeds and found her nest! I almost stepped on it. It’s kinda graphic, considering there is a dead bunny that was brutally pulled from the nest and somehow killed. So I guess the goatee bunny is a mommy bunny…I wonder if that fur hanging below her mouth is from eating something? Ewwww…  I guess that is nature.

So I was really tempted to move the poor thing out of the nest and my yard. But I decided against it because I don’t want a bunch of dead baby bunnies. So then I started feeling bad for the momma bunny. Here we are, following her around in the yard, taking pictures. So I have left it alone and will make sure the dog doesn’t discover the nest. I will take a peek in a couple days though.

It has been an interesting and fun day. Below is a video of Collin looking at the bunny. He keeps trying to say “bunny” but it just come out “bu” or “bir.”

And yes, I do dress my kids. But Collin loves loves loves to run around in his diaper. And he always always always takes off his shoes, no matter where we are at. At least he puts them away neatly, even under the dentist office chair. lol.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to enjoy nature, even if it is only in your backyard. 🙂

xxx

bits & pieces

This post is just “bits & pieces” of our day. It is seconds of our day that I have captured with a picture or video. It is nothing major or big…but sometimes it is the little moments that are the most precious. Special little snapshots of time that I just don’t want to forget, like how Collin puckers up for a kiss or how cute the boys look sitting on the couch together (which ends up actually not being so cute because they are pestering the poor dog…and each other). But these are the things I want to remember, the cute, the goofy, the good, and the bad…and the driving me crazy.

The first little part I want to share is my gorgeous view. I couldn’t have done it without the sun, and…

Finally! the sun is here. It has been too dark and dreary for too long.

This is my view from my front porch. I love this tree. One day it just turned hot pink…poof!

I don’t even know what type of tree this is (not that I’m very good at naming any of them). It is pretty though.

We also had alot of fun playing with our shadows and making all kinds of crazy shapes.

We did an outside art project/experiment, which I will share our results with you at a later date.

I will leave you with a couple of videos, more “bits & pieces” of our day.

Oh, the things I put up with too early in the morning. Wouldn’t trade it for anything though. 🙂

Bradley idolizes his dad, like most 5 year old boys do. He is always asking if he can be daddy or telling me over and over again, “My dad is more awesome than the Miz.” Which means alot to his little wrestling mind, which is something they watch together on Monday nights.

And I also crack myself up. Please remember, after you watch this next video, that I am home with the kids all day long with no adult conversation. So sometimes I get a little goofy. lol

I really do crack myself up.

Just remember to enjoy all the lil’ “bits & pieces.” Time goes by way to fast.

xxx