Author Archives: Vale

Chores & Allowance

01 Apr 2012

It has been brought to our attention that Oscar needs to have Jedi status.
(don’t we all?)
Specifically, he has reached the higher levels on the “free” versions of his video games, and in order to continue on his quests, needs to pay to play. Working backwards, you will quickly see how we arrived at the subject of Allowance.

Help me! How do I navigate this? He is eager to do ‘chores’ but only the fun ones, and only if they can be completed quickly. The above photo is his effort at setting the table before pancakes. Okay.
Now can he please go clean his room?

PS. Lucy is pouting because today was the first day of No Bottles.
She is a ‘big girl’, and we need to stop the madness. Last night she asked for one in the middle of the night! Enough is enough and it’s going to have to be cold turkey. We tried limiting them to a couple of times a day, but that just turned them into a controlled substance. So wish us luck this week! I predict rough seas…

A Beautiful Forest

30 Mar 2012

Lucy looked up at the cypress canopy and exclaimed with joy,
“Ooooh Mommy! What a beauuuuutiful forest!”

This is the same reverent voice she uses when she talks about magic and princesses.
(Last week she said I was “Queen Mommy”. I rather like the sound of that.)


Lucy, Oscar and Booker at JK before soccer practice. Click to enlarge.

First Foothold in The Backyard

11 Mar 2012

We got a small, basic first effort in today.
I pulled some weeds, Mark mowed.
I weed whacked, and pruned some of the roses.
Salamanders abound.

This azalea was given to us by Inge and Gesa the day Ava was born! Chief saved it, brought it back to health, and now it’s here:

Here’s the plant when it was new (May 2003):

I have Much Much Much more to do in time for Easter.
On a positive note, the very beginnings of the Lilac blooms are just visible!