Day 23: Dad's Little Red Car (Originally posted on WP)

Dad had a little red Fiat. Fiats are notorious for being little cars. If you think about it, have you ever seen one all grown up? Yeah me either. I remember he had this car for many years and It certainly seen many miles of this country. This is also the same car which was the instrument of my near death at the ripe old age of seven. Let me digress from my story by retelling this little snippet of my life. (Hrmmm, now that I think about it, from ages six to nine, I was a pretty persnickety child. But I digress from the digression. Haha, now THAT is talent!) Car…death…seven…ok. I used to spend time with Daddy by playing nearby and bombarding him with questions about what he was doing while working on the cars. He fiddled around with them a lot. I believe he was good at it because I don’t have a recollection of taking a car to a shop for repair when I was a kid.

One sunny afternoon, Daddy was working on something kn the interior of the car. This was different than sticking your face under the hood or sliding on a box under the car with your back. Curious, I hopped into the passenger side of the car and started berating him with questions. (After I gave birth to uor daughter, he told me it helped him figure out tough fixes sometimes. :)  ) This conversation is very clear to me because it was the day I received my education about the meaning of the letters next to the gear shift. Park, drive, neutral, reverse, one, two. Got it. Daddy warned me to neverr messwith the gear shift; even when the car was off because it could roll away.  Ok. Got it.

Remember I told you I was seven? Remember I said I was curious? Remember I was persnickety? Yea. One could say I was an “amazing child.” Keep this in mind as I lay out the scene…

We lived in a Seattle neighborhood in the community of White Center. We didn't have a traditional driveway. Instead, we had a gravel/dirt area that ran along the street at the front of the house. Sort of like a parking lot, you would just pull onto the dirt and park the car. There was a wooden fence that divided the parking area from the front yard. Our house was two upper stories that could be seen from the street. There was a slight opening that went from the street to the house. What you could NOT see from the street was a sheer drop to the back yard. If you were to look at the house from the alley, it would be a three story house as there was a full apartment in the basement. There was a wall on each side of the house which had stairs leading up to the front yard.

Back to the front yard. Looking from the street, Daddy parked his Fiat on the right side, perfectly in between two bushes that were on peering over the fence from the front yard. This means there was nothing but grass and open space to the wall that dropped to the back yard. Note seven year old Micaa playing nearby. (Ya that's me.)

I decided to hop into the drivers side of the car and pretend to drive. After about ten minutes, I looked down at the gear shift. Surely the car wont move while it is off. Daddy just told me that so I would not mess with it whole he was working on it. I reached out and pushed the button and pulled the gear shift back. It stopped in neutral. What happened next seemed like five minutes but it was more like five seconds.

The car began to roll. It crashed through the fence. Just flat ran it over like knocking over a domino. It quickly rolled across the yard toward the wall leading to the back yard. At first I panicked. I just watched the crab apple bush get bigger as I rolled toward it faster and faster. I snapped back into reality, looked down, and popped the gear shift into park. The Fiat came to a jarring halt. The wheels inches from the edge of the wall. The fiat was a millisecond from dropping 12 feet into the back yard with a seven year old driver.

Whew! I got out of the car, looked around, making sure no one seen me and went to my room to play. Later, when asked it I knew what happened, I pretended I didn't know. The car was put back and the fence taken away. (Breathe!!! Mini digression over. But yea, not so mini.)

Dad had this Fiat for many years. When he could not fix it anymore, he traded it in for something else. It was still in “driveable” condition. He drive up to the lot and swapped cars. A few days later, the owner of the car lot angrily called the house and gave my mother what for. Now Daddy is a smart man. He told my mother not to worry about it. He went on to tell her that “I proved to hom tha Fiat was driveable. He never asked me if the bottom was going to fall out of it 45 minutes after I left the lot. Its his problem now. The papers say as-is, Pat.” He then flashed that smile and did that Douglas giggle only a Barrett can do.

That was the end of the Fiat.

What do YOU think?

