Will & Sister are out of town visiting relatives so the family bed has been half empty these past two days.  Which may explain why the ever courageous Brother who lay quietly for several minutes after being tucked in finally broke the silence with, “Mama, I scared.”  On the other hand it may just be a habit he picked up from Sister.  She frequently (it seems) uses the “I’m scared” tactic to prolong wakefulness.  I am not certain of the purposefulness of this - she does have an active imagination and she can be a bit of a coward so maybe she really is scared.  I am telling all this to my parents and the conversation strays to our own nighttime childhood thoughts.  Papa reveals, “I used to lay in bed and listen to the wolves.  I was sure they could come up on the roof and in through my second floor window so when I heard them howling I would sneak to the window and peak over the sill just to be sure they weren’t coming.”  Listening to his story reminds me of the nights I slept in that very same second floor room.  There was a small hole in the floor near the head of the bed.  This was no problem during the day but at night after logic was already slumbering I became convinced that if the corner of my bed slipped into that hole it would cause a chain reaction whereby the whole bed would fall through to the living room below. 

These thoughts seem so foolish now but it occurs to me that while I no longer fear the floor caving in or monsters under the bed I do sometimes at night let my mind consider the possibility of not having enough money to buy food or that something terrible might happen to somone I love or worst of all, that I might grow old alone.  It is then that I must stop to wake up Logic and call in my old friend Faith.  None of these things are likely to happen but even if they should I know a Hope that never fails.

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; Do not be discouraged.—Deuteronomy 31:8

We still had 386 or about 32 dozen eggs this month despite the cold weather.  The Aracaunas have finally become consistent layers and frequently produce jumbo eggs.  Good thing too - I was almost ready to give up on them entirely since they eat so much.

In case you’re wondering - thissimplelife has been caught in an inescapable void these past few days.  I was out here, wishing I could give you something new to read but alas, we were under attack and I could not get the message through.  According to my hosting service a “DDOS” attack.  Sounds ominous doesn’t it?  On the upside, if Will had not introduced me to Live Writer when he did, I would not have had an easy way to save my posts until the attack was over.  Okay, enough tech talk already… back to our story.

At Natural Lullabies today Brother lays belly down on the floor and proceeds to kick one of the window signs.

Me:  “Hey, hey there.  Brother, I don’t think Ms. Melissa wants your shoes on her sign.”

Brother:  Uh, okay.

He stops and I resume chatting until a little tap on my elbow prompts me to turn.  A now barefoot Brother hands me socks & shoes, lays belly down on the floor and proceeds to kick the same sign.

Ok, so I’m trying out this new blogging software recommended by the hubby.  So far so good….at least that’s what I thought the first time around :)  Having tried to post this once already, I can tell you this post is not very interesting so you can stop reading now if you want to…. no, really you don’t have to stick with me for this…. I’m serious.  Ok, fine but when you get a bruise from your head smacking your keyboard as you fall asleep don’t come around here leaving nasty comments.

First thing I like - easy download, easy setup… I supplied my url and login info and suddenly I have a true WYSIWYG interface.  (That’s ‘What You See Is What You Get’ for you non-techies out there… Will had to explain it to me the first time too.)  So, I’m typing along and let’s say I want to do something bold or in italics or I want to underline or maybe I want to get really wild and do all three…in color.  Nice.  Let’s see what else we can do.

Pictures  (great layout options, easy to resize, keeps perspective and look at all these cool effects.)

Oops, sorry about the long pause…. I was poking around some of the menus.  It would take to long to explain but sufficed to say… they’re cool.  Easy to manage the post properties and trackbacks

To quote (this is another button on my menu) Thomas Edison:

If there is a better way, find it.

I can even get you directions to my house… Just kidding. … I really am just kidding - after about 40 minutes of trying to figure out why this post appeared in the sidebar but did not show its actual content I am blaming it on the map.  So there is one thing that doesn’t work but since I am not currently in the habit of posting maps, overall I’m extremely pleased.

I know you’re on pins and needles wondering where you can get your own copy of this handy dandy blogger notebook.  Here it is and if you like it send my honey a little thank you.

Alright the techno babble is over… you can wake up now.

• Fill a coffee cup half full of water and add a pinch of salt. DON’T SKIP THE SALT!
• Microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes
• Remove CAREFULLY!
• Wipe down the microwave with a damp cloth.
• Most of the gunk will easily wipe away and you can always repeat for the tough stuff.

 I don’t remember where I read this but it is hands down the best chemical free method I’ve found.

Oh, BTW the salt doesn’t actually help with the cleaning.  It’s to prevent the boiling hot water from blowing up in your face when you move it (very low on the probability scale but still - DON’T SKIP THE SALT!)

Merry Christmas to all!  What a wonderful, low-stress day this has been.  I hope yours was the same.  A few days ago, before my brother and his family headed out to spend time with their northern relatives, we made plans, coordinated times and had our big family celebration.  Today we made no plans.  Today meandered along, strolling around each bend as it came and pausing to take in the view before moving on.  Lovely.

#24 “Play Tummy Ticklers.”  Here were the instructions for this one from “The Complete Daily Curriculum for Early Childhood.”

‘Have the children lie on the floor on their backs with their heads on someone else’s tummy.  Do something silly to make the children start laughing, ask one child to say, “Ha” and the next child to say “Ha, ha,” and the third to say, “Ha, ha, ha,” and so on.  What is making theri heads jiggle?  This activity should cause contagious laughter.’

Well, it did cause contagious laughter… Will & I couldn’t stop.  Sister’s commented, “Can we do something fun now?”  Oh, well.  We tried. 

#23 “Take a drive to look at Christmas Lights.”  It’s somewhat miraculous that this one lasted until the last weekend - okay, I confess some tampering in the order near the end.  If you live in a small town looking at Christmas lights might mean driving up and down streets admiring the various neighborhood creations and indeed, this is what I had in mind at the beginning but coming down to the wire and wanting something simple I was glad to realize we do not live in a small town.  Tulsa boasts a number of light displays to choose from and perhaps someday we may go to more than one but this year our pick was the lights at Rhema Bible Church.  A good time was had by all.  Why?

• Admission is free. (though you can pay for a carriage ride tour if you like.) 
• You can stay in your car if you want to.  We stayed in to view most of the buildings then got out and walked around the park.  The night was chilly but something about “jack frost nipping at your nose” made it more festive. 
• They have ducks.  Here I must pause to note.  We took two children to a place with 40 gazillion lights… approximately… and they were most interested in the ducks. “Just goes to show,” Will said, “Living things like living things best.”
• We were second in line to see Santa.  You may remember from a previous post that Sister knows Santa is not real.  Ask her straight out and she will tell you positively not.  Try to tease her about it or insinuate that gifts come from him and she will not play along.  But walking through Rhema park amidst all the lights she spied a red velvet coat worn by the jolly fellow himself and what does she say?  “LOOK, MOM!  THERE’S SANTA!  CAN WE GO SEE HIM?! CAN WE?!  What do you say?  “I’m not spending $5 dollars for a not so great photo and 2 minutes of time with someone who doesn’t even exist.”  Uh, no.  Parenting Proviso #46 - It is your duty to help your children grow into responsible, contributing adults but in the case of imaginary figures (ie. Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny) do not flee too quickly from fantasy and illusion.  There is plenty of reality to go around but only enough whimsy for the young. 

And who’s to say he’s not the actual Santa… He was jolly and his beard was real.

#21 “Do the experiment on page 56 (of Science Experiments for Young Learners).”  If you’ve been following along you’ll know about the abysmal failure that was our last experiment and you’ll understand my apprehension regarding the success of this one.  As it turned out the experiment itself was pretty lame but it morphed into a lesson on sound and waves and we ended up using our experiment to make an old fashioned string telephone.

#22 “Play Hiss.”  For those who don’t know “Hiss” is a simple color matching game by the people over at Gamewright.  It requires no reading, teaches colors & sequencing, is simple enough for a two year old yet engaging to someone age five.  In short, it’s a great game - like most from this company.