QUIET EVENING; KIND OF

We have had a fun evening. Home made turkey stew and home made bread after searching for an egg from Oreo. She didn't lay one today. Maybe tomorrow. I will leave the chicken house door shut until noon in case she is getting lazy out in the yard.

Then a little candy for the grandboys because they ate all their turkey stew. Then a ripping game of Pirranah. Dakota won!! Jayden second.

Then we read 5 chapters of #1 of the Magic Tree House Books called Dinosaurs before Dark. Very cool. Jayden thinks he has already read them.

Then a lesson in tooth brushing, flossing and rinsing with watered down Listerine. I want to keep my teeth, so does Dakota but Jayden proudly anounced that he does not. (we all know he wants the tooth fairy here a lot)

Then we go to their room and clean it (because they didn't clean it when they left the last time) and everybody knows you can't crawl into an unmade bed, so Jayden and I made the bed while Dakota folded and put away the clean clothes and shut the drawers.

Then I lifted Jayden onto my shoulder to change the light bulb in the closet. It happens to be a magic light bulb that keeps monsters away. It is the most important light bulb in the house.

Then two little rug rats crawled into bed with lots of hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses.....

Now I am sitting looking at the christmas tree in the dark, typing on my computer and listening to quiet giggles coming from the back room.

Do you remember how wonderful your grandmothers bed was...the smell of the clean sheets, the sounds downstairs of the adults talking softly, maybe playing a guitar or a banjo softly, the smell of cherry tobacco smoke from grandads pipe, and outside sounds too...sometimes cows lowing....sometimes a train going down the tracks and in the summer time the smell of honeysuckle blowing in through the open window and bull frogs in the pond? What kinds of memories do you have of your grandparents? Are they good or not so good?

This weekend I will make some memories. Tonight I corrected a misunderstanding with my oldest. He thought chores are something you do when you are bad. When I asked him to help me make up the bed, he asked, "What did I do?" I almost cried and laughed. I explained that chores are something that everyone in the house does because we live here and dirty the place so we all do chores to straighten up and fix. He said, "Oh". Then he happily went about helping me make the bed and when he laid down in the soft clean sheets, he had a smile on his face.

Tomorrow we are going to walk around the yard with trash bags and pick up the trash that the wind storm blew around and we will fix his tent in the plum orchard because the wind blew it kind of side ways. We will fix the toys inside too if they need it.

Then we come inside and they will help me make apple pancakes. I will let Dakota dip the apples in the batter and i will let Jayden flip the pancakes.

They they will be able to go off and play while I try to fix the broken back door. Then around 11 or so I will call them in and we will make sugar cookie dough. I may not have time to do this with them. This will need to be rolled into rolls and put in the refrig to chill. They have a Christmas party to go to around 2 and a magic show to go to around 12. We will make cookies when they get back from the party.

There is nothing more fun than mixing up the icing with food coloring, decorating the cookies with sprinkles candies and frosting, and then showing them off to everyone. And of coursed eating them.

Sunday my parents are coming over for dinner by the fire. I am going to cook the organic chuck roast, with potatoes, pearl onions, carrots, homemade hot rolls, iced tea and maybe a little egg nog with bourbon.

God seal these good memories in the minds of my grandchildren.