Day 5: Giggles make me happy

I guess the rain still has me feeling blue. I simply was unable to get motivated to get up and get my day going this morning. After finally convincing myself that I must do what I have to do, I was going through my morning routine. Because it is quite early and the kiddos are still on winter break, the house is unusually quiet and all I hear is the jingle of the dogs bell when she walked into the kitchen to check the water bowl. (I don't know WHY she does this but she will get up, walk into the kitchen, sniff the water bowl, and walk away. Sometimes she will drink but it is like she is making sure it is there. Has it gotten up and walked away or something? Ah, but I digress. You know me.) While I was brushing my hair, I heard a small giggle. O.o.  Nobody is up at this time when they don't HAVE to be! I shrugged it off and continued what I was doing. "hehehehehehe!"

Yes, I am sure of it. That giggle made my heart dance and smile. This is something only a mother can know. Those little giggles only last about ten years or so before they morph into teenagers. I know that giggle anywhere. It was the laughter of our youngest. Number 7. Apparently, he got enough sleep last night to be back on track and get up at a normal time instead of 1 p.m. every day. He had awakened and was watching TV in his room. Uncle Grandpa or something. As I walked down the hallway, I could only smile. I must say, hearing that happy guy made my day. It was only 5 a.m.!

I never miss an opportunity to tell the children (and the husband too) how much I love their happiness, grins, and giggles. When I told him he made my day by just being himself, he lit up like a Christmas tree. Its funny how our children try so hard to make us happy as parents and their innocent kindness is the sweetest ever.

I hope to never lose that in my children. I am proud of them all. I just sometimes forget that they are little ones in this big world and do not yet understand things as an adult would.

Love your little ones. Embrace their effort and pure joy. Get to know them and take time with each and every one. Let them know you are happy with them and accept them for who they are. They will grow and blossom into loving human beings as a result. THEN and only then will there be hope for humanity. (And the ants wont move forward with their plot. Hehehe)

What do YOU think?

Explore with your children. Let them get dirty.

I love a teachable moment with the kiddos. Especially about life lessons and doing things the way they were done without electricity.  I can assure you that, if the world were to go to shit, my children could plant and grow their own food. They could raise farm animals, purify and store their own water and rig up the house to fend off anything short of a nuclear holocaust.  They can shoot and throw and clean with the best of them. 

They can also do their math homework without a calculator and they certainly know how to read.  They also know that if there were no power, they can use their imaginations to play and make their own toys.  We have also discussed how to survive should there be no houses left either.  No, we are no survivalists and there are no "bug out bags" randomly stored throughout the house.  It is nothing like that. What this means is that we are teaching our children the basics of being self sufficient.  They can also make their own cooker out of wood and aluminum foil and other things. Yes, they know all about technology and can fix a computer with the best of them and they have their electronic gadgets and know how to operate a computer and a calculator. We do not prohibit those things, but if there were ever to come a time for survival. I know that our children can survive without assistance or help from a stranger. I know that they can grow up and figure out things on their own.

We let them get dirty and dig holes and let them color and paint with melted crayons.  That is what children do.  They argue and fall down.  That is what baths and band aids are made for.  They are allowed to fix their own disagreements with each other to learn social graces and human skills.

This is all something that many kids do not know.  I cannot tell you how it makes me cringe for a mother to break out the hand sanitizer every time her kid touches something off the ground.  They do not have to get up off the ground at the playground rolling a ball back and forth because it is "dirty."  I am here to tell you if you stop treating them like porcelain dolls, there would be a lot less asthma, allergies, and other things that people spend their whole lives with.  Did you know a vaccination is an injection of the disease it is seeking to prevent you from getting? If you take your children outside on a regular basis and let them get dirty from time to time, they will be a lot less sick in the long run.  They will be exposed to the stuff that gives people asthma and allergies at an early age when there are no issues and they will not become allergic to them simply for a lack of exposure.  It will also give them room to grow because they will run and play and simply be children. 

Each of my children went on an exploration day in the yard with me  when they were crawlers.  I found a nice day, took the baby outside and we explored the REAL world around us.  We lifted our faces and felt the warmth of the sun. We felt the bark on the trees and watched the ants crawl in the cracks.  We felt the grass with our hands and our feet. We felt the warmth of the sidewalk in the sun and the cool of the driveway in the shade.  We twirled a leaf between our grubby little fingers and blew a dandelion weed and watched the seeds. We pointed at squirrels and birds and bugs.  We felt the wind in our hair.  We felt the difference in the feel of the shiny leaves from the trees and the roughness of the rocks in the ground. We let dirt sift through our fingers and felt the running water out of the hose from the side of the house.  We didn't die.  We didn't get sick.  We went inside, washed our hands and went back to playing with our things.  However, the baby learned about the world and learned more than anyone will ever know.  Further, there was a special time only you can share with your child.  For me an mine, it was a day of discovery.  A couple of our children hated the way the grass felt on their feet and one other loved rubbing his feet in it. You learn something about your children.  How their curiosity works as well as discovering things on your own about how they perceive the world.  One of ours shied away from the bugs we were looking at.  This helped me figure out what would give him the willies-he seen a bug and they make him spaz out because he is afraid of bugs. 

I exposed them to the REAL world and I let them get dirty a little bit. That is what children do. It is in their very nature to be curious. They want to play and jump and run and explore.  While it is up to you to keep them safe and be their parent, let them play and jump and run and explore.  Further, explore with them. It is one of the best things you can do. 

What have you done with your child today?

Proud moments as a mother.

Not long after we moved to the beach, I had set a cheese board to smoulder on the stove.  Calvin was at work and I was sitting with the oldest son and youngest daughter assisting them with their homework at the dining room table.  It was dinner time. You know mw, Ms. Multi tasker (even at seven months preggo, I was pretty good at it.)  Well, the dining room table was off from the kitchen, sort of in the living room.  It also happened to be about five feet from the back door.
While cooking, I happened to turn the wrong burner on to boil a some water.  Ikept a small, wooden, cheeseboard on the back burner and THAT was the burner I turned on instead.  While we were not in the kitchen, it had a chance to fill our small kitchen up with a great deal of smoke. Then the AC kicked in and smoke just ROLLED out of the kitchen.  Everything else seemed to happen at the same time.  At the instant we noticed the smoke, the smoke detectors went off.  I immediately knew what I had done as I do that chit all the time. So I got up an took two steps toward the kitchen.  My mind was racing and focused on getting that cheeseboard off there and into the sink before it burst into flames. At the same time, I also thought of the kids. I turned around, and CJ was still sitting at the table...totally not knowing what was going on. I am certain he knew exactly what I did.  There was not a fire....YET.  I turn to look for Alyssa and all I see is the back door swinging.
I lean just a little bit to my left and see a tiny face of a five year old, about twenty feet outside the back door trying to get a glimpse of what was going to happen next.  I will take the time to tell you I could not have been more proud of our baby girl in that moment. I immediately took care of the cheeseboard, no fire, just a lot of smoke. Whew!  Then retrieved our daughter and covered her face in smooches and filled her ears with praise.
She had done the right thing.  In hindsight, it was cute and funny because she got the Hell out of Dodge Jack!

Now, lets move forward ten years:

My dear readers know that I am a WAH professional and I work from home.  The other night, I was working and a thunderstorm came through.  Just after I shut down my computer and systems, there was a terribly bright lightening strike as well as horrible thunder.  I heard my kids in the next room scrounging around.

When I finally got everything settled, I walk into the hallway to a pitch black house. What happened next would have been a good scream scene for a horror movie (provided that I screamed, of course.)
The darkness began to speak to me in children's voices. O.o....I held up my phone as I was not near a light switch and seen that my children were all sitting on the couch, in the living room, in the dark.  Well, well, well.  I found out later that Alyssa corralled the children to the couch and turned all the lights off to be safe during the storm.  Another proud moment, I must say.  However, when the ten year old got up to use the bathroom, (I had joined them in the darkness, of course, it was quiet and I was NOT going to pass that up) he turned the light on so he could see.  Here comes Alyssa "All that electricity!!!!"  Hahaha.  Yes, she was being overly cautious, but she was being safe all in the same breath.  Yes, Momma is proud!  Daddy taught her that and she absorbed the safety knowledge well.

I am confident, as a parent that she will be safe and have an emergency plan when it comes to nature bringing forth her rage.  I can only hope that it will spill over into her interactions with people when she goes off to college or begins to have a more colorful, (yikes, and even less structured) social life and as an adult.  We parents spend our entire lives teaching our children to be safe and to be their own person and can only hope that the values we establish for them to mirror are the good ones and that they apply them to their own lives and go on to be productive adults who get to live long, healthy, and happy lives.

This is the direction I believe our daughter is heading in and I could not be more proud.  What proud moments have you had (like these) with your children?

Have you ever had a moment that was potentially catastrophic and hilarious all in the same moment?

Its yet another holiday...Bah humbug.

As a child that didn't know any better. Holidays (any of them) were favorite days. They were out of the ordinary and we did things that we normally didnt do. Further, I loved to watch the joy my mother got in decorating for the holidays. When I was in grade school, she had window clings for ever single holiday of the year.
January-Baby new year and hats and other festive new year stuff (I got to stay up late and drink sparkling grape juice and, on occasion, try real champagne)
February-hearts and candy clings for Valentines day (Decorating valentines and eating whitmans samplers that mom always got.)
March-Shamrocks and lepracahns (sp?) all over the windows (New green something bought at the stoore and green cupcakes. MMM)
April--Easter eggs and bunnies on the windows (Easter egg hunts a new dress and shoes and Dressing up all snooty to go out to eat at red lobster or somewhere, we didnt go to church...)
May-Mothers day...Mom didnt decorate for Mothers day but there were always pretty flowers all over the place from dad and me. (Going shopping with dad to find something pretty for mom on her special day.)
June-Fathers day and the end of school. (Mom spent a lot of time outside during this month due to the warm weather and crabapples were to be picked! No decoration but the crabapple jam was the best!)
July-Firework clings on the windows (Also some BIG fireworks show somewhere.)
August- My birthday. Balloons everywhere. (With the exception of birthday number 7 where we went to Chuck E Cheese)
September- Leaf clings for the fall. (No special holiday here but it was also the return to school so we went school shopping for new clothes and stuff.)
October-Scary cat and tombstone clings. (Halloween candy for the kids we would never see because we were out getting the goods and costume shopping was fun too.)
November-Turkey and pilgirm window clings.(Mom LOVES making her famous bread on thanksgiving. There are also many funny stories for Turkeyday. Remember the Becky fart??)
December-Christmas must be her favorite holiday. Not only did we get the present and christmas tree and frosty christmas clings, the tree was always a big to do and moms tree always was (and still is) loaded.
I try to do some of these great things with our kids. However, I try to be a little creative. I did window clings for a while when Alyssa was a toddler but money always seems to be tight when a holiday comes around (hence, the Bah Humbug.) Therefore, we get creative.
Anyone who knows me knows how proud I was of our decorated cieling when we lived on 34th. I also make it a point to have home made costumes for our kids. Kitties, chefs, zombies, and kids are great costumes. One day, I will get all extravagant and put some money into it. I don't feel bad about it when I see kids in hoodies running around with NO costumage at all. Christmas is always a challenge but thank goodness Santa visits grandmas houses and knows we are not home or we would be in trouble! Valentines, we do cards and for a special teacher, maybe some cool home made thing. Fathers day is fishing, and other days we just wing it. Money was tight this year and the easter bunny was busy last year for egg hiding so this year he magically had a hole in his basket and dropped candy EVERYWHERE while hopping around the house hiding eggs. So, yea, we have our own special days. I just hope they remember little things like I did when they get older.
What special things do you remember about the holidays from your childhood and what do you try to do for your kids?