I always wondered why autumn, of the four seasons, has a second name. I think Nate voiced the reason I had always suspected (that “fall” is for falling leaves) the other day. We were driving through town. There was a slight breeze and leaves were drifting down everywhere. Nate said, “Look! It’s snowing leaves.”
LEAF REMOVAL SERVICE. Each year I am amazed at the amount of leaves the 50 trees in our yard produce. Most of them collect between all the buildings in the back yard. Last Saturday the boys and I moved eight loads of leaves to the cornfield behind the house (the Pinsons had cut the corn the week before). The bad part of all this was that I had to have two tires patched from driving through all the corn stubble. (Too bad the soybeans haven’t been cut yet.)
A second side effect of last weekend was the sinus infection I got. As far as I’m concerned Amoxicillin is the miracle drug right now.
Yesterday afternoon Vicki and Jenna joined us in the fun. I have no idea how many loads we hauled out of the yard (to the hay field this time), but we have at least two thirds of the yard clean now. We only have two trees in the front that have yet to shed all their leaves. Hopefully we’ll have them all hauled off by Thanksgiving.
WAITING FOR THE BUS. Waiting for the school bus in the mornings is always interesting. If it’s wet there are puddles to throw rocks into. Now that the corn is cut the boys like to explore the edge of the field. Sometimes Wil is out there to catch the bus adding to the fun.
A lot of times someone will say, “There she isn’t!” And when everyone else turns their heads we get, “Ha, made you look!”
One day Ben said, “There she is!” When no one moved he said, “Really! It’s coming. I saw the blink-blink through the trees.” That’s the most creative name I’ve heard for the strobe light that flashes on the bus roof.
Speaking of the bus, Alice, the bus driver, broke her foot the other day stepping off the bus. The kids will probably have a substitute driver between now and Christmas break.
SPEAKING OF CHRISTMAS... Each year Vicki and two friends (Michelle and Tracey) go to the Christmas Village at the state fairgrounds. Vicki buys a few things for Christmas, but the trip is more about a girls night out. This year Tracey wasn’t able to go, but there were additions to the crew -- Jenna and Maegan (Michelle’s daughter) and another friend were invited along. It’s sort of a milestone to be part of a girls night out with your mom.
GOOD BIG BROTHER. This week we had to talk to Nate about the amount of food he was eating after school at Aunt Mar’s house. Mom and Aunt Mar have a good snack ready for the kids when they get off the bus, but Nate overdoes it and sneaks into the kitchen to get more -- so much so that he’s other not hungry for supper.
We confronted Nate about this, but he didn’t want to admit anything. When this came to a head and it was obvious he was not cooperating we sent him up to his room. Some time later he came down and owned up to what he’d been doing. He apologized and then said, “We should honor Ben. You should give him and honor because he came and talked to me about this.”
YOU HAVE TO ADMIRE THE ATTITUDE. Since Jenna made the ball team at school only the boys are playing Upward Basketball this year. We went Monday night for their evaluation. (This is done to try and balance ability levels across all teams.)
The evaluations included dribbling, shooting, shuffles, etc. As the coaches were watching the boys do these things they were recording their observations on the player’s signup form. When Ben was done the men who were observing him handed him his form to carry to the table out in the hall.
Later, as we were leaving, Ben commented that the coach who evaluated him didn’t want him on his team. I asked how he knew this and Ben replied, “He said so. I was reading how I did on the form and one of the questions was, ‘Would you want this child on your team?‘ The coach answered, ‘No.’ So he doesn’t want me on his team.”
I was trying to think of how to respond to this when Ben said, “Well, I’ll show him. If he doesn’t want me on his team I don’t want to be on his team and I’ll play extra hard when I play his team.” That’s better than anything I could have said.
Joe
