Hoot, hoot!

Long weekends always necessitate some projects that will just suck up some time. So, let me introduce to you the Memorial Day Weekend Time Suck Activity 09! Screech Owl House Building!

Just kidding. I was very inspired by Bob's post over at Gardening at Draco and showed it to my husband, commenting how neat it would be for him to build one with Jack. Lo and behold, today was the day. John found some plans on the internet and they built it out of cedar. We filled the bottom with about 3" of dried leaves. You can see Jack thinks everything is too loud, so he is holding his ears while John drills on the top.

Then, right before it went up, I realized we needed some finishing touches on it. So I grabbed some Sharpies for the kids and some paint for me. First, an owl for the top.

Jack added our welcome message on the side. And I promise that as that message fades, I will climb up there and retrace the cute little Pre-K handwriting every year, if I have to!



Then John hung the house up about 15 ft. off the ground in a big oak with a very open surrounding area, since that is what we read the owls look for when they are searching for a new pad. You know those owls, its all location, location, location!








And now, we are all just waiting. Is there an owl real estate listing sheet or something I can advertise our new offering in?

Moving Forward

This week was Jack's graduation from Pre-K. I kind of laughed when I heard they were having a graduation ceremony, but I will be the first to admit that I got teary when they walked in to the room accompanied by Pomp & Circumstance. He was moving forward to the next level.

And that's the gist of it. They are always moving forward.

When I took Jack to drop him off and get in his "cap and nightgown" as he called it, he had a little freak out. There were a lot of people there, kids getting into these gowns that he had never seen before, a lot of excitement and anticipation in the air. He just clung to me. So I sat at a table with him for a while and reassured him that I was here, everything was fine. But he just kept clinging, saying he wanted me and he did not want to be there. All the same feelings came back to me that used to happen when he was a baby and I was dropping him off in the toddler room. The classic parent dilemma. Is it better to stay and soothe or get out quickly? Teachers will tell you that 1 minute after you leave they are usually OK and moving on to something else. It is your presence that makes them want to hold on to you. When faced with change, many of us fight moving forward. We want to keep things as they are.

Well, I gave him some hugs and kisses and told him I would see him inside. Forcibly disengaged his arms from around my legs and steered him over to sit next to one of his teachers. I could hear him crying as I went inside to sit down.

5 minutes later, he marches in, looking...well...intrigued by all this excitement of the crowd that he is walking into. He stands with his classmates to sing some songs and receives his "diploma". Here he is, moving on. And I'm just wondering how I will continue to find the strength to let him, because sometimes I just want that baby back in my arms.
(click on the image below to see the video)

Hard working man

Some days are just too long...