Weekend Chores

Saturday mornings are usually spent undoing the damage done during the week. In other words, we clean the house. In order to divide the weekend tasks fairly, we write them down on bits of paper and take turns pulling them out of a box. Today, Rich initiated the ritual by jotting down each job and preparing them for picking. Rich is notorious for making every event, including housework, fun and interesting, so I expected a few surprises. Sure enough, the first tasks plucked from the box included "lick the bird feeder" and "feed the giraffe," which I did using a bucket of corn flakes from the pantry.

Why was there a bucket of corn flakes in the pantry? Only Jack can answer that question, since he's the one we found sitting next to it this morning, along with an empty cereal box and a large pile of flakes on the floor that had apparently missed their mark in the bucket dumping.  Then, distracted by the camera, I wasn't aware of the fistful of flakes Jack shoved into my mouth until it was too late. Maybe the bucket of corn flakes was intended for mom-feeding all along. After all, Jack HAS witnessed the amount of food I can consume at a time.



I thought these tasks were the extend of the silliness and that the real house cleaning could begin, until I pulled out "punch self in the face," followed by at least 5 minutes of contemplation over whether I would in fact prefer to punch myself in the face or clean the kitchen, which was the task Rich offered to trade me for it. In the end, I made the trade because although punching myself seemed preferable at the time, it was also less productive. By midday, the house was cleaned, the fake animals fed and the family thoroughly entertained. Well done us.

Constant Battles

No, I'm not talking about the kids. I'm referring to the battles we consumers are forced to fight daily due to growing incompetence and negligence of the very people who specialize in customer service. It seems you not only have to PAY for services and products but you have to fight tooth and nail to receive what you actually paid for. You all know what I'm talking about. We have to hound our physicians for test results, demand pre-paid warranties to be accepted, altercate with insurance companies to pay their pre-determined share of the bills and compromise with our car mechanics and utility companies notorious for overcharging. We expect to get ripped off and grow weary of spending half the day "on hold" in attempts to resolve the injustices. After all, time is money, and we spend far more than the original service or faulty product was worth. Today, I am on the front lines with two foes: the e-bay vendor who never shipped the item I ordered and has now sold out of it (of course, it had to be the transformer toy David painstakingly earned through completing his home preschool lessons and has pleaded with the mailman to deliver every time he arrives at our front door mailbox... it's been three weeks now...) and the online school that enrolled me in the wrong class and is now resisting relinquishing the refund for it. We expect far more courtesy from our children, forcing them to hand over the toy they've agreed to trade. Yet, we're not surprised when the adult/customer service rep wants to keep both toys to himself. Are there any salespeople out there who still care about making the customer happy, or at the very least, care to GIVE them what they paid for? I know my husband tries, but in all fairness to salespeople, there are a lot of greedy consumers too. Perhaps the callousness shown by our service providers is due to the influx of dishonest consumers. We need to take responsibility for this too. Their skepticism may de drawn from numerous examples of incorrect claims and scams. I challenge you all to a moment of reflection and resolution, regardless of which side of the battlefield you are coming from: seller or consumer, to fulfill our commitments to each other and maybe our kids will learn from our example, growing up to service a smoother society.

Camping... tent or cabin?

Or cabinet... as David calls it. On our drive to Eagle Lake this past weekend, David spontaneously announced to all, "I can't wait to escape the world and stay in a cabinet!" I mean, where does he come up with this stuff?? So after 5 years of city and small town dwelling, we finally fulfilled a long-time goal and took the family camping... twice... to ultimately determine which method of camping better suited our family... tent or cabin. Our first excursion took us to Buck's Lake in the beautiful forests of northern cal, accompanied by our seasoned camping crew: cousins Jason, Jessica and Stella Sorenson and friend Jane.

Buck's Lake

Jack and Stella (buddies since birth being only 5 days apart) instantly acquainted themselves with the dirt while David meticulously tried to maintain his cleanliness while attempting to invade the other campsites seeking new friends. Pretty soon, he too found nature appealing as he engaged in rock skipping and fire stoking with dad. David and I shared a bonding moment as I awkwardly taught him how to pee standing up, something he had previously shied away from. He was pleased to discover the powerful stream that his little fire-hose could produce and proudly, and to my amazement and horror, successfully sprayed everything (and himself) in sight.

Jack felt right at home in the woods trampling expertly over the uneven ground at a rapid pace. With an endless supply of rocks and sticks, the toddlers were easily entertained. Nighttime proved more difficult as we'd underestimated the chilly temperatures of high altitude camping. When the boys WERE asleep, they were rolling and flailing and left mom and pop little room for our evidently aging bodies that revealed aches and pains the next day that we'd previously never experienced. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all, so we couldn't resist when our camping crew invited us to Jane's family cabin a few weeks later. With a promise of beds and a bathroom, we were sure the boys, as well as our bodies would fair better. Eagle Lake was captivatingly beautiful and calm and the cabin was only a small hike away.

Eagle Lake

We spent two days basking in the sun and swimming in the lake while the kids splashed on the shore and romped around the sandy beach. Jason, Jessica and Jane surprised Rich and I with gourmet meals. Who knew camp food could be so good? And I learned how to chop wood and miraculously managed to do so without severing any limbs... though there were some close calls. At an equally high altitude and no more prepared for cold temperatures (as last minute packers, we often forget essentials like sweatshirts and blankets), we feared another sleepless camping night, but the well-insulated cabin kept us sufficiently warm, and we slept well, minus an brief incident when David somehow fell off his King size bed and subsequently joined us in ours, securely contained between us. Jack, also managed, in his moments of exuberant play, to throw himself off the bed and down some wooden stairs, leaving himself a nasty goose-head and some bruises, but these incidents didn't seem to deter his aggressive play.

Stella was good-natured and pleasant while our boys seemed to struggle with every aspect of the cabin camping experience. After two days, they were done and spent the final hour at Eagle Lake strapped in their car seats while mom and dad attempted to enjoy a moment of peace and tranquility. Consensus? 2 votes for the cabin. But next time, we'll leave the boys at home.