Netflix Picks

Now that I've re-watched all of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix, it's a challenge to find something good to fold clothes to on there (No, I'm not a nerd.  You're narrow minded.), especially since I don't have the stomach for shows like Breaking Bad, and I'm tired of The Office and 30 Rock.  But here are some movies that are winners:

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story--Marcia, you would like this one.

Bernie--also based on a true story, and stranger than fiction.  Convinced me that Jack Black is a really great actor.

Lars and the Real Girl--the comments from some of the minor characters isn't always innocent, but the relationship between Lars and his life-size female doll is.

If you've got any recommendations, pass them along.  My laundry pile will thank you.

darn groundhog

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but we've still got snow on the ground in ours.  It's ruining Claire's life (her words, not mine).  Every morning since the First Day of Spring that she wakes up and sees snow, she cries.  This should be rain, not snow! she says.  I tried to teach her the AA prayer this morning (change what can be changed, accept what can't, wisdom to know the difference).  "Mom, you know I can't understand what that means, and I don't want you to explain it to me!"

The other kids are accepting the weather more gracefully.  Damon is so engrossed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix he hardly notices.  Anne is in love with the beautiful Easter decor and spring colors she sees at the stores.  "Mom, we need more Easter decorations."  I hate that kind of stuff.  I don't hate seeing it, just putting it up.  I also like eating good food, but hate making it.  I'm reminded of Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park, whose wealth and station in life was perfectly suited to her lazy nature.  Except I'm not wealthy, so...

A Good Day

Saturday night was great because of the gecko find, but Saturday day was good, too.  We visited the Meijer Gardens for the butterfly exhibit and had an early dinner at P.F. Chang's.  I love that place.  But I won't take the kids there again until they grow some adult taste buds.  Sheesh.  What a waste of good food (from the children's menu!) that would have been if I hadn't eaten their leftovers.

The indoor sculpture exhibit was impressive, but I didn't like how they were not clearly male or female.
 
"Then why do you keep getting your hair cut so short?" Jake asked.  That's a good question...I guess because I can't see myself most of the time.  I should probably take into account the feelings of my audience more, but that would contradict my "I don't care what anyone else thinks of me (Deity excluded)" mantra.

The butterflies were great, but just like last year, they wouldn't land on us even though we girls put flowery smelling lotion on.  The giant blue ones (our favorites) wouldn't pause for a photo.

I like this photo--I look less enormous than I feel.

Anne cleaning snowballs off of grandma and grandpa Meijer.

 Claire and Anne gave Jake a tour of some of their favorite sculptures while Damon and I stayed inside with the butterflies.

Jake waiting for a pass.  I wish I had gotten a picture of him dodging the snowballs Damon was throwing at him.

Claire and Benjamin.

Damon and Anne designed their own sculpture garden while Claire paced the perimeter.

Anne the Butterfly.

I need a hero

he's gotta be fast
and he's gotta be strong
and he's gotta catch geckos at night

Jake found Freckles last night ALIVE!

I discovered gecko scat in the basement bathroom last night, so we knew she had to be down there somewhere.  This was surprising since she escaped upstairs, and a quick google search revealed that leopard geckos cannot climb walls, which means she fell down the stairs.  The google search also mentioned that leos are resilient.  She was gone for two weeks, fell down the stairs, and survived, so I'd say that statement is true.  We can also deduce that our basement has plenty of bugs, which hurts my pride.  I was sure my house was too clean to support a loose gecko for two weeks.  Sigh.  (If you were to see what a mess my house is on a daily basis, you would know I was delusional.  Now I've been un-deluded.)  But enough of that.  On to the find.

The situation was desperate.  Jake decided he must take action.  He touched the scat and immediately knew it had been...uh...put there within the last two hours.  He sniffed it.  The smell told him nothing.  He tasted it.  Aha!  The gecko had been heading northwest--the furnace room!  Now Jake had to think like a gecko.  Where would he hide?  The answer was obvious: that coiled hose next to the furnace: precisely the right levels of privacy and humidity.  Carefully, he lifted the hose, and there was Freckles!  She tried to make a run for it, but Jake instantly switched from gecko mindset to catlike reflexes.  He grabbed her and put her back in the cage, where she happily devoured 7 wax worms and made me feel better--there couldn't be that many bugs in my basement if she was so hungry.  The End.

P.S.  I'm guessing a real Louisiana Flour Trap involves flour spread all over the floor.  I set a trap in the furnace room about four feet from the coiled hose over a week ago, it's still there, and the only tracks in it are from Anne (who was told to stay out of it) and the 4-legged crickets writhing in agony.  Maybe geckos have Celiacs and avoid wheat products.  Or maybe Freckles is an idealist who values liberty over handouts.

strange

I liked school, but I'm pretty sure I also liked missing school on occasion.  So, when I suggested to the kids that we pull them out of school for a few days to go to Mackinac Island (and thus take advantage of lower hotel rates in the off season), I was astonished when Damon and Claire said no.  "I want to have perfect attendance," said Damon.  "Missing school would make me feel weird," said Claire.  Anne was OK with it.  She loves staying home from school.  I suspect she fakes being sick sometimes so she can come home from school early.  But I can never be sure, because on about half of the times she tells me she's sick and I don't believe her, she ends up vomiting all over.  Like last night.  At 6:30, 7:30, 9:00, and midnight.  And only one spew made it in the toilet.  Yippee.

quotes

Damon (very frustrated): "Why aren't there more hours in the day?  Or at least not as many hours at school?!"  It's hard to fit in everything he needs to do before bedtime--play with his sisters, pester them until they cry, read his book, watch Netflix, play computer games...  Life's a witch.


Me: "Claire, you did all your homework without me helping you!  That is so great, and it really helps me out.  You should be very proud of yourself."

Claire: "I am always proud of myself because I always remember how great I am."  Either she's mastered deadpan humor, or she really believes that.  I hope the latter.


Anne: "Mom, you are the best mom in the whole world."

Me: "Until you're mad at me, and then you call me the worst mom in the whole world."

Anne:  "But I never stay mad at you forever."

In praise of leopard geckos

I've always thought I wasn't a pet person, especially regarding indoor pets.  But these geckos have a special place in my heart.  Maybe because my kids' first pets were mice, and they were so disgusting.  They were cute, until you'd spent five minutes in their stinky, incontinent presence.  It was such a relief when they were all dead.  That was their one good point: a short life span.

But even if we hadn't had the great mouse experiment, I think I'd still love the geckos.  When Claire is inconsolable and I don't know why (I don't even know if she knows why), she can hold her gecko and feel better.  And when I told Anne her gecko was probably dead and Anne sat down on the floor crying, Claire sat down next to her to mourn with her.  I don't know if I've ever seen Claire have compassion enough to try to comfort someone before.  When Anne accidentally killed her mouse, for example, Claire gave Anne an impassive and didactic lecture on what can happen if you squish something. Thank you, geckos, for helping Claire reveal some of her heart to us.

Sorry, gecko.  My awesome photography skills don't do you justice.