My Daughter's Winning, R-Rated Reflections Film

My 7-year-old daughter was extremely enthused about Reflections this year.  She submitted to the film, visual art, 3D art and photography contests.  A sheepish PTA volunteer called me and told me that her film had won, but would it be okay if they didn't show it because of the nudity?  Or was that just too silly because it's just an infant and of course there's nothing wrong with it but they were afraid sixth grade boys might make fun of it but they would show it if we really wanted them to but would we mind if they didn't?  So it wasn't publicly shown, until now.  But she did win, after all, so I think her self-esteem is fine.

Is my son the future Chord Overstreet doppelgänger?

When I watch Glee, I am frequently distracted by how much Sam (Chord Overstreet) reminds me of my 2-year-old son. I feel like I am watching a future home video. Of course, I might be nuts, so I asked my family if they had noticed the resemblance. Most of them said, "Chord Who?" but my sister knew who I was talking about and assured me that I was indeed nuts. No resemblance whatsoever. Then her husband looked at my kid and said, "I don't even watch Glee, but I know who you're talking about! He looks just like him!" So we have a tied match. I am going to poll to break the tie.

Will my toddler son look like Chord Overstreet in 20 years?

 my kid

Chord

 my kid

Chord

Here's the youngest Chord photo that came up in my image search

Times of Plenty (Even Too Much)

The garden did well this year. I'm grateful for the child labor that picked the food for me and transported it via scooter. (Although I struggle to understand the scooter method...they do possess a big red wagon.)

Moreover, for the very first time, the baby peach tree we planted when we moved in five years ago had a harvest. A really big harvest.  I was surprised to have such an abundance of fruit on the first go-around.

I have lots of experience with baby fruit trees but very little experience harvesting fruit because growing up, my family moved into a new house every three years with no preexisting landscaping.  I remember once, and only once, my parents chose a lot that happened to have a mature apple tree on it.  It was late fall when they bought the lot and we tasted some delicious apples.  But in the spring, we found the apple tree had died during the winter.

At another house, we had a baby apple tree that  produced one apple.  And it worked really hard at growing that one apple.  The tree's whole skinny, pathetic trunk bent into a u shape under the weight of that one tiny apple.  People pointed out to us that the apple was more than that baby tree could bear but we let the tree suffer, hoping to eat it in the fall. Then one day my Grandpa came over, saw the tree's predicament and without pausing to ask for permission came to the tree's rescue and plucked the unripened, cherry-sized apple off.  The tree sprang back up in relief.  The next summer, many blossoms appeared on the tree.  And we moved.

So I was expecting a somewhat whimpy start for our peach tree, too, but apparently when a peach tree fruits, it really, really fruits.

Now, if only the kids knew how to cook, too. We had such an overabundance of certain foods that using up our harvest dominated all menu planning throughout the fall. I learned many new ways to cook squash.  My favorite was to shred it and use in in meat loaf, in place of bread crumbs or oats.  Purple corn tastes just like yellow corn, but is better roasted  than boiled because the purple color is not pretty when diluted.  Our grapes are seeded (grumble, grumble, because I was sure I bought the plants that claimed to be unseeded) and so we cooked a lot of grape juice and strained the seeds out.  I made my usual Thanksgiving side dish (green bean casserole) with my own homegrown herbs.

We did not have an overabundance of pears.  We had about a dozen and my four-year-old ate them all. He does not feel the need to wait for them to ripen, so he gets to them first.

Photos of a Growing Family

I made these scrapbook pages for my parents for Christmas:

Aargh!

We have been driving natural gas cars for the past several years in order to save our planet and our pocketbooks (the gas costs only 1.50/gallon and they are non-polluting). However, we needed a bigger car in order to get all our four children in the backseat and the only natural gas options were enormous vans and suburbans.  Natural gas minivans do not yet exist, although we hear that one in development.  So we got the only less gigantic alternative fuel vehicle in the market that would seat our kids in back, the toyota highlander, which is a hybrid electric mini-SUV.  Toyota hybrids have had a lot of well-publicized recalls and ours was no exception.  We bought it with two recalls already on it.  However, the Toyota people have mastered recall customer service. My kids thoroughly enjoyed the recall repair experience.  The dealership was equipped with a pirate-theme playground, coin-free arcade, wi-fi, multiple big screen TVs, and complementary popcorn, danishes and hot chocolate.  Moreover, all the kid-friendly amenities were located far, far away from the more grown-up lounges with computer stations, so I didn't have to worry about my kids bothering people.

Baby Blessing Photos

A Conversation in Ancient Maya

(Mayan Contractor stands over a circular stone calendar, holding the
final piece.)

Mayan Bureaucrat
How's that calendar coming?

Mayan Contractor
I am just laying the last stone.

Mayan Bureaucrat
You've built it backwards!

Mayan Contractor
What are you talking about?

Mayan Bureaucrat
It's supposed to spiral outwards, not toward the center.

Mayan Contractor
Hey, I was just following orders. What difference does it make, anyway?

Mayan Bureaucrat
If you spiral toward the center, we'll run out of space and the
calendar will end.  You'll have to rebuild it.

Mayan Contractor
If I build it twice, I charge you double.

Mayan Seer
Hark! I have seen a vision. Do not rebuild this calendar, for behold,
I foresee that the days we measure will stop with the calendar.

Mayan Bureaucrat
(Quaking with fear) The world is going to end on that day?

(Mayan Contractor drops the stone and backs away.)

Mayan Seer
Of course not.  That's nuts.  I envision that in that day, stone
calendars will be obsolete, replaced by smart phones.

Mayan Contractor
Smart whats?

Mayan Bureaucrat
Never mind.  We're out of budget and I don't want to chisel and route another memo. Stone tablet memos are heavy. 

Mayan Contractor
What about the backwards spiral issue?

Mayan Bureaucrat
Not my problem.  I'll be retired before this calendar ends.