Elves on Shelves

As Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is quickly approaching I have noticed some talk of Christmas fun for children.  A really cool way to make Christmas even more over the top for kids is the Elf on a Shelf.  We have one at our house.  We really like him.  I even went so far as to buy a vintage one on eBay so ours would be more unique than most others.

In case you are wondering, Shelf Elves appear sometime after Thanksgiving.  Ours sits in an out of the way place in Byrdy’s room.  From his high perch he watches carefully for naughty behavior.  Every night while Byrdy sleeps the elf sneaks away to the North Pole to report to Santa on Byrdy’s behavior that day.  At one time I thought our elf might be able to do more than just sit on a shelf.  Then I changed my mind.

It is a clever way to inspire good behavior in children during the time leading up to the big day of gifts, but then I heard of shelf elves who are far more clever than ours.  I now know a ten year old who has an elf.  Many of her school friends also have elves.  Last year one of the more clever elves whipped up a frenzy of activity.  Nightly, this elf engaged in all sorts of antics.  Treats were left, toy rooms were miraculously wrecked or cleaned.  Sometimes toys would be left in special arrangements that seem akin to crop circles.  All the other elves had to get busy working overtime to equal or outdo this one elf and keep all the other children from being disappointed in their moms, I mean elves.

Hopefully, we won’t find ourselves in a one-upmanship situation with our elf.  In the meantime, I’m really content to just let our elf visit after Thanksgiving, whisper in Santa’s ear every night, move around occasionally and disappear on Christmas Eve.

The New Bike

Byrdy’s birthday was Sunday and his poppy gave him a red bicycle.  Byrdy has been riding his bike for long periods of time out on our dirt driveway and in the grass across the yard.  Getting a bicycle seems like a good opportunity to teach Byrdy about taking good care of his things.  One lesson that I absorbed from childhood was that my bicycle should always be put away at the end of the day and that I should never leave my bike laying out in the front yard if I wasn’t around to monitor it. For crying out loud, someone might come along and take it.  Today I began setting the stage for what I hope will be a childhood free of missing or rained-on bikes.  I explained that the new red bike should always go into the shed when it gets dark every night.  ”Why?” That way it wouldn’t get rained on which would make the seat soggy and wet.  And, no one will take it.  ”But it’s okay to leave it on the porch.”  No.  Someone could see it from the road.   “The cars in the road at night have lights.  They won’t run over it.”  ”They won’t run over it,” I say, “But, they might take it.”  There was a moment of silence and thought and then, “No they wouldn’t.  Their mom would say, ‘No.’”

Sun-Dried Clothes

 

sun dried clothes

During the summers when I’m not teaching I try to indulge myself in sensory oriented things when I can.  One of my favorite things for slowing down is to hang my washed clothes outside on the line.  It’s so pleasant to fit each item onto the line and clamp a clothespin on while I hear birds chatting in the trees around.  Occasionally, there is a contrast to the heavy humidity in a cool breeze that moves through the trees as it tickles my chin.  Lately, the clothes have been drying faster outside than they would in the dryer.  I can easily get 6 loads dry in a day.  Taking the clothes off the line is also a treat.  Towels and t-shirts are straight and rough, their shapes well defined.  Folding them is a little like folding sheets of cardboard.    They stack so neatly in the basket.  Sun-drying clothes is one of my favorite things to do in the summertime.

Grape Salad

Yesterday I made grape salad which is a wonderful little concoction of cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, sour cream, vanilla and, of course. grapes.  My little boy who is almost four, enjoys grapes very much and ate more than several handfuls as we made the salad.  He also enjoyed the cream cheese mixture as we mixed the ingredients.  He ate copious amounts of it especially after the confectioner’s sugar was added.  When I added the grapes to the sweet white mixture we immediately had something that was deemed so far removed from the original ingredients that it was completely inedible.  Byrdy refused to even sample it.  I explained that it was exactly what he had been eating before, but it just didn’t matter.  I then told him that he was missing out on something really great.  He didn’t seem pleased with my statement. 

In a few minutes, as I walked across the kitchen floor, I stepped on a refrigerator magnet letter “V”.  ”Ouch,” I said and then I asked my little boy to please pick it up and put it back on the refrigerator.  He said, “No, you’re supposed to go around it.”  I insisted that it would be most happy back on the fridge door with its friends.  And once again I got, “No, Mom, you are supposed to go around it.  Like this.”  And he demonstrated.  Once again I insisted that it was missing its friends.  Byrdy picked it up and commented, “Mom, you’re missing out on something.”

Shifting Clutter

It seems like I spend a lot of housekeeping time shifting clutter from one spot to another with the clutter never really going away.  I think I do this mainly because there is just no storage space in my house.  I really don’t think it’s a matter of having too much stuff as some nameless one seems to believe.  This comes up today because the big kids are coming for the summer.  They arrive this weekend and I’ve been using their bedroom as a mini storage facility.  You see, a three-year-old-going-on-4 outgrows clothes and toys very quickly.  Every few months I can add a few things to the stack of stuff that I want to give to cousins or consign.  I really want to clear the children’s bedroom of clutter I just don’t have anywhere to put this particular category of stuff until it moves on to its final destination.  

The first step must be getting a few boxes to put everything into and then….finding a place for the boxes…..So I’ll be exchanging numerous tiny clothes for several bulky boxes.  There I’ve shifted the form of clutter like some sort of superhero.  On to finding a spot for the boxes.  I’ll think about that today while I take my little boy to  a playdate at the train station.  At least I have part of the plan worked out